alex chiang: web 6.0

Actually, we should figure out if there is a way to elect Moby to the position of Prime Ruler of the Earth. He makes good music, and now we find out he also has some brilliant ideas (nytime registration needed).

Veloswap was yesterday and I scored some major deals on bike parts. It was nothing short of amazing.

Here’s a list

• unknown brand used SPD pedals: $5
• Bontrager used set of SPD pedals: $5
• used Specialized road shoes: $10
• used long sleeve Izumi Pearl jacket/jersey: $10
• Wellgo new SPD cleat: $10
• DeFeet new arm warmers: $5
• new Buff (headwear): $5
• new Shimano mtb shoes: $45

And the icing on the cake was finding a pair of used Anasazi climbing shoes (velcro) for $5.

Today, I went on a challenging bike ride with some much stronger riders. I got dropped in the first 100 yards on the 9 mile, >3500 ft. elevation gain climb, which I kinda expected, but was disheartening nonetheless. It felt hopeless, especially due to the fact that I thought I still had 5 miles to go right before I reached the top.

Surprised, I summited, and then got to bomb down the steep side of Rist canyon, hitting 56 mph. Right at the Stove Prairie turnoff, I was able to see the rest of the group up ahead, and so I hauled ass trying to link back up with the group. It took me about 4 or 5 miles, but I finally hooked back onto their train, much to both their surprise and mine.

It was a costly move, though, as I developed some pretty bad cramps which persisted for the rest of the ride. I finished off the Gatorade I had and shoved down a Clif bar and packet of Gu to no avail. Steve kindly stayed behind and watched after me, even though I told him that I wouldn’t have minded if he just wanted to stay with the others, and for that, I was truly grateful.

After today’s experience, I’ve christened my bike (Trek 7600) “Knife”, referring to one of Steve’s favorite aphorisms of “never bringing a knife to a gun fight”. Unfortunately, a new road bike just isn’t in the budget this year…

You can read Steve’s blog entry here.

Been playing with friendster for a little bit. The idea is cool, although the site itself is a bit slow and flaky on my Mac (using Safari for the web browser). It’s worth giving it a try: here. Sign up and put me down as your friend. Use alex /at/ chizang.net as my email address.

In other news, I had lunch at an A&W fast food joint today. The food was mediocre, but it was the best root beer I’ve ever had. It came out of this weird tap like thing, and didn’t look carbonated at all, but turned out to have just the right amount of fizz. Yum.

Spent yesterday out at Eldo and had a great time. We warmed up on Calypso, and then I had my tricky lead of the day with the first pitch of Tagger. I’m not sure why the guidebook mentions groundfall for that because I sewed the pitch up.

Up until that point, I thought there wasn’t a bad route in the entire canyon. After climbing Spoof, I know now that I was wrong. Wallowing through a pile of pigeon shit on slick water polished rock with tenuous stances and manky old fixed gear for protection is not my idea of fun, and I had the benefit of being second. Ugh.

We finished the day on the west face of the Whale’s Tail and I got to lead the West Dihedral so that our day could finish on a good note.

In other news, I shaved my head again for the first time in a long long time.

Best. Team. Ever.

It’s sweet to once again assert my superiority due to nothing more than having the good luck of being born in NJ and rooting for the correct baseball team. While the rest of the country gnashes their collective teeth and mutter about how it’s not fair because the Yankees have such a huge payroll, I get to sit back and watch my team go to the World Series for the 7th time in 9 years.

That’s a stupid argument anyhow. Of course the best team is the richest team. Why would it make any sense for it to be any other way? Why is the USA the best country to live in? Because we have the most money. Duh.

It’s good to be the king.