Is it just me or has it been forever since I've posted anything? It's not that I haven't had content, it's just that I haven't had the time. Lots of stuff has happened since my last post though, but too much time since the events make them completely irrelevant to blog about.
But it's Friday which means that something good should come out of this weekend if all goes right. Nate asked me about a 5K & 10K going on tomorrow morning at the Creeper Trail. I may be down for the 5K. Work has been stupid stressful so I think a good run, possibly in the rain, will be quite refreshing. The only problem is that it starts at 8 a.m., but I think I can swing it.
One complaint today, and actually probably the first complaint I've ever posted here, about Facebook. I dig FB, it's way better than MySpace. MS just seems cluttered and I rarely ever see my public profile, so it never gets updated, and rarely do I go to other peoples' profiles and just browse while muting the seven videos and 12 songs they have playing all at once. Anyway, I digress, FB has these apps, you can grow a virtual garden, pick your favorite rock band, find out your punk rock star equivalent, slice onions and advocate world peace. So daily in my "Notifications" tab, I get requests to join these apps and games of which one of my FB friends invites me to be a part of, but lately it seems like I get a lot of them that mislead me and I'm fairly certain FB adds them to my page and says "*insert friend's name here* has *insert verb here* see what you *insert call to action here*". It is very rare that I click on any of these, but sometimes they trick me. So no more... I will no longer accept any invitations or what look to be invitations, to any app on FB, hell, I may give up FB all together and start devoting more time to my newly created Twitter account. You will be able to get all you Anthony Duncan updates from there. I'll post more about it later, gotta save something for another blog, geez!
Friday, May 1, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Been a long couple of weeks lately. I went over to Knoxville to catch a ride of some sort with my brother last weekend. He had to work on Saturday, but I met up with Dave Lane and Doug and we got in a nice 35 miles on the road bikes. It rained on me all the way over on Saturday, but it turned out to be a sunny 70 degrees that afternoon and I was waaaay overdressed on the ride. I sweat enough to fill a couple of buckets I'm sure.
On Sunday, Keith, Dave and I went to Norris to ride. We had planned on a Big South Fork trip, but with the weather and all, we decided to ride trails that would probably hold up to the abuse of a few rainy days and then riding. We had a good ride and I think I've finally started to catch on to this whole gears thing. Since switching over from the singlespeed, I've been having trouble climbing and doing anything uphill for that matter, but I think I finally caught on Sunday. We rode around 15 miles...it was nice. We almost didn't ride because it was so cold when we started, but it turned out to be just the right temperature.
Got the 6 Hours of Warriors Creek this weekend in Wilkesboro, NC. This is my first race of the year and I'm not too concerned about my placement, I just really want to ride for six hours then go get my free roast pig and brews. Should be a fun event and I'm looking forward to camping with my friends and riding...a lot.
Last week I ordered a signed copy of Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse from IDW. It was signed by Ben Templesmith, the artist that drew the comic series. He was also the guy that illustrated the 30 Days of Night graphic novel, for reference, that they made a movie out of. Well, when I got home last night, laying on the coffee table was a package that I just knew had my new piece of Templesmith swag in it.
More next time on my attempt to raise enough money to buy a MacBook. Should be fun!
Monday, March 23, 2009
Seriously, that's what the almost-toothless guy next to me said right after Frank Beamer said "Gentlemen, start your engines" on Sunday at the Food City 500 in Bristol. I was fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on your perception of Nascar racing) enough to get tickets to not only Sunday's Food City 500, but also Saturday's Scott's 300.
Friday evening, my twin brother showed up around 8 to stay the night so we could be up early to get to Bristol Motor Speedway for the day's events. I went for a much needed bike ride on Friday after work, so when Aaron arrived, it was time to visit Bella's for some pizza and brews. It was pretty crowded and since there were no places to sit, we opted for a pie to go and a growler of Bourbon Barrel Stout. Tasty stuff.
Saturday morning, it was waffles, shower and off to the track. We navigated traffic all the way to the track where we parked and met up with some of Aaron's buddies who had been camping since Thursday. We actually didn't sit in our assigned seats for the Saturday race since there weren't that many people there. We actually opted to sit with Aaron's buddies at the start/finish line, apparently named the Allison section. The race was pretty good even though I didn't know who all of the drivers were. I know some names, but that's about it.
The next day was another story. My dad pulled up about 10:30 for our trip to the big daddy race, the Food City 500. We got there a bit early, walked about a mile to the track, did some people watching then made our way to our seats. This time, our assigned seats cuz the place was PACKED!
We sat around the usual folks you would find at a Nascar event. Some hardcore, drunk and disorderly. Others not so hardcore, but just as drunk and there were folks like my dad and myself, stone-cold sober. My dad is a preacher, so a lot of the stuff that goes on at events like this, he doesn't agree with and gets aggravated. I laughed mostly at the hardcore drunk folks. Something about those, mainly guys, that just crack me up. They get so fired up and yell and cuss.
A fellow by the name of Kyle Busch won the race, which apparently is NOT a good thing in Bristol. EVERYBODY booed this guy. They HATED him. But, this dude dominated. He lead the majority of the race and took home the win. The best part was at the end when this dominating left-turner made his victory lap around the track. As he pulled out some dude behind us yelled, "F*&^K YOU KYLE BUSCH!!", over and over and over and over....and over again. I knew that it was only a matter of time before my dad would have something to say to this guy. However, instead of saying anything to Mr. Education behind us, he decided to show his disgust to those people around us smoking cigarettes. I'm telling you, it was tough.
Monday, March 16, 2009
This past weekend was unproductive, but productive. No rides at all, mainly because of the weather...it sucked. But, Amanda and I came one step closer to being hitched. We both now have wedding bands that we plan to slide onto our fingers at some point in the near future. And since I don't have a fancy titanium bike, I instead now have a fancy titanium ring that I'm not wearing at the moment. We're scheduled for an ocean-front wedding sometime in early to mid-September, nothing big, just the two of us, a preist/justice of the peace, or whatever and some hermit crabs. Should be nice.
We also saw the Watchmen yesterday. I've read lots of bad reviews about the movie, none of which had any relevant points, but they were bad nonetheless. So Amanda and I decided to catch the matinee on Sunday. I'll warn you, a comic movie it may be, but when they say "graphic" novel, that also makes for some "graphic" images. Not for the kiddies, but I thought it was awesome. Good story, although it doesn't completely follow the novel, just a few details at the end, awesome CGI effects, gore, you name it, but the storyline remained the same. I give it two thumbs up!
I have plans to ride the bike into work a few days this week since it's supposed to be nice. I've been looking forward to riding to work again. I could ride all winter, but the lack of a proper commuter bike keeps me from doing that. I don't really want to take a race-oriented road bike out on days that are too bad, it just wasn't meant for that kind of stuff. This week will be different though and I look forward to it.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
So the Salsa project is somewhat complete, so I decided to take her out to ride last weekend. Saturday I pulled up to the trailhead at Warrior's Path ready to ride. I'm always a little nervous about the first ride on a bike that I've put together and Saturday was no different. With my dog in tow, I took off on Darwin's Revenge and 100 yards into the trail my chain breaks. What a way to start a first ride! I pick up my chain and head back to the parking lot to fix it. I get to the car and realize that I don't have my chain tool. Luckily for me, there was a guy parked next to me who just happened to have one along with a quick-link for me to use. I didn't get his name, but I thanked him profusely for his help and headed back into the woods.
I rode the rest of the trails will little incident. I did drop the chain a few times which turned out to be the ONLY problem I had with it on Sunday when I rode with Bob, Rick and Sean after the workday at Bays. It was the first time I had ridden the new trail out there, and I have to admit, it's a good trail. My chain came off about four times during our nine mile ride, so I'll need to do some adjusting soon. I think I just need to space the front ring to be more inline with the smaller gears since that is where I had the most trouble.
One thing is for sure though, riding a bike with gears is waaaaaay tougher than I remember. When I built this bike up, I thought it would be nice to have a bailout gear for those climbs. Instead I found myself being a little lazy, not preparing and maintaining momentum on the short steep stuff and I found it incredibly difficult to keep the front end down on uphill switchbacks. Early on I found myself shifting far too often and getting tired much faster. I hope I get the hang of this soon, it's a little discouraging.
I finally ordered another charger for my camera battery, I think I lost the last one on the beer trip, not quite sure though. Nonetheless, I can now snap a picture of said Salsa Project and post it here.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Today's blog isn't mine, but I think you may find it somewhat inspirational. For several months now, I have been signed up to receive emails from Tools to Life. I first heard about this on the Jason Ellis Show on Sirius Radio while he was interviewing the founder of Tools, Devlyn Steele. The guy really made a lot of sense about a lot of things, so I checked out his site. So now I get these "Daily Inspiration" emails with some pretty good advice and a little inspiration. This is the one I got today, it was pretty cool.
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Curiosity is how we grew. We enter the world knowing hardly a thing, yet wanting to know everything. As we grow older we become trapped in what we know and often stop being curious. The book and cartoon series Curious George encouraged curiosity in a focused direction. Curious George helped us to be curious about counting, curious about reading, and told children that curiosity was good. It encouraged exploring and learning.
When did we stop being curious? Why did we choose to stop looking around the corner to see what might be there? What would it be like to learn a new language, travel to a new place, or eat a different type of food? What can we learn about ourselves and the world around us if we open ourselves up to exploring? What might we discover that could lead to a new career, a new lifestyle, or a new way of thinking?
Get out of your routine, out of your comfort zone, and reawaken that childlike curiosity inside you by exploring life this week. Talk to new people, go a different way to work, pick up a book you never thought you would read, or change the radio station. Become curious and become curious about change. There is so much to discover and so much to experience. You can find a new way to enjoy your life even in economic hard times by being curious about what new things life can offer you.
Becoming curious will open your life up to new experiences and leave you with a new smile on your face . It will actually not be a new smile, but will be that same baby like smile you had when you naturally sparkled from exploring your curiosity. Your life is limited only by you, and you can change it by exploring your options, not by remaining stuck in your behavior. Become curious and discover new ways to maximize your life.
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Edit: I will have an update tomorrow on the inaugural ride on the Salsa Project this past weekend.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
It has been a while since my last post I know. However, I try to deliver quality and not quantity, depending on your definition of quality I guess. I've been pretty busy lately at work, with being the head muckity muck of the NTMBA, completing the Salsa project and just plain relaxin'.
For a few years now, Amanda and I have had Sirius radios so we don't normally listen to what's called "terrestrial radio" anymore. We have our favorite stations and about .5% of them play whatever is on the "terrestrial radio", so we don't get to keep up with what's going on in the music world. On Monday I rode with Greg and Melinda to the NTMBA meeting and Greg was telling me about this new cover of Careless Whisper by Wham. He said it was by some rock band and it sounded heavy. I didn't exactly know what song that was right off hand, so Greg proceeded to sing the chorus and once I realized what song it was, I just had to sing along. Kinda gay I guess, but made for a funny moment. So curiosity got the best of me the next morning at work and I searched iTunes for this mystery band covering a totally uncool song. Turns out it was Seether. Never really cared for this band and probably never will and now I have good reason to. I would post a link so you can listen to it, but I don't want to spend any more time on that abomination than I already have, so you'll have to do it on your own time.
In the meantime, you can listen to an ACTUAL metal band, one of my faves, Unearth and one of my fave songs by them called "The Great Dividers". You don't have to listen to them, but it sure does a good job of getting Wham out of your head.
The Salsa project is tentatively complete. It has functional gearing and works, but I'll be needing a bashguard and some trails to ride it on. Hopefully I'll be able to get out on it and try it out soon. This weekend is supposed to be stupid nice so I think I'm going to do a nice long road ride.
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at 6:08 AM Posted by Anthony Duncan
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