Monday Confessional
Saw this rather interesting sign at my local grocery store the other day. Wondering if we will be seeing a lot more things like this as energy prices rise.
I started my new job today, it was awesome, and daunting. I have so many things to do, I am going to be spending most of this week just laying out in some sort of logical way the way I am going to start doing them. My new job affords me the chance to be around people who are really in love with bicycles, all the time. I can’t think of a better way to help the environment, than to get people out of their cars and onto a bicycle.
Boston is deep in the jaws of slop season. I am not sure what exactly this winter is doing, but it feels very strange. One day it snows a foot, the next day it is almost 50 out, then it will snow again, then it will be in the 60’s. The end result of this sort of cycle is that I spend a lot of time cleaning and oiling my bike chain. I ride every day, and if it is sloppy, well I am riding in the slop, if it is freezing I am riding in the freezing, if it is nice and sunny I am the happiest boy in the world.
Monday Confessional
Wow so did I have a good time this weekend. Good times, let me count the ways.
Friday: Yea its a little think I like to call going to see the funny man. If you have never seen or heard of this guy (as I hadn’t) then you should check him out. Warning he is really really really really really dirty and crass. If thats your cup of tea check this out. I have to admit I laughed till my abs hurt. It was a great time.
Saturday: So you think to yourself funny man pretty much makes the weekend, BUT WAIT, there is so much more. Saturday was the culmination of a dream for me. Everyone who has ever gotten really in debt knows the mental anguish that that has on you. You think about it all the time, you worry about paying it off, its generally a no good time. That is why when you finally pay off that debt, it’s like the world is suddenly a glorious and fantastic place, a magical world of elves and unicorns. I now inhabit that world! Story time.
Once upon a time in a flat flat midwestern land, a small boy wanted to go to school. The only problem was this boy was broke as a joke, so broke that for the first semester of his modestly priced state school he was forced to foolishly borrow exceedingly large sums of money from Citibank. He was the first person in his family to really ever deal with this sort of thing, and he wasn’t very good at it. Lets just say that Citibank saw him coming. I was that boy.
In a kinder genteeler world I would be saying “thank you kind Citibank for loaning me the money to attain my education.” “A million blessings upon your head for allowing me the schooling that helped lift me up from poverty to just plain broke.” We don’t live in that world.
You would think with a name like “student assist loan” that what they were offering me was a “student loan” you know the kind you can consolidate, the kind you lock into a (at the time) super low interest rate, the kind that wont suddenly sky rocket to over 9.4% interest. If you thought that, you would be wrong.
So long story short, what started out as a modest loan soon blossomed into a mob like “the juice is running” situation in which I soon realized that if I didn’t bay this bad boy off, and soon, that it was going to be with me for a LONG time. A couple of months of rice and beans for dinner (every day) ramen for lunch (most days), and paying near 100% of my income to the bank = BAMN no more loans. TAKE THAT Citbiank!
Saturday night, surrounded by friends, I logged in for the last time to Citibanks online payment center and sent them the last of the money they will ever get from me. There was cheering, and much joy was had by all.
Sunday: With a Friday and Saturday like that you must assuredly be thinking that Sunday would be spent resting, well you would be so wrong! “This is madness” you would say, to which I would respond “no, THIS IS SPARTA (bike racing)”. Thats right Sunday was the premier of the Boston Boldsprints! Think indoor racing, think people pushing themselves to the limit of their skill, think potential vomiting, yes it was a fantastic night of awesome. Many many more pictures below the fold.
Read the rest of Monday Confessional
Presenting BostonBiker.Org
A while ago I mentioned that I have been working on a bicycle related project, well I am proud to announce the official Sietch launch of BostonBiker.org (doo do do dooooo!)
BostonBiker.org is a place for Boston area cyclists. You can sign up get your own site, swap stories, post rants, sell parts, advocate for better cycling conditions, or just hang out. It is quickly growing, and has lots of fun features. If you like to cycle, and live in Boston or around Boston I highly recommend you check it out.
It’s free, easy to sign up, and I am very open to working with anyone who wants to do something a bit more custom. Contact me if you have a special bike related project.
There is a lot of bike culture in Boston, but it is fractured into a lot of little groups. My goal is to bring them all together and create a clearing house for information, events, and stories. Boston has the potential to be a world leader in cycling, we just need to build a big enough group of people who are interested in transforming the city.
If that wasn’t enough here are some of the many fine features that you will be able to enjoy:
- Free
- Included Blog
- Static pages (can create an entire site quickly and easily)
- Monetize your site with Google Adsense
- Over 40 themes to choose from (with more coming every day)
- Free hosting for special bike projects
- Fun widgets to easily customize your sidebar without knowing any code
- Fully customizable
- Lots of cool cycling people to talk to
If you are interested in giving it a go you can sign up here. I would love your feedback, feel free to leave comments here with anything you liked/hated about the site.
Monday Confessional
Bah, how bad was that state of the union. I will tell you, bad. Bush talks in circles, uses so many half truths, half lies, and outright lies. Support coal power, support nuclear power!?! What? Talk about lame duck, maybe just lame. No vision, no legacy, worst president ever. Seriously how did we ever end up with this guy as our president?
In other much better news, I am almost ready to roll out my next little web project, something that has been making me very happy as of late, and something I have been putting a lot of work into. Tomorrow I will be unveiling it, just sort of wetting the whistle now. Here is a hint, its got to do with bicycles.
Speaking of which, cycling has been more and more fun as of late. It seems that I have caught the bike bug pretty badly. I find myself using my car less and less, and not missing it at all. Not to mention the pleasing side effects of having great legs, a trim waste and feeling better than I have in a long time.
When we blunder into peek oil unprepared (thanks in no small part to our clueless leaders) the cycle will rule the road. I for one welcome our new bicycle overlords. You might as well get yourself one now, and start riding it all over the place, that way you will be ready for the switch over. Just planting seeds.
Here is a little “mini-poll” if you are an adult (over the age of 18) when was the last time you rode a bicycle?
Monday Confessional
A good portion of my post college life has been spent involved in AmeriCorps. AmeriCrops is sort of like the domestic Peace Corps. You live a very simple life, and you work very hard to make your community better. I LOVE AmeriCorps. I loved my time in it, love the idea of it, love the way they do things, love love love. Part of the Ameri-way of doing things is that every Martin Luther King Jr. Day is treated as “a day on, not a day off.”
This is something I think Dr. King would have been in favor of. Celebrating his life, his birthday, and what he stood for by giving of your time and energy to help someone in need. In a world gone crazy with war, a world ruled by fear, and a time of great upheaval, a simple act of kindness for your fellow human being can be a radical protest against the status quo. Dr. King proved this with his peaceful protests against institutionalized racism.
Now I am no Dr. King, but my effort this year was focused on helping people winterize their homes. Specifically several members of a local battered womens shelter. We put plastic over their windows, added insulation behind the light switches, gave out energy efficient light bulbs and had a good time. It was fun making peoples homes warmer, and helping them to keep a little money in their pockets.
If you are sick of a world gone mad, might I suggest we take a page from Dr. King’s play book and do a good deed for our neighbors. On this holiday we so often see as just another day off of work, I find it therapeutic and uplifting to remember that humanity is not all about killing, racism, and gluttony. Dr. King payed for the dream of a better world with his life, in his honor we must all do our best to create that better world.
Monday Confessional
Wow, it snowed like crazy today. Which is strange because it was in the low 60’s last week. The weather gods have given up on us. Luckily thanks to the miracle of the telecommute I got to stay and work from my “cubicle away from work” aka my apartment. I am surprisingly effective at getting work done when I don’t have to put on pants.
I still took the bike today. No snow day would be complete with out the mandatory snow riding. It was great, slip and slide and all over. Lets hope that at least the main roads are ready for me to thrash by Tuesday. By the looks of things they will be.
I will be heading out to the Mayors state of the city speech Tuesday night. I was invited by the cities new bicycle czar to ride my bike to the event, so damn it I will! Not like I wasn’t going to be on my bike anyway, but it’s a good chance to show “the man” that I support more bike infrastructure.
Other than that I have been working on a little side project, that I will maybe unveiling soon. Lets just say that if you are a biker in Boston well I have something nice for you soon. (hint: It involves bicycles, Boston and the internet)
In other news, the bloggers over at MySietch are going nuts lately, with Keith, RedStateGreen and others really putting out some nice posts. If you are interested in getting your own free green blog head on over and check it out. Even if you don’t start one of your own, you should check out theirs as they are writing some really amazing and thought provoking posts.
Monday Confessional
It is going to be in the 60’s tomorrow. I am a little surprised, and somewhat scared that it is going to be so warm in the middle of January. But I guess since I plan on living for at least 40 more years, and the world doesn’t seem to be getting its act together very fast on solving global warming that I had better get used to stuff like this.
I wonder if I will be that old guy that says things like “in my day we had snow” or “in my day a man could buy cloths from a store” or “in my day kids used to go to school instead of labor camps.” Or maybe I get to be the guy that says things like “in my day we used to burn fossil fuels for transportation, not like your high falutin E-lectric hot rods you kids are driving around today, too damn fast I tell ya.” or “in my day wind turbine technology had just gotten started, we didn’t have your fancy high altitude gigawatt turbines like you wipper snappers do today.”
I sure hope I get to be the guy telling stories of the last carbon war, and the last dirty power plant, and how we saved ourselves with peace and renewable energy. I really hope I am not the guy explaining to the dregs of human civilization about how we used to be able to feed ourselves without slave labor. I once read that you don’t inherit the world from the previous generation, you borrow it from the next generation, I have been thinking about this a lot, and I wonder what kind of world I am leaving them.
It seems we are such a focal point for change, such an important turning point in the history of our species. I can only hope that we pull our heads out of our collective ass’ and do something about the problems we face. I will be thinking about this stuff when I vote for our next president, when I make my next purchase, when I choose what food I eat, when I decide what to use for transportation, and most importantly how I live my life on a daily basis. I welcome you to do the same.
Monday Confessional Year In Review 2007
In what is becoming a tradition around here this is my new years wrap up/look forward post. First the wrap up, last year around this time I made 6 predictions for 2007, lets see how close I came.
My predictions were:
- Wind power will be on fire in 2007. Look for triple digit growth in the wind industry and all sectors related to the wind industry.
- Global warming will start to be taken seriously, particularly by presidential candidates. Look for at least one major candidate to make it there main platform
- Look for major consolidation in the solar panel industry, perhaps even look to semiconductor companies to take over major solar operations.
- The plug in hybrid along with bio-fuel ready cars will start to become more popular
- Look for oil to hit 90+ dollars a barrel this summer.
- The Sietch will add at least 5 new members, and look to get over 1000 visitors a day by the end of the year.
Lets see how I did.
Wind power was certainly on fire this year, with some places seeing massive growth in installed capacity. Not triple digit growth, but still very impressive.
Global warming was one of the largest topics this year. With Al Gore and the IPCC getting a Nobel peace prize for their work in exposing the dangers of climate change to the world, and with every major democratic candidate (including my favorite) proposing at least some plan to tackle this problem. I would say that 2007 became the year that people woke up, and started to realize that things are getting bad, and that they need to change.
The solar industry got a huge boost this year with companies producing solar panels cheaper than coal, with silicon valley getting into solar in a big way.
Biofuels took off in 2007, in sort of a bad way. Driven mostly by large agra-business and midwestern senators looking to bring money to their states, biofuels were produced in largely unsustainable ways, and lamentably many tropical nations have begun cutting down rain forests to produce palm oil. Plug-in cars also got a lot of press, again I was only half right as no major companies released a plug-in model in 2007.
Not only did oil hit over 90 dollars a barrel, it almost topped 100!
The Sietch did in fact add several new members, several new guest bloggers, and opened up MySietch, a place where people can set up their own blogs and add their voice to the conversation. We currently get about 4000 visitors a day! Thanks to everyone who made this our best year yet!
So I would say I got about 5 out of 6 (if you count that I didn’t get all of them completely) not bad for someone with little psychic skill, or a time machine.
So what about 2008, what will this year bring.
My Predictions for 2008:
2007 was the year that people started to think seriously about climate change, look for 2008 to be the year that world governments start to pass serious carbon laws. Look for cap and trade, carbon taxation, and global treaties dealing with emissions reduction.
A Democratic will win the presidency.
Feedback loops and continued warming will make 2008 the worst year for arctic and antarctic melting on record.
Continued droughts and water shortages will bring dramatic lifestyle changes to people in the south west and south east.
At least one major car company will produce an electric or plug-in hybrid model.
Look for oil to top 120 dollars a barrel at least once in 2008.
2008 will be the year of the green consumer, look for a flood of eco-friendly products and services to take over the market. The second part of this prediction is that we will see massive greenwashing campaigns by companies hoping to cash in on this trend without really doing much in the way of making their products greener.
I am going to once again predict that renewable energy will explode in 2008, look for 30-50% growth in the solar and wind industry world wide.
Cape Wind will be approved and perhaps even start construction in 2008.
Those are my predictions of 2008, we will have to wait till 2009 to see how many I got right this time. I wish you all a happy new year and hope that 2008 brings you peace, love and happiness. Lets hope that we can all make 2008 the year that we get serious about protecting the environment for ourselves and our future generations. Happy New Year!
Monday Confessional
So a while ago I was contacted by the BBC (everyone from that organization has the best accent ever, I could listen to them talk all day long, Brilliant! Smashing!) they had this crazy idea. I wouldn’t in any way read/listen/watch/hear the news for two whole days. This is going to be kind of hard for me, as I compulsively consume news. I read over a hundred rss feeds, listen to NPR, check lots of news sites, and also read a fair number of “newsy” books. It’s a sickness.
So starting today at 7am I am on a 48 hour news blackout. I have had to re-do how I get email, had to strip out stuff that gets automatically sent to me, had to reset my radio station to something else to wake up to, and with an iron sense of will I must avoid my rss reader.. I don’t know if I can make it. I mean what is something happens, and I don’t find out about it!?!
In all seriousness I agreed to this little challenge because I thought it might be a way to see if I really need to be that informed. Would I get more done at work, read more fiction, take more pictures, ride my bike more. I don’t know, but we will see. On Wednesday, they are going to take me down to the local NPR station (the big time Boston one, I am kind of excited) and get my reaction on the air. I will be sure to have my bike clean, don’t want to make a bad impression on the Brits :)
In other news, its been snowing like CRAZY. Which means that riding my bike has become insanely fun. I really do like fishtailing around in the snow, its fun. Some people will tell you that riding your bike in the cold is no fun, these same people will tell you that riding your bike in the snow is even less fun. To these people I say, fooey. First with the simple addition of some warm clothing, and bike fenders you can turn a cold wet ride into an adventure. Second its all about the correct attitude.
Basically you have to manage your perceptions. First, throw out the idea that your goal is to stay on the bike. That is just not reasonable in this level of slop (10 inches of snow + salt = mega slop). There is a very good chance you are going to fall off, prepare for the fun that this brings. Second don’t go too fast, this allows you to enjoy the slippery ride, and keeps you from breaking your head when you fly off your bike (see part one). Third, smile IT’S SNOWING! Remember when you were little and snow meant that you got the day off from school, channel that joy, even if you have to go to work. Plus with the way things are going your chances to enjoy snow may be getting rare.
So for the next two days, expect blog posts about anything but the news. It should be interesting.
Monday Confessional
Every great love affair has its ups and downs. Little things that go wrong that you get past to keep things moving smoothly. You need to talk things through, compromise, kiss and make up, and move on. I am talking of course about me and my bicycle. It seems the old girl was mad at me for some reason because she decided to buck me right off. I was riding at speed, and all of a sudden I was interviewing the pavement (in depth). Have you ever heard the phrase “wind knocked out of you” well so had I, but I never really knew what it meant until this happened. Seems if you smack your diaphragm muscles hard enough they seize up and you just can’t breath, no matter what you do its just not going to happen. Lets have a recap.
I am have a fine morning, moving quickly, a wonderful winter morning ride. Then on my way up a hill, I stand up for extra speed, this is the point at which my left toe clip snaps off, sending my foot straight down into the road. Due to the fixed gear’ness of my ride (the pedals keep going if the back wheel keeps turning), this caused my bike to propel me up and over the handle bars, with my bike following closely over the back of my head. The next thing I know a new and horrible sensation was growing in my stomach, wait yes, thats horrible pain.
Lucky for me the road was empty, I had the whole thing to myself to display my 1337 crashing skillzors. After rolling around on the ground a bit (you know to get my bearings) I took stock of the injuries. Bruised ribs on the right side, tiny cut on my right hip, small scrape on my right elbow, and a tiny bruise on my right shoulder. All in all a pretty light amount of damage for the amount of ground eating I did. Let this be a lesson to you kids, wear your helmet, and like 10 layers of clothing, because when you crash it will absorb the vast brunt of the force when you try and test the laws of physics (a test I failed by the way).
So now three days later I have a pretty sweet bruise on my side, and it hurts a little to laugh. But other than that I am fine. Thanks to the efforts of a very very nice lady, my bicycle is fine (only a little tear on the grip tape). I am back up on the horse that threw me and have been riding to and from with no trouble. This has in no way put me off of ridding, and if anything was a freak accident that was caused by the breaking of a part of my bicycle (which if we are going to be honest was probably my fault for not checking). I am going to continue to ride for the rest of the winter, and hopefully many years to come. Viva la Bicycle!
Have you ever beefed it hard? If so please share your bicycle horror stories in the comments. Did it put you off riding? Why, why not?
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