I crashed. Bad. I got a concussion, cracked my ribs, and was a bloody, bruised mess. I was knocked out on the trail for around 15 minutes. I was such a mess that my wife tried to prevent me from going in the house after the wreck until I "hosed off."

I have no idea what happened in the crash. I was in a little section of 3-5 foot drops that come one right after another and remember as I approached one that I was going a little too fast. The next thing I remember I was feeling stickers in my back from the bushes I was laying in. I tried to stand up, got woozy and sat back down. Finally, I got up, checked myself out to make sure I was entact, and checked my bike. Everything seemed normal, so I continued to ride. I rode another 1/4 mile looking for turn and I couldn’t find it. (Turns out I did find it, but it didn’t look like what I was looking for — in hindsight I realize now that I was completely disoriented.) So I retraced my steps (and thanks to my GPS), found my way home.

That night my wife was pretty worried when I came home, despite instructing me to hose off, but I had promised to take her out so we went to California Pizza Kitchen. As we left the restaurant, she got really worried when I asked her were were were. Nothing looked familiar and I asked in all honesty. She said we were on our way to Ralph’s (the local grocery store), to which I answered, "Where’s Ralph’s?" But I refused to go get checked out. We went home and I helped shampoo the living room floor.

That night, vertigo set in. I get vertigo from time to time. But it usually occurs if I sit up too fast from a laying down position in the wrong direction. This vertigo just kind of happened with an audible "pop." So I went to the emergency room the next morning, got a CT scan, and found out I had a concussion and a cracked rib. Nobody can figure out why there was a pop. Maybe it was a dream.

I still have the video of the ride in my mind except for the actual wreck, which has been spliced out. I can’t remember a thing that happened, which is a little disconcerting. Later, I got my GPS log out and it showed the GPS didn’t move for 15 or so minutes at the point of the wreck. I remember being there for about two minutes. I think I was knocked out, sprawled on the trail still clipped to my pedals. It was the middle of a hot day in the mountains above Irvine regional park and I was riding alone… so I think I just lay there on the trail completely blacked out.

Yeah, good times.

This could have been my head. The orange circle shows where the helmet should be smooth, but is now cratered.

The orange arrows show where the helmet cracked. It was even worse inside.

Right in the middle, at around minute 00:56, the time continues, but my distance doesn’t. I was somewhere, but not moving for what looks like about 15 minutes.

I got this notice from WalMart Digital music. I bought one track there to try out their store back in December of 2005. I have been a vocal advocate, for those who know me, of not buying DRM protected music (i.e., buying digital online files prior to stores releasing songs as MP3s). My argument has been that you are essentially "renting" the right to music, and consumers are totally at the mercy of the company from which their music is bought for it to work. If they decide you are a bad person, they go out of business, or they change directions, the consumer is out of luck. Here is the notice:

Important Information About Your Digital Music Purchases

We hope you are enjoying the increased music quality/bitrate and the improved usability of Walmart’s MP3 music downloads. We began offering MP3s in August 2007 and have offered only DRM (digital rights management) -free MP3s since February 2008. As the final stage of our transition to a full DRM-free MP3 download store, Walmart will be shutting down our digital rights management system that supports protected songs and albums purchased from our site .

If you have purchased protected WMA music files from our site prior to Feb 2008, we strongly recommend that you back up your songs by burning them to a recordable audio CD . By backing up your songs, you will be able to access them from any personal computer. This change does not impact songs or albums purchased after Feb 2008, as those are DRM-free.

Beginning October 9, we will no longer be able to assist with digital rights management issues for protected WMA files purchased from Walmart.com. If you do not back up your files before this date, you will no longer be able to transfer your songs to other computers or access your songs after changing or reinstalling your operating system or in the event of a system crash . Your music and video collections will still play on the originally authorized computer.

Thank you for using Walmart.com for music downloads. We are working hard to make our store better than ever and easier to use.

I don’t like to say I told you so, but I told you so. With all the big music stores going from DRM-protected downloads to MP3’s (i.e., non-protected), it was only a matter of time before the stores stopped supporting DRM. For those who bought DRM-protected downloads, you will no longer be able to activate computers to listen to your previously purchased tracks, at least from Walmart.

Instead, Walmarts provides a solution: you should burn a CD to preserve the music. The trouble with this solution is that you lose the quality (fidelity) when you burn to CD then re-rip as an MP3. Record companies have allowed users who buy their DRM-protected music to this since the dawn of the iTunes store because they knew that the resultant quality was substandard. So Walmart’s solution really isn’t a very good solution at all. For those heavily invested, that investment is essentially flushed.

If the record companies had any integrity whatsoever, they would authorize Walmart to replace all DRM-protected tracks in MP3 format. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

People who know me know that I spend most my day in the office listening to new music on Rhapsody. Well, part of the time is listening to new music, part just listening to the new songs I have found over and over and over again until I am sick of them.

Lately, I have been on a country music kick. So here are the country songs I have been listening to:

1. Love Story – Taylor Swift. If this song is any indication of her upcoming album, which I am going to buy, there will be no sophomore slump. Honorable mention: all of the bonus tracks on the re-release of Taylor Swift (the album), especially A Perfectly Good Heart. The most impressive thing about Taylor Swift is that she writes or co-writes all of her music. Artists who have somebody else write all their music is endemic in country music and irritates me a little bit.

2. I’m Still a Guy; Waitin’ for a Woman – Brad Paisley. I haven’t gotten too much traction on his albums yet, but admittedly, I haven’t listened more than once or twice.

3. That Kind of Day; Innocence – Sarah Buxton. No official album that I know of, just an EP. Her voice is interesting (not in a bad way). The song writing is fun. I note that Innocence sounds and themes really close to Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter, albeit with enough difference to stand on its own.

4. Stealing Cinderalla – Chuck Wicks. I have to admit that I looked up his music after reading a news blurb that Julianne Hough was dating him. Turns out he has a pretty good album (better than hers).

5. Sounds So Good; The Pickin’ Shed – Ashton Shepherd . She is obsessed with "cold beers" and "coolers," which makes for imagery rerun. But the song writing is solid, the hooks are catchy (i.e., if I turn on the music during dinner because I was singing it to myself all the way home), and twang is fun. Shepherd hearkens back to traditional country, so she might not be palatable to people who are indoctrinated only with country-pop as their country music experience.

6. Troubadour – George Strait. He still has it. And I still like it.

7. Nashville on XM Radio . Good balance of old country classics from the 90s and new stuff. One of those stations I can listen to at 6:15 am on the way to work.

My grandparents Doty lived across the street from Gene Autry, the cowboy entertainer. Whenever we visited the grandparent’s house in Studio City, California, we wondered what was behind the gate with the California Angel’s "A" on it. Because, as a baseball fan, what we really wanted was for Gene (who we didn’t even know) to take us to an Angles game, let us play on the field, let us take a stint at being bat boy, or just introduce us to the players.

One year, it happened. Gene Autry gave us (i.e., Grandma and Grandpa Doty who actually knew Gene) tickets for his box seat. I was a boy of eleven or twelve, and, as one might imagine, very excited. My younger brother and sister were already in Studio City visiting grandpa and grandma. The rest of us were going to take the Gold/Bronze Toyota Van from our Mesa, Arizona house out to California in time to go to the game.

Alas, as we packed the back of the van sitting in the garage, which had it’s hatch opened, my even younger toddler brother pushed the garage door button. The closing garage door turned the hatch from a "/" into a "^". The hatch would no longer close. We didn’t make it to the game (my other siblings did). Gene never gave us his box seats again.

(Not our actual van)

Yesterday, after getting my oldest daughter Grace out of the back of the car and juggling both my younger daughter Ava and a bag of goodies from Home Depot, I closed the garage door on the open hatch of our Honda Pilot. Right after pushing the button, I heard an an awful crunching sound. I turned around, recognized the situation, and reversed the garage door. Aside from a few little scratches that Grace kindly pointed out, the hatch thankfully closes fine. Apparently, if you want to turn your hatch into a "^", you have to be leaving to do something really important.

P.S.

Am I really old enough to have once thought that van was cool?

P.P.S.

I learned to drive on that same (not the one above) bronze/gold, manual shift, Toyota van. I was a real chick magnet driving that thing around Mesa and Gilbert. Finally, we upgraded and I got to drive my mom’s Dodge Carivan around.

[I hate minivans.]

From Jack Cafferty at CNN:

The differences between Barack Obama and John McCain couldn’t be more well-defined. Obama wants to change Washington. McCain is a part of Washington and a part of the Bush legacy. Yet the polls remain close. Doesn’t make sense…unless it’s race.

We all saw this coming months ago. Liberals are so confident that most of America sides with them after G.W. Bush that there is no other explanation for Barak Obama’s drop in the polls other than the tired "whites hate blacks" mantra.

Perhaps there are other arguments for Obama’s drop in the polls:

• Obama has no executive experience compared to McCain’s miliary executive experience, Palin’s mayoral and gobernatorial experience.
• Obama is an elitist and out of touch with mainstream America (who cling to guns and religion and are actually proud of their country).
• Obama’s forays into foreign relations scares many Americans. He wouldn’t visit troops in Germany without making it a campaign event. His response to the Russian invasion of Georgia was wrong. His stance with respect to the surge was wrong. And he wants to pull our troops out of Iraq while we are winning.
• Obama’s answer to the economy is to raise taxes during an economic slow down.
• Joe Biden is his running mate.

And the list goes on and on and on.

Headline:

The Sarah Palin Phenomenon Is Doomed.

Text:

The primary reason why the Palin bubble will burst is that the media will decide that they are bored with her. They’ll need to move to shine a light on a fresh issue or individual.

Of all the stupid hypotheses, this one is right up there. Like her or hate her, Sarah Palin’s popularity is not with the media. It is with the conservative base who is energized by her selection.

So why would the media think she is doomed because they are going to get bored? If anything, it should be the opposite when they get bored. Remove the negative press and I see her improving her popularity. My prediction: the press isn’t going to get bored with her because she is a perceived threat. They are going to get increasingly nasty to try to destroy her.

Those in the media really are out of touch with the real world. They mistakenly think that all of America reflects their views, which if America did we would be in term number two of President Gore.

I realize that reasonable minds can disagree. I realize their were no WMD (although at the time the intelligence says there was, enough to convince the UN security counsel), so let’s avoid playing Monday morning quarterback about that issue. My thoughts:

Since September 11, 2001, the world has fundamentally changed. For me, Afghanistan was the correct solution. Iraq followed. I am a firm Iraq war supporter for the following reasons.

First, I wish George W. Bush had sold it under what I believe are the real reasons for Iraq that I outline here, but then again if he had, Congress would have never approved. If history teaches us anything, politicians are notoriously indecisive when it comes down to making hard decisions about moving armies in and killing people. Such indecisiveness allowed Hitler to take over a large portion of Europe and it has happened time and again this last century, where a rouge country makes a move and then uses their public relations machine to "diplomatically" lull the rest of the world into doing nothing.

Take Russia invading into Georgia. Russia takes decisive action, then comes hat in hand saying they will withdraw in a couple of days. A couple of days later, they offer some feeble excuse and say they will withdraw a few days later and so forth. Over a month later, Russia is still entrenching in Georgia and nobody has done anything (except decide to build a missile defense system in Poland… hahaha in your face Russia). Meanwhile, Russia is lulling the world of diplomacy-first politicians into inaction and desensitization as to their unlawful occupation of Georgia. I digress.

Why was Iraq important?

1. We needed to take the fight away from our civilian populations and engage the terrorists with our military. Our military is trained to deal with insurgencies, not to mention mean armed men (and women) bent on killing anybody that doesn’t agree with their view on religion (Muslim and non-Muslim alike). It is true that we have suffered causalities of many troops as a result. But our military is doing the job they are there for. Let’s not forget that the military is an organization for more than putting kids through college and having "You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling" belted out to blonde’s in a bar by Tim Cruise.
- We knew that by moving our military onto Muslim soil, the terrorists would focus their attention first on getting us out of their terroritories, and then on attacking us on ours. The particular brain washing that these terrorists go through ingrains in them a perception that the United States and its allies are interested in snuffing out Islam. To them, U.S. military on already held Muslim soil was the number one problem to be dealt with to prevent us from reducing their own stake in world territory. The result: the terrorists focused their attention on Iraq and not on Indiana.
- Note that since Sept. 11, 2001, not a single additional attack of any significance has occurred on American soil. Is this because they made their point with Sept. 11? Of course not. It is because they have been busy trying to break our resolve in Iraq.

2. We needed to let the terrorists know in no uncertain terms that attacking America would be retributed on Muslim soil. In other words, we couldn’t just sit there and do nothing.

Diplomacy? Diplomacy is great when a deal can be reached that meets the interests of both parties. With Al-Qaeda, however, there is no diplomatic solution that is acceptable to both us and them. They want us to be ruled by a Calif and we want them to be nice. Isn’t going to happen unless we have some sort of leverage. Due to oil revenue, however, we can’t hurt them with economic sanctions (how do you sanction a group that exists in many countries and rejects the rule of law from any of the countries?) and we are not about to install Muslim religious rule in our country. There is simply no diplomatic solution that works with the terrorists. It is like going to the insane asylum and trying to strike a deal with the lady who thinks bees are constantly trying to get her.

The only message (leverage) they understand is getting hunted down and killed.

We did and are doing just that in Afghanistan. But, after we had them on the run, we needed the terrorists and governments that might have hosted them to understand there was nowhere else to go. Would they have gone to Iraq? Probably not. Saddam didn’t want them. But this is beside the point. It wasn’t where they could have gone that was important, but letting any country that might have considered harboring them know that we are going to punish anybody who hosts the terrorists.

So why Iraq? Because the Saddam Hussein regime was brutal and a threat to America. Saddam had vast oil reserves and had entrenched. Economic sanctions were a blunt tool at best against him. He ruthlessly put down dissenters. He had already shown he was not afraid to invade neighboring countries. If we had to choose one country in which to take the fight to the terrorists, it was Iraq.

Libya observed the goings on in Iraq for about a year before surrendering their weapons of mass destruction and deciding it was better to play with the rest of the world than against the rest of the world.

How about Iran? Turns out economic sanctions will eventually deal with Iran.

The Only Real Issue This Election (from 2004 – Why Iran can be dealt with economically)

Did we Invade the Wrong Country?

I have no idea why I am citing two articles from Orson Scott Card, a who is a Democrat… but for what it is worth, there they are.

3. We needed Muslim’s to wake up and decide to fight the terrorists of their own accord. The trouble with standing up to bullies, especially ones that will kill you, is that most people will just put their heads in the sand and pretend like nothing is going on provided their family is safe, they have food to eat, and a roof over their heads. We needed the terrorists to bring the fight against the Muslim people so that the general Muslim population would be forced to take a stand against the terrorists.

All things being equal, I would prefer to have Muslims fighting and killing themselves, then letting them kill Americans. This seems a little racist, but in principle, it makes sense. The Muslims must reap what they sow. They have sown terrorism, it is only fair they reap the consequences of their religious ruled societies that prove to be fertile soil to cultivate terrorism. Our society would never tolerate terrorism; so why should we reap the negative consequences of the terrorism grown in the fertile soil of their countries?

For a long while, the terrorists targeted and fought the American and allied troops. The Sunni’s, unhappy that Saddam had been deposed because he was one of them, readily joined Al-Qaeda in the fight against the American infidels.

Then something interesting started to happen. The American troops become more and more efficient at repelling the attacks and inflicting heavily casualties on the other side. Partly, the improved American military efficiency was born of the surge. Partly is was experience. There were more troops, more understanding of how the terrorists work, more eyes, and more guns pointed at the terrorists. The American troops became a difficult, and therefore less desirable, target than Iraqi civilians.

The foreign born leaders of Iraq’s Al-Qaeda began commanding the Sunni Iraqi volunteers to strike Iraqi targets. The Sunni’s had no desire to kill their own countrymen, just the Americans. And thus, the Iraqi’s were forced to confront the bullies or punch themselves. They could no longer put their heads in the sand.

The fight of the Muslim terrorists had been taken to the general Muslim population and the Sunni’s wanted nothing to do with it. The Sunni Awakening took place. They decided it would be better to stand against Al-Qaeda that to fight the Americans in fruitless battles with heavy causalities on their end. By joining with the Americans, the Sunni’s could take the fight against Al-Qaeda and create a situation of stability. They recognized that as soon as Iraq was fully stable, the Americans will leave. This was then end of Al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Sunni’s turned on them and the had nowhere to run.

Thus, we helped the Iraqis pull their heads out of the sand and begin the process of stamping out that fertile soil of terrorism in their own country.

So, what do we have to show for our involvement in Iraq?
1. No American civilian target has been attacked in seven years.
2. America’s ability to detect terrorist activities is greatly enhanced.
3. The Muslims are stamping out terrorism of their own accord.
4. A brutal and evil regime has been deposed (it remains to be seen if democracy can flourish in Iraq, however. Although it seems to be alive and well in Egypt, Jordan, and other predominately Muslim countries, giving hope that it will grab hold in Iraq as well).
5. MOST IMPORTANTLY. Al-Qaeda has been effectively reduced to a bunch of ragged men hiding in caves in Afghanistan. They have no money. The have no command and control. Their leadership ranks are either dead or unable to communicate regularly with their troops. Thus, they have no infrastructure to plan and carry out large scale attacks.

We may not have Bin Laden, but his ability to threaten America has been all but eliminated. And frankly, it might be better never to get Bin Laden. Martyrs (especially high profile martyrs) motivate people to fight against extreme odds. The combination of Afganistan and Iraq led to this result. Afganistan directly and Iraq geopolitically. Even if Al-Qaeda left Afganistan, where would they go?

Part one of a two part series. My grandmother sent me a letter in which she enclosed the memories of people on the morning of Sept. 11. I thought I would record my memories as well. Why not?

I remember it well because I was driving to school my first year of law school. I had Civil Procedure that morning, and I had been listening to these lame Lord of the Rings tapes that my mother had bought at Costco. I had made it far enough through them that I felt I needed to finish them. So the radio was off and adults imitating the squeeky voices of hobbits filled my the interior of my Green Jetta. We generally didn’t watch TV in the mornings back then, so during breakfast I didn’t hear anything, and on my way to school I was listening to the Lord of the Rings…

I parked at the back of lot 57, which is the big mall parking lot at ASU. You take a bus from the lot to the school. As I got out of my car and went to the bus stop all the way at the back of the lot (it was advantageous to park at the back of the lot because you got to get on the bus first and therefore get a seat rather than stand), there was a kid who was talking obnoxiously loud into his cell phone about how much he was in support of Israel and how bad the terrorists were. I remember noting to myself how much of a dork that guy was. I distinctly remember thinking he was both a drama queen and that nobody was interested in his conversation with his phone.

To me it was just a normal day. I made it to school, got my books out of my locker and went to class with five minutes to spare. It was there I heard for the first time that one of the twin towers had collapsed. You can imagine my skepticism when I heard it, but when I learned that my fellow student was deadly serious, it was one of those moments where you feel scared and vulnerable for a few split seconds before the rational side wakes up and says "No Way!" to living in fear.

The teacher got to class and excused us for the day. Well, he gave us the option to have class or go home and follow the news. With such an option, it would have been unanimous either way. We went home and we all were glued to the TV for the rest of the day.

I have found a bunch of cool new mapping applications. Things have come along way since I had my first Magellan GPS. By the way, I lost that GPS riding on the trail. It was the GPS equivalent to a rotary phone, so I wasn’t really broken up about it. My newer GPS’s do a much better job.

From a recent ride, this little gem of a program builds a 3D image of your ride according to elevation:

I wonder if the program could do more, but it only comes in German, and well, I don’t really read German.

Another great program is Topofusion . Although it costs, it uses sources of free maps and displays them, including in 3D. This beats paying $100 per state for 1:24,000 topographical maps, which is what I used to do. This has everything: 1:24,000 topo, aerial photo, satellite, and street. It is great. Here are some screenshots.

One thing I really like about Topofusion is the ability to have the UTM grid shown. UTM is a Lat/Lng replacement. It is done in meters, which makes reading and navigating off maps much better.

I also use DeLorme’s TopoUSA. The jury is out for me whether I prefer TopoUSA’s raster topo maps or the USGA 1:24,000 photographed maps. The raster is nice because as you zoom, it continues to fine tune the topo lines. With 1:24,000, you are out of luck if you want better resolution than that. I can’t think of too many time when I have wanted better resolution, however.

The one improvement that I wish TopoUSA had was the ability to output the raster maps to be used on my GPS. If there is a way to do it, somebody please let me know.