Eyes bigger than your stomach

I certainly hope not in this case. This video makes my kids laugh; I suspect it's from Discovery's Planet Earth serious, but I'm not sure.

Yield to Life

Kudos to Dave Zabriskie for founding Yield To Life. Last year, 5 of my friends were hit by cars while riding bikes. I've personally met one too many non-cyclists with an attitude along the line of, "Get off the road or you'll get hurt." A family member once told me, more or less, that if I loved my kids, I'd drive a bigger car.

The competing views on this topic are a bit too polarized in most cases. I hope Y2L gains some traction. I'm deciding what kind of support I'm going to give them.

Sophmoric Humor

Catching up to some one on a steep pitch - especially off-road - is a great feeling. Pulling it off while humming or singing this is even better. The hard part is to avoid laughing - which, as we all know, evaporates strength - while delivering the tune. Ideally your prey has some familiarity with the Greaseman (Doug Tracht), the disgraced radio personality.

Air Pressure Ignorance

I have a problem. After 20 years of cycling, I haven't figured out the air pressure thing. I've read, I've listened, I've tried. (I even kept a chart of various tire/shock pressures for a while.) On the road, I probably run too much air. Off road, either too much or not enough. My Fox RP rear shock has been 'stuck down' twice, which is essentially the worst air pressure situation you can have - unless you like your fancy FS bike to act like a hardtail with now ground clearance.

Today, I went to lower my pressure for some icy/snowy conditions. I figured 23-25psi would be good. But when I slapped the pump on, it said 14psi! I've ridden several weeks like that. Now I'm wondering if I can trust my digital Trek pump/gauge. Maybe the sidewalls are super stiff on the 2.3" Conties I've been running offroad, but it sure didn't seem like 13 psi. Or did it. Cornering has been an effort in futility lately.

As far as shocks go, I've slowly been inching my fork and rear shock upwards in pressure - trying to achieve a non-sucky FS experience. My talas is now at 110psi and the rear's set to 150psi. At 190lbs, that's high according to the Fox guide (i.e., based on sag). Riding in 20F conditions throws a wrench in the equation as well. Rebound gets sluggish, and I suspect Boyle's law might be having it's way with the preload.

Missing my hardtail still,
W

A picture, a bad memory, and a posting test

I found this picture, and I wanted to try posting via e-mail, so here goes. I suspect this photo elicits a range of reactions.  For me, it just looks like something bad is going to happen.  A good while ago, a depressed Egyptian pilot kamakazied his 767 in the Atlantic, killing a couple hundred people.   As a not-so-huge fan of flying myself, the thought of being a passenger i this situation really unnerved me.  Anyway, that's what I thought about when I saw this picture.

In reality, it's a short-duration 0-g flight related to production of aerojels.

PC's in the 3rd world - more thoughts on the OLPC

I've been passing my OLPC XO around to see what people think. Kids find it cool, of course, but I seriously doubt they would enjoy owning one. Too underpowered, can't play the games they want, and teachers that want 'PowerPoints' (yes, my daughter's teacher calls them that) would not be happy - in general, the XO's strong point don't seem very relevant in the States.

The two foreign charities our church has contacted say they don't have electricity, and that power (other than wood fires) and clean water are much higher on their list of priorities. To be honest, this is the issue that's concerned me from the get-go. Are computers a necessity, a convenience, or a toy? Perhaps they can improve an economy, but can they create one?

For my presentation* next month, I'm trying to include both technical and social aspects of the OLPC. It's interesting to work out up outline that discusses 802.11s mesh networking, a customer low-power display controller, and the needs of developing countries. Making things a bit more interesting is OLPC's recent announcement that they'll be selling their XO units to underprivileged students in the US. My guess is that they want to increase volume of sales to keep their production costs down; however, in an environment where the 'desktop metaphor' rules, I have trouble envisioning teachers buying into the XO's 'Sugar' interface. Maybe I'll have to add board-room greed to my outline.

*- my company supports and encourages monthly 'brown bag' lunches on a variety of topics. I find it a useful opportunity to meet coworkers and keep fresh on my presentation skills.

Red Tide

When we arrived in Florida for a Christmas-time family vacation, the first thing I heard was "Don't go out to the ocean". The effects of a Red Tide along the Gold Coast caused respiratory problems, rashes and itching, and killed a lot of fish. At night, a haze seemed to hang over the whole Cocoa Beach area. Fortunately, it cleared up for the latter half of our trip.

From the ground level, it wasn't clear what was so 'red' about it, but this picture is pretty dramatic. It's from the West coast, not the East, but it is a Red Tide.

Of all the people who visited Disney World (Epcot to be precise) on Christmas day, we were the most gansta...

Adventures For The Cure

A neat article from my friend Adam Driscoll about Adventures For The Cure, where it came from, and where it's going.

I met Bob Roll

Actually, this happened months ago. But I just came across a picture of my buddy' helmet - signed by Bob Roll. When I saw a blonde drive up to the bike shop in a blingy Range Rover, I just new Bobke was in there. I was right. :)

American (and Austrailian) Attitude

My friend Dave forwarded me this piece about Cadel Evans. Unfortunately, I agree with him completely...

Evans notes training fears in Australia
By Susan Westemeyer
Cadel Evans of Team Silence-Lotto is a road racer, but admits that sometimes training on the road can be scary and dangerous. "Honestly, the scariest part of my job is riding on the Great Ocean Road, which I live on, between Christmas and New Year," he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"I've cycled in every continent in the world, other than Antarctica, and it's incredible. Drivers in America and Australia just have attitudes. I don't necessarily say attitudes towards cyclists, but towards other road users," the 2007 ProTour champion said. "People just don't realise the danger they're causing other people."

What he most fears are trailers that are wider than the cars pulling them. "I've nearly had my leg torn off so many times because of that, and people are just completely unaware of it."

One Laptop per Child (OLPC)

An interesting movement is afoot. If you're at all concerned for the well-being of the rest of the planet, there are many options - besides the Sally Struthers beg-ads - at your disposal. After a good deal of deliberation, we decided to support the OLPC Foundation this year. It seemed odd at first - the thought of sending laptops to places where children are malnourished, orphaned, or worse. My friends at AdventuresForTheCure are doing some great work, for instance, ensuring that kids in Kenya have a safe learning environment. OLPC is trying to use technology to "...provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves". It made me wonder if sending rice and grain is really enough.

After some consideration, we decided to support OLPC as part of family Christmas gift to Western Africa this year. The kids (along with mom and I) did without a tree full of presents and put the money towards a couple organizations that are doing good work in Tanzania and elsewhere. I figure education is critical for the long term well being of these places, and having tinkered with an OLPC XO unit for a week now, I think its a great learning tool. Books are expensive, heavy, and quickly outdated. If nothing else, the XO makes a darn handy e-book, and the collaboration tools it supports would make for a fun and education classroom environment.

I'm hosting a luncheon at work to garner interest in support for the OLPC effort, and our church is considering helping out as well. At some point, I plan to send my unit to some distant land in hopes that it will find a budding author or engineer who can put it to good use. It's a neat thought.

Sunny, warm, and lots of friends on fixies

15 or so of us enjoyed 90 minutes of Hanover, Elkridge, and Ellicott City today. With the help of some baby sitters we even saw a few couples join the fray. I got to see Donald (Avalon Cycles) on a bike for the first time.

Here's a sweet video of some guy singing a rather famous song backwards. (It will also demonstrate my prowess at embedding vids in a blog...)

5am - 8U Swim Meet at Towson

I'm posting from the Towson swim center using an OLPC XO. I took a picture of the mob scene that is the bball court at this point, but the XO doesn't want to let me upload it at this point...time to tinker some more...

Hmmm...never did get the post to work from the XO, but here's the picture I took with it (added later).

4 more years

It's been nearly 4 years since my last post; time for an update. :) I finally tried my hand at cyclocross this year, but there are wayyy too many blogs on that topic, so I'm going to shoot for something a bit different. (I will note that seeing one of my son's race with his friend was a highlight...)