I feel great!

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.

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.

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.

~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!

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..

I wish I still had my Haro BMX...

monday

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

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:

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.

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.

NIN ghosts

damn...

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.

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.

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..

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?

avant

nice nice nice nice nice..

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!

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.

totally decadent SS

nice.

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.

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.

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.

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..

best superbowl play ever

brilliant.

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!

i feel the need..

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

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.

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..

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.

GIANTS!!

yeah NY!!!!

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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

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.

singlespeeding in December

nothing quite like a greenbelt singlespeed ride in 70 degree December weather. Although I have commuted several times on my SS, I have not done a greenbelt ride since James and Chris crashed into each other last month. Trails were virtually empty, I came across one group of riders heading back as I was heading out. I had a little trouble on mini Moab and some of the ledges, but I retried and got them. I have to get more time on this Fox fork and tune it in properly -- I think there was too much air/not enough sag and too little rebound damping, causing me to bounce out. I felt slow, but I expected that.

biking goals for next year

looking at how out of shape I have gotten this year, due to hamstring injury, work,friends all getting injured,etc., I need to come up with a plan for getting in shape for next year -- the first race goal is Terilingua, which is 2 months away. I may resort to spin classes for the winter, as it is very difficult to get the biking hours in during the week. Rollers are okay, but they are very monotonous. NIght riding is difficult, since I dont like soloing it, and the usual suspects to ride with me have broken limbs. So the winter plan is roughly -
-Progress Coffee ride or long greenbelt ride every Sunday (50 miles)
-Monday "off" or light commute
-Tuesday - singlespeed ride early morning, yoga evening
-Wed - spin class or rollers
-Thursday - morning /midday ride, yoga evening
-Friday - post work ride
-Saturday- ATC ride or some hill route.

whoa

looking at my last post two days after my playing spree. Totally dorked out there.

BR

situational awareness helps to smack these kids around. My favorite weapon combo is BR+ shotgun or mauler and throw grenades liberally. Battle Rifle for medium to long distance, shotgun for close range. I have yet to get decent with the energy sword or spartan laser. New heroic map pack is fun, except for Foundry as it is currently offered only as a 6 vs 6 map on matchmaking, which is far too many for such a tiny map. Rat's Nest is the best of the bunch -- it turns into a massive urban vehicle battle. Standoff is great for capture the flag or bomb games. If someone competent grabs the laser and camps on top of their base, it can get quite nasty - clear line-of-site virtually anywhere on the map.

shopgirl

finally got around to seeing this movie on DVD, what a poor move. The only redeeming value to it was Mark Kozelik's(Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon) guest appearance as the leader of the fictional band in the movie, and the usage of the song "Carry Me Ohio". Otherwise, the music usage in the movie alone drove me batty -- how often did they have to play that same sequence of string notes? Over and over and over.

soon,very soon!

TA P 2.JPG
Originally uploaded by tylernol

my bike came back from paint on monday, I got some photos of it sent to me yesterday, it looks pretty darn nice. Sacha says the green is far more vibrant in person, the pictures dont do it justice. I am pretty excited. No more new bikes fore a while though, this broke the piggy bank!!

3

first triple in a team game. happened right when I turned 33. weird.

3 x 3 = 9

the nines.

gizmo happy as a clam

gizmo happy as a clam
Originally uploaded by tylernol

I am slowly figuring this camera out. It takes great shots in well-lit situations. The flash and low-light performance are lame. I would probably figure it out faster if I RTFM.

new (sortof) music

I snagged the MMJ EP "Chocolate and Ice" on colored vinyl at Waterloo this weekend. Sounds great! The phone conversation on it is a bit weird, but gives a window into their lives a few years back. I downloaded the new Radiohead a few weeks ago, it has been slowly growing on me -- "All I Need" is a favorite. And I stumbled across an obscure band in my friend Sean's iTunes folder --
Joy Zipper, which is a small band from Long Island, which does the psychedelic /Elephant Six style rock I enjoy so much quite well. "Dosed and Became Invisible" has been on repeat for the last 2 days.

halo 3 - crack!

I have been feeling a need to play a first-person shooter for a couple of years and I finally succumbed when Halo 3 came out. It looks fantastic on my flatscreen TV and online is fun, I am trying not to get frustrated by getting fragged by 6 year olds. The XBox360 is insanely loud though -- I though Microsoft had fixed the thing with 65 nm chips, but it sounds like a vacuum cleaner the whole time. Architecturally , Microsoft did the right thing with the XBox360 -- supposedly it is easy to program for, and it has plenty of power. Proof of that is games that look great and have been released relatively on time.. Halo 3, Bioshock, Gears of War, Mass Effect, all look great. They just blew it with the cooling design with their rush to market, hence the bad rep the console has now.

patagonia footprints

it's nice to see patagonia showing their entire supply chain and sourcing philosophy. Even when they outsource oversees, they ensure that their contractors are audited for build quality and builder quality of life.

vanilla frame

frame unpainted
Originally uploaded by tylernol

here is a photo of my brazed vanilla frame at the workshop. It looks darned nice even unpainted. Nice simple elegant lugs, lovely polished dropout detail. sweet!

bad refs

how much are the colts paying these dirty fucking refs to call against the patriots???

vanilla eta: December

Sacha has built my frame and fork, and it is now queued up for paint at #7, which means roughly 6 weeks. So hopefully I will get it on or around my birthday! I ended up having him build a rally-style road frame with clearance for cross tires , long read road caliper brakes, S & S couplings for travel, carbon fenders for crap weather.
The frame is a lugged frame, compact geometry, based on his measurements of me in may and the IF crown jewel measurements from last year. I am leaving the paint up to him,he likes painting his frames a certain way, and I am fine with that. I will leave my loud color schemes for my IF and Vicious stable.
My singlespeed is due for some dent repair and a repaint, I think I will paint it an old school "kandy wild cherry", which will be fun.

polycorpse

what's this? Polycom's margins are getting squeezed? "If sales will increase 37% this quarter, even as the more forgiving "pro forma" flavor of earnings increases only about 26%, I'd say that suggests some margin compression. Such a squeeze would seem to conflict Polycom's assertion that its strongest growth is coming in its most profitable business line"
 -- http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2007/10/08/paltry-prediction-pummels-polycom.aspx

huh.

gizmo in action

gizmo in action
Originally uploaded by tylernol

nice thing about my new camera is that it has a faster "shutter" speed/ integration time compared to my older cameras, so now it is easier to take action shots like this!

fox f29

speedgoat shipped my fox f29 yesterday, I am pretty excited about it. The Reba has been decent, but it never really matched up with the quality of the fox I had on my old racer-x. What I may do is keep the Reba at 100m and then run the f29 at 80mm and swap between them, since both require being opened up and rebuilt in order to modify the travel. 80 mm = race, WC, 100 mm = greenbelt, CP.

new family member member coming soon?

ETA 63 days..?

canon G9

first replacement in my burglery recovery is a new camera -- I went with the Canon G9. Not as portable as the SD650 I had before, but it has a lot more control in it and better sensors and processing capabilities, so it's one step closer to  a DSLR. I love the feel of it and the old-school buttons and looks. It has a nice weight to it. Do I need 12.1 Mpixels? No. But larger prints are a possibility, which will be nice, since my sister's wedding is 3 weeks away.

allergies ..

it has not been raining much recently, but now the ragweed is totally out of control because of the rainy spring and summer. Neti pot helps a bit, but I still have to take sudafed or clariten which makes me tired and grouchy. grr.

patriots spy scandal

i dont see the big deal.. dont all the teams in football and baseball examine the signaling on the sidelines and try to correlate it to the plays being run? I thought that was why wireless headsets were becomming prevalent?
whatever.

more RS6 Avant eye-candy

it is a crime it is not coming to the states. The sedan may, which is great, but I love the stealth factor of a high performance station wagon -- it is just far more subtle than a Porsche or Jaguar. Too bad AoA does not think American buyers "get it". So it looks like I am stuck with the S4 Avant, it would be nice to go a bit larger, but I'll survive.

RS6 Avant

I'll take one in Daytona Gray please!

so long racer-x!

it was a good ride, I am sure you will be happy in your new home. *sob*

rides so far this week

I tried the Progress Coffee 50 mile east Austin road ride on Sunday, very fast paced, no steep hills like the ATC ride, so my clydesdale status did not hurt me that much. Monday I started out towards a solo Mt. Bonnel ride but it started raining, so I did rollers for an hour. And last night James,Chris, and I did an urban ride on my cross bike around Town/LadyBird Lake in the rain, it was fun, but I was encased in mud by the end.

vanilla build starts this week

got an e-mail from Sacha today. He is starting work this week on my "swoopy 29r". It should be pretty sweet. In a weird way , I almost hope I dont love it, because if I do, it will be 4 years before I can get another from him. :(

DENMARK

Cycle Chic
Originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness]

what a country!

bye gonzo!

what a fuckhead. About time.

2 lessons from today's ATC ride

1- triathletes have no bike handling skills, give them a wide berth.
2- always bring a rider ID-card or cell phone with ICE contacts.

new new pornographers

I totally missed that this was coming out this week and had to be reminded by a co-worker, I grabbed the vinyl/mp3 download at Waterloo on Thursday night. Overall, it is very good, very catchy and well-written. Not very ambitious in terms of new artistic directions, however, they are still a great pop band. 

damn rain!

well it is hurricane season again, so now is the time it does usually rain. I was trying to be as optimistic as possible today. Ignored the clouds, unloaded my bike, started putting on my helmet, and then it started pouring.

Garmin GPS unit, getting to 10 hours week

I received my Garmin GPS Edge 305 last week and attached the cadence and speedometers which seem to work, I still have not figured out the actual gps functionality, I need to sit down with the manual, or bring the manual along on my next ride. 
 My plan is to get to 10 hours a week of riding and stick with that as consistantly as possible going into December. Last week I managed 7 hours -- Sunday greenbelt ride, Tuesday greenbelt ride, Friday Mt. Bonnel ride, and Saturday ATC ride. I detoured a bit on my ATC ride and did 44 miles total. It was great to actually see how far I had gone. 

allergies

it has been sunny for over a week now, i have been bogged down in a hellish release at work, and now my allergies are kicking in. bleh.

vanilla build time approaches

build date is supposed to be in two weeks I believe, but I suspect it will be later than that. This guy has a similar idea to what I want, except i was thinking of sticking with disc brakes and trying to put more retro curves into it.

two days of sun in a row?

no way. Must be a joke.

rain rain rain rain rain rain

rain rain rain rain rain rain go way.

early AM ride

got up at 6 this morning, walked Gizmo, and then did the Mt.  Bonnel loop in about 90 minutes. Perfect weather. Very little traffic going out, coming back, I was dodging SUV's flying downtown.

white is the new black

not too shabby in white.

still relegated to road riding

it does not appear to be possible to go two days without a rainstorm in Texas this year. I have not attempted to ride the Greenbelt in over a month now and my singlespeed and groover are collecting dust in the "bike room".  So more road-riding it is. I road about 45-50 miles yesteday on an improvised dam loop ride starting from where 360 cycleworks used to be. I did not cramp up, as 1/2 the people in my group did,  I attribute that to yoga and drinking proper fluids, and staying reasonably in shape on weekly rides; I was terribly slow on the hill climbs, I have to drop the 10 lbs I have gained this year during my hamstring injury recovery.

iphone

Sync In Progress
Originally uploaded by tylernol

I caved to peer pressure, materialism, geekness, yuppie-ism, and bought an Apple iPhone on Friday. It's lovely, and I am glad I went for it.
Call quality is far better than my Razr, I have my work, google, and apple e-mail accounts configured, it can access the wi-fi at home and at work and I will be adding Bouldin Creek, Jo's, Whole Foods, etc, wi-fi as I go there. I almost dont really need a laptop anymore. e-mail is great, web-browsing is fairly convenient, so it is good enough for the coffee shops. Annoyances -- typing takes getting used to and entering passwords is a pain since there is no option to see the password you are typing. No iChat or Messenger. There should be. SMS emulates ichat, but it is not quite the same. And no GPS or cell-tower triangulation to help with google maps, which really sucks.

final fantasy xii completionism..

found the yagyu darkblade ninja sword, and built the whale whisker pole, both are useful combo weapons against the higher level mobs. The yagyu ninja sword is supposed to be very useful against the final hidden boss. I am focusing next on the bow and gun weapons. 

vicious finally has the fleisher's jersey back in stock. It's a classic, who wouldnt want to look like a cut of meat?

<\img>

v8 twinturbos oh my.

they are finally doing coupes again.  I like my avant wagon a lot but the rear legroom is tight, not that great for more than 2 and a dog in the trunk. Perhaps a larger, less powerfull station wagon with better ground clearance and then get one of these? hmm.

more rain

this rain in Austin is getting ridiculous.  The greenbelt is never going to dry out this year at this rate :(  More yoga and road riding I guess.

almost done with FF12

I have been playing this game since early March, the gameplay is amazing and the game itself is huge. There are tons of sidequests and optional bosses to fight. I have 3 espers, and a few optional bosses remaining, their difficulty is a couple of notches above the main storyline bosses -- in other words, brutal. Here's a sample of fafnir:

bike commuting

I commuted to work yesterday by bike, it was crazy hot out. And I forgot my bike lock at home, so I had to lug it up to the office. I wish I could do that every day, rather than have to chain it up downstairs, it feels safer in my office. Unfortunately, the building managers have a policy against bikes in the offices, a policy they have had since the Vignette days, when employees did lunchtime greenbelt rides and carried their bikes back inside. Not "professional" for the mortgage companies on the first floor I guess.

singlespeed ride, gizmo kills a crow

I rode Walnut Creek on my singlespeed last night, that was the first time I had ridden WC all year, and still one of the first few singlespeed rides this year after my hamstring injury. It is amazing to see how built up the trails are up there. Mark Heneke has done a great job. I feel like I have good endurance but I just feel slow. Dropping the 10+ lbs I have gained this winter will help out -- bike commuting to work and at least 4 rides a week will contribute a lot.

Gizmo has killed his second animal this year. He snagged a crow, or some other black bird, that was on the ground and taking off -- he jumped up and grabbed its wing and brough it down and bit it a couple of times. I got him out of the park quickly as there were about 20 pissed birds squawking up a storm and diving at him.

953

I have not even gotten my vanilla built and I am already eyeballing 953 frames. They are priced as high as titanium, which makes me wonder how sensible they are. Probably more sensible for a large rider rather than TI, but I am a bit worried about dent-resistance, it seems susceptible. A 953 frame seems like it would make sense for a lightweight steel road bike, but not for a mountain bike.

death to yuppies

some ner-do-well on a Wal-mart mongoose bike said that to me as I stepped out of my Audi to get some lunch at Flip Happy Crepes. Funny.

getting back into shape

I am about 10 lbs over where I was last year, it should not be difficult to lose, if I stick with my plan of commuting to work at least twice a week, 3 yoga classes, and 3-4 bike rides, with the intent of getting to regularly riding the 50 mile ATC dam loop this summer, and doing something like 24 miles/ 3 laps at muleshoe or some backtrail on the greenbelt. The ATC ride this past Saturday was difficult -- I tried keeping up with the "A"'s for a little while but got dropped on a long uphill. And singlespeeding on the greenbelt last night was a bit painful as well - I got myself dehydrated and was suffering. Question for myself is -- should I quit rowing? I have not done it all year.

fixed gear mower!

fixed gear mower!
Originally uploaded by tylernol.

bought a nice Brill push mower a few weeks ago. No noisy, polluting gas motor to deal with, nor annoying batteries or cords associated with an electric. My front and back yards are not exactly small, and it does get snagged on twigs and tall grass, but it feels good to mow the lawn in this manner.

Portland

Sacha with my frankenbike fit
Originally uploaded by tylernol.

went to Portland,OR this past weekend for three reasons. One - check out Portland,OR as a potential next place to live, if my current job does not work out and/or I get tired of Austin. Two- visit my friend Elizabeth, who moved out there last year for culinary school. Three - get fitted for a new bike at Vanilla. Portland was very nice, it did not rain at all when I was visiting, it has an amazingly strong bike culture and loads of hipsters, I even ran into Stephen Malkmus at the coffee shop.
my bike is going to be pretty cool..