Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Signs

Where have I been for the last week and a half? Well, I spent a few days hanging out with Lance Armstrong.

. . .

Ok, so I didn't actually hang with Lance, but I did see him speak at a conference. Which is where I actually was last week. This week it's back to the regular daily grind of being a road warrior. And thus I bring you these images from my travels:

Every time I see this sign:

I think of this song by Dschinghis Khan. Just thought you might want to know that.

And now a question: How do you spell "ghetto" in Swedish? I'll tell you:

"Home-made ragtop Volvo."

And now for something completely different. A blurry picture:


Had I managed to not do such a craptacular job of taking this photo, you would have been able to count the following: Three motorcycles, and five strapping young men. You do the math. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. . .

And now I bring you Central PA, in all it's holiday weekend traffic glory:

Notice the red lights stretching into the distance. Mind you, this traffic was moving at about 5 mph. We weren't near any big city, and it was off-hours. No accidents or road work, just a few thousand people trying to fit on the same stretch of tarmac on Rt 80 in the middle of nowhere. God, how it makes me wish for a bicycle. . .

My first race is this coming weekend. Of course, I have a raging cold/sinus infection right now. With that, I close. Good luck getting Dschinghis out of your head. Moskau, Moskau. . .

8 comments:

Pedal Strike Force Agent Down said...

Your Dschinghis song has no power over me.
..jedi mind trick and all that. Also youtube is surfblocked at my work.

smartypants said...

Youtube blocked you say?

Well then I dare you to watch this Japanese flash inspired by misinterpretation of the lyrics. You are warned: your life will never be the same.

Pedal Strike Force Agent Down said...

that's blocked too.

..if it's really all it's cracked up to be I can watch it at home.

smartypants said...

If by "all it's really cracked up to be" you mean "a weird-ass internet meme that was played out years ago" then yes, indeed, you owe it to yourself to take a look.

If I'm correct in assuming you're from the US, then I'm surprised a non-english-language site like Pya would be blocked.

Emily said...

I was in a six hour jam in PA Amish country once. Never did figure that one out. Jack-knifed buggy perhaps?

What does Lance say at those conference speaking gigs anyway?

Barbarosa said...

Thank you for that beautiful song! I believe I will turn it into the song of the summer.

As for the video: wow!

smartypants said...

emily,

You may be happy to know that I am slowly gathering material for a (warning: dry, ironic humor ahead) groundbreaking blog post about PA.

Then again, you didn't specify exactly what kind of jam you were in while in PA. Maybe I am jumping to conclusions based upon context. Perhaps it was a psychedelic, jazz-inspired drum circle jam with a bunch of Phish tour groupies?

The next time I'm stuck in a 6-hour traffic jam, I think I'm going to get out of my car and go door to door selling . . . something . . .

What does Lance say at conferences? Honestly, he wasn't a very good speaker, by the book. he kinda jumped around a lot and made some non-PC comments (which I appreciated.) His subject matter was basically his battle with cancer and the efforts of his foundation. Personally, I found his speech very touching, having had plenty of exposure to cancer in my own life. I was honestly on the verge of tears at more than one point. However, I bet there were plenty of people who left the conference feeling like he sucked, purely due to his speaking style.

syco:

If you liked the song, look for a translation of the lyrics some time. It gets even better once you know what it's about.

smartypants said...

Oh, and of course the other thing lance talked about was the key to his success on the bike: Which is, of course, that he makes vroom-vroom racecar noises when he passes people. . .