Three scrambled eggs with chopped basil mixed in, one sauteed button portobello mushroom, and whole milk yogurt with apricot jam, rolled oats, and honey. Also, some chilled Chico Chai with soymilk.
Roasted potatoes with rosemary, steamed asparagus, and country bread.
Making Things, and "Doing the shit out of it".
John Gruber and Merlin Mann gave a talk at SxSW that centered on writing well and personal publishing, but it’s admittedly extensible beyond just blogging.
“…we’re going to assume that you make things, we’re going to assume that you care very much about certain issues or topics, to a point where you’re really verging on obsession. We’re going to assume that it’s important to you, whether you’re a writer, or a photographer, or an interpretive dance choreographer, that you want to get better at it.”
There’s a lot of good in the first fifteen minutes of their talk, but I recommend taking the time to listen through. Don’t worry, their talk is just as smart as their title is smart-ass.
SxSW ’09 - Gruber & Mann - HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility!
On Coming Back.
My bike tour ended last Friday and I was back in Chico by late Saturday night, but I’m just now beginning to decompress. There’s a heap of schoolwork I still need to catch up on, but once I’m done I’ll do a little writing here on the details of my cycle trip.
For now, suffice to say I not only survived, but flourished.
Last Night in Town.
It’s officially Friday the thirteenth, just half an hour past midnight. I should be getting a full night’s sleep, but instead I’m up on a mixture of excitement and nervousness while trying to figuring out what’s left to prepare.
The bike is set: full fenders installed, a strong rack mounted with (likely overpacked) waterproof panniers, freshly overhauled drivetrain ready to be stripped in the rain, extra spokes taped to the non-drive chainstay, clipless pedals treated with silicon spray, frame bolts secured with thread locker, and a good-luck blessing bestowed.
I’ve got everything I need, and likely more: tent, sleeping bag, inflatable pad, cookstove, white gas fuel, pot and pan, fork, a small collection of tools and bicycle consumables like cables and tubes, camera, waterproof notebook and pen, sawed-off toothbrush, organ donor identification, headlamp, maps, hardcore rain gear, a change of warm clothes, rope, flip-flops, bike lock, and a book.
Much of my gear is borrowed, and I’m so thankful to the friends who have pitched in to help me put this all together. I couldn’t be doing this without their help.
Later tonight I’ll be getting on a Northbound bus around 9pm with my boxed bike in the carriage below. By tomorrow morning I’ll be in Oregon and on my way to see my brother. While in PDX I’ll stock up on some foodstuffs for the road (and other things I’ve forgotten), call my parents to remind them that I love them, cut off all my hair, and eat lots of pasta and cake.
Sunday morning I’ll hit the road early; it’s a long day’s ride to the coast from Portland. I can’t think of a better way to start the trip, or a better reward for the end of my first day in the saddle, than to pitch my tent by the Pacific ocean.
From there on out it’s a week of riding South. No emails, no RSS feeds, no video-chatting, no friend requests, no homework, no work work, nothing usual. Okay, I admit that there will be a little bit of the usual web activity. I plan to update my twitter feed from the road via SMS messages, which I guess will also show up on my facebook status. Modern messages from affar, feel free to follow along.
Even though my first tour hasn’t yet begun, I feel as though by passing through all these different emotions while preparing —excitement, anxiety, worry, joy— I’ve somehow already passed over a large hurdle. A few weeks ago the idea of going on tour seemed so distant and hard to understand, how do people do it? I wondered. But now that I’m dead set on hitting the road it feels so much more concrete. I feel like I can easily handle this tour, and much larger challenges to come.
And so, bon voyage internets, I’ll see you when I get back.
Three Smart Things.
I haven’t looked at my RSS aggregator for a few days, but tonight I found some nice things.
“Panda Tuesday; The History of the Panda, New APIs, Explore and You”
Explanation of some of flickr’s APIs, rainbow vomiting pandas, and interesting web jargon from the code.flickr devblog.
“Traktion Aftermath”
Track blog Hipster Nascar looks at a tiff in the fixed-gear-blogger-scene and concludes that we’re all on the globalized capitalist hipster bandwagon anyway.
“Kutiman, Big Media, and the Future of Creative Entrepreneurship”
Merlin Mann gets me all excited about the evolution of media and it’s inevitable but currently illegal future over at 43Folders.
Enjoy
"Toy-Town Trains, Sapporo"
Best with HD switched on, viewed in fullscreen, and with Yo La Tengo playing in the background.
via the Flickr HD Video pool.
See more of Smashcut’s fake tilt-shift miniatures here.
Kind of Pizza
Round Naan, covered in pasta sauce, shredded mozzarella cheese, and artichoke hearts.
Bake @ 350 for about 10 minutes.
Super delicious.