Case of the Mondays

I picked up some sort of bug over the weekend which has had me at about 50% strength this weekend, even with Dad and Denise in town. Not fun. Here is some stuff that is fun:

What Does Oil Doubling in Two Years Mean? (Hint: every other time, it meant recession) (The Big Picture)

Short white guy makes his case for NCAA dunk contest. Wow. (Deadspin)

NFL and NFLPA gave themselves another week to hammer out a new labor agreement (Deadspin)

Trials bike stuff is always so cool (via Adventure Journal)


A Hill in Spain from chris akrigg on Vimeo.

Another sweet video from Early Ups (via AJ)



Late 2010 from Andrew Whiteford on Vimeo.

Friday Links: Paternal Edition

Dad and Denise are in town this weekend, so I'll keep it brief:

More Insane Urban Mountain Biking from Chile (Deadspin)

NFL and NFLPA agree to 24 hour extension (WSJ)

Funny Scared Girl Running Her First Rapids in a tandem kayak (Youtube via Adventure Journal)

Links (per Tinker's request)

Alberto Contador has been stripped of his 2010 Tour de France title after evidence of using PEDs. This all started when they found abnormally high levels of plastic in his blood. It's official, every cyclist is doing it. (Outside Mag)

Ray's MTB is an indoor mountain biking gym with terrain to please every style: freeride, bmx, or even XC (my favorite). Granted, is only economically feasible in certain areas that are too cold to ride 6+ months per year, but Cleveland and Milwaukee have their very own slice of mountain bike lore. (Adventure Journal)

Former NFL lineman and current creator/head of Crossfit Football (crossftfootball.com) on the 13 Iowa Hawkeyes who got rhabdo (Talk to Me Johnnie)

Best in bounds pass ever (Deadspin)

Apparently I'll be enjoying Meat Week here in London soon (Meat Week)

Remember the terrifying velociraptors in Jurassic Park? They were actually Deinonychus'. Surprised you didn't know that already (Smithsonian H/T TBP)

More troops lost in Iraq/Afghanistan to suicide than to combat (Congress.org H/T TBP)

Hulu looking at changing its business model (WSJ)

Mossberg: the road ahead for tablets (WSJ)

EU and UK face stagflation. Likely central bank tightening is strengthening the currencies against loose monetary policy in the US.  (WSJ). Reminds me of this video (thanks Blake)



IHOPs are ridiculous. I RIDE THE RIDE (Deadspin) NOT SAFE FOR WORK (some language at the end)


The Provo brothers go Snurfing (Hat tip backcountry.com blog) After the jump:

Links and Video

Urban Meyer is Stepping Down? Again? (Deadspin and ESPN)

Sexiest Woman alive (according to one magazine: Roberta Mancino) says skydiving naked isn't that sexy (Outside Online). From her interview on the new Conan show.

Does travelling in and of itself add value? Also, the ideal commute time is apparently 16 minutes. I disagree. (Freakonomics at NYT)

The Daily Bike for yesterday's Adventure Journal is just a cool picture of the Dolomites. Just a cool picture (Adventure Journal)

AND the coolest rope swing of all time (Adventure Journal). See video below or click the link for back story.

Weekend Update: Turkey Feast

Unfortunately, the limeys don't celebrate our pillaging of North America like we do back in the states, so that left me in the office for all of last week. On the bright side, I get the bragging rights of having been a producer on Thankgiving (I'm clearly searching for the silver lining, cut me a break). 

On Friday, however, I was invited to a friend's house where he and his wife cooked up a Thanksgiving feast worthy of anything back in the states. Three heaping plates of tryptophan-goodness later and I was happy. One guest mentioned he had never seen one person eat so much in his entire life. Full of good food, bourbon  AND the center of attention? Brad = happy. Definitely missed the family and friends at home, but this was certainly a great substitute.

Friday night (after the feeding frenzy) we went to a friend's housewarming party, met some cool folks and stayed out late. My food coma would not be denied forever and I eventually made it home to collapse. Saturday and Sunday were fairly typical: gym, college football, borough market and church.

LSU-Arkansas was a highly entertaining football game AND Wake beat the venerated Commodore-mats of Vanderbilt. Not exactly bowl-bound, but I'll take the W.  Nothing made me happier than Nevada beating Boise State though. I sent at least 4 people text messages that read only: NEVADA!!!!! Anyone else getting excited for Auburn-Oregon? 

Weekend Update: Nada Mucho

Nice slow weekend around London. It was cold, but saw a little sunshine. Ran some errands, read, played video games, went to the gym, bought all my grass-fed and exotic meat for the week, etc. Good to have a weekend like that every once in awhile.

Woke up at 4am Saturday morning to watch the last few innings of the Rangers beating the Yankees!! Also, went to the London ski show, which was just a bug tease since the season doesn't even start over here until January. Still provided good fodder for the imagination and wanderlust.

Met up with some friends Saturday night at an ESPN-zone type sports bar (Sports Cafe) to watch LSU-Auburn. Cam Newton is a beast. It'll be interesting to see who comes out of the SEC this year as likely national title contenders.

...And the Cowboys suck. Romo broke his collar-bone last night. Maybe now he'll have more time to focus on his passion: being a full-time Dallas playboy. He's better at that than football anyway.

With the GBP/USD strengthening, the price of gold is down significantly in terms of GBP on relatively little news. I guess markets like the UK's austerity approach more so than the US's hyper-focus on QE and stimulus. Something about spending your way to prosperity or borrowing your way out of debt... Anyway, it's killing the pace of business, so most positive momentum has been scrubbed out and now its back to me trying to grind out a little profit every day.

FSU favored by 20 over Deacs???

I know we're not playing very good football, but Wake is a 20 point underdog to FSU on Saturday. Check it out here at Bodog Sportsbook (not entirely sure you can view it in the US).

With an over/under at 63, that means the projected score is Wake 21.5 FSU 41.5. Ouch

Wake is not a defensive powerhouse

Well this was almost cool: I went to bed early so that I could wake up early and catch the end of the Wake Forest - Stanford game (via some sketchy internet link). Kickoff was at 11:15pm eastern time from Palo Alto. When I woke up at the start of the fourth quarter, Stanford was up 54-24. And it is only getting worse. It is currently 68-24. We look like a high school team.

Thanks Defense!

ACC Power Rankings

Its almost fall, which means its almost time for college football. ESPN has already relegated Wake to the bottom of the ACC power rankings. With Riley Skinner having graduated, I can't hardly blame them. We have gotten some very talented recruits in the past few years and should be helped by a swarming defense.

No marquee names, but talent all-around and a defensive mindset? At the bottom of the preseason ACC rankings? Sounds an awful lot like 2006 to me. Not that I'm being optimistic or anything.


Now if only I can find a place to watch the games... Done.