This blog has moved - go to http://www.maxxxie.net/

You know what I'm talking about.  It's when you Google yourself.  No, no, no, that's not something you do in the shower when there's nobody else home.  It's when you do a Google search on yourself.  Most of the time, I get hits on myself - ancient forum posts, my blog and the inevitable slew of overseas wierdos who also use my nickname.  Hell, there's even some other LJ user whose nick is "Maxxxie".

Today, I found this person:

This chick is a model from Melbourne.  Now, up until now, all other Maxxxie impersonators have been foreigners - Germans, mostly - and animals at pet shelters.  But this chick is local and she's using my name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will condede that she looks about a million times better in lingerie than I ever will, so for that, I will forgive her for taking my unique monicker.  I might even drop her a line that says, "Hi Maxxxie, it's Maxxxie here, how's it going?  Lots of love, Maxxxie".  Yeh, that'll do her head in.

In other news, The Beast is back!  I took it for a ride yesterday morning and it was magnificent!  I am so sorry for getting The Noble Steed's hopes up.. what with washing it and lubing the chain and inflating the tyres.. but I think I must now accept the fact that having ridden The Beast, I will never again ride The Noble Steed.

Having said that, I've been giving thought to occasionally commuting to work.  Some of the CQ girls claim to know a way to get from the Kedron Brook bike path to Graceville, and BestMate knows how to get from Graceville to work.  So if I can put the two routes together, it might be doable!  But I would not ride The Beast to work.  It doesn't have any pannier racks, and the thought of somehow damaging The Beast is just too much to bear.  So I might press The Noble Steed back into service as a commuter. 

Anyway.. yesterday's ride.  I got up at 0430, did my usual morning routine and got the bike ready.  I had my Ayup lights, my blinky front light, my vest, arm warmers, leg warmers and my neck roll.  It's been a bit cold lately!  Anyway.. I stopped in the front yard to turn on the blinky.  Nothing.  I pushed the button again.  It flashed once, then nothing.  I pushed the button again (cos, you know that doing the same thing over and over again will lead to different results.. right?).  Nothing.  Finally, I fiddled with the blinky and could only get it to work if I held its two ends together.  Yeh.. like that's gonna happen while I'm riding.  Fine, I've got the Ayups, let's get going.

I pushed the play button on my iPod.  It went through the motions of playing the first few seconds of a song (without producing actual audio), then moved to the next song, and so on.  No amount of fiddling would get it to actually play any music.  GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!  I tossed the iPod onto the back seat of my car in frustration, and decided to head off without the benefit of music.

I turned the bike computer on, turned on my HRM and headed off.  As I glanced at the computer, I noted that I was travelling at 0 Kph.

To sum up:  My 20Km ride was, according to the computer 0Km.  My average speed was 0Kph.  I did this without the benefit of music to set the pace, and without my life-saving blinky light.  Fortunately, it was pretty light out anyway, but that's not the point!!!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!  Is it too much to ask that all the electronics in my life actually work??  I suppose I should be glad the remote for my car worked, rather than forcing me to actually insert the key into the lock in order to unlock it.  That would've been the final insult.

But none of that mattered.  I was back on The Beast, and lo, the world was good.