Mapping

An interesting article about mapping on the New York Times.

When a technology or discipline is democratized like this, and much the same way desktop publishing and design was in the mid 80s, I always wonder if the art in the discipline is somewhat tainted. A wealth of information or technology doesn't mean a wealth of insight or craft. Who knows though, once these technologies are opened up to the world there really isn't any going back.

Moonlight

Blatant self reference here, but I posted up a new couple pictures on the other site.

Looking at moonlight got me thinking. There's something almost magical about the way it renders the landscape. I don't think I'm the only one that thinks this. It's like daylight, but softer. More dim. And it changes colors with the air. Blue in the winter, and warm and yellow in the fading summer haze.

If gentle light like this is generally perceived as pleasant, why do we try and drown out the night with lights that turn night into day? A little less light wouldn't hurt, and if it were consistently dimmer, would actually make it easier to see at night because of less contrast and glare.

Ant Brawl

Photo-0037.jpg
Originally uploaded by gordonelliot

The giant blob in the middle is a huge, teeming mass of ants. I came back out an hour later and it was almost double the size in this picture. Too bad I didn't have my real camera with me to capture what appearted to be an epic clash of colonies.

4 Alarm Fire...

Or something to the effect must have been going on this morning. I woke up to a fire truck pulling onto our street, followed by either a cop car or an ambulance. Then on my way to work I counted 3 different fire trucks going, here's the weird part, both directions down the cross town with their lights on. There was also one more state trooper escorting an ambulance down the middle of 62, parting the cars like the freakin' Red Sea. Crazy. Turns out all the hubbub was for a stalled car. Weird.

ebooks rule

History of St. Paul

Wha?!?

Support for Initial Invasion Has Risen:

“At the time that we went into Iraq, we had just come out of 9/11. The nation was in shock, frightened,” Sally Fisher of Garden City, Mich., said in a follow-up interview after the poll was conducted. “Looking back, I still think we should have gone in. Should we have stayed as long as we did? No.”

I don't get how, or why, people think that going into a country, overthrowing and dismantling their government, and then attempting to institute a democratic government in a region that has never had one, would ever be a quick task. Likewise, what would "going in" do exactly, that would avenge, fix or prevent the events of 9/11?

When people make comments like these, I really, genuinely don't understand what they mean by them, or where they're coming from.

Embrace the Heat

Last night I had, I think, my fastest ride of the season. It's hard to say for sure, because my average at 19 miles was about .7 mph faster than my average 3 miles later after I had crossed through downtown St. Paul and climbed up out of the river bottoms. Either way, it seems that if it's relatively flat I'm able to consistently cruise (acording to my average, which takes into account stoplights) somewhere around 19.5. If you took out the stoplights it would be about a mile an hour faster. Not too bad since it's a solo ride.

It was muggy again for the ride, which I continue to think helps me. It's definitely not a very comfortable ride, but I can definitely breath more easily when it's humid out. Must be the tell-tale signs of my southern blood. I've yet to meet anyone else here that likes it when it gets so humid that you can smell the dirt and plants in it. It's such a stark contrast to the bitterly-hollow air that settles in during the winter.

The last few days I've been giving Nicklee a hard time about embracing the heat, since he doesn't have A/C at the new house. Fittingly, the A/C here in the office went kaput over the weekend, so I've had lots of time to enjoy that steamy, jungle air. When I left yesterday the indoor air temp was 83. I got in my car, and the temperature readout read, you guessed it, 83. Good times. Embrace the heat.

Stupid and Wonderful

I'm totally obsessed with this crap now...

1000

The first 1000 on the Orbea
Originally uploaded by gordonelliot

As you can see in the photo above, I hit my first 1000 miles on the new Orbea. She's ridden superbly over the last several months, and it's hard to imagine that a bike could really be any better than she is. Maybe a smidgen lighter, but that has more to do with my choice of wheels (older stock Shimano that are bullet-proof, but not the lightest things around) than anything else.

Last's night ride was gorgeous. The sunset alone made it worth going out, but the temperature had dropped down to around 75, and there wasn't much traffic since I left a little later than normal. The only downside to the evening was how insanely humid it was. I think the actual temperature was 73° and the dewpoint was at 72° when I left the house. Anything that got wet from sweat, water or ... I don't know what else it would get wet from ... remained wet for the duration of the ride. My griptape was literally saturation with sweat, and would make fun squishy noises anytime I tried to hold onto it.

The final observation I made on this ride was that there seem to be a fair number of motorists that really enjoy yelling at cyclists. I don't understand what motivates people to do this. I was crossing the street to turn onto the bike path to cross the Mendota bridge when a lone Chevy Impala drove by. I wasn't doing anything, just waiting on my side of the road to cross, when he screamed something. I couldn't make out what it was, but from the look on the fat bastard's face, I'm guessing it wasn't a summer-evening pleasantry. People are a strange bunch, for sure.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I saw David Hasselhof's twin walking up from a marina along the river. He had carefully feathered hair, an open nylon/rayon jacket, that, if memory serves, was white, and left open, presumably to show off the nearly-charred tan he had going. White pants rounded out the look. Solid.

Thoughts from a strip-mall lunch

I, for better or worse, work in suburbia. Right in the heart of it too, flanked on all sides by highways, a number of strip malls, two "real" malls, and a handful of office towers, condo complexes and post WWII-era neighborhoods with no sidewalks. On my lunch break I like to walk across the street and get a sandwich, which is about as close to experiencing the landscape first hand as one can get here.

As I walked across the street (although first cutting through the lawn since there's no good way to walk away from the office unless you favor walking down the street), across a baren, slowly-dying median, and finally across a few hundred yards of parking lot, it ocurred to me just how sad this whole place is. It's an environment completely designed for the car. There is no sense at all of human scale. Nothing is anywhere near feeling "life sized". We've traded in any sense of place in exchange for easy access and free parking. It's pretty sad.

Moments like this always make me wonder who agreed to this in the first place. When did we all decide that the model for a good city should be one in which it's only practical to experience it from the car?

Mind Over Matter & UPS Observations

I had some errands to take care of last night, so the ride was short and sweet. In an attempt to make it home in time to get to UPS to pick up a package I essentially did a mini time trial. The weather was perfect for it — almost no wind, 85° and sticky. I don't breath as well when it's dry for some reason, so when it's humid like this I can get a lot more out of myself.

The first half of the ride was good and pretty fast. Definitely faster than normal. The second half I had to work a little more, especially coming back in on Summit. That stretch is always the hardest, especially coming up to Snelling. It seems like it should be easy, the incline is probably 1/2 a percent grade at best, but it's a bit of a sleeper. If you come into it with speed it's easier, so I poured everything into the pedals, and kept telling myself that my motivation would crack before my legs did. Turns out it's true. The constant battle between mind and body is the thing I'm coming to like most about riding. Every time you're able to overcome the hills, the wind and the incessant screaming coming from your legs and lungs, you're able to do it more easily the next time.

On the ride I rode by Steve and Pharmie, and Teri drove by as well. Seems like everyone was out and about. Gotta love St. Paul.

After the ride, I ran back over to the UPS depot. Thankfully this time it didn't take an hour and a half to get our package (like our last visit), but I noticed some things on my second trip there:

1. There are a disproportionately large number of people wearing bluetooth headsets relative to the general population.

2. It seems it's common for packages to be lost or "on the truck" or "in sort" and experience waits ranging from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

3. The manager there has possibly the worst job around. He heard an earful last week from Kerry and I, and from his resigned expression, had heard at least as much last night as well. Ahhh yes, the joys of middle management.

One final link: Tabas.fr. Interesting, if not somewhat derivative illustration and art. I forgot what it was like to be really into this sort of thing like I used to until I check his site out. That is all for today.

Coffee / Kickball

Nicklee and I like to joke about coffee, and wax poetic about it. I think it's largely that we're both just addicted to it, but you know, why not elevate something that you can't stop drinking? I just took a sip and it hit me how earthy good coffee is. You can taste the soil and flavor of the plants that it's from. For a staple of the industrial revolution, and now a staple of the office world, it's amazing how much it contrasts with our stark, cube-land environment.

This weekend Teri and Steve threw Kerry and I a couple's shower, which proved to be a lot of fun. We played kickball in the park down the street from their house, and then drank ourselves silly and ate lots of good food back at their place. A huge thanks to them for being so gracious and hosting everything, as well as doing all the organizing and cooking. It was a great time. Photos are up on my photo site.

Malibu

Quote of the Day

"Once you get over the guilt of letting people down, life becomes remarkably easy."

– Nick Lee

Mississippi Ride

I've only thought of doing this in passing, and never seriously considered it, but turns out someone really is riding the full length of the Mississippi. Ben Richter's blog is here, and has day-by-day accounts of his trek across the continent. Very cool. Good luck Ben, that's a hell of a long way!

You know

Tubes

Everyone needs one of these!

Fabric

Randomly came across this. I don't even sew, but kind of wish that I did after finding some of these textile patterns. Cool stuff.

Reprodepot.com

Heather Ross fabric at the above link. This pattern in particular is awesome, and hilarious.

Nick, if you're still going to put fabric on the walls I think you should use one of these.

Dogs & Bikes

The never ending conflict, finally highlighted on the New York Times.

Thankfully I've only had a handful of dog incidents in my 15 years of regular riding. None of them resulted in crashes, but I think a few dog noses were (unfortunately) bruised. Can't do much about a bulldog running sideways at you into your pedal though :\