this mornings commute

I was delayed this morning by first a flat tire, then by a freight train. The flat tire was not mine, but I wanted to stick around a few minutes to help Anne change her tire.
To be clear, she is perfectly competent at changing a bike tire, and did it just fine herself, I was only around for moral support.
The freight train was more of an adventure than the flat tire ever hoped to be.
I was stopped on McCausland, and there' s no easy way around when you're on a bike, so I waited. The train went more and more slowly, and finally stopped. Ugh! I could see the end, and my impatience defeated my better judgment, I thought I'd just go around. There was a nice path on each side of the tracks, after all. After becoming very muddy, nearly wiping out on the semi-frozen tire ruts, and making it nearly to the end of the train, it started moving again. D'oh!
I headed straight back to the road, and made it back only shortly after I would have managed to cross had I just waited. Except for the covered in mud bit. Thank god I've got fenders!

So, the moral of the story?
Don't be a dumbass. be patient instead.

In other news, last week was the first week of my new resolve at commuting. I rode in two of five days. This week, I hope to ride three out of four days. I need new shoes, my toes were cold this morning. Brr.

Christmas cheer

Due to work schedules and family schedules, Anne and I found ourselves at loose ends on Christmas day this year. That was okay. We slept in, went on a bike ride, watched movies, and went out for Chinese buffet. It was a good day.

What stuff! I absolutely decline to hear any more on the subject.

The Treadmill bike.
Actual Ad copy:
"When the weather's nice, the last place you want to be is cooped up in some stuffy gym. Imagine running through evergreen forests or strolling down country roads. All of this is possible thanks to the rugged design and all terrain tires on the revolutionary Treadmill Bike."

WTF? This is NO GOOD!

Why would a person buy this thing?

Protects your feet from dirt and other contaminants commonly found on the surface forsooth.

See the actual ad here

Back in the saddle!

To quote Laminator_X, that is.
Today was my first day at the store location which is a reasonable distance from my house. More to the point, the new store is not located in an area which can be reached without putting my life into the hands of west county duchebags in 8 ton SUVs they can barely control.

I was on a pretty good program back when I worked in Bridgeton, and I was doing allright when I could get a ride with Wendy (I would bike to her place) Unfortunately, I just never worked up to biking out to Ballwin. I'm not going to make an excuse now, I just didn't.

On the other hand, I biked into work today. I hope to do a lot more of that in the future. Go my team, getting off on the right foot! I think it's about 4 miles each way. The next time I'm driving in, I will try to drive my bike route and clock it.

It went well, but something should happen differently with my shoes. My toes got wet and very cold. brr.

Bill O'reilly bingo!

Put a marker on the squares when he does these things!

Yesterday's ride

Inspired by my friend, Gina,(who is a much better photographer than I) I went on a ride around the Central West End yesterday. It was really nice out when I left, and I was having such a good time riding around that I mostly forgot to get around to taking pictures. I posted what I did take on my flickr page. At one point, I watched yesterday's cold front coming in. I foolishly stood and looked and toop pictures when I should have been rushing for cover.
Needless to point out, I got teh soaked!1!
Once I was totally soaked, I sought refuge under a bank awning. When I thought the rain had let up a little, I decided to rush to the safety of home. I had been enjoying my ride, and wandering a bit, and I was in the "Fountain park" neighborhood which was quite a bit further north than I had really intended to go. (I was at about Boyle and Page)

But! As Bilbo Baggins famously pointed out, "Adventures can't all be spring time pony rides."

It was all in all a good time. It's good to be remided once in a while that a little rain and cold won't hurt anybody. Also, a little adversity makes you appreciate your post-ride coffee all the more.


Picture of me seeking shelter under a bank awning. the picture doesn't convey my cold misery very well, but I kind of like it anyway.

Feastday

Today is the feastday of Saint Eligius of Noyen.
He is the patron saint of Metal workers, farriers, and mechanics.
Cool, huh?
He was my patron saint back when I was armouring, and I can still claim him now that I'm a mechanic.
Cool.

More Good Times!

It's a theme. :)
We went to Trivia Night at our local bar last night. It was great!
I got so see some friends that I havn't seen in a while (specifically, Gina). I may have to update my little ad in the sidebar, as I suspect she's about to start reading my blog.
I also met a new friend. The more Trivia nights I go to, the bigger the group seems to get. We only sort of fit at one table last night, but, upon reflection, that's probably the smallest sort of quibble. I'm feeling slightly wretched today from a surfit of cheap PBR last night. Only very slighty wretched, though, so I'll count it as a win.

What is it with PBR? I use dto hate cheap beer, but I really like Pabst Blue Ribbon. Maybe the blue collar nature of my new job? It seems like mechanics (bike or car) ought to like PBR.

A mystery for the ages.

'sall for now, I guess.

Good times!

We had a totally unexpected bonus thanksgiving dinner on Sunday!
I really wanted to make the pie that Anne and I didn't get around to making on Thanksgiving itself, but I didn't wnat to eat the whole thing. I decided to call our friends Jon and Wendy so that they might share in our pie bounty.
As soon as I got Jon on the phone, he counter-invited us over for turkey.
An impasse.
We decided that the course of least resistance was to make the pie, then transport it to the vicinity of the turkey.
That we did.

And a good time was had by all.

Also, we got to meet Wendy's old roomate and friend. She seemed very cool.

Thanksgiving

So, I'm working today (Wednesday) and Friday, so Anne and I can't go out of town for Thankgiving. At least, we can't go to visit my family in IA. Anne's family isn't getting together, so we can't go there, either.

I am going to make a turkey. And cranberries.
Not really a full blown th"Thanksgiving Dinner" but all of our favorite things.
Well, my favorite things.
Turkey, mashed potatos, and cranberries. :)
I'm making some good cranberries, not the foul stuff that comes in a can, and looks like red translucent dog food. The kind that starts with actual cranberries.

I might make pumpkin pie. I have not yet made up my mind on that front.

It will be a good time. I'll make turkey, and make Anne quit working ~2, then we will eat, and retire to the couch for a nap. Good times.

I can hardly wait. :)

Free rice!

Visit www.freerice.com!
It is at once a chance to be snotty about your vocabular, a good way to wast time, and a chance to feel as though you are doing good, without any actual effort on your part!

The best of both worlds, huh?


So, it's the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm bored at work.
Why are we open until 8 today?

Nobody knows.

Post number 100!

Here I have the 100th post in my blog!
I've been keeping it nearly two years, that's about one post a week on average.

However, many posts have nothing to say. Like this one.

Never

Umm... Happy Halloween?

These two links are much scarier than... Well, they are scarier than much else.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/08/5093/

http://home.peoplepc.com/psp/newsstory.asp?cat=TopStories&id=20071111/47368c50_3ca6_1552620071111-1867809218

The first one is long, but the second short.
Really, read them both. It's making me consider that move to Finland I was wishing for in 2004.

Downtown ride, pt. 2

Read my previous entry first!!


After we got finished downtown, Anne and I decided that we didn't want to be done. We rode around aimlessly for a bit, then we decided to head up to the Delmar loop. I enjoy the loop, the only downside is that it is full of hipsters. I have little patience for many of these hipsters.
However, I do enjoy the loop. We rode to the far end and got some bubble tea. Yum, bubble tea. It's like drinking sweet iced tea, but big chewy lumps periodically shoot up your straw and try to kill you. Really, it's a good time. I'm pretty glad that the bubble tea joint is so far from home, as it's expensive, and I would want it all the time if it was handy.
Not much is harder than riding a bike one handed in crowded traffic while negotiating with an open drink in the other hand when that drink is doing it's best to kill you, so we parked our bikes. Adequately armed with our semi-lethal drinks, we felt ready to venture to the den of hippies surrounding the drum circle in a small plaza. There were some folks dancing around, and some hippies drumming. About like you might expect from a drum circle. We watched a guy dancing with flaming batons, which was pretty cool. The pictures turned out Very cool.

Feeling peckish, it was decided that Thai soup was the better part of valor. Boba were chewed, cups discarded, bikes recovered, traffic braved, Thai restaurants located, and soup ordered. Hot Thai soup is brilliant stuff. I must learn to make it.

All thing must eventually end, and the dark and cold finally drove us in the direction of home. We took Skinker over to Lindell, then cut through Forest Park some distance. Anne decided our lights were inadequate to cut through the park fully, so we took a more typical route homewards.

All in all, it was a great (and impromptu) time. I'm glad that I had the camera, as it spurred on the blog entry.

Downtown St. Louis

Anne and I rode downtown yesterday.
It was a really good ride. I don't expect it to be 70 degrees out in mid-November, but it was beautiful. We really didn't want our (putatively) short ride to end, so we just sort of kept going. The plan had been to go downtown to look at the cool old buildings. And to laugh at the homeless people. (just kidding) On our way there, Anne pointed out of all things the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily circus train!


They still have a train?!

Less than fully impressed with the train itself, we decided to ride on. Shortly after that, we came upon a much more impressive sight. Some Elephants!! Being paraded along Taylor! This was adequately impressive, that we were forced to stop for some photos.




So, after our unplanned adventure, we eventually made our way downtown, it was beautiful. We looked at City hall, the Christ Church Cathedral, the Central Library, and the WWI memorial. They were cool. It was the perfect moment of late afternoon, where everything is golden.
I think that the City Hall is Really cool. All third empire looking and ornate. They don't build buildings that cool anymore.
Something I noticed in downtown, there are lofts, and there are people, but there are no shops that sell what people need. We saw nary a grocery store, or general store, or pharmacy. Maybe those will follow the people. Right now, that seems to me to be the biggest obstacle to living downtown.

We saw the Christ Church Cathedral. I remember years ago, Anne and I went to an SCA event there. I remember how cool it was, and how sketchy I thought the neighborhood was. Huh. How our ideas change. What made us think that? Sure, there are homeless people around there, but they're mostly harmless. It seems like a fine area to me, now.




There is so much cool old stuff. I love the WW memorial. It looks so art Deco, it's just fantastic. Doesn't this guy look like something out of "Sky Captain and the world of tomorrow"?


More to come, as always, my Flickr page has many more pictures.

I don't normally do these sorts of things but...

INTJ - "Mastermind". Introverted intellectual with a preference for finding certainty. A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models. 2.1% of total population.

Free Jung Personality Test (similar to Myers-Briggs/MBTI)

I have always been facinated with the Meyers-Briggs typology. Mainly, that it tends to really describe people and is very re-testable. I've hovered between an INTP and an INTJ since I have been interacting with psychology. Most notable, I've always scores between 45-55% on both the perceiving and judging, so the test would seem to indicate that I'm borderline between those two.

Something I finally got around to

There is an abanodoned church in (slightly) North City, which I have driven and ridden by many times. I kept saying I should go and take some pictures of it. I kept meaning to, but never got around to it until yesterday.
well, I finally rode up to get some photos. It's at once very cool, and not as neat as I had imagined. Some work has gone on there, so there was less cool old debris, and more construction debris than I had hoped. On the other hand, it was a pretty decent building, and it looks like it might be something again one day.
And, without further ado, here are some pictures.

Fuck them!

I should keep this cartoon in mind. I'm too much of a homebody.


Also, check out XKCD!

The Old Crow Medicine Show

Our friends Stephen and Stacey invited us to a concert last night.
It was Awesome! With a capital Some!
They had sprung for better seats at the pagent than Anne and I normally would, as we're so cheap.
Seriously, it was really good. I'm glad we went!

Also, Anne is in the process of getting organized on something she's wanted to do for a while.
I'm proud of her for rushing out to have adventures.

Happy Halloween!

I planned to write a big post about the decline of common courtesy, huge D-bags, and my country being systematically dismantled by criminals. And possibly throw in something about peak oil.

But all that's too scary, and I suspect that it's just West County getting to me again.

So, I'll settle for this.


Happy Halloween!

These guys give men everywhere a bad name.

So, I've been bored at work today.
I was reading some of my old blog posts, and I Have a couple of things to say.
First of all, I'm a funny guy. I never realized before.


Second, well not really. Anyway, I saw this ------------>
and.... Goddam.
I apologize to any femists I may have ever upset in anyway. Apparently, boys really are stinky. I hope that you all think of me as some sort of less stinky boy.

What the Hell would posess ANYone EVER to put FAKE TESTICLES on his damn truck?
WTF? I'll say that again. WTF? what makes you think that it's cool? are you so insecure you have to pretend your unnecessarily large vehicle is some sort of surrogate penis? Are you entirely devoid of taste?


I have some advice for anyone who owns "truckicles":

It is not too late for you to get a girlfriend.
Good luck and god speed, I hope your ungodly swelling goes down soon.

Dancing in St. Louis

Are there good dance clubs in St. Louis?
I dont' want to go to Illinois. Or watch hipsters who are too cool to dance.
Mainly, Anne watn to dance and I want to listen to loud techno.
Unfortunately, most of the night-life hangouts in my immediate area are gay.
(no really, apparently I live in the GLBT nexus of Missouri)
There are some cool places within a couple miles, but I have not found one with dancing.
Laminator_X has suggested a place to look, but I have not had a chance to explore that.
I've been looking online, and asking friends.
Ah, well. The hunt continues.
I'll have to call up the places I have found to make sure they are still open before I go. Apparently, clubs around here have a short working-life.

Also, the new (different) couch came yesterday. It's nice. I never realized how broken down my old couch was, until I sat on the new one.
Funny how it seems to go that you dont' know what you've got until it's gone.

Dirk Gently's couch.

You know that sounds bad.

Anne and I picked up our new couch yesterday morning. It was bigger than expected...
In fact, too big to go up our stupid stairs. We tried everything we could think of. We got some helpers. (thanks, David and Aaron!) but, alas, to no avail.
I guess its our own fault. We really wanted a couch we could lay out on, but for some reason, most couches are 5' 11" long. This one was ~6'4", which was great. But it made the whole thing 8' long, and a bout 3" too long to ever fit inside.

In the end, we were forced to return the couch. We moved the old one back into the living room and lounged around for a couple hours before the party we wanted to go to.

The whole couch episode took ~6 hours, and we have the old couch here in the living room.

Stoopid.

On the other hand, the parties were great! We saw lots of people we don't see very often. Anne went as "Tank Girl" which was awesome. There was another girl dressed as Strawberry Shortcake, which was also splendid. My favorite though, one girl dressed as Hwy 40. It was very good.

I have work today, but then, we're going over to Jon and Wendy's for supper. I'm looking forward to that. They're good people and cool.

Boogie nights!

Not actually.
Trivia night, though.
Anne and I went to play some bar trivia last night at Lewellens. It was awesome.
When you win, you get a pitcher of PBR. Which was awesome.
We won a round. It was awesome.
The real reason we go, however, is for the happy hour special. $1 pitchers of PBR.
That's right. A pitcher of Pabst Blue Ribbon. For a dollar.
It won first of best beer in 1894. Thus the aforementioned blue ribbon.

We met up with a bunch of friends. There was Stacey, our neighbor Eu nice, Anne, her co-worker Dax, and of course, your narrator.

We wound up drinking more than intended, thus I was feeling sligtly wretched this morning.
I'm pretty sure everyone had a good time, and I think we'll go back.

It was actually very cool, except for Anne, everyone there had someone that they did not know, but beer and trivia are great icebreakers, I guess.

In other news; it's been raining all day, and has been really really boring here at work. 10 hour shift and little to do. :P

Hell, Yeah!

Here we go!

Tired and at work

We have a lot to do at work today. The first of our '08 models have come in, and we are trying to get them built up. It's also a nice saturday, so we've been busy with customers. Now, the customer flow has slacked off, and I am tired. I'm supposed to drive to Columbia, and possibly go dancing yet tonight. Whoof. I don't know if I'll make it. Maybe I'll have a nap in the car.

On the upside, I'm going to visit some friends in Columbia! Yay!

I'm working with Robert today. He's a good guy, even though he claims to hate me.
He has demanded I link his blog here.

I demand substance!

I'm tired of bland chain resturants and big box retailers.
What they have in virisimilitude, they lack in true authenticity.

F**k them.

Give me real things, and real stores to buy them in.
I want joints rather than cold cuts.

And I want out of the soulless hell that is West St. Louis County.
I have had it up to here with these D-bags who sold their souls for a couple dollars.

blarrgh!

visiting and parties!

I've been pretty dull-head this week.
I got to go visit some friends last night, and we're going to a costume party tonight. Anne is going as Tank Girl!
Awesome!


Also -- "support the troops" magnets on SUVs make me sick.

It's like putting "Cure Cancer" cigarettes outside the Cancer center.

Charny's questions.

Well, one of them.
I can't find the actual text, but I will paraphrase.

On a day, a force of 100 men at arms encounters a force of 50. They fight, and the force of 50 defeats the 100.
Would you be counted as the most worthy of the 100 or as the least worthy of the 50?


Please, discuss.

Stop polluting my Interwebs! Someone might believe you!

I have just been reading the website of a custom bicycle manufacturer. I'm in favor of custom frames for bikes. I'm in favor of small manufacturers. I'm in favor of things made in the USA.
I used to think well of Rivendell.
I once had a high opinion of both them and their bikes. It turns out that they are in fact more like the Blankenshield of bicycles. And their new website is ugly and hard to navigate. The have a lot of misinformation on their site, and seem to enjoy being a voice crying in the wilderness. They follow some very uncommon standards, not because they are better, but because they are not popular.
In some cases this is okay. In some bad (650B wheels) and in some really bad (threaded headsets) This will make anyone who has a Rivendell less happy with their bike. 650B tires are hard to get in most places. Much more so if you don't want to race. 650B wheels are usually ot of stock with bike shops's suppliers. Meaning that Rivendell is the only place to get them, really.
Don't get me started on 1" threaded headsets! When working at the Bicycle works, I came across Tons of threaded headsets that had rusted in, and will never come out of the head tube again. That meanst that the headset can Never be overhauled. Just one of the problems inherent in threaded headsets, and half the reason the Rest of the World moved away from them.
There are NO benefits to these non-standard parts choices. It's just the same foul thing that Trek and Cannondale do. Making their parts proprietary so only they can replace them.
Seems shitty to me.
I've also been reading about their opinions of tires and pressure. Totally bollocks. I tend to agree that on the narrow extreme, tires will run roughly on rough surfaces. On the other hand, having personally ridden a bike with low pressure in the tires and adequate pressure in the last week it makes a HUGE difference! You can run really wide low pressure tires if you dont' want to get anywhere, or you can run some sensible not fat tires at a decent pressure. Then you'll have a good balance of comfort, stability, and speed. Then you wont' be tired in a mile.
Their essay about clipless pedals is just dumb. It doesn't rise to the level of bolloks or misinformation. Just dumbness. It seems unlikely that anyone is confused about platform pedals being better for much. I am a big fan of toe-clips, and really, if you ride around, then put on some toe-clips, you can tell they are loads better than platforms. I don't understand why anyone is confused, about that, or why anyone not in BMX would use platform pedals.
Sorry about my incredibly long rant about a company you've probably never heard of, but well, Grump! Stop polluting my interwebs with your misiformation! Someone might believe you!

Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket...

The past week has been really good.
I'm possibly getting a promotion at work. Contingent on finding someone to fill my current position, I'll be the manager of a store I like quite a bit better than the one I'm at now.
I've been invited to another crazy cup drinking party by my friends Steven and Stacey. The one last year was a really good party. Replete with life-size Jenga, fun folks, and gallons of good beer. It turns out also, that some friends I havn't seen much of in the past year or so are also invited. I had no idea that they knew Steven and Stacey. They can't go to the crazy cup party, but I was prompted to email her based on that. I should send her a link to my blog.
I had the best time I can imagine last weekend when some friends came to visit (see previous post) I may well have been a bit too stunned to say so at the appropriate moment, but I'm saying it now. "Last weekend was a Great time!" Could not have been better.
And, probably goes without saying, but Anne is the best friend/partner/wife anybody could ask for. No, she's "all that and a bag of chips" as the vernacular goes. (or possibly went) I don't mean to go on all sticky-sweet about Anne, but sometimes I can't help it.
~B

Great Weekend!

Anne and I had a really good weekend! Our friends Miranda and Shaun came to visit. We went to Soulard Market, had a picnic in the park, and all took a nap in the afternoon. It was good.
After they left, Anne and I watched a movie on the couch, it was good. I think that this morning before I have to go to work, we're going to go couch shopping. It is time for a new couch.

obligitory blog post

*insert seemingly deeply philosophical but ultimately meaningless trite here*

So, I thought about posting one of those "here is what I think about the world" posts on my way to work this morning, but decided they are usually trite.

The owner at work has threatened to promote me. It would mean more money and working in a store I like better than the one I'm at now. Anne is very excited about the possibility, I am very ambivalent. I'll send updates.

~B

Witness my Splendor and Tremble!

I have finished (for now) my new bike!
When I deign to provide you with pictures, you will stand in Awe at it's awesomeness.
It's a 1977 Ross Super Grand Tour.
It has been converted to a fixed gear.

lots of new parts, it has full Ultegra braking, and custom hand-built wheels with cool Surly hubs.

Camping Trip pictures

We got some decent pictures from our camping trip the other weekend. We didn't make it as far as we had intended. We got a late start Friday night, and it was very cold. Saturday was beautiful, but we suffered technical difficulties. I broke a spoke on my bike almost immediately. Unfortunate. It took much of the day to get it fixed. We decided to hang around in Dutzow to watch the Tour of Missouri. That was great! I'm really glad that we got to see it.



More pictures on Flickr! Go see them.

Diner with friends!

Last night, Anne and I had dinner over at a friends house, it was a really good time.
We ate some steak and some asparagus, then we had some hanging out.
Stephen and Stacey are very cool, and Stacey has a blog. You should read it.
When you work most Saturdays, weekends are different. I have off Sunday and Monday this week. So, yesterday was "Saturday" and today is "Sunday" Very confusing as it's actually Monday. I can never quite remember what day it is anymore.

If Anne and I really lucky, we'll have some friends come this coming weekend. I haven't seen them in what seems like a long time. Miranda and Shaun are also very cool. And Miranda has a blog. Also on blogspot, go figure.

Hopefully, I'll have pictures from our camping trip last weekend up soon.

Really Good Coffee!

I just had a cup of coffee that was roasted yesterday.
It was Really Really good. Mmmm Coffee.

As a side note, happy birthday to me!
It was actually the 12th. :)

Goin' Camping !!!

I'm going camping this weekend!
I can hardly wait!

On the downside, I will miss the Tour of Missouri. :(
But, I can't be everywhere at once. Oh, well.

I will post pictures here when I get around to it.

Butt crack of dawn!

Okay, so I have this work thing this morning. I must arrive at 5:15.
Ugh.
It's still night. Not my favorite.

Annoying customers

A guy came into the shop this morning.
He had a 60 grand Lexus SUV. And a shitty bike rack with what? Four shitty dept. store bikes on it.
He needed some free advice, so where did he go? The bike shop.

So, he bought a new rack. He dropped $250 with out batting an eye. Why the hell cant he buy a bike that works?

I can't really work up a good hate, I've been reading NYC bikesnob, so his sarcasm has filled my scorn and disdain requreiments. For the moment.

Camping Trip!

Anne and I had a day off together on Friday, so we went camping on Thursday night, so we could go on a big bike ride on the Katy trail on Friday morning. It was splendid. We stayed in Matson, and rode to Marthasville. 17 miles each way.
Not much else of interest.

Git R dun.

I am forced to conclude that medium brown is somehow a superior color for the letter "R" than the more common black. At least in rural America.

LOTR party

Last Weekend Anne and I went to a LOTR theme party. It was fun, but grueling. We watched all three movies intersperced with slide shows from the host's trip to New Zeland this summer. The party went from ~1pm to ~2:30am. There were some (really) annoying guests, which was okay I guess. Anne had to work, so we had to rush home in the morning, but that was okay.
Yay party!


....
As a sidenote, I just got onto Mybookmarks.com. It seems really cool. Now I can store bookmarks to access when it's slow at work. Yay!

Auction...

I have finally gotten around to listing a bunch of my tools and misc. armour on the Armour Archive. This has been a very melancholy experience. On one hand, bigger and better things. Bicycles certainly pay a lot better than armour ever did. I'll get free trips to places like Europe rather than KC or Pennsylvania. On the other hand, we fear change. I miss making armour. I can't take as much pride in my work. I'm not making something out of nothing. So, some good, some bad. When you open one door, you can't help but close a different one. I'd like to make armour as a hobby. Maybe someday I will.

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted.

So, I have lost track of my blog I guess.
I have been busy, but that's really no excuse, is it?
Anyway,
I went to visit my relatives on my Dad's side last weekend. There were 31 Romines there. That's a whole lot of Romines. It was pretty fun until the cops showed up. Work at the bike shop goes more or less well. Sometimes frustrating, sometimes enjoyable, it beats working in a cubicle.

Our van had some malfunction, so I've been riding my bike to work this week. Whoof! Two days this week I went 15 miles round trip, and today I went ~7, then got a ride home with Anne. Between the ride, and working on my feet 8 hours, my legs are pretty tired.

Bubble Tea!

I had bubble tea yesterday for the first time ever!
It's good, except that you have to be careful because the boba will shoot up into your mouth. Shocking! I got tired of chewing before I was done, but it was good. I'm going to look for some boba so I can make my own. The only place in St. Louis that sells bubble tea is far away. :( also it's expensive.
On the other hand, I could totally make some milky iced tea. Which, except for the boba, that's what it is.

Also, I got to visit with my friends Shaun and Miranda who had many stories and presents from their trip to Toronto. (They brought Anne and I some Miranda cheese :) )

Bicycle commuting

I took my first bicycle commuting trip yesterday!
In the interest of not knowing how long it would take, and being on time to work, I got a ride out to work, then biked back after.
It's over 20 miles to work, so it's outside my abilities to bicycle all the way. On the other hand, there is a metro (the St. Louis light rail) station an easy ride from our house, then it's five miles from the end of the line to work. That's pretty do-able for me. It took me ~90 minutes to get home last night, but was pretty fun. It's too bad it takes so much longer. I would like to do it all the time, but the drive is only about 30 min. The savings via public transit are significant, though. The Metro pass would cost me $60/month, and the not driving 40 miles/day would save me about half the gas I burn, which would be about $20-25/week. Or, if you use the old equation for 32.5 cents per mile, it's $292.50 per month to drive a 40 mile round trip to work five times a week. Wow! That's a lot of savings. The difference in cost there would buy you a new commuting bicycle EVERY MONTH.
I think if I stick with it, I'll be able to shave my initial five mile ride down to taking less time, and possibly catch an earlier train. I'm going to try to stick with this, do my part towards using less oil, and save myself some money.

Maybe we'll be able to make our old van last a while longer after all.

So in short, "Yay, my team!"

weekend visitors

We had some friends, Miranda and Shaun over last weekend. It was really fun!
We went to parks, did some cooking, visited a lot, and generally just had a good time.
With my new job, I've been working Saturdays. It's not my favorite, but I have been getting Sunday and Mondays off. I have to work this Monday, which is not my favorite. I would like to have a Memorial day. Alas, it is not to be.

On the other hand, Anne and I have a fun plan for Sunday! We're going to ride the metro downtown, then ride our bikes around, and look at cool architecture. Maybe we'll pack a picnic lunch.

I am going to buy Anne a slightly early anniversary present today. I'm going to give her a new bicycle. I can get a good deal on bikes and such now that I work at the bike shop, so I'm going to give her a good one. A sunfire 3.0 I would look into the 2.0, but I am not very familiar with those, and I would have to order one in her size. I know we have a 3.0 in the store which is her size.

Macedonians

Here are some pictures of the Alexandrian Successors I have been painting.
I am mediocre at the painting, but I like them anyway.
Here are a couple, you can see the rest at my flickr page.


Here is one of my elephants. Tremble before it's splendor!

If I ever become an evil overlord

I found the old top 100 things to do if I ever become an evil overlord list.
It's really funny, though I suspect you've all read it, I'll post it anyway.

overlord

Where has the week gone?

I started my new job this week, and Anne was at a conference.
I thought I would have tons of time, but she's coming home this afternoon, and I haven't done anything of interest, really.
I did get to go see my friend, Laminator_X last night, and that was fun. I also got to help with a house decorating with sheet steel project on Wednesday, and that was allright.
I did some cleaning this morning, in preparation for Anne's return.

The new job is good, even though my days off seem to be Monday and Friday. Oh, well. Hopefully I won't have to work every weekend ad infinitum.

Anne seems to be enjoying the conference. (Cell phones are fantastic!) I've gotten to talk with here while she's been gone.

I somehow thought this week would be more exciting, but it has not been.
That's okay. It's been pretty good.

Like the best thing ever!

This guy is apparently called "Scroobius Pip" This is so cool!

On the Schedule...

So, after my rigmarole with jobs (see, well, April) I have continued to be a squeaky wheel over there. The owner returned from his trip to France, so I badgered him.
The short story is that I'm supposed to start Tuesday!
Yay I guess. Crazy crap.

Anne keeps telling me that it is possible to work places that are not run remarkably badly, but my experience certainly does not bear that out. Every where I work or try to work, run like the old Shrine Club. (my first job, my boss was an alcoholic, and crazy)


Not much else has happened of note.
(isn't that enough though?)

My letter to Clair McCaskill

I figured that if I'm going to send letters to Senators I disagree with, maybe I should send letters to politicans who are actually doing something I like. They probably don't get enough "good job, keep it up" sorts of letters.
Here is a text of the email I just sent to McCaskill.
Really! Send your own! Just click here


First of all, I am a voting constituent.
I would like to thank you for sticking to your guns on the Iraq war spending bill. Thank you for helping the Senate do what the people asked. Do not give in to Jr. Bush.
Hopefully in time, everyone will see who is on the side of America and who is on the side of Haliburton.

Big Doin's

So, it looks like the job is gone. Some B*S*, Huh?
Laminator_x's wheelchair ramp is built, and is wonderful.
Other big goings on in my life, there will be a full update when I have more information.

stupid crap!

So, I started an entry on Friday, but I was unable to complete it until today.
On Thursday, I started going around with resumes looking for a job.
On Friday morning, the first place I stopped, they offered me one!
Damn! I couldn't believe my luck. The guy (the owner) told me that I was hired, and I could start Monday.
On Monday morning, I filled out some tax forms and waited to see where I would go. This place is a small chain, and they have stores across the greater St. Louis area.
After an excessive amount of rigmarole, which I won't go into here, now I'm "probably hired"

What kind of BS is that, I ask you!?
and what does "probably hired" mean anyway?

So, for the past couple of days, I've been alternating between being frustrated, depressed and very angry. I'm only now clear and calmed enough to post. I'm not sure exactly what I ought to do now, but this morning I got back on the horse and went around to another couple places.

I guess in the long run, this place may only have been a minor hitch in job hunting, but... Goddamit!

godammit.

that is all.

Crazy day!

After extended thought on the matter, and for many and varied reasons, I decided to take a break from armouring. I may not go back to it full time.
Based on that, it was time to look for a different job.
How much of who I am do I have invested in what I do? Less than most people think I do, but more than I would like.
You are not what you do.

My second favorite sandwich

I'm making turkey reubens for supper tonight.
They are my second favorite sandwich.
My favorite? The ACTUAL reuben of course.
Unfortunately, we have no corned beef in the house. I'll have to settle for turkey reubens.

I'm sorry this is such a boring entry, but I really don't have much to say right now.

Music

There is something about techno music. Specifically Drum n' Bass and hardcore. As an old friend of mine put it; "It's good for the soul." There is something tranquil in it. I know that sounds strange, but it certainly calms me.
I was talking with Anne last night, and I cant' really quantify my thoughts effectively right now.
I hope that I will have some better idea of how to phrase what I'm talking about one day.
hurumph.

Wargaming!

Wednesday night, Anne and I played DBA. It was good. We played some Alexandrian Successors.
I used my skirmishers to screen my pikes long enough to form them up from a column, so she couldn't hit me before my pikes were in position. She attempted to flank my pike formation with some light infantry from the south, but I countered that with a unit of Knights. They slaughtered the light troops like nobody's business. My plan had been to flank her forces on the north with my cavalry, but they did not made it through the forest in time. I should have put my light infantry there to filter through the woods.

The battle was won and lost by control of the flanks. Giant pike blocks basically have big shoving matches. Nobody will really win if both sides have some movement points to throw around.


So, it was a good time. Yay wargaming!

Health care in the US

Our health care system is broken.
Something must happen with it. We have the worst health care system of any industrialized country in the world. The worst. We pay the most, and derive the least benefits from it.
It's time to change something.

Camping pictures

Here are some pictures I took when Anne and I went camping over her spring break.
These were taken in Mark Twain National Forest near Ashland, MO. There is a campground there that I really like. It's small, so it can't be too full of people.
If I'm not camping with the SCA, that's my number on criterion. Not a lot of people.

There are (or will be soon) more pictures on my Flickr page.

Camping pictures

Here are some pictures I took when Anne and I went camping over her spring break.
These were taken in Mark Twain National Forest near Ashland, MO. There is a campground there that I really like. It's small, so it can't be too full of people.
If I'm not camping with the SCA, that's my number on criterion. Not a lot of people.

There are (or will be soon) more pictures on my Flickr page.

rough week

I hurt my elbow last week. It has made for a few rough days, since I can't really do any work. I am very frustrated with armouring, because I can't get much done. I have tried a couple of days, but it makes my elbow hurt. If I just stay off of it for a few days, it should get better. I don't think it's anything serious, but prevents me from hammering.
Arrgh.
That's really all I have to say, and that when I'm frustrated, I don't feel like posting on my 'Blog.

Sunny Decatur, Il.

Anne and I went camping last week. It was great. We saw our friends Shaun and Miranda, and we hiked, and we had coffee. It was good. I have some pictures of the glorious sunset on Wednesday, but I haven't had a chance to do anything with them yet. We also, and mainly, went to Decatur, Il.
Why, you may ask, would anyone go to Decatur? What's there?
Well, nothing is there, but it's apparently the midpoint between where my parents live and where my sister lives. So, my family met in Decatur last weekend. Good times were had. We went swimming, we ate, we went to the mall...
Well, mostly we visited. There's not much else to do in Decatur.
It would be nice if my parents came here to St. Louis more often, as there's lots to do here that they would like, but alas, it's a long way from Kv.

Sparta!

Anne and I went to a birthday party for our friend Aaron last night.
We went to a kid's pizza and ice cream parlor. That was much more fun than I thought it would be. We sat with Laminator_X and Wendy, and ate a fajita pizza. It was a really good time. They put a hat on Aaron, told everybody he was 32, and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. I'm awfully glad that Anne doesn't humiliate me for my birthdays.

After that, we all (15 of us) went off to see the new movie "300" As Ed put it "meh. I liked that movie better when it was called 'Braveheart'" Really, it was ok. You really don't need to go see it in the theatre, wait until you can rent it.
It had it's moments, but what movie doesn't, really?
I mean, Idocracy has about as many good moments as 300.

On the upside, it has caused me to do some reading about the battle of Thermopylae. Which really was cool stuff.

eBay Fun

I have (with tremendous assistance from my good friend Jon)
listed some of my new makin's on eBay!

See them here.

Macedonians

I've been painting up some Alexandrian successor armies lately. I got them from my friend Tristram in December, and I've been getting them slowly but surely organized. Yay for me!

I should take some pictures of them. Maybe I'll wait until I have them all finished so I can have some actual armies to take photos of.

Also, there's a very funny story contained in this myspace page.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=156129893

It's a secret. See if you can figure it out. :)

Spring Break!

Next week is Anne's spring break. I'm going to take a few days off as well. The last couple weeks have really been hectic for both of us, I'm really looking forward to it.
We are going to go camping. It will be nice. We'll get to see some old friends that we both miss, and we'll get to go to a few places in Columbia that I miss getting to go to.
Unfortunately, we won't get to see everyone or go everywhere. We could, but that would be a different kind of trip, and I'm really looking forward to not having to see a bunch of people. Maybe some hiking, taking some pictures, relaxing and reading.
I can hardly wait.

Don't you cry my darling, we'll always have Stalingrad.

I wrote a big diatribe on High School, but then I deleted it because the whole point of my diatribe was how stupid it is to reminisce about your days of being socially snubbed.

Instead, I posted a line of lyrics from a band I really like.
Kudos if you can guess the band!

(I said "guess", so you don't get a vote, Jon)

Also, and very cool. I taught myself how to make origami cranes on Sunday evening.

Total eclipse of the moon!

There was an eclipse of the moon last night.
Unfortunately, it was cloudy. :( and cold.

Anne and I were supposed to meet some friends around dusk to watch.
I brought hot cocoa. We met one friend, looked at the sunset and the St. Louis skyline, then we went to his place.
Then we watched anime and ate some really good goat cheese pizza.

The evening was eclipse-free, which was disappointing, but other than that it was really fun.

and Cowboy Bebop is Fantastic. :)

Monster name!

OK, I don't normally go for these things, but this one is really cool.

Get Your Monster Name

Sushi!

My brother in law, Mark, has gotten us excited about sushi. He has made it for us a few times.
So, Anne and I have been making sushi some. I took some pictures last time.



This was the first time we made Sashimi, which is sushi with fish. The pink bits there are the tuna. Raw tuna is much different than the stuff out of the can. It's very good, and very tender. Yum!

Just checking in

Hello!
I'm just checking in. I don't have too much to say.
I've got a couple (well, three) helmet in the works that are going to range from very nice to very splendid. Seriously, if the one turns out like I expect, it will be very cool.

I'm home to work on a bunch of etching today. I have an order for etched brass trim.
I suspect I may under-charge on that. I'm going to use this as a test case to see if it's losing me money.

Things are boring here. I got a catalog from Rio Grande yesterday. (that's the Jeweler's supply company I have dealt with in the past)
It was very nice. Not a thing I want in it, but very tasteful. It looks like a magazine. Not like these crappy Enco catalogs. They look like a grocery ad.
The Rio Grande catalog had some cool (and very nice) hammers in it. Unfortunately, all the hammers they sell look great in photos, but are secretly only about 1/8 the size a real person wants. I guess that's appropriate for jewelers. It's annoying to me, because good raising hammers are hard to find at more than about 6 oz.

Showing Flickr a little love

I'm uploading some pictures to Flickr even as I type.
I really should be updating my website, but I've been distracted as I go through pictures.

See them here

The website is about to undergo some major changes. The exact nature of these changes is still a secret. But it will be cool.

A sad irony.

So, I heard an interview with Rush Limbaugh the other day.
I realized that he is not a pundit. Or a commentator.

I realized that Limbaugh and his ilk are entertainers.

Like Jon Stewart (but less funny).
They not only don't care about this country, they are willing to tear it apart for a buck.

That is exactly what they are doing.
Starting right now, I am going to do my best to ignore all the right wing entertainers.

Turn your lights off at 7:45 tonight!

At 7:45 tonight, Feb. 1st turn off your lights. Turn off your computer. Turn off EVERYTHING. Just bask in the glow of the moon, the stars, some candles, whatever... as long as it doesn't use electricity. Just for five minutes.

Why Today?

On February 1st, the United Nations is publicizing the newest results and knowledge base on climate change.

So yes, it's a statement to the government(s) that changing the climate for the better should be a priority. This is a worldwide campaign, even if it lasts only 5 minutes.

*Thursday, February 1st, between 7:45 and 8:00 YOUR LOCAL TIME (don't worry yourself with those silly time zones!).

It's been a while!

It has been a long time since I posted.
We have a new computer, and I just put blogspot in as a bookmark. Hopefully that will cause me to return and post here.
I don't have much exciting to report today, but hopefully I'll have interesting bits of information to convey soon.