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Thursday, May 31, 2001
I survived the tv show, mainly because there were two other interviewees who took some of the pressure off. Didn't say 1/3 of what I had planned, but it seemed to go OK. What will really be bad is to view the broadcast thinking it went well and then see what a jerk I look like... (0) comments
Why did I agree to do a television interview? I haven't slept for 2 nights, I can feel my shoulders tighten by the minute, and my stomach is constantly churning. Now I remember why I always dreaded giving talks at conferences. The show producers did agree to stop the filming if I happen to barf onscreen, but otherwise they want to do it all in one take. At least someone was interested enough in the plight of pedestrians and cyclists to want to do a half hour show on the topic. (0) comments Monday, May 28, 2001
I thought Reagan proved that this doesn't work. Is it not obvious that you can't cut taxes and increase defense spending without running out of money? (0) comments
Got out into the country for what seemed like a long bike ride but was only 35 miles. Riding the rail trail with the long flat sections has softened us a bit. Need to get in shape for some longer miles this summer. Normally when I ride on the road I try to keep a very straight line, close to the edge of the road. But then I thought back on my cross country trip, and the times when cars gave me the most room was when I rode with English Tod, who was notorious for his erratic riding style. Cars didn't trust him and gave him plenty of room. Occasionally now I do the same thing, in a controlled way, so that cars aren't tempted to get too close. (0) comments Sunday, May 27, 2001
The other night we strapped on our NiteRider bike lights, donned our Illuminite jackets and hit the trail. It's liberating to be able to ride at night and actually be seen by drivers. And it's the best time to ride around here in the summer. Reading much less fiction lately (probably from reading too many blogs) and feel the need to be engrossed in a good novel. Picked up The Body Artist by Don DeLillo from the library. A strange short novel that I almost stopped reading on about page 5 but am now nearly finished, being sucked in by odd nature of the tale. (0) comments Friday, May 25, 2001
There has been a noticeable increase in traffic to my site since Adventure Cycling added a link to my cross country journal from my bike tour back in Fall of '99. It's old news, but since it's taking up precious disk space I might as well advertise it. (0) comments Thursday, May 24, 2001
Saw some beautiful paintings by Ed Cooper over the weekend at the NVa Fine Arts Festival. The subtle lighting effects are totally lost in the web site images. Shows the importance of taking good photos of fine art. The colors look garish and amateurish in the photos. (0) comments Wednesday, May 23, 2001
Took a long ride today on the trail, around 50 miles. Felt good to stretch the legs after being cooped up over the last couple of rainy days. Helped a damsel in distress, with a flat tire and no tire pump. She and her friend are preparing for the AIDS ride from Raleigh, NC to DC. (0) comments
There's nothing quite like the feeling of having a really clean bike; and two clean bikes is too much. Now the hard part, getting my hands clean so that when I go into work I'm not constantly picking at my dirty fingernails. Our dryspell is broken for now after the downpour yesterday. Of course the rain started as I was on my bike, halfway home from work. Then I discovered that our gutters were overflowing, so I got out the neighbor's aluminum ladder and carried to the house, with thunder rolling in the distance. Which added to the excitement of cleaning out the downspout, thinking I could be struck by lightning at any moment. (0) comments Tuesday, May 22, 2001
Anoto is developing an interesting application using a digital pen and specially printed (and very cheap) paper. The pattern on the paper is part of a huge map, half the size of the U.S., and a digital pen senses where on the map each piece of paper is located. It sounds like the ideal integration of paper and digital technology. There's a long article about the product in the April 2001 Wired magazine. (0) comments Sunday, May 20, 2001
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Since it was raining here and I didn't feel like riding, I watched the end of the Giro d'Italia, live on OLN TV. Live coverage of the Giro may be a first for the U.S., but the event isn't even mentioned in the Washington Post. It was a wet day in Italy as well and the final downhill was like ice, with what seemed like much of the pack falling or sliding at least once. The Pirate, Marco Pantani, nearly broke away near the end, but an unknown Italian rider in the lead group took the win. Sad to think that neither Pantani nor Cipollini will be in the Tour de France. (0) comments Friday, May 18, 2001
I think I broke my personal best for the maximum weight carried in my BOB trailer, hauling home a week's worth of groceries. The curbside grocery guy even helped me stuff my panniers with what wouldn't fit in the trailer. Catch the first stage of the second biggest bike race in the world, the Giro d'Italia (official site) on OLN TV on Saturday morning, 11am. (0) comments Thursday, May 17, 2001
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The New York Times has a couple of good articles today, one on Apocalypse Now Redux, Francis Ford Coppola's remix of his classic film, and a piece on AOL forcing their merged cohorts to use AOL mail. (0) comments (0) comments Tuesday, May 15, 2001
Now my illustrious former employer will be known for the political firing of the Caribou man, as noted by today's Doonesbury (not a permanent link, you will need to find the May 14 and 15 cartoons) and the Lunch Lady. (0) comments
I'm not surprised that we're reading less and watching more. I think it's starting to rub off on me as I haven't completed a book in a couple of weeks, and yet find time to read weblogs on a daily basis. (0) comments Friday, May 11, 2001
After a quick look, I think 3d.js is my favorite from the Spent the entire week without driving my car, including attending a night meeting about 12 or 13 miles away. The week being from WABA's Bike to Work Day last friday to today. There are some great pics of DC Mayor Williams at the event on the WABA site. What a contrast to the former "mayor for life" Marion Berry. Getting in the habit of saving posts to the clipboard, since Blogger seems to be a bit buggy lately, and there aren't many things in life more annoying that losing newly created text, however banal. Although I was surprised recently that Blogger managed to recover an aborted session not long ago, so there's hope. (0) comments Thursday, May 10, 2001
I'm gonna get my butt kicked one of these days. Lately I've been on a "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" kick regarding construction crews that block public trails when I'm cycling around town. Usually they comply, but I'm 0-2 the last two days. One guy almost threw his drill at me, the other his cell phone. Both said "It's goof offs like you who make life difficult for working people like us". I calmly explained that yes, I am working too, only I'm using my bike to get from point A to B not my stinkin' gas guzzlin' sport ute or pickup truck. Things digressed from there. (0) comments Wednesday, May 09, 2001
Hauled home over 70 lbs. of groceries with my Beast of Burden (BOB) and panniers. It was a little shaky but after a while I was able to tame the beast enough to get home. Think that's a record for weight carried. This is the kind of computer that I've been wanting for, a full fledged PC that is tiny (about 9" x 8" x 1"). It's the new Casio laptop mentioned today on slashdot that will sell for around $2,000., come installed with Windows ME and Linux, have a 20GB drive and have an 8.4" screen. (0) comments Tuesday, May 08, 2001
I've been a little upset that there has been no word from Al Gore about the atrocious environmental record of the Bush administration so far. According to Al-Gore-2000.org, Al's taking a break from it all until the Fall when he plans to start speaking out on the Bush record at that time. Can't say that I blame him, but someone's got to be making some noise. (0) comments
Bookmarklets are pretty cool. I just don't feel like cleaning up all the errors found in some of my pages. (0) comments
Zeldman points to a site containing 20 typefaces designed for extended reading. Speaking of extended reading, I'm having to resort to using glasses nearly all the time now. It's very frustrating when I don't have them and I'm attempting to work on the bike or cook or whatever. So I've got about 6 or 7 pairs of glasses scattered throughout the house, in various states of disrepair, many with only one arm which makes them nearly useless unless there's no other choice. (0) comments Sunday, May 06, 2001
Americans saved over $65 BILLION in taxes this year by having a mortgage on a home, not to mention the $25 BILLION in property tax writeoffs and $20 BILLION in capital gains exclusions for selling a home. There shouldn't be any doubt why there is so much suburban sprawl; it's so well supported by the Federal government. With a cold, 20 bike miles seemed like 40. I was going to just lay and read today but it was just too cool and nice to sit around; maybe tomorrow I'll get some rest. (0) comments Friday, May 04, 2001
Did you bike to work today? Even though I don't work there, I rode downtown to join the WABA sponsored bike to work day event in the District today. Good crowd. The round trip was about 45 miles. Even managed to spend some time sketching some of the stereotypical DC sights, feeling like one of those tourist artists ready to spring my latest creation on the next unsuspecting out of towner. If you didn't bike to work today, there's always the League of American Bicyclists bike to work day on May 18. And if you don't know why you should commute by bike, read this. (0) comments Thursday, May 03, 2001
It's another almost beautiful day; except for the layer of haze lying over the DC metro area. Even Denver, with it's own share of air pollution problems, doesn't come close to the poor air quality in this area. It makes it a little discouraging to be out getting exercise knowing that it could be doing as much harm as good. Riding about 30 miles a day doing errands and stopping into the office to pick up mail, etc. (0) comments Wednesday, May 02, 2001
There's an excellent op-ed piece in the Post entitled Energy Amnesia about Cheney's recent comment about conservation not being the cure for our energy problems. As if conservation had even been suggested in the past 10 or so years. (0) comments Tuesday, May 01, 2001
Back after a week in Colorado. After buying the excellent Denver Bike map, spent some time riding the trails on my Bike Friday. There are great trails in Denver, including the Bear Creek trail from Lakewood to the Platte River trail that heads north to the city and connects with the Cherry Creek trail. And there are good signs showing the way. I would never have imagined that Denver and Calgary have so many things in common, but I shouldn't have been surprised given their similar geographic locations. Calgary has a similar system of trails, with great outdoor recreation opportuinities nearby. I can understand why both cities are growing too fast. Also spent some time in Colorado Springs; lots of bicycling opportunities and some great places to hike. May post some pictures from the trip later. (0) comments |