Nothing beats being there, but Amanda and I are sitting here enjoying NBC’s HDTV presentation of the 2008 Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, China and it’s absolutely breathtaking – the sheer magnitude of it all and the meshing of the latest technologies with massive amounts of human power and synchronization.

We can’t remember any opening ceremony of this size nor beauty. The bright vivid colors are amazing in high definition, but I can only imagine what it looks like in person. It’s crazy the amount of planning, practice and polish that went into this ceremony.

We’re looking forward to this set of summer games – lots of HD sports to watch over the coming weeks in the Keefer household.

There is definitely some editing to sync these two up, but it does seem the trailer of the most recent movie borrow heavily (to put it nicely) from the original Michael Keaton film from our youth:

Batman vs The Dark Knight Trailer

The forecast keeps having a chance of rain, but nothing us ever falling from the sky here in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina area.

It sucks several times over, especially for all of us home owners struggling to get lawns and outdoor plant lift established.

Firstly, with no rain vomes drought conditions, which limits the days we can water the lawn.

Secondly, without the rain to cut the heat, everyone struggles from the grass in the back yard, to those if us bike commuting late in the afternoon I’m triple digit temperatures with crappy air quality.

It sucks. Our young lawn already struggles in the clay-based soil and then it’s baking in the sun and heat with little to drink. It’s been a constant struggle since we built this home and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.

Tonight was my third trip out to Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, North Carolina for their Tuesday night criterium series. The first two resulted in fourth place finishes with a starting field of less than 10.

Tonight was a little different – with a bigger field and in the end, a slightly better result. At the start line, we had 18 racers, double the field of the previous race two weeks back. The sky looked about ominous and we heard some distant thunder early on in warmups, but it held off for all three races this evening.

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Often cycling on the road, we as cyclists aren’t given the respect by drivers – honking, not passing with a safe clearance (side mirrors people… Side mirrors!) and simple impatience. It often leaves a bad taste in our mouths and a good share of anger and fear.

But today pedaling home, I had a refreshing incident. At a red light, after a pretty big climb, a woman in an SUV rolled down the window and asked if I was OK in the intense heat (it was probably 98 degrees at the time). I said I was and she told me to be careful and that it was great to be seeing more and more bikes on the road meaning less car traffic and more calorie burning for the cyclists.

It was a little thing, but a nice gesture and a nice way to affect my commute positively for once. I hope for more of those incidents and more people like her out there sharing the road with us.

Rest is important in all facets of life. Your body needs time to repair and recover. So does your mind.Today was intended to be such a recovery day for mind and body.

It wasn’t a total rest day. Yesterday was the yard blitz. Today we focused on the interior. I vacuumed the entire house and shampooed the front room. I also did the annoying task of cleaning our aquarium.

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So I decided against racing tomorrow cause I wanted a down weekend and wanted to stay close to home. For the most part we did that, but it was an all around satisfying day. I got up early, got the lawn watered on one of the two allowed days (time slots of 5-8 am and pm), got some GTA IV in while the lawn soaked and then we got the 4Runner’s oil changed and that pesky tire repaired.

We then hit the Keefer property landscaping hard – mowing, weed-wacking, edging and weeding. It was a hot day to be out there doing all the above, but oh so satisfying.

Despite, busting my ass all day out there, I still got a solo bike training ride in *and* rode with JC down to Rollingview Marina – doing about 35 miles between the two back-to-back rides.

JC and I capped the day off with an hour of Rock Band World Tour, which was just the right amount. My leg gets sore using the pedal on the Rock Band drums, which is amazing with all the miles I put in on the bike. I guess it’s just different muscles, but regardless it’s so perplexing to me that 15 minutes on the Rock Band drums and I’ve got leg soreness. Two hours on the Specialized Allez Comp and I’m fine.

There’s been talk of the new Shimano Electronic-based Dura-Ace, but you know it’s a big deal when it’s being talked about on sites other than bike-related like Gizmodo (first link).

It’s got some mainstream appeal based on the fact that the standard shift-by-wire is moving up to.. well shift by wire. But the new system, is more efficient with its electronic shifting in that the “electrically actuated shifting eliminates cable friction and contamination. The shifters are now merely switches, which also allows for creative placement of optional remote shifters while reducing the weight and profile of the main shifting units.”

Sounds cool, but speaking as a former early adopter of gadgets, you’re better off letting it get a few generations in. The technology will get better and cheaper. I’d let those with deep pockets and pro pelotons work out the kinks.

Shimano’s All-Electric Gear System is Like F1 Paddle Shifters For Your Bike

Shimano’s Electronic Dura-Ace

The iPhone’s second major release was oft hyped and many waited with baited breath for its release a few short weeks ago here in the summer of 2008.

So here are some random thoughts and opinions on the current state of the iPhone 2.0 software and the applications that came with it – most of which have already been said before:

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So I haven’t been very strict as of late watching what I eat, but after lady night’s training ride, I was the lightest I’ve been since college.

While obviously watching what you eat helps, for me – sheer volume of exercise and calorie burning has been my solution.

The past two years, I’ve been spending more and more time in the bike saddle and I don’t see that changing any time soon. I’ve been regularly riding three times a week halfway to work with a total round trip of about 15 miles. That’s netting me 50 minutes of elevating my heart rate, over 1000 calories burned, plus the hilly route is helping me train a bit for my crits and road races.

All of this is in addition to the benefits of less gas burned in the 4Runner, more time outside and some great stress relief.

All in all, I’m finding bike commuting is benefiting me in health, training and a bit in the wallet. I highly recommend anyone that can integrate bike commuting, even once in awhile to do it.