A Few Pearls of Wisdom

Well, I'm only 23 years old (almost 24) but I feel like I still have a few nougat filled morsels of wisdom that I can pass on to a lot of people. Enjoy...

1. Rules are usually rules for a good reason and yes, they do apply to you. - A lot of times, people think that rules somehow don't apply to them. I see this all the time at work. People carelessly take a Jamba Juice into the theaters even though it's posted in 3 inch letters not to. This almost always results in a large carpet cleaning job. They blatantly cross caution tape and wet wax signs in order to tromp through the hallway, leaving their size 9's imprinted in the otherwise glassy floor wax. But I guess the most blatant abuse of a rule was witnessed by me this morning on my way to work. Imagine my surprise when I looked up at Y Mountain in the early twilight to find it on fire! What happened was no mystery to me. Obviously, some geek decided to light fireworks on the Y in honor of Pioneer Day and shot a roman candle into a dry tinder-ized bush. The fire spread from the bottom right corner of the Y to cover about 1/8th of the mountain face. Here's a tip... Next time, when the firework stand says don't shoot off fireworks on the mountain... DON'T DO IT!!

2. Global Warming is real. - If you don't believe me on this one, go ride your bike behind a bus for 15 seconds.

3. If you see a movie on the opening night, DON'T talk about it except the following subjects: who acts in it, if you liked it or not, if it was scary, the amazing graphics, and if you would see it again at full price. Nobody wants to know how so-and-so kills who's-it. They don't want to know what amazing trick the protagonist does on a unicycle to save the damsel from the mutant cheese blob. Just keep it to yourself. There are great things called journals and tape recorders that would be glad to listen to you. But seriously..... I had the whole beginning of Batman: The Dark Knight ruined for me at work this past week by one kid who's seen it twice already. Show a little respect.

4. If you don't know how to do something, ask. - There's a kid who really has this one down at work. Yesterday, he was asked to sweep the floor. He said ok, but then asked, "After I sweep it, what do I do with the stuff I sweep up?" I guess he's never used a dustpan before... Now, he may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he figures out what he needs to do and then he does it.

Most who read this blog have probably already mastered these traits. But I know that you know people who haven't, so spread the word.

Book Review: Positively False

This is the book written by Floyd Landis stripped 2006 Tour de France winner. The subtitle of the book is "The real story of how I won the Tour de France". The first half of the book is a general biography showing how he got into pro cycling. The second is about the Tour doping accusations. Starting out the book, I knew that it would be all about how the claims were preposterous. The events are laid out in chronological order and are very detailed. I sometimes wonder how authors can remember word for word what was said to them or by them, but that's getting off topic. I really enjoyed the storytelling.

The book really takes off after the Tour when he is accused of doping. I'll come right out and say it,... I believe that Landis should not have lost his title. I'm not saying that I'm positive that he didn't dope, but his team of supporters found mistake after mistake in the testing and procedures. The arguments made by him and his defense team are very viable and after reading I feel like the test was botched beyond a reasonable doubt and that his result should not have been deemed positive. There are a few main points which are explained in detail throughout the book and in pointing these out, Landis questions both the procedures, desires, and accuracy of WADA and the USADA, the world and united states anti-doping agencies.

It's a great read and leaves you with both the evidence and defense for you to make up your mind. Again I give a 3/3. (Maybe because I find the subject matter so interesting)

First Crash

Well, there is a first for everything, and today is the first time that I have crashed on my new bike. I'm actually kind of embarrassed by it too. You see, I'd like to say that I was soaring down a steep road when a car pulled out in front of me. I'd like to say that it was either bail on the side of the road or eat a big fat delivery truck tail pipe...But I can't. All I can say is that my stupid pedal clips were strapped on too tight.

I was out on a ride around and through BYU campus when I decided that I had better be prepared for my big bike trek tomorrow to Saratoga Springs, 25 miles each way. So I pulled off the road next to Outdoors Unlimited to pick up some spare tubes and a water bottle. As I stopped my bike on the sidewalk, I pulled my right foot out of the pedal strap and began shifting my weight to my left side. Simultaneously, I pulled my left foot out of my pedal strap and planted my foot firmly on the ground. I noticed something was wring when my weight continued to shift further and further to the left. Alas, I hadn't pulled my foot out of the pedal clasp. By then I knew I was going down, but in the 2 seconds or so before I hit, I tried unsuccessfully about 50 more times to pull my foot out. I hit the cement, foot still firmly attached to the pedal. I reached down, loosened the strap and pulled it out.

I could tell immediately that I wasn't hurt bad. I basically fell straight over on my side from a complete stop. I began to do a little self examination. Head,...check. Shoulder,...check. Wrist,...ouch! My wrist was really sore. I figured that it was just an impact injury that would go away in a few minutes. In the meantime, I went inside to transact my business. On my way out, I glanced down my leg which was covered in black grease and oil. I noticed a weird red pattern. It took me a while, but I figured out that my front two chainrings had cut my leg up pretty good. Luckily they weren't bleeding a lot. As I mounted my bike, I realized that I couldn't put any pressure on my wrist or squeeze without pain. I continued on my ride trying to decide whether to finish early or go the whole route. I was dead set on ending early, but when I got to my turn, I decided I had recovered enough to finish the whole thing. I hope that you enjoy the cool design that my chainrings left in my leg. I know I will for a few weeks...

Great Start, But Still Depressing,...Sort Of

Well, it's been 5 days now in the 300 mile challenge and as of right now, I have ridden 77.7 miles. That leaves me with 222.3 miles to go. Shanna and I rode up to Bridal Veil Falls on the Fourth of July, which was such a nice ride that I wanted to do it again. So I did it again today. The ride is very flat (except for the portion right next to Wymount which is very steep) and can go fairly quickly. The ride is 19.7 miles long, which added about 40 miles to my total in just 2 days. If I ever fall behind in my goal, this is a ride that I can catch up with. It is not difficult at all to do daily.

The only depressing part of my start this month is that today the Tour de France started. That's not depressing in and of itself, I actually am excited to follow the action this year. The depressing part is that today's stage was 197.5 kilometers long. That is equal to around 123 miles. So, while I've been working on my goal for 5 days now, the riders in the tour rode farther than me in one day. Not even a day. In 4 hours. Today I rode the 20 mile trail in just over an hour. That means that if I had ridden it four times for a total of just under 80 miles, the other tour riders would still be 40 miles past me. I guess it's not so much depressing as amazing how fast tour riders really are. And their Stage 1 ride involved climbing up mountains too....

ASICS' 300 Mile Challenge

18.16 down, 281.84 to go.

That's right, only 282 miles until I finish my race. I have entered the ASICS' 300 mile challenge. "What is that?" I hear you ask... Well it is exactly what it sounds like. Basically ASICS is sponsoring a contest through www.mapmyrun.com that encourages people to get in shape. There are three challenges. 1. The cycle 300 miles in a month challenge, 2. The run 100 miles in a month challenge, 3. The walk a marathon in a month challenge. I decided to try my luck with challenge number 1. I'm pretty excited about it too since I have a new bike that is pretty lightweight and fast. It's by far the best bike that I have ever owned and I want to make it worth my money. Basically, if I complete this challenge, my bike will have cost less that 1 dollar per mile ridden on it. (The website keeps track of stuff like that)

Anyways, seeing as my commute to and from work every morning is about 1.8 miles total, if you round that to 2 miles and multiply by 5 days a week and 4 weeks a month, that comes to a total of 40 miles, leaving 260 to be ridden by me to complete the challenge. I think that I can do it. I've been reading the Lance Armstrong book which really got me interested in cycling as a sport. Not that I'm going to go out and try to become a professional cyclist or anything, but I will do more of it. Now I'm reading about Floyd Landis, the Tour de France champion who had his title stripped from him for doping allegations which he adamantly denies. It's pretty good. Look for a review of it when I finish.

Check back on the blog for updates on how far I've ridden this month. Ill try to post regularly so you can keep up on my riding. (Not that you would even want to) It's like following the Tour de France, only I will take a month and not three weeks, and I'm way slower than them, and my rides are easier, and there is only one rider, and it's not a race....I think you get the point.

Book Review: It's Not About the Bike

This book is an autobiography written by Lance Armstrong (winner of the Tour de France 7 consecutive times) and it has the subtitle "My journey back to life". The book details Armstrong's childhood and early years as a professional cyclist, his battle with cancer, and his first Tour de France victory. The book has a very strong message and is very inspirational. In describing what he went through he illustrates that we all have our challenges and that we can overcome them if we put our mind to it. I was pretty amazed by the description of his cancer treatment. Before reading, I really didn't know what chemotherapy was. I thought that it was where they shoot you with radiation... I think that now, I can sympathize a little bit more with cancer patients and survivors. Another thing that I really enjoyed was the description of his actual Tour de France win as well as other races. He seems to remember them very vividly and I was sucked into the action. The book is also very good at informing the reader about the sport of cycling.(Traditions, rules, vocabulary, strategy, and many other aspects of cycling) I give it a rating of 3/3 and recommend it to everyone. The only downer is that he talks his wife up a lot throughout the book but ended up leaving her sometime after its publication.

Book Review: Shadow of the Giant

Shadow of the Giant is the final book in the Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card, although there is talk of another book being published in the future. I felt that it did a very good job of tying up the loose ends while continuing to hold my attention. New events kept unfolding throughout the entire book although I could see everything heading towards the finale. Like in all of his books, Card excellently relates the reader to the feelings and emotion of the characters, especially in the conclusion of this story. I've never cried while reading a book before, but this one probably brought me the closest. Not in a mushy or cheesy way though.

The story was very interesting as were all of the others in the series. While it is the final book in the series, the author left many things unfinished which I presume will be tied up in the forthcoming book Shadow in Flight. He left the hero's future as well as that of a newborn baby being raised by an enemy to the imagination of the reader for now at least. It's a very good read that sparks personal thought on government, war, and families. I give the book a 3 on a scale of 3.

Guessing Contest Prizes

I recently submitted a prediction of where I thought that my cousin, Bryan Gillespie, was going to get called to on his mission. I guessed Italy, and I was right. It wasn't the correct mission, but since nobody else guessed the correct mission either, I won by default with somebody else. Congratulations to Bryan, by the way.

Today as I returned from a long day in the salt mines, I checked the mail and there sat a large shoebox addressed to me. Promptly, I opened it and discovered that contained therein were a few prizes from the guessing game. Following, you will find a list detailing each item that I received:

1. A small Italian flag. Good old green, white, and red...Wasn't there a sub sandwich commercial about how those three colors make you hungry?....I don't remember what food chain it was though...

2. A box of Spaghetti. How did Aunt Yvonne know that Shanna and I were out of food? I'm still trying to figure that one out... And it was the good stuff too. It actually came in a box!! Wow!

3. A fork. Now, you may think, "A fork, huh? cool." But this is no ordinary fork. It's a spaghetti fork, which spins the spaghetti all up for me using an electric motor which is powered by two AAA batteries. So you all can see just how cool it actually is, here are a few videos of the fork in action...

Thank you Uncle Paul and Aunt Yvonne for the lovely prizes. And thank you Bryan, for getting called to Italy. That's awesome. I hope that you have a fun two years or so eating spaghetti with motorized forks. When you get home, you will be able to teach me a thing or two about how to correctly flip the switch in mid bite. (I had some trouble with the food falling off of the fork)

Random

JASON BRAAAAUUN!!!!

Book Review: Shadow Puppets

This book is the third in Orson Scott Card's Shadow Series which is a parallel series to the Ender's Game Series. The Shadow Series follows the events playing out on earth following the destruction of an alien civilization by a group of children trained up to be the greatest military minds alive. The main character of the series is Bean, a boy who's genes were illegally altered as an embryo resulting in unlimited brain growth. Along with this added brain power he also continues to grow physically.

This book continues the story of Bean after he has rescued other battle school graduates and friends from the evil influence of Achilles. However, with Achilles still in the world, Bean and his friend Petra are not safe. Shadow Puppets follows Bean and Petra as they try to find a way to get rid of Achilles, who has risen in power over China and many other nations. Many other battle school graduates also rise to the top of their home countries as tensions rise and war appears imminent. At the same time, Peter Wiggin, the Hegemon of the World and brother to the famous Ender Wiggin, seeks to use Achilles to accomplish his own purpose of uniting the world under a single governing body, the Hegemony.

Shadow Puppets definitely lived up to my expectations and kept my attention from start to finish. Although the pages were more commentary and dialog than actual action, you would think the story would be boring. The strategy discussed and story taking place, while being very detailed and deep, seemed so simple and easy to comprehend that I still felt very involved as a reader. I enjoyed reading pages on strategy and plans and then being filled in on how the plans worked with only a paragraph or a few sentences in the next chapter.

Bean is still as interesting as can be as he struggles to cope with his impending death and feelings for Petra. It is also interesting to see how Petra can manipulate him due to his admiration and love for her. Eventually this manipulation leads to one of the main story lines of the book.

One letdown was that I thought that Shadow Puppets was the last book in the series, when in fact it is the next to last book. As the story began to wind down, I realized that there were just too many loose ends to tie up in 30 pages or so. That kind of bummed me out. It's actually downright annoying when you expect something to finish and then it turns out that the story goes on. Kind of like when church is supposed to be over, but that one old guy in the ward is rambling on about something totally unrelated to the lesson and he just won't let up either because he doesn't know what time it is or he doesn't care what time it is. But you want to go home to catch the second half of the Suns game...

Overall, I highly recommend this book as well as the whole Ender and Bean series to anyone who enjoys reading but sometimes gets bogged down in the middle of a long book. The books are all about 300 pages and very easy reads. They are very entertaining. Anyone who enjoyed Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow will thoroughly enjoy this book as well.