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Monday, September 30, 2002
Alas, US Postal's Roberto Heras lost the Vuelta a España in the time trial on the final day. Aitor Gonzalez was just too fast on the relatively flat route. (0) comments (0) comments
The Post has an article about how most kids are now chauffeured to school by their parents. Some parents even feel compelled to drive those few who take the bus, from their bus stop to home, a few meters away. Parents should be more concerened about the predicted 30 percent increase in traffic deaths among teenage drivers. (0) comments Sunday, September 29, 2002
There's a rather ominous article at the Woods Hole Institute site about the possiblity of global warming causing the rapid onset of a sudden cooling in the North Atlantic region. This mini ice age could be caused by a disruption in the ocean's circulation system. (0) comments
The weather this weekend was beautiful, a cool, clear early Fall day, ideal for cycling. Did a few short rides, to visit Billie and walk Mack at the Home on Saturday, and then along some back roads today. The rides were marred slightly by a reckless redneck in a pickup today who honked and yelled as he passed. These kinds of events are common but our tolerance is getting much lower, so we called the local police to report him, as if it actually did any good. (0) comments Friday, September 27, 2002
Enjoying Jim Harrison's new book, The Raw and The Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand. He's quite a hedonist when it comes to food. The book is a collection of columns that appeared in various magazines in the 80's and 90's. He shamelessly name drops, but I'll forgive him, given how much I enjoy reading about the lives of favorite authors. (0) comments Thursday, September 26, 2002
It seemed strange today to drive downtown. I haven't used my car in a few days, and I kept thinking that I had left something behind. And I had, my bike. Spent nearly 3 hours in the car commuting to Torpedo Factory where The Art League holds classes. I'm taking a class called "Gesture — A Creative Approach to the Figure". Doing gesture drawings is a great way to loosen up my very controlling drawing style. It takes a lot of energy, and is a great release. Also did some drawing over the weekend at the Multicultural Festival. Used some surveyor's crayon and sidewalk chalk to draw a map of the continents in the parking lot for a kids map game. It was a bit of a bust, as the booth was not adjacent to the other kids activities, and the genealogy booth next door wasn't a big draw. After a light rain the other night, there is only a ghost image of the map remaining. I fretted for days over which projection to use, what kind of drawing material would be best, the size, etc. I guess it was worth it for the education of the handfull of kids who participated. Also sitting in on the life drawing classes at the community center. Getting motivated again to draw on a more regular basis, besides the drawing that I do in my journal. The time for thinking I'll draw more tomorrow or next week or next month is over. The time is now. (0) comments Sunday, September 22, 2002
Roberto Heras rode a great race today in the Vuelta. He finished first and took over the general classification lead from Sevilla. The climb today was unbelievably steep. At one point an official race car could not get enough traction on the wet, steep road and was being pushed by fans. It was ironic in that the fans were told not to push any of the racers today on the climb. In the past overzealous fans have influenced the race by pushing their favorites. (0) comments Thursday, September 19, 2002
There's a good interview with Peter Gabriel on pixelsurgeon. He discusses what he's been up to over the past 10 years. (0) comments
One of the people with whom I rode cross country in 1999, Jim Ormond, is riding across again, on the same route. However, instead of taking 2 months he's planning on doing it in a month, averaging over 100 miles a day. He's just started the long trek across Texas. That's the opposite of what I want to do, which is to take twice as long, spending more time in the more interesting places. I wish him well. And Suzanne was recently in Morocco, and Oliver is finishing up his trip to the U.S. I suppose that was the common thread among the 1999 group, we love to travel. (0) comments
Have put in about 70 or 80 miles on the bike this week commuting to work, running errands, and attending meetings. Last night while riding to a committee meeting about 15 miles away, saw a couple of titanium cowboys finishing their training ride. Stayed ahead of them until a stop light, and in true hotshot fashion they rode to the head of the line and started to ride through the red light. I then rode behind them for a couple of miles, and I think they were a little surprised when I caught them, riding my mtn/hybrid with about 20+ pounds of gear in my panniers. (0) comments Monday, September 16, 2002
Rode BikeDC for the first time this year. Nearly 10,000 cyclists toured the monuments and neighborhoods of DC, including a long stretch of the George Washington Parkway along the Potomac. It was a challenge trying to remain upright amidst the huge crowd of riders. It felt great riding past the long line of frustrated motorists trying to navigate around the cyclists: "These streets our ours today!". George Hincapie didn't quite have enough stamina to survive a 29-mile solo breakaway in the San Francisco Grand Prix bike race. Charles Dionne of 7-UP/Nutra Fig won the finishing sprint, beating out both Lance and Ekimov. There were huge crowds on the hilly SF course. Meanwhile, you can catch the Vuelta a España on OLN TV, live in the morning, or recaps in the afternoon and evening. (0) comments Friday, September 13, 2002
Received an email from OQO about the availability of the their new pocket computer. Here is their sales strategy:
I see their target price has climbed from around $1000 to over $1200. Hope they don't price it out of my range. Here are the specs:
(0) comments Wednesday, September 11, 2002
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Dan Bricklin mentioned what looks like a groundbreaking 3D earth viewing application, the EarthViewer 3D program by Keyhole. One can pick a place in the world and view it in 3D down to the meter pixel level in some places, with street names and other data overlayed. The flash demo is by far the best flash application I've ever seen. Not recommended if using a 58K modem connection. The application requires a robust 3D video card, and a broadband connection as the data is streamed realtime. It's not cheap, at a subscription price of $599. per year. (0) comments
It's back to the real world, with cars honking at me while riding on the road, and me wrenching my back while ramming a car that wouldn't stop at a crosswalk. I miss Eugene already. (0) comments Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Rented My Big Fat Greek Weeding one night in the hotel in Eugene. We were tired and didn't feel like venturing out after dinner. I didn't much care for the movie, and a comment I read the next day (in USA Today, the hotel freebie newspaper?) summed up my reaction: it was a decent 90 minute television sitcom. There was very little character development and a lot of cheap sight gags. It always amuses me when I make a typo, like "my big fat greek weeding", and get thousands of hits. (0) comments
Back from a great vacation in Oregon. We rode the Bicycle Adventures Crater Lake tour, and spent a few days cycling in Eugene. Eugene is cycling nirvana, with an extensive network of on-road bike lanes, bike trails, and an attitude that cycling is an important part of the transportation network. (0) comments |