Iconic Daredevil Evel Knievel Dies at 69

Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel

October 17, 1988 - November 30, 2007

I'm trying to keep my composure while I write this, but it's not easy. The man who influenced me in so many ways on my journey to manhood has passed. As a child I followed his career as a daredevil very closely. I loved seeing him in his red, white, and blue jump suit, with the cape flapping in the wind as he wheelied in front of everybody that showed up to watch him crash his brains out. I remember being glued to the television to watch him jump, or sometimes only attempt to jump, buses, cars, and even the Snake River Canyon on ABC's Wild World of Sports. I had his poster on my wall. My favorite all time toy growing up was the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle. I would launch it off a ramp down the stairs of our house over and over again. Much like the man himself, it was almost indestructible. Before last Christmas I found out a company had bought the rights and original molds from Ideal, and had a limited run of the Stunt Cycle. I found one on line, still in the box, and paid an insane amount of money for it. My son awoke Christmas morning to find that Santa had left it for him under the tree. I have really enjoyed playing with it. It wheelies and jumps just like the one I had as a boy. I love posing Evel standing on the seat and have him ride a wheelie with one foot on the seat and the other hanging behind him like he did before his jumps. Thanks to his influence I attempted to jump 13 trash cans on my bicycle when I was in my early teens. I cleared 12 and flattened the 13th like a pancake, and broke my purple Schwinn Stingray in half. He is responsible for my love affair with motorcycles. A love affair that has got me building a mini-Supermoto bike to race next year at age 43. There was no one ever like him before, and there never will be again.

Thanks for all the memories Evel. You were true greatness.

One year going....

About this time last year the little light bulb clicked on in my head. Either I was going to have to get my fat ass in shape, or I was going to die.

I had been an athelete most of my life. Team sports starting a 5, working up to a semi pro level in soccer in college. Bike racing and triathlons, including several half ironman competitions and a marathon that I ran in 4 hours on 5 weeks training.

Moved to Dallas in '99 and bike riding opportunities that co-existed with living a long and healthy life without becoming a bump in the road somewhere are, as you know, exceptionally limited. Stopped training and kept eating. Got fat, tired, and out of shape. Between moving and last year, there were brief moments of fitness but nothing really ever took; nothing compared to the level of training I was accustomed to and as a result I got bored and quit.

But with last Thanksgiving came the realization that if I didn't get serious about my fitness, and soon, I was going to be in a world of hurt.

I reached out to Porta's Cat - who opened my eyes to a whole new level of lifting weights. PC is a shooter as well, and fully understood what I was trying to achieve with my fitness and set up a program for me that got my fat ass in the gym and working out harder than I ever have before with weights. I'd never done squats or deadlifts before and never had a 'for real' program at the gym. I dropped about 8 pounds right off the bat, and then leveled off without dropping any more weight. BUT, I did lose, and I'm continuing to lose, inches in my gut and waist. In addition, I have shown some massive gains in strength.

I know for a fact that the lifting has helped my shooting. I don't get tired at matches, and my ability to move quickly from point to point has been massively improved. I plan to continue lifting for the forseeable future - my goals this year are to be able to squat and deadlft 400 pounds, bench 375, and overhead press 275.

I still have a lot of work to do - I really need to focus on my diet this year and help burn off what's left of my gut but all in all I am so far ahead of where I was last year at this time it's not even close.

There's lots of sites on the internets that claim to have all the secrets to health, fitness, strength, and weight loss. But from what I've seen in the past year, there's really only a few where the guys running the show know what they are talking about. The afore mentioned Porta's Cat is one of them as are the following, in no particular order:
Beyond strong
Physical Strategies
And Stronglifts. Each of these sites is a wealth of information and assistance and are more than willing to help you out and answer any questions you might have.

Each of these guys are what I would call "old school". Nothing fancy. Exercises that have been around since some crazy caveman lifted a rock over his head. Bench press, squats, deadlifts, overhead press, etc. They each recognize there is no short cut to hard work and putting your hands on the bar and your feet on the ground.

Best thing to do if you're thinking of getting started is just that simple - get started!! It's made all the difference in the world to me and I know it can for you too.

Religion of peace update

Oh, the horror!!

It would appear that the religion which is constantly pissed off at the rest of the world is now upset that a European teacher (apparently it wouldn't be such a big deal if a muslim teacher did it) let her class vote to name a teddy bear mohammed.

Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, was arrested on suspicion of blasphemy on Sunday.... mohammed is sacred to islamic philosophy and the penalty for blasphemy is 40 lashes, a large fine or a jail term. The British Embassy in Khartoum confirmed the arrest.

What a bunch of 15th century morons.

Season Shot - Ammo with flavor.

I thought I'd help start the Christmas season off with some incredibly stupid gift ideas. Here's the first: Season Shot.

Season Shot is made of tightly packed seasoning bound by a fully biodegradable food product. The seasoning is actually injected into the bird on impact seasoning the meat from the inside out. When the bird is cooked the seasoning pellets melt into the meat spreading the flavor to the entire bird. Forget worrying about shot breaking your teeth and start wondering about which flavor shot to use!

Seriously.

Of course, I saw this crap last year, and they still haven't released it.

Okay, folks - let's get the ball rolling. I want to see ACTUAL PRODUCTS, not crap you've made up, okay?