Dans le Tour, c’est l’anniversaire de Bastille

It’s July 14, therefore it’s Bastille Day. And another day on the Tour. It’s the monster stage of this year’s Tour” Pau-Hautacam. It’s got two hors category climbs, the Tourmalet and the ski town of Hautacam.

What a battle on those two slopes! It brought the GC contenders to the fore and showed who the pretenders are. Cadel Evens, Frank Schleck and the American, Christian Vande Velde in the former, and Valverde in the latter.

That’s just awesome.

Let’s go for a ride up the side of a mountain!

Quote of the Day [7.14.08]

Dr.Sergio Ramos
c/o UNICAJA BANK
Madrid,Spain
Email: sergioramos2414@yahoo.com

Dear friend,

Business Opportunity

I am Dr.Sergio Ramos, head of international banking of UNICAJA Bank a private banking based in Madrid, Spain. I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer, and an investment he placed under our banks management 3years ago. A few years ago, the client, now deceased made a deposit of 10.3 million Euros. I was assigned to manage this account and turn over same over various investments. I followed his instructions and invested his funds in high yield areas and have been monitoring the investment.

At Maturity of the investment, I made attempts to reach him and get his go ahead to turn over the investments but got no response. I made intense but futile efforts to locate him. I consequently passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations department which soon confirmed that my client had passed on. A person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack in Cannes, South of France. The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to come forward to claim his estate. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment from conventional
processes. In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin.

In the field of private banking, opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence,accounts are rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This bank even gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces
of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in this case; our now deceased client died without leaving a will.

My official capacity dictates that I am the only party to supervise the investigation and the only party to receive the results of the investigation. It is quite clear now that our client died with no known or identifiable family members. This leaves me as the only person with the full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit of the deceased client. According to normal practice, my bank will by the end of this year broadcast a request for statements of claim. Failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit to the Government. I am prepared to put you forward as next of kin and approve same with a view to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation.Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in the ratio of 60/40 in my favour.

This will not be too difficult, counting on the fact that I will be on hand to guarantee the funds are released to you, using my official position.This can be done with your cooperation in a few working days.At your request, I will provide further information.It is of paramount importance that you do not contact me via the bank mailing system or switch board
telephones about this project as all official lines are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with our total Quality Management Policy. I will therefore be inclined to feign ignorance if this happens as i await your response via the above contacts.

Sincerely,

Dr.Sergio Ramos

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

While TheSeed was sleeping and Marge was fighting to keep awake, I was struggling to block the headache induced by new car fumes. We were all trying to watch Hellboy II.

This one had a lot more action. It was quicker paced and it had more laughs. I was missing that one dude from the first movie, but he was written out because he stood out like a sore thumb. Hellboy is still a great character and Ron Perlman is the perfect actor for that role. Abe Sapien gets no love from the writers, but watching it you would’ve guessed the ending anyway since it will always be that way for fate-intwined twins. Johann Krauss was hilarious. He is a cartoon character what with the voice of Ludwig von Drake!

I don’t know if this was del Tormo’s Hellboy or Mignola’s. I can’t imagine Mignola writing something featuring that menagerie of creatures. They were all too vivid. I haven’t read the Hellboy comics too much, but they don’t seem to dabble in ancient mythological history of elves, but of Lovecraftian design. The monsters were more del Tormo.

3 of 5 stars.

Cycling With No Safety Net

You know I bought a couple of new rides this year. I had to pick up the old one at my mom’s. Since my main bike is illin’ with a broken spoke, I had to go on a ride with the single speed PaddyWagon. One gear. And I think there were some slight hills from my home to my mom’s.

I thought about it yesterday and was slightly apprehensive. Can I climb the hills without my granny/low gear? The route is releatively flat, but the only one that would’ve been scary was the hill on Walnut. I think it’s about 0.2 miles but probably a good 6-8% grade.

So, I get on the road with the PaddyWagon, and it takes a while to warm up. It’s a slight uphill on Pleasant and I’m panting a little bit. Hmmm. Nothing bad for a bit. Once I get on Gwynnbrook, it’s a steady climb, but I keep a nice tempo and speed of about 13 mph. I get to the hill on Walnut, and grind up it, out of the saddle, and feeling it, but I make it through. Not bad without any lower gearing.

Maybe, I should ride my normal ride without the low gear safety net? I’ll see…

Quote of the Day [7.13.08]

“It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can’t get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.”

John Hinderaker, PowerLine Blog, July 28, 2005

Link of the Day [7.13.08]

When I was a wee lass living on Cedarhurst Drive, I had a birthday party in which I received a model kit of the USS New Jersey. It was an easy thing to assemble, and I loved to look at it and play with it with my army men.

One day my older brother got the HMS Hood as a model kit. I have no idea why. So we tried to put it together, but failed miserably. We didn’t understand the concept of glue. The hull never stayed together properly as we tried to assemble it. Then we hit on a brilliant plan. (I would like to say he did, but I have to include myself as a source of blame in this dunce affair.) We decided to melt the plastic together. For this, we used matches.

“Hold the hull together,” he said, “while I hold the match underneath it and melt the two sides.” Brilliant last words.

As you can tell, it turned into a disaster. The flame burned through the plastic putting a big hole in the hull. My brother became so mad at the outcome that he snatched the model from my hands and snapped it in two.

There went our model ship building craze as we knew that we didn’t have the patience to build one.

Yet, thirty years later, I feel like building model ships. Here’s a link to one that would be cool. I guess I have to learn what modeling is all about.

http://www.hlj.com/product/FUJ42145

Historical footnote: the HMS Hood was sunk in naval combat with the German battleship, Bismark, on May 24, 1941.

Big in Japan

IPhone looks to be a winner in Japan. All those naysayers seemed to be wrong as there are lines as long as there are here in the states.

(Read before DaringFireball linked it)