Resistance is painful

Apple's niche of world domination can be frustrating.

When shopping for a MP3 player, I chose not to get an Ipod. The main reason was the inability to replace the battery. When I was shopping, Apple was having a brief publicity problem. The first wave of Ipods were having battery problems as they have a expected life of about 18 months. When people contacted Apple to get the batteries replaced, they found out that there was no way to replace the battery, and that they should just buy a new Ipod. This guy actually sent his Ipod addressed to Steve Jobs and found that "Buy a new one" was the company policy. They later changed their policy to charge $99 to replace the battery (now $67)

As I am not a fan of disposable products, I bought a Creative Zen Micro. It has a replaceable battery, and the package actually came with a spare. I have been happy with its performance, and the battery is still taking charges. As it is not an Ipod, 99% of the supporting products out there don't work with the player.

The real problem has been buying songs online. Until recently, Itunes was about the only game in town where you could buy a single song without paying a monthly fee. As my player was not an Ipod, Itunes vast library was no help as the file type is proprietary and not compatible with other players. Thankfully Amazon.com has entered the market and I can now buy MP3 files online.

Except...there are artists that are exclusive with Itunes. I went looking for a U2 song last night and I could only find it on Itunes. In order to get the song, I would need to add the Itunes program to my computer, buy the song, burn the song to a CD, then rip it back off onto the computer as a MP3. My laptop has a nearly full hard drive and is already moving very slowly, so I had no interest in adding another program to gum up the works.

But I really wanted the song. My desktop computer has a new, relatively clean hard drive so I decided to load Itunes there. Unfortunately it is not connected to the internet as the phone jack is dead in that room. So I downloaded the program on the laptop, transferred it to the desktop, and installed Itunes. Since I couldn't get online, I had the wife buy the song on her laptop (she has an Ipod Shuffle, but no cd burner) and I copied it to the desktop. After jumping through all the hoops I was ready to start the burn to CD/rip it back off process.

Except...the song is right-protected. The wife bought it on her laptop and it needs to be authorized for the desktop. I typed in the password and waited for it to unlock, but it needed internet access to complete the authorization. So I dragged the desktop out to the living room to plug it into the wireless router.

Clearly it is time to upgrade from DSL to fiber optic and get the desktop back online. Plus I recently received a free Ipod Shuffle, so now Itunes is set to partially absorb me. The Shuffle is still in the box for now. It is best if we step away from each other for a bit.

Song price 99 cents - but it was no where near that cheap.

Happy Birthday Buzz

Weekly numbers

A little catch up on the numbers for the last two weeks. The week of July 7th was skewed pretty heavily toward biking with the Seattle to Portland bike ride. The following week a hodgepodge as I was out of town. The running and biking were very hilly, and the swimming took place in the Columbia river.

July 7th - 13th

Running: 9 miles
Biking: 229 miles
Swimming: 3/4 mile

July 14th - 20th

Running: 16 miles
Biking: 11 miles
Swimming: 25 minutes

America(na)

A friend asked me to bring along some "good old American rock n roll" over to the 4th of July party we were heading to. I looked at my CD collection, and I wasn't really sure what would qualify. So I hastily put together a playlist to put on my MP3 player. It was dominated by some heartland artists like John Mellencamp and Bob Seger, with some Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Eagles thrown in. The mix opened with Fozzie Bear singing "America" from the Muppet Movie - a classic.

The CD player is still broken in my truck, so for the wife and my latest road trip I had my MP3 player going. We were traveling through eastern Washington farmland and listening to the mix I had made for the 4th of July. After leaving the freeway, we traveled along a smaller country road. The kind that features signs letting you know what crops are growing in the fields your flying by at 50 miles an hour.

In one of the fields there was a father with two daughters and a dog in tow, working the sprinklers for his crops. It was a nice Americana moment with the sun setting in the sky, complete with a soundtrack playing in the background.

Seattle to Portland

This was my 5th time participating in the two day ride from Seattle to Portland (STP). It has become a nearly annual tradition to do this ride with some close friends. Our group has shrunk to three, but there is hope to entice a couple new riders for next year. The ride is still difficult to challenge each of us, but still provide a fun day in the saddle. The STP puts a firm date on the calendar to spend a weekend together catching up as we peddle down the road. It always ends up being a good time.

The ride has grown in numbers each year, and this time there were over 9500 riders on the road. This is simply too many riders to support. Though we improve a bit in fitness each year, it is offset by the increasingly long lines at the food and bathroom stops, so we don't seem to roll into town any sooner. Our wonderful support person (the wife) has provided us with Subway sandwiches the last couple of years, but until we start towing our own porta-pottie, we are still stuck standing in line behind the increasing number of riders. It is frustrating, and unless something changes the STP may fall off our calendar of events.

The Seattle to Portland bike ride is one of those events that becomes a goal for many new bikers. Someday...they think. Roughly 20% of the riders on the road are participating in their first STP each year. There are people of all shapes, sizes and ages out there, and it can be a pretty encouraging community. It can also lead to some chaos on the road with so many different skill levels sharing the road. The Cascade Bicycle Club did a better job of promoting safety, and it was noticeably better this year. There were of course still people not following the rules and making it more difficult for everyone, but that is true of almost any endeavor I suppose.

The heat slowed us down quite a bit this time around. We have enjoyed good weather every year so far, but the temps topped 90 degrees this time around and it really sapped our energy. That beer at the finish line tasted that much sweeter.

Happy Belated Birthday Bill

Kicking a man when he is down

My (our) friends Matt and Holly have been going through a extremely tough time this year. Their baby Annabelle has been diagnosed with Spina Bifida, they found out Holly has an ovarian cyst, their income declined with the housing downturn, their cat recently died, and now Matt has lost his job through downsizing six weeks before Annabelle's due date.

You're Kidding, Right? Is Someone Filming Me?

They could use your hopes, prayers and support as they rise from the canvas one more time, and try to make ends meet and cover insurance costs while Matt searches for a new job.

From the mouths of babes

We were at a party over the 4th of July weekend, and this story was passed on by the mother:

A boy and her mother often took walks around their neighborhood, and would frequently pass by a cemetery. After a while the boy asked what that statue was they kept seeing. His mother explained it to him.

Later, when the boy saw his Aunt he excitedly whispered, "Auntie Diane, Jesus Christ isn't just a swear word, he was a man."

Tour de France

The tour started on Saturday, and it is a little different this year. Professional cycling is under a huge cloud of doping suspicion, and they are doing what they can to clean up the sport.

Floyd Landis, the winner in 2006 has lost his last appeal and has been officially stripped of the win. Alberto Contador, the winner from last year, and Levi Leipheimer who came in third, are on a different team (Astana) this year. Team Astana withdrew from the Tour de France in 2007 after their team leader Alexander Vinokourov tested positive for blood doping. Even though all the riders and team directors are new this year, and the only thing the same this year is the sponsor, Team Astana was not allowed to participate this year.

Several teams have put in place their own controls to try to root out any cheaters. Team Garmin-Chipotle tests its riders every 14 days, and is using a new method.

"...rather than testing for individual drugs, the testing establishes baseline biological markers for each rider—blood composition and hormone levels. ACE can quickly identify any variance from this baseline without needing to identify a specific doping product. By watching for variances from a baseline, the testing eliminates the cat-and-mouse game in which athletes and their doctors constantly search for new performance-enhancing drugs before tests have been invented to identify them. To use an analogy: by watching for changes in baseline biological markers, the testing agency does not have to look for the needle in a haystack, but instead only has to identify changes to the overall height of the haystack."

One other bright spot in this year's Tour is that there are two American teams competing. Both Team Garmin-Chipotle and Team Columbia are competing in their first Tour de France. This is the first time that two American teams have competed in the same year.

I'm still Tivoing the 5am broadcasts. The doping scandals has certainly taken a bit of the shine off the event, but I still love it. Unfortunately there will be that little doubt in the back of my mind when a cyclist breaks away and does an incredible ride. Hopefully last year's Tour will be the one that brought about sufficient change to save the sport.

Tour de France - Brand New Start

Happy Birthday Phibbs!

Weekly numbers

Kind of a recovery week after the half marathon on Sunday.

Running: 9 miles
Biking: 0
Swimming: 3/4 mile.

Thank you.

4th of July

There is a wonderful entry over on Sean's blog regarding the Declaration of Independence and the history of the 4th of July.

I rolled out of bed early this morning to volunteer at a local 4th of July 5k. Originally I was supposed to help register runners, but at the last minute they needed me out on the course. I was stationed on Main Street just before the last turn to the finish line. My job was simply to make sure they made the turn and that the spectators stayed out of the way.

Main Street was lined with lawn chairs in preparation for the holiday parade.

The parade wasn't going to start for another hour and a half, but people got up early to stake their claim. The 5k started at a local park, and there were several families there at 8:00 am to secure a good picnicking area for their 4th of July celebration. Holiday fun takes planning, dedication and some early risers.

A little later as people started to filter in for the parade, this gentleman passed by handing out mini flags.

He was all smiles and clearly proud to be there. There were a few other veterans in uniform or with a cap emblazoned with their ship or unit. I also met Sol and George:

I had a chance to talk to George while waiting for the runners to arrive. He and his wife have been coming to the parade for about 20 years. They both worked for the police department in some capacity, and he chatted with officers and the mayor as they passed by. When people had questions about the parade, and they came to me since I had an official orange vest on, he was happy to help them out.

A wonderful start to the holiday. Happy 4th of July everyone!

Happy Birthday Kelly

July 3rd

Woke up to a wet world. We had some thunder and lightening last night accompanying our first rain in a while. It is probably for the best with the fireworks flying around tomorrow.

Many cities in Western Washington have banned fireworks. Safety, fires, etc. We technically live outside city limits in a pocket of unincorporated county. This means we've been hearing fireworks going off for the last few days. Of course tomorrow it will be much crazier.

Our street really does it up. We moved into our house four years ago a few weeks before the 4th of July. We had our housewarming on the 4th, and we were treated to quite a firework display. Our neighbors obviously had gone to one of the Indian reservations and got some of the good stuff. They had a table set up in the middle of the street with mortar-like cylinders to launch the air shots.

The last couple of years we have gone over to a friend's house for the 4th and have missed out on the show. The debris in our yard the next morning let's us know what we missed.

I may water the lawn one more time tomorrow.