A carnival of technology

Oh boy, I haven’t gotten to talk about flat tires in forever.

Gwinnett is filthy.  I don’t know why.  I’ve seen some prison cleanup crews here and there, but maybe they only deal with cigarette butts and trucker bombs.  One of the nice things about this area of Gwinnett is that it’s possible to cycle down busy roads out of the way of traffic, and one of the horrible things about this area of Gwinnett is that the sides of the roads are especially awful.  Sides of roads are pretty universally bad, since they lack the car traffic that keeps the road itself clear of debris, but there’s something extra-special going on in Suwanee.  This place is full of drunks.

Someone with more spare money than me should start some kind of a public service campaign: when you drink and drive, drink from a can.  One of the side-effects of open container legislation—or possibly of being a minor—is that if you’re enjoying a beer in a car, while driving it or not, that open bottle is bad news to you and everyone around you, so the best thing to do is drink it down and chuck it out a window where I can run over it later.  It took me a couple of weeks of running over these bottles, but I got a flat.  This is the first time I’ve been able to puncture the horrifically named Maxxis Detonator after a couple of years of rolling them through all kinds of junk.  It’s probably about time I got some new tires anyhow.

I decided to ask the internets about a good commuter tire.  One of the weird things about reading articles about tires is that it’s pretty easy to tell when the writer has no idea what they’re talking about.  For example, take this article from the New York Times.  After the obnoxious hipster photo at the top and a couple of paragraphs of fluff, there seems to be some short, more-or-less to-the-point reviews of a handful of tougher road tires, some of which are available in the 27″ size mentioned at the top.  But then there are statements such as, “The tiniest amount of tread [ensures] that if you are running over a piece of wet ground, you don’t have to worry about slipping.”  I don’t know if this is some great secret of cycling or a case of collective denial or what.  For narrow bicycle tires on hard, relatively smooth surfaces, like asphalt and concrete, treads are there for two reasons: they sometimes make the tire look prettier, and they make the tires easier to sell to people that are nervous about slick tires.  And if the tread pattern is deep enough they also pick up various sharp bits of road junk, increase rolling resistance and reduce grip.  It’s a shame that the representatives of a probably pretty alright bike nonprofit haven’t given very much thought to what keeps their bikes on the road.  Anyhow, in general, the narrow profile of a bicycle tire makes it desirable to have as much rubber on the ground as possible in all conditions; in practice, the little treads they put on road tires are so shallow and so far down on the sides that they don’t have any effect one way or the other, and though the entire thing ended up being sort-of annoying, the New York Times article did give me a couple of leads.

I had some spare tires to replace the gashed-up, worn-out Maxxis, but I’m a little leery about them for a couple of reasons.  For one, I’ve had some bad luck with the same type in the past, and for two, they’re a real pain in the thumbs to get on the rim.  My kevlar-beaded fling has spoiled me.  They were so light and zippy and comparatively easy to install.  So it doesn’t make any sense at all that I spent this month’s fun times budget on a pair of Continentals.  Continental has a reputation for making tires just a hair too small around, but these are also covered in kevlar, so hopefully I won’t need to mess with them too often.  Wish me luck.

New year’s resolutions are probably as old as the idea of a new year itself.  People are awful at being alive, and the transition to a new year is a perfect time to create the sense of a fresh slate, a new beginning with new goals and eventually old disappointments.  I, too, am bad at being alive, and I decided to be fashionably late in my resolve.

So many resolutions are negative things, attempts to end old bad habits: don’t watch so much TV, quit freebasing cocaine, stop kicking the dog.  I’m going to try to be positive in mine.

Get in shape

Specifically, I’d like to get back to where I was about a year ago, and maybe do some pushups once in a while this time around.  Maybe that’s kind of a negative resolution, but I have a plan for action.  I’ve already started riding my bike into work again, so I need to keep at that.  Wii Fit might have a place in this plan, but I wouldn’t count on it.

Read more

I enjoy reading books but I don’t read very much.  I would like to change that.  This one is mainly a problem of starting a habit.  I need to set aside some regular time to just chillax and read a couple of chapters.  I’ve started with Grapes of Wrath, which seems appropriate to the times.  I’m open to suggestions for what to read when I’m done with it.

Learn a new language

Like reading, this one is a matter of forming a new habit.  I tried this for a while last year with Mandarin, and at least got a sort of beginner restaurant Chinese into my head, but my studies were irregular and eventually abandoned.

Find time for hobby programming

Again, what I need to do is do something productive with my free time.  One of the awful things about my time at Autovin was stagnation.  I wasn’t learning anything new, and I wasn’t doing anything that I’d want to use in another job.  This hasn’t been a problem anymore, but there are some things that I’m really bad at.  I have ideas for some learning adventures with web programming and GUI design.  They’re probably too ambitious to ever be completed, but I at least need to take a shot and try to learn something.

Listen to more music

A quick glance at the music collection shows I bought about a dozen new albums in 2008.  It doesn’t seem like very much.  Wading through the sounds of yesteryear is ok, but I need to try out the sounds of today, too.

Eat better food

Not necessarily healthier food, just better.  No more of that pre-grated Parmesan cheese; the real stuff is so much more delicious, and the extra work of grating is definitely worth it.  Less fast food, and no more eating at any of those bland but sort-of convenient chains near the office.

Drink better

As with food, I’m looking to improve the little experiences of my life.  If I’m drinking a beer or a wine, I should take to care about what it is and how it tastes.  And I should experiment more with cocktails.  For classic mixed drinks half the fun is figuring out the history of the drink, how it was originally made and how it might be improved, and, like cooking, history is a guide rather than an aspiration.  Unlike cooking, mixing spirits often takes relatively little effort, making the cost of experimentation low.  If something turns out bad, just pour it down the drain and try something else.  All of us can get drunk on the shoulders of giants.

So here’s to a new year and new ambition.

I’m back on the bike.  It’s been over a year since I graduated from learning-to-walk-again school, and I went and got fat.  I cleaned and fiddled and replaced all the parts I could, and the friendly neighborhood bicycle shop helped to fix the last bit that needed fixin’, the rear cogs thatI had ground into uselessness at some point in the last few years.  They didn’t charge for labor, which I guess is fair since it only took like a minute of actual work between talking about wooden fenders and the various uses of a chain whip and other nerdy bicycle things, but it was pretty nice either way.  Maybe Suwanee isn’t half bad after all.

I’m back on the bike.  I’ve been only two days commuting now, and I already have a wish-list a mile long.  My mid-weather full-finger gloves don’t really have fingers to speak of anymore, I need a brighter headlamp to offset Gwinnett’s lack of street lights, I wore out my pedals and the stock pair I switched back to don’t work as nicely with the toe clips, I could use some shoe covers and a helmet cover for the various kinds of weather, and some long underwear would be nice for these frigid mornings.  Maybe it’s finally time to take the plunge and switch to clipless pedals and fancy clicky cleated shoes.  I broke my 120dbB golf cart pitched horn during the great repair, but I don’t think I’ll miss that.  Much like the rear view mirror that I no longer miss, the horn was probably a crutch I can do without.  Shouted swears are just as effective and so much more satisfying.

I’m back on the bike.  It’s been pretty freaking cold lately, and I no longer have the advantage of a drafty apartment to help me guess outside temperature based on inside discomfort.  I’m getting there; I don’t have to worry about staying warm at bus stops anymore, and as I’m figuring out how warmly I need to dress I’m able to shed some of the weight of the various spare clothings I’ve been packing.  That ridiculous looking high-vis yellow jacket I bought a while back turns out to be pretty effective in the cold as long as I’m moving, even though it doesn’t have any lining.  It’s basically as effective as that mangled blue thing I used to wear all the time, except it can breathe a little so I don’t drown in my own sweat.  If I just get something for below the waist I’d be riding pretty comfortably.

I’m back on the bike.  It’s only been two days commuting so far, and I feel fantastic.