Cycling book read

broderic on December 10, 2005

I am winding down on my reading for the year and have finished last week, A Significant Other: Riding the Centanary Tour de France with Lance Armstrong by Matt Rendell. This book is part of some of the books I have read about cycling. I am slowly winding down on being interested on the topic. Pretty soon I must stop reading and start riding.

The topic of this book was following Victor Hugo Pena as he was a domestique on the US Postal squad standing guard for Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour de France. That Tour was Armstrong’s toughest tour. He lost a time trial to Jan Ullrich, spectacularly went off roading as Joseba Beloki crashed out in the melting asphalt, toppled to the ground by a spectator, and won it with the least time between him and his competitors in any of the seven he’s won. The book focused on the 15th stage where he fell off his bike then sped on to victory.

What should’ve been a gripping story was ruined by disjointed story telling. Rendell switched from telling Pena’s tale to the history of the tour to Armstrong which made the book not so compelling. I was bored with it hoping to catch some insight to that tour. I wanted to relive the moments of that great tour, but it wasn’t to be. Rendell was telling the wrong story.

C

Narnia

broderic on December 10, 2005

The Chronuicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens this week right before the 8000 lb gorilla, King Kong. Will the christian allegory beat out the gentle giant? With the current reviews of Narnia, it seems to have the edge. Lots of good reviews and hardly any naysayers.

I have watched Narnia. It’s good. Yet, I don’t know if it is a PG movie. This will be a bore to any kid under the age of 8. Lots of talking. The action doesn’t happen until the end, and some of it is downright scary.

Tilda Swinton was perfectly cast in the role of the White Witch Queen. As a youngster, I read the books. Narnia was the best fantasy world for me as a little kid up until I read Tolkien. While Narnia has its charm, Middle Earth has depth and history beyond compare. Anyway, the White Witch Queen of Narnia scared me as a young child. I think she was one of the more creepier villians in the books I read while growing up. Just her iciness was chilling. I can still remember. If you had not read the books, she was introduced in what was basically the prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, The Magician’s Nephew. In that book, she was much younger, and the description of the world in which she was from was terrifying and desolate. She was much a part of that dark world and shows it in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Tilda Swinton is also creepy. Look at her in Hellraiser as Gabriel. Look at her in Elizabeth. Icy. She brings that to the role, and she scared me.

Overall, the movie was good. Don’t bring your young children to it because it would bore them. The battle was cool. And it was overtly a christian tale.

4 of 5 stars

Vampires and such

broderic on December 5, 2005

You scored as Doyle. Doyle. Mysterious. Celebrant. Man in the Know. Sinful. Hedonistic. You may not be a mover-and-shaker, but you rub elbows with them. You also seem to always know more than you are telling. Because you do. You keep things close to the breast for good reason. Not much is known about you and you like to keep it that way. You have a taste for some demeritorious, but not totally unethical, things. Just watch it doesn’t take you too far, you are destined for great things.

Doyle
68%
Giles
65%
Angel
63%
Cordelia
55%
Spike
55%
Wesley
53%
Willow
53%
Harmony
50%
Oz
50%
Buffy
45%
Anya
45%
Xander
43%
Lorne
38%
Faith
25%

What Buffyverse (Angel & Buffy) Character are you most like?
created with QuizFarm.com

I have no idea what all this means. Who the heck is Doyle? Anyway it seems so odd. This quiz pointed out to me via CapitolSwell

Net Meetings

broderic on December 4, 2005

I now know why they have established a net meeting protocol. I have to coordinate putting together a slied presentation for class on monday. And I only have my part done. What happened to the other stuff? We need some collaboration tools online. Tout de suite!

Forever more

broderic on December 4, 2005

Watching the Ravens play. It’s like watching water freeze. Every game they play is a good 35 minutes longer than any other game on tv. Because they suck at passing and they have to pass because the running game doesn’t work, time is always stopping. They help prove the relativity principle.

Good Eats

broderic on December 4, 2005

I know I blogged this before, but since I had virtually no audience then, I should tell you about the wonderfulSun, Moon, and Stars Cafe right in my backyard. Just a quick run out the back door. Go there now.

Quixotic Quest coming in slow

broderic on December 4, 2005

I like to read a good noir novel on occasion, and I like to read pulp fiction too. So when I saw Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid, I figure, “$5.00. What’s the worse can happen?” Let me tell you that this is neither pulp nor noir but just another of Stephen King’s short stories. You’ve read those ones where they aren’t really horror but since he made his name in that genre they get classified as such.

This novela was supposedly a re-introduction of the Hard Case imprint that would focus on pulp fiction. Look at the cover. Look at the titles of other books on that label. They’re all very much pulpy.

Unfortunately, Stephen King gives the reader a plug nickel of a story. The cover promises a femme fatale. The story does not. The cover promises intrigue. The story while having a mystery is not very intriguing. This was a story set up for the CSI crowd. The Miami CSI. You’ll feel cheated days after reading it.

Reading it over three nights just to find out the mystery. And it doesn’t have one. It is a disappointment. And false advertising.

Never judge a book by its cover.

C

Ports

broderic on December 1, 2005

For all you Mac heads, programming nerds, and code monkeys read this article about porting BBEdit from PPC to x86 for the big, unfortunate Apple switch to Intel. Interesting stuff. The most being that it took them 24 hours to make their app cross-platform! Guh!

And that is why BBEdit rulez! As well as programming for the Mac. I need to get on the bandwagon.

Amazing Race: Family Edition Almost there.

broderic on November 30, 2005

It has been a while since I posted about the Amazing Race. Even though this one is not as fun as the other times, I still like the concept and the show. YeeHaw! I can’t stand those Weavers. They are going to win and when they do they shall praise god and heaven. I don’t want to hear it.

This season has not have the jump up and down feel to it. I think it has to do with them driving all the time. There’s no taxis. There’s no trains. There’s no planes. Too much automobiles. They should’ve taken AmTrack somewhere. That would’ve been cool.