Anatomy of a Photo: The Four Pillars of Awesome

The mighty pillars

Whenever I send out an Out of Office reminder at work, I take special care to indicate where I’ll be, which is always Awesomeville. It amazes me how few questions this raises, but I chalk it up to it being a foregone conclusion. Imagine my surprise, then, when upon my return from Maui someone asked me where, precisely, Awesomeville was. I patiently explained that Awesomeville is anywhere within a three-meter radius of me. “As a matter of fact, you’re in Awesomeville right now.” The blank stare was a refreshing change from the puzzled bewilderment I normally encounter when I talk about my personal life at work.

Maui was incredible, with the notable exception of the deathmarch up Haleakala. In fact, it was so incredible that we experienced something I had only ever theorized was possible: The Awesomeness Singularity. This is a condition where there is so much Awesome in one location that the Awesome reaches critical mass to where no Suck at all can enter.

The photo above was taken moments before the first singularity occurred, at an incredible lookout along the West Maui Loop. It’s a good thing that no Suck could enter our space, since we had just struggled up a brutally steep incline which Gianni and his VMH danced up and had neglected to warn us about, and my right cleat was broken and fastidiously violating the Principle of Silence.

Because normally, that’s the kind of thing that would piss my shit off.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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Ron says:

Mar 1 2011 at 1:40 am

And awkward interactions with co-workers are my worst nightmare. Thankfully I've only worked in an office for around twenty months, but I was never able to have just a normal, regular conversation with most of the people I worked with. Ugh, they might as well have been aliens. The day they hired someone I could talk to was incredible. It made going into the office seem drastically less horrifying. I feel like I'm interested in a pretty wide range of things so it always baffles me that I could have absolutely nothing to say to some people. Weirdos.