Biking Wife

So I get home yesterday, and Jennifer had a stack of things for me.

First was some things to help fight tinea which has come back with all the sweating from riding.  It has a lot to do with the backpack not allowing my back to breathe, but we're working on it.

Next to the that she had a pair of tire separators and an inner tube.

We actually did the repair behind the couch.  First off, I cannot stress the importance of latex/nitrile gloves for bike maintenance.  Otherwise, you end up with grease all over your hands.  These gloves were great.  We'd learned our lesson on Sunday.  We inflated, and everything seemed fine.

Thsi morining the tire was still tight, and the ride to BART and work went great.

More Bike Woes

So Sunday, I had this great plan for getting to my parents.  I would bike to BART, ride to the station near them, and bike to their place.  I had it all worked out on the schedule and Google Maps.  All I needed to do was pump up my rear tire which was a little soft.

I attached the pump, and umped it up, then when I took it off, all the air leaked out.  All of it; the valve was limp.

So Jennifer and I did the Zipcar thing, and had a wonderful time with my parents at The Englander in San Leandro.  What made it feel even more authentic was the non-American football playing on the big screen.  The only non-English thing was that it was Mexico and Italy playing.  With lots of Mexico fans.  The food was good and the beer selection was amazing.  I told Jennifer we can got here for Monday Night Football in the fall.

So to make sure that I could get my bike fixed, we cut the visit a little short, and found a bike co-op just a block from home called Spokeland.  For just $5, they showed us how to replace the inner tube on my wheel, including how to take off the wheel off the back without losing the chain.  The only drawback was that they didn't have a tube in my size with a presta valve.  They found a used/patched one that they threw in for free, and so after a ride home, I thought I was all set.

However, this morning the wheel was totally flat.  So Jennifer is out looking or inner tubes for me today.  We're going to get to get a couple so that we'll have a spare available.

Reel Steel

Yes, I went to see it tonight.

Yes, I enjoyed it.  The effects are cool.  I like Henry Cavill and Amy Adams.  Russell Crowe is an excellent Jor El.

No, that part didn't bother me; I can see how they can use that in the future.

What bothers me?  Kevin Costner.  He bugs the hell out of me.  And it's a stupid death.

Two things to watch for: the satellite and the captain.

CATS!

So I've noticed that my blog has been a little light on pictures recently.  And what does the Internet need more of?  That's right...

Pictures of cats!

So this first one is Felix on the upstairs balcony.  He is our little black-body radiator, and works hard to maintain his requisite temperature.

Now, this is not to say that his brother Oscar doesn't like the sun; he just has a lower tolerance for the heat, and will tend to lay int he sun, then move to the shade, and back again.

We recently got a sampler box of one of our favorite breweries, and Oscar decided to see if he could fit.  The answer below.

 But back to my own little Basement Cat.  The other day I came home, and was greeted by Oscar, but Felix was not immediately found.  Then I saw the disturbed blinds, and went behind the love-seat to find this looking at me.

I'll try to be better at pictures.  Because Penny Arcade says it all about why pictures are better.

Wiggle Room

So Tuesday morning I had a little issue with my bike:  I noticed that the left side pedal was wiggling.

Now, I had experienced this issue before right after my bike got stolen.  The pedals had been removed, and when I got new ones installed, they got stripped, and one came came off.  I got a new pedal and gear set, and they've been great.  But this wiggle made me nervous.

So when I got to the office I raided the supply closet and found an allen wrench set, and tightened things up.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice that the pedal arm had come off the shaft somewhat, and so on my way back to BART at the end of the day, things just got worse.  soon I had about half an inch of play with the pedal shaft sliding back and forth through the frame.  I texted Jennifer from the train, and asked her to bring me my allen wrench set from home.  She met me at the BART station, and with just a little wiggling, the pedal arm came off.  I got it all back together, and everything seemed fine.

Then yesterday on my way home from BART, it all started again.  Apparently, I had not tightened the nuts down enough on Tuesday.  When I got home, I took the pedal arm off, loosed things up, slid it back on, and tightened things as hard as I could.

Then this morning, I got downstairs ready to get on my bike to ride to BART, and what do I notice?

I had put the left side pedal arm back at the same angle as the one on the right.  So I went back inside, and did some quick maintenance to get the pedals offset by 180 degrees like they are supped to be.

I have seem some of the recumbent bikes that have hand cranks instead of pedals (I don't know if they are for disabled riders, or just for using your arms), and the arms on them tend to be set at matching angles, so I guess it would be possible to ride a regular bike that way.  With toe clips.

I am now tempted to try that.

Music of the Ages

So in re-reading the dune series, and especially Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune, I have had flashes of music either in my head, or older songs that have come up on my iPod that have taken me back to the 80s.  And then I began to think of the different kinds of music that have pretty much described different parts of my life.

Until I really started listening to my own music, I was surrounded by Oldies and Pop music.  Mom and dad would have one of those stations going in the car and in the background all of the time.  Oldies I especially came to associate with moving, and putting up wallpaper and painting.  Or scraping the ceiling of sprayed plaster.

The first really unique music I got into was Soundtracks, and that started with the "Star Wars" soundtrack.I played the LPs of the double album over and over on the turntable I had.  Over the years in California, I added "Superman, the Motion Picture," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "The Black Stallion" to the rotation.

When I moved back to Kentucky, I was starting to get interested in modern music, and so a lot of things in the background for me were MTV.  But when I think of playing games (especially the Ultima series) on the old Apple II+, I hear Genesis.  Almost always "That's All" or "Illegal Alien" because they were in heavy rotation.

Moving to Maryland, I was big on Dire Straits thanks to my friends from Kentucky.  Also there was a little of the new Invisible Touch album from Genesis.  But still a lot of MTV, and getting into The Alan Parsons Project.

Then for my Senior year of high school, Peter Gabriel, Huey Lewis, and Sting dominated the music.

College became a blend.  I still listened to soundtracks, but I had a seed that had been planted in early high school, and I made a personal discovery of Def Leppard.

After college, that blend continued, and now with my iPod, I have music from the Beatles to 30 Seconds to Mars.

Bicycling Atmosphere

So I've recently found a much easier route between home and the BART station.  In the mornings, it's less of an uphill climb for the last stretch of the ride, and in the afternoon, it's not so much of a wind tunnel like Horton is.  Plus it's nowhere near as busy as San Pablo.

What it does have is some interesting smells.

I hadn't noticed anything the past couple days beyond one cloud of cigarette smoke.

Today, I passed through 3, count 'em: 1 - 2 - 3, clouds of weed smoke.

At that early in the morning?

I've heard of "Wake and Bake", but don't people like that usually sleep in?

Reading Rainbow

So I took another break from the Dune series to catch up on some other reading, and to help build up some personal momentum for the end of the series.

Brandon Sanderson's completion of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series (A Memory of Light) was masterfully done.  Sanderson brought back a lot of my excitement for the series that had dwindled with Jordan's dithering over the series.  I don't know if I'll ever do a straight through reading of this series, but I can say I appreciate the ending.

Then I caught up on my Magic Chick-Lit books with Kim Harrison (Ever After) and Patricia Briggs (Frost Burned).  They're both always fun modern-magic reads.

And then I've been enjoying some comic book compilations on the iPad.  They're all books that I have hard copies of, but are fun to be able to read in bed or at work without carrying the trade paperbacks around with me all of the time.

And just last night, I finished Frank Herbert's Heretics of Dune.  I think this book is what shaped my memory of Frank Herbert's writing style.  When I began reading the books after the movie came out, I had read very little science fiction.  Heretics is an ever accelerating book of action with some of the events left to your imagination, being mentioned only by character's thinking back to them.

At lunch today I started Chapterhouse Dune, and I can remember parts of what is to come that make me want to sit and just read all day.

Cut It Out

Tuesday, Mom posted some pet peeves of hers.

I would just like to say this:

I have encountered two men this week on their Bluetooth headsets: one at the urinal and one in a stall.  I know the one in stall had a headset because he was talking on it when we went in.

Now, I can understand that some work things are important, but no.

Just, no.

Life's Ups and Downs

So things have gone up and around and there are times you want to just throw up your hands and say, "What next?"

So about a month ago I had my first crown.

Then recently we found out that our cat Felix (the miniature black panther) has a heart murmur.  Apparently three out of every six beats.  Apparently that doesn't reduce like a fraction, because those were the doctor's words.  Mom was encouraging and reminded me that one of our dogs had a heart murmur and lived a healthy life for eight years or so after being diagnosed.  We're just going to continue to love Felix and keep our home peaceful and happy.

Mother's Day (yes, that far back) was a fun visit for brunch at my parents.  Dad cooked, and I provided tech support including introducing Mom to an RSS reader.

I have been continuing to get to work in the office, so I really can't complain about that.  Being back on an 8-hour workday is pretty nice.  And when almost everyone else is in the field it's pretty quiet in the office.  And when the more senior people don't come in until 10 or 11, then I've got 3 to 4 hours alone to really get stuff done without distraction.

And then Tuesday, when I parked my car, my driver's side window refused to roll up.

Now, about 3 years ago, I was coming home from a long day of drilling: early start and late end.  I was driving on a residential road in late twilight, when I saw what looked like newspaper blowing across the road in front of a car going the opposite direction.  And then suddenly that newspaper was a deer running in front of my car.  I managed to slow down, but still hit the deer kind of hard.  It ran off the rest of the way, but I've got a dent in the corner of the bumper, and some minor crumpling of the fender and door.

I guess it's good that the window kept working this long.  Now I get to find out how much to fix it.

Universal Truth

I have a hair appointment this afternoon, it's time for a cut.

So what happens this morning?  My hair decides that it will go in all sorts of new directions.  Or when brushed smooth, it will shape itself into a pompadour.

You would not believe the amount of hairspray in place right now.  One more failed attempt and I would have had to wash it again.

The New Reality

So for the first time since it began in 2002, I did not participate in Free Comic Book Day.

I really hadn't kept up with the event.  There was some hype last week, but then suddenly on Saturday it seemed like every blog out there that I read was talking about FCBD.

I remained strong, and Jennifer and I went for a bike ride to Piedmont to check out a local bead store.  And for those not in the know, one of the best comic book stores in the SF Bay Area is located on Piedmont: Dr. Comics and Mr. Games.  And the route we took T-ed us right on Piedmont at the store.

I have to admit that at that point, I was tempted.  However, I remained strong.  There really wasn't any reason to go in.

And instead, after the bead shop, we hit a new burger restaurant called Sparky's.  And while we were there, we watched the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby.  That had to be the wettest track I'm ever seen for the Derby.  Jennifer noted that all the horses were the same color by the end of the race.  At least from the front.

Miles to Go...

So it's been a while since the last post, so once again, we play catch-up.

Last week, I spent three days in Santa Cruz installing soil gas vapor wells around one of the buildings.  Then this week I spent three days sampling those new wells.

Then on Thursday, I got my first crown.  A month ago I had broken one of the tips on my second lower right bicuspid.  I had a filling there and the inner tip had chipped off from the filling when I bit into something.

So I took Thursday off for the crown.  Friday I ended up staying home because I had not slept well due to lingering pain from the work.

Today, after an amazing night's sleep, Jennifer and I went for a bicycle ride.  I suggested we try the Iron Horse Trail.  So we rode to MacArthur BART, and then got off at Walnut Creek BART.  We coasted downhill to the trail near Ygnacio Valley Road, and then rode all the way to the Dublin-Pleasanton BART station.  We took a nice ride back to West Oakland BART and rode home.  With a detour after missing a turn, we ended up doing 27 miles total today.  It was good to be back on the bike for so long.

Another bonus was a set of walkie-talkies that we bought.  It's really difficult sometimes for Jennifer and me to talk to each other when we're on our rides.  So we bought a set that had headphones and vox capabilities.      It was a great experience   We had to learn radio protocols and remember to wait to respond until the radio had completed transmitting, but it made the ride so much nicer.

Tomorrow, we will decide what to do next.

Reality

So I was going to say I'm watching my first reality show, but I'm not.

I watch "Mythbusters" which isn't quite a reality show, but it's not quite a completely normal show.  I've been watching it since the middle of its first season.  I came across it when I was stuck on the back side of the Sierra when I was working at the Marine Corps Mountain Winter Training Camp.  And I've been watching them ever since.

I watch "Undercover Boss" which is reminiscent to me of the Michael Moore "TV Nation" where he challenged different CEOs to do basic tasks.  He challenged the CEO of Phillip-Morris to roll a cigarette.  He challenged the CEO of GE to change a light bulb.  His only successful challenge was getting the CEO of Ford to change the oil in an Explorer.  Plus I loved the intro song.

I also watched "Miami Ink," "LA Ink," "NY Ink," and just "Inked" which was set in Las Vegas.  All of them were fun shows more for seeing the artists work and hearing the stories why people were getting what they got.  I also learned a lot about reasons for tattoo sizes and how things will change over time.  But the manufactured drama just got too be too much.

I've tried some of the other shows, and nothing has interested me.

But, as kind of a fun thing, I'm watching Penny Arcade's "Strip Search" reality show on YouTube.  It's a contest being run by the guys from "Penny Arcade" who will give the full support of their comic company to the winner of the competition.  And I'm finding out that I read several of the comics from the artists who are competing.

It's really a lot of fun.

Running in the Sand - UPDATED

So, I had a friend who has been tracking my progress through the Dune saga ask me, how many pages are there in the whole thing.

So I took some time at lunch to go find articles on the books and short-stories online and totaled what I found.

It turns out that it is essentially 8,500 pages.  And that's so far as Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson are still writing interim books.

What I have left are 5 1/2 books and three short-stories.  And at this point, I am almost at exactly 67% completion.
_________________________________________________________________________________

So I doudble-checked my numbers on my spreadsheet, and I found a typo.

I'm at over 70%.

Why Johnny Can’t Reader

I don’t know how many of my readers use Google Reader, but any that do I’m sure have by now seen the popup message telling us that it will be discontinued.  I asked a good friend who works at Google (he’s on the Chrome OS team, so he’s not always a good source of information for things aside of the browser itself) why they had discontinued Google Reader.  He said that use was on decline and that many people use Twitter, and he uses Google+.

Well, I don’t use Twitter that much.  I find it’s like being in a room surrounded by a bunch of people with no personal filters talking all the time.  I can’t track the conversations.

Then there’s Google+.  It’s just not the good stream of information that I want.  I like being able to pick through the section of material that I read.  Google+ is, once again, a stream of consciousness.

So, I began looking for an alternative.  Yes I've got a little over three months, but I want to have something I’m happy with when the transition deadline hits.

I read an article on Lifehacker and then an article on Gizmodo.  So after reading those, I have decided to throw my first lot to The Old Reader.  It has the ability to link with my Google account to sign in, and then I tried to import my data from Google Reader.  Yesterday, they were swamped with import requests, and had to disable the feature.  This morning, there was an option to upload an XML file from my Google files.
If you’re in need of transferring your data, give this a shot:

First do the suggested XML download from Google Reader.  This will come in a ZIP file that you'll need to extract to a folder.

Then go to Old Reader and using the import page, upload the XML file.

Right now, I got this message, "Thank you for uploading your OPML file. We will soon start importing your subscriptions, which might take up to several hours depending on the amount of feeds you have.

There are 22218 users in the import queue ahead of you."

Why it says OPML, I don't know, but the XML file is what I used for the import.

I say good luck to you.  While I’ve writing this, my number has dropped to 22217.

Pea Soup

I got up this morning, and things looked foggy.  And then as I got ready, it just got thicker.

When it was thick enough that the lights of the office building two lots over were just a glowing blur, I decided it would be better to drive to work rather than bike to BART.

And then of course once I got to through the tunnel, it's all clear with the sun lighting up the sky behind Mt. Diablo.

I'll just have to exercise this afternoon.

"... Everything else is therefore your own problem."

So today for my third week back in the office, I rode my bike.

Man, it's dark.  Although, I will say that riding in the dark at Santa Cruz got me all kitted out for a ride through Oakland and Walnut Creek.

Riding on BART did make me think of working in San Francisco   I'm thinking of asking for a transfer to our newly opened office there.  I just prefer going that direction.  And then I wouldn't have such a long commute.  Apparently our office is in a building that you don't even have to go outside to get to from the BART station.

I think it sounds great.  Plus it can't hurt to ask.

dooooooooooo -- BEEEEEEEEEP!

So, my phone is a geek detector.  Yesterday, in my second day at the office after 6 months in the field, it rang, and one of my coworkers laughed and said, "That is a cool ringtone."

Being who I am, I have personalized the sounds of the phone, and so each one is a little slice of geekdom.  Jennifer got to enjoying my sounds so much that she asked me to find a way to personalize her phone.  It was a little harder as she has an Droid, but hers are all various sounds from R2-D2 with her ringtone being the award ceremony music from the end of "Star Wars - A New Hope".  My ringtone is the "conversation" between the technician and the alien spaceship from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

It gets lots of good reactions.  Geeky phone techs love it when it rings.  A friend who has an apparently very geeky brother laughs and wants us to meet.

I'll have to test him on the rest of the sounds.

My incoming text sound is the wrist-com sound effect from "Babylon 5".  My missed call/voice-mail is the message waiting sound from "Babylon 5".  The rest are from the game "Portal" where I use button sounds for sending and receiving emails, and the bouncy sound for calendar reminders.

For "Portal" to be such a popular game, I'm surprised I don't get more comments on the sounds.

Still, when people do hear it, and look up with a start, I can look them in the eye and smile.

Gotcha, geek.

BTW, Mom and Dad, your ringtone is the Turret Serenade from "Portal 2".  Just because I like the sound of it.

WTF! - Shirts

I have two pairs of WTF jeans.  I've written about them once before.  Last year I got v2.0.  Below are pictures of the front and back of the two versions.

Today I got an email that WTF is doing shirts.  They're running an Indiegogo campaign to raise money for it.

When i signed up they were at $500 of $4,000, so 1/8 of the way there.  I'm hopeful.