You may wonder: what qualifies something as "helmety goodness" anyway? Is it just the helmet? Or does someone's face need to be obscured, so that dialog must be simulated with mere head-bobbing? Well, we here at Helmety Goodness Fridays are all about inclusiveness, so I guess just the helmet is okay. Others may not be as forgiving as I...
Ever since I started riding around Pasadena on a 2,500 plus dollar bike (there's motivation for you: You spent how much??!! You better ride it!), one of my goals has been to climb the Lida hill in my big chain ring. The Lida climb is a good measure for fitness, since it is almost exactly a mile long, and averages a 5.7% grade. A good time for the climb is anything below 10 minutes; pro cyclists can do it in under 4 minutes. Since my bike's drive system is a double chain ring, with 9 gears in the back, I have 18 "speeds" to handle the road. The smaller ring is usually used for climbing, and the big ring is used for flats and sprinting. Since I'm a small guy, I concentrated on climbing, but every few months, you need to sacrifice climbing speed and form to build muscle. The big ring is the best way to do that, which I've been concentrating on for a month. Legs got bigger, cruising speed increased, as well as the specific cruising gear, so now it's time to get the climbing muscles built up. So, I tried the big ring up Lida today, and 8 minutes later, my small goal was no longer a goal, but an achievement. Yay me! Now I get to do that for two weeks. Damn you, expensive bike!
With today's strong finish in the Individual Time Trial, and Levi's ITT domination, Astana will win the top two podium spots in the Vuelta a España by a commanding margin. But here's something very interesting pointed out by the Velonews article about Alberto's 46 second lead over Levi:
Even more interesting is that had the Vuelta not offered time bonuses, as was the case in this year's Tour de France, Leipheimer and Contador would have tied for the overall.
Contador earned 58 seconds in bonuses, including 40 seconds in his two stage victories. Leipheimer earned 12 seconds in bonuses, from his second place at Fuentes de Invierno, but didn’t earn any bonuses in his two time trial victories.
That's right. 58 minus 12 equals 46. Wow.
In honor of "Talk Like A Pirate" Day, MSNBC.com listed their favorite video game pirates, and I was heartened that they actually listed the best pirate of all PC gaming of all time. Yes, I AM talking about Guybrush Threepwood! It's only too bad that it's almost impossible to play the hilarious games of the Monkey Island series on today's computers. Yar, I be waitin' fer an X86 emulatorrrr! Also, for tips on talking like a pirate, check out last year's post.
For the current incarnation of Red vs. Blue, a new character was introduced: Agent Washington. His job is probably the most bad-ass in the RvB universe, recovering the AI units which are the main villains in the story. And, he does his job without any backup. So, you can imagine, battle scenarios which may seem a little daunting to other Spartan units are just little hiccups on the road to completing his assignment. Yeah, he's just that good.
It's often been said that the vice president of the United States of America has only two jobs: breaking a tie vote in the Senate, and to inquire on the health of the president. So really, that one vote can be really important, especially for a lone senator, and even more especially when that vote counts to override a presidential veto. However, veto power in Halo 3 is based on simple majority voting, but is no less important, particularly when you have to stop the mad, power-hungry demands of an ultra specific custom game.
In case you've been living in a cave, let me remind you that there's an election going on. And the difference in numbers between red and blue has never been closer. It really might come down to just one vote. Oh, wait. You think I've been talking about the American Presidential election? No, no, no. When I talk about red versus blue, I really mean Red vs. Blue. Hmm, they may have something to say about voting in elections too...
