I would like to test drive this little guy, tonight, but the dreary skies tell me this may not happen until another day. That doesn’t mean I can’t share this with you. London, England’s Paul Neave created the “Neave Planetarium.” You click on your little section of the world and look at and play with the really cool, interactive, flash star map. More accurately, it is an online planetarium. Enjoy!

In the meantime, I might just exercise indoors. Mountain biking season is rapidly approaching.

Last night’s Olympic opening ceremonies were nothing short of spectacular. Vancouver welcomed the world with fantastic, visual storytelling of Canadian culture. The display started with Canadian Aboriginals walking on ice that broke up and floated away under the northern lights, which were created by tiered screens hanging from the ceiling of the arena. Projection cameras created the rolling, bouncing northern lights, took us through the lush forests of Canada, wheat fields, and onward to mountainous terrain with snowboarders and skiers.

The opening ceremonies gave us a glimpse into Canadian culture. Personally, I would love to go find the funky, tap-dancing fiddlers and pull up chair, give a listen, and enjoy a good, Canadian beer.

Donald Sutherland’s voice was heard echoing through the arena has he narrated the great, Canadian story. He was one of six Canadians to carry in the Olympic flag, along with Jacque Villeneuve, a race car driver who I used to cheer for; and Anne Murray, a singer who my parents used to listen to when I was kid, and who I called, “Aunt Mary.” Gotta love kids. Yeah, I was cute wearing my little “tony-pales” while sitting on Mom’s lap and listening to “Aunt Mary.”

While we were watching the opening ceremonies, my brother kept saying, “Wow, this better win an Emmy,” and “I can’t believe nothing has gone wrong!” Well, something did go wrong when it came time to light the indoor torch. Four Canadians, including hockey great, Wayne Gretzy, “The Great One,” who I saw play at the Joe Louis Arena many years ago, stood on the arena floor waiting for the four outer legs of the torch to pop up from the floor.

The world waited and watched, some of us praying that Vancouver could continue this perfect show. Unfortunately, one of the “legs” would not spring up from the floor, but the Canadians persevered and proceeded by raising the other three. The four torch-bearers walked to the different columns and lit them from the ground. The flames shot up the columns to the main center torch and the games began…well, not yet.

The rules state that the Olympic torch must be lit for the whole city to see, so hockey great, torch-bearing, Canadian Wayne Gretzky and his torch were transported through the streets of Vancouver via a GMC pickup truck to the outdoor torch. Gretzky walked up to the outdoor torch, which was the perfect counterpart to the indoor torch, and lit one of the columns on which the flame traveled up to the torch top to light the remaining three column tops and the larger, middle torch. Five flames now burn as one in the great city of Vancouver, Canada.

I’ve been working on editing the MMBA’s Bent Rim Bugle which will come out by the end of the month. On top of article editing, I have to update the sponsor and membership list that always appears on the last page of the magazine/newsletter. This is new for me and it is going to take some work and questions will be asked.

The second project I’ve been working on are my Suite 101 articles. I’ve recently acquired the Feature Writer position for the Biology topic on the website. I am excited about this. My revenue earnings have gotten a bump in percentage earned because of my new promotion. With this new promotion comes a new quota, so I’ve been writing lots of articles to meet that quota.

I also have a Feature Writer blog, so I need to come up with nearly-daily blog topics. This should be interesting. It is a lot of mental work to come up with topics and learn about new things, but I am very excited to take this to a new level. Wish me luck!

In the meantime, I am going to work on spending some time with Moronacity more frequently. After all, this is my little niche in the vast world that is the Internet.

Six-time Leadville 100 winner Dave Wiens and me.

Dave Wiens talking to the crowd at the 2010 MMBA Annual Meeting and Expo.

Dave spoke about his cycling life as well as his advocacy efforts.

Volunteer of the year, Bob Eckhardt, and Dave Wiens.

Dave spent time with the MMBA members chatting and taking pictures.

This guy has a really cool Toronto Maple Leafs sweater. Hey, bikes aren’t everything.

MMBA Executive Director Marne Smiley giving her annual report.

Computer geek extraordinaire meets disc brake.

The Bike Patrol proudly displayed the contents of their really heavy backpacks, including maps. Thanks, guys!

MMBA Vice President Nick Shue hanging out at the MMBA tent.

Holly/Flint Chapter’s giant foam map of Holdridge Lakes.

The new Moronacity Trail Guide.

The trail guide used to be part of the Moronacity home page, but I chose to use that to promote other parts of my site that were seeing a lot of traffic even though they weren’t being maintained. They have proven to be valuable assets.

My passion, however, is the cycling portion of Moronacity: this blog, my desperately-need-to-be-updated race results, and the new trail guide. Allow me to show off my newest creation.

The trail guide still has its familiar appearance with the photos on the black background with the purple wording. A couple of features have been added to make it more useful. It is important to note that the only trails included in this trail guide are those I’ve ridden, so more will be added in the future. Also, photos will be swapped out and updated.

Each trail page contains a Google map to help you find the trailhead, a short description of the trail, and a link to a trail map.

Each trail section contains an interactive map to the trailhead or vicinity, a short description of the trail system, and a link to a trail map that opens in a new window. It took some time and digging to find maps for certain trails, but every trail has a map link.

I added a comments section to the bottom of each trail system page. These comment sections are for you to add your thoughts about the trails. This comments section also allows videos for those of you who record rides. You must sign in to leave a comment, but you can use your Google or Yahoo IDs.

The comment section is located under the trail photos.

Now for the grand unveiling! Click here to check out the new trail guide!

I’ve been dreaming.

This is of significance because I haven’t really been dreaming, lately. Call it stress, lack of exercise, lack of healthy food, whatever; the fact is I haven’t been dreaming because I haven’t been healthy.

Yesterday, for the first time in a while, I didn’t wake up feeling like I absolutely needed my morning coffee to simply feel awake, to push aside that feeling of drab. This was after a night of dreaming. Don’t get me wrong; I still had that coffee.

This got me to thinking: if I’m not dreaming, am I experiencing REM sleep? Do I get better sleep when I dream?

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke article, “Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep,” most dreams occur during REM sleep. If you’ve been dreaming, and you know that it was a dream, then chances are that you’ve been experiencing REM sleep.

It is during REM sleep that one typically experiences limb paralysis. If something goes wrong and the paralysis does not occur, then the dreamer may move as if acting out the dream. This may result in kicking, hitting, or other movements.

What is REM sleep? – Get Better Sleep

REM stands for “rapid eye movement,” which occurs during this sleep stage along with an increased heart rate and blood pressure. It is the fifth sleep stage in which people spend about 20% of their sleep time, ideally.

The following can interfere with REM sleep:

• caffeine

• antidepressants
• nicotine – heavy use and withdrawal
• very hot or cold temperatures

It is very interesting to note that the NINDS article also states, “If our REM sleep is disrupted one night, our bodies don’t follow the normal sleep cycle progression the next time we doze off. Instead, we often slip directly into REM sleep and go through extended periods of REM until we ‘catch up’ on this stage of sleep.”

Sleep and Exercise

Exercise promotes good sleep. My recent dreams coincide with my most recent commitment to exercise. Exercising too late in the evening, however, can interfere with the ability to fall asleep. The NINDS recommends exercising no less that 5 or 6 hours before bedtime.

I definitely notice an improvement in my daily activities when I get quality sleep. It is quality of daily life that makes me want to do what is right to get better sleep.

Related Post to Sleep

Catching Up on Sleep

Mountain biking was my only activity for the first three days of the year. Actually, I only rode the first two days and took the third off for a grand total of 77 minutes of riding. Both days were difficult. Maybe it is because I’m used to using my cross bike with slicks for road riding, but the pace on the mountain bike felt incredibly slow. There was a total of 125 feet of climbing and a fairly respectable headwind on the way home.

Total Time: 1 hour 17 minutes

This version of my workout log has been modified to fit your screen.

The second week was a little more diverse. Monday, I went mountain biking with another person for 67 minutes. We covered 4.5 miles of trail. It was a pretty tough ride. I should have drunk more water in preparation for the ride because I felt thirsty and I felt a little weak. The reason I didn’t have a water bottle was because I didn’t realize my water bottles weren’t clean when it came time to leave. Lesson learned. That reminds me, I need to soak those water bottles.

After that ride, I did not feel like dressing for subsequent rides. While winter riding has its moments, it is not my top choice for winter exercise. Lacking motivation, I skipped my workout on Tuesday and chose to stay inside for Wednesday. I did a heart-pumping, weight training workout complete with a little aerobic activity. That was a 35-minute workout. It wasn’t anything exciting, but at least I did something.

After two days of no activity, I grew restless and decided to work with the newly-fallen snow to build a skate ski trail (see Skating My Own Creation). That was my Saturday project that involved 115 minutes of snowshoeing, some of which was while pulling a roller. It was pretty tough. I also tested the trail with two laps of skating for eight minutes.

Sunday, I hit the skate skiing trail for 38 minutes and also took a 15-minute walk. My body was pretty sore and I began thinking it was time for a day off from a workout.

Total Time: 4 hours 38 minutes

The last half of the week went really well on the exercise front. I am quite out of shape compared to past years, and I am willing to work hard to get in shape in time for spring racing. This last week of exercise can be used as a baseline to gauge my improvement.

Goal for Next Week: Total of seven hours of exercise