Sorry guys, Highwaylass is indisposed today due to technical problems, so it's Erin on Monday, just to keep you all on your toes.


Zip merging would have cleared this queue

Before I get into anything bike-related (which will be brief because I haven't been on one for two weeks, although that reminds me - guess what I found hidden at the back of my book shelves this weekend? Easy Rider on DVD - £3 special - must have bought it years ago and forgotten all about it), I need to have a massive car-related rant, which I know will prove controversial, although you're mostly bikers with more common-sense roadcraft than the average motorist, so maybe you'll all agree (although even on the motoring desk here at Telegraph Towers opinion is divided, with the motoring correspondent, Honest John and me on one side, and the motoring editor on the other). The subject is zip merging.

I just got back from Cornwall and on my way back, on the A30, here is what happened: there is a stretch of road, perhaps four or five miles on total, which is dual carriageway, merging into one lane. You then get a roundabout, then another stretch of dual carriageway, going down again to a single lane. So there we are, barrelling along the outside lane of the first stretch of dual carriageway, and we suddenly notice that all the traffic has come to a halt in the left lane. There is no one in front of us and no one behind. We wonder if we have missed a sign informing us that our lane is closed ahead, but we confer and agree we haven't. It's a bizarre, freakish experience to be travelling in a lane on your own, with all traffic stationary in the left lane, so we slow down, prepared for anything. All that happens is that, after two miles or so, a sign appears warning that the two lanes merge into one ahead. We now slow and prepare to merge as the lanes do. This happens and we stare at each other, utterly agog that everyone has been in a stationary queue in the inside lane because they know the two lanes merge a good two miles hence, and the we're-British-so-we-queue mentality has caused an almighty traffic jam while one lane sits empty.

We go round the roundabout, rejoin the dual carriageway and after about a mile the same thing happens, only this time a few other sensible souls are travelling ahead of us down the empty right-hand lane. Then we all come to a halt, because a COMPLETE IMBECILE in a red supermini (Micra, maybe?) with a pale yellow short-sleeved polo shirt on (believe me, if I'd reacted quick enough to record the numberplate, I'd print that here too) can't stand the thought that, while he has been British enough to queue for no reason and therefore create a traffic jam, others are "queue-jumping" and so he has stuck his car across both lanes to block anyone else coming down. This is not only utterly stupid, it's also dangerous as the first person to reach him had to slam on his brakes, and now there are simply two traffic jams where before there was one. I mean, if he wants to sit and queue all day (and when do these people think we should start queuing for zip-merging? It's clearly at least 2 miles before the change occurs, so why not make it three, or four, or when we leave home?), then that's up to him, but blocking the way for others kind of loses him the moral high ground somewhat.

Anyway, I was just fuming. I hate proper queue jumpers as much as the next person, but ZIP MERGING IS NOT QUEUE JUMPING. It's keeping the traffic moving by doing the sensible thing and making use of two lanes, then merging in turn. Zip merging was going to be introduced to the Highway Code, but, depressingly, it was decided not to do so, simply because the compilers came to the sad and sorry conclusion that we are a nation of queue-loving morons who would not understand how to merge.

Aaargh.

Did you know that 26 motorcyclists die every day on Iran's roads? I heard it on the BBC World Service last week, so it must be true.

Well folks, I guess it really is down to the wire. I was in L.A. over the weekend and saw a horrible DBACKS team take the field for 3 days. Oh well, not bad for the past 10 years. I saw my DBACKS win it all and win at least 4 Division Titles. So not too bad for a young team. But I must say, Dodger Fans can be pretty obnixous, at least they have something to cheer for this year. Just maybe Manny can help out. But there still is 19 games left!

."...to forge  ' a new deal for this new world', based on the principle of fairness " Reported Sky TV. I am not sure what he has in mind for 'this new world', but he could start nearer to home and apply some fairness to the devolution mess. 

unforgiven 2008 was one of the worst ppv's i have ever seen how is triple h a 13 time champ but jeff hardy brian kendrick arnt considered a champ i know they rules are ur not a champ in the history books until the 20 mins are up but triple h techinally never lost the title but like every match that has a time limit someone wins by a second but if u seen the clock triple h came out a second to early and won it with 1 second to spare so if he came out on time he wouldnt of won it back and hardy would be champ but hardy dont date stephanie so he doesnt get 100's of title reigns and that raw match for the title was nothing but **** how does jericho get the **** beat out of him and knock out but is ok to win the world title but atleast batista is not champ or rey raw is the best wrestling show but their ppv and alot more is stupid the best match was by far the hbk and y2j match with the best wrestler ever he is not my favorite but i think he is one of the best wrestlers ever hbk and has anyone ever notice ppl talk about flair being in the business for over 30 years what about finlay yeah he didnt win all the titles that flair but then again look at all the ppl praise as greatness in wrestling who didnt wins many titles nonetheless unforgiven was **** wwe still rules and GIVE KANE THE TITLE HE DESERVES IT MORE THAN HHH AND Y2J!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that whole thing was funny when the fan got the sign tooken from him in the ecw title match he is the story on why he got the sign tooken away that said i graduated from MVP university

MVP upset management following a recent incident in which he made a derogatory comment to one of the drug testing monitors who watches the WWE performers while they submit urine samples.

Following the implementation of the WWE Wellness policy a few years ago, some wrestlers were submitting fake urine samples to beat the drug tests. One wrestler was eventually caught cheating in WWE developmental wrestler Afa Anoa'i, Jr. As a result, Anoa'i was suspended by WWE for 30 days, on March 20, 2008, as cheating is an obvious violation of the WWE's Wellness policy. Following the incident, WWE instituted a new rule in which the performers have to be bare from their chest down to their knees while giving urine in front of a doctor to make sure they're not cheating. A number of the wrestlers are grouchy to the monitors as you would imagine. However, MVP went too far in what he said to one of them.

MVP asked the monitor if he graduated from college. The monitor said yet. MVP then insulted him, saying something along the lines of, "So you went to school for four years to watch people's (expletive)?"

The monitor promptly complained to WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis as well as Bruce Prichard. Soon after, Laurinaitis indirectly addressed the matter in locker room meeting, instructing talent to be respectful of the testers and to not harass them. People aware of the MVP incident felt it was obvious that the meeting was held due to it.

Since the incident, MVP has been getting the cold shoulder from a few officials. Suddenly, the word backstage is that he doesn't know how to work as a heel to get heat. At last week's SmackDown/ECW tapings in Pittsburgh, Shelton Benjamin - who's been in-and-out of favor with WWE officials for a number of years - was given high praise in that he knows to work as an effective heel. They liked his smiling facials after he laid out MVP with his "Paydirt" finisher and more so later in the show after clocking Triple H with a belt.

I was out with friends Friday night, so I missed the Stand Up To Cancer benefit on television.  Just in case you missed it too, here are pics and video from the Artists Stand Up To Cancer superstar performance of "Just Stand Up".  Btw, congrats to Natasha Bedingfield...she just got engaged here in New York City when her boyfriend, Matthew Robinson, proposed to her!  She says there's no wedding date set yet, but that she's the luckiest girl in the world!

Pictured from left to right...Keyshia Cole, Leona Lewis, Fergie, Ciara, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Rihanna, Carrie Underwood, Miley Cyrus, Ashanti, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls and Natasha Bedingfield.  Seated are the song's superstar Producers, L.A. Reid and Babyface.

stags have been running all threw my head since my meditation the other day. sadly i havent been able to reach that same amount of inner peace. infact i havent been able to do much of anything. ive tried n tried but i keep getting interupted. its always something. also ive felt so keyed up and cant shut the voices in my mind up latly. that is my biggest problem. i always here people talking in my head. not like skitofrena. i mean mostly its my inner monologue that wont shut up. every time i try to clear my head "hey we havent had steak in a while it sounds good" or "crap i was suposed to get dog food today" and so on. but i find when i meditate i shut off my very loud inner voice. which never shuts up by the way. i hear other voices. its like there trying to tell me a story sometimes other times it just odd thought that i was thinking . like out of nowhere yesterday i was thinking about how water irigations work to grow crops. which is just weird since ive never really studied it. sure i know how it works but where the hell did that come from? they have been geting worse latly since for years i worked HARD to shut them up as a kid. i had horible insomnia i could never sleep becuase i would constantly think about stuff or when i was just about asleep something would call my name in my head and wake me up. it used to scare the crap out of me since it sounded in a voice not my own and of course beacuse it was very loud. but latly i have been trying to beef up my phychic abilitys. so ive been working on turning them on. which is not so hard i just have to stop trying to keep them out. but i mostly get jibberish. its frustrating. i feel like im backpeddling with it all. plus not being able to meditate and trying agian and agian to no avail makes me feel as if im beating the ol perverbial dead horse with my atempts at magical prograssion. i work a few hours each day every day and feel drained laltly. onfact i spent all day watching tv yesterday minus the three hour nap in the middle of the day. i simply had no umph i was content to sit there and zone all day. guess my brain needed a break.

The "Battle for the Victory Bell" on the 20th is now a 7:30 kick-off.

(By the way, that's an old picture with UC's 2006 and 2007 victories not added yet)

Hola pues les comento los clubes de México en cuanto a tuning y estilo euro an estado creciendo rapidamente aunque no  todos los clubes en el pais son considerados como tales ya que existen los que solo se juntan en algun punto de reunión y los que asisten a eventos de importancia.

Pronto subire fotos de los mejores clubs en Mexico asi que esten preparados para ver la calidad que existe en Mexico ya que estamos creando un estilo diferente al tuning aunque estamos sumamente influenciados por E.U. mexico empieza con sus propios estilos esperando que pronto se hable  del estilo de mexicano asi como el estilo Euro pronto diremos ESTILO "MEX" o propongnau n nuevo nombre para este estilo.

Espero sus fotos videos a mcmudo@hotmail.com

Ramon Ramirez will start tonight against the Brewers, and this leaves me with one big question: Where is Josh Fogg.  Yea, the guy came up lame running to home last week, but I mean the guys a solid veteran whos just been struggling alittle but this year, right Dusty?  There is no reason to march out a young guy like Ramirez to see if he could possibly contribute next year.  In fact, shouldnt he be down helping AAA Louisville win some sort of championship for this franchise? Wait, whats that....the Bats were eliminated this weekend?  Well damn, I guess we could have used some of those arms the last week up here in Cincinnati. I think Stinkin' Lincoln and Jared Burton should be fine, but they are tired.  And guys like Herrera and Roenicke sit in AAA, helping win a meaningless title, for a meaningless minor league team.  AA Chattanooga never made any playoffs, so why couldnt some of those guys have beeen promoted to AAA?

Where are the priorities?  Was it Walt or Dusty or Bob who decided that keeping together a bunch of kids in Louisville was more important than getting this team on track for next year?  I have to assume it wasnt Dusty.  Even the guy is filled with more useless wisdom than a magic eight-ball, I dont think he values the Bats' winning games over the REDS winning games.  Part of his job is protecting his players, and a deeper bench does just that - especially arms. 

Was it Walt's decision to keep AAA intact for an extra week?  I guess Walt has the luxury of being able to travel to Louisville any time he wants and checking his minor league talent pool, and he probably has a good idea of what the expectations are for those players.  But could he have known what Dickerson was going to do when he came up? Or Ramirez for that matter?  Why wouldnt he want to get these players up here to see if they can help the Cincinnati big league Reds. 

So was it Bob then?  Is it possible that Bob's pride is so beat up, that he's willing to hang his hat on a minor league champion?  Has it really gotten that bad Mr. Castellini?  Dont you want to see some more of the future of this team from the cush' owner's box at GABP?  Who won the AAA championship last year? ... ... ...  Oh nobody knows?  Its because it doesnt matter a hill o' beans.

I wish someone could explain to me why we werent pulling guys up last week.  We have several good pitchers down there that need to be showcased and evaluated.  I know nobody in this organization has ever had the "problem" of too many promising young pitchers, but lets make a good decision here for our major league club.  Gets these kids up while they are going to be facing some of the best teams in the National League.  Not only would I hope that it would fire these kids up, but I also think it would be a prime oppertunity to see where we stand for next year.

Come on guys, lets start looking forward.  The season is over, and this team is taking on a new face.  Lets make sure we have all the right parts chosen before we move into Spring Training next year.  You have to get these guys up and lets see how they perform in the Bigs.

I attended Unforgiven last night and what I saw was nothing short of a great show.  Here are the ups and downs:

Ups:

1. Seeing Evan Bourne in the dark match.  Loved him live.  I was hoping he would have been there. Scary bumb with the Shooting Star Press, hope John Morrison is okay.

2. My father, who came with me, surprised me with telling me to pick out a replica title belt.  He did this because we have watched wrestling since I was little and being 30 next year was a great prize.  I chose the World Heavy Weight title because CM Punk is champ.

3. The ECW scramble stole the show.  It had great twists and turns and loved the ending with Matt Hardy pulling off all of the pins.

4. Michaels spot with hitting the elbow on Cade and Jericho was amazing.

DOWNS:

1. Jericho/Michaels ending the way it did.  No blood, no finishers.  Michaels ending it by hitting Jericho with a wrapped up belt around his hand multiple times.

2. CM Punk getting attacked and not competing in the scramble.  EVERYONE was mad he was not there in the match.  A LOT of PUNK GOT SCREWED chants while I was leaving.

3. Show/Taker fight went waaaaaaaaaaay too long.  We understood he beat him up, but after 3 minutes the crowd got tired of it. 

4. Jericho winning the scramble.  Not a fan of it because I am such a CM Punk fan. 

This sets up:

Jericho, Batista, CM Punk Triple Threat

Show vs. Taker

Orton vs. Punk

Second Generation stable is in full swing.  Now we need Deuce to come in as the last memeber.   

Bitter taste that CM Punk didn't compete but as I left the arena, I proudly displayed my replica title belt and I realized that it was a great show with twists and turns...now Punk needs to get that belt back.

Later,

Parker

Today, Sophia woke up with her new short haircut and an imagination that surprised me. She dressed in a yellow dress and put on a pink sweater, then found her bright red "clicky" shoes to finish her outfit. I'm thinking she's kinda like me :) I love to dress up and she does too.

As we were getting in the car after a quick breakfast, she sat in her carseat and looked out the window. She waved and said : "Bye Evie, Bye Pepper." I asked her who Pepper and Evie were and she rolled her eyes at me and smiled. "It's my kids mom" Her exasperation was evident in the long sigh that finished the eye-rolling statement.

Of course, why would I have not guessed that at 7:30am, she would be already playing make-believe and these two new names would obviously be her kids.

Evie

Pepper

I've never heard her say these names, nor have I heard them on any of the disney movies that she likes nor any books that we've read. hmmm.... I wonder where my little dress-up queen got this idea.

As I thought back to my other girls, I remembered that Penelope was Bella's name for everything. I'm not exactly sure what Cecelia's was... but I'm sure she had a "name".

So, what were your names? Did your stuffed-animals, dollys or imaginary friends have names?

So September is Better Breakfast Month so I'm going to try and make sure I eat breakfast every single day with the help of Starbucks!! Hula and I actually started eating all the Healthy food options at Starbucks last week while we were up in LA for the VMA's!!  I LOOOOVEEE the healthy turkey sandwiches they have!! I seriously lived off them last week! I've been switching it up between the Low Fat Smoked Turkey and Artichoke Sandwich (only 200 calories) and the Turkey and Swiss Sandwich.  If you want to be SUPER HEALTHY take out the swiss (although it's still only about 300 calories with it).  This morning the playhouse ordered breakfast from Starbucks!  I of course got the new Oatmeal!! It's great!! I add the Brown Sugar to mine.   Sonic got the Oatmeal too, except he added everyting (the brown sugar, the fruit, and nuts).  AJ got the protein plate which has a wheat bagel, hard boiled egg, some cheese, and fruit.  It looks pretty good.  I'm gonna try it tomorrow morning!  Anyway, that's what I've had so far.  Anyway, a Starbucks nutrionist emailed me a 1 day 1700 calorie menu that I'm going to try and follow as much as I can!  You can eat Starbucks all day staying under 1700 calories.  I'm gonna hook you guys up and post exactly what the "PROFESSIONAL" emailed me just in case you want to eat Healthy too!

xoxo- Geena the Latina

1-Day Sample Menu (for ~1,700-calorie diet)

Did we meet our goals in providing a balanced diet?

• 23% calories from fat (goal: <30%)
• 6% calories from saturated fat (goal: <10%)
• 24g fiber (goal: 20-25g fiber)
• 80g protein (goal: 50 or more grams)
• 22% calories from sugar (goal: <25%)
  • *Very little added sugar in total diet.  Most sugar is from fruit & milk - foods that are packed with nutrients!
• Balanced diet packed with Whole Grains, Fruit, Vegetables, Lean Meat, Nuts & Seeds,  Low Fat & Nonfat Dairy, and the occasional Treat.
• Plus, many of your favorite beverages contain antioxidants found in Coffee and Tea.

Complete nutrition and ingredient information is available on www.Starbucks.com/nutrition.

ASR was pretty interesting for my first time.  Models, Pro skater and a lot of cool shoes were on display!  It was also my last night bartending at the W Hotel, kinda sad to leave to be honost.  You have to move on to move up.

click here for all the pics