Speaking of gyms

This looks like my kind of place. Language definitely NSFW.



Weak Men Pay This Boxing Coach To Tell Them They Are Terrible from ANIMALNewYork.com on Vimeo.

You're doing it wrong

Equinox is running a promotion where you get a 'badge' if you go to the gym a certain number of times during the summer. You 'activate' the badge thing and then you can display it on twitter and lamebook. OMG I know! So awesome!

In other words, you get to show off how many times you went to the gym and also promote the gym at the same time. Which is cool if you're a titanic douchebag. To reinforce the d-baggery, the badges have tags. Level 1 is 'Baller'. Then you get upgraded to "Player". I don't know what the next one is but I promise to post it as soon as I reach that lofty goal.

Anyway, I went to the gym 10 times and got a badge. I hope you're as impressed with me as I am. 

Not much

Not much to report lately. Doing another track day this Friday. So that's fun.

I did have this hippo picture that I think I cribbed from Alligator Sunglasses. No idea where they got it from. The internet is a mysterious place.

I would post a bit more frequently but I've been busy and also I haven't had anything to share. You know how it is.

Of course he took the drugs

Cheaters never prosper (except when they do)

Lance Armstrong is back in the news again. The USADA is on a crusade to catch him in his lies. I don't think they will change anyone's mind but if you know anything about anything in cycling then you already know he cheated. Of course he says he didn't but consider the attached graphic, which is extracted from Bicycling magazine in May of 2011. I linked to it before but the link is down now so here's the text and the graphic again:

Here’s how the Tour de France would look during every year Armstrong podiumed if the top 10 were scrubbed of any finisher who at the time of his career [Not necessarily at the time of that Tour, since his career would span multiple tours - Ed.] was formally connected to performance enhancing drugs or blood doping (those riders appear in the shaded boxes). Because we had to draw a line somewhere to prevent unsubstantiated accusations from eliminating a rider, we defined “formally connected” as riders who:

- Admitted to doping or were banned or fully (not provisionally) suspended by a sanctioning group for doping in relation to it.

- Were fully (not provisionally ) suspended or fired by their teams or individually withdrawn from races by their teams for some connection to doping

- Were convicted of doping in a sporting, criminal, or civil hearing or trial, or paid a fine to settle charges related to it.

 Our criteria leaves lots of room for argument, and frankly, allows some riders who inspire widespread public doubt to remain categorized as clean. But even through this somewhat constrained lens, the decimation of the general classification of the sport’s crown jewel is shocking. -Christie Aschwanden

---
The new allegations are particularly lame because they are anonymous. It's more witch hunt than anything else by now, but Armstrong's decision to pursue a career in triathlons is probably getting up the USADA's nose. If he just faded away they would likely leave it alone. 

Had it all the way

We don't feature much baseball in this space. Mostly because I think it's boring. However: big props to Matt Cain for pitching a perfecto last night. In order to pitch a perfect game you have to be some combination of good and lucky. Some pitchers are a bit more lucky than good, some are both good and lucky* (Dennis Martinez, for example), but others are more good than lucky. Cain is the latter. He did get some strong defense in the seventh. My favorite part about the video is the small fist-pump that Blanco allows himself after the catch. He did his part to keep the perfecto alive and the crowd is going bananas so he was feeling good in the moment. Then he remembers that he's not supposed to celebrate during the pursuit of perfection so he immediately studies the ball in the hope that no one noticed.

*Should point out that Martinez was a groundball pitcher, and as such less likely to pitch a  perfect game than a power pitcher like Cain because he has less control over what happens after the ball makes contact with the bat.

If the video doesn't embed you can watch it here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=22275319&topic_id=11493214&c_id=mlb&tcid=vpp_copy_22275319&v=3

Moar motorcycles

I can't write about income inequality and social policy all the time. Well, I could, but it's a lot of work and I don't get paid for it.

Best part about this image is my throttle hand.

Here's another look at it from a split second later. On the street that's a felony or a death wish or both. On the track I'm just slow.

Let's do this

GO FASTER

In my free time I like to practice yoga, read books, and ride motorcycles (pictured).

I don't have any pictures of me practicing yoga or reading books and I wouldn't post them if I did.

You have the right to remain stupid

Courtesy Mother Jones, see link below for more

Lots of hot air being kicked around by the Republican(t) party, as per usual. Your freedoms are at stake, American freedom, land of the free, blah blah blah. This has been going on since Obama was elected and I think it's partly racially motivated. Republicans are doing everything they can to make Obama seem foreign and 'other', because the 'other' is unknown and scary. But I digress...

It's impressive that passing a law that requires everyone to get health insurance is an impact on your 'freedoms'. I guess in some small ways it is but I don't see why people get so worked up about it.* G.W. Bush cut taxes for the rich, invaded a sovereign nation under false pretenses and simultaneously curtailed the rights of the Amurrican people (typing the words 'Patriot Act' makes me physically sick) and where was the freedom-loving public then? Too busy exercising their freedoms, no doubt. Obama wants to give the poor access to decent medical care and they're all aflutter. It's UNAMERICAN! We need to go back to the original constitution and respect what the founders intended! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

What's wrong with wanting to help poor people? Most would agree that it is a good idea if poor people can get a decent education and health care but no one wants to actually pay. Especially the people that can afford it.

As for relying on the constitution, when it was drafted the framers made slaves 3/5ths of a person and slavery legal. And women couldn't vote. And there was no income tax. And no cellphones. Or internet. Or videogames (FML, right????!!!). So let's be clear about this right now: anyone who starts a conversation about 'what the founders intended' is either an idiot or an asshole or both. No exceptions. If they make some kind of qualifying statement about how the framers were 'men of their time' and they would make different decisions now then I say, you fucking idiot,  great, we are 'people of our time' and we're making better decisions now. That's called progress.

* That the health care system is completely broken in this country is well known. It gets another post.

Mother Jones charts of income inequality:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-in-america-chart-graph

What a lovely portrait

I call this 'Fig Surprise'*

The Girl's place has a fig tree in the backyard. Since other stuff about the place is sucky it's nice that there are some good things to balance it out. I've been waiting for the figs to ripen since about 20 minutes after she moved in and they have begun to turn the corner only recently. This is one of the first figs so far this year. I was so excited to pick it that I had to send her a picture.

Reese the Dog was also very excited and celebrated the event in her own inimitable way. Synergy. If Youtube exists for cat videos then there's no doubt that cellphone cameras were invented so you could take a crappy picture (see what I did there?) of a dog dropping a steamer. And also so you could snap pics of drunk people being stupid. So glad they didn't have those things when I was in college. So glad.

True story: When the girl is on one of her trips to foreign lands I watch the dog. She calls and wants to know how the dog is doing. Since the dogs steamers are a reliable way to judge her day to day health I would report on them, as is my duty and obligation. As it turns out she was more interested in the dogs everyday activities, not her bowel movements. Who knew? So now when she goes out of town I give her the information she prefers. And also I follow up with a steamer report, because it kind of annoys her a little bit when I do that. (Annoys The Girl, not the dog). I'm like that.


*Careful observers will also notice some tomatoes growing in a raised bed. We planted those but no fruit yet. Can't imagine what Reese will do to celebrate the first tomato but I'm betting it'll be photo-worthy. So you have that to look forward to.

Probability math is (not) hard; so are(nt) words

Writing headlines and captions for all the content they push to SI.com has got to be challenging. You can't be funny or pithy but you must be interesting and relevant. Bland tends to win out. The problem is that sometimes they say stuff that is plain stupid. Occasionally they use the wrong word, as in this quote from a photo caption about 'potential sponsors being weary [sic] of signing'. That sort of thing really peaks my interest (see what I did there?) because it's the wrong damn word and you'd expect someone that works for a major publication to know the difference.

Just to be clear:

Weary = tired
Wary = cautious
Potential sponsors cannot be tired of sponsoring him, but they may be cautious. Don't you have a copy editor?

That's just words. The editors also fail at basic principles of probability. This is from the front page of si.com a couple days ago. It says:
Charlotte [Bobcats] have a 25% shot of landing the No. 1 pick. 

So far, so good. But the very next sentence says:
The NBA's worst team has won the draft lottery just 3 times in 18 years. That's not great odds for the Bobcats [the NBA's worst team ever]. 

Whoever wrote that is an idiot. Whoever approved it is also an idiot. The odds of the Bobcats winning the lottery are not affected by past years. Whatever happened in previous years has no impact on this year. It's not Judith Miller making stuff up about Iraq but still: don't be stupid. It makes my head hurt. Alot. 

Can't wait

Posted a note about how excited I was for Assassin's Creed III back when the first trailer came out. This latest E3 video expands on that stylish, brutal violence in a way that sets my geek boner to Stun.

I don't even know what that means so just watch the video.

While we're on the subject...

As long as we're here, I highly recommend this jam too. You can download it on beatport and make your own little mix. I have been missing my turntables so much I considered buying some new digital tables so I could mix music again. Then I realized that the only person that would ever hear it is me and I'm already really busy. So I tabled it for now. Not forever. But for now.

Official data: Sander van Doorn feat. Mayaeni, song is called Nothing Inside. This is the original mix.

Anyway, this is the jam. I'm not really into the vocal but the hook and breakdown are hot like fire. SNARE DRUM FTW!!1!1!ONE!!

Turn it up.


Updated: now with more video1!

Anthems are good for you

Yeah it's old but it's sweet. Official info: this is the club mix of Good for Me by Above (ampersand) Beyond, the full 9 minute version. It's got a  nice big room trance feel. One of my favorite pure trance tracks. You care.

Load test those speakers. I dare you.

This is a quick hit because I have important things to do (read: play xbox). But I heard it recently and thought I'd revisit. Took me about 3 seconds to find it on the internet. Thanks, internet!
More later.

Sounds like a deal

This from Super Spencer, my former roommate. You may remember Spencer as the guy that threw up in his koi pond. I think he's getting rid of the pond so the koi will have to find a new home. Anyway, he sent me this today and I thought it was great. I'm late to it, but hey, it's still awesome. I'll be signing up as soon as my current supply of razors runs out.

Go here for more info: http://www.dollarshaveclub.com