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No mountain bike racing this week?  How are the knees?  (I looked at the results and didn't see your name.)  Have a great 4th weekend! 

After finishing the disappointing Woken Furies, I've picked up Inside of a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz. Amazon Caesar Milan fan's reviews not withstanding, I'm finding it a very interesting, edifying, and quick read. To the point that I've gotten more than halfway through it after just picking it up last friday. Having nothing to do Saturday but sit on my porch and read probably helped.

I am reading a book by Sara Andrews - and her main character is a geologist.  She manages to weave a murder mystery around much Colordo geology.  Not sure what I am doing wrong that I can't get a link in here.

http://www.sarahandrews.net/books.htm   

Hope your knee and heels are doing better.  Don't forget that you do have health insurance.  :p

Ain't nobody here but us chickens

Knock Knock Anybody Home?

I've finally gotten around to playing that copy of Crysis I picked up a while ago. I'm not really enjoying it. I knew I was in trouble when after 3 levels, I was checking walkthroughs to see how close I was to the end. It's a pretty enough game. The suit mechanic is interesting. But maybe just a faster to switch  version of Deus Ex's augmentations. The story is pretty standard SciFi fare. But I'm just not enjoying the game itself. Unlimited re-spawning enemies are never fun. Especially since I like to creep around, snipe, and then fully explore the levels. (A bit Nick-ish perhaps). But even if there weren't the constantly respawning enemies, exploration doesn't really get you anything. So, I'll finish it, and the copy of Warhead I got in the bundle. But I can't see myself going back to it again and again like I do with the Half-Life series. But at least this game is short enough that I'll finish it. Unlike Crytek's other game I picked up for really cheap and almost instantly disliked, FarCry 2. That game just felt like a huge let down after how great most of the original FarCry was.

Perhaps I should drop the pretense, and just call this a vlog. Of other people's stuff.

shoulder

I don't know, your cousin Shane moved there, at least he said he is safely in hastings and unpacking.  (shouder shrug)

and the quote of the day ...  If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

 

Hastings the town in Nebraska? Minnesota? Or the kind of weird Book/video/game store chain that happens to have a location in Laramie? 

Where is Hastings?

NSFW language, but I just kind of felt compelled to share.

Sometimes I think I subscribe to the Bill O school of programming: Fuck it, we'll do it live! Logins should actually work now.

So a link to this video made me lookup this video. And I don't get it. Why would you want to feel like a discontinued mid size Pontiac? Maybe i'm just not hip and with it like all the kids today.

Bah, already a typo. if you want to search by username, it's http://bjstaab.com/posts/user/<user name> Also, the post page navigation at the bottom actually works again. So now you can read all my inanity all the way back to the beginning of time this site.

Welcome to bjstaab.com version Idon'tknow.0. A few things are different, mostly that I built it using CodeIgniter and Datamapper. But I also added a couple features that have been on my todo list for a looooong time. First, I've added post tags, basically like a keyword that makes finding posts easier later. Not linked yet, but easy to fake, you can find all posts by a given user too. http://bjstaab.com/users/<user name>. I just realized I forgot to add the fancy editor back, but that should come back fairly soon. You are going to have to log back in because I've completely changed how the cookies are formatted. There is also a bigger reliance on javascript now, so if you don't like that, suck it up. It's 2011, this is the way the web works now. Profile editing will be coming back at some point. For real this time.

I do not fear computers.  I fear the lack of them.  Issac Asimov

MDH trails look beautiful!  What a great thing to do.

Haven't decided yet. My first instinct was to just use the Langster. But then I realized that the only reason I can get away with its rediculously tall gear (50x16) is that Laramie has no hills in the town itself. So now I'm leaning tword bringing the Bianchi so I have some gears. I'll have my mountain bike along for other reasons, but that thing is geared too low (34x18) for trying to get anywhere on the road.

Which bike will you ride in the Urban Assault?

At the risk of turning this into Ben's seldom updated car blog, I'm starting adjust to this whole having a nice (ish) car thing. I took it down to Winter Park on Saturday, had terrible roads for almost half the drive, and still managed to enjoy the drive. The fact that i was averaging high 30 MPG for the trip helped.

It was Winter Park's closing weekend, and I just had to try out the new skis at least once before I put them away for the summer. They're pretty great. I found a guy on Ebay selling those Rossignol's I demo'd last month in a 170, which is a little shorter than the 178 I had demo'd. As sidecuts have only gotten more radical since the introduction of so-called parabolic skiis 10-15 years ago, the effective edge of these 170s is probably only a little shorter than my old 188 El Caminos. 6 or inches of fresh meant I spent all day pounding out short turns. Which these 170's were way better at than the 178s. That lack of 8cm doesn't seem like it should have made that much difference, but I think it did. What I wansn't able to check out was how they would hold for big fast GS turns. To much crud to really try it. Speaking of which, Rossi ain't kidding when they talk about the crud busting capabilities of their AmpTech flex pattern. I'm a fan.

Yesterday I tried fitting my bikes in the car. I'm not sure i want to put my bike rack on. 1. I don't really feel like buying the new towers i would have to buy, and 2. I like the fuel economy I'm getting. I think a roof rack would probably wreck it. I wasn't able to fit the mountain bike in the back seat like Honda shows in their promotional materials. But my 29er is a little bigger than your average mountain bike. I did have to drop the seats, but I managed to get two bikes in with room for other stuff. What you can't see, is that the rear tires of both bikes are poking into the front seat area. Not enough that I'm going to bumping into it while trying to shift, but somebody getting in the passenger seat might have some manuvering to get around that 29" rear wheel. I'm ok with that.

For what it's worth. I think you were long overdue for a newer car.  It's to your credit that you waited as long as you did.

Just entered to win an all expenses paid, for 4  holiday to Wyoming - including air fare and car rental - I am just sure I will win. 

I'm not sure why, but that djikstra quote just made me think of one of my Comp Sci profs who always said undergrad Computer Science majors shouldn't even touch a computer until 3rd or 4th year. But he was a computing theory guy, so he was probably a little biased.

So I bought a new car yesterday. And now, as I usually do after making almost any non-grocery purchase, I'm going through some serious buyer's remorse. Amplified by the huge amount I just put myself further in debt. I mean, I know I can afford the payments. Even with this, I'm still living well within my means. But I keep thinking do I want to make  car payments? And should I have been a little more patient for a used 5 speed Impreza to show up somewhere? Should I have at least waited to check out one of those new Ford Fiestas everyone is raving about? I mean, the Fit was one of the three cars in my shortlist. And I got it in a color I like, and with the options I wanted. But I still can't escape the feeling I somehow rushed the decision. Despite the fact that I've been saying for years that I need to get a new car. I mean, I've been watching Fits since I went back to "real" work four years ago. And should I have put more money down? Logically, I know it's kind of a wash. I got .9% financing from Honda. So I can leave that down payment in the bank, (which earns about that much interest) and leave myself with a little more cash on hand for emergencies.

But I keep thinking about that car payment. Well within my means or not, I'm obsessing about it. Again, logically I know I can afford it, and it's just going to mean less money to throw away on junk every month. Since, let's be honest, I haven't been investing anything like I know I should be anyway. But still, I could be using that money to pay down my student loan faster. Or take a trip somewhere. Or just see how many months of emergency funds I can sock away.

Yeah, I know. White people's problems...

Oh what about the car? I like it. It's not exactly a powerhouse, but it's sure quieter on the highway than my old Accord. I also keep feeling a little sorry for that old Accord, summarily abandoning it to the Honda dealer like that after so many years of faithful service. I feel like I need a nice swedish guy to tell me i'm being crazy.

Maybe I just need to be a little less neurotic.

KNOCK!  KNOCK!  Anybody Home?