Decline and Jubilee

It's finally over, the British Jubilee has been duly celebrated and all that pageantry as left me with the strong impression that, when a country is in strong decline, the only positive thing left to do is over-blow a trivial anniversary.

I mostly watched the news summary and one night, on Charlie Rose's show, as the question of the island decline was brought up, John F. Burns, one of the panelists and New York Time correspondent in London, said that wasn't true as British scientists could be found at all American research institutes (a sign of massive brain-drain, isn't it?) and that in Indy and Formula One, UK built chassis were still winning on the race tracks...

Pretty thin claim that indicates that in few decades, the old Empire, just like Greece today, will just be a popular tourist place. The Brits better keep the Royalty alive and kicking by then!

Why real estate agents don't impress me...

I found the real estate profession quite unimpressive ever since I briefly tried my hands to the job at the very beginning of the 1990s. I've always found most of the agent, lacking imagination, creativity and frankly, often lazy and not always ethical.

As a rule, I've decided to avoid doing business with any of them when it can and if I must call one of them, it will be about one of their own listings. I recently got involved in that way with one of them. In working briefly with him, I found the particular gentleman to be a terrible communicator and this – once more - didn't impressed me from the get go.

Yesterday, that same individual calls me about a real estate “deal” he'd like me to get involved with, and insists we need to meet in person because it's a “complicated transaction.” So, I carve time out of my schedule and arrange to meet with the man, outside, on some corner of Main Street, Park City.

The weather suddenly becomes freezing, it's around 5 pm and the obviously the agent isn't there on time. Of course, he has also neglected to make a note of my cell phone number, so he calls home to let me know that he's late; my wife relays his message to me. He finally shows up 15 minutes later and I ask him “what's the deal?” He says: “it's not one of my listings but I would like to represent you; no, the property isn't listed yet.”

I then asked him about the price and he came up with some absurd amount. I then tell him to never, ever bother me again with deals of that sort and, quite ticked-off, I leave.

FIS and effective sport marketing

I've always been of the opinion that the International Ski Federation (FIS) could do much better in terms of promoting snow sports and appears to me as suffering of sclerosis and being a traditional “old boys club.” I also believe that it's living in the past and makes all of its decisions in a vacuum.

 Like many sports international sport federations, the FIS is super conservative, reactionary and unwilling to change. The sports it offer should evolve so they keep spectators and particularly TV viewers interested and expecting even more, which in turn would serve as a true showcase and promotion for the ski business.

The 48th FIS congress just came to a close in South Korea and with it, the executive committee was elected, with the exception of Gian-Franco Kasper, its president whose mandate expires in 2014. Following are the new members with the number of vote they received (123 being the maximum votes possible). These individuals (all men) will be the one to blame if FIS continues to remain the dinosaur it has become over a long period of years...

Mats Årjes, Sweden 123 votes. Patrick Smith, Canada 120 votes. Alfons Hörmann, Germany 119 votes. Eduardo Roldan, Spain 119 votes. Sung Won Lee, South Korea, 118 votes. Peter Schröcksnadel, Austria 118 votes. Sverre Seeberg, Norway 118 votes. Janez Kocijancic, Slovenia 116 votes. Bill Marolt, United States 116 votes. Michel Vion, France 115 votes. Roman Kumpost, Czech Republic 110 votes. Vedran Pavlek, Croatia 110 votes. Matti Sundberg, Finland 108 votes. Dean Gosper, Australia 101 votes. Flavio Roda, Italy 100 votes and Andrey Bogarev, Russia 99 votes .

Roda and Bogarev have just been elected this year, they're therefore new to the “club.” These individuals along with Kasper (all men), will be the ones to blame if FIS continues to remain the dinosaur it has morphed into, over a long period of years...

Surprise breakfast!

Eating insects seems to be what's hot these days; some have even found a respectable name for the practice: Entomophagy! These little guys are loaded with proteins and don't contribute much to greenhouse gases (have you ever heard a grasshopper fart?) There's hardly a day when a trendy restaurant isn't not broadening its fare with some edible insect meals. This means that either we fight the trend or we join it.

I finally did this morning; as we were running, we passed this gigantic network of beaver dams that the furry rodents have been building for the past six month on the edge of our neighborhood, and that now seem to attract mosquitoes from all over the world! As I was not in my best running shape this morning, was huffing, puffing and opening my big month, I caught a mouthful of these lively mosquitoes.

I found them just filling, not really tasty. I guess they're more delectable when they're fried. So one serving was enough for this morning. I'll do better next time and if I finally get used to it, I might, from that point forward, decide to catch my breakfast on the go!

 

Influence of politics on the economy

I have often written that I don't believe that politicians and their policies hold a significant sway on the economy when the claim they can improve it, especially in the short term.  Granted, smart and only long-term governmental policies may have some positive influence on future economic development.

What unfortunately is true however for the short term is that politicians have a huge influence on hampering the economy through their actions, statements and aggressive posturing. We had that happened last Fall during the budget limit crisis.

In summary, politicians, which are the biggest problem we have, are pretty much impotent at making things better, but are incredibly skilled in screwing things up for all of us.

National Trails Day

Today, we decided to come celebrate the 20th Anniversary of National Trails Day, in Park City's Round Valley with the Mountain Trails Crew. Round Valley is where we do most of our cross-country mountain biking and we love that convenient network of single track trails that starts less than one mile from our front door.

While another group gathered in nearby Glenwild, near Kimball Junction, we found ourselves at about 8 am with 50 other volunteers and after coffee, bagels and instructions, we were busy cutting the new “Ramble on” trail, named after the famous song by Led Zeppelin, that should be open in one month from now.

The overcast skies were a godsend and we worked till about noon, hoeing the path, cutting roots, removing rocks and raking the soil into a smooth trail. Not the usual intellectual work some of us prefer to do! At noon, tired and dirty we went back home but we had plenty of fun and loved the experience. See you all next year!

Audacity makes the difference

As we're trying to get back on the saddle and reacquainted with all the subtleties of mountain biking, I'm discovering, once more, how similar that sport is to alpine skiing. Believe you'll clear a hairpin turn and you'll clear it, have doubts about the outcome and you'll bite the dust!

Until this season, banked turns have always be by nemesis and it's only now that I can muster the audacity to launch into them, enter as high as I dare to, and the end result is that I come out in the perfect spot with good speed.

That says a lot about the psychology of mountain biking and its requirement for lots of guts if not aggressive behavior. Hard to do at first when one's “over the hill,” but achievable as long as one is rewarded by some tangible, positive results!