Hilariously frustrated.

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The reasons behind this frustration of hilariousness are two fold.

At least a small part of it is just after publishing Monday’s post, for the first time in a long time, I was very nearly rubbed out of existence by a non-attentive driver. Upon catching up with the offender, I calmly explained to him that just like him, all I wanted to do was to get where I was going without dying, and his complete lack of attention was making that task an unnecessarily difficult one.

This seemed to resonate with him and he very sheepishly expressed sorrow, noting that despite the fact that I was in plain view of him (assuming his eyes were open at the time), and briefly very nearly underneath his car, “he just didn’t see me“.

It was almost as if by immersing myself so heavily into the topic on Monday, I maybe brought the potential of the disaster upon myself.

Now then… The second part of my heavy head is because of the following- Remember the SOPA and PIPA internet protest?

It’s a distant memory at this point, but certainly something that affected all of us in some way, shape or form.

The short version is that opponents of the bills felt that this could have a severely negative impact upon free speech and banded together to tell the government to stuff it.

I like to think that in some small part, we here in the Black Market were included in those numbers, and confirmed again that there is a great deal of validity in the words of Margaret Mead;
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Welp, that same government has started up the engines of insanity once again.

The FCC plans to propose new open Internet rules that allow content companies to pay Internet service providers for special access to consumers.

Kyle from King Precision Components sent out an email which sums up the issue fairly concisely;

I don’t typically do this, but this issue of Net Neutrality is really important. You can read about it here. Basically, the FCC (headed by a former cable-company lobbyist, which is another matter altogether) is proposing a change to regulations that would allow companies like Disney and Google to pay Internet providers for faster streaming. Tons of ramifications at stake here.
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If you take a minute to sign this petition, that’d be great. I think we need to do anything we can to show we want to keep the Internet as democratic and egalitarian a place as it can be (and this begins with, doesn’t stop with Net Neutrality).

Kyle

I’ve read about this and read about this, but I’ll be damned if I can succinctly describe why this is so critical to the likes of you and me. Luckily, we have people like Minneapolis baller of all things bike and Interweb related, as well as all around nice guy Matt Duffin in our corner to break it down like so;

Summed up in a couple of sentences: Net Neutrality is designed to protect the Internet from becoming the property of private industry. The Internet is currently a publicly owned technology. We do pay for access to get in the door, but once we’re inside we have the freedom to go wherever. We give up those rights then we’re giving up control to the most powerful medium of communication the world has ever known. To the f**king cable companies.

Obama once pledged to protect Net Neutrality but hasn’t been too proactive about saving it. The FCC chairman he appointed used to be a lobbyist for ISPs and Cable Networks, after all. The very businesses who would profit the most from a Deneutralized Net.

This is a key moment in the history of the Internet. If the Internet doesn’t receive the correct reclassification by the FCC, we’ll see monumental changes in internet access in the USA. The glorious free-for-all that currently exists will be filled with new tolls and tiers, with your cable provider controlling what you see. Comcast is perennially one of the most hated companies in America. Do you really want them deciding how you use the Internet?

So we’re staring down the barrel of the privatization of the web, which at this stage in history is not a far cry from the privatization of water (which Nestle CEO Peter Barbeck has already stated support of), and air.

If you’re interested, another short and sweet piece on the topic by Bernie Sanders can be found here.

This affects all of us, so please, I ask that you take a moment to sign the petition and once again, we can prove that Margaret was right.

Moving on from all that unpleasantness, I’m going to post the second Road Bike Party once again, just because;

Of course that ‘just because‘ is because I hate to be alone in feeling bad about my own abilities aboard a bikecycle.

While the topic of doing awesome things on bikes is still fresh in our noggins, I’ll remind anyone who is interested that in just about two week’s time, there is gonna be a Meet Your Maker ride in the Golden State’s capital which is set to blow doors on any before it;
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From Robert of Blue Collar Bikes I got word that in the raffle (which benefits the Chako Putbull Rescue) which will follow, some pretty awesome items are on the block.

Like for example, a Ventana El Toro Bravo one speed frame;
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As well as a brand spanking new Blue Collar dirt jumper frame;
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It’s gonna be a good time which promises to be good for not only all of the participant’s souls, but for a bunch of fuzzy blockheads as well;
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As we nearly come to a close on today’s effort, I got a bit of news from Maximo Supremo residents Cedar Cycling regarding a new beat they just dropped;

Yo-

New batch of jerseys launch yesterday. Because we’re incompetent boobs, our new long sleeves are here just in time for warm weather, and because we hate women just like you, we made up a fresh pile of navy short sleeves for the ladies;
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Words about the jerseys: The short sleeve jerseys are our usual custom wool blend, with fancy pockets and whatnot to put your bike-cycle accessories in while randonerding about. The long sleeves are very similar to the short sleeves, except that we added longer sleeves, developed a nicely shaped cuff without an annoying fuckabout of a closure, and made the collar taller as one would ostensibly want more neck coverage on a long-sleeve-jersey day;
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We just rode all over Marin in the long-sleeves on day when it was low-50s, cloudy, and blowing hard, and we were perfectly comfortable all day.

Thanks for your support as always

Jeremy & Neil

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- the men’s short sleeved jersey which they originally very generously set me up with is among my favorite articles of clothing and has become my standard go-to when embarking on a bikecycle related athletic pursuit.

Finally, in closing- As he’s occasionally inclined to do, Cranpa from FBM came through with more of his entertaining fodder;

Stevil,

Kenny Unleashed his latest Shit Show for everyone’s viewing pleasure if you would care to share…

Here’s a link to all 6 episodes!

Thanks man, hope all is well!
– Cran

One of these days I’m gonna make my way into one of the FBM edits with a bunnyhop foot plant. It’s nothing special, aside from being the only BMX trick I can do with any consistency.

Or maybe I won’t, but a girl can dream.

Or I’ll just simply remain hilariously frustrated.
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6 Responses to “Hilariously frustrated.”

  1. Matt April 30, 2014 at 5:23 am #

    Martyn Ashton is so totally positive about his situation it makes me want to cry for him. But you can’t. http://rouleur.cc/journal/riders/reasons-be-cheerful-one-two-three

  2. B34NS April 30, 2014 at 5:45 am #

    I can’t wait to top score on the internet. “AAA” you’re mine.

  3. trama April 30, 2014 at 7:23 am #

    net neutrality neutered

  4. Ben April 30, 2014 at 8:10 am #

    Petition signed.

    Now get back to the tennis balls, that other crap just makes me depressed.

    • Stevil April 30, 2014 at 9:23 am #

      I’m totally with you on this, but as I used to state repeatedly on that other website I used to write for, “sometimes in order to avoid a bummer life, we have to meet it head on.”

      • Ben April 30, 2014 at 9:47 am #

        I agree with you 100%. That’s exactly why I do bother to follow through on signing things like that petition and try to use the voicebox with regards to things that need to be talked about (let’s not get started on the whole Monstanto/GMO bs again).

        I will say that I very much appreciate that you are willing to use your platform here in order to put stuff like this out into the world. Most people wouldn’t even know this stuff is happening were it not for folks like you.

        Thanks homie.