Category Archives: jabber

05.15.13
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Today Was a Good Cycling Day

Today was beautiful; let me count the ways:

I. Garmin-Sharp won Stage 11 of the Giro d’Italia. My man, Ramunas Navardauskas, did it. While I’m bummed that Ryder Hesjedal’s too far back to repeat last year’s win, stage-hunting is always a good thing, and I’m used to seeing my favorite team come up as the scrappy underdogs in these big races. :D It makes their successes even sweeter and way more special.

That said, Ryder Hesjedal remains my all-time favorite Grand Tour winner* (Cadel Evans comes a close second) because he’s with Garmin-Sharp (no, I’m not biased), he’s the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour (big, happy way to our neighbors upstairs), and by golly, he’s so laid back and unassuming (unlike a certain Tour de France winner who’ll remain nameless). I hope that, despite not having the form this year, he’ll still be able to win a stage either at the Giro or the Tour.

II. Tyler Farrar wins Stage 4 at the Tour of California, making today a Drunken Celebration Day for us Garmin-Sharp fanpoodles. And good for him, finally getting a good result under his belt – with him being up against Peter Sagan, of all people.

Yay, team!

My bike, Emmy (short for 'Eddy Merckxx EFX-1) no longer gathering dust.

My bike, Emmy, no longer gathering dust. Woohoo and yeehaw!

III. Last but not least, today was my first day back on the bike after a month of being off it because of my Achilles tendon problem. The swelling’s now gone (or at least minimized and rapidly healing), thanks to some anti-inflammatory supplements I’ve been taking that aren’t ibuprofen (Cissus Quadrangularis and turmeric) and physical therapy plus some chiropractic work.

I only went for a super flat, slow-ish, and short route (6 miles at 30 minutes) as per my doctor’s orders, but I was so relieved and excited finally being in the sun again after a month of living like a mole person. Dear God, it was boring, being cooped up for so long. While it’s true that I still tried to put in some (half-hearted) work on my core and arms, there’s nothing like being out there on the road on a breezy, sunny day, with everyone at work, ergo, minimal traffic everywhere.

I didn’t feel anything in my affected ankle until around the 29th minute, when a very, very faint twinge happened in the medial and lateral sides of my left ankle, and that went away after about five seconds. Beyond that, my foot felt quite normal. :D

So it looks like I’m healing faster than what my podiatrist predicted, as I’m back on the bike at four weeks instead of six weeks or later. I’ll be taking it slowly, though, and will be riding the same distance for about another week before gradually increasing my riding time by 10% until I’m back in the game and going after hills again.

And some extra fangirly goodness: Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp, naturally!) won both the Volta a Catalunya and the Liége-Bastogne-Liége. It’s the luck of the Irish, baby!

* Please note that I’ve only been watching the pro cycling scene since 2004. Not a lot of years under my belt, and I’m not as avid a follower as those fans who could whip out stats for every pro cyclist through history without much effort.

05.08.13
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"The First Modern Woman"

Reblogged from The Dish:

Click to visit the original post

Gary Kelly considers the label for Mary Wollstonecraft:

[A]s a self-educated, militantly independent young woman, she set out to become what she called the ‘first of a new genus’, a ‘female philosopher’. Many at the time would have derided this phrase as an oxymoron, but by it she meant a comprehensive social, cultural, and political critic, what we now call a public intellectual, representing women in particular and thereby all of the exploited and oppressed.

Read more… 216 more words

Big fan of Mary Wollstonecraft here (where do you think I got the title Knights of Wollstone from?).
04.26.13
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Physical Therapy, Round One

Egad. First experience in physical therapy today. It seriously felt as though the chiropractor was trying to amputate my left leg with her teeth. I’m now hobbling around with one fully functioning leg because my left leg hasn’t revived from its fainting fit earlier. On the upside, I’m walking – limping – around with kinesiology tape on my calf, starting from the bottom of my heel to about three-quarters of my leg. I feel so athletic and so pro. I could also go for some hard liquor right now because, well, I’m supposed to go through this another five times. At least.

04.21.13
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Well, Hello, Universe

Last week has got to be one of the most surreal weeks I’ve ever had. Good stuff happening in the beginning (new book, hey!) followed immediately by five straight days of what I can only describe as an unexpected and unwanted journey through the devil’s bowels. On a more personal and sentimental level, the horrific week ended on Saturday with a very bittersweet day for me, i.e., the Cosmo fosters have all been adopted. Big, tearful, heavy, and yet happy sigh.

But wait! What have we here?

I was diagnosed with severe tendinitis affecting my left Achilles tendon (almost a tear, according to the podiatrist), which means several weeks off my bike while the tendon heals. Plus several weeks of godawful days on my feet at my day job (so much for helping my foot in the healing process). The only upside to this is taking advantage of the time in order to develop my core further, which will help me tremendously once I get back into cycling.

Thanks to Asher’s posts on his cycling adventures, I’m inspired to dust off my Wobbly Noob Diaries blog series, and I’ll be talking more about my current Achilles Heel problem then in addition to other bike-related adventures.

In the meantime, I’m slowly getting into a rhythm with my WIP, and I’m happy to report that I didn’t waffle over which story to write like I’d done before. I stuck with The Weeping Willow (whose title is now in grave doubt) and pretty much messed with different chapters till I had to delete one and go back and rewrite everything up to that point. Beyond that, there’s nothing much to share here, but I’m hoping that the coming week will make up for last week’s ghastliness.

04.04.13
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And Now Carl Orff’s “Gassenhauer” Makes Ultimate Muse Fuel Number Three

I heard this piece on Pandora while at work on Monday, and I scrambled to find a pen and paper, so I could scribble down the artist and the title. I know nothing about Orff beyond what I got from a quick skim of his Wikipedia entry (though I’m familiar with Carmina Burana), so I’m not an authority on whether or not he had Nazi connections, etc.

All I can say at the moment is how much I’m tripping out on “Gassenhauer” and how much it’s working on me the way “In Dulci Jubilo” and “Barcarolle” worked on me and helped me write two novels. Story muse? Yes, please. Some extra on the side as well. Too bad the piece is so short because I’ll have to abuse the replay button in order to fully absorb the music and keep it in my head while I work on Benedict.

Yes, I’m italicizing that story’s title because it’s on its way to being a novel. Um… surprise!

I’m also going to leave you all hanging for the time being as it’s almost midnight, and I need to go to bed. It’s been an exhausting day. I’ll be posting more about what happened regarding my hoped-for anthology which is now no more and what my plans are for this story and “The Weeping Willow”. This entry’s supposed to be a gleeful squee over one more song that’s really firing up the old muse. So for the time being, I’ll leave you with the video to enjoy.