[Toshi]

Eric owns a Trek shop. Look at their women's line too, a deal might be had.

Good tip. Along the same "companies aren't building what my wife wants I want for my wife" theme, they don't offer 1x and a dropper until the $3300 price point with the Remedy 8.

I'm more keen on the 1x than the dropper but the cheaper ones have neither, which would be cost prohibitive to change. Adding just an external dropper would be fine (KS has a cheap one now), but if the flexy-chainstays-as-"pivot" Liv has both desired things for $2100 then why not?

 

[Toshi]

@Westy I'm giving up on Dave @ speeddream.com. Dude traveled all summer, which is fine, but now he's supposedly back in Durango yet won't answer his phone. Since I have to speak with him (again) to order the wheels because he has no web order form this is a problem. No way to run a business, this, and I've chased after him on the phone for more than enough time already.

I'm going to give Golden Bike Shop my business instead, and will let them source the parts so that the profit stays with them. (This is for a new set of wheels for the commuter: DT Swiss 350 hubs in 6 bolt 15 mm front/QR rear guise, 32 hole Stan's Arch EX if available and reasonable substitute if not, brass nipples, double butted spokes.)

 

[Adventurous]

@Westy I'm giving up on Dave @ speeddream.com. Dude traveled all summer, which is fine, but now he's supposedly back in Durango yet won't answer his phone. Since I have to speak with him (again) to order the wheels because he has no web order form this is a problem. No way to run a business, this, and I've chased after him on the phone for more than enough time already.

I'm going to give Golden Bike Shop my business instead, and will let them source the parts so that the profit stays with them. (This is for a new set of wheels for the commuter: DT Swiss 350 hubs in 6 bolt 15 mm front/QR rear guise, 32 hole Stan's Arch EX if available and reasonable substitute if not, brass nipples, double butted spokes.)

If GBS doesn't work out for you (don't know why they wouldn't), Redstone Cyclery in Lyons has a good reputation for wheelbuilding prowess as far back as I can remember on the forums. I was in there last year and spoke with Dave was very polite with me and shot the shit for a bit even though I had no intentions to buy anything.

 

[Westy]

@Westy I'm giving up on Dave @ speeddream.com. Dude traveled all summer, which is fine, but now he's supposedly back in Durango yet won't answer his phone. Since I have to speak with him (again) to order the wheels because he has no web order form this is a problem. No way to run a business, this, and I've chased after him on the phone for more than enough time already.

I'm going to give Golden Bike Shop my business instead, and will let them source the parts so that the profit stays with them. (This is for a new set of wheels for the commuter: DT Swiss 350 hubs in 6 bolt 15 mm front/QR rear guise, 32 hole Stan's Arch EX if available and reasonable substitute if not, brass nipples, double butted spokes.)

That is a shame. He was super easy to deal with when I got my wheels.

 

[Toshi]

Potential fly in the ointment for my roadtrip to RMNP plan, besides the whole bit of the road being closed now due to snow*: My Land Cruiser is still in the body shop. They can get it done for the most part late today, but I can't pick it up after noon. Therefore it'll hang out with them and the detailers until Monday.

Hmph. I guess I'll just bum around the house (or around Denver at least +/- Costco) with the kids on Sunday. On Saturday I can stuff my 5010 in the back of the wife's RAV4 (with seats folded) so I can get my short loop at White Ranch action in.

* NPS website says road open. Phone recorded message says closed.

 

[Toshi]

White Ranch today in the snow.

Relevant to this post is that I finally had to figure out how to get image URLs directly while using iOS. Turns out it is actually pretty easy for Google+, at least: long press on image, select Copy, paste into address bar, copy that resulting URL. Then it's the usual BBCode img tag business, which is much easier to do with the Smart Keyboard instead of futzing around with various sub-keyboards with the on-screen setup for the square bracket then the slash.

 

[6thElement]

@Westy I'm giving up on Dave @ speeddream.com. Dude traveled all summer, which is fine, but now he's supposedly back in Durango yet won't answer his phone. Since I have to speak with him (again) to order the wheels because he has no web order form this is a problem. No way to run a business, this, and I've chased after him on the phone for more than enough time already.

I'm going to give Golden Bike Shop my business instead, and will let them source the parts so that the profit stays with them. (This is for a new set of wheels for the commuter: DT Swiss 350 hubs in 6 bolt 15 mm front/QR rear guise, 32 hole Stan's Arch EX if available and reasonable substitute if not, brass nipples, double butted spokes.)

I can recommend http://www.lacemine29.com/ the Arch on Hopes he laced for me 7 years ago are at about 8000 miles with no issues.

 

[Toshi]

Wheels ordered through GBS: DT 350, DT 331 rims, Sapim DB spokes.

I also swung by REI and picked up a new bike trailer, a Burley D'Lite. It has suspension! My hope is that Jessica and I could go on easy off road trails/double track with me hauling the kids in this fancy trailer. Otherwise getting her a bike would mean $60 in babysitter fees each time we got out to ride.

 

[Toshi]

Updates to my exciting life:

- haven't puked since 3:30 AM but still feel like half a sack of shit
- had a comical overflowing of bubbles from the jet tub: must remember to put in only a tiny bit of bubble liquid in the future
- related to feeling like shit, felt like I was going to freeze to death coming from the tub to the shower then the shower to my towel: my body's temperature regulation definitely is not as it should be
- going to return the Burley D'Lite, the UHD Blu-Ray player, and probably _not_ get Jessica a mountain bike in the interests of simplicity/the realization that none of that stuff would get used often enough to make it worthwhile (keep in mind that the electric assist kids/cargo trike is still en route, ETA January, so it's not like we won't have an around town option)
- I really like the ability to price match after the fact with Chase (Freedom being the card I use the most), as this allows me to frequent GBS and then price match individual components to the lowest of lowball internet retailers
- have I mentioned I have a cheap streak?
- $1297 in body work over the course of a week now complete with the Land Cruiser, a total that includes $380 in paintless dent repair, a repaint of the hood, and basically all visible scratches buffed out. It looks fantastic now: there was a dent or two that was inaccessible due to underlying pillars but overall it looks better than the day I bought it in 2014. This was a much better deal overall than at other shops, at which I'd been quoted variously $750 for the hood alone and $350 for 1 dent (that $380 covered 5 including the one in question!)

Whew.

 

[Toshi]

I would like this for my perpetually dirty bikes.

 

[Toshi]

have I mentioned I have a cheap streak?

Directly relevant to this is my current #firstworldproblems question of whether to return the iPad Pro that I picked up a few days ago. I bought it on November 17 and thus I have until November 31 (possibly December 1) to return it to the Apple Store.

I do like it but I'm not sure I like it for near-$900 when including the price of that fancy keyboard/case deal and tax. Its main use for me so far has been to waste time while laying on the couch or the bed, with said time wasting largely consisting of watching Ozzy Man videos. I could use it while traveling, but its use on the road would probably be quite similar.

I thought about getting a bigger phone to replace my 4.5" iPhone 5S but that idea doesn't appeal too much since those suckers are similarly pricey. Having a physical keyboard is also important to me since I am no teenager and thus am much more adept at spitting out words with real keys.

I'm leaning towards returning the iPad Pro + its keyboard and looking for a Black Friday sale on something like the HP Chromebook 13, which now is metal and has a 1080p display (as opposed to the plastic, poor construction and 1366 x 768 screen of my wife's departed HP Chromebook of years past):

Edit: Apparently 1080p is old hat for this model, too. 3200 x 1800 available!

 

[Toshi]

For the non-Facebook types:

[Yuna twirling video deleted from YouTube channel]

My babies are cute.

 

[Toshi]

Whole gang for Thanksgiving:

Sister's family:

My family:

 

[Toshi]

[non-stabilized video deleted]

Now with 100% more GPS overlay. While GoPros have had GPS on-board for a generation or two the software didn't support it until earlier this month, iirc. The system to export a video with said overlay is totally asinine, for the record (long version hidden in nsfw tags).

NSFW

1) Import footage into GoPro Quik desktop app.
2) Turn on overlays in Media interface.
3) From clip viewer interface then export the clip... back into Quik's Edit interface. This will "bake in" the overlays instead of doing them real-time (and impermanent).
4) Wait a long time.
5) Select Share since there's no direct file export option visible, but before sharing to YouTube or Facebook then click the resulting file name link in the dialog, which will reveal the newly created .mp4 file that one can mess with in the usual manner.

If the designers weren't stupid it'd be:

1) Import into Quik.
2) Turn on overlays.
3) File -> Export with overlays.

Anyway, with regard to the video itself, the Hero5 Black has much better video quality than the Hero4 Session I had and returned earlier this year. At 1080p it's very sharp and detailed. At full 4K resolution 1:1 (such as from screen captures in VLC) it looks painterly and blurry. My work laptop also can't handle 4K editing or even playback very well and my 4K gaming computer is not really usable for editing since GoPro's apps don't respect the Windows interface size scaling conventions thus have teeny tiny elements on the 4K TV.

24 fps plus motion from the chest mount + me getting thrown about is very hard to watch in the sense of figuring out what's going on. It captures the sense of motion at least.

Verdict: I need a gimbal. I need to aim the camera a bit higher. Shooting at full 4K doesn't make sense since with SuperView I can only get 24 fps (as in the above video) and 30 fps with regular wide view. 2.7K SuperView is only 30 fps as well, although 2.7K wide FOV at 60 is an interesting option. I'll try 2.7K @ 60 or 1080p SuperView at 80 fps next time, probably the former.

/nerd

 

[Nick]

So, I just watched that whole video whilst sipping some coffee and it occurs to me, have you had a proper crash on that bike yet?

 

[Toshi]

So, I just watched that whole video whilst sipping some coffee and it occurs to me, have you had a proper crash on that bike yet?

I have! I was leading @stoney's California skier friend down Mustang maybe two months ago and clipped a pedal on a rock while zipping along. Head over heels, sunglasses flying off, me probably 8 feet down the hill, head downhill, and the bike flung to the next switchback down yet.

It was a worthy crash, thankfully into a soft-ish bed of underbrush. The only damage from it was knocking the stem a wee bit out of alignment, and making me a bit more ginger on my line choices on Mustang since then.

 

[stoney]

I have! I was leading @stoney's California skier friend down Mustang maybe two months ago and clipped a pedal on a rock while zipping along. Head over heels, sunglasses flying off, me probably 8 feet down the hill, head downhill, and the bike flung to the next switchback down yet.

It was a worthy crash, thankfully into a soft-ish bed of underbrush. The only damage from it was knocking the stem a wee bit out of alignment, and making me a bit more ginger on my line choices on Mustang since then.

It was impressive. There was a notable dust cloud for quite a while afterwards. Also, not the most efficient way to take a switchback.

 

[Toshi]

I'm leaning towards returning the iPad Pro + its keyboard and looking for a Black Friday sale on something like the HP Chromebook 13, which now is metal and has a 1080p display (as opposed to the plastic, poor construction and 1366 x 768 screen of my wife's departed HP Chromebook of years past):



Edit: Apparently 1080p is old hat for this model, too. 3200 x 1800 available!

iPad Pro + Smart Keyboard returned. Base model HP Chromebook 13 G1 ordered instead:

$459 on sale + tax (so a shade under $500). Free returns until January 15 for my return-prone self. 3200 x 1800 display. 2.9 lbs. Other relevant specs here:

http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-chromebook-13-g1-(energy-star)-w0s99ut-aba

 

[Toshi]

The promotional price song and dance with ISPs and cable providers is ridiculous. I just fake-threatened to discontinue my CenturyLink service so that they could do their part of the pas de deux and offer me 12 more months of promotional-rate service.

Old: 1 Gbps Internet, basic Prism TV-over-IP service for $139 including taxes/fees/who knows what.
New: 1 Gbps Internet for $109, no TV service, price inclusive of all that cruft.

I'll have to bust out the OTA antenna to watch the Super Bowl but the quality will actually be better in all likelihood.

 

[Toshi]

If I hadn't done this my bill would have gone up by a cool extra $129 in January. :derp:

 

[SkaredShtles]

OTA is RIDICULOUSLY high quality.

When I can get it.

 

[Toshi]

First impressions with the HP Chromebook 13 G1:

- 3200 x 1800 screen is fantastic
- bezel is very large and seems out of place, especially along the bottom
- trackpad is only so so: not smooth surface a la Apple glass trackpad and the clicking action is not satisfying
- keyboard is pretty decent
- the Pentium in this base model stutters with 4K video on Vimeo, and for some reason 4K videos on YouTube won't cache enough to play smoothly at full resolution, either
- aluminum body and thin construction have a high quality feel to them but the 3 lb weight is heavier than one would think based off of how slender it is

Overall I'm lukewarm on it. Some aspects are great. Some not so great. I have until January 15 to return it thanks to holiday season return policies from HP.com, and I'll work with it at least until after the New Year and see how it does as a traveling machine (heading to Seattle for winter break).

 

[Toshi]

MPGs achieved in parents' new-gen Prius on the way back from Highlands Ranch to my place in Stapleton. This means about 500' elevation loss but with some up and down along the way but mostly 65 mph driving so not some trick deal.

Trick deal: the less than 1 mile from the local carwash to my place at the end of said journey home. I didn't put it in EV-only mode but by virtue of driving at a turtle-like pace it was in EV mode 88% of the short trip, iirc.

This really highlights how much more efficient the Prius's homegrown electric side is than my wife's rated-at-78/74/76-MPGe RAV4 EV's Tesla innards, at least when paired with the relatively bulky and heavy RAV4 body versus the 0.24 Cd Prius body.

 

[Toshi]

We went to Bass Pro to visit their free Santa. Lines were immense and we returned home empty handed, as it were. While we were there, though, we saw kids playing with an RC car in a demo ring setup. That inspired Mariko to ask about her RC car and me to change out the batteries in it such that it would function.

Mariko played with it inside and out for probably 10 minutes and then I drove it around and around the yard for at least 10 more. (Not bad battery life!) It's reasonable fun for the $20.75 I spent on it but it has literally no modulation for steering or acceleration, as in it's either in neutral position, full left, or full right; not moving, full speed ahead, full speed reverse.

In turn I was inspired to look for RC vehicles that'd be faster and more fun for me... and I found this:

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/basher-sabertooth-1-8-scale-truggy-arr.html

It'd be about $300 with what I'd need to get it running (radio transmitter/receiver, 2 batteries, charger). 40 mph (!) and 22" long, so definitely would be a toy for me and not the kids!

The really intriguing part about this would be the FPV that I could capture from it. 1080p SuperView @ 80 fps or 720p SuperView @ 120 fps would be pretty sweet, but a gimbal would be totally necessary to get non-shaky-as-all-getout video from something this light and fast.

Maybe I'll return the Chromebook and get this instead. #firstworldproductdeliberations

 

[Toshi]

I need to retire early. Too much stuff to do completely independent of work:

- return Chromebook (wife convinced me to do it now as a more ethical alternate to waiting until the end of the return window--kicker that pushed me over the edge is the incredibly noisy trackpad button)
- return rear dash cam that was to be for Land Cruiser (bought on whim on sale but which falls off within 5 minutes without fail, perhaps because of the rear defroster lines? in any case not very useful when it has fallen off)
- return sandals (too small due to me being an idiot and not checking what the previous ones were sized at)
- perhaps replace the 24-105 mm lens that I lost/misplaced/had stolen/??? over the past year or so with something that covers that focal length range, as the too-wide-angle Thanksgiving photos show that's an issue
- ride White Ranch one last time this season
- get Golden Bike Shop to lace up my new Chinese crabonz rims, and possibly eradicate the creaking noise (my bet is still on chainring interface, in which case the cat may be out of the bag as the tolerances are no good)
- make before-warranty-ends-in-3-weeks list of shit to fix for the homebuilder
- get a sleep study scheduled to see if I am merely fat or fat with sleep apnea (preliminary results would suggest that I don't have it but my dad does)
- make up my mind regarding RC toys or the like

At least I can ignore playing and practicing trumpet for a bit. Had concerts last night and this and that's over and done with until rehearsals resume in January. My mental focus was lacking at times during tonight's performance but I think there was perhaps one audible-to-audience mistake out of many that I uncharacteristically made.

 

[Nick]

get Golden Bike Shop to lace up my new Chinese crabonz rims,

still???

ride White Ranch one last time this season

Also, have you ridden much else around here? Chimney, Apex, Falcon, LOTB, etc?

 

[Toshi]

still???

Also, have you ridden much else around here? Chimney, Apex, Falcon, LOTB, etc?

I was putting it off so that the bike wouldn't be out of commission. Now it's the end of the season for me. They are apparently having a 2 for 1 special on wheel building labor, so $65 for two wheels (+ spokes and nipples).

:notbadobama:

I have ridden:

- Buff Creek (Little Scraggy but not Blackjack)
- Deer Creek
- Dakota Ridge
- Mountain Lion
- Chimpex including Enchanted Forest
- White Ranch
- beginner trails with wife at Doudy Draw

No Falcon, no Hall/Heil, no LOTB as of yet.

 

[Toshi]

Videos from today in probable order of decreasing interest to people not named Toshi (or Toshi's mom ):

[baleeted--I cut down on the crap in my YouTube channel and these didn't make the cut]

Last one is still processing as of right now. Once processed all of these should be 1080p @ 60 fps so hit full screen for full effect. 60 fps seems to be the way to go for sure given the motion: worlds better than 24p and again 4K didn't look all that great at 1:1 anyway.

 

[Toshi]

GoPro Karma Grip ordered! (as it finally was made available today after months of delays)

This is for the grip + gimbal bit alone. No drone involved. I haz excite.

 

[Toshi]

NASIOC OTters were giving me crap for the number of things I returned, so I ran some data (admittedly only from Amazon, so this doesn't capture Costco or the recent Apple Store return, for instance):

Reports via Amazon's Order History Report tool: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/b2b/reports . My household's tally from Amazon in 2016 to date:

527 items ordered
$27,119.97 total cost

32 items returned, 14 of my items, 18 for wife/kid items (wrong size or she ordered multiple sizes and returned the ones that didn't fit)
No cost breakdown was provided in the report for the returns but looking at the items they probably averaged $40-50 each

This year was an expensive one (big ticket items included the TV, fridge, grill, Hero5 Black, AV receiver, and multiple $$$ car seats) but I don't return that much stuff, really.

 

[Nick]

My household's tally from Amazon in 2016 to date:

527 items ordered
$27,119.97 total cost

I crunched some numbers, and I haven't spent $27k in TOTAL in 2016.

reduce - reuse - recycle

 

[SkaredShtles]

I crunched some numbers, and I haven't spent $27k in TOTAL in 2016.

reduce - reuse - recycle

He has kids - the "reduce" shit is OUT the window.

And if you don't spend $30K a year... why the fuck aren't you retired?

 

[Toshi]

That plus last year was house stocking time. I did manage to donate a ton of stuff to Goodwill over the course of the year. If it were up to me I'd live a pretty minimalist life, much as I did in my Portland apartment: me, a computer, some boxes for furniture, and 4 bikes parked in the living room.

 

[SkaredShtles]

<snip> If it were up to me I'd live a pretty minimalist life, much as I did in my Portland apartment: me, a computer, some boxes for furniture, and 4 bikes parked in the living room.

So... what you're saying is, "I have kids - the "reduce" shit is OUT the window."

 

[Toshi]

Reducing is relative to a baseline of lots and lots of crap, true.

 

[Toshi]

So a while back I (think I) posted here about a change to my working environment that I was trying to bring about. This change would have equalized workload between me and the other attendings, which would be a good thing given that our compensation is socialist (everyone at a given academic rank gets paid the same with only minor variation between ranks--nothing is tied to clinical output).

Well I introduced that work-equalizing idea formally yesterday after floating it at a section meeting last month. 1 day later and it's been squelched by our chairman, who also is a member of the section in that he works 1 day per week on the clinical side (as opposed to my ~3.5 days/week clinical). He has good intentions and doesn't want to see a program introduced that would lead to discord, but the problem is that there's already discord due to me and another one of the young guys bearing too much of the section's work.

This means that I'll be pursuing Seattle private practice job leads just a little bit more seriously... I like Denver but not so much that I'll tolerate working at a private practice pace if I'm not getting private practice money. Academics is supposed to be more chill but with this work distribution it isn't.

 

[Toshi]

Karma Grip arrived today. I haven't figured out how to take off the grip part so that the gimbal part can be mounted alone on my Chesty mount but I have some time (biking season being done and skiing season not starting for me until the end of this month due to other obligations).

I did take 5 minutes to chase my kids around the house with it, and it appears to stabilize things as it is supposed to do. I dig it.

 

[Toshi]

I haven't figured out how to take off the grip part so that the gimbal part can be mounted alone on my Chesty mount but I have some time (biking season being done and skiing season not starting for me until the end of this month due to other obligations).

I lied. I went on one more bike ride, as I was going to be in Golden anyway to pick up my bike with its new wide crabonz rims:

I think the gimbal worked extremely well. There are glitches here and then (0:22 and 0:25, for instance) but overall it's exactly what I'd be hoping it'd be. I also tried to mount it as high on my chest as possible, and I think that perspective works better: just a little bit of hands and front wheel thanks to the magic of SuperView and lots of trail.

 

[Toshi]

I went and put in which bike I was on for all of the activities on Strava dating back to early August, when I got my Garmin Vivoactive HR. Seemed like a good way to spend 20 minutes instead of actually working while on call...

Add in the non-logged July miles and I probably have 1100 miles on the commuter and maybe 225 on the 5010?

:notbadobama:

No wonder I wore out that Alfine chainring...

 

[Toshi]

I am booked for an AirBNB tiny room (in a hotel, not sharing someone's condo or something janky like that) for Dec 30-Jan 2. I am planning to ski all day Dec 31, Jan 1, and maybe from first lift until 9:30 AM on Jan 2?

Anyone want to join me for a day on the slopes that weekend? @stoney expressed some interest before. @Nick? This is at Winter Park for those not following along with my earlier pass purchase tales and such.