North to South Time Machine

This ride went down in the annals of pants history two weekends ago, but some computer issues made it difficult to share. I met up with Mike at 8:30am and got a call from Russ in the process. The plan was to ride north to south and meet up with Russ along the way in route to his place. To be clear the temperature (a.k.a the heat) will be a reoccurring character in our summer ride musical. He made an appearance on this ride too. As I always say, the rest is in the pictures...

Waiting for Mike to get ready

Meeting up with Russ

Russ's new bag...hawt!

Mmm, used needles in Southside

Russ's caboose

On the road

Mike, Russ and the Heat

Our rides

Group Shot

Group shout v2.0 - Suburban Myspace Gangsters ed.My kingdom for a wheel

WoW Dumpster

The monster is back! Run and hide the kids, I am playing World of Warcraft again. Last week I jumped in feet first to my four year on again off again romance/abusive relationship with the game equivilent of black tar heroin. I have retired my mage to collect dust and maybe get turned into a collectibable that collect dust (j/k, I like napping on the couch, but not sleeping there). So in place of my glass canon I rolled a shaman (a.ka. Jesus). Dr. Majarg M.D. is the podigal son of the original prodigal son, Majarg. He is in every way brighter, faster and stronger than his fore father and will hopefully do no wrong by my hand.

The game plan is to get a toon up to 70 and semi geared before the next expansion rolls out in late 2008 or early 2009. There will be ten man versions of every raid dungeon and tons of 5 man content as well. I vowed to stay away from pvp since it is what I burned out on last time, but only the twisted hand of WoW time will tell.

Nostradamus
Back in October of 2007 I made an argument for more strict personal rating requirements on WoW season 3 arena gear. My thoughts got picked up on WoWInsider and the post garnered the most traffic my blog has seen to date. Most people thought it too strict to place requirements on all items. Season 4 rolled out yesterday with rating requirements on everything save gloves and the off hand. It is nice to see Blizzard and I are on the same page.

Lore Splosion
Christie Golden in her second blog post announced her newest collboration with Aaron Rosenberg, Beyond the Dark Portal. Carrying the same name as the Warcraft 2 expansion pack it covers the same plot that the game did. It is currently resting on my night stand half finished. Christie is also writing a new novel on the origin of Arthas. That and a script for a new WoW manga that is coming in August. The WoW comic is on issue 8 and finally picking up steam and lurking some where in the depths of Hollywood is the long announced and never updated live action movie. It is good time to be a lore nerd.

Anniversary Camping

Friday last week we pulled out of Richmond late in the afternoon to head to Bear Creek Lake in Cumberland County, VA. It is only an hour away, but it felt like a much needed vacation from our suburban routine. Admittedly it is very much the suburban version of camping though. With a parking spot, fire pit, running water and bathhouse on site, it is not exactly roughing it. Camping with a small house dog requires some sacrifices. The rest is in the pictures...

Macy and Crystal

Starting the Fire

Duel wielding hot dogs

Our home

Macy's dog den

Hiking Saturday morning

Following the rules

Hiking

Yet more hiking

Local MMA

One of my video game friends being a Richmond based MMA trainer is pretty rad (see Kevin's fight from February). Saturday I found out the most recent Ultimate Fighter winner went to my high school and graduated a grade ahead of me (even radder). I liked Amir Sadollah's personality and fighting style from the start of the show, but not until Crystal and I saw the finale and it was announced he was from Richmond did it click. Well for Crystal at least, she claimed she thought he looked familiar and I thought she was dilisional. A quick trip to his wiki page and we found out he was at the same high school as us for three years.

I was already rooting for Amir to crush C.B. Dolloway a second time because C.B. is a douche. His Richmond origin was just wood on the fire. Now we are both big fans, so hopefully he can handle the veteran fighters at 185. There is always the option to drop to 170 and become a big fighter at a lower weight. Only time will tell and when that time comes we will be watching.

Black Lagoon
It has been a really long time since I watched any anime, so when Black Lagoon arrived from the bowels of my Netflix queue I was excited. Well not excited to watch it right away, it sat for a week and a half collecting dust because I was otherwise occupied. When I did get around to watching it I enjoyed it though. I has big action, a weak story and lots of profanity, but is well drawn and animated too. Not a must watch, but a fun time none the less.

Camping
We had fun, more on this fun Wednesday...

Gone Campin'

Crystal and I took off early this week to go camping. Our anniversary was celebrated with some disappointing Italian food on June 4th and then it was on to Grant and Erin's wedding weekend and the following weekend was just too busy. So we belated our anniversary trip to this weekend. We are headed to Bear Creek lake to canoe, hike and be merry. In lieu of a posting a full on bee-log entry today, I'll just cop out and post some random thoughts and links.

Great Divide
2,711 unsupported miles, better than the tour and deserves a good documentary on Discovery HD. Until then following along at the website.

Avett Brothers
We got front row standing positions (that sounds awkward) at the Avett Brothers most recent show in Innsbrook Wednesday night. The venue is shitty and it looked like half the crowd was there to post work socialize, but the music was fantastic. They had a few instrument hangups, but that seems to be the norm from the two previous shows we have been too. They also announced their newest album (The Gleam II) which is coming out July 22nd. We got to hear three songs from it and they were rad, mark your calendars!

It's Naugahyde
We had a rousing conversation with the neo Holbricks at dinner about what the word was for fake leather. I first suggested simpily pleather, grant suggested formaldehyde, I suggested monaugahyde (not a word) and Erin thought it was naugahyde, she was correct.

He is Watching!













See you Monday!

Riding by Numbers

Riding a bike shouldn't be math or science homework, it is an organic experience that should be expressed in feeling. Let the spandex covered, juicy juice injecting "pro" cyclist worry about the numbers. I just want to get out and ride with my friends. I ride for joy, well mostly...

I do keep a log of my rides and try to pedal more miles in the current month than I did in the previous. Hopefully that doesn't lump me in with weight shaving, geometry obsessed junkies, but it is nice to look at my spreadsheet Monday mornings and garner a small sense of accomplishment. Below are my numbers since the month of February this year...

February: 46.6 miles
March: 82.25 miles
April: 121.42 miles
May: 135.22 miles
June: 94.02 miles

With only half of the month of June elapsed I am well on my way to surpassing May. Another point of pride are my May miles falling just four miles shy of three times my miles in February. Unfortunately, I am sure I will miss my goal at some point. My affinity for riding in groups and summer vacations already on deck almost guarantee it. That and at some point my free time dedicated to riding will clash with how long it takes to ride longer distances. Oh and July and August are hot, who knew!

In the end it is about having fun and hanging out with my friends. I look at the pictures way more than the spreadsheets and tell the stories more than I toss and turn at night about miles pedaled.

Site Watch
Firefox 3 is hitting the streets today. Our family is a FF family, corporate America can keep their IE7 and Mac zealots can have their Safari, we Tabib's like us some Firefox. Apparently alot of other people do too.

Hulk Smash

After a few summers of comic book movies I didn't want to see (X-Men and Spider Man), the summer of 2008 is offering up some tasty comic based morsels. Iron Man was the cat's ass, the bee's knees and hands down my favorite comic movie to date. So when we went to see Incredible Hulk on Saturday night it had some size fourteen wide shoes to fill.

I never saw the first modern attempt at a Hulk film, but I read and heard that it was a disaster. It tainted my view of a Hulk reboot until I saw Iron Man and a bit of my faith was restored. So I went into the film even handed not knowing what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Ed Norton is an amazing actor and the time the screenplay and director took to build to action and reveals was great. It was handled with tack and patience like good films should be. When they finally do get to the smashing and explosions it is not over the top.

Realistic CGI is hard to do with organic characters, which is a notch in Iron Man's armored belt over this film. It doesn't look bad though, you just know you are looking at 3D modeling through out the picture. Tim Roth's character is the scratch on the Ferrari, I don't think it was his acting, because I have seen him a number of good movies. His character was not explained enough. He shows up gets his ass beat by the Hulk and becomes a crazed power hungry monster. He has no motivation for his actions and almost feels like a cop out to create a rival to Hulk's power. Liv Tyler's character is a bit boring, but at least she fits the plot.

Incredible Hulk falls into my top five comic movies and got me excited for Iron Man 2, Incredible Hulk 2, Thor, Captain America and ultimately The Avengers. I have no doubt that Dark Knight will top it later this summer though.

The Spirit
Sin City and 300 were both crazy good adaptations of Frank Miller's comics (see Batman: Year One the origin for Batman Begins as well). So when I saw that Frank Miller was writing and directing The Spirit (a Will Eisner comic) I got excited. After seeing the trailer before Hulk Saturday my head almost exploded. The actor playing the Spirit is also in Whiteout this fall, yet another comic to film adaptation. Good times.

Sweeny Condemned to Star

Sweeney Todd
Musicals movies seem a bit silly to me, particularly modern ones, because I don't really have any hang ups with Grease. When a character sings and dances in crowded streets and the passers-by don't acknowledge what would seem to be a crazy person there is a small disconnect in my brain. Musicals on stage, don't provoke the same reaction and I think that is because they don't create a suspension of disbelief like a movie does.

Johnny Depp is essentially Capt. Jake Sparrow again, and the plot is a little bit far fetched, but remains interesting. The ending was mildly surprising, but the whole movie just lacked punch. A gorey musical is something I have never seen before, but it doesn't get a free pass on innovation alone.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot
I have had marathon sessions of World of Warcraft that have lasted well beyond twelve hours in the past and went to LAN parties that reached the ten hour mark. Condemned is not a video game world I can live in for longer than two to three hours. Not because it gets boring, but because it is creepy and unnerving to beat up lunatic homeless guys and investigate gruesome murders for hours on end. The game looks amazing and creates an atmosphere that you rarely see in video games.

Melee combat from the first person perspective feels more visceral than floaty. It is to bad that in the later game guns are introduced and used almost exclusively for a few levels. The story is good, but not great and the crime scene investigations are ten times better than bargain bin CSI games. All in I was expecting to like this game and I ended up loving it, aside from being scared that is. I am sure I would have completed it must faster had it not evoked such a strong feeling in me. I'd chalk that up as a good thing.

The Next Food Network Star
Guy Fieri is not on the fourth season of TNFNS, but Google images was a bit lacking in vertical pictures of the whole cast. Crystal and I decided to watch this show or rather try it out after watching the first two episodes this past Sunday. The premise seems interesting when you add acting to the same formula that Top Chef is already using. I don't see any chef that is the next Alton Brown or anything, but I'm routing for and against a few already. I will keep watching the show, but the first bad episode I catch will most likely be the last.

My God the Heat!

Sunday morning at 6:30 am my alarm woke me to dark room and a tired body. The previous day had been spent from two in the afternoon till ten at night participating in and running portions of Grant and Erin's wedding. Beating the heat with a 7:30 start time Sunday sounded like a solid plan, but my body disagreed. I never had to stop, but it was the most tired I have been on a bike in a very long time. The heat was semi-beat and I was stomped. The rest is in the pictures...

At the half way point when the temperature started to rise
Russ

Mike

Adam

Adam's Surly

Russ's Rivendell

Mike's Bianchi

Fixed Gear Fame
I submitted a fixie I saw and snapped photos of last weekend to the FFG and it got put up yesterday. I'm e-famous on the shoulders of another Richmond resident and a cyclist at that!

Site Watch
There was a great article on wired yesterday about hypermilers that lead me to a more in depth article on the topic at mother jones. It reminded me that I need to get my tires up to the recommended pressure, get a better air filter and change my driving habits. I saw regular unleaded gas for $4.05 a gallon Saturday. Good God!

I'm Wreckless or Not...

When I first started tagging in high school I used the name Krimsun. A purposeful miss spelling of the color crimson, clever I know. When I started playing video games more my freshman year of college my gamer handle became Krimsun as well. A few years of underground hip hop and video games later and I changed my nickname to Wreck-Tangle. It was taken from a line from one of my favorite songs...

"Live in stereo sound and very profound
Deeper than a burial ground, I'm aerial bound and shuttin
Comped down as I rock like Charles Dutton
From Gangster Putnam I cut em from every angle
Far from a square cause I wreck when I tangle
Minds I mangle, mic's I strangle in advance
In every circumstance I leave you shook like turbulence"

When Wreck-Tangle became to long behind clan and guild tags I changed it to Wreckless.

Wreckless, as in wreckless driving or a careless nature, as the incorrect spelling of the word. It should be spelled reckless which comes from the base word reck meaning to take heed of or to have caution and is also related to reckon meaning to consider as being; regard. Wreckless as I used it is not really a word, unless you were talking about some futuristic car that could not crash, meaning unable to wreck. The opposite of reckless.

I found this out while word and phrase hunting the other day for Erin's "in a pickle" quandary. I came across a term I had never heard before and a site dedicated to that term. Eggcorns are words that are spelled incorrectly out of ignorance, but actually make sense. "An acorn is more or less shaped like an egg; and it is a seed, just like grains of corn. So if you don’t know how acorn is spelled, egg corn actually makes sense". Wreckless is not actually an eggcorn, but more of a "demi-eggcorn" according to the site.

In any case I will most likely continue using the handle because it would be too much work to reverse the number of times I have used it incorrectly in the past. Makes sense huh? Or not.

P.S.
There was even a game made with the incorrect spelling of reckless...
Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions

Marriage and Married

Minister: Do you?
Lone Starr: Yes
Minister: Do you?
Princess Vespa: Yes
Minister: GOOD, you're married. KISS HER!

Grant and Erin are gonna get hitched on Saturday and Crystal and I will be right in the thick of it. I'm a groomsmen, so I hold it down at the front of the church in Grant's wingspan. Crystal has a much more important job, she is the MC (Mistress of Ceremonies) and unlike Kid 'n Play she will not be on tha mic flowin to the wheels of steel care of Martin Lawrence. She runs the show and makes sure Grant and Erin have the best and stress free wedding possible. Saturday is supposed to be in the three digits, wish us look in tuxedo pants and coats.

Wednesday this week was Crystal and my anniversary. We celebrated three years of married bliss by going out for Italian (fitting given our honeymoon in Rome/Venice). Let me be clear, in that, when I say "bliss" I mean it. Non of this ball and chain, life goes down hill after marriage sarcastic crap that is the stuff of bad comedy routines and douchey golf buddy jokes leading up to the big day. Our marriage has been fantastic, we were best friends pre-wedding and still are to this day. Here is to many more with my lovely lady and hopefully some little ones in the near future.

Site Watch
I don't consider myself a etymologist by any means, but I do get the occasional phrase origin questions stuck in my head. I usually just plug the phrase in question into the Googles and see what pops out. More often than not the best answer comes from The Word Detective. Linking this site today was not because of a recent inquire of my own, but Erin's (Grant's bride to be) random thought about the phrase "in a pickle".

Cycling is My Church

Post Grant and Erin's big move on Saturday I wanted to get my cycle on for the weekend. Russ, Mike and I meet up Sunday morning for a ride out Fort Harrison way. We were on the road by 10am and back in time for eats around noonish. The rest is in the pictures...

Out of the Northside and into the Fan

The rolling hills of route 5

Mein legs (photo: Russ)Group shot under Harrison signage

Goats!

Cross Check!

Tasty burgers and beers at Dot's Back

The rest of the photos

Site Watch
A few months ago I started reading Destuctoid for an extra gaming journalism fix and then I stopped. Well I picked up reading it again yesterday, it has a cool look and the writing is on point. I may stop again for the same reason I stopped last time (similar content to Joystiq), but for now I am reading it.

MMA's Minor Leagues

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the premiere mixed martial arts organization in the world. It's presence has gone from pay-per-view only events to a mix of its reality show on Spike, the occasional free fight on the same cable network and primarily pay-per-view events. To deep pocketed MMA fans this formula may work just fine. Many are content to watch the fights after the actual event date on the internet though. I fall into both categories, I usually see every other fight or so on pay-per-view and I catch them the next day should I not feel like ponying up $60 a show.

Free fights on cable and prime time networks are becoming more and more prevalent. The class of fighters isn't always on par with the UFC, but a lot can be said for free bouts when gas is four dollars a gallon. Elite XC and WEC both had big fights over the weekend. Saturday night was Elite XC's event which was also the first show ever on network television. Kimbo Slice of YouTube street fight and pr0n body guard fame was the main attraction. Gina Carano of American Gladiator and non-butch/surprisingly hot female fighter fame was the primary under card. Slice's fight was a bit of a sloppy mess, when you combined his semi unorthodox striking and underdeveloped ground game with the tomato can he was fighting. Carano came in over weight, but put an absolute hurting on her opponent.

WEC is the real deal no gimmicky fighters or glass chinned opponents. After being picked up and legitimized by the UFC they have had some killer events that rival their parent companies. On Sunday the biggest WEC fight of the year aired free of charge and delivered. It featured two title bouts and defenses in the featherweight and bantamweight classes respectively. Urijah Faber squared off in a knock down, drag out brawl for the ages with former UFC lightweight champ Jens Pulver. The bantamweight title fight was between two fighters I have only read about previously. Miguel Torres and Masakatsu Ueda went three full rounds before Torres closed Ueda's left eye completely stopping the fight before a fourth round could begin. Both fights set up what should be amazing sequels assuming the contenders can make it through their return bouts.

One last note, Anderson Silva now sits a top UFC middle weight throne that can not be cracked. Sherdog's monthly ranking has Paulo Filho, the WEC's champ, ranked number two and Robbie Lawler, Elite XC's champ ranked number five. I wonder how many Silva vs Franklin 3's, 4's and 5's it will take before the UFC goes fishing in the minors for an actual challenger.