Lee.org

Now that I’m a student, and I can get to all my classes and volunteering by train and such, I’ll be selling my car. Of course, I figure I’ve got to fix the car up enough so that the Check Engine light stays off first. And then it’s all Zipcar, BART and biking for me.

So I bought a bike. At $630 complete, It should pay for itself in the first month or two of not having a car (my car costs about $600/month to own!).

Isn’t she pretty?

This photo from Aug 25, 2013

This old photo from January 2012

And when she gets stolen, I’ll tell people:

Body: 2011 “Fuji Absolute 3.0″ hybrid. Color: Grey with orange on the inside of the chain stays and underside of the seat stays. Serial ICFU12I01883. That serial number could be mistaken for ICFU12IO1883. 21″ frame. 23.6” back to front. Aluminum.

Seat: Black with an orange swish. It is secured to the frame with a length of wire.

Wheels: “Fuji Aero-V 25 700C/622 Etrto”. Both the front and rear wheel are secured with Pinhead Locks locking wheel hubs.
Update 2/13/13: I also got a Pinhead seat post lock and saddle lock. And apparently a Gator Grip tool can defeat these locks so Pinhead now gives away a locking washer thing on their website that prevents that problem.

Tires: “Panasonic Panaracer Pasela Tourguard 700x32C”, black with tan sidewalls.
Update 8-21-13: Rear tire is now a Continental Touring Plus 700Cx32, black with black sidewalls and a reflective tape.

Accessories:
Kickstand: On 8-23-13 I added a Greenfield Rear Mount Stabilizer Kickstand, adding 14 ounces to the bike. I tried adding a regular Greenfield kickstand but it had the same problem that ALL regular kickstand have, all the way back to when I was a kid: no matter how hard you tighten it down, the mount sometimes swivels on the bike, messing everything up.

Rack: made by Axiom, mostly to hold my Kryptonite lock.

I’ve registered the bike on Bikeshepherd.org and I got the 30 year registration with the National Bike Registry. Yowza, will they even have bikes in 2042? Or will we all have jet packs?

.

.

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For the little I’ve ridden around, she rides like a dream. Of course, my last bike was a POS. I originally had a moderately crappy Burning Man bike. But at Burning Man 2009 it got stolen. After the end of the event, I went to center camp and stole a comparably crappy bike from the abandoned bike pile. When I was there, I got into this evil-eye discussion at center camp with a guy stealing his own bikes, but that’s a story of another time…

The new bike was actually quite a step down from my old bike. The steering was loose such that it was best to not steer too quickly, the front brake had virtually no grab, the handlebars had rolled down into an awkward position, the bike was several inches too small for me (I had extended the seatpost to it’s limit to no avail), it had big inefficient knobby tires, the rear brakes only worked moderately well, and it had been spray painted (partially and poorly) an awful shade of brown. That is how I rode it on the playa and that is pretty much how I rode it for 2 years. It’s a good thing I didn’t ride it often, otherwise, I’d be dead now. It is now terrorizing some kind soul at the San Francisco bike kitchen.

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Specs from the Fuji Bikes website.

Specification:

SIZES	S (15"), S/M (17"), M (19"), M/L (21"), L (23")
COLOR(S)	White/Red, Semi Gloss Gray/Orange
MAIN FRAME	A2-SL alloy w/ tear drop down tube, double water bottle mounts (on SO frame only)
REAR TRIANGLE	A1-SL alloy, forged road dropout w/ replaceable derailleur hanger
FORK	Elios 1, 1 1/8" fork w/ CrMo steerer
CRANKSET	Fuji alloy forged 28/38/48T
BOTTOM BRACKET	Sealed cartridge bearing ST
PEDALS	Alloy cage w/ Boron axle
FRONT DERAILLEUR	Shimano FD-M191, 31.8mm
REAR DERAILLEUR	Shimano Altus, 8-speed
SHIFTERS	Shimano Acera
CASSETTE	Sunrace 11-32T, 8-speed
CHAIN	KMC Z72, 8-speed
WHEELSET	Fuji alloy 32H QR hubs w/ Fuji double wall alloy 32H rims
TIRES	Hutchinson Flash, 700x28c
BRAKE SET	Tektro Mini-V, forged alloy
BRAKE LEVERS	Tektro alloy
HEADSET	Fuji 1 1/8" standard semi-cartridge
HANDLEBAR	Fuji alloy
STEM	Fuji adjustable alloy
TAPE/GRIP	Fuji double density kraton
SADDLE	Fuji sport comfort
SEAT POST	Fuji micro-adjust alloy, 300x27.2mm
FENDERS	N/A
HEADLIGHT	N/A
TAILLIGHT	N/A
REAR CARRIER	N/A
OTHERS	7075 alloy water bottle bolts
WEIGHT	25.39 / 11.52

Geometry:
Name		Diagram			Sizes
SIZE			S(15")	S/M(17")	M(19")	M/L(21")	L(23")			
SEAT TUBE, CENTER TO TOP TUBE	A	381	432	483	533	584			
EFFECTIVE TOP TUBE LENGTH	B	535	550	575	600	625			
HEAD TUBE ANGLE	C	69	70	71	71	71			
SEAT TUBE ANGLE	D	75	74	73	73	73			
CHAINSTAY	E	440	440	440	440	440			
WHEELBASE	F	1050.3	1048.4	1054.8	1080.4	1106.5			
HEAD TUBE LENGTH	G	120	145	170	190	220			
BOTTOM BRACKET HEIGHT	H	269	269	269	269	269			
STAND OVER HEIGHT	I	730.3	767.3	805.4	839.7	880.3			
CRANK LENGTH	J	170	170	175	175	175			
STEM LENGTH	K	100	110	120	120	120			
HANDLEBAR WIDTH		580	580	600	600	600

I’ve found a couple really great apartment hunting tools:

Craigslist.org. It is the go-to.

Housingmaps.com – an aggragator of Google Maps and Craigslist

Padmapper.com – a great aggragator of several sites (including Craigslist) with a good map and good selection criterion! Charlotte used this November 2011 to great effect in Seattle.

My spring school schedule is set!

Darn it was stressful today. About 30 of us stood in the hall listening to people’s names being read, being accepted into Anatomy 25. With my heart racing, fingers tingling and shaking, I used what JTF taught me about my stress response to keep me standing. John, I wish I could slap you on the back and laugh about it. You see, I’ve got this plan. In this plan, I’ll be applying to the DMI (Diagnostic Medical Imaging) program at CCSF in August. But to make that happen, I need to get into all the right classes.

Turns out, Prof Guthrie let 56 people on the wait list into his class and I was. . . . #56. Phew! There were students that didn’t get in because of clerical mistakes. One hadn’t made sure to put herself on the attendance roster at a previous class. Another hadn’t shown up at another impromptu acceptance ceremony held last week and lost her spot. That kind of stuff is particularly crushing because I made my own mistake and missed the previous acceptance ceremony, but fate had it that my name wasn’t read then.

Last week, I was also the last person let into the Chemistry 32 class! So I have to give a shout out to the universe for those two bits.

My classes this semester:
Anatomy 25 General Human Anatomy and Lab
Chemistry 32 Intro to Medical Chemistry and Lab
Physics 10 Conceptual Physics and Lab
PE 200C Fitness Center Super Circuit
Volunteering at CPMC

Hurray!

Now I just need to pick up a Physiology class this summer (no one knows if it will be offered yet!), and I’m track for getting a shot at getting into the CCSF DMI program in January.

Oh yeah, and I’ve got to ace everything this semester.

3 days of Exclamations: My personal journal from Sunday January 8, to Wednesday January 11.

Sunday January 8th, 2012:
See Delaney! +

Monday:
8am: Welcome to Foothill College, Los Altos, CA! +
8:01am: I locked my keys in the car! –
8:30am: Ack, classes are starting today?! –
8:45am: Quarters instead of semesters? What does that mean?!
9am: With quarters I can squeeze in Bio prereq, Anat & Phys 1, Anat & Phys 2 by July! + +
10am: Bio 14 class is fun and easy! +
12am: Bio 14 lab is fun and easy! +
3pm: Foothill campus is really pretty! +
4pm: Argh, I need Bio, Anat & Phys 1, 2, and 3, which would stretch into the fall!- – –
5pm: The college police can’t slim-jim my car! –
6pm: I’m #4 on the Chemistry waitlist! +
7pm: The Chemistry teacher is really bad! –
8pm: I won’t get into Chemistry anyway! –
8pm: The AAA guy opens my car in 30 seconds flat! +
9pm: Drinking at Lucky 13 with David M! +
1:15am: Getting harassed by the bartender to leave and drive drunk home! – – –
2:30am: Home! Not driving drunk! Still angry at the Lucky 13 bartender! + + –

Tuesday:
3pm: Welcome to the College of San Mateo! +
4pm: Drop in counseling says “You don’t need us, everything is online”! – +
5pm: Looking online, Contra Costa Community College’s no-prereq Anatomy class has 1 seat open and no waitlist! + +
5:01pm: I apply to CCCC!
5:30pm: I am accepted to CCCC! +
6:30pm I’ve figured out their website! +
6:35pm: Their registration computer says they have no open seats in Anatomy and their waitlist is full! – – –
Frustration sets in, I want to get off this crazy roller coaster! – –
8pm: Dinner with Delaney! +
10:30pm I’m home to pack for an 8:30am flight!
midnight: As always, I get pre-flight “stage fright”, packing and procrastinating until 3:30am! –

Wednesday:
Cat-nap til 6:30am!
I leave 3 minutes late and miss my train! –
There is another train in 15 minutes! +
Continental is now United?!
The TSA random bomb sniffing lady finds a 3′ whip in my bag and the supervisor calls it a weapon! – –
(I have visions of “We’re taking this plane to Cuba! [crack!]” with my signal whip) + +
They tell me to mail it or check it and send me packing! –
I repack and try to get it through a second time!
It occurs to me I might have, I don’t know, just committed a felony! –
They send me packing again! – (+)
I missed my flight! –
Checking my bag will cost $25 each way, but if I mail it I won’t have it! –
I repack and go through another line entirely… and go right through! + +
Egg and cheese croissants in the airport are $10! – –
A real breakfast is going to cost me $20???? – – –
Boudin Bakery clam chowder in a bread bowl is $7! +
I am the VERY last standby passenger allowed on the plane! +
Nap time! + + +

This coming week’s calendar is smoother than last week’s. Tuesday is the deciding factor. I’m waiting to hear if I get into Anatomy 25.

Yellow= I’m registered, or an important timely thing.
Purple= Anatomy 25. I don’t know what section I’m getting so I’ve got to keep it all open
Blue= maybe classes
Gray= other stuff

Phew.

I got in to Chem 32 & Lab. I have Physics 10 but not the lab (I could teach the course but I need the stupid lab credit, feh!). I need Anatomy and I’m starting from 0 on that one.

Tomorrow… err 5 hours away… is going to be pretty crazy.

I just finished watching season 3, episode 12, of Breaking Bad, titled “Half Measure” (don’t skip to it; you’ve got to watch from the beginning). The show is a tight and twisted moral drama.

Wow. That is amazing television.

This was originally a “page” on my blog that I updated from time to time. But I like using the chronological format of a blog better now. Be sure to check out the Reading, Watching, Listening category of this blog!

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1-18-12: I know I haven’t updated this list in a long time. But I just found a show worthy of adding. Just this moment in fact. I just finished watching season 3, episode 12, of Breaking Bad, titled “Half Measure”. (don’t skip to it; you’ve got to watch from the beginning) The show is a tight and twisted moral drama. The moment when Walt hears about the executed kid and knows exactly what is happening hit me like a freight train. A moment of certainty of morality and action like that is rare and powerful.

11-21-08: Stargate Atlantis (I’ve seen most episodes so far. It’ll be sad when the show ends at the end of this season), Heros 1st and 2nd season makes good television.

6-18-06 Justice League Unlimited, 24, Nip/Tuck.

1-29-06 update: Since I’ve moved to California, I haven’t had a television set. That hasn’t stopped me from watching the television programs I enjoy. TV is starting to go through the same upheaval that music has been experiencing for the last 10 years from peer-to-peer file sharing revolution.

I use TorrentSpy, Azureus  and its RSSFeed Scanner plugin to get just about all the broadcast programming I want.

Since I’ve been busy living the Vida Cali, I watch less TV.. but here’s my list of favorites:
– The Colbert Report
– The Daily Show
– Scrubs
– 24
– Nip/Tuck
– Mythbusters
– Malcolm in the Middle

I was happy to be able to catch up on
– Dead Like Me
– Greatest American Hero – The show is much worse than I remembered :-( But I’m glad I got to see it. Especially the pilot episode. (which still sucked, but I’m still glad I saw the “creation story”)

The only shows I haven’t been able to catch are
60 minutes – I can’t find a torrent for it on Torrentspy :-(
Bullshit – I can’t find a tor…. wait. I just found a torrent with season 1-3. [Click] I should have it in a week.

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Recently, the cable TV cartel has been fighting legislation requiring that they unbundle their programming. It’s just been unbundled for them. Clearly, a new business model for television must emerge.

3-1-02 update: Tivo hasn’t changed the way I watch television, it has fundamentally changed what television is. Dare I use the phrase “paradigm shift”? I dare.

2-12-02: I got Netflix for xmas. I just started up my subscription. I don’t know how much I’ll use it between Tivo, school and work.

Current Favorite shows:

Joe Millionaire– I’m completely hooked. It’s just so real. I can so project myself into Evan’s shoes. It’s wonderful watching and learning about human psychology with this fishbowl. And I am so angry that Evan got rid of Melissa! How can he hope to live happily ever after with either Zora or Sara?!?!

Rough Science– Still. This show is so much fun and so stimulating!

Nova: Hitler’s Lost Sub – It brought the history of this sub to the present. Three divers lost their lives in the late 1990’s during a personal quest to find out the history of this sub. The sub sank off the coast of NJ in 1942. It was a very intense program.

The Veteran’s Project – Since my Dad was here and he loves shows about WWII, we watched a lot of those shows. The format of this show is very simple. A veteran narrates a 1/2 hour slide show of his war experience. Most of the photos and video clips are of him, his buddies, or his group. The show is only on bi-weekly, 8-8:30am Sunday mornings on the History Channel.

11-14-02: Favorite TV programs: Rough Science, MST3K

6-28-02: More or less in order, here are the shows that I have in my Tivo’s Season Pass Manager:

Movie & Darkstar – TJIC recommended. Someday I hope it comes around on the tube
Babylon 5 & Strife – The very last episode I need to complete my set!
The Prisoner – After seeing about 10 episodes now, I can see the shows lacked consistently good writing. But some episodes, like “Many Happy Returns” blew my mind.
Angel – Shara is a bigger fan than I, but I don’t miss many episodes
Evolution – An excellent educational mini-series
Buffy the Vampire Slayer   – Shara is a bigger fan than I, but I don’t miss many episodes
Marx, Groucho – I hope I hope I hope “You Bet Your Life” comes around again!
Chaplin, Charlie
Penn & Teller’s Magic and Mystery Tour – I’ve been a fan of theirs for years. Smart guys. Real.
Enterprise – Ick. How did this schlock get here? Shara?
60 Minutes – I Tivo the boring articles, but there aren’t many
Jackass – I’m magnetically drawn to this! It’s far more consensual than America’s Funniest Ball-Busters
Scientific American Frontiers – Yup
Mystery Science Theater 3000 – It’s more fun watching and heckling along with friends. But I don’t have any to watch it with now :-(
Just Shoot Me – When I get around to watching sitcoms, which isn’t too often, this is one I like
60 Minutes II –
BattleBots – Carnage without the meat.
Scrubs – I really like this show a lot. The Scrubs world spins off to the left while the solid ideas hold it right in place. My kind of show.
Nova – Sometimes great topics, sometimes fluff.
Ebert & Roper – Usually pretty good movie reviews. I’m a little partial to Ebert
Sex2K – Infoporn ahhh
Modern Marvels – A good history show
Crank Yankers – I dunno if I’ll keep this on the list. It’s kinda funny….
Harrison Ford – More Shara’s pick than mine
Humphry Bogart – More Shara’s pick than mine
Kenneth Branagh – More Shara’s pick than mine
Insomniac with Dave Atell – Good Everyman entertainment
Friends –
Inside the Actors Studio – sometimes very insightful guests speak
Southpark – Southpark is always insightful
Star Trek: Voyager – slightly less offensive than Enterprise. Good “fall asleep fast” TV
Travel Sick – I dunno. The show has possibilities but I don’t like the omniscient narrator forcing our hapless hero to do gruesome tasks.
Lexx – The pinnacle of stupid sci-fi. I eat it up!
The Practice – I saw an episode or two and I’m trying to get interested in it
The Daily Show – This is honestly really good news! I get more news from these guys than most other sources!

I give Thumbs Up to a bunch of shows that I’m slightly interested in watching:

EGG: The Arts Show –
The Man Show – Unrepentant, unabashed
Ripley’s Believe it or Not –
Mad TV –
Sportsnight –
The Simpsons – Society’s mirror. I’m disappointed when they do random wacky things instead of insightful wacky things. But I guess they have a lot of shows to fill.
America’s Funniest Home Videos –
Iron Chef – Oh, the spectacle of it all!
Victory Garden – I like the old host better. And I like Norm better than Bob Villa
The Osbournes – OK, so I watched a few. It’s only because my sister forced me to! Really!
Junkyard Wars –

Phew! That’s a long list!

Babylon 5 – I watched it from the second season til the end. I appreciate it because it has so very few plot holes, has a contiguous universe, and nice storyline. One of my few concessions to obsession in my life is that I taped (and still have) -every- episode. Of course, I don’t do anything 1/2 way so I got an SVHS tape player for the task. So now I have 120 hours of B5 on 60 tapes… Now what do I do with them?

Xena: Warrior Princess – She can beat me up anytime
You Bet Your Life – with Groucho Marx. He was an absolute genius! Have you ever gotten to watch this show? He Ernie Kovacks – another genius, and a Hungarian to boot!
Mystery Science Theater 3000– Heckling a bad film is one of the purest joys there is in the world. These guys have raised it to a high art!
The Prisoner has a certain allure
Mr. Wizard. I watched Mr. Wizard a whole heck of a lot from middle school all the way through college.
Universe with Walter Cronkite. I looked back for this one and was really surprised to realize that it just ran for two summers. It really had an effect on me. Walter rocks.

Music videos

• Sledgehammer- Peter Gabriel
• Take on Me- a-ha   That’s not to say that I’m an a-ha fan, but there is this one moment of… oh heck, if you’ve seen the video, I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

I just flew back from Boston and boy are my arms tired!

I went to a big reunion at a hotel and had a blast. Moreso, I saw friends I hadn’t seen in 7… 10… 12 years! Thank you Trav, Julie, Luke, Molls, and Adam! And thank you to everyone else who hugged me shouting, “Where have you been! I missed you!”

Luke and I at Dunks* in Woburn Center! That’s a -real- Boston Cream donut in my hand. (We also went to this pretty kick-ass Brazilian meat place)

*Dunkin’ Donuts, our last, best hope for coffee**

** Hat tip to Babylon 5

This is incredibly beautiful.

My heart is full and my intention strong.

Log in to Youtube to watch it, the video is age restricted.

local version:

Damn onions!

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I need to say Thank you to the people that made this happen:

Dr Seuss
Teddy Saunders (www.tedshots.com)
Parker Howell (www.parkerhowell.com)
William Walsh (www.wbwalsh.com)
Produced and Edited by Teddy Saunders
Digital Effects and Color by Parker Howell
Original Score By Darius Holbert
Sound Mix by Tyler Payne
www.facebook.com/tedshots