Photo Friday

Feats of Strength!

Todays feat: Toast and drink with each table, and in some cases each member at each table. Once the first task is completed start lifting other men in the room. This feat attracts women.



In this photo taken while at the Alex dinner, Jim from Surly gets lofted by a large man. With all those woman watching, this is clearly a great way to get their attention. Jim was unharmed in this activity and since he was the one being lifted, not one of the woman talked to him after this feat.

Drinking followed by some feat of strength is a typical dinner scene while attending the Taipei Bicycle Trade Show. Thankfully, I had my friend and translator let folks know that for medical reasons I could not drink. Apparently, no drinking for medical reasons means "He is a weak drinker, please serve him Taiwan beer". To read the most thorough and accurate Taiwan drinking rules I've ever seen click here.

Have a great weekend. I'm heading north again with 60 or so folks from our church.

Eat to ride or ride to eat?

Lot's of cyclists love food. I am one of those people. I love food. This is probably not surprising considering I've been documenting my weight loss here on the blog.

Now that riding season is in full swing here in MN, I am craving food. Even with all this riding, I've actually put a few pounds back on. I'm still under 200lbs, but some days I go back to the rock crusher or clydesdale class. These up and down cycles have resulted in some crazy weight fluctuations. I had a 24 hour period where my body weight fluctuated 10 lbs!

I, of course, look at this and over analyze it. One thing I find is that all this bike riding is making me fall into old habits. At the beginning of 2008, I was eating right. Now that it is riding season, I'm making some bad choices and I am riding to eat. Hmmmm? You see, with all this riding, it is just too easy to justify bad food and bad choices. "I rode 3 hours today, I deserve an extra treat or dark beer!"

So, with that, I'm documenting it here in an effort to call out those bad habits and get back to business.

And....Since all good blog posts need a picture, here is a picture from my recent trip to Taiwan. If you've never experienced "Hot Pot" you are missing out.



I love hot pot. You sit around a table that has a burner in the middle of the table that boils a giant bowl of broth. The picture above has a hot (redish) and mild (white) broth. You probably don't want to know what is in the hot broth!

After preparing your sauces in a small bowl, you cook the food at your table. You remove your food, swirl it around in your sauce bowl and eat it. It is incredible and the flavor(s) are amazing. Top it all off with a little tea or Taiwan beer. It is my favorite meal in Taiwan.

So, here's to better habits. Eat to ride!

Ju Ming Museum Part 3

Thai Chi - My 3rd and final post on the Ju Ming Museum. These bronze sculptures are enormous. There are many others, but I was not able to get good shots of them. Some of these sculptures were 20-30 feet tall!





And here is my final and favorite image from this trip. It is one of my favorite images I have ever taken. I was lying on the ground looking up. I wanted to magnify the size of this sculpture.



Now, stay tuned as I get back to the bicycle tour. Just prior to leaving for Taiwan for work, I left off in Washington. We will be heading into Oregon. Stay tuned.

Ju Ming Museum Part 2

Today, I'm going to share a few pics of the wooden sculptures found inside at the Ju Ming Museum. When I look back at my brief time at the museum, these 3 pieces were probably my favorites. They are exceptional works.



This piece is called Ordinary Living World and is my favorite. When you stepped back from this piece, it looked like a huge painted wall mural. It was probably 40ft wide by 20ft tall. As you got closer, you could see more layers. As you got even closer, you would notice the individual carved and painted people. Simply beautiful. The sculpture was far from ordinary, but you got a sense of ordinary when you looked at the individual people.



Here is a close up showing some of the detail and layering.



This piece is carved from a giant piece of wood. The bull is pulling an overfilled cart up a hill. Two men are also pushing. Looking at this piece you could feel the strain on the bull and the individuals. Very cool piece.



This piece had the most meaning to me. It's titled Cubic Living World. I love when artists totally nail a concept with color and composition. To me, this piece represents the millions of people that go to work, sit in cubes, generally look the same as everyone else, and lack any sort of individuality. It also has meaning to me because I've been one of those people for the last 13 years. This piece was like looking in a mirror.

Stay tuned. My last piece will show his giant bronze sculptures and will include what I consider one of the best photo's I've ever taken.

Ju Ming Museum

This is a long photo post today. I hope you are not on dial up or you may be waiting a while.

As mentioned yesterday, I've got 3 photo galleries from the amazing Ju Ming museum. I'll share a few of my favorite pictures from each of those galleries. Today, I will be sharing pics from Ju Ming's Tribute to Armed Forces.

Home!

I'm back from quick and intense journey to Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. Wow! Sorry I couldn't share more while on the trip. My computer wasn't working at the hotel we were staying at in Taiwan and I had no hotel internet access while in China. I don't even know where or how to start documenting this trip. In fact, I'm going to sit on my trip a bit longer before I lay my story out here.

Until then, I'll leave you with a few fun photo's from the Ju Ming Museum. Truly an amazing artist and an incredible location and experience. I will likely have 3 different photo exhibits just from this museum.





For those of you readers that know what the Homie Fall Fest is here in Mpls, this last photo is a true inspiration.

Greetings from Taiwan

Just a short note. Sitting at lunch right now. This trip has been amazing. Can't wait to share some stories and photo's.

Until then....Here is a picture from today's strategy camp. Isn't Taiwan terrible?



More to come. Trade show starts tomorrow.