Saturday, September 7, 2013
"Used-to-be-vegetarian"s
Nothing erks me more these days when I'm browsing the posts of people i barely stay in touch with on this social networking thing than seeing a post by a used-to-be-vegetarian that is anti-vegetarian, or just a joke about vegetarians. It's not like being atheist. Atheists who start off as theist are usually more outspoken than those who've just never believed. It's because they have experience with religion and religious traditions that a person who has never really followed any sort of religion would not have. "Fuel" for their "fire" for lack of a better phrase. They may come off argumentative or "preachy" about the idea that god does not exist. And quote passages of religious texts that are hypocritical or nonsensical because they have a passion to be anti-religion. But can this apply to vegetarianism? Do vegetarians just wake up one day and realize that they've been duped? That animal suffering doesn't really exist? That the devastating ecological impacts of meat production and consumption are all a lie? That the animals on dinner plates don't have emotional lives or thoughts or feelings like what we have? That animals are REALLY JUST BIOLOGICAL MACHINES LIKE DESCARTES SAID?!?!?!?!?! No, I can't imagine this is how it works. I think some people start getting bored and/or lose touch with why they decided to make lifestyle changes like becoming vegetarian and they easily "change back". Why some become "anti-vegetarian" is beyond me. It may be insecurities like what alot of omnivores have when talking to vegetarians/vegans about their diets. Alot of them say "I don't eat meat often..." and that's great, as long as they understand I'm not trying to ruin their meal if they're not trying to ruin mine by talking about why they think it's okay to kill deer and eat them while I'm eating my peanut butter and banana sandwich. Eat your fucking hamburger, it's your life/heart/ethics that you have to answer to, not mine. There was a "GHENT CONFESSIONS" post recently that was allegedly by a cook at a local Ghent restaurant who claimed that they put a little butter or dairy in every "vegan" dish they made because they evidently had a grudge against vegans, called vegans "pretentious fucks" actually. I read some of the comments and found the dialog that the person created a little amusing, and I commented. I didn't look at the post the same way alot of others did. I thought of how close minded this person was and my mind drew a person with no respect for ideas/lifestyles different than their own. How intolerant this person is/was. It seems strange to me that anyone would be intolerant about vegetarians, but I guess the "used-to-be-vegetarians" have that passion. Or they might just be hip wanna-be-foodies who got bored being vegetarian in a society of meat eaters and have a little bitterness in their hearts for those who are still living it.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
I really hope that there is intelligent life somewhere else in the universe
day 437
Like the anti-miracle that was the first cancerous cell reproducing, we spread across this planet, burning, destroying and making sterile anything and everything in our path. We are the super-species. We are the ones granted the great dominion over everything. Everything we know so little about. Everything that would continue to give life. To contribute to the cycle of continued existence for the organic matter around us that we only pay attention to when it's images are recorded on a digital ccd screen and broadcast on tv screens inside our homes. Inside these boxes that we work so hard to maintain and store our useless shit in. The boxes that separate "us" from "them". "Us" from the "outside world", that we have been taught that we are not a part of. The "outside world" is a part of us like a diseased limb. We can ignore it. It might be dying. But we're part of it, and if it dies, so do we.
I really hope that there is intelligent life somewhere else out there in the universe. I hope there's a planet that has sprouted the beautiful chaos that is life and organic matter that reproduces without a hyper-aware super-species that "advances" so much that it just kills everything. Earth has had relatively advanced life forms for a long time before humans started getting civilized. And life kept on chooglin. Things lived, things died and the cycle continued. Random, beautiful chaos kept things interesting. Natural selection kept things interesting (Well, before we started making TV's the size of walls! Now we're bored with anything that isn't reality TV!!! TV PARTY TONIGHT! TV PARTY TONIGHT!!!). Right now within the social structure we live in, there are people who would kill people they'd never have to see to get ahead financially. Let me re-phrase that: Right now people ARE killing people they will never have to see to get ahead finacially. To get ahead in this game. It's not really living anymore. It's a game. I wish I could go back to when they made the rules. Whoever "they" were... Because "they" didn't account for alot of factors when they made these rules that we live by. "They" didn't account for the very simple fact that economic growth CAN NOT GO ON FOREVER. CAN'T. WON'T. There are only so many things in the world that possess value to concentrate in the hands of those with the most valuable valuables. The king can only accumulate so much gold. His castle is only so big. Nothing goes on forever. Which is a scary idea that is often forgotten while we play this game. We go to work, clock in, sweat, lift, teach, sell, cook, serve, type, order, receive, program, repair, and do processes to make money to pay our bills. Bills that companies and banks mail us. They give us money and then they bill us for it. They give us cooking gas, clothes, electricity and digital signals that allow our cellular phones and computer to work and connect with other computers and cellular phones and then they bill us. These signals are already out there, why are we paying for them? The cooking gas is already piped into our apartment, why do we pay "distribution" fees for it? The DMV has been where it is for years and years, why do we pay extra fees for going to it? The answer to all these questions and many more is that we didn't make the fucking rules. That's why we pay for all this stupid shit. That and because it's all part of the game. It's like playing poker but you can't ever see the dealer or the other players. All you can see is your cards and you're not sure that the other players didn't look at your cards... But sometimes, when you take a couple steps away from the table, mentally, physically or emotionally, you start to realize how fucked up the game is... Sometimes you just play blind and bet big. And try to keep a sense of humor about it when you lose. Cause that's life.
Lately I've been riding my bikes while listening to music in headphones. Most people think this isn't safe because it's technically illegal. I don't think it's unsafe at all. I think you can hear cars coming up behind you and interpret their position better when you don't have music blasting into your ears from headphones, but does that make you safer? Shouldn't you be more worried about what's going on ahead of you and if everybody else is exercising the "due care" that the traffic laws require, everyone would be safe. And music in my ears tends to calm my nerves and make me ALOT less likely to yell at someone that cuts me off or honks at me which in turn makes it less likely that I will be involved in an intersection confrontation with an idiot who is having a bad day, which in a very real way, makes riding safer.
Like the anti-miracle that was the first cancerous cell reproducing, we spread across this planet, burning, destroying and making sterile anything and everything in our path. We are the super-species. We are the ones granted the great dominion over everything. Everything we know so little about. Everything that would continue to give life. To contribute to the cycle of continued existence for the organic matter around us that we only pay attention to when it's images are recorded on a digital ccd screen and broadcast on tv screens inside our homes. Inside these boxes that we work so hard to maintain and store our useless shit in. The boxes that separate "us" from "them". "Us" from the "outside world", that we have been taught that we are not a part of. The "outside world" is a part of us like a diseased limb. We can ignore it. It might be dying. But we're part of it, and if it dies, so do we.
I really hope that there is intelligent life somewhere else out there in the universe. I hope there's a planet that has sprouted the beautiful chaos that is life and organic matter that reproduces without a hyper-aware super-species that "advances" so much that it just kills everything. Earth has had relatively advanced life forms for a long time before humans started getting civilized. And life kept on chooglin. Things lived, things died and the cycle continued. Random, beautiful chaos kept things interesting. Natural selection kept things interesting (Well, before we started making TV's the size of walls! Now we're bored with anything that isn't reality TV!!! TV PARTY TONIGHT! TV PARTY TONIGHT!!!). Right now within the social structure we live in, there are people who would kill people they'd never have to see to get ahead financially. Let me re-phrase that: Right now people ARE killing people they will never have to see to get ahead finacially. To get ahead in this game. It's not really living anymore. It's a game. I wish I could go back to when they made the rules. Whoever "they" were... Because "they" didn't account for alot of factors when they made these rules that we live by. "They" didn't account for the very simple fact that economic growth CAN NOT GO ON FOREVER. CAN'T. WON'T. There are only so many things in the world that possess value to concentrate in the hands of those with the most valuable valuables. The king can only accumulate so much gold. His castle is only so big. Nothing goes on forever. Which is a scary idea that is often forgotten while we play this game. We go to work, clock in, sweat, lift, teach, sell, cook, serve, type, order, receive, program, repair, and do processes to make money to pay our bills. Bills that companies and banks mail us. They give us money and then they bill us for it. They give us cooking gas, clothes, electricity and digital signals that allow our cellular phones and computer to work and connect with other computers and cellular phones and then they bill us. These signals are already out there, why are we paying for them? The cooking gas is already piped into our apartment, why do we pay "distribution" fees for it? The DMV has been where it is for years and years, why do we pay extra fees for going to it? The answer to all these questions and many more is that we didn't make the fucking rules. That's why we pay for all this stupid shit. That and because it's all part of the game. It's like playing poker but you can't ever see the dealer or the other players. All you can see is your cards and you're not sure that the other players didn't look at your cards... But sometimes, when you take a couple steps away from the table, mentally, physically or emotionally, you start to realize how fucked up the game is... Sometimes you just play blind and bet big. And try to keep a sense of humor about it when you lose. Cause that's life.
Lately I've been riding my bikes while listening to music in headphones. Most people think this isn't safe because it's technically illegal. I don't think it's unsafe at all. I think you can hear cars coming up behind you and interpret their position better when you don't have music blasting into your ears from headphones, but does that make you safer? Shouldn't you be more worried about what's going on ahead of you and if everybody else is exercising the "due care" that the traffic laws require, everyone would be safe. And music in my ears tends to calm my nerves and make me ALOT less likely to yell at someone that cuts me off or honks at me which in turn makes it less likely that I will be involved in an intersection confrontation with an idiot who is having a bad day, which in a very real way, makes riding safer.
Monday, August 19, 2013
Some thoughts on life, veganism and the world around us
Some thoughts on life, veganism and the world around us.
When people steal animals from their mothers and lock them away in isolation, they are destroying life, whether they want to face this fact or not.
There have been too many psychological experiments in history that have proven that animals go insane in isolation, whether they are fed or not, whether they have water or not, whether they are "loved" or not, and whether we believe they can go insane or not.
I do not believe in a god that gave man dominion over animals.
Humans are animals, sometimes the most forgetful of all animals.
We've created a world in which we've isolated ourselves from everything we depend on to live.
We've created an idea that we are the center of everything.
Natural selection no longer applies to us.
There are animals that communicate in ways humans will never understand. Yet we blindly say they don't use communication.
There are fish who communicate with electricity (Knife Fish), but we say they can't communicate.
Some animals have no sight or hearing but are more in-tune with their surroundings than we are.
Most non-human animals are more in tune with the rhythms of the Earth than we will ever understand. But we deny this and treat them like biological machines.
I recently watched a documentary about Orca whales who live at Sea World and other amusement water parks. The trainers loved them. They loved the trainers. They had beautiful relationships. The whales were/are basically slaves who perform for fish and the continued affection of the trainers, but the isolation and frustration makes them insane. And they kill people every once in a while. They are 8000- 12000 pound animals who grow to 20-25 feet long, and live in swimming pools their whole lives. But we think it's tragic when they kill people. These animals have more complex emotions and social lives than we have or can understand and we enslave them and lock them away in these swimming pools and we swim with them and then call it tragedy when one of them kills one of us.
We think we appreciate life. We cringe when we watch an animal kill another animal to eat while we enslave animals for entertainment and profit. We call Zoos educational while we learn nothing from these animals we slowly drive to insanity as every natural instinct they possess is frustrated in every waking moment they live.
While watching this movie I couldn't help but think about why we would allow these beautiful creatures to be treated the way they were/are treated. To be bought and sold, to be held captive and in isolation. But it's always money. Crowds line up and pay for tickets to come to the park to see these whales up close. To see the whales interact with people. To get splashed by these whales. The whales lives after the show don't matter. How the whales could actually be happy in the pools they live doesn't matter. Why an animal who has killed 3 people could still be used in shows doesn't matter. What matters in the end is money.
We cringe when we see the Orca kill a penguin. We cringe when we see the Orca kill a human. We don't cringe when we see the Orca jump out of the water and splash people in the stadium seating surrounding the pool, and wave on it's side to a cheering crowd of smiling children. Why? Because that's what we paid to see.
You don't have to be vegan or vegetarian or an animal rights activist to understand how wrong it is to support this kind of exploitation. Or to respect these animals enough to not give your money to the people who profit from their captivity. When I was a child my family went to the circus when it was in town a few times. We sat in the crowded arena and squinted to see the animals do the unnatural things that these shows sell us as entertainment. We ate sugary food and bought souvenirs and we stared in astonishment at the elephants. Years later my high school art class went to the zoo to draw animals, I wasn't vegan then but I didn't want to go. I didn't want to support the animals being held captive, but I went, I sat in the feeding area where an elephant was contained. There was a thick glass barrier that separated me and the elephant, and I talked to it. It might have heard me, might not have. But I sat there and watched it and talked to it. It was beautiful and i felt sorry for it. Years later I marched with a silent protest as Ringling Bros marched their elephants from the Norfolk Scope to a corner of West Ghent to force them into their traveling containers. This was the closest I've ever come to elephants. It was sad. Watching the trainers yell at them and force them to hold onto the elephant in front's tail and keep up with the elephant in front of them as the whole amoeba of huge animals/trainers and protesters moved at almost a running speed through the streets of Norfolk. Just sad. Animals can't be happy living in confinement just like we can't be happy living in confinement. How we confine humans as the ultimate punishment for crimes but think animals can be treated worse in the same situation and not lash out and kill will always amaze me.
I've been vegan for 11 years now.
Veganism isn't the answer to all the world's problems. It's a good place for western civilization to start finding some answers though.
I'm more concerned with the politics of food distribution than if your Dad cooked a free range chicken last night.
I'm more concerned with the cruelties of dairy production than if my fries were fried in the same oil as a piece of chicken (although food born illnesses are never fun and this would increase my chances...).
It's not the individual chicken/pig/fish/cow's life that I care about as much as the industrialization of their lives and the industrialization of their deaths that concerns me and should concern us all.
Pet stores are the same thing as slaughter houses.
Zoos, circuses and water parks with animal attractions are all the same thing.When people steal animals from their mothers and lock them away in isolation, they are destroying life, whether they want to face this fact or not.
There have been too many psychological experiments in history that have proven that animals go insane in isolation, whether they are fed or not, whether they have water or not, whether they are "loved" or not, and whether we believe they can go insane or not.
I do not believe in a god that gave man dominion over animals.
Humans are animals, sometimes the most forgetful of all animals.
We've created a world in which we've isolated ourselves from everything we depend on to live.
We've created an idea that we are the center of everything.
Natural selection no longer applies to us.
There are animals that communicate in ways humans will never understand. Yet we blindly say they don't use communication.
There are fish who communicate with electricity (Knife Fish), but we say they can't communicate.
Some animals have no sight or hearing but are more in-tune with their surroundings than we are.
Most non-human animals are more in tune with the rhythms of the Earth than we will ever understand. But we deny this and treat them like biological machines.
I recently watched a documentary about Orca whales who live at Sea World and other amusement water parks. The trainers loved them. They loved the trainers. They had beautiful relationships. The whales were/are basically slaves who perform for fish and the continued affection of the trainers, but the isolation and frustration makes them insane. And they kill people every once in a while. They are 8000- 12000 pound animals who grow to 20-25 feet long, and live in swimming pools their whole lives. But we think it's tragic when they kill people. These animals have more complex emotions and social lives than we have or can understand and we enslave them and lock them away in these swimming pools and we swim with them and then call it tragedy when one of them kills one of us.
We think we appreciate life. We cringe when we watch an animal kill another animal to eat while we enslave animals for entertainment and profit. We call Zoos educational while we learn nothing from these animals we slowly drive to insanity as every natural instinct they possess is frustrated in every waking moment they live.
While watching this movie I couldn't help but think about why we would allow these beautiful creatures to be treated the way they were/are treated. To be bought and sold, to be held captive and in isolation. But it's always money. Crowds line up and pay for tickets to come to the park to see these whales up close. To see the whales interact with people. To get splashed by these whales. The whales lives after the show don't matter. How the whales could actually be happy in the pools they live doesn't matter. Why an animal who has killed 3 people could still be used in shows doesn't matter. What matters in the end is money.
We cringe when we see the Orca kill a penguin. We cringe when we see the Orca kill a human. We don't cringe when we see the Orca jump out of the water and splash people in the stadium seating surrounding the pool, and wave on it's side to a cheering crowd of smiling children. Why? Because that's what we paid to see.
You don't have to be vegan or vegetarian or an animal rights activist to understand how wrong it is to support this kind of exploitation. Or to respect these animals enough to not give your money to the people who profit from their captivity. When I was a child my family went to the circus when it was in town a few times. We sat in the crowded arena and squinted to see the animals do the unnatural things that these shows sell us as entertainment. We ate sugary food and bought souvenirs and we stared in astonishment at the elephants. Years later my high school art class went to the zoo to draw animals, I wasn't vegan then but I didn't want to go. I didn't want to support the animals being held captive, but I went, I sat in the feeding area where an elephant was contained. There was a thick glass barrier that separated me and the elephant, and I talked to it. It might have heard me, might not have. But I sat there and watched it and talked to it. It was beautiful and i felt sorry for it. Years later I marched with a silent protest as Ringling Bros marched their elephants from the Norfolk Scope to a corner of West Ghent to force them into their traveling containers. This was the closest I've ever come to elephants. It was sad. Watching the trainers yell at them and force them to hold onto the elephant in front's tail and keep up with the elephant in front of them as the whole amoeba of huge animals/trainers and protesters moved at almost a running speed through the streets of Norfolk. Just sad. Animals can't be happy living in confinement just like we can't be happy living in confinement. How we confine humans as the ultimate punishment for crimes but think animals can be treated worse in the same situation and not lash out and kill will always amaze me.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Assaulted by a pregnant smoker.
Today i was assaulted twice by a pregnant woman with road rage, once with her vehicle, and then again with a lit cigarette. I was waiting at the red light to turn left onto Olney from Colley, the light turned green, I got my right foot in my toeclip and started pedaling, the car to my right (that was in the straight lane) started coming over into my lane, startling me as I looked and yelled "JESUS F%CKING CHRIST!" and moving over to the very inside of the lane, the woman driving the car yelled "I'M TURNING!" and I replied with "THAT WAS A STRAIGHT LANE!" Which evidently sent her into a rage. She started screaming things I couldn't understand, I heard a pretty clear "GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE WAY!" and I yelled back " THAT WAS A F#CKING STRAIGHT LANE!!! WHAT THE F%CK ARE YOU DOING?!?!" She sped up cutting further into the lane and eventually 3/4 of the way through the turn forced her way past me and slammed her brakes kind of forcing me to run into the side of her car, I don't recall hitting her car hard but she was screaming at me when this happened and the spark inside my heart had now lit a raging fire. I was furious. She threw her lit cigarette towards my face while continuing to scream about me being in the way and that I needed to "GET THE F#CK OUT OF THE ROAD!!!" as I looked back to see if I had my u-lock, which was in my bag out of reach (probably a good thing..) I punched her car as she started to speed away after throwing the cigarette and then the car jerked to a stop again, her bf jumped out of the passenger side of the car and came around the car to try to instigate a fight with me, screaming something about me "trying to put my hands on" his "pregnant girl"... ( I thought I had just almost been run over by her...) The thought of this was just ridiculous. This guy was trying to fight me after his girlfriend tried to run me over and then threw a lit cigarette at me. If I could take it all back (wouldn't that always be nice! Fucking hindsight...), I would've stopped, walked away from him, and called the police. After the short shouting match with the bf and him getting back in the car still yelling and talking shit as they sped away, the driver that was in the car behind me pulled up and asked if I was okay, told me she had their license plate number, saw the whole thing and asked if i wanted to call the police. She said "they just assaulted you and I saw it", "she hit you with her car! That's assault!" At that point it hadn't really occurred to me that the driver hit me, but she totally did! She cut her car into my lane and slammed the brakes turning into me and my arm hit her car when I was trying to stop. Which I now have a scrape/lump on and my wrist is really sore, more than likely partly due to me punching the car, which is just really dumb. I'm really not proud that I punched the car or that I even shouted at the driver to begin with. The whole situation could've been avoided if I'd just grabbed my brakes and let this pregnant smoker into my lane and just shook my head and smiled as she continued on her way living her life with Marky Mark's little hotheaded cousin. But I told the witness/driver that it was fine, I wasn't hurt and that they needed to just cool off. She said "okay, I wrote down their license plate number anyway". I thanked her and turned at the next turn and started pondering whether or not I should keep riding... And how strange it was that I usually keep my u-lock in my basket but had put it in my messenger bag just a few minutes before this happened. How much worse this situation could've ended. It already ended bad: a shameful shouting match with a douche bag (was he wearing a Tapout shirt? I wish i'd taken note of the t-shirt he was wearing!) who wanted to fight me, my wrist hurts enough that I can't comfortably play my guitar right now, and I'm thinking about how I'm going to lift heavy things at work tomorrow and how long it's gonna take my wrist to feel better. I don't feel like a victim, even though I was technically hit by a car earlier. I feel like a jerk for losing my cool in that situation. I've got a lot of experience with intersection shouting matches. If you added up all the honks that have been aimed at me, you'd probably have a couple hours of honking. I've had things thrown at me, had close calls with HRT buses that have stopped me in my tracks to call them and report the driver immediately for "trying to kill me!", and have been told to "GET ON THE FUCKING SIDEWALK!!!" more times than 106.9 The Fox has played Freebird. My point is that I should be used to this by now. I've gone through long phases of smiling at people and/or waving at cars that honk at me to let them know it didn't bother me. I've tried hard, really hard to not let assholes bother me when I'm riding my bicycles. And I need to try harder...
On a related note, almost every time I mention "almost getting hit" by a car, someone makes the point that people on bicycles do dumb things alot and that they need to play by "the same rules" and they don't. I always find this interesting and discouraging, as i see no connection in these two things. (I'm not going to get into the idea of bicycle riders being safer getting through traffic intersection before cars start to move or the politics of inertia and it's obvious advantages to motorists and disadvantages to cyclers) A cycler waiting for a traffic signal to change and then almost getting killed by an angry driver does not make me think about people doing dumb things on bikes. A person on a bike throwing caution to the wind and riding through an intersection with cars coming is not the same thing at all as a person almost getting run over by a reckless driver. Recklessness on behalf of the bicycle rider is risking their own life, the recklessness of a driver in close calls with cyclists doesn't risk the drivers life at all. It is only the cyclist whose life is at risk in both cases. But risking your own life due to your own stupidity is very different than someone else almost taking your life due to theirs. These things are not in the same ballpark, not the same sport, if one of them was a sport the other wouldn't even be a board game. Nope, not the same at all. It would be like a friend getting hit by a reckless automobile driver on a motorcycle and someone saying "those guys on crotch rockets are always riding too fast on the interstate! They are dangerous!" Just not the same thing. I'm obviously biased, but I just don't think these ideas or comments are relative to the conversation. I guess for some folks this is part of the "us vs them" mentality that is kind of the root of the problem. What we all need to realize in alot of aspects of our lives is there is no "us" or "them". We're all people, sometimes making dumb decisions, some of us, alot more often than others. We don't all look at the world around us the same way and we aren't all operating on the same intellectual level (remember when Bush got re-elected?!?!?!?!) . When I didn't have a car and rode 200ish miles a week I could've raged on facebook constantly (well, I did rage on facebook constantly, but it could've been WAY WORSE!) about sitting at lights waiting and watching every driver that passed either texting or doing makeup or distracting themselves with something in their car. Hearing car crashes occasionally and thinking "Holy shit! That could've been me getting crashed into!" And back then sometimes I felt like I was living in that "us vs them" world and that it was a war of survival on the streets between bicycles and cars. But that was all in my head. It was a fantasy and I lived it. The Bike commuting eco-warrior vs all the cars/buses/semi-trucks and the idiots that drove them. But that wasn't what was really going on. It was just a guy riding a bicycle to and from work and people driving around him. Our society can't tolerate the "us vs them" mentality when it comes to life and death on the roads. We're making a little progress with these bike logo things painted in the lanes on roads that bikes often travel around Norfolk. I may have seen these in Va Beach too. But these are small battles and the war is really going on in our heads.
On a related note, almost every time I mention "almost getting hit" by a car, someone makes the point that people on bicycles do dumb things alot and that they need to play by "the same rules" and they don't. I always find this interesting and discouraging, as i see no connection in these two things. (I'm not going to get into the idea of bicycle riders being safer getting through traffic intersection before cars start to move or the politics of inertia and it's obvious advantages to motorists and disadvantages to cyclers) A cycler waiting for a traffic signal to change and then almost getting killed by an angry driver does not make me think about people doing dumb things on bikes. A person on a bike throwing caution to the wind and riding through an intersection with cars coming is not the same thing at all as a person almost getting run over by a reckless driver. Recklessness on behalf of the bicycle rider is risking their own life, the recklessness of a driver in close calls with cyclists doesn't risk the drivers life at all. It is only the cyclist whose life is at risk in both cases. But risking your own life due to your own stupidity is very different than someone else almost taking your life due to theirs. These things are not in the same ballpark, not the same sport, if one of them was a sport the other wouldn't even be a board game. Nope, not the same at all. It would be like a friend getting hit by a reckless automobile driver on a motorcycle and someone saying "those guys on crotch rockets are always riding too fast on the interstate! They are dangerous!" Just not the same thing. I'm obviously biased, but I just don't think these ideas or comments are relative to the conversation. I guess for some folks this is part of the "us vs them" mentality that is kind of the root of the problem. What we all need to realize in alot of aspects of our lives is there is no "us" or "them". We're all people, sometimes making dumb decisions, some of us, alot more often than others. We don't all look at the world around us the same way and we aren't all operating on the same intellectual level (remember when Bush got re-elected?!?!?!?!) . When I didn't have a car and rode 200ish miles a week I could've raged on facebook constantly (well, I did rage on facebook constantly, but it could've been WAY WORSE!) about sitting at lights waiting and watching every driver that passed either texting or doing makeup or distracting themselves with something in their car. Hearing car crashes occasionally and thinking "Holy shit! That could've been me getting crashed into!" And back then sometimes I felt like I was living in that "us vs them" world and that it was a war of survival on the streets between bicycles and cars. But that was all in my head. It was a fantasy and I lived it. The Bike commuting eco-warrior vs all the cars/buses/semi-trucks and the idiots that drove them. But that wasn't what was really going on. It was just a guy riding a bicycle to and from work and people driving around him. Our society can't tolerate the "us vs them" mentality when it comes to life and death on the roads. We're making a little progress with these bike logo things painted in the lanes on roads that bikes often travel around Norfolk. I may have seen these in Va Beach too. But these are small battles and the war is really going on in our heads.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Speed vs Comfort, Why folks ride the bikes they ride, Ti on the boardwalk
The balance of comfort and speed when making bicycle decisions is probably the hardest thing about buying a bike or taking one apart and putting it back together.
I have reached my threshold for how much speed (pedaling efficiency) i am willing to sacrifice for comfort. My current commuting/cruising around the neighborhood/grab a couple things at the grocery store bike is an 87 Trek touring bike that was a pretty good lightweight skinny-tired bike in it's day. When i took it apart and put it back together, it became heavier, slower, and much more comfortable. It is the most comfortable bike I've owned so far, it fits me really well, has my favorite upright-swoopy Nitto Albatross handlebars that i had on my last commuter and was really close to taking over as my favorite bike (my Bridgestone RB-2 is my favorite). The idea of riding fast is relative to who you ride with, what you consider fast and how fast you have to go to have fun on a bike. I don't need to go fast. I just need to be able to get to work in an hourish on a bike. It's 14ish miles with alot of stop signs and traffic signals in between and I feel like if it takes me more than an hour, I need to go faster. Lately it's been taking me more than an hour... and I don't like it. I could pedal harder. I could work on getting in better cycling shape. But I like to have fun on bikes, not feel like I'm pushing myself working out. So here is the "problem": I've made my bicycle too slow. The tires on this bicycle are rated for a maximum pressure of 45ish psi, which in the world of bicycle tires, is very low, which makes for a super comfy ride, but adds a bit of rolling resistance to the equation.I usually preach about skinny tires being bad and tires with 100+ psi of pressure being bad and how they cause unnecessary stress on the frame/fork/wheels and other components of the bicycle and send up alot more road vibration and bumps and aren't comfortable BUT (!)..... There are always limits and thresholds to these rules and sometimes you get to the point of diminishing returns. Which is where my current commuter is in my opinion. I still love the bike though.
To cut to the chase with this babbling, where I'm getting to is that most people see bicycles as beach cruisers, mountain bikes or road bikes. Road bikes have skinny, super high pressure tires that make them go fast and aren't good for anything other than smooth hard surfaces. Beach cruisers are comfortable and have huge soft tires good for cruising down sidewalks, boardwalks and gravel paths and won't send you over the handlebars if you hit a soft patch on a sand/gravel path.And mountain bikes are go everywhere, ride over anything, suspension monsters for the people who want to ride fast over rough terrain. When people shop for bikes, these are the categories their options fall into... OH WAIT! I almost forgot about the "hybrids"!!! The "other" bikes. I hate the phrase hybrid as it's applied to bikes. What are they a hybrid of? Mountain bikes and road bikes? Is that what we're supposed to think? Hybrids are what almost everyone who rides a bike to get from point A to point B should be riding. They are usually somewhere between the look of a mountain bike frame and a road bike frame but with upright handlebars and bigger tires. A bunch of them have front shocks and suspension seats posts though, which is a little silly. It's an attempt to make them more comfortable, which is almost always good, but it also makes them heavier and gives you more things that can/will go wrong with the bike later (especially on the inexpensive ones). In Amsterdam they probably don't call all their 3 speed black heavy commuter bikes with fenders and racks and baskets and kickstands hybrids. They just call them usefull. But usefullness is something alot of people walking into a bikeshop aren't thinking about at all. Why would you need a mountain bike with knobby tires and a suspension system so complicated that it looks like a robotic velociraptor to ride to school everyday? Why would anyone want a full carbon frame road bike that weighs less than my squeezy panda horn and has tires so hard that it can't comfortably be ridden down any street in your neighborhood to ride to work everyday? Why? Because these things become status symbols.
I found myself at the oceanfront in Virginia Beach yesterday sitting behind a statue (trying to stay in the shade, because I'm scared of the sun...) with a book in my hand. I would read a little and then hear bicycle riders buzzing by or squeeking by in some cases, as I scanned my surroundings. There were alot of kids on bikes that didn't fit them well, knees bending way more than they should be comfortable with, helmets not fastened under their fragile little heads, i saw lots of beach cruisers of course, and there were alot of those 4 person bikes too. But the riders who caught my attention the most were the ones wearing bike shorts and jerseys who were riding full suspension mountain bikes and some others who were riding fancy road bikes. I saw a ridiculously tan older guy (maybe 55ish years old) with a decent beer belly clad in spandex bike clothes riding a titanium road bike. He passed me a few times and he stopped to look around alot. I guess he was people watching like me. I was thinking why is this guy riding THAT bike down here? On the boardwalk? You can't ride very fast down here because there are a million little kids and tourist everywhere you turn and they clog up the bike path like a towel in a toilet. But this guy was rocking it. The bike fit him well too. He probably bought it new from a local Va Beach bike shop, probably Contes. Daniel Dalton probably fit him for it. And he rides up and down the boardwalk on it. On a fancy road bike that costs more than my car.To cruise around and look at women who were equally as bronzed. It was strange sitting there watching all these people riding by. I had a conversation today with a co-worker who asked if I rode my bike to work, I gave him a lengthy explanation of how i haven't ridden lately but how i didn't have a car for quite a while and rode to work almost everyday for 2 years. He mentioned a guy he knew who had a really expensive road bike that was super light weight, I responded by telling him that i only ride steel bicycles and that carbon fiber was against my religion. This was the first time I've ever thought about the idea of having "religious" bicycle "beliefs". But it is almost a religion. I don't believe in alot of the bullshit that the current bicycle industry is selling. I do however believe that bicycles are a type of status symbol and I'm proud to own and ride the bikes that I have in my life.
I have reached my threshold for how much speed (pedaling efficiency) i am willing to sacrifice for comfort. My current commuting/cruising around the neighborhood/grab a couple things at the grocery store bike is an 87 Trek touring bike that was a pretty good lightweight skinny-tired bike in it's day. When i took it apart and put it back together, it became heavier, slower, and much more comfortable. It is the most comfortable bike I've owned so far, it fits me really well, has my favorite upright-swoopy Nitto Albatross handlebars that i had on my last commuter and was really close to taking over as my favorite bike (my Bridgestone RB-2 is my favorite). The idea of riding fast is relative to who you ride with, what you consider fast and how fast you have to go to have fun on a bike. I don't need to go fast. I just need to be able to get to work in an hourish on a bike. It's 14ish miles with alot of stop signs and traffic signals in between and I feel like if it takes me more than an hour, I need to go faster. Lately it's been taking me more than an hour... and I don't like it. I could pedal harder. I could work on getting in better cycling shape. But I like to have fun on bikes, not feel like I'm pushing myself working out. So here is the "problem": I've made my bicycle too slow. The tires on this bicycle are rated for a maximum pressure of 45ish psi, which in the world of bicycle tires, is very low, which makes for a super comfy ride, but adds a bit of rolling resistance to the equation.I usually preach about skinny tires being bad and tires with 100+ psi of pressure being bad and how they cause unnecessary stress on the frame/fork/wheels and other components of the bicycle and send up alot more road vibration and bumps and aren't comfortable BUT (!)..... There are always limits and thresholds to these rules and sometimes you get to the point of diminishing returns. Which is where my current commuter is in my opinion. I still love the bike though.
To cut to the chase with this babbling, where I'm getting to is that most people see bicycles as beach cruisers, mountain bikes or road bikes. Road bikes have skinny, super high pressure tires that make them go fast and aren't good for anything other than smooth hard surfaces. Beach cruisers are comfortable and have huge soft tires good for cruising down sidewalks, boardwalks and gravel paths and won't send you over the handlebars if you hit a soft patch on a sand/gravel path.And mountain bikes are go everywhere, ride over anything, suspension monsters for the people who want to ride fast over rough terrain. When people shop for bikes, these are the categories their options fall into... OH WAIT! I almost forgot about the "hybrids"!!! The "other" bikes. I hate the phrase hybrid as it's applied to bikes. What are they a hybrid of? Mountain bikes and road bikes? Is that what we're supposed to think? Hybrids are what almost everyone who rides a bike to get from point A to point B should be riding. They are usually somewhere between the look of a mountain bike frame and a road bike frame but with upright handlebars and bigger tires. A bunch of them have front shocks and suspension seats posts though, which is a little silly. It's an attempt to make them more comfortable, which is almost always good, but it also makes them heavier and gives you more things that can/will go wrong with the bike later (especially on the inexpensive ones). In Amsterdam they probably don't call all their 3 speed black heavy commuter bikes with fenders and racks and baskets and kickstands hybrids. They just call them usefull. But usefullness is something alot of people walking into a bikeshop aren't thinking about at all. Why would you need a mountain bike with knobby tires and a suspension system so complicated that it looks like a robotic velociraptor to ride to school everyday? Why would anyone want a full carbon frame road bike that weighs less than my squeezy panda horn and has tires so hard that it can't comfortably be ridden down any street in your neighborhood to ride to work everyday? Why? Because these things become status symbols.
I found myself at the oceanfront in Virginia Beach yesterday sitting behind a statue (trying to stay in the shade, because I'm scared of the sun...) with a book in my hand. I would read a little and then hear bicycle riders buzzing by or squeeking by in some cases, as I scanned my surroundings. There were alot of kids on bikes that didn't fit them well, knees bending way more than they should be comfortable with, helmets not fastened under their fragile little heads, i saw lots of beach cruisers of course, and there were alot of those 4 person bikes too. But the riders who caught my attention the most were the ones wearing bike shorts and jerseys who were riding full suspension mountain bikes and some others who were riding fancy road bikes. I saw a ridiculously tan older guy (maybe 55ish years old) with a decent beer belly clad in spandex bike clothes riding a titanium road bike. He passed me a few times and he stopped to look around alot. I guess he was people watching like me. I was thinking why is this guy riding THAT bike down here? On the boardwalk? You can't ride very fast down here because there are a million little kids and tourist everywhere you turn and they clog up the bike path like a towel in a toilet. But this guy was rocking it. The bike fit him well too. He probably bought it new from a local Va Beach bike shop, probably Contes. Daniel Dalton probably fit him for it. And he rides up and down the boardwalk on it. On a fancy road bike that costs more than my car.To cruise around and look at women who were equally as bronzed. It was strange sitting there watching all these people riding by. I had a conversation today with a co-worker who asked if I rode my bike to work, I gave him a lengthy explanation of how i haven't ridden lately but how i didn't have a car for quite a while and rode to work almost everyday for 2 years. He mentioned a guy he knew who had a really expensive road bike that was super light weight, I responded by telling him that i only ride steel bicycles and that carbon fiber was against my religion. This was the first time I've ever thought about the idea of having "religious" bicycle "beliefs". But it is almost a religion. I don't believe in alot of the bullshit that the current bicycle industry is selling. I do however believe that bicycles are a type of status symbol and I'm proud to own and ride the bikes that I have in my life.
Friday, October 19, 2012
35mm film, books, and analog music and the cold dead place in cyberspace they've been replaced with
The bookstores of the near future will be a cold dead (nonexistent?) place in cyberspace. As the triumphant transition from analog to digital creeps further into our lives/minds/lifestyles we are losing something. Actually we're losing alot of things...
The art of 35mm film printing/processing is dead now, this was something I once took great pride in as my only marketable skill. I was good at printing. I enjoyed printing images and modifying images that would turn into people's storable memories, laughs and cries in the future. But now, try to drop off a roll of 35mm film somewhere and come back in an hour to pick it up. Just try it. Search your neighborhood, search online. Go ahead. In fact buy a roll of film and look around your house or apt for 2 hours for that old 35mm camera and shoot it first. Take pictures of things that are important to you. Your dog, your cat, your wife or husband, your kids, your bicycles, whatever you love. Get some images burned into that roll to give it value. 35 mm film used to have tremendous value. And now go try to get it developed and printed. Good luck. It's a scary world out there for weirdos like you who don't want to follow the herd...
I remember when a 2.1 megapixel digital camera used to cost $1000 and people bought them...for a year, then kicked themselves for not waiting for the prices to come down. But isn't that what this whole digital thing is about? Instant gratification! Expensive instant gratification, but no less instant. I remember listening to the sales guys at the camera store i worked in explaining all the benefits of digital and how you wouldn't need to print all your photos anymore. You could now delete the ones that didn't look good, that were out of focus, the ones that didn't catch everyone eyes open and smiling. And you could just download them to your computer instead of printing them if you wanted to. All these "benefits"! You could email pictures instead of mailing them! I remember the standalone Fuji thermal printer that made the crappiest prints I'd seen at that point at the bargain price of something like 90 cents per print! I remember preaching to the sales guys back then that this digital push in the photo industry was going to make the whole industry eat itself. 12 years later Ritz Camera has pretty much disappeared. A quick "Ritz camera wiki" google search just revealed that the company which started in 1918 in an Atlantic City Ritz hotel by Benjamin Ritz as a portrait studio, 18 years later in 1936 opening it's first film processing facility has just last month decided to liquidate it's assets after 4 years of chapter 11 bankruptcy protection couldn't get it back on it's feet. Eastman Kodak which at one point controlled 90% market share in photographic films, started in 1889, (yep read that one more time, EIGHTEEN EIGHTY NINE!!!) founded by George Eastman hasn't made a profit since 2007 and is dumping it's photo film, digital camera and digital photo frame lines and pretty much just trying to stay alive in the motion picture film market so it doesn't disappear as well. They filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January this year. This is not a good sign. (Understatement of the century) Yesterday Stacey, my significant other got out her 35mm camera and took a picture of our cat. My eyes widened and I got this jealous/anxious/almost annoyed feeling. I starting interrogating her about how old the film was, as expired film won't make good pictures, where she was planning on getting the pictures developed and why she still has film in her camera. She told me it wasn't old, she'd bought it at the drugstore and took pictures recently at her annual Ladies Weekend beach house getaway on this roll. Later yesterday afternoon we spoke with a couple friends we ran into at a coffee shop about where to get film printed, and our friend Dave recounted a recent experience at the drugstore that he tried to drop his film off at and how they had all the equipment back in the corner but told him "that stuff doesn't work". He suggested a place that we could send out film to get developed. The days of cross processing slide film through a c41 machine at your local camera store and getting it printed with crazy colors/contrast are long gone friends. Long gone.
Music is one of the things that I've failed the most to "keep up" with in the digital age. I do not currently own anything that will play an mp3 other than this computer. (Actually my phone might but I don't know how to do it and it's not a smart phone) I recently joined the 99.99999% of people in western civilization who download music. I have not been to itunes yet, i have not paid for any digital music yet. I also recently purchased a record player and have been listening to vinyl at home, and have only downloaded records that I've purchased the vinyl copy of using the free download cards that came with them and I've downloaded a song off of lastfm. I have been listening to cd's since the early 90's and owned the first cd player in my parents house at age 13, but I just never got on board with the downloading thing. I guess I always just wanted to hold and look through my collection of music, this concept certainly applies to how i feel about books as well. I love having a decent book collection. I love the way it looks. I like looking through other people's books, getting to know them through the books that they've chosen to buy and what they've read. But, i digress...
Music for the majority of people is becoming a dead, meaningless thing. Young people hear a song in the car when they're driving with their friends or in a television commercial or in a store they're shopping in and they can immediately go on their phone and download it, just that one song. Not that long ago, young folks would hear a song on the radio and go to the record store and buy the record to take home and enjoy listening to it in it's entirety. This isn't a new complaint, it's been brought up billions of times since the concept of downloading music showed it's ugly little head. This isn't even a good place to complain about it, this is supposed to be a bicycle related blog! (hahahaha!) But it's still valid as there are still stores that we can go to buy music! They're called record stores! And we should be in them! Or mail ordering from small record labels!
Dare i even start on the book industry's transition to digital? I really don't even want to start typing about it. I find myself screaming inside when I talk to people about their kindles or nooks or whatever the newest e-reader is these days. I worked at Borders Books for a little while and Stacey worked there for around 10 years. We watched the sales drop, we watched the digital readers arrive and sit in the displays, we watched the seemingly slow transition and then we watched the store close. Part of Borders and most chain book store problems were when the economy went downhill, people stopped buying things that we sold there. The store also sold dvds and cds (see above paragraph about downloading music and then add the concept of netflix and you can easily follow the path to a culture no longer willing to pay $20 for a movie on dvd). But I can't help but point out that our culture as a whole is transitioning to never touching music, movies or books these days. We're only touching our electronic devices that "contain" these things, or that we can access them through and I don't think this is a good thing. Music and movies and books are losing value in our lives while our culture races ever faster into newer better faster ways to access the things that entertain us without the liner notes. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy being able to search through record label websites, bandcamp.com and bands' websites to hear songs of bands I've never heard before, but I'm getting to a point that when given the option, I'm going to buy it and listen to it on vinyl.
And I'm going to dig out my 35mm fixed lens Olympus Stylus point and shoot and do just that!
The art of 35mm film printing/processing is dead now, this was something I once took great pride in as my only marketable skill. I was good at printing. I enjoyed printing images and modifying images that would turn into people's storable memories, laughs and cries in the future. But now, try to drop off a roll of 35mm film somewhere and come back in an hour to pick it up. Just try it. Search your neighborhood, search online. Go ahead. In fact buy a roll of film and look around your house or apt for 2 hours for that old 35mm camera and shoot it first. Take pictures of things that are important to you. Your dog, your cat, your wife or husband, your kids, your bicycles, whatever you love. Get some images burned into that roll to give it value. 35 mm film used to have tremendous value. And now go try to get it developed and printed. Good luck. It's a scary world out there for weirdos like you who don't want to follow the herd...
I remember when a 2.1 megapixel digital camera used to cost $1000 and people bought them...for a year, then kicked themselves for not waiting for the prices to come down. But isn't that what this whole digital thing is about? Instant gratification! Expensive instant gratification, but no less instant. I remember listening to the sales guys at the camera store i worked in explaining all the benefits of digital and how you wouldn't need to print all your photos anymore. You could now delete the ones that didn't look good, that were out of focus, the ones that didn't catch everyone eyes open and smiling. And you could just download them to your computer instead of printing them if you wanted to. All these "benefits"! You could email pictures instead of mailing them! I remember the standalone Fuji thermal printer that made the crappiest prints I'd seen at that point at the bargain price of something like 90 cents per print! I remember preaching to the sales guys back then that this digital push in the photo industry was going to make the whole industry eat itself. 12 years later Ritz Camera has pretty much disappeared. A quick "Ritz camera wiki" google search just revealed that the company which started in 1918 in an Atlantic City Ritz hotel by Benjamin Ritz as a portrait studio, 18 years later in 1936 opening it's first film processing facility has just last month decided to liquidate it's assets after 4 years of chapter 11 bankruptcy protection couldn't get it back on it's feet. Eastman Kodak which at one point controlled 90% market share in photographic films, started in 1889, (yep read that one more time, EIGHTEEN EIGHTY NINE!!!) founded by George Eastman hasn't made a profit since 2007 and is dumping it's photo film, digital camera and digital photo frame lines and pretty much just trying to stay alive in the motion picture film market so it doesn't disappear as well. They filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January this year. This is not a good sign. (Understatement of the century) Yesterday Stacey, my significant other got out her 35mm camera and took a picture of our cat. My eyes widened and I got this jealous/anxious/almost annoyed feeling. I starting interrogating her about how old the film was, as expired film won't make good pictures, where she was planning on getting the pictures developed and why she still has film in her camera. She told me it wasn't old, she'd bought it at the drugstore and took pictures recently at her annual Ladies Weekend beach house getaway on this roll. Later yesterday afternoon we spoke with a couple friends we ran into at a coffee shop about where to get film printed, and our friend Dave recounted a recent experience at the drugstore that he tried to drop his film off at and how they had all the equipment back in the corner but told him "that stuff doesn't work". He suggested a place that we could send out film to get developed. The days of cross processing slide film through a c41 machine at your local camera store and getting it printed with crazy colors/contrast are long gone friends. Long gone.
Music is one of the things that I've failed the most to "keep up" with in the digital age. I do not currently own anything that will play an mp3 other than this computer. (Actually my phone might but I don't know how to do it and it's not a smart phone) I recently joined the 99.99999% of people in western civilization who download music. I have not been to itunes yet, i have not paid for any digital music yet. I also recently purchased a record player and have been listening to vinyl at home, and have only downloaded records that I've purchased the vinyl copy of using the free download cards that came with them and I've downloaded a song off of lastfm. I have been listening to cd's since the early 90's and owned the first cd player in my parents house at age 13, but I just never got on board with the downloading thing. I guess I always just wanted to hold and look through my collection of music, this concept certainly applies to how i feel about books as well. I love having a decent book collection. I love the way it looks. I like looking through other people's books, getting to know them through the books that they've chosen to buy and what they've read. But, i digress...
Music for the majority of people is becoming a dead, meaningless thing. Young people hear a song in the car when they're driving with their friends or in a television commercial or in a store they're shopping in and they can immediately go on their phone and download it, just that one song. Not that long ago, young folks would hear a song on the radio and go to the record store and buy the record to take home and enjoy listening to it in it's entirety. This isn't a new complaint, it's been brought up billions of times since the concept of downloading music showed it's ugly little head. This isn't even a good place to complain about it, this is supposed to be a bicycle related blog! (hahahaha!) But it's still valid as there are still stores that we can go to buy music! They're called record stores! And we should be in them! Or mail ordering from small record labels!
Dare i even start on the book industry's transition to digital? I really don't even want to start typing about it. I find myself screaming inside when I talk to people about their kindles or nooks or whatever the newest e-reader is these days. I worked at Borders Books for a little while and Stacey worked there for around 10 years. We watched the sales drop, we watched the digital readers arrive and sit in the displays, we watched the seemingly slow transition and then we watched the store close. Part of Borders and most chain book store problems were when the economy went downhill, people stopped buying things that we sold there. The store also sold dvds and cds (see above paragraph about downloading music and then add the concept of netflix and you can easily follow the path to a culture no longer willing to pay $20 for a movie on dvd). But I can't help but point out that our culture as a whole is transitioning to never touching music, movies or books these days. We're only touching our electronic devices that "contain" these things, or that we can access them through and I don't think this is a good thing. Music and movies and books are losing value in our lives while our culture races ever faster into newer better faster ways to access the things that entertain us without the liner notes. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy being able to search through record label websites, bandcamp.com and bands' websites to hear songs of bands I've never heard before, but I'm getting to a point that when given the option, I'm going to buy it and listen to it on vinyl.
And I'm going to dig out my 35mm fixed lens Olympus Stylus point and shoot and do just that!
Friday, September 14, 2012
Sobriety, looking behind you while riding and The Idaho Stop Law
If you turn your head to look behind you on a bike, you'll swerve out into the road.
Not true. You can, with your handlebars raised high, riding in a completely upright position (or almost completely upright position...) turn your head without your shoulders moving pulling your bars to the side, which i'm 99.99% sure is what causes this phenomenon. On my last 2 commuter bikes, that i should mention i log the most miles on, the handlebars have been either level with the saddle or just above the saddle and I have gotten very comfortable in staying straight on my line in the lane and turning my head to glance behind me to see why the car behind my isn't passing or if that scary sound is a semi truck trying to slow down and pass me while i'm hauling ass down a hill. So more often than not, I think it's a weird riding position that causes the pulling out into the lane thing when cyclers turn their heads. If you're riding a beach cruiser with your arms completely extended out to hold on to the ridiculously wide or ape hanger style handlebars, this position will also force your shoulders to roll and pull you off your straight line. Where I'm going with this is that a "normal" upright riding position with your arms comfortably holding your handlebars and not super extended straight out in front of you, will allow you to turn your head comfortably and look behind you to check out the gaggle of geese you just passed or the old lugged steel bicycle that just cruised by.
If you don't support the Idaho stop law, you're an idiot!
In Idaho, they have a law that allows bicycle riders to run red lights and stop signs. Here's how it works: You roll up to the stop sign and if it's clear, you don't stop, you treat it like a yield sign and keep on a truckin. If it isn't clear, you wait so you don't get run over or collide with another bicycle. Simple huh? At a red traffic signal, you have to stop, and if it's clear, you roll through. The red light is treated like a stop sign. I'll repeat this: YOU MUST STOP AT REDLIGHTS!!! But!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then you can roll through when it's clear! Yep. Makes sense to me. The safety of this simple concept is still constantly debated among cycling groups including some heavy hitters on a national level. It's just dumb. They make points like "we don't want kids running redlights and getting hit!". Well what the heck do you think is happening all over the United States right now?!?!?!??!??!?!?!?!?!?! Kids are doing really stupid things on bikes and getting hit by cars! Everyday!!!! So why not let bicycles be a bigger part of the traffic system and let them be what they are, which is a vehicle that takes a lot more human energy to propel than a car. They are not cars! ARE NOT CARS!!! and shouldn't be treated just like cars. But if we're going to "Share the road" then we need to acknowledge the need for more bicycle positive ideas like this. And get these things signed into law in our localities. I'm not going to get started on the need for more than a 10 second investigation into bicycle involved traffic accidents and fatalities either, well at least not here (I'll spare the 2 people that will read this the hour of ranting!!!).
On a much more personal note, being sober has been an amazing experience. At day 83 this is possibly (more than likely) the longest I've been sober in more than 10 years. I am done drinking. Most people who know me have never seen the negative impact drinking has had on my life. They've only seen the happy drunk out in public hanging with friends. They haven't seen the guy that hates himself for not being able to control this aspect of his life. They guy who drank alone. Frequently. The guy who couldn't quit, the guy who cried when he admitted this aloud to his girlfriend after denying it to himself for years... Emotions are all real now. This has been the most profound transition in my life. I feel more alive than i have for years. I get sad. I get happy. I get angry. It's all real. I'm not living in a slightly disconnected state, distancing myself from the people i care about the most by always holding up a wall of emotional numbness. It's been an interesting experience, social anxiety is something that I haven't dealt with since my late teens or maybe early 20's, but it's real and I'm experiencing it occasionally now. Friendships are more solid, love is more true, time spent so much more valuable.
I'll quit with this little bit of thought: No one walking down a sidewalk yells to cyclers speeding down the road to "GET ON THE FUCKING SIDEWALK!"
Not true. You can, with your handlebars raised high, riding in a completely upright position (or almost completely upright position...) turn your head without your shoulders moving pulling your bars to the side, which i'm 99.99% sure is what causes this phenomenon. On my last 2 commuter bikes, that i should mention i log the most miles on, the handlebars have been either level with the saddle or just above the saddle and I have gotten very comfortable in staying straight on my line in the lane and turning my head to glance behind me to see why the car behind my isn't passing or if that scary sound is a semi truck trying to slow down and pass me while i'm hauling ass down a hill. So more often than not, I think it's a weird riding position that causes the pulling out into the lane thing when cyclers turn their heads. If you're riding a beach cruiser with your arms completely extended out to hold on to the ridiculously wide or ape hanger style handlebars, this position will also force your shoulders to roll and pull you off your straight line. Where I'm going with this is that a "normal" upright riding position with your arms comfortably holding your handlebars and not super extended straight out in front of you, will allow you to turn your head comfortably and look behind you to check out the gaggle of geese you just passed or the old lugged steel bicycle that just cruised by.
If you don't support the Idaho stop law, you're an idiot!
In Idaho, they have a law that allows bicycle riders to run red lights and stop signs. Here's how it works: You roll up to the stop sign and if it's clear, you don't stop, you treat it like a yield sign and keep on a truckin. If it isn't clear, you wait so you don't get run over or collide with another bicycle. Simple huh? At a red traffic signal, you have to stop, and if it's clear, you roll through. The red light is treated like a stop sign. I'll repeat this: YOU MUST STOP AT REDLIGHTS!!! But!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then you can roll through when it's clear! Yep. Makes sense to me. The safety of this simple concept is still constantly debated among cycling groups including some heavy hitters on a national level. It's just dumb. They make points like "we don't want kids running redlights and getting hit!". Well what the heck do you think is happening all over the United States right now?!?!?!??!??!?!?!?!?!?! Kids are doing really stupid things on bikes and getting hit by cars! Everyday!!!! So why not let bicycles be a bigger part of the traffic system and let them be what they are, which is a vehicle that takes a lot more human energy to propel than a car. They are not cars! ARE NOT CARS!!! and shouldn't be treated just like cars. But if we're going to "Share the road" then we need to acknowledge the need for more bicycle positive ideas like this. And get these things signed into law in our localities. I'm not going to get started on the need for more than a 10 second investigation into bicycle involved traffic accidents and fatalities either, well at least not here (I'll spare the 2 people that will read this the hour of ranting!!!).
On a much more personal note, being sober has been an amazing experience. At day 83 this is possibly (more than likely) the longest I've been sober in more than 10 years. I am done drinking. Most people who know me have never seen the negative impact drinking has had on my life. They've only seen the happy drunk out in public hanging with friends. They haven't seen the guy that hates himself for not being able to control this aspect of his life. They guy who drank alone. Frequently. The guy who couldn't quit, the guy who cried when he admitted this aloud to his girlfriend after denying it to himself for years... Emotions are all real now. This has been the most profound transition in my life. I feel more alive than i have for years. I get sad. I get happy. I get angry. It's all real. I'm not living in a slightly disconnected state, distancing myself from the people i care about the most by always holding up a wall of emotional numbness. It's been an interesting experience, social anxiety is something that I haven't dealt with since my late teens or maybe early 20's, but it's real and I'm experiencing it occasionally now. Friendships are more solid, love is more true, time spent so much more valuable.
I'll quit with this little bit of thought: No one walking down a sidewalk yells to cyclers speeding down the road to "GET ON THE FUCKING SIDEWALK!"
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