ok, today we're having a meeting here at work on how to have effective meetings.

bleah.

what's that all about, anyway?? couldn't this be written in a book? maybe in an instructional video? how about just give us the powerpoint document and let us go over it at our convenience?

i dunno.. just doesn't seem like a friday-type meeting. more like a tuesday-type meeting. whatever...

finally, someone gets it right about Elian.

poor kid...

you know, just because we're all american and neatly prosperous doesn't mean we're always right. or that we always know what's best for everyone, no matter how old they are.

we're not that cool, people. We're Sorry, Elian.

encouraging wasn't the first word that entered my mind. not supportive, uplifting, or admiration. it was something else. and i didn't like it.

in my race last saturday, there were 4-5 chutes on the downhill course. a 'chute' constitutes a sudden, usually ridiculous drop in altitude on the course (read: a cliff), ranging anywhere from 8-15 feet (read: it gets your attention). now, 2 of these particular chutes were infested with these enormous ruts. ruts are annoying because if you go in them, you must stay perfectly straight within the line, or you'll pitch. launching down this little cliff, and having to deal with a rut is a whole other task. landing inside and balancing within a rut at a relatively high speed, and your raising the risk having your teeth polished by dirt two- or three-fold.

anyway, out of the entire course, the only 2 places spectators were camped out at were these 2 special drop-offs. mind you, this is not a easy, or even comfortable, place to be.

on a cliff, i mean. on the side of a hill. in the brush.

now, the WHOLE issue i have with this isn't the fact that the were even there. i mean, it's cool to have people along the way, cheering you on, checking you out, jumping out of your way, etc.
it was the reason why they were there...

they just wanted to see me go over the bars..

you know, i didn't think people actually still used 28.8k modems to access this fine world wide web anymore. then i went over to my friend roger's house. and used his quadra 605. which has a 28.8k modem. ack.

logon. (wait 5 minutes)
type in a web site. (wait 5 more minutes)..

anyway, tomorrow's my first DH moutain bike race. (DH=downhill, roger) wish me luck.

thanks.