The Evils of the RSS Reader and Other Ramblings

A suitably confused title for a suitably confusing post.

I love the Google RSS Reader. It summarises all the blogs and sites I read into a tidy little one page summary (the 'Executive Summary' if you will). But - it also makes it very easy to gloss over stuff and move on. Which doesn't make for a very involved reader on my part.

I get the text, I digest quickly, and -poof- it's gone.

It also makes it a little hard to comment on posts. Don't get me wrong, I don't aspire to be the type of person that comments on every single thing I read (note to readers: if you ever see me use an 'emoticon', or my posting text degenerates into TXT SPK, or I start using annoying acronyms like LOL or ROTFL - you have my permission to administer a severe beating, and possibly even break my typing fingers) - but I would like to occasionally comment on posts that appeal to me, I find interesting, amuse me, or make me smile. The Evil Google Overlords make this a little difficult - so I am going to have to go old school and actually click through to your sites from now on.

And I get the added bonus of actually being able to see your sites, in their full technicolour glory, rather than just getting - sigh - the text.

I promise.

In other news, a quick trip up the road to Wagga this morning for RAMBO Round II. Sport A promised 3 laps of the glorious Pomigilana Park, with some excellent trails that MTB Wagga have been building and maintaining. Great weather for riding, cool not cold, some cloud cover, no wind, nice tacky track. Had a ball.

I am slowly realising that longer distances seem to suit me better. I'm not quick off the mark, I'm no lactate-addict race whippet, I just like plodding along. And I tend to plod at the same speed, which does give me a (small) advantage against those who burst out of the blocks and then blow up.

The race followed the normal pattern for me: Lap 1 - caught up in the bunch and pushing a little harder than I was comfortable. Lap 2 I'd drifted to mid pack, feeling a bit stuffed from burying myself on the first lap, making a couple of tired silly mistakes. Lap 3 I came good, felt good on the climbs, confident on the downhills, had built a mental map of the course so I knew what was coming.

And then it was over.

More laps would have been nice, but then that would mean entering Expert (no!) or Elite (double no!), so I'll just take the format as it comes, and enjoy riding my bike.