| Hell Yes Sprints |
[16 Mar 2010|01:07am] |
We had the Hell Yes Sprints come to town. They visited HopCat in downtown Grand Rapids (the 3rd best beer bar in the world as voted by BeerAdvocate.com users 2 years in a row). It's put on by the founder of Fixed Gear Gallery, Dennis, and has travelled around Michigan the last couple of years, as well as to some special bicycle shows.
It was a ton o fun! Somehow I ended up in 3rd place overall. I'm not really sure how that happened. Maybe it was the power of my pink Fat Cyclist jersey. :) I'm not much of a writer, so I'll just post some of my photos.
( More photos! )
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| Updating a Peugeot |
[15 Mar 2010|06:24pm] |
Hey everyone,
So I've been gradually tuning up my Peugeot (and trying to convince a racer it wants to be a fully-loaded tourer, but that's for the second question) after riding fixed all winter, and have been running into some difficulties with the French sizing.
The bike (circa 1987 if I've dated the Shimano components correctly, Canadian-made with Ishiwata 4130 tubing) came with very narrow drops that tend to give me shooting pains in my neck, and lose feeling in my hands after about 20km of riding. Fun for a professional musician!
So I went digging through the parts bins at one of the local co-ops, and scored a nice set of Sakae road drops in a much more suitable width for $5. We checked the width with calipers, and the Sakae drops are the old standard of 25.4mm When I compared the caliper width to the unlabeled drops on my Peugeot, I noticed a marginal amount of play. The guy at the co-op told me not to worry about it, so I headed home, cut a brake cable and removed the lever, ripped off the bar tape, and discovered that my existing handlebars are the fun width of 25.0mm. Yeah, co-op guy, that play was a problem.
Now I'm trying to weigh my options. I'm thinking my best bet is to find a new stem, and go ahead with the bars. Is it safe to assume that because of the 25.0mm bars, the width of my steer tube is 22.0 rather than 22.2? If I do buy a standard stem, is it safe to sand it down a bit? Am I doomed to a life of nerve damage with this bike?
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Touring questions!
If I resolve the handlebar issues, I want to switch to a triple crankset and get some form of front rack (no braze-ons and no eyelets on my existing fork). I'm on a student budget (the tour's my graduation present to myself!), and a local shop was telling me I'd probably be better off getting a fork from them ($70), switching to a front cantilever brake ($25), and then purchasing a lower-end rack, rather than buying one of the high-end Tubus or Old Man Mountain racks (around $150) designed to co-operate with a road fork. Suggestions?
Someone on Craigslist is selling a Shimano Sora triple crankset, square taper, for $30 right now. I want to jump on it, but given the miseries I've had with other French sizes on my bike, I'm terrified at the prospect of discovering a French bottom bracket and trying to hunt down a front derailleur to accomodate the new crank set. Suggestions on how to proceed?
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| lemon pie |
[15 Mar 2010|12:18pm] |
I just wanted to share this recipe I made yesterday for pi day. It turned out great, and I had never made this sort of pie before (I felt like I was doing science when I made it somehow, it was scary but I just went for it!).
http://fatfreevegan.com/blog/2010/03/05/lemon-pie-filling/
I used both lemon and lime instead of just lemon. For the crust I just used a premade graham cracker crust I bought at the store for a couple bucks. This actually turns out to be a pretty cheap pie too.
The recipe makes enough goo for one full pie, but I think it would be better to make two pies filled halfway and then have some kind of whipped topping on top. Anybody have any good whipped cream topping recipes? Something fluffy and sweet would be pretty good with this pie which is really tart.
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[15 Mar 2010|02:53am] |
the hustler club friended me. more importantly, THE HUSTLER CLUB HAS A LIVEJOURNAL? i really feel like this proves an opinion of mine: that strip clubs are like the "old guy at a show trying to be cool but ends up super creepy" of the sex industry. never been in one, never will.
now i'm really curious how much money the average visitor spends there, compared to what the average hourly rate of an escort. from what i've seen, it's not as expensive, considering what one would be getting. for example, Riley Mason charges $250 an hour, and she was a pretty famous pornstar, a few years ago before the Suicide Girls aesthetic became the prime example of everything they were supposedly against. compared to what a celebrity of a similar level might charge, that just feels like a bargain.
in other news, i'm starting to realize how the antidepressants actually worked for me, 2 months after the prescription ran out. i've been kind of a douche. i've been playing music with some friends who take it really seriously, but i just like having something to do. my relationship with time hasn't been working out, i feel like each week is a day. and it's not that i don't know how happy, i just prefer to keep it to myself and i really don't have any sort of privacy at my home.
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| Recipes for black beans? |
[15 Mar 2010|02:21pm] |
Hi all, I finally was able to buy a cheap packet of black beans here in Australia, they were a bit tricky to find previously. Any good recipes would be recommended.
Also , I'm wondering if people could let me know dishes which freeze well? I usually make unbaked puff pastry pasties, dahl, brown rice, tomato sauce in bulk and freeze them but I'm always keen for new ideas!
thanks
Cate
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| Detailed Food Budget |
[14 Mar 2010|02:50pm] |
I've started keeping all of my grocery receipts to keep better track of where my food money is going. Since I moved out of the United States I've reverted back to vegetarian from quasi-vegan, and part of the reason I did this detailed summary was to see exactly how much of my money is going to non-vegan items. These are all listed under "junk," although Paprika Pringles are vegan.
From 2-8-10 to 3-9-10 I spent 78.10 € on food
Anyway, as you can see I spent as much on junk food as I did on staples - that's way too much. This month I'm going to try harder to cut down on non-vegan junkfood and drink more water instead of juice (as it is I already heavily dilute it, but I think I can drink straight up water more often.)
( Specific foods listed under the cut )
I'm curious how you guys measure up. I spend a lot of money on snacks and breakfast food, but I guess I snack a lot...
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| Can you be religious without being "religious"? |
[14 Mar 2010|02:10pm] |
I've been having this weird kind of revelation for the past little while.
I'm actually a theist. I have a lot of faith in something bigger than myself; call it G-d, call it whatever. I want this higher power to play a bigger part in my life, but I'm not sure how.
I don't want to become orthodox. I'm a queer left-wing hippie Jew. I tend to kind of dislike strict organized religion and arbitrary rules. Oh yes, and due to a learning disability, I kind of suck at reading Hebrew. But, I want to live a more G-d-centered life, if that's possible. Am I making any sense?
So, where do I start?
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[14 Mar 2010|09:08am] |
Oh yeah also this.
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[14 Mar 2010|05:58am] |
I have no idea why I am still awake.
Back to reading, I guess.
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| It's the Little Things... |
[14 Mar 2010|05:15pm] |
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Just got back from Phase 1 of Pesach shopping and discovered that kosher l'Pesach Tam Tam crackers are back!!! Yay!
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| suggestions for bulk buying |
[13 Mar 2010|11:36pm] |
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i'd like to do more bulk buying for my dried goods, but i'm not really sure where to start. i live in the US, new hampshire to be more specific. i don't have any whole foods or trader joe's near me(closest are an hour drive). there is a chain supermarket, Hannaford, that seems to be ok for some of their loose grains, but i'm not sure how to compare their prices with anyone else. any ideas?
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| Taking a smart move by Glasshat |
[13 Mar 2010|08:31pm] |
I've been too complacent on facebook and tired of the banter. So this is where I'll rest my thoughts where I can expand on them. Do I care if people read this? No I don't care at all. This is just a journal to keep my interests growing and post from time to time.
I like posting on here more so since the format is more...friendly.
I have a new iMac and running all my new software. It will take months to learn all the ins and outs, but I'm liking this new system. 21.5 inch screen is huge! I'm glad I did not go for the 27 inch monster.
The new logic studio is kinda...cheesy in the gui design and look, but I'm getting used to it. I like using the apple smart mouse, but I'll have to get some spare batteries for the keyboard and mouse for later use. Maschine is pretty fun and the rest of the NI bundle. I'm kinda sad by all the presents as I can hear a lot of them in most folks music...........seemly too easy to make.
I have a lot of work ahead of me.
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| Adult Easter Egg Hunt |
[13 Mar 2010|04:40pm] |
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So in the spirit all things chocolate and bunnies, my twentysomething girlfriends and I would like to go on an easter egg hunt. But for adults. I've found proof these exist, and know of one at the Kitsap County Faigrounds, but I'd like to try to stick to the Seattle-side of the water. Google has failed me (this is rare) so if any of you can help a grown-up kid out, I'd be much obliged.
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