So my list of things I read over on the right just doubled in length. Yes, these are things I read pretty much every day (save the ones that only update once or twice a week). I am afforded a lot of time for reading, and I love comics, so there you go. One thing that does escape me, and I forgot to bookmark it at the time, and I have been unable to find it since is this comic that is a parody of Wonder Woman. I cannot remember for the life of me what it was called, but it was excellent. If anyone knows of it, send me a link so I can add it to my daily reading as it is genius!
I'm wearing my tightest jeans tonight; this paired with also wearing new slip-on shoes (so very stiff canvas) and having just risen my bike seat by another inch created a fairly unstable environment for my biking to work tonight. Suffice to say, I managed to bork up my stalling at one particular stop light near the Tenderloin and basically fall head-first into a large black gentleman who was crossing the street very close to me (he was part of the reason I fell being I was going all of .5mph waiting for the light to turn [approx 3. seconds left on the count-down] and had to turn very sharply to avoid running him over with my bike) which caused me to just kind of gently tip over. Thanks to my shoes being new and slippery and stiff canvas and my bike seat being at a height I am yet to be used to, I couldn't really steady myself before just more or less falling on this guy. Sorry guy! You broke my fall very well!
There was also another cyclist near me when all this happened. Most embarrassing!
30 April, 2008
29 April, 2008
Here's some art I did
Brought the ole stylus and wacom to work tonight to make some non-pressure sensitive art. This probably won't appeal to many tastes. OH WELL.
17 April, 2008
On Deceptive Labeling of Products
Today I was reminded by myself that I really need to read ALL of the nutritional information on items (particularly convenience food items I might purchase for my work dinner). I was somewhat pressed for time this afternoon as I went shopping for groceries for my lunch (and Tim's dinner), I came across a seemingly innocent and healthful food item I might procure for my work dinner.
Wrapped with a green label showing a wheelbarrow full of delicious vegetables, how could my eye not catch the Roasted Garlic Hummus Wrap with Crunchy Vegetables (both vegan and complete protein!) produced by Fundamental Foods of 463 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401 (emailable at: michael@fundamentalfoods.com—feel free to email them with comments on what I am about to discuss). Oh and 142 Calories? How can I not get this? This way I can have a peanutbutter toast with my dinner too. How grand!
Upon eating it, it was not as to be expected: it consisted largely of the (much too generous in my opinion) Lavosh wrap with sparse amounts of hummus, no descernable garlic or red onion, two sad carrot sticks and a stick of celery. Oh, and what's that when I am compiling my calories for the evening? 3.5 servings per wrap? You mean to say I unwittingly blew over a third of my daily allotment of calories on something this unsatisfying? Yes. This sad wrap had 497 calories (and 17.5 grams of fat, mind you this is almost all my fat for the day). It didn't even have CHEESE. This is all from the fat, way-too-big, taking up so much space that all there was were one-carrot-stick wide space for vegetables Lavosh. All from a company that touts its being run by a certified nutritional consultant.
Really. I am sick of companies misrepresenting serving sizes in this way. If the food item comes in a package that is not easily resealable. If the food item is not such as one where there are individual pieces that can be metered out (such as chips, cereal &c). If said food item comes wrapped in such a fashion as to even suggest that it is to be eaten, as is, in whole form. I want the nutritional information to reflect the information for the entire food item. Not "per 2 oz serving of which there are 3.5": no one eats a 1 oz (or HALF) serving of a wrap (a single food item). Might I add that it was 7 oz. For the 7 oz of food this wrap represents, I could have had a giant spinach salad (like the size of my big salad bowl with bell pepper, pepperocinis and olives), and for HALF of the calories, I could have had it in a reasonable amount with tomatoes and fat-free feta.
I really don't reach for convenience items very often, and I don't ever eat fast food (unless taquerias count). This just really pisses me off for what I got out of what it was; especially since it blind sided me after I'd thought I'd finished with my calories for the day to find that because of it, I went 300 calories over my daily allotment. Oh and I did write them a letter. Hopefully I will get retribution.
Wrapped with a green label showing a wheelbarrow full of delicious vegetables, how could my eye not catch the Roasted Garlic Hummus Wrap with Crunchy Vegetables (both vegan and complete protein!) produced by Fundamental Foods of 463 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa, CA 95401 (emailable at: michael@fundamentalfoods.com—feel free to email them with comments on what I am about to discuss). Oh and 142 Calories? How can I not get this? This way I can have a peanutbutter toast with my dinner too. How grand!
Upon eating it, it was not as to be expected: it consisted largely of the (much too generous in my opinion) Lavosh wrap with sparse amounts of hummus, no descernable garlic or red onion, two sad carrot sticks and a stick of celery. Oh, and what's that when I am compiling my calories for the evening? 3.5 servings per wrap? You mean to say I unwittingly blew over a third of my daily allotment of calories on something this unsatisfying? Yes. This sad wrap had 497 calories (and 17.5 grams of fat, mind you this is almost all my fat for the day). It didn't even have CHEESE. This is all from the fat, way-too-big, taking up so much space that all there was were one-carrot-stick wide space for vegetables Lavosh. All from a company that touts its being run by a certified nutritional consultant.
Really. I am sick of companies misrepresenting serving sizes in this way. If the food item comes in a package that is not easily resealable. If the food item is not such as one where there are individual pieces that can be metered out (such as chips, cereal &c). If said food item comes wrapped in such a fashion as to even suggest that it is to be eaten, as is, in whole form. I want the nutritional information to reflect the information for the entire food item. Not "per 2 oz serving of which there are 3.5": no one eats a 1 oz (or HALF) serving of a wrap (a single food item). Might I add that it was 7 oz. For the 7 oz of food this wrap represents, I could have had a giant spinach salad (like the size of my big salad bowl with bell pepper, pepperocinis and olives), and for HALF of the calories, I could have had it in a reasonable amount with tomatoes and fat-free feta.
I really don't reach for convenience items very often, and I don't ever eat fast food (unless taquerias count). This just really pisses me off for what I got out of what it was; especially since it blind sided me after I'd thought I'd finished with my calories for the day to find that because of it, I went 300 calories over my daily allotment. Oh and I did write them a letter. Hopefully I will get retribution.
11 April, 2008
Bored at Work
Painting I did in photoshop after watching some Seiken Densetsu Let's Play on YouTube. The light keeps turning off in here, and I'm alone, so it makes me very sleepy.
10 April, 2008
Who needs consistency when you can just use one brush size
Tim did enjoy the snow. He did not die. Drew this on my wacom in about 40 minutes on my work computer because drawing on my laptop (though allowing multiple brush pressures) is not easy due to screen size and brightness (it is really dim).
03 April, 2008
Ripped from the Derrick Headlines
I did the quiz Derrick did:
You Are a Dash |
 Your life is fast paced and varied. You are realistic, down to earth, and very honest. |
Aside from this. This morning in the mirror, I could see ribs. Yeah this might be alarming to some people, but rest assured that the front of my abdomen is still disgustingly squishy and flabby, and I still weigh in at 149lbs. It's just that I am getting to the weight where I lose all my backfat. The tummy and the upper thighs are usually the last to go (right after the boobs). I feel great, I haven't been this thin for about 5 years. I started logging my eating and exercise habits daily, and the first week or so were sort of rocky because I realised I will swing from eating something like 750 calories in a day to 2200 the next. Now I am making a concentrated effort to stay between 1200 and 1500 a day, and it is really working well for me.
Today I also biked super hard to work; I only shaved about 5 minutes off my usual time, but god I could feel it. My legs were all shakey. The inspiration for this? A dude on his fixed-gear. I am so competitive when I'm on the street biking: I like to be the person in front, and a dude on a fixed gear is good competition because those dudes can usually haul ass. They stand-start and often have a greater gear differential than I ride on even on my highest riding gear. Not only that but their bikes usually weigh like half as much as mine and being that they only have the one gear, and this is a hilly city, are generally in much better shape than I am.
Nonetheless, I creamed him. I was so speedy. Between red lights, I was probably getting up to 18 or 20mph. The best part was that he pretty much was going the same way I was, turning up Kearny and everything, so that kept pressing me on even when I tend to slow down a bit (on Kearny).
19 March, 2008
On track (bike)
Well I haven't done my taxes yet, but I've gotten transcripts back from 2 of the 4 colleges I've attended now. I got my UMD transcripts in the mail today, so I'm halfway there for when August rolls around and I'm able to apply for T4A again.
The painting for Joe is also coming along fairly nicely. I worked on it for a couple hours today and though I hated how it looked while I was working the paint, when I let it alone for a while and looked at it again, it actually is starting to look pretty good.
I didn't finish my burdastyle sewalong skirt in time because things I was doing with the fabric was a little too ambitious for the allotted time and the percentage of that time I was able to spend on it, and being I have to finish this painting for Joe by Saturday, it has shifted into the top priority. After Saturday I will spend my daylight hours working on the skirt to get it done and probably a couple nights before work working on bikes (being that for the rest of the month I am covering for Lynn so I am getting up at 4 or 5pm and going into work at 9pm).
I also bought a socket wrench set ($10!) that will likely fall apart after repeated use (but $10 so who cares?) at, of all places, Walgreens today. This means I got the break levers and the back wheel off of Tim's bike so I can fix them / replace them AND my new wheels came today for my bike.
Tim's bike still has a lot of work on it before it's ridable, but he'll hopefully be in the saddle at the end of the month if I end up being able to use his back gearbox on my old wheel or somehow rigging his rear derailleur to deal with an extra cog. However, if I can't get his cogset on my wheel, I'm going to end up having to buy either a new wheel or a new cogset, and since cogsets are generally extremely pricey, I'd probably end up trying to find a wheel that is compatible with his perfectly usable cogset. The teeth on my cogs, however are chipped and worn, so I would not want him to have to ride on them; they cause all kinds of autoshifting problems for me, and being his bike uses friction shifting as opposed to indexed like my bike, it will only get worse for him.
His cotters came today though along with handlebar tape. Now all I have left to order for him is brake cables, a new saddle and possibly a rear wheel / rear cog. If I do end up getting him a new rear wheel, I am definitely taking the tire and tube off of my old one to put on the front because they are almost new. If anything, I might order a new tire for that front wheel because it is starting to deteriorate a lot (the back one was completely cracked and had to be replaced) and replace its tube while I'm at it. If it comes to doing this though, I will do this order with one for tubes for my new wheels since they are skinnier than my old ones.
I am both apprehensive and excited about my new wheels. They are completely hand-built alloy wheels. They are almost as skinny as Zac's, which makes me worry about maneuverability and the increased likeliness of getting a pinch-flat. Being they are skinny also means that I will have less contact with the ground which has the dual consequences of being able to go a lot faster but also having less traction in wet conditions (which I do ride in—I am not a sunny-day rider). I might have to look into the possibility of getting nobbies for this tire width if only for my own sanity.
My new wheels are also track wheels which means no quick-release which means if I get a flat, I am walking. The back wheel is a flip-flop (fixed on one side, free on the other), so I am going to be going single speed. I am likely not going to be using the fixed side at all simply because I live on a sorta-big hill, and I don't really trust myself with having to peddle-brake and only having a front brake going down it. Maybe if Tim and I end up moving to a flatter district will I start using it on the fixed side, but as it is, I like having the option of doing back-peddling to keep gyroscopic motion in play when I'm idling waiting for traffic lights.
But I am mostly really looking forward to getting Tim's bike up and running. My bike is a back-burner project right now as far as I'm concerned until his bike is done. Once his bike is up, I am really looking forward to being able to ride around with him and our other bikerly friends because then maybe he'll gain the confidence to finally TAKE THE LANE. Because if you'd ever ridden with him on the tandem, in the city, it is terrifying. He rides too far to the right and weaves in and out of parked cars which is far far less safe than just taking the lane. Really if people need / want to pass a biker, they will do it even if you're riding in the middle of the lane, but at least if you're in the middle of the lane, they are forced to recognize that you are there and exist and are squishy and if they hit you, there are huuuge consequences (esp. in SF).
On Sunday I will probably take apart our back wheels and see if the parts are compatible. I am debating whether I want to order the brake parts I need online or if I want to go somewhere local. I really don't like the snobby bike shops that are largely prevalent in the mission, and even buying used parts there makes me nervous enough that I end up getting the wrong shit (I did this actually with the peddles I got to replace the crummy plastic ones on his bike). But I will probably be back at BoxDog on Friday to get drop bars for my bike and try to find matching peddles for his, so maybe then I will muster the courage to ask for brake cable and brakeline stopper widgets.
The painting for Joe is also coming along fairly nicely. I worked on it for a couple hours today and though I hated how it looked while I was working the paint, when I let it alone for a while and looked at it again, it actually is starting to look pretty good.
I didn't finish my burdastyle sewalong skirt in time because things I was doing with the fabric was a little too ambitious for the allotted time and the percentage of that time I was able to spend on it, and being I have to finish this painting for Joe by Saturday, it has shifted into the top priority. After Saturday I will spend my daylight hours working on the skirt to get it done and probably a couple nights before work working on bikes (being that for the rest of the month I am covering for Lynn so I am getting up at 4 or 5pm and going into work at 9pm).
I also bought a socket wrench set ($10!) that will likely fall apart after repeated use (but $10 so who cares?) at, of all places, Walgreens today. This means I got the break levers and the back wheel off of Tim's bike so I can fix them / replace them AND my new wheels came today for my bike.
Tim's bike still has a lot of work on it before it's ridable, but he'll hopefully be in the saddle at the end of the month if I end up being able to use his back gearbox on my old wheel or somehow rigging his rear derailleur to deal with an extra cog. However, if I can't get his cogset on my wheel, I'm going to end up having to buy either a new wheel or a new cogset, and since cogsets are generally extremely pricey, I'd probably end up trying to find a wheel that is compatible with his perfectly usable cogset. The teeth on my cogs, however are chipped and worn, so I would not want him to have to ride on them; they cause all kinds of autoshifting problems for me, and being his bike uses friction shifting as opposed to indexed like my bike, it will only get worse for him.
His cotters came today though along with handlebar tape. Now all I have left to order for him is brake cables, a new saddle and possibly a rear wheel / rear cog. If I do end up getting him a new rear wheel, I am definitely taking the tire and tube off of my old one to put on the front because they are almost new. If anything, I might order a new tire for that front wheel because it is starting to deteriorate a lot (the back one was completely cracked and had to be replaced) and replace its tube while I'm at it. If it comes to doing this though, I will do this order with one for tubes for my new wheels since they are skinnier than my old ones.
I am both apprehensive and excited about my new wheels. They are completely hand-built alloy wheels. They are almost as skinny as Zac's, which makes me worry about maneuverability and the increased likeliness of getting a pinch-flat. Being they are skinny also means that I will have less contact with the ground which has the dual consequences of being able to go a lot faster but also having less traction in wet conditions (which I do ride in—I am not a sunny-day rider). I might have to look into the possibility of getting nobbies for this tire width if only for my own sanity.
My new wheels are also track wheels which means no quick-release which means if I get a flat, I am walking. The back wheel is a flip-flop (fixed on one side, free on the other), so I am going to be going single speed. I am likely not going to be using the fixed side at all simply because I live on a sorta-big hill, and I don't really trust myself with having to peddle-brake and only having a front brake going down it. Maybe if Tim and I end up moving to a flatter district will I start using it on the fixed side, but as it is, I like having the option of doing back-peddling to keep gyroscopic motion in play when I'm idling waiting for traffic lights.
But I am mostly really looking forward to getting Tim's bike up and running. My bike is a back-burner project right now as far as I'm concerned until his bike is done. Once his bike is up, I am really looking forward to being able to ride around with him and our other bikerly friends because then maybe he'll gain the confidence to finally TAKE THE LANE. Because if you'd ever ridden with him on the tandem, in the city, it is terrifying. He rides too far to the right and weaves in and out of parked cars which is far far less safe than just taking the lane. Really if people need / want to pass a biker, they will do it even if you're riding in the middle of the lane, but at least if you're in the middle of the lane, they are forced to recognize that you are there and exist and are squishy and if they hit you, there are huuuge consequences (esp. in SF).
On Sunday I will probably take apart our back wheels and see if the parts are compatible. I am debating whether I want to order the brake parts I need online or if I want to go somewhere local. I really don't like the snobby bike shops that are largely prevalent in the mission, and even buying used parts there makes me nervous enough that I end up getting the wrong shit (I did this actually with the peddles I got to replace the crummy plastic ones on his bike). But I will probably be back at BoxDog on Friday to get drop bars for my bike and try to find matching peddles for his, so maybe then I will muster the courage to ask for brake cable and brakeline stopper widgets.
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