a midway bikelog

The Complete The Streets bill is working its way through the MN House with a unanimous voice vote in the House Transportation Finance Committee, and the StarTribune came out with a great editorial in favor of the issue.. There aren’t so many walkers and cyclists on the streets this time of year, so i’m happy that this is getting some good momentum.

The money bit for me is the setup and the piece on public libraries. Everyone gets cranky (me included) when they think about the money they earn but don’t get to take home, but it’s easy to forget the overwhelming good in society that comes from it.

I’m very interested and excited to learn more about the Bloom Box tomorrow, purported to be the first high efficiency wireless powerplant capable of replacing our current power grid.

So far it’s only been revealed on this past Sunday’s 60 Minutes show, but apparently Google, eBay, FedEx and a few others have been using versions of the box for several months already. The details are secret, but it sounds like a material refinement of a typical fuel cell, providing twice the efficiency and able to use a wide range of fuels, from natural gas to plant rot methane. Current fuel cells use hydrogen, which has a high cost to produce and obvious logistical problems what with the explosions and all.

The wireless aspect of this is just as fascinating to me, and i wonder how that works in a practical sense. If there was, say, a neighborhood Bloom Box or one in the alley, would every house have some sort of receiver that the home fuse box connected to? It’s a little unsettling, the idea of wireless power signals flying through the neighborhood, but maybe that’s how people felt when radio was just a new idea too.

The idea of the Bloom Box inevitably makes me think of the Stirling Engine. Like the Bloom Box, it was designed to run on any fuel (way moreso than the original Diesel), including solid fuels like wood. Stirlings don’t have the sort of acceleration and power curve of the internal combustion engine, but were meant more as a more efficient version of the steam engine, used in applications where the engine runs at a relatively constant rate and power is managed with a coupling clutch. There are modern Stirling-powered generators available right now, along with a few other commercial products, but adoption has been limited to a niche market.

Still, you have to love the idea of electrical and mechanical power that are compatible with a variety of widely available fuels. A Box in every basement, a Stirling under every hood, and the on- or off-grid question won’t even make sense. It’s easy to be skeptical, but at least with the 60-Minutes piece, the skeptic they included was all about handwaving and big corporate takeovers, nothing specific (though to be fair, there aren’t any published tech specifics to attack). Count me among the very optimistic with this one.

It’s been a tough winter for cycling here, what with the craggy street stalagtites, and the extreme cold here (despite being the 4th warmest January globally), and the laziness. But today it’s two days in a row, and that’s a good start, because, you know, the Almanzo 100 isn’t going to ride itself.

There’s something fascinating about this performance, the winner from a Ukraine’s Got Talent show. I guess there are other things like this around online, but i hadn’t seen this sort of sand painting/animation performance before, and Kseniya Simonova does an amazing job telling the story of the German occupation of Ukraine in WW2. I love that the scenes build on each other, and how forms seem to pop out of the simplest gestures with little apparent movement, and how fluidly it all comes together. Cool stuff.

Here’s some very cool footage my Dad forwarded the other day. It’s a 7:10 shot traveling through several blocks of Market Street in San Francisco just days before the great earthquake hit. What struck me most about it initially was how many people there are on the street, and how everything going on in the street relates to the human scale rather than the machine scale of current-day auto and truck traffic, despite the 1906 cable cars and autos.

The traffic here is a little chaotic, and there are some close calls (largely from those crazy automobile drivers and kids dodging the cable car), but people are actively negotiating their way around, and nobody gets squished. So often in city traffic today car drivers are just slogging along stoplight to stoplight, paying no attention to their surroundings other than point A to B. It’s cool to see footage of horse traffic in the middle of town too. Note that the automobiles here are all recreational; the real work of commerce is being done by the horses.

It looks like the film is playing a little slow, but it’s very interesting to see a city at a time with a completely different expectation for their travel speed and distance.
I love the great clothes and seeing the many cyclists (all coasting – take that, SF fixie hipsters!), but i doubt i’d ride down the center of the tracks in front of a streetcar, that just seems like certain death. It looks like the film is playing a little slow, but it’s very interesting to see a major city during a time with a completely different expectations for their travel speed and distance.

Here it is:

It’s a smaller, wedge-style bag largely based on the Minnehaha small saddlebag, but with a couple of changes that i haven’t gotten photos of yet. First, there’s a pocket at the top of the bag for a u-lock, a good spot where it won’t slide around or sway when the bag is otherwise empty. I’m planning more inner pockets on version 2 of this model; i like an out-of-the-way spot for the spare tube. Also, the rear of the bag cinches shut with a drawstring to keep things in more securely (i’m an inconsistent loader, and sometimes drop things).

I haven’t a good source of plastic i like for the stiffener, so it’s a cut-out piece of cat litter bin, which i think is a bit too stiff and brittle. I’m happy with the copper rivets though, they look great. The rat is an illustration from the late, great RAW comics magazine that i’ve occasionally used on helmets in the past.

It’s big enough for a u-lock, medium round tupperware container, spare tube and levers and gloves, with room to strap something on the outside. A good size for light commuting days, too small for a 6-er of bottles but you’d get most of a 4-pack of Surly cans in there just fine.

Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew B. Crawford. Here’s an essay at the New Atlantis that was later expanded into the book.

Essentially, it explores the worth of physical work, and the value of working in the trades. Factory work has dumbed down the worker, replacing a broad array of manual and troubleshooting skills with the monotonous repetition of the assembly line. He also draws the comparison of the modern-day white collar tech worker and the assembly line, and this is where the bells start going off for me.

I took shop class in high school. Wood shop, electric shop and metal shop, where i learned to weld and braze, and we were able to cast aluminum and operate lathes and mills. I loved doing these things, but there was a stigma to the work too, it was assumed to be the sort of work you did if you couldn’t go to college. I went to college.

I build websites and various digital things for my living, and it’s been a good field for me. Most of my skills are self-taught; building on years of tinkering and exploration into coding, design, databases, and logic, They’re all things that have interested me for years in different ways, but strongly enough to learn the language and how to build my own things from the various pieces. There are ties into music and engineering and journalism too, so you’d think that a field that ties all of that life experience together should be ideal. And so it was, but now it bores the shit out of me.

I’ve tried to take on new side jobs to spark some creativity, and those are great in their own ways, but they also reveal the limits of my knowledge, and i’ve found over the past year that the more i push on those limits within computer work the more my brain rebels. I sit down to make or fix something that i should be able to figure out, that someone will pay me to do, but that i have to force my mind to stay with. Sure, hard work isn’t always fun, but here’s the thing: this used to be fun. I used to revel in the challenge of making computers do nifty things and took the time for such trivialities as having clean code and finding elegant solutions where brute force would get the job done just as quickly. I approach jobs with a craftsman’s sensibilities, and when the details i care about don’t matter to the client, well, maybe i don’t bill them for the hour it took to research the missing link i wanted to use (but didn’t need), but i’m happier with the result.

Lately, the computer work just isn’t doing it for me. The challenges don’t inspire the craftsman in me to care, i just want them dispatched quickly. My drive for good work in the daily job has been replaced with a drive for a small inbox.

What inspires me lately is making things; physical, holdable things that have a purpose for being. I’ve always liked to figure out how things work, and how to make things, and i enjoy some measure of self-sufficiency from doing those things. But this curiosity doesn’t pay the mortgage or feed the kids, so i cast about for something that both inspires and has some income potential. It’s a fun journey, but i’m ready for some sort of new direction. Anyway, it looks like a good book.

It’s time for one of those year-end wrapup posts where we get all maudlin and drunk and fall asleep in a snowbank. Let’s go.

Ten years ago my dog was born, i was moving into the house i’m in, kidless but attached and just starting the job i’m still at today. I started 2009 by ending my marriage (officially, finally), shaving my beard and buying new shoes. These things are entirely coincidental and should not be excessively read into. These are not the droids you seek.

The highlight of the year for me was summer vacation trip to Oregon. It’s the first big summer vacation trip i’ve done in a long time, and my first big solo adventure with the kids. It was a total blast. They’re really fun to travel with, we had a great time on the train, and a lot of fun with family. The girls got to ride horses and run on the beach and i got a couple of fun mountain biking rides in, plus a little time tearing up the sand dunes.

My bike commuting was steady this year through the late fall when it tapered off quite a bit. Partly this is due to a longer walk home from the bus stop with the girls (so i’d drive more often) and partly out of laziness. I did more long rides and centuries this year than ever, but my overall bike mileage is down from last year at just over 2k. I got some good trail riding in on both the mountain bike and ‘cross bike, which was great, but no mountain bike racing, and only one cyclocross race. I just didn’t get any training time in to be in race condition, and frankly my heart wasn’t in it this season, i just wanted to do long road & gravel rides.

It took a few months to figure out, but what i really needed to do this year was simplify and scale back. For too long (over the last few years), i wasn’t getting any down time to stay on top of daily life and my own interests. There were too many external commitments and too few internal ones (for me, the introvert). So, less time with my cycling club (not that i’m leaving it), but more time riding with friends. In fact, more time overall with friends. Y’all are excellent. I missed you when i was away.

One way i’ve kept up with friends is through Twitter. Using Twitter has undeniably take some steam away from this blog, but it has also connected me with people in real life, which is a pretty good achievement for an online tool. I’ve also really enjoyed my new iPod Touch, which is probably the most thoroughly useful computer gadget i’ve ever bought. I’m at the same company, still working, which is a good thing, and i’m still building websites, but my enthusiasm for website work has been highly variable lately. There’s a lot of very cool stuff going on in tech and i’ve been skating on my DIY skills for a long time without new challenges. I’ve been much more interested in building physical things, such as the saddlebags. I still have a mortgage to pay and a household to feed, so no dramatic changes, but definitely new career direction things to think about.

(Nice. Way to question your life in your 40s, very original.)
(Shut up! People are watching!)
(Please. This is just a way to sneak in a mention of books you’ve read this year, like Infinite Jest)
( … )
(See! There you go, stealing his dialog technique!)
(Do you have to start every response with a single-word retort? This is Wallace, not Ellroy.)
(Touché.)
(Quite. Compartmentalism. Back to the narrative.)
(*mumbles quietly*)

And but so i read more this year too; Infinite Jest, Broom of the System (both Wallace), One Hundred Years of Solitude, some John Irving – i guess it was a fantastic realism kind of year. TONS of reading with the kids; re-read some Harry Potter, a bunch of Roald Dahl, The Magician’s Elephant and countless smaller books. Fiona learned to read this year, which is a thrill for me; i love new readers figuring out the world of text. There’s a semicolon in every sentence of this paragraph, except this one.

Some plans for 2010. A clean and reorganized basement, starting now. I’m going to lose enough weight that belts matter again. I’m very excited about the spring trip to Alaska with my dad and brothers. I’m going to make more bike bags, and try a few other things. (I’m not, you know, taking orders for bags, but let me know if you’re interested…) I’m going to finish the stone walkway going to the garage this year and maybe change up the landscaping a bit. It’s a good time to change the landscaping a bit, i think.

Cheers to all, and a Happy New Year.

My mom has been sewing as long as i can remember. One of my first specific clothing memories ever is of a brown velour shirt she made for me in grade school. While i also remember hating that shirt at the time, there were many other things she made for us that were great. Chief among them were the many halloween costumes she made, including a fantastic devil costume, complete with stuffed tail and horns.

She revived the halloween costume tradition with my girls, out-doing herself with wonderful ladybug, elephant, tiger, lion, and fairy outfits. This year Ella wanted to be a water nymph, which luckily turned out to be mainly a flowy blue dress. We made the costume during an early October visit, finishing most of it over a weekend. I helped out quite a bit, knowing my way around a sewing machine from earlier lessons from Mom and middle school Home-Ec class. I enjoyed the project quite a bit, and within a week i was trolling Craigslist for a sewing machine for myself. In true style, i ended up with two machines, both from the mid-to-late 50s, and each of them $50; a Singer 185 and a Pfaff 230.

The first project was to replace the rotting canvas on a porch chair, but part of the justification was always to try building a saddlebag for my bikes. Messenger bags are handy off the bike, but i hate having a sweaty back and sweaty strap lines on my shirt. I’ve been doing most of my commuting with a saddlebag for the last 3-4 years, the only problem is having to swap the two i have between bikes, so i wanted to make more. Here’s the first model i made for myself:

It’s all plain white canvas, with an orange fabric stripe. I like the style quite a lot, it’s a bit of a reaction to the plethora of black canvas bags around. Black canvas is smart: bike bags get grimy, and black looks good for a long time as it gradually fades to a charcoal grey. But i wanted something different, and i had a bit of plain white left over from the chair project, so that’s what i used. On the first day i used it, i lost a brand-new seat cover from the bag because it didn’t close very well when mostly empty. I did a couple of rounds of modifications to close up the mouth of the bag and keep things from falling out, and it works very well now, though the capacity is also reduced. It’s still a good size for average commuting loads, and i’ve added a front basket to that bike for shopping trips anyway.

I made a couple of small kid-size saddlebags next, because the kids liked my bag so much they wanted their own. These are made of Sunbrella outdoor canvas, which isn’t waterproof, but should resist fading. I added some basic straps that should hold the bag under a kid’s saddle ok, and they’ll probably work as handbags too, with a strap added.

I wanted a larger bag for myself though, so i kept playing with design ideas. I used to have a Carradice Lowsaddle bag, which is a little smaller Nelson bag, and it was a really nice size for regular commuting and light grocery trips. I got that bag used, with a ripped side panel. The previous owner included a replacement side panel so i could get it repaired, but i ended up just having the rip sewn shut rather than replace the panel, so i still had that oddly-shaped piece of canvas in a drawer at home after the bag was stolen last summer. It was a good find. Contrary to the round or trapezoidal shapes i was playing with, it was laid out like a pentagon, which gives the mouth of the bag good support, and keeps the opening relatively up once the bag is mounted. With this as a starting point, i played with the size a little (deeper) and added some side pockets and ended up with version 2:

This is a nice bag. The buckles are a little awkward, they should probably have some sort of guide to keep the straps more controlled, and the mounting point would be stronger if it were back about an inch. But overall, i like the bag a lot. The fabric seemed really bright at first, but with those atomic yellow straps, the canvas is downright understated. I assume it’ll get filthy and look like hell, but at the moment it looks great.

I don’t know if this will be any sort of serious undertaking, but i’ve had a great time with these sewing projects. My seams are getting straighter, and i’m figuring out some better techniques for planning and joining pieces. More than anything, sewing things myself has given me a real appreciation for the high quality of work in the great many sewn things we all use every day. Look at the average shirt or pair of pants and try to find an uneven seam or loose thread. It’s hard to do. Sure, there’s a lot of automation and machine work, but for many (most?) of those things there’s a person running that fabric through, and they do it extremely well, time after time.

One of the big reasons i love to make things myself is to better appreciate some of what we take for granted in daily life. You can easily cook a meal and compare it favorably or not to a restaurant meal, but things like tailoring and furniture-making and metalwork are more abstract. It’s inspiring to pick apart the pieces of something to see the thinking and skill involved, try to make my own version of it. Most of the time they’re flops because i just don’t have the knowledge or skill to do it well, but sometimes it’ll click and i end with something i like and use for a long time.