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I am waaaay to busy to maintain two blogs and a billion other projects. So check out my *real* blog: Haduken.com. Seriously MaxPower since 2k2.

The seven hills of Richmond by bicycle.

Richmond lore says that like Rome Richmond was built on seven hills. Given my affinity for History and cycling, I figure the only thing to do was map out a route that takes you, by bike, up each of the seven hills of Richmond. Duh. But first, which hills are the hills?

If you were to guess you might say: Oregon, Richmond, Church, Libby, Chimborazo, and ...? It turns out there is a lot of confusion around about which of the hills are actually The Hills; no one can seem to agree. Luckily in 1937 City Council, noting that Richmond "has as many hills as a rich man has shirts," decided to set the record straight once and for all. Eventually the records of city engineer and clerk Frank T. Bates were found and the seven hills were named:

• Union


• Church


• Council Chamber


• Shockoe


• Gambles


• Navy


• French Garden

This was all put in a resolution that unfortunately never passed, so there still is confusion today. But those are about the most official hills we've got. So that is what I went with. I'll post the route (at least pretty close) below/later. But here are some of the awesome things you ride past on this twenty mile tour of Richmond:

• Three projects: Mosby, Fairfield, and Gilpen


• Three parks: Great Ship Lock, Chimborazo, Jefferson


• Where the Annabelle Lee used to be


• St. John's Church


• Main St. train station


• Shockoe Hill cemetery


• The Jefferson


• Tredegar Iron works


• The capitol building

So seriously, an awesome ride.

3.141592653589793

Off the top of my head.

Happy pi day!

New wallpaper

My wallpaper is the Declaration of Independence.

How awesome is this? Free high-resolution (10MB) images of various charters of freedom!?

I love America.

Celebrating Lee-Jackson Day

Today was Lee-Jackson Day. I celebrated in a truly Richmond fashion -- bikes, monuments, history, and beers. It all started after beerble on Wednesday night. We stood around on the porch talking about things – including the then upcoming holiday of Lee-Jackson Day. I explained to the group why I love the holiday and then jokingly said it would be cool to ride the length of Monument Ave. as a celebration.

It turned out to be an awesome idea.

We started at Arthur Ashe at 10.30pm with six dudes and a lady. We then rode down to Robert E. Lee and did a lap around the monument and dismounted. We stood and looked at the monument for a while (it is an amazing monument) then one of our dudes tied bottle rockets to his bike and did another lap around Lee shooting off fireworks. That was pretty awesome considering there were fifty rockets shooting off of a bicycle.

Then we continued down Monument to the Capitol build and the George Washington monument. There I told a story about Robert E. Lee and the nearby St. Paul's Episcopal church. Finally we rode to Ipanema and toasted Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, the South, Virginia and Richmond.

What an amazing time.

I love Richmond.

Family!!!

So I have a big family now. Before I got hitched to the ol' ball and chain I had a relatively small family with whom I had contact. Just me, the 'rents, and occasionally my dad's parents. That makes ... three – sometimes five.

Well now the new family I have totals: brother, two sisters, two mothers, two fathers, three uncles and three aunts. So I basically tripled my family holdings in the matter of minutes one day back in aught-three. That's pretty sweet if you ask me. They do sweet southern family things too – you really couldn't ask for a better extended family.

Of course there is drama, I mean what family lacks drama (ok well my real family lacks drama)? But the sweetrad times more than make up for that. I mean check out this picture sister snapped while we were visiting grandma at the ol' folks home:



There was an empty can of Natty Ice sitting outside our ninety-five year old grandmother's apartment. I mean that is pretty hilarious. Experiencing these sorts of things with family makes life worth living. Fin.

Well not quite fin. Some of the hipper members of my fam have "blogs" on the "intertron." Check them out because they are funny. Plus you can stalk me better with more sources, am I right!?

• Wife


• Sister


• Brother

Technorati Tags: family, beer, Richmond

Why Thanksgiving is better than Christmas

I just want to go on the record and say that with out a doubt Thanksgiving could kick Christmas's ass. I know, I know, how could Thanksgiving possible be better than Christmas? Christmas has presents. Presents. Hey, I'm not against presents, in fact I probably love presents more than the the next guy. My family has a strong heritage of gadgetry and Christmas is the time of year to celebrate gadgets. But seriously, what is Christmas even about? I'm going to try and keep this from turning into a "Where has the Christmas Spirit gone?" post -- but it's going to be hard.

Christ wasn't born on December 25th

At least he probably wasn't born then. Is it coincidence that the popular Roman festival Saturnalia ended with a drunken bash on December 25th? The early Christian Church is know for (wisely) co-opting local pagan holidays for its own purposes. "Hey you can celebrate the birth of our Savior and party like it's 1999!" Ten bucks says that's how Christmas rolls.

You shouldn't lie to your kids

Santa Claus doesn't exist. At all. He isn't like evolution, where we aren't clear on the details of the thing. He is like Scientology -- fake (oohhhh snap!). I know there are times when it is probably appropriate for a parent to lie to their kid. Small white lies can protect a child in a bunch of situations. Lying about Santa helps no one. When you tell your kid Santa exists it is just a plain old lie. Doesn't that make you feel weird-slash-dirty?

Presents are dumb

During Christmas time I always have a fear that someone will get me a sweet present but I won't get them anything and then I will look like an ass. I mean, what is that about? Not the Christmas spirit I tell you what. Plus commercialism, materialism, blah blah hippie-speak blah etc.

Thanksgiving is All American

Yeah man! U-S-A! U-S-A! Thanksgiving in America is all about America and how we rock. Our first president, a Virginian, declared several Thanksgivings for various reasons -- including defeating the British at Saratoga. It wasn't until Lincoln(!) that Thanksgiving was celebrated annually in America (well in the United States of America at least).

Family and friends are more important than presents

I know, perish the thought. But if Christmas is now about presents, than Thanksgiving is about family and friends. At Thanksgiving no one worries about what presents to get, or when to get them, or if they will like them. Everyone is there to hang out and love on each other. It is like you are celebrating something you can't buy with money -- that being family and friends. Kind of like that other thing you can't buy with money: forgiveness of sin?!

Soo....

It just seems to me that Thanksgiving is about all the right things and Christmas all about the wacky things. I mean a dude in a Victorian costume breaks into your home via chimney? Awhaaaa? I see value in celebrating Jesus birth, don't get me wrong. It just seems the whole Christmas pageantry (ting!) is against The Christmas Spirit™.

So for now on I vote RepublicanThanksgiving.

Technorati Tags: christmas, holiday, thanksgiving, Richmond