Monthly Archive for June, 2007

Ride The Bus, Take Your Bicycle

Published on June 23, 2007 in General. 1 Comment

I forget where I heard this, but somewhere I heard that to establish a new task as a habit, do it for two weeks.  I’ve used the bus system for three weeks now, and it successfully hit the habit category.  It’s amazing how long a tank of gas in the car lasts now that I don’t frequently drive it.  I haven’t lost any weight from walking to/from bus stops, but I feel better and apparently walk faster.

So the next step is getting a bicycle, and as some already know, I’ve done that.  I bought a Trek 7.3 FX Disc [trekbikes.com - you'll need to pick your language and region] and picked it up last Wednesday from Redmond Cycle [redmondcycle.com].  Thursday I rode the bike to the bus stop near the library and took MT 230 to the Overlake Transit Center, riding the rest of the way to work.  I biked all the way home that evening.

On Friday I thought, “Why not bike all the way to work?  You can climb the big hill.”  The big hill is the 520 bike path, and all I can say is, “Phew!”  That is some hill.  When I got to work, I was soaked in sweat from this hill.  You can see the bike path here [dbmechanic.com] where the last two pictures on that page are actually part of my journey (rest are further down the trail).  Per that site, I climbed from 70 feet (21 meters) to 400 feet (122 meters) in 4/10 of a mile (2/3 of a kilometer).  After stopping twice to catch my breath and chug some water, I made the top and the rest of the way to work.  Again, I took this way home; going down this hill is a lot easier.  Will I go up the hill again?  Not anytime soon; I’d like to get used to biking more before I try that again.  In the meantime, I’ll continue taking route 230 up the hill while I build up my biking strength.

Today a very good friend of mine and I biked along the Sammamish River Trail [metrokc.gov] that’s literally just alongside my apartment complex.  We went ten miles (16 kilometers), turned around and headed back.  The trail connects to the Burke-Gilman Trail, but the only way to notice is the signs telling you what trail you’re on.  Given the Sammamish River Trail is 10 miiles, and we started roughly two and a half miles in (that’s where my apartment is), we rode the Burke-Gilman Trail for about 2 and a half miles.  Both trails are paved, making for a smooth ride, and people inline-skate on the trail as well as the usual running / walking.  It was good exercise and a nice way to spend part of the day.  Hopefully we’ll do that again soon, especially while it’s so nice out.

Part of that nice weather brings warmer indoor temperatures.  No air conditioning, but opening the windows makes for a nice breeze, as do the ceiling fans.  Of course, when it goes above 90 F (32 C), those start not to work well and instead it’s drinking lots of water and taking cool showers, but luckily that’s not happening (yet?).  I don’t dare bike in that.  Last thing I need is to become dehydrated and suffer from heat exhaustion, or worse, heat stroke.

Before anyone asks, yes, I wear a helmet.  (I also have a pump, spare tube, patch kit, front a rear lights for nighttime, and a water bottle with me on the bike.)  Not only is a helmet a good idea, in King County it’s the law (as well as in other counties near here).

It’s alive… it’s alive… it’s… ALIVE!

Published on June 19, 2007 in General. 2 Comments

After 24 hours of charging at the 2 Amp setting, the battery in my car is happy again.  The charger has a green LED telling it’s fully charged, and it stops charging so that the battery doesn’t overheat, which is a good thing when I’m, say, at work while it’s charging.  Going forward, I’ll have to keep an eye on the voltage (the vehicle computer can display that) and charge it when appropriate.  Alternatively, I can go for long-distance drives, which is also a good idea so that the car gets hot, and any moisture in the catalytic converter can evaporate, among other benefits, to both my car and the oil companies.  But, I’m still taking the bus every day.  At least until the bicycle comes in. ;)   More on that when I get it.

My Car Misses Me – It Let Me Know Today

Published on June 16, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

I’ve been riding the bus for a little over 2 weeks now.  Last time I was in the car was Wednesday, and even then it was a quick trip.  Today I run down to the garage to hop in the car for another quick trip, and, surprise!  The battery doesn’t have enough energy to start the car.

That’s ok – tomorrow I’ll just go to the auto parts store and get a charger and… oh… yeah… they’re closed on weekends.

So Monday I’ll go to the auto parts store, get a charger, and hook it up when I get home in the evening.

Yes, I know, I could jump the car, but I’d need some really long jumper cables as the car’s in the garage and I cannot pull another car to the side of mine.  More importantly, it is wise to have a trickle charger on hand to keep the battery fully charged while I’m not driving the car often (in other words, to keep this from happening again).

We’ll Miss You, My Friend

Published on June 13, 2007 in General. 1 Comment

In my travels, I’ve met many people, and in some cases, I’ve made friends now and again with some.  Back when I worked at Lavasoft, I met a forum visitor that posted with the name Canuk.  His go-get-em attitude and willingness to do better than best quickly got my attention and in no time he became part of the select few that I call good friends.

After Lavasoft, we, which includes Canuk and many others, still keep in contact, and we even hang out at the Landzdown Forums [landzdown.com].  When I ran the Manage Your PC web site, I asked Canuk if he’d be interested in feeding the main page with computing news, such as system security and such.  He was quick to say yes, and he did a wonderful job of maintaining the site.

Canuk was having health problems, and despite the challenges from them, he, at no surprise, was doing really well.  But two days ago, he passed away.  I was really taken back; it still doesn’t seem real.  The world lost a good person.

Many knew him as Canuk.  I had the privilege to know him as Pat.

Take care, my friend.

Has YouTube Become the Latest Illegal Music Trading Network?

Published on June 10, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

So much noise is generated about illegal P2P networks that I sometimes wonder if there’s just nothing better to pay attention to, like, say, Paris Hilton going to jail (sheesh).  I’m not into P2P networks and instead I buy songs legally, and for the most part via AudioJelly [audiojelly.com].

Recently I heard a track on XM 82 that I liked and went looking for the song as I didn’t catch the song name when it aired.  I remembered some of the lyrics and searched Live for them, leading me to the group’s MySpace page.  After going there, I noticed they had a YouTube video embedded on their page with a 2-minute sample of the song I was looking for.  I thought, “I wonder if people upload songs on here,” and went searching for the song I was interested in.  Sure enough, someone had a video with the song in it up on YouTube.  The video:  the album cover.  It never moved, changed, or anything else.  Simply a static album cover.  But one wouldn’t care about the video part anyway, right?

Everyone’s so concerned about copyright violations regarding video on video-sharing sites like YouTube that they’ve forgotten about the audio.  Why don’t you give it a try?  Head over to YouTube [youtube.com], try searching for a few songs you like, see what you find, and let me know what you think.  It may not be a big concern now.  After all, you may argue that the audio quality isn’t that great.  But give it time, as the competition heats up between sites like this and the quality gets higher, the concern will need to grow.

Ride The Bus: Day 6

Published on June 6, 2007 in General. 5 Comments

No, nothing is wrong with my car.  No, gas prices didn’t jump over $4 a gallon.  No, we didn’t run out of parking spaces at work.

Last week, the weather was really nice.  Mid-80 temperatures, clear to partly cloudy skies, gentle breeze.  It was picture perfect.  On Friday I thought that rather than sit in my car isolated away from it all, why not walk and take the bus?  So, I did.

Seattle has a few public transit options, and on the Eastside the bus network consists primarily of the Metro [transit.metrokc.gov] and some Sound Transit [soundtransit.org] express lines.  The closest stop is about 0.6 miles away.  This stop gets me on the Metro 253.  This route is good if I want to go to work (with a little tiny bit of walking involved after the ride) or head over to a shopping area south of work where I can eat or ship things at FedEx or USPS.

If I walk another 0.3 miles, I then make it to another stop at the King County Redmond Library.  This stop services multiple routes on both Metro and Sound Transit.  Metro route 230 is great for getting to work, and I can catch Sound Transit route 545 to downtown Seattle.

What does Day 6 mean?  Friday, Saturday and Sunday were really nice days, all of which I took the bus.  Monday the temperatures dived into the 60s and some light rain moved in, but I thought that if I used the bus for 3 days in a row, why not a week?  Tomorrow marks day 7 of taking the bus, with each workday taking the bus to and from work, last weekend to hang out with friends at Bellevue and Seattle, and Saturday to also head into the office (wee!).

What happens if you miss the bus?  Well… you wait for the next one.  Depending on the time of day, it’s either 30 minutes for the next bus, or an hour.  Schedules are posted at some stops, but others, like the one just outside work, has nothing available.  What to do?  Call Bus Time!  206-BUS-TIME provides automated stop information for bus stops, and when you’re just sitting there thinking, “When does the next bus swing by?” it’s handy to have available.  Example:  Last winter I took the bus while the streets were covered in ice.  While I was walking on campus towards the main road, I watched about a block away as my bus went rolling by.  Rather than sit there (for an hour) waiting for the next 230 bus, I walked that little walk I mentioned earlier and caught 253 about 15 minutes later.  Nice to have access to bus stop times when it’s 30 degrees out and… you’re cold!

BTW, if you’re wondering where my office is on campus, it’s here [local.live.com].

Why else take the bus?  The benefits of walking.  Normally I can walk for a while without problems (read: wander around Cedar Point all day).  Power-walking with a 20-pound backpack on?  Feel the burn!  When you see your bus going by and you’re just shy of reaching the stop?  Rrrrrruuuuuunnnnnnnnn!  It’s good activity, and depending on how things go, I might keep it up and leave the car at home.  Do I still use the car?  Yep, just much less, and at $50 per tank of fuel, I don’t mind. ;)

Want to know what the bus is like?  Here’s a video (Windows Media) [winmedia.metrokc.gov] on how to ride the bus.  Yes, it is actually helpful.  Helps explain zones, fares, when to pay (I don’t – it’s free – employee benefit), and so forth.

Plus, I have time on the bus.  Currently, I just sit back, relax, and listen to some music on my headphones (no, Dad, not the Bose ones – I listen while walking, too, and I don’t want to wear noise-canceling headphones while walking next to the street).  I have some books I can read while riding, but at 20 minutes per bus trip, I have wondered about whether or not I can gain much from jumping in for 20 minutes and then just stopping abruptly.  These are technical books, not novels or fiction or anything like that, and to jump into a chapter on something technical for 20 minutes and then walk away, it makes learning the material a little difficult.  Hence, I just listen to music for now.

So, what’cha think?  Am I crazy for taking the bus?  Or, should I keep on riding?  Let me know!  :)

Have backup plans when you go to the movies

Published on June 1, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

Hollywood doesn’t regularly pump out the great films I’m looking for, so it’s not often I’m off at the movies.  Tonight some of us decided to go, and while I don’t think the film will be anything to write home about (or, a blog entry even), I went.  Two movie previews in, the projector broke.  They canceled the showing.  I walked out with two free admission passes.  I then went home.

Oh well.