sjh - mountain biking linux geek spice - mtb / linux / canberra / cycling / etc

Steven Hanley hackergotchi picture Steven
Hanley
About

email: sjh@svana.org

web: http://svana.org/sjh

Other online diaries:

Aaron Broughton,
Alison Russell,
Allan Bontjer,
Andrew Pollock,
Anthony Towns,
Chris Yeoh,
Jeremy Kerr,
Martijn van Oosterhout,
Michael Carden,
Michael Davies,
Michael Still,
Rusty Russell,
Tim Potter,
Tony Breeds,

Links:

Linux Weekly News,
XKCD,
Userfriendly,
Questionable Content,
Planet Linux Australia,
Bilbys,
CORC,

Canberra Weather: forecast, radar.

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planet sjh
(online feed aggrgator for all the diaries I read regularly)

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Fri, 28 Dec 2007

Aaron shows - 18:30
I was entertained to see Mikal only recently noticed Aaron Sorkin wrote the four items he mentions. I have been a Sorkin fan for years now, and personally think the West Wing was never as good after he left at the end of season 4.

I strongly suggest to Mikal that he get a hold of the show Sports Night which predates West Wing and was a brilliant show, also a Sorkin brain child, with many of the same actors at times (Joshua Malina for example has had major roles in both, Felicity Huffman has appeared in West Wing, Janel Maloney has appeared in Sports Night, etc etc)

Though I have not yet seen it, and it has not received great reviews in the US, the new post West Wing show from Sorkin, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip probably still has some classic Sorkinesque banter and writing and is likely to be entertaining also. Ahh Aaron Sorkin and Joss Wheedon, without the two of them no television out of the US would not have been worth watching in the past 10 years I think.

[/leisure/screen] link

Tue, 25 Dec 2007

N+1 applied to kayaks once more - 23:47

The Time Bandit at the Carillion (fullsize) 		Since I bought the Floozy I have become reasonably confident in keeping tippy boats upright. I think it has been good learning to paddle tippy boats on a surf ski, I did not have to worry much about falling off as I could get right back on. However the ski has two major draw backs I find. The most annoying one is that it is too small for me. It really is suited to someone under 5 foot 10 rather than someone over 6 foot so I always had my knees a bit high. The other problem is in the middle of a Canberra winter paddling a surf ski is not my first choice of water vessel.

This winter I paddled my Mirage most of the time, which meant I had to find someone to paddle with all winter, however I did make it out there a lot which was good. Sure I can get a wet suit or some other attire that would make paddling a surf ski in winter bearable however when taken with the fact the ski is a bit small for me it seems a new boat may be a better idea.

Thus when Matt finally decided to go ahead and sell his Time Bandit (which he bought of Ado who had purchased it new last year) I was keen to buy it from him. This of course is the 6.2 metre long new toy I have been referring to the last few days. I have taken it out paddling twice now, and damn it is a nice boat.

First with Danealle on Sunday arvo down to the governor general's place and back from Yarralumla bay. Then today across to the Carillion in rather windy conditions (waves washing over the cockpit a bit coming from three directions as I came under Commonwealth Ave bridge). So apart from knowing I need to buy a spray skirt for the boat I must say I am happy to say it stays up well and can handle pretty nasty conditions well. Sure I was nervous at times today on the water but I kept it upright and never really felt close to falling in.

I did however wuss out of paddling back and went and got a lift with friends I met at the Carillion back to get my car and pick up the boat (thus I also have photos (medium, fullsize) of the new boat on top of the car). I have yet to choose a name for this boat, and as the first name for my Mirage was a failure and it took a while to find the name Matilda for it I am in no rush.

This purchase does increase my kayak collection, as suggested in the title N+1 being applied to kayaks, however I do wish to sell the Floozy as it really is small for me and the primary positive of owning a surf ski (the ability to use it in the surf and play around there) is not something I go and do much (I hardly seem to get to the coast often) I will be better off selling it.

[/mtb/gear] link

Sturdy running shoes? - 23:18
A few months back I bought a pair of Saucony shoes, usually I buy Asics, however trying these on they felt good and seemed a reasonably good shoe. Today I while out for a short run I had to stop briefly to get a grass seed out of my shoe that was hurting. While doing this I noticed parts of the sole were coming off. The shoe is a Saucony ProGrid Hurricane 9.

I have admittedly done a few KM in these shoes since getting them, however I still have some almost ancient Asics that have done a lot more than these with soles in tact, the reason I do not run in them so much now is they seem to be lacking in cushioning and promote blisters more than newer shoes. However I do have to take into consideration these Saucony shoes are a light weight shoe compared to the Trubaco shoes from Asics in question and another pair I have of them that is still going strong.

At least the Canberra Runners Shop club sale is on currently and I can probably get a good deal on a new light weight running shoe, probably revert to using Asics and see if I get better life from their lighter shoes.

Last weekend in Sydney I bought a pair of Lafuma (Active Trail Pro) shoes, though this is to be a race shoe for longer stuff, looks like a great trail shoe, though a little bit sturdy for running around on bitumen (given the option something lighter can be used). I had hoped to avoid buying new shoes for a month or two at least, especially as I blew my toy budget for a little while on the new 6.2 metre black toy I have mentioned a few times in the past few days.

[/mtb] link

Mon, 24 Dec 2007

Longer wait than anticipated - 23:00
Well it appears there are hints of the English translation of the 4th Watch series book by Sergei Lukyanenko appearing on Amazon and a few other places. Alas it appears the translation will not be out in January. Instead it looks like we will have to wait until July for the paperback (strangely it seems the hardback will be released later in August).

I guess on the plus side there are also rumours around that he may write another novel in the series after the 4th, though waiting for English translation will extend that out even further.

[/leisure/books] link

Sun, 23 Dec 2007

Still forgetting to record stuff - 20:37
This morning I headed out to sparrow for a cruisy mtb ride with DeathMarch and PaulC, I realised when I got there I had forgotten my Garmin, I obviously still have not learnt to always take it along for exercise. The ride was fun, though sparrow hill is not technically challenging it really is an absolute hoot to ride through.

I then did some lawn mowing this afternoon, though due to the large period of time between mowings it resembled a jungle almost so in one and a half hours of mowing I only got the back of the back yard done. More of that tomorrow, I then was heading over to the lake to paddle with Danealle.

It was a pleasant and calm morning on the water so I had been hoping it would stay calm, however by 4pm the wind had picked up a bit, Danealle and I arrived at the shed to find small waves washing over the launching area and a bit of head on wind. However with my new toy as yet untried I was keen to get out there on it rather than take Matilda out, so I hopped in, found the new boat is pretty stable all things considered and assured Danealle I would be fine to stay upright in the conditions.

So we headed off for a fun 8 KM or so paddling, and once more I did not have my garmin on, though I had taken it to the shed, we were cruising around so I did not feel the need to wear it. I meant to do more mowing when I got home, however did no feel like it so will finish it tomorrow after a lap of Cotter/Uriarra in the morning.

[/mtb] link

Sat, 22 Dec 2007

What a fun show - 23:00
I got home from a 17km run and after a shower and dinner actually thought to myself it may be a good idea to watch some tv. Looking at the guide I was pleased to see RocKwiz was on. I really enjoy this show due to the fun atmosphere of it. Sure I love Spicks and Specks too, but this is more fun I reckon.

Paul Kelly performed his Gravy song on it, the thing that I was most surprised to note there is how old he was looking. Clare Bowditch performed a song with Tex Perkins which was pretty good. Another song they had Tim Friedman on piano and some woman singing a cover of Joni Mitchell's song River. I love this song and have heard some mighty fine covers of it as well as a few originals from Joni. However this was not a good cover, Tim's piano was alright, though a bit powerful sounding, I think that may have had something to do with the audio setup in the theatre though, some other performers were drowned out by instruments a bit too. However the song was appalling, the woman had timing and delivery of the lyrics too far off and out of kilter. Sure I know when covering an artist can and should put their own spin on the work, however in this case I was cringing and had to change channels for a while it was too messed up.

Otherwise today has been kind of cruisy, was meant to go for a nice 90KM road ride this morning with friends, however heavy rain all morning meant that was a no go. I went shopping and grabbed some presents for people, then headed to the boat shed to put my new 6.2 metre long black fast toy in the shed. I had been intending to do the Maladjusted single speed race, however they called it off due to saturated forests and high winds. The run was good to at least get some exercise in, and I had not run since Tuesday due to being busy anyway.

I had been hoping to watch a Billy Connolly in New Zealand show I noticed in the program, however when I could not find it on the tv after RocKwiz I looked again at the guide and realised it was only on a digital channel. My mythtv box could record it for me but I can not be bothered really.

[/various] link

Thu, 13 Dec 2007

These paddling PBs are coming more often - 13:58
So I have not been able to do the paddle time trial for the past two weeks, however with the stitches removed I thought I could give it a go again last night. When I set a new PB a few weeks ago I was paddling a club TK1. Last night I took Mark's Rocket out for the time trial. I forgot to adjust the seat forward so could almost not reach the pedals properly, definitely could not leg drive properly. However I still managed to get a new PB over the course.

53:36 on my watch, rock on.

[/mtb] link

Fri, 30 Nov 2007

Maybe the good music can justify watching it - 14:34
As I mention from time to time I do not tend to watch tv much. The Tour de France coverage every July and sometimes a movie or similar if it catches my interest. In the past I have watched a lot of tv shows, I adored The West Wing for example (well until the end of season 4 when Aaron Sorkin stopped writing and producing) among others. Jane was telling me throughout the first season of Heroes that I should watch it as I would love the show, I never got around to even looking at the tv guide to learn when it was on.

This season I paid a bit more attention and programmed my mythtv box to record it every week. I also happened to notice a new version of the Bionic Woman was airing just before, so I decided to watch both shows. With the mythtv box I can of course simply copy the shows to my laptop and watch them wherever and whenever I get the time which makes it more pleasant than trying to be in front of a tv when they air. Anyway I am still watching both, even though arguably Bionic Woman is kind of average, heck it is no longer being written up at TWOP which generally means it is not grabbing much attention anywhere.

I am still sort of enjoying it for now, I wonder if I can claim I am still watching it for the cool music. A few weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised when they closed an episode with a great Ani song, then the episode that aired last night closed with a Dave Matthews Band song. You would almost think I had set the soundtrack for this show.

[/various] link

BC promotion, or slow news day, you choose - 14:21
In a similar fashion to an article two years ago that was accompanied by a photo, today's news paper (Canberra Times) had an article with a photo of me. This time the article pretty much focused on the fact I am competing in a lot of BC events this weekend even though I have my arm in stitches. I have a scan (low res, however you can read and see it) of the article (with photo) uploaded for anyone who wants a look.

I guess the positive change here is the article does not make CORC look bad as the one two years ago had. Someone on the Bilbys committee already called something called "slab" apparently I should buy a slab for them as they noticed and commented on this first. I wonder if the warning that there would be something in the paper that I gave to 200 or so people yesterday gives me leeway.

[/mtb] link

Thu, 29 Nov 2007

Practice with the non dominant hand - 17:16
The past few days I have discovered it may be worth spending some time getting used to using my non dominant (in my case the left) hand to do every day activities. As I am unable to move my right arm around much without pain, especially when it is near my head, I have had to use my left hand more.

Shaving, cleaning my teeth, eating with cutlery every day activities and yet I am pretty average and uncoordinated when doing these things with my left hand (not of course helped by the painful gouges in my left hand from the gravel). I wonder if it is worth working out what activities I really only do well with my right hand and trying to train myself to use my left reasonably well for them.

Interestingly Sam mentioned since having kids she has become far more able to use either hand for most activities, I wonder if this is common for most parents? I asked my mother and she said she never found that, instead she knows she is heavily right hand dominant and that never changed.

[/various] link

Tue, 27 Nov 2007

Reasons not to road ride, or do not anger the crash gods. - 12:44
So more proof road riding is unsafe and it really is better to stick to mountain biking.

This morning I was riding out to do a Cotter/Uriarra loop on the road. With me were Bruce, Simon and Libby. Sue and Tony among possible others were likely to meet us out there.

We had just chased down Rob Burrell (he must have been going slow, dawdling along or something for me to be able to catch him) as we crossed Scrivner Dam. Simon had not done this ride with us for a year or so and was unsure whether we were turning right onto the bike path or heading up the road behind Rob to Cotter Rd. We always turn onto the bike path, however I had not said so verbally and Simon had not turned in early enough, I stayed out wide edging in until he turned and thought I would still make the corner.

I was turning and noticed I was heading right for the gutter, so instead of doing the sensible thing and stabilising then bunny hopping the gutter up onto the grass I thought, I can still make the turn, so leant into the corner more. This is when the large amount of gravel on the bitumen became a problem, my wheels went out from under me and I went sliding along the bitumen on my right elbow, thigh and fingers for a while until I ran into the gutter.

Overall I felt a bit winded but nothing seemed too bad, my bike has some new scratches and a few other small issues (this is the newish cyclocross bike too). Noticing the lacerations in my fingers (road gloves do not have the protection of full finger mtb gloves) I thought it best to head home when I sat up. I did however notice my right elbow was sore, so rolled a bit in order to get it off the bitumen upon which I was lying. This is when Simon, Libby and Bruce saw how deep the gouges were in my elbow and it was obvious I would need to go to the hospital emergency for them to look at it.

Bruce, living closest rode home to get his car, Libby and Simon waited with me. A security guard (for the Governor General) drove past, pulled up and was good enough to provide sterile dressings an a bandage for Libby to use on my arm (though as a vet, she operates on Animals day in day out Human gore makes her a bit queasy, thanks for the help Lib). After this a few more drivers passing and a cyclist or two were all nice enough to pull up and see if we needed anything, even offering lifts and such. Bruce was on his way so we said thanks and that we were sorted. Also while waiting Julie happened to roll past on her way to a paddle session. Last night at stretching I obviously angered the Crash Gods when I mentioned to Julie I tend not to Crash often, especially not serious crashes. Julie did point out this morning it was obviously a silly thing to say, the Crash gods got their own back today. Though I am most fortunate not to be banged up to the extent Dave is.

Bruce rocked up and drove me to the Canberra Hospital, I sent my mother an text saying I may need a pick up from the hospital later depending how long it took. Then sent Danielle a text as I was a her place of employ, fortunately in no need of visiting her ward though (Intensive Care). When I got to Emergency I provided details and then the nurse (a friendly woman named Kate) took me in immediately to have a look at my injuries in Triage and see what needed to be done. The nurse knows Ben (who was a full time nurse in ICU until recently and is still doing shifts a bit (or coming into Socialise for 12 hours at a time as he explained to Kate recently ). So we talked about adventure racing and riding and stuff a bit while she cleaned me up and did what the doctor said had to be done.

After a while the Doctor ended up scrubbing out the wound and cleaning it well, sent me for Xrays to ensure nothing was stuck in there. At this point while waiting for Xrays Danielle rocked up to work and came to visit to see how I was, she had to run for a meeting and said she would be back later. I had Xrays and then sat to wait being sewn up. The shift changed around now and the new doctor coming along to sew me up happened to be Gwenda (fellow mountain biker and to some extent enjoyer of paddling activities, Dan Smith's partner for those who do not know her), so we were able to chat about mountain biking, paddling, Dan's crazy plans for things he wants to do and such, the Gravity 12 hour which Gwenda had done previously, but missed out on this year (travelling with young kids is a hassle for starters).

Anyway Gwenda did a great job sewing me up, Danielle returned, with a coffee for me (thanks Danielle) and got to watch the last few stitches, commenting my elbow looked like a raw steak. I need to go see my GP on Friday for her to review the injury and then again in 7 to 10 days for the sutures/stitches to be removed.

The good news is I can still race in the AROC night race this Friday (so long as I do not submerse my arm in water and can keep the elbow dry for the race) and can still compete with Danielle in the Urban Polaris on Sunday (Danielle's first question to me was You are still right for Sunday aren't you? )

I have not gone into work today yet (may or may not) and have a fantastic excuse not to do the ARNuts night run (had effort that it can be) tonight. I will see how I feel for the road ride tomorrow morning (Mugga Way loop this week). Next challenge is to work out how to shower without getting my elbow or the bandage wet. Mothing hurts too much currently, though Gwenda assures me the sutures will hurt and I should have my friend paracetamol handy (and maybe Neurofen around too according to my personal pharmacist (Gwenda's choice of words) Danielle)

Thanks to Kate, Gwenda and the rest of the TCH staff for processing me so fast and smoothly. Thanks to Libby and Bruce (and I guess I should thank Simon...) for hanging around and getting me to the hospital. Thanks to Danielle for the coffee and moral support (even though as Gwenda noted it seems she only wants me for my body (and its ability to ride on Sunday )). Thanks to others so far today for the text messages of support.

[/mtb] link

Fri, 16 Nov 2007

Scientific test for the day, do bikes or riders float in fountains? - 10:37

Bike/Swim Transition Fountain 		Maybe I thought I needed to practice a bike to swim transition, maybe I wanted to perform a scientific experiment as suggested in the subject, or most likely I was just an unco this morning. Of course I was lucky no one in my group of mountain bikers had a camera with them <g>.

Riding through civic on the way to some dirt for the mountain bike ride this morning I was mucking around a bit and thought I would try riding up onto the wall around the fountain in front of the Canberra Centre. My tyre slipped a bit and I tumbled straight into the water, it was actually deep enough that I was fully submerged and so was my bike. The first reaction from most of the riders in my group (apart from laughter) was surprise as no one thought it was quite that deep.

Anyway I discovered that neither bikes or riders float particularly well, I was lucky it was a warm morning as I was soaked for the rest of the ride and breakfast. The capture of the gps data to the left shows I got out and started riding again before realising my sunnies had fallen off into the water so I had to go back and wade through it again to get them back.

On a more subdued note, Dave B had a nasty crash at the end of the ride and we had to get a car and drive him off to hospital. When I spoke with Julie a short while ago they had still not gotten in for X-Rays, it sounds like he was in enough pain there could be some fractures or similar around his hips/sternum/pelvis area.

[/mtb] link

Wed, 14 Nov 2007

Another paddling pb tonight - 21:24
The BGCC 10 KM time trials have moved back to Wednesday evenings with the advent of daylight saving. I tried to do one the Wednesday following the Hawkesbury Classic, after all I had done 70 KM of road riding the morning before, a 13 KM run the evening before and a 45 KM road ride the morning of the time trial that week, I felt mostly recovered. As soon as I sat in the boat and started paddling my body threw a fit and said enough of this nonsense it hurts stop, so I only made it through 3 KM (most of which I did technique work during).

Last week I had some meetings to attend and the weather was miserable anyway, so I was not too upset to miss out anyway. By today it had been two and a half weeks since I had done any real paddling, so I was happy to get out and do the time trial. As can be seen from the graph I did this in 54:40 (the distance is only actually 9.4KM doing the double bridge to bridge loops) which makes me happy as it is another milestone to crack 55 minutes and it blew my previous pb of 57:19 apart. Still not anywhere near Randall's sub 50 minute times or the times of paddlers faster than him, however I am making progress.

Gee whoda thunk it, training actually does something, or sitting in a boat and paddling lots for 13 hours at least does something even if the frequent paddling sessions before that did not seem to. It is also interesting to see the downward spikes in the heart rate and speed which are obviously the times I stopped to have a drink (from a water bottle), it will definitely be more effective if I can manage to drink without stopping.

[/mtb] link

Tue, 13 Nov 2007

Damn weird weather - 16:20
So as a conversational topic this is kinda like dropping a fart at a party. Well at least if you can be crude about it all it is, anyway I headed out for a run yesterday arvo and damn is it hot. You would finally think summer may be approaching. I was unable to hold the speed at 11 KMh and really had to back off and keep the heart rate under 160 most of the time.

However the last few weeks, when it has not been raining it has been freezing, everyone complaining how the weather did not indicate summer or anything like that approaching. I can not complain about the weather in Victoria at least, well while I was there it was good. I was down there on the weekend for the Gravity 12 hour mountain bike race and the course was the best I have ever seen it. Dryer than ever before, so for most of the day a bit skaty with some sandy or otherwise loose corners, then we had half an hour of heavy rain around 6pm so for the last two hours of the race the track was tacky and cornered as if on rails.

I was pleased to keep performance similar to last year with good consistency. Looking at the results my lap times between 35:14 and 37:17 all day, then the two laps in a row I did at night, where I had been told I should take it easy to avoid a second lap in a row, but came back in time for a second so went and did it anyway were 41:18 and 42:11 respectively (in the dark, deliberately going slowly).

As for the weather I wonder if we need to ship some down jackets to Cairns just in case the weird winter weather or strangeness spreads outside Canberra. Of course these are people that tell you to bring lots of blankets with you as it gets really cold at night in winter, down to *gasp* 15 Celsius *gasp* even on the cold nights. Oh no lock up the children how will a Canberran ever handle temperatures that low in winter.

[/mtb] link

Tue, 06 Nov 2007

Another song that stops me like a brick wall - 16:57
Though the title references the lyrics of Asking Too Much I commented on a while back I am not talking about that song. Ani recently released a retrospective album containing a collection of her work spanning her career (The album is a double called "Canon"). As I already have all the songs on other albums you would think it may not be worth buying. However two things change this assumption, first I am a bit of an addict (of the 210 or so albums I own, 29 of them are Ani Difranco, more than 10%), however the main reason is there are some new recordings of some of her songs on each of the discs.

This is too much to resist for me, after all, the new version of Not A Pretty Girl on Girls Singing Night redefined that song for me. So when I had to get some stuff from the Righteous Babe store recently (some of the official bootlegs and another 32 Flavors t-shirt as Bruce's never arrived last year) I bought the album Canon.

What do you know, she did it again, not with all of the songs, but the new version of Napoleon is amazing. This however is a bit different to Not A Pretty Girl. I have always loved the song Napoleon, listening to the Dilate album this is a song I have often put on repeat, or while driving along in the car listening put the volume up stupidly loud and sung my voice off to. But oh my god this new version is incredible, it has a much more electronic rock sort of feel to it, it is a bigger feeling song, but whatever combination of things in it to change it has made it another amazing Ani experience.

[/leisure/music] link

Carrying food - 14:34
Interesting to see Crash was a little bit bonked for the finish of the ride this morning. I am lucky to have a bit of general fitness in my body currently. I am still not riding well due to hardly having ridden my bike in the last year or so, however I have been running a bit recently which has helped me lose some weight. Also my general all round high activity level (paddling and other stuff) means I can still assume I will not struggle too much with most efforts.

However none of this will really help anyone when they bonk, I am sure Crash can recall a Cotter/Uriarra loop or two years ago when I went backwards really badly with no food. Also he tells a story about an ANZAC day epic years ago on which part of a power bar seemed to reanimate one of the riders. Partly due to being diabetic and partly because I learnt the hard way while riding I always have at least three muesli bars with me while riding further than basic errands around town (either in a jersey pocket or in a camelback). The camelback I run with has two gels in it, my paddling PFD has a few muesli bars in it.

Admittedly it always comes as a surprise to hit the wall and run out of energy, as Crash suggests we normally do this ride without any food (I know I almost never have any food before going out for anything up to 2 hours in the mornings), however the few times I have needed it I have been most thankful to have it with me.

[/mtb] link

Sun, 04 Nov 2007

It almost makes me want to learn Russian - 18:50
Though I have not seen the movies yet, a few of my friends have told me the movies Night Watch and Day Watch are pretty good. So instead of seeing the movies I went out and purchased the three books Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch and read them. Unfortunately the fourth book in the series is not yet released in English, as I suggest in the post title, it almost makes you want to learn Russian. Though there are no release dates I can find record of, I suspect the translation of Final Watch will be released in January (matching up with the every 6 months schedule of the last three books), I had better wait for that as it will be easier than learning a Language <g>.

These are really good books, fascinating use of magic and mythical creatures in modern society. No idea what makes me like them so much but I did, one thing I find strange is the marketing blurb on them all suggesting it is like JK Rowling in a Russian setting. I have to say, it really isn't. Sure the marketing is probably just trying to convince more people to buy it, however the focus of the books is more adult as are the themes and stuff happening in them. Though they may suit readers of Rowling it is obviously not a direct overlap, as I personally do not find the Harry Potter series hard to put down. Though I have all but the final book in the Harry Potter series in my possession, and have had them all for most of the year, I have still only read the first 4 books (I read these 3 or 4 years ago borrowing them from a friend) and do not feel a strong need or inclination to finish them at the moment.

On the other hand I rushed through the three watch books in less than two weeks. No idea what this says, but I do think they are a great read.

Looking at the wikipedia entries about the films I am a little disturbed by how much they appear to actually differ to the text of Night Watch, however I suspect treating them as related but seperate works would mean they will still be good to see.

[/leisure/books] link

Mixing up the legs a bit - 18:22
The triple triathlon is coming up in 2 weeks. As usual I am entered in a team of three, however this year we thought we may make a change or two. Shanyn is alas busy with something on Sundays this month so is unable to swim, I think we have managed to find another swimmer, however this has meant we have changed the team name (32 Flavours will be back in action next time we are racing in the traditional team).

Another change we made is for Bruce and I to swap 2 of the legs, as I have been doing a bit more running recently, and Bruce bought himself a new road bike so has been out on the bike a lot. We decided to swap the last bike and last run legs (assuming of course the final swim is in Lake Tuggeranong so the second last run has a break before the final bike leg).

So I decided I should head out and see how I went running the 13 KM final leg of the triple tri. I drove over to the YMCA yesterday afternoon and then rode my single speed across to the tunnel under hindmarsh, locked up the bike and a backpack of cycling gear and went running.

I was not fast, and probably never will be, however I managed to hold sub 5 minute KMs for all but the steep up hills which meant I was able to run alright over the 13.4 KM leg (see GPS data here, it is good to see I kept speed and heart rate remarkably consistent here). I completed the run in 1h10m, however from the lady denman drive underpass I was running along with another competitor out training on the leg and chatting to him, so I could probably pick up my pace there a bit. That is unlikely to be a concern though as I will be somewhat worn out and a bit dehydrated form the first two bike legs of the day and thus could be a bit slower running no matter what.

I have the Gravity 12 hour mtb race in Victoria next weekend, I should probably try to head out for a running lap of the course on Sunday morning. I am also seriously contemplating using my cyclocross bike for the second bike leg of the triple tri this year. That leg has less steep climbing than the others and not much single track (though with the Mt Stromlo facility open there should be more single track in play) so it could suit a cyclocross bike well.

[/mtb] link

Wed, 31 Oct 2007

Hawkesbury Classic 2007, Danielle and Steve paddling Matilda - 21:13
As mentioned in the recent post about choosing the name Matilda for my Mirage Double Sea Kayak, Danielle and I paddled in the Hawkesbury classic on the weekend. As I often do I combined a bunch of photos taken with a word or two and put it all online. So anyone who wants to can see how our race went.

Here is our 2007 Hawkesbury Classic Race Report. Enjoy.

[/mtb/events] link

Mon, 29 Oct 2007

A new name for my Mirage 730 Double Kayak - 14:20
When I purchased my Pink Mirage 730 Double Sea Kayak back in April/May I had thought it should be named Patrick. The name has never stuck, heck even I did not like the name. Many people told me I needed a female name for a boat, I did not feel I could use the name Patricia (partly because one of the coaches at BGCC is named Patricia, and partly because it had no real meaning or background that could be applied).

I have had a few adventures with the boat now, such as Geoquest 2007 and the 2007 Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (this race report is not there yet, I am still writing it) this past weekend. I think there is a new name for it that will stick, my support crew for the weekend (my friend Prue) suggested the name Matilda during the drive back to Canberra.

The name was out of the blue but I liked it, so did Danielle, the back story that I thought works well for it is the Roald Dahl book Matilda. If my kayak is bored or not given interesting trips and events to do it may develop mysterious powers, also if we do not treat it well (or the other kayaks it is close to) it may punish us or whoever mistreats it.

So if you see the pink Mirage Double Sea Kayak out on the lake here or at some event (even though there were well over 200 Mirage kayaks at Hawkesbury this weekend Matilda was the only one with that colour scheme and was quite recognisable), say hello to her and be nice <g>.

[/mtb/gear] link

Thu, 25 Oct 2007

A wireless scanning tool - 19:26
I just wasted about 15 minutes trying to find online the name of the program I have installed on my laptop that I regularly (though not for a few months now) use for scanning for wireless networks.

Hopefully I can remember this post and look it up, the tool in question is swscanner (a kde wireless scanner applications).

[/comp/software] link

Wed, 24 Oct 2007

Tuesday afternoon milk carton blogging - 17:29

Milk Carton Cafe (fullsize) 		Wednesday edition:

Further proof appeared recently that LA really can cater to all needs. As much as I dislike the city I was impressed to see there is a Milk carton cafe (sort of) over there. Just the thing to go visit on a random Tuesday afternoon, it would be perfect apart from two things: Today is Wednesday, and there is a slight geographical displacement

[/various/milkcarton] link

Taking Jake to meet the dirt - 15:26
On Saturday some of the ARNuts and myself headed out for a longish ride on mountain bikes, from inner north Canberra via Kowen forest out to Sparrow Hill for some riding on the rather sweet single track there. After that we headed on out to Bungendore for lunch.

This is a ride I had thought for a while may be good for a cyclo cross bike as there is a lot of bitumen and fire trail riding in there. So I took Jake out for the ride. I tend to agree that yes it was indeed a good bike for this ride, the tyres are still maybe a tad thin for any rocky terrain, with 35c tyres on I got one pinch flat somewhere in Sparrow (possibly with a slow leak which would mean the tyre pressure was lower than originally intended).

The bike itself worked remarkably well in single track considering the skinny high pressure tyres, body position on the bike and average brakes. I discovered it is a lot easier to corner and ride single track if I stay in the drops keeping my centre of gravity low. Now I look forward to trying this bike for a real long dirt road sort of cruise, such as the rather fun ride to the coast via Araluen, I just need to find a free weekend (they are scarce).

[/mtb] link

Thu, 18 Oct 2007

Well I know I can't - 20:19
I was heating up some dinner tonight and a house mate had the show So You Think You can dance on the tv. I have watched this previously at my sister's place from time to time. It seemed entertaining but I simply do not stop to watch tv much. Anyway I got hooked tonight and have watched the rest of this. Lots of fun, my house mate said we are nearer the end so pretty much all the people left can dance well.

The solo dances were interesting as they were all the same dance and you can see how each dancer interprets it. Also you can see how each dancer manages to link things together. In the solo dance tonight I thought Neil (I think that was his name) was possibly the worst I saw. He did not flow from move to move well and nothing seemed to link and flow. Kameron however was incredible in the solo dance and how he did some of the moves, a little differently with an interesting difference. Maybe it is because he followed Neil so the contrast really stood out at the time. Strangely none of the female solos really stood out to me, though one of them was using the assets of her bust more than many others I thought, probably the bloke in me noticing that though.

I wonder what it says about me that the best pair dance I saw tonight was the disco dance. (interestingly the judges seem to agree with me, I typed the bit about liking it before the dance was finished). Anyway it is a fun bit of tv and good to see people moving and enjoying that sort of thing so much, I know I can't dance but it is good to watch I agree for once with something that at first glance may appear to be a bit like some of the crap reality tv stuff so prevalent these days. I also loved the music for the solo performance, that was what really grabbed me back into the living room and got me watching it.

[/leisure/screen] link

Wed, 10 Oct 2007

N+1 happened again, say hello to Jake - 11:28

Jake The Snake Cyclocross Bike (fullsize) 		So going with the N+1 theory, it happened again to me yesterday. I picked up my brand new 2008 model Jake the Snake.

I have thought for a number of years a cyclocross bike would be nice to own. Something I can go fast on and yet still take off road or for long rides with significant amounts of dirt (such as the rather fun ride to the coast via Araluen). Recently I found my Lemond Zurich road frame had developed another large crack on the head tube area (photos sometime soon). It is unsafe to continue riding it much, so I was wondering what to do about needing a road bike.

It occurred to me a cyclocross bike makes a great road bike (tougher than most, which is good knowing my tendency to break frames) and can be used off road (which I think bikes in general need to be able to be used there if at all possible). Also I can not justify buying a bling road bike as I do not race on the road. Until I can join ACT Vets club in 7 years or so I probably will not, I just can not raise any interest in having anything at all to do with Canberra Cycling Club (CCC).

So Mal said he could get me a 2008 model Jake the Snake in and build it up, I thought why not, should be fun. The photo was taken in my living room last night, I have since changed the tyres to skinny road tyres and took it out on the Wednesday morning road ride I do every week. Fun was had, oh and yes the pink bottle cages are necessary, it makes it go faster or something, I am sure there is a scientific need for them.

[/mtb/gear] link

Tue, 09 Oct 2007

Must remember to take 305 and use it - 21:08
Tonight I forgot to use my Forerunner 305 (mentioned previously) with me when I went out to do something. This time it was the ARNuts run, we headed up on to Black Mountain from Wilf's place. Susie and Mark and Heather probably all had some form of similar device but alas not my data. Not so bad, so I missed recording a hilly 1.5 hour run.

However on Sunday just past I was out at Googong dam competing in the Sri Chinmoy Googong Multisport race and forgot to take the HRM out with me. This is a great shame as it would have been interesting to see a direct on the day comparison with the different disciplines and what my heart rate was in each. Also the map would have been interesting to have a look at from running, paddling, riding and running again around the Googong area.

The Googong race was a lot of fun, I should get around to writing a quick report if I can, this was the second time I have ever run off the bike as opposed to a leisurely stroll to a sit down at a cafe for coffee off the bike which is more the norm for me. But hey check it out I have been seen running.

[/mtb] link

Fri, 05 Oct 2007

No count-words-region or similar in emacs? - 14:10
I have no idea how I never noticed this before, I was writing something a few minutes ago and wished to know how many words were in a section of it. Plain text in emacs. I tried Meta-X count-<tab> and a few variations and could not find a command that would count the words in a region of text, or a buffer or anywhere else. Strange I thought and decided to search online.

From search engine results I found that somehow emacs does not natively have the few lines of lisp required to do this seemingly simple function anywhere by default. So there are some reasons this may be the case, the first of which is the definition of what constitutes a word may be in question, especially in different modes. However I just want a basic text mode word count capability.

Many online suggestions seemed to launch a sub-shell and run wc on a buffer or section of a buffer, this is obviously overkill. Fortunately one of the first search results is to an elisp intro that has a section detailing a function defined to do count words region, which is exactly what I needed, so it is now in my .emacs file.

The two things I find most surprising with this state of affairs are: 1. emacs does not have the capability somewhere in the huge amount of elisp distributed with it to do this natively and 2. Though I have been using emacs a lot for more than 10 years I never before noticed this was lacking.

[/comp/software] link

Wed, 26 Sep 2007

No more Polaris Challenge - 14:52
In the latest news from Wild Horizons that arrived in the email today Huw announced that they will no longer be running Australian Polaris events after the Urban Polaris in Canberra in December.

The Australian Polaris Challenge was the first mass participation endurance mountain biking event in Australia, pre dating the Canberra based Australian 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race by two years. By first I am not ignoring events such as the Simpson Desert cycle classic, simply saying mass participation in that the logistics of competing in earlier events such as the Simpson were often as daunting, as the riding component of the event.

I can understand why the Paddle Polaris did not make sense to run, it never had a huge number of entrants and yet would still have had a lot of logistic issues behind putting it on. The Urban Polaris though fun is not an overly challenging event and is only on one day. Also now it has been held in the same city for so long it is no longer as interesting as it may have been the first time or two in one location.

The original event was still the best. The Polaris Challenge, 2 days out there with a friend navigating around the place on your mountain bike. Carrying all your camping gear for an overnight camp somewhere on a 25km by 25km map of some new and interesting location in the Australian bush. The event is modelled on the UK Polaris Challenge (now there are a few other events in other countries also), this started back in 1991 and has run over in the UK since. Huw, being from the UK had competed in the event there and when he arrived in Australia found the lack of a Polaris style event something that needed fixing, thus he started running one here.

There is no other event on the Australia mtb calendar quite like it, cyclegaines (rogaines on bikes) only tend to be one day events, Adventure races have other disciplines than just mountain biking. Mountain bike races do not have much in the way of mental challenges, without the route planning and navigation while out there you can simply head out and push your body with out any thoughts of where you are or how to get around entering your head. The added challenge of packing gear and being able to handle the extra weight and the consequent slow down in your route choices just adds to the fun and challenge.

I had heard for a few years now Huw had been attempting to interest some event organiser in purchasing the rights of all the Polaris events, it appears no one has bitten. I am unsure of what branding issues there are between the UK Polaris and any of the others (they all use the same logo), however I do hope there is another event that comes along in the coming years (and soon) to fill the hole left by this. The effort involved in running an event like this is considerable though as you have to spend a great deal of time in the area the event will run in, get the community on side, get permissions from all land owners involved. Create the maps and arrange all the other logistics. The fact that there has been a drop in numbers attending the event in the past few years probably did not help. It may not need to be branded "Polaris" but the format of camping, teams, navigation, all in one discipline, new and interesting location each year are necessary I think.

Anyway thanks to Huw and the rest of Wild Horizons for all your efforts over the years, I know I had fun (2003 Burraga, 2004 Murramarang, 2005 Comboyne, 2006 Delegate, 2007 Black Springs (have not yet written my report or uploaded the photos)). The fun of the event will be missed.

[/mtb/events] link

Tue, 25 Sep 2007

Stardust, the wow post - 00:18
So I just got back a few minutes ago from seeing the movie Stardust movie at Dendy (Canberra). I am a long time Neil Gaiman fan so suspected I would like the movie, and after waiting for over a year an a half, for a movie that was originally to be released here in March (though having heard about it much earlier I was already keen) I have to say it did not disappoint at all.

This I can already see will be one of my favourite movies, after one screening I already adore it. What an absolutely brilliant movie. Go and see it.

[/leisure/screen] link

Mon, 24 Sep 2007

Fun courses - 10:51
The Scott Australian 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race (this is the race run by CORC that used to be The Mont Australian 24 Hour Mountain Bike Race) is on soon, the 13th and 14th of October. We moved the race back to the Mt Stromlo area for the first time since 2002, this is because we have the amazing new Stromlo Forest Park recreational facility with a huge amount of single track built for riding and racing.

It probably comes as little surprise to hear that I have raced and ridden a lot of different tracks all over the place, and I have to say the course we have put together for this up coming race is one of the most fun and interesting to ride I have seen in a long time. Back in April 2005 I had a bit of a comment on mountain bike race course design, though the Kowen course did improve, last year it was a really interesting course for a lot of people. I still do not think it lived up to enough of the need for an incredible mountain bike course that a race like our large 24 hour needs.

I am happy to say this has completely changed with the move back to Stromlo. We have two loops in the course this year which you or you team alternate laps around. One loop (the red loop) has some climbing and is not technically very challenging at low speeds. The other loop (blue loop) has less climbing, however it has more rock sections and twisty technical bits though out the single track of that loop.

Friday morning I rode the red loop and I must say it still has me grinning a lot 3 days later. Sure there is some bumpy flatter track early in the lap (bumpy because it is only a month or two old and not ridden in solidly yet) and then we have a climb up the trunk trail to the summit of Mt Stromlo. However all that can be forgiven, it is a fairly easy climb after all, and at this point we get the pay back for all that climbing effort. Descending non stop to transition for between 5 and 20 minutes (depends how fast you can ride down) on some of the most amazing sections of single track I have seen in a long time. Wheeeeeeeeee.

Yesterday afternoon I headed out with some friends and we rode a lap of the blue loop, I can definitely see that it is a bit harder technically, however I loved it, the extra challenge by some of the twisty or rocky sections. The grin worthy section on the back side of the mountain below Slick Rock, the flowing and swoopy tracks coming back toward the event centre. Sure it is not 10 minutes of non stop descending but it definitely gets a grin. I almost wish I was racing in the event rather than helping to run it. At least I can go ride these trails any time. Bring it on. :)

[/mtb/events] link

Tue, 18 Sep 2007

Keyboard training - 15:04
I have noticed my wrists getting sore when typing on my computer at work for long periods form time to time. I decided I should put more of an effort into trying out a Natural shape keyboard for a while. When Mikal was here for a month recently he recommended the Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000 model. This is a mostly black keyboard with a usb cable to the computer (none of this silly wireless stuff) and appears to be the most recommended keyboard on most RSI and similar topic websites and blogs.

I finally convinced Bob to purchase three of these (one for me, one for the head of department and another in case Mikal^Wanyone requests one). Of course I am writing this diary entry on my laptop which sort of defeats the purpose, however I will be making an effort to get used to the new keyboard. It is quite a change as I had previously been using an old ps2 keyboard that I liked the feel of. One of 5 or so I found a cache of at work and had snarfed up and connected to my home computer, work computer and any other deskbound computer I had to type much on.

My typing is a little slower on the new keyboard, only having used it for an hour two now, however it feels nice and the shape is not strange or keys in the wrong places it seems. I had wondered about using the non standard keys and the strange zoom switch (though as a scroll wheel) however most of the extra keys do not show up as having an event in X (using xev). Searching for information on this I find a few Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000 howtos or forum discussions, however the methods to get the extra keys all seem to require a kernel patch, one which is not integrated into the distribution kernels. Thus unless anyone can suggest some other mechanism to get the events to user space I guess I will leave it be for now, after all I need it to type, not to press weird buttons on.

I also have to train my fingers to hit q rather than tab in mutt to get out of an email all the time.

[/comp/hardware] link

Mon, 17 Sep 2007

Wading into a room full of angry possums - 11:07
Looking at my shins today it seems possible I spent the weekend wading around in a room full of angry possums or cats. Instead I was participating in the ACTRA navigation workshop, the reason for the scratches is I did not bother wearing my gaiters at all this weekend. Of course it is still fortunate I do not wear a skirt.

The workshop was fun, especially the stuff yesterday out in some bush on the edge of Lake George, including a 3 hour rogaine to finish of the weekend. Though Judi and I went a bit big in our course plan for that and were late back (not collecting controls on the way back), it was good to get more practice and be able to utilise the experience of the coaches out on real terrain to practice our skills.

[/mtb] link

Wed, 12 Sep 2007

Google maps API is kind of neat. - 11:31
I purchased a Garmin Forerunner 305 a few weeks ago, this is a combined HRM and GPS device. Pretty much aimed at sports people as a training tool. Mikey and Tony from ozlabs have been working on some code (gpsruns) that easily grabs the data and uploads it to your website to interface with the Google Maps API.

For example here is the API and Maps link from an 18 KM run I did last night. I wear it cycling, paddling and running and it is interesting to see the data. However I have been thinking there are ways to represent some of the data in the graphs in more interesting ways over time. I had a look at the Google Maps API documentation yesterday and am impressed with how much you can actually do.

I was thinking it would be cool to be able to display information such as distance, HR, speed, direction and other things in the line plotted on the map. Looking at the PolyLine documentation I am happy to see it can be done. I will need to divide the plot into sections over whatever range of change I want to display. However I can for example put a key for what colour is what heart rate on the page then display the map changing colour for different heart rates over time during the exercise. I can also put up more plot points for displaying distance covered or speed or gradient changes in different colours. I guess it is time I got hacking on this code along with Mikey and Tony.

[/comp/software] link

Mon, 03 Sep 2007

Those freaky couriers - 16:06
Yesterday I moseyed around the Angry Doctor 100 KM mountain bike race that Tom and Alina of AROC put on. Fun was had, my lack of riding in the last year made itself evident once more, and I definitely want to go back next year.

Of course on of the most amazing things to see out there was a cycle courier who passed me at the aid station point at 70 KM who was riding a fixed wheel (ie could not stop peddling) cyclocross (narrow tyres on 700c road wheels) bike with flat bars. I never saw him again until after the finish, thus I was beaten by a guy riding this rather awkward seeming bike, damn incredible effort on his part considering the course was not gentle, there were a lot of undulations out there. Apparently this guy lit up a ciggie at the finish too, freaky.

Sure cycle couriers are a kind of professional rider (in that their job is being paid to ride bikes fast 8 hours a day every day) and they have a rather full on single speed and fixed wheel culture going, it was however still amazing to see this out there on the course. And here I was thinking the nutters on single speed bikes were doing it hard up until that point.

[/mtb] link

Mon, 27 Aug 2007

Keeping with tradition, I missed my Blorthday once more. - 17:55
Yesterday was once more my Blorthday. Though only a day late this year in mentioning it, I am obviously getting with my trend of not posting on the date of the anniversary of this diary.

This year the stats are: 

[17:57:26] 173 oneiros sjh ~/diary/data>find -name '*.text' | wc -l
696
[17:57:28] 174 oneiros sjh ~/diary/data>wc `find -name '*.text'`
...
24060  181077 1143131 total

I have been following another prevalent trend out in diary space (yeah I still hate the term blogsphere) and that is the trend of posting frequency to approach zero over time. I have been posting a lot less this year than either of the previous two years. 148 posts is significantly lower than either 221 or 337. Ahh well no matter, I am sure I will keep doing this for my own reasons, as much as I feel like.

[/various] link

What changed to make year round sports so much better - 17:36
Last Wednesday, Craig (who I did Geoquest with) and I headed up to Perisher Blue for a day of downhill skiing. This is the first time I had been skiing since 2002, which for me was a really long break from the sport. Until 2002 I had been skiing for between 2 and 3 weeks most years (except 1993 when we lived in England) from the age of 5 or there abouts.

To say I used to be snow obsessed is not overstating things. Although I have been an avid mountain biker since 1991/1992 I had been skiing avidly for longer and had spent a lot of time (and effort, money, etc) in being a competent skier. I tended to have a week of lessons every year to help improve more, then spend the rest of my time up there skiing a lot.

The interesting thing is that though I had a lot of fun last Wednesday, I do not feel the need to go back and ski more this year, or at least I do not feel the need strongly. So I have been wondering why I am not as snow obsessed as I once was.

I think a large part of the problem is that I am somewhat bored with Perisher Blue, sure I could go to Thredbo some more, or to Victorian resorts. However it would all be somewhat similar. I think a much more interesting thing to do would be more cross country skiing again, after all that opens up new places and adventures much more than lifted alpine skiing can. I suspect if I headed over to Europe or "Canadia" for an alpine skiing trip I would enjoy it a lot more due to the completely different environment and style of terrain and snow there.

However another aspect of this boredom with skiing I think is heavily related to the fact it is not easy to ski year round from where I live. See if I want to go mountain bike riding, paddling, running, hiking, etc. I can do that at any time of the year and have fun in the outdoors. I can concentrate on improving my ability and related fitness with each activity whenever I want to. Skiing on the other hand I can only do for a few short months eery year and it costs a lot of money. (I almost said a lot more money, then I thought of my tendency to break bike components and decided it may not be so incredibly different... though it is likely more expensive on a per hour of participation basis to go Alpine skiing)

My Alpine skis are "old skool" straight skis rather than parabolics, up on the slopes I was almost alone in skiing straight skis last Wednesday. Thus it was surprising, when I consider what a gear freak I can be that while looking at some shiny new skis in the shops in Jindabyne I was not even remotely tempted to buy new equipment. Probably because I realised I would not use it, looking at the price of some of the good ski and binding pairs I thought to myself, gee I could buy another boat for that (AUD $1400 or so), after all I can paddle year round (and I did not think I could buy a bike for that, being the bike snob that I am I would be wary of riding a bike that only cost AUD $1400 new.... <g>)

[/mtb] link

Thu, 23 Aug 2007

Yaaaaaarrrr, them Sydney siders beware - 11:57
I hear there is a atlassian treasure hunt going on around Sydney today, or maybe cutlassian pirate thing. A warning from the dirty long johns team. If you see them beware or you may walk the plank.

[/various] link

Mon, 06 Aug 2007

Fix the bugs in my food - 16:03
I was amused to see a reference to a burger king product in Canadia containing a buildid http://www.burgerking.ca/en/1158/index.php?buildid=25. Do they build their food like we do software, so maybe you can check a specific revision of the food out of version control and build it. Can you ask for a newer revision of some food with less bugs in it? I am sure they will claim their good does not contain bugs, we know that claim tends to be wrong in software so can they really be telling the truth with their food?

[/various/ilmiwac] link

Fri, 03 Aug 2007

Spoke too soon - 09:02
Oops, maybe I should not have preemptively mentioned the planned future exercise yesterday. During the mountain bike ride in Majura yesterday morning I had a low speed over the bars crash. Landing on the back of my left shoulder and rolling from there on to my lower back. During the day yesterday I could feel bruising around my left glutes and general lower back area. During Yoga I definitely felt the stretches through that area. However I thought that was the extent of the damage. Paddling was alright, nothing seemed to painful.

However at home last night and over night trying to sleep I found my back bruised around the ribs and breathing was a little bit difficult, also I was unable to lie on my left hand side. Thus I guess I should not be too surprised that this morning when I went out mountain biking I found it hard to breathe. As we started climbing the trails at the base of Black Mountain I was dropping off the back (at a low speed already) and unable to take deep breaths. So I had to tell the others to go on and I went home for some Neurofen and a lie down. I will not be able to run this arvo, though the agenda changed slightly already with a paddle session planned for this afternoon, I will wait and see how I feel come 4pm to decide if I can paddle or not today.

[/mtb] link

Thu, 02 Aug 2007

This week in exercise - 15:25
When Mikal was here at work last week he requested that I stop exercising. His reasoning is that I am making him and so many other geeks appear fatter simply due to the amount of exercise I do. I guess my problem is I do not tend to think I really do that much exercise, this is because I compare myself Dave and Julie, who set new standards for doing lots of stuff.

This week I have done a bit, probably more than any week while Mikal was here. I did suggest to Mikal he could skip the country to get away from seeing me exercise all the time, and heck it looks like that is what he is doing. However because I am not a nice friendly person I feel the need to write down my week in exercise as it will stand by Sunday.

  • Sunday last weekend I did a 24 KM paddle in my Mirage double kayak, including a 10 KM time trial at BGCC.
  • Monday I did a 13 KM run from ANU through Haig park up onto Mt Ainslie Reserve, over to the back of Campbell, down to the lake shore and back to ANU. Then that evening I did a Posture and Flex class for an hour and a bit.
  • Tuesday I was lazy and did bugger all exercise.
  • Wednesday (yesterday) I did the Bilbys road ride in the faster bunch before work (40 KM or so at a reasonable pace), during work I did a 11 KM run to Yarralumla bay and back from ANU.
  • Thursday (this morning) I went mountain biking in Majura for a bit over and hour (30 KM on the mtb by the time I got to work), had a 1.5 hour yoga class at lunch and will be heading out paddling on the lake this evening for an hour and a bit.
  • Friday, tomorrow, as always the Friday morning mountain bike ride will be happening (anyone who can not tell what song I am referencing in the email for the ride has never heard the song). Then I hope to get a run in to make it three reasonable runs this week
  • Saturday will be an easy day, hoping for a paddle in the morning, though it may end up being an easyish road ride for a few hours, then I will be volunteering for CORC doing pre race registration for the 8 Hour WWS mtb race this weekend
  • Sunday I will be racing in mens pairs on at the 8 hour mtb race on my single speed mountain bike. Wheeeeee

What can I say, fun will be (or was) had.

[/mtb] link

Wed, 01 Aug 2007

And the k bone is connected to the - 17:47
So after checking with dell today to ensure we would not mess up the warranty to play with my laptop and reseat the keyboard I had a look at fixing the problem. I must say this is a remarkably easy fix, there are 4 screws on the bottom marked k, these hold the keyboard in. Unscrew them, seat the keyboard how you need to, screw them back ensuring they are tight. Job done.

I am sure Bob is laughing at me right now as he tends to pull anything he buys apart the minute it is in his hands, ignoring any other issues.

[/comp/hardware] link

Tue, 31 Jul 2007

Please go away clicky key - 22:58
I am sure the old ibm keyboards that had a positive key click and made a noise on each key press are all well and good. If that is what you wish to use and are used to it. On my laptop it is getting on my nerves.

I have had a problem with the screen on my laptop (dell x300) for a year or so. There has been a brighter circle in the middle of the screen, also the screen hinge has been a bit loose and wobbly. The machine was still usable and functional so I did not give it much thought and got on with things. However as the warranty runs out in August sometime I decided I had better do something about the problem.

Thus we had a dell technician in the other day (Monday morning) to replace the screen. All good the replacement screen is fine, no bright circle and it has stopped wobbling all over the place.

Well all is fine with the screen now, however the technician had the keyboard out while making the screen change and somehow it seems has not reseated the bottom right hand side of the keyboard. The outcome of this is there is a noisy click sound when ever I press right arrow, page up or page down, or enter.

I could open it up and fix it at work tomorrow I guess, however it is still under warranty so maybe I should get dell back to look at it. Having only a few keys on the keyboard behave as if they were on an old ibm keyboard is not really a desirable behaviour.

[/comp/hardware] link

Clean bike - 22:47
After almost a month of not cleaning my geared mountain bike, leaving it in the shed and doing all my mountain biking on my single speed, I finally got off my arse this evening, overcame my dislike for working in the shed in the cold and cleaned the thing. Kind of funny when I will be using my single speed in the 8 hour race this weekend. Ahh well I can finally ride it again and take the Friday morning ride up some steep hills. Wheeeeeee.

[/mtb/gear] link

Mon, 30 Jul 2007

Why is Tuesday the running day around here? - 16:03
As I have said from time to time I find running a hard sport, it makes you work, there is no where to hide and I still do not find much love for the activity. However I do do some running for a variety of reasons. Today I headed out for a 13 KM run (from ANU up through Haig park to Mt Ainslie reserve, along the front there to Mt Ainslie Drive then down to the lake vie the back of Campbell and Russell park then along the lake shore back to ANU) but it is a Monday so I must be some sort of anomaly.

I say this as I am somewhat surprised to see a lot of running happening on Tuesday evenings. The Bilbys main run session for each week is Tuesday nights at Dickson oval year round (in winter between 30 and 50 people tend to be there, in summer upwards of 100 are there often). ARNuts, a group of Adventure Racing people in Canberra (most of whom are far faster than me) do a weekly long run every Tuesday night. Today I saw the ANU Mountaineering Club is also doing a regular Tuesday evening run. So I wonder what is it about Tuesday that makes it attractive to run groups in Canberra.

Sure good runners such as the ARnuts all do many other runs a week (something I need to emulate to improve, ie run more) but it is a bit weird this Tuesday evening running obsession around here.

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Thu, 26 Jul 2007

Ways to make staying fit easier - 20:07
I am not particularly flexible, this becomes a problem when you consider cycling is a sport that promotes lack of flexibility. I know full well that if I stretch regularly I am less prone to injuries and tend not to tighten up and lose power in some muscle groups due to poor positioning. One of the problems I encounter trying to sit down and stretch every day or at least fairly often is that stretching is boring. (also I hardly ever watch tv so can not even stretch in front of that)

The obvious solution is to join some classes for stretching and body balance sort of disciplines. Thus I have enrolled in a P&F, which alas I had to miss the first instance of this week (Mum's birthday dinner on Monday night) so look forward to participating in next Monday and a yoga class, both at the ANU Sports Union (handy being 50 metres from work).

The first yoga class was today, I have never done any before so had no real idea what to expect. Some of my friends go to yoga regularly and love it, others have said they tried it and did not like it. One of my friends who did not mesh with yoga said she found herself unable to blank her mind and simply concentrate on what is going on with her body during the exercises. I was hopeful I would be able to deal with this and not spend the time thinking of other things, when I am exercising I generally blank my mind a fair bit and simply concentrate on the exercise in question. This is a fantastic way to relax and escape from the rest of the world and give your brain some down time.

I am happy to say I liked the first class, it seems to have helped with flexibility a bit already and I was able to let my mind simply concentrate only on the exercises in question throughout the class, even when we were simply relaxing into and out of the session. Now to see how much this and the P&F class help me during the rest of the semester.

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Gannets - 19:13
concrete dude This gannet is probably not about to attack a piece of pizza, maybe for the dual reasons that this is a Northern Gannet rather than an Australasian Gannet and that Pizza eating gannets from ANU in Australia seem to have become extinct a few years ago.

So what is this gannet thinking as it swoops down, and what is it swooping down upon. I guess it is in a bit of a Batman pose, maybe it after some criminal scum of the (remarkably sunny) night time streets of Gotham. I kind of doubt it though, this is a bird not a bat, and it really does not look much like Dick, Jason or Tim. This is a bird so I am really not sure we need to go far looking for the motivations and deep thought patterns behind what is going on. There is probably a reason for the term Bird Brain being in common usage.

Looking closely at the shape of its wings in this photo the gannet looks a lot like what I remember Darth Vader's ship looks like, this Gannet is probably about to say "Luke I am your father... squawk".

(original image source)

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Wed, 25 Jul 2007

Concrete Dude - 17:01
concrete dude Say hello to the Concrete Dude children. Okay so it may not be concrete, it could instead be marble, or a tasty slab of granite chiseled out to look like some dead bloke. The real question we need to ask though is what to call him and what is he thinking. Really it is a bit of a wonder what a half man half inscribed concrete slab creature could be called. Mermaid/Merman creatures are half fish, A centaur is half horse. There is no word for concrete slab in Latin such as Mare, nor is there a creature in Greek mythology, half man half concrete slab. Really I am at a loss as to what to call him. Thus we will have to stick with Concrete Dude (with thanks to Bill and Ted for the inspiration).

Next we are on to the thorny issue of what he is thinking, if anything apart from what is this Serbian spruce and how did it end up in my hand? Maybe he is hoping he does not fall over, with no legs it will be somewhat difficult to get back up, I wonder what the weight limits on most wheel chairs are, would they be able to support our friendly concrete dude or would they crumple like a crumply thing? The other problem is the severe lack of colour in his outfit, no pink granite or any real variety simply dark grey clothes perfectly matching skin tone.

(original image source)

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Tue, 24 Jul 2007

I Do - 23:44
After making an attempt to see this 3 weeks ago, I finally got to see the movie I Do tonight. I liked it.

Luis was, obviously I guess, a bit of a pig at first and not the nicest of people, also the movie sounds like it could be one of those dodgy premises that consistently cause Adam Sandler to be putting his name forward as an individual who should never have become famous. However this was done by the French rather than the Americans, maybe that is what saved it, even with the dodgy sounding premise the movie was really good.

You can easily see why Luis' family would drive anyone mad, as the movie goes on you begin to see why there are reasons Emma decided to go in for the deal initially (though that is still a bit of a mystery really) however by the end of the movie the characters have generally all grown on you to the same extent they have on each other. At least that is what I got out of it, a charming and entertaining movie opening the eyes and changing the outlook of the protagonist in a major way. This is a movie I will probably be happy to watch a time or two more when it hits dvd.

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A man needs a canoe - 23:22
Until Jane told me about this ad while visiting this weekend for our Mother's birthday I had never seen it. Carlton made a few ads that were very funny, I had of course seen the Big Ad, it was a bit of an Internet sensation for a while. I had also, I think it was possibly even on tv seen the highly amusing Made From Beer which I also thought was rather brilliant and far more amusing.

Now this is where I am more interested, though the Big ad is clever and inspired marketing (notably viral marketing) I did not think it was particularly funny. With the made from beer ad I found the dry presentation of the various parts of the ad in the supposedly impressive but really piss taking way of talking about the imagery still has me laughing every time I see it.

Thus I was keen to see what they had pulled off with another ad and when Jane mentioned the Canoe Ad to me I was hoping it was good. I personally was definitely not disappointed, sure I may be a little biased recently but this is another hilarious ad. I know I am generally amused more by surreal humour and similar sort of strangeness so this is likely to appeal to me.

I was a little surprised when I showed a friend who loves the big ad the other two tonight and she was not amused at all, somehow she must be missing the surreal humour funny bone or something. I will say however I never found the flash dance ad for Carlton beer particularly interesting, somebody out there obviously does.

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Mon, 23 Jul 2007

Security concerns? - 16:53
So I was wondering what to write about today, thinking I should attempt to be creative and write something for the ilmiwac category. Maybe if I could event attempt something in the style of Fafnir as I have sometimes tried to in the past. So I went looking for some current issue to think about on the ABC News website. However I came across a story I want to comment on, though a little bit lacking in details, it paints a worrying picture.

The story, in brief, says a class about WMD technologies at ADFA has been postponed due to security concerns. Huh? run that by me again. At the Australian Defence Force Academy, a class that instructs people taking it in ways to recognise and better understand weapons of mass destruction is a security concern? Okay so I understand this is an independent unit at masters level and is open to more than just enlisted personnel and can be taken as a correspondence course. However I find it a little worrying that the prospect that national security personnel and emergency medical and response people who need to know about this stuff as they may actually have to have an informed opinion or ability to deal with it are being told that it is a bigger risk to let the information out to them than to keep it locked up.

This is markedly strange when you take note of the fact that all the information in the course is available to the public in some way already, simply I guess not packaged up in a neat course. Less well informed or informed through unusual sources such as the Internet on subjects such as this when they need to deal with it in their line of work just sounds like yet more anti security for all involved. Just dandy to see any potential Australian Hans Blix style people will need to have been enlisted to get any sort of information out of the people who can pass on the real details about this stuff.

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Fri, 20 Jul 2007

Out of Range at the 2007 Geoquest Adventure Race - 14:51
As mentioned a few times the report from Geoquest 2007 has been a while in coming, pretty much all involved in the team have now seen it and have no problems with it. In it are 99 photos, 5 videos and a fair chunk of text. We had fun and I am hoping to be back next year for more of it. Thanks to Bruce, Danealle, Craig and Brendan for racing and big thanks to Jane, Zoe and Jaymz for supporting. Also Gran and Jude were fun to have around the race.

Anyway for anyone who wants to have a look here is our report from the team Out of Range at the 2007 Geoquest Adventure Race. Enjoy.

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Wed, 18 Jul 2007

Far less painful than expected - 16:47
I asked Mikal if he had any experience in burning copies of DVD's, notably where there is more than 4.7 GB of stuff to fit onto a a dvdrw disc. He said no and asked me to report on the details of all the pain and suffering I went through to make it happen.

I feel almost cheated, and I am sure Mikal will be sad to hear how easy it all was, however because he asked, here are the details.

The only caveat with this method is it appears many (possibly all) of the extra features on the dvd will not work from menus (and looking at the mounted iso image may have been removed). However it has copied the primary documentary that is the reason for owning the dvd across, the resolution is reduced in parts, but that will probably not be particularly noticeable on a tv screen.

The simple process used for this is "apt-get install dvd95 vamps ; dvd95 &"

The dvd95 program will even burn the iso image it creates for you, or you can ask it not to and burn it yourself with growisofs or similar. I think the next step if I am feeling keen is to read up on ways to split the dvd up into two, retaining the menus but having the movie on one and the extras on another dvd or some other way to retain all the extra features. Right now however I do not feel that need.

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Tue, 17 Jul 2007

Through the pearly gates in a 200 mph fireball - 16:19
Anyone who recognises the quote probably has already guessed I watched Top Gear last night (the expression about going through the pearly gates in a fireball seems to be a favourite of the presenters). I agree with so many other viewers that this is a funny show. Heck I tend to have an almost negative interest in cars and yet this show has me laughing along throughout most episodes.

I remember watching the old series with Clarkson in it when I was living in the UK in 1993, though at the time I paid some small interest in cars (such as watching Ayrton Senna in F1 races) I do not recall Top Gear being so amusing. I suspect they really ramped up the humour of it when they changed the format and started the new series in 2002. My amusement at the pearly gates expression has me trying to think of a few expressions for how various people may want to go, somewhat macabre maybe but I am trying to think of it in a similar manner to my Fairy Tales in the key of Klingon post. Alas nothing comes to mind yet.

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Mon, 16 Jul 2007

Bad day for the Aussies at the tour - 15:24
Anyone watching the tour coverage last night will have seen some of the bad news if not all, however as of yesterday three more of the Australians riding in the tour are out of the race. Michael Rogers was in the break away group and riding well, he was the T-Mobile leader and it was a little surprising to see no one was chasing him down. Rasmussen attacked ad bridged across to the break away group. Michael appeared to be climbing as well as Rasmussen and was looking comfortable. On the next descent Rogers crashed on a corner and hit the bitumen hard dislocating a shoulder (plus some scratches around the place).

Rogers tried to keep riding and caught the group on the descent and following flat section. As soon as the road pointed back up the next climb however the fact he could not pull on the bars made climbing too difficult so he had to pull the pin on his tour ride this year. Seeing all this happen was really depressing as Michael is one of the potential GC contenders and he really did look comfortable in the break away group. (also he is from Canberra)

The reason the tour doctor took so long to get up to have a look at Rogers was soon revealed also, he had been back with Stuart O'Grady who had also crashed, badly and was carted off in an ambulance. O'Grady has fractured 5 ribs at the front, 3 at the back, punctured a lung, fractured his shoulder and was damn lucky to escape with no spinal injuries.

The final blow for the Australians in the race came when Robbie McEwan, who has been suffering from the wrist injury due to the crash he had in stage 1 (which he won) was unable to make it to the finish line of the stage before the time cut off so is also out of the race. Of the 6 Australians who started the tour this year only two remain, Simon Gerrans on the AG2R team of Christophe Moreau and Cadel Evans, the other Australian GC contender who appeared to be riding well and within his ability yesterday to stay in contention. (More news on the crashes is available on ABC News)

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Fri, 13 Jul 2007

My software works too well, change it back - 22:06
I have upgraded a few of the systems at work recently to a far more recent image, this one based on feisty (users get to choose what environment they log in to though (kde, gnome, something else, etc)). A short while after putting the image on James' desktop he wandered over and asked if I had doubled the size of the swap partition. When I said that had not changed he was almost amazed as he said around half the memory used before the upgrade was now in use.

It appears the profiling and lower memory foot print work various gurus in the kde and gnome and similar camps has paid dividends as there appears to be a pretty big drop in usage and memory leaks here and everything feels a bit faster all of which is good news. Not that I have done any real testing but perceived feel is relevant to some extent in a computing environment.

The most amusing thing here I thought was my interpretation of how he asked the question, it sounded almost as if something was wrong. As if James was saying "my computer is not using enough memory, and is running to fast, fix it, make it as slow and hoggy as it used to be". I guess at least he was not about to request a change to a computing system that seems to constantly get slower and more user unfriendly with every major release.

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Taking the easy way out - 11:19
Last night I was trying to come up with something to write here, I have been making more of an effort than most recent months to write here daily. With nothing coming to mind I decided to do this the easy way and look to see what was on the ABC News website with the offbeat tag. I can almost always find something I feel like commenting on if I look around here. Of course my grand plan fell apart when I ended up watching that idiotic show on ABC last night with one of my house mates. I had to leave the room a few times as I just could not handle the blind seeming single sided attitudes of some of the items presented in the "documentary" or some views in the subsequent panel. Then the tour coverage came on and I pretended to watch that (when in actuality I fell asleep on the couch until midnight then went to bed), so I never got around to writing anything here last night.

However I did find a few items of note and I for one welcome our new fungi overlords. I begin to wonder why these events are not more common outside northern Europe? Is that the only part of the world they want to celebrate the ability to carry heavy sacks of grain, or in the modern version see how fast they can escape over an obstacle course with their spouse? Though I do wonder if the couples are really couples or is it open to any mixed team. The races are a bit short though so I doubt these competitors would be able to go the distance in AR or similar carrying a team member around.

Then of course there was this item about a large famous estate being sold in the US for a lot of money. The bit that got me wondering is the mention of the night club in the house, huh what? See I have to admit to only ever having been inside a night club maybe 3 times in my life, however I was under the impression they were kind of boozy dance gatherings for people out on the town. How would a night club work inside a private property belonging to a really rich person? Maybe it is a revenue raiser.... could we all try it, remodel a few rooms in our house, get a liqueur licence and hope the police do not get called out due to the noise of excessively loud techno and screaming customers in the neighbourhood too much.

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Wed, 11 Jul 2007

Far too verbose - 21:58
As I mentioned at the end of June, my Geoquest report was on the way. I finally finished writing it tonight and after a quick spell check sent it along to the team and support crew to have a look at and approve or modify. I am currently almost hoping they tell me it needs to be cut down.

Last year my Geoquest report was around 4,000 words. This year I somehow kept writing until I had almost 10,000 words. What the heck did I blather on about for so long? The other day someone rather amusingly suggested they never bothered reading reports a common friend wrote as they went into too much detail. I had better reread my report and check I have not suffered from the same problem. Anyway once the team and support crew have glanced over the report and assuming I am satisfied I am not boring everyone to tears (I am sure you will all just look at the photos and video and ignore the words anyway...) I can finally upload it soon.

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Tue, 10 Jul 2007

Tuesday afternoon milk carton blogging - 16:38

milk car ton

The above image obviously fits here, if the facts are to be believed. One Holstein cow can weigh between 1100 and 1500 lbs generally. Taking the lower limit in case we have small cows, 1100 lbs is around 498 KG. So to have a Ton of cows we need two of them. These are also the traditionally imagined milk producing cows, thus milk and ton are both in there. All we really needed was a car.

This also opens us up to the idea of needing proof of having Two Cows, of course many other thought exercises are available here. For example these cows are obviously clones, cows are one fantastic example of data storage, their map out a lot of information about Cowness in general, so we have some massive raid array (two cows) of redundant cow information. As Tanenbaum almost said, "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon with two cows hurtling down the highway".

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Mon, 09 Jul 2007

Tour time - 22:32
One thing I have noticed fairly often recently is that there is an obvious piece of sporting equipment that smells worse than smelly cycling gear. Smelly neoprene paddling gear. In winter cycling gear can often smell worse than ever, the damp from amounts of sweat not escaping through the more wind/water proof fabrics getting in the clothing and smelling things up. Sweaty soaking wet neoprene I think however is even worse, maybe because it holds the smell so much more. My paddling booties and paddling gloves both leave my feet and hands with a most unpleasant odour, maybe it is because even when I rinse them they do not dry fully between uses. Maybe that is yet another reason to use pogies rather than gloves.

Tonight a housemate and I were watching Enough Rope with the Elton John interview and some car pulled up at the club across the road, the car must have been some silly hotted up muscle car. We could hear some of the youths outside the club cheering on the engine noise as it revved up far too high (seemingly without a muffler to us listening inside). We could no longer hear the tv. If it had stayed any longer I was