Scratching the Surfaces of Selves

Cainmark's blog

This is how my journal is organized, by the Library of Congress Classification system, LoC
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
How and why it's setup the way it is here:
http://cainmark.livejournal.com/487139.html

Number of uses for each tag.
http://cainmark.livejournal.com/tag

How I organize my partitions on my hard drives and my filing boxes.

http://cainmark.livejournal.com/526184.html

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.

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Got a new bicycle Tuesday, a month earlier than I had planned on.
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
The reason I got a new bicycle on Tuesday (well, ordered on Monday to have outfitted the way I like by James at Outdoor Omnibus, then picked up Tuesday) is because I really messed up my last one.

Last Sunday was such a beautiful afternoon with the sun shining and my sick of it being grey I decided to follow one of the bicycle routes on this great map:

http://hsvbike.com/?page_id=544

I chose to go on bike route 69, from the construction on Meridian and Cleveland to Wade Mountain.

It was a pleasant and beautiful ride I took nice and slow, but I realized my batteries for my headlight probably wouldn't last as long as I need them too as it was getting dark pretty fast as I hadn't left until a little before 16:00. I stopped at a convenience store and got a couple of AA batteries.

I go past Winchester and after I cross North Parkway, just before I get to the suburbs, my chain breaks.

And I forgot to bring my chain tool. D'oh!

After mucking about for about thirty minutes, I rig my chain back together using my hands and electrical tape, as the duct tape I usually also have is inconveniently still at home where I was planning to take it with me. D'oh! yet again.

So it's kind of working and I'm thinking it can't be that much farther, so why don't I just keep on, but even more slowly, instead of giving up and just going home.

So from downtown Huntsville, I had passed A&M college and entered into suburbs and suddenly I was on a beautiful tree-lined winding country road with a barn and cows.

I get to the Wade mountain entrance and notice on their map that there's a trail called "The Devil's Race Track". Then I look at the trails and they're still too muddy to ride, so I decide to go home.

I get about fifty feet when my bike stops suddenly with a wrench that almost throws me. Panicking I jump off it and roll away from it in case there's a car coming up behind me.

No cars, and I drag my bike off the road.

My rear derailleur had done this:

http://mountainbike.about.com/od/basicbikemaintenance/f/Der_to_spokes.htm

Right into the spokes.

Now I have to get the chain and derailleur off just so I can roll it home.

Ended up using a pocket knife to saw the gear cable to get the derailleur off. Then I have to work really, really hard to get the chain to come apart after having jury-rigged it earlier [but that wasn't what caused the problem as I had thought, it was that the derailleur itself was already bent some].

I start walking home. A couple of trucks pass, then a car asks if I'm okay. I tell them I'm fine and thanks and they drive on.

The strangest feeling comes over me, a calm serene feeling as I realize that not once was I cursing or mad, just that I had had a series of adventures. As in my favorite G.K. Chesterton quote, "They're not inconveniences. They're a series of adventures."

Another cars stops and asks if I'm okay with my broken bike. I say I'm okay. He then asks where I'm going. I tell him Oakwood and Meridian. He says that's a long way to walk.

I think about it. It's already past 18:00, and I'd promised my wife I'd be home by 19:00. [I'm probably the last person in the US without a cell phone].

I think about his motives, then I think about what I would have done. The same thing. He says to put my bike in his trunk. It's small, but I do after he gets his stuff out of his trunk. I don't have my bungee cords and he has nothing to tie down his trunk. I end up using my visibility vest wrapped around his license plate tag holder and the trunk hook on the bottom.

While I had just gone exploring that day, Jay said he had just gone up that road because he was just curious as to where it went.

He says he'll drop me off at my house and I'm wary of giving him that information and I thought, "No, sometimes you just have to trust people."

Devon was mad at me because he could have been an axe murderer. Her reaction is what most people would have, I expect.

I explained that as far as he knew I could have been one too.

I can't go through life fearing everything that movies and tv and tv news and tv psuedo-news tell me too.

While bad things do happen often, that doesn't mean good things don't happen often too.

James the great bike repairman at Outdoor Omnibus said that derailleurs are meant to break like that on Mountain bikes. I had messed up so much on Veronica [chain, derailleur, gearing, spokes, brakes, fenders, rack, cabling] with that and I was planning on buying a new bike in March anyway, that that incident just sealed the deal a month sooner.

So Veronica died, and this one with the orange rack is Betty [but she can't call me Al].

(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 14:11 Jeff Jarvis has a good post on new and old mindsets about technology: ping.fm/vXbwX #

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 00:00 Amazon did some creepy stuff over this past weekend; ping.fm/ePt3K #

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 13:04 Howard Zinn, one of my favorite non-fiction authors died Wednesday:
    ping.fm/OrcXg #

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 12:11 I liked this "Be Kind Rewind" version of the LOST TV show:
    Watching in Miro: bit.ly/8n80En #

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 12:32 Changing faces of male movie stars, also the changing faces of female movie star: ping.fm/cYVfb #

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Bike Racks in Huntsville
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
Update of this older post:

http://cainmark.livejournal.com/89375.html

The ones with *actual* bike racks I know of are:

The Huntsville Public Library. Not covered, but they have them.
Big Spring Park-they're cool. They're red metal sculptures of bikes-that are racks. Not covered, but they have them.
One by Humphrey's downtown. Not covered, but they have them.
Star Market. Not covered, but they have them.
Regions bank on Andrew Jackson. Kind of covered a little bit
Bandito Burrito. Not covered, but they have them. In case you've been wondering why people sometimes lock their bikes to poles or something else instead of using the bike racks, it's because there's a slight problem with this kind of rack. This is an older rack designed for locking front wheels on bikes. Modern bike front wheels you just unhook the front wheel and can easily steal the rest of the bike. Not good.
Lowe Mill, Flying Monkey Arts Center. Not covered, but they have them. In case you've been wondering why people sometimes lock their bikes to poles or something else instead of using the bike racks, it's because there's a slight problem with this kind of rack. This is an older rack designed for locking front wheels on bikes. Modern bike front wheels you just unhook the front wheel and can easily steal the rest of the bike. Not good.
JAmo's. Not covered, but they have them. In case you've been wondering why people sometimes lock their bikes to poles or something else instead of using the bike racks, it's because there's a slight problem with this kind of rack. This is an older rack designed for locking front wheels on bikes. Modern bike front wheels you just unhook the front wheel and can easily steal the rest of the bike. Not good.

UAH-most buildings have them. Unfortunately, the only ones covered are SE Housing (which is for housing residents only) and the library.
The new intermodal parking facility has 2 bike racks in front of the parking garage, uncovered. It wouldn't have been that much harder for them to put them inside, but no.
The University center bike rack is too far from the entrances, but at least they have one now.
RAVE Valley Ben Cinema. Not covered, but they have them.
Bridge Street. Not covered, but they have them.
Kafeeklatsch. Not covered, but they have them.

Workable poles, gratings etc. to lock to are at the following:

Regal Cinema Holywood 18-the metal rails by the exit ramps on the outside.
Regal Madison Square Touch Star 12-ok, a post with a chain so it's not that secure, but still better than nothing. (I haven't been there ina few months. I don't know if this is the case or not anymore.
Carmike Cinema-doesn't have ANY good place to park a bike.
Parkway place-the metal rails by the stairwells.
Bojangles. Metal rails to lock to.
Wendy.Metal rails to lock to.
Books-a-Million. Meteal rails to lock to.

Grocery store and other parking lots-the metal racks for shopping carts work really well to lock my bike to when there's not a bike rack and no window I can look out at to check on my bike. They're usually next to a handicapped parking place so there's plenty of space without getting dented by a parking car.

We seriously need more bike racks in this city. If the businesses build them, the cyclist will come.

Public places that really, REALLY need bike racks.
The Municipal building.
The Court House.
Most grocery and drug stores.

(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.

  • 00:18 Earthquake in Haiti:
    Text "HAITI" to 90999 to donate $10 to @RedCross relief efforts in #Haiti. Learn more: bit.ly/6KiRtE @dipnote #
  • 16:24 I really like sharrows for bikes legally on the road instead of segregated bike lanes.
    ping.fm/bIT6u #
  • 18:52 Thursday deadline for #NetNeutrality! Tell the FCC to stand up for the open Internet: bit.ly/63SKL8 (via @freepress) #
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Akira Kurosawa Archive
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
The Akira Kurosawa Archive is in Japanese, but you can click around and find neat stuff even if you, like me, don't know any Japanese language.

http://www.afc.ryukoku.ac.jp/Komon/kurosawa/index.html

Is there an internet site where countries are actually listed by how people who actually live there call themselves? I tried to find one consolidated listing, but kept ending up at wikipedia, but not with a cohesive listing.

Isn't Japan called something else? (Nippon?)

I don't know why we call Germany "Germany" when they call themselves Deustchland (sp?), for example.

Wouldn't it help a lot if each country had a list of how all the countries actually called themselves, and they all followed it?

We call ourselves Americans here, though we go by the United States. Shouldn't we be United Statesians?

Usonos in Esperanto, but even that isn't right.

Rambe, ramble, ramble, rambling on.

The New York Public Library's new logo
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
The New York Public Library has a neat little video of the evolution of their new logo design.

http://www.nypl.org/audiovideo/new-lion-logo-nypl?hpfeature=1

Saw a few movies at the end of 2009
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
Nine: Obviously about Federico Fellini though they call Daniel Day Lewis' character "Guido Contini"
Fantastic film! I LOVED this.
Princess and the Frog: Disney's back! Thanks to Pixar! I thought I'd have more issues with the historical context than I did, but setting it near 1920s New Orleans solved a lot of those problems. Great 2D animation, and this story could not have been done near as well in 3D.
Avatar: I LIKED the story, so thbbbttt to all you haters. Like a Roger Dean Yes album cover in motion. The 3D makes it like you are on the alien world.
Sherlock Holmes: More like James Bond in the 19th Century, but a fun ride. Jude Law, the costuming and set direction and especially the really neat score by Hans Zimmere made it a fun ride.

All are best seen in the theatre.

(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 17:44 Happy Holiday season to everyone! (a bit late, but we've been really, really busy. #

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(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 22:44 Dems not Left since Clinton and Gore abandoned 'em. Parker Griffith you awful moneyed politician. GOP antics this year have been horrendous. #

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We have Lois Lane, Superman!
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
I wonder if there's a Clark Kent Street?

"Lois Lane: A home was burglarized between 11 and 11:30 a.m. Monday. Police did not disclose what was stolen."

from

http://blog.al.com/breaking/2009/12/huntsville_police_blotter_451.html

Complete Streets petition for Huntsville, Alabama
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
Reposted from http://hsvbike.com

Please consider signing this petition to have the City of Huntsville adopt the Complete Streets Policy. As you may or may not know Huntsville is the 2nd most deadly city in Alabama for pedestrians. Lets make the streets here safe for all!! http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/adopt-complete-streets-policy-in-city-of-huntsville-alabama

The streets of our cities and towns are an important part of the livability of our communities. They ought to be for everyone, whether young or old, motorist or bicyclist, walker or wheelchair user, bus rider or shopkeeper. But too many of our streets are designed only for speeding cars, or worse, creeping traffic jams.
Now, in communities across the country, a movement is growing to complete the streets. States, cities and towns are asking their planners and engineers to build road networks that are safer, more livable, and welcoming to everyone.
Instituting a complete streets policy ensures that transportation planners and engineers consistently design and operate the entire roadway with all users in mind - including bicyclists, public transportation vehicles and riders, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities.
more info can be found here http://www.completestreets.org

(no subject)
psychoses, scallawag, pirate
[info]cainmark
These are one day behind. I don't know why.


  • 09:31 Green13 Huntsville:

    ping.fm/rS61I

    I requested more bicycle racks, especially in public areas. #

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