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Day: January 12, 2010

Pretty, Pretty Metal

With today’s arrival of a Thomson X4 stem the handle bar on my new bike is now secured properly with a really wonderful looking stem. Well-machined parts are really beautiful. The stem also feels to be the right length and the black stem cap looks really good. And it’s made in the US! (Here’s a photo of the stem itself, just sitting on the workbench.)

The order that I’d placed with King Cage for some friends and I also arrived today (photo). In this order is a Iris cage, which is of a slightly different design than the standard water bottle cage. I’d purchased it for use with the previously mentioned Klean Kanteen, but it appears that the side loops don’t reach up to the shoulder of the bottle, so it’s only held in with friction (photo). I hope this isn’t a problem, but if it is I can always fall back on using a normal-ish bottle, which the Iris does hold quite securely around the indentation (photo). Or, worst case, I’ve got a spare regular King Cage-brand cage.

Now to wait for the pedals (should have shipped Monday) and the bike should be complete. I’ve also ordered a rather unique handlebar (Ragley Carnegie’s Bar) to try, but I’m not sure if I’ll fit that prior to the first single track ride this spring or not.

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Would You Like To Play A Game?

I remember reading articles like this (The Effects of a Global Thermonuclear War; 4th edition: escalation in 1988) when I was much younger, leading to lots of thinking about nuclear war and the inevitable, terrifying future. I can’t help but wonder how I would have ended up if I didn’t grow up with knowledge of the awesome power the world’s nations held and my awareness of completely helplessness in the face of it. At the time all I could do was hope that such a war never came to pass.

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