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The Universal Dilettante

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Pop [Nov. 23rd, 2009|01:49 pm]
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If I'm not posting on LJ, it's because life has been that busy.

Last night, we returned from a 10-day visit to [info]nancyblue's family. Her father was going in for a dangerous surgery to replace his aorta. Complications from the surgery sent him to the ICU so he could battle for his life. His doctors and nurses are some of the finest I've ever seen, and this combined with his will to live has given him small improvements every day. He's off of some of his heart meds, off his kidney meds, and showing signs of breathing without a respirator.

Needless to say, this has been a very emotionally difficult time. It's times like this that I'm thankful my parents run a veterinary practice. Veterinary medicine can incredibly morbid and sad at times, and I now have a lifetime of experience to draw on when people and animals near to me get sick or die. If I can just be everyone's rock and make sure all the needed affairs are in order, I'm doing my job.

It's almost sad to say this, but it's true. You do a lot of waiting when someone you love is in the ICU. This was no exception, and the vast amount of waiting meant that I finished leveling my first World of Warcraft character. Upon hitting level 80, I promptly kissed Northrend goodbye, caught the boat to Stormwind, and went fishing. I think that will be just about all I do in WoW for a while...fishing. The level treadmill is long and pointless, and it leaves little time for you to just do what you want. I'll have to revisit that Kafkaesque experience when Cataclysm comes out. Until then, I intend to just enjoy Azeroth.

For now, I'm just glad to be back home and have some semblance of normalcy.
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Two feet from the ER [Nov. 3rd, 2009|02:11 pm]
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Last night, I came close to being put in the emergency room. Damned close. Usually, when people say this, they are offering an abstract concept of how things nearly went bad. I'm not. I am giving you a physical distance here. That distance is two feet. I came, quite literally, two feet from an ambulance ride.

For a little backstory, I should mention that one of my two panniers broke last week, and while I wait on a replacement, I decided to see if I could fit the bare necessities in my trunk pack instead. Turns out...I can! This is great news, as my panniers are not very aerodynamically sound items. They're basically big ol' bricks sitting on my rear wheel, costing me speed and effort and blowing me around. To give you an idea of how much they drag me, changing them out raised my average speed on my morning commute by 1 mph. That may not sound like a lot, but realize that's a figure that accounts for stopping for traffic lights. My actual speed for a given level of effort is probably 2 mph faster, and I can sprint my speeds up easier and hold them longer. The ride home, which is gently downhill, is now considerably faster...somewhere around 24-25 mph without trying too hard.

So, I was heading home. It was dark, but my light was on...in strobe mode...and my light is bright enough that I can see signs reflect the light back. Nonetheless, I wasn't visible to a full-duty diesel pickup with an interest in turning left. I was watching the truck close, because full-duty pickups are generally driven by douchebags and douchebags have a shocking tendency to think that they can turn in front of me or that I'm supposed to slow down for them. Yeah. I've had people admit to me they thought that bikes in the road yield to cars. Go figure.

Anyway, the driver of this massive vehicle, whom I will now refer to as Mr. Overcompensation for my own amusement, did the typical douchebag maneuverer. I see it all the time. It's this little feint of a left turn...maybe six inches of motion. It's either caused by starting a turn and then suddenly seeing the cyclist or (somewhat less commonly) as an act of playing chicken...a sort of "I'll go if I feel like it" move. Usually, it stays at that, since it's usually just someone who didn't see me. Of course, upon seeing this, I got out of my drops and kept my eye on the truck. I didn't slow down, though. Believe it or not, the one time a car has hit me, it's because I slowed down and allowed the car time to attempt a maneuver.

Mr. Overcompensation continued to sit there, and I thought I could go through. That's when he decided to go for his turn after all, and did so in a totally balls-to-the-wall way. I started to yell at the top of my lungs. I've found that people respond to a human screaming better than a bell. Beside that, I needed my hands. I didn't see a safe option to ditch at my speed (you don't want to ditch in traffic with nothing protecting you but a small helmet and lycra shorts), and the space for me to engage in an evasive turn was limited at best. Thanks to the laws of physics and the actions of Mr. Overcompensation, I was losing my options and was pretty much now barreling into a collision at 24 miles an hour.

Of course, while screaming at Mr. Overcompensation at the top of my lungs, I'd started to brake. I'm sure I should have used my front brake and found out what my stopping distance is, but at that speed and given there was no time for me to get out of the drop bars and get my weight back, I had real concerns about my ability to maintain control. Even though the rear brake causes skidding and fishtailing, on dry pavement, I know how to handle that. The skid was going to give me one last chance to at least set up for the collision. I couldn't crank the bike around without risking a loss of control (read: taking a very nasty fall in front of a truck showing no signs of stopping), but I could buy a few more feet and try to get myself in a position to take the hit well. I knew I didn't want to take the first blow with my face and I wanted to fall so my pedal bindings would come free. I knew I didn't want to get thrown in the air where I'd have a harder time making a safe fall. I pulled a couple feet of distance from the Overcompensationmobile and rode the oncoming swerve so as to make sure I'd be perpendicular to the point of impact.

The Overcompensationmobile loomed over me, so large the front grill looked like the orthodontia-ridden maw of a hulking steel predator designed in Detroit and manufactured mostly in China. I found myself curious as to what brand of truck would be mangling my body today, and in the waning twilight and glare of furious headlamps, glanced for a logo before realizing that, if I could see the logo, I'd be hitting hit with my head and face leading. I turned my body away as my momentum began to run out. I screamed louder one last time as if such a vociferous supplication to the god of friction would make the truck's brakes work harder.

I'm incredibly calm in the face of potential death or serious injury. I remember thinking "Well, I guess this is my turn," by which I meant it was my turn to become a car-bike crash statistic. I've been cycling since 2003 or so...six crash-free years is a pretty good run.

Of course, I gave away the ending at the beginning. I don't know why, but eventually Mr. Overcompensation slammed on the brakes. I looked back up, and the nose of the massive Overcompensationmobile was two feet from my made-of-meat body. Two feet. Like, I could reach out and touch it. I was at boxing distance from the nose of a two-ton machine that was recently in the last inevitable moments of running into me. I don't remember feeling too much about it. In exasperation, I screamed out "FUCK?!" It was exactly as written...half question and half exclamation. I moved on before things got worse. Not but a few feet down the road, I had a moment to process what had happened, and I thought about turning around to go pick a fight with Mr. Overcompensation. I didn't, largely because doubling back while in traffic would have been difficult, Mr. Overcompensation was already leaving sight, and I didn't get a clear look at the cab and knew I could find myself outnumbered.

I did somewhat console myself that Mr. Overcompensation might have had a good scare out of the whole thing, too...you know, what with the whole part where I'd press charges and ensure the book was thrown at him and spend my days talking to every reporter I could find. Today, biking back by the spot where my night almost took a very shitty and possibly lethal turn, I don't feel that way any more. See...part of the problem from jackass motorists is that they think cyclists are pussies. I eat the bullshit of motorists daily. Most of it isn't critically unsafe, but it is illegal, unnecessary, unsafe, and rude. And the same attitude that leads someone to think they can cut me off, squeeze out my lane, or blow their horns because I don't give them the right of way on a silver platter...that same attitude is what leads to my nearly getting hit. And the fact of the matter is that it boils down to someone thinking that their minor inconvenience is more important than my fucking life.

The hilarity is that, despite what my anger might suggest, I'm not damaged nor scared. I suited up and rode in today like nothing happened. And I'll ride again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. Not the next, though, because that's Saturday.
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Dressing nice keeps them guessing [Oct. 28th, 2009|01:56 pm]
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My bike's been in the shop for the last two days getting its rear spokes replaced and its rear wheel rebuilt. No bike means I'm driving to work, and that means that I have time in the morning to dress up.

I love dressing up. I honestly look my best when I dress up. I look absolutely smashing in an earth tone suit. With my long hair, I look like I fell right out of a music conservatory from a century ago. In fact, in Taiwan, a colleague told me he wasn't surprised to find out I'm part Austrian, since he said that he had a hard time not calling me "Mozart." I also wear suits rather well, using less conventional fabrics or an over-obsession with a color palette or an anachronistic accessory (like vests or a nice straw hat) to show that the suit is my own stylistic trip and not a slavish adherence to outmoded tradition.

Dressing nice for work, however, clearly confuses my coworkers, who've decided to turn jeans/khakis/cargo pants and polo/t/oxford shirt into a de facto uniform. It is, in fact, so hard for them to think that I'm just a little eccentric that I repeatedly get asked if I'm interviewing for a new job.
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Mostly knitting, some other stuff too [Oct. 27th, 2009|03:18 pm]
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So, I can finally say that I have knitted something. I mean, yeah, I've knitted swatches before, and I finger-knitted a mostly-useless scarf for [info]nancyblue, but this is a real project I've finished.

I knitted a carrier for my netbook. It's nothing too special...just a simple messenger bag type of thing. It's a pretty color and the yarn is nice and thick and gives it a sort of "thrown together" look. I'm mostly happy with it. It's full of what are likely rookie mistakes...its shape could be a lot better and it curls up in places where I'd rather it didn't. I'm guessing this is because of the stitch I used throughout, and so there are things for me to learn. Still, it's cute and fits with most of my clothes and accessories. I'll make an i-cord strap for it and call it done.

Making stuff just makes me happy. It's something I can safely say I live for. [info]nancyblue was joking with me about how, two weekends ago, I built a Mac, and then last weekend, I knitted something. The truth is that I'd kill to have a life where I did nothing but made stuff nonstop. Everything I make is like a little Everest to me, and I never forget a creation. Making stuff is my Slack.

So, of course, I'm now trying to plan another knitting project. There's an interesting pattern for socks that came with the yarn. I might try that next. Dunno.

In other news, I've found a website that might be my killer web app: Evernote. It's like del.icio.us, but the critical difference is that it's for retaining clippings and notes rather than entire web pages. I could never get into del.icio.us because I don't think in terms of entire sites. I want to know the nugget of information that made the site relevant to me. Plus, a clipping in Evernote can outlast the site from which it comes. Evernote itself is a web-based spin on Microsoft's OneNote, which is no doubt at the center of their (potentially vaporware) Courier product. All of these products appeal to me largely because they match the way that I think and what I need. Devices like an iPhone or even a conventional computer really just don't support my use patterns as well as they could. I'm a potentially odd specimen in that I think visually but have no ability to visualize. As in, I've never "seen" anything "in my mind," ever. So, for me, all thought and all engagement happens through me using surrogates to externalize my thinking. I keep logbooks and use whiteboards extensively.

The other thing is that my attention span is pretty short and my general process of cognition is to take scraps of information I've picked up and synthesize new things from them. That I've made a career out of quickly getting a feel for a subject, I feel pretty validated that that's my primary way of operating. This is not a "page centric" or a "social centric" or "media centric" existence. My entire existence is in clips. I need my digital assistant to enable me to live in clippings and stickies and scribbles, and I need to know it can help organize these things so I can rummage for them quickly.

Finally, products that enable this are coming through. Evernote is probably the most pervasive of them, but I must admit the Courier is my dream product...especially if I can get Evernote on it. Of course, with HTML5 pervasiveness such a real concern, Evernote might round out the features that are still necessary for me to feel comfortable. I'm curious, dear reader...what aspects of your lifestyle is tech currently not augmenting?

Also, my bike is in the shop for a wheel replacement. I wish it wasn't, because I swear I can feel myself in atrophy every day I'm without it, but the winds are terrible right now and driving to work means that I get to wear suits to work, which confuses the hell out of everyone.
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Jolicloud invites [Oct. 26th, 2009|03:22 pm]
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I have ten invites for Jolicloud, an alternative netbook OS, if anyone is interested.
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Death Cab For Cutie: Masters of the Obvious [Oct. 22nd, 2009|03:08 pm]
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One of the things I really love about Death Cab For Cutie is that Ben Gibbard has a power for stating something I already knew in a way that seems more aesthetically interesting.

Possibly one of my favorite lead-off lines in their songs is this one:

"The glove compartment / is inappropriately named / and everybody knows it" --Death Cab For Cutie, "Title and Registration"

Another one I just spotted today:

"And when I see you / I really see you upside-down / But my brain knows better / It picks you up and turns you around" --Death Cab For Cutie, "A Lack of Color"

I haven't heard anyone poetically state the basics of the eye and brain in a song before. Kinda makes me wonder what other statements of the obvious I've missed in their songs.
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WWII Vet on Gay Marriage [Oct. 22nd, 2009|11:59 am]
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Thanks to [info]whisperwords for giving me something to smile about this morning.

86-year-old WWII vet on gay marriage: "what do you think I fought for in Omaha Beach?"

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Rape Culture 101 [Oct. 19th, 2009|02:12 pm]
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I do, from time to time, get asked if I'm being hyperbolic when I claim that rape culture exists in a reasonably pervasive way. I also get asked, from time to time, to show that this is true or to list some available and salient feature of rape culture for the purposes of demonstration. I always have been able to pull one up, but it's not off the cuff and sometimes a bit abstract.

This particular conversation has just gotten tons easier. Behold...FAQ: Rape Culture 101.

And, for those who whine about contentiousness and divisiveness when discussing rape and the patriarchy, there's a section in there on how rape culture enables the raping of other men and how it affects interactions among men.
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The Hackint0sh Build [Oct. 19th, 2009|11:41 am]
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Despite the fact that I dislike Apple slightly more than I dislike Microsoft, I have always felt it was important for me to own a Mac. First off, knowing how to use a Mac is good because so many techies have them and I get sick and tired of looking like an idiot because handing me a Mac is like handing me a five-wheeled bike that still has pedals and a handlebar...it has an interface I'm used to but I won't really know how to operate it properly. The other thing is that I still don't have any experience developing for a Mac and I've always felt I should change that.

I also used to adore BeOS and often dreamed of being able to afford a Mac so I could have BeOS.

I've never actually bought a Mac, though, and there have been a couple of reasons. The first, biggest, and most obvious one is the price. The price disparities for comparable amounts of hardware is pretty big, and until recently, having extra money hasn't been a feature of my life. Even more to the point, though, is that I think about that price comparison and what I could buy with the extra money. It's serious. Like..."I could buy an entire other computerized appliance" serious. And so, I've just never been a Mac person.

And then Apple switched up to x86 hardware and Intel motherboard chipsets, and I knew one day I would own a Mac, because it was only a matter of time until someone found the blend of off-the-shelf components that would work. And that's when the OSX86 Project came through. The real explosion in this community centers around a series of Lifehacker articles to explain the process. It's amazing to watch as it gets simpler and simpler to do.

The saga... )

Here's the funny thing, though. After I get all of this done, get the wireless mouse and keyboard working, etc, etc, [info]nancyblue turns to me and asks "So, what do we do with it?" Bewildered, all I could say was "Well, shit. I don't know." Neither of us have the first clue what to do with a Mac. I mean, we can fumble around and locate different features and such, but I think we're kinda waiting on the "magic" to "happen." As it stands, it's like someone just gave us a computer for the first time. We don't know what interesting thing we ought to do with it.

We pulled up This American Life, listened to it, fell asleep towards the end of it, and called it a night.

The funny thing is, now that I see an Hackint0sh stable, and realize how not-that-hard it is, I suddenly want more of them.

[ETA] I always name my computers with a nautical theme. Current or past computers of mine include weatherlight, sextant, trireme, lightship, corsair, pacifica, and ghostship. In honor of the fact that I had a friends help make this one, and in honor of what it is, I have named this computer coppinger.
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Commuting in the rain [Oct. 14th, 2009|12:12 pm]
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Yesterday, it rained. A lot. Like, a lot. Almost as much as the heavier rains I've seen in Tampa or my hometown (where two inches in an hour happens from time to time). It was the first rain of the season. I've been assured there will be many more to follow. The wind was quite terrific. It would also seem that San Jose, lacking a regular hurricane season that leads the city and homeowners into regular tree maintenance, just waits for the first hard storm to knock stuff down. The road debris was pretty serious. I'm fairly sure that the localized flooding was from general debris getting in the storm sewers.

Still, I went out and rode my bike in it. Hey...what's the point of having rain gear if you don't use it in the rain? Honestly, the ride wasn't all that bad. I rode in a bit slower, and sometimes the wind was annoying, but for the most part, it was just another day.

What I learned in the process will be good information for the rest of the season. My rain jacket works quite well, and my makeshift helmet cover (a shower cap) also works just fine. So, that part of my avoid-getting-soaked plan is working. I need to invest in some booties to put over my shoes, though. Rain runs right inside those, and my shoes stay damp for days afterward. I'd like tall booties, too, because hitting a puddle throws mud onto my socks. I also could use a spare pair of gloves, because they don't dry out quickly.

The other thing is my panniers. For the most part, they remained dry inside. I think the water that got in on one of them was due to my not sealing it correctly. That said, they came with an accessory that I'm not sure I'm using right. Each of my panniers has a thing that looks like a big yellow shower cap that fits over it. I thought they were extra rain protection, but now I'm wondering if they're not just to make the panniers more visible at night. You see...if I hit a puddle or go through heavy rain, water gets inside these pannier covers and then it just pools up at the bottom. Then my panniers sit in standing water. Not good. So, maybe I just run without those. I'm going to try and find some watertight bags to keep my things in when they're inside the panniers. It'll help keep things organized in there, too.

All in all, though, not too bad, and I'll be ready to do it again.

I have been called crazy by everyone at work. Given that "crazy" is part of the persona I present, I consider this a win.
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What I make and what I don't [Oct. 12th, 2009|12:25 pm]
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This weekend has been a bit of an interesting mental exploration of what I enjoy making and what I don't. I guess I find it interesting because it's not 100% driven by what things I think of myself as "good at" and topic and setting seem so very important.

First off, [info]nancyblue and I went down to Fry's and bought a new TV. It's a very nice one, if I do say so myself. It may seem odd that, after we just canceled our cable TV, that we'd buy a new TV. It's really meant as a display for my new monster project...a hackintosh. Yes...after years of swearing I was done building computers, here I am. A lot of it has to do with wanting to actually have an OSX platform around without paying Apple's stupid anal rape prices. The bigger reason, though, is that I really miss making something with my hands, and my new work and social schedules do not allow me enough time to sit down and build something entirely from ICs.

So, anyway...I'll probably be ordering parts today and putting rush shipping on them. The TV will hopefully go up today. Since there aren't any walls with studs in our bedroom, I am considering just putting the thing on top of our dresser. I am, however, worried about securing it against cats and earthquakes. Dunno how to handle that just yet.

So, that's thing one. Thing two is that I received the parts for a Chumby recently. For $99, Makershed was offering the internal components of a Chumby. This is a great price for what you get. I could easily spend that much just getting the display and touch system together. As much as I'd like to have paired up my own display and display controller and all that jazz, I just honestly don't have that level of free time any more and having a verified hardware platform is a good thing. Dunno what I'll do with it just yet, but it'll make some fun hardware to play around with.

Then there's the front of things I don't like making. We went to the Renfaire over the weekend, and there was, of course, the matter of costuming for it. I basically have one costume I trot out as a catch-all in these scenarios...a pair of linen pants, a gauze blouse, and a headscarf. It gives me the whole "elf peasant" look without trying, and this is all the further I really feel I like going. Conversations over the weekend also turned to an upcoming zombie/pirate party. I officially have a costume plan-- Zombie Hunter S. Thompson. I have the rudiments of an HST costume handy, and I happened to pick up some giant blue aviator glasses to help make it more of an iconic costume. I still could stand to have a marlin spike to keep a cigarette in, but that's not 100% necessary. Again...it's just come clothes I came by, and I can put it together with a little makeup and stage blood and call it done.

You'd think that, as a geek, I'd enjoy costuming, but I don't. I could speculate as to why, but it'd be a relatively pointless act of navel gazing to get into. The fact of the matter is that I just don't particularly get it. I just don't get a great deal of joy out of wearing costumes and "playing dress up." I've done it before, especially as a matter of keeping up with the crowd, but the act of putting the costume together is generally not fun or easy for me, and once I have it on, I'm honestly not sure why it's supposed to be fun. Then again, I've never been very good at playing pretend.

You could make an argument that it's because I just don't like working with stuff that doesn't need a power source, but I'd really beg to differ, and it shows in the fact that I've been trying to work on a pattern for a knitting project. I have been holding onto some yarn for a while that I'd like to put to use, and I think I've decided it would look pretty as a bag for my EeePC. I'm not a great knitter, but I think I can do well enough to make a simple bag for my netbook, which would make it much easier and more fashionable to carry around. So, I do have some "traditional" crafting media that I do or at least have an interest in.

It's just an interesting thing to look over what I do and don't find to be fun projects, I guess.
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Bender's Choice [Oct. 9th, 2009|03:48 pm]
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Inspired somewhat from a recent post on [info]shoutingboy's LJ, [info]nancyblue and I have coined a new term.

Bender's Choice: A choice where one is clearly offered a full set of items (with the implication to take or decline the full set), and one instead chooses a subset of the items and refuses the others. Origin: Bender, from Futurama: "I'll go build my own lunar lander...with blackjack and hookers! In fact, forget the lunar lander and the blackjack!" Use: "Are you up for some boiled shrimp and rubber gloves tomorrow night?" ... "Hm. Could I just have you and the rubber gloves instead?"

The more you know!
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Crossdressers pummel drunk assailant [Oct. 7th, 2009|03:02 pm]
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This article has had me laughing and cheering so hard that I couldn't resist sharing it. Basically, it's a news story about a couple of drunken yobs who decide to try and assault a couple of transvestites as part of their evening's revelry.

Well, it turned out the trannies they picked on were...a pair of MMA cage fighters out on a stag night of their own. Suffice it to say that these seasoned modern-day gladiators did not appreciate the attention these lads were giving them, and they quickly make dog food of their attackers before picking up their purses and moving on.

I couldn't make it up if I tried. Here's the link. There's a video towards the bottom, and the good stuff happens at about 1:10 or so.
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Arrested for using Twitter [Oct. 6th, 2009|01:05 pm]
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I find it pretty chilling that activists in my country can be arrested for using Twitter to tell others of police orders to disperse and how to peaceably disperse without encountering authorities. When Twitter gets used this way in Iran, the State Department cheers and begs Twitter to reschedule its maintenance. When anarchists in the US use it, they get arrested.

Even more troubling is the material collected as evidence at the raid of the man's home, including family heirloom needlepoint, books, and plush toy animals.
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Cycling stuff [Oct. 5th, 2009|02:24 pm]
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Well, the first serious cold snap seems to be in full swing, demonstrating that, indeed, I am going to face something much more like an actual change of the seasons than I have before. For the uninitiated, most of Florida is subtropical, and it therefore has something closer to a 2-season system seen in tropical places. Generally speaking, these seasons are the "tolerable" season and the "intolerable" season. The wet/dry cycle actually happens much closer to the equator, and Florida is wet year-round. The days barely change in length. For the most part, especially in South Florida, you don't think about the seasons changing. Even when it gets a touch cold in the winter, it does so only for a day here and there.

Actually, there was this one winter in Gainesville where it rained nonstop for months. When I say "rain" and "nonstop," I really mean those words, too. I had friends who lost all their possessions in a flood that year.

Anyway, the shorter days mean I'm riding with my lights on a lot more, and the colder air is finally starting to make me groan when I step outside to commute. I've been making a point of trying to ride more on the weekends, and it's behooving me to dress a bit better for the cold. There was a wind warning for the Bay Area on Saturday night. Despite the horrid winds, I rode my bike to a San Jose Earthquakes game, bundled up in long pants, a thermal, my army coat, and a bandanna tied over my face. Of course, those are some bulky and heavy clothes, and I actually broke a sweat underneath them. Definitely not a long-term solution, even if it's fun freaking people out by wearing an army coat, a bandanna over your face, and goggles.

Sunday, I got up extra early, threw my army coat on over some street clothes, and went to cheer on some friends as they ran a half marathon through the streets of San Jose. It was fairly easy to find and keep up with [info]shoutingboy, and I provided a cheering section for him at 4-5 places through the run. Biking on the sidewalk, dodging spectators and rogue runners, does actually make for a hard time getting head of people who are themselves running at a decent clip, so after dealing with this problem a few times, I started to alley cat my way around, taking side streets so I could cut through a few miles at a time. Even then, this wasn't as particularly handy as you might think, but it was still fun.

Sadly, there were two friends of mine in the race that I saw only at the starting line. Death By Dollface and Texas Teabag from SVRG must have taken off like bats out of hell, and I couldn't find them even when I'm sure I beat them to the finish line.

Sunday evening, I went over to Performance Bicycle and looked at my options for warmer gear. I picked up some extra el-cheapo shorts and a California themed jersey that was on clearance. I should now have enough lycra to get through the work week. Since I already have shorts and jerseys in regular rotation and don't want to buy five outfits to make a week's worth of cold weather gear, I instead opted to buy a simple, light windbreaker and some leg warmers (which are basically lycra stockings). I also bought some ear warmers, since my ears sometimes get cold on rides. The goal is to have a mix-and-match set that I can tailor to the level of chill out there. The windbreaker is really a last line of defense, since I don't need to wreck my aerodynamics any more than my panniers already do.

My legs are decidedly less fresh today than they are most Mondays, but I'm hoping my legs will eventually get used to a new schedule that will include some days of lighter riding on the weekend.
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MMORPG Update [Oct. 2nd, 2009|01:47 pm]
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So, I'm just shy of 72 on my hunter on World of Warcraft. I don't exactly know why, but somewhere around 70, the pace of leveling has ground down to sluggish. It's like trying to run knee deep in molasses. I hear that's normal and will pick up with time, which leaves me a bit hopeful. Not being able to use my flying mount is frustrating as hell, and I suspect it has a lot to do with the slow going. In Outland, my flying mount was the golden road to fast advancement because it enabled a tactic I refer to as "truck hunting", where I'd fly around finding the objectives of a quest, drop down in a critical spot with my traps blazing, pet full of wrath, and arrows flying, clear out a working area, grab my objectives, and move on. Lacking this means I have to grind my way *to* my objectives first, then often grind *from* them, too. Grr.

Also, my backpack is filling with leather scraps I can't yet use, so rather than take the boat back and sell them, I rolled a dranei priest alt to use as my banker. She's only at lvl 6 right now, though. It's kinda nice to rise through the early levels and learn a radically different play style. I clapped like a little kid when I discovered that Smite, unlike every hunter archery skill, has no cooldown.

I'm finding myself feeling a bit bored with WoW, though. Once I maxlevel and can start thinking about raids and such, things will change, I'm sure, but the play style is just getting too familiar. Fairly little is making me think or engage. I was really surprised the other day that other people actually know the lore of the game, because I couldn't tell you the first thing about it.

I'd really love to find an MMORPG that's as interesting to play as WoW but that offered something different. I was thinking about reactivating my City of Heroes account and getting Citizen Cyborg back into the fight. Thing is...at best, it's another "grind it until you find it" game, and I'm not sure I want to do another one of those. I play Eve Online with my friends on Thursday, but I don't play it outside of that because there's really no point. I'm their hired gun, they give me money to keep me in a battleship and well-trained because I'm their hired gun, and playing beyond that is pointless because it's all organized PvP that I don't have the time or attention span for.

So, uh, yeah.
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This is so me [Sep. 28th, 2009|02:27 pm]
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That's me.
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The Fed and Academic Economics [Sep. 25th, 2009|08:05 pm]
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The Fed using its influence to control economic academia? Say it a'int so!
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We Hug Afterwards [Sep. 23rd, 2009|03:37 pm]
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All too true.
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Net Neutrality Backlash [Sep. 23rd, 2009|01:44 pm]
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So, the FCC grows a pair and gets net neutrality on the table.

And of course, I'm not surprised where the backlash comes from. Are you?

Party of freedom indeed.
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