Morning

My new morning routine:

Heavy

Dear Reader,

I apologize for the lengthy intervals between my posts. Between work, matters of the heart, and my own laziness I’ve neglected this blog. So, here’s what’s been going on.

Over the winter I started seeing a girl I’ve had a huge crush on for a while. Unfortunately, the relationship ended. I’m still not completely sure what happened. From what I can tell, it may have been bad timing or, more likely, my own inexperience with courtship. Love seems sort of like credit to me. To get good credit, one has to borrow money, but to borrow money, one has to have good credit. Maybe that’s what dating is. Borrowing a small piece of someone’s heart for a period of time — a small enough investment to get you in the door so you can build up enough credit to say “I love you” and mean it.

An interesting observation about myself. I recently learned (via Facebook, natch), that this girl (as well as another former love interest) has started seeing someone else. This revelation stirred up a response I didn’t expect. I actually got jealous and sad and lonely. To be honest, it still smarts a bit. I’m not sure why this reaction surprises me. I guess I always thought I was the sort of person who would react more cooly and rationally about this sort of thing.

Earlier this year, I had surgery on my finger to remove a benign growth. The surgery was fine, and I recovered in a few weeks. My finger is shorter than it was, but I have full use of it and don’t really notice.

Two weeks ago, I left the company I joined three years ago and started a new job. There were a number of reasons for leaving, none holding greater sway than any other. There were a lot of reasons to join the new place too (a decision wholly separate from whether to leave or not). So, I have a new position (non-engineering), in a new company. There’s a lot to learn, and I’m excited about gulping it all down so I can start making a real dent in things.

It’s summer now. This is not my favorite season, but there are still moments when I want time to stand still so I can just enjoy the moment. I’m working on filling up my life, finding a good balance between work (which I care about deeply), and everything else. I’ve recently started trying to paint again and have been trying to spend more of my time with people new and old.

I hope we can keep in touch more as I settle into this next chapter of my life.

With love, John

What I care about in 2011

Usually, around this time of year, I’d write something about what I tried and liked last year (2010). This time, I think I’ll take the time to try and communicate what I’m caring about this year. In no particular order:

• The NYPD “bike crackdown” —  The NYPD is currently strictly enforcing traffic laws for bicycles. I have no problem with such enforcement if it is applied equally across all road users (pedestrians are also road users). It is not. As a cyclist, I’m not asking for special dispensation… just equal consideration. Currently, the written laws, enforcement thereof, public attitude, and physical infrastructure are biased towards motorized vehicles and pedestrians.
• Elected Officials — I have never been one to contact elected officials in the past. However, with the NYPD bike crackdown (and with an interest in promoting alternatives to single-occupant automobiles) I’ve become much more interested in actively voicing my opinion to my elected officials.
• Life balance — To be honest, work is most of what I know. I grew up with life revolving around external reward and certificates of achievement. I’m hoping I can find a good balance between my own personal ambition, my professional life, and my personal relationships this year. I realize it’s something I need to work on, but I’m also really afraid of things not working out (thanks, laissez-faire capitalism)
• Mechanical keyboards — I’m a research and development engineer. I spend my life at a keyboard writing software and research papers. A comfortable and positive typing experience is really important. Last month, I rediscovered the joys of a great mechanical keyboard and now I’m out to try as many different keyswitches as I can. I’ve gone so far as to order my own keyboard for use at my office.
• Art — I’d really like to get back to making art. Last year I bought a bunch of painting supplies. I even prepared some canvases. Unfortunately, I never did sit down and start painting. I hope to rectify that this year. Perhaps I’ll even try and learn an instrument. Banjo and guitar are two instruments I’ve been wanting to learn. I’m also open to re-learning how to play the violin (I played for six years in grade school).

Given that it’s the beginning of the year, that’s already quite a bit. I’ll try and write more on each in the coming weeks.

Summer Project

For those just tuning in, I moved apartments in May. While my new place doesn’t have as much character as my old one, it does have the benefit of receiving an enormous amount of natural light. This has allowed me to start growing some plants.

Being a geeky sort, though, I couldn’t leave well enough alone and decided to build a plant monitoring system as a way to learn some electronics. What I envision is a sensor package for each plant that measures temperature, light, and soil moisture. All of the sensor packs would plug into a central data display/logger unit. This main unit would allow you to look at the current readings, possibly scroll through previous readings, or transfer readings to a computer.

I ordered some Arduino starter stuff from SparkFun and have been messing around. Arduino is a small microcontroller board that makes it easy to get started with some embedded programming. A microcontroller is like a very very very small computer (in terms of size and power) that generally runs only one program, unlike your desktop or laptop that runs many programs. Microcontrollers are responsible for things like controlling your microwave, managing a car engine, or running an iPod.

The arduino board (bottom) and prototype sensors (top)

A few nights ago I started wiring up temperature and light sensors. It took a little doing, but I was eventually able to convert the raw readings from the temperature sensor into human units. I’m still working on figuring out how to convert the light sensor. For kicks, I let the sensor run yesterday while I was at the office. Apparently, my apartment warms up to 90F during the day!

The interesting thing to me is that you can clearly see two main events. The first is when I turn the A/C off and leave for the office. Almost immediately, the temperature begins to rise. The second event is when the A/C automatically kicks on (I set the timer to turn on the unit about an hour before I expect to get home).

It’s also possible to see how the “energy saver” mode of my A/C unit works. I have the thermostat on the A/C set to 77F and have turned on the energy saver mode. In the plot below, you can see how the unit maintains the temperature for a while and then shuts off. The temp slowly rises again, and then the air conditioner turns on again to lower the temp.

I wired up the light sensor too and can’t wait to see how light levels change throughout the day. It will also be interesting to see how interior temps fare once I get shades. Hopefully that will bring the peak temperature down and the A/C won’t have to run as long/hard to keep the apartment cool.

The next step will be to design and build some soil moisture sensors and then figure out how to package the sensors up into a vaguely neat and attractive package.

Tweedier: Bike Commuting in 2010

In the last post, I talked about stuff that bike commuting stuff that worked. One thing I didn’t particularly like about the One-Way, was the position it put me in. The position didn’t seem quite right for commuting and errand running. In addition, the drop bars limited my options for carrying cargo on the front. So, this past weekend, I cleaned up Rolly the Raleigh and installed a new front end consisting of Jitensha/Nitto flat bars, shellaced cork grips, Shimano flat bar levers, and a front basket.

The front basket replaces the Nigel Smythe Li’l Loafer bag I used to use and provides a lot more carrying capacity. I took it on an easy grocery run today and easily carried home some OJ, a bottle of olive oil (not that light!), bananas, coffee, and some peas in addition to my usual bag of stuff and my heavy-ass u-lock. The Raleigh’s low-trail fork made handling with a front load a breeze. The bars are wide enough to proved some leverage, but not so wide as to make it difficult to thread your way through the city.

After riding around on the setup for two days, I think I may need to raise the bars a little, despite my preference (a holdover from riding race bikes the last few years). The grips and bars just aren’t that comfortable with a lot of weight on them and my hands get a bit tired after, say, more than 30 minutes at a stretch.

While I had the bike apart, I cleaned things up a little and did a general look around inspection in addition to replacing the front brake pads. I found some pretty deep dings in the paint including some on the underside of the chainstays where the kickstand mounted. Before building the bike back up, I wrapped that section of the stays with hemp twine.

A few months ago, I replaced the worn out stock brake pads with a set of Velo-Orange squeal free pads. They were definitely squeal-free, but I could never get them set up. If I set them up to provide good power there would be a lot of fork shudder under braking. If I set them up not to shudder, then they wouldn’t provide good stopping power. In addition, the pads seemed to pick up a lot of tiny metal shards from the rims. They did remain squeal-free, however.

I moved the VO pads to the rear (which I don’t use much) and replaced them with the much heralded Kool-Stop salmon pads. These have been fantastic. Brakes that I had previously been thinking of replacing have taken on a new life. The pads provide excellent squeal- and shudder-free power and are easy to modulate. Two thumbs up.

Tried and Liked 2009: Bike Commuting

2009 was my first year of bike commuting. I purchased a 2009 model year Raleigh One-Way in January, which arrived just after my birthday in February. Racks, lights, and various bags were subsequently purchased. Here are some of the things I tried and liked (and some things I didn’t like) in 2009.

• Brooks B-17 Saddle: Much has been written about the comfort of this saddle. I have to say, it doesn’t feel any more or less comfortable than my race saddle (a Specialized Toupe) when in a racing crouch, but it provides nice broad support when in a more upright position. The side skirts seem to be nicely finish and haven’t ripped up my pants.
• Pletscher Master Rack: This is a relatively inexpensive rack from Switzerland. It has a spring clip, little metal loops that fold up and down for holding things in place, and a light bracket at the rear for euro-style bolt on lights. The mounting system is a little clumsy. It looks more utilitarian than pretty, but it is very very functional. I have seen great racks that are three times the price (I think I got mine for $40), but with half the functionality.
• Cygo-Lite Dual-Cross Pro Li-On: These are the lights pictured above. So far, these have been great. They provide more than adequate light and I can use it for three or four days straight before I need to recharge the battery. The head unit is quite large, though, and the battery lead is short. Still, an excellent light.
• Nitto M-12 front rack and Nigel Smythe little loafer bag. This has so far been a great combo for quick errands when all I need is a place to stash gloves, a hat, and maybe my phone or wallet. I’ve even used it to carry home stuff from a quick grocery run (lotion, some broth, cheese, and an apple or two). The rack has never given me any problems, and the bag keeps my stuff dry. Plus, I think it looks sharp.
• Velo-Orange touring pedals and leathered toe clips: These are fantastic pedals. My shoes have only slipped when it’s been absurdly wet. The platform is wide and comfortable. The bearings seem smooth. Color me impressed! Leathered toe clips do indeed keep the toes of your nice shoes from getting scuffed up.
• Showers Pass Touring Jacket and Club Pants: These have kept me toasty dry in the worst of rains and toasty warm in bitterly cold winds. The jacket has pretty good venting that is easy to adjust and the pants are articulated so as not to restrict movement. The jacket arms are weirdly long, though. They are so long that I have to do up the velcro when not on the bike or they just fall over my hands.

Bring on the Pain

Last year I dipped my toes into the local bike racing scene in Central Park. Last Friday, I finally plunked down the cash for a USAC racing license so I’m now official a category five racer. This still seems a little comical to me, given that I’ve hardly done anything resembling training in the last year. I’ve barely run, and barely ridden my bike. It’s been almost a year and a half since I’ve felt the need to do maintenance on the race bike. Under normal circumstances, I would’ve done major overhauls/rebuilds twice a year. That should give an indication as to how much less I’ve been riding.

So, hopefully, this will be the year I get off my butt and actually do things. As in running, I’ve found that I can forget how much I like cycling until I’m actually on the bike, rolling along. I forget enough that I don’t go out which just leads to even more gloom and despair and lack of motivation. I’m not generally one for New Year’s resolutions, but I’m going to try and get up early enough to get an hour and a half to two hours on the bike before work.

Of course, saying things like that without goals is somewhat pointless. To that end, I want to be well on my way to upgrading to category four by the end of the year, and definitely want to be there by the end of next year. That means that by the end of next year, I need to have raced 10 mass start races. So, let’s say that I want to do seven races this year with at least two top ten finishes.

Given that I placed 11th in a late season race last year, I think that should be doable. The challenge is going to come from dealing with disruptions from other directions. I’ve just found out that my landlord wants to sell the apartment I’m renting. This means that I need to move in June, which will most likely result not only in adjusting to a new apartment, but also the discombobulation of looking for a new apartment. The last time I was looking for places, I had the luxury of having afternoons essentially free. Now I’m working a full-time job and I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to swing this. Weekend mornings, I guess.

Spectacles

I got some new ones:

I’m kind of shy

This is not my beautiful wife. This is not my beautiful house. How did I get here?

Hung

Over breakfast, I decided to hang some paintings I’ve had sitting around. This two-part piece is pretty much the last example of my painting that I have in my possession.

The End of Summer

Herewith, some photos of things I’ve seen and places I’ve gone the past few weeks. Governor’s Island. The Grey Dog Cafe in the West Village, and a photo from my commute home. Not surprisingly, I took my bike on all of these trips.

The ferry from Manhattan to Governor’s Island is equipped with rows and rows of bike racks.

I wonder what’s happening at the same moment…

This blue folding bike caught my eye. It has an integrated rear rack.

Pulling away from South Ferry. The trip to Governor’s Island is only ten minutes or so.

Chair painting on Governor’s Island

The Unoppressive, Non-Imperialist Bargain Books shop across from Grey Dog Cafe

One of the reasons I love bike commuting.