In case you're wondering, am I still riding my bike lots and lots? Yes.
I don't have too much new to report other than I'm still riding but it's getting hot. I have, however, created the following list of the strange things that go through my head:
I love this weather!
I hate this f*cking wind.
Was that a camel?
That homeless guy has really long fingernails...
I'm gonna shoot a snot rocket on that Lexus
I hope it doesn't get any windier.
I wonder how many cheez-its I can eat at this intersection.
What was that road kill when it was alive?
They'll sell a time trial helmet to anyone.
Look at this turd parked in the bike line.
You know what this bike needs? An RPG.
I hope that's not a sewer grate up ahead.
Horses!
I'm gonna pass that guy.
Don't speed up, motherf*cker!
I'm gonna eat the s#it out of a grilled cheese.
I can't wait for that beer.
These are called JoJo's, I don't care what you say.
The other day I came across this old internet meme: The Dialect Quiz. This sort of thing has always fascinated me. For example, as a kid in the Portland area we called flip-flops "thongs" (much to the amusement of, well, everyone's college roommate). In Hawai'i, they're called "slippaz" and here in the OC they're referred to as flip-flops.
An OC-ism (so far as I can tell) is referring to the grocery store (Albertson's, for example) as "the market." As in, "I ran into your co-worker at the market, she was buying arsenic. Thought you might want to know."
Well, I digress. Here's the official quiz:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
I would answer thusly:
1. TP-ing a house
2. potato bug*
3. soda (but I used to call it "pop")
4. gym shoes
5. Yo!
6. Daddy Long Legs
7. Grandma and either Papa or Grandpa
8. Shopping cart
9. summer?
10. remote
* I recently had a disagreement with my significant other on this one. In the end I went to the great answerer in the cloud and Googled it. As it turns out, a potato bug is actually this HIDEOUS cricket thing with a giant head. That said, Wikipedia notes that a "roly poly bug" is also referred to as a potato bug, so it's not just me.
Hope you'll share your answers below! I'm especially interested what the alternate answers might be for questions one and six. I have to admit I'm confused by question nine.
Recently I've been thinking of useful things I've learned that they don't teach in school. I don't mean schmalzty stuff like it's okay to fail, or how to love. Bah! I mean useful shit. Here are the first five things that come to mind:
1. How to Microwave Correctly
When microwaving, place your food on the outside of the turntable, not in the center, for more even heating. Read the explanation at lifehacker.com.
2. Turn Off the Lights, All of Them
Ever hear that it takes more energy to power on a fluorescent light (as opposed to leaving it lit)? Turns out, with today's CFL bulbs, it's better to switch them off than leave them on. The gub'ment says so!
3. Nutrition Labels aren't for (most) Girls
Those nutrition labels on packaged food are based on the caloric needs of an average male adult. For a 5' 3" female, the calorie, fat, protein, etc. amounts are almost halved. Instead of 2,000 - 2,500 calories per day, I get 1200-1400. Exercise, of course, increases this number. Even still, the amounts on the label can be misleading. Calculate your daily calorie allotment.
4. How to Google To be fair, we didn't have The Google yet when I was in school. Even still, there are a few simple tricks to being a better Googler that everyone should know.
If all you ever do is type a few words into Google, well, I'm not saying you're doing it wrong, but you could be doing it better. One I use daily is site search. Let's say someone tells me about a recent article from the OC Register website about the Anaheim Ducks. So how do I go about finding this article?
Go to ocregister.com and poke around until I find it?
Google "Anaheim Ducks news" and sort through all the articles?
Nyet! None of the above! I go Google and do a site search. It looks like this:
ducks site:ocregister.com
Note there are two spaces between "ducks" and site:ocregister.com - you're telling Google to look for the word ducks only on the website ocregister.com
You can use the additional search tools to further refine the results to items from the last hour, 24 hours, week, month or year.
The next time you're want to see what lamps IKEA sells, try: lamps site:ikea.com and then choose the Images tab to browse pictures of lamps from IKEA's website.
Beauty, eh?
5. Invest in index funds There's a saying that Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing Poorly. This doesn't apply to stocks. None of us is a financial genius or a psychic. If your employer has a retirement plan and matches contributions, that's free money. Buy an S&P Index fund like SNXFX, contribute to your employer matching max and pat yourself on the back.
I'm no stock expert, but I've read a lot of books, and the Boglehead book is the best of the bunch. By "best" I mean that I had a brokerage account where I followed the index find plan, and another where I went my own way (with an advisor no less). Guess which account is doing better? Yeah, the index fund account which I paid almost zero attention to... less work, better return.
Americans who say they like sushi really just like the taste of soy sauce and wasabi
I recently went on a food tour in Little Tokyo and learned some surprising things about sushi.
In case you're wondering: As a Japanese-American, madhapa, why didn't you know this stuff already?
- Mom made lots of delish Japanese food, but not sushi
- Let's not forget I'm a vegetarian
To verify the authenticity of this Sushi 101 session, I emailed my friend who is married to a Japanese woman (the real kind), has lived in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese. He backed up everything I learned and also referred me to this colorful story of the (recently-retired) LA Sushi Nazi.
#1 Don't "smooth" your chopsticks
For one thing, scraping one crappy chopstick against another doesn't actually remove splinters.
The other reason not to is, in Japan and perhaps some high-end sushi joints in the US, they put some thought and expense into those disposable utensils. Rubbing them together is uncouth and the restauranteur may be offended. It's okay to ask for another set of chopsticks if the ones you receive actually have splinters.
#2 Sushi should be eaten with your fingers. Not chopsticks.
The hot towel or oshibori isn't something the Japanese copped from the airlines. So don't wipe your face and neck with it, the towel is only meant for your hands. Why? Because sushi = finger-food!
(cue noise of record scratching).
Who knew? Sushi (as opposed to sashimi, which doesn't have rice) was perhaps the world's first finger food. Imagine a Japanese villager in the days before Nintendo. He's looking for a quick snack, approaches the local sushi stand and orders. He gets a slab or two of rice topped with fish, and buggers off.
People don't carry chopsticks around; sushi was and is a finger food. Would you carry around a knife and fork to eat a sandwich or a hot dog?
Okay, right now I am going to go make some curry and rice. Seriously, this is making me hungry.... ...aaaaand, we're back.
#3 Don't mix your wasabi and soy sauce together.
I don't know about you, but as soon as that tray o' sushi arrives I scoop up the wasabi splut, douse it in soy sauce and mix until I have a greeny-brown paste. As it turns out - for veg sushi this is okay. You can also mix 'em together if you're eating sashimi (fish sans rice). ANY OTHER TIME, NOT OKAY, ROUND-EYE!
Picture one of those small soy sauce dishes. Sometimes it has a little engraving in it, right? The purpose of that drawing or engraving is to tell you when to stop pouring. You're not supposed to cover up the entire image. This leaves room on the edge of your dish for a swipe of wasabi. That's all you're supposed to need.
For one sushi meal, we're talking one tablespoon of soy sauce at most. You're not supposed to use soy sauce at all if the name of the sushi roll you ordered corresponds to:
A creature (dragon, spider)
A place (Alaska, California)
or includes the word "crunchy."
If you dunk one of these rolls in sushi, you're masking the delicious taste of avocado, mayonaise, tempura bits, or whatever you paid extra for to mask the taste of the fish.
Speaking of which.
#4 Sushi Tastes Better Upside Down
Eat sushi so the fish touches your tongue first. If you like the taste of fish, this ensures you get to really taste the flavor of it. Dousing the sushi in soy sauce or eating it rice first will cause you to lose some or all of the taste of the fish.
After eating the first piece, if you feel the next bit needs some soy sauce, give it a light brush, not a dip, through your soy sauce dish / swipe of wasabi. Fun fact: sometimes the sushi chef puts wasabi under the fish. Who knew that was there?
#5 Eat Your Sushi in the Right Order
Some fish is fattier than others and the leaner cuts should be eaten first. The fattier fish will compromise your palate for the lighter one. How do you know which is which, lean vs fat? On some sushi menus they clue you in by listing a leaner fish such as tuna above a about a fattier one like salmon.
If you order multiple items, the chef may serve the leaner item first. If you accidentally order a fattier one first, eat some of that pickled ginger they give you.
#6 Do These Rules Really Matter?
If you're a vegetarian or you only eat sashimi, not really (except perhaps rule #1). In fact, if you only eat sushi in North America, you can probably ignore all of the above. But isn't it nice to know that the right way to eat something is with your fingers? It's not rude, it's culturally correct!
In closing...
I got nothin' else. So, how about this: who else remembers the horrifically awesome Kikkoman flash video from the 90's? I don't know which bit of randomness I like best: the cat in the shame room (1min 26) or Kikkoman in bed with a lady (1min 35).
Now sing it with me! Show Me! Show You! Ki-ko-Man! Ki-ko-Man!
Here it is! My best of 2012 mix. It includes Auzzies doing revival Indian, Goth-pop Canadians, a French-Chilean MC, a Seattle DJ who mixes tasty Brazilian tunes and a Scandanavian Stevie Nicks. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
This year I've tried to embed each tune in the post so you can preview it without having to leave the site. That said, if you're reading this in an email you may need to click through to themadhapa.com for the embedded tracks to work.
Also, if you like the music posted here, please consider purchasing it using one of the links provided. You'll support the artist, and (full disclosure) I'll get a shiny nickel!
Best New Band* of 2012
Bombay Royale - a Melbourne band "dedicated to honoring and reviving the funky, bizarre and mysterious music of vintage Indian cinema." Fans of the movie Ghost World will recognize their cover of Jaan Pehechan Ho.
* new to me
My favorite Bombay Royale track is Dum Maroo Dum. There should be a link to listen to it above, but if not you can preview / buy at Amazon.com. There's a lot to love about Bombay Royale - listen to song samples.
Another new band I like is Deep Sea Diver, and not just because of the name! These guys are former Beck bandmates and their catchy tune You Go Running was an upbeat motivator during my long bike rides this past summer.
Download - Buy Time to Dance by Shoes was another much-loved track for long, hot days on the bike. As it turns out, the official video for this tune features Jake Gyllenhaal as a serial killer. If you click on the video below, please be advised the actual song doesn't start until about 2 min in.
Could Niki and The Dove be any more Scandinavian? I effing love it. My favorite track, The Gentle Roar, is not representative of the entire album which is StevieNicksesque.
If I had to pick a favorite artist this year, it would be a tough decision... but I'd have to go with Ana Tijoux. Her album La Bala will make you want to dance, drink, fight, and sing-along even if you don't speak Spanish. It's a bold and passionate album - her second, no less.
It was tough to choose one song off this album, but I went with Shock. It's immediately catchy and the sing-song mocking tone totally gets the message of the song across. If you dig this track, check out the rest of La Bala.
Maga Bo - No Balanço da Canoa is the aforementioned Brazilian track mixed by a Seattle DJ. Give it a listen, but be aware of your surroundings - you won't be able to stop your booty from shakin. Download - Buy
The Xx put out a new album this year, but what did it for me in the gloomy electronic realm this year was Gold and Youth's track Time To Kill. Listen - Buy
Best Cover Tune of 2012
I really liked The Chromatics' cover of Into the Black (aka Neil Young's Hey, Hey My, My) but it's part of their as-yet-unreleased album. Give it a listen here.
So it came down to the Fleetwood Mac tribute albumand Jimmy Fallon's Blow Your Pants Off where, among other things, Fallon does a cover of the PBS 80's kids show Reading Rainbow theme in the style of The Doors. The Fleetwood Mac album has this adorable cover of Gypsy (sung by a guy) with this little synth piano intro that reminds me of a Japanese tea house. Soooo I couldn't decide and picked two favorite cover songs this year.
The Bamboos Medicine Man (Buy)
I'm going to steal the BBC's term and describe The Bamboos as a Musical Conglomerate. You can preview their album here - which includes a really satisfying variety of songs. I really liked "Where Does the Time Go?" Your mom will too...
Thrift Shop - Macklemore
This isn't Macklemore's first appearance on a year-end top list. Back in 2009 he put out a track about the Seattle hip hop scene that literally made me weep. It wasn't because of a strong connection to Seattle per se, it was a longing for that local scene and the way things were.Anyway, Thrift Shop is a celebration, a fucking anthem for those of us who spent high school and college digging in "the bins." Much love to Mary Miller at Rats Off for cluing me into this video back in August so it could be my end of summer jam.
I love Stars new album, but I can appreciate that their sweet, depressing songs aren't for everyone. That said, give a listen to Hold On When You Get Love and Let Go When You Get It. I can't get enough of this song. It's my Call Me Maybe.
It's not a best of mix from me without a song that will rattle your car doors with its bass. Trust's Bulbform is that song. I believe the official genre for this band is Witch House. How f*cking rad is that?
Best Coast - The Only Place (Buy)
Adorable song, adorable video with mild acts of vandalism.
Birmingham by Shovels and Rope is the oddball in this mix. I just like the story it tells. By the way, she says "Nickajack" in the first line. It's a disputed area of land in Tennessee.
Gossip - Melody Emergency (Buy)
This song just grooves. Beth Ditto belts it out like usual but I like that the song isn't distinctly retro nor dance nor blues. It just....grooves.
This is some unabashed ridiculous pop right here. Just try to resist. Just try. This song is total nonsense (see lyrics below) that I suspect is poking fun at something but I'm not sure. It's Swedish sythpop, just go with it.
I got this feeling on the summer day when you were gone.
I crashed my car into the bridge. I watched, I let it burn.
I threw your sh*t into a bag and pushed it down the stairs.
I crashed my car into the bridge.
Metric - Breathe Underwater
This is the last song, but please don't skip it. It's a great last song. Just imagine skinny, blonde Emily Haines on stage at some outdoor festival. The sun is going down. She's been prowling the stage all afternoon and is taking a moment to catch her breath and belt out theses sweet verses.
The day began with a "long black" coffee and muesli with yogurt at Jet, a cafe in the QVB (Queen Victoria Building). The cafe is located just behind the statue of Queen Victoria where sometimes there are skinny teenagers performing Beatles tunes.
After breakfast we ambled down York street and picked up a bus to Spit Bridge and the start of the scenic walkway to Manly Beach.
Walking from Spit Bridge to Manly Beach
In case anyone has come across this post by googling for info on this scenic walk, a few pieces of advice:
Start from Spit Bridge, don't start from Manly. You'll want to finish your 3-4 hour walk where there a numerous beer / food / gelato options. There isn't much around Spit Bridge.
From Sydney CBD, take bus 178 or 179 from either the QVB or Wynyard station. Tell the driver you'd like to get off at Spit Bridge. It takes about 30 min from town to reach the bridge. Then it's 3-4 hours walking depending on if you stop to take photos, have a picnic, swim, etc.
Wear hiking footwear! Sneakers/trainers are fine, flip-flops are not. Most of the trail is not paved.
Water, sunscreen and a broad-brimmed hat are a must. I spent the summer cycling for 5-6 hours at a time and have a pretty good base tan. I wore a hat and sunscreen but sweated some of my sunscreen off and got a mild sunburn.
Walking along the trail you can't help but imagine what it must have been like for the first explorers in Australia.* The trail is clear and paved in some places, but you're surrounded by dense brush and unfamiliar animal sounds. It isn't until you hear a ferry horn or come close to a road that you're reminded - oh yeah, I'm in a city of 4.5 million people.
* Incidentally, if you've ever wanted to know more about the history of Australia told in a humorous way, I enjoyed In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson.
Below is an example of one of the more amazing views from the trail. Email subscribers may need to click through to view the images in this post.
I believe this is Dobroyd Head. So, if I were to tilt the camera back a little, you'd see Manly Wharf and the long expanse of cute houses, gelato places, etc. across the water. Behind me, however, were bushes, tall grass and gum trees. It was like being in the woods; I even saw an Australian Brush Turkey (see below). I didn't take this photo...
The Brush Turkeys were back in a little clearing. Their red heads were all I could see at first, then I noticed one had (what looked like) a yellow Hawaiian lei. Their tails look like a shorter version of American turkeys, but they're smaller overall, more like a vulture.
After three hours we popped out at Forty Baskets Beach. I was ready for a gelato and a nap - which is exactly what I got! Here I am with my two scoops of gelato and magazine of celebrity asses. About fifteen minutes after this photo was taken I was asleep on the grass.
That's a terrible hat, is it not? I needed one for sun protection and this boxing kangaroo number was only $8AUS. It also doubles as a beacon, that bright yellow color can be seen from space.
After the nap, we took the ferry back to Sydney Harbor. The MyMulti1 pass covers all buses, ferries, and the subway within central Sydney. It's about $25US per day, but the 7-Day pass for $50 makes more sense.
The ferry from Manly drops you right in Circular Quay. It passes the Botanical Gardens and the famous Opera House. The afternoon sun lit it up nicely, wouldn't you say?
We had a beer in a pub at The Rocks, then headed to a cheap Japanese Noodle place on George St. (in the Skyview Building behind 85 Degrees Bakery). It's called Mappen and I haven't seen anything like it in the US.
Dinner at Mappen is a steal - $31AUS total for two people including drinks. You choose hot or cold noodles and then add whatever toppings you want - kitsune, tempura, etc. The topping choices are mostly deep-fried, but hey I walked for three and a half hours, I earned a slab of fried sweet potato and a fried manju.
After that it was back to the room for a shower (I smelled like fried sweat) and a relaxing end to the day.
I'm not a joiner when it comes to company activities. I shun the salsa contest (I don't cook), take vacation during Bring Your Child to Work Day, and schedule dentist appointments to coincide with the all employee meeting. My company is great, don't get me wrong, many employees enjoy the time and effort spent to put on these functions, but they're not really my bag.
So when the email went out inviting participation in an Ugly Holiday Sweater competition I deleted it out of instinct, but then I got to thinking. This could be something...
I love awesomely bad taste. I love the movie Mommy Dearest, I love the Chicken and Waffle Cone, and I love William Shatner singing cover songs. Finding just a sweater that's totally wrong in all the right ways really appealed to me. Also, it gave me a reason to play around with Pinterest.
A Brief History of the Ugly Holiday Sweater
What began as a homemade gift from your favorite aging relative became an industry unto itself -peaking in the 1980's (blame Cosby). After going into remission for the better part of the 90s (when ugly sweatshirts had their time in the sun), Ugly Sweater Parties became a "thing" starting in the early 2000's (The Atlantic.com, 2010). By the end of the decade, an Ugly Christmas Sweater sold on eBay for nearly $300.
In 2011, a how to book called Ugly Christmas Sweater Party was released, and the concept jumped the shark. Now, at last, it's come to Orange County.
Next let's discuss the various species within the modern Ugly Holiday Sweater genus.
The Traditional I actually kind of like this sweater. If I wanted to impersonate a Scandinavian person I'd get one of these.
Blocks Think of four objects that remind you of the holiday season. Start knitting. Repeat.
Parallels The parallel design is most commonly found in cardigan-style sweaters. The example pictured below also includes fringe, an element disturbingly common in Ugly Holiday Sweaters.
Obnoxious Pattern If you look at this pattern long enough, a 3-D Dinosaur will appear.
Zee Goggles, Zey Do Nothing!
Light-Up Wall Street wasn't the only industry to OD on technology in the 1990's.
Winter Scenes Why stick to one color for your sweater when you can use all of them?
Applique and Objets d'Art I think the candy cane neckline on the green one (below) kinda works. As for the second sweater, it just makes me want to breathe into a paper bag.
While the sweaters shown above are arguably hideous, I would not consider any of them competition-grade. For the big day, I need a sweater that combines bad taste and sincere effort into a marriage where the whole is greater than the sum of its applique parts.
It's important that the sweater isn't trying too hard, or worse, that it's been modified to deliberately create a gag (see below).
Nor is it fair to get a purpose-made ugly sweater, in my opinion. The humping reindeer sweater is funny, but it seems like cheating.
Because the ugly sweater competition will happen after this post goes live, I will not reveal the sweater I ultimately chose. Please stay tuned...
It's hard to express enthusiasm for a book about nutrition without sounding like a wack. We can all rattle off half a dozen diets with results that faded as quickly as an ombre dye job.
Take Sensa, for example. Apparently you sprinkle this stuff on your food and lose thirty pounds. You don't have to join a gym and you can eat whatever you want. Um, I think they called that FenFen in the 80's but it's more commonly known as speed.
I realize I risk my own credibility by saying positive things about a book / DVD focused on nutrition. See? That already sounded bad - a book/DVD. This isn't a system or a program, I swear. The book is written by a Cornell University scientist and the DVD is a documentary about him and his findings, so it has a lot of the same info - in a convenient, time-saving format.
No operators are standing by, there are no testimonials by everyday people of varying ages and ethnicities. The book doesn't even have any pictures for godsakes, and the DVD isn't sold in stores. Oh wait, yes it is! But you can also get it on Netflix...
All that said, on to the real point of this blog post...
On the recommendation of a cycling pro, I read The China Study. It investigates the relationship between diet and disease in a very scientific way (as opposed to anecdotal). If the findings weren't so interesting, you might say the writing is a little dry. Nevertheless, I can't stop thinking about this book!
It also addressed some big questions that are always in the back of my mind.
Will I get diabetes like my grandfather and uncle?
Will I get breast cancer like my grandmothers?
What can I do to prevent these horrible diseases?
It's breast cancer awareness month and everywhere you look there are stats like 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed in her lifetime. Both cancer and diabetes are terrible diseases and you know what? These diseases occur at much much higher rates in "Westernized" countries.
Before you start thinking ahead like "is this going to be a vegetarian rant?" No. In fact, the author / scientist was raised on a dairy farm. He didn't set out to vilify the American diet; the book recaps scientific research only, it isn't trying to sell something. In fact, the author stumbled across the crux of this book on accident. I won't ruin the story. I just wanted to make sure you knew that The China Study doesn't advocate eating tofu and rice all the time. It does, however, draw multiple correlations between diet and disease.
Let food be thy medicine -Hypocrates (Greek father of medicine)
I'm a vegetarian - but not in a good way
For most of my late teens and 20's I lived on pizza and Hot Pockets (the cheese pizza Hot Pockets were my favorite). For breakfast I might eat a frozen Mac and Cheese dinner. Over the years I started integrating vegetables - tomato and basil slices on slabs of mozzarella, for example. All the while I've been calling myself a vegetarian - but really I was a starch and cheese i tarian.
Newsflash, this does not make for good health - but neither does what's on the food pyramid. The USDA food pyramid recommends about 30-40% of your diet should come from meat and dairy. In fact, the lowest rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes are found in areas where animal protein intake was 10% or less of the diet.
But isn't protein critical to a healthy body? The reason we're supposed to eat protein is to support our muscles, right? You drink milk and you grow up big and strong, right? Well, it's very possible to get too much of a good thing.
Okay, you may be thinking, what if it's just something genetic about Chinese people? Maybe they have less of a predisposition towards cancer. Here's another example:
When the Nazis invaded Norway, they confiscated all the
cattle. As a result, Norwegian consumption of meat and dairy plummeted - along with the incidence of heart disease. When the Nazis were defeated, meat eating increased and heart
disease rates eventually returned to their pre-war levels.
Here's one more...the book sites a study of Japanese-American men living in Washington state. These men have the same genes as men in Japan, but significantly higher rates of diabetes - even while maintaining a healthy weight. Hmmmm, that sounds like my family.
Is meat evil? That's not where I am going with this. I love cheese. Meat and dairy can be eaten in moderation, but not in the proportions we've been told.
If you've ever wondered about whether you'll get cancer or have a heart
attack, The China Study is worth a read! Oh yeah, and this whole idea saves us money in the long run.
If our nation ate healthier, we could reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease and diabetes before they even begin. That means fewer $100,000 coronary bypass surgeries, and perhaps some of the 46 million Americans taking blood pressure medication could have better health and forgo the expensive meds.
In a nutshell, The China Study gives empirical evidence that the answer to our nation's health problems isn't another pill - the answer is spinach. Not a reader? A lot of the same information is presented in the documentary Forks Over Knives.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. If you live near me I would be happy to loan you my book - after my Mom is done reading it.
First of all, I would like to apologize to my butt.
My backside has faithfully served without complaint for years, and of late, I have not been kind to it. Friday I did a seven hour ride on a new bike saddle and my ass still hurts. By mile 65, my cheeks hurt so much I was ready to confess something... unfortunately I was the one doing the torture.
Why bike for seven hours?
This coming Saturday (September 8th) will be my first century ride, 100 miles. The ride starts at the Irvine Amtrak station and ends at the San Diego Amtrak station, thus its name: The Amtrak Century. If I'm lucky, I'll finish in seven to eight hours. I can't take longer than nine hours or I'll miss the train back to Irvine.
It all started when I read about a Chamorro (Guam food) restaurant in San Diego. The field guy I work (Michael) with said "we should ride our bikes to San Diego."
I said, "sure... from Carlsbad."
He said, "No! From here!" (South Orange County).
We still haven't eaten at that restaurant, but Michael is on his second triathlon and I've ridden my bike to San Diego about half a dozen times.* Back in April I wrote about my preliminary venture into long distance cycling with an (expletive-laden) blow-by-blow of my first solo ride to SD.
* From San Juan Capistrano - which is "only" 71 miles.
While reminiscing with a friend in Portland I recalled my first 10-speed - a Huffy Capri. Jenna Newcome was the first girl at my school to have one and oh how I wanted one just like it. That bike must have weighed twice what my current bike does but it never slowed me down. With that bike I was goin' places!
During my training (a few months back) I hit a wall. Cycling had stopped being fun. I was out there every weekend riding because of an obligation, not for the love of it. I am not a goal-oriented person. As my friend Kim was kind enough to put it "you're a journey-er."
All this event-oriented training wasn't bad in and of itself, it was just hard to justify when (quite frankly) the event only served as a deadline. On that day, Saturday September 8th, I would ride 100 miles. Furthermore, I didn't want to set myself up for failure. What if I fell down? What if I got a cold? Couldn't I just do 100 miles whenever I got around to it?
I've never excelled in sports, perhaps because of my "meh" attitude toward athletic achivement. The only medals I ever received were from our middle school Science Olympics. Lena Jones, if you're reading this, you know we were the Kerri / Misty of our day.
A short visit to Portland in August gave me the inspiration I needed. I rented a road bike from Waterfront Bikes because I needed to get 100 miles in that weekend (for training). Yes, here it was my vacation and I have to log time in the saddle.
I cruised from Vancouver over the bridge into St. John's, down to the farms on Sauvie's Island, back over the St John's Bridge, past University of Portland and home again. It was a perfect summer day and the views of the river and Mt. Hood were stellar. Later I had a nice cold beer in the park and gorged on some wood fired pizza. Ah ha, I thought... AH-fucking-HA!
Long distance cycling can be a journey after all.
Since then, Tom and I have explored Ventura-Santa Barbara, San Francisco-Sausilito-Tibueron and Napa-Calistoga. The views from a bike are wonderful. You can soak in the scenery much better than in a car and when you're done - CHOW DOWN and DRINK BEER! Pairing cycling with travel and eating... now we're on to something. In Napa (St. Helena) we stopped by Velo Vino which is a winery founded by the Clif Bar family. We met a guy who'd done a ride through Europe on his bike and he had some great stories.
Stay tuned for my future adventures on two wheels. Oh, and, if you've ever done a century please feel free to leave any comments / tips below!
Good news, Butt! I'm going back to my old saddle. Please forgive me.
I'm doing this post a little different than other trip recaps. I decided to throw in some useless trivia, the question answers are at the bottom. Hope you find it amusing.
About Bonaire
Bonaire is part of the Caribbean ABC Islands (ABC = Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) and located about 50 miles north of the Venezuelan coast. These islands are also known as the Netherlands Antillies, but Bonaire is the only island still affiliated with The Netherlands.
1. What currency is used in Bonaire?
A. The Euro
B. The US Dollar
C. The Antillean Guilder
Bonaire is about 24 miles long by 3-7 miles wide. Altogether it's 112
square miles - slightly smaller than the city of Portland, OR. The coastline has been protected since 1979 and it really shows - the reefs are the healthiest I've seen in the Caribbean. Tourism is the main industry with salt being a close second. Yes, salt. Before scuba diving, there wasn't much on Bonaire besides salt company employees, cactus, goats and donkeys.
2. What is the salt from Bonaire primarily used for?
A. Water softeners
B. Ice-y US roads
C. Table salt
Unlike other dive spots I've been to recently: it's okay to drink the water in Bonaire. The convenience of this cannot be understated.
After a long day, it's so nice to simply brush your teeth in the
sink (as opposed to striking out in pajamas to round up a bottle of
water).
3. What song did I hear enough times to start hating, maybe like a little bit, then fully hate again?
We made about ten boat dives and also several shore dives. I didn't see a single shark, but I did see an above-average number of trunkfish (a favorite - because they're so funny looking), some free-swimming eels (during the day no less) and several drum fish (both adult and juvenile).
For better or worse a lot of the reefs look the same - all very healthy with abundant fish and coral life. So that's a good thing. We did a few dives for variety: the salt pier, wreck of the Hilma Hooker and also a staghorn coral nursery off Buddy Dive's house reef (part of a worldwide Coral Restoration program). You can see highlights from these dives in my video below.
Now I would like to make a plug for my new favorite sunscreen: Badger 30+ Sunscreen Stick. Between scuba diving and cycling for hours in the California sun, I need ballsy sunscreen. I also want something that won't make me breakout, or be so full of chemicals that I avoid skin cancer and die of liver failure instead. You can read about my quest to find a decent sunscreen on the PADI blog.
The Badger stick, if you can believe it, was still on my face after a 60 min dive. I couldn't believe it. This is a great product, not to mention easy to travel with because it's a stick and not a liquid and can go in a carry-on. Below is a picture of me after putting on my morning war paint. It actually rubs in clear.
So, besides being my first visit to Bonaire, this trip had another first - my rookie attempt at underwater video. I received a GoPro Hero2 for Christmas and this was my first chance to try it out underwater. I'd like to give a shout out to Pacific Wilderness for helping me out with some housing equipment just before I left. The video is embedded below, it's about 6min 45 sec. Email subscribers may need to click through to view it.
