This rock looks loose.

adios

2010-10-26T09:23:00.000-04:00

goodbye blogger

Oil Recycling Dakar Style

2010-04-13T15:59:00.001-04:00

Snow! Again!

2010-02-14T15:00:00.002-05:00

Fred Eaglesmith at Eddie's Attic

2010-01-14T20:01:00.000-05:00

I saw Fred Eaglesmith and the Fabulous Ginn Sisters do their thing the other night at Eddie's Attic. Holy Shit! Why have I not heard about them before? I went out and bought two of his albums today.

Fred's a funny guy. He threatend to turn Eddie's Attic into Freddie's Attic once he got rich and famous. He also likes to tell stores, as you can see in the first 4-1/2 minutes of Water in the Fuel. He's also able to write poiniant songs about seemingly silly things like small motors. It was snowing like hell (for Georgia) throughout the show and Fred, the Canadian, had a lot of fun calling it pussy snow and making fun of us. He played Cumberland County to drive home his point.

After the show I had to brush an entire inch(!) of slushy snow off the bike and ride home on dark, slick streets. Nice.

Snow Day

2010-01-08T08:24:00.003-05:00

Here in the South snow that sticks around for more than a few hours is cause for celebration. One of our snow day rites is the traditional meal of of milk and bread that we hastily bought yesterday afternoon.

I was a fashion photographer

2009-12-07T21:40:00.004-05:00

Yerba Maté

2009-12-01T20:19:00.005-05:00

I worked from home today and thought about making some coffee to keep me going, but figured that wouldn't be such a good idea. And then I remembered there was plenty of maté to help me churn through a sea of data.

I was first exposed to maté in graduate school by a guy I shared an office with. Juan was Argentinian and drank mate like it was going out of style. At first I thought (hoped) it was coca tea and was a little bit deflated after I asked and he explained what maté was and that it was completely legal. As it turns out, maté is a social drink and you can't really refuse it if offered. At first I drank it out of politeness, but that soon wore off and I was hooked: it's a fantastic stimulant. The caffeine content is less than that of coffee, but unlike coffee you can easily drink a liter or more of maté an hour and not get shaky or hyper. Just what you need to read a bunch of dry papers on the thermodynamics of feldspar activity models and biotite exchange components.

You drink yerba maté out of a gourd though a metal straw. Fill the maté (gourd) with the yerba, put the straw in, and pour hot water from your thermos over it. Let it steep a minute or two and sip. Add more water when it's empty. The maté usually only holds ~1 cup of liquid. The straw has a filter on the bottom to keep the leaves out and there are all sorts of tricks to keep the yerba powder from clogging the thing up. You'll have to get an Argentinian show you the proper method. There are lots of brands of yerba, but I like Rosamonte Especial. Too bad they have a stupid flash site.

Photos from a city on the Ohio River

2009-11-18T19:10:00.001-05:00

Heathkit road find

2009-11-08T20:13:00.004-05:00

I found this gem on the curb in the bottom of a box of interesting electronic trash. The house it was in front of has a history of getting rid of some good stuff. I'd love to know what they deem too good to throw out. I took the meter home, along with a shelf and some other treasure, in the front of the orange bike's basket. Very Sanford & Son.

And it works! The battery had corroded, but it had fallen out of its holder before it spilled its guts, so all the corrosive bile was easily cleaned off the bakelite. It won't replace the fluke DMM, but it sure is nicer to look at.

Bike to vote

2009-11-03T20:10:00.003-05:00

Lucky for me, as I forgot about election day until sometime around 7:30, the polls in Atlanta were open until 8. As always, I cycled to my polling place which is only a few blocks away. Cycling to a civic event make me happy, even happier than everyday cycling. There's some sort of manifesto statement in it, although I'm not entirely sure what that statement is.

I think this was the first time I've voted alone as The Little Lady was at work. Normally we'd have a beer at our local watering hole afterwards, but I peddled on home instead.

I voted randomly for a bunch of judges I'd never heard of and hope I never do. I voted Kasim Reed for mayor because the Loaf told me to. And because the other contenders (Norwood and Borders) have corporate pasts that I'm suspicious of. All in all, it was a vote for the least bad candidate.

First post

2009-10-27T22:30:00.002-04:00

Hello, world!