Friday, December 26, 2008

goals for next year.

-continue with the mountain bike/road racing training. Race 3+ spring races, 2+ fall. Road racing?
- painting -- gouache painting
-read more.
-photography - takes lots of photos with my D700, get an old 35 mm body to play with as well.
-travel -- LA(Jan) W. Texas(Feb) Colorado(March?..) Portland? Paris? S. or Central America.
-continue with top secret embedded software project..
-house - new deck, paint house, continue landscaping. Master plan for renovation - expansion?

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Monday, December 01, 2008

recession is "official"

no fucking shit we have been in a recession for a year.

Sunday, November 09, 2008

old san antonio route

new improved route , courtesy of a women cyclist riding a Willits road frame that we saw taking some odd turns that ended up avoiding any ride time on Slaughter or South First.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2385710

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

training

training is going well, I overtrained a bit too much this weekend, rather than a total of 3.5 hours at medium HR, I managed to do 6 hours of hill climbing, which exhausted me. I did another 1.5 hours today during lunch, 2 laps around town lake on my vanilla preserved my legs and allowed me to maintain a consistent HR.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

history repeats itself

"Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter, I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution BEFORE MORNING.”

-Andrew Jackson, 1832

Saturday, October 11, 2008

trainer

off to Pure Austin tommorrow to start getting officially trained. Tired of the boom bust cycle of riding a lot, getting stuck in a release that takes forever and losing fitness gains. Goal is to get back to my 2006 weight or less, and get enough cardio fitness and strength to be competitive in the spring TMBRA series in either SS open or sport, and eventually try some Cat 5 road racing.

Friday, September 26, 2008

why audi ? why?



I like the supercharged V6 on the B8 S4, ~ same power but 25 mpg sounds great, but..
no more S4 avant for the US? :(

Saturday, September 13, 2008

v8 addiction



since Audi/VW in their infinite corporate wisdom decided to only give the US the 2.0T A4 Avant in *auto only*, I am going to look to BMW for my V8 addiction, no need for quattro down here, rear wheel drive will be a bit more fun. It would still be nice to hold onto my S4 wagon. come on IPO..

ike

nothing here. A little wind, very humid. Not that much.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

catching up on shows new to me

I dont have cable, and I dont plan on getting it anytime soon. If I hear about a great show, I'll rent it or download it these days. Right now, I am catching up on "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia",based on my sister Thea's recommendation, which I find to be the most hilarious show since Arrested Development.

Friday, August 29, 2008

a scarf

okay, Rapha has officially jumped the shark. They should just stick to jerseys.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Mmj


Mmj
Originally uploaded by tylernol
one of the best concerts I have ever been to. Although I have mixed feeling about their most recent album, they are still brilliant live. The sound was perfect, the energy was extremely high, and maintained throughout their 3 hour set. They did not play any new songs until at least 4-5 songs into their opening song, and when they did, the songs fit perfectly, and seemed more refined than their album versions. They played songs off all of their albums, Tennessee Fire and At Dawn had light representation, maybe 1 or 2 songs from those, the majority of songs were from "It Moves", "Z" , and "Evil Urges". One of the encore songs was "Cobra" from the EP Chocolate and Ice, which is 24 minutes on the EP. They cut it back a bit, but it was still probably 12 minutes and still epic.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

dirt dirby



coming soon. Is it possible to drop 10 lbs in two weeks? probably not. Good experience though. I need to fix up my cross bike, for one thing get some knobby tires for it rather than the semi-slicks I have been running on it for the past two years. And perhaps an upgrade to paul touring brakes would be in order , my avid's dont have much stopping power.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

ka-ching


ka-ching
Originally uploaded by tylernol
got a wind shell, short sleeve shirt, shorts, and pants from Nau right before they closed down their clearance sale. I am very impressed with the fit and quality, and the style is top-notch, not so impressed with the made-in-china on a few pieces. But I am glad they are being resurrected by Horny Toad.

imminent

August 6, 2008 05:21:00 AM AUSTIN TX US Out for delivery
August 5, 2008 11:46:00 PM AUSTIN TX US Arrival Scan
August 5, 2008 08:06:00 PM MESQUITE TX US Departure Scan
August 5, 2008 03:02:00 AM MESQUITE TX US Arrival Scan
August 1, 2008 01:58:00 AM SAN PABLO CA US Departure Scan
July 31, 2008 11:53:00 PM SAN PABLO CA US Arrival Scan
July 31, 2008 08:01:00 PM SPARKS NV US Departure Scan
July 31, 2008 03:18:45 PM US Shipment has left seller facility and is in transit
July 31, 2008 02:01:00 PM SPARKS NV US Shipment received by carrier

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

the 24-70 is here...


24-70
Originally uploaded by tylernol
but will just be sitting around until the D700 arrives. It just shipped and is due in one week.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

first lens is ...



probably going to be the 24-70 f/2.8 lens, it arrives today. Amazon dropped the ball on the 50 f/1.4 and it is now on backorder , so I cancelled it, perhaps Precision Camera has it in stock. And supposedly Amazon is shipping my D700 today. Excellent!

34x19 @ Walnut Creek in 103 degree weather

that was 18 miles of pain. I cant believe I have lost so much strength in my legs for singlespeeding -- too much riding geared road bikes has led to my downfall. I was super-fast a few years back, but that was when I was only riding essentially two bikes -- my singlespeed for mountain biking, and my cross bike for the urban assaults and road rides. I think I could get up halfway the Hill of Life in 34x18. Not going even try it right now.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Hellboy 2..

saw it at the 10:40 screening at Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar. I was pretty excited to see it, having been a fan of the first Hellboy movie, Mike Mignola's comic, and Del Tora. I left very disappointed -- it still had great Del Tora/Mignola character designs, especially the tree elemental, but it was a bit too heavy on the trite melodramatic soap-opera cheese and did not work for me.

Dr. Horrible

great!

first lens en-route



The 50 mm lens is shipping before the camera body, hopefully the camera body will ship next week and I should be all set. I think I will probably stick with this as my single lens for a few months ,renting other lenses until I figure out what I want next. It is super-fast, and will be great for all sorts of subjects, and not weigh a ton like the zooms.

I was just climbing Lost Creek and *CRACK*

climbing the super-steep (~ 45 degree? ) climb out of Lost Creek up to Bee Caves, I stood up and started cranking as hard as I could and then I heard a loud "CRACCKKK" and felt my left foot smash into the ground. It was amusing trying to ride back with only one foot clipped in. I think I am done with Time road pedals ...I still like the off-road XS pedals but I am going to give Shimano Ultegra pedals a shot -- they have a stainless steel platform, not fucking $150 carbon/plastic.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

return of the tii?


lightweight, 2.0 liter 4-banger turbo, rear-wheel drive, manual gearbox? If BMW brings it, I'll buy it, and keep my Audi around several more years.

Monday, July 14, 2008

midlife

classic song.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

nikon



good weather sealing, full-frame, 5 fps, high ISO sensitivity, 51 focus point autofocus. That Nikon restructuring is paying off.
I'll take it.

Thursday, July 03, 2008

wall-e


I saw wall-e last night at drafthouse s. lamar. Overall I thought it was fantastic. Well-told story, beautiful animation and cinematography, very poignant anti-consumer message that could not come at a better time. I love that all the conservatives are pissed off by this movie. The influence of movies such as star wars, 2001, and tron, are very apparent in it, and most definitely so is Short Circuit. Johnny Five must be pissed. The blatant influence of Johnny Five on the design of Wall-E cannot be denied. It has to be deliberate, right? I kept on waiting for Wall-E to say "nice software", but it never happened.

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

buy low sell high

I am getting so used to these stock market min-crashes that it does not phase me that much anymore. At some point the economy will turn around, so I have to keep on viewing days like this as a buying opportunity. However, I really wish I had less money invested in the banks via my index funds. I would like to shift back towards individual stock picks and not get dragged down anymore by bankers who did not understand risk.

pavement ruins lollapalooza

classic.

pavement ruins dollopof loozas

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

superchunk back in the day

When I think about how long ago this came out, I feel really old. I think I saw them several times when I was in college in Philadelphia at the Trocadero. I think I only saw Fuguzi more live.

Monday, June 30, 2008

yet another reason to move to the West Coast

one of my favorite Austin restaurants is closing and being replaced by yet another Mexican restaurant. I am getting sick and tired of the downtown condo/Dallas types fucking up this city. Santa Cruz, Oakland, or Portland are all sounding more and more fantastic. Although it is nice living close to downtown, I am finding fewer and fewer reasons to go there. The very small list of favorite restaurants has gotten even smaller.

Monday, June 23, 2008

The Great Skua

nice instrumental song.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

riding more and avoiding the heat

I think this is the third straight week of 100-degree plus weather down in Austin, so riding in the early morning and riding more mountain bike than road, are the best ways to avoid the heat this summer. I have gotten up twice this week for 6:30 AM greenbelt SS and mt. bonnel road rides -- it is still in the 80's, but there is a slight breeze and I dont feel beaten down by the sun after a few hours. I also went to Walnut Creek for an evening ride -- there is enough tree cover there to make it bearable -- the trails were great, I discovered a new-to-me section of singletrack. However, it took 45 minutes to drive the 12 miles up there, the traffic is fucking awful. I pray I never have to do a North -South Austin commute again.
My goal is to ride about 10 hours a week for the next few weeks and then try bumping it up to 12 through the end of October. So far I have gotten roughly 6 hours this week. A short ride tommorrow and a 2 1/2 to 3-hour ride Sunday should do the trick.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

revelations


I just finished watching the semi-finale for Battlestar Galactica. Saul giving himself up as a Cylon to save the fleet was heart-wrenching. He has become the most developed and sympathetic character in the series, more human than human. The coordinates for earth suddenly popping up in the ghost Viper's nav computer was a bit too deus ex machina, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that someone is pulling the strings from afar. Finding earth as a post-apocalyptic wasteland came as no surprise to me. I still hold my theory stands that everyone is a Cylon -- the cycle of Cylon rebelling and destroying their creators/ becoming "human" and forgetting their Cylon origin/creating Cylon children. It is still unclear to me whether humans/Cylons began on Kobol or on Earth. I like the idea that humans initially created Cylons on earth before FTL drives were created as their expeditionary explorers to find and settle new worlds for mankind. Perhaps Kobol was the first colony founded by the Cylons, and they made a decision there to become human and forget their synthesized origins and begin the cycle there.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

the slip

I downloaded the latest NIN release, The Slip, earlier this week and have finally gotten around to listening to it in detail. There are some great songs on it -- "Head Down" is my current favorite. Ghosts I-IV was a nice album, but for me it never amounted to more than fun background music. The Slip has real songs on it, more traditional structures and guitar/vocal parts, and what sounds like real drums. I am still a sucker for simple hard rock, so I imagine I will still be listening to this later in the year.

Sunday, June 08, 2008

danskin

girlfriend finished her first triathlon today and she did au-some!

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Lost Finale

forgot to post about this last week. Lost Finale? Excellent. It went down very closely to what I expected, I knew the island would be moved in time and space, but I was thrown off that the mechanism did indeed appear to be a frozen donkey wheel, pretty sneaky and hidden in plain sight since the finale was announced to be "The Frozen Donkey Wheel" last year.

The dark matter hint in the Marvin Candle video still gives credence to my many worlds theory, but there is not much to back that up concretely with anything other than the duplicate bunnies in the Candle Orchid video released last year. I was hoping to a flashback to the aircraft from last year, but I did not get it. I still suspect the aircraft on the bottom of the ocean really does have the dead "original" Flight 815.

As for Locke being in the coffin, my theory last year was it was either Michael or Locke, (who else could it have been?) and it became clear halfway through the season that Michael would be making a heroic sacrifice to redeem himself. But why did the island let Locke die? If it was not done with him, as it does not seem to be with Jack or any of the Oceanic 6, or Ben or it would not let him die..hmm. Could the Locke in the coffin be a duplicate generated when the island moved? Or maybe the original? One who actually survived the crash into the ocean? At minimum, the Locke character will not really die but will exist in flashbacks for the next two seasons. And he will probably be back in the "Zombie Season" -- which I though was a joke when Damon mentioned it on the podcasts, but now I am paying attention to thanks to the donkey wheel..

remodel architect?




pretty sensible and experienced guy. Stuff looks good.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Thursday, May 29, 2008

many universe theory in Lost

I dont know whether there will actually be a giant frozen donkey wheel under the island tonight, but I am starting to think Damon and Carl have the quantum many universe theory as a key structural element of their story. The revelation earlier this season that there is a Oceanic Flight 815 jet at the bottom of the ocean has many both in the show and watching the show believing it is a fake. Perhaps it is real. Perhaps the island forced a quantum singularity where one possible outcome of the jet crashed into the ocean, and the other crashed into the island...
I think evidence pointing to this will be the big reveal tonight.

Friday, May 16, 2008

last night's lost

pretty good episode, but it was a bit of a tease -- not much happened on island time, it seemed like most of the episode was spent in the flash-forward, where we find out when Jack learns his sister is Claire, and we find Hugo learning the island wont let him go as the numbers still appear. The episode had a few comedic moments, such as the "voices" leading to a surprise party, and the 15-year old saltines, all made me chuckle. I was under the mistaken impression that last night was the season finale, so I was miffed when the episode ended suddenly. So...two weeks until the 2-hr finale.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

mellow johnnys

I checked out Mr. Armstrong's new bike shop during lunch today. No sign of any of the Olsen twins, very disappointing. Lots of Trek bikes, big surprise there, but they also carried Seven Cycles, Merckx, De Sola, as well. And they had a bunch of fixed gear and commuter bikes, from Swobo and Masi amongst others. Clothing -- Swobo, Rapha, were represented. They have a coffee bar there as well, with the workstands in the center, not much room to wrench. I forget to check out the showers, but it was a pretty nice store overall, a bit more competition for BSS is a good thing -- I noticed a few BSS employees had defected to the shop.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

sinus..

..infection. I hate Austin allergies. Slacked off on my neti pot and now I have 2 weeks of antibiotics. !@%^&$*@?

Monday, May 12, 2008

7 years of hope mini's, time for a change...



I am tired of all the retraction problems I have had with my hope mini disc brakes. The nasty DOT4 fluid is no fun to work with, and although I have gotten used to the squeal sounds, I always seem to startle people not used to it. And the two-piece rotors? Hate 'em. Impossible to true, and they get out of true easily.

I am going to give magura a try..

Sunday, May 11, 2008

the week in BSG and Lost

I am enjoying the fact that BSG and Lost are both showing new episodes at the same time, one night after the other other. It cannot get much better than that. Too bad it will end in another week. I believe BSG season 4 is being split into two 10-episode segments, so episode 10 is next week after last Friday's "Faith". I have no idea when the last 10 episodes will air. And Lost is winding up Season 4 and wont be back until next year. So this nice synchronicity will probably not happen again.
So theories..
-Locke is going to move the island but will pay a heavy price -- perhaps he will become trapped in the cabin?
-The weird switch on Keamy is a deadman's switch that will blow the freighter. It wont get triggered.
- Desmond will end up back on the island, much to his surprise.

And as for BSG, excellent episode on Friday, with the revelation that the final 5 are from earth, which dovetails with the
theory that everyone is a cylon. This also explains how Tigh existed before the "First" Cylon war. So my theory is:

- Kobal is the first settlement of cylons sent from earth.
(a) Cylons decide to forget they are synthetic and exist as humans.
-the "humans" re-create the cylons
-the cylons rebel and Kobal is destroyed
-the "humans" flee back towards earth
-the cylons cannot stay on Kobal, so they settle 12 other worlds.
-goto (a)

I am now doubting Roslin is the fifth, and I would be pissed if the fifth was a minor character, I think it is in fact the obvious choice -- Baltar - he is going to unite them all after Roslin dies.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

battlestar galactica theory



pulling out my greek mythology expertise, there are 12 olympic gods and goddesses, there are known to be 12 cylon models.
The 12 olympic gods are:
zeus(m)
poseidon(m)
hades(m)
hestia(f)
hera(f)
ares(m)
athena(f)
apollo(m)
aphrodite(f)
hermes(m)
artimis(f)
hephaestus(m)
-----------
7 male, 5 female

the Cylon Models:
One/Brother Cavil(m)
Two/ Conoy(m)
Three / D'Anna(f)
Four / Simon (m)
Five / Aaron (m)
Six / Caprica (f)
Eight / Athena/Boomer (f)
and the final 4/5 :
Anders(m), Tyrol(m),Foster(f).Tigh(m)

which gives 7 male, 4 female. I am not sure if mapping the models directly to a god works very well, however the 7:5 ratio seems likely to be kept. So who could the final one be?

The possible ones are Thrace(f), Baltar(m), and the President(f). All three have visions, which is think is a key indicator. Thrace's apparent resurrection makes her seem highly likely, but I suspect she is a red herring, too obvious. And Baltar seems like a good suspect as well, but he is male, so he does not fit. My money's on the president, it would be a shocker. Thrace would be too obvious.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

road riding in LA

I visited my friends Brendan and Meredith in LA this past weekend. Brendan, his friend Mark, and I did 65 mile ride that included a ride past one of Michael Eisner's estates, several other "compounds" (scientology ?), the pacific coast highway, and a return ride through some downright steep roads including Mullholand Drive. I am glad I was borrowing a cyclocross bike with low gearing -- I was spinning away at 32:28 quite a bit.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

more DSLR

so the rumor mill states that the 5DmkII will come out in about 2 weeks, will have proper weather sealing. Hopefully it will have a better frame rate than the current 5d. The current 5d's poor sealing rules it out for me. So I think I am down to 5DMkII versus D300, assuming the 5DMkII is not terribly overpriced.

DSLR


Nikon vs Canon? Probably Canon. I like the controls on them better, however the D300 is an excellent camera. The Canon 5d is a lot cheaper these days, but I am curious to see what its imminent replacement will be in terms of price. I am spoiled by live preview on my Canon G9, it would be nice if the firmware and CPU on my DSLR were of comparable features. The Canon 40d seems to be at the right price point for me . The D300 seems to have better weather sealing though. hmmm. hmmm.

Monday, April 07, 2008

~80 miles of hill climbing this weekend

I did the ATC short loop plus extra stuff like Lost Creek , which added up to a boatload of hill climbing. I followed it up Sunday evening with a couple of loops up and down Mt. Bonnel, which was super-painful since my legs had not recovered from Saturday. I also cut down a tree in a backyard Paul Bunyan style. No chainsaw here!

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

wheel upgrades





just when I though the Mavic R Sys looked pretty sexy, I saw this. So I'll be sticking with the old-fashioned wheels, thanks..

Sunday, March 16, 2008

monday

so...how bad will monday turn out to be? I smell 1987.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Film School

here's a video of film school from a few years ago, the lineup has changed quite a bit:

SXSW music

FIlm School was great live but they played newer songs that I was not as in to. Minipop is great as well-- a little smashing pumpkin'y, but that's alright by me:



Monday, March 10, 2008

weekend ride

I managed to only ride Saturday this past weekend, but it was a fast-paced 30 miles solo road ride, so it was not all bad. I rode my Vanilla, I am really liking the more aggressive drop I have on it and I have not been bugged by any Brooks break-in period yet. The only issue I have been having is the longer crank-arms -it has 180mm crankarms, while all my other bikes have 175mm. Not a huge difference, but it does seem to bug my right knee a bit. Hopefully I will adapt to it quickly. I have been considering going to 180mm on my singlespeed for better leverage, but I worry about the rock clearance -- I already bang my 175mm crankarms quite regularly. So I think I'll stick with 175mm for mountain, and I'll have to monitor how I adapt to the 180mm carefully and decide whether to stick with it or go back to 175mm.

Saturday, March 08, 2008

if only..

they imported it:




rumor is that Audi is not going to even bring back my car , the S4 Avant, to the states, in the upcoming redesign, so I doubt they will change their minds about this freak of nature machine.

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Monday, March 03, 2008

progress coffee ride

well.. we did not get up in time for it on Sunday, but we did the route at 10:30 -- Jose, Ed, Shane, and I. Ed is in insanely good shape -- he ran 15 miles before this and still kicked our asses. I guess training for the Ironman is paying off. The ride would have been a really fast pace except for the fact of the 30 mph headwind we fought against. My plan this year is to do this ride at least twice a month, so I am 1 for 28.

ah halo 3, the gift that keep on giving



I am still not remotely tired of this game, my wii is gathering dust, as are all other games I have gotten in the last year. The mixture of squad combat and vehicles never gets old, and different game-types like capture the flag and shotty snipers are always a blast. My goals are to complete the "scout armor" -- I have the helmet and chest-piece, I have to get the shoulder pads. And I want to try to achieve the ranking of major, I am still a lt. but I am a step away from captain.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

first epic greenbelt ride of 2008

Hopefully we wont get 4 months of rain like last year, because the greenbelt is in fine condition, albeit a bit dusty. Perhaps a sprinkle every few days to keep the dust down. James, Matt, Daniel and I rode a 3 hour ride starting from Zilker to the Hill of Death, Cheesgrater, I think we hit Jedi Trail as well, I am not sure. Tough as hell on my singlespeed, my new seals from Hope still have not arrived, so my singlespeed is my only functioning mountain biking. James does not seem to have lost much fitness after 3 months off the bike due to his broken hand, which is very annoying.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

book reading


so last year I was completely illiterate. I only managed to finish one book the entire year -- "The Rules of Attraction" by Brett Easton Ellis. A fine nasty little book. This year I started off with an easy travel yarn -- "Road Fever" by Tim Cahill. A fast read, laugh-out-loud funny at parts, especially the bit about them leaving their truck bed stinking of rotten milkshakes and split diesel fuel to dissuade military checkpoints from wasting time going through their supplies. Next book on the list -- "Against the Day", considerably a tougher read..

Monday, February 25, 2008

weekend rides - waco

Saturday, I did a short solo Mt. Bonnel loop for about 18 miles, saving my energy for Sunday at Cameron Park, Waco. First time to Waco, the park is a diamond in the rough, to say the least. Waco is a total shithole from what I saw. But Cameron Park is worth the drive. Nice tight singletrack, very hilly. I believe the main loop is about 8 miles and we did 2 loops for about 15-16 miles. It would be very difficult to race there -- very few places to pass. Could be pretty interesting. I rode with Bob,Chris, and Kathy, all of whom are in far better shape than me. I had a hard time with it on my singlespeed, I was running 34x19, going to 32-19 or 34-20 might be better. There are very few flat spots, so I dont have to worry about spinning out much I would spin out on the downhills anyways,so going to a very low gearing is probably a very wise idea. 32-20?

Friday, February 22, 2008

avant


nice nice nice nice nice..

Thursday, February 21, 2008

new tires


IMG_0800
Originally uploaded by tylernol
I finally received the cross tires initially spec'd for my bike and put them on before heading out to big bend. I have done two commutes on them, the Vanilla looks pretty bad-ass with them on it, rolling resistance it not too bad and their quality is evident. Plus the brown sidewall matches quite well!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

mas o menos 2008


IMG_0557
Originally uploaded by dmennega
I did not plan to ride singlespeed, but there I was. It was a fun time, lots of beer and steak and cheescake, but the race was frustrating -- I have not been riding singlespeed much in the past year, which showed this year, I was lagging in the uphill sections compared to 2 years ago. I did feel more fit, because I have become 80% roadie. Getting rear-ended and knocked over by a moron with no bike-handling skills did not help, nor did getting a flat with 5 miles to go.
I always get flats out here -- I am going to have to convert to tubeless.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

so singlespeed it is

the piston was totally siezed up, flushing the fluid does not help, and I chipped the piston when I tried getting some leverage on it. So off to Hope it goes. I think I am going to switch to Magura, I have had several stuck piston issues, not of them as bad as this one though. As a result, I polished up my singlespeed, put on the Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.1 tires I got in the mail the other day. I still have to repair or replace the left time pedal, the bearing on it seems to have loosened, I'll move one over from my groover. And I want to dial in the seatpost height, I think it sank, no blowing out my hamstring this year, thank you very much.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

my obama impression

"we will change the country ! We will change things! yes we can! yes we can! we will change the world! There is a moment in the the life of every generation where we decide. This is our moment. We will win. yes we can. yes we can! Together we will change the world"


like it? It's dead on I think.

WHERE'S THE BEEF?

mas o menos 2008


oops
Originally uploaded by tylernol
t-minus 28 hours. Big predicament right now is that my groover rear caliper piston is seized up, hopefully I can fix it, otherwise I am riding singlespeed. Just thinking about that hill/mountain on a SS makes me poop my pants.

Monday, February 11, 2008

weekend rides

just managed one this weekend. I rode the Austin Tri-cyclist ride on Saturday morning..still friggin' cold in the morning. I kept up for the first 6 miles or so, and then got dropped as they sped up on the hills while I started wheezing from some allergies or a slight cold I had. I was pretty tired after that. I then proceeded to walk Gizmo around town lake at a good pace, making me more tired. Sunday I did yoga in the morning, where I felt really sore -- I think I never rehydrated Saturday -- cold dry days always throw me off.I was planning to ride my groover on a short ride in the afternoon after I tuned it up but I ended up having to replace the drive side bearing, which was quite crunchy, and the rear piston was seized, sending me on a chase around town for some Valvoline synlube brake fluid , which was sold out everywhere I searched. So no bike ride. Terilingua is this week, I am not in shape for it, but I'll have a good time. There are snow reports for this weekend out there. That would be a blast.

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

recent rides

oh yeah, this weekend I did manage rides both days. Saturday I had to work all day, so I only managed a 17 miles Mt. Bonnel loop on my Vanilla before it got dark, I tried to keep the pace up as much as possible. Bike feels better every time I ride it.
Saturday, I went off to Reimers, my geared 29r was in pieces, I had taken apart the cranks and was bleeding the rear brake,so I brought my singlespeed. A singlespeed at Reimers is suicidal, and I had to bail after about 20 miles of the expert loop and part of the beginner loop, my legs had nothing left. Left me totally famished for the superbowl food and beer later in the day.

caffeine

random song day on itunes. I had not heard this one in a while. From back when metal was good..

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Sunday, February 03, 2008

best superbowl ever?

two of my favorite teams in the superbowl ..first and last time that will probably happen. Felt weird rooting for the Giants after years of rooting for the underdog Patriots, but the Patriots are not exactly underdogs anymore, and I will always be first and foremost a New Yorker. Great game, extremely close, brilliant defense played by both teams, but it just seems like the Giants hungered it more and they deserved the win. GIANTS!

Saturday, February 02, 2008

i feel the need..

I feel the need... the need for singlespeed.

Monday, January 28, 2008

weekend rides

Saturday, I did 90 minutes of ashtanga in the morning, then brought my Vanilla and met up with Jose, Matt, and Pattie for a 60 mile total dam loop ride. First 50+ mile ride in just about 3 months. It was tough. No problem with the Brooks saddle, it felt perfectly fine. After that, I walked Gizmo on town lake, ate a burger and had some beer at downtown Jo's, came home and proceeded to pass out by 8:30. Sunday I was mighty sore, so no riding, just yardwork.

Friday, January 25, 2008

winning streak..


I lucked out today and found 2 good team slayer partners, I think we won 6/7 matches. Other than a valhala sniper match where I did horribly, I did quite well in the other matches, getting quite handy with the spartan laser and the hammer, as shown here.

frontwards cover

okay, I am listening to a horrible cover of the Pavement song "frontwards" by Los Campesinos(??). It has no style, miles and miles..

ditch digger

kexp has been playing this old song from Rocket from the Crypt a lot this week, it's a great song. Makes me want to dust off my guitar. It came out in 1992...16 years ago. Jeez..

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

rabbits

David Lynch had a series of shorts about rabbits before Inland Empire Came out -- he then incorporated some of the footage from the shorts into the movie. The random laugh track is jarring, so say the least. And they live in room "47" and hear someone coming.. all tied to Inland Empire.

watching inland empire on rollers

weather is super-crappy right now, I had to use my rollers to get some exercise last night. So for the first 45 minutes of watching Inland Empire, I was on my rollers, trying to maintain my balance while trying to figure out what David Lynch was up to, which made it twice as surreal.
Inland Empire was like an all star reprisal of David Lynch's past work -- it explored similar themes to his last work -- evil traveling via electricity -- the electrical outlets,lights in Twin Peaks, telephone in Mulholland Drive, and the lamps in Inland Empire. It was overall most similar to Mulholland Drive, with Laura Dern playing the lost actress. Plenty of cameos from his past actors. Even Naomi Watts was there as the voice of one of the rabbit people. And the log-cutters at the end -- Twin Peaks ?? I have to do some more thinking about what this movie was about, one thing is for sure, it was far more terrifying than any of his past ones.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

GIANTS!!

yeah NY!!!!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

one of the coldest road rides I have ever done in Austin. I delayed the start until 2:30, hoping it would be warmer, but it did not make much of a difference. Arm warmers, leg warmers, windstopper vest. I still felt frozen.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

hindsight on iphone cases

having just replaced my crippled iphone for not an insignificant amount of money, I have changed my mind about cases for iphones and portable devices. Get them. Portable devices are too fragile. And Apple's policy seems to be if it is dented, the warranty is voided. I got the matte black Agent18 case for my iphone and I am quite happy with it. It does not impinge upon my usage of it, the surface feels better in many ways than the aluminum does, and it adds very little to the form factor while still providing excellent dent protection for the aluminum body of the iphone.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

bike commuting thus far this year

It's pretty cold out, but I have managed to commute by bike twice this week, partially aided by my car being otherwise occupied with getting its 35K service and some control arm bushings replaced. You'd think Audi would figure out how to make those things last longer. I had the same issue with my old 1.8T -- every 30-40K the bushings would wear out.
So I think that's 3 times so far this month commuting to work, my goal is at least twice a week. I have been using my planet cross, I have not gotten the cross tires for my vanilla yet, and the tires on my planet cross are the 700 x 38 specialized crossroads, which barely fit that, and I doubt will fit the vanilla with the fenders.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

my vanilla rally bike - first test ride


downtube detail
Originally uploaded by tylernol
after screwing up the chain installation Sunday, I managed to do a short ride Monday night on it -- it felt great. Handling was snappy, drivestrain felt pretty stiff, fit was good. I need more time in the saddle to see how I deal with the saddle to bar drop and the brooks swallow saddle I bought.
Bringing it to the bike shop Sunday to get the chain installed with a proper campy tool, the bike attracted a lot of attention, everyone was impressed. It definitely made the carbon bikes there look boring(well they are)

Saturday, January 05, 2008

biking update

so no-go on SSWC08 -- they were "already full". yeah right. I'll bet they made room for their friends first. As my friend said -- "do you think Gary Fisher or Travis Brown waited until 3 am EST on New Years eve to register"? Got my Vanilla in and assembled except for the tires -- the winter tires I ordered have not shown yet so I have to move them off another bike. And I did my first long ride of the year - 20 miles of mtn biking at Reimer's Ranch. My front wheel slipped out on an off-camper turn and I caught a nice tree trunk, sending me flying -- more carnage for my poor left knee. Otherwise the ride was a lot of fun and I did not feel as out of shape as I feared I was.

Friday, January 04, 2008

today today !!

Package Progress
Location Date Local Time Description
AUSTIN,
TX, US 01/04/2008 8:38 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY
01/04/2008 6:42 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
DALLAS,
TX, US 01/04/2008 3:15 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
01/04/2008 12:44 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
COMMERCE CITY,
CO, US 01/03/2008 3:58 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
COMMERCE CITY,
CO, US 01/02/2008 1:57 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
SALT LAKE CITY,
UT, US 01/02/2008 5:17 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
SALT LAKE CITY,
UT, US 12/29/2007 1:41 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
HERMISTON,
OR, US 12/28/2007 12:17 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
12/28/2007 10:40 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
PORTLAND,
OR, US 12/28/2007 6:50 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
PORTLAND,
OR, US 12/27/2007 6:19 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN
US 12/21/2007 5:33 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

new year's resolutions

biking - start training for Terilingua in Feb, TMBRA spring series SS open class, SSWC08 in August. At least two dirt derbies a month. spin class pass for Pure Austin Gym?
rowing - get back into rowing, twice a week
yoga - no more unlimited pass, but 1-2 times a week of ashtanga and hatha flow.
diet - no beer, soda, or chips until Terilingua.
artwork,photography - photo class, start cranking out guache or acrylic paintings at least once a month.