Urbana-Champaign Bicycle Commute

I remembered **all** the ways you could turn things around with a Road Morph. I turned the first part around. Then I turned the second part around. Then I turned both parts around. Then I realized I could switch them around and put one in before the other.
Yippee, my Road Morph will be successfully rigged for Presta.
I found my Map Number Five for This Part of Illinois, so I can ride from here to the Illinois Border at the BReak of Dawn.
I sort of almost got VMWare to do what I wanted it to do. (I still can't get openoffice to cut and paste on the Mac side, or to open at all on the Windows side.)

None of it happened quickly, of course, and I still don't know where my keys are... but I found my wallet...

And I still get to type floggin' lettres to be *permitted* to post my own bloggin' flog...
Oh, and I got the map for tomorrow's ride done -

another goreoumous day.

Cycling is affecting my dream life. I have a standard "late and can't find my way there" dream that happens when I do a post-alarm snooze... but this morning's was, while more angsty than usual, also more amusing afterward. You see, I was driving to get where I needed to be... only I kept getting out of the car and either riding or walking and accidentally forgetting the car, and then being upset because obviously I wasn't going to get where i was going without it and I had to walk back into traffic...

and when I woke up it wasn't noon, it was 6:30 :) lots of time to get to church after all... even to wrestle with Microsoft and Open Office and email first!

Welp, that does it. I'm switching to wunderground from the weather channel on my bookmarks - I refuse to condone "Curfews are mandatory and subject to arrest if violated." I suppose microsoft word told the writers that "violators will be subject to arrest" would be the passive voice ;)

Labels: grammar

Yes, by wading through the possible pages of settings, I found the "title" option. Thanks, Fritz :)
It was Monday that I "requested review."

Byootiful day today.
Need caffeine still :)

Here's the explanation, mayor et al...

Every time I post to my blog, I have to do the "spam prevention procedure" of typing letters from a window - *extremely* garbled letters. After a while, I clicked the "why do I have to do this?" underneath and found that this wasn't something everybody had to do. No, only blogs flagged as "spamblogs."

Nowhere in the description do they mention that titling posts matters; in fact, nowhere do they suggest how a real person could prevent false flagging. No, they simply describe arrogantly how nasty these spamblogs *are* that they are flagging, somehow being too stupid to realize that the only people reading it would be *humans* wondering, not bots. They mention insipidity and linkfarmitude. I suppose if I used *too* many words like that I could understand ...

It's not as if I *can* put a title on my posts. For this blog, that's not an option I get. I've clicked *lots* of things in the past to try to make it happen; it doesn't.

I expect that kind of incompetence from, say, AOL or Yahoo. I went with Google 'cause they're usually better at making things workable.

Frankly, if Google wants me to do that, they should give me a clue.

Google sucks. (If the PTB there had sense, they'd have a flag on that phrase and somebody whose job it was to check it out when it appeared. I doubt it... it will probably mean I get some other inconvenience added to my day.)

Oh. I am grumpy today. I yelled at two people on my commute in and one yelled back. ("There's a thing called a stop sign!" "I SEE you! Don't worry about ME!" "I *do* worry about ___ drivers!" )

Things got better when I got to ride at lunch to see a buddy at Carle. The guy at the front desk even had a bicycle behind him :) The miles eased the hormonal imbalance or something but I think I need a few hundred more.

Off to the home front now to tend to stuff about biking that I'll blog about next. Of course, it's all spam.

Labels: annoying Google crap

I would love to know what the algorithm for link farms is, since my site is *still* flagged by the stupid Google - hey people Sioux is NOT recommending you pick this one! - has a veritable PAUCITY, mind you, PAUCITY of links. Nonsensical, irrelevant content? Perhaps, if bicycle is on the algorithm... because one would *think* that if a person hand-entered all those flogging characters *and* put in their stupid request for permission to exist ...

... nope...
this is what I get for accepting Big Brother Google. I must submit to its Judgment as it Collects My Information.
...oops, I got it.
Perhaps because my vocabulary is *too* varied, it must be "randomly generated."
Perhaps it was that string of baiku?
It's just pretty darned arrogant to have a glaringly flawed spamblog seeker... and then to have on the description of why blogs are flagged only incredibly nasty snide things - not "your perfectly good blog might have been flagged," but "these nasty spambloggers do this and that and we're pretty sure you're one of them, so stop tryig to pretend!!!"
SNork. No. Third possibility. I am not using adsense. *Truth:* fewer links... but profit is not about truth.
(Of course, fourth possibility: my radical content ;) is deemed to left wing... I mean right wing... I mean...)

Crime Reporter is going a month without driving her car ;) - drop in her blog and say hi!

Labels: normalcy as bicycling

So... I was searching old emails for reference to a specific light, and I'm not finding it yet - but I did find reference to lights on pedals, and the thought that *that* could be a viable turn signal option for those of us with decent fine motor skills. Hmmm... what would be the options for turning the "solid to blinky" switch on?
I think Google's got somebody who's not too bright doing the "spamblog" determination - not based on the determination, which is obviously a comptuer algorithm and prone to ordinary bugs... but with the fact that the letter I.D. is significantly and consistently *harder* than most character i.d. tasks. That makes it more annoying - but are spamblogs more clever at fooling those? I don't think so. So it's only the bloggers who are being annoyed - bloggers who *shouldn't* have to type the stupid letters in teh first place. I don't mind typing 'em where I know everybody has to. WHen I type them where I shouldn't have to, and then you go out of the way to make it hard... STOOPID.

Okay, most of the email groups I'm on are *old* - from the days when geeks were the only ones on 'em. Still, my heart sang when the Road Bike Rider list actually has a simple form to fill out to *change your address.* NOne of this "remember the special address to sign off, and be sure to get the syntax right, and then rememebr the special address to sign on, and wait for any moderation..."

So sign up today at Road Bike Rider :)

You'll get stuff like the product test of two dynamo LED lights.

12 bicycles on the way in. There was something interesting but it was hours ago :)

Oh, and I"m feeling even more inclined to go to WordPRess with my blog. Seems that my blog has "characteristics of a spam blog."

And what are they? I thought perhpas it was my frequetn postings, but NO. "Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site."

Well, I don't have a lot of links.

May all your screws be metal and your balls be rubber, sir Google. (When I was a freshman in college, we had this little seminar that included suggesting that F. U. was really wishing something good for a person, and that a better *curse* would be suggesting that the person *never* partake in such pleasantries. Some of us created ways of expressing that.)

Rode the long way (South to Old Church, West to Rising, N. to Bradley, E. to Duncan, N. to Parkland). Strong east wind meant I got to work on time but I had to work at it and it's been too long since I felt htis kind of tired from going fast, not long :)

There are also MORE people riding bikes - generally I don't see bicycles when I do the long way, but I did today. (Yesterday I didn't count but there was essentially no time when there wasn't a bicycle approaching me.)

I make the closest thing to new year's resolutions - more like new year's let's-try-to-remember-we're-trying-to-do-this, and it often does work - when it's a new academic year. This year? Um... to be tidier (that's the Yearly One - this year's "how to " is "clean those drawers more often") and... To seize opportunities and seek opportunities for ... well, for acknowledging that it's "time to do stuff because things aren't correcting themselves," and to do more than coast and wait for stars to align. Snork. Explaining would require too many paragraphs but those opportunities of *course* aren't going to look like what I had built my search images to look like.

Oh, gag me with a spoon... Google inflicted that crap on me because I might be a spam blog.

Yea, I know, I checked and my blog's reading level is "elementary school" (snork - there's a goal! Put in multitudinous multisyllabic verbosities to enhance its arbitrarily imposed stratification!)

I suspect it's a side effect of posting as often as I do ;)

Here's my official statement about the "slow bicycle movement" and the "epicurean cyclist" - and it's not because I'm allergic to wool, honest!
Snobbery is snobbery.
It's beneath me. I shall cast a long glance down my nose at it. (As one of my high school kiddos said one day, "I can tolerate anything... except intolerance.")
(It's also, IMHO, a waste of what could be channeled into good 'movement energy.' Celebrate our widening bicycle culture, don't fracture it!)
And I'm gonna have to figure out a way to turn this letter identification thing off (it's not o n my other blog).

Labels: bike snobbery

I officially loathe and despise GMAIL's "contact groups." ETFOOM, but I don't always have names in Excel files to import. Why can't I just add a name to a group?

went to "quad day" on campus and helped out a bit at the bike project table. What a mob scene... but it was neat to see so many niches out there to be found. Gave away lots of maps.
Watched TV, which I don't do. Real people - even viewed as a sea of 'em on the quad - are much more interesting. TV characters have to convey to "the viewer" - all of 'em, mind you - their recipe for being, so it has to be a very simple recipe. Welp, that, and they all wear that hollywood make-up. Then again, it was old tv shows...
Got my bottle cage on the Dahon last night with a fair amount of assistance. Those little screws really didn't want to get started. Now I can get my big light in there, which matters since the dynamo hub on the Xtra isn't dynamic right now.

(I just wonder, do other folks find the silly scrambled letters pretty hard to discern? I'm pretty hard-wired for it and it's hard for me...)

So! I rode home Friday, rode to Schnuck's for some Fat Tire 1554, and while tooling around was asked if I'd gotten my free corn, since if you took a bicycle to the Sweet Corn festival you'd get one. The word's out :) I went there and gave out a few from behind the table, and some maps and stickers and such.
Watched people doing the "interactive entertainment" a.k.a. Riding The Bull, in front of the row of porta-johns.
Rode home on the Xtracycle and on exactly the same street, perhaps the same person... "That's smart. I wish I had one of those."

The people are speaking. THe people are thinking! (okay, that's reaching :) )

and I didn't get the corn, but my second stalk in my yard has one and I *know* it's sweet 'cause the first two from the First Stalk were. SILVER QUEEN ROCKS!!!!

Remember reading about the bike shop guy in Toronto who was sending people out to steal them? More about the fascinating characters involved in the Toronto Journal section of the NY Times.

Dead Blog of the day:
"ask the wise old bike guy" - old, but it's an interesting idea.

Only 7 bicycles on the way in today, which I attributed to the forecast (rainy). However, there were already 3 bikes on the bike rack... 2 with plastic bags on the seats, anticipating the rain.
So, some people cop out with the forecast, and some people cope :D

At lunchtime it was up to 6 on the rack.

Now, I only wihs I could remember why I didn't have Thursday in my mind as "clear." Is it just because I didn't *get* that far because of the other stuff in the week? What meeting am I going to miss...

Two notables from yesterday, which was the first day since May riding in for 9:00 arrival:
Not 10, but 22 bicycles seen on the way in to work. A veritable bevy of 'em at the corner of Race & Oregon - three going South, two West.
19 of the 22 were on the street. The last 3 were on Church Street, on the sidewalks; 2 were kids under 15.
Second notable: when I went out to the bike to see if just maybe I'd left some money there, a bike was locked to the tree near the bike rack. There was space on the far right end of the rack, but I suspect that was parked up when the tree-bike-rider arrived. Gotta remember how to ask for a good bike rack for D wing.

Today, only 6 or 7 cyclists (8:00 arrival). Also, the U hasn't even started yet. (Tomorrow is Move In Day. Oh, dear. Don't even think of going to Target, dear folks ;) ) I *did* secure permission and get bike maps in a pocket on a bulletin board here on campus :) (And then go back and retrieve my keys... Kudos to the student life folks who are not just deluged, but dealing with little details like being sent the wrong ID cards, so they get to write them out by hand for students and then print them out and track them down later. Oy. Blessings all over them.)

Labels: bicycle commuting, bicycle facilites

This was brighter in the minutes before I snapped this... a "pretty good" (tho' said in a respectful tone) scene as judged by the local at the restaurant who decided to see what all the tourists were capturing.

This a.m. I relocated my camelBak (including the keys and the phone charger... of course I left my wallet at home and I'm not sure where the p hone itself is...

but I have bicycle maps! Click on "location" (in the tiny brown font for emphasis) at champaigncountybikes.org
to see where you can get yours, or find me~

Another link from Cycle-liciuos... Ezra's bicycle, designed so as not to involve the nether reasons, part of his attempt at teaching cancer to cry (adult language found there).

CS Monitor duly notes the "car-free streets" phenomenon.

Once you associate an observation with a label and let it wander around the verbal corners of the mind, you notice it more often, since it doesn't get filtered out as unworthy of attention. Hence, when you've bought a red car, it seems there are more of 'em out there...
Some time in the past week (probably on yesterday's ride out to Mahomet), I saw a front walk from road to front door which had plants along it... a row of big honkin' corn on each side.
Today I noticed that the ground cover at that house on Washington east of Vine ... is a huge honkin' Squash (Sasquash?) plant.
All it'll take is Oprah or Martha Stewart to plug it... and "everybody" will be making a Front Yard Garden. Forget your little corner in the backyard. (Of course, I don't *really* know whether most people stick gardens in the back instead of the front yard.)
My squash and maters are producing happily. Peppers on the way. Five ears of corn from those two stalks.
Rode folder to church today. Had my "work to bike more" ankle strap from New Belgium Brewery. COnfirmed last night that indeed, I don't like wheat beers (a la New Belgium's "Mothership wit.") And after an "enlightened black ale" instead of the effects of the alcohol making me indifferent, the MW tasted nastier. I'm just a barley girl, I guess. Barley hopping for me!
And speaking of spelling, my feed showed me a forum post that referred to the Xtracycle's "stella-carrying capacity." Snork! I haven't carried Stella yet... mebbe I should google for stella-carrying ;) ... there *is* a single reference to the for "stella-carrying capacity" referring to how much beer one can fit in an apartment...

New roof is ON and Paid For! (Bank account is shrunken.)

Birds are noisy! Have they simply been rousted about a bit... or rendered homeless?

Time to go get the goods for the smoothies tomorrow, including scrub brushes to make the cooler a little less like unto hazardous waste.

Xtracycles in the news :) (or more precisely, bands riding xtracycles)

And Don't Forget C-U Across the Prairie tomorrow!!!

Lake of the Woods, registration 7:30-10... pay your money, ride the ride, eat the food, share the smiles and miles. I will shop today for smoothie makings. (No margaritas, folks; it's a public park.)

Weather will be scrumptious :)

Labels: bicycle

... oh, yea, from cycle-licious...
Feeling even more just-barely-insulated from the "real world" of corruption of power with this news from Denver. This pretty gory incident happened on April 4 but it's 'breaking news' now... .
No, it's not uplifting, especially considering this is just one that was caught on tape - how much other stuff have these guys blithely gotten away with... and then sent their *victims* to jail because their testimony gets believed?

Labels: bicycle advocacy

went around Robin Hood's Barn to get here this a.m. - forgot I was going the long way to pick up bagels so I had to turn back, then went to get the bagels.
Other cyclists describe how frequently they'll watch a driver look at 'em, look the other way, then blithely proceed into the cyclist's path.
I wonder if thigns are different where they are, or whether they (and me?) are selectively attending the way people only remember when the gypsy's predictions are correct. Today there were two folks blithely looking at me, looking the other way, and then sitting there even though they probably could have squirted out there.
The third fellow was in a convertible so I could almost see the cartoon balloon over his head as he decided that no, even though he *could* just take his nifty Mercedes and get out there, since if he waited for me he was going to have to wait for more traffic after that... disgrunt, disgrunt... he waited. I gave him my very best smile and wondered if I shouldn't have done something more dramatic ("May all blessings shower you this day!") since in the convertible he could hear...
Then I saw I wasn't going to make the Bradley light and there was a big ol' soda can so I stopped and scooped it up. Got to school and I was asked if I'd derailed... that he'd have tossed my bike in his vehicle... I said it was a strap loose, not that I was grabbing litter...

No, Rick, I *hadn't* seen this YouTube before.


Oh
Let's
do
it

I love that they're thinking abotu marketing... that it's "BikeWatch" (a la baywatch) ... let's make cycling SEXY!!!

"They have a better quality of life and they are happier all the time."

Ya, you betcha!!!

(where's my vaca con cuernos?)

Saw lots of bikes on the way home around 6:00 (got the call from the storm door installing to say they could do it today, which it sounds like the work force is a teeny bit reluctant to have been committed to this long day... door number one is happening. I don't ahve a door number three for my whole world to be waiting behind, thank you...)
I realized that a rather high majority of the bicycles I saw today were real, honest commuters ... and were on the ROAD, not the sidewalk. And most of 'em would be "above average" in Having Learned To Ride on the Roads, including that chick who gave me an "on your left" at the light and then signaled her right turn ('cause it was only 'caues she didn't have to stop that she went by, of course ;) ).
Commuter Chase story (while observing a great "say no to crack" demo by the door install guy, but I'm NOT getting the camera out):
I went by Church on Country Fair and some guy on a nice red bike (as in fairly vintage but road) is coming onto the road as I go by so of course I speed up a bit ... dang, he's 'way back there. But wait! As I coast to the red light at Springfield, he's gotten lots closer... and goes by the stop line to be further out in the intersection... so I catch myself thinking "oh, you wanna-run-the-red-light guerrilla not-worthy-of-my-attention man, I shall not look at you."

Then my other voice gave myself the "You Take Yourself Too Seriously" look (yes, a voice can do that), so I made eye contact which inspired the fellow to ask how many speeds I had on that bike (12?) which I "cranked pretty good" (or words to that effect). (First voice says "see? He had to chase you to catch you :D :D ) He said his trusty bike really got him around well, too, that he did lots of miles, to Pesotum and Mahomet, etc, and that my bike went pretty fast for its size... so I told him that I had done 10,000 miles last year... he expressed surprise as the light turned green and I said it had taken a lot and I didn't think it would happen again and he answered "I don't blame you." Now, there's a reply I'll remember in November, or during the first ice storm ;) And two blocks later Earl's callin' out "Hi Sioux Geonz!!" and I think... gosh, Red Bike Guy, if you'd come this way, you'd know I'm a celebrity cyclist :D
They have successfully figured out the first door ! Now to the back... wish I'd put some of teh Fat Tire in the Fridge...
I realized that I should get 10 of the bike maps and have 'em on the bicycle 'cause Mr. Red Bike and mebbe those other two folks I chased around would want 'em.
Realized these white doors on a house with white siding... TOO MUCH WHITE. Must find Sharpies :D

Back from a weekend without computers or bicycles in the badlands of New MExico. I'm glad to have "seen a bit of the West" and even more glad that it wasn't "seeing" it as a passing-through traveler with all six degrees of separation in place, but hanging out with people doing people things.
In the meantime the NY times does an article about driver / cyclist antagonism (and, I'm glad to say, includes the idea that a big part of teh problem is simply the minority status of cyclists and that both psychologically and perceptually, once cyclists get to be common enough, we'll be *seen* because we'll be expected to be there and cycling will be considered a mainstream manner of travel.

Welp, I *have* seen posted somewhere that hopefully, cars will be the "new smoking" - a formerly embraced habit and social status symbol now regarded as unhealthy, primarily defended by arguments of "personal rights" (much like pro-slavery arguments). So... can public sentiment be swayed?

Of course, only a fraction of the funding and efforts were aimed at cigarette infrastructures (ashtrays, etc) as have been aimed at automobiles.

There is also the question of what percentage of Americans currently *reflect* on anything? Actually, I'm sure most people have been sheep since time eternal, but many of the sheep at least valued thoughtful argument vs. palliative sales pitches... and chose to follow the former. Or did they ?

Got back on the bike at 5:00 ... yuky time to get back in the commuting thing.

bACK In Champaign-Urbana~! Catchin' up... flying to Albuquerque tomorrow for the weekend.

Yes. Possibly four consecutive days without a bicycle.

Wash. Post has article about the "ultimate bicycle" being a 1969 Schwinn Racer. I am simply amazed. I mean, *I* know that. (I have a 1968... and a 1960 in my garage). Hmmm... must find out who that reporter is and how s/he knows... and I must get that tire fixed on said Racer.

Colorado has hills and wide shoulders without much debris on them.

I'm in Grand Island... gotta get up oily to try to be back in C-U for that WEFT interview... it's fascinating what online-people are like in real life! (Was it real life?)