Just another typical white geek
A couple of weeks ago, I received yet another sales call from Discover Card. This time, they were trying to sell me some sort of “payment protection” insurance. I told them “no, I’m not interested”.
Yesterday, I received a letter in the mail welcoming me to their payment protection program. Those fuckers. Now I remember why I canceled my first Discover Card back in the late 1990s.
I went to visit Moleskinerie today, and found a GoDaddy “parked” page in its place. WTF?
Update: Apparently a large power outage in San Francisco has knocked out a major data center. Other websites, including Craigslist and NetFlix, are also down.
I did a fair amount of riding around town on Monday (rode to the power company as well as work). On Tuesday, I rode to the gym for the first time. At the gym, I played basketball for the first time in a year. I then rode to work, and later rode home.
On Wednesday morning — between all the riding, plus not having played basketball in so long — my entire body hurt. I drove the car on Wednesday.
I rode my new bicycle to work for the first time today. While riding down my street, a cager almost struck me while backing out of his driveway; he only stopped after I yelled “WHOA!” at him several times. I think for commuting in town, I’m going to need an airhorn; this one looks promising. (I use my horn quite frequently when I’m on the motorcycle.)
The bike is ready for its first tuneup, as the rear derailer is out of alignment: the bike bounces between sprockets in the lower gears, making hill climbing impossible. Further, the front brake is rubbing a bit. I think most of this can be attributed to cable stretch, as the derailer was out of alignment before I crammed the bike into the trunk of my BMW three times (once on its own, once attempted with a suitcase, and once again on its own) for the drive back to San Luis Obispo.
I’m also going to switch the brakes so that the front brake is on the right hand, and the rear on the left hand. This matches the layout on motorcycles and scooters. Once that’s done, I intend to hit the parking lot for some braking practice (something I still do from time to time on the motorcycle).
The bike’s going into Cambria Bicycle on Friday.
“How long have you been abroad?” — Jack Parr to Jayne Mansfield upon her return from a trip to Europe
I was logged into my blog with IE (I usually use Firefox) when I noticed the following button at the bottom of every admin page:
This takes you to a page that declares, “Internet Explorer can make your computer unsafe. Why not switch to a browser that’s more secure?”. This button only appears when using WordPress in IE. WTF is that? Although I agree with the general sentiment (though IE 7 is much improved), I find it rather presumptuous for WordPress to be advocating in such a manner.
I just acquired a new bicycle: a Redline Conquest with some modifications (straight handlebar, etc.) to be more beginner- and commuting-friendly. My plan is to ride the bicycle to work and to the gym, because I badly need more cardio exercise.
This morning, I took the bicycle out for my first ride. I rode up a small hill on my street, and that was extremely taxing. I stopped at the top, and looked down the other side, and thought, “if I continue, I’m going to have to climb this damn hill again.” So I turned around and went home. Total ride: about 1 mile, tops. When I got home, I could barely walk up the steps.
Bicycling is hard.
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