Dancing with houngans

Well, that's just odd.

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:28:23 GMT

People will flag anything on CL for removal, won't they?

Post a little tongue-in-cheek ad for something and people get their knickers in a twist.

Title: (free stuff) Free starter Virgin Mary

While doing some yard work, I was examining my statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and came to a conclusion. This conclusion my friends was that she was far too small for my current level of piety. After a certain amount of spade-work and some ungentlemanly grunting (which I assure you did not tarnish her... virgin ears), I was able to remove her from her resting place betwixt the roses.

I thought perhaps to break her up into pieces, since surely I would not be able to move her to a new resting place or dispose of her myself. My lovely (and talented) assistant however insisted I leave her Virgo Intacti and offer her to someone else in the world so that they might be blessed with her manifestation in their yard as they begin their own personal path to sainthood.

So here she is, my starter Virgin Mary ready for someone to come claim her:

Terms:

1. No, I will absolutely not drop it off. For one thing, I don't even own a car, and I'm not bikin>

2. I won't help you lift it. Bring a few strong backs, a jack, a crane or some other means of shift>

3. No weirdos or religious crazies please.

Geek Angst

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:03:42 GMT

If Ubuntu is so insanely great, why do I always end up wanting to develop a time machine to go back in time and kill all the project leads grandparents in grisly fashions?

Backstory: I was trying to install it (8.10) on a little MSI Wind nettop box. I got it installed and it ended up stuttering horribly on video. I realized once again that Ubuntu does heinous amounts of handholding for Xorg configuration, which is great if everything works perfectly, and if it doesn't it drops on the floor. If I wanted to manually edit the xorg.conf from scratch I'd install fucking Slackware. No, I lie, Slackware at least had a configuration script last time I used it. sax2 (from SuSE) is so far superior in every imaginable way I have trouble comprehending what the Ubuntu folks are smoking.

Lame: You can map a network drive with their nice clicky tool! Yeah! Unless you use NFS. *blink* *blink* Huh? You're telling me you can map a drive with SSH or HTTP, but not NFS? Is this UNIX or kindergarten land?

Lamer still: Changing from DHCP to manual IP config doesn't fucking work. At all. Oh sure, it says it does. It lets you change the little boxes and then later when you come back it's changed them back to DHCP.

Plus points: It did recognize all the sound and network hardware, and the monitor.

Fancy a witchetty grub?

Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:33:32 GMT

Ah, Casu Marzu, one of my favorite horrifying foods to share (knowledge of) with other people. I heard about it a few years ago and have always taken it as another proof that people will eat anything that doesn't kill them (immediately). [1] Also, this coincidentally is one of the foods I never intend to try, even if I did happen to have goggles with me and a gutfull of hightest.

Boingboing has an article about it, evidently after William Gibson covered it in his blog. Thank Bog this is not a video entry.

[1]Related rule: All mushrooms are edible. Some, however, only once. - Ino in the Scary Devil Monastery

They're always oppressing me

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:06:15 GMT

The bike shop called to tell me they managed to un-pretzel my frame. I actually had help breaking it for a change. I was walking past Lee behind him in the parking lot and he started walking backwards and tripped over my bike. He bent up my wheel badly. Enough so that I had to bang it against the curb to straighten it enough to ride.

I didn't realize till this morning, partway to work that it was the *frame* that was bent.

I turned around and went home at that point, called my boss and told her I would work from home Friday.

The truly sad part is we were all stone sober, just hanging around in the QFC waiting for people to finish up.

My rear triangle looked a bit like this:

That's why Ben (who was trying to help me fix it) kept muttering about my wheel dish being off. The frame is off, not the wheel. But we couldn't see it in the dark.

The thing that gave me a chuckle was what the bike shop said when they called to tell me my bike was done.

Mechanic: "You know the rear wheel is unsafe, the braking surface is totally concave."
Me: "No no no, I've got 1.8mm of rim left, that's at least 0.8mm more than minimum safety margin.[1]"

I did end up assuring her that I had decided to swap the rim regardless. Between Lee falling on it, the fact that it has had a lot of braking surface worn off and other things, it's probably time to change it. It doesn't hurt I have a spare rim to hand to do it with, so I don't even have to go buy anything.

[1] Yes, I actually have a caliper just for this.

The Phillys? Are they a baseball team or something?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:49:53 GMT

So I flew back East to Philadelphia for a super short trip to visit my older Brother [1]. It was his birthday and we spent the time wandering around on bicycles, shopping, picking up presents for him, provisions for a party Friday and generally hanging around.

Highlights:

Sam's Morning Glory - I'm pretty sure I had an extended foodgasm from the Monkey French Toast. [2]
Manayunk - To pick up this print as one of his birthday presents.
Daffy's - Excellent overstock store, think Nordstrom rack. I picked up a nice new Merino wool sweater for $30.
Chinatown - To pick up a birthday cake.
Ikea - Things for Macaire's apartment. Since the new building owners repainted, tiled and carpeted his place is looking pretty swank.
Picture hanging (FAIL) - I think his walls are made of paper-mâché. Sorry about the hole in your wall. :-(
Party - Rock Band 2 with the really nice drums [3]. Lots of people, lots of socializing, lots of video game playing.
Happily Ever After - A super nice toy store. Very friendly owners and some incredibly neat things.
Touscher Chocolates - Veeeery nice Swiss chocolates.

All in all a very successful visit.

[1] I landed Thursday morning and left Saturday afternoon.
[2] Challah French Toast with mango and banana's and caramel sauce.
[3] And a 108" projection screen, and $300 dollars of downloaded songs.

Hot Bibliophile action

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:32:13 GMT

A blog dedicated to nothing but books. TheBlogOnTheBookshelf doesn't get many comments, but it is updated fairly frequently.

I actually purchased and installed a few of the last (Umbra Conceals) this last weekend.

Contradications

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:05:50 GMT

I don't remember who said it, it might have been from some form of pop culture, it might have been a character in a book. But it was a short monologue about what weakens a man. Paraphrasing as best as I can remember it:

"The things that make a man weak are contradictions. They slow you up and make you waste your energy. They make you run around in circles and second-guess yourself constantly. Nothing is as strong as a man with no contradictions. Pure love, pure hate, pure anything can free you up and make your focus as sharp as a blade."

I haven't become imbued with any super powers lately, but I do feel a bit like my internal Gordian knot has become frayed. I'm sure it's all a momentary internal calm. But I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

Time to go ride bikes.

Fun with Fruit

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 22:32:04 GMT

Evidently in Valencia Spain, for a reason that no human can agree on, people throw about 100 tons of overripe tomatoes at one another. The Tomatina Festival lasts a week long with food, parades, paella, and the usual accoutrements.

It attracts huge numbers of tourists, swelling the towns population three to five times it's normal size.

The actual throwing of tomatoes lasts one hour and is signaled to start and end with a burst of water from cannons.

It sounds like good filthy fun.

Cute test

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:22:13 GMT

Xrite has an interesting little test to see how good your color discrimination is.

I was sort of surprised to get a zero (perfect result). I've never really though of my color vision in any deep manner. "They're colors. Yup, I can see all of them."

Things that make me feel better as a human being

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:16:27 GMT

I was talking tonight to someone I haven't talked to in a long time. I walked her home late at night after a point83 ride about a year ago. She was seriously lagged out sinced she'd been up 32 hours straight even before the ride. After the ride I had walked her up Jackson (a big fugging hill) and made sure she got home okay.

I had always been worried she thought I was a creepy person who was just doing it for an ulterior motive (I wasn't).

She told me tonight she really appreciated it and thought it was great I had done that.

It gave me warm fuzzies inside.

I can laugh because I am not yet dead

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 12:39:32 GMT

I find myself singing "Always look at the bright side of life" from Life of Brian a lot lately. And you know what? It really does help.

Excellent freudian slip in the New York Times

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:56:18 GMT

NYT: Senator Ted Stevens Indicted in Corruption Case

A federal grand jury has indicted longtime Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, on charges of failing to disclose receiving gifts of services and construction work as part of a wide-ranging corruption inquiry involving public officials and corporations in his home state. The indictment accuses Mr. Stevens of failing to report on his financial disclosure forms receiving gifts of more than $250,000 — in labor and corruption materials — from Veco Corporation.

It's since been corrected to read "construction materials", but one could argue there was little real difference either way.

OSCON: Low power, major effect on real people

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:53:04 GMT

I'm wandering around the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) this week. One of the neater things I've seen is Inveneo. Basically really low power (wattage) boxes that can run off of 12 VDC.

These are deployed mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Using local power (usually insulated by a deep cycle battery), solar, or generators. The desktop box only consumes 2-5 watts, the server (which can run a whole schoolroom of desktop) about 20 watts. The monitors are LCDs that run about 15 watts.

The specifications are interesting (I'd be happy with one of these in the kitchen), but it's more interesting because of the humanitarian/developing world implications. They also do a lot of setup like long distance WiFi, VOIP and other things as appropriate for people. So they're not just dumping these machines on them, but setting up an infrastructure for them that can be maintained.

The world is stranger than you can imagine

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 20:47:39 GMT

In this Wednesday, June 18, 2008 hand out photo, nurses are seen, posing near a monument to enemas at Mashuk Akva-Term Sanatorium in the town of Zheleznovodsk, Russian Caucasus Mountains region. Alexander Kharchenko, director of the Russian spa says the world's first monument to enema treatments has been unveiled at the spa in the southern city of Zheleznovodsk. The bronze syringe bulb, weighs 800 pounds and is held by three angels.

I'm actually sort of speechless, I think it's the cherubim holding up the bulb that causes my brain to stop for a moment. I mean, I suppose I can see building a monument, even an 800 pound bronze monument to enemas. But Cherubim? And why isn't this in Japan (following the maxim that Japan produces 74% of the worlds 'weird shit')?

Owww and other thoughts

Mon, 19 May 2008 20:35:04 GMT

Perhaps you've just freshly pierced your lobe a few time the day previously, and you're vigorously exercising. Thus making sweat trickle down and creating 'itchy' sensations in your ear. Don't grasp your lobe and absentmindedly yank on it.

Bloody ow [1].

Also, I picked up some peaches from Sosio's Sunday. They were delicious and juicy and made me yearn for later in the year when they'll be in season for local producers.

Also also, speaking of the market, there were something like thirty tents setup for cheese producers. Neat, I had no idea that was going on last weekend. Of course, becoming recently very lactose intolerant, this was basically one big tease for me.

[1] Literally unfortunately.

The cranks... they go round and round

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:33:37 GMT

In other news, when I put my Sunny Day bike together, I was in a bit of a rush. So I didn't overhaul the bottom bracket or headset. Well, yesterday I noticed my cranks were really wobbling and desperately needed adjustment.

So this morning I decided to overhaul it.

The right crank, still bearing the dustcap over the axle nut:

With dustcap removed, you can see the axle nut now:

After removing the nut, the crank removal tool threads into the crank itself. The tool then pushes on the end of the axle to separate the two:

Removing the fix cup, note that it has reversed threading on this side (righty loosy, left tighty), except for old fucking French BBs:

Cup, bearings (in a retainer), cone, axle. Noticed the thin coating of grease (probably white lithium), it's a little brown and crusty, but I've seen far far worse:

The inside of the BB after I've removed everything. I'll grease up all the threads and pop everything back in in the same order.

The whole assembly including the adjustable cup and BB lock ring (after cleaning, before greasing):

I'm not going to go into the full spiel about BB adjustment, other people do it better. Plus any newer bike is going to use a sealed cartridge bearing BB which means you don't have to do any of that stuff. Suffice it to say my BB is running smoothly now without wobbles and was very nice to ride into work.

In other news the bike shop finally heard back from Surly. They want to look at frame, so it's being shipped today or tomorrow out them and then I should get new frame in a week or two (assuming nothing goes wrong).

Another vain attempt not to buy things off Etsy

Sun, 11 May 2008 18:47:52 GMT

I need to get a clock movement with a longer shaft before I can mount the face backing, but this is the basic idea for the clock I've been thinking about making for a long time. Basically a discarded 48 tooth chainring and a used up 12-32 cassette, cleaned and fastened into an arc.

Also, I suck at taking pictures of shiny metal objects.

A bike for Sunny days

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:46:02 GMT

Well, my commuter bike frame getting broken inspired me to get my Sunny day bike fixed up last week. I've been stockpiling parts for it for a while, so it was relatively quick to build up.

I've already swapped out the seatpost and seat since I took these pictures.

Parts list:

Nishiki frame (the whole bike was $5 at a garage sale)
Campagnolo Chorus 10 speed carbon shifters ($75 used from a friend)
9 speed 12-25 Shimano cassette
105 rear hub/Alex Adventurer rim/ 14/15/14 DB spokes
Schwalbe Marathon Plus tire
Ultegra front hub / used Nici (Italian) rim
Continental Top Touring 2000
Sora rear derailleur (hubbub alternate routing)
Front D + cranks, whatever was on the bike
Centerpull brakes
Modolo t-poc bars (whatever I had lying around)
Threaded->Threadless stem adapter ($10)
Threadless stem (spare from parts drawer)
Nashbar bar tape ($4)
New seatpost ($15)
SPD pedals

Total cost: About $110

Pretty much everything on the bike was discards or things I had lying around. It actually rides nicely, the only thing that I'm really still fiddling with is the rear shifter. I've been futzing around with the mount, and now I have to adjust the shifting again.

The fender has been taken off, it was only on there temporarily.

---

I talked to the shop that has my old frame (Recycled Cycles in the University District). They've left some messages with Surly, but they haven't actually talked to them about it. So my bike is still languishing in their shop. And I've got this bag sitting on my desk at home full of all the parts I took off the frame.

I'm just glad it broke during the summer so I'm not missing my dedicated all weather/bad weather bike in the rainy season. Well, and that I didn't bother overhauling the headset and bottom bracket right before the frame broke. Procrastination saves the day again!

It's my birthday and the cake is on fire^W^W alive

Wed, 07 May 2008 13:20:23 GMT

While perusing jwz's journal this morning, I came across a link to one of the best birthday cakes ever. I think the organ cake is more impressive granted. But, I think this one comes out ahead for sheer Lovecraftian awesomeness.

Behold the horrible non-euclidean cake geometries below:

---

Oh, and in other news, the new refrigerator (bought about two weeks ago) is no longer cold inside. Bugger.

Another day, another broken bicycle frame

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:22:19 GMT

Last month I had wheel problems, this month it looks like frame problems are on the agenda.

I broke my Crosscheck frame again in pretty much the exact same location (on my way home from work). I didn't have time to finish putting my sunny day bike together from pieces, so I dragged my fixed gear out of the shed to ride to work this morning.

I really should just shell out for a sturdier frame.

I'd maim for a good basket of Sweet Potato Fries right now

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 20:28:49 GMT

There are a plethora of different types of mustard, scads of salad dressings, and more pasta sauces than you can shake the proverbial cylindrical wooden protrusion at. So why is ketchup pretty much just plain ketchup?

There's an interesting article over at Gladwell's that talks about it a bit. I agree for the most part, though I will note that I prefer a slightly less sweet ketchup than other people do. But that's probably more of the pattern of my not liking how much sugar is jammed into almost every Western food.

Well, that's sort of wrong, yet oddly spiritually enlightening

Sat, 05 Apr 2008 14:04:13 GMT

I've never been treated with the contempt I actually deserve before, it's not a nice feeling. - GrayV's post from Idiot Toys

Nothing says Eternal Love like OTC paternity test kits

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:18:28 GMT

As seen on Boing Boing, there's a company called Identigene selling OTC paternity testing kits. You buy the kit for $30 dollars, swab Mother, Child and 'Father' and send the samples and check for $120 to the lab.

Evidently about 4% of is the rate of 'mistaken' fatherhood. It rather reminds me of a saying in fields like Anthropology: Motherhood is a statement of fact, Fatherhood is a matter of opinion.

Guardian article on the subject
Atlantic article pointing out that the growing practice of genetic screening for diseases is going to expose a *lot* more people to this.

Hmmm, maybe I should have saved this entry for Father's day?

New Beginnings

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:00:33 GMT

I've picked up the guitar, for various reasons [1], including admittedly too many hours of Guitar Hero.

The worst part of picking it up so far is waiting for the callouses. I can't play it for terribly long before my fingertips get terribly sore. Still, it's quite enjoyable, even though all I can do currently is pick out a halting version of Free Fallin' and bits and pieces of Creep by Radiohead.

I found chord notation for The Lumberjack Song, but it has a B chord that's a little challenging for me yet. Speaking of which, http://www.chordie.com is awesome. A nice site with lots of information, well presented without too much graphic clutter. The personal songbook function is really nice.

[1] I've been wanting to get back into playing an instrument for a while. I thought about picking up the trombone, but it's a terrible instrument to play alone. You really need a whole band with you. The piano is better in terms of that, but even a keyboard is not terribly portable. A guitar is a nice instrument by itself, or as an aid to song.

More tears splashing on bicycle parts

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:16:40 GMT

Well, this week is certainly better than last for bicycles. Last week went something like this:

Saturday: Realize I bought the wrong shifter for my Mom's bike. That I've been neglecting to fix for months. And that I intimated to her she would be taking home tomorrow. Bugger.
Sunday: Cateye light leaps for freedom from my grocery bicycles handlebar. Explodes into many many pieces.
Monday: Replace chain and cassette on commuter. Discover rear wheel axle is broken when it falls out as I'm replacing cassette. Take Xtracycle to work instead. Realize that today is one of the windiest days of the year, and I'm riding the most upright bike I own.
Tuesday: Order new axle. Find spare wheel and end up late to work again. Realize halfway to work that rear tire has a slow leak. Realize one minute later that my pump is dead. Manage to ride very carefully to work on 25 or so PSI remaining in tire. Coworker and I wander up to bike store in Bellevue and get a new pump. Change flat.
Wednesday-Friday: Normal getting rained on, really much better than earlier in the week.

Parts of a bicycle wheel I've broken:

~~Axle~~
~~Cassette~~
~~Freehub~~
Hub shell
~~Nipples~~
~~Rims~~
Skewer
~~Spokes~~