Wordle Analysis

I did a Wordle (http://www.wordle.net) analysis of this blog. Pretty clear who writes most of the posts.

Cycling in France, 2009

This year's goal: the Puy de Dome in Auvergne, Massif Central. It's hosted a Tour stage finish or two, but probably never will again because there's enough room at the summit for all the fans, support vehicles and everything else that comes with a Tour stage.

Found out today that I'll also be able to ride while we're in Paris. I haven't done it before because I have no idea where to go, and riding in the city is a little intimidating. I found a tour company that will take me on a ride into the countryside that lies just beyond the edge of the city. I'm really looking forward to it.

Tilt-Shifting

I recently read an article on the Wired site about a free, online tilt shift generator. Just upload an image and adjust to your liking. Pretty cool toy, check it out here.

The Art of Cycling

I was watching stage 5 of the Giro today and as the peleton squeezed through one of the many round-abouts I noticed a cycling sculpture in the center island. It was probably put up for the Giro, but it could be a permanent fixture. Either way, it's great that the town, region, country or possibly the Giro organizers had this work commissioned and installed. It's great except that it was just another dull, semi-representational depiction of a guy on a bike. Like what you might see as the event icon in the Olympics.  I realized at that moment that I've never seen a really great cycling sculpture. I've seen some famous ones, but no good ones. 

I took this picture in 2007 at the top of the famous (or infamous) Tourmalet in the French Pyrenees. Again, it's fantastic that it exists and it reinforces the importance of the mountain in the history of cycling, but it's pretty bad. It's awkward and ungainly, if not a little ugly. And that guy is no cyclist, look at the size of him! 

In 2008 I visited Ventoux in Provence. Again, a fabled col worthy a decent monument. This is what I found just outside Bedoin, the most famous of the three ascents. Yes, sculpture can be two dimensional.

I thought I'd search the internet a little to see what else I could find. This is one of the first hits I got looking for cycling sculpture. A dog-faced, dread-locked creature on a bike. WTF?

I remembered a work from Boccioni that illustrates the power and motion of a human figure in a way that no cycling sculpture I've ever seen has. I wish Boccioni had been a cycling fan. He could have captured the power and the pain and the suffering that is cycling. I would love to see it. 

Dinner at Table 16

About two weeks ago Ashly and I went to Table 16 on Elm St. for our anniversary dinner. We had been once before when they first opened, at least one chef and two concepts ago, and didn't find it especially compelling. We were hearing good things about the new chef and menu from trusted sources, so we decided to try it out.

The menu looked great, but more intriguing was the chef's tasting menu. After some deliberation Ashly and I decided to go for that. We were 'interviewed' briefly by the waiter to cover food allergies, likes and dislikes and soon the first course was arriving at the table. I can't remember now exactly what each course was now, but they were all fantastic and appropriately portioned, some a little on the generous side. After four excellent courses the waiter asked if we were ready for a desert course or if we would like another savory. I decided for us both, one more savory! After that we both decided on the cheese course which finished off the bottle of wine.

Service was competent and friendly with the whole staff attending to our table over the course of the evening. I wish there were more French wines on the list, and the chairs kinda suck, but neither detracted from the evening's experience. In fact, it was probably the nicest meal I've had in Greensboro in quite a long time. Probably the finest since the 'demise' of Bistro.

Big props to the staff and the chef: Richard Graham Heaton (you can find him on Facebook)

One Less Bike, For Now...

My Cervelo R3 is heading to a new home in Gothenburg after two years of life in Greensboro. Bogdan, who has lusted after a Cervelo for at least a year now, has decided to buy the frame. Mark has graciously offered to be our bike mule and take it to Gothenburg on his next trip.

I'm sure I'll miss the R3 a little, maybe more than that. But I wasn't riding it and it is too nice to sit in the basement and collect dust. I know Bogdan will give it a good home.

So I'm down to just one bike, but that'll never do...

30 Days with the iPhone

I love tech-gadgets. I've spent untold amounts of money on them over the years. Without fail, however, they never seem to live up to the promise. 

This fear of disappointment is part of the reason I didn't get one of the first generation iPhones. The Blackberry, issued by my employer, and the fact that the iPhone comes with a monthly bill being other reasons.

Circumstances changed and suddenly it made sense to get myself a phone (the Blackberry is gone, my contribution to corporate cost reductions). I've had my iPhone for 30 days (or so) and I have to say that it's better than I could have hoped. A lot better. I absolutely love it. That's not to say it doesn't have any short-comings, it does. The faults of the new iPhone simply pale in comparison to the all the fantastic features it offers.

What's wrong with the iPhone 3G? So far I've found one thing. Battery life. If you leave all the settings as they are when the phone comes out of the box you'll probably experience a 4-8 hour battery life. There are plenty of ways to get more life from the battery, here are a few things that work for me.

1) Turn off 3G - I find that I usually don't need it, and that radio really sucks the life out of the battery. Especially around here where coverage can be spotty. It's easy enough to turn it back on if you need to download a video or stream some music over Pandora (more on that later).

2) Turn off the WiFi - Just like the 3G radio, the WiFi will eat more battery. When I'm home I keep it on, and it doesn't seem to eat too much. Skipping from one network to another seems to eat more juice as it searches for networks to join. So, when you're on the go, turn it off.

3) Turn the brightness down a little. This one isn't quite as dramatic as the others, but it helps. If you're a hard core battery miser, try it.

What's great? For one, the App Store. The applications have to be at least half of the reason that the love the iPhone. Want to be able to do something on the phone? Check the App Store, there's probably an app for it. Here are two of my current favorites, I'll update the blog with more favorites later.

Favorite App 1: Lose It - This is a weight loss / nutrition tool. Enter your vitals, your goals and how fast you want to get there and it will tell you how. You do have to put some effort into tracking what you eat, but I find it very rewarding when you see the charts of your progress. This is going to make me a very good climber this year (I speak of cycling).

Favorite App 2: Pandora - Streaming, customized radio over the 3G or WiFi network. If you don't know about Pandora, check it out at pandora.com. Once you see how fantastic it is, get the iPhone app.

By the way, both of these apps are free from the app store.