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Friday, July 30, 2004
Shakey - I was glad to have the book Shakey: Neil Young's Biography by Jimmy McDonough on those long, rainy days in Vermont. While not a great work of art, it's great gossip. It's interesting to read about the amount of drugs consumed during the recording of Young's early LPs. It's a wonder that more people didn't OD during that time. Stephen Stills comes off as one of the biggest druggies as well as one of the most arrogant SOB's of the time. (0) comments
Vermont - Just returned from a short trip to Vermont to visit with Mom in her cabin nestled in the woods next to a small lake, a beautiful place with clean, clear air. It was a relaxing visit. Unfortunately the remote location presents a challenge in finding reasonably priced transportation. I settled for the easy solution, a rental car from the Manchester Airport. The car was used to drive two hours to the cabin and two hours back to the airport and it cost over $200, nearly twice the cost of the very inexpensive Independence Air flight from Dulles. Next time I'll either take the train to White River Junction and ride from there on my Bike Friday folding bike. Another option is to fly to Manchester and take the Vermont Transit bus to White River Junction and ride from there. (0) comments Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Living the Good Life - Scott and Helen Nearing had the right idea back in the 30's and 40's when they embarked on the good life, as told in their original book Living the Good Life. They advocated for a vegetarian diet and a simple lifestyle. A workday consisted of 4 hours of what most consider work, and the rest of the day devoted to the arts, recreation, and entertainment. Listen to an interview with Helen Nearing on the Simple Living Network. (0) comments Tuesday, July 20, 2004
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Whole Foods - Here is an excellent article on Whole Foods Market and it's founder John MacKey and his unique management style: Every store was divided into about eight functional teams: You were hired to the seafood team, or the prepared-foods team, or the cashier/front-end team. But you didn't just get hired. You got hired provisionally. After four weeks of work, the team you had joined voted whether to keep you; you needed a two-thirds yes vote to join the staff permanently. (0) comments
WYSIWYG - Blogger has a new WYSIWYG editor that suddenly appeared recently. It seems to work OK most of the time, but I just learned a new quirk. When I cut and pasted text from another window, the editor added text formatting to the pasted text. Sometimes there's a strong argument for a dumb editor. I know with Emacs, when I paste text it is always the raw text, not formatted text. I rarely want to retain text formatting from another text source when cutting and pasting. At least the Blogger coders had the sense to include the option of editing the HTML. I also preferred how their previous editor used the <strong> tag instead of <span style="font-weight:bold;">text</span> which is used now. (0) comments
Fired Up - Lance doesn't often get that emotional at the end of a stage, but after winning today's sprint finish on Villard de Lans he was pumped. He won an exciting sprint in the final 2 Km against Ullrich, Klöden, and Basso. (0) comments
Granny Gear - When riding a recumbent, the low gears are used much more frequently than when riding an upright. The climbs are usually a little more difficult, and unless you time the entry into a climb just right, the speed drop-off is very rapid. I use the granny gear all the time now. I don't think I'm going that much slower, but is just seems more efficient to drop down into the lowest ring in the front to ease the strain of the climb. I think the stigma about using a granny gear relates more to the name than the gear. If it were called the Knee Saver or the Spinning Gear it might be more palatable. (0) comments Monday, July 19, 2004
Shakey II - Still reading Shakey, the biography of Neil Young, and probably will be for several weeks. After all, it's nearly 800 pages long. While not the greatest work of literature, it's an enjoyable read despite the fact that Young was not a very willing subject. Decided to splurge and purchase a new copy of the paperback. Since it will take me forever to read the library book, I didn't want to fret over renewing it each time it was due. Besides, I can now read those missing 14 pages that were torn from the library copy. (0) comments Thursday, July 15, 2004
RSS - I haven't really found a good reason to use an RSS reader. For those who don't know, RSS is a method for publishing information in a special format, XML. For instance, every time I submit a new entry, it could also be published in XML. People who have RSS readers could then select my blog and receive my latest posts when they are posted. One could select as many RSS blogs as they want, and instead of visiting each blog website, they could simply read all the new entries with the RSS reader. Although this idea should make it much easier to read news from various sites, I still prefer to visit the individual sites. I visit some sites daily, but others I'll read only occasionally, and when I do, I prefer to browse through the site and pick and choose what to read. To me it's a little like reading a book, I don't want to read just the next several pages. I may want to read them, then flip back and read the last few pages as well. I haven't really tried using an RSS reader on a regular basis, but so far I haven't had the inclination to try. (0) comments Wednesday, July 14, 2004
King of the Mountain - Richard Virenque is incredible. Today he rode away from the pack and stayed away for over 200 km to win the stage. German Thomas Kessler (T-Mobile) and Frenchman Sebastian Hinault (Crédit Agricole) both suffered serious injuries, a broken rib and fractured vertebra respectively. (0) comments
Shakey - Started reading Shakey: Neil Young's Biography by James McDonough. Checked it out from the library and was pissed when I opened it while sitting down to lunch in a deli and discovering that the first 14 pages were missing. Started it anyway. Neil Young is one of a kind, one of the few artists who has not sold out and who seems to believe much as he did as an idealistic youth. (0) comments
True North - Just finished Jim Harrison's True North. Maybe not his best book, it seemed quickly written and not edited well. Then I read that it was written over the course of 20 years, so what do I know. I enjoyed it nonetheless, indentifying with the period and the location, having attended Michigan State University and lived in Michigan for many years. He writes well about the decisions we make when we are young, and how chance encounters change our lives. (0) comments
Long Trail Ride - Took a 40+ mile ride along the W&OD Trail. With the thunderstorm and tornado warnings, there weren't many other trail users. Saw lots of birds; cardinals and catbirds trying to figure out what to eat now that the cicada feast is over. It was also comforting to see geese swimming along in Goose Creek. (0) comments Tuesday, July 13, 2004
$2000 Chinese Car - Philip Greenspun has written an excellent treatise on the $2000 Chinese Car that will someday replace our overpriced American models the way the $200 TV has replaced those made in the U.S., displacing much of the industry built around the car as well. (0) comments Sunday, July 11, 2004
“Intelligence Assessments on Iraq” - At Tim Bray's Ongoing is an excellent overview of the Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq. (0) comments
The Air is Cleaner in Vermont - We're back from a week in northern Vermont where the air is much cleaner than here in the northern Virginia/DC area. The first two days were beautiful, cool and clear. We brought our two recumbents so we rode both days, for 20 and 40 miles with some very steep hills. It felt great to unwind, get lots of sleep and help Mom get settled in for the summer. (0) comments Sunday, July 04, 2004
Jim Harrison's True North - Reading True North by Jim Harrison. Harrison writes so well about my generation, in this case about coming of age in the 60's. He draws on the experiences of his youth in which he was such a screw-up, much like myself at that age. While I doubt that it is great literature, it strikes such a chord with me that when reading his books I don't want them to end. (0) comments
Royal Caribbean cruise ship illustration - Along with a description of how it was created in Illustrator and Photoshop. (0) comments Saturday, July 03, 2004
Tour de France - Lance is in a good position, finishing second in the opening time trial. Now his team does not have to try to defend the yellow jersey and they can start the tour on a slower pace. Lance seems to be in great shape. People must have stayed home to watch the Tour on OLN TV, as there was almost no one in the bike store today. Either that or everyone had left town for the 4th of July holiday. We will have a quiet day tomorrow, maybe going for a short ride on the trial, then getting caught up sleep and chores. (0) comments |