I have been trying to figure out what my five favorite albums have been for the last two decades. I don’t include the 80s because I am embarrassed that both Debbie Gibson and Milli Vanilli might show up on the list.

Here are my five favorite albums from the 2000’s:

1. Rooney – Rooney. Just a great album from start to finish. “You’ll be out milking cows before you cash the check… these are the words the popstars, these are the words of the unsophisticated money machines, for the killers of rock and roll…”
2. Phantom Planet – The Guest. Same as with Rooney. The OC kind of tainted California; Lonely Day and Anthem and others more than make up for any taint.
3. Taylor Swift – Taylor Swift. It is just that good. She is the biggest thing to happen to country music since Garth Brooks. And she deserves it — she is incredibly talented, and more as a song writer than a performer.
4. X&Y – Coldplay. I liked Coldplay. Then they released Viva la Vida, which was OK, but not great. Then UPop (the Pop heard around the world) on XM decided to play nothing but Coldplay for a month. It was an improvement over the occasional French songs that came on, but the end result totally turned me off Coldplay (that and Gweneth “Europe is better than America” Paltrow). Nevertheless, I cannot deny that every song on this album is catchy and good.
5. The Killers – Personal Compilation. I love the Killers with a caveat. But the albums are a hodgepodge of really great and really ok songs. Each of their albums have two or three gems, and two or three always fast forward. One thing about the Killers that I love is that many of the songs start off kind of bland, but have hooks buried minutes into the songs that are pure genius. Try:
   • Mr. Brightside
   • All These Things I Have Done
   • Glamorous Indie Rock & Rolls
   • Ballad of Bobby Valentine
   • Bling (Confessions of a King)
   • Read My Mind
   • Why Do I Keep Counting?
   • A Dustland Fairy Tale
   • Human

My five favorites from the 90’s:

1. OK Computer – Radiohead. Probably my favorite album of all-time. Except for Fitter, Happier.
2. The Bends – Radiohead. This album is what started me on my Radiohead oddessy.
3. Weezer – The Blue Album. I listened to this endlessly while playing the original Doom from start to finish.
4. U2 – Actung Baby. Freshman year of college.
5. Tom Petty – Greatest Hits. I know it is a little bit of a kopout to cite a Greatest Hits album. Nevertheless… Does anybody remember the Free Fallin’ video that was always on MTV and VH1 in the late 80’s?

A buddy and I rode Santiago Oaks for the first time since my accident there four months ago. I must admit I had a little fear after climbing the B’s and starting the decent, which translated into an endo (up and over the handle bar) on a sandy slope thanks to much too much front break. Sometimes when mountain biking, you have to let it roll and hit the breaks in a safe location. Steep, sandy slopes don’t qualify.

In the sections of drops where I wrecked, I rolled them (meaning I carried no speed into them and rolled down them weight back and front tire always on the ground) rather than dropping them with speed. It was nice to get through the section. Weirdly, when I hit the last drop where I am sure I wrecked (still have post concussion amnesia), I was absolutely certain it was the place like a tickling of a memory once remembered, but now forgotten.

In an effort to avoid further wrecks, it was my first ride with my All Mountain Post (AMP) seat dropper. Getting one’s seat out of the way makes a huge difference in getting one’s weight back and avoiding endos. Especially on XC bikes.  Some pics of my new seat dropper (the dark in the top right and lower left are thanks to not getting the shutter cover fully open.)

Above: Full upright position. The hardware is relative small (where the wire goes into the seatpost). I used white trash zip ties to affix to my frame, but will replace with wire mounts once I am sure I like where it is located. I really need an extra six inches of wire.

Above: Down 1"

Above: all the way down (down 4").

Above: closeup of down all four inches.

Above: Closeup of it down of it fully up.

The seatpost is actuated with the blurry level over my shifters on the top of the bar.

Closeup version from the other angle of the actuating lever. The only problem with the lever, the wire blocks the mount point for my left side light. Not a big deal in the summer, but during the dark months I need those lights for night riding…

So far, it works pretty well. Time will tell whether I really like or mostly like it.

I noticed that I have 9 drafts half completed spanning months. And in a nutshell, that about sums up my life.

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 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.

Today, instead of a king snake, it was a 5 foot long rattlesnake slithering across the road that I saw. Thank heavens it was on an uphill and I had plenty of time to see it.

On other mountain biking notes, it was a long week of mountain biking. I wrecked about 6 times. My stupid chain kept popping off my big cog into the spokes. Grrrr. I had taken my bike in to have these issues fixed a week ago. I don’t think they did anything other than clean it off, which I can do myself.

So I learned how to become a bike mechanic and adjust my own rear derailleur. And now it is working like a charm. Once again, if you want something done right, sometimes you just have to do it yourself.

Park Tool Repair How-To’s

Meanwhile, the bruise that goes from the bottom of my ribs all the way around to the side from where my handlebar tried to impale me on one of the wrecks will take a little more time to heal.

I don’t mind hearing what the left has to say, and even agreeing if they have an idea that is better than the right. That doesn’t happen very often. Two left leaning essayists each published thoughtful articles recently that I share here.

The first article is a David Mamet essay published in the liberal rag Village Voice. My cousin Dave introduced me to David Mamet’s work in college. One of Mamet’s movies is called the Spanish Game Prisoner (thanks David) and is worth Netflixing.

Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’ (By the way, has some objectionable language)

The second article is by Orson Scott Card detailing why Mitt Romney should not be selected as Vice President. I supported Mitt Romney, and I admit that part of my intrigue had to do with his identity. He is a Mormon, I am a Mormon. More importantly, he echoed my fiscal and defense conservatism, while having the same somewhat ambivalent attitude about social conservatism. I don’t know that he was my favorite candidate ever, but I would have voted for him.

Some Romney supporters, however, seem to think he would be the best choice for VP, ignoring the baggage McCain already has with certain groups of conservative voters and Romney’s own political achilles heel — Mormonism.

McCain’s Vice

On the identity politics note, what Huckabee did to Romney so dishonestly is despicable. If you are going to submarine a guy for his religion, at least be honest that you are doing it for that reason.

There is this game called Dino Run that mirrors what you played if you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s like me. The graphics are lame, but the game play is phenomenal. The goal is to save super eggs, which are cleverly hidden all over the game. As you accumulate DNA, you improve your skills. Eating runners, birds, eggs, etc. earn you points and DNA, and the above contribute to the earning of trophies.

Yes, it’s true. I am still a guy who likes to earn a trophy ever since the day that my brother’s soccer team was always better than mine. He always got a trophy and I didn’t. (Nowadays, everybody gets a trophy. I don’t see the point in working harder as a team when everybody gets one).

Oh, and did I mention that if you don’t act fast you will get consumed by the impending wall of doom?

Dino Run Run for your life and escape the oncoming wall of doom!

As I was blazing down a hill on my bike tonight, barely in control thanks to the grade and the ruts, I happened across a California king snake slithering across the trail. I mean almost literally.

My driver’s teacher said, "when a dog runs across the road and you can’t safely stop in time, you just hit it." (To put that in perspective, I wouldn’t be surprised if he now lives and then lived in one of those trucks with a camper on it as his primary residence or if he had been committed many years ago… he wasn’t exactly playing with a full deck.).

When the moment came and the snake was looming as I blazed down the hill at 38 MPH (I have no idea how fast I was really going because my bike computer always registers 38 as my max speed), who thinks about drivers ed?

As soon as I saw it I immediately bunny hopped (you know, use you legs to pop both wheels off the ground at once). Because the snake loomed so fast thanks to my going fast, I gave even chances that my front tire hadn’t got off the ground in time to not splatter the king snake’s head. My momentum carried me halfway up the next hill, I turned around, and went to see if there was a carcass or a very lucky king snake. Thankfully, it was the latter.

As I approached, however, it wasn’t it any hurry to get off the trail. Perhaps I just nicked his head with my tire, which brain damage turned off his fight or flight mechanism, I don’t know. In any event, I reached down, flicked his tail, and he hurried up into the bushes where he turned and stared at me with his eerie king snake eyes.

On further reflection, what ever happened to the boy, who if he saw a king snake on the trail, would have been off his bike trying to catch it and stuff it in his camelback as a pet? And why hadn’t I taken the time mount my helmet cam this weekend?

So I bought Viva La Vida by Coldpay. Rare that I buy an album without listening to it first. I find there are very few albums these days, aside from good jazz, old standards, classical, and tried and true bands such as Radiohead or The Killers where I buy based on the strength of the band’s reputation alone.

I bought Viva La Vida on the strength of the iPod commercials, the reviews I read, and the fact that X&Y was a great album from cover to cover. This time, however, the critics were wrong, with the exception of Viva La Vida and Violet Hill, the album is pretty vanilla. The songs are a little contrived and, for lack of a better way of explaining how I feel about the album, Chris Martin et al., tried too hard to top X&Y. The result was forced, apparently hurried, and in many instances putting too much reliance on an overused hook, much like movies that rely too much on their special effects.

For example, the song Lost! (not to be confused of the excellent television show of the same name) repeats the same tired theme over and over again without enough variation to make it interesting. In fact, I got sick of listening to it 30 seconds into the first time the track played.

With the execption of a couple of good hits that will spice up the soon-to-be-released-I’m-sure Greatest Hits, Viva La Vida is a very "ehhh…" effort on the part of Coldplay. After listening, Viva La Vida takes a step backwards to the level of Parachutes and reinforces that X&Y was an anomoly that is unlikey to be repeated by Coldplay any time soon.