Although I've been fairly uninspired to write anything in my blogs this week that doesn't mean that being unplugged didn't bother me. By unplugged I mean our server blocked our internet connection for a couple of days. Why? Because our credit card had expired and it didn't occur to them to send a quick email asking for the expiry date on our new one! They just blocked us until I managed to contact them by phone and ask them to reinstall our (over priced) connection.
All the stuff I've been doing on the computer this last year has meant that I have created a fairly complex network of subscriptions and memberships in several forums, blogs and online groups all amounting to an online identity. My involvement and interactions in the sites I visit, comments I make on blogs, emails I post etc. etc... all equate to the online me. Having the account disconnected so easily and for such an insignificant matter as a date on a card is a great reminder of how fragile ones existence in cyberspace can be! thing is quite impermanent and unreliable. I can be snuffed out at a whim and one day maybe we all will be, online I mean. One day the power may go out and all that we have accumulated through the internet may be lost. All the information all the connections made between people all the access to data, accounts etc... everything could one day be snuffed out! That's a bit scary but I think it is possible.
So anyway I got cut off for a couple of days and had nothing to say anyway! This past week I attended the Environment Center's launch of their campaign to make Darwin a solar city, worked, went to school, picked up my daughter from childcare and prepared meals. Basically I've realized that I have very little time for stuffing around on the computer or doing much else for that matter and have been reminded in no uncertain terms that spare time is meant to be family time! I have been burning the candle at both ends by trying to do all that stuff and maintain my blogs, keep up to date with local environmental issues and read my favorite blogs when there's time. It feels as I get older that I have less and less time! Like time actually speeds up respective to ones age! I would love to do more cycling but the reality is that I just don't have the free time to do it in.
Through my daughters recent obsession with Play Dough I have rediscovered my bizarre fetish for sniffing the stuff! Actually I don't know that fetish is the right work it's kind of like an habitual or addictive behavior! I just can't help picking up pieces of the stuff and holding it to my nose! I didn't realize how often I did it until Sam caught me doing it one too many times and queried why I would want to sniff Play Dough. I don't know why! At first it reminded me of my childhood (which wasn't too bad or traumatic or anything) but then I just wanted to keep on smelling the stuff! Now whenever I pick a piece up I take a deep whiff! It's getting out of hand!.
What else has happened since I last posted? Oh yeh I got a flat tire exactly half way home from school (about 10 km) and had to pump ride, pump ride it about 6 times before the tube had become so split that it was letting out more air than I could cram into it! I ended up delicately riding on the flat and made it home in pretty good time. The disappointing thing was that I could make about 27 km per hour with a flat rear tire and not much less than on a fully inflated one! Now I'm gonna have to lift my game and increase my average speed if I want to get over that little humiliating fact!
Oh and I had a rather negative interaction with a young fella who nearly ran me over on my way to work on Friday. I was turning right into an intersection, signaling with the wide open palm of my right hand stretched out as far as humanly possible when the car approaching the stop line of the intersection, rather than stopping, accelerated towards me! (This can't be right thought I, people are supposed to stop not drive faster when approaching an intersection marked with a STOP sign!) Instantly I checked my position:
Yes I am in plain view.
Yes my right arm is stretched out wide and in clear view indicating that I am in fact intending to turn
No I am not on the wrong side of the road
Yes the car is still moving towards me
Yes it appears to be moving faster than when I first saw it
(I made eye contact with the driver)
Yes I may, at any second now, be struck down in the middle of the road by a dumm ass kid wearing an American baseball cap and driving a car that doesn't fit him!
I grab on the brakes.... they squeal as the rubber soles of my thongs struggle to cling to rough bitumen, the flimsy straps cutting into the tops of my feet as the car swerves around me and my bike lurches to the side of it's intended path!
"Hey!.(I watch for a split second to see if he will stop) "YOU F@#*!#$ IDIOT" I roar in my most aggressive 'I'm going to pulverize you in to tahini if I get my hands on you' voice. "GET BACK HERE!" I growl at the top of my voice.
He stared at me and drove on, then I looked around and realized I am was in front of a primary School and there were kids being dropped off just a short way down the street, well within earshot of my booming voice.
What an idiot I felt. There didn't seem to be any kids who heard me but the couple across the road, probably on their way to work definitely did. I don't know what possessed me to be so vocal at that time, I've had near misses before and never muttered a word but somehow this one was different. I felt sure the guy must have seen me but he kept driving regardless! If it seemed more like an honest mistake I probably would have said nothing but I seriously felt like this guy was aiming for me! I rode on to work quite embarrassed by my performance but still angry at the driver.
Other stuff happened between then and now and some of it was probably funny, some might have been worth writing about but my capacity for remembering stuff is pretty week so I guess I'll leave it at that.
Oh one last thing. Tires for touring bikes are very expensive! Part of my decision to ride on the flat tire was because when I got the flat it was raining and the water on the surface of my worn tire formed bubbles in several places when I put some air in. So I decided not to worry about saving the tire and I went and bought a new one. The cheapest I could find was $30! That's thirty dollars worth of very thin rubber which I am sure will not last me all that long. Now I have another reason for picking up my pace! If I'm gonna ride on thin tires I'll want to get as much speed out of them as I possibly can.
That's all I have to say, I suppose. The curlews are calling and it's getting late. I'm out of here!
All the stuff I've been doing on the computer this last year has meant that I have created a fairly complex network of subscriptions and memberships in several forums, blogs and online groups all amounting to an online identity. My involvement and interactions in the sites I visit, comments I make on blogs, emails I post etc. etc... all equate to the online me. Having the account disconnected so easily and for such an insignificant matter as a date on a card is a great reminder of how fragile ones existence in cyberspace can be! thing is quite impermanent and unreliable. I can be snuffed out at a whim and one day maybe we all will be, online I mean. One day the power may go out and all that we have accumulated through the internet may be lost. All the information all the connections made between people all the access to data, accounts etc... everything could one day be snuffed out! That's a bit scary but I think it is possible.
So anyway I got cut off for a couple of days and had nothing to say anyway! This past week I attended the Environment Center's launch of their campaign to make Darwin a solar city, worked, went to school, picked up my daughter from childcare and prepared meals. Basically I've realized that I have very little time for stuffing around on the computer or doing much else for that matter and have been reminded in no uncertain terms that spare time is meant to be family time! I have been burning the candle at both ends by trying to do all that stuff and maintain my blogs, keep up to date with local environmental issues and read my favorite blogs when there's time. It feels as I get older that I have less and less time! Like time actually speeds up respective to ones age! I would love to do more cycling but the reality is that I just don't have the free time to do it in.
Through my daughters recent obsession with Play Dough I have rediscovered my bizarre fetish for sniffing the stuff! Actually I don't know that fetish is the right work it's kind of like an habitual or addictive behavior! I just can't help picking up pieces of the stuff and holding it to my nose! I didn't realize how often I did it until Sam caught me doing it one too many times and queried why I would want to sniff Play Dough. I don't know why! At first it reminded me of my childhood (which wasn't too bad or traumatic or anything) but then I just wanted to keep on smelling the stuff! Now whenever I pick a piece up I take a deep whiff! It's getting out of hand!.
What else has happened since I last posted? Oh yeh I got a flat tire exactly half way home from school (about 10 km) and had to pump ride, pump ride it about 6 times before the tube had become so split that it was letting out more air than I could cram into it! I ended up delicately riding on the flat and made it home in pretty good time. The disappointing thing was that I could make about 27 km per hour with a flat rear tire and not much less than on a fully inflated one! Now I'm gonna have to lift my game and increase my average speed if I want to get over that little humiliating fact!
Oh and I had a rather negative interaction with a young fella who nearly ran me over on my way to work on Friday. I was turning right into an intersection, signaling with the wide open palm of my right hand stretched out as far as humanly possible when the car approaching the stop line of the intersection, rather than stopping, accelerated towards me! (This can't be right thought I, people are supposed to stop not drive faster when approaching an intersection marked with a STOP sign!) Instantly I checked my position:
Yes I am in plain view.
Yes my right arm is stretched out wide and in clear view indicating that I am in fact intending to turn
No I am not on the wrong side of the road
Yes the car is still moving towards me
Yes it appears to be moving faster than when I first saw it
(I made eye contact with the driver)
Yes I may, at any second now, be struck down in the middle of the road by a dumm ass kid wearing an American baseball cap and driving a car that doesn't fit him!
I grab on the brakes.... they squeal as the rubber soles of my thongs struggle to cling to rough bitumen, the flimsy straps cutting into the tops of my feet as the car swerves around me and my bike lurches to the side of it's intended path!
"Hey!.(I watch for a split second to see if he will stop) "YOU F@#*!#$ IDIOT" I roar in my most aggressive 'I'm going to pulverize you in to tahini if I get my hands on you' voice. "GET BACK HERE!" I growl at the top of my voice.
He stared at me and drove on, then I looked around and realized I am was in front of a primary School and there were kids being dropped off just a short way down the street, well within earshot of my booming voice.
What an idiot I felt. There didn't seem to be any kids who heard me but the couple across the road, probably on their way to work definitely did. I don't know what possessed me to be so vocal at that time, I've had near misses before and never muttered a word but somehow this one was different. I felt sure the guy must have seen me but he kept driving regardless! If it seemed more like an honest mistake I probably would have said nothing but I seriously felt like this guy was aiming for me! I rode on to work quite embarrassed by my performance but still angry at the driver.
Other stuff happened between then and now and some of it was probably funny, some might have been worth writing about but my capacity for remembering stuff is pretty week so I guess I'll leave it at that.
Oh one last thing. Tires for touring bikes are very expensive! Part of my decision to ride on the flat tire was because when I got the flat it was raining and the water on the surface of my worn tire formed bubbles in several places when I put some air in. So I decided not to worry about saving the tire and I went and bought a new one. The cheapest I could find was $30! That's thirty dollars worth of very thin rubber which I am sure will not last me all that long. Now I have another reason for picking up my pace! If I'm gonna ride on thin tires I'll want to get as much speed out of them as I possibly can.
That's all I have to say, I suppose. The curlews are calling and it's getting late. I'm out of here!
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