Last weekend I took a mini-epic trip I thought I would share with my Zaadz buddies.

You may know I ride a motorbike.  Its a Dual Sport BMW f650GS(it can go off-road and on-road).  I like it.  I took it out last Saturday with the intention to wind up in Keystone, Co and that was about it.  The most straightforward route follows HWY 6 to Interstate 70 and takes about and hour 15.  I wouldn't be using that route ;)


With a little creative navigation, I avoided main roads, crested 3 mountain passes and traveled 120 miles, arriving in Keystone around 4 hours later.  It was great.

These pics are from "oh my god" road just outside of Idaho Springs.


Here is a map of my route.


I call it the KGB route, named for the passes Guanella, Kenosha and Boreas  that you take on the way.   There is also a little number called "oh my God" road, which is perhaps the best named road on the planet.

4 Hours on a bike in dirt will wear you out...


After a trip like that, a cold beer and a bonfire are about as good as it gets.  My buddy's were happy to oblige.

Next day my Friends had planned a mountain bike ride.  Since i came up on the motorbike i didn't have my pedal power with me.  The fellas produced a sweet ride for me and i joined them for epic part 2.

I used to race mt bikes but, and i am ashamed of this, I hadn't been on a bike in like 2 years.  These guys didn't let that be any excuse, they dragged me out on an 18 mile adventure in the keystone back-country. 

Riding a bike after a long break is like,,,well, riding a bike.  It was like I had been riding all along.  The bike i was on was a full-suspension (front and back shocks) which was a first for me.  Let me just say, Holy Shit was it fun! 

I managed to keep up (sortof) with my boys that live up in the high country.  I love those guys.


Sometimes life really reminds you of how good it can be.  two-wheelers are good like that.

c

I Just watched Ralph Nader: An Unreasonable Man. It is a must see for anyone interested in a democratic government. I knew Nader as a consumer advocate prior to his presidential candidacy. I proudly voted for Nader in 2000 and remained solid in my decision after Gore lost.

He was the first person on the political scene that i could see genuinely cared about the people and about the system. He is intelligent more that charismatic, a quality I think we should value more highly in our leaders.

The "spoiler" attacks on Nader from democrats are narrowly irrational and effectively point to the depths of the flaws of the current system.

Take a look at the movie and let me know how you see it:

What is something that everybody needs, but nobody is doing remarkably?

That was what Jason and I were asking ourselves on fine summer day in
Boulder this year when we both happened to be frictionally unemployed at the same time.

That is the day SexyTie.com was born.

The most ubiquitous thing we could think of were how-to video’s. These are relatively easy to make, capitalize on unique expertise of the creators and provide serious value to the viewers. Its the “oral tradition” for the youTube generation, our method of passing down valuable information.

So what exactly do we know how to do? What do we need to know how to do?
How could we create something that would make a splash in the marketplace?

A search for “how to tie a tie” in Google yields 92 million results. This is something every male in America should probly know how to do so with that, you have sufficient span. 92 million is a helluva lot of competition though, how can we do it better?

SexyTie.com | How To Tie A Tie | The Full Windsor Knot. - Watch more amazing videos here

The market for necktie instructional videos consists of young men. What do young men think about pretty much every moment except when they are trying to figure out how to tie their ties? why women of course.

This is our purple cow. Let us know how you like it.

I just got a couple emails from friends circulating a petition regarding the Myanmar prostest and the shooting of 'buddhist monks.'

Forgive me as i unload.

All love to everyone in support of this episode.  I wish these folks all the best in their conflict.

That said, before this week, i did not know that Myanmar existed.  I know Burma for only one reason.  When i was a confused 100 lbs adolescent trying to survive football practice in 7th grade, we would run a drill at the end of practice.  The drill was called Road to Burma and consisted of the whole team lining up at 5 yard intervals.  The kid in front would turn around and the coach would hand him the ball.  His goal was to make his way back through the entire line getting tackled by every player, one at a time, along the way.  as the smallest kid on the team, this was not my favorite drill.

Road to Burma, took its name from the road that links Myamar to china and its reputation as an extremely arduous battle ground during WW 2.

Even considering I know next to nothing about the region.  I would expect my knowledge of Burma to rank above average for American citizens. 

Suddenly this region is on every media outlet and Americans are taking up the cause of these peaceful protesters.

Here is where i take issue.  If you ask me, Americans should be asking these noble Burmese for help.  They seem to have figured out exactly what to do when faced with unacceptable circumstance.

We, on the other hand, cannot muster more than a vicarious resistance for other peoples problems while saddled with the most fascist 1st world leadership in recent decades.

What would it take to get us out in the streets, knowing full-well we might get shot for our resistance?  What would it take for Americans to put down our lattes and cell phones and say enough is enough from our designated "leaders?"

Our current profit-motivated pacifiers insure our complacency while the very core foundations that created this country are systematically dismantled for short term financial gain. 

After watching Bjorn Lomborg from TED, i cannot help but think how this media 'tragedy' is yet another distraction from the real problems we can actually do something about, towards a self-righteous cause we can take up in faraway lands we have nothing to do with.

WE are killing children in IRAQ.

WE are threatening war in IRAN.

WE have a corrupted and innefective represenative government.

WE have a failed and manipulated election system.

WE can fix all of these problems. 

We cant fix all problems.

How do we create a system that prioritizes what we actually do from what we do to make us feel like we are actually doing something?