I’ve been using a pair of Oakley gloves that have been threatening to unravel themselves after suffering a slash on palm seam from a tumble on volcanic rubble. To its credit my hand suffered no cut in that incident. But that seam is bit by bit coming apart, so I finally picked up these new Giro gloves to try. Only used on one grueling hot crosscountry ride so far, but my opinion is positive. Continue reading ‘Giro Xen mountain gloves’
Monthly Archive for July, 2009
Page 4 of 4
I am the camera slut. The digicam manufacturers dream customer. I’ve bought so many digital cameras that I would have to sit and give it serious thought to count them, and most of them still work fine. Maybe later I’ll gather them all together for a group photo. The latest in the lineup is this Canon Powershot D10. The outstanding feature that prompted it’s purchase was it’s waterproof and ruggedized construction. That category seems to be the new growth category for the manufacturers, almost every one is comming out with a model now. The Canon is 10m (33ft) depth rated, just over 1m (4ft) drop rated, and “freezproof” rated to -10c (14f).
Well, the PC was quite dead. A RAM and P/S swap borrowed from D could not revive it. So I procured a replacement. A refurb Dell monster. Decent price for a basic core 2 w/2G RAM, 500G HD, DVD drives and a video card. Housed in a monstrous XPS series case with 700W power supply. This monolith has 1/8″ thick aluminum exterior panels and weighs a ton. BTX format, space inside for 4 SATA HDs with its own fan, 4 external accessible 5.25 bays, 2 external 3.5 bays. I harvested the hard drives, DVD burner, card reader from the old machine and installed into the new machine. Powered up, everything pops up fast, and the floor of my room is bathed in a blue glow. There are eights LEDs on the front of the PC, and some on the back that all they do is glow. You can even go into BIOS and configure the color. Sure, it’s cool for dramatic effect, but I can see it being annoying if I leave the machine running at night. Thankfully one of the options is off.
Anyway, so far the machine looks good. Going through the pains of reinstalling software and shuffling files around.
Monday’s St. Louis ride didn’t transpire, so I met Kevyn and Root up there on Thursday for some XC riding. Thursday is usually Tantalus day, but I really felt like riding dirt for some reason. Kevin’s truck was there when I arrived, but he was nowhere to be seen. I figured I’d take a little spin up the ridge trail to warm up then come back down and see if he was back. It immediately became apparent that my legs were feeling the effects of the beer ride on Wednesday, so I dropped it into granny just past the water tank and spun easily to where the trail jogged to the left. Returning back down the trail, I took a little left side trail into the strawberry guava thicket and re-explored the sideline that I had seen over a decade ago on a ride with Chris Clark. The trail along the edge of the ridgetop was still open, but disuse had obscured the line a little with a heavy layer of ironwood needles. I passed a DLNR pig monitoring enclosure complete with rain gauges and automated camera. It was looking rather dilapidated, and disused. Continuing down the tight singletrack, I dumped back out onto the main trail above the moonscape. Continue reading ‘Thursday Dirt’
Cade Roster and Ryan Higa are part of the “manga-inspired” group art show, Kawaii-Kowai at fishcake opening this evening. The opening festivities run from 18:00 – 20:00. Fishcake isn’t really a gallery per se, maybe more of a furnishing/interior decor store, but they deal in art pieces too. Check it out if you’re in the area!
Today marks the last day of the tax break on ethanol-fortified automotive fuels in Hawaii, so along with the price increases due to the jump in crude oil prices, we have to pay an additional $0.12 USD per gallon in State excise tax. Consider also that to this day, not a single drop of ethanol has been produced in the State of Hawaii – all that ethanol going onto E10 is being imported into the state from the mainland USA or from foreign sources! Even when the first proposed plant opens here in a few years out at Campbell, it will be producing ethanol from imported corn. Where’s the logic in that? Good going, Auntie Linda! I hope you all remember this half-baked legacy of hers the next time an election rolls around (she’s done, but her implied successor, Dook, is aiming for the big chair). Her ethanol junket raised the cost of producing automotive fuels, increased our dependence on foreign or imported products, made our cars run bad, and decreased fuel mileage by around 10%. Continue reading ‘Protest Ride’