got my $10 copy of snow leopard today. tonight is a perfect night for the OS Install Drinking Game, and the first opportunity to play it with 2 people.
However, if what I hear is correct, it will be a very short game. and if it's *not* short, it'll be because of some horrible calamity, which would really suck all the fun out of the drinking game.
or will the drinking game inject fun into the calamity?
a philosophical conundrum for the ages.
i've heard bagpipes while biking around crystal springs. not imaginary ones, not taped and broadcast pipes, but real, live bagpipes. usually, i heard them when i was in a hurry. last week, i heard them while i was not in a hurry, right as i was finishing the climb to sawyer camp and was in the mood for exploration. so i followed my ears.
i found the piper, a very short distance down from a parking lot, facing the reservoir. i figured he was practicing, because while he was bellowing his tune as loudly as his pipe set would allow (which is saying quite a lot), he was striking a lot of off notes. i put my feet on the ground and listened.
a while later, two more cyclists approached, coming off sawyer camp trail, and saw the piper (having heard him much prior, no doubt). not content simply to listen, they walked their bikes over to the piper and asked him something, or commented on how loud his pipes were -- chit-chatty smalltalk. the piper turned to reply, and i saw his face.
he wasn't practicing. he wasn't there to respectfully get away from neighbors, or to provide entertainment for walkers and bikers, or to work on his fingerwork. he was serenading the water.
he was not pleased with the cyclists' interruption, but he was not rude either. he answered their chitchat curtly and politely, and got back to his work. he resumed his paean to the sun on the water, as best he could, and with as much love and vigour as he could muster.
i smiled and went on my way, to do my best to do the same in my own way.
it's Frobuary 1, YOMHC 0x48!
Another mohawk with the oster. No way to trim the middle because the comb attachments still have not shipped. Heh. But I have all the Oster Approved Clipper Chemicals and made good use of them. Whoopie, clean blades on my head. We'll see what sort of difference that makes.
all righty then, it's back to the camping hobby. but i'm a roadie! oh my, i can be both: i bought me a (pair of) touring bike(s) and a bunch of panniers. stuff the panniers full of camping gear, and suddenly i'm a bicycle tourist.
here's the plan for tour #1: http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/343546
30 easy miles, as long as old la honda under touring load is your idea of easy. i mean, i have no problem going up it with my light racing bike, how hard could it be on my steel frame touring bike with 60lbs of gear and a tummy full of hangover?
we didn't really plan a return route because it is likely we'll simply die on old la honda road.
i'm done with my cast iron pan. i'll let hops use it for cornbread but that's all the use it will see. here are its faults:
1) i can never properly season it. there's always a rough spot.
2) it smokes when i heat it. likely a result of #1.
3) it heats up fast and cools off too slowly. cooking is all about temperature control.
and finally, the kicker:
4) i have a set of kickass all-clad pans which suffer from none of the above problems, and maintain all of the benefits of cast iron (except for being cheap). i see no reason to put myself through the trouble of bothering with cast iron's quirks when i've got perfectly nice alternatives that work flawlessly.
but corn bread in the cast iron pan sure looks nice.
remember how i'm always saying how awesome are the wheels on my bike on account of how i ride crappy roads like crystal springs and ECR and suffer no wheel damage despite hitting massive potholes?
well, i just wasn't looking close enough.
on saturday i noticed some pretty gnarly cracks near the spokes in my rear wheel. we continued with our planned ride, but on the way home, stopped at our bike shop. i had $40 with me and little else. i've been in there often enough (i was there the day before to exchange beer for shoes) that they gave me new wheels on the promise that i'd tele them my cc info when i got home. they bumped me to the front of the queue, put on the new wheels, adjusted the derailler, fixed my bent right brifter, straightened the headset, and set me on the way. the new ultegra wheels make me feel much faster -- they didn't have my crummy low-end wheelset and wouldn't break up a pair for me, so i now have an additional set of ultegra parts on my bike. not quite dura-ace, but it will have to do for now.
total cost including tax and labor was a good 1/3 of what i'd paid for the bike. argh.
it's Frobuary 1, YOMHC 0x47!
Brand new set of clippers, brand new mohawk. these new clippers go super close, and i can get at least one more setting of closeness if i buy another blade.
3 eggs
toscano salami, cubed
string cheese (mozarella) chunked
smokey mustard
scramble, top with ketchup
i've seen posters of obama photoshopped to look like hitler. well, let me tell you, obama is no hitler.
he has czars. no self respecting fuhrer would appoint czars.
a couple of weeks ago my company informed me i'd need to take at least one week's vacation before end of september. the best idea i could come up with on short notice was to go bicycle touring. bicycle touring has several advantages:
- i get to buy a new bicycle
- i get to buy a crapload of gear to go on the bicycle
- i get to use the crapload of camping gear that i bought back in the day
- i get to combine travel and exercise in such a way that i can't skip the exercise because "i'm on vacation"
anyhow, the end of september is a lot closer than i think it is, and i've still got tons of work to do. but the first step is more or less done: yesterday we went to our LBS and ordered a pair of Trek 520s. I have some reservations about the bike, but my plan (fingers crossed) is to enjoy touring so much that i'll be doing it well into the future, where the amortized cost of the additional $100 - $300 i paid for this bike vs. its competitors will be a distant and very small memory. Times two, of course.
As far as I can tell, there are only a couple more things to get:
- racks
- panniers (aka saddle bags)
- tools
- food
- a route!
that last one may prove tough. the big-picture plan is to head down toward SLO, rent a u-haul, and drive back. we don't have enough time for a round-trip, at least not on our first tour. the detailed-view may reveal some problems in the big-picture plan. in any case, it's mostly nice all the way from here to SLO so any stopping point is a good one.
stay tuned.
tea bagger is injured protesting government health plans.
okay.... but then:
Brown told the crowd that Gladney is accepting donations toward his medical expenses. Gladney told reporters he was laid off recently and has no health insurance.
heh.
heh heh!
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR!!!!
saturday, i rode over the golden gate bridge, starting from home:
View home to golden gate and back in a larger map
i took my googlephone with me and kept it recording my route. it did an awesome job, but because i'm such a slow rider, my epic 5 hour ride drained the battery to less than 15%, having started my ride at 100% fresh from wall power. this leaves me worried that on a multiday camping tour, my phone will not be the tool to use for mapping.
which is a shame: because the google maps integration is killer. i got all the info i'd want from a bike computer (except cadence and maybe temperature) plus it was instantly uploaded to google maps so i could share it with you people. on top of all that, it was accurate, which is more than i can say for any gps log i've ever created with any other device.
now, for the ride: i'm not too familiar with san francisco. i didn't know what to expect on this route because i've never really ridden north beyond the top of sawyer camp trail. in hindsight, for the "out" part of the ride, next time i'll take sawyer camp -- it's a more gentle ascent to 35 than hopping on 35 right off, and more scenic, too.
the first thing that struck me about this ride was the eucalyptus. there sure was a lot of it, and it came on at about mile 20. i don't get much eucalyptus on my usual rides, and it was a nice change of scenery. and, of course, the fog -- which blanketed me for most of the ride, and kept me nice and temperate, leaving me set for a big surprise when i emerged from it around 2 or 3pm to find it nearly 90F on the happy part of the peninsula! ouch!
the ride to and over the bridge was easy, once i'd gotten past the uphill part of 35, which, if i recall correctly, ends northbound around milbrae. during one downhill section, i hit a bump and lost a water bottle -- had to walk back uphill to recover it. there was another bottle in the same spot, someone else had lost a bottle on the same pothole. i grabbed it and rode with it for a bit, hoping to find the owner. no luck.
it was nice to ride so near to my friend the pacific. after a time, the eucalyptus smell gave way to sea salt, and then, to rotting seals. the rotting seals were not so nice, but you can't just pick and choose which bits of maritime odor you get to enjoy. the sea provides, i abide.
the route that i'd found on the internet was odd looking on a map, but made perfect sense once i was on the road. the somewhat obscure street choices all had very nice bike lanes, not too many stops, and were reasonably flat, particularly compared to other choices. since i went off-route and winged it on my way back, i saw first-hand how different choices result in gnarly hills.
i was pleased to discover that not all of san francisco is a dirty ghetto. i suppose i'd been going to the wrong parts. not that it makes any difference -- i don't know anybody that lives in the really nice bits near wherever the heck i was. still, at no point during my ride was i fearful of being bikejacked. not that i ever am. and i've ridden through indio.
the bridge itself was fun, frustrating, and very possibly a checklist ride item. that is, now that i've ticked it on my checklist, i'll never do it again. it was confusing to find out how to actually get on the bridge. i ended up asking a german who had some trouble differentiating "over" from "under" -- not that i blame him. to go over the bridge, you have to go under it, down a path which is not visibly connected to the bridge. i'm sure it would have all been easy to figure out if it had not been -- of course -- absolutely clogged with people.
this did not surprise me one bit, i thoroughly expected hordes of people. in fact, it was not nearly as bad as i had expected. cyclists have their own lane on the bridge, and though it was clogged with newbies, tandems, and tourists who'd never before been on a bike, (most) everyone was orderly, polite, and easy to pass. there are lots of obstacles on the bridge, both architectural (support beams and such) and artificial (port-a-pottys?!?). many people get off their bike to take pictures. for the most part, it wasn't bad. but i wasn't able to maintain any constant speed, and because it was so busy i couldn't really look around lest i hit someone. once on the other side, i said, "hyep", turned around, and rode home. not much else to do there unless i was in the mood for some serious climbing. which i wasn't.
i was in shorts and a t-shirt. i was not cold. it was not exactly warm, but not nearly as cold and windy as i thought it might be.
the ride home was grueling. i've got the endurance to keep on trucking, but i was tired and the return trip had a whole lot of climbing. i'd like to think i was tired from my hillsdale ride on thursday, but maybe i'm just outta shape. in any case: total distance, about 62 miles, with about 3850 feet of ascent. that's a pretty healthy bit of climbing for me. i used the granny gear quite a bit on my return trip. next time, perhaps not so much.
it's Frobuary 1, YOMHC 0x46!
another front porch mohawk.
yesterday at rei, one of the dudes (whom I know from repeated interactions, though he does not remember me) called my hairdo a faux-hawk. i actually took offense! i said there's nothing faux about it, it's just a little overgrown, and i was planning anyways to have a haircut the next day. so it's the next day, and i have my haircut, and nobody could mistake this for a faux-hawk.
we discussed a little, the rei guy and me, about the peacock-style hawks, and how i've done it once and that's plenty enough for me, because i have a lot of things better to do with my time than spend an hour in the morning gooping up my hair, not to mention ducking under doors and slouching in my car seat all day long.
HOW TO PROGRAM IN JAVA:
step 1: for problem X, think of how to solve problem X in a sensible language, like Python or Ruby
optional step 1a: implement solution in Python or Ruby
step 2: Ask self: how would a self-loathing anal retentive masochistic fascist with lots and lots of disk space approach this problem?
step 3: write down answer to step 2
step 4: compile and run your java code.
