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After tonight’s sub-freezing Critical Mass (there were a few flakes of snow), I lubed my bike chain and treated myself to a couple kebabs, both of which combine to make an interesting aroma. I imagine my dreams tonight will involve beef and oil.
But for now, I will warm my fingers around a mug of kukicha.
High hopes had I for this new-fangled terrain view on Google Maps. “Aha!” I said to myself, “This I shall use for planning new bike routes.” But the inaccuracies are too great, the scale too small, and I’m left with my worn topo maps.
Paper, it seems, is not to be replaced.
The regular course of studies, the years of academical and professional education have not yielded me better facts than some idle books under the bench at the Latin school. What we do not call education is more precious than that which we call so. We form no guess at the time of receiving a thought, of its comparative value. And education often wastes its effort in attempts to thwart and baulk this natural magnetism which with sure discrimination selects its own. ... It is natural and beautiful that childhood should enquire, and maturity should teach; but it is time enough to answer questions when they are asked. Do not shut up the young people against their will in a pew, and force the children to ask them questions for an hour against their will.
iSight and Photo Booth effects add an agreeable amount of weirdness to any conundrum.
This morning while putting on my pants, I noticed an immediate lack of gadgety-goodness. Frantic patting of my waist confirmed it: my Leatherman Wave was indeed missing, pouch and all! How does that happen? Granted, the pouch was showing age, and was of poor quality even in its youth, but, still – did it just fall off? The bike crash must have something to do with it. I do did wear the tool on the side that came came crashing down.
Now I need a new multitool. My experience with Leatherman has been good (sans pouch), so I think I’ll stick with them. A skeletool, mayhap?
The keenly aware among you may perchance have perceived my perplexing switch to Flickr.
Yes, it’s true, I’ve taken the Web 2.0 plunge. I still support ZenPhoto, but their development was going a bit slow on some of the features I wanted. (Of course, they release the new version right when I switch.) I’m also attempting to cut down on my disk space usage, so hosting my photos elsewhere is helpful.
Flickr is, well, featurelicious. It’s what I would call tasteful Web 2.0: functional javascript and social networking based around something, instead of social networking for the sake of social networking.
There’s a bunch of Flickr Wordpress plugins in the codex. Some day, I may install one, but for now, I’m done messing with photos: it’s been about 2 weeks moving everything into Flickr and a day replacing old links.
My bike entered into an argument with a set of train tracks today. In a bit of a Snidely-Whiplash-moment, I took a nasty spill on said tracks. No damage to me, thanks to a helmet, gloves, and, most importantly Revision Sawflys.
I conked the side of my face pretty good. There’s no doubt that if I’d been wearing my normal glasses, there would have been scratched lenses, snapped frames, and I probably would have lost one of those damned little screws, too. But with the Sawflys? Not a scratch! (No screws to loose, either.) Had I no eye-wear at all? Well, I probably would have gotten into a confrontation with a delivery truck before ever making it to the train tracks, but assuming no eye-wear and no genetic defects – I don’t really want to think about what that would have been like.
If you haven’t yet, do yourself a favor and buy a pair.
And the bike? No damage, save for one of the brake levers slightly bent. I was only a couple blocks from the bike shop, so I rode down there and they recommended I just bend it back. Good as new!
I attempted to snap a few photos at Critical Mass (Halloween edition) last night, but the low light and difficultly of riding my bike at the same time conspired against me. None of them turned out.
So, instead, you’ll just have to come out. We meet at the Depot Market (right across from Boundary Bay) at 5:15PM, the last Friday of every month. The mass usually doesn’t take off till about 5:30PM and there’s no set route, but rides generally last from 1 to 2 hours. Our city’s motorists are mostly supportive.