[Toshi]

i just figured out that i could quit my job today and be able to pay rent and sorta eat until august 1, when my current apt lease runs out. no new bike if i do this, but work is really getting on my nerves as of late... so it's tempting. we'll see how long i last.

 

[Toshi]

recently read books:

"the demolished man" by alfred bester. read it if you like sci fi! one of the earliest and best, ranking up there with philip k. dick's works

"the universe below" by william broad. somewhat dry despite a conversational/novelistic style, but a good way to catch up on the happenings in the deep sea exploration that has accelerated since the end of the cold war

"blind man's bluff" by a bunch of authors (sonntag, drew, et al.). very entertaining non-fiction about the submarine happenings during the cold war.

still on the shelf is wilbur smith's "monsoon". eh, not so hot on the pirate-novel concept, but maybe i'll launch into it tomorrow

 

[Toshi]

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=84422

read thread and comment productively

other thoughts floating around in my head: i did a few pretty biggish jumps today. not quite big, just biggish. heh. definitely pushing the limits, and haven't broken myself yet.

also, staying at home and watching "eastern standard 2" is a perfect saturday night for me, at least after last weekend's binge

 

[kingLatency]

It's cool that you're progressing.

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by kingLatency
It's cool that you're progressing.

ya. somehow i overstepped my progression today . on a jump i'd hit last week i totally ate it, slamming down HARD on my butt/hip. i now have a full spectrum of colors showing on my butt. go me. no pics, sorry . maybe i should look into getting some full body armor... naw.

but on the other hand i hit a few more of the things i'd wimped out in the past. today's ride was with 3 other s btw. good stuff.

 

[Barbaton]

so keith and i went on a suprisingly (for me) brutal road ride yesterday. out of shape and lots of headwind. grrr. went out through watertown and belmont out to concord and back. very sore.

current favorite song: robert earl keen's "feeling good again"

bizarre vendor behavior question of the day: why is symantec playing "conjunction junction" to me over the phone while i'm on hold?

fricking windows. nothing like getting hit with more than one new worm simultaneously.

have a great day...

 

[Toshi]

sorry about the worm problems, thad.

btw boston people, i may be heading out to boston for the weekend. thursday - sunday probably. will update as more info flow in

also, what do y'all think of this?

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=83786

i am very tempted.

 

[Toshi]

forget that turner. canfield on the mind, now

anyway, i'll be in boston from thursday afternoon through sunday morning. call 509 771 0827, eh

new pics from today, too, not even remotely riding related. which is just as well since the bruise is gearing up for the hard fight

ocean portraits

 

[Quadari]

So I just discovered that you can buy old kozmo.com bags online...

http://www.chromebags.com/kozmo.html

Pretty cool, eh?

You can be an icon for all that was dot-coms!

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by Quadari
So I just discovered that you can buy old kozmo.com bags online...

http://www.chromebags.com/kozmo.html

Pretty cool, eh?

You can be an icon for all that was dot-coms!

ooh. that is cool... but $60?

thad/barbaton:

rest of pics here

 

[kingLatency]

That's cheap for Chrome. That's a ****in' expensive brand. I remember looking on eBay once and finding Kozmo bags with special insulation and specially shaped for pizzas. That was cool.

Toshi, you're in town this weekend, right? Wanna ride?

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by kingLatency
That's cheap for Chrome. That's a ****in' expensive brand. I remember looking on eBay once and finding Kozmo bags with special insulation and specially shaped for pizzas. That was cool.

Toshi, you're in town this weekend, right? Wanna ride?

that pizza bag sounds sweet. i'd get fat(ter) if i bought one tho . sadly, i was in boston this past weekend, thus the pic of thad-who-lives-in-cambridge... sorry.

 

[Toshi]

linkage:

http://decomalakoff.free.fr/nos_video_fichiers/Photo 008.avi

and evidence of my being social:

 

[kingLatency]

You get a new web cam or something?

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by kingLatency
You get a new web cam or something?

it's my d30 set for 64000 iso

actually, it's the nokia 3650 i've been carrying around since last june. low light == lotsa noise

 

[Toshi]

i am only a couple of days away from getting a canfield! just got off the phone, gonna call later tonight to finalize details.

 

[Barbaton]

Originally posted by Quadari
So I just discovered that you can buy old kozmo.com bags online...

http://www.chromebags.com/kozmo.html

Pretty cool, eh?

You can be an icon for all that was dot-coms!

One of my officemates got one at the MIT flea for a lot less than that.

 

[Toshi]

so my portland friend apparently is in a foul mood towards me. no nights on the town in my near-future.

==> boredom. which has led me to revive my old pinkbike forum login and bump up some old (2001! and 2002) posts

http://v10.pinkbike.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=517&highlight= on ridemonkey, mtbr, and pinkbike's forums

Originally posted by Toshi

Originally posted by Toshi
I dislike mtbr's atmosphere to the point that I don't even scan it anymore. Unless I'm really bored. Anyways, ridemonkey.com has much nicer people (if you ignore Mudhog and Zonic Man) and a cleaner-looking format. No slam on the Pinkbike BB, but whatever software they're using just looks nicer, and has features like "go to first unread post" that save time.

interesting how things have changed. pinkbike is now on vbulletin just like ridemonkey, mudhog and zonic man are banned from RM, and i still don't scan mtbr. furthermore, pinkbike seems to be totally unmoderated and overrun... where have radek and ito gone? :x

http://v10.pinkbike.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2721&highlight= on where to buy the (unreleased) evil imperial frame

Originally posted by Toshi

Originally posted by a13x
lol. yea Ben over at Unreal will have em for sale. Check our website kyle, you will find answers to all your pressing questions there (or soon enough).

http://www.evilbikes.com *news*

thx.

wow. alex used to post here [ed: here being pinkbike]. and once upon a time, the imperial wasn't yet released

http://v10.pinkbike.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3609&start=15, on how do people pay for their gear

Originally posted by Toshi

Originally posted by Toshi
Hard work pretty much sums it up. I work during the school year, doing tech support for the psych and anthro departments, play occasional paid gigs on trumpet, and last summer I worked like a dog for Palm (as in Palm Pilot), and was rewarded accordingly.

a life update: i continued working tech support for the next two years, graduated, and now do everything from plugging in computers to programming for a hotel chain. and i still only have the same amount of money to put away towards bikes, as rent, food, and general living is so much more expensive than being in school, in the dorms...

:cry:

life is tough, i tell ya

there are more, too. login to pinkbike and search for username Toshi if you're bored as well

anyway, the oldest post i could find by me had a rare (and lost!) pic of my stinky. it actually looked quite clean and nice... ah, how times have changed:

 

[Toshi]

picked it up today. all scratched and beaten, but then again my "new" frame will be the same. as long as it works...

 

[WTGPhoben]

Originally posted by Toshi
picked it up today. all scratched and beaten, but then again my "new" frame will be the same. as long as it works...

<insert fork rebuild advice here>

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by WTGPhoben
<insert fork rebuild advice here>

i need to figure out how to fix scratched stanchions . what i've gathered is that clear nail polish followed by 1600 grit sandpaper with liberal lubrication during the sandpaper phase is the way to go

 

[WTGPhoben]

Originally posted by Toshi
i need to figure out how to fix scratched stanchions . what i've gathered is that clear nail polish followed by 1600 grit sandpaper with liberal lubrication during the sandpaper phase is the way to go

that sounds like a good plan, but I would leave well enough alone unless you're leaking oil. Nail polish is not going to have the resilience of the enamel/magnesium (or whatever) coating and you're going to get yourself into a vicious cycle of re-fixing it over and over as polish wears off, losing a bit of the original enamel each time. If you're leaking oil tho, you've got nothing to lose.

Also, the polish isn't going to stick unless the scratch got all the way through the enamel coat.

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by WTGPhoben
that sounds like a good plan, but I would leave well enough alone unless you're leaking oil.

fair enough. i'll wait to see if it loses oil.

i might as well report on today's ride since there are no pics. er, hmm. we did 2 full runs at post canyon, rode some old stuff, some new stuff, and had a great time despite really loose, dry, ball-bearingish dirt. i am consistently bottoming out my fork, which shouldn't be happening since i have heavy springs in there. i am also consistently hitting the biggish drops, and in particular hit the 6-7ish footer once on each run without preliminary wimp-runs-to-the-edge-with-brakes-locked.

i think the monster + canfield should cure my bottoming out problem :devil:

 

[endtroducing]

holy crap tosh.....that thing is GORGEOUS.

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by endtroducing
holy crap tosh.....that thing is GORGEOUS.

it's not mine yet! but that's the very frame that i should be sporting in a week or two.

 

[Barbaton]

Originally posted by Toshi
it's not mine yet! but that's the very frame that i should be sporting in a week or two.

I thought you were getting the one in that lovely baby blue...

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by Barbaton
I thought you were getting the one in that lovely baby blue...

changed my mind. polished is king

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by Toshi
changed my mind. polished is king

speaking of which i just gave chris canfield my cc number. i'll have it built up by the weekend after this upcoming one

 

[Barbaton]

I picked up the bike. Here're some LQ, not particularly in focus pics (it dark in here). Sorry the angles are weird...apartment is small.

pic1

pic2

pic3

pic4

 

[WTGPhoben]

Originally posted by Barbaton
I picked up the bike. Here're some LQ, not particularly in focus pics (it dark in here). Sorry the angles are weird...apartment is small.

WTGPhoben: mmm pretty
Toshi: I could break that.
WTGPhoben: I bet it's real light and snappy
Toshi: I wonder if I could crush it with my Canfield...
WTGPhoben: only if you can catch thad first.

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by Barbaton
I picked up the bike. Here're some LQ, not particularly in focus pics (it dark in here). Sorry the angles are weird...apartment is small.

pic1

pic2

pic3

pic4

awesome! people.deas does not resolve for me btw so i can't see pics

 

[Barbaton]

Originally posted by Toshi
awesome! people.deas does not resolve for me btw so i can't see pics

hmmm. odd. you should be able to replace the people with www and get to the same place.

 

[Barbaton]

Originally posted by WTGPhoben
WTGPhoben: mmm pretty
Toshi: I could break that.
WTGPhoben: I bet it's real light and snappy
Toshi: I wonder if I could crush it with my Canfield...
WTGPhoben: only if you can catch thad first.

not too hard to catch me these days. gimme a month.

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by Barbaton
hmmm. odd. you should be able to replace the people with www and get to the same place.

it works today . what are those goofy deas sysadmins up to?

 

[Barbaton]

Originally posted by Toshi
it works today . what are those goofy deas sysadmins up to?

worked for me when I posted last night. sure your dns wasn't broke?


i might be hitting the fells after work ~4ish, if anyone wants to join me.

 

[Toshi]

did you go to the fells? how is this newfangled vpp business?

a rare pic of me, snapped this morning in colorado

 

[Barbaton]

I did ride the fells yesterday and have realized the following.

1. It's a long way to the fells if you miss the college ave turn off the rotary and instead follow rt 16 to the krispy kreme in everett

2. the bike is much better than i am. and much better than my old one. even out of shape and technically rusty as i am, it was charging up things that I never used to do.

3. i suck a lot less when i haven't whacked the rebound damping on the fork to ON with my knee

4. orange marks on trees are not in fact lazy substitutes to MB loop signs. briefly ended up on a hiking trail. oops.

5. VPP works great, though i may tune it so that the rear is a tad more active. i haven't ridden it enough to know if it's too tight, or just doing what it's supposed to do. it responds well dropping off of rocks, etc, but no pedal bob on the climbs.

6. i'm afraid that the CODA pedals that I still had from my old bike still suck.

7. it's a long way back from the fells if you assume that the sign pointing college avenue to the left is actually right. in fact, it puts you on boston ave.

those are the observations so far. i'll try and go out again this wkend and maybe only get lost twice.

-B

 

[Barbaton]

hey, that was my 100'th post.

 

[WTGPhoben]

Originally posted by Barbaton
I did ride the fells yesterday and have realized the following.

1. It's a long way to the fells if you miss the college ave turn off the rotary and instead follow rt 16 to the krispy kreme in everett

2. the bike is much better than i am. and much better than my old one. even out of shape and technically rusty as i am, it was charging up things that I never used to do.

3. i suck a lot less when i haven't whacked the rebound damping on the fork to ON with my knee

4. orange marks on trees are not in fact lazy substitutes to MB loop signs. briefly ended up on a hiking trail. oops.

5. VPP works great, though i may tune it so that the rear is a tad more active. i haven't ridden it enough to know if it's too tight, or just doing what it's supposed to do. it responds well dropping off of rocks, etc, but no pedal bob on the climbs.

6. i'm afraid that the CODA pedals that I still had from my old bike still suck.

7. it's a long way back from the fells if you assume that the sign pointing college avenue to the left is actually right. in fact, it puts you on boston ave.

those are the observations so far. i'll try and go out again this wkend and maybe only get lost twice.

-B

you wanna ride this afternoon after my final?

 

[Barbaton]

Originally posted by WTGPhoben
you wanna ride this afternoon after my final?

Yeah, in principle. I may be supposed to have dinner from my blk grp. I'll try to figure that out while you're in your final, if you want to give me a call when you're done.