Scott Adcox

One of the things I miss about living in East Tennessee is being able to ride my bike on nice country roads. I don’t miss the dogs tearing through yards when they see me coming, and I don’t miss having people honk and yell, “Git off tha roawd!!!” either. But hilly, curvy country roads are definitely a plus of living in Knoxville.

On the flip side, one of the really nice things about living in a small town in Florida is that you can leave right out of the house and go on long flat rides. Safely. Yeah, no hills means no chance to get stronger going up hills, but it also means there’s no opportunity for rest coming down hills. The result is a long, steady pedal in aero position. Besides, you can always go do intervals on a causeway or hit a spin class if you really want hills.

I’ve been riding loops in a nice safe residential area, but it was getting kind of boring. So last night I jumped on to MapMyRide to see if there were any rides near my house that locals have posted. I found a course that passes right by my house and picks up a nice country road about 3 miles away from home. I checked it out with streetview on Google Maps, and I couldn’t wait to get out there this morning.

It didn’t disappoint.

No hills, but it’s pretty nice when you have to keep refocusing on your ride because you’re constantly on the lookout for dolphins instead of cars. The one caveat is that I had to jump out onto US-1 for about a half a mile–traffic’s not too bad at 6:20 am, but a little more traffic on the way back at 7:30. I ended up doing two loops of Rockledge Drive this morning, only passing two cars on my first loop and maybe 6 or 7 on the second. Love riding a course where the number of cars is tripled by the number of runners and cyclists. Even better when your bike speed is the speed limit! I shot this video at 20 mph as the sun was coming up.

Ok, not the greatest video because I have a Hero and not an EVO (HD), but I shot it while my CardioTrainer app and mSpot were both running. That’s right iPhone<4 owners…I been could do that!

Needless to say, my new favorite ride.

I went over to Orlando yesterday morning with one of my buddies to watch another friend compete in the Florida 70.3 triathlon put on by IronMan at Disney. It was absolutely amazing. I’ve done triathlons myself, but I’ve never gone to see one as a spectator. When you are competing, you’re pretty focused on yourself and what you need to do, so it’s hard to take in the whole event. Even if you aren’t personally into endurance competitions, it’s something I’d recommend going to see once in your life.

It was completely inspiring.

It’s hard to say what the best part of the race was. It may have been watching competitors complete the 1.2 mile swim just before the cutoff time–one lady exited the water with a huge smile and obvious sense of accomplishment on her face, and stopped and broke into tears as soon as she crossed the timing mat.

It was also great to see so many people of different ages and body types doing the race. There were very few elite athletes in the 2,000 person field. They were mostly regular people who have decided to sacrifice a lot of time and effort to take on a race this size knowing they’ll have to make it work around the rest of their lives. As my buddy who went to watch with me noted, “I bet there are so many great stories here.”

After seeing another competitor with only one arm exiting the swim, and yet another getting ready to run with two prosthetic legs and 1.5 arms, you realize that anybody can do a this. All that matters is whether or not you think you can.

And I didn’t speak up…because I don’t own a truck.

Senate lawmakers in Florida have voted to ban the fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state.

No word on whether or not it will remain legal to dangle real bull testicles from a trailer hitch.

I, for one, will not complain. These are the things lawmakers should concern themselves with, because this doesn’t matter. As long as they aren’t raising taxes or making me buy…err..giving me something, I’m ok with it.

From Florida Today’s Space Team Blog

President Obama’s plan to end the space shuttle program and cancel the shuttles’ replacement is troubling enough. More worrisome: the White House budget released last Monday shows little sign of a human space flight program beyond the space station this decade or next. There’s no clear goal to go boldly anywere.

According to my sources, the general feelings around KSC are uncertainty and gloom. The uncertainty is probably the worst part.

Ok…I give up trying to take home video of these things that’s good enough to put on the web and be worth anyone’s time to watch. But it was really cool…like the sun rising. Glad I got to see a night launch!!!

The 30 Freakiest Commercials of 2009 – I love commercials, and not just because they make LOST free for me to watch.

Star Wars/A-Team intro mashup – Seriously? It took us until late 2009 for someone to make this happen? Where is your creativity people?

E-Books Beat Regular Books – December 25, 2009 is the day we turned the corner in publishing. Publishers probably thought it would never happen. If only there’s been some sort of warning…maybe if it had happened in other industries (music, movies, newspapers) they could have been better prepared.

Into the Wild – I read it over the weekend. I haven’t seen a movie for…ever, and the guy who was telling me about the movie gave me the book as a gift. I can’t really say that I like Christopher McCandless as portrayed in the book, but I think that was done on purpose. I can relate to him in some ways though. We’re pretty much the same age, and I know a lot of guys who have some of the same character traits as him. I think it was pretty common for young men from our generation to be a little angry about not having much to be angry about. But I think if this guy had played rugby he’d still be alive today. If you play(ed) rugby, you probably understand why. If you don’t, it’s not something I can really explain to you.

The Sexiest Magazine Covers of 2009 – I wasn’t aware that any magazines were still being printed. Thankfully, there are web sites out there to filter through them and find the things I need.

Happiest States Revealed by New Research – Climbing the ranks in best cities to live in and happiest states to live in as well. Soon, we’ll reach residential nirvana. As soon as we have a house.

Thank you, Janet. – She should get dressed up in a flight suit and have her photo taken in front of a banner reading “The system worked” on an aircraft carrier. Now, watch this drive.

Twitter Shenanigans in Brevard County – I suspect someone may be overestimating their relevancy. I just haven't been here long enough to determine who that is in this case.

Welcome to Marikafka County, Arizona – Where the only way you can protect your attorney/client privilege is to waive your attorney/client privilege. This video of a court official stealing documents from a defense attorney's desk is unbelievable. Even more insane is what followed.

Amazon Turns On The Twitter Pump To Fuel Referral Fees – This is a good thing! People who are using their Twitter feeds just to sell will be ignored anyway. But if you're using it to genuinely recommend/refer people to cool products, they should recognize that. Nothing wrong with getting a little juice for helping them out.

Gore’s Dual Role in Spotlight – Back in college they called him "Double Down"–he was known for replacing most of the cards in the deck with aces.

Fire Your Clients! – Maybe good advice for people outside of real estate as well.

Dismantling America: Part II – Thomas Sowell's got smarts real good. If you don't subscribe to his RSS feed, well…you don't got them kinda smarts.

iPhone vs. I Phone – Is it a coincidence I went with an Android phone? Probably, but still…

Google Wave User’s Guide – Alternate title: Sudoku For Optimists

Davidson County (TN) GOP Moves To Oust Ron Paul-Supporting Vice Chair – I've quietly followed this for a while. It seems to be a classic case of "I'll push you away so I can cry when you don't love me."

Facebook Grabs For The Entire Web – All your faces will belong to us.

The Key to a Happy Marriage…. – In every instance of this article, you can exchange the word "man" for "marriage", and it still makes sense. Just saying.

We Are Living in an Ayn Rand Novel – You know I always wanted to pretend I was an architect.

AZ County GOP Pols Squash 1st Amendment Rights – Republicans just can't stand to see Democrats doing something and not jump on the bandwagon themselves.

Sprint Drops Call Forwarding Fees With Google Voice In Mind – NICE!!! Just read yesterday that Google Voice would let you port your number and I was cursing my 2 year contract. Thanks Sprint for doing more for your customers!

Gallup’s Conservatives and Libertarians – Once you know how you should be labeled, is it easier to accept the label?

Susan Finkelstein Arrested, Prostitution For World Series Tickets – Dumb idea to start with. What guy with World Series tickets is going to trade them for sex?

Toxic Chinese Drywall Creates A Housing Disaster – Good to know about when looking for houses in Florida.

Rockslide Could Close I-40 For Three Months?!?! – Wow…good thing no one was hurt.

VS 2010 Code Intellisense Improvements – This is really good for me. I’m still not familiar enough with the C# namespace, and I’m not in it enough every day that that will be improving any time soon.

Notes from the Road – Really nice travel/photo site. I could spend lots of time here.

UK’s streets of no shame – When I was in Cardiff, it was only the men who were acting like this. How times have changed.

Bing Twitter – Test drive Bing’s real time search of Twitter here. It’s about to get interesting.

We’re Not The Men We Used To Be – The average man was faster than Usain Bolt 20,000 years ago? Man, I miss out on all the good stuff.

35 Year Ban Proposed For Offshore Bottom Fishing – This doesn’t sound good. I thought we only had 50 days to do something about climate change. Now we’re thinking about 35 year bans?

iDrinkCoaster – “I’ve seen koalas drink faster than you”. Technology is a beautiful thing.

Promiscuous dispersal of your email address – "Sure, you'll get a lot of spam, but deleting spam is a lot easier than finding customers." Wow.

Playgrounds From the 70′s – Totally Awsumness

20,000+ Gmail, Yahoo, AOL Accounts Compromised [ALERT] – No one needs your password for anything. Period.

Plot to Stop Using The Dollar? – I was just thinking the other day that I may be better of getting paid in cigarettes, potato liquor and Levis.

Space Program Needs A Plan, And Fast! – Hmm….maybe we should wait a year or two to buy a house here?

Message In A Bottle Found This Weekend – Pretty cool. I hope my Star Wars action figures wash up some day.

Man arrested for tweeting G20 Pittsburgh cops’ location | No Silence Here – If the police don't want you to know where they are, they should wear invisible cloaks. Duh!

No Sympathy For Polanski – Newscoma – I can't believe even one person on the planet would defend this guy. Good for 'Coma!

XKCD Strikes Again – While you’re at it, can I get a drink holder attached to the end of each arm?

Rich People Fleeing High Tax States – What? Unbelievable! The gov’ment should do something about this!

Rowland Burris Blames Bush For Olympic FAIL – And I thought it was just because the IOC member are all racists.

Dell uses social media to gather employee ideas – This is going to be happening more and more as management becomes comfortable with the tools.

What Google Wave Can Do – I will be checking all of this out as soon as the people I invited get their invites. Right now, there’s no one for me to collaborate with.

10 Things Every Kumbaya Blogger Should Know | Copyblogger – When you solve actual problems, even if you (yikes) make a buck on it, you’re doing good work.

The Cocoa Beach Air Show | Metromix Brevard – If you aren’t able to get tickets to the Brevard/Miami rugby match this weekend, here’s another option.

Knoxville Rugby at Heart of Dixie Tournament – Look for Okie and Colonel Kurtz to make return appearances. We cannot guaranteed gravel slinging pickup trucks or soiled sofas.
Indian farmer’s daughter is most bad-ass woman in the world – Boing Boing – In a phenomenally bad-ass series of moves worthy of a Tarantino screenplay, 21-year-old Rukhsana Kausar attacked him with an axe, then shot him dead with his own gun.
Kids leave mother passed out drunk in minivan FLORIDA TODAY – So sad.

Via Instapundit, an article on how Florida’s government is driving away residents and businesses with oppressive taxes. Well, yeah…isn’t that what happens when you run things like a government?

Luckily, there’s at least someone in the State Legislature who wants to run Florida like a business with things like cost-benefit analysis. For politicians, that usually means “how much will it cost the tax payers for me to get the benefit of votes in the next election?”

We shall see.

I want to gradulate Corrine Brown on her successful appearance on Jacksonville radio this morning. I only wish there was video to go with this. She really needs her own morning show.

Part I, PartII, Part III, Part IV

I’m not able to decode many of her “answers” into anything that even approach a complete thought, but there on some new terms, questions, and turn of phrase introduced in this discussion:

• “That’s a one singer…we provide that service”
• “How come your state dead last?”
• “The grass need to be cut..that’s what stimulate the economy and get us rollin’”
• “It’s really no one bullet answer.”
• “…cars that are more environmental conscious.”

I really hope she runs for Senate so I’ll have an opportunity to vote against her.

I like the term “JetBlue states“.