Challenge #1
sr d writes:
even though you are in a bit of a economic slump, you have continued to focus on buying a house, SOON. why is that? does owning your own home have some special significance? do you think that it is the best thing to protect your personal economy?thank you for your answer.
And it's a great question, even if the "you" definition of economic slump could be applied to me as an individual, or the United States as a whole.
I'm not sure where sr d hails from, but here in the States, there are extremely good tax benefits for owning a home. Furthermore, I'm throwing away $600+ a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment. Why not invest that money in a house and reap the tax benefits?
As for the economic slump part, I'm going to answer that in two parts: personally and nationally.
Circling Back
Every so often, I'm going to post "Circling Back" entries where I revisit things I previously posted about. This is the first in those entries, revisiting things both "cycling" and "writing"...
Earlier, I posted about Stephen King's On Writing, which is a great piece. Over at Write to Done, they've got a great piece about King and the most important lesson he wants to convey to writers. It's targeted at the younger writer, but the quote is just as relevant to anyone who's putting ink to paper:
Challenge Me
I'm stealing an idea from John Scalzi, one of my favorite writers/bloggers out there. That idea is the "user dictated writing"... You, my (few) readers, get to spew forth ideas for me to write about. Seriously, it doesn't have to be about writing, and it doesn't have to be about cycling. Anything. Any topic.
Challenge me, dammit.
Ah, Funny.
From the Onion, America's only reliable news source, comes a report on an increase in violence that seems to track with the increasing popularity of Nintendo's Wii. From the article:
...a report to be released by PAW later this month indicates an alarming correlation between Wii's growing popularity and a shocking 200-percent increase in wuss-on-wuss violence.
Framebuilding
So for a long time, I've wanted to start building bicycle frames. It's not just an issue of wanting to make cool bike frames (though that's a part of it), but I've had this weird urge for years to make art bikes. But beyond that basic urge, I never really had any strong, overwhelming ideas.
Yesterday, I finally had my idea, and it's pushing my buttons (in a good way). So I think that I'm going to find some basic metal-working classes to take over the next year, and sign up for a class with a framebuilder for early 2009 (after I have some vacation time banked up). I'll be using the next year for some general research and some practice working with tiny batches of materials in an effort to get an idea of what I can and can't do with the materials.
The end goal is to produce a series of three bikes -- one for myself, and two that I'll sell. They'll all have the same theme (to be revealed at a much later date), and I'll probably make a variety of types: road, cyclocross, and mountain frames. In addition, I'll probably create custom frames at the hobbyist level, mostly for myself and friends -- they supply the tubeset and (optionally) lugs, and I'll build them a frame.
So now I need to do research on framebuilding classes, which all cost about the same amount. There's Doug Fattic, there's Yamaguchi, there's UBI (United Bicycle Institute), and others... If you've got recommendations, I'm all ears.
The Thing About Astute Observations…
...is that they are often the funniest.
And of course, it goes without saying that white people who ride bikes like to talk about how they are saving the earth. If you know a person who rides to work, you should take them aside and say “Hey, thanks. Sincerely, The Earth.” Then give a thumbs up. That white person will ride home on a cloud.
That gem is from the blog Stuff White People Like.
Making for a Bike-Friendly City
Bicycle parking in Davis, CA. Photo from askpang. Licensed under the Creative Commons.
Chicago recently passed laws to institute fines against motorists who cause accidents with bicycles. As a cyclist, I think that this is a great thing.
I'm fortunate to live in a city (Minneapolis) where we take cycling seriously -- as both recreation and a form of transportation. But even with that level of commitment to the activity, we still have issues with being protected by the police. I know of multiple people of the type who would admit to fault if it was theirs, who have been hit by cars, assaulted by motorists, and so on, only to have the cops write up a report that blames the cyclist (if they bother to write a report at all). While these laws are a great contribution to making Chicago a more bike-friendly city, and something that Minneapolis should institute as well, they are unlikely to do any real good.
To make this change more immediate, a few things have to happen:
Writing Round-Up
So I've got a name for my novel: The Unforgettable Fire. I'm a big fan of U2, and you may even see some of that reflected in the novel. I've also spent part of the weekend plodding along with the character bios. I'm wary of making my main protagonist and antagonist too similar. So I'm struggling a little bit because I'm trying to build these personas within the framework of the novel I've already established. Tough.
Spent some time this weekend working with Google Maps/Mars, and it's coming along. Just trying to figure out how to drop new custom pointers onto the map at lat/long coordinates. It'll be a good visual reference for me to work from, plus interesting blog candy once the novel's actually done.
Why wait? Well, the thing is, if I talk too much about the plot or characters of a novel that I'm writing or about where the story is going, I don't finish it. So I've got myself revealing only the most minimal of details until the completion of the rough draft.
Writing related:
- Jeff VanderMeer has an interesting piece on how to write a novel in two months. Sounds like a suicide mission to me, personally. I was going to make a joke about it being like S&M porn, but that would be painful to write, painful to read, and you'd probably think I was weird. (Not that I'm not weird, but for the record, I don't have any interest in S&M porn.)
- Write to Done has a piece of 31 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Writing.
Shitstorm Averted
One of the things I love about Wordpress is that it's relatively easy to upgrade. Download file. Unzip file. Upload resultant files to server while not touching the wp-content folder.
Last night, I also embedded the Last.FM thing in the sidebar, and finally sat down and did a 404 page that blends quantum physics and haiku.
Looking forward to moving to Wordpress 2.5. I'm hoping that that process goes as smoothly as this transition did.
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Checked in at Knight Cap Bar & Lounge
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Trio of girls covering "ABC" by the Jackson Five. They are fucking NAILING it. Michael Jackson lives! [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at Northeast Palace
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I'm at McDonald's - NE (1100 University Ave NE, Minneapolis). http://4sq.com/7fT8JH [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at McDonald's - NE
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Checked in at Lens Crafters
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I'm at Mall of America (Mall of America, 60 East Broadway, Bloomington) w/ 4 others. http://4sq.com/4z906f [fontosaurus]
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Checked in at Mall of America
