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Metallica’s new album Death Magnetic is now available. I’m just sitting and listening to this while doing some other stuff, and I am just simply blown the f*** away!! It has got to be the best Metallica album since Master of Puppets (and I really liked a lot of stuff since that album).

You want speed? You got it. You want heavy? It’s there. You want an instrumental? Yeah, there’s one of those too. You want a love song? Go elsewhere! Death Magnetic is not for the faint of heart.

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Brett Favre is now a New York Jet. Although I would have preferred seeing him stay in Green Bay, this is what he felt he needed to do. I’m still a Packers fan, and I still admire Favre’s accomplishments with the Packers. He said he will always be a Packer; in my mind, he will always be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. I wish him only the best wishes.

NY Times: With Favre Around, No More Excuses From Mangini

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jets get Brett

I’ve been keeping quiet and watching this drama unfold from the sidelines. But I’ve been harboring some conflicting feelings since Brett Favre announced that he wants to return to the NFL. On the one hand, I enjoyed watching him lead the Packers and have nothing but the utmost respect for his accomplishments, both on and off the field. On the other hand, I would like to see the Packers move forward in the post-Favre era (I didn’t expect to see him play forever, even before he retired).

The decision to retire as a player cannot be easy. Favre came out last March and announced that he just didn’t have it in him anymore; this was two months after his season ended. I feel that once you’ve made the decision to retire, you should be absolutely certain that it is what you truly want. Favre, however, waffled and started hinting at coming back only three months after his announcement. He pulled this off after the Packers started its first training camp, after the Packers (and all the fans) started moving on and announced Aaron Rodgers as the team’s starting quarterback.

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I helped coordinate and participated in Bike to Work Week this past May. The idea is that if you ride a bicycle, you should ride it to work. Coordinated by the League of American Bicyclists and state or local cycling advocacy groups, many communities are offering a number of incentives to ride to work.

Since I ride a road bike, I didn’t think it would be too difficult getting to and from work. However, I did a dry run recently and discovered that my ride is actually much longer than I anticipated (17 miles instead of 12 by car; 1 hour and 20 minutes). But that was nothing compared to what I discovered when I rode the first time to work this week:

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For the two days of the week that I rode, I logged in almost 41 miles (the first trip lasted just under 9 miles). That Saturday, my legs felt better, so I decided to ride with a group. The group left from one of the nearby running stores and rode north, offering 20-, 35-, or 50-mile rides, starting along a bike trail for the first 10 miles. I chose to ride for 20 miles; since I rode to the store, my total distance was longer. It was during this ride when I worked on some climbing technique. Although the route that I rode didn’t have many tough hills, there were some slightly challenging climbs.

The next day, I tried to take the same ride. I got up much earlier for this one, so I was dragging almost the entire way. I made 8 miles and decided to head back. But then I decided to venture out onto another branch of the trail. So my endurance ride would turn into a leisurely exploration ride. I also turned a potentially 16-mile ride into a 24-mile ride. So over the weekend, I ended up riding 52 miles; for the week, I rode 93.21 miles. I fell shy of my all-time longest week of 93.51 by only 0.3 miles. Not a bad week, but I could go longer yet.

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After dealing with a nasty wind the day before, what would I do the next day with an outdoor temp of 73 degrees Fahrenheit and up to 40 mile per hour winds? That’s right: ride again.

I contacted my friend Josh and agreed to ride with him to a little town south of us called Paoli. Paoli is about 10 miles south of where we started, but getting there involves traveling down one road, looping around, and heading back; in reality, the ride is over 30 miles.

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Now here’s a neat concept for bicycle commuting. The City of Portland (Oregon) installed a bicycle signal at one of its dangerous intersections. The purpose is to help bicyclists cross, especially inexperienced riders who are still uncomfortable in traffic. In a way, it also helps drivers to remember to share the road.

The setup includes a sensor and a dedicated traffic light tied into the rest of the traffic lights at the intersection. The traffic light is activated when a bicyclist rides over a marking on the trail to trigger the light. The bike traffic light then turns green; the regular traffic lights in all directions turn red, stopping all motor vehicle traffic and allowing the bicyclist to go through.

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