Tornadoes28's Blog Too

Lunch Walk & Obon Festival

2009-07-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

I walked at lunch today from my office to Little Tokyo. It was warm but not too warm to walk.

Both the Nishi Hongangi and the Zenshuji temples were setting up for this weekends Obon Festival. These two temples are only two blocks from each other.

Below is Zenshuji.

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Later, I stopped at the Shingon temple to see the Kannon and Jizo statues.

Introducing the Google Chrome OS

2009-07-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

Below is from the Google blog:

It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer.

Posted by Sundar Pichai, VP Product Management and Linus Upson, Engineering Director

Zenshuji Obon Carnival

2009-06-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

July 11 and 12 from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM at the Downtown Zenshuji Soto Zen temple.

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YES!!! - U.S. Stuns Spain in Soccer

2009-06-24T15:23:00.001-07:00

Awesome. In soccer, anything can happen. The U.S. had two crappy games against Italy and Brazil but then they beat the crap out of Egypt and got a lucky break when Brazil crushed Italy allowing the Americans to move to the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup in South America. Then, miraculously they upst the #1 team in the world, Spain, 2 to 0. Anything can happen in soccer.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-us-spain-soccer25-2009jun25,0,1539616.story

From the Los Angeles Times

UNITED STATES 2, SPAIN 0

U.S. stuns Spain in soccer

Americans upend the No. 1 team in the world in the Confederations Cup in South Africa.

Grahame L. Jones

June 25, 2009

The United States scored one of the most memorable victories in the nation's soccer history today, defeating European champion Spain, 2-0, in a semifinal of the Confederations Cup in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Goals by Jozy Altidore in the first half and Clint Dempsey in the second half earned U.S. Coach Bob Bradley's squad a place in Sunday's final, where it will play the winner of Thursday's semifinal between Brazil and South Africa.

It was a watershed moment for the U.S., signaling this team's arrival on the world stage.

The win was every bit as big as those by previous American squads -- the victories over Colombia in the 1994 World Cup, over Brazil in the 1998 Gold Cup and over Portugal in the 2002 World Cup.

It took a team effort for 90 minutes, but the American players who stood out were goalkeeper Tim Howard, central defenders Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit, and midfielder Landon Donovan.

Spain came in is as the top-ranked team in the world. The Spanish had won a world-record 15 games in a row and had tied Brazil's world record by going unbeaten in 35 consecutive games.

All that turned to dust in front of 35,369 at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.

The U.S. players came out flying, still on the high generated by their 3-0 victory Sunday over Egypt which, combined with Brazil's 3-0 victory over Italy, earned Bradley's team an unlikely place in the semifinals after earlier lopsided losses to Italy and Brazil.

The opening goal came in the 27th minute, when Altidore, still only 19, used his physical strength to hold off the challenge of defender Joan Capdevila, turned and fired a shot at the Spanish net.

Spain's goalkeeper, Iker Casillas, who was wrong-footed on the play, managed to get a hand to the ball, but succeeded only in turning it against the left post and it rebounded into the net.

Spain then mounted wave after wave of attacks, but the U.S., packing its defense, held firm. Time and again, shots were either saved by Howard or blocked by defenders and midfielders hustling back to help.

Spain outshot the U.S., 29-9, including 8-2 in shots on target, and also had 17 corner kicks to three for the U.S., but it was thwarted by a resistance seldom seen from an American squad.

The killer blow came in the 74th minute. Benny Feilhaber sent a through ball to Donovan, who cut a pass back across the face of Spain's goal. The ball deflected off the ankle of defender Gerard Pique and fell to teammate Sergio Ramos, but before Ramos could control it, Dempsey came in from his blind side and swept the ball into the net from close range.

Despite intense pressure, the U.S. held on for the final quarter of an hour plus stoppage time to secure a memorable triumph.

The only negative in the performance was the red card issued to Michael Bradley, the coach's son, for a late, two-footed tackle. The ejection will cause him to miss Sunday's final.

The U.S. has twice finished third in the Confederations Cup, but this is the first time it has reached the final.

Jones reported from Los Angeles.

grahame.jones@latimes.com

The Lotus Sutra

2009-06-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Lotus Sutra

Some of my Socal rides

2009-06-10T13:29:00.001-07:00

This is where one of my favorite mountain bike trails begins near the southern end of Reseda Blvd. in the Santa Monica Mountains. There are many miles of fire roads and single track to chose from.

View June 6, 2009 night road ride. in a larger map

This is where the popular Rocky Peak ride starts. It is not a long ride but there are some extremely steep fire road sections and two really good relatively long singletrack trails that head down into Simi Valley. My favorite is the Chumash trail.

View June 6, 2009 night road ride. in a larger map

I have not ridden here in years but this was my first mountain bike ride that I did after moving to Los Angeles from Santa Barbara. I call it the Mount Josephine ride as it climbs up to on of the taller mountains overlooking Los Angeles called Mount Josephine. It is a short 8 mile ride but a solid climb.

View June 6, 2009 night road ride. in a larger map

Favorite Mountain bike ride

2009-06-08T12:35:00.000-07:00

View Sullivan Canyon/Westridge Ride in a larger map

Saturday night road ride

2009-06-08T07:18:00.000-07:00

I've found that the best time for me to get on my bike is in the evening on Saturday night after the kids have gone to bed. Saturday and Sunday during the day is just too busy. But I love riding (both mountain and road), so I figured this was the best way to do it. I purchased a Niterider Sol bike light which is an excellent light for street riding. It is not ideal for mountain biking but I may try it out on some easy trails anyways.

Last Saturday night I did 22 miles on my road bike. The light was great, especially on the really dark areas along Mulholland Highway, although it was a little sketchy along Mulholland because it is in the hills away from the city so it was very dark. Below is a map of Saturday's ride.

View June 6, 2009 night road ride. in a larger map

Santa Barbara Fires

2009-05-26T09:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the aftermath of the 2008 Santa Barbara Tea Fire which burned to within about 30 or 40 meters of my parents home.

Below are some more pictures from the Tea Fire. My parents house is located just to the left of the fire line on the left side.

Here are some more Flickr photos of the fire. And some more here also.

California on Brink of Economic Collapse

2009-05-21T07:59:00.000-07:00

California is completely dysfunctional. The State government is in serious trouble of becoming insolvent. Vicious cuts in programs are pending in order to close a massive $22 billion deficit. And here is the reason why Cali is so screwed up according to Bill Maher:

You see, our state is designed to be ungovernable because we govern by ballot initiative, and we only write two kinds of them: "Spend money on things I like" and "Don't raise my taxes." More money for teachers and firefighters? Check "yes"! High-speed rail? "Cooool!" Drug treatment for former child actors? "Sure, why not?" But don't even think of taxing me for any of it.

This is why our founders wanted a representative democracy, because they knew that if you give the average guy the chance, he'll vote for a fantasy world with no taxes and free beer.

California used to be like the rest of the country, following the instructions in the Constitution and everything. But then we chucked that, and now our state is governed not by elected representatives but by special-interest people standing in front of the supermarket with clipboards asking, "Would you like to sign a petition to cut your taxes?" And then that becomes law. Proposition 14C: Two weeks paid leave for hangovers and universal teeth whitening, paid for by Central Valley cow gas. "Vote 'yes' on gain, 'no' on pain."

So the state will probably go bankrupt. It's sad that we'll be closing the schools, but you'll want to keep the kids at home anyway, because we're closing all the prisons and letting all the rapists out.

Excerpts from Bill Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" via Los Angeles Times.

Glacier National Park

2009-03-27T00:22:00.000-07:00

This will be a brief post. I want to post this so I can put up a few pictures I took when I was younger. These ones are from when I passed through Glacier National Park which is in Montana on the Canadian border. They are nothing too special except I got really lucky and a mountain goat did a perfect pose for me above a beautiful lake. The picture quality is not great because they are scans of photos but they're not bad. Here they are.

This first picture is of Bird Women Falls.

Below is my favorite picture of the goat posing for me. I think this picture would have been perfect for a postcard. I was originally supposed to hike to the lake down in the valley there but the trail to the lake was closed from this point forward because of bear activity in the area.

Another good setting.

Below is a picture of Lake McDonald which is in the park near the East entrance.

I believe this is McDonald Falls.

I camped at a campsite on the Western side of the park during this trip. That night I bought a short book about some true stories of some bear attacks on people in Glacier National Park. I don't know what I was thinking reading a book like that especially after finding some trails closed due to bear activity. It really freaked me out sleeping in the tent that night and even today I get too freaked out to go backpacking by myself. I always think a bear is going to rip through my tent.

Music from back in the day

2009-01-27T14:25:00.000-08:00

My first ever concert was Meat Beat Manifesto in Los Angeles around 1991. I guess they would be considered Industrial Techno type music. The show was somewhere in Hollywood.

Around 1992, I saw Nine Inch Nails (NIN) at a really small club in Hollywood. My friend who owned the club was an acquaitence of Trent Reznor, the lead singer. NIN was about to start their national tour and they wanted to do a warm-up show so they chose my friends club.

I saw Filter around 1996 also in Hollywood. That show was crazy and it was the first time I got fully involved in The Pit. It was fun. Also around the same time and at the same venue I saw T he Reverend Horton Heat, a rockabily/punk type group. That was also a great show with a pretty cool pit.

I saw Johnny Rotten's group, Public Image Limited (PIL), at the Palladium in Hollywood sometine in 1997. This was one of Rotten's groups after the Sex Pistols.

Also in 1997 I want on a short road trip to San Diego with some friends to see some punk bands at a small club somewhere. I don't remember who they were. I was going to see the Vandals at a club in Hollywood but they never showed. I was bummed.

Below are other groups and music that I used to listen to back in the day.

I was big into Industrial Music from about 1990 to 1997, especially between 1991 and 1994. My three top favorites from that time were Ministry, KMFDM, and Nitzer Ebb. Some of my favorite Industrial bands are below.

Einstürzende Neubauten

Front 242

I was also into Alternative music and some punk rock, New Wave and a little bit of Gothic Rock. Here are some of the alternative, punk, and Gothic I listened to.

Siouxsie & the Banshees

Old School Snowboarding

2009-01-23T03:49:00.000-08:00

Below are scans of two photos from snowboarding at Mammoth Mountain California. They were from some winter between 1997 and 1999. I'm really tearin' it up (yeah right).

I couldn't do big tricks or anything but I was good enough to be able to go pretty fast and hold my own on the expert runs and grab my board off some jumps. Prior to staring snowboarding in 1997, I was an expert skier.

I haven't gone boarding or skiing since about 2000 due to various reasons (money, time, etc.).

Old School Cannondale Mountain Bikes

2009-01-18T13:10:00.000-08:00

Below are scans of photos of two of my early racing mountain bikes. Sorry for my poor photo skills.

The purple bike was my second racing bike after my old Raleigh M400(?). This is a Cannondale hardtail with a Rock Shox Judy suspension fork which at the time was one of the top forks.

The blue Cannondale below was my next ride and was the best racing bike I ever rode. It had a mix of Shimano XT and XTR components with custom built super light racing wheels. It is leaning against my beautiful pile of crap 1989(?) GMC pickup truck.

More Old School Mountain Bike Racing

2009-01-17T13:34:00.000-08:00

Below are scans of five photos taken of me racing at a Big Bear Amateur Cup race in either 1995 or 1996. They were taken by a friend named Garryck who I worked with at REI at that time.

I had a good race and probably finished in the top five, maybe in the top three that day. I am in the white jersey with the red stripes on the shoulders and Decente arrow logo on the sleeve and I am wearing a white Specialized helmet.

The first three photos are right at the start of the race in the first few seconds. In the last photo, I am right behind the guy in the green jersey near the end of the race.

Not this race but another one, right here at the start one time, a rider in front of me put some power on his pedals just as the gun sounded and his pedal snapped right off. Bad luck.

Old School Mountain Bike Racing

2009-01-15T13:04:00.000-08:00

The above photos are scans of sample photos from two mountain bike race I did in 1996. I did not purchase the photos but I now wish I had. The race was called the Big Bear Amateur Cup and were held at the Snow Summit ski resort in Big Bear, California. There were four races in the series and these are from two different races.

This is me kickin butt down the race course. I was an extremely strong rider back then and was routinely finishing in the top five of my races. The races were typically about 20 to 25 miles with fields of 25 to 50 riders.

The bike I was riding was a super light Cannondale hardtail with a mix of Shimano XT and XTR components. It was a fast bike.

This photo below is also from 1996 but was from a national race called the NORBA National. NORBA was the official United States off road bike racing organization. They put on the professional races, which this was one of them. They also allowed the amateur like me to race but on the day before the pros.

The two photos below are from two Amateur Cup races I did in 1995. Wow, that is really Old School.

Holy crap! Even more old school. The two photos below are from races I did in 1994. Damn. Look at that helmet and those sunglasses. I borrowed those sunglasses from my friend Erik who also raced with me.

The second photo where I am wearing all black was the downhill race I did on Saturday. The one and only downhill race I ever did. After that, all my races were cross country endurance races which were my speciality.

Riding the Backbone

2009-01-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

This is a scan of a photo of me from probably around 1999. I am on my old Cannondale Super V full suspension bike. I had this bad boy set up pretty good with full XTR components, custom built wheels with Mavic rims and Hugli hubs, Easton carbon riser bars, and Shimano 747 clipless pedals.

It was a sweet ride. Especially after I learned how to correctly ride a full suspension bike versus and hardtail. It is completely different requires a new riding style. This picture is from the Backbone trail in the Santa Monica Mountains. A long, kick ass singletrack that takes you all the way down to Sunset Blvd. It is best to ride it during a weekday as the trail gets very crowded with hikers and bikers on the weekends.

I stupidly sold this bike in 2000 thinking I would replace it with something better. But life circumstances prevented getting something else so I was without a mountain bike for a few years.

50 Mile Fun Ride in Mexico

2009-01-09T14:47:00.000-08:00

This is a scan of a small photograph of me at the 1996 Rosarito to Ensenada 50 Mile Fun ride. This was back when I was still racing so I was really strong. The race had probably over 10,000 riders, I don't remember, it was a lot.

My friends and I got to the start late so we were way, way back in the pack. I remember passing hundreds and hundreds of riders during the ride. Especially on the big climb where I was weaving in and out and passing dozens and dozens of people as if they were standing still.

I made one mistake which was not eating anything before the ride so I was burnt by the end. This made it difficult to enjoy a night of drinking that evening after the ride.

I did this ride on my mountain bike instead of the road bike. I put "slick" road type tire on the mountain bike. I chose my mountain bike because I was not certain of the road conditions in Mexico and I was also worried about being forced of the road onto the dirt shoulders due to the crowds of inexperienced riders so I wanted something more durable.

I also heard that you should not high-five the Mexican spectators, especially kids, who held out their hand as you rode by. The rumor was that they might grab your hand on purpose to pull you down.

Map of Santa Barbara Fire Damage

2008-11-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

Below is a Google map from the LA Times with the locations of damaged homes. My parents home is right in the middle of the map (and destruction) immediately east of Parma Park near Rockwood and El Cielito.

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Santa Barbara Tea Fire rekindles memories

2008-11-14T22:25:00.000-08:00

The recent fire that almost destroyed my parents house yesterday is now under control. It has been called the Tea Fire. It apparantly started near some old tea garden in Montecito near Santa Barbara.

A monastery a mile or so north of my parents house was completely destroyed by the fire. One ridge east of the monastery was a house I spent a lot of time at when I was younger.

My friend Tommy lived there many years ago. We played together a lot when we were younger. Maybe when we were 10, 11, 12 years old. Back in the early and mid 1980's. I am pretty sure that house burned yesterday. I think all the houses burned in that area.

My friend moved away many years ago. I have not talked to him in probably over 20 years. The fire just brought back memories when I thought of his house, now gone in the fire. We used to play in the hills around his house.

One time we went to the brush covered ridge just a few hundred feet west of his house. This was of course over 25 years ago. I have some memory that a girl was with us. A friend of his maybe? But my memory is faded and I can't be sure.

One thing I am sure of is we were goofing around that day many years ago. We started rolling large boulders down the brush choked hillside. Big boulders. Hundreds of feet below there was a house. The boulders were not threatening the house. But a man came out from the house and yelled at us. "Hey, I live down here" he yelled. "Knock it off".

We knocked it off.

I still remember that bright, sunny day in the hills above Santa Barbara, 25 or more years ago, rolling boulders down the ridge. Across the canyon, the monastery. Now burned to the ground. Along with my old friend tommy's house.

Amazing what some event can do. Rekindle old memories.

Fire in Santa Barbara

2008-11-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

A brush fire broke out in the foothills above Santa Barbara and Montecito yesterday afternoon and continued burning today. So far it has burned over 100 homes.

The fire actually moved to within 100 to 200 feet of my parents home where I grew up. While watching helicopter footage from channel 9, I saw my parents house up close. The fire burned across the street right behind the homes across from my parents house.

My parents house is immediately west of Parma Park directly in the center of the map below. The map actually shows my parents house within the red fire zone but it did not burn.

View Larger Map

President Barack Obama

2008-11-05T20:34:00.000-08:00

3/30/2010 update by me. Big mistake voting for Obama. I made a huge mistake. He and the Democrats have damaged this country fiscally and economically for decades to come if not forever. How are we ever going to recover from Obama's massive government programs? What a mistake voting for him.

Wednesday, Nov. 05, 2008
The Meaning of Obama's Win: How He Rewrote the Book
By Nancy Gibbs

Some princes are born in palaces. Some are born in mangers. But a few are born in the imagination, out of scraps of history and hope. Barack Obama never talks about how people see him: I'm not the one making history, he said every chance he got. You are. Yet as he looked out Tuesday night through the bulletproof glass, in a park named for a Civil War general, he had to see the truth on people's faces. We are the ones we've been waiting for, he liked to say, but people were waiting for him, waiting for someone to finish what a King began.

"If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible," declared the President-elect, "who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

Barack Hussein Obama did not win because of the color of his skin. Nor did he win in spite of it. He won because at a very dangerous moment in the life of a still young country, more people than have ever spoken before came together to try to save it. And that was a victory all its own.

Remember this day, parents told their children as they took them out of school to go see an African-American candidate make history. An election in one of the world's oldest democracies looked like the kind they hold in brand-new ones, when citizens finally come out and dance, a purple-thumb day, a velvet revolution. A hundred thousand people came out in red states to hear Obama; a hundred fifty thousand turned out in purple ones, even after all this time, when they should have been sick to death of Hope and Change. In Michigan, people put an electric fence around their yard sign to protect it. NASA astronauts on board the International Space Station sent a video message encouraging people to vote; they did, from 200 miles up. A judge in Ohio ruled that homeless people could use a park bench as their address in order to register. A couple flew home from India just to cast their ballots. Obama's Ohio volunteers knocked on a million doors on Monday alone. That night, a Florida official locked himself in the Seminole County election headquarters and slept overnight with the ballots to make sure nothing went wrong with the vote. Early-voting lines in Atlanta were 10 hours long, and still people waited, as though their vote was their most precious and personal possession at a moment when everything else seemed to be losing its value. You heard the same phrases everywhere. First time ever. In my lifetime. Whatever it takes.

When it was over, more than 120 million pulled a lever or mailed a ballot, and the system could barely accommodate the demands of Extreme Democracy. Obama won more votes than anyone else in U.S. history, the biggest Democratic victory since Lyndon Johnson crushed another Arizona Senator 44 years ago. Obama won men, which no Democrat had managed since Bill Clinton. He won 54% of Catholics, 66% of Latinos, 68% of new voters — a multicultural, multigenerational movement that shatters the old political ice pack. He let loose a deep blue wave that washed well past the coasts and the college towns, into the South through Virginia and Florida, the Mountain West with Colorado and New Mexico, into the Ohio Valley and the Midwestern battlegrounds: you could almost walk from Maine to Minnesota without getting your feet wet in a red state. After months of mapmaking all the roads to 270, Obama tore right past with ease.

The victory poured down the ballot, bringing along a larger Democratic majority in both houses, though not as broad as some had predicted: Democrats widened their margins in the House and the Senate. The Republican caucus is smaller, more male and whiter at a time when the electorate is heading the other way. But the Democrats did not come close to their dream of a 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, which suggests that people's hunger for change is tempered by their faith in restraint.

When the race was called, there was a rush of noise, of horns honking and kids shouting and strangers hugging in the streets. People danced in Harlem and wept at Ebenezer Baptist Church and lit candles at Dr. King's grave. More than a thousand people shouted "Yes we can!" outside the White House, where a century ago it was considered scandalous for a President to invite a black hero to lunch. The Secret Service said it had never seen anything like it. President Bush called the victory "awesome" when he phoned Obama to congratulate him: "You are about to go on one of the great journeys of life."

John McCain, freedom fighter, has always seen the nobility even — maybe especially — in a losing battle, which takes the most courage to fight. When he called Obama to concede the race, the younger man honored the elder statesman. "I need your help," Obama said, and McCain offered it without reservation. "Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans," McCain told the crowd in a gracious speech beneath the Arizona mountains. "I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face."

Remember this day. We now get to imagine, at least for a while, that the election of Obama has not just turned a page in our politics but also tossed out the whole book so we can start over. Whether by design or by default, the past now loses power: for the moment, it feels as if we've left behind the baby-boomer battles of the past 40 years; the culture wars that took us prisoner and cut us off from what we have in common; the tribal warfare between rich and poor, North and South, black and white; and the illusion, if anyone still harbored it after the past eight years, that what happens in Washington does not affect what happens everywhere else.

How He Rewrote the Book
"She has gone home," Obama told the quiet crowd in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday night, recalling the grandmother who had raised him and shaped him and died on the eve of his victory. "She was one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America," he said, and tears we had never seen before streaked his face. "They're not famous. Their names are not in the newspapers, but each and every day, they work hard." One day later, Madelyn Dunham's grandson would be the most famous man in the world.

At a moment of obvious peril, America decided to place its fate in the hands of a man who had been born to an idealistic white teenage mother and the charismatic African grad student who abandoned them — a man who grew up without money, talked his way into good schools, worked his way up through the pitiless world of Chicago politics to the U.S. Senate and now the White House in a stunningly short period. That achievement, compared with those of the Bushes or the Kennedys or the Roosevelts or the Adamses or any of the other American princes who were born into power or bred to it, represents such a radical departure from the norm that it finally brings meaning to the promise taught from kindergarten: "Anyone can grow up to be President."

A nation doesn't much need a big President in small times; it needs one when the future is spitting out monsters. We've heard so much about Obama's brand-new voters that we easily forget the others he found, the ones who hadn't voted since Vietnam or who had never dreamed they'd vote for a black man or a liberal or a Democrat, much less all three. But many Americans are living through the worst decade of their lives, and they have anger-management issues. They saw a war mismanaged, a city swallowed, now an economy held together with foreign loans and thumbtacks. It took a perfect storm of bad news to create this moment, but even the big men rarely win in a walk. Ronald Reagan didn't. John Kennedy didn't. Those with the clearest vision often have to fight the hardest for others to see things as they do.

Obama belonged to a party that was bent on retribution; he preached reconciliation, and when voters were asked a year ago who had the best chance of winning, Hillary Clinton crushed him, 71% to 26%. He had to build a new church and reach out to the seekers who had lost faith in government or never had any in the first place. He ran not so much on any creed as on the belief that everything was broken, that the very system that produces candidates and frames issues and decides who loses and who wins in public life does little more than make a loser out of the American people. We need to start over, he argued, speak gently, listen carefully, find solutions, keep our word. It was precisely because he was an outsider with a thin résumé and few cronies or scars or grudges that he could sell himself as the solution.

On the cold January night in Iowa that he calls the highlight of the whole campaign, he offered a glimpse of the possible. Caucus-night victory speeches are usually sweaty affairs in crowded rooms full of debts to pay off. But Obama got up in his tightened tie and with total focus, in front of a teleprompter so he'd be sure to get it exactly right, delivered what even skeptics called one of the great political sermons of our time. "They said this day would never come," he declared. "They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night — at this defining moment in history — you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do." He won women without the help of women's groups, blacks without the help of race pols, and that golden snitch of American politics, the youth vote, whose presence not only gave his campaign a feeling of hope and energy but made old people feel younger too. That was the first test of what was really on voters' minds: even in the face of two wars and a looming recession, only 1 in 5 cited experience as the highest priority. More than a third of them cared most about who could bring about change.

It was just one of many ironies that his historic ascent required blocking Clinton's. Experience can be a virtue, but it also means familiarity and wounds and scars, and it was hard to look at her onstage — her husband behind her, his gears visibly spinning — and see her as the future. Many who saw Clinton as the victim of virulent sexism could still be eager to move on to someone who did not fight in the last war.

Two Men, Two Visions
Given a President who was radioactive and an economy weak in the knees, you could say the outcome should never have been in doubt. Seventy percent more people voted in the Democratic primaries as in the Republican; 9 out of 10 people say the country is on the wrong track. In that light, McCain was his party's sacrificial lamb, a certified American hero granted one more chance to serve, with enough rebel credits on his résumé to stand a chance of winning over disgruntled voters if Obama somehow imploded.

While it may not have been much of a race in the end, it certainly was a choice: not just black and white or red and blue or young and old, though there was a full generation between them. Over time, it's become clear that these men view change very differently. McCain sees change as an ordeal, a test of his toughness; Obama sees it as an opportunity, a test of his versatility. McCain sees change as reforming the system; Obama talks about rebuilding it from the ground up. McCain does not e‑mail. He became famous by riding a bus. And he brandished at every opportunity the values that never change with circumstances: duty, honor, country first.

Yet Obama, derided as so ethereal compared with the battle-tested McCain, was the clear-eyed realist in the room; he was a child of change — changed countries and cultures and careers, even his very name: Barry became Barack. You can't stop change from coming, he argued; you can only usher it in and work out the terms. If you're smart and a little lucky, you can make it your friend.

As if that choice hadn't been clear enough, McCain drew the lines a little brighter. The Veep choice always promised to be complicated for a solo pilot who resisted the idea of a partner at every turn, but now the Constitution required him to pick a wingman. He wasn't the type to look for someone to help him govern. But what about someone to help him win?

In case anyone imagined that we'd make it through an entire general election without an all-out culture war, Sarah Palin's arrival took care of it. She called herself a fresh face who couldn't wait to take on the good ole boys. But far from framing the future, Palin played deep chords from the past — the mother of five from a frontier town who invoked the values of a simpler, safer America than the globally competitive, fiscally challenged, multicultural marketplace of ideas where Obama lived. She seemed to delight in the contrast: she was arguing that "we don't really know Barack Obama" before she had even taken off her coat. She warned urgently that he wasn't qualified to be President even as leaders in her own party snorted at her lack of readiness; she rejoiced in visiting the "real America," the "pro-America areas of this great nation." Instead, it was an invitation for Obama to show how far the country had come. "There are no real or fake parts of this country," Obama fired back. "We are one nation, all of us proud, all of us patriots ..."

Still, as of mid-September, McCain, with Palin at his side, had closed the gender gap, ignited his base, delighted Rush Limbaugh and seemed to be having fun for the first time in ages. He hammered the point that he was the only one who had been tested in a crisis. It was working great — until he was tested in a crisis. The assumption all year was that if the Furies delivered turmoil to the doorstep of this election, the country would retreat to the safe choice and not risk a rookie. It was Obama's triumph that the financial crisis that might have buried him actually raised him up, let voters judge his judgment in real time, the 3 a.m. phone call that came night after night. It gave him, over the course of three weeks and three debates, a stage for statesmanship that decades of Senate debate could never have offered.

On the day Lehman Brothers evaporated, McCain was running 2 points ahead. In September, when the Wall Street Journal asked people who was better on taxes, McCain beat Obama, 41% to 37%. Over the next month, there was an 18-point swing, until Obama prevailed on taxes, 48% to 34%. The Obama campaign never missed a chance to replay McCain's quotes about the fundamentals of the economy being strong or that he was "fundamentally a deregulator" at a time when regulation was fundamentally overdue. The moment McCain tried to seize the moment, suspend the campaign and ride back to Washington to rescue the global financial system only to be shut down by his own party, he handed Obama a weapon almost as powerful as the crisis itself. Times were suddenly scary — and McCain was "erratic," "impulsive," reckless. He fell into a trap he couldn't get out of for weeks: any attempt to do something dramatic and different just dug the hole deeper. Every time McCain took a swing, as his cheering section demanded he do, those undecided-voter dial meters plunged. Six in 10 voters said McCain was spending more time attacking Obama than explaining his own positions, at a moment of crisis when people care what those positions were.

Over the course of three debates right in the heat of the crisis, voters got to take the measure of the men directly — no stadium crowds, no stunts, no speechwriters to save them. They were being told that Obama was a dangerous radical who hung out with terrorists. Simply by seeming sober and sensible, he both reassured voters and diminished McCain, whose attacks suddenly seemed disingenuous. A New York Times survey found that people who changed their views on Obama were twice as likely to say they had grown more favorable, not less; those who now saw McCain differently were three times as likely to say their view had worsened than had improved. And that was after the markets had shed a couple of trillion dollars. By mid-October, only 1 in 3 voters thought McCain would bring the country a real change in direction. He never got close again.

Eventually Obama's opponents moved past accusing him of celebrity and socialism to charging his family with witchcraft and warning that his election would bring on the End of Days, when Christianity would be criminalized and "God could take his hand of protection off of America," as Gary Bauer, who once ran for President himself, put it. Obama, meanwhile, used his immense financial advantage to run a half-hour prime-time ad that told his story, made his case — and never once mentioned McCain.

By the end, some lessons were already clear. Obama's sheer brute financial force, outspending McCain nearly 2 to 1, guarantees that the way we pay for our politics will never be the same — and money and power tend to flow as one. A new generation of voters is about to show us whether they dropped in to visit or intend to stay. The Democrats in Congress were handed greater power despite abiding unpopularity; we'll now see whether they understand that it's a loan, not a reward. And the repudiation of President Bush and his allies ensures that the conservative movement will have to sit in a circle, hold hands, light some incense and figure out what its members really believe in when it comes to putting their principles into practice. The legacy of a President who vastly expanded the national debt, the size of government and its reach into what was once called private enterprise is likely to haunt his party for a generation to come.

The Road Ahead
Modern history is a cautionary tale of new Presidents who overreach and emboldened lawmakers careless with power. In her unsuccessful fight to hold her North Carolina Senate seat, Elizabeth Dole ran an ad predicting that "these liberals want complete control of government, in a time of crisis. All branches of government. No checks and balances. No debate. No independence." If Democrats like her opponent win, she warned, "they get a blank check." The rumbling started before the votes even came in: there was House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank talking about cutting military spending 25% and taxing "a lot of very rich people out there." Amnesty International set a deadline for closing Gitmo; the ACLU wants a complete review of watch lists within 100 days.

Whose side will Obama be on? The old Ted Kennedy liberals he re-inspired, the Blue Dog Democrats he courted, the new arrivals from purple and even red districts whose shelf life depends on a centrist agenda? He has talked about the need to fix entitlements, but try to pin him down on the Audacity of How, and he vanished in a foam of contingency. He has promised to end the war in Iraq responsibly, but the tension between end and responsibility tightens now. He voted for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, but there are bound to be far more claims on that pot than there is money available in it, and the three months between now and Inauguration Day are not likely to be kind to the new kid. Obama has been cautious at every turn not to commit himself to too many details. But he has made a lot of promises of his own. Clinton, for one, has no illusions about what lies ahead. "I remember very well, right after Bill was elected, we found out that the budget deficit was twice as big as had been advertised," she told TIME's Karen Tumulty. "I think that we're going to find a lot of snakes under the rocks when we start picking them up, looking at this Administration." Obama has had teams of people already working closely with the Treasury Department and the Pentagon in the event of a victory. They have submitted countless names to the FBI to be sure that they are packing security clearances as soon as possible. McCain mocked the presumption of Obama's "measuring the drapes," but Obama's preparations for a transition reflected the fact that the rest of the world isn't going to wait until Jan. 20 to find out what he thinks. At a time like this, there's probably no such thing as being overprepared.

His vow to bring people together will mean nothing if he just does what's already easy. He has to find real Republicans to put in real Cabinet positions, not just Transportation. He needs to use his power in ways that make both parties equally unhappy, to dust off the weighty words we need to hear, not just the uplifting ones — like austerity, sacrifice, duty to the children we keep borrowing from. The national debt passed $10 trillion in September; in the next month, we added $500 billion to it — the fastest, deepest plunge into red ink in more than 50 years. Will Obama end the double standard between how Washington works and how everyplace else does, the loopholes it defends, the common sense it defies?

"This victory alone is not the change we seek," he challenged the nation on Tuesday night. "It is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you."

We get the leaders we deserve. And if we lift them up and then cut them off, refuse to follow unless they are taking us to Disneyland, then no President, however eloquent, however historic his mandate or piercing his sense of what needs to be done, can take us where we refuse to go. This did not all end on Election Day, Obama said again and again as he talked about the possibility of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. And so, we are merely at the end of the beginning.

— With reporting by Laura Fitzpatrick / New York

The Naked Guy

2008-08-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

I've had a lot of interesting mountain bike rides over the years. This includes night riding, usually alone. Night riding on mountain trails and dirt roads is a blast. It is completely different then riding during the day. Night riding requires the use of high powered lights.

Several years ago I went on a night ride in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles with a group of other riders from my old job. There were about 8 or 9 of us that night and we were going out late, about 10:30 pm.

The first half of the ride was mostly uphill. We rode along trails and dirt roads to a spot called The Hub. We then turned around and headed back downhill. The group was spread out somewhat and I was leading the way. The others were about a minute or two behind me. I was going pretty fast on the dirt road, probably about 25 to 30 mph and the road had many turns.

As I came around one of the fast turns, for a split second something off to the side of the road near the bushes caught the corner of my eye in the flash of my headlight. I thought I saw a person there but it was so quick I figured I was imagining it. My mind often plays tricks on me during night rides. But it was really strange.

A little bit down the trail I stopped and waited for the others. When the others caught up they excitedly asked "Did you see that?" Did I see what? "The naked guy." What? "Yeah, there was some naked guy back there."

That's right. There was a naked man wearing nothing but a pair of hiking boots. I knew I was not hallucinating. I almost ran over a naked guy who was out on a nature hike. My buddies, who were going slower then me, saw the guy. After they passed him, they stopped and turned their head lights on the guy. He had gone to the side of the road when he saw my lights and heard us coming down the road. He didn't want to get hit and he was also probably trying to hide and not be seen.

With my buddies shining their lights on him, he just turned and kept on walking up the dirt road. I guess he had figured there would be nobody else up in the mountains that late at night. The one question I had was, where did he keep his car keys?

Idiot of the Day Award

2008-08-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Light pole theft catches cops eye

Miami police arrested a man transporting a light pole on top of his car. He says he found it on the street and was attempting to sell it as scrap.

Hypocracy

2008-07-30T09:14:00.000-07:00

My work hours are from 7:30 am to 4:30 pm. I leave work around 4:30. When I say around, I mean 4:28, 4:29, 4:30, something like that. One day my boss came to me and asked why I left early yesterday. I didn't know what she meant and she said, "you left two minutes early". I said that I did not realize that two minutes was a problem. My boss said it is not a matter of the two minutes but just that is looks bad.

OK. Whatever. It is not a big deal to me. I can watch the clock to make sure I don't leave a second before 4:30.

What does bother me is hypocracy. It is one of my biggest pet peeves. Hypocracy.

My boss ever since I have worked with her for almost six years, regulalry comes in late to work. Not just one or two minutes late but usually 10, 15 or sometimes 20 minutes late. I would love to tell her that coming in late looks bad but I won't.

My boss is supposed to start her shift at 8:00 am. Well today, by 8:30, she still had not arrived. A couple minutes later she calls my co-worker to let him know she is "running late". It was almost nine by the time she got to work.

Hmmm, maybe from now on in the afternoon, I will call her from my cubicle, which is right next to hers, and let her know that I am "running early".

Practical jokes

2008-07-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not big on practical jokes. My feeling is practical jokes range from annoying to the cruel. However, there were a couple of relatively harmless practical jokes that me and an old roommate played on our other roommate back when we were in college.

I lived with three other guys back in the mid 90's in a four bedroom duplex. My roommate Doug and I enjoyed playing a few practical jokes on our other roommate Matt. The best one was this:

We each had our own room. Matt's room was downstairs and Doug and I had our own rooms upstairs. Our other roommate Jason was a DJ and he had one of those smoke machines that they use at dance clubs. The machine doesn't make real smoke of course but makes some sort of harmless dry mist-like smoke. One day about 20 minutes before Matt was to get home from school, Doug and I put Jason's smoke machine in Matt's room and turned it on and closed the door. Just before Matt came in, we removed the smoke machine, closed his door and ran upstairs.

So the room was completely filled with this smoky mist. Now, when you think filled with smoke, we are not talking about a room that is really smoky like from a bunch of cigarette smokers or something. We are talking completely filled with smoke so that you could not see one foot in front of you, literally. It was wall to wall and floor to ceiling. Matt opened his bedroom door, stood there for a second and we heard him say "what the f**k. And then he just went in his room. Matt was a nice guy but a little odd.

Another joke we did was while Matt was sleeping in his room, Doug and I taped newspapers over his door completely covering it. So when he opened his door there was a wall of newspaper. He just tore a hole in the wall and went through like nothing happened. He might have been annoyed but he never said anything.

I admit that these jokes would probably classify as annoying but they were damn funny.

Hilarious emails with email scammer

2008-07-15T15:44:00.000-07:00

Below are the emails I exchanged with someone who said he was from Ghana. He claimed that if I helped him I would get a box of money. I played along and I never laughed so hard in my life. I unfortunately deleted the first few emails but all the rest are below.

Information on email Scams, Nigerian scams, or Advanced Fee scams can be found at these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria_scam
ScamBusters.org
Scamorama.com

The emails below are EXACTLY how he and I typed them. I played like I was not very smart. I guess he was not very smart either. The scammer said his name was Franics Kwame (sic). I told him my name was Bob Jones at first.

THIS IS NOT MADE UP. These are real emails I had with the guy from Africa.

--------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Requested Information
To: Bob Jones

My Brother,
Below is the information:

Mr Robert Anderson
Director, Intercon Insurance Security Co. Ltd.
Ring Road,Accra
GhanaTel:+233 242114821
Email Address: intercon_sec_com@freeghana.com

I will henceforth disassociate from responding to your emails if you dont contact the security company.

Lets move forward!!!!

Your's Sincerely,

Barrister Francis Kwame

------------------------------------------
The scammer was already getting annoyed because I had been making excuses why I could not contact the security company.
------------------------------------------

From: Bob Jones
Subject: Re: Requested Information
To: Franics Kwame

Thank you my black african brother. You know, in my country, we don't pronounce it "brother" when talking to black people. We say it like this, "bratha". What's up bratha?

I have a question, do I have to dial one before that number below? I have nevered called long distance before. I have never even left my hometown before for that matter so if I have to fly to Africa to meet the security agency, that will be scary.

Do I have to fly to Africa since that is where the security agency is located? Where exactly is Ghana located anyway? Is it near Portugal?

----------------------------------------
If you don't already know, Portugal is in Europe next to Spain, not anywhere near Ghana, Africa.
----------------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Our Success Together
To: Bob Jones

My Brother,

Thanks for the compliments of calling me your brother.
As to calling from the USA, you have to dial +011 before adding 233 242114821.

If you don't get it, then find someone else who can truly assist you in dialing the number to ensure you call the security company.

For i and you to move forward,You MUST call the security company because they are in charge of delivery.
You dont need to fly to Africa.

Thank God because the world is globalised.We can make our business work successfuly through effective communication no matter where we are around the world.

Ghana is beautiful country,located at the western region of Africa. Potugal is south america and you know it,so how do you compare Ghana and portugal together.

I thought you said,you have flown to Africa before,how come you ask these questions??Dont make me doubt my trust for you....

So,Call the Security Company right now.

Get back to me immediately,

Thank you,

Barrister Francis Kwame

---------------------------------------
The scammer obviously does not know his geography very well either. He thinks Portugal is in South America.
---------------------------------------

From: Bob Jones
Subject: Re: Our Success Together
To: Franics Kwame

Thank you for your assistance. Although I am extremely rich, I do not know alot about foreign countries like Ghana and Portugal which you kindly informed me is in South Africa. I did not realize that Portugal was in South Africa like you said. I am very happy then that there is no more apartheid and discrimination in Portugal, South Africa. That was very bad.

So do I dial 1 and then 011 or 011 and then 1? I am very eager to provide my personal information to the security company in Portugal, South Africa.

Thank you once again my African Bratha. :)

--------------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Unhappy State.
To: Bob Jones

My Brother,It will unwise for you to contact me any further becasuse
i can see that you are not yeilding and adhering to the instructions attached to
this transaction.
I said Portugal is in South-America, you read it well and you
repeatedly say that Portugal is in South-Africa.
If you do not know how to call the security company,then forget me.

Have a good day,

Barrister Francis Kwame

-----------------------------------
The scammer really is starting to get annoyed now. Usually the scammers stop responding by now, but not Francis, I mean Franics.
-----------------------------------

From: Bob Jones
Subject: Re: Unhappy State
To: Franics Kwame

I appreciate your assistance. My apologies. I thought you said the security
company was in Portugal, South Africa. I am sorry that I am not
knowledgeable in geography. Please forgive me. I will immediately contact
the security company. I will have my mother help me call since I do not
understand the number dialing for foreign numbers. As I said, I will
immediately call the security company in Ghana, South America. After I call
them, do I call you?

----------------------------------
I know. Ghana is in Africa, not South America.
----------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Best Option
To: Bob Jones

My Brother,
Just call the Security Company
If you cannot call them,then it is over between us.

Thank you,

Barrister Franics Kwame

----------------------------------

From: Bob Jones
Subject: Re: Best Option
To: Franics Kwame

I will call them immediately. May I please request a toll free number however. I am sure the long distance rates must be very expensive to Ghana, South Africa. My mother is very controlling of how I use my millions of dollars even though I am 35 years old. Please provide me a toll free number and I will call the security company immdiately.

I will immediately purchase a plane ticket to Ghana, South America and I will fly there as soon as I call the security company to arrange my picking up the box of money in Ghana, South America.

Please let me know if this is ok.

-----------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: My Decision
To: Bob Jones

My Brother,
If you want us to continue and complete this transaction,you (MUST)
send me your International Passport as Identification.
Unable to achieve this,PLS DO NOT CONTACT ME ANYMORE>
I will only respond to your email when I see your passport.

Thank you and God Bless,

Barrister Francis Kwame

---------------------------------------
He's really getting annoyed.
---------------------------------------

From: Bob Jones
Subject: Re: My Decision
To: Franics Kwame

I do not have a passport yet. I am in the process of getting it so I can travel to Ghana, South Africa. But you know how government is. It takes a while. I should have it in a few weeks. I will transmit my birth certificate to you shortly.But can you please give me a toll free number to contact the security company in Ghana, South America.

-------------------------------------------
I immediately sent him another message using a new name with a picture of a passport I found on the internet.
-------------------------------------------

From: Will Smith
Subject: Re: My Decision
To: Franics Kwame

Attached is my Passport as you requested. I tried calling the number of the security company in Ghana, South America but I was not able to get through. They said I have the wrong number. It's interesting though that they did not speak Portugeuese. I thought you said they speak Portugeuese. Can you send me the number again or maybe you can send me the security comapny's email address. Thank you again my black african brother (bratha).

(Below is the Passport picture I sent Francis. Sorry Fresh Prince).

------------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Lets move forward
To: Will Smith

My Brother,
Thanks for your response.
I thought you said your name is Bob Jones and claimed to be 35 years old.
How come you sent me a pics of Will Smith,who doesnt even happened
to be 35years??
I need you to attest and confirm to that.
Now,before i can continue this transaction with you.
Tw things must be done,failure to do so,will make you to be a liar about your
identity.

1.Send me your scanned copy of Your International Passport.
2.The security company number is (+233 242114821)
There is nothing absolutely wrong with that number.
The ball is now in your court to make this transaction a success.

For you to be sure of my identity,i will send you my International Passport for confirmation.
Get back to me as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Barrister Francis Kwame

--------------------------------------------
Francis then sent me another email with his Passport attached. Isn't that nice of him?
------------------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: My Passport
To: Will Smith

Below is the copy of my International Passport for your view.Until i recieve a copy of your passport,i will discontinue from corresponding with you anymore.The ball is now in your court to send me your Identification Passport.If you don't have any Passport,then send me any other form of id.

Call the Security Company.

Thank you,

Barrister Francis Kwame

------------------------------------------
I guess his name really is Francis. I should be more trusting. I changed my name again in the next email. Can you guess who this famous person is?
------------------------------------------

From: Captain James T. Kirk
Subject: Re: My Passport
To: Franics Kwame

My apologies my Black African Brother. I accidently sent you my cousin's passport. He left it at my house and I did not look at the picture. I have attached my passport to this email.

Your passport picture is very nice. You are a very handsome man. I did not realize that you lived in Ghana, South Africa also. Is Ghana a nice city? Is it close to Johannesburg?

The number for the security company you just gave me is not the same. How am I supposed to contact them if you give me the wrong number.Do you also need my bank account information in order to make deposits? I can also send you my birth certificate if you need that.

(Below is the next passport I sent Francis. This is for all you Trekie fans out there.)

--------------------------------------
Now Francis really starts getting pissed.
--------------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Lets Move Forward
To: Captain Kirk

Pls,cut the crap and stop sending passports belonging to different people.
I know you to be Bob Jones.
Changing names will do you no good.

Can we move forward on this transaction?

Call the security company.(+233) 242114821.

Thank you,

Barrister Francis Kwame

--------------------------------------
Again I changed my name below.
--------------------------------------

From: Zhao Xiulian
Subject: Re: Lets move forward
To: Franics Kwame

I apoligize again. I accidently sent you my uncles Passport. My uncle is a Captain in Starfleet Command and he is currently on leave and visiting me. I am very sorry. I have attached my passport and I verified that it is mine so there won't be anymore confusion. My real name is Zhao Xiulian. I wanted to be sure I could trust you before I gave you my real name. That is why I told you my name was Bob Jones. Please forgive me.

---------------------------------------
Now I think Francis is really losing it. I think I am driving him crazy. This is his funniest email of them all.
---------------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Thanks so much
To: Zhao Xiulian

My Brother,
I beg you with the name of God.
Pls do not contact me anymore.
I am not in for this games you are playing by sending passports of differents people.
Have a nice day and keep winning.

Kisses,

Richard

----------------------------------------
Kisses?

You notice he signed his name Richard. What happened to Francis?

I pretty much lost his trust with this next email and the picture I attached but oh well. I don't think he could take much more anyways.

Can you guess who the picture is?
----------------------------------------

From: Zhao Xiulian
Subject: Re: Thanks so much
To: Franics Kwame

I thought your name was Francis. Who is Richard? Are you being dishonest with me? After all this time and our special relationship. All I want to do is get my money and I am trying to follow your instructions. I told you I mistakenly sent you my cousin Will Smith's passport and my uncle Captain Kirk's passport. It was a mistake. My name really is what I told you in my last email. After you sent me your passport I felt comfortable I could believe you so I sent my passport.

Please my very dark black African brother, you must believe me. I will send you further information if you request it.

Attached is a picture of myself so you have a better idea of who I am.

-----------------------------------------
Yes, That's right. That's Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, the former Prime Minister of Japan. I hope I didn't cause an international incident.
-----------------------------------------

From: Franics Kwame
Subject: Re; Thanks so much
To: Zhao Xuilian

Have a nice day.

--------------------------------------------
And that was the last I heard from Francis. I miss him very much.

Mountain Bike Racing

2007-08-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

It seems only a few years ago that I was racing mountain bikes in the cross country category. But my last race was back in 1996. There were various reasons why I stopped. I wish I could have raced a little more, especially because I had reached the level of Expert which was only one level below the pro ranks. Oh well.

During the few years I raced, I lived mountain biking. I trained about six days a week and I thought about riding everyday, even in the “off season” where I still road almost everyday unless it was raining or I was snowboarding.

In my first season racing, I started in what was called the Beginner category. Although labeled beginner, a majority of the racers were not what I called beginners. They were avid riders who were in their first year or two of racing. The top beginners were actually very strong riders and the races were very competitive. My first race ever was at the Cactus Cup near Phoenix. That was an incredible trip. I met up with my friend Eric and we did two days of races. I was hooked. The day I won my first race at the Big Bear Amateur Cup was one of the most exciting days I have ever had. To cross the finish line as the first rider of the day was awesome.

I finished no lower than 2nd place that first season so I moved up to the next level which was called Sport Class. After a rocky start the next season in the 1st race in which I had mechanical problems and did not finish, I steadily moved up to a top five finish. By the beginning of my third season, I was consistently finishing in the top five in Sport Class so I knew that I could compete at the next level. I decided not to wait until the next season and I moved up to Expert.

My first Expert race was a short course criterium near Santa Barbara California. I was not prepared for how much faster the Experts start at the beginning of the race and before I knew it, I looked back and I was in last place out of about 25 racers. But I kept up a steady pace and after about 12 or 13 laps by the finish I had passed about 10 other Expert racers and finished a respectable 14th in my 1st Expert race. It felt awesome.

I wanted more success so I told my self I am going to train my ass of. Stupid mistake, especially in the middle of the season. I’ll get back to that later. My next Expert race was at the Big Bear Amateur Cup. I felt good all day. There were 24 racers in the Expert race that day but I was not sure how well I placed. After the race and the results were posted, I saw I had placed #9. That kicked ass. Although a small field, I had placed in the top ten in an Expert race. I was stoked. Also, the experts raced over 30 miles while the Beginner and Sport courses were about 17 or 18 miles. Another big difference.

My success at Big Bear only caused me more problems with training as I mentioned before. I wanted move to the top as quickly as possible. So I went on what I would call several mountain bike death rides of over 50 miles. In short, I over-trained and I burned myself out. When I started my next Expert race in a California Cup event at Snow Valley California, I quickly fell to last place right off the start. Not the end of the world as I had learned from the Crit race at Santa Barbara. Just push it and pace myself and start passing people. But as the race progressed, I felt worse and worse and I passed maybe only a few riders. By the 2nd of 4 laps, I felt like crap and had to drop out.

Later the next week I tried going out on some training rides, very boring monotonous ones at that, and I had no desire to continue. I had lost my desire. I was so depressed. When I look back, I wonder if I had done smart training and not over-trained, would I have been more successful and not felt burned out. I think so.

I know now that I should have increased my training on the road bike. It is the best form of training and I probably would have avoided burning out. Oh well. They are great memories none the less.