A week away from the 19th annual Bike Tour down the Jersey Shore, the ride leaders for Team CentraState ridin4tracy organized a team ride this morning (Sunday) around the Freehold area. We would meet up at the CentraState Fitness and Wellness Center (where it turns out many of them work and exercise) and ride out from there. There were two rides — 25 miles and 50 miles. I guess whoever couldn’t make the 50 mile trip would turn around at 11 miles and head back. After the ride, we were to meet up at Moore’s Tavern & Restaurant. I’m not sure I’m recapping all this from just a few days ago, but oh well. I’m getting senile in my old age.

I wanted to do the 50-mile ride, as there’s something to be said for jumping in with both feet. I’m doing the 50 next week, so no time like the present. I thought I was prepared. I had a bagel, bought two energy bars, and I brought two water bottles. Turns out the distance wasn’t the problem, but the pace they kept. I had a lot of trouble to keep up with the rest of the riders. I’m generally a solo rider, so I don’t normally worry about keeping up with anyone. I speed up, I slow down, I’m still getting where I need to go. In the group ride, much like the last time I tried one of these, I was left behind.

That’s not entirely true. One of the ride leaders, Ravi, was a gentleman, and he returned often by himself to check on me, make sure I was okay, and give me direction. We’d catch up, and the team would be waiting for at the next major intersection/turn. Should I go ahead and talk about how embarrassing it was at times? I didn’t want them to wait for my slow self. Just go ahead, I’ll keep up.

Near the 11-mile mark, when I could (should?) have turned around, another ride leader asked people if they were okay or if they wanted to turn back. Unfortunately, I noticed he was only looking at me. I said, “No, I’m still hanging in there.” At about 20-miles, we came to a fork where you could go up the big hill or take the easy flat way. It looked like I’d be the only person taking the flat easy way, and the nice ride leader (Ravi) initially appeared to be offering to escort me. Uh, no. Uh, hell’s no. I said I’m still here, let’s do the hill. They were a little shocked.

Near the 30-mile mark just outside Six Flags Great Adventure (you could literally see the Kingda Ka rollercoaster), I was dead tired. Sure, I had lower back pain, my thighs were hurting, and the rest of them had disappeared over the horizon. I finally had to stop and really rest. Ravi came back to check on me since I was gone a long time (10 mins?), so I chatted with him about my situation. I told him to go ahead, I’ll keep my own pace, but I’ll still make it. He felt bad, but I told him don’t worry.

My argument would have been stronger had I not immediately fallen off my bike at that moment. I kid you not — my right foot got locked in the pedal, and I tipped over. Only my pride hurt, folks. Only my pride. Ravi rode off, and I used the Google Maps app on my BlackBerry to guide me the rest of the way. I took my own pace, and stopped worrying about being embarrassed. Around mile 38, I found this main road, dangerous as all hell with heavy traffic, that would lead me all the way to the fitness center. Google Maps stated the center was only 3.5 miles away, and I was elated. The home stretch! The light at the end of the tunnel!

I pedaled. No, I pedaled! I climbed up that long series of hills, trucks and cars whizzing dangerously close. One mile left to go, I passed an intersection with 3 riders waiting to cross, and then they yelled out my name. It was three people from my team! While the team took the safer and longer route, I had nearly caught up by taking the dangerous shortcut. I couldn’t believe it.

Surprised, they called me a bloodhound, and wondered how I found my way. We rode the last mile or so locally, and found the rest of the riders waiting in the cars about to leave CentraState and head to the bar. I got some surprised looks, some cheers, and the ride leader who kept doubting I’d make it? He was proud and gave me a huge high-five. I snuck into the fitness center locker room with some folks to shower and freshen up, and change my clothes. I drove over to the bar, had a pint of Stella, and a half turkey sandwich. I got my team jersey, took a group photo, and chatted.

Pictures of the team jersey are below, front and back.

Team jersey (front)

Team jersey (back)

Sometimes, you forget that the universe is in a constant state of flux. For example, take Jupiter. This gas giant in our solar system is known for the colorful red bands of clouds encircling the planet. According to New Scientist, this is not the first time this has happened.

This is not the first time the south equatorial belt has disappeared. It was absent in 1973 when NASA’s Pioneer 10 spacecraft took the first closeup images of the planet and also temporarily vanished in the early 1990s.

The bands may normally appear dark simply because pale, high-altitude clouds prevalent in other regions of the planet are missing there, revealing darker clouds below, says Glenn Orton of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “You’re looking into different layers of the cloud structures of the planet,” he told New Scientist.

Jupiter is immense in size, so it’s phenomenal to think something like a set of clouds that size could just disappear seemingly overnight.

Jupiter loses a stripe

Last month, I mentioned that I was interested in returning and riding again for the National MS Society (NJ Metro Chapter) 19th Annual Bike MS “Coast the Coast” Ride. I’m not quite ready to ride 50 miles, so I was a bit reluctant to commit. However, a few points drove my decision to register for the ride, albeit a little late.

1. A childhood friend from elementary school was recently diagnosed with MS.
2. My wife knows someone who recently died after suffering long-term with MS.
3. I told this acquaintance on the Centrastate team that I would be interested.
4. I realized that committing to this ride would encourage me to train harder.

I joined a team (“Team CentraState riding4tracy“) associated with the CentraState hospital / healthcare system. Given the short time to raise money, I set a modest goal of $500, and immediately started emailing friends and family asking for donations. As of today, I’ve raised $270 through contributions. I have another week to go, so I’ll continue to keep asking people. I hope I can do it. The MS Society’s sets up a personal page for every participant and team, and I have a personal page too.

The team has already achieved its team goal, raising $14,600+ so far, which is phenomenal.  There’s a team ride / get-together this Sunday that I would like to attend. They (we?) are riding Sunday morning, with an after-ride get-together for drinks at Moore’s Tavern & Restaurant. I don’t think I’m ready to do a 50 mile ride right now, but I think I better try this weekend. The real ride is 1.5 weeks from now. It might be a good time to put up or shut up.

This week, Media Molecule / Sony Entertainment announced that it is releasing a sequel to LittleBigPlanet in time for the holiday 2010 season. It’s a fantastic game, so I’m looking forward to picking this up for Christmas. Debut trailer below  

Adult Swim features many stupid little games if you want to waste time during your day or night. I have never played any of them. I want to mention one particular game: Robot Unicorn Attack. Have…… you seen this game? I watched a commercial for it once or twice, and it certainly qualifies as bizarre and/or imaginative. You play a unicorn running across the screen, dashing and jumping. So what? The theme song is Erasure’s song “Always.” IMHO, the song makes the game hypnotic. I think Erasure makes anything inherently better. Sure, a little gay too, but it’s still better. Watch the video below.

Recently visiting our local library, I was pleasantly surprised to find a large and varied collection of DVDs. Amontg them, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This is the CG-animated film that was released in 2008 and preceded The Clone Wars tv series on Cartoon Network. I hadn’t seen it yet, and originally it received some fair-to-middling reviews from the critics. So what’s my review?

Eh, it was okay. This is basically to set up the Clone Wars tv series that followed it, beginning with the introduction of Anakin Skywalker’s new padawan Ahsoka Tano. Following the events of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, we’re deep into the Clone Wars. Within the first 15 minutes, the characters are thrust into this strange plot to rescue Jabba the Hutt’s infant (larval?) son. The plot was contrived, and didn’t make a lot of sense to me. Jabba the Hutt is a vile gangster. He’s a Hutt. Why would he even care about offspring? Maybe this was more aimed at the kiddies, but it didn’t translate well for me. I also noticed that the animation wasn’t as fluid and life-like as the later animated series.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)

The weather has been one of extremes. In the Northeast, the weather this spring has fluctuated between  unseasonably warm and unseasonably cold. Just a few days ago, it was cold, then nice, and now hot and humid. Global warming  supposedly results in extreme changes of weather. You may not believe it, but I do.

On Saturday, I was up early and at the church to help out with the Spring clean up. Every season, church members get together to help tidy up the church. Cleaning up branches, weeding, removing leaves, etc. With all the late winter storms, we had a lot of fallen branches (and trees.) I spent the morning working on removing fallen tree branches and leaves, using the blowers to clean the parking lot, and sweeping. I opted out of weeding, as I don’t enjoy doing that at my own house, so I wouldn’t want to do it here either. We finished around 12 noon, and I came home to have lunch with the family.

I took Josh out later in the afternoon to accompany him as he rode his bike around the neighborhood, and we hung out at the playground for a while. An ice cream truck was down the street, so I encouraged him that if he did some serious pedaling, I’d treat him to an ice cream cone. Wow, he rode fast, so another example that it’s all about the incentives. I bought him a $2 soft serve ice cream cone, and it was a race between him eating and the ice cream melting. Unfortunately, the ice cream was winning, so I helped him out by eating some of his ice cream. He’s not ready for riding sans training wheels, but he’s getting better at pedaling.

22 miles to Jackson NJ roundtrip

On Sunday after church and lunch, most of us took an afternoon nap. Josh seems to have inherited the Ipe energy genes, and he rarely naps in the afternoon anymore. Around 4:30pm, hoping to beat the predicted isolated thunderstorms, I jumped on my bike, and took a ride. I missed an opportunity to ride last weekend, and certainly didn’t want to miss another one this weekend. I rode to the Jackson Outlets 22 miles and back, which I was proud of. That’s certainly an improvement from 17 miles I rode two weeks ago. It’s a far cry from the 50 miles I hope to ride later this month at the MS Bike Tour, but it’s a start. Riding wasn’t too painful, but there was a terribly long hill on the ride home that had me alternating between swearing profusely and crying like a little girl. I had a stitch in my side that hurt like hell. At certain moments up the hill, I looked around and hoped there were no children around to hear me swearing and crying.

Sunday evening, the family made a run to our local ShopRite. My wife has been doing a lot of cooking in the kitchen this past week, following new recipes, and it’s been a delicious week of experimentation. Prior to the supermarket run, she made a big list of grocery items to pick up, and I’m looking forward to this week’s culinary experiences. This is an example where being a guinea pig ain’t so bad.