Le Tour 2007: Yellow Jersey Wins a Stage

broderic on July 11, 2007

Ever since Miguel Indurain won his 5 tours in the early 90s, the way to win was a big show at the time trials but keep contact in the mountains. This continued with Lance Armstrong with his seven wins, but adding kicking ass in the mountains instead of staying with the pack. It’s been a while for the yellow jersey to go out and win a stage that should’ve been for the sprinters.

Fabian Cancellara goes into time trial mode in the final kilometer to take out the breakaway and beat the sprinters to the line to take the stage for the yellow jersey. It was awesome.

Except for the breakaway. Two of the riders were away since the 6km mark. The stage was the longest in the Tour 236kms. That a long way to lose it in the final kilometer. They spent that final kilometer jockeying for position. Did they not care about the peleton closing on them? Perhaps. Too much playing not enough doing. That’s unfortunate.

What a strange stage this one was. The cyclists took six hours to finish the stage. My Tivo didn’t even record it, because the finish occurred past the designated time. They lollygagged for quite sometime letting the breakaway go. Yet, they kicked it into to gear to make the stage exciting in the end. Except for the breakaway.

On the Road. iPhone in a bag

broderic on July 11, 2007

When I had that lame ass motorola phone, it was no problem to keep it in the back of my jersey. With an iPhone, I get scared that it will pop out of my jersey on a bump and that’s the end of it. So lately, I’ve been packing my light jacket to act as a buffer for the iPhone so that it sits tight in the jersey. I’m little heavier, but a little saner. I also have been packing it in a sandwich bag to keep it from getting too moist. It’s strange.

Anyway, I’m about at 400 miles so far this year. I am aiming for 450 by the end of July, which should be easy if I keep up my pace. If I can get past 500 this month, I’ll be really happy.

I need to also think about getting a longer stem. My position on the bike feels too upright. It needs to be stretched out. I’m going to go with a 120cm stem. There’s a 100 cm stem on there now I think. It would also be good to lower the stem as well. That means cutting some of the fork down. It’s gotta be done soon so that I get use to the position.

It’s been a fun year so far.

Le Tour 2007: Day one

broderic on July 8, 2007

I’m blogging while watching the first stage of Le Tour de France. My legs are somewhat stiff from riding 30 miles yesterday. It was an adventure!

Anyway, vive Le Tour!

UPDATE: Robbie McEwan the ozzie rocket comes from back of the pack to take the sprint. Can anyone stop this guy? Watching the replay and he comes flying through leaving Tom Boonen and Thor Hushovd bobbing in his wake. Damn! That guys a fast finisher!

UPDATE 2: Even better than the sport are the podium girls. I love ’em. Girls in white and navy for the winner of the stage. Girls in yellow for the tour leader. Girls in green for the points leader. Girls in polkadot dresses for the King of the Mountain. Girls rock!

Ratatouille

broderic on July 8, 2007

At yesterday’s party, people wondered why I wasn’t blogging more since I got my iPhone. It’s awesomeness not withstanding, I don’t like to do it from the smallish keyoard. But to get back on the daily blogging track, I guess I should post my review of Ratatouille, which is only two weeks late.

At the end of the movie, I turned to The Seed and said that Pixar has a problem. Now it’s not the quality of the movie, but a marketing one. It’s a very good movie, but to market it as a fun ride for kids is selling it short.

Ratatouille centers around Remy the rat that has an uncanny sense of smell which leads him to wanting to cook. He makes it to Paris and the kitchen of Gusteau’s a former 5 star restaurant trying to get its reputation back. With the help of the dishwasher, Remy, brings back the gusto to Gusteau’s.

It’s an amazingly solid story with ebbs and flows that arise naturally. Nothing seems to have been added haphazardly. Like a good dish! It’s very mature story. One that would be hard to keep the young kids in line to watch. Maybe the animation will hold their interest, but after awhile the themes of the movie will go over the young one’s head and he’ll want to go eat some fried chicken fingers.

One thing about watching rats in the kitchen, it makes you want to puke. The advances in CG turned some of the shots of the rat warren rather disconcerting. It’s a cartoon but it looks so real. Gross.

In the end, this is another Pixar homerun. It’s made Brad Bird a very famous director who imbues stories with humanity. It’s rumored that he’s going to direct a live action film. It’s too bad, because he’s shown that the animated film can bring about some good storytelling.

4 of 5 stars.

Happy Independence Day!

broderic on July 4, 2007

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

It goes on to list the offences that the King had done to the colonists. If I read it right, it could also be assigned to our one king, the fucktard, George W. Bush. Revolution!

Transformers

broderic on July 4, 2007

Transformers. I’m posting this review out of order because The Seed has a neat little review. In it, he hesitates to give it a 4 star rating. I’m much the same way.

For the first hour, I was completely enthralled enjoying the thrill ride that Michael Bay created. It was completely fun. The audience was into it as well. Holy Moses, they cheered for the trailers! I don’t know if it was nostalgia or what but I was getting into it. The story was really flimsy and makes no sense. In fact, it’s rather stupid, but I wasn’t going to let that distract me.

The story starts in the beginning with an cube (energon?), which on a distant planet had the autobots and decepticons fighting over for supreme rulership. It flew to earth where it has been for thousands of years waiting for Col. Witwicky to find it. Needless to say his descendants have to protect it from falling into Megatrons hands. Fighting ensues.

See. Stupid.

But the first hour was still fun. Even though it had to set up the plot, I got into it. I think Michael Bay learned a lesson from his last few outings. Ditch the gravitas and have fun. It reminded me of Bad Boys. And that girl was a Tea Leoni clone. Lots of running. Some of the action sequences was very hard to understand what was going on as if they knew the CG was going to look like shit so make the robots nothing but a blur of metal. If only we had gotten better views of the fight.

Then, the movie fell into a rote action flick once Optimus Prime showed up. It bogged down in the middle especially a scene involving hiding these huge robots from the parents. And it slowly became boring. With the action scenes hard to understand, it also slightly became frustrating. I wanted to see robots bashing robots, but I saw streaks. Streaks!

This movie will make bank judging from the audience reaction. It will spawn a sequel. Don’t let that get in the way of enjoying it now.

3 of 5 stars. Could’ve been 4 if it didn’t get slow.

John Rodgers is credited with some of the story. He also wrote Catwoman. He blogs at Kung Fu Monkey. Read him.

Before the fall

broderic on July 2, 2007

UPDATED!!
Before the fall

This is a pic I shot with my new iPhone. Looks cool. I originally sent it from the iPhone, but didn’t really know how to post pictures directly to my blog. Now I know.

Sent from my iPhone