drilled into me

Ok, so I'm going to have to admit just how much of a marching band nerd that I truly am. I'm not saying that being in a marching band makes you a nerd, to the contrary. The respect that was afforded to me on the campus of Ohio University when I was in the Marching 110 was amazing and I gained non-nerd status at the time. However as time has gone on, I've reverted in my ways and rejoined the ranks of being a nerd. How you ask?

As any person who marches knows, you always start with your left foot so that the downbeat is always made when that foot hits the ground. It was drilled into me so much that its hard to get that out of my head. Throughout my years of marching (high school and college makes 7 years plus the 3 that I was the assistant band director when I was in California makes it an even 10 years), one thing that has always amazed me is how people can get out of step and not know that they are. For me, its just too hard to walk out of beat and just as hard to not hit the downbeat with my left foot. And tonight was no exception.

I was at the gym tonight, on the elliptical trainer, groovin' to the beat. I've stacked my media player with tons of fast paced music that keeps my feet moving at a substantially higher rate than they would if I were not listening to music. But what I noticed tonight made me accept my marching band nerd-ness. I found that no matter what, I was always trying to keep in sync with the music, just like when I marched. Not only that, but I would alter my cadence to ensure that I was getting my left foot to come down on the downbeat! It just felt wrong to have my right foot coming down when I knew that it should be my left. It must be all those years of Pete Ulrich drilling it into my head that left foot = downbeat.

So thanks Pete, you've managed to make my workouts a head game as I attempt to synchronize my feet properly to the music. And I'm probably the laughing stock of the gym as I make that transition because I know I'm not graceful and look as awkward as a middle schooler trying to kiss a girl for the first time. But hey, at least I know I'm a nerd and can live with it, even be a little proud of it because I am a white guy who's got rhythm, in some elementary form...

drag your knee

For those who aren't familiar with how fun this picture is, you won't understand why I've posted this shot. There's something to be said for taking a motorcycle through the curves and leaning it WAY over, to the point where your knee is close to draggin' on the ground. You can feel the excitement pulsating through your veins as you hover above the ground and gently torque back the throttle. You exit the corner, accelerating your butt into the back of the saddle, trying desperately to wipe the silly grin off your face so you can concentrate on the next curve just ahead.

Ahh, the joys of motorcycling...

change in u.s. politics

Congrats to the Dems, you've won back control of the House and the Senate after 12 years of Republican dominance. But this take-over, what does it mean? Somethings to consider...

First - the Democrats of recent have been known as the party without a spine, wishy-washy flim-flams who don't have the balls to stand up with an agenda of their own and get stuff done. Now that the Dems control the Congress, what will they do? I have the feeling that the American public isn't going to wait around and see if you can finally get your shit together. It was because of the lack of decisiveness that helped the GOP get elected in the first place. Time to grow a pair and put the country heading in the right direction.

Second - the right direction doesn't mean having American troops stage a race to see who can get out of Iraq the fastest. I agree that going into Iraq may not have been the best of ideas of President Bush (unless you look at this 'regime change' as a way to lock in an oil source) but pulling out troops just yet is going to lead to bad things. In the absence of a superpower, the vacuum left behind if American troops leave the country will probably produce a bigger threat to America's national security. Leave the troops there but there has to be a better exit plan than the one that is in place at the moment. Dems - its time to grow a pair and tell the CinC in the White House that he needs to get his act together with the troops he commands. There has to be a better strategy for progressive troop withdrawal that still leaves the Iraqi people with a country not mired in civil war.

Third - American politics are just that - American. I'm tired of reading of how the world reacts to our political arena and how everyone is a critic. Ya know what, if you don't like America, don't deal with America. If you don't like the way that Americans do business in the world, then do something about it. America is the superpower in the world right now for a reason, because we have the strongest economy with the greatest spending power, and a vast array of natural resources that drive the country. We also have the greatest military of the era and have spent billions upon billions to make sure that we have one. We are the mightiest because we worked our way to this position and if you don't like what happens in America, then do something about it. Seriously, if you don't like what Bush (or any American president) does, then create your own 'regime change'. Just be prepared to deal with the world's strongest and best funded military (which is at the direction of the Commander-in-Chief, the President). If enough countries are really that dissatisfied with how America does things, the US regime could be overthrown - just know that its going to take a war in which many countries are going to need to work together to overthrow the current administration (not just Bush's admin, but any admin) and that there are going to be a lot of casualties. The 3rd Reich was once a mighty power that did a great many things that people didn't like. Eventually the world had had enough of the antics of the Reich and overthrew it. The same thing can happen to the US and probably will one day. But until then, if you're a Frenchman and want to bitch about politics, complain about your own damn country. If you're a Cuban and want to voice your opinion about a dictator, speak up about your own dictator. If you're a North Korean - you've got enough problems to deal with considering the whack-job that is in control of your country so don't even think of talking shit about us. American politics are American and I don't want to hear how other countries want to see a change in our government. Worry about your own country and let the Americans deal with American politics.

I'm done with the rant for now, just needed to vent (especially that last part). Carpe Diem Dems, 'cause you may not get a second chance...

wrong side up

I was asked by a friend of mine to recall my first time "off" the bike - meaning how did I crash. So I wrote down the story and send it to her as she had sent me a story of how she put a Yamaha R1 over a cliff. I thought I would save this story for posterity by putting it up here on my blog. And since its been a while since I've updated, this also serves a secondary purpose (keeping my readers with material).


The year is 2000 and I've been riding for about 5 months. At the time I owned a Suzuki Intruder 800, my first cycle and a nice bike to learn on. It was the end beginning of July, the 3rd to be exact. How do I remember the day so well? Easy - it was the day after my sister got married. The family and friends were gathered in a small town called Idyllwild in the mountains just outside of Palm Springs.

I was taking the bike home to where I lived (near Joshua Tree, CA) and enjoying the curves of the road as I descended down the mountain. A few miles into the trip, a blue BMW Z3 came up behind me, rather fast. I was going at my own pace and I remembered from the MSF training course that the quickest way to crash was to ride outside of your ability range. So I took my time, rode the bike to the best of my ability. The driver of the Z3 wanted to go a bit quicker and decided to pass me on a 100 yard straight-away on the road. As he started to pass, we both noticed an oncoming car. Rather than hit the brakes hard and slow to return to his spot behind me, he moved over back into the right lane, forcing me off the road.

I was fortunate enough that there was gravel by the side of the road as if there wasn't, I doubt I would have slowed down enough to avoid going off the side of the mountain. The front wheel washed out in the gravel and both the cycle and I hit the ground going somewhere around 30-40 mph.

The BMW never slowed, never came back, heck - never even touched the brakes. The oncoming car saw the incident and stopped to help me up. I had smashed the windscreen and lightbar on the bike, my jacket was a little messed up on the right side and my pants were slightly shredded. The bike and I both stopped about 4 feet from the guardrail, both a bit tattered but still in decent enough shape to make it home.

I ripped off the windscreen and got back on the bike after a short break. I got home and put the bike in the garage. My entire right side of my body was bruised but I didn't tell anyone except the girl I was dating at the time. If my parents or sister knew that I had crashed on the way home from her wedding, they would've freaked. So when my uncle punched me in the bicep the next day, I grimmaced and complimented him on how strong he was, not mentioning that I was in true pain from the crash.

But the safety gear did its job and I rode away. And any crash you walk/ride away from...