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They say a picture tells a thousand words,
indeed, some truly do.
Photo: Super Sport Images
The first respondent with the correct 1000 words will win a prize.
There are 100 days left of 2010.
How are you going to spend them? How have you been going with your new years resolutions? What are 100 things that you could do before the end of the year?
Here are mine:
1/Run in a fun-run
2/Have a long, hot bath
3/Start watching ‘The Wire’
4/Build something
5/Buy a fish
6/Fly a kite
7/Read my Gough Whitlam biography
8/Invent a new pizza topping
9/Sell something on eBay
10/Eat something that I have grown
11/Finish the World Cup on Wii on the hardest setting - playing as Vanuatu
12/Drink 12 Litres of water in one day
13/Upgrade to a Smart Phone
14/Play 18 holes of golf
15/Eat a vegemite and cheese sandwich
16/Go hiking with my wife
17/Convince my wife to go hiking
18/Buy a cushy queen sized air mattress to go hiking with so that my wife will go hiking with me
19/Finish a jigsaw puzzle
20/Finish the other 80
So that is a start, any suggestions for me? Have I inspired you to do something?
Photo: Anne-marie-ros
Well it has finally arrived, the greatest annual sporting event kicked off last night in style with a 8km individual time trial in Rotterdam. The crowd was still buzzing from their impressive comeback against Brazil in the world cup and they were in the mood to see some impressive cycling!
Well impressive cycling is what they saw!
Tony Martin, a German time trial champion was dancing on the pedals as he set the benchmark at 10 minutes and 10 seconds, a time that no rider could beat except for undeniable world time trial champion, Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara.
Fabian Cancellara - lightning in lycra!
They call Cancellara Spartacus and rightly so for he simply demolished the rest of the cyclists. Not only was he the only cyclist to beat Marin’s incredible time but he did it with more than 10 seconds in hand!
He is lighting in lycra!
Cancellara has won the prologue time trial four times in the Tour de France.
The other impressive rider on the day was ‘The Boss’ – no, not Bruce Springsteen, he is lame! I mean the big Texan Lance Armstrong, who rode a fantastic time trial to place 4th, 22 seconds behind Cancellara, beating his nemesis, arch-rival and mega jerk Alberto Contador. Contador is the clear favourite to wear yellow in Paris this year, but Armstrong has drawn first blood and shown that he is still someone to contend with! Contador is 6th, 27 seconds behind Cancellara and 5 seconds behind Armstrong.
Tonight the Tour will head to Brussels and will cover a testing 225km. It will be a long flat stage with a few small bumps along the way, Cancellara should be able to hold onto the yellow if his team rides well, supports him and close down any breakaways.
Expect lots of attacking tonight, lots of cyclists will be keen to get into jerseys early on for the glory, money and reputation! Should be an exciting stage.
In other news, my wife baked me this cake as a delicious surprise Tour celebration! Isn’t it fantastic!!
There is a girl at my work who recently put up a massive poster of man, surrounded by jungle and snakes, trying to get free.
Bear Grylls
It had below it: “Man Vs Wild. Bear Loves it when Mother Nature Plays Rough“
I was a it weirded out by it not having ever heard of Bear Grylls or Man Vs Wild. My friend was a bit shocked and proceeded to inform me that it was an awesome show and that I should watch it.
Well I am often easily persuaded by enthusiasm (I recently had a filet o fish on someone’s recommendation – though I don’t believe it was as good as it was talked up to be). Man Vs Wild however not only lived up to my expectation, it exceeded it.
The shw is basically this:
Bear Grylls, an ex British SAS soldier and adventurer gets dropped into the middle of nowhere with the clothes on his back. He usually has a water bottle with him and will sometimes have a knife and a flint. That is pretty much it. He then has to find his way to civilisation while a camera crew follows him so that we at home can learn what to do if we ever get lost in the wild. This means that Bear is often jumping into frozen lakes or quicksand to show us what to do if we are ever in that situation.
Bear will eat raw fish, maggots and really whatever he can find. He will use his own urine in a whole range of clever ways to stay alive. He will make rafts and shelters and bridges with whatever is around him.
He has been in the American Rockies, French Alps, Ecuadorian Rain forrests, Hawaiian active volcanoes, Northern Sweden in the arctic circle and the Moab dessert. He has even once taken Will Ferrel with him on his trip, that was Men vs Wild.
The show is not only highly entertaining, it is also very educational!
Yes, before you say it, there is a camera crew following him, but they are only allowed to intervene if he is facing imminent death! But without the camera crew the show would be pretty boring…
Anyway here are some cool clips to wet your appetite!
I highly recommend this show, even Liz loved it and Liz things the outdoors and camping etc is for idiots.
My wife Liz is a year 1 teacher, which is great for me because anything that I couldn’t understand, slept through or wasn’t paying attention for I can re learn from her!
This is especially great when it comes to grammar. Like many in my generation we wasn’t taught grammar. And this of course was decided by the generation above my own, they probably thought that they’re grammar-less curriculum would be fine!
Well their are unfortunately a few small grammatical issues that plague my generation. And unfortunately the ones who complain loudest about our lack of grmar knowledge are the generation who decided not to teach us!
Anyway, after such a shame shifting introduction it is time to get on to the reason I am talking about all this. I found these videos left open in youtube on Liz’s computer and checked them out.
Talk about fun and education seemlessly combined! Sure they have a New York state education department circa 1982 feel to them, there still awesome!
I finally know what pronoun is! It is not a word that begins with a capital letter like Jeremy or Australia! They are nouns! A pronoun is like ‘it’, or ‘we’ or ‘him’ and ‘her’.
Maybe if you watch these videos you will learn something too! At least you will have fun in the process.
my wife tells me that she watched this video 3 times with her class!
After the second time she asked:
“Now what is an adjective?”
Kid 1: “a bus?”
Liz: “no sweety, not really”
Kid 2: “Camping with your family?”
Liz: “no dear lets keep thinking”
Kid 3: “When you take things out of your bag?”
Liz: “no dear”
Kid 4: A bear?
Liz: “not really”
Kid 5: “Camping with your family?”
Liz: “No! How about we watch the movie again?”
And for the Simpson fans out there, you may recognise this as the inspiration for one of their finest jokes.
So on Thursday night I bought a new bike, it is something that I have been looking into for a while and when I came across this bike I decided that it was time to go for it! My old bike has served me well these past 12 years but it was time for an upgrade.
I purchased my old bike when I was younger and much shorter while I was in year 8. I have grown a lot since then and so to ride effectively I had to have my seat post all the way up, with only about 1-2cm in the frame. Over time this of course bent the very top of the seat post holder and so now my seat post is very loose if it goes higher than a few centimetres. It meant that I was riding in an awkward position for my knees as I was so low and so as I was heading to work I was causing lots of strain on my knees. Furthermore it would continually slide down so I would have to stop every 3 kms to pull it up – a difficult process considering the frame was bent.
Anyway all this adds up to a shiny new bike for Jeremy!
It is a racing road bike, full Shimano set, 24 gears, clip pedals and Shimano clip in shoes. Liz liked it for the colour (racing car red and white – the two fastest known colours!)
Lance Armstrong called his book: ‘it’s not about the bike’. However I am really really hoping that it is about the bike and Johan Bruyneel gives me the nod for Radioshack in this years tour! Dreams can sometimes come true. But considering that it is an entry level road bike and I haven’t raced in years it is probably more realistic to expect the nod for the 2011 tour!
But then again, it is racing car red and white! The fastest colours!
Cell S2200
My Bike!! It lives in our apartment and NOT in the our downstairs storage area where it might get dirty or feel lonely. Liz wont let me take it to bed with us! Lucky I promised to love her for better or worse and forsake all others.
Specifications
Frame: Alloy Frame, Very Rigid Replaceable Dropout.
Fork: Cr-mo fork.
Stem: AlloyHandle Bar: Alloy Handlebar
Head Set: Integrated Headset
Gear Set: Shimano 24 Speed Road Bike Groupset.
Front Derailleur: Shimano
Rear Derailleur: Shimano
Shifters: Shimano STI
Sprockets: Slick shift sprockets by DNP
Front Chain Rings: 50t-36t
Crank: TruVativ ISOflow
BB Set: Cartridge BB set.
Chain: KMC Z chain
Brakes: ProMax
Rims: Alloy deep-v rims for extra stiffness
Hubs: Joytech quick release hubs
Spokes: Stainless steel
Tires: Kenda 700Cx23C
Pedals: VP toe clip pedals
Seat Post: 27.2x300mm micro adjustable
Saddle: High quality sports seat
Weight: Approx 10kg (depending on size)
The best thing about it? reduced from $900 to $550! Bargain
Frisbee in the rain: awesome!
So Liz and I just got back from our regular frisbee match on a Thursday night. We had most of the regulars as well as a lovely new couple.
There are few things more fun than playing a good game of sport in the rain! Your clothes stick to you as they get wet, your sweat mixes in with the rain and your face is having a constant battle between hot flushes and cool rain!
Anyway this is just a quick post, I am at my parents house but they’re on youtube looking at Susan Boyle videos – prescious family time!
Now my Mum is berrating my Dad for never having seen it before:
Mum: “It’s because when you get those forward emails you don’t open them!”
Dad: “Well I just don’t have time I’m too busy!”
Mum: “I haven’t heard from Bronwyn in a while”
Dad: “No I saw that she posted on someones facebook. Ah I have an idea….. [types into facebook] ‘I wonder if anyone in Engalnd is reading this comment.’”
Mum: “That is a good idea I might do that too!”
So by now you are probably full of turkey, ham, prawns, potatos and a whole range of other delicious christmas treats. I know I am. Liz made 4 massive salads for 8 people! I think she has been hanging with my mum too much. On top of that we had heaps of prawns, a leg of ham, a whole lot of Turkey, highlighter seafood stuff and a lobster! As well as food we had bon bons with those ridiculous jokes, including:
Why can’t you play cards in the jungle?
There are too many Cheetahs!
What do lawyers wear to court?
Lawsuits
and my personal favourite..
what did the Martian say to the petrol pump?
“Get your finger out of your ear when I’m talking to you!”
It was quite the lunch!
Now our bodies have rightly decided to minimise all non-essential energy use and redirect it all to digesting. Liz and Rosemary are playing Wii bowling, Greg and Tim are asleep and James is cruising the net.
I figure that lots of you must be in a similar situation, and so Ithought I would share this video with you. You may have already seen it before, but it is still quite good. My mum originally showed it to me… so you know it must be good if it has the Jenni Smith seal of approval!
In other news I must apologise fr not blogging in a while, I have started a new job and haven’t had much time to commit to maintaining the old Micaiah Sells Out… but I will be getting some interviews back on the agenda in the new year as well as some more Tour de France posts and maybe some stuff on how much I hate Christmas.
I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
Merry Christmas.
It all started with what can only be described as a 14 year old girl phenomenon: ‘Twilight: New Moon’
Liz and I went to go see it with Tim and Beth, and I’m not going to lie, it was quite disappointing. It would be more accurate to describe it as a 2 hour D and M than a movie. The regularity of Jacob taking off his shirt may have blinded the average 12 year old girl to the numerous plot holes, but it didn’t blind me! Anyway, call me crazy, but I am not hanging out for it to come out on DVD.
Secondly Liz and I went to go see ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ at the movies last week. This was a movie that we were both very much looking forward to. But sitting in the movie I was just bored by the story, it was simply strange, and slow, and obscure. Liz decided that it must be presenting a psychological view on child abuse and ‘escapism’ techniques. I didn’t think it was nearly that clever. Now I was wondering how they were going to flesh out the original story into a movie length film, and quite frankly you have to give the creators kudos for being able to make what is a very short book into a very long movie… but then again, if what you’re doing is boring than it will always at least seem long!
Finally Liz and I borrowed ‘My Sisters Keeper’ from the video store. This of course is based on Jodi Picoult’s classic novel by the same name. I read the novel a few years ago and just drank it in! Picoult really engages you into the story and sucks you into the world she creates, unfortunately however, the movie did neither these things. It failed to make the viewer understand the Campbell character – a very quirky, funny and important character in the book. It is almost like they secured Alec Baldwin and gave his characters just enough lines to put his name on the cover of the DVD! That was a disappointment. Plus, the movie dramatically changed the ending, which was sad because the ending in the book is really clever and a good twist. I won’t ruin it, but go read the book.
Anyway, I haven’t blogged in a while, and this blog is a bit of a ‘downer’ so sorry about those things! In other news you should check out these blogs, they are m sister and her friend who are backpacking around France!
