Like a car mechanic, they never seem to get around to working on their own stuff.

-J

What a busy year…  I haven’t done a proper update on my adventures in some time.  Mostly, because I’ve been incredibly busy doing cool stuff.  After Tour de Fat I officially joined If We Ran the World as the General Manager.  Cindy Gallop who is the founder of the venture said to the world “I need a shit-hot technical project manager” and she got me!  I have been working with Cindy since May of 2009 on getting If We Ran the World off the ground and running.  In October, we did just that and we have for the last year.

Part of this required that I get my ass out to New York City, find a place to live, and get the project going in full swing.  Then six months later I’m back to San Diego still working on If We Ran the World.  Since my last update I’ve been to New Zealand, Whistler, Florida, NYC several times and a few other small adventures.  I’ve improved my Ruby on Rails development skills and I’ve got my hands quite dirty with jQuery. (hey, I had not done real development in a while until I joined IWRTW) I’m hoping over the next few weeks to do updates on all that and more!

Tour de Fat came to San Diego and we were there!!!

For years I’ve been watching the Tour de Fat and wondering how far I was willing to go to attend, then it came to San Diego!  For those of you who don’t know what the Tour de Fat is, briefly, “A Bicycle Festival with Beer!”  New Belgium is a huge bicycling advocate as well as advocating renewable energy resources and keeping nature around for us to enjoy (not keep us from it).

Alison & I helped out a lot on getting things going and it was worth every moment spent on it. (Alison spent way more than I did).  With help from some SDMBA people we pre-rode the parade route and then helped marshall it on the event day.  Along with the San Diego Bicycling Coalition and the San Diego Mountain Bike Association the event was a huge success.  New Belgium raised about $20,000 to support local bicycling in San Diego.  We had record attendance for a first year event!  Check out some of the event footage

I can’t wait for next year!  You can find some more photos on my flickr.

There's always more money to be had as a private contractor

9. I only set my alarm to get up to go mountain biking

8. I spam people on Facebook and comment on every little thing

7. I’m covered in cat hair cause Karma can’t stay away from me

6. My house gets clean

5. I’m leveling alternate characters in my MMORPG (Warhammer currently)

4. Everything sitting around the house starts to have $$$ over it

3.  I’m setting up Friendbay to sell stuff I don’t really need

2.  I can’t remember what day of the week it is

1.  I’m broke

Sometime this year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
“A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers. ”

Q. Where will the government get this money?
“A. From taxpayers. ”

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
“A. No, they are borrowing it from China . Your children are expected to repay the Chinese.”

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy. ”

Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
“A. Shut up.”

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:
If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China .
If you spend it on gasoline it will go to Hugo Chavez, the Middle East and Al Qaeda
If you purchase a computer it will go to Taiwan.
If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras, Chile, and Guatemala.
If you buy a car it will go to Japan and Korea .
If you purchase prescription drugs it will go to India
If you purchase heroin it will go to the Taliban in Afghanistan
If you give it to a charitable cause, it will go to Nigeria .
And none of it will help the American economy.We need to keep that money here in America. You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer (domestic ONLY), or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the US.

(Oh, and blast from the past, the email you posted with is bouncing back)

As we got there we pulled in behind a couple on a motorcycle in full Goth gear.  And then it hit me.  “Oh crap, it must be Bat’s Day, this place is gonna be packed!”  Its was a little more packed, but not too bad.  But, when did Goth’s become Steampunked?

I got sent a wired article today where the superheros are Steampunked?  I knew about Steampunk years ago and really liked the Victorian style with the semi-scifi approach to magic and technology.  A good movie that shows Steampunk is “The Prestige.”  I had no idea Steampunk is making it mainstream.  I guess all things do.  Heck, they have a Goth day at Disneyland with special hats and everything!