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Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

Welcome back to the DCR Newsletter. I’m having a hard time looking for where my summer went?!?! So if anyone has seen it, please let me know where it went! And if you’re summer went by as fast as mine did, you might be wondering if you missed a newsletter!! But have no fear, you can find all of the Newsletter archives here!

So what’s new around here? For the complete round-up of this past week keep on reading, and if you have time after that, you’ll find the “In-Depth Thoughts from The Girl” at the bottom. Let's go!

Thursday of last week, Ray dropped a head scratcher on us. “The Bontrager Edge 1030”. Basically Bontrager, a unit of Trek, looked at the regular Garmin Edge 1030, said it was kinda ugly and partnered up with the big guy to make a more attractive version. Most of the guts in the 1030 are the same as Garmin’s stock version, but they did add a few features and do-dads. So if that interests you, go forth and have a read.

Next up was the post dedicated to the company FulGaz, who rolled out their Apple TV App. In a nutshell these guys give you the best bang for your buck in terms of hooking up your smart trainer to real course rides in 4K on your TV without spending a bunch on a new computer or such! And, if you’re in the mood for a real knee slapper, check out the FulGaz video Ray posted detailing a ton of cool stuff, and is inclusive of a good intro potty joke… Whomp whommm. Can you tell our house is in potty training mode?

Friday was a busy day for us. Trying to finalize a ton of travel details for Ray this week. He is off to NYC as I am typing this newsletter. He flew back stateside this morning for some super cool product releases, and of course he couldn’t just leave it at that. So onwards with coordinating with several other companies to make the most out of his… 30 hours in NYC. But have no fear, I couldn’t let him get too bogged down with all the details. Afterwards we suited up and headed out for a 40km spin on the bikes! With that, begins the start of all the details going into the famed 5 Random Things.

Last but not least, the Week in Review. Most of you know my standpoint on this series of posts. It’s basically a clever excuse for Ray when I bust him on his phone when he’s instead supposed to be doing other things. Of course he’s doing “industry research, and staying current”… Anyways, check it out to see the chronicling of Ray’s web surfing.

Of course, if you love video news more than print, check out the DC Rainmaker YouTube Channel. Here you can often find summaries of his in depth reviews, and sometimes you’ll see product details here first if he has managed to polish off the video before the post.

That’s it. That’s “all” he did last week  : )  Now if you still have time, keep that mouse scrolling down to below the fold! 

In-Depth Thoughts from The Girl

Alright, welcome to the fun zone! Today I’m going to attempt to answer two questions that keep coming to my inbox and that I see in comments pretty regularly. First, DC Rainmaker “support”, aka the ugly topic of money. And second, “what is this 13 week fitness challenge between myself and Ray.

So, if you have standards revolving around money talk, and think it’s faux pas to discuss, no worries. Skip the next couple paragraphs and continue to scroll to the cycling picture. No one will be the wiser. But there is a significant number of you who have poked and asked how they can support the DC Rainmaker team. Here goes, it is not meant in any way to be a Girl Scout money drive, simply informative.

I get the question all the time from friends and family who are still concerned and confused. How could Ray have ever left an “important” job at a big tech firm when, “Can you even make money off of a blog???”. There is also the regular blog comment saying, while the transparency of the reviews as Ray does not accept any money for anything related to a product is very appreciated, they are left confused with how does the blog stay afloat. As well, as mentioned above, there are simply loyal readers who want to say thanks some how.

First, the blogging industry is a real thing. Second, I'm not sure we can continue to call DC Rainmaker website a "blog"? It started out that way sure, but at this point I imagine it's consdiered more of a tech-gear refernece site than a blog about his daily grind as a striving triathlete and marathoner. Regardless, there are plently of niche websites out there earning a living. Most websites now-a-days rely on affiliate links with Amazon. It does not matter what items you buy, if you want to support your favorite website then click on an Amazon link on their page and shop from there. You are then supporting that person or website - at no extra cost to you.   

Second. You can become a DC Rainmaker VIP! Did you know this? It also gets you ad free version of the website, and other “goodies” not mentioned.

Third. DC Rainmaker partnered up with Clever Training. If you become a VIP member you get 10% back on your purchases, or, simply if you shop through Ray’s links you’re supporting Ray the same way the affiliate links for Amazon works.

Finally. All the details for DC Rainmaker gear should be rolling out soon (cough, was supposed to already). And “soon” you can buy a cycling kit, water bottles, running gear, etc. to help support your favorite geek!

And that's it. Money talk is over and you know everything you ever wanted to know about supporting the DC Rainmaker website.

Moving on! This 13 Week Fitness Challenge. What is it all about?

I don’t know about you, but the money talk section ended up way longer than what was in my head. I hate to do it to you guys, but I’m going to make this week a cliff hanger! I don’t want to abuse my privilege of having you read my newsletter, I understand you only have so much time and already too many emails coming to your inbox.

Stay tuned for next week, when I give you the gossip on what happened one night when a certain someone told their wife her outfits were getting a little “frumpy”!!!

To be fair, it did light a little fire under my couch potato bum, and it got me back in the gym mode.

Thanks for reading!
~The Girl.

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by using the links below!