Howl : A Graphic Novel by Allen Ginsberg & Eric Drooker

Erik Drooker does an excellent job illustrating Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. Reproducing the poem in lush, full color illustrations over 217 pages takes the poem to a new level. I was able to slow down and read small sections, as designed, and digest each verse. The illustrations add to the context of the poem and help set the mood with the art.

The blending of great art and poetry makes for a new level of understanding of Howl and its important impact on society, and as Ginsberg hoped, makes the accessible and relevant to a whole new generation of readers.

Cyclists vs. Cars & Pedestrians

There was an article on a local blog about a route I ride a lot.  Basically trying to set up some sort of conflict between cyclists and pedestrians.

Fit City: Great Northern

Here was my response:

I ride Great Northern several times a week, see regular walkers, etc. I don’t see what the big deal is. Car traffic is low enough that I can usually give the walker decent space. As long as they aren’t swaying all over the place, we’re all good.

Cars are the real problem. They drive too fast down GN. They take the turn from Foster to Great Northern too fast, often driving in the bike lane.

And I’m real tired of hearing about bikes not stopping for signs, lights, etc. Slowing down to 1mph is slow enough to wait our turn, let cars get through, etc. I think those who say 75% of cyclists run signs and lights mean that they don’t put a foot down on the road. A cyclist staying clipped in and slowing down to an “almost stop” is still more of a stop than I see 95% of the cars doing. I have yet to see any cyclist run a stop sign or red light in way of an unsafe manner. I have also had plenty of cars tailgate me and pass in an unsafe manner when I do stop all the way at lights and signs. They don’t want to wait for a cyclist to get up to speed. You can’t have it both ways.

Finally – why can’t the city put up Yellow signs telling cars they need to stay 3 ft away from cyclists? How are cars supposed to know this rule, unless they love reading the DMV manual? 3ft signs are MUCH needed, so cars know the rules.

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Photo of the Day:

Busy Day

Another day of working today, but the last shift for the week.  So afterwards, I headed to my parents’ house with the dogs.  They’ll visit while we head to the bike ride.  I had a nice visit with my mom and dad, then headed back home.

I got home in time to water the yard and also put out some fertilizer.  It’s nice to be able to have some time to take care of the yard more.  It’s our first spring in the house, so along with all the flowers the flowers that surprise me, there’s also a fair amount of weeds.

That was about it for the day.

Photo of the Day:

New Pedals Attached

While work was the main time-occupier of the day, the evening featured me and Laurie doing a very short bike ride.  We rode up the dreaded Steck hill at Mopac to head to Nelo’s to see if they could get off the pedals on my new bike.  They tightened them on there to the degree that I couldn’t get them off, so help was needed.  Back to the hill – this is one of the harder small hills I have tackled, which is not saying much, since I don’t do much riding up hills at all.  But I’m showing improvement, so hopefully some bigger ones can be tackled soon.  This was my easiest time up it yet, to the degree that I was going faster than Laurie, which never happens up hills.  So very nice to see improvement.

So we got up it and headed to Nelo’s.  They got my pedals off, so I was then able to put on my new Look Keo Blade Carbon pedals.  They look pretty nice on the bike and are easy to get in and out of.  They feel nice as well.  I also bought a new bike bag – a SciCon one.  It looks much spiffier than my old one and stays out of the way of my rear lights better.

Laurie was not feeling the bike love, meaning her legs were pretty sore, so we kept the ride short and came home, ended up with a 6 or 7 mile loop in total.  We’ve been trying to plan our bike riding this week around having fresh legs for Saturday’s ride.  I’ll commute to work on Wednesday, then not bike Thursday, and only maybe lightly on Friday.

We took a trip to pick up our ride packet, got our t-shirt, and then headed to Costco for a quick browse.  Finally we came home and decided to go to Threadgill’s for dinner.

All in all, a very nice evening.

Photo of the Day:

Done With Finals

All my final work is submitted for my spring classes and it’s not even midnight, which must be a new record for me.  I’m fairly happy with my work.  But I’m more happy just to be done and have some time to spend on all the many things I’ve been wanting to do.

Of course, I also get to do more regular work, which isn’t as fun, but more money would be good too.

So first up for tomorrow is work, then a bike ride with Laurie, with a stop at the bike shop to ask for help getting my pedals off.  I got my new Look Keo Blades today, but my current pedals won’t budge.

I also will still need to comment on everyone’s final projects for school, but that’s not too terribly hard.

Laurie and I are gearing up for the Real Ale Ride this weekend.  I’m quite concerned about it, in that I’m not sure how we’ll fair on the hills.  We don’t tackle a lot of hills, so this should be a challenge for us.  We’re just doing the 30 mile ride, and supposedly only the first 15 miles involves riding UP hills, but that’s about 14 more miles then I usually tackle.  And not having a third ring on my new bike is a bit harrowing.  Hopefully I’m worrying for nothing, but still, I really don’t want to have to walk.  My goal is to stay on my bike the whole ride (minus rest stops).

New Bike!

My new bike finally arrived and definitely meets with my approval.

It’s a 2011 Cannondale Caad 10.  I got the 48″ frame size in the “women’s” version, but all that means is I got a different color, which is the raw aluminum.  It looks quite good!

I can’t decide what colors I want to accent it with – one option is yellow Look Keo pedals, yellow handlebar tape and hoods, and maybe some yellow tires.  On the other hand, I could just keep everything black and silver.  Until I decide, I’m going with all my old stuff (pedals and garmin), which unfortunately is blue.  It looked great with my old bike, not so much with this one.

I love the new SRAM Rival group.  Shifters look great and everything is super smooth.  I had been using Forte/Shimano stuff, and while it was okay, this is way better.  I like just having one lever on each side that needs to be pushed to move up or down a gear.  Easy to use and quick to respond.

I’ve moved from a triple ring to a compact double.  I’m a bit worried about how I’ll do on hills.  There are times when I really needed my “granny gear” on some rides, so I’m not sure I’m really ready for this switch.  But for my everyday rides, which are pretty flat, it will be fine, and hopefully my fitness will keep improving so I don’t have to worry so much.

What I noticed on my first ride was it did feel very responsive.  As soon as I pushed down on the pedal, it seemed like there was just extra zippy-ness. It just seems to take off faster than my other bike.

It’s a pretty lightweight bike – weighed in at 18 lbs with my pedal, bag, and Garmin on it.  I’d like to get it to down to 15, but that will take some time to save up funds for stuff like new wheels, etc.  This is only 3.5 lbs lighter than my other bike, but I’ll take any weight savings I can get.

This is supposed to be a stiff bike, but it does feel pretty comfortable.  The ride was very smooth and quiet, even on some bumpy roads.  The saddle it came with is rather hard and that will probably need to be switched out soon, but I’ll give it a few more rides before I decide for sure.  The saddle is probably the worst part of the bike.  And the wheels.  They are Shimano RS10 s, so I stuck with my Easton wheels.  I might try out the Shimanos once I lose some more pounds.  Not sure I trust the low spoke count on them for now.

Overall, after my first ride of only 8 miles, I really like the bike.  I’ll need to get used to the handlebars being lower than my old bike, but so far things feel comfy, smooth and hassle-free.

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