Posted On Saturday, October 2nd, 2010 By David Veatch
All in all, not a bad weekend. I’d fixed our printing issues with Samba/Cups/HPLIP before 11, and I’d slept in until 9:30 (yes, I clearly needed sleep). It was, I think, a permissions issue, but it was a confusing issue. Brokey: lrw-rw—- 1 root cups 9 Sep 24 17:04 ugen0.2 -> usb/0.2.0 crw-rw-rw- 1 root cups 0, 128 Sep 24 17:01 0.2.0 Workey: lrw-rw—- 1 root cups 9 Sep 24 17:04 ugen0.2 -> usb/0.2.0 crw-rw-rw- 1 root cups 0, 128 Sep 24 17:01 0.2.0 Yeah. I don’t see a difference either. Still, I was getting the following errors: prnt/backend/hp.c 745: ERROR: open device failed stat=12: hp:/usb/photosmart_7350?serial=XXXXXXXXXXXXX and printer-state=5(stopped) printer-state-message=”/usr/local/libexec/cups/backend/hp failed” printer-state-reasons=paused whenever I tried to print (not the real serial number). Then I chown root:lp both ugen0.2 and usb/0.2.0, and printing was magically working again. And yet, they still show as being root:cups. Go figure. Please. Go figure, because aside from some weird corruption in some place I don’t yet know exists, I can’t figure it out myself. So, that done, I moved myself downtown to the KC Public Library for the first of two League of American Cyclists Smart Cycling KC: Traffic Skills 101 classes. Though there wasn’t anything more »
Posted On Wednesday, September 29th, 2010 By David Veatch
I don’t have any more spare notches left in my belt. I seriously need to reclaim them. Hat tip to Noah for the pointing me toward the 100 Whatnot workouts.
Posted On Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 By David Veatch
Wherein the virtues of skinny tires and skinny cues is discussed. Also, chaos, knives, fire and Michael Scott.
Posted On Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 By David Veatch
We've recently started up a Thursday Night Ride at the Wheeler Airport just northwest of downtown KC. It's a 4.3 mile loop around the limited access road that surrounds the airport. It's popular due to the lack of traffic, the relatively flat course, and the fact that you're never more than 2 miles from you car (in case things go south one way or another). If you're into training, it's a good location to gauge progress over time, and between rides. If you want to join us, we meet at 5:30pm every Thursday night at the Wheeler Airport, just off the Broadway Bridge, north of downtown KC. Last week we rode for an hour or so, at a 18-22mph pace. There are two main parking lots to set off from, and we'll make it a habit to meet near Hanger 3. Today, however, on only our second go around, it's raining steady and may not lighten up by tonight. – Keep Ridin'
Posted On Monday, March 8th, 2010 By David Veatch
The timing of this post by the newly married Fat Cyclist, and what I was thinking about writing this morning could not be better. Fortuitous, that is, in a most nonfortuitous way. The topic on my mind is how to stay entertained when riding/training indoors in lieu of riding to work. He’s on about making sure Perfectly Good Excuses are the only ones that keep you from riding to work. I’ll refer you to Elden’s writings on the subject. It’s very good. He’s a lot better than I am, after all. So, while he waxes on about the necessity of a Perfectly Good Excuse, I’ll just say that very few of my excuses for riding indoors since November have been “Perfectly Good” and leave it at that. So, given that I can live with that, how do I make the best of it? I really want to keep in riding shape, but riding indoors on a trainer is boring. There are no gorgeous views atop the crest of a hill at sunset after a brief rainfall. There are no epic climbs to conquer with chest-pounding exuberance. There are no irresponsibly fast (but undeniably joyous) sweeps around the tight bends of more »
Posted On Friday, January 29th, 2010 By David Veatch
David, I don’t think you deserve an explanation for how I’ve treated you. I don’t think I owe you anything. But I think we have a chance, you and I, of getting back what we once had, so I’m going to give you one. I don’t always go where you want me to go, and often I go exactly where you don’t want me to go. What do you expect? You haven’t been visiting me that much. I’m hurt, and am feeling neglected by the lack of attention lately. So, yeah, maybe I am being a little passive aggressive. Instead of talking to you directly, I behave badly, and hope you’ll work it out yourself. I’m talking to you directly now, though. So anything that happens after this is on you. If you’d just spend more time with me, I wouldn’t have to hide myself behind the pretty blue 2 ball. With more attention, I may have slowed to a stop a few inches back that way, and let you see your 11 ball. Look at it, all pretty and stripey. Oh wait. You can’t see it. The 2 is in the way. My bad. *shrug* Also, about that thing more »
Posted On Thursday, June 11th, 2009 By David Veatch
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Posted On Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 By David Veatch
I’ve gotten pretty good at the rollers*. Every day I ride a little longer and a little harder. There’s no doubt that it’s good preparation, even if it’s neither ideal, nor as enjoyable as actual outdoor riding. Still, I miss my new bike. It’s hanging on the wall in the little bike alcove I made last year, and hasn’t seen any action in weeks. I console it every day as I pass by, knowing that at my approach, it’s gears start to vibrate and it’s chain starts to glisten, but I continue on my way, and it’s left hanging. Poor thing. I’m a bad bikefriend. But it’s just too cold out for me. I proved I could do it last year, and realized that it just wasn’t any fun at all. Furthermore, I don’t have any way to have a car both at work and at home when I commute by bike these days. I could feasibly stop with the wussing, and deal with the cold, but the logistics of needing a car here and there, and only having the one for both places are, at least for the moment, prohibitively difficult to overcome. When it warms up, I may more »
Posted On Monday, January 19th, 2009 By David Veatch
I rode for a little over an hour this afternoon, with a single break around the 34 minute mark. That’s my best so far in terms of roller endurance. I’ve not been able to go over 30 minutes before, and that only once. Prior to that, I had to break after 20 minutes on a good day, or 10 to 15 minutes on an average day. The secret? Motivation. For me, I use two primary forms of motivation, also known as "distractions." The first is television. Like The Fat Cyclist, I will typically throw in a couple episodes of my favorite-show-of-the-month and ride while the plot thickens and the bike goes nowhere. The second is music. Today, this is the motivation/distraction method I used, and at least today, it worked better for me. First, I chose exciting tunes out of my music library with tempos between 85 and 105bpm (determined using MixMeister BPM Analyzer), and set them up on a Nano playlist so that they started off slowish at 85bpm, slowly sped up to 105bpm, and then relaxed back down to an easy 85bpm. Setting them up this way allowed me to easily maintain my own rpm, as it is more »
Posted On Monday, January 5th, 2009 By David Veatch
Last year, my focus was on getting as many miles in as I could. I had twin goals of increased fitness and minimizing the use of my car, at least insofar as getting to and from work. This year, I’m simplifying a bit. Both life at work and life at home have changed, and I’m in a position where I have need of my car during the day while at work, and during the evenings while at home. That makes it difficult some days to ride in. I’m the first to admit that the frigid temperatures have something to do with it. As I said, I just don’t care for riding in the cold. Moreover, I’m still fighting a very persistent and frustrating low grade sinus infection, which I don’t want to exacerbate through exposure. However, I’m going to maintain my goal of increased fitness. That has always been my primary goal, and was why I started commuting by bike to begin with. So.. this morning was the beginning of something a little different. Since I won’t be/can’t be riding my bike to work every day, on those days I don’t ride on the streets, I’ll roll. You may recall more »