The one word that describes my life right now is “Training.” I got a wild hair to go racing again, so I’m back in training mode and logging the miles on the bike. Hopefully I’ll catch a race or two before this season ends, but I’ll be mtb racing pedal-to-pedal with a bunch of other dirtheads in 2010.

The results of my training will determine what class I’ll race next year. Currently, the plan is to race Cat 3 and hopefully score enough points to win the overall title. If I totally dominate the first two races, I’ll consider moving up to Cat 2 in hopes that I’ll be competitive enough to end the year in the top three.

Whatever I decide to do in the future, it starts with the training I put in NOW. The good part is I’ll be on my bike a lot more. The bad part is that I probably won’t be going on too many rides with my friends. Training can be quite lonely as I’ve got a pretty structured plan that my cycling coach laid out for me. Here’s my schedule:

MONDAY - Recovery/rest day
TUESDAY - Base miles or Lactate tolerance
WEDNESDAY - Base miles
THURSDAY - Low intensity/Technical skills
FRIDAY - Recovery/rest day
SATURDAY - Hill climbing (Ouch)
SUNDAY - Group ride/Race Sim

Yesterday I threw some slicks on the mountain bike to get in some road time. The plan was to ride 2 hours at a heart rate of 163 bpm. At the end 1 hour, I found myself on Pacific Coast Highway with 20 miles on the Garmin. I turned around to head back home…mostly uphill.

I think I need to recalculate my training zones because maintaining a constant 163 bpm was hard work. Maybe my max heart rate is lower than I thought. I think I may have gotten an erroneous reading when I was doing my max heart rate drill. I need to call my coach for a bit of guidance. Base mile days are supposed to be at a relatively easy pace. I was tooling along pretty quickly.

Here’s the message on Facebook:

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.

If you want to share your thoughts on our new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

A woman’s beauty…
   Measured not of the body,
but of heart and soul.

Maybe it’s just the thing I need to keep my blog from collecting dust.

There’s McKinney and Clemente for the Green Party. Keyes and Drake for the American Independents. Nader and Gonzalez for the Peace and Freedom Party. Barr and Root for the Libertarians. If none of those tickets are to your liking, you can always do a “Write-In.”

Then there’s voting for your U.S. Representative, Senator, Mayor, City Councilman, City Clerk, City Treasurer, etc… All those positions have Write-Ins, as well.

Then there’s those little things…what were they? Oh yeah, the Ballot Measures.

It’s hard to respect the act of not voting at all when you have the means to do so. Believe me, I once thought that not voting was voicing my opinion. It’s not. If you don’t get to the polls, any opinion you have is moot.

“…hoping everyone will vote Yes on 8. It’s about preserving God’s institution of marriage.”

For some reason it got me to respond and here’s what I said:

Sorry…can’t vote yes. A passing of this proposition will do nothing to preserve the institution of marriage. Regardless of my view, I can’t support an action that will take away the rights of others. Same-sex marriage is a CIVIL ISSUE, not a religious one.

I think my rant was sparked by my annoyance of anyone urging me to vote one way or another. I don’t view advertisements and endorsements in that way because…well…that’s just the nature of them. I think it more directly applies to those that have a more personal interaction with me.

I wouldn’t ever tell someone how they should vote or what stand to take on an issue. I recognize that not everyone will share my views for whatever reason. Depending on our life experiences, socialization and beliefs, our view on the world can be dramatically different from one another.

I can only tell you what my view is and why. Keep in mind that my personal view may or may not influence my vote. Alan Thicke, Gloria Loring and Al Burton hit the nail on the head with this lyric:

“What might be right for you, may not be right for some.”

You may ask, “Whachu talkin’ ’bout Willis?” so I’ll give an example. In most cases, I don’t believe in abortion, but I’m still Pro-Choice. A friend tried to point out how that didn’t make sense, but I argued that it was quite simple. Pro-Choice simply says “choose abortion” or “do not choose abortion.” It’s a choice, right? In the Pro-Choice decision I “Choose Life,” others may not. My view is centered around using abortion as a form of birth control. I will never vote for legislation that will take away someone’s right to choose.

Anyway, I have an internal and external dialogue. My INTERNAL dialogue will hope that everyone will vote for Obama, vote no on Prop 1A, vote no on Prop 2, vote no on Prop 3, etc. Oh yeah…vote no on Prop 8. However, my EXTERNAL dialogue just hopes that however you vote, it’s for reasons that make sense.

If you want to know how I’m voting and why, just ask me. I’ll be happy to tell you. I may ask you how you’re voting and why. If we happen to get in a debate on an issue, make sure your arguments make sense. If the argument happens to be on Prop 8, make sure your stance is more than “preserving God’s institution of marriage.” Just know that we’ll have a Bible and current marriage statistics available for the discussion. Not to mention other examples of discriminatory legislation thrown in to boot because Prop 8 ain’t as simple as it seems.

“If you want to protect marriage, ban divorce.”

I’ve been trying to find a simple way to get my site formatted for the iPhone/iPod Touch. I use Tumblr for mobile.ceedubb.com, but it would involve a double posting of content for my main and mobile site.

I was convinced that I’d have to code a completely different subdomain that would tap into the posts of my main site.

But then I discovered the WPTouch WordPress plug-in from Brave New Code. They did a wonderful job of doing all the hard work for me.

It works simply and beautifully. Visiting my site from a normal web browser will give you the full experience. Visiting from an iPhone or iPod Touch will give you a theme specifically formatted for them. Some of the code for my full site really isn’t suited for mobile viewing (especially Flash content).

Have fun.

Update: Since Flash isn’t supported on the iPhone, I’ve been slowly converting .flv and .mp3 files to Quicktime. There are a few issues as I do not want to have large .mov files for video. It’s a work in progress…

[See post to listen to audio]

[See post to listen to audio]

Track Listing - 53:21

1. Play Your Part (Pt. 1) - 4:45
2. Shut The Club Down - 3:07
3. Still Here - 3:57
4. What It’s All About - 4:15
5. Set It Off - 3:42
6. No Pause - 3:12
7. Like This - 3:21
8. Give Me A Beat - 4:12
9. Hands In The Air - 4:20
10. In Step - 3:23
11. Let Me See You - 4:04
12. Here’s The Thing - 4:46
13. Don’t Stop - 2:58
14. Play Your Part (Pt. 2) - 3:25

You can download the album here and name your own price.

Update: You can try but you can’t extract the songs from my site.

Using the widget that JAW Software created last year for the 1st Generation iPhone, I’ve updated it for the iPhone 3G launch on July 11, 2008 at 8:00am.

The widgets are available in both Black and White. Sorry Windows users. These widgets are for Mac OS X only. Windows users can still get on my email list.

Download in Black
Download in White

I’d love to throw you guys on my contact list, so I/we have a broad user-base to test out all the tasty new applications from the App Store. If you’re interested, just drop me an email.

I hope you guys are as excited about July 11th as I am. Tell me what you think. Enjoy.

Digg this

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.

In’st taht intrestnig?

UPDATE!!: I found the site, but will continue the contest. The first one to guess wins!! Post your guess in the comments section below.

So I’m going to need some help finding it because I already spent hours searching for it. I’ll just throw a simple little contest. Wanna know how to play? It’s pretty simple.

The Rules
1. Leave a comment to this post with the web address of the site you think I’m looking for.
2. I’ll visit the link.
3. If the site is the one, the first person that listed it wins!!
4. Collect your prize!!

Here’s a little bit of information on the Twitter site I’m looking for:

1. It’s NOT a Twitter client.
2. It IS a search site.
3. There are two separate input boxes where you can search by WHO or WHAT.
4. The background of the page is black.
5. I believe the home page defaults to posts by Leo Laporte (or the most popular Twitter user).

Wanna know what the prize is? I wish I could give away a car, but I don’t roll like that. The winner will get a cool pair of custom CrankBrothers Cycling Socks by SockGuy.com. I’ll see what else I have to sweeten the pot.

Here are the sites I’ve checked that aren’t it:

1. Addictomatic
2. Get Satisfaction
3. Hahlo
4. HelloTwitFace
5. Quotably
6. Slandr
7. Summize
8. StrawPoll
9. TweetBeep
10. TweetScan
11. Twistori
12. TwitArcs
13. Twitter Spectrum
14. Twitturly

If you any questions, don’t hesitate to email me or leave a comment. Have fun!

My Name Is Sam

After I was discharged from the Navy, Jim and I moved back to Detroit to use our GI Bill benefits to get some schooling. Jim was going for a degree in Electronics and I, after much debating, decided to get mine in Computer Science. One of the classes that was a requirement was Speech.

Like many people, I had no fondness for getting up in front of people for any reason, let alone to be the center of attention as I stuttered my way through some unfamiliar subject. But I couldn’t get out of the requirement, and so I found myself in my last semester before graduation with Speech as one of my classes.

On the first day of class our professor explained to us that he was going to leave the subject manner of our talks up to us, but he was going to provide the motivation of the speech. We would be responsible for six speeches, each with a different motivation. For instance our first speech’s purpose was to inform. He advised us to pick subjects that we were interested in and knowledgeable about. I decided to center my six speeches around animals, especially dogs.

For my first speech to inform, I talked about the equestrian art of dressage. For my speech to demonstrate, I brought my German Shepherd, Bodger, to class and demonstrated obedience commands. Finally the semester was almost over and I had but one more speech to give. This speech was to take the place of a written final exam and was to count for fifty per cent of our grade. The speeches motivation was to persuade.

After agonizing over a subject matter, and keeping with my animal theme, I decided on the topic of spaying and neutering pets. My goal was to try to persuade my classmates to neuter their pets. So I started researching the topic. There was plenty of material, articles that told of the millions of dogs and cats that were euthanized every year, of supposedly beloved pets that were turned in to various animal control facilities for the lamest of reasons, or worse, dropped off far from home, bewildered and scared. Death was usually a blessing.

The final speech was looming closer, but I felt well prepared. My notes were full of facts and statistics that I felt sure would motivate even the most naive of pet owners to succumb to my plea. A couple of days before our speeches were due, I had the bright idea of going to the local branch of the Humane Society and borrowing a puppy to use as a sort of a visual aid. I called the Humane Society and explained what I wanted. They were very happy to accommodate me. I made arrangements to pick up a puppy the day before my speech.

The day before my speech, I went to pick up the puppy. I was feeling very confident. I could quote all the statistics and numbers without ever looking at my notes. The puppy, I felt, would add the final emotional touch. When I arrived at the Humane Society I was met by a young guy named Ron. He explained that he was the public relations person for the Humane Society.

He was very excited about my speech and asked if I would like a tour of the facilities before I picked up the puppy. I enthusiastically agreed.

We started out in the reception area, which was the general public’s initial encounter with the Humane Society. The lobby was full, mostly with people dropping off various animals that they no longer wanted Ron explained to me that this branch of the Humane Society took in about fifty animals a day and adopted out twenty.

As we stood there I heard snatches of conversation:

“I can’t keep him, he digs holes in my garden.”
“They are such cute puppies, I know you will have no trouble finding homes for them.”
“She is wild, I can’t control her.”

I heard one of Humane Society’s volunteer explain to the lady with the litter of puppies that the Society was filled with puppies and that these puppies, being black, would immediately be put to sleep. Black puppies, she explained, had little chance of being adopted. The woman who brought the puppies in just shrugged, “I can’t help it,” she whined. “They are getting too big. I don’t have room for them.”

We left the reception area. Ron led me into the staging area where all the incoming animals were evaluated for adoptability. Over half never even made it to the adoption center. There were just too many. Not only were people bringing in their own animals, but strays were also dropped off. By law the Humane Society had to hold a stray for three days. If the animal was not claimed by then, it was euthanized, since there was no background information on the animal.

There were already too many animals that had a known history eagerly provided by their soon-to-be ex-owners. As we went through the different areas, I felt more and more depressed. No amount of statistics could take the place of seeing the reality of what this throw-away attitude did to the living, breathing animal. It was overwhelming

Finally Ron stopped in front of a closed door. “That’s it,” he said, “except for this.”

I read the sign on the door. “Euthanization Area.” “Do you want to see one?” he asked. Before I could decline, he interjected, “You really should. You can’t tell the whole story unless you experience the end.” I reluctantly agreed.

“Good.” He said “I already cleared it and Peggy is expecting you.” He knocked firmly on the door. It was opened immediately by a middle-aged woman in a white lab coat. “Here’s the girl I was telling you about,” Ron explained. Peggy looked me over. “Well I’ll leave you here with Peggy and meet you in the reception area in about fifteen minutes. I’ll have the puppy ready.” With that Ron departed, leaving me standing in front of the stern-looking Peggy.

Peggy motioned me in. As I walked into the room, I gave an audible gasp. The room was small and spartan. There were a couple of cages on the wall and a cabinet with syringes and vials of a clear liquid. In the middle of the room was an examining table with a rubber mat on top. There were two doors other than the one I had entered. Both were closed. One said to the incinerator room, and the other had no sign, but I could hear various animals noises coming from behind the closed door.

In the back of the room, near the door that was marked incinerator were the objects that caused my distress: two wheelbarrows, filled with the bodies of dead kittens and puppies. I stared in horror. Nothing had prepared me for this. I felt my legs grow weak and my breathing become rapid and shallow. I wanted to run from that room, screaming.

Peggy seemed not to notice my state of shock. She started talking about the euthanization process, but I wasn’t hearing her. I could not tear my gaze away from the wheelbarrows and those dozens of pathetic little bodies. Finally, Peggy seemed to notice that I was not paying attention to her. “Are you listening?” she asked irritably. “I’m only going to go through this once.” I tore my gaze from the back of the room and looked at her. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing would come out, so I nodded.

She told me that behind the unmarked door were the animals that were scheduled for euthanasia that day. She picked up a chart that was hanging from the wall. “One fifty three is next,” she said as she looked at the chart. “I’ll go get him.” She laid down the chart on the examining table and started for the unmarked door. Before she got to the door she stopped and turned around. “You aren’t going to get hysterical, are you?” she asked, “Because that will only upset the animals.” I shook my head. I had not said a word since I walked into that room. I still felt unsure if would be able to without breaking down into tears.

As Peggy opened the unmarked door I peered into the room beyond. It was a small room, but the walls were lined and stacked with cages. It looked like they were all occupied. Peggy opened the door of one of the lower cages and removed the occupant. From what I could see it looked like a medium-sized dog. She attached a leash and ushered the dog into the room in which I stood.

As Peggy brought the dog into the room I could see that the dog was no more than a puppy, maybe five or six months old. The pup looked to be a cross between a Lab and a German shepherd. He was mostly black, with a small amount of tan above his eyes and on his feet. He was very excited and bouncing up and down, trying to sniff everything in this new environment.

Peggy lifted the pup onto the table. She had a card in her hand, which she laid on the table next to me. I read the card. It said that number one fifty three was a mixed Shepherd, six months old. He was surrendered two days ago by a family. Reason of surrender was given as “jumps on children.” At the bottom was a note that said “Name: Sam.”

Peggy was quick and efficient, from lots of practice, I guessed. She laid one fifty three down on his side and tied a rubber tourniquet around his front leg. She turned to fill the syringe from the vial of clear liquid. All this time I was standing at the head of the table. I could see the moment that one fifty three went from a curious puppy to a terrified puppy. He did not like being held down and he started to struggle.

It was then that I finally found my voice. I bent over the struggling puppy and whispered “Sam. Your name is Sam.” At the sound of his name Sam quit struggling. He wagged his tail tentatively and his soft pink tongue darted out and licked my hand. And that is how he spent his last moment. I watched his eyes fade from hopefulness to nothingness. It was over very quickly. I had never even seen Peggy give the lethal shot. The tears could not be contained any longer. I kept my head down so as not to embarrass myself in front of the stoic Peggy. My tears fell onto the still body on the table.

“Now you know,” Peggy said softly. Then she turned away. “Ron will be waiting for you.” I left the room. Although it seemed like it had been hours, only fifteen minutes had gone by since Ron had left me at the door.

I made my way back to the reception area. True to his word, Ron had the puppy all ready to go. After giving me some instructions about what to feed the puppy, he handed the carrying cage over to me and wished me good luck on my speech.

That night I went home and spent many hours playing with the orphan puppy. I went to bed that night but I could not sleep. After a while I got up and looked at my speech notes with their numbers and statistics. Without a second thought, I tore them up and threw them away. I went back to bed. Sometime during the night I finally fell asleep. The next morning I arrived at my Speech class with Puppy Doe. When my turn came to give my speech. I walked up to the front the class with the puppy in my arms. I took a deep breath, and I told the class about the life and death of Sam. When I finished my speech I became aware that I was crying. I apologized to the class and took my seat. After class the teacher handed out a critique with our grades. I got an “A.” His comments said “Very moving and persuasive.”

Two days later, on the last day of class, one of my classmates came up to me. She was an older lady that I had never spoken to in class. She stopped me on our way out of the class room.

“I want you to know that I adopted the puppy you brought to class,” she said.

“His name is Sam.”

Normally, you can get digital versions of most magazines for $5 a pop, or $7.99+ a subscription, for viewing on your computer or laptop. For the time-being, you can see the full current issues of everything 20 selected magazines on your iPhone. And that includes Playboy and Penthouse.

1. When your first point your iPhone’s Mobile Safari browser to http://zinio.com/iphone you’ll be greeted by a splash page of all the magazines you can preview.
2. Clicking on an adult magazine will prompt you to verify that you’re over the age of 18.
3. You’ll then be taken to a navigation view where you can arrow through each page of the magazine. It says that it’s best viewed in landscape mode, but it’s actually better to view it in portrait.
4. Clicking on a page will bring it full screen.
5. Clicking on the “Contents” link on the top of the page will bring up a Table of Contents where you can jump to the major articles and pictorials.

So it depends if you wanna see the magazine with the airbrushed “sophisticates” or airbrushed skanks. I prefer the former because believe it or not, there are a few good articles in this issue.

“The Last Days of Chris Farley” - When greatness colors a person, it seldom stays in the lines. Great talents, great demons, great addictions–they so often seem to be of a peice. This affecting excerpt from a forthcoming biography of Farley shows a portrait of a man whose troubles withstood the best efforts of his loved ones. Chris Rock, Tim Meadows, Chevy Chase, David Spade and others recall Farley’s last desparate days. BY TOM FARLEY JR. AND TANNER COLBY

“The Best Seat in the House” - Not so long ago in a galaxy not that far away, a VCR and a 20-inch Trinitron were most people’s idea of a high-tech home theater. Ah, progress. STEVE MORGENSTERN highlights the latest components that will bring the multiplex to your living room, including flat-screen TVs, home servers, superspeakers, Blu-ray players and more.
 

“Playboy’s 2008 Baseball Preview” - Forget about steroids and perjury hearings–America’s favorite pastime is slugging back with conviction. Hall of Fame sportswriter TRACY RINGOLSBY runs down the season ahead and spotlights the best young players in each division.
 
 

“Bob Saget” - He kept the banter decidedly PG on Full House and America’s Funniest Home Videos, but fans of his stand-up comedy know his uncensored humor is as disarmingly funny as it is dirty. The same can be said of this hilarious tete-a-tete with ERIC SPITZNAGEL, with whom Saget reveals in his inner filthiness.
 

And of course there’s the PlayMates. If you’re into that sort of thing…

“Strip Poker” - The chips are stacked in all the right places for poker champ Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh.
 
 
 
 
“The Women of Putin’s Russia” - Not since Stolichnaya slipped out from behind the Iron Curtain has a Russian import been as intoxicating as these curvaceous comrades.
 
 

And for all you folks looking for a naked woman on this post…

“Miss May - AJ Alexander” - Indiana’s Miss May is a speed-loving beauty who’s game for some racy adventures.

I hope you get a chance to read the articles. Enjoy…

On Monday, May 19, 2008 at 1:45pm PST, Twitter, the Internet-based Social Networking sensation, went down leaving millions out of touch.

Counseling centers are being opened nationwide to provide comfort for those affected.

No official word on the extent of the damages.

Updates
2:34pm - Site access is back up. Some functionality restored. Third-party Twitter apps still have issues with logins. Brightkite is able to cross-post. 2 hour maintenance scheduled for Midnight, 5/20/2008.

2:50pm - Twinkle is back online. Resume your regularly scheduled programming.

So what is Brightkite? Here’s how they describe it:

Location-based social networking
Discover who visits your favorite places. Join the community in real time.

Track your friends
See where your friends are and what they’re up to, in real time.

Meet people around you
Meet real world friends. Reveal your location, befriend, and chat with people around you.

The Brightkite team seems to be a great crew and they’re working hard at refining the service. They’re also pretty enthusiastic and helpful when listening to suggestions, complaints, and bug reports. I like how they’re using Get Satisfaction, as their customer service portal.

One of the biggest integrations I’d love them to do is more Twitter functionality. Brightkite has the ability to update your Twitter status and location, but I’d love to be able to access my Twitter stream from within the Brightkite application. They currently have no plans for this, but I’m always hopeful.

You don’t need a Jailbroken iPhone to use Brightkite…you don’t even need an iPhone. It also works through SMS and the web. And thanks to the great work by Tony aka complex, there’s now a generic mobile version of the site. You can access that by going to http://m.brightkite.com on your mobile phone.

An iPhone-native app is in the works and I’m looking forward to it.

If you’d like an invitation, click on the link above.

You can find me here: CeeDubb’s Brightkite Stream

ROMANCE MATHEMATICS
Smart Man + Smart Woman = Romance
Smart Man + Dumb Woman = Affair
Dumb Man + Smart Woman = Marriage
Dumb Man + Dumb Woman = Pregnancy

OFFICE ARITHMETIC
Smart Boss + Smart Employee = Profit
Smart Boss + Dumb Employee = Production
Dumb Boss + Smart Employee = Promotion
Dumb Boss + Dumb Employee = Overtime

SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $20 for a $10 item he needs.
A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item that she doesn’t need.

GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won’t change, and she does.

DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

-Image generated at www.hetemeel.com

Stephen Hauser’s article removed at his request.

Check back here for the play-by-play on this saga as it unfolds. I’ll post it as I have time.

In the meantime, click his name above to read his article in its entirety. It’s amusing and not entirely helpful to everyone. That’s the reason I have IBF’s article below.

Cheers.

-from IBF

Teaching a Kid (and Adult) to Ride a Bicycle

The traditional method of teaching a kid to bicycle was to run along side them holding them up-right and pushing them until they final did it under their own power and coordination.

Contemporary specialist advocate an alternative method which separates learning the skills to ride a bike so that the learning doesn’t have to master everything at once. Click here if you would like user feedback and comments from other parents who have tried this approach.

Here is the sequence:

Feeling the balance:

1. Select a bike where the seat can be lowered enough so the child can be seated and have both feet flat on the ground. Lower the seat to the point that the learner can put there feet on the ground. Remove the training wheels. You can also remove the pedals, but most students seem to be able to go through the first exercises without any problems with the pedals attached.
2. Find a grassy field with a gentle downhill of 30 yards or so, that then flattens out or goes uphill slightly. Ideally the grass is short enough that it doesn’t create too much drag on the wheels, but still can provide a soft landing in case of a fall..
3. Strap a helmet on the child’s head. Tuck in shoelaces. Long pants (rubber banded, strapped or tucked into the socks) and gloves can add additional protection if it is warranted.
4. Go about 15 yards up the hill and hold the bike while the child gets on. Have him or her put both feet on the ground, then you should be able to let go of the bike and nothing should happen.
5. Tell your child to lift his or her feet about an inch off the ground and coast down the hill or scoot along. The objective here is to get a feel for balancing on the bike. Try to resist holding the bike to steady the learner. Because the bike will coast slowly, the cyclists can put his or her feet down if they get scared. He or she might want you to run beside the bike the first few times; do so, but don’t hold the bike. Let the child feel the balance. Give a lot of praise for every improvement. Help count the seconds that they balance and make a game of it. Hopefully, they improve on almost every pass.
6. Repeat until your child feels comfortable coasting and doesn’t put his or her feet down to stop. Throughout the progression there is no need to rush moving on to the next step.

Add pedaling:

1. Re-attach the pedals, if they were removed. Now have your child put his or her feet on the pedals and coast down. After several runs, have him or her begin pedaling as he or she is rolling.
2. Repeat coasting/pedaling until your child feels comfortable, then move up the hill. When the child is comfortable coasting/pedaling at this level, raise the saddle in small increments and do a few more coast/pedaling runs. You can add some exercises where they stop by braking sooner than they would just from friction with the ground.

Riding in a straight line:

1. Go to a flat part of the field, cul-de-sac, empty unused parking lot, etc., and practice starting from a standstill, riding in a straight line, stopping, and turning.
2. Starting from a standstill - Start with one pedal pointed at the handlebars (2 o’clock). This gives the rider a solid pedal stroke to power the bike and keep it steady until the other foot finds the pedal. Kids tend to want to rush and take short cuts on this and get off to very wobbly starts. Work to have them develop habits so that they consistently get smooth steady starts.
3. Riding straight - Look straight ahead. Keep the elbows and knees loose and pedal smooth circles. When a novice rider turns his or her head, their arms and shoulders follow, causing the bike to swerve.
4. Stopping - Apply both brakes at the same time (if the bike has both front and rear brakes). Using just the front brake can launch the rider over the handlebars. Using just the rear brake limits the rider to just 20 or 30 percent of braking power and the bike is more likely skid.

Add turning:

1. Turning - Initially, slow down before entering a corner. Turning is a combination of a little leaning and a very little steering. Keep the inside pedal up and look through the turn. As confidence grows let the speed gradually increase.
2. When the cyclist is ready to get into any environment that includes cars they should ride like a car. (This may be a couple years later.) This keeps the kid from swooping and swerving on roads, running stop signs and riding on the wrong side of the road. See Teach Your Child Well: Bicycle Safety Issues.

Going for a bike ride

1. As kids master the skills of bicycling and want to go on longer rides, keep it interesting at their level: bring snacks, plan appropriate rest breaks (initially, these may be a mile apart), stop for fun activities (i.e. play ground, beach, chase butterflies, ice cream shop, etc.) and invite your kid’s friend along.

Note: the highest rate of bike-related head injuries is among boys 10-14 years old. For more information on helmets go to http://www.ibike.org/education/helmet.htm

We expect to be back at the shop anywhere between 8:45-9:00am. Hope to see you there.

A 27-year-old has been charged with assaulting a teenage boy - with a hedgehog.

Police allege that Whakatane resident William Singalargh picked up the creature and threw it about 5m at a 15-year-old.

“It hit the victim in the leg, causing a large, red welt and several puncture marks,” said Senior Sergeant Bruce Jenkins, of Whakatane police. “He was arrested shortly afterwards for assault with a weapon, namely the hedgehog.”

The incident is alleged to have occurred around 8pm on Saturday, February 9. Police would not confirm if the pair knew each other, or if alcohol was a contributing factor in the incident.

It is also unknown whether the hedgehog was dead or alive at the time but it was dead when it was collected as evidence.

Singalargh’s lawyer Rebecca Plunket would not comment on the case. Her client will appear in Whakatane District Court on April 17 for a defended hearing on a charge of assault with a weapon. The maximum penalty is five years’ imprisonment.

When I first heard that Bank of America had proposed that Congress supply $739 billion to bail out the banking industry, I was indignant.

The banks had created the mess — why shouldn’t they fix it? Why would megabanks like Citibank and Merrill Lynch need corporate welfare? After all, if I run up my credit card bill, the government’s not about to bail me out.

I’m guessing that many of you reacted the same way. But after my initial ire, I started thinking about what a bailout would cost taxpayers — and whether it would be worthwhile.

The true cost to taxpayers
By Merrill Lynch’s estimates, the amount of outstanding loans on real estate nationwide exceeds the actual equity in those properties by about $800 billion. On that basis, what would it cost each average taxpayer to cover that gap? Dividing that total debt by the IRS’s estimate of 135 million U.S. taxpayers, we get an average cost of $6,000 per person — roughly 13% of the average citizen’s annual income. I know I’d hesitate to part with that big a chunk of my money.

Most likely, the bailout will have to come from debt. We’re already running a mammoth national debt, representing 65% of our GDP. Adding another $800 billion would increase that percentage to 71%. Still, when compared to the European Union’s ratio of 69%, Italy’s 105%, or Japan’s 170%, that higher number sounds less dire.

Admittedly, $800 billion is a daunting sum — but its bark is worse than its bite. I believe that the damage we’d do to the economy by not paying it exceeds any harm done by footing that bill. Do we want $800 billion to hold hostage a $14 trillion economy?

Why do we need a bailout?
I bet you’re thinking, “Don’t we live in a capitalist environment? The markets will correct themselves.” After all, when tech stocks like Yahoo! and Oracle took a drastic drops in 2000-2001, the government offered no assistance.

Unfortunately, the banking sector is different. Bank failures reverberate through all sectors of an economy. For instance, we would need some institution to provide capital to effect a transition from economic recession to expansion. Without funding from banks, the cycle might last longer than it otherwise would.

Bank failures would affect you personally, too. Without a healthy, liquid banking system, who’d finance your next car loan, or help you line up a mortgage on a newly inexpensive home? And as the capital crunch makes its way to the overall economy, it could threaten your job security.

The ugly truth
A government bank bailout isn’t a pleasant thought. I’m sure that such an action would need regulations, and among them, I’d include one that stipulates that loan originators be required to hold a significant percentage of those loans on their balance sheets. If banks and other financing entities retain a significant portion of the liability for real estate losses, they’re more likely to do better at underwriting the properties at stake.

Banks need stringent, long-term regulations because bank failures inflict greater harm on the overall economy than do collapses in almost any other business sector. However, there’s no failsafe way to prevent blunders such as the current credit crunch from happening again.

In the short term, a bailout is one of a few good options for solving this crisis. I’m willing to trade my tax money to stave off a potentially brutal recession.

I don’t remember where I originally got this, but it was printed and was done with stick figures. I was playing around with Comic Life and thought this would be a fun little project.

Enjoy.

Click above

I love words.
I thank you for hearing my words.
I want to tell you something about words that I think is important.
They’re my work, they’re my play, they’re my passion.
Words are all we have, really.
We have thoughts but thoughts are fluid.
Then we assign a word to a thought and we’re stuck with that word for that thought, so be careful with words.
I like to think that the same words that hurt can heal, it is a matter of how you pick them.
There are some people that are not into all the words.
There are some that would have you not use certain words.
There are 400,000 words in the English language and there are seven of them you can’t say on television.
What a ratio that is.
399,993 to 7.
They must really be bad.
They’d have to be outrageous to be seperated from a group that large.
All of you over here, you 7, Bad Words.
That’s what they told us they were, remember?
“That’s a bad word!”
No bad words, bad thoughts, bad intentions, and words.
You know the 7, don’t you, that you can’t say on television?
“Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits.”
Those are the heavy seven.
Those are the ones that’ll infect your soul, curve your spine, and keep the country from winning the war.
“Shit, Piss, Fuck, Cunt, CockSucker, MotherFucker, and Tits.”
Wow!
…and Tits doesn’t even belong on the list.
That is such a friendly sounding word.
It sounds like a nickname, right?
“Hey, Tits, come here, man. Hey Tits, meet Toots. Toots, Tits. Tits, Toots.”
It sounds like a snack, doesn’t it?
Yes, I know, it is a snack.
I don’t mean your sexist snack.
I mean New Nabisco Tits! …and new Cheese Tits, Corn Tits, Pizza Tits, Sesame Tits, Onion Tits, Tater Tits. “Betcha Can’t Eat Just One.”
That’s true.
I usually switch off.
But I mean, that word does not belong on the list.
Actually none of the words belong on the list, but you can understand why some of them are there. I’m not completely insensitive to people’s feelings.
I can understand why some of those words got on the list, like CockSucker and
MotherFucker.
Those are heavyweight words.
There is a lot going on there.
Besides the literal translation and the emotional feeling.
I mean, they’re just busy words. There’s a lot of syllables to contend with.
And those Ks, those are agressive sounds.
They just jump out at you like “coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer. coCKsuCKer, motherfuCKer.”
It’s like an assualt on you.
We mentioned Shit earlier, and 2 of the other 4-letter Anglo-Saxon words are Piss and Cunt, which go
together of course.
A little accidental humor there.
The reason that Piss and Cunt are on the list is because a long time ago, there were certain ladies that said “Those are the two I am not going to say. I don’t mind Fuck and Shit but ‘P’ and ‘C’ are out,” which led to such stupid sentences as “Okay you fuckers, I’m going to tinkle now.”
And, of course, the word Fuck.
I don’t really, well that’s more accidental humor, I don’t wanna get into that now because I think
it takes to long.
But I do mean that.
I think the word Fuck is a very important word.
It is the beginning of life, yet it is a word we use to hurt one another quite often.
People much wiser than I am said, “I’d rather have my son watch a film with two people making love
than two people trying to kill one another.
I, of course, can agree.
It is a great sentence.
I wish I knew who said it first.
I agree with that but I like to take it a step further.
I’d like to substitute the word Fuck for the word Kill in all of those movie cliches we grew up with. “Okay, Sheriff, we’re gonna Fuck you now, but we’re gonna Fuck you slow.”
So maybe next year I’ll have a whole fuckin’ rant on the N word.
I hope so.
Those are the seven you can never say on television, under any circumstances.
You just cannot say them ever ever ever.
Not even clinically.
You cannot weave them in on the panel with Doc, and Ed, and Johnny.
I mean, it is just impossible.
Forget those seven.
They’re out.
But there are some two-way words, those double-meaning words.
Remember the ones you giggled at in sixth grade?
“…And the cock CROWED three times.”
“Hey, tha cock CROWED three times.
Ha ha ha ha.
Hey, it’s in the Bible.
Ha ha ha ha.
There are some two-way words, like it is okay for Kirk Youdi to say “Roberto Clametti has two balls on him,” but he can’t say “I think he hurt his balls on that play, Tony. Don’t you? He’s holding
them. He must’ve hurt them, by God.”
And the other 2-way word that goes with that one is Prick.
It’s okay if it happens to your finger.
You can prick your finger but don’t finger your prick.
No,no.