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

Steven Hanley hackergotchi picture Steven
Hanley
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email: sjh@svana.org

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Tue, 29 Nov 2005

One Week - 14:02
You are most welcome to sing this entry to the tune of One Week (video) by Bare Naked Ladies (if ever there was a NSFW sounding band name that is it). though I do not know how much it will help.

I saw someone else doing this detailed diary of a week thing, everything you see on the Internets (or if you must wikipedia link) should be copied I thought I would give it a try. (thanks to the fun that is using a proleptic gregorian calendar I am pretty sure the days below are correct for those dates)

Monday May 13 150 BCE, Sittin' around discussin' with Ishvara what name would be good for the son or daughter of god in the Christian religion in a century or two, a few possible names such as Trevor, Cathy, George, Kylie, Rick, Neil or Gwendolyn come to mind, but we do not worry much as no one has to decide for more than a century yet.

Tuesday April 1 2036 CE, One joke someone tried today was suggesting Unix Time would overflow almost 2 years early due to the f00f bug, however this being somewhat geeky other themes proved more popular.

Wednesday February 21 3120 BCE, Someone opened the first Mcdonalds franchise on Christmas Island today, not much media coverage, and due to the lack of people living there they have not sold many big macs since they opened, this may explain why the crabs do not tend to be overweight, though I am not really sure about that.

Thursday July 28 1932 CE, Trying to find a milk carton to do a late Tuesday afternoon milk carton blogging post I am once more stumped by the fact the milk carton has not yet been invented, hurry up you lazy swedes and invent the milk carton, I don't have all day to sit around waiting for a milk carton.

Friday December 2 2005 CE, that is still a few days away, how am I supposed to know what I will be doing, silly.

[/various/ilmiwac] link

Mon, 28 Nov 2005

Triple Tri 2005 Report and Photos. - 14:42
Bruce, Shanyn and I had a rather fun triple tri again last week. I was still trying to get rid of my cold and thus was not doing too well. We came second again this year, both Bruce and Shanyn put in incredible performances. Most important of all is we all had fun and the whole team is looking forward to the event next year already.

My photos and a longish report are now online. Strangely when I started writing all that I thought I did not have much to write, so I was amazed at how much I ended up writing.

[/mtb/events] link

Sat, 26 Nov 2005

Silliness and fishing - 11:47
I do not usually feel the need to defend stuff I put here, especially when placed in the I Let Myself In With This Chainsaw category but what the hey I got a bite on the ol' fishin' line so here we go.

The category I placed that post in is quite deliberately somewhat full of nonsense and whimsy. If I actually feel like saying something seriously it does not go there, if I feel like making stuff up and joking that is where I will put it.

Also I was to some extent making a jab to the left field of defence, as Scott Adams recently pointed out on his diary, neither side of a rather prominent religious issue tend to make well founded arguments. I thought to myself, lets have some fun with this. I know full well the weak points of my suggestion that the people created in such a manner would not have a clue, when seen from a religious angle these people would be informed by the $DEITY in question in some manner and it would all come out rosy and happy and the birds would be singing and all that, but where is the fun in making nonsense stand up to criticism well.

Of course my own angle on it is that the sort of people who are pushing ID in the US and other similar claims are trying to do that themselves, make nonsense stand up. It was with some interest I saw an article the other day suggesting we are somewhat wired from birth with a built in need to believe in the supernatural, so maybe people do need their religious views rather than scientificly grounded ones.

Personally I would simply prefer more people to be able to compartmentalise their life so they could live with their own religious convictions and yet allow the world at large to utilise scientific advances rather than attempt to suppress or mutilate science because it differs from their personal world view or threatens their perceived power in the world. (I view this as similar in many ways to the dark ages in our history)

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Thu, 24 Nov 2005

Different cultures, different stationery - 22:31
A the moment I am for some reason unable to find my Shaefer calligraphy set, not a large problem as I still have my small Parker set readily available. Ink cartridge calligraphy pens in both sets. However with the Shaefer set I also have a number of dip pens and some other supplies. Currently I am mostly interested in finding all my ink (cartridge) writing supplies to see if I still have a plain ink cartridge pen around anywhere. I wish to write something with an ink pen and they are completely unavailable in news agencies. (well for anything less than AUD $100 it seems).

With this inability to find cheap ink based writing supplies rather than ball based I have a remarkable cultural difference bought home I had never really noticed before. While going to school in England in 1993 for a year, and I imagine the public school system there is still similar, all writing had to be done with ink cartridge pens, no ball point or biro style pens were allowed to be used. Thus every WH Smiths and other news agent had a ready supply of ink based writing equipment. Here at home I have, as stated, found such items almost impossible to find. A local art store suggested I go check out a specialist paper (stuff to write on, not news paper) shop in the Canberra Centre as they apparently stock ink writing equipment.

Due to the fact I still have my small Parker calligraphy set sitting around readily available I would not even mind if I were able to find a parker nib to fit that is suitable for writing (ie not a wide nib such as used in calligraphy), I will have to make a visit to the Canberra centre and try my luck I guess. Still it is kind of strange to note the complete lack of ink pens in regular supply here in Canberra.

Thinking about paper also reminds me I bought some really gorgeous hand made paper at a paper shop in Porto in Portugal in 2002 that I have not yet used, though I have no idea where it may be, probably hiding out with my calligraphy supplies.

[/various] link

Wed, 23 Nov 2005

This cause and effect may give the kooks a pause - 22:22
Sure I almost said this may cause them a pause for a thought, but then I remembered how unlikely it is that a thought has ever really entered their head rather than just passed through as a repeater for kook radio. However stop for a second and imagine, what if those people (kooks, interchangeable term) who think some $DEITY placed all life on earth at some given point not too long ago are correct, and evolution and all that are all just a big giggle.

Now I know this is hard to accept, but you will need to suspend disbelief just a little bit further, thus accepting that first idea may make this next one more palatable. Assume for a second all these miraculously created people were not religiously inclined loonies salivating over small children or hiding away in some abode of worship, imagine for a second one or two of them had sex, you because it feels good, or it was something to do of an afternoon.

What the hell did they think when the effects started to appear, otherwise known as childbirth. With no period experience, due to evolution, when the female started to increase in girth and have all associated issues, what was going through their heads. How many years did it take them to correlate the sex with the child birth, they may not even appear to be related at all, and with the religious mind seeming all intent on banning all forms of reasonable science anyone suggesting the two (sex and childbirth) were related was probably burned at the stake. Then when pregnancy reaches its culmination, all the pain and weird things going on, followed by the appearance of a little human. Heck the religious mind may even take this as some form of exorcism, thousands of women and newly born children were probably put to death. $DEITY may have needed to intervene at some point to put a stop to the silliness.

Getting back to reality I think we should be glad of evidence and observances as we and other animals evolved to keep current reality of how the species propagates understood by the practitioners (in this case the practitioners being all of us).

[/various/ilmiwac] link

Mon, 14 Nov 2005

Weird and wacky french animation - 16:12
So I was in Bundanoon the other night and they were showing the movie Les Triplettes de Belleville, an animated movie length feature released in 2003. The movie shows cyclists to be a somewhat obsessive compulsive sort of bunch (we really are), and has a large number of rather strange visuals or ideas running through it.

Definitely an entertaining and worthwhile movie to see, some hilarious sections, some strange bits, not a lot of dialogue so you need to concentrate on the imagery to get a lot from it also there is some good music. Tres cool. The "car chase" at the end is really highly amusing, the seemingly endless number of ways the broad shouldered mafia can crash cars is fantastic.

[/leisure/screen] link

Tacos rock - 16:07
So I went over to help a friend out with some computer issues the other day, as a thankyou they served a rather good dinner. Tacos, I have not eaten Tacos for about 8 years, I wonder why not, they absolutely rock. Also very easy to prepare, get some sour cream, some cheese, cut up some tomato and lettuce, get a jar of taco sauce (spiciness to taste) and choose the base sauce, meat base, or refried bean base or something else. And you know what, they taste great. Mmmmmmm tacos.

[/leisure/food] link

My 2005 Highland Fling 100 KM mountain bike marathon. - 12:23
Well I still have that cold, which is rather annoying, however it did give me a great reason to slow up and take it easy yesterday. I have uploaded my Highland Fling photos and a few words now. The event was a lot of fun, an absolutely fantastic course for a 100 KM race. The weather was perfect, the marshals and everyone else out there was good. Highly recommended.

[/mtb/events] link

Fri, 11 Nov 2005

Riding with a cold is a bad idea mmmmkay? - 22:26
As the triple tri is fast approaching, a number of people I ride with were keen to be shown around the bike legs. We covered the first bike leg about a month ago over two consecutive weeks on Friday morning rides. I decided the second bike leg could be covered on a Thursday morning with a slightly earlier start and slightly later finish. Finally Thursday this week there was no rain and at least a few other people had said they would be there to be shown the way.

With people expecting me there, the day before was of course the one on which I would develop a cold, I tend to get a cold maybe once a year. Ahh well I went out and did the ride anyway, feeling like crap and probably only made it through due to having two paracetamol tablets before hand. When I got back home after the ride I felt so bad I had to lay down on my bed and sleep for an hour and a bit before I could muster the energy and brain power to go into work.

Interestingly while out on the ride I think we discovered the location of most of the flies in Canberra. Sure there were a few flies buzzing around in places during the ride, however when we got to the top of Bluetts I do believe we found the majority of flies in the Canberra region, I was crawling with them, if you think there are a lot of flies on me here think again, that is nothing compared with the black crawling mass all over me at the top of Bluetts on Thursday morning, fortunately they seemed to stay there once the others arrived and we rode on.

Anyway I strongly advise against riding when feeling fairly unwell, I was able to skip the ride this morning, unfortunate as I never like to miss a ride but it would not have been sensible, after all I have the Highland Fling around the Bundanoon area this weekend, a 100 KM mountain bike race, at which I strongly suspect I will need to go very slowly if my current health is anything to go by. I definitely need to shake this cold by next week in order to do well in the Triple Tri, after all I do not want to let my completely kick arse team down.

[/mtb] link

Questioned about blogging at the noble palace - 17:14
I was out for dinner on Wednesday night at a Chinese restaurant in Woden called the "Noble Palace" (noble palace review). Not trying to muscle in on Mel or Rusty in the reviewing space, but I must say it was indeed damn good food. One of the people I was dining with who had recently been travelling throughout a lot of Asia for work (China, Korea, etc) was impressed as heck saying it was on par with the best she had tasted there. I did have one complaint I guess, we had a part of around 20 people and ordered one of the banquet items from the menu. Though the food was good there was not very much of it. Even Kate was still looking for more to eat once all the food had disappeared, and she is not a big eater at the best of times. It was to a large extent made up for by the quality of the dishes though. Oh and their dessert offerings are rather bland and pointless also in my opinion.

Interestingly while there I got up from my seat to walk to the toilet and a diner at another table asked me what the word on my t-shirt means. How do you describe blogging to people that say oh some computer thing? I used the term, it is an Internet diary that anyone can read. Interestingly later in the evening Russ' daughter Avril complimented me on wearing a cool t-shirt, so at least some people at the dinner appreciated it.

[/leisure/food] link

Mon, 07 Nov 2005

What is it with Holbrook. - 22:15
Driving through Holbrook the other day got me to thinking what I am sure is on the FAQ list for the town. What is a submarine doing in a country NSW town no where near the coast? Sure some people have attempted to come up with a reasonable answer, something about renaming it from Germantown during WWW1 and choosing a submarine war hero and maintaining a link to submarines over the years. But really who is ever going to believe that. Obviously not the townsfolk or the council, on the FAQ and the council page about about Holbrook there is nary a mention of the submarine.

Can the people living there even see the submarine in the park there? When a visitor asks them about the submarine in the town do they look at said questioner in askance, What submarine? I can not see anything like that and I think it may be a bit hard to hide one in the park there. Maybe the submarine is sort of like a submarine patent, and no one could see the submarine, or the town (after all there is a sign on the highway claiming it is the submarine town) until the day when some other town elsewhere claimed to be a submarine town, and hey presto Holbrook appeared and pointed out an established history since a name change in 1915.

Of course there could be another reason for the submarine, kind of like a nuclear bunker but this one is for the town council in case of floods. No one will even know they left as the submarine will be able to sneak away under the water, it will just be Noah, a bunch of animals and the Holbrook town council.

[/various/ilmiwac] link

Commentary on the weblog usability thing. - 22:07
I made mention of a Neilsen when I made some updates recently. A the time I did not put much stock in most of the recommendations, but did apply some to this diary. I also noticed many others tended to think the recommendations were out of whack.

Today I saw a rather good commentary on why they are a bit off. Pointing out the seeming lack of understanding of how diarys/blogs really differ to corporate websites and other similar medium has skewed the recommendations heavily.

[/various] link

Did I really wear those shoes? - 21:03
Currently my good/current pair of cycling shoes (2005 Model M180-B shoes) has broken again and I am awaiting a warranty replacement from Shimano. So this weekend I wore my previous pair of cycling shoes, what was second from top of the line in Shimano mtb shoes back in 2002. Though they feel weird they are still wearable, just a little worn out everywhere. However as I wore them this weekend at the race in Victoria and got them very muddy I hosed them off yesterday and then let them sit to dry. I forgot to put newspaper in them and they were not yet dry this morning when I wanted to ride to work. All of this is to explain why I wore my really old cycling shoes to ride to work today.

My older pair of cycling shoes, purchased sometime around 1997 are Lake, with laces and two velcro straps. A nice enough pair of shoes I thought up until I stopped using them, now days if I wear them on a bike as I did today I wonder how I could ever have ridden in them at all. They rock on the pedals, feel loose when I pull my foot up on the pedal stroke, as if I am pulling the shoe off the sole. They are incredibly worn out on the sole and to one side due to pronating a bit much and really feel completely different to how shoes I wear now days feel on the bike.

I suppose the good news is the replacement pair shimano are giving me is the 2006 model equivalent to those I broke, and it looks like it will be a bit tougher in the areas (all around the toe box) I have been continually breaking this older model.

[/mtb] link

The Gravity 12 Hour race was a heap of fun. - 17:27
Last week I mentioned I would again be competing in the Gravity 12 Hour mountain bike race in Rosewhite in Victoria. Sam, Ben and I went down there, raced, had a fantastic time and all of us are damn happy with it, and keen for a repeat next year.

I have my gravity photos online with a few words. Also I notice Bill Clarke (a work colleague) has his photos up also. One, a panorama shot shows off the campsite and surrounding hills and mountains well. He also has two photos of me, thus proving to a greater extent I was really there (who knows I may have had someone else take the photos and am in fact a couch potato sitting in front of a tv 24 hours a day).

[/mtb/events] link

Fri, 04 Nov 2005

Gravity 12 Hour mountain bike race - 09:42
As in previous years I am competing in the Beechworth Chain Gang Gravity 12 Hour mountain bike race this year. Once again I am teamed up with Sam and Ben in the three person mixed category. Our team name this year is "Ride Babysit Ride" which may be somewhat accurate as Maxine and Nikita will be camping with us of course.

Last year was a little bit muddy (read this as understatement, in reality it was the muddiest event I have ever competed in), the year before was a little bit warm (I was dehydrated and needed to visit the hospital upon my return to Canberra to rehydrate).

The weather looked as if it may be wet again with the long range forecast last weekend, however it now appears we could be up for a reasonably dry event (almost anything will be dry when compared with last year though). Anyway Sam is hell keen after missing out on racing this last year (probably the year to miss one if you have to though) and I am sure it will be fun. I just have to go into work briefly before driving to Victoria, and am sure I will be under prepared food wise at the event, ahh well I can buy stuff.

[/mtb/events] link

Tue, 01 Nov 2005

500 Mile Email Limit - 22:19
This is cool, freaky but cool. This story of a sysadmin trying to find out the cause of a email fault reported by the statistics department claiming email would not deliver to locations much more than 500 miles away.

Reading it, by the end it makes perfect sense, but half way through I was going through the same thoughts he must have been, wtf is happening sort of thoughts.

[/comp/email] link

Tuesday afternoon milk carton blogging - 00:00
Meyenberg Goat's Milk
Got Goat's Milk? 		As has been pointed out, a milk carton may contain other types of milk, Cows are not the only source of contents for these venerable containers. To the left is a milk carton containing Goat's Milk from the company Meyenberg (large producer of Goat's Milk in the US). It can be argued that Goat's milk is healthier for you or at least it may be a better baby food than Cow milk.

Though I would suggest the biggest advantage me be that we will never see another milk carton desecrated with big black splotches, through Goat's have been known to have black splotches, the image of a Goat in the public mind does not, thus opening up milk carton designs to whole new splotch free realms.

[/various/milkcarton] link

Showing you why we need science. - 00:00
We really do need science, otherwise no one would be able to make a proper appraisal of the utility of a chocolate teapot (seen last week on ploa or similar), this really is lots of fun, reminds me of the Twinkies Project I had a link to on my links page back around 1996. (yes I know many of them are dead links,really I could care less).

[/various] link

Ooohh look a coincidence, maybe - 00:00
I just happened to glance at my posts per month thing in the left hand column here and look at what I saw. September 2004, 27 posts. September 2005, 27 posts. October 2004, 15 Posts. October 2005, 15 posts. Almost kinda spooky maybe sorta.

[/comp/blogging] link

Wild Horse Ridge - 00:00
So a bunch of us drove down to Talbingo on Saturday morning to ride Wild Horse Ridge. Heaps of fun was had, the weather held off for the duration of the ride. We camped over night there intending to ride the next day if the weather continued behaving. It rained all night and on in to Sunday so we packed up and drove home. However we had a fantastic time on Saturday riding up to Budong falls and the top of Wild Horse Ridge and subsequently riding down Wild Horse Ridge. We even saw Wild Horses up near the top.

Anyway myself, Dave McCook and Andrew Cassie all took photos, I am hosting Dave's and mine. The people present on the ride were Michael "Crash" Carden, David McCook, David "DAS" Sutton, Andrew "Madge" Cassie (on a single speed), Craig "Darren? " Armour, Tony (mate of Jaymz's from Townsville), James "Jaymz" Davies, and myself Steven "Bender" Hanley.

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