Octopodial Chrome

Today is Sysadmin Appreciation Day. I expect my Ferrari by 1500.

So today I finally broke down and purchased bike shorts. Yes, they’s ridiculous spandex (actually, several generations past spandex in the engineered-fabrics line, but anyway…) monstrosities, but they do hold the muscles in a good position, and they’re a lot cooler than trousers.

So I get home and figure that I might as well take a pair for a spin, which I do. And on my route whom should I come across at an intersection other than my pastor and his wife? God has a sense of humour.

PETA operates an animal shelter in Norfolk, Va. What they don’t tell you is that the PETA shelter kills many times more animals than it takes in. They are so insane (one of their beliefs is that beasts are no less valuable than men) that they kill animals rather than let them become pets (another of their beliefs is that keeping a pet is equivalent to owning a slave).

I was speaking to my sister-in-law today and she raised the subject of how cheap it is to cycle. This is something I’ve wanted to blog on for the last week or two, and now I’ve an excuse. So here goes!

My bike has 769 miles on it right now, after over year’s commuting to work (and using it for miscellaneous errands). I’ll be generous and assume that every one of those miles was one that I’d have driven (this is not actually the case, for today and last Saturday I rode for the sake of riding, and last year I spent a fair amount of time in Boulder riding after work). My car gets about 35 miles a gallon, so that works out to almost 22 gallons of gas unused; at today’s gas prices that’s as near $50 as makes no difference.

Pretty good, right? Not really. That bike cost in the vicinity of ten times that, and what with inner tubes, a new tyre, cycling shorts and jerseys, an air pump and so forth much, much more.

My car, OTOH, cost me about $4,800 almost six years ago, and I've put over 60,000 miles on it and spent about $4,000 on it. So that’s $8,800 for the car. Annual insurance is about $500, so let’s say $3,000 in insurance. In my car 60,000 miles would take about 3,850 gallons; at today’s prices that would be $8,675 (although it was much cheaper six years ago—less than half the price, but let’s try to make driving look as expensive as possible). So all told that’s $20,475 to travel 60,000 miles, or about 34¼¢ per mile (a bit less than the IRS-approved 36½¢ per mile).

I’ve spent around $750 on my bike and accessories: let’s just say that it costs $1/mile to ride my bike, much more than than 34¼¢ per mile. Those 769 miles would have cost $265 to drive, much less than I’ve spent on cycling: about a third, in fact. Granted the cost of riding a mile right now is essentially nil, cycling—at least for me—doesn’t seem to be economical. But it has gotten me healthier, and that’s worth something. If I were the sort of person to get a gym membership, then I could count that savings, but I’m not and so I can’t.

Now, if I keep this up for another three years then maybe cycling will break even or start to show a profit.

This picture says it all.

Rebecca Hagelin makes an excellent point: we have programmes which tell teenagers to Just Say No to smoking, to drugs and to alcohol—but when it comes to sex, we say, Sure, whatever, or at most we tell them Don’t have sex, but if you do, use a condom. We don’t tell them to smoke a pipe if they must smoke; we don’t tell them to use uncut cocaine if they must snort the stuff; we don’t tell them to make sure to drink a few glasses of water and take an aspiring before retiring in order to prevent a hangover. Why the inconsistency?

For my part, I’d rather 17 year olds smoke a cigarette or drink a beer, or even smoke a joint, than have sex: none of those vices have lasting effects on one’s psychology and soul.

Will Judge Roberts be a pro-life judge? Edward Whelan demonstrates that he will be a true moderate. The point is that the Constitution of the United States of America simply doesn’t speak to the matter: it neither says that abortion must be legal, nor that it must be illegal—and it’s not the job of the judiciary to create laws but to interpret the law as written. An honest pro-abortion judge would be good for the pro-life movement because he would recognise that, under the Constitution as it’s currently written, the states have the right to regulate the practise.

Now, I support a constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion in every circumstance save the saving of the mother’s life; abortion is in my opinion the single most important political issue of our age (I’ll write more about this later). But the fact of the matter is that currently there is nothing in the Constitution which can be reasonably interpreted either way.

Practical Common Lisp is an excellent introduction to and tutorial for ANSI Common Lisp. The author guides one through the creation of an MP3-streaming server, all the while introducing one to the amazing features of this most powerful of computer languages.

CNN reports that a Californian grocery clerk is next in line to be the Earl of Essex; the current earl is a childless 61-year-old bachelor, so the Californian’s odds are pretty good. This might be a hoax—one never knows—but what a wonderful story if it’s true.

My new account has a locker room, and in this locker room there sits a small couch. It occurred to me that rather than spending my lunch hour eating out at a restaurant or goofing off at my workstation, I could instead hit the sack and catch some Zs.

There’s nothing quite so relaxing as a nice, legitimate catnap in the middle of the day. I don’t know why more folks don’t think of it, but I’m glad they don’t, since there’s only the single rack to go around.

I’ve a page up now with pictures of my German branch sword & its scabbard. Do take a look.

What a day I’ve had, and it’s not even noon yet: I rode 7½ miles on my bike, exercised, went for a dip and showered all before 0800. It feels good to get the heart pumping and the blood flowing, it really does. Why, I might even get some housecleaning done today!

What are the major problems with cars? They waste huge amounts of energy; they pollute the air; they are dangerous; they require roads and highways, which are expensive to build; they are expensive and require a fair amount of capital outlay. But in return they are convenient: one need’t wait around for one’s own car, and one’s car is located near where one is (no having to go to a station); they are private: noöne rides one’s car without permission; they are relatively non-stop (in comparison to buses or trains, which—unless they are express routes—must stop at every single stop); they run 24/7.

Light rail solves some but not all of the problems of cars, but it eliminates some of the advantages as well. It costs approximately as much to move a light rail car full of passengers as it does to move one which is empty (the cars are still fairly heavy); there is a significant amount of capital investment; light rail tracks require a large amount of land. Light rail is only convenient if one lives or works very close to a station, and even when one does, one must wait around for a car; a light rail car is shared, and one cannot escape a nuisance passenger until the next stop; speaking of which, the train must stop at every station; and light rail has operating hours: stay downtown a minute too long, and one gets to take a taxi ride home ($55 for me). Where I used to live there was a light rail stop 30 minutes’ walk away; I loved it, but quite honestly most people would never used such a thing. Where I live now, there’s nothing—a public transportation trip home from downtown would take at least two hours, whereas by car it’s less than 20 minutes. A new line will open near me, but to move from it to the next station on the same latitude will involve going all the way to downtown, transferring, then going all the way back south again.

Well, a new system, called personal rapid transit, solves many of these problems. The idea is to construct a grid network—just like the roads—of narrow (half the size of a road lane) elevated, ground-level or underground lines. Along these travel small cars capable of holding three people apiece, controlled by computer. But here’s the cool bit: each car can go wherever it needs to go, whenever it needs to go (the central computer ensures that cars do not collide).

Here’s the usage scenario: one walks to the nearest PRT stop (and one is never more than ¼ mile away—anyone can walk this without a moment’s thought), goes up to the ticket machine, punches in a destination, pays for the ticket, then goes to a car which is already waiting, climbs in, shuts the door and is quickly (25–40 mph) shuttled to one’s destination. It’s convenient; it’s cheap (estimates I’ve seen are 12¢ + 20¢/mile—cheaper than RTD Light Rail); it’s private; it’s available on-demand.

In my opinion RTD should investigate PRT, perhaps first using it to connect between rail stations, and then slowly expanding it. An advantage is that a PRT network is a fraction of the cost of a light rail network.

It’s a cool idea, but only time will tell if it succeeds.

I just recently passed the 700 mile mark on my bicycle. It’s been a little over a year since I purchased it; 700 miles a year’s not too bad for a fellow who used to drive everywhere. That’s 20 gallons of gas which I’ve saved!

Now this is truly absurd: a French bus company is suing a bunch of cleaning ladies who carpool to work. Why? Because it’s supposedly unfair competition. This is insane.

Today my dear brother shipped out to parts unknown, doing his duty by God & country as our father, his father, his father and his father have done before him. We’re all extremely proud, and pray daily for his safe return.

Ars Technica examines possible reasons for Apple’s move to Intel. You may be surprised. Hint: Think iPod.

As I’d previously mentioned the concert I went to on the 4th of July at Red Rocks. Honestly, it was a bit of a disappointment. The Motet were fun enough, but they were the openers, and local, and no-one much was paying attention to them: they were just having fun playing a big show. The Wallflowers played a tight set, but the audience didn’t really care, and I think that they must have cut it short—at least, they didn’t play all of their hits. Honestly, if I hadn’t had such a great time when last I saw them then I don’t think I’d ever wish to see them again—it was that sad. They deserved a better audience. Blues Traveler played their two hits, but every other song they played sounded exactly the same. The biggest reaction they got from the audience—which loved them—aside from their hits was when they played cover riffs of famous songs.

On the other hand, it was cool having a good time with my buddies. And there were plenty of hippie chicks to ogle;-)

I went to the Colorado Renascence Festival on Saturday. It’d all the historical accuracy of a visit to Busch Gardens, but it was fun anyway. Mostly this was because I got to debut my Elizabethan clothing and wear my new sword & scabbard (about which more later). I may go again in the future, or may not. It was worth the $16, anyway.

I’ve never thought of it before, but souvenirs serve a very valuable purpose: they remind us of the past in a very concrete way. It’s one thing to know that one’s been to Verdun; it’s another to have a spot of mud on one’s coat therefrom. Likewise, the pint glasses I now own from my recently passed beer tour will stand to remind me of the wonderful time I had these past few days. Someday when I’m an old man and my kids surround me using them to drink juice, I’ll see them and think back to these days.

Which makes me feel for both my parents. There was a time that they were 27; there was a time when the world held limitless opportunities, and when every day was a new adventure. It stopped being that for them a long time ago now, and it’s beginning to cease the same for me, these days. It’s awfully hard to think of my father and mother, my age, holding me in their arms—but they did. It’s even more difficult to think of them as human beings who enjoyed having fun with friends—but they did. Someday, hopefully, I’ll have children who will find me as much of a cypher.

I just got home from the 2005 Austin College Memorial Invitational Beer Tour. Which is to say, I just spent three days with my buddy Darren and two of his buddies from work, Trevor & Justin. On Monday, we saw The Motet, The Wallflowers & Blues Traveler at the 4th of July show (a show about which more in another posting). On Tuesday we left Denver in the morning and drove up to the Pumphouse Brewery & Restaurant for an excellent lunch, then continued on to Ft. Collins to visit the Left Hand/Tabernash Brewery for a tasting, then on to New Belgium for the final tasting of the day. We then grabbed some sandwiches and supplies and headed deep into the Cache la Poudre to camp for the evening. As the resident Eagle Scout, I built the fire (rather well, I think) as well as picked out the evening’s beers (Deschutes Brewery’s Mirror Pond and Twilight Ales) and cigars (Punch Royal Coronation).

It was an absolutely beautiful night, without a cloud or moon in the sky. We saw several shooting stars and satellites as well as the Milky Way (difficult to see nowadays), and had some great fire-fuelled conversation. Didn’t get to bed until about 0130! I should note that I used the same tent that I’ve been camping in for more than half my life, one my folks bought me when I was 10, 11 or 12. It may be in rotten shape, but it still does the trick.

Today we broke camp, then—smelling like well-smoked herring from our campfire—headed back into Ft. Collins for breakfast at McDonald’s (a nice one!) and the went on to tour the Odell Brewing Co., then on to the Trail Ridge Winery, and finally to the Estes Park Brewery for lunch. We then walked about downtown Estes Park for awhile and then journeyed down into Boulder to see Pearl Street and have dinner at the Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery with Trevor’s sister, who is at CU. Finally, we headed back to Denver.

Along the way I picked up:

• 2 bottles Left Hand Imperial Stout
• 2 bottles Left Hand Black Jack Porter
• 1 bottle Left Hand Haystack Wheat
• 1 bottle Tabernash Dunkel Weiss
• 1 Tabernash pint glass
• 1 Left Hand bumper sticker
• a handful of Tabernash temporary tattoos
• 2 bottles New Belgium La Folie
• 2 New Belgium schooner glasses
• 1 stick New Belgium Sunshine Wheat lip balm
• a handful of New Belgium bumper stickers
• 1 Odell 90 Shilling cycling jersey
• 1 Odell Bobby (Kölsch) pint glass
• 1 Odell Levity (amber ale) pint glass
• 1 Odell Isolation Ale poster
• 1 Odell 5 Barrel Pale Ale sticker
• 1 bottle Trail Ridge Cabernet Franc
• 1 bottle Trail Ridge Lemberger
• 2 bottles Estes Park Renegade (India pale ale)
• 1 bottle Estes Park Gold (amber ale)
• 1 bottle Estes Park Samson Stout
• 1 bottle Longs Peak Raspberry Wheat
• 1 bottle Estes Park Barleywine
• 1 Estes Park Brewery pint glass

Why, yes the merchandiser’s eyes did light up when they saw us coming. Why do you ask?

It was a wonderful three days—my only regret is that I must go to work tomorrow.

I hope everyone out there is having a great Fourth of July. Our reasons for the Revolutionary War were not really the best (the fault’s equally on both sides IMHO), but it sure is a good thing that we did revolt and that we are independent. The United States are not the best possible place, but they are the best place so far, and I’m proud to be a citizen of one of them. God Bless the USA!

I’ve just added the Kretchma Cocktail to my list of bachelor recipes. It’s a tasty little treat suitable for serving to ladies of delicate tastes, I think.

Last night while downtown I was passed a $10 bill stamped with info for Where’s George?. This cool website has a single idea: tracking the circulation of money. You simply enter the denomination, series and serial number of the bill along with your zip or postal code, and they display a history of where your money’s been and how quickly it’s travelled from place to place. So I just entered in all the bills in my wallet and hopefully they’ll turn up in another user’s listing sometime. I’ll get an email if and when they do.

I want to get a set of stamps. It’d be really cool to see how far my money goes.

Interestingly, there are similar sites for Canadian money, euros and the like.

From 1976 to 2003, the number of pounds of fireworks sold in the US increased nearly tenfold, and yet the number of fireworks-related deaths remained constant. Every year fifteen times as many children under the age of 10 will drown in their bathtubs as men, women and children will die in fireworks accidents. And yet five states completely outlaw fireworks, and 31 regulate them in some fashion. Celebrate independence; celebrate freedom; celebrate liberty; free fireworks!

Victor Davis Hanson points out one very salient fact: While the world debated whether an American guard at Guantanamo really flushed a Koran down a toilet, Robert Mugabe may have bulldozed the homes of 1.5 million Zimbabweans. Few seem to have cared. The current debate is a succession of tempests in teapots while really important stuff is routinely ignored.