The few benefits of solitude

In the absence of my girlfriend I exhibit many behaviors of a grosser, more caveman-like, and probably single man.

1. I eat less vegetables and I eat more often with just my fingers.
2. When I eat messily, instead of a napkin I use my shirt. I continue to wear the shirt throughout the day.
3. I extend the "three second rule" into new frontiers of the kitchen floor.
4. I don't change the sheets on the bed.
5. I leave my beard trimmings all over the bathroom counter, even more so than usual.
6. I sit around in my underwear and robe (OK, this one is not new).
7. I can drink a six-pack in one evening without sharing or feeling guilty. 
8. I shower less frequently.

The only benefit to her being gone is that I get much more sleep. But if she doesn't come back soon, I am likely to die in a pile of my own drunken filth.

Daily dose of Niner porn

I may not have the Air 9 Carbon frame, but I almost want to make my bike a singlespeed just for the slick aesthetic. I imagine this is a pretty light rig. It's no Ron Jeremy, but it sure is one hell of a sexy unit.

My bike, converted to a SS would look something like this sexy beast over at Five Hills Bikes:

 I have about Niner inches of envy growing in my pants.

My new ski boots

Are awesome.




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Free at last, free at last! Thank God Almighty, gluten free at last!

I've been gluten free for about a week now (I cheated once with a whole-wheat fig bar). No significant results yet. I can say that I'm pretty low on carbs though, and it makes me really tired. I picked up these dry, crumbly and surprisingly delicious cookies today.

Finding your soul

My newfound infatuation with skiing has me pirating hundreds of gigabytes of high-definition ski movies. The most recent that I watched was called "In Deep" by Matchstick Productions (imagine searching for that on The Pirate Bay). I try to  avoid Warren Miller movies because they seem less like compilations of sick runs and more like ninety-minute religious recruiting videos for some snow-centric cult.

I watched a few minutes of "Children of Winter," a 2008 Warren Miller film. The movie seemed pretty good, but the frequent narratives of skiers and snowboarders over epic footage came off a little preachy. Every single one of these extreme athletes seemed to feel the need to legitimize their job by mentioning their "passion" and the "soulfulness" of "pow sessions" and the importance "living in the moment." 

I'm okay with all of this, and I can relate some of those feelings to mountain biking, but the elitist writing between the lines seems to say "you are a pansy-ass douchebag, your job sucks and you will never know yourself until you're sponsored by Red Bull to take hundred-thousand dollar, high-definition heli-skiing journey into the soulful and inspirational Alaskan wilderness." Or maybe that's just my jealousy talking.

I'm afraid my job doesn't have the everyday wow or the adrenaline-rushing flair of an adventure skier's run down a powder-filled chute. The thrill of dusting off ancient audio/video systems doesn't exactly compare to eighty-foot cliff jumps at seventy miles per hour. I'm not saying that I want to be a freeskier, but I wouldn't mind a little bit of passion for my job. Is it too much...to ask for a little bit of soul?

New skis arrive

Fresh from the internet, I present my new High Society FR 179s.

The top colors are fairly innocuous and unfortunately the graphic does not feature girls in bikinis. The sidewalls are bright red. These skis have a poplar core, resin and fiberglass-wrapped wood, rubber dampening system, and a carbon fiber stringer, and blah blah blah some other features too. Dimensions are as follows: [179cm] 124 / 92 / 114mm. That's 179cm long, 124mm wide at the tip, 92mm waist, and 114mm tail. Turn radius of 21.7m (this doesn't mean it takes a 21m turn, but rather that the radius used to shape the ski was 21m...right?)

My boots should get here tomorrow, and hopefully I can get bindings at the ski shop sometime this week so I can hit the slopes on Friday.