Press "Enter" to skip to content

nuxx.net Posts

I Can’t Fight This Feeling Anymore

My bike at the end of the path at Metro Beach. Downtown Detroit can be seen in the distance across the water.

Yesterday my friend Brian () and I rode from my house to Metro Beach and back, taking the slightly longer (46.6 mile total) route. Brian has my old Forte FastCity ST/K tires on his bike and we wanted to take paved surfaces as often as possible because they are nearly unrideable on grass / dirt.

The ride was a little difficult through Dodge Park because of Sterlingfest. This three day outdoor party / fair had REO Speedwagon playing last night, so making our way both directions through the park involved lots of walking bikes through crowds. Other than that, the ride was pretty uneventful. There was a good bit of wind and not haven ridden for a month Brian was pretty exhausted at the end, but it was otherwise good.

I used my new CamelBak for this ride which worked out pretty well. One fill of water lasted the whole ride , and thanks to easy use of ice and insulation, having icy cold water was nice. Being able to carry a camera was once again nice, although I think I need to find a way to make it more accessible.

I did get a couple interesting photos and a couple dull ones. I’ll let you decide which is which:

· Brian standing with his bike in front of Freedom Hill park when we stopped in the shade.
· My bike at the end of the path at Metro Beach. Downtown Detroit can be seen in the distance across the water. (As seen above.)
· Brian checking his bike computer in the gazebo at the point while some families ride past and sit on the benches.
· Stopping near the McDonalds at Metro Parkway and Crocker to eat a gel I found a bunch of cheap vodka bottles in bread bags in the trash.
· Brian reading the nutritional information from a Gu-brand Vanilla Bean gel.

When first taking the photo of Brian reading the gel packet I got some really odd CCD noise which almost looks like, but isn’t, lens flare. Unless maybe somehow it’s lens flare caused by only yellow-ish light, but not.

I also found that my bike is having a hard time shifting between two of the gears in the middle of the cogset, but when I went to adjust things this afternoon I found that it only happens under load. So, I think that the chain and maybe cogset are finally wearing to near replacement. I guess it’s understandable as I’ve put more than 941 miles on my bike since its purchase.

Leave a Comment

More Tornado / Funnel Cloud Damage

A daylight photo showing where the portion of tree came down next to my neighbor's house and my porch along with the damaged tree.

After last night’s run-in with a tornado (or maybe it was just a funnel cloud right near the ground, not sure) I wanted to get some daylight photos of the damage. In short, this was really lucky.

As you can see there, a large portion of the tree was detached from it and this fell right next to my neighbor’s house and my porch. Here is where the limb was ripped off of the tree, here is the damaged end of the limb itself, and this shows how far the limb ended up from the tree.

While the fallen tree limb was completely covering my neighbor’s air conditioning condenser it just barely touched the building itself, hitting it only hard enough to slightly bend the gutter and create a low / sagging spot. Because my neighbor was having some difficulty getting in touch with the condo association’s emergency number to get the tree limb moved three of her sons came by and cut it up and moved it out of the way. I guess my neighbor is also having a new fridge delivered today so she wanted to ensure that there was a sufficient path for the Sears delivery people to get the fridge to her door.

Leave a Comment

Tornado!

A tree just off of my front porch was broken apart during what I believe to be a tornado which dissipated right near my house.

So, uh, there was a tornado here. Around 8:40pm Danielle and I were heading back to my house. Right as we got close to 22 Mile along Schoenherr we saw a VERY large column of white-ish cloud maybe 100′ across extending from the bottom of the rest of the clouds down to the ground right about where my condo is. It was scary enough that I immediately turned the wrong way and started heading west on 22 Mile to avoid being near or crossing its path.

After traveling for about a mile we turned back and what had been a column was now dissipating, tumbling along and eventually breaking up. I then drove up to 23 Mile (next road north) and looked around for any signs of damage, but I didn’t see anything obvious. The wind had also calmed until it was almost nothing, so we just went inside to eat.

Later this evening Danielle and I wandered outside to view the lightning and saw that the tree right next to my porch had had a large section, around 25′ long and weighing enough that I couldn’t budge it, torn out of it and deposited right next to my porch and on top of my neighbor’s air conditioner. Thankfully it only brushed the building, slightly bending the gutter.

(Yes, I know that photo is crap, but it’s very difficult to focus in the dark, particularly when only using flash. I’ll get more pictures tomorrow. Here is another photo of the downed tree limb and broken main tree, but it was taken while standing in the rain and is equally crap.)

Leave a Comment

MMBA Wednesday Night Stony Creek Ride

The only photo I took on the 30-Jul-2008 MMBA group ride at Stony Creek.

Despite carrying my camera with me, here is the only photo I took during last night’s MMBA Wednesday Night group ride at Stony Creek. I don’t know any of the people in the photo and they are just a small part of the ‘fast’ group. There were a bunch more folks who arrived at the top of the hill, after winding up The Snake, after this was taken.

Oh, and that photo is taken on the top of Mt. Sheldon (not a real mountain), the highest point in the park, which is where I took this photo from on Monday while facing the opposite direction. Just ahead of everyone there and to the left is The Roller Coaster, the really nice piece of multi-segment lengthy, winding, flowy, mostly downhill single track.

Leave a Comment

Blimp!

A MetLife blimp is flying over my workplace for some reason.

There is a blimp flying over my workplace. I don’t know why. Thankfully the camera in my phone still works well enough to get a photo of it. I really could use a new phone, though.

I’ve also posted some other new Moblog images, including the blimp one. Interested in seeing them? Here they are:

· A MetLife blimp is flying over my workplace for some reason.
· Beautiful storm clouds seen from outside of Rochester Mills Brewery on 21-Jul-2008.
· A Surly Cross-Check set up for commuting, parked outside of Rochester Mills Brewery.
· The brewery floor at Rochester Mills.
· A Dyson Airblade in the men’s bathroom at Rochester Mills Brewery.
· People sitting around at Rochester Mills Brewery in the back room for the MMBA Metro North chapter meeting.

Leave a Comment

Biking is getting easier…

The entrance to The Pines trail in Stony Creek standing at marker #6.

Since I’d picked up a CamelBak yesterday I decided to give it a try today, but only after removing the rack and bottle cages from my bike to make my bike as light as (realistically) possible. While I previously didn’t like biking with a backpack, one of the cycling-specific CamelBaks isn’t too bad. Yes, I got a good bit hotter and sweatier, but after the first couple miles I didn’t really notice it was there.

The lack of extra weight on the bike made it (much) easier to hop over logs and handle log piles, although I did find that the extra weight on my body caused me to stand up a little less, and my butt was getting a bit more sore. No numbness in a bit over 15 miles, though.

While reading a bit on line about cleaning CamelBaks I found that a number of people just empty the bladder then throw it in the freezer. This keeps things from growing in it between uses so one doesn’t have to wash/dry it every time. I tossed mine in the freezer and hopefully it’ll work out well.

It was also suggested to me that I try to ride in the center chainring more often, because it makes it easier to keep one’s speed up which is quite often the key to getting through tricky areas. I spent most of today’s ride trying this and it really did work out well, and I was able to make it through a particularly difficult uphill rutted switchback comfortably. I don’t know if it is this different gearing contributing to more speed, more experience, or both, but I’m feeling much more comfortable covering routes at Stony much more quickly. I hope this feeling of comfort on trails applies elsewhere.

Oh, I also brought my camera (the Coolpix 5400) along with me today. One of the nice things about the CamelBak is that there is plenty of room in it for my normal set of tools, camera, food (if needed), and things like that. Since I was out there alone there wasn’t much to take pictures of, but I did grab that photo above (also here) at the entrance to The Pines, a switchback filled but not too hilly part of the Stony Creek trails. I also grabbed this photo from the top of Mt. Sheldon, the highest point in the park, looking out at Crittenton Hospital in Rochester, MI.

If you’d like to reference things, here is the MMBA provided map of Stony Creek, and the entrance to The Pines is marker #6, the top of Mt. Sheldon is marker #25.

Leave a Comment

Korg DS-10 Synthesizer for Nintendo DS

Korg DS-10 running on my DS.

In case you were wondering, yes, the Korg DS-10 Synthesizer for Nintendo DS is excellent. It’s awesome. Fun, very easy to understand, the works. I can’t wait until it’s released in the US so that I can have multiple copies running.

The only thing I can’t figure out is what the SMT/HLD setting on the Kaos Pad is supposed to do. Oh, and it does seem like some of the settings (in particular those on the patch panel) don’t do anything until one slightly turns a knob, but that may be intentional.

This sounds excellent on headphones. I can’t wait to see what people come up with using it. Hopefully there is a good way to trade songs beyond peered DS’.

Leave a Comment

8GB iPod Touch For Auction / Sale

8GB iPod Touch for Auction / Sale

Due to an interesting series of events (more on this at some point in the future) my sister has had to purchase a new computer and such for herself. As part of her purchase of a Macbook she received an 8GB iPod Touch for free (after rebate). She doesn’t need the iPod, so I’m attempting to sell it for her.

I am currently selling it via eBay auction #290249097988 with a starting bid of US$1. If any of you are interested in purchasing it I can make it available outside of eBay. I expect that we’ll get somewhere around US$240 for it once the auction has closed, but I’d take US$220 cash (or equivalent). This goes for folks overseas or not. Yes, that’s a much better price than you’ll pay for one at a store.

This is a brand new iPod purchased a couple of weeks ago at the local Apple store at the Partridge Creek shopping center. It comes with the original receipt, so there should be no problems with any sort of warranty support on it. It should also be quite easy to get the 2.0 firmware (jailbroken or not) on it, if you so desire.

So, anyone want it? Otherwise I’ll just leave it up to the eBay peoples…

Leave a Comment

CamelBak M.U.L.E. (Coyote / Black)

Camelbak M.U.L.E. in Coyote / Black color, purchased from REI for US$85.

Today while out and about Danielle swung by REI where I used one of those silly VISA gift cards to purchase a CamelBak M.U.L.E. hydration pack. I’ve been contemplating getting one for a while now, but I finally decided just to get one and see if I like it. Because it was purchased at REI, if I really don’t like it I can just take it back.

I had wanted the orange / charcoal colored one, but it wasn’t in stock so I went with coyote / black, which is a nice brownish color. I figure that black would be a bit hot to wear and it’d also show all acquired dirt very easily, whereas this brown should be considerably lighter.

I also picked up a US$1 brass Presta to Schrader adapter to keep in my bag. Last time I was out riding I happened across someone with a flat who needed to borrow a pump, but as my pump doesn’t do Presta very well (getting the fitting on is a huge hassle) I couldn’t help him out. Also, my sister’s bike has Presta valves and if I’m out riding with her I need to be sure that I can adjust her tires as well.

Leave a Comment