Wear Sunscreen

I always liked this song.
The words originated from an article written in the Chicago Tribune by Mary Schmich in 1997. It had the title of: "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young"

Soon an urban legend rose which attributed the text to a commencement speech by Kurt Vonnegut, the author famous for his novel "Slaughterhouse-five" published in 1969. He never made a commencement speech, but said he'd have been proud of this one had he made it. For a long time his lawyer was inundated with requests for copies of the text.

Dirty Reiver 2017

Early in the year, I signed up again for the 2nd Dirty Reiver event, a 200km gravel race ( I rode the first one, which you can read about in my book). This is not really my normal type of ride, but I enjoyed it last time (funny how memory gets skewed over time) so thought I'd give it another go.

The date of the event was almost upon me as I realised I probably hadn't been doing enough riding. I also had a bit of a bug and wasn't exactly feeling brilliant. Still, this was no time to be mouping around, I checked my 29 hardtail bike over, oiled it up and drove myself over the hills down to the remote village of Kielder where I'd booked myself a spot in the camp-site for a couple of nights.


Glacier Exit

Some friends set out on a trip to explore the glaciers of Alaska. Instead of adventure, they found a man named Rick Brown, and a story of how climate change is drastically altering our landscape before our eyes. The glaciers that Rick calls home are now disappearing at an alarming rate — it only takes one month for them to recede the same distance that used to take hundreds of years.

GLACIER EXIT from Raphael Rogers on Vimeo.

Internet Warriors - The Guardian (Warning: Some strong language!)

Why do so many people use the internet to harass and threaten people, and stretch the freedom of speech to its limits? Director Kyrre Lien meets a global group of strongly opinionated individuals, who spend their time debating online on the subjects they care most strongly about. Online platforms are their favourite tools to express the opinions that others might find objectionable in language that often offends. Do they behave in the same way when they come offline?

Lammermuir ride

Went for a great overnight adventure in the Lammermuir hills at the weekend with Jay and Markus (from bikepackingscotland.com). We were planning on heading further afield, but a broken down van scuppered that idea. Instead we headed south, riding from my front door.


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