Happy Scotchtoberfest!

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 9% BF

Busy evening yesterday: home to change, then to Wind Gap for physical therapy. Grabbed some Subway on the way home, ate, did chores, 'puter, then went for a ride around 10:00 last night. Short one, just a loop around the bikepath, trying out the bike and lights etc. Anxious few minutes getting all my winter nightriding stuff together & functioning, which is why the ride started so late. Back by 11:20, I played with computer some more & went to bed at 1:00 AM.

Finally, Going Riding!

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 8% BF

Went out and got my Halloween costume last night, what a friggin' nightmare but now it's over and done. No clues or spoilers, you'll have to wait for the Halloween party (or to see pictures here) to find out what it is... I was there (at the Party Store in Phillipsburg) from a little after 7:00 until about 9:00, so I blew off riding last night to play with the computer and finish Never Mind the Pollacks. Dinner was a meatball sub from the deli up the street.

I'm taking next week off. Today at lunch I booked several days at the Nantahala Outdoor Center in western North Carolina; car goes into the shop Friday/Saturday to get ready (oil change).

Tonight I have physical therapy, then I will hit the towpath, make sure new lights, chain/ring/cassette and cables/housing are all good before Friday night's ride, and Saturday's, and Sunday's, and next week's...

Getting My Act Together

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 12% BF

I put the new middle ring on the Turner last night, also greased the pivots (I think I'll need a new pivot kit, as well as replacement bearing inserts for the shock); did that while laundry was washing, then hit Which Brew for dinner while it was drying. Moussaka, washed down with Magic Hat Number 9.

Jump on it: For some reason I also decided to restart my web server last night, then I see today that Apache just now reached 50 million website users -- I wonder if it was me? Probably not, no one else can see my server.

Just Waiting for FitzMas

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 10.5% BF

Nothing much to say here, busy playing with computer & photos last night, instead of doing laundry/bike/housework, as you know...

(Re)Reading: Never Mind the Pollacks by Neal Pollack. Laugh-out-loud funny.

Some Photos From "Close The Loop" Day

Sals: Dave and John Address the Troops
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I posted a bunch of photos from Sunday's trailwork at Sals, you can check them out here.Enjoy!

Of course, I bought the new chainring I need for the bike, so I should be putting that on (as well as re-greasing the pivots), and I have laundry that needs doing, and then there's the issue of dinner (as in, not eaten or even cooked) -- thus I sat down at the computer when I got home, been fiddling here ever since.

Reporting In From Weekend Duty

Morning weigh-in: 177.5#, 12% BF (weight-gain weekend)

Friday night: I went on the Haunted Tour of Easton. Pretty cool, got to check out that "cemetery in the basement" in a local church; most of the rest of the tour was stories of hangings, Civil War history stuff, and goth-style vampires running around spouting "Diamond Dogs" quotes (I kid you not). Worked for me! Right after that I went over to Which Brew, where most of the volunteer cast, and a good chunk of the tour-goers, had already assembled. The Skulldiggers were playing, Heath and Hans were there as well as Mike & Carole, Brian came out, and they had Red Nectar on tap...

Saturday was sort of my selfish day, only different. Coffee Works was closed, so I went to the Quadrant, waited there for a call from Joe G: his girlfriend had grabbed some tickets to the Lehigh Valley Brewfest at the State Theater, and we'd be going to the noon-3:00 PM session. This was quite the beer snob's heaven, all sorts of local breweries with samples of their best beers... they filled up two floors at the State Theater, awesome scene -- though I ran into a friend at the Quadrant, who was going to the 5:00 session and he commented that the early one would be all the "sniff the brew and guess the hops" types, all the partiers would be at the later session with him. He was pretty much right, but I had plans for the evening.

Saturday night was Greg and Judy's "Island Party." They, with Eric & Kris, submitted a short video and won a sailing vacation, got filmed for a promotional movie; this was the premiere for their friends of that movie. Cool film, great party.

Sunday was "Close The Loop Day" at Sals: we finished the main trails there and marked them, so now there are several loops that can be ridden... then we rode them. Still finding issues on the bike, leftovers from All-A-Muchy that I must deal with.

...And Come Full Circle

Busy evening yesterday. I had physical therapy at 6:00 in Wind Gap, but on the way I stopped in at Curt's Cyclery & bought a new chain, a cassette, and new cables with housings, as well as a bar-mount HID light (expensive, but I really needed a new light). Then off to PT, where my arm was manipulated ("like flossing with the nerves" -- strange how the bike and hand problems are so similar), then home to check the email before installing all the new stuff, and finally stopping at Which Brew.

Tonight is the Easton Halloween Spooky Walk. Actually it's happening both tonight and tomorrow night, and I went out of my way to get a ticket for tomorrow night before realizing I had a previous engagement: Greg & Judy are having an "Island Party" to debut the promotional sailing video they were in. That's Saturday night, and so was my ticket, so I had to exchange it for a Friday at WB, nexus of all things Halloween in Easton. Good jazz trio playing, and some guy had an art/photo exhibit going on in the other room, pretty neat. Got into a conversation w/ young Pete about surfing...

But I did get the bike back up and running. Funny thing, I can remember when Shimano changed their derailleur springs to thwart the new Grip-Shift shifter technology, and Grip-Shift came out with those GoreTex-covered cables, maybe 10 years ago now. They worked unbelievably well, smooth shifting, like nothing you've ever used before -- for about two weeks. Once it gunked up or developed a little wear, it became the worst shifter cable you ever had. Moved to generic cable (mediocre performance, but the performance wouldn't degrade and you could clean/lube it to bring it back) and shimano shifters... now here I am 10 years later, using incredibly good Shimano cables that degrade within weeks, so much for progress.

Fourth Horseman Update: Neat science about the upcoming armageddon.

Back To Square One

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 9% BF

Last night was the Chain Gang meeting at Which Brew (who I still like, but I think they dropped the ball, service & food-wise last night). Good meeting, though.

The Money Pit: OK, I need new cable and housing for the rear derailleur, also a new chain and probably a new cassette. I'll pick it up tonight hopefully, also pick up a new handlebar-mount lighting system, slap it all on & be ready to ride tomorrow night.

Scopes Smackdown

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 8%

Nothing to say, really. Worked a little on the bike last night, cleaned/lubed, discovered problems with rear derailleur cable, must fiddle with it some more or, or... replace it yet again? Meantime, here is a little more about our homegrown monkey trial.

Big Time

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 12.5% BF

Looks like we made the big time: a mention in the NY Times via the (far superior) Clusterfuck Nation, and a little something something about Lehigh's own Prof. Michael Behe in the Morning Call. Lucky thing they're building that ballfield where the high-tech company used to be, and the gambling casinos where the heavy steel industry used to be, or there wouldn't be any jobs for all the new crowds... And speaking of gambling, I hear that the extra tax on stupid people Powerball Lottery is up to like $340 million.

In my world: Physical therapy last night -- ultrasound, stretching and some anti-slouch exercises. I hope that they're actually therapeutic and not some caprice of my slouch-Nazi therapist... Tonight I look at the bike, get it ready for some night rides.

Self Portrait

Lego me -- I did this a while ago, just remembered to post it now. You can build your own here. Can't remember where I saw this, kudos to some blogger...

UPDATE: Found it. Thank you, Culture Cat! I should have known it was part of the whole "needs meme" thang.

Weekend Report

No morning weigh-in (oops, not expecting/avoiding bad news, just forgot)

Friday I was going to go to the Pocono cinema to see Grizzly Man, but got out of work just at the tipping point of "too late to drive up there and be on time." I did some stuff at home, then went out to WB instead. A good night, but nothing exceptional.

Saturday was my "selfish day" sans workout (doctor's orders): bank, Coffee Works, then over to the Garlic Festival before getting a haircut. It was a nice day (finally!) so I worked on the bike and did a short ride, tried to wake up the legs for Sunday while doing some more recon & planning for the Halloween ride. Ran into my friend Scott from work, who was tooling around by Riverside Park. He was trying to find the guys who were marking the course for Sunday's adventure race, looking to help out.

Saturday night I went out to Allentown, met a bunch of friends (Doug & Lori, Greg & Judy, Brian, Eric & Janna, Debbie, and Eric & Kris, big table) at Lobaido's for dinner. Turns out it was Eric R's birthday. He kept it a secret though from the people he invited (like me), so didn't get many presents. The place is BYO, so I brought a bottle of Eco Domiani chianti; most others brought something as well. Still not a big wine fan, but there were a few I liked. Dinner of course, was awesome, I just wish I had room for the legendary homemade ice cream afterward...

Sunday was the All-A-Muchy 50k race at Allamuchy, put on by my friends Bob & Karen. Excellent day, and I did pretty good though my friends Greg and Joe did much better, coming in 11th & 22nd respectively. I did manage to get one good prize though: fell over at one point, landed THWACK! right on a rock with my knee, directly on an almost-healed scab. Spent the rest of the race with a rivulet of blood... Got home about 4:30, went to bed and didn't get up until this morning.

Speaking Secret Alphabets

Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 175.5#, 7.5% BF (NFL)
(No Friday weigh-in)


Reading: Graves's The White Goddess. Tree-alphabets, stone-age religious secrets hidden in medieval poetry... speaking of arcane knowledge...

Regex: Sed vs Perl: Found the source of my problem playing with sed: the syntax for regular expressions in sed and grep (and probably awk) is different from the regular expression syntax I learned for perl. I've been having problems with sed errors, and I've been been busting out my perl reference manual and just getting myself more confused. (I also think that the syntax doesn't quite match what I think the man pages are telling me.) What I thought was a common (and easily discoverable) building block is turning out to be splintered, and quite arcane indeed -- luckily, google and wikipedia came through.

Tonight I'm seeing that movie Grizzly Man. It was playing around here but I missed it; I'll be meeting Bob & Karen, also Joe & Cindy at the Pocono Cinema. Deja vu.

And Now For Something Completely Waterlogged

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 10.5% BF

It's been raining a lot the last few days not much outdoor life going on. First PA, and now NJ got hit pretty hard. My cold is abating though, so I did do a short ride down along the Bushkill yesterday, maybe five miles of recon: creek wasn't up, and the silt/crap down there wasn't too bad so I'll be incorporating it into my Halloween ride. Saw a fish about 100 yards from shore, flooding must have been intense Saturday night. The Muskenetcong was amazing this morning, waaaay over its banks. Outta here after lunch, first day of physical therapy.

Deep, In The Heart, Of Darkest America

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 10.5% BF

Interesting encounter with wildlife while on my recent travels: I can now attest that Chicago's O'Hare Airport, in addition to its amazing Corridor of Epilepsy, can also boast of having mice. One mouse anyway: it ran out from along the wall & up to my carry-on bag, then scooted away. But before it left, it looked me in the eye and sang "Yersinia pestis, yeedle deedle deedle daiddle deedle..."

You've already paid for this, listen to my heart beat.

I Have Needs Too, You Know

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 8.5% BF

Weekend Report (loose ends): I went out Saturday night, saw The Foolz again, playing at Which Brew this time. I think this show was actually tighter and better than the one Friday at the FunHouse. Pre-show dinner was mozzerella & tomato "mini-me" salad and garlic-lime chili wings. I ended up talking to some couple next to me: they were making a short film, they were there to meet with a potential producer and, while waiting for him to show up, asked me to look over the script. Look for me in the credits, though I'm sure I won't see a dime...

Last night was spent organizing and archiving my digital photos. Everything I have prior to 2005 (incuding all sorts of stuff emailed to me) on one CD, and all my 2005 digital photos to date on another. Piece of cake.

Don Needs: Saw another game over at Pharyngula, Google "[your first name] needs" and list what comes up. Here's mine:

• Anger Management: DON NEEDS A DATE
• Reply, Elephant--Don Don needs his love--.
• Opinions You Should Have - Comment on Uncle Don Needs You
• RC Groups - Hey TAWG, Don needs one of these!
• Don needs to recognize that a variable mortgage will usually have a lower rate than a fixed one.
• Don needs our help
• Don needs a loan but doesn’t want to cash in his Certificate of Deposit.
• The Don needs underlings So hey, hey! Kiss that pinky ring!
  Give it to him baby! Uh uh, uh uh! Give it to him baby!
  Uh uh, uh uh! Give it to him baby!
• Using his wits, Don needs to rescue his buddies who have been kidnapped by the...
• The DON needs a corps of knowledge workers
• To do his job Don needs a car, a phone, a computer and a connection between his office and home.
• Big Don needs an outhouse so we are building one to house one of the two...
• Don needs more help weaving all these issues together in to a comprehensive work plan
• Darrell Beaver, a community resident, pops in to see if Don needs anything
• Don needs our help and support.
• Plus Don needs a new snow shovel.

Funny because it's true... though it's not as odd/cool as PZ's list, which may be because my name isn't as odd/cool as "PZ."

Reading: Caesar's The Gallic War. Also reread Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian on my recent travels.

Bethlehem Steel From The Armory Parking Lot

Bethlehem Steel From The Armory Parking Lot
Originally uploaded by donXfive.

I took this shot last Sunday, when it was just a little better than today... rode out to Salisbury, met Doug & Rich who were finishing with trail work, took a few photos which I posted over at my flickr page.
Today was a little different: cold, cloudy & wet, no ride, and no photos, but I was up at Sals again (with Doug, Brian, Eric, both Gregs, John E and Dave L) for trailwork. We got a lot done, finished the "dead-end" trail in fact, by finally making the connection to existing stuff.

Sister Goldenhair

Back from Utah. Flew out at 5:00 PM or so on Wednesday, transfer in Chicago, landed 10:45 local time in Salt Lake City, then drove until 1:30 AM, which of course is 3:30 AM EDT... Got up, met colleagues at 7:30 & drove to plant, work work work & then drove back to Salt Lake City. Dinner at Red Rock Brewpub, then a 9:00 bedtime -- 7:45 AM flight, Chi-town layover, home by about 6:00 PM yesterday.

Getting from Salt Lake City to Provo was pretty easy, by the way, but Provo to Price was a bit tricky -- I stopped for coffee on the way, verified directions with the kid at the counter, and as I was leaving he goes "good luck going up the canyon, man." I was like "say what?" and he told me it was one of the deadliest roads in the US for 10 years running, just the thing to hear before your midnight drive... But hey I'm from Jersey -- at night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines. You know, sprung from cages on Highway Nine, chrome wheel, fuel injected and steppin' out over the line...

The road was all that though, twisty and steep, but I caught some good tunes which helped me through: singing along to the oldies ("...well I keep on thinkin' 'bout you, sister goldenhair surprise...") first, and then I found an alternative station, out of Provo I think. Jammin through the mountain passes to Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy and 311; the most perfect moment musicale was Depeche Mode's Personal Jesus, it was so Utah it hurt...

Anyway, got home yesterday evening, dinner at Porter's (with Brian, Doug & Lori and Greg & Judy) & a stop in with the crew at Which Brew, then over to the Funhouse with D&L to see the Foolz, also met Spanky there. The Funhouse, be it known, has cleaned and re-tiled its bathroom, not sure if the place'll ever be the same.

Nice Enough

No memory of weighing myself this morning...

Worked on the bike last night, after my visit to the doctor. Fingers are still pretty numb but Doc thinks it isn't too bad -- B vitamins, physical therapy are the new order of the day. I'll be starting PT sometime next week, after getting back from my trip to Utah.

Meantime, the bike: there's a squeaking & creaking, almost drove me nuts on the ride Sunday. I think it was either cranks or the suspension pivots, so I tightened this & lubed that; hopefully it'll be quieter on tonight's ride.

One Tin Soldier Rides Away

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 14% BF

Fourth Horseman: Really cool article about the Black Death and AIDS over at Daily Kos. What's not mentioned though, is the connection between rising standards of living (and population) in the 12th & 13th centuries, and the decisions, worldwide, to squander their built-up wealth and people in a series of wars -- thus making all of Eurasia ripe for the plucking when the pandemic finally came. How many horsemen?

Meantime, rode yesterday, the ride I wrote about. It was quite fun, but the weekend took its toll and now my legs are so tired they're sore...

UPDATE: Thank you, Fafblog!