If some of you are wandering this direction a bit confused by what happened to my brothers weblog, I’ll try to break it down for you.

This morning Brian woke up to a flood of concerned emails and a weblog that would not load. Well, it would load, but it gave a cold heart stopping message stating that Two Wheels and Other Things had been removed. Technically, yes, it has been removed but what they could have said is that his weblog is actually under review because Blogger’s automatic system flagged it as a SPAM site. A simple “Temporarily Unavailable” would have been nice. When asked to comment on the situation, Brain had this to say:

Poop!! (Translation: I’m very frustrated and disappointed in this service. Apologies all around, I hope to have things back up and running soon.)

A quick search on Google indicates that Brian isn’t the first legitimate weblog to get snagged in Bloggers auto SPAM net. Even Bloggers own site says their system isn’t perfect and they continue to fine tune their SPAM bot algorithm to avoid false positives.

Because this system is automated there will necessarily be some false positives, though we’re continually working on improving our algorithms to avoid these.

The hard truth of the matter is that this is the price you pay for using someone else’s free service. A free hosting service attracts the not so tech savvy who don’t want to spend the time figuring our how to set up their own domain and weblog (not realizing just how easy it really is). It also attracts a bad element that forces the service to take such drastic measures to keep the service legitimate and honest. Though you pour time and effort into your content on these types of services, in the end you don’t own any of it.

So as we wait for Two Wheels and Other Things to come back online, I will be helping Brian get ready to make the transition to his own domain and the blogging platform Wordpress. There he will be held to only his own Terms of Service and the only automatic system scanning his website for content will be the Google index.

My brother Brian hosts a weblog that chronicles not only his cycling team races but also his various heart stopping training rides. We grew up in a cycling family but I parted ways with the hobby in my early teen years. My parents learned that putting a ten year old in spandex and then parading him around on a road bike in front of the neighborhood kids probably wasn’t the best idea.

This past weekend, Tara and I went out for a ride on our freshly tuned bicycles (thanks Brian). I felt it appropriate to record all aspects of our epic training ride much as Brian does. Keep in mind, I haven’t really ridden a bicycle in several years.

Breakdown:

Breakfast: Brunch at Macrina - One large orange juice, one glass of water, fried egg sandwich, red potatoes drowning in ketchup and two leaves of salad to make Tara think I ate part of it.

Maintenance: Pulling the bikes out of my trunk knocked the chain off the chain rings on both bikes. Paper towel in hand, I silently cursed the chain back into working order.

Ride Food: Peanut Butter Power Bars and a SIGG of water.

Ride Route:

After finally figuring out how to get my feet in the toe clips we were on our way. Starting at Tara’s apartment, we took off towards the Woodland Park Zoo. The ride started on a gradual uphill grade which was a great way to get the heart rate going. We weaved through some of the side streets to avoid a busy intersection. Moving at a leisurely pace, Tara would comment on the occasional bunch of colorful tulips, a comfy looking porch swing and state that victorian architecture doesn’t really do much for her.

I took this side street opportunity to work on my intervals, you know, working on my explosiveness to break from the pack. This, unfortunately, didn’t last long because I was told that I was difficult to talk to when I’d randomly sprint off in the middle of a sentence (see: element of surprise, booyah).

Eventually, we came to the steepest part of the ride and I quickly began to regret my earlier interval training. Tara left me in the dust with my legs burning and heart rate on the verge of failure; ten minutes into the ride and I had already started to bonk… hard. Lucky, the hill was only about fifty yards and rounded into the Woodland Park Zoo parking lot. Thankfully there were some sprinklers turned on that I (the resourceful type that I am) used to cool off and regain my composure before I caught up with Tara who was already waiting for me at the zoo’s south gate.

While Tara bought tickets for us to gain access to the new Flamingo exhibit, I was able to secure our two bikes and two helmets using two cable locks. And just like dad taught me, which I feel applies to even cable locks: “If you can’t tie a knot, tie a lot.” Those bikes weren’t going anywhere.

I’ll spare you the zoo details because this is supposed to be about our training ride. So, all I will say is that the Flamingos were visually one legged, very pink and the hawk lady’s hawk flew away during the birds of prey demonstration. Seriously, it did, they had to stop the show to go look for it. Awesome.

After the zoo, we took a back trail through Woodland Park towards Greenlake. My keen sense of direction only took us the long way twice on the trail, but we eventually made our way down to the lake path. Moving counter clockwise in the bike lane - we dodged, nearly clipped and sped past the weekend walkers who thought they owned the entire path, share the road… err, path people!

Halfway around the lake we made a pit stop at Gregg’s Cycle. This time I only used one cable lock, Tara left her helmet on the sidewalk and I wore mine in to look all bicycle professional cool, “Yeah, I ride, you too? Sweet.” Though I’m sure my disheveled cargo shorts, my bow legged gait from chafed boxer briefs and my slight wheeze gave me away.

Anyway, I went in to buy a bike pump because I had been riding on two tires that my brother swore were at a high enough pressure. Needless to say, every time I hopped a curb I first felt the slight cushion of my shocks followed by the hard crunch of my rim meeting the asphalt. While I talked bike pumps with one of the sales people, Tara tested out all the different types of bicycle bells and horns, three inches from my ear. She even struck up a conversation with another customer on how brass sounded better than regular metal… who knew!

Soon we were on our way back around the lake and we decided to hit the QFC for a little dinner grocery shopping. We each strapped a shopping bag to our handle bars and wobbled our unbalanced bicycles back home. For dinner we made soft tacos, rehydrated with Bud Light and relaxed on the couch watching Analyze This while enjoying a bowl of ice cream on a warm evening.

All in all it was a killer five miles, not counting the walk through the zoo. Tara and I had a lot of fun, we found a new activity we both enjoy and I did it all with out wearing spandex… and that lady lost her hawk.

This Saturday marks the tenth year since my father lost in our battle against prostate cancer. It’s difficult to believe that so much time has passed from something that feels like it happened just yesterday. There hasn’t been a day that has gone by in those 3,650 days that I haven’t thought about my father in one form or another. It’s become easier through the years to accept that it happened, but I will never accept that it had to happen so early.

My first article on this weblog is something I wrote when I finally came to terms with loosing my father a few years ago. And today my brother wrote a great article marking the ten year anniversary over at his weblog.

“In the midst of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.”

- Albert Camus

How ’bout them skins dad.

ImprovEverywhere is a large group of people who perform interesting mass public stunts. Above is a clip of one of these “missions” in Grand Central Station in which they had over 200 people participate. All at one exact moment, all 200 people froze in place for five minutes. The reactions of the people not in on the mission were stunned at what was (or wasn’t) happening. It must have been a surreal sight to witness in person…

The Golden Gate Bridge is in a constant state of being repainted. As soon as it’s received the last stroke of a new paint job - the the whole process starts over again the next day; a year round process. Something I would expect from any landmark in any major city. Unfortunately this isn’t the case in Seattle, Washington.

The Space Needle has not had a professional cleaning since it was first erected for the Worlds Fair in 1962 (despite being re-painted in 1998 and 1999). Covered in years of dirt and grime, the famous needle has been receiving a thorough cleaning each night over the past week. Working only after the restaurant and observation deck close and hanging precariously from the awkward structure - three high rise cleaners armed with a garden hose and pressure washers are cleaning away years of grime.

“One thing we say is, it doesn’t necessarily have to be fun to be fun. There are definitely times when I’m spinning in free space and I’m like, holy cow this is terrifying and I can’t believe this is my job,” said Matt Henry, rope technician.

All said and very impressive, I wouldn’t go walking around the Seattle Center at night any time soon:

… it’s a big job with a huge challenge - the crews aren’t using any soap. That’s because what they spray up ends up going down to the Seattle Center and the EMP. Splotches of grime run from the beams under the restaurant all the way down to the base.

KOMO 4 News has the entire story with pictures posted on their website.

For those of you who might have missed it, a music video created and directed by Dennis Liu went viral on YouTube last week. Now, I’m not a big fan of linking to YouTube (purely personal aesthetic reasons) but this clip isn’t on Vimeo. So, here we are…

Set to the music by The Birds And The Bee’s with their a song called “Again & Again,” Dennis showcases just about every aspect of an Apple computer.

For Apple, I figured it was a cool idea that shows the beauty, style, and most importantly - the function of Apple computers. People think they’re really cool looking, and I totally agree, but they are also wickedly powerful machines.

At the young age of 23, Dennis is currently a producer at an advertising agency. He was looking for a way to break into the creative and directing scene which, as he states, is a very competitive industry. Dennis wanted to create a commercial music video in the genre and theme of what he feels Apple Inc. would create themselves.

The video titled “Apple Mac Music Video” took about a month of planning and three months to execute.

TUAW has recently published an interview with Dennis about his video and the response it has received so far.

Without my calendar I would be lost, there’s no question. I live by my iCal on my personal laptop and even more so since I purchased an iPhone. Having my important dates moving between my mobile phone and laptop has become an essential part of my everyday life.

Up there with iCal is the simplicity and ease of use of Google Calendar. It has had the ability to subscribe to my iCal feed from my personal computer for quite some time; a handy feature when I needed to check up on an important date. Though one draw back is that any iCal subscription in Google Calendar is read only; a frustrating limitation when I need to change a date, time or create a new event.

Obviously, even though I like iCal and Google calendar - it’s not very productive to use both when the conversation between the two is not a two way street. Especially when you have at least six different calendars like I do.

Enter BusyMac with their system preference BusySync. Loaded with a slew of features to help you sync, subscribe and publish your iCal with various calendar protocols and services; BusySync has finally allowed me to fully connect my iCal with Google Calendar. I can add an event in Google Calendar and have it show up when I get home in my iCal and vice versa.

I was reluctant, at first, to drop the $25.00 on something that was only a preference pane. But during the trial period I found how convenient and reliable it really was to have a connection between Google and my iCal. I also found a coupon code (Hint: Daring Fireball) that knocked off five dollars. I always suggest doing a google search for coupon codes before you buy something online, example: BusySync Coupon. Doing this always makes it a bit easier when you find a deal on something, and it’s no different than looking for coupons in the Sunday paper.

My Flickr Pick is back with an all to awesome sci-fi twist. I know I’ve been all over Flickr the past week or so, but a website that holds millions of images is bound to turn up several humorous imagery gold mines - and this one does not disappoint.

Cindi Geeze has been taking pictures of her storm trooper figurines in what would be described as normal everyday snap shots, if it were real life. At dinner, in the snow and during valentines day; Cindi’s imagination has been able to convey emotion through the mask of a storm trooper toy… as weird as that sounds.

I can tell you all about what is there, but as they say, a picture says a thousand words; so you best check it out for yourself. You can find it on her Flickr page in Storm Troopin’ which has already been viewed over 100,000 times as well as her other toy shots. You can also find an interview with Cindi on the Star Wars Blog.