one of my riding buds, abenormal, commutes into manhattan every day on his beloved ratbike. he just got a new digital camera, and recorded his ride. it’s fun stuff! do you live in the country or the burbs, and want to know about the big-city streets? check it out!
as you probably don’t know, i’ve gotten back into the habit of reading slashdot (/. for all those in the know). saw the funniest thing today, something i really need .. an alarm clock that runs away and hides after you hit the snooze button. frikkin’ awesome … this way you have to get up to turn it off the second time. rtfa. and then go check out the MIT inventor … she’s apparently very hot.
thanks to dan and abe for a great day out. it was short (~145 miles round trip from my garage), but then we weren’t looking for an endurance day. it was an all-vfr day, and as such it was ideal. 
we all met up at dan b’s for some coffee at 0815, and watched as dan brought around his poor, neglected viffer out from the back. there was a bit of oxidization on the chain and on the gps power lead, but nothing major.
we zipped up to the royal cliffs diner for a leisurely breakfast, hoping jimmy would join us … since he couldn’t make it, we hit the roads. we went up the PIP to 87 and out to the warwick area, for some twisty roads, then back down into sussex county for more. there was a lot of gravel and sand out there — i remember one long twisty downhill where there was about 3 feet of clear road in our lane. fun stuff. 
and dan took us up over some serious hills and switchbacks, and the frost heaves were a bit challenging. nothing like a good technical run to work on
those atrophied skills …
we stopped at a dunkin donuts for some sugar, and then headed home via 23 and 80. dan’s rear was a bit sacked by this point — he’s looking to replace now — but we all made it back to dan’s safely.
there was a bit of confusion as to what route to take through the city back to brooklyn — abe was in the wrong lane coming off the GWB and headed NORTH on the henry hudson, with dan in tow. i didn’t want to charge across 2 lanes to follow them, so i breezed down the west side highway by myself. no traffic to speak of until battery park. i figured dan and abe and i are all big boys who road together, so no need to wait up, and they most likely wouldn’t expect me to follow. turns out i was right. note to newer riders — i don’t recommend this when you’re with a
group. typically if the group makes a turn and you can’t, find a safe place to be and wait — someone will come and get you, or call you. that’s policy. but this group was old friends so it was acceptable.
i beat dan and abe back by about 20 minutes.
from there we split up, and i tooled around bklyn looking at neighborhoods. i’m house hunting, so if anyone knows any good leads (1 family home or co-op or condo in bklyn, with garage), send ‘em my way!
think you’re aware out there on the streets? think you can see everything that’s going on? i don’t think so. as a motorcyclist, i know car drivers don’t see me; i ride accordingly. i also constantly move my point of focus to avoid target fixation, for many reasons. target fixation tends to lead to “target hitting”, even when you’re trying to avoid said target. it also can keep you from noticing other hazards, or “things you shouldn’t hit”, like people. and motorcyclists.
want to know more about target fixation? go here. want to see an example, to prove to you that it’s a real phenomenon? michael bach, in germany, has a great online example.
there was a huge police action in the union square subway station this morning. i mean the place was *crawling* with cops. here’s the official story from ny1:
Commuters Turned Away From 4, 5, 6 Train Due To Signal Problem
MARCH 16TH, 2005
The 4, 5 and 6 lines were shut down through most of Manhattan Wednesday morning. Commuters were turned away from subway stations and told to find another way to work. MTA officials say there is a problem with the signal system for the trains. The shutdown is in effect from 125th Street and Brooklyn Bridge. Commuters can take the 2 train between 149th Street in the Bronx and Nevins Street in Brooklyn. The M-15 bus can also be used as an alternative. There is no word on when service will be restored.
me? i think it’s a load of cr4p. call me a conspiracy theorist, but there was also a big power outage in times square this morning, and other service was disrupted. plus, there’s no way in hades that they needed that many police — not mta personell in uniform, but gun-toting police — for a “signaling problem”.
apparently subway service is being restored … but that doesn’t explain the police. i love this quote:
“You’re really pretty stuck,” admitted one transit official.
the mta has a history of not reporting security issues. they don’t report suicides, but that’s probably because the government is generally against this because suicide highlighted in the media brings more suicide. i feel this falls into that arena. if you hear anything more truthful about what’s going on today, send me an email or IM.
UPDATE: the canal street station that serves the A/C/E lines is out of commission as well. is this part of a larger plot by the mta, trying to gouge us for more money? is this an innocent coincidence? i doubt we’ll ever hear the truth …
we got walloped last night by the team out of raven, ravenous. they beat us 4-1. jj played a great game and swept his opponent, but dr pain lost early (despite a good start by winning game 1), then i lost to abel (again, despite winning game 1) … then we had jj’s win … then tink was felled by the mightily ravenous diana … and disco, who is now a 3 (!) weakened under the onslaught. ah well, it’s a rebuilding season, right?
part of the problem may have been that we were on a real pool table, at corner billiards. where the greens are fast and the bumpers active, and 8 feet is just more than we can handle. we had to move because they were shooting an episode of law and order at dempsey’s, our home bar. hey, at leas we get to see our bar immortalized in digital entertainment, though!
next week we’re away at the ace bar.
tom was visiting us up here in good ol’ nyc this weekend … we had a great time. friday night we went out for microbrews (at heartland brewery in union square), and capped with some whiskeys at the swank pop (which is making a comeback!). slept in on saturday then went up to the top of the empire state building … which i did with eck back in december, and had done a few times before. i like playing tour guide, but apparently tony is better at it. i won us an audio tour guide, which has this new york cabbie named tony telling you all about the bits of new york. very cool … i had turned my nose up at it before, but there’s a lot of trivia to learn when you use it. all i had to do was point out where the UN building was in a picture — which is easy if you’re a new yorker.
we came back down after some sightseeing, and had a few more beers … and later, went out with the czech and the brit, and miss esquire, for some drinks (at lit, which is VERY LOUD on a saturday evening, especially when the dj is higher than a kite). from there we headed over to a sumptious beef feast at dylan prime, my favorite swank steak house in the city. we topped off a night of revelry with some live irish music up at thady con’s up on 49th and second. with more beers. and more whiskey.
today was pretty relaxed … just some brunch and light shopping. after tom took off, i did the heavy shopping, for houses. more on that later!
outstanding, if not improving — icebrrrg.com had over 11,000 hits in february. not too shabby for a wee bit of ego! do your part, check in a few times a week for the latest in news and what’s been going on with me and mine.
kat outdoes herself again with the random links … which sci-fi geek type are you? the title is, appropriately enough, sci-fi for the geek guy. who you are depends on what your favourite sci-fi mythos is.
i was bummed they didn’t have farscape. guess we farscape fans are still marginalized. so, i went and wrote my own definition. go and check out the article (you know, RTFA), linked above, and then read mine. 
farscape
you like muppets, think america is the best backwater country on the best backwater planet (purely because of it’s fantastic pop culture), and would prefer to have a slug in your mouth than brush your teeth. you have a penchant for women in leather, no matter what their skin color is (blue, grey or white). you think that every alien species that humans will meet will speak with an australian accent. when someone on the street calls out “hey, harvey!”, you fully expect to see a skinny dude in an s&m costume walking towards you.
oh btw … i’m in utah. nice place, utah. people are very polite. great weather (60 and sunny my whole visit so far, with chilly nights). lots of chain restaurants (i’m 45 minutes south of salt lake city, so not too many fancy places to eat). very few minorities. hmm. definitely a drawback. i hear there’s good skiing tho.
haven’t seen any mormons — do they look different from the rest of us?
