Lately I've been amassing various shirts for hiking and working out, biking and such. Last night I was thinking about how awesome it would be to have such a shirt with the logo on the front, maybe the old washing machine/footprint graphic and the "Pay no heed..." on the back.
Now that is shit I would wear proudly, comfortably, and use often since I ride or work out pretty much every single day.
Apparently, nothing gets deleted on the Internet: http://www.cafepress.com/idkfashoppe (www.cafepress.com)
I've got the original photos and things lovingly archived somewhere at home. If somebody wanted to make a shirt with them, I wouldn't mind digging them up.
What must one do to fix the problem that causes them to be able to load all websites perfectly normally, except for one? I checked Facebook before going to class this morning and when I came home a few hours later I tried to log back on, but after entering in my log in information I'm greeted, on Google Chrome at least, with a white screen that reads:
"This webpage is not available.
The webpage at https://login.faceb...hp?login_attempt=1 (login.facebook.com)might be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address."
Below that is an expandable option to "Learn more about this error" that reads:
"Error 118 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT): The operation timed out."
Every other website works perfectly fine, but Facebook has not worked for a number of hours. Any ideas of what is wrong?
Deftly handled, good sir.
If it happens against, things to try would be to ping the site and see if responds. If it doesn't, that means a site like Facebook is down momentarily, or, the server you happened to get put on shat itself while handling your request, and you'll have to reissue your request.
There's also the possibility that somebody like me, at one of the 10+ hops between you and everywhere else in the world, hit the "reset" button on something, say, the router you're talking through. That can cause dropped packets, for which some protocols (HTTP being one) don't handle well.
I like that TMBG's are doing theme songs, but meh, I'd want something harder/faster. Or another 90's band like Violent Femmes. Also I've always wanted a band to follow me around to play a theme song. And the goldfish shoes in I'm Gonna Get You Sucka'. I think he had a theme song band also.. so really, I guess I want the Wayan Bro's from that time period to direct my show.
"It's been a looooong road
Getting from there to here
But my time is finally near
And I will see my dreeeeam come alive at last
I will tuuuuuuch the skyyyyyyy
And they're not going to hold me down no more
No they're not going to change my mind
'Cause I've got faaaaaaaaaith... of the heart
I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe
I can do anything
I've got strength of the soul
No one's gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star
I've got faith, I've got faith
Faith of the heeeeeeeart"
If I had anything to do with it, I'd try for The Weakerthans' "(Manifest) (www.youtube.com)" for the intro music. Always thought that song was made for a TV show. Also, it's only 1 minute 45 seconds or so. Maybe I could just settle on the horn section at the end.
As for the visuals... eh, I don't know. Maybe like the "Lost" intro, blurred white lettering on a black background: Neckbeard.
So, here's some fun stuff. Those key combinations I mentioned earlier in the week. I've been messing around with them a lot, trying to figure out nice/fun/easy ways to make idkfa less of a chore to use. Granted, memorizing key commands isn't exactly at the top of the list of effective human-computer interface methods, but it's quick, it's easy, and it's unobtrusive to the current baseline interface that everyone has come to know and love.
The new key combination is: Control, Backtick, u. That is, control, let off, backtick, let off, and the letter "u."
What this does is enable the "auto-update" functions on a given page. These functions will take a specific element of the idkfa interface (say, the "Latest Posts" element), and will load that element by itself without refreshing the page. It will continue to do this until you tell it to stop by repeating the key sequence above.
Auto-updaters exist currently for the "N online" bit in the navigation bar, the "Users Online" box on the users online page, and the entire thread when you're viewing a thread.
The intended use for this function is if somebody wants to be on idkfa, but not have to repeatedly refresh the page to see if there's updated content. The user only has to navigation to the page they want, set the auto-updaters going, and come back later.
There are browser plugins that attempt to address this by forcing the browser to refresh the entire page at a certain interval. These work in some cases, but if you're typing a lengthy post and suddenly the plugin refreshes the page, you've lost everything you typed.
This brings idkfa's technology one step closer to "Web 2.0," which leaves me with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The functionality it provides lets me do neat things like automatically update things people want automatically updated. However, it makes things a lot more complicated. Almost every site these days has functionality that operates asynchronously or completely out of the control of each user's mouse click. I dislike that lack of control, and is the reason why I'm letting users choose whether to enable / disable this type of functionality at will.
Let me know what you guys think. Future plans are to automagicalize the search function, and maybe make the page title change to reflect an update (similar to how Gmail indicates the number of unread messages in its page title).
Halloween: It's coming up fast.. I need a costume. This is more of a general discussion on what people are going to be and be doing. I had a friend in the past make a outfit out of ducttape. I think he used 3 rolls of the stuff. Green Man is awesome, and I hope to see him again this coming year. There's rumors of Dr. Horrible making an apperance. So, what do people think?
Last year I was a "douchebag" for Halloween. I got spray-on barbed wire tattoos, wore white shoes, gangster hat sideways, sunglasses, the works. I practiced my gang signs and the attitude which is what really made it work. You can steal that one if you want! And I actually got a lot of attention from girls that night...so the theory goes of women being attracted to jerks...
Strange, strange morning.
Pulling out of my neighborhood, a work truck hit a pothole and dropped a fire extinguisher, and did so such that it's back tires hit the extinguisher and set it off. If I'd been paying less attention, I would've hit the extinguisher, which would've serious f-ed up my little Subaru.
Second, I get to work, and seemingly everything is broken. People are calling me left and right for various reasons, and people won't stay out of my cube talking about their ideas for science fiction stories (normally I'd be receptive to such things, but not when things are going awry). In trying to troubleshoot various systems, I find that my secondary development workstation, which has been running flawlessly for a few years, has suddenly seized hard.
Not a bad way to spend a Sunday. 29 miles, 2 hours and ~30 minutes.
 (picasaweb.google.com) |
| From Paths (picasaweb.google.com) |
Pretty sure I ride a Specialized HRXC, pictured here: http://www.speciali...8&menuItemId=0 (www.specialized.com)
It was essentially the bargain-basement model they were trying to get rid of at the Bicycle Shop when I got it two years ago. Modifications include: a strap I never use to attach a headlight to, about 10lbs of mud, tar, and grease, second set of break pads (installed incorrectly), and the original, maladjusted factory chain.
I really need to take it in to get it worked on. Though, maybe this winter I'll research into getting a nice road bike.
Kinda in the market myself for a new commuter myself. I'm learning that massive miles on my current bike is pretty rough on the body. That and I'm not nearly as fast as I could be.
I keep hearing from people who actually have road bikes that the difference is like magic or some crap like that. Never been on one myself so who knows. It could be like getting a piggyback ride from Jesus.
Eh, I have really skinny road tires on my bike. My old tires, Yes they blew all the time probably about 1 a week. Just got new tires and out of about 250 miles I've ridden on them I haven't had a single problem.
Getting a flat really depends on how good of tires you have and how easy you are on them when you ride. The real change is going from that soft supple squishiness of fat mountain bike tires to hard and unforgiving road skinnies.
I will admit, and this should be shameful but I really don't care, I haven't voted in probably the last two election cycles... in ANY state. But I am still a registered Alaskan voter... also kinda shameful considering I've now been in WA 7 years and the last three have been out of school.
I think this is the perfect year to actually try to do the state some good, I personally plan on casting a vote for Murkowski now matter what her ballot status is. I don't have money to donate, but I figure that is the least I can do.
Go Go crazy write in campaign.
Between having a relationship of nearly three years end on me, while simultaneously dealing with UF dragging their feet on my residency reclassification petition (see: financial future hanging in the balance)...life has been very...interesting.
Needless to say, that slowly spreading warm feeling that comes from the first drink of hard liquor is still amazingly pleasant. Yay for bourbon after two weeks of viciously strange times.
More new features. Posting earlier today, got to thinking about key commands. So... I implemented a few, for the laziest of the lazy (namely, myself).
Here's how it works:
- Press control once (don't hold it). A message should appear at the top of idkfa saying "One..."
- Press tilde (~) once (don't hold it). A message should appear at the top of idkfa saying "Two..."
Now press once one of the following to execute the following command:
- R: Go to a random post.
- N: Go to the next unread post.
- O: Go to the users online page.
- M: Go to the "More" listing for the last week of posts.
- S: Highlight the search box so you can start typing.
When you're viewing a thread, you can do the following:
- Left Arrow: Go to the root of the thread
- Up Arrow: Go to the parent of the post you're viewing
- Down Arrow: Go "down" one post, useful if you're essentially reading a thread top to bottom.
- Right Arrow: Go to the latest post in the thread.
If at any time you mess up, you can hit escape to try again, or wait five seconds for it to refresh itself.
If you have suggestions for more actions to be taken without removing your hands from the keyboard, I'm all ears.
For now, happy key combos!
Getting tired of copying and pasting links, I've tried my hand again at an auto-linking feature. Essentially, you can do things like simply type http://idkfa.com, and not have to worry too much about using the comment box features to have the URL appear as a link.
This... was really, really hard to get right. Especially considering I had to find a way to distinguish between somebody simply typing a link, or using the actual linking mechanism to include a link, or if they wanted to use the link mechanism to make the URL itself a link without depending on the auto-linking feature.
And for the prestige, being able to do it in the same post (http://idkfa.com) (idkfa.com)), on the same line, doing everything wrong (http://idkfa.com), and still have it turn out right, despite using the exact same URL in all instances.
It may be that I don't have all the kinks worked out yet. Be sure to use the preview feature to make sure your posts/links are getting mangled correctly. Please report back if you find something wrong.
We need to do a Costco run too in the next day or two. It's great to know that we're not the only ones who buy the exact same thing every single time. haha. Every single time we do a Costco run, the list includes: bell peppers, mushrooms, bread, sandwich meat, and berries. The only flexibility comes with whether or not we get cereal, chicken, and onions. Our Safeway lists are similarly set in stone. I always just figured it was a sign that we're going on 60 years old. It's good to know we're not alone. :D
I shop at costco the way I imagine women shop for clothes. I cruiese pretty much every isle and look at things not only do I not need, but probably no one needs. I hit the non-food items first then wander on over to the food area and just let the magic and wonder of getting random shit in bulk wash over me.
John's lunches are pretty much entirely decided by what costco has available. And whatever our primary dinner meats are going to be is also based on what I can find at a price I'm willing to pay.
Occassionally you find amazing things like a 1.5L bottle of cheap sparkling wine for $6 so that I can make mimosas.
Costco is like an REI for food, or a candy store for kids.
I like the Costco phenomenon; that despite showing up five minutes before it opens on a friday, the place is still crowded. There is still someone buying a cartload of nothing but toothpaste. There will always be several people buying a mystery-meat-dog + gallon of cola. There is always someone hell bent on running me down in an undesigned parking lot. Someone will undoubtedly block an aisle with their lack of self awareness.
I love the Costco experience. I'll never have to buy aluminum foil again. I will always rest easy that Josh has jalapenos somewhere in his home. And whenever I need reassurance that I am not ready to raise children, all I need do is take my monthly trip to the Costco (or any big box retail store, for that matter).
My question is whether the membership cost makes it cost effective. Assuming that one lives in such a fashion as to use only limited quantaties of things at a time and has limited storage space (now that I think of it, neither of these apply to you, Taztik), it seems like there are a great many things you can't buy at Costco. For instance, I use maybe a head of romaine once every two weeks. If I buy a pack with three, they will go bad before I use them.
I never had a costco card in SF, but I'll be living scant blocks away from one in NYC. It just seems silly to have a bucket of something that will take me a year to finish when I don't have the space to store even the essentials.
Spending on my essentials over the course of a year, I usually get about 2/3rds of my yearly membership fees back. If I were buying for more people, I'd easily be able to get the whole thing back. I can't speak as to whether this may or may not be a contributing factor into whether I want to procreate.
This almost sounds depressing, but in general Katy and I probably get 400-500 of our membership fee back. This is a combination of having an executive (2% back) membership and having the costco amex (1-3% back depending). The amex we solely use for gas (mostly from costco since it is almost always 20cents cheaper a gallon).
We have probably a larger place to live than anyone who does not own their own home, so we can buy in bulk and do so. All told we probably get about 400 dollars cashback a year as well as whatever savings we make from buying bulk.
It's definitely a question worth considering. In our old apartment we didn't have enough space to store anything, so our Costco trips were much much more limited. I don't remember the math, but I don't think we were getting our money back when we were there. In our current apartment, we have a ton of storage space, which makes it possible to buy all our toilet paper, paper towels, and other non-perishables from Costco and just store it. (We just broke out the last paper towel roll from a pack that I bought last summer.) Our membership fees are $50 a year, and we are definitely getting that back in our current apartment, especially since we are just two blocks from the nearest Costco, so it's convenient. The Costco AmEx would make things even more worthwhile because their gas really is significantly cheaper, but our Costco location doesn't have gas, and I know I wouldn't drive out to the nearest one that does, so I decided against opening another credit card account.
Also, Dan and I eat vegetables like you won't believe. (For some reason I feel like someone on here could turn that into a dirty comment, but I swear I didn't mean it as one.) We don't buy all the vegetables there because some just don't last long enough, but we've figured out which ones we eat often enough to make it worthwhile - especially bell peppers.
When I was in college and living in a house with a bunch of roommates, there is no question that it was worth the membership cost. We would go shopping in groups and stock up on all sorts of things. haha.
I've decided that Costco panders to an "average" person that is fatter and taller than I am. For men's clothing, they do not stock small. They stock mediums to XXXL. And the mediums are usually all gone. Similarly, for pants, waist size only goes down to 32W, and length to 32L and up. It's slightly aggravating, especially when they have such cheap awesome shit.
I should move to an asian country. I would totally be L there.
That sounds positively miserable to me. haha. And not to mention dangerous for my wallet. I hate shopping for just about everything, but especially clothes and food. Granted, in the case of Costco it could also have to do with the fact that the Costco we go to (a block away from our apartment) is one of the busiest Costco's in North America. Literally. There are lines wrapping around the store if you make the mistake of going after 3pm on a weekday or anytime on a weekend. For us the factor determining how quickly we make the dash for the exit is how long it takes us to do the math and compare a price to same item at Safeway, if it happens to be something we don't get often.
Though, I will admit, when we are actually looking for something out of the ordinary - like the bottle of wine or brick of feta cheese - Costco is almost always the place to have it for the best price. I just wish our Costco down here would carry liquor. It's illegal in VA for stores to do that, and it just so annoying.
A coworker asked the question: "What do I show my eight-year-old son on the computer that'll get him interested in it?"
After talking for about 20 minutes about old computer games, I didn't really have a great answer. My coworker was looking for something to instill the fascination with computers that he has in order to show his son that computers are amazing tools, and that they're worth spending time on.
The difficult part of the question is the age bracket. According to him, his son at eight has almost zero attention span for certain things, however, his son can play Pokemon for hours on end. Whatever did manage to hook him in would have to be age-appropriate, simple enough to not require a steep learning curve, and in-depth enough to hold one's interest.
What drove my interest initially was, of course, computer games. Being pretty proficient with computers to start, I would usually have most of the time in elementary school computer lab to play games like Dinopark Tycoon or Oregon Trail. However, games at school paled in comparison to ones I was able to play at home: the Lucasarts Adventure games, the Space Quests, King's Quests. Things that I could play for hours, but probably wouldn't hold my interest as a kid today, given the popularity and technological advances of modern games.
However, when I was eight, I would still stop playing computer games after a while and go back to playing with Legos. Which leads me to think that the key here is creativity, not just entertainment.
What I mean:
Before the Internet, what were you guys doing with computers that kept you interested and/or creating with a computer?
(I also ask this because my memory of this period of time is hazy, in that I started learning HTML a little after sixth grade, and then it was 2007 and I had a degree in computer science)
Other than the periodic computer lab time at school, I didn't spend a considerable amount of time in front of the computer until I was probably in junior high or around that age. And after reading all the things I have read about how TVs and computers effect the brains of young developing children, I really hope it won't be impossible to make sure my future childrens time is/are also limited while they are young. As much as I love computers now, I would tell this guy to go get his kid a set of legos or some other time of non-battery operated toy, and be thankful he doesn't have to pull his kid away from the computer or TV. Maybe his kid has a fighting chance at not developing ADD, ADHD, Autism, Ausbergers, or any of the other developmental syndromes that have been found to have some sort of connection to time spent in front of computer and tv screens.
Disclaimer: it'd be a far cry for me to put forth empirical evidence to disprove any links to such developmental problems. However, I'd hazard a guess the prevalence of ADD/ADHD diagnosing has as much to do with shitty parenting and absolving oneself of responsibility of shitty parenting, than it relates to electromagnetic waves.
I'm all about the "go outside and play" philosophy, but there is the inevitability that the kid will have to deal with computers and technology in his life. I'm asking what people did when they were kids that actually sparked their interest and creativity with computers, not just gave them something mindless to do. Having the ability to work with computers and understand them would, I feel, give the kid a huge advantage.
Also, aren't you born with autistic spectrum syndromes?
Yeah, there is no way to avoid the fact that we all need to work with computers at some point in life, and so will this kid. But at such a young age if he doesn't have the interest to be sitting in front of one, that doesn't necessarily seem like a bad thing in my mind. He will have things that draw him to it more as he gets older.
Actually, they don't know that. And many of the newest studies being done are suggesting that children actually aren't born with it. Actual concrete pin pointed causes have not been determined yet, but they are finding many connections with different factors - rapid stimulation provided by electronic screens just being one of them.
Not a demand to cite your sources, but I'd be interested in these studies, if you happen to recall their names (though, I'm confident I wouldn't understand the results). Rereading Wikipedia on the subject, the articles seem to contradict themselves on whether it thinks genetics are associated or not.
Yeah, there is a TON of contradictory information out there on it. I started getting interested in it in recent years because I have a good friend who is very involved in Autism Speaks and the research/advocacy work they do, so she always is up to date on what the recent research is saying. All the publications I've read have been here and there just out of interest, not for a research paper or anything, so I didn't save them. But I can try to find some of them this weekend and send them to you.
I'd be interested, but certainly don't go out of your way. I'm in no way involved with the healthcare field, and I should probably be less resolute in my assumptions based on what I hear on TV and movies about oft-misunderstand neurological conditions.
I'm irritated by the studies Wikipedia cites, in that the language it uses seems to treat things like "25% correlation" as "recent suspected root cause."
Also, forgive me if I'm severely skeptical and a bit incensed by the statement that "electronics cause condition X." Trying to put the personal bias aside, it's reminiscent of the "comic books cause moral depravity" / "video games cause violence" / "cell phones are cooking us" arguments that are paranoid, ultimately unfounded, and impossible to prove, serving only to demonstrate misunderstanding of the subject matter entirely on the part of the accusers. I hope I don't have to defend my career to my grandmother in a few months when Dateline skews findings on a study that relates neurological diseases to exposure to computer screens.
Also, you said maybe my coworker's kid has "a fighting chance" at not developing the aforementioned. What do you mean by that? That sounds like these things are epidemics, or that we're rolling the dice every time a kid sits in front of a screen. How then did we, the Nintendo, the Internet generation, grow up to be normal? Well, as normal as we are, I guess.
Ok, this is just what I'm finding right off hand without looking too hard... I will continue looking later this weekend to see if I can find the more detailed stuff I had read before.
But basically it's sounding like these things - especially attention disorders - are very multifaceted and have biological and environmental components. It's the whole issue of nature vs. nurture. Obviously both are very very important, but there are certain "nurture" things that can exacerbate or "turn on" certain "nature" aspects.
http://pediatrics.a...abstract/126/2/214 (pediatrics.aappublications.org)
http://archpedi.am...bstract/163/11/1037 (archpedi.ama-assn.org)
http://pediatrics....ent/short/120/3/532 (pediatrics.aappublications.org)
http://jad.sagepub...4709347205.abstract (jad.sagepub.com)
http://pediatrics.a...abstract/120/5/978 (pediatrics.aappublications.org)
http://repository....ontext=ircs_reports (repository.upenn.edu)
http://www.medical-...2900530-1/abstract (www.medical-hypotheses.com)
But, to get off my soap box and answer your question... My first computer game favorites were things like Kid Pix when I was at school, or Sim City when I was at home. Those somehow seemed really fun to me at that time.
Not that I would know first hand with my moderate level of kid experience, but I bet for younger kids the things that would draw them in most are things that would be easy to manipulate and would show instant gratification from actions made. They make a change in something on Sim City and immediately see changes happening on the screen, or something like that...
i like computer gaming so much that i can point to the two reasons that made me switch to consoles:
1) in college i spent $5,000 building a cutting edge machine (it's on idkfa v2 somewhere) that did EVERYTHING i wanted. it was amazing. then UPS destroyed it when it got shipped back to alaska in 2007. i still have not gained enough dinero since then to build such a machine. so, consoles took the place of the computers.
2) until i moved out of my parents house, i didn't have a solid enough internet connection to play CS or BF2 (my two favorite games). by this time, i was already deep into consoles.
For whatever reason or another, I didn't drink in college. That means I never experienced the joy of writing essays/doing homework while buzzed. Now that I heartily enjoy firewater, and am taking MBA classes, I've fixed that problem.
Too bad it's only after 5 days in the woods and I'm still getting used to the idea of being around running water again (MIRACLE, I TELL YOU!).
"It was just one of those sexy-ass Sunday nights..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp3wTXYoCCg (www.youtube.com)
Thoughts on the Sept 11th, 2010 show:
Those are the discrete bits that stuck with me. Overall, great show.
Recently re-stumbled across ZeFrank. Sort of an "internet celebrity," he held a weekday-ly show (called "the show") for a year between 2006 and 2007. I didn't come across it until a year or two later, but I was still pretty impressed with the guy's philosophy towards the use of the Internet.
One of my favorite videos he put together: http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/07/post_4.html (www.zefrank.com)
Hot damn. Looks like Ze Frank got a Kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com) going to fund another season of The show, and was fully funded well before I happened to stumble across it.
So I'm being kidnapped, but not necessarily against my will. I'm in the back of a van with a row what looks like white waterproof sleeping bags, standing on end from floor to ceiling, packed with nothing that looks like bodies.
We stop, someone tells me to get out. They hand me a bag, telling me "file this under Ilvan," and push me up a flight of stairs. The bag feels like it's light enough to have been packed full of cotton, but I'm careful with it nonetheless.
At the top of the stairs, the door opens to what looks like a penthouse suite, except on the second floor in a nondescript warehouse building. What an interior decorator might do if they had too much space and too much money.
I walk around, trying to find a filing system, or a door, or some sort of receptacle for my strange cargo. I walk by a single filing cabinet, seemingly out of place amongst everything else. It's labeled "I" at the top. I open it, and lo and behold, it has folders in it. I decide to open up my sleeping bag.
It's contents are a single map, relatively new by the quality of the paper, with a slight red mark circled towards its center, a small, unmarked back of shiny metal gears and cogs, and a piece of wood with what looks like an intricate circuit diagram.
"What do you think those are?" a woman's voice asks. I turn around to find a hard, impatient stare.
"I don't know. Looks like the pieces of a broken kid's toy."
"You're very wrong. Look again. I'll be back later."
I pore over the map, the gears, the wood. The map is some place I've never been, never even heard of. I place it aside. The gears are more interesting. They're of a metal like nothing I've ever seen before.
The most interesting is the inscribed piece of wood. Upon closer inspection, it's not a diagram for electricity, but instead a complex web of ideas and relationships that seem to indicate a different level of meaning from each point you start from. I can just about gather the meaning of one aspect, when I sense the woman brooding behind me again.
"Do you understand it?"
"I understand how it works, I think. Whoever drew this was amazing."
"The Ilvans have been trying to send us a message for years, but it's been falling on deaf ears. If you can translate what they're telling us, then you're on the team."
"If I can't?"
"Then your services are no longer required."
I'm left with a cold feeling amongst warm woods and colors and dead silence. I start back in on the diagram.
Then it hits me. They aren't gears and cogs. They're all similar in shape, but they all have different radii, teeth, color, etc. Those are the Ilvans themselves, those that carved the wood like this.
Then I wake up. Cold. Hung over.
Good ride for the most part. Not cars hitting me, but there was a hit and run on my car in the parking area almost 30 feet away from my tent while I was out riding the second day. Crushed the shit out of the bumber that was just replaced last month, damaged the radiator, and thus cased the engine to overheat and die when I tried to stupidly drive home.
So on a non auto damage note, it technically wasn't a century ride. Saturday I only rode 92 miles and then did 68 miles on sunday. The first day was really nice and we had a bit of sun and nice rolling hills to play around, which was great since my bike is shit of flats. The second day was torrential rain and pretty misserable till about the last 13 miles when the rain stopped giving me a chance to dry out a little.
All in all the riding was good, though it does make me wish I had a road bike. My current setup is a hardtail mtn bike with 25x700c road tires. It gets me there though not always comfortable or quickly. And for the most part I still out rode a lot of the people I was with.
I sympathize with your balls.
I rode into work this morning, probably one of the last days I'll be able to this year. It was pretty desolate compared to when I was riding heavily in May/June, and pretty cold, too. However, the sun was just coming up as I rolled in. I'm going to miss biking this winter.
Awesome though the bikes may be, the threat I feel from biking in the winter isn't the cold or the trail conditions. It's the fact that I can't wear enough blinking lights to get winter drivers to pay attention to me, give me the right of way I should have, or try to stop in time. I've seen so many close calls with the two or three guys who do C street during the winter. I really don't want to press my luck.
Dan used to ride his bike to school over here, but has stopped doing that in recent months after a few close calls. Even down here people are horrible about yielding to bikers. I'm sure some of the reason is due to the inconsiderate bikers in the city who don't decide if they are going by pedestrian rules or car rules, and thus piss off both and everyone. But no matter whose fault it is, when you place a bike against a car, the winner every time is pretty clear.
Plus, Anchorage drivers are absolute idiots when it comes to bikers. Well, scratch that - Anchorage drivers seem to be idiots by almost any measure of driving capability. Except for maybe the folks that were raised on Alaska streets. And sometimes not even then.
I don't think I would brave winter bike riding.
Congrats on the bike ride!! But I'm so sorry to hear about your car. I hate it when people do things like that. When we got back to DC from AK a few weeks ago, we returned to find my car with a fresh new dent and scratch on the side. Considering it had been parked in our apartments parking lot the entire time we were gone, I was beyond pissed. No note, no nothing. I hate people here sometimes.
