Riding Centuries when you turn a Century

I was flipping through the "Southern Californian Bicyclist" earlier today - most of the paper is "roadie-focused" but I did find an article on "Fixing the Cycling Widow Syndrome". It was actually an excerpt from a book called "Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100" by a local Irviner, Roy M. Wallack.

It opens with a bit of dark humor detailing a T-shirt:

Front side: "My wife said if I do one more ultra cycling event she'll leave me."
Back side: "God, I'll miss her."

Although possibly a bit extreme, the joke describes emotions that are felt by many a cyclist's significant other. Feelings of jealousy, neglection, and possibly even disgust could come from the loved one of a cyclist who may not be "showing the love". In the article Roy quotes "Gottman, world renowned for his work on marital stability and divorce prediction, found that successful couples have three things in common:

1. They know a lot about each other - their opinions, their needs, their perspective;
2. The maintain respect/admiration for each other;
3. They maintain a high ratio of "emotional deposits" (thoughtful acts) to "emotional withdrawals" (self-centered acts). In fact, Gottman says, the highest predictor of a failed relationship is a low ratio

...Gottman found that the real number is at least 5 to 1."

Roy goes on to quote a sports psychologist, Charlie Brown (love the name) saying "Conflicts themselves are okay, a part of life. No two people agree on everything. The key to relationship bliss, however, is not making a big deal out of them."

For more info on the book check out his website at http://www.bikeforlifebook.com.

Doubt and Belief

As a human there are certain things that we "believe in". We might believe that the world is a sphere even though we might have never been all the way around it. Science among other things will tell us this - but unless we see something with our own eyes there is typically some element of doubt. As is in Christianity. There is a lot of proof and history behind Jesus and much else that is described in the Bible. In fact many people devote there lives to "proving" that which the Bible talks about. Since I am not one of these what you might call "theologians" I tend to focus on "core" beliefs and just living that out.

Question and Answer - Are Catholics Christian?

The question of whether Catholics are Christian is almost a bit funny to me. Not only have I heard non-Catholics describing the different denominations (sects, groups, etc) as 1. Catholic and 2. Christian. But I have even heard Catholics themselves many times referring to non-Catholics as simply "Christian" implying that they view themselves as not also being Christian. Again, this is almost funny - but I have to hold my laughter because it is quite serious.

So to set it straight once and for all - Catholics are Christian - period. Now that's not to say that they believe the same things as non-Catholics - what it means is that at least we all (Catholics & Non-Catholics - commonly referred to as Protestants) have the same core belief that Jesus died on the cross that our sins would be forgiven and that we would have eternal life. At least in my opinion that should be the main focus, but more on that in my next post :)

PotatoLand

Last week I adventured to PotatoLand (aka Boise, Idaho) where I implemented ACOM's EZContentManager product at some "Virtual Academy". Luckily I got to spend some off time sightseeing the local towns stuff and got to do some nice hiking up by the "Camelbak" trail as well as the infamous "Riverwalk" which is quite nice. Wish I'd had a tube! Even more I wish I had my mountain bike as I heard later that Boise was the fastest growing mountain bike area in like the universe :) Cool stuff....

Chumba Wumba

Since Ted didn't get in that last group pic - here's him at work on the beach connecting to his manufacturing in Taiwan via Skype-this guy loves his toys :)

So many babies!

Tonight at 9:57 pm my friend and "Ficher" Justin has become a father to this little guy: Javin Arlo Ugerio. Awww....Looks just like his dad :)

Whatever way you get your Jesus on...

A very wise man (we'll just call him the Mysterious Mr. A for now...) once gave me some very wise words: "Whatever way you get your Jesus on" and I have come to understand and even use this in my everyday life. Basically, I interpret this to mean that whatever type of Christian you are, that is cool. The only thing I have to add there is: as long as you are 'alive'. What all this means is that it doesn't matter what denomination you come from: Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Baptist - as long as you have that "relationship" with Christ, believing that He is Lord and died on the cross for your sins then everything else seems to fit into place. Now many may ask, what about church, baptism, communion, yada yada yada, those things are VERY important also. But I truly believe (as quoted from Jesus)...the faith of a little child....is what we should all have. Now that means to me not only that we have to believe "without seeing", but also perhaps that we shouldn't be so worried about not only what I call "the details" but also "how everyone else is doing it". Now again I must say it is VERY important to know and live by these "details" like the laws, the sacraments, etc. but simply that if we focus more on the true core of the religion, that we might - just might - realize that we are all really getting at the same thing...that is, that by God's grace, we are saved, and that we are to live by His Word, and be fisher's of men. What this means to me is that we should really stop looking at all our differences (as Christians) and preaching to each other, when we really need to get OUT THERE and preach to the world. Now different types of preaching may certainly work better for different people, and that makes sense since there are so many types of denominations. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't all be UNIFIED. I'm not saying that we should all be Catholic, Lutheran, etc. but rather that we should all be respective, acceptive, and understanding of each other. This means that not only do we have to respect those that practice in a different way, but also to accept them in to God's holy body of THE CHURCH, and in order to do this, we must finally understand how we each do that and why it is important. Perhaps in my next few blogs I'll try to focus on each of these individually and explain why they have become so important to me. God bless you all!

It's a boy!

That's right, Anthony and Joy just gave birth to their new baby boy yesterday afternoon, Dominick. So cute! I want one!

The Goose

I can't wait to go back to Gooseberry Mesa, Utah. It is a most excellent ride. This is a pic from the "South Rim" I believe that is only a 5 minute ride from camp. God is good.

San Juan

Travis, Will, Weyland and I did San Juan this past weekend and boy was it good times. I ate it hard in some rooty section going down to the meadows past cocktail rock (picture to left) and messed up my wrist, but it's all good now.  Check out more info here: http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=129

Texas

So I went to Texas for an onsite implementation at Texas A&M - did the full tour with College Station, Dallas, Amarillo, Corpus Christi, and a few others - highlights were hiking out to Lighthouse Peak in http://www.palodurocanyon.com/ and getting to see my nephew Isaiah and meet his wife and his new baby girl which is also my new grand neice - phew! - picture to be soon attached :)

Horse Surfing

So Travis and I were driving out to San Juan to ride this last Saturday morning and we saw some cows on the side of the road and I decided to patent my latest idea of horse/cow surfing. All you'll need is a saddle with some foot straps built in, and there you go!

All you can eat Sushi!

I haven't been there yet, but I just heard of a great sushi place in Fullerton that has all you can eat sushi for $20 on Thursday nights from 8:30-11. Check them out online here: http://www.rockinrestaurants.com/chomp/sushi.htm