D’ya like the new logo I just added to my work email signature?
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Bike to work!
I can’t claim credit, I stole it from an email I got from these guys.
Just about to bike home, through a graveyard, in the dark, on Halloween…
I aint afraid of no ghosts!
I’ve spotted a trend in the number of comments I get on this blog.
Posts that are primarily about science:
Average comments per post: 7.3 (n=33)
Other posts:
Average comments per post: 14.1 (n=28)
Extrapolating from the most-commented posts here and on other NN blogs in a shameless attempt to get more comments, I ask you the following question:
I met a real live McCain-Palin supporter last night! In Vancouver! The most liberal pinko commie hippy enclave in a liberal pinko commie hippy province*, where >80% of residents polled said they would vote for Obama if they were eligible!
Sorry for the excitement, but it’s my first time.
This guy is a peripheral friend of a friend who occasionally plays poker with us, and boy did he pick the wrong people to argue with! He raised his voice and went all red while three of us (one guy in particular) laid into him. There was much parroting of McCain’s favourite phrases (OMG HE WOULD SIT DOWN WITH TERRORISTS WITH NO PRECONDITIONS WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE), and despite saying that he would never vote along party lines just for the sake of it, the first thing he came up with when asked why he didn’t like Obama was “well, he’s a Democrat”.
The best part was how he would just dismiss as “irrelevant” any issue where he knew the McCain-Palin line to be indefensible. e.g. McCain’s choice of Palin as running mate: “I don’t care about that”. Palin’s stance on abortion: “let’s not talk about that”. Palin’s stance on abstinence-only sex education: “oh, I’m sorry, I’m supposed to use things like that as a basis for deciding who to support?” (I countered with “what, things like evidence of extremely poor judgement?” YAY!).
An uneasy silence and rapid change of subject ensued. After a brief skirmish about the recent Canadian election (“I never tell anyone who I voted for” – fair enough actually, although it’s not as if we couldn’t guess), he lost all of his money (NOT to one of the three hecklers) and went home.
The non-heckling money taker asked, fairly reasonably, “when it became obvious that you weren’t going to change his mind, why did you keep talking?”
“Because it was FUN!” said two of us in unison.
Hee hee, I am evil.
(I am also a bit ambivalent about blogging this, since I think that one or two of the people involved (NOT the Republican) might drop by occasionally. Post might go *poof!* soon if I chicken out).
*by US standards, but BC is sadly not very left wing by Canadian standards.
You know how you sometimes get the feeling that people are really stretching to make their acronym fit their project?
Well, the following NIH grant RFA actually did a pretty good job:
Every Friday afternoon, I make a to-do list for the following week.
Halfway through hump day, how am I doing?
Items ticked off my original list: 3
Outstanding items on my original list: 9.5
New items added to the list since Monday morning: 7
Ticked off: 6
Outstanding: 0.5
Yeah. Pretty standard.
Just made a cup of tea, with sandwich in hand, and about to plug into my iPod and finish those two pesky 0.5s! Then I can do some of the really fun stuff from the original list.
At least that’s the plan!
I’ve just realised that I have hockey tickets for the night of the US election.
C’MON! How dumb was that?
It’s only Nashville, I might be tempted to skip the game.
On the other hand, it might not be a bad thing for me to be out of the house that night. Last time I was yelling at the TV and then getting depressed as Kerry’s numbers continued to slide. I gave up and made Mr E Man take me out to our local pub… which had CNN on all its big screen TVs. Not fun.
Will it all be done by 11 pm PST do you think? Or will I still get home in time to watch the actual announcement if I go to the Canucks game?
If I go to the game I’d better charge up the iPhone before heading out, it will be in constant use…
NN rules. Via a post on the Canada forum, I discovered the Science Canada blog – a rich source of local research policy and general political information that is extremely useful to me in my job, and also helps me win arguments with Canadians down the pub.
Oh, and also articles and press releases for me to moan about on my blog.
Naturally, I blame my parents (or rather my grandparents). My Dad never learned to ride a bike, and girls in my Mum’s generation were not taught such dirty mechanical things as how to fix a puncture or change a wheel. Growing up we didn’t even have a pump in the house, and I had to go to my friend’s house to get her Dad to do even the smallest of repairs.
When I started to commute by bike in Glasgow, I had a series of crappy old rustbuckets that I bought second-hand, and swapped for slightly less crappy and rusty models when the repair bills started to cost more than the bike. I did learn to fix punctures though, a more or less monthly occurrence on my glass-strewn (but pretty) river-canal-woods route.
I’m on my second Canadian bike now, both bought new. And I have spent a lot of money on fish, or rather extravagant repair bills at various local bike shops.
But no more!
After a lovely long spell of dry autumn weather, during which I was taking my time on my commute and admiring the trees,
My route takes me along the Eastern edge of Queen Elizabeth Park it started to rain again. Approaching a major intersection at the bottom of a steep hill, and realising that my brakes were not going to cope with the wet oily road, I put my feet down to avoid sliding out into traffic and decided that it was about time I learned to change my own brake pads.
And I knew exactly where to go for my fishing lesson.
The last time I needed new brake pads (hey, I ride down lots of hills in idiotic traffic; I burn through them pretty quickly), I wandered into what looked like any other bike store, hoping to drop my bike off, go for brunch with my friends, and pick up my fixed bike later that weekend. It was not to be… turns out Our Community Bikes operates on a completely different model. They provide stands, tools, and advice, and teach you to fix your bike yourself.
Unfortunately I was not looking for such a service on that particular occasion, but they did agree to fix my brakes while I had brunch. I came back to find that “my” technician was doing some pretty extreme multitasking, helping about four other people with their own fixes, and was only about halfway through. So I waited, and waited, and waited, and then got a very stern lecture about how dirty my chain and gears were. (Apparently “it’s a theft deterrent” is not a valid excuse). Slightly disgruntled, I paid up and went home.
But this time I knew what to expect. I spent an hour at home, cleaning my bike, and headed (carefully) downhill to learn how to fish.
I got the last available stand in the crowded shop, and signed up for the “help me a lot” option. Well, apparently I hadn’t cleaned my bike well enough, and I was instructed to scrub all the road gunk off my wheel rims with rubbing alcohol and a rag. One hour and much elbow grease later, I was ready to actually start.
Turns out it’s actually pretty easy to remove the old pads and put the new ones on. My friendly mechanic showed me what to do, and I got stuck in, feeling all important with my array of tools and filthy hands. However I fell apart at the fine-tuning stage. Each time I summoned my multitasking mechanic to check my work (which took up to 15 minutes a time; he was crazy busy), the pads were set too wide and I had to reverse the nuts and bolts to bring them closer to the rim; or they were slightly too high; or my angle was slightly off.
Eventually (like about three hours after I arrived at the store), I was done! Filthy and with tired crampy desk-jockey hands, but done!
At this point the mechanic pointed out that the “noodle” that guides the brake cable into the rear brake was too long, and was introducing a slight kink to the cable. No problem, their extensive stock of used parts included a shorter noodle.
Unfortunately, as I was threading the cable through the noodle, I somehow managed to shred the outer layer.
An hour later I was even more filthy, frustrated, with very tired very crampy desk-jockey hands and ready to go home, but I also knew how to change a brake cable.
I cashed out, using the notes I’d kept of how much time I’d spent working by myself ($5 per hour), working under verbal instruction ($10 per hour), and having hands-on help ($15 per hour). Including new parts (brake pads and cable) and some used bits and pieces, my total came to less than $50 – a bargain!
My four hours in the shop were sometimes frustrating, but always interesting. Most people in there were of the “alternative”, build-your-own-fixed-gear-bike-from-used-parts crowd, but there was a great sense of community and several people stopped to chat to me or offer advice, despite my Gap jeans and hybrid commuter bike. I also saw a very clean-cut guy being taught how to fix a puncture, with hands-on help from his filthy-but-thrilled young daughter, which made me smile.
If previous experience is any guide, I shall be back in a few months and changing my brake pads again with (hopefully) minimal guidance. I will also probably need to learn how to fix a broken pedal shaft, bottom bracket / rear axle, and gear system at some point in the next couple of years. But for now I can ride downhill with confidence and get on with enjoying the trees.
Oh sod it, I am just going to come right out and ask for your help.
Our local Saturday paper has a great puzzle section, including the cryptic crossword from the previous week’s London Sunday Times, and the big complicated semi-cryptic one from the New York Times (I think it is also the Sunday version).
I am ONE CLUE away from finishing the cryptic crossword for the first time EVER.
I think I know what the answer is, but I don’t know why. This is almost as bad as not having any idea at all.
My personal code of crossword ethics forbids me from consulting a dictionary or thesaurus. However I formulated the code before I’d even heard of a blog, so I’m gonna say that it is OK to ask for verification of an answer (not the answer itself) from my blog readers.
‘Cancer is the “bioterrorist within” and needs to be a top priority for the U.S. government, a presidential panel urged Thursday’.
Via Science Canada
(Framing: a controversial topic, for those not familiar with it…)
