there's something in there for all of us

"it's a state of mind...a place for people who don't fit in-but who long to fit in with other people who don't fit in."

Shoegaze 4eva

The London Apartments

sweet vids

New album 'Dead or Dying' out now!

can't find the sucker anywhere

the video for 'Summer Takes All My Time' features various bike bits too which is sweet

Proper Nerd

I am now a proper Nerd
Not only do I have a nerdly blog
Nerdly interests and passions
(Just like you)
but I now have glasses too.
Icing
The cherry
Came in the first mail drop this morning
I was hoping for a new seatpost
but no such luck
The only problem...
I'm afraid to put them on at work
Now I have to gather the strength
to actually wear them in public
Going to the footy tonight
It could be the first time in two years
I actually see the game
Melbourne are playing
Not sure I want to watch

maybe tonight

current fav' Wiki page

lower your productivity here

i now have something in common with jarvis cocker. ace.

It's productivity growth, stupid.

I have had enough of media reports discussing the woeful fall in productivity. Anyone with half an ounce of sense knows there is no such thing. Rather, there has been a substantial, worrying, long term fall in productivity growth. Sheesh.

"It looked like everyone was trying to get laid, which is awful for kids at that age."

Here we go again

I read with interest this article today in the Guardian concerning Republican plans to produce a film digging dirt on Hillary Clinton.

'Citizens United and other Republican groups are set to model their anti-Clinton operation on the notorious Swift Boat campaign that derailed John Kerry's 2004 bid for the White House. That aggressive smear campaign focused on Kerry's Vietnam war record and was seen as critical in President George W Bush's election victory. 'The Swift Boat campaign is going to be a direct model. They have openly come out and said that,' said Terry Krepel, editor of Conwebwatch, a website that monitors the output of conservative news media.'

I say with interest, because I just watch the pro-Kerry documentary 'Going up river with John Kerry' last night.

It's simply amazing that the press allowed the Swift Boat Veterans' For Truth to run such an outrageously deceitful campaign against Kerry.

I had no idea about the actual details of his service, and despite the obvious rose tinting of the movie, what really came through was how much the men that served under him admired his bravery, and skilled leadership.

If Republican stooges could make a decorated war hero like Kerry look like someone who lied about his service record, and lied in order to receive the Purple Heart imagine what dirt they can dig up on a career politician.

I'm almost feeling sorry for Hillary at the moment, Iraq aside.

Worst... Bike... Mechanic... EVER!

Urgh

Last night realised that I had over-torqued the shit out of my seatpost clamp and cracked (more like smashed) my three week old FSA K-Force Light seatpost.

I am officially the worst bike mechanic ever

anybody who has seen me fumbling around with the spanner on Thursday night at DISC can probably vouch for that.

Ah well, back to the internet for more I guess. The fact I got it online at half the local retail price is a good thing when you're as shocking with the tools as I am.

The fact that I'm constantly playing around with the bike in the half-light at six in the morning probably didn't help matters either!

Henry Rollins Show

Ever since getting the new computer I've turned into a bit of a youtube freak.

Some of you may be aware of Henry Rollins, former lead singer of black flag, poet, ratbag etc etc.

Well he now has a cable show in the US, and there have been some pretty good musical acts on so far.

just thought I'd link some of them for you to enjoy.

Frank Black



Billy Bragg




Dinosaur Jr



The chick who introduces the bands is pretty funny too!

'Henry would bite my head off If I didn't say that this is one of his favorite bands of all time'

indeed

And for those not familiar with some of Henry's earlier work check this.

educational

Your questions answered: How they ride track bikes in SanFran

Always wondered how they got down all those hills on a fixy

My Week on Wheels

Saturday-Monday: Three Day Tour, 370kms
Thursday: Track, 30kms

My first place in A grade on the track, 3rd place in the points score.

I attacked in the second sprint and got 1st across the line, then got fourth in the third sprint.

There were a lot of people out (A and B grade were combined), so it was good riding to hold off the bunch.

As Machiavelli said 'when in doubt, attack!'

It was really a second place because first and second were tied on 10 points, and Northcote split the result as they always do- the person they like more wins on a count back!

400kms

Talking to the taxman about poetry

a promise I will keep,
to dream each night of you.
when I am far away

Driedaagse van Northern Combine Ride Report

Stage One

Was held on the Pastoria circuit and decided the shape of the final podium very early on. B grade went over the climb at the back of the circuit three times. I got dropped each lap, but managed to ride back onto the bunch three times. I managed to finish in the second bunch on the road, four minutes down on the GC contenders. I was also in the first break of the day, but only managed third place in the intermediate sprint. A lot of riders didn’t finish this stage due to the strong wind and difficult conditions.

Stage Two

The time trial, not a bad TT from me, but I lost another minute on first place, Andrew Wilson from Sunbury. It was a good warm up for the afternoon however.

Stage Three

My form over the hills had improved by this stage, so I didn’t get dropped until the last two kms. Lost another minute on GC. Managed to cause a fair bit of trouble through constantly attacking in the last 20kms.

Stage Four

Sat in and let the top guys do all the work, inevitably losing another minute on GC going up the final climb of the day. It was so cold all day that I constantly felt like I needed to take a leak. At one point I dropped to the back of the bunch on a downhill to piss. Everything was going well until the wind suddenly changed direction and blew the stream of liquid directly into my right sock! I could literally feel my shoe filling with water. It didn’t make much difference in the end because of all the rain on the road, but a very strange sensation indeed. That and the fact that the motorbike Marshall seemed to be taking a little too much interest in how I was going about leaking and riding at the same time.

In the end finished in 9th place, 7 minutes down on first place Sean Hurley. Not a bad result considering that I had been sick all week. Not bad after 340kms, but plenty of room for improvement. A nice flat bunch kick to finish one of the stages would have been very nice! I'm surprised that I have lost almost five kilos in the last three weeks. Being sick probably hasn't helped much, but it's also amazing what a few hard races can do to you.

Congrats also to Cam Woolcock who finished in 11th place, and hung tough all weekend.

Thanks to Laurie for corner marshalling and company on Saturday.

Thanks also to all the clubs, and organisers for a very professionally run event. Much better than the De Bortoli Tour! I will be definitely be back next year to try and go top five!

snooty menus

so i'm in sydney on a work junket and have been amazed at the prices they charge for food (i've paid $40 for an osso buco, and $8 for a croissant and flat white.) the veal was delicious, but the plate's daintyness seemed to lack the essence of what the dish should be: big, hearty, warming. i think i elected the dish over others as i was put off by elaborate descriptions, trying to make a dish more than it actually is... kind of like this

VDB: Don't throw it all away

Frank Vandenbroucke apparently tried to kill himself over night.

Don't throw it all away dude

There's people out there who still care.

What cycling needs right now is more sex, drugs and rock'n'roll. You have it in spades.

I keep looking for your name in the results pages.

wondering how many k's you are putting in your legs each week.

If you're still together with yr missus

If you have a new haircut

What drugs you (you're dog) are taking

don't walk away

in silence

don't walk away

My Week on Wheels

Saturday: Preston Mountain Classic 130kms. Rode well for 110kms, then completely blew up with cramp, had to get off the bike for five minutes which completely sucked. A bit too far for me at the moment. Came down with a cold after the race which meant I didn't ride for the rest of the week.
Sunday: cough
Monday: sneeze
Tuesday: splutter
Wednesday: getting there
Thursday: Thursday night at Disc. In the scartch race I rolled up the bank at five laps to go, and noticed that Jobe Dajka was on his hoods taking it easy on the front- I just attacked immediately. It was way too far out, but still fun to set the cat amongst the pidgeons.

I missed out on my first A grade podium in the points race by one place. Russel Collins pipped me in the sprint for second behind Dajka in the second sprint- so he had a 2nd and a 3rd, and me two 3rds. In that sprint dajka was on his hoods the whole time barely stressed at all whilst I was all over my bike, and couldn't get past his shoulder. I thought I had second rapt up, then got pipped.

Sat out the Motor pace due to feeling a bit poorly.
Friday: rest

Coming up Diredaagse van Northern Combine, sick, underdone.

All things going well

150kms

I rule your ass, don't you forget it.

Keating made Julia Gillard look very slow witted on Lateline last night. He can come up with an economic justification for Labor IR policy off the top of his head, whereas she can't mount the economic argument effectively at all.

How could the Labor Party cut lose such an effective communicator?

Arrogant- maybe.

But he tells it straight, unlike Howard and Costello who don't understand the economy and can't lie straight in bed.

TONY JONES: But, of course, since you've mentioned industrial relations what the Government is clearly saying is that their industrial relations reforms now are one of the key underpinning new economic reforms, and that that's being put at risk by the possibility of a Labor Government coming to power?

PAUL KEATING: Well, they're not economic reforms at all they're actually anti productive. I've made this point before, but I'll make it again.

If you go to 200 or 300 people in a factory or 200 or 300 people in a workplace and come to a three or four year bargain to the improve productivity and share it between wages and profits you've got a good chance of getting productivity from the whole enterprise. But if you just take one person at a time, bring them into the boss' office and cut their wages there's no chance of getting any productivity. That's why trend productivity is now rapidly on the way down. It was 3 per cent under me. It's now under 1 per cent. So how are we going to keep inflation low with, at the moment wages are running at about 4 per cent, productivity is under 1. This is consistent with an inflation rate of 3 per cent, or higher. The Reserve Bank knows that. That's why they've got the rates on hold.

The great lie of the Howard Government in respect of workplace changes, they are simply a set of arrangements to keep unions out of workplaces. They've got nothing to do with productivity and the quicker we move away from that kind of discriminatory structure to a truly trust based co operative sharing of work and workloads, then we get back to reasonable levels of productivity and again, reasonable rates of growth in real wages. It's no accident as you saw in today's front page of The Sydney Morning Herald and other places that the wage share in the economy has gone down, and the profit share in the last four years has gone up because wages are now in real terms, are declining.

TONY JONES: I just make this point. You and Bob Hawke are barely mentioned by the current Labor leadership, why is that?PAUL KEATING: Well, they don't like the fact that we had, the Liberals attacked us about interest rates in 1988/89 in the last election. They, in my view, foolishly failed to counter it. All they had to say was John Howard had the highest cash rate since the Second World War 21.4 per cent in 1982 and that whole campaign would have gone. But they wouldn't say it. So they now not only used the K-word they don't use the H-word.

Hawke and I have been put out to grass because we had interest rates up in 1989. That's 20 years ago in two years from now. Bear in mind this Tony, Bob and I won the '90 election with interest rates, cash rates at around 16 per cent, housing rates about 16 per cent. I won in '93 when interest rates were not an issue. They were not an issue in 1996. So how come they became an issue in 2004, or in any way an issue now? The answer is because the Labor Party's inability to get across the argument and put it...

TONY JONES: The other key reform that we've talked about is the Government's industrial relations reforms. It's been countered immediately by a new set of industrial relations reforms from Julia Gillard. How do you think she's gone?

PAUL KEATING: Not very well. Not very well. This was a very simple change. She had to put a simple thing across. Basically what she should have said was this, "We'll register all agreements with two provisos…

TONY JONES: You mean AWAs included?

PAUL KEATING: Whatever you want to call them. Single enterprise workplace agreements. We'll register them all with two provisos.We will introduce a national minimum wage with conditions for annual leave, sick leave et cetera, no agreement will be registered which denigrates from that award. And the second condition is there'll be no positive discrimination against collective bargaining or the ability of a union to represent people. There might not be either positive discrimination for a union, but there won't be one against a union. Now once you've said that you've said the lot...

PAUL KEATING: I tell you one thing Tony, the Labor Party will do no good running away from the great structural reforms of the '80s and '90s under Bob Hawke and me.

Our model is a model Tony Blair tried to pinch and run calling it the third way. I noticed Wayne Swan talking on the television tonight saying he'll form a Labor Government. As if there were 30 of them. There's only two main ones, in the recent period, that's Hawke and mine and we're the ones who did the changes. Everything in those national accounts yesterday, everything, that is the growth in the economy and the low unemployment, the reason the system is not blowing, the tinder box has not taken off is because of the float, because of the tariff changes and because of the IR changes, structural changes. That's why they're there. Not because of any superior management by Mr Costello. You know this pat line tonight about you wouldn't put an L plater. God, he's the greatest L plater of all time.

I love this guy...

The most arrogant person in the world?

Bring Back Keating

'I was one of the people that ushered Australia into the post-industrial age'.

Need we say more? The chutzpah.

I want to declare my deep seated affection for Paul. Bring him back.