A Response to Biking in the Great Outdoors…

In response to my blog post on Spinning, Michael posted an article titled Converted Cyclist in his blog, Mknac’s Weblog.  First of all, I want to thank Mike for reading and enjoying my blog post!  Secondly, I want to say that about 2 months ago, I purchased my very first “adult” bike from City Bikes in the Woodley Park area in Washington, D.C. and have been test riding it outdoors ever since, and I really like it!

The employees at City Bikes were so helpful to me.  They patiently answered all of my questions (I had SO many!) and they took the time to discover which style bike would suit my needs best, fit me to a bike, and show me the proper equipment I would need to go with the bike (lock, helmet, etc.).  They were so knowledgeable and friendly, it’s no wonder that they were named Best Bike Shop by Washington City Paper’s Best of D.C. in 2008, as well as ranking in the top ten for the 2007 Consumer’s Choice Award. 

I ended up selecting a dark blue  2008 Jamis Women’s Commuter 1 bike which is perfect for what I need.  I really wasn’t looking for an extremely high-end road bike or racing bike.  I was looking for something comfortable, affordable, convenient, and occasionally, for exercise.  To be honest, I find myself so busy with my full-time job, my part-time job, and with grad school work, that I don’t really have the time (or energy) to be biking outdoors for 25+ miles on a regular basis.  Sure, I could do it.  And, I plan to very soon — but, not on a regular basis, or else when would I get my grad school work done, keep up to date with the latest movies, have time to spend with friends, or basically, have a life? 

Staying healthy is very important to me.  Exercising on a regular basis is a must to stay healthy and strong.  That’s where indoor cycle comes in as a great and refreshing workout for busier than busy people, or even just for those who like to cycle, that fits in just one little hour.  We go fast, we go slow, we do jumps, we hover, we suffer climbs by adding resistance, and taking it off, we have recoveries, we take water breaks, we have great music, and we have moving and stationary fans, and many times, AC    Yes, it is different than being in the great outdoors — but, how “great” are those outdoors when the temperature is upwards of 90º and humid, or even when its pouring rain?

Mike, I have to disagree with you when you say:

Riding indoors is like running on a treadmill; going nowhere fast. Never to enjoy the rush of a downhill or to suffer on a climb! Don’t you yearn to ride free and feel the air as you cut a line through a turn?

You clearly have not been to an indoor cycle class before, and definitely have not been to my cycle class!

I’ve tried it.  I bought a road bike.  I even joined Washington Area Bicyclist Assocation (WABA).  I’ve been riding outside and will continue to do so.  Now, Mike, it’s your turn!  I challenge you to try indoor cycle.  Be sure to go to a class with a recommended instructor, I’d hate for you to experience indoor cycle/spinning for the first time with a beginning instructor.  Or better yet, come take my class, and see what all the hubbub is about!

 

I Love Coffee, I Love Tea…

In reading Rafael’s blog, I found his mention of the Murky Coffee incident hilarious!  It is amazing how Web 2.0 allowed one person to create such a fuss over a single event that ended up to be an article in the Washington Post.

I am a HUGE coffee lover.  Be it coffee, latte, espresso shot, tea…you name it, I love it.  Call me addicted to caffeine, but hey, Dolly sang it right when she said in 9 to 5, “Tumble outta bed and stumbled to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of ambition, yawnin, stretchin, try to come to life…”  (Did I mention this is going to be a musical?!  It opens on April 23, 2009 on Broadway, and I can’t wait!)

Back to coffee, I am so disappointed to hear about the 600 Starbucks closings throughout the country.  How sad!  I’m not that surprised though, with our failing economy and soaring gas prices, people are forced to spend less where ever they can.  In the listing of store closures, I was happy to hear that only 1 in Washington, DC will be affected (sorry, 21st and L Starbucks!), which does not include the two Starbucks stores that I frequent on a daily basis.  PHEW!

Wikiscanner: Scientology

After much deliberating, I chose to look into the Church of Scientology for my Wikiscanner report.

Employees working for the Church of Scientology have made about 170 edits to various Wikipedia pages from 2004 to 2007.  For the most part, these employees, probably made up of mostly Sea Orgs, have added Scientology-related links to these articles.  Scientologists are anti-psychiatry and have edited many Wikipedia articles for psychiatric disorders commonly treated with drugs such as: bipolar disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, ADHD, and dyslexia to name a few.  They edit these articles to include a link to the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) website to provide alternatives to using medication and standard psychiatric procedures.  The CCHR “investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights” and was co-founded in part by the Church of Scientology itself.  Scientologists are anti-psychiatry, but those who are anti-psychiatry are not necessarily Scientologists.

The Sea Orgs also make a point to insert major Scientology-related events in Wikipedia year articles.  For example, in 1954, L. Ron Hubbard issued the Creed of the Church of Scientology.  In 1993, the IRS granted full tax exemption and religious recognition in the U.S. to all Church of Scientology Churches and affiliated organizations.  Hm. Is this wise?

The most interesting edit I found occurred in the Wikipedia article for Church of Scientology.  The edit claims to have “removed hearsay” and “added some links.”  However, I think it was more so a NPOV issue, or even, in their best interest to make themselves sound better.  Within this article, the edit was made to the Scientology Volunteer Ministers section.  Originally stating that:

Over the past several years, it has become a common practice for the organization to send ‘teams’ of ‘Volunteer Ministers’ to the scenes of major, headline-grabbing disasters in order to provide assistance with relief efforts. According to critics, most of these relief efforts consist of passing out copies of a pamphlet authored by L. Ron Hubbard entitled “The Way To Happiness,” and by engaging in a method of calming panicked or injured individuals known in Scientology as a touch assist.

The words in red were deleted and the words in green were replaced with the much kinder, “Though they provide a number of different services, critics suggest…”

Additionally, the edit goes on to a paragraph about Scientology Volunteer Minister roles in the aftermath of September 11.  The article orginially states:

An E-mail confirmed to be from a Sea Org ‘Lieutenant’ brags of a deliberate plan to prevent the grief-stricken from receiving counseling from non-Scientology sources. “Due to some brilliant maneuvering by some simply genius Sea Org Members we tied up the majority of the psychs who were attempting to get to families yesterday in Q&A, bullbait and wrangling. … The survivors don’t know it but they need the Scientologists with LRH’s tech to be here right now.” http://www.xenu.net/archive/events/20010911-tragedy/

Although this is not the most articulate article written, it provides a website and quotes.  Both of which were taken out, and re-worked by Scientology workers.  The new text they provided was, “An E-mail reportedly from a Sea Org ‘Lieutenant’ brags of a deliberate plan to prevent the grief-stricken from receiving counseling from non-Scientology sources.”  This has all since been taken down and reformatted on the page now – but, it seems to me that the writer may have an agenda of his/her own.

One final note:  The Sea Orgs also added their Volunteer Ministers program link to articles for major disasters like Hurricane Katrina, 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, Cyclone Larry, and September 11 to name a few.  Does this follow the Wikipedia guidelines of what Wikipedia is not?

UPDATE…

As I was reading individual blogs from our Social Media class on the Wikiscanner report, I noticed that Alicia also examined Scientology on her blog.  She caught something quite interesting on Wikiscanner that I had overlooked.  Alicia found that the workers at the Church of Scientology edited the Wikipedia article on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (the Columbine High School shooters) to include a report of a “therapeutic amount” of Luvox (an anti-depressant) found in Eric Harris during an autopsy.  I agree with Alicia that “this was clearly edited to support their belief that anti-depressants cause suicidal thoughts and violence amongst its users.”

–

For the first portion of my Wikipedia report, we were asked to write a new page or substantially edit an existing page.  The majority of my work was on creating a page on Town Class (sailboat) with the username bostonsro.  Growing up near the ocean in Massachusetts, I was around boats all the time.  My dad has a Town Class sailboat and I thought it would be beneficial for his Town Class organization to have a Wikipedia page about the boat.  I did run into problems attaching an image to my article.  I would love to include this line drawing of a Town Class sailboat. Can anyone help me out?

Additionally, I made Wikipedia edits to:  One-design, and Indoor Cycling.

Cancel your Netflix! Rally Together!

I’m leaving Netflix. Not only am I upset with the fact that they are getting rid of their profile option, but the way in which they are handling it is just plain rude.

It all started when I received an email telling me that on September 1, 2008 this option will be taken away.  Upon hearing this, I was pretty upset.  I became a member of Netflix in May 2007 and created a joint account with my roommate so that we could subscribe to Netflix while saving some money – we receive “2 at a time unlimited” for $12.99, thus we each pay only $6.50 to receive a “1 at a time unlimited” movie every month.  Considering that renting a DVD from Blockbuster averages about $4, and if you plan to see more than 1 a month, this makes sense.  If I were to subscribe to the “1 at a time unlimited” on my own it would cost $8.99.  With rising gas prices and a failing economy, I don’t want to spend an additional $2.50/month on movies.  So, it pays to have a roommate!  With the profile feature we can each log-in on our own, create our own playlists, and receive Netflix movies in the mail with our own name on it – no confusion, no hassle, no need to coordinate with each other.

This will all change when the Netflix profiles feature goes away.  They have announced this on their blog, and almost all of the 1,182 people that have commented (as of 11am on 6/27/08 ) say that this is a VERY BAD IDEA.  And I agree. SO WHY ARE THEY GETTING RID OF THE PROFILES FEATURE?  This is what they say:  “Please know that the motivation is solely driven by keeping our service as simple and as easy to use as possible. Too many members found the feature difficult to understand and cumbersome, having to consistently log in and out of the website.”

This feature was “difficult” ??  On the contrary, by NOT having this feature, my Netflix account will be VERY difficult.   And besides, this feature is an OPTION – it didn’t have to be used.  My roommate and I will no longer have the option to have separate log-ins or separate queues.  What does this mean?  A lot more hassle for the both of us.  We now have to strategically place each movie selection in our queue, and take turns as to who gets the next pick.  We will have to waste time talking about it and then waste more time online making sure that it our selections are equally distributed between us.  NOT HAPPENING.  I’d rather cancel and others feel the same way.

So, who’s with me?  Let’s band together and CANCEL Netflix. Or at least replace it with a different service.  Does any one have any suggestions as to a replacement?  Please comment below.  We are paying them for a service.  A service that is not listening to us and our needs.  We should really show them who is boss.

UPDATE…

Netflix has decided to NOT cancel its profile option.  Thanks, A.Tee.Dub, for letting me know.  Keep your Netflix, they do listen to what we have to say!