2024-12-03

I enjoyed this excerpt from a psychiatric report on Joan Didion in the summer of 1968:

It is as though she feels deeply that all human effort is foredoomed to failure, a conviction which seems to push her further into a dependent, passive withdrawal. In her view she lives in a world of people moved by strange, conflicted, poorly comprehended, and, above all, devious motivations which commit them inevitably to conflict and failure…

That was then a medical diagnosis, but today would just be seen as the normative baseline of the zeitgeist (within cells interlinked).

By way of comment I offer only that an attack of vertigo and nausea does not now seem to me an inappropriate response to the summer of 1968.

From the titular essay of The White Album.

2024-09-29

micro, bicycle

I had my first road-side repair on my Rohloff bike today.

While flying down the side of Tamalpais via Eldridge for the first time in a couple months I found myself wondering if that trail somehow managed to get even rockier. Once I regained the pavement at sea level I went to shift and my twist shifter just spun. Turns out I had rattled the shift box off the hub.

To be fair, I hadn’t popped off the rear wheel or otherwise touched that bolt since before my recent tour, so it could have been working itself loose over the course of the two airplane flights and 700+ miles through the northwestern hinterlands, rather than just the ridiculous rocks of Eldridge, Indian Fire, Blithedale, et al.

It’s easy enough reattach, though since I had moved the twist shiftier I had to reset the gear selection. I think that’s a pretty good reliability record for 7 months of riding. Maintenance has been minimal: I’ve swapped the brake pads, and I think I’ve lubed the chain twice. I think all the components are just about broken in now.

2024-04-21

micro, bicycle

There aren't that many rocks, they said.

It isn’t too difficult, they said.

You’ll be home before sunset, they said.

This article was modified 2024-09-29.

2024-02-12

micro, books

I spent yesterday afternoon at the California International Antiquarian Book Fair.

They had first editions from everyone from William Gibson to Isaac Newton, proofs and manuscripts from Neal Stephenson and Ludwig Wittgenstein, 17th century books on witchcraft with binding that did not appear to be from livestock, and Turing’s programming manual for the Ferranti Mark 1. But the books I saw the most copies of at different booths were firsts of The Monkey Wrench Gang and Grapes of Wrath.

Many of the sellers were from London or Paris. So I find myself imagining a shadowy cabal of Parisian antiquarians, realizing that they have a show in San Francisco coming up and wondering what the Americans will buy. “J’ai trouvé!” one of them declares. “Ed Abbey and Steinbeck. They won’t be able to resist.”

2023-12-04

tea, micro

I use spice jars to store tea at work.

The Progressive Prepworks PKS-410 Spice ProKeeper come with a shaker screen, but that’s easy to pop out, leaving you with a nicely sized container with a good lid and a decent seal. Tea usually should be stored in an opaque container, but since these are kept in my desk drawer, I’m not too concerned about light.

2023-11-29

admin, micro, media

I met someone the other day who asked what my blog was about.

I was briefly stumped. I try not to be about. I replied “Well, I think the last few posts were about notebooks, opera glasses, tea, and bicycle mirrors.”

If I wasn’t me, I would be in to me.

2023-10-16

micro, bicycle

My drive-side chainstay is cord wrapped.

I use the reflective Ironwire that Lawson makes for Durston, tied in a spiral French hitching wrap. It helps to protect the chainstay, but mostly it looks cool.

At 2mm, Ironwire is slightly thicker than the 1.7mm Kevlar cord that ships with the FiberFix Replacement Spoke, but my guess is that I could unwrap some of this cord and use it with the FiberFix hardware. I have yet to break a spoke this eyar, so I haven’t had an opportunity to test this.

2023-05-01

micro, radio

APRS becomes a more useful expedition messaging service with the addition of SMS and email gateways.

These gateways bypass the traditional APRS messaging requirement that both parties be online at the same time. With the SMS Gateway and Email Gateway, I can send a message to someone back in the world, and the message will arrive on their computing device as normal SMS or email. Critically, both gateways store messages for 24 hours and allow receivers to request unacknowledged messages be resent. This means that someone can reply to my SMS or email at any time, even when my radio is off. I just have to turn on my radio at least once per day and instruct both gateways to send me any new messages.

I’m interacting with both gateways directly from my Yaesu VX-8DR but this thread on the Expedition Portal forums provides a good introduction of using them via APRSdroid.

APRS gateways also exist for weather reports, WhatsApp messaging, and requesting the nearest repeaters.