Pretty Day, viewed from the window

Morning weigh-in: 174.5%, 12.5% BD
 
Rode last night, did the "benchmark" ride. I really need to get a new cycle computer, find out what my actual distance is with this, so I can start using it as a benchmark again.  
 
(This is called "the benchmark ride" because that's how I used to use it: a very well-defined course of about 25 miles, that I could compare day-to-day fitness on by checking my ride times. I started using it back when I lived on Southside, but when I moved I had to change parts of the route so "benchmarking" sort of lapsed, since results were no longer directly comparable. I moved years ago though, so I should just consider the new route the standard, and start over with the benchmarking.)
 
Anyway, my time was 1:25 for probably 24 miles. Not bad, since some of this is city riding (lights, traffic etc). I felt really good, smooth and fast, almost effortless when I got on top of the right gear -- some of those roads have recently been resurfaced.

 Dinner was the rest of that leftover Chinese food (crispy beef in orange sauce), then after the ride I had some baked stuffed tofu, plus a little saurkraut. Ran around, did some shopping afterward, hit Wal-Mart for velcro tape and played with the blood pressure machine: 121/76, with a pulse rate of 91. Pulse was elevated by riding, I wonder if pressure is the same? I once was 100/60, but my resting heart rate was 52 at the time...
 
This morning I did something I haven't done in a while: got up early and made breakfast. Coffee, oatmeal with blueberries, should do that more often!
 
I pick up the bike today from Bike King, where it was getting some stuff done that I didn't feel like doing myself, I may do a short easy ride to check it out. From the office window, today looks beautiful.
 

Linux Voyager: of mice and modules

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 11.5% BF
 
Kernel Panic: built the new 2.6.7 kernel, but forgot everything I learned on the "training run" building 2.4.26 -- mainly, I forgot to make sure there was RAM disk support. (I need that for the initrd image, which I need for treating the CD-RW as a SCSI device, which I need for ... ) The new kernel's makefile has a generic "make install" which is pretty nice, does a bit more of the actual "put the files where they're supposed to be, with the proper names" part of the install. Anyway, a quick look back at this entry got me what I needed, and the kernel booted OK ...except the mouse didn't respond, and I got some kind of error that the mousedev module couldn't be found (among a bunch of other modprobe errors). So, I'm still using 2.4, and some further research/tweaking is required.
 
Meanwhile: No exercise, or anything else really, yesterday. I did some laundry and played with the computer, ate some Chinese food on the way to the supermarket, but blew off shopping after eating. Currently re-reading A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and the Silmarillion.
 
Dept of good news/bad news: Theresa is now working part time at Weyerbacher Brewery, for a few hours on Saturdays when they have tours. That is, tours with free samples -- uh oh! Just when I was really planning to watch my weight... 

Sunday Already

Well, looks like the rain has stopped, but I'm already in "lazy mode" today. Dinner with T last night (we walked to WB, after walking to Wordell's and not really liking the menu). Also: ran for the first time in a while yesterday, two miles before working out at the gym. Really, really slow: about 24 minutes, but it was hot and I was no way going to push it.

Linux: got the latest 2.6 kernel, ran "make menuconfig" and should be ready to build it. Maybe today? But in the meantime, there's laundry and shopping and generic housework awaiting...

Friday Already

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 13.5% BF
 
Hmmmm... looks like Blogger has been improved yet again... fonts, photos, a few more html tags as buttons, and a raw HTML editor. Verrrry interesting!!
 
Rode last night, did a loop out near my "benchmark ride," but a little bit hillier. At the end of the ride I saw co-worker Scott on his bike at the corner of 13th & Northampton. He'd done the Genesis "Ice Cream Ride" and was waiting for another rider to come up in his car, follow him home and pick up a spare pump bracket. I went with them, hung out for a bit. It was a kind of nice way to end the ride.
 
Brain rot: didn't play with the computer last night. Forgot to pay my phone bill & they turned off the line. Oh well, something to do at lunchtime. (In my defense, they now send three separate bills instead of one, I'm so confused...) Last thing I did Wednesday though, was to download the latest kernel, maybe I'll build it this weekend, get my video card back up & running. 


 

back from an involuntary hiatus

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 174.5# BF forgotten
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 177.5#, 13.5% BF

Got knocked out by a 24-hour bug, starting around midnight Tuesday. Here's the news otherwise:

Pump it up: I went out for a towpath ride Tuesday night, but before I left I checked the tire pressure -- it was like in the mid-20 psi range! I sort of noticed they seemed mushy on the turns on Saturday, I also noticed I felt slower and more sluggish than usual but didn't bother to make the connection or remedy the problem. Anyway, I pumped them up pretty high for me lately, about 40 psi, and felt like superman on the path. I felt so good that I decided to really push it, and ended up with a 1:24 burn time (approx 16.5 mph avg for 23 miles). Nowhere near my old records (1:28 for 25.4 miles, or 17.32 mph avg), but not bad! This won't do me any good at the Wilderness 101 I'm sure, but it's still a confidence boost even if I torched my lungs a bit. I can't believe I used to ride 55 psi on 1.95" tires...

After that I hit the showers, then met Theresa at Which Brew. Typical night there, very cool especially since the Mug Club Night (already postponed from last week because of the July 4th holiday) was cancelled because Kelly Jo was sick. That night of course, I got sick too, and found that T also took Wednesday off because she got hit by something. Coincidence? Probably not, but the bug didn't get caught Tues nite, more likely it happened much earlier & was caught by all of us from some other source.

Yesterday I stayed home, played some more with sed and found I could get some rudimentary template control, but it's pretty unwieldy; I also think I have a handle on my slow internet download problem, if not the solution then at least an understanding of the problem. I also got a haircut, and dropped my bike off for repairs at Bike King. It was Heath's birthday last night and he called, so I dropped by WB one more time for a quick hello.

ONe more thing: I got an email from "PayPal," looks like someone was on a phishing expedition. More on this in a day or two maybe.

Linux Voyager: sed and awk and bash, oh my!

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 13.5% BF

OK, so I haven't played with awk yet, but I'm starting to look at sed, and I'm getting a little deeper into scripting with bash. The context, of course, is still that script to take a bunch of JPEG files and generate a photo gallery for them.

Right now the script creates a directory called "html" in the working directory, and one called "photos" (with a "thumbs" subdirectory) there as well, then for each jpg/JPG file in the working directory it makes a smaller, thumbnail version of the file in "photos/thumbs", moves the file itself to "photos", and generates an HTML file in "html" to display the original file. It also makes an HTML file in the working directory to serve as an index, which displays the thumbs as links to the display files. The display files have links to each other -- "next" and "previous" display files, as defined by their order in the index -- as well as a link back to the index.

I used this to make my "Photos of Mike" Gallery, which shows how the resulting pages work together. (The explanatory text on the display pages was put in with an ordinary HTML editor; this text, and the linking structure on the display pages, are why I used HTML instead of just displaying the photos. If you look at the navigation links on the bash vs the awk pages you'll see why I thought my link structure was a good idea.)

My problems with the script as it stands are mostly related to its lack of flexibility. I'd like to have more control over the photo file selection, and maybe have the index and page display files be written from templates; I may also make a lot more of the "hardwired" stuff be variables, with default variables that can be superseded by a configuration file. These can all be command line arguments, options etc, and the configuration file could be just another shell script, but the templates may be tricky... hence, sed and awk.

In the long run, it may be easier to just port this to perl, but in the even longer run, an entirely new web page structure, based on CGI or CSS, may be the smarter move. (I spent some time experimenting with forms last night.)

Half-past Summer

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 10.5% BF

So the Fourth has come and gone, and now Heritage Day has passed...

Friday: nothing much happened. I worked late, went to Which Brew and then crashed early.

Saturday: I felt tired but went to the gym anyway, then when Dawn didn't show (& I remembered we'd cancelled) I just blew it off. Some housework, then I did a slow, medium-long ride on the Lehigh towpath: brought the camera, took pictures of Bethlehem Steel, the new trails behind St Luke's Hospital, and the trainyard west of Sand Island.

Sunday was pretty interesting. I went with Theresa and "Murph" (aka Mike Murphy -- I've known him for years & just found out his real first name) to a brunch at Margarita's house -- where Jay DeJesus showed up on his road bike, then to Mary Merritt's annual party to watch the fireworks. It was pretty cool, saw Violetta (who will be leaving for Alaska soon), and also John & Sue Zorn with their daughter Kayla, who is probably about 2, maybe a little older. And of course, the fireworks were awesome.

TGIF, PART UMPTEEN

Morning weigh-in: 176.5#, 10% BF

Very busy at work this week, trying to get something out by today. That is all.

the bounceback

Morning weigh-in: 175.5#, 9.5% BF

I set up a yahoo photo page here for my public photos. Still not sure how big I should make them: I want the best possible quality & yahoo's storage space is "unlimited," but bandwidth, on dialup at home, is not. Also, uploading to yahoo is a big pain unless I find a way to automate the process.

My current strategy should be, to set up galleries of "good enough for the web" image files at SDF, then put the bigger image files at yahoo, where they also have photo ordering features -- like, who doesn't at this point?

Felt tired, somewhat under the weather again last night -- possible food allergy from lunch? Worked late, got home & took a nap, then ate a falafel wrap and some Taco Hell & played with 'puter. I felt much better after eating the greasy bad food...

UPDATE: Thought I'd mention what I'm reading: One Man's Meat by E. B. White (Charlottes's Web, The Elements of Style -- that E. B. White). Wry and clever urban writer relocates to a Maine coastal farm in the late 1930's, writes essays about his experiences that are later collected in book form. I wouldn't call it great because it wasn't meant to be "great" (its tone is casual & informal) but it is thoughtful, clear, vivid, compelling... in a word, well, great.

post-Indie Day

Morning weigh-in (Mon): 172.5#, 10% BF
Morning weigh-in (Tue): 172.5#, 13% BF

So, the holiday weekend...

Friday night: blew off riding to play with the computer. I put some of my recent digital photos onto the hard drive, then experimented with some command-line image manipulation utilities, mainly pnmscale. I'd like to keep my photos in the big (~800K) format, but make smaller copies for posting on the web; I'm also trying to find formats other than JPEG, that I can use for interim storage (ie, between bouts of "image manipulation") that don't cause a loss of image quality...

In other news, I set up a Yahoo group account for my family (mainly to get them to join Yahoo so we can share photos better), we'll see how that works out. And one final geek-out: I sent the $36 one-time fee to the Super Dimension Fortress via PayPal, now I have a full account on their machine w/ 300MB storage and access to the full set of UNIX commands. First thing I did was change my shell to bash.

Late-nite dinner at Which Brew, which was quiet.

Saturday I had breakfast at the coffee shop, then went to the gym; I saw Dawn for the first time in about a month -- she just got back from her honeymoon, with many stories including her own lost luggage tale. I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning the house: took a bunch of garbage bags full of old clothes to the charity dropoff, threw out a pile of old boxes, and cashed in all my loose change lying around. The place still looks like a disaster area -- worse than when I started, actually -- but progress was definitely made.

Dinner was Which Brew, again.

Sunday was the July 4th road ride and barbecue. The ride was about 70 miles, hilly, and hot -- a beautiful ride! About fifteen people did the long ride, the usual suspects plus John C, Tiasha, and Chris from the Bulldogs; a few others did shorter rides. We met back at Joe's mom's house, big BBQ, pool party, major fireworks... Theresa came later with Connor, & that was pretty cool because there were a bunch of kids he played with.

Monday: I sort of slacked, but dropped my bike box off at Doug's for his use on their upcoming trip to Vail. We grabbed lunch in Bethlehem at that Mexican place on Main Street, then hit a CD store. I got an Echo & the Bunnymen re-release and the soundtrack to O Brother where Art Thou? Not sure what Doug got but it was good.

I became kind of energetic later in the day: cleaned/lubed the Turner, then rode down the Delaware towpath -- something I hadn't done in years -- to just past Riegelsville and back, maybe 30-35 miles total. On the way back, I stopped at the Raubsville Tavern (you ride right past the outdoor bar) and got a margarita and a Lynchburg Lemonade -- wow!

After the ride I stopped off at T's and watched The Big Lebowski.

duh, part 2

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 12% BF

Recommendo: Saw Fahrenheit 9/11 last night. Incredible movie. Vintage Moore: viciously partisan (of course), manipulative (somewhat), maybe misleading (time will tell -- but I'd heard most of his revelations years ago, and most of them seem pretty true), but much better than his usual stuff. Very powerful, funny at times but in the end really sad.

Anyway, I was supposed to go riding at Round Valley tonight, but I'm working late, didn't bring bike and will instead hit the towpath. There's a reception for "Taming the Bicycle" tonight at the Banana Factory, and I think I'll head down to see it.

The Tour starts tomorrow.

these 4-day weeks are pretty nice

Morning weigh-in: 174#, 12% BF

Rode last night from Eric's house: me, Doug, Greg, Eric, Janna's Eric, and Joe & Cindy. He lives in the "hilly zone" south of the Bethlehem-Allentown border, and the ride definitely had its share of ups and downs... very difficult I thought; though I felt like I was riding OK I felt a little tired & out-of-sorts (poor sleep, stomach problems). Something nasty has been going around, fever/chills, sweats, fatigue & muscle aches. It got Doug & Joe, and reportedly Greg H as well; Doug's mom has something similar right now but also with upset stomach!! -- watch the paranoia...

duh

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 14% BF

A little dull today, not much to say... got my luggage back -- made them deliver it to the office, worked a little late but not too, rode last nite on the towpath (brought lights, used them for the last little bit), and met T and her neighbors/friends at the Riverside, a place with a deck overlooking the Delaware River.

Back From Florida

Morning weigh-in: 176#, 13.5% BF

Not a bad trip, though I'm still missing my luggage (nice move US Airways). I guess I should be thankful it happened on the return trip though...

I flew down Friday, after a bit of an impromptu party Thursday night at Which Brew with T (we went for dinner after riding the towpath)and a couple of others (Ed, Murph, Margerita). I had the next day off, but I still had to pack and my flight was 6:50 AM -- ouch! The flight was pretty uneventful, ABE to Ft Myers w/ connection in Pittsburg, then car rental & the hour or so drive to Marco.

Saturday was downtime, so I worked on my sunburn, then went out to dinner with all involved in the Christening. Baptism on Sunday, followed by barbecue at Kevin's, and I flew home yesterday. Plenty of photos, maybe I'll post a few here.

I stopped at Doug & Lori's on the way home, ended up in plans by Eric to see Fahrenheit 911 but it was sold out so we went to Tulum for dinner. Real food, real beer...

week's winding down already?

Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 175#, 11% BF
Morning weigh-in (Thursday): 175#, 11% BF

Last night was the Chain Gang Time Trial, on an approximately 14.5 mile long, hilly loop from the C's house. Joe & Cindy, Greg, Doug, Eric and myself, and Judy kept the time. I did it in 42.09, for an average of 20.6 mph -- not too shabby, except that I came in 2nd to last...

After that I went to Which Brew. It was Rachel's husband Bill's 50th birthday party -- Rachel was the first bartender at Weyerbacher: pretty girl, super-smart. I met T down there, and I finally wheedled out of her that she was fairly expert at UNIX printing, especially using nroff. I knew there was something I liked about her!

When I got home I signed up for a free account at the Super Dimension Fortress, a public-access UNIX system.

This is probably my last post for a few days, as I'm going to Florida tomorrow morning for my niece's baptism. See you next week!

they call it stormy monday, but tuesday's just as bad

Morning weigh-in: 175#, 11% BF

Rode last night at the 'burg with Brian and Curt. Curt (owner of Curt's Cyclery)was on his Surly singlespeed, similar to the one I plan to buy soon from him; Brian was back on his usual bike after getting his rear hub replaced, and I ... forgot my Camelback. I actually rode pretty good without the extra weight, but I felt naked without it and of course had nothing to drink. Luckily, it was pleasant and cool out, and I grabbed something afterward at the first convenience store I passed on the way home. I'll probably hit the gym tonight, avoid the rainy world outside.

Meantime, books: now that Mason & Dixon is out of the way I can continue in earnest with The Education of Henry Adams, and pick up One Man's Meat where I left off.

Love and Mortality

Just finished Mason & Dixon. Wow. That has probably the most bittersweet ending of any book I know. Gravity's Rainbow is still Pynchon's most brilliant and involved book, but M&D, despite the rollicking, complicated fun along the way, is deeper and sadder and far more beautiful. G'night.

Back From Camping

Morning weigh-in: 177#, 12% BF

Wednesday Night was the Chain Gang meeting. It seems so long ago now...

Thursday: was spent running around, getting ready for camping, then my neighbor's wake (pretty rough: his wife, even though sedated, lost it at one point), then I swung by Theresa's to check out her new car, a Volkswagen diesel station wagon, then "dinner" and drinks at Which Brew -- gotta love vacation!

Friday: I got up to the campsite in Jim Thorpe about noon, met John C and his friends/co-workers Bruce and Mark, set up camp and hit the trails by about 3:00. We rode Psycho Betty's Revenge and Bob's Option, which is only maybe a 6-7 mile loop but fairly technical, then cooled off in the lake. We biked downtown for dinner (and we also grabbed a few beers with Rich B, Greg H and his friend Mike at the Hotel Switzerland) and returned via the Switchback Trail in the dark. I went to bed, but those guys stayed up a little later...

Saturday: We drove to Tamaqua, the new local hotspot, to ride the trails near Bungalow Park. No other Gangsters showed up, but somehow I became "leader" for a pretty big group after Greg H told everyone I knew the trails there... we did the racecourse, then stopped for lunch when we found ourselves back at the park -- and suddenly our picnic tables had at least 40 people hanging out, friends of friends, a "six degrees of we camped with you last year" sort of thing going on. Our plan after lunch was to try and find the big field, a reclaimed stripmine that covered half the mountain, and the trails beyond it on the powerline ridge. Lots of backing and filling, and we finally discovered the powerline but not the trails I wanted; instead, we rode a cool downhill to Tuscarora Lake Park, found a trail around the lake and took a fun road descent back to Tamaqua. A shout-out to the Jersey Action Riders, especially Barb, Mary, Andrea and What's-Her-Name, who kept the ride fun and on course.

We ate in-camp Saturday night, then Mark and Bruce took off for home. John and I paid a nominal visit to the VMB campsite after dinner, but we were both tired and crashed early.

Sunday: John left in the morning, and I packed my stuff up but went for a ride with Rich B, Beth McG, and Joe G (yup); we did the Switchback to Summit Hill, then the Ridge Trail and other singlerack on Pisgah Mtn. When we got back I hopped in the lake, grabbed a burger and hit the road for home.

Dinner was an entire pepperoni pizza, with Gatorade and some Czech beer and Mason & Dixon, followed by an early bedtime.

Happy Bloomsday!

Morning weigh-in (Tuesday): 172.5#, 12.5% BF
Morning weigh-in (Wednesday): 174#, 10% BF

Not just any Bloomsday either... 100 years ago today was the day, in fictional Dubliner Leopold Bloom's life, that James Joyce immortalized in Ulysses. Bloomsday is now a holiday in Dublin, and in this centennial year it's an even bigger celebration than usual. So go out and lift a Guinness for old James & Leopold, or (if you're brave) maybe a Bushmills or a Jameson's -- it'll be easier than reading the book!

Got my plane tix for Florida last night, then had dinner with T since I'll be gone camping this weekend, and tonight is the Chain Gang meeting; tomorrow and Friday I'm on vacation. This weekend is Mountain Bike Weekend in Jim Thorpe, but my original plans to go up Thursday afternoon have been changed: my neighbor Ted died last Friday of injuries he got in a truck accident. The wake is tomorrow evening, so I'll probably get ready for camping in the morning, then go to the viewing, and then head up to JT on Friday morning.

an interesting (and busy) weekend

Morning weigh-in: 174.5#, 12.5% BF

Friday: Towpath ride, then ...what? Chores or something, I already forget, but I ended up at Which Brew (of course) for dinner. Hung out with T, some others.

Saturday: A beautiful day. In the morning was the Aloha Ride, a 50-miler through areas north of Hackettstown/Blairstown, the hilly back roads near Walpack Center (ie in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area). This was just a great ride.

The afternoon was at the 15DollarLime fundraiser for MoveOn.org, then came naptime, then later some pizza and "The Great Escape" at T's.

Sunday: The morning was spent looking at a new park where bikers have permission to build, maintain, and ride on a trail system. A bunch of us did a walkdown of the park, terrain, inventory of existing trails, etc... In the afternoon I went on a ride with Theresa, got her bike in working order and we rode the bike paths from Hugh More Park to the Chain Dam.

UPDATE: Rode Jacobsburg tonight after work, then came home and read these words in Mason & Dixon:

On June 14th, they stand atop the Allegheny Divide.

Sweet! By the way, The Education of Henry Adams is better than I remember it (though I do remember it as only bogging down near the end, and I'm at the beginning right now) -- every page, every paragraph, has its gem.