He’s A Schmuck

Alright!

I’ve gotten a ton of response, so thanks to everyone who took the time to give their suggestions. The comments section even got astro-turfed by the infamous and relentless motorola marketing people, which I suppose is kind of flattering in an odd way…

Anyway!

I’m going through all of the great comments and will pare them down to a list of experiments that I’ll conduct on myself over the coming months. There are so many suggestions that I’m definitely going to need a creative way to do this. Maybe I’ll have some guest bloggers take on a few and report back.

The first step, I think, should be a short monitoring period in which I’ll take note of how my time is spent during a typical week. I think it will also be productive to take note of trends in my mood. In this case, I may have to bring in some more outside help to give me a more objective idea of how crabby I really am every day.

Sound good?

Also, I’m wondering if people would like the option of subscribing and possibly receiving email notifications. I know this location isn’t as easily accessible as many of the social networking sites we all use. Maybe we can try a couple of options out.

In the meantime, I’ll be trying not to die navigating the ridiculously treacherous streets of Chicago and Crystal Lake by bicycle. But at least I’ll look like a total and complete nerd in the process.

This morning, I woke up late and nearly missed two trains to work (I missed the first at 7:40 am and made a running leap aboard the second one at 9:10).

This kind of thing has been happening all too often recently, so I’m brainstorming ways to restructure my life and inject a little more discipline into my behavioral cycles. I’m nearly 100% sure most of my problems would go away if I wasn’t working 1.5 hrs from home at a job that is most kindly described as understimulating, but I’m kinds stuck with it for a while and might as well make the best of it. Besides, this presents a fun excuse to be a huge nerd and experiment on myself.

So, how does one hack their behavior?I know there are more than a few books on that subject, but I’m stubborn and would rather treat the endeavor as an experiment. Let’s lay out what we know:

-I exhibit characteristics similar to an over-fed house cat. Always sleepy, I avoid getting up off the couch at all costs.
-My healthy and productive habits (biking, cooking, being generally active) have been replaced by the soul-sucking interwebs.
-I don’t get nearly enough sleep.
-I really don’t like my job.
-I spend 3+ hrs every day commuting.
-Im starting to enjoy television again.
-My devotion to a well-thought-out diet has long since waned into non-existence.
-I have very little time to myself.
-My social life is kind of a joke.
-I almost certainly drink way too much.

So, there it is. Now I need to think of some elegant solutions and put them into action in a way is quantifyable enough to track in a way that lets me determine my success rate. I’ll get working on some of those ideas and report back.

Suggestions welcome. I’ll cull all input together and develop what will almost certainly be an overly-academic plan to share. I can promise there will be spreadsheets.

Ive been planning on building a highly space-efficient bike storage solution for a few months now and about a week ago, I finally found the time to get it done.

The design is basically stolen from my friend and velo-obsessed companion, Chris. In my opinion, it’s a simple and elegant concept that solves quite a few common bike storage problems. I can hang 5 bikes in a space roughly 6 feet by 5 feet with about two feet of vertical space below for parts storage. There are other hook-based solutions, but this one is ideal for indoor storage where mountable surfaces are sparse. You don’t need to futz around with drywall anchor systems-great for my apartment with its ancient sheet rock-and it keeps tire marks off the wall. Here are the materials.

- 1 2×4, 10ft length, cut in half. About $2.
- 2 pieces of 3/4″ MDF. I probably could have used less in this dept. About $15.
- 5 rubber-coated bike hooks. About $0.70 each.
- 8 4″ deck screws.
- 16 2.5″ deck screws.

The whole project can easily be done for around $25 but I ended up springing for large boxes of screws and am too lazy to figure out how much they contributed to the final cost.

Basically, you just screw the 2×4’s to two studs, 32″ apart (if your studs are spaced at 16″) using the 4″ deck screws, mount the MDF to the 2×4’s, then screw the bike hooks into the MDF, staggered about 6-12 inches to allow handlebars to nest within eachother. I think I could have just cut one sheet of MDF in half, then spaced it out to acheive the same effect.

Here’s the finished product. I’m pretty happy with it. No issues so far!

The only thing more frustrating than wanting something that’s just beyond your reach is being reminded of its existence all the time.

It’s trade show season in my indstry, geospatial technology. I’ve worked two shows in three days, totalling about 34 hours of my time. I don’t mind working shows, actually. In fact, I really enjoy the chance to learn and meet new people and sometimes, yes, I even enjoy playing salesman.

The problem with trade shows is that, while there are plenty of seriously frightening weirdos in attendance, there are also plenty of brilliant minds and great ideas. And while I’m tremendously thankful for the chance to learn from these people, that very positive experience is also a reminder that I’m being held back by a company that is almost embarrassing simetimes.

Not that I don’t appreciate my job. I really do. It’s just that there are still so many opportunities to persue. There are still so many new things to learn and, most importantly, these shows are a reminder that there are thousands of great companies and organizations that could potentially teach me new things.

Anyway, I’ve really been towing the line between frustration and gratitude this week. I swear my next post will be more interesting and have lots of pictures.

Also, I feel I should mention that I’m writing this on my iPhone in a hotel bathroom. I love trade shows
Here’s a cool poster on trees I picked up from the Illinois dept of Natural Resources at the IL Arborist Assoc show:

…I’d be a millionaire.

The time has come again for me to pay homage to the wisdom of the Beastie Boys.

It seems that nowadays it’s been damn near impossible to keep my mind in one place for more than 20 seconds. It could be adult-onset ADD, but I think I’m just bored, which is odd since I don’t seem to have any extra time to be idle.

I wonder what normal, real-live adults do to keep their brains strong and useful…

Personally, I’ve been trying to figure out what it means to be an adult. Or at least what it means not to be a dependant anymore. See, the scariest thing about this turning point has nothing to do with wondering whether I’ll make it or not - I’m entirely confident I’ll survive just as capably as the next schmuck. But is that even something to be proud of?

10 months ago, when I started commuting by train most days (on the Metra, which i am convinced employs quite possibly the grumpiest work force in America), I began really ripping through books in the wasted hour-long ride each way. I’m now certain that my choices in literature, including:

Urban Homesteading
Diet for a New America
No Logo
Why Our Food Choices Matter
Ethical Vegetarianism
The New Complete Joy of Homebrewing

…are reflective of my need to identify with something real (I mean, honestly, who reads nothing but non-fiction every day for 6 months??).

I am wondering if my peers, recently thrust into what is supposed to be adulthood and a career, are experiencing a similar feeling.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve read any good non-fiction and I’m again feeling a kind of listlessness and lack of direction. Really, my biggest fear is falling into some kind of feedback loop of complacency.

What do other people do to avoid that? Or do other people even care?

If there’s one reassuring thing about adult-onset ADD, it’s the constant reminder that while it may sputter and kick like a rusty volkswagen, my brain is still working.

I imagine these longer entries will persist for a while. Just hoping the exercise will help my thoughts maintain a little direction.

I got more stories than JD’s got Salinger.

Oy, I really petered out there on the posts for a while.

Back to the bizness.

Here she is, version 1.0 of my winter commuting rig.

Componentry:
-Surly Karate Monkey Frame
-Mavic a317’s laced to surly disc hubs
-Mish mash of cx tires
-Nitto ’stache bars w delicious eleganza tape
-Salsa post and stem
-Cane Creek Tank HS
-Cane Creek drop V brake levers and avid calipers
-Truvativ stylo cranks w 44t salsa ring
-And the coup de grace - a 17t Tomi bolt-on cog (and eno freewheel on the flop side)

As soon as I save some scratch, she’s getting a shiny old man mountain rack to boot. And if I ever get some spare time, my big apple tires might go on to close out the remainder of the non-snow season.

I’m actually getting really excited for winter riding. Getting suited up in the morning to brave the elements always makes the day seem more like an adventure. And everyone needs more adventure.

Here she is: my roadie. A Salsa La Raza frame with a mix of 105, Ultegra, and Dura Ace components. My faithful Brooks Pro saddle got transferred over and the bars, seatpost and stem are all matching Salsa components. The only disappointing part of the whole ride is those Specialized tires, which have flatted twice in the last 4 days. They’ll be replaced with Gatorskins soon.

I’m excited to take it on my first century this weekend: the Apple Cider Century in Michigan. Erin’s coming too, though she doesn’t know it yet.

Anyhow, it has a smooth, responsive ride, handles quick without being twitchy and shifts like butter despite the old drivetrain. It’ll be perfect for getting in shape before winter strikes and I start piling on the blubber.

So I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that I’m hopelessly addicted to the Internet. Actually, I’m hopelessly addicted to a lot of things and have a pretty serious tendency toward that kind of thing.

I’m not sure what percentage of my day is spent browsing through the unimportant (and mostly uninteresting) filth of the web, but let me tell you, it’s too much. In all honesty, I probably spend 70% of my work day browsing, and the only reason it’s less than 100% is that my job sometimes requires me to function as a living animal and remove my ass from the well-worn dent in my pleather work chair.

Now, my addiction hasn’t gotten in the way of my work. I make every deadline and somehow have managed to make a pretty good impression on my employer.

Not to go off on a tangent, but I really feel like that last paragraph illustrates the problem with my generation. We’re so good at just getting by that that’s all we do: get by. Or perhaps it’s a problem unique to me. Who knows?

Anyway, my addiction has blossomed and now consumes my every moment of thought during the workday. It’s almost as if I’ve unwittingly started associating browsing the web with my “job.” like my duty while in the confines of my office is to absorb as much useless Internet waste as humanly possible within an 8-hour period.

I’ve tried to shake it, but even the greatest motivation I can muster can’t overcome the drive to slurp up Internet tidbits. Now I just can’t decide if it’s a personlity flaw, or a product of a complete lack of intellectual stimulation at work, or both.

Either way, I need to shake this addiction. Does somebody out there make a patch?

It’s no secret that my brain has only been half-functional since last fall. Half the creativity, half the critical power. But then, that’s to be expected when a person transitions from years of academic and social stimulation to a life of staring at a computer screen and spacing out in the car or on a train.

I’ve experienced severe atrophy before. Laid up in bed unable to walk for days, then unable to do much more than walk for months, I gained 40 pounds and found myself out of breath after walking across the room. That’s the kind of atrophy you can feel acutely; consciously. I could feel my legs refusing to cooperate a couple days after surgery.

Now, atrophy of the mind is something completely different. The mind constantly wanders, enforcing those connections critical to maintaining the character the brain has developed.

However, over months of dull wandering through the day-in-day-out motions of the office, even the mind, capable as it may be, can weaken. Often, it happens so gradually that it’s impossible to detect. One day, you’ll be asked a question that will completely allude your capacity to answer. You’ll take note. It won’t seem significant at first, but the instances pile up.

For me, the realization struck while I was out with some good friends, one of whom had brought someone I’d never met. Through the events of the evening, I ended up sitting alone with this stranger. As I opened my mouth to start a conversation (I fancy myself a capable conversationalist and at the very least, a pretty social human) my brain froze. I just couldn’t wrestle the words from lathargic, slushy mind. As I struggled to figure out what the hell was wrong with me, I was struck with the stark reality that my brain was wilting.

As I rode home that evening, I took stock of my mental real estate. I hadn’t read a challenging book in months, I hadn’t had a fierce debate in months, I hadn’t picked up my guitar in weeks. In short, my brain hadn’t gotten any stimulation beyond sifting through the detritus of the blogosphere each morning at my desk.

Anyhow, that’s why I’ve decided to tale up blogging again. Click to continue »

It ain’t no good.  I really like this video

http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html