On posting to my blog

I recently received the following in an email:


ps Why the h do I need a pw to comment on your blogs?


I want to stress, if you want to comment without a login that is easy to do. Simply type the distorted text in the "WORD VERIFICATION" section, then select the "Anonymous" option from the radial buttons. I don't think I can make it any easier. (Now if only I could remove that "Test post" that I put in my entry from yesterday...)

I have also been asked about linking in the Skater Link section, as a matter of personal policy I do not link to businesses.

My previous post was quite the brain fart wasn't it? I love that term, brain fart, the notion that sometimes we pass mental gas has a certain terse elegance. I am reminded of the story, when Jon Stewart resumed The Daily Show during the writers strike the first episode was devoted to labour issues. I did not actually see it, but I'm told it was not exactly the model of funny.

On an unrelated item, I was reading the news this morning and retired Senator Howard Metzenbaum of Ohio passed away on Wednesday night at 90 years of age. Its interesting to read about him, not being from Ohio I had never heard of Metzenbaum before which is a shame, he sounded like a model of a liberal progressive to me. (The part where he closed tax loopholes for the rich and stopped at least $10 billion in pork barrel waste in a single year is exactly the sort of politician the US needs more of.)

Yes I also read about Gov. Spitzer, and I would like to point out that while I acknowledge reading about it, I will not comment on it except to say that I had high hopes for the former Governor of New York. I had hoped that Spitzer might one day run for President of the United States, the last time a Governor of New York became President he was a Democrat too, and he took on Hitler (with his friend Churchill) and won. Actually New York has had a lot of great leaders, Mario Cuomo I am told is a voracious reader and I have a rule of thumb, if a person reads a lot, the are probably going to be a good leader.

Anyway enough of politics. The guy who sits next to me at work got the following email from a large computer company when he sent in a support request.

Subject: Return Receipt (displayed)
This is a Return Receipt for the mail that you sent to person@company.com.
Note: This Return Receipt only acknowledges that the message was displayed on the recipient's computer. There is no guarantee that the recipient has read or understood the message contents.

Next time I send in a support request I'm going to include some pretty pictures!

I told someone else I work with it is my plan to bike to Caledon and back at least a few times this summer. She told me that she wanted to come with for the exercise. I am a real elitist here, but frankly I don't think there are too many people who can hack the 75km. Well actually I suspect a lot of people can if they train for it, but how many people are willing to train hours and hours a day? I already know I'm not really training enough, that's why its my goal, to achieve it I am going to have to train a lot harder and really work for it. And there is still a decent chance I won't make it. Last year I set the goal of skate to Oakville and back (70km also), I came up about 20km short but I had to turn back because the road surface was becoming too rough for me.

Am I being an elitist? Am I being reasonable? I don't know. Should I skate instead of ride? Well at least one question is easy, there is no safe way to skate from downtown to Caledon and back. But the other two questions... well I welcome responses.

On Taxes

I believe it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. When you think about what we get for our taxes it really is pretty impressive, safe roads, universal health care, clean water, public education. Still the thought that for every dollar I earn, roughly $0.50 will pay for a civilized society and I only get to pocket the other 50 cents, less the mortgage and the groceries and the auto insurance and... blah blah blah. "Another day older and deeper in debt."

It occurs to me as I read the previous paragraph, Americans who read this article will take almost no value from it. Safe roads? Universal health care? Public Education? But at least you guys are making an Empire in West Asia. The British did something like that too, just over a hundred years ago, one day you guys should get your State Department to go ask the English how their little Imperial experiment worked out. I think on the balance England is worse off for it.

Anyway I wanted to talk about taxes because ironically that's how I get to pay for my bike. I have not had the chance to actually file my return yet, but I was trying to figure out roughly where I stood and for anyone who is waiting to get at some other person's tax software (and is Canadian) this website might be useful. According to that tax estimator I will be getting back enough money to pay for our trip to Texas and the new bike. Yipeee!

Anyone out there who honestly thought I was going to talk about money this whole post? (Sorry but if everyone does their April 1st on the same day it gets kind of predictable doesn't it?)

Anyway I actually wanted to point out the new survey. I'm rather surprised nobody (besides me) voted, so far. Yes, I know, I voted for Bush over Nixon or Hoover, what was I smoking? Well actually its debatable who is/was worse, Nixon or Bush, but I think in a race for the bottom either of those two beat Hoover hands down. Mind you a guy who could literally sleep through his entire presidency (Coolidge) deserves a special mention. There is a story, when Harding died and Coolidge found out he was the President he declared that he should get an ice cream. He would go on to sleep an average of ten hours per day, every day, and take an afternoon nap. Sure Bush vacations more than any president before him, but honestly, how many people can lay claim to being the President of the United States and catching up on their shut eye, at the same time? (Meanwhile the country slid into depression.) As for John Tyler, lovable guy, not only did he veto most of his own party's agenda, he annexed the state of Texas. The movie, Full Metal Jacket tells you all you need to know about Texas.

For any offended Americans, don't get too upset, I'd never do worst Prime Minister of Canada, the fact is, there isn't enough space to list all of them! And who to pick? That would be a hard question. And any offended Texans? After what you spawned on the rest of the world, I'm thinking if anyone is going to be apologizing it ought to be you guys. (And voting for another Clinton over Obama? What is wrong with you people! Geez. Now go on and move to a real state, like the District of Columbia.)

On lousy weather

I hate winter. I guess that makes me a real second rate Canadian, the fact that I'm actually a 4'th generation Torontoian probably makes me a third rate Canadian. Winter has one redeeming feature, without winter no one would have dreamed up ice skating which ultimately led to inline skating via Ice-hockey.

Sorry I had to rant. I'm just really getting sick of this second rate crappy weather, I want warmth and sunshine damnit!

Lately I find myself day dreaming about my bike a lot, maybe cyclist dreams here? The nice thing about a bike is that you can go a lot further than you can on skates, also hills and crummy roads are not the obstacle that they are to a skater. (On the other hand bike theft is something that a skater will never need to worry about.)

I keep thinking I should just go to the bike store and pick the thing up. There's actually two problems, one is I can't ride it home, all this damned white evilness on the ground. The other reason I cannot get my bike is I have no place to store it. You see, we are supposed close on the new house on March 31, except due to... wait for it... Snow, the builder has had to delay closing until April 15. The new place has a great deal more space, it also has a basement room with no windows, the ideal place to store a bike of (in this case) modest value. So I must wait until April 15 before I can even think about getting my new bike.

That said I have it all planned out, I am going to skate to the bike store, then, with skates in my skate bag I will bike home. Now I just need a home to bike to, but at least I won't need to drive my bike home which is just wrong.

On 2006 Specialized Roubaix Comp Triple

This morning I was poking around and found a picture of my new bike. Google is a wonderful thing. The one problem is its not really my bike, yet. I paid a deposit, but I still have to pay for the bike and pick it up. If anyone would like to contribute to the new charity I am establishing, we'll call this one the 'pay for Michael's bike charity'. Not to be confused with the 'pay for Michael's new home appliances charity' or the 'pay Michael's mortgage charity'... damn I really need to win the lottery.

In the mean time, don't use the Google Search in your tool bar, use the Google search at the top of my blog, if we all do that a few hundred billion times I just might have enough nickles saved up to buy a new roll of tape for the handle bars.
What a beauty isn't she?

On the Toronto International Bike show

The weekend is the Toronto International Bike Show. Sigrid (see the Blog roll on the right) and I went together. Sigrid scored a few jerseys and I believe met her new racing team, although to be honest I wasn't really on top of what she was doing. I was too busy haggling over bike prices. Ultimately I got a 2006 Specialized Roubaix (for anyone who is wondering, it comes nicely loaded with a Shimano 105 group) I also bought shoes, Specialized again (the side of the box is labeled Sport Road, not sure if that's the model), and Shimano 105 pedals. The store I bought all this good stuff from threw in a water bottle cage for good measure. Later I bought a pump from another store. Total spent, $1518. Of course since I don't have $1500 in small change under the couch I've had to pay a deposit and will pay for the rest probably next month or so. As a result I don't even have any pretty pictures, ironically I actually had a chance to take some but it completely slipped my mind until after we left the show.

Actually there's a silly story in that. I figured, as we were leaving I should get some pictures but then it occurred to me I can admire pictures any time I want, after all, when I went to Rochester last time a guy at a bike shop there gave me a Specialized Catalog. Only, that catalog is for 2008, my bike, like I said is a vintage 2006, oh well. Hey 2006 was a good year for red wines I hope its a good year for red (and black) bikes.

Previously I promised to put up pictures of the trip to Houston. Sorry, no bike, but well this is pretty fast too:
Pictured above is the T-38 Talon, these aircraft are used for training purposes, notice the NASA Meatball insignia on the tail. This photo is outside the visitor's center of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Flight Center, in south Houston TX.

Sign at the enterence to the Johnson Space Center.


Above is a toilet in the Space shuttle.


These are controls for the Cryogenic systems on the Space Shuttle, these would be of concern to EECOM in the Apollo period. In low Earth orbit I suppose the consumables are not such a major concern, worst case, the space shuttle can always return ahead of schedule. Notice the primitive push button nature of the control systems.

The flight deck of the space shuttle.

The control systems on the space shuttle, notice the Apollo era computer systems. Contrast this with a modern cockpit.

Control systems for the Canada Arm, note the maple leaf. Canadians be proud, a small part of our taxes goes to greatness.

Breakfast of champions, a meal fit for an astronaut.

A Saturn V booster with an Apollo Command and Service Module, note that each stage is physically detached from the other stages. Boosters like this one landed the Apollo astronauts on the moon, when stacked up on launch pad 39A at Cape Kennedy it weighed in at 6.3 million pounds and stood 363 feet into the air.

I am including this picture to give an idea of scale. Recall at launch the entire assembly weighed 6.3 million pounds, by the time the command module splashed down in the Pacific eight days later only 11 thousand pounds were left. The command module is the rusted part just above and behind me.

One of the massive F-1 engines that powered stage 1 of the Saturn V missile, each engine developed an average of 1.5 million pounds of thrust, but at full throttle could produce almost 1.9 million pounds of thrust.

The bottom of the Saturn V missile, there are 5 F-1 engines, they are powered by LOX (Liquid OXygen) and kerosene. (Besides lamps, kerosene is also used in jet engines, to my knowledge the Saturn V stage 1 was the only booster to use kerosene.)

The F-1 Engine, the white note on the engine reads:

A cluster of five engines like this one provided the power for the first stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle during the Apollo-Saturn test flights, manned flights to the moon, and the launch of the Skylab orbiting laboratory into Earth orbit.

The engines were powered for 2-1/2 minutes lifting the Saturn V to an altitude of about 41 miles and a speed of about 6000 miles per hour. Each engine weighed 15,650 pounds and developed a thrust of 1,500,000 pounds.

An F-1 Engine, not far from a Redstone MRBM (Medium Range Ballistic Missile) with a mercury capsule on top. It was an arrangement like this one that made Alan Bartlett Shepard the first American in space on the flight of Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961.

On returning home

Today, after completing the post below this one Lesley and I did almost nothing. Dallas is a city, like pretty much every city in Texas (with the possible exception of San Antonio), that is not worth a tourist's afternoon.

We returned the two two books we bought, one on New Mexico, we will go back, but probably armed with a Lonely Planet, and one on Texas - not going back there again thank you. We spent much of the afternoon in a book store, I read some of Confessions Of A Political Hit Man, as anyone who knows me might expect, I was unsurprised to learn that Jack Abramoff is a slime (that he is a Jew like me is embarrassing). Republicans are hypocrites (go ahead, each of those three words points to a Republican who slammed President Clinton then got themselves into a good old fashioned sex scandal). And that Washington Politics is so poisoned - I blame the Republicans - that anyone who wants to run as a Republican probably ought to just turn themselves in to the authorities and skip the intermediate steps of running, flinging mud at the other guy, and getting elected.

After the book store we returned to DFW, where I am pleased to report that I survived another experience with the helpful people at the TSA (Transportation Security Administration). The TSA are the lovable bunch who make you take your shoes, belts, sweaters off, then remove your coins, cell phones and or Blackberries, laptops, and bags.

I have a really idiotic question to ask, does anyone, besides perhaps Michael Chertoff, honestly believe that the evildoers are going to pull the same stunt twice? Its not as terrorizing the second time and that's the whole point. Osama Bin Laden cannot win an outright war against the United States, but he can scare Americans into surrendering their basic rights and freedoms... ooops, guess what, Bin Laden, he won the War on Terror. Don't believe me? Take a drive through Texas and then decide.

It took 60 years but the United States went from the Greatest Generation to the generation of shop till you drop... the economy.