E-Bay Irony

I shit you not. Unable to find the seat I wanted on the shelves of my local bike store, I found the only one available online on ebay. Today I get the shipping information for the item I purchased and to my disbelief the freaking seller is my local bike store.

Detroit Alleycat

Pictured left is my new obsession and the latest excuse for the lack of blog content here. It's a huge(double xl!) mid-70's Peogeot frame that I picked up for cheap on craigs list; I've ditched the old chrome wheels in favor of a pair Deep-V Eighthinch wheels and torn all the 10 speed and braking gear off. With the wheels came an Origin 8 fixed hub and black spokes. I've still got a few more goodies on order to spruce up the looks and further reduce the weight of the bike. As it stands now it's probably one of the lightest bike's I've ever owned.

I've been riding the fixed gear for about a week now and I absolutely love it. Emergency stops can get a little sketchy but otherwise it's a very relaxing ride - you get up to cruising speed and just ride.

Last night we met up with a couple other riders for the Detroit Alleycat bike race. An alleycat is kinda like a scavenger hunt on bikes - the theme for this one was Scatagories. We had a list of destinations around the city with a category and we had to ride to each destination to find the letter. Overall I'd say we did about 15-20 miles zig-zagging across the city, it was an absolute blast and I got to see parts of the city that I never knew excisted. A++++ would do again.

Number 6 is Blue

Synesthesia is a neuralgic condition where numbers and/or letters are associated with colors or sounds. How fantastic would that be? One would almost have to become an artist for the sole fact that they would owe it to the rest of us to show us the beauty they see everyday. Word on the street is Jimmy Hendrix had this gift.

Check out this article, Hearing Colors: The Unusual World of Synesthesia, By: Kathryn Williams

When Carol Steen, now in her sixties, was a girl growing up in Detroit, she used to walk home from elementary school with a friend. One day, perhaps after a lesson in spelling or an exercise in handwriting, seven-year-old Steen asked her classmate, “Isn’t the letter ‘A’ the prettiest pink?” Her classmate, in the way only kids can, wrinkled her nose and pronounced Steen “weird.” [continue reading here]

Happiness

Talking religion in the work place is a bitch. If a Jehovah's Witness comes to my door asking me if I'm happy with my life and the way the world is headed, I take it as my responsibility to tell him to fuck off and slam the door in his face. When a co-worker who I greatly respect quotes the bible during conversation I feel just as uncomfortable. The urge to slam a door in her face burns in the back of my mind and my finger tips tingle as I mentally reach for an imaginary door. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) cubicles have no doors. So I sat, and listened - shifting in my seat like I had to poop.

In the end it wasn't so bad. For example, here's one of a couple that was quoted to me:

2 Peter 1:5-7
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

What this has anything to do with work, or spreading nasty rumors of lay offs and bankruptcy blithe - I don't remember (thats normally the kind of thing we talk about around here these days). Normally I scrutinize the passages and marvel at how out of context their taken, but this one is pretty harmless.

The thing I like to take away from this one is you don't (and shouldn't) have to believe in God or read the bible to see the value in adding goodness, knowledge, self control, perseverance, brotherly kindness, and love to your life. These are all attributes of happiness; they are actions you can take to add to happiness in your life; happiness being the most important feeling of content and self achievement... and if that's not working for you there's always hookers and blow.

Save Biodiesel!

Add biodiesel to the endangered species list; sign the petition; demand biodiesel compatible vehicles! Get all this and more at savebiodiesel.org.

While true that oil dilution is a known issue in diesel engines, it's hardly "a great threat to the future of biodiesel." Whats more, to say "Most OEMs (including Volkswagen, Ford, GM, and Dodge) are currently using biodiesel-incompatible technology, and they won't change that without public pressure" is a stretch.

At any rate, I recommend having a read. The website is blunt about the effects of biodiesel on engine oil dilution and the suggested remedy is interesting.

Hungry

It's not even 11am yet and I'm starving. Lunch cant come soon enough.

Guess the cars

There are four cars in this picture, can you guess make and model on all four?

numbers 0 through 9

I was filling out a personally intrusive health questionnaire for a new dentist I've been recommended to. Typically on most of these things you can just answer with N/A because even if you do have jondus, what does that have to do with flossing. This particular list of questions was odd because they were all worded kinda funny, like - "Do you or have you ever had tooth pain and how often?" Ummmm.... N/A?

One of the easier questions was: "What number of beverages containing alcohol do you consume per week?"

Well, as a matter of fact, this one contains numbers 0 through 9.

LOL WUT

I think I just found yet another way to bring the humor of the internet into everyday life. Props to the artist of the biting pearUrsula Vernon for with out her none of this would be possible.

Coffee Table, there's no step 4

I finished the coffee table. It turned out really really awesome. After sanding it down and flushing the legs up, making sure the legs were perpandicular to the table top and that everything sat level, I gave it a few coats of sealer.

Finaly some decent weather

Friday was the first decent day we've had since the snow started falling in November. On my drive home from work people were walking along the street in shorts, car windows were down, snow banks were melting, restaurant doors were propped open, motorcycles were out and about, and everyone you talked to had something nice to say about the weather.

I took the opertunity to drive the Corrado for the first time this year. After switching in a new battery it started on the first crank and ideled perfectly. Driving it was even better than I remembered, there's lots of power and lots of turbo noises, and the suspension is stiff enough to have some fun in the turns and on the on ramps. It was a total blast!

That motivated me to start working on the new intake manifold again. The core arived a few weeks ago.



There's a lot of talk as to whether this cardboard is going to hold up against the boost pressure of the turbo, and the heat of the engine bay - but I think it should be fine.

Music Video Throwback

... and the two most fondly remembered music videos during my time at New Mexico Tech (NMT) are....

Chop Suey - the dorm room remake


and The Avalanches, Frontier Psychiatrist


Post 'em up, what were your favorites from back in the day?

The Return of Buckethead

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you Happy Valentines day with snowman (and snowwoman).

Happy Valentines day Lisa.

Rogue Juniper Pale Ale

Dont walk, run to your nearest beer store and pick a bomber of Rogue Juniper Pale Ale. This stuff is incredible! I'm not sure how I've missed it till now - although its probably safe to say that my local distributors hadn't carried it till now.

As I was pouring it out of the bottle I was slightly disappointed at the lack of head, but once poured a nice frothy head foams on top that stayed till the last half of the glass - leaving foam rings on the side of the glass. The smell is not particularly inspiring but grab a mouthful and your taste buds are unexpectedly filled with an awesomely bitter hoppyness that's uniquely crisper than most IPAs. I suspect its the Juniper berries that are to thank for the crispy dry finish.

Coffee Table: Step 3

Following up from Coffee Table: Step 2, I drilled an additional hole through the middle of each of the main table top boards and tightened them up. Also I finished cutting the legs to length and added a cross bar across the bottom for stability. I still want to put another rod though the bottom of the legs and then take it all apart one more time to re-assemble it using wood glue.