pickin' me a bouquet of dogwood flowers

I took yesterday's bike picture with the camera set to 'automatic' and the flash-gun popped up. I couldn't help notice how it made the bike look quite shiny.

No such luck with these pictures of the bike's pedals. Most people seem to use either the original flat pedals that come with bikes, or get those road clipless pedals. For some reason I've always used the mountain bike type clips even with road bikes.

I'm sure there must be some down-side to using them on a road-bike, but I'm not sure that it makes all that much difference.

It also means that I can have the same pedal types everywhere and also that they have little flat pedal surfaces for cycling in other shoes.

The ones I use are called Candy and I notice I still have what would now be a collector's edition of an old type on one bike. The black ones are the long surviving originals, with special plastic inserts for different colour combinations - see my imaginative choice of grey.

The blue and the gold pedals supposedly signify different qualities, although I'd say the blue ones are by far the highest mileage.

And speaking of mileage, I see that I have now passed my 3,000 mile cycling target this year, which I think I decided would constitute a Silver Wagon Wheel award. My original target set back in January was 1,600 miles, so I think I'm doing quite well.

And I'll now see if I can achieve 4,000 miles by the end of the year to achieve a Gold Wagon Wheel. Construction and consumption of the wagon wheel (Silver at this stage) will follow in another post.

* title is a line from a banjo song... called Wagon Wheel.

steel frame and disk brakes being prepped for the upcoming season

This is going to sound sort of daft, what with it being sunny outside at the moment, but I thought I'd better check a different bike in preparation for the upcoming seasonal changes.

After my recent musing about the fixie, I've decided I'll go back to a retro steel frame and some wider tyres for the winter. I took it out for a preview spin to check that the various components were working. I know it's early, but I'd rather be adjusting things in the warm than later on when everything gets a bit more painful.

Truth be told, everything was in good nick, except that I discovered after the trip that the brakes were very slightly 'on' the whole time.

I'd initially put this down to just being on a heavier bike but after I'd finished I thought I'd just spin the wheels to see how they compared with my road bike.

Hmm. Quite a difference. The road bike's wheels will spin for quite a long time (many revolutions), whereas the steel bike was only 2-3 revolutions at most.

I initially wondered about oil and bearings and things like that, but then loosened the brakes just in case they were the culprits. Sure enough, there was a marked improvement. This winter steel bike has disk brakes, so I did that thing with the thin piece of card to get the clearances right and then retightened everything.

I think the next trip will be easier.

Next is to remember where I've put all the little lights and clip on mudguards.

a surfeit of scrumpy

We'd agreed to meet in one of those railway arch type wine bars near one of the main-line train stations.

It's a well-known London venue, but was surprisingly quiet when we arrived.

We'd both taken the precaution to travel by public transport, so that some modest imbibing would be possible.

I should have heard the buzzer making that 'Brrp' noise and seen the big red cross in the air.

But I didn't.

"They do a good cider here," said my friend.

"I'll give it a go," I replied.

It looked innocent enough and fairly clear. Not an obvious rough scrumpy candidate although the apples had that tart taste.

"It's only six-and-a-half-percent," said my friend.

I should have remembered that I am not very cider-proof.

We had a great afternoon.

Although I did decide to make it an early night.

And this morning's 6 a.m. start was surprisingly difficult.

Tonight it will be comfort food.

Beans on toast.

And no cider.

all of your adapter are belong to us

I see the new iPhone has been announced and that it can show even more icons for Apps purchased from the App Store on the new bigger screen.

The faster chip required to refresh the larger screen and the increased pixels require more battery, so they've shaved the circuit boards to pack the phone with ever more lithium ion polymer.

I also noticed that there's a revised connector - named Lightning, which is to go with the already available Thunderbolt high speed connector.

It's a clever commercial move to design a new connector.

None of the existing stuff will fit it, except with an expensive and fairly ugly adapter which costs about £25.

I guess next iPad will also move to the new connector, so we'll all eventually have another collection of defunct power blocks and adapters.

* excuse the poor artwork above. I've been using PS CS6 and not quite figured out a few of the changes.

iPhone 5 unboxification

Katzenstok technology threatens to upset the launch of the newest Apple iPhone via Puppetshed.
Thunderbolt and Lightning, very very frightening me.

sun appears again

Kudos to our fellow blogger Daniel (@danielh_g) for getting the lead in this advert for the Sun newspaper. I saw it on telly last night in the middle of a drama show and felt the need to rewind it and watch again. Very entertaining.

As is the way with T.V. ads, there appear to be several versions and the one I've featured above is the full 1:30.

The sun seems to get featured in these 'morph between scenes' type adverts, as witnessed by the one below about the sun coming out - and featuring the fastest beachside quickdraw of a mayo that I've ever seen.

And of course, there's always the ones where there 'Ain't no sunshine' too - as witnessed in the famous walkthrough scene in the movie Notting Hill.

chickpea salad nom nom nom

Yes - I know.

dismantling the head clicking disk

The wheels on the disk go round and round.

head clicks, but in a good way

It's been a little over a year since I rebooted the way I'm operating and I can honestly say it's been a good change. I've also been a little surprised that there's still a pile of projects that I'd planned to do that haven't really reached fruition.

I guess it is partly because I'm still quite busy, albeit in a different way. I still have business meetings, phone conferences, travel and so on, although in a more balanced mix than previously.

I certainly feel more in control of my time and no longer get those Saturday morning business calls from the middle east when I'm in the Sainsbury's car-park with a shopping trolley.

Similarly there has been a drop off in the number of meetings scheduled on Californian time, which would often mean 8 or 10 o'clock in the evening for me.

Someone said to me that 2012 is blurring past, and although I understand the comment I'm not sure it's quite how I feel.

As an example, glancing through my 2012 photo albums is enough to remind me I've already had a lot happen. It includes time working in Wales, sunshine in Miami Beach, kicking around in Key West, the recent trip around a chunk of Europe as well as the inevitable London adventures. Add in some theatre shows and music plus the typical home stuff and it starts to get hectic.

I still found time to dismantle the broken disk drive from my iMac - I may even upload the video showing the broken heads clicking.

Thursday Thirteen (V52)

Its an age since I did a Thursday Thirteen, but I'm reminded that it's a quick way to summarise a few random topics from today in a single post.

• I arrived at the office today at 07:10, which I thought was quite early, although there were already several others sitting at their desks
• A few of us decided to have coffee together in the downstairs coffee shop, to talk about the progress in the current Games and to opine on the government's re-arranged deckchairs.
• We ended up talking about whether tubeless tyres were solid (No - they'd be very heavy).
• And palmistry, including whether both hands need to be read (Yes, left for what it could be and right for what it is, apparently)
• There was a new experimental desk which created some interest. One of those height adjustable ones. I was reminded of my time working in Denmark, where all the desks were electrically adjustable so that you could stand to work for part of the day, instead of just sitting.
• Someone said it would be even better with a treadmill as well, but I wasn't so sure
• I'd taken some papers in for bulk shredding, but noticed that somehow some important car documents had got into the pile. I'd already put half of the batch into the shredding container by this point.
• I managed to get away at a reasonable hour and to finish working on something from home. I printed the draft on the new replacement home printer. The old one lost its ability to print red and although I think I knew how to fix it, there were an awful lot of screws and wiring looms to remove to get down to the laser mirror assembly. Better instead to get one that prints double sided.
• The late afternoon sun also beckoned so I took the bike out for a bit of a spin, although I'm starting to think about where the next layers of clothing are stored away.
• The pipistrelle bat is back hunting insects in the garden at sunset, swooping around the perimeters at a height of about 2-3 metres. If I walk outside it will flitter to have a quick look at me in passing.
• Tonight's dinner was some kind of Jamie Oliver recipe variation, which was particularly tasty.
• There was a half full bottle of French rose in the fridge from a week or two ago, which made a pleasant accompaniment
• Now I'm watching some telly. A programme with loose connections to Bletchley, some Paralympics, an interview with Plan B and the strong debut episode of Being Human. Not sure whether to watch 'Get Shorty' now or to go to bed.

i finally watch the hunger games

I just got around to watching ‘The Hunger Games’. I gather the target market is similar to the Twilight films. They were not my cup of blood tea although I did like Being Human (UK version) which was another vampire type series.

I actually sought out The Hunger Games thinking I might enjoy it. Strictly, it is more of a teen-flick and the de-rated violence has ensured it's needed 12 Certificate.

The premise is a sort of ultraviolent X factor gone mad TV show that is used by foppish alphas to keep the manual working epsilons in check via fear. In a re-defined and slightly future USA, pick two people from each of 12 redefined US areas and in a fight to the death let the last person left standing be declared a winner.

We get the heroine and hero(ish) person defined from the start and watch the handheld shaky camera carnage as they fight their way to the end of the TV show, leaving 22 other undeveloped characters dead in the woods.

And that’s about it. No real commentary on the totalitarianism and no other resolutions - there’s a franchise to feed.

I initially had high hopes, but I found the run-on-rails plot-line started to drag soon after they disappeared into the forest. We got a series of well known war film scenes replayed with bows and arrows.

I preferred the bow and arrow quirkiness of the much lower budget and far more interesting movie ‘Hanna’. A next-generation super-heroine flick.

But Hunger Games is a film that’s made north of $400m already, so the producers and marketeers clearly know what keeps the X factor generation happy.

cycling moments

Coincidentally, after my post yesterday, I read FAQ's concurrent blog entry about cycling.

It reminded me of a few of my own non-expert observations during cycling.

City Version

• Recognise that fixies are generally ridden by quick people. Some commuter lanes (like the Embankment around rush-hour) can be very competitive.
• Other cyclists will, in general, be faster than me.
• My own fixie is more or less a vanity project. I have even flipped the rear wheel so that it can freewheel. And yes, it has proper brakes.
• The weight of the security and safety devices needed for London are around 1/3 of the bike's weight.
• Stay away from the left hand side of big vehicles and expect car doors to spring open at a moment's notice.
• Don't tell anyone where your secure secret bike parking spot is located.
• For entertainment, it is worth stopping with the Brompton foldable bike around Westminster or Buckingham Palace and collapsing and reassembling it. There will be tourists genuinely interested in the process. The reassemble with a 'rear-wheel-flip' is particularly crowd pleasing.
• The Brompton's hub gear is surprisingly useful.

Country Version

• Overtaking in hilly countryside needs to be ego-less. The elderly couple or the tourers with laden panniers will inevitably re-appear. It is best to hop off and adjust something.
• The countryside route long hills often have alternative quieter routes which are just as difficult but with less people around to watch the struggle.
• There is a ping-whizz sound from fast cyclists as they overtake.
• It's courteous to make noises when otherwise stealthily overtaking joggers and pedestrians in quiet lanes
• It's good to say hello to people moving at similar speeds in the other direction

Everywhere

• There is a point where getting wet ceases to matter. It is better to just smile in such circumstances and watch motorists give a wide berth.
• Everyone has already heard all the smug quotes about the right clothing.
• Surprisingly small adjustments to the saddle and even the handlebar height can make quite a difference to the amount of aches and pain.
• A small camera is better than a mobile phone when needing an excuse to stop for a rest because it can look more obviously purposeful.
• Take the small bag with the spare bits, mini pump, emergency £10 note and all-in-one tool.
• Even a heavily squashed Nutri-grain bar at the bottom of a rucksack can be extremely welcome after a certain amount of pedalling.

I'm sure there's more and I may come back to add some at a later date.