12.31.2008

COMPACT



Perhaps Ya'll remember the COmpact? I know of one stompR who signed up, along with the whole fam.. curious how he enjoyed it. . the basic premise as he led me to believe was/is: purchase no new goods for a year. . with the exception of NECcesitieZ! So Food and Safety ought be bought regualry of course, but no new Stuff, with the exception of one day of the year that you sign the compact for, when you can purchase, as in, make the transaction for whatever new items you NEed! grand plan anyway. . the only thing that i'll want for the compact xmas- which could easily arrive used and thus be of no trouble. . .a BIG Wheeeeler!! WHoooHOO just like those cute lil duhRanGo stompaz>!>!>

ought 9

CELEBRATE NEW YEAR'S EVE WITH TIME'S UP!
12/31/08
New Years Eve Ride 2008. Photo by Fred Askew2008 New Year's Eve Ride
& Outdoor After Party
December 31, 2008
Meet 10:30pm at Washington Square Park under the arch

Start the year off right- on your bike or skates! Come celebrate New Year's Eve in the great outdoors with Music! Dancing! Fireworks! and Great Merriment!

10 at the wilMsBRG brdg!

0ught ate 08

The La$t Word at Christmas by Todd Federman
inspired by “The Night Before Christmas” — by Clement Clarke Moore

T’was the night before Christmas, and all are bereft.
Our investments are down, there is no money left.

Stocks, commodities and private equity too,
It seems every sector has stepped in the poo.

The once high and mighty did quick fall asunder,
Fannie and Freddie Mac swiftly went under.

Wamu and Wachovia, both hit the wall,
And AIG, oh my god what a fall!

Bear Stearns, the once venerable could not survive,
And Lehman Brothers Inc, man o man what a dive!

Hedge funds were hammered, both here and abroad,
Their trading strategies were seriously flawed.

We turned to the Fed for much needed relief,
They’ll save our investments, that was our belief.

The Fed stepped in with a few trillion (to date),
Alas for poor Lehman, they were one step too late.

The big bank cut interest rates right down to naught
The impact was minimal, who would have thought?

The long bond now yields down nearby two fifty,
If you live on interest, that’s not too nifty.

And then just when things could not get any worse,
Here comes Bernie Madoff at the wheel of a hearse.

He promised investors a steady return,
But his evil scheme through their money did burn.

His victims were targets of the world’s largest theft,
Now god only knows what these poor saps have left.

Investors are hurting, many race for the door,
You can hear them screaming, “We can’t take any more!”

And so I exclaim o’er this landscape of blight,
“Will the last person left, please turn off the light.”

1ST FMC OF 2009 - STOMpN the NEW YEAR


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let's go ride bikez

12.30.2008

weadr




just a noth R day till nextxt YEAR!!!

12.24.2008

Santa Stomps Here First


My Oh My, That's a Big Carrot

12.23.2008

D9 or EO?


As far as I know, I am not lysdexic. (Brad, I'm not making fun of you)
I could have picked up on this much earlier, but honestly, I just couldn't have believed the depth and breadth of the ineptitudes. The saga of the Stompaz' D9 Apocolyptic Jerzeez is full of that made-for-the-big-screen drama, and surprises around every corner.
The latest intrigue comes from our D9 logo / stencil that was irreversibly reversed on the sleeve. You may note that it says, "EO" instead of "D9."
Since we carry around mirrors to remind ourselves that we're not vampires, we can use them to see the D9 as a proper D9.

As usual, SteveZ is on the task of backtracking through confidential documents to get this sitchewation rectanglified. Do not panic. Do not worry.


Happy Chriztmaztime.

12.14.2008

Oh Bush

Carbon Penance from the NYtimes sunday mag

Carbon Penance
By JASCHA HOFFMAN
We all contribute to climate change, but none of us can individually be blamed for it. So we walk around with a free-floating sense of guilt that’s unlikely to be lifted by the purchase of wind-power credits or halogen bulbs. Annina Rüst, a Swiss-born artist-inventor, wanted to help relieve these anxieties by giving people a tangible reminder of their own energy use, as well as an outlet for the feelings of complicity, shame and powerlessness that surround the question of global warming.

So she built a translucent leg band that keeps track of your electricity consumption. When it detects, via a special power monitor, that electric current levels have exceeded a certain threshold, the wireless device slowly drives six stainless-steel thorns into the flesh of your leg. “It’s therapy for environmental guilt,” says Rüst, who modeled her “personal techno-garter” on the spiked bands worn as a means of self-mortification by a monk in Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code.” (Brown de-rived the idea from the bands worn by some celibate members of the conservative Catholic group Opus Dei.)

Rüst built her prototype while working at the Computing Culture group of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She also designed the band to punish wearers if they don’t spend enough time talking to their carbon-fixing houseplants. But first Rüst may have to address a more mundane matter. When the spikes dug in, Rüst says, she noticed that the device “doesn’t hurt that much.”

HAA

12.12.2008

stompe-ed




Hello hello! I though it pertinent to cut and paste the update to all ya'll, stat!.. The SLowBoken tour has been completed. YEEaHA!!
Yesterday was the longest day of the tour; I lit out from Philadelphia at 9 or so and just made the George Washington bridge by midnight when they lock the bike path (?!). It dumped rain all day long, and I got fairly lost around Newark, which surely helped to bump the days mileage past 110. None the less I was pretty stoked to be pumped all day long, and determined early on that I was going for it, two days earlier I had come to the same conclusion, stompn' out a century to arrive in Philly at midnight. Needless to say I was happy as could be, warm and wet and STomPN!
My theory that traffic is lesser at night proved to be true, but having to ride on some pretty big fast roads negated night benefit to some degree and it demanded quite a bit of karma as well. Aand the pre full moon was decidedly not bright. My main man Ivin was true to his word and towed me in. He rode over to Jersey and dragged me up the final painful climb of the palisades to catch the bridge before the witching hour. Not to mention leading the next hour through Manhattan and Brooklyn towards the cold beer.

I'm happy to say I pedaled every inch from Seattle to Brooklyn on the ol' John Wayne Pain Train and suffered no significant setbacks. 3 months and 5 days of sweeet stompn' will undoubtedly take a while to set in, but suffice it to say, I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity and the support for the SlowBoken tour; and the life changing aspects could not be overstated. I would certainly recommended a big 'ol tour to anyone with the chance.
Lots of swell folks along the way and I'm indebted to all those who helped me from afar. I stayed indoors with people approximately once per state and which also happened to be my shower rate HA!
Brooklyn is looking good, with plenty of blue sky, . And for the next moment or two, I'll be maxn' and relaxn'!

12.11.2008

No.. sleep.. till G'wööd?


I got 40 more miles in the rain y dark to the gw bridge from which point I coast the next couple 10 miles through manahata island over to Brooklyn, and I will me gettin no sleep till Brooklyn

SlowBoken fall tour USA

Slowest Boken Century


Well it would probably not be particuarly slowbokenish of me to end the tour with two centuries, but there are one hundred miles remaining from philly to brooklyn, it's raining with ice forecasted, I'm knockin back some donuts, and I'm stoked to be pumped to be STompN! So we'll just have to play it by year.... WhooHOOOOOO
Xoxox Slappy

12.10.2008

Sloboken, New Jerseys


It may seem kind of odd to have brand new cycling jerseys just before Christmas, but we had to get them right, and we're still working on the long-sleeved ones. Come pick yours up. Color-wise, you're out of the woods with good ol' Merican Red White and Blue this year. Patriotism and Santa really go well together.

I sent out an e-mail saying, "Suck in yer gut, the New Jerseys are here." and Hump wrote back, "I'm proud of my gut, thank you very much. It is also proud of me, in one sense."

12.07.2008

HONk

ok new slideshow, to yer right, , gosh

wrenchingg

hi there, so ok, here;s somee plannsss. . m name is slappy fromsLOWBoKEN and i'm just about to newyork. almost ok
So departing CampHIll, arrrivin in philly in a couple o days, and then post kickinit that way, i'' head fer brooklyn in a couple days
aand then i'll roll in for the full moon cruizer. so if youre out riding bikes on the full moon, we may well just be riding under the fullmoooon together! hooooray

12.06.2008

nurgundY



had the photohoppin' optinz been a bit better youd understand this purple bag on the bars, corvoisier? and the fellow gettn down on it below at the water side, . Harrisburg, Pa

12.03.2008

FMC lookin for volunteers to be PBR drinking reindeer - if interested pick up application at Sopris Park 8pm Friday 12th


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holly, jolly, ho, hoe,"Ho" whaducallme? merry c, happy h,
festivus 4 the rest of us - grab u're lights & bells - we've got a sleigh to ride - that's right my jolly little StoMpaz - polish your red noses & see you next Friday!

12.01.2008