Artmu Laptop Sleeve Doubles as Mousepad

When you take your laptop with you, you rarely take your mousepad. Even though optical mice track on most surfaces, they don’t always track well on all. That’s why it’s a good idea to have one around. Luckily Artmu have come up with a solution to this problem: a mousepad that is integrated into a laptop sleeve, to make sure that you have it with you at all times.

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Boynq WakeUp: Stylish and Effective Alarm Clock iPod Dock

iPods and iPhones have become ubiquitous. If you compare the small form factor, size of the HD and just plain usability, the iPod is hard to beat. With up to 160GB of storage, which was strangely reduced to 120GB, you only need one thing to share you music with friends and family: a dock. It sounds simple, but there are thousands of docks available, and not all of them are equal. Some of them can do some pretty nifty stuff. Others, are just ornamental.

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Using Watering Cans To Create Affordable Mood Lighting

We love mood lighting. There is nothing like placing a few mood lights around a room to revitalize it and change what it looks like. One problem that people face is the actual cost of buying and installing all of these mood lights. Thankfully, we’ve found a cheaper way to accomplish this, with just a little TLC, you’ll change moods easily and cheaply.

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A Day of Firsts

Well, Sunday marked a day of firsts.

It was the first time I was in an ambulance, the first time in my adult life that I lost consciousness, the first time in 9 years that I got stitches. It was also my first bicycle accident.

I remember fidgeting with my watch on my bike. That’s the last thing I remember because I must have crashed a few moments later. Thank goodness for helmets. To be honest, I don’t really like wearing helmets and I have at times thought about not wearing one. Thank God that I just wore it, day in and day out, without any complaints.

I woke up in the hospital or the ambulance. I was asking if I was in Taiwan. I couldn’t remember if I was an ESL teacher. At least, I knew my name, but I didn’t know what happened. I have three cuts on the left side of my face with a few stitches, I don’t know how many, and I have abrasions on both arms and knees. Thoughtfully, the paramedics brought my bike with me to the hospital and it was fine.

I recalled my own cell phone number and my home number after I woke up and my wife was on the way. I was discharged as soon as my wife arrived at around 3PM. I had left the house at around 11:30AM. From my guess, I had my accident at about 12:30PM. The exact memories of what happened are a bit foggy, but I guess that I need to buy a bicycle computer. That would have probably avoided the fall. My watch wasn’t fixed on the handlebars, but on my wrist.

It’s the day after and my wife got me a whole bunch of treats yesterday. It felt like Christmas. I told her jokingly that I should get injured more often. Nope, I don’t want to fall down again. Ah well, with my using the bike this much, as much as I used it back when I was 15-17 when I was seriously training, it was bound to happen. New bikes are lighter, stiffer and have new technologies in them that take a while to get used to. I think I was distracted and then fell down. The good news is that I’ll be getting a new helmet this week and that I’m fine. The Scott jersey that I was wearing was a bit torn up on the shoulder, but I can still wear it. Still, I’m totally miffed at having torn that. It was a birthday present from my wife.

45 Km Bike Ride Banciao Bitan Banciao

Well, after having done some service on my bike and having changed the tires, and using the Weatherunderground to avoid rainshowers, I headed out for a ride. I noticed that this week, I had put on a bit of weight since I hadn’t trained, so I was extra motivated.

What a difference thinner slick tires make! I was going pretty fast, heading up to 45kph on parts. I made it to Biton in about 31 minutes. I knew that my way back wasn’t going to be that fast, but still, I was impressed by the wheels. I can only imagine how fast you can go on something like the Giant TCR Advanced SL 0. Once I get that bike, I actually plan on getting another frame so that when I upgrade certain parts on the SL 0, they’ll have a place to be fixed upon.

After I got back to Banciao, I had a last bit to do before heading home. Naturally, something happened, but that will be for a later post.

All in all, I covered 45 km in about 70 minutes. That’s an average speed of about 39kph.

Bike Service

Topeak Mini 18+

Today, I wanted to go out for a ride, but they typhoon weather had other ideas. That’s not really an excuse, but there is really nothing that you can do when it’s pouring heavily. I kind of get what it means to have a bike. Mechanical faults will happen and it’s best to have it serviced as often as possible.

What I really like in Taiwan, is that you don’t pay for service, you only pay for parts. Today, I put my new Topeak Mini 18+ to work by changing tires. I had a pair of Ritchey Tom Slick Comp 1s that were just itching to be put on my bike. Since I don’t plan on doing any trails anytime soon, I thought that this would be a good idea, for now at least.

Guerilla Beekeepers in New York City

Beekeeping is illegal in NYC. That hasn’t stopped bee enthusiasts from keeping bees. I think that it’s a fabulous idea, especially in the wake of the collapsing colony disorder that has been plaguing the world.

NY Times and Its Challenging Words

If you are a NYT reader, you know that if you double-click a word, you’ll get the defintion. Personally, it’s a feature that I find annoying, but it turns out that the NYT mines this data and released some figures. Here are some of my faves from the list:

sui generis
epistemological
shibboleths
parlous
adenoidal
feckless
solipsism
sartorial
hagiography
antebellum
comity
profligacy
Sisyphean
inchoate
apoplectic
bildungsroman
peroration
recondite
appurtenances
glut
fecklessness

Matt Mullenweg: The Way I Work

Matt Mullenweg is the main driving force being WP and he just posted a rewrite on an article that was recently published in Inc. Magazine. The reason for this is that all of The Way I Work articles are written in the 1st person, even if Matt didn’t write his. His version is annotated and includes lots of links. I found it inspiring.

Bands of Iron: Winning Science Essay on 3QD

Bands of Iron is the winning science essay from 3QD.