Steve Jobs Connect the Dots Quote

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path; and that will make all the difference.”

– Steve Jobs [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]
(also see my post: Adapt and Overcome)

If you haven’t listened to the speech; watch it – it’s one of the most epic commencement speeches ever:

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

How to Quickly Cool the Inside of Your Hot Car

This is why I love the internet and sites like Reddit – because I learn all this random shit that once in a while comes in handy. If you were unaware, I live in Arizona – it’s really frickin hot here during May to September (aka right now) so this video find has impecable timing. If it’s 100-118° outside that probably mean the inside of your vehicle is around 140-160& when parked outside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIGLuWqVW7M

I’ve tried it a couple times already in the Arizona sun… seems to work enough to feel a difference but I seem to forget to bring my digital thermometer with me every day so I don’t have specifics. Can’t hurt to try right? Let me know if you’ve got it to work for you.

EDIT: Just noticed the video is down. Basically, open the drivers side window then shut the door. Walk around to the passenger side door and open and close it about 4-6 times. That cycles enough air in/out of the car to immediately lower the internal air temp. Shut the passenger door and get back in, roll up the drivers window and let the A/C do it’s thing with, in theory, less work.

See, There IS an i in Team

Arizona Dust Storm 5 July 2011

Driving in the 5th July 2011 Arizona Dust Storm. News said it was around 70+ miles wide, a mile tall and moving around 55 mph west/northwest. Turned day into night pretty quick and my buddy and I were driving in it.

It rolled it quick from the south-east valley and just covered everything with sand and dust. We get these every year but not one this big – this one rivals the Arab-style Haboob storms. There’s nothing cool about these; allergies are going nuts and everything is dirty, again. Anyways – enjoy the video.

Edit: And I just found this AWESOME Time-Lapse of the storm hitting Phoenix by Mike Olbinski. Cheers man for that!

Edit 2: Video was picked up by AccuWeather located here

Pippen Just Don’t Know. Jordan > LeBron

During a recent ESPN interview Scottie Pippen said that Michael Jordan “is probably the greatest scorer to play the game” but LeBron James “may be the greatest player to ever play the game.” Um, what the fuck is Pippen smoking? Is he not aware he has SIX Championship rings BECAUSE of Michael Jordan?

Let’s count stats shall we…

Michael Jordan

6-time NBA Champion
6-time NBA Finals MVP
5-time NBA MVP
10 NBA Scoring Titles
I could go on…

LeBron James

2-time NBA MVP
ZERO Championship Rings

Perhaps this video will help you remember. I need not post every epic Jordan moment here however… How quickly they forget:

I’m a huge Jordan fan though. I grew up in the burbs of Chicago during the Bulls six-peat era (in which the 91-92 and 95-96 teams are still in the Top 10 Teams in NBA History) which probably spoiled the game of basketball for me… I’ve never enjoyed watching the game as much as I did back then.

Nobody has controlled their team like Mike did, nobody is as powerful of a threat as Mike was. I watched every game, watched every move he made on the court, studied how he controlled the ball, where his feet went, where his hips led him, how he moved the ball and even his eyes when they zoomed in enough. Jordan WAS the game – nobody can do what Mike did; not LeBron, not Kobe, nobody.

Nuff said – End rant.

Team Hot Wheels World Record Jump

At the Indianapolis 500 on May 29th 2011, Team Hot Wheels broke the World Record for longest distance jumped in a four-wheeled vehicle.
The Yellow Driver, Tanner Foust (who also happens to be a badass rally driver), dropped down a 10 story 90 foot long orange Hot Wheels track to a jump launching him 332 feet through the air. Just amazing. The landing was a little sketchy but with all that suspension in that baja truck it absorbed most of what could have turned really bad. And good thing that tarmac to grass transition was flat too with him sliding around with the truck all loaded up on that side. Watch the video… It’s absolutely fantastic.

Renault F1 Car can Play Music

This is so awesome, only the gear heads will understand why I’m geeking out over this video… The Goodwood Renault Formula One Engineers fire up the motor and rev it out at super high RPM’s and then use a tuning program to vary the fuel input and engine RPM to play God Save the Queen… After that they rev it out again to warm it up then shut it down… crowd cheers. That is impressive and I love the show in the paddock/pits. Similar to NHRA how they blip the throttle to set the clutch but more technical and higher pitched. Enjoy

South Mountain Helipad Route GPS

This was my first ride up to Helipad on South Mountain – always heard about it but I’ve never got the chance to head over that way. The ride this last Saturday was myself @chuckreynolds, @chasers and @blafrance. This was a good ride with some technical climbing and steeper grades than we’ve hit before so lots of lactic acid build up! haha… And the best part… coming down! Top speed was 16.7 mph on my gps, could have probably pushed that but next time for sure.

Initially we took a wrong turn but backtracked and found “thinkers saddle” and the start of the Helipad TT run. None of us are in shape to compete for the Helipad Time Trials of South Mountain but riding it more often will help with that for sure.

Ride Telemetry

Favorite this trip on EveryTrail and/or RidewithGPS

Route

Phoenix South Mountain Helipad GPS route

First Official Gangplank Rides – Gila 620

The first ride in the Gangplank Rides series comes at South Mountain in Phoenix. We went out looking for the Gila 620 trail from a trailhead at the end of Chandler Blvd. I’m not familiar at all with that side of the mountain so the first time we went out we missed it and ended up having to bail out early to go back to the maps. This week we actually hit it, went the wrong way at first but at least we got on the right trail.

On this ride was myself @chuckreynolds, @chasers, @blafrance and @beaufrusetta. Riding the initial quarter-mile through the neighborhood to get to the trailhead I picked up a thorn in my tire… so that’ll explain the gps circling in that small area on the street. Changed the tube out in under 10min, then Chase fell because he’s not used to his clip-ins yet – made us all laugh and we carried on.

The ride wasn’t too tough but we’re all out of shape and took a few breather breaks. That lactic acid builds up fast! Overall a good ride, great scenery over there, nothing too technical, couple little washes that I’m not a fan of but a good ride none-the-less. Next time we hope to ride a lot more of the Gila 620 trail. Baby steps.

Phoenix South Mountain Helipad GPS route

GPS Route via AllTrails and RideWithGPS

Bear Grylls Makes a Wetsuit from a Dead Seal

So I’ve built and hacked some crazy shit in my years, I’ve been taught survival techniques in theory and practice and have camped for months at a time in the middle of nowhere Canada boundary waters. Few things I suck at like filleting a fish but I digress.

I love watching Man vs Wild and Survivor Man and Dual Survival etc etc… I like them all. So Bear Grylls is facing a chilly swim in the frigid waters of Cape Wrath, Scotland, and comes across the remains of a seal carcass and skins it to create a wetsuit from its blubbery hide.

I mean, can you doubt the guy is a badass? Really…

UpChuck

An Atypical Aggregation of Thoughts from an Average Chuck