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?

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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.