Computer Dependent

So, I'm pretty good with the google. Or at least people think I am. At my last computer using job I always got asked to google something or other. Anyway, the internets are pretty rad since nowadays you can get info on just about anything in just a few clicks.

Well, yesterday afternoon I was looking for the marinade for some chicken. I knew it was in one of our cupboards, but Ashleigh manages that space and I had no idea where it was. Heck, I didn't even know if it was a mix or in a bottle. After a very casual glance in the most likely spots, I erroneously realized that I could just google it. "Dear google, where in the kitchen is the marinade?"

I was halfway to the computer before I realized that the computer wasn't going to help me with this one. Although I'm sure the interwebs could have found it a lot quicker than I did.

Nuevo Mexico

My brother in law spent the better part of last week trying to convince Ashleigh and I to move to New Mexico with them after law school. All he would have had to do is show me this video...

New Mexico's BEST | Vital MTB

...and that would have convinced me, at least enough to visit!

Crashing

I've been thinking about crashing lately- and how I rarely do it. I'm scared of crashing, probably coz I broke my jaw in a bike crash when I was in 2nd grade. I think that fear keeps me from doing stupid stuff. Anyway, here is a video with a guy crashing a lot.

WTF with Watts | Vital MTB

Geek

Why I'm going to law school: Because this kind of stuff is super intriguing to me...

The author spells it out, but, what incentive does one have to go to court if the state is going to take all of the settlement. As a lawyer, why would you represent someone knowing that all of the settlement is going to the state? By allowing the state to take 100% of the settlement, it takes away any incentive to seek a settlement. Law and economics. Gotta love it.

A terrible new AZ Court ruling for State, County, and Municipal employees who have been injured

from Tucson Bike Lawyer by Erik

The Arizona Supreme Court announced yesterday that it would not grant review to a Division Two Arizona Court of Appeals case, Ariz. Dep’t of Trans. v. Cox.

Jennifer and Richard Cox were injured in a motor vehicle accident and incurred medical expenses of $25,000.00. They obtained a total of $30,000.00 from the motorist who hit them. They were insured through a state plan. The court ruled that the state could take up to 100 percent of a person’s injury settlement, but not more, to reimburse the state for the medical expenses.

Up until this decision, the normal practice would be that the state would be reimbursed for, at the most, 66 percent of the medical bills under the so-called “common fund” doctrine. The idea of the common-fund doctrine is that because the Coxes had to hire an attorney to get that settlement, and since the state directly benefited from that attorney’s work and would have most likely collected nothing without it, the state should contribute to the attorney fees. Otherwise the attorney is working for the state, for free.

What the common-fund doctrine does is it gives an attorney some incentive to take a case that otherwise wouldn’t pay. Cases like the Cox case, where the medical bills are high and the tortfeasor’s insurance (the torfeasor is the person at fault) is low. The common-fund doctrine lets the victim get an attorney, make at least some recovery, gets the state back most of its money, and pays the attorney.

Without the common-fund doctrine, the attorney has no reason to take the case since he or she will literally be working for free, and possibly for no other reason than to reimburse the state, which can now literally take 100 percent of a victim’s settlement.

I think this is an insane decision that benefits no one except the insurance companies. It is only going to result in the state obtaining less money over the long run, because tort victims are not going to be able to secure representation and there is no way insurance companies are going to pay the state anything if they don’t have to — which they won’t.

And of course the decision hits bicyclists harder than most, because bicyclists (and pedestrians) are much more likely to rack up large medical bills if hit by a car.

The decision does not affect people who are privately insured.

–Erik Ryberg

Preparations

Over the last few weeks everyone has been preparing for the wonderful upcoming event, the Desert Rampage. At least, everyone should have been. I'm sure half a dozen people will show up at the shop tomorrow wanting a full overhaul of their bike so that they can race on Saturday. Which is great, and I encourage you to do so if you happen to be one of those people. That is how bike shops stay in business. It just sucks for the mechanics.

Anyway, my friend Dan and I have both been preparing for this weekend, albeit in very different ways. We are both racing in new categories this year which of course means we needed (I mean, absolutely need, like our old bikes are useless) new bikes. I got mine in October. All the locals have seen it, and by now everyone knows it is a golden singlespeed.
It's mostly a low maintenance bike, and it's been about the same since then. I think I changed the bar, stem and seatpost over the winter, because I borrowed those for the initial build. I didn't need to prepare this bike hardly at all for the race.

Unfortunately for Dan, however, his frame has been out of stock for the few months. His bike just came in last week, which mean his prepartions have been building a completely new bike from scratch. He did a pretty good job building it up. It gets the silver medal for being pretty. (My bike obviously gets the gold, because, well, it is gold). This week, Dan has been busy building, testing, breaking, and warranty-ing his bike, which luckily, if not miraculously will be ride-able in two days. He's been preparing a lot, is what I'm trying to say.

Me? With no bike to prep, doesn't mean I didn't need to prepare. I did. A lot. In fact, it took about 3 weeks to prepare for the single-speed category, and I'm not sure I did a good enough job:


Growing the mandatory single speed category beard.

Good luck to everyone Saturday. Hope everyone wins their category. Unless it's single speed. In that case I hope you get 2nd.

Picture dump: