An open letter to Diana

Dear Diana,

I am gladdened by the fact that you so enjoy my web log, or blog, VeloKillVelo. I apologize that the upkeep of said blog has been sporadic at best in the recent past. The more part of my efforts have been put into my Twitter activity. You may have noticed that the last two posts to said blog (current post excluded) are concerning Twitter. If I may hazard a guess, I think you may find that my witty comments and insightful observations about life and the universe are more accesible to you by following my Twitter stream or "tweets", if you will - as it were - what have you...

Nevertheless, you are free to make your own decision in regards to which manner you will electronically stay in contact with myself given that you are endowed with certain rights and abilities (speaking of rights only and not abilities in any manner other than to make an independent decision) prescribed to your person by God, which have been reconfirmed to be yours by the fundamental laws and declarations of the county in which we currently reside, toil through our labors, and most willingly bear the burden of taxation.

Sincerely, your ever true and loving brother both in the literal and spiritual meanings of the term,

Aaron

Twitter Followup

A short history of the names I have used on twitter:

@VeloKillVelo

I think I started with @VeloKillVelo like the blog name here. That seemed a little intense with the Velo repetition and Kill stuck in the middle there (the blog will keep the name though), so I went to the softer side of Sears and switched to @Velove.

@VELOve

That is a contraction of the words Velo (which refers to the most efficient mode of transportation ever invented - the bicycle) and Love of course (the most inefficient human emotion ever invented). I just checked and someone in Germany (?) has claimed @Velove. It just has a link to an empty but nice-looking site hosted in Germany.

@BicycleBrain

I changed to @BicycleBrain because I thought that was pretty clever. In fact, it refers to a quote by Steve Jobs: "Computers are like a bicycle for our minds."

@AaronLYoung

In the past month I decided to grab my own name whilst it wast stillst available-st. So now you can follow me @AaronLYoung. Click on the link on the right side of the blog to make it easy.

Twitter Fever

I love the Twitter. I started using it years ago after I heard the gang on This Week in Tech gushing about it. At first I just posted simple little things like that commercial ("I am sitting on the porch"). But after a while that became boring and really who wants to read stuff like that. I don't care if your having a coke or going to the gym, and I bet you aren't that interested if I am. Instead I've been using it as a way to distribute cool stuff I've found online. Youtube videos, music, articles, important info on tech stuff. Twitter is much better that way, but it helps to use a URL shortening service like bit.ly or j.mp.

Some people that really rock the Twitter are Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago), Merlin Mann (@hotdogsladies) although he is often quite crass, and Rainn Wilson (@rainnwilson). There is a "super-tweeter" named @StephenFry that has more than 1 million followers. I've tried following him, but his tweets are really boring; "sitting on the couch" type stuff. I don't know why he has so many followers.

I also follow bicycle businesses like Harris Cyclery (@harriscyclery) although their website is much more useful than their Twitter stream, VeloOrange.com (@velo_orange), and indirectly Rivendell Bicycle Works (@RivBikeFans - they don't have their own feed).

Other folks I think are interesting:

Primal Blueprint news/articles: Mark Sisson from MarksDailyApple.com (@Mark_Sisson)

Tech news: @TechCrunch, @MacRumorsRSS, and @droidnews

Tech journalists: Andy Inhatko (@ihnatko), Gina Trapini (@ginatrapini), and Leo Laporte (@LeoLaporte).

News: @TheEconomist and @TheOnion

Finally, I follow Audible.com (@audible_com) because I love listening to audiobooks on my iPod - definitely a life-changer for me ("Hey, I read a book!") and they sometimes give away free audiobooks. Definitely worth following.

What I most dislike about the Twitter is simply that very few of my dear friends post tweets regularly. So thanks to Emilee (@ultravoxx) and Christian (@klangfarben) for keeping it real.

Let's win this mother out

Back on track

I went for nice bike ride today. I rode from my home to Macedon along the Erie Canal trail and then back to Fairport where I met Jaime and the kids. I asked Jaime to pick me up because my left ankle was hurting. I haven't ridden this far in nearly a year and I've never had problems with that ankle before so I thought I would forego pushing through the pain to avoid an injury early in the season. The total distance was 28.46 miles (45.81 km). I estimate it took me about 2.5 hours so average speed was just over 10 mph. Not very fast, but it's my first ride this season and I had a lot of gear and my bike felt really heavy. Regardless of speed, it was a nice ride. About 2/3 of the trail is paved, and the other parts are crushed rock. The weather was beautiful, albeit a bit brisk with a starting temperature in the low 30's and a slight breeze. After i warmed up I was fine with just a wool sweater on top but I had long johns and some "knickers" (jaime's work out capris) on bottom. A pair of generic, one-size-fits-all cotton gloves was enough to keep my hands warm.

One thing I need to work on is pacing. I tend to hop on my bike and go go go until I'm worn out. I should take breaks for stretching and food more often. I think that may give me a bit more endurance.

I don't know if I'll have time, but I'd like to do a brevet this year. We'll see how that goes.

AAAccK!

This is creepy.

Oh, those Swedes.

This looks like a bike Rene Magritte might have dreamed up.



And the guy's site is here.