Danya and I rode the 2014 Gong yesterday. It was a good day out on the bike and we were met at the end by his girlfriend – it’s nice to have a welcoming committee It was a chilly start, at around 15 degrees, with strong headwinds for the first part of the ride. As we entered the Royal National… Read more →
For about a year I’ve had a fault lodged with them, over the inability to turn off guide-popups on the Edge 810. The documentation says that it’s possible, and there’s a menu option that is supposed to do that, but it doesn’t work for me. Initially I had discussions with Level 1 support who didn’t appear familiar with the products… Read more →
On the 2nd of November, my brother and I will be participating in the Gong Ride, raising money for the MS Society. This video explains some of the symptoms and illustrates why we’re riding. We’re riding the full 90km from Sydney to Wollongong; I have a personal fund-raising page here, and the team page is here. Please give generously. If… Read more →
I was on my commute home from work today, and stopped in the left lane at an intersection when the light went red. Then a green left arrow came on and a pedestrian gestured to the car behind me and said “he wants to turn left”. I told him “so what? are you just saying that because I’m a cyclist?”,… Read more →
So my holiday plans have gone awry. On the plus side, I guess I’m now a real cyclist. Most of my first day’s ride was very nice; I left Marrickville and headed through Pyrmont and across the bridge, exchanging occasional greetings with other cyclists who asked where I was going. I took part in my first cycle-traffic jam as I… Read more →
Having discovered that my carefully planned route north, that goes out of its way to avoid the Pacific Highway (about an extra 50km total, climbing over the Great Dividing Range and a couple of 150km days), is not feasible any more due to drought conditions along the way, I’ve been forced to reevaluate my concerns about the Pacific Highway. It… Read more →
For more than a decade, I have day-dreamed about riding from Sydney to the far north coast of NSW (Mullumbimby). I used to drive the Pacific Highway once a year on holidays every since I moved to Sydney but, ever since getting into cycling and then seeing the reports of the old Comm. Bank Cycling Classic as it passed through… Read more →
Now is the time, now is the time, for your friendship to end. I just read a report on a local Lingerie Football League “game”; as you can imagine, it is a total cluster-fuck of misogyny, and it’s hard to understand why such an activity is being presented as either sport or entertainment, let alone by a mainstream media organisation… Read more →
A while back, I wrote about “living by numbers” and the privacy risks etc. that go with that. There’s a whole movement now based around this concept, and I still worry about the issues, primarily now the concern being philosophical – does what people do only matter if it’s quantified? Still, I’ve been happy for a while putting my cycling… Read more →
This is a wonderfully powerful article about the mind games and the dynamics of power at Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank. Soldiers and civilians alike all end up having their personalities subsumed by the arbitrary nature of it all, and the whole business ends up being a big mind fuck. Boston Review — Oded Na’aman: The Checkpoint
This is a really great rant about the state of public discourse in Australia, and about the bull-shit spread by people who feel that their profits are threatened. Australiar and the idiot dilemma – The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) People squeal long and loud when their vested interests are under threat. What’s astonishing is how others treat these objections.
One of the oddest things I’ve seen in US politics recently is the fact that Paul Ryan had said his favourite band is Rage Against the Machine – but for the music not the lyrics. Is that like saying you smoked dope but didn’t inhale? Remind me – was that Clinton? Anyway, RATM frontman Tom Morello has come out in… Read more →
I mean, really! The nation’s most publicised atheist is keynote speaker at a conference of Christian bigots? That’s such serious pandering that it almost wouldn’t surprise me if Julia got dressed up as a furry for the event. There should be a sign…: Dear Ms Gillard News came out today that our esteemed Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, will be the… Read more →
All members of the cycling elite must conform 🙂 Velominati › The Rules We are the Keepers of the Cog. In so being, we also maintain the sacred text wherein lie the simple truths of cycling etiquette known as The Rules. It is in our trust to maintain and endorse this li…
This is a really good explanation of the tactics and effort required to win the Track Sprint event. From what I can see, Anna Meares’s winning race is a perfect example of this http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/08/03/sports/olympics/olympics-cycling-track-sprint-how-to-win.html?smid=fb-share A Simple Bicycle Race In the match sprint, riders go around a 250-meter track three times. Typically, they go slowly at the start, until someone makes… Read more →
…well, nearly – the event is scheduled for November 4, but registrations opened a week or so, and I just received the sponsorship paperwork. The 2012 Sydney to the ‘Gong is up and going. My brother and I have registered and are riding as Team Rose again and, as usual, attempting to raise money for research for Multiple Sclerosis research… Read more →
This made me laugh out loud Scenes From A Multiverse – Where Fashion Sits Did God’s parents drop him a lot when he was a baby? Into a clothes dryer, maybe? It’s the only reason I can imagine that God has such issues with clothing. First, we were all supposed to be nude. The…
This needs to be more widely disseminated – the American right-wing is blatantly lying, and their attempt to re-write the history of the internet is pathetic given that the main players involved in its creation are still alive to recount the actual events. Lauren Weinstein originally shared this post: Lauren Weinstein’s Blog: The Right-Wing’s “Big Lie” Attacks Against the Internet
How to suck at your religion – The Oatmeal A map showing the density of Starbucks retail stores in the U.S. · Why I didn’t like riding the bus as a kid · The Terrible C-Word · Cat vs Internet · Dear public toilets of the world · Why I love and…
Thisis a wonderful story about pets as a way of drawing out people with emotional issues. Lauren Weinstein originally shared this post: Boy with anxiety disorder who can't say 'I love you' taught to show his emotions – by his cat Lorcan Dillon, from Greater Manchester, has a form of mutism which means he struggles to express himself. Now his… Read more →
