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, 27 Jan 2009

Mobile woes, in need of a phone protector protector - 17:37
So when I switched to Optus sometime last year I bought a small Samsung phone at the time of the switch. I kind of like my Telstra remote area tick samsung 3g phone so thought the cheap Samsung would be alright too. This was not the case, the interface and general use I found the phone lacking (Samsung B100). Then I happened to see the Nokia 2630 in early December, the thinnest phone made by Nokia. fairly cheap and as I am most used to a Nokia interface over any others probably easy for me to get used to.

I bought one and at the same time bought a plastic protective cover for it as I seem to be able to kill phones easily. I keep them in my pocket during the day and also in a jersey pocket while cycling. Then around 2 weeks later on Christmas day the plastic protector broke on the face where the keys were, also some cracks were developing in the sides.

I wandered into Civic on Boxing day and bought a new protector, plus I saw a cool pink case for the phone so purchased that to match my laptop, mountain bike, kayak, etc. Then I used some of the special small tools at work to unscrew the old case and put the new one on. The new protector went on and I hoped it would last a bit better. This alas has not been the case, last week at LCA the case cracked apart around the edges with many cracks all around.

I am obviously in need of a mobile phone protector protector. I went into civic just now to buy something and the phone accessories shop that used to be on the ground floor in the Canberra Centre where I bought the pink case on Boxing Day is now gone. I thought about a mobile phone sock, however think that would not be good as I tend to have my phone in my cycle jersey pocket and exposed to sweat a lot. I have tried a silicon case, this does not protect the screen, also it ripped trying to pull it over the card plastic protector.

I wonder if another brand of hard case may do the job, I am a bit reticent to look for a leather phone cover as I do not want to use such an item. I am also a bit weirded out by the sudden dissapearance of the accessories shop in Civic (YIT Technologies), though it was in the middle of the corridor, I am sure it has been there for quite a few years.

[/various] link

Thu, 22 Jan 2009

First run in Hobart - 09:11
So I have been a bit lazy this week, not running in the mornings before the conference starts. This has largely been due to being up too late every night with other conference delegates.

I finally got out for a short (just under 40 minutes) run this morning, I definitely found some hills, and looking at the google maps there are a lot more to be found if I head out for a longer run. I am hoping I can do something a bit longer tomorrow morning.

The map with HRM and timing details is here the straight map is here.

[/mtb] link

Tue, 20 Jan 2009

Sirens Vegetarian restaurant in Hobart - 15:08
With no formal conference related stuff on last night I thought it was a good chance to try out Sirens Vegetarian restaurant in Hobart. Stewart and Davyd (also Vegans) came along and bought friends (a bunch of mysqlers and some of Davyd's friends. Also Donna and Peter joined in with Andy, Pascal and some locals in tow).

I took some photos there last night but they really do not show off the place well. It is a nice location on Victoria st down near the water, the restaurant decor is very north african feeling (morocco, egypt, or even turkish I guess). The food was really good.

We started off with a fresh baked flat bread accompanied by fresh made dips. I had an Asian inspired (with a miso soup or something) mushroom dumpling dish for main and then had a vegan Trifle for desert. Others had a roast much room with avocado tequila dish, or a pasta dish that looked good (though was not vegan) or a few other options.

They also coped well with a sudden large influx of people they probably did not expect on a Monday night, I booked for 10, we had maybe 20 all up on top of the non conference people that would have been there anyway. Anyway if you are looking for some good food in Hobart give it a try. They have no web site however are easily found via google.

[/leisure/food] link

Mon, 19 Jan 2009

Great campus accommodation for lca - 11:19
I thought it was worth commenting on how good the residences accommodation we are staying in for lca this year is. UTas has these buildings which are like apartments, 6 bedrooms (remarkably spacious with good desks and storage) around a shared kitchen/living area and bathrooms. I recall seeing a similar thing for UTS students in Sydney, and ANU has just finished having some built in the University lodge area between ANU and civic (though they are over $300 per week from what I hear for students).

The view from high up on the hill out over the bay is great, the accommodation is roomy and clean and I think the best lca accommodation yet for the general punters.

[/lca] link

First miniconf talk - 10:24
I went to Paul McKenney's talk about parallel programming being hard at the kernel miniconf. A good part of it is when he kept reminding us that refocusing and changing your problem so it can be applied to certain restrictions is a good way to think about things.

Of course there were entertaining parts, such as the dining philosophers and partitioning them so we have Non Uniform Philosopher Architecture. Also the toilet paper that was a good representation of a cache miss, though there were not two rolls of toilet paper so we did not have a dual core problem. Good talk though.

[/lca] link

Sun, 18 Jan 2009

In Hobart - 22:23
Left Canberra this morning around 10am. Had lunch in Melbourne with a mountain biking friend. Arrived in Hobart around 4:30pm, Neill, Anthony and a bunch of other lca delegates were on the plane also. Got to the colleges and checked in. Briefly tried to alleviate the email withdrawl. Wandered down the hill to a bar (Metz a little bit to night club sort of feeling to me) with Crash and the other Canberra crew staying together at the colleges. Had a good dinner, now back up the hill.

A good return so far to lca, bring on the rest of the week. Oh and speaking of hills, I feel the need to pass on the rather entertaining (and I think possibly accurate description of Hobart) I heard (and that I think makes for some good tough runs this week).

If your feet are not wet, you are standing on a hill.

[/lca] link

Thu, 15 Jan 2009

Upgrades to the breast cancer bracelets - 19:35
I broke another pink silicon breast cancer bracelet today, so went home to get one of the new ones. I was happy to notice as I put it on they have improved the design.

If you see the photo in the link above you can see the NBCF bracelets all tend to break in a similar place. I noticed the other week that splits were forming where there is a letter N in the writing. Now the new improved design has no writing indented into the bracelet, the lettering and ribbons are all raised off the band. This should stop them from breaking as easily. Of course maybe I should simply stop removing it as often as I do (showering mostly).

[/various] link

Poor impulse control or cool things at office works - 19:12

Shiny Officeworks purchases (fullsize) 		So today Mikal and I wandered into Braddon today to buy some hardware for the LA Mirror, to get some disks we went to office works and bought two of the AUD $177 WD USB drives. While we were at the store I was distracted by the items in the photo to the left.

I saw the cancer council suncream on a carabina which I thought was a great idea, when racing or out doing stuff I often forget to apply suncream as often as I should. If it is hanging off my pack somewhere my team mates and I can easily get at it and use it. Also it gets it out of the pack, and the bottle can be refilled.

My pink and purple gel pens in my rogaining/navigation/map marking pencil case are running low, but even without this I could not resist the impulse to buy some new ones cheaply next to the cash register. Also they had the cute 1 GB purple usb key for $5 and the 2 GB white one for $10, at that sort of cost these items are pretty much disposable and it is always useful to have a few around (I broke another 2 GB one a few days ago).

As Mikal commented, I need to work on my impulse control when shopping, or stay out of shops.

[/various] link

Tue, 13 Jan 2009

Sort of lazy - 11:24
I seem to be on a somewhat lazy week, after the ride on Saturday I have not done much. Mowing the lawn last night does not count as exercise, nor does sitting in the kayak on Sunday morning doing Triathlon support.

I am doing a 1.2 KM lake swim at lunch, and will do another on Thursday lunch (and Bilbys swim squad on Friday evening), however I have a meeting tonight so will not be running. I Had stretching class at lunch yesterday so did not head out for a run. Tomorrow I have stretching class again so another day with no run.

Next week I will be at lca in Hobart all week, staying no where near a pool (on campus at UTas in Sandy Bay) so the only sport I will do next week will be running in the mornings I expect. I have the Bilbys road ride (fast bunch) tomorrow and the paddling time trial (10 KM) in the afternoon, then the Friday morning mtb still this week. However I am not feeling I am being particularly active this week (or will be next week), especially with Jindabyne looming. I remember last year in the lead up to Jindabyne I had been doing three sessions of exercise a day some days (yes doing a Julie training load).

Ahh well maybe I can get off my hiney and get stuck into it when I get back from Tasmania.

(update: I forgot two sessions, both on Wednesday, and another update, I forgot CLUG is on a week early because of LCA and I am missing the thursday evening paddle. See I told you all I was being lazy)

[/mtb] link

Sat, 10 Jan 2009

Ride in the Brindabellas today - 16:49
Hopefully Sam is not bad luck for others training with her. Last time I organised a ride to help Sam with her Otway training Tony had a crash and we had to take him to hospital and he had some surgery on a hand a week or two later. Today, seemingly not as serious, but nasty none the less. Jules did a superman to ground surfing transition off his bike at speed. He is apparently feeling a bit better now home, cleaned up and resting.

Anyway apart from the incident the ride was good, 80 KM, some good solid climbs, good company, good views, fun descents. Some photos and a gps map link are online from this brindies ride.

[/mtb] link

Wed, 07 Jan 2009

Tiramisu Cupcakes - 18:29

Tiramisu Cupcakes (fullsize) 		Yet another recipe from the Vegan Cupcakes Take over the World book. These Tiramisu cupcakes looked heavenly. Which Kahlua and Coffee dribbled into them and a vegan cream cheese vanilla icing and covered in chocolate shavings and cinnamon, cocoa and coffee beans they really were quite divine.

[/leisure/food] link

Tue, 06 Jan 2009

No paddle this morning - 12:36
I had planned to go paddling this morning. My road bike had a flat tyre with a slow leak, so I did not want to take it to work. I hopped on my fixie at 7:40, planning to be on the water by 8am and off the water just before 9am and at work by 9:20am. However as I crossed Northbourne avenue I remembered why I had been avoiding riding the fixie, the quill and bolt in the stem had stripped and I was unable to tighten the bars enough to stop them rotating away from pointing straight ahead.

Paddling plans scuppered due to not thinking I would be safe riding that bike (and I did not want to to ride a mountain bike over to the boat shed), I headed home, fixed the flat tyre on the road bike, shaved, and headed over to Maladjusted to get a new quill and bolt for the Cinelli stem on the fixie (Cinelli bars are not a standard road bar width, they are a bit smaller so you need to use Cinelli stems with them, at least this is the case with the old Cinelli stuff I am using on the fixie).

Got to work at 9am in the end anyway with the fixie back in working order (and the tyre properly seated so not about to pop and go bang with the bead sitting out as it had been. Last year one of the ARNuts Tuesday night runs we did when it was hot was to run from Weston park to Black Mountain Peninsula, swim back across to Weston park and have a bbq with any and all ARNuts who ran or just rocked up.

I termed this a new and interesting variation on the classic triathlon, the legs being Run/Swim/BBQ. We had a number of people who were specialists at the BBQ leg rock up last year. Fun was had by all involved. Thus this arvo we are trying it out again. Should be good to cool off swimming in the lake after a run in this heat.

[/mtb] link

Mon, 05 Jan 2009

Getting a start in Jindabyne preparation - 14:33
After being so sick last year when I attempted the Jindabyne Multisport race solo, added to the fact I had not done enough swim training in the lead up to the event. It was no real surprise that I was unable to complete the race. I should be fairly impressed that I managed to stay out there for 11 hours and make it to the final swim on a day I should have stayed in bed sick all day.

However I want to complete this event solo, I am definitely lining up again this March. I got back into the pool for some swimming just before Christmas, and will continue with pool sessions and some lake swims over the next two months. Matt, Amanda, Danielle, Ben and I had been sort of planning to do the ride to the coast again this Saturday just past. However the logistics were getting a bit hard. Talking with another AR friend, Mark, we discovered many of the other ARNuts would be down in Jindabyne (Dave, Julie, Heather, Jules, Alex, Sal, Mark, Celia, Randall, Shannon) so the 5 of us thought we may head down there and do some out of Canberra exercise also.

I rang my ski club and was fortunate to discover the Unit in Jindabyne that we have was empty so the 5 of us headed down there to stay and took with us mountain bikes, running shoes, kayaks and road bikes. We did not go as big, long or hard training wise as some of the others, but we did have a fun weekend. Early Saturday morning we joined some of the others to do the second run leg of the race from the Thredbo river picnic are up to Sawpit, with a loop out the other side of the road and back. I forgot to wear my GPS/HRM for this and the mtb ride we did later that day, however it was a really nice run, so much easier and more pleasant than my previous experience of it 6 hours into the multi sport race while sick and on a really hot day.

That afternoon I dragged a bunch of us around the first mtb leg of the race, the technical leg. I love that leg, however we probably should have head out for a ride on some of the less technical but still mighty run single track in the region between the dam wall and east Jindabyne as it would not have been quite so intimidating to the others and we would have gotten a longer ride in. That night a few of us watched a DVD of the movie Run Fat Boy Run, which is kind of entertaining, though the marathon pace for the front runners is completely unrealistic.

Sunday morning at 6am Amanda set off to ride to Charlotte Pass. Matt, Ben and I set off at 6:35am for the same ride. Holding a nice slightly under tempo (for me) pace we all completed the ride up and back down with riding time of 3h30m (data link) for the 84km. Danielle and I then headed out for a short paddle in Matt and Amanda's double surf ski to begin getting used to the feel of that boat.

Not too much activity to knock us all flat but it was nice to get out of town and do some stuff and it was good to scope out two of the legs for the mullti sport race.

[/mtb] link

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