Author: Jeff Hendricks

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Commuter Report: Week 1 Finished

I really enjoyed biking to work last week, even though I had to bail on Thursday and Friday afternoons because of the torrential downpours. Fret not, as I now have fully functional fenders and lights on the BlueBike, and I’m ready for anything. Well, not anything per se, you know, not a tornado or volcanic activity, or a tidal wave or a Cat 5 hurricane. But as for dark and rain, I’ve pretty much got that covered. I’ve got all my stuff in waterproof bags, so even if it rains, I’m ready to go.

Yes, I’m still scared of getting run down, but not as much as I was. In actuality, the rides have been a lot better than I thought they would be. I’m still curious as to if/when I’ll run across local law enforcement, and what they’ll tell me about riding in the street… Thibodaux, LA doesn’t have the greatest track record for bicycle-friendly law enforcement. It would do those guys some good to actually patrol on bikes and see what traffic is like without the protective bubbles of their plush cruisers. Heh, that’s wishful thinking.

Anyway, the ride has gone mostly fine. I had a rough day today, but I am reminded that last week went really well. My lighting system performed perfectly after I realized I had hooked the battery up wrong! The taillight I use only works when the polarity is correct, it’s made of LEDs and doesn’t have a rectifier in it. (Hmm, another project I could do one day) The bike is riding fine, the fenders worked great. Everything seems to be going perfectly.

I still need to get a better tire solution for preventing flats. The Kenda tires I have ride well, but are cheap, and they seem to like to eat up bits of metal like Cookie Monster eats cookies. Maybe I could try some tire liners, like Mr. Tuffy brand.

As I sit here typing this, it’s raining outside. I don’t know if the rain will be done by the time I get off of work, but I’m looking forward to riding home in the rain, to see what that will be like. No, I’m not crazy… I spent money on quality fenders, I want to see how well they work!

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Commuting To Work

So I finally decided instead of riding 14 miles every morning, and then driving to work, I’d just ride the 8 miles to work instead.

You’re probably thinking “That’s a no-brainer!” but it’s more complicated than that. On my normal morning ride, there’s no traffic lights, very little traffic, and only one stop sign. To get to work is a shorter distance, but requires navigating a dozen stop signs, busier streets, and at least two traffic lights and a bridge. Also, I will have to carry myself (and my stuff) back home in the heat at 5:00, which I don’t have to deal with on morning-only rides. I also have to figure out how to carry a change of clothes, any food I need, my laptop, and anything else (including lights and a battery) on the bike, while on my regular rides I don’t need any of that stuff.

Don’t forget that buying a bike and everything you need for a commute costs money! It’s healthier to get exercise, yes, but it’s still not free. With recreational cycling, if you get a flat, you don’t have to ride. If something breaks, you can wait to fix it. If it’s too rainy, too dark, or too whatever, you don’t have to ride. With commuting, you pretty much need to ride every day, unless you have a car on standby at all times. I do happen to have a car, so this is less of an issue for me.

So is it worth it? It depends on how dedicated you are to it. Believe it or not, you will save more money by riding when it’s convenient, because you will not need things like lights, fenders, panniers, or specialized clothing. You won’t get as fit, though, if you don’t ride on a regular basis.

So whether or not you will get benefits from cycling to work depends on what kind of retuns you’re looking for. So far, I’ve lost close to 20 pounds just cycling and eating right. Commuting will actually increase my mileage compared to my normal 13.5 mile morning jaunts, up to 16.5 miles total a day. Not a huge difference, but it eliminates the extra time I spent riding in the morning… I can actually get up and leave laterthan I normally would if I had ridden and then drove to work.

Time will tell how things go long-term, but for how good I feel riding my bike, I’m going to stick with it.

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Living Deliberately

For a while now, in my pursuit of living more deliberately, I’ve considered starting to ride my bike to work. I love driving my car, don’t get me wrong. There’s a part of me that wants to do it just because I can. However, after considering the costs involved in driving to work every day, I’ve come to realize that it would actually save me money in the long run… and not just gradually. Since moving back to my hometown, I mostly use my car to get back and forth to work now. Every now and then I’ll use it to go to the store, but that’s uaually on my way home from work. My commute now is 8.5 miles by car, each way. That comes to 85+ miles a week, and my car uses 93 octane (it’s supercharged) so it costs me about $10.50 a week in gas. That’s around $45 a month in gas, not to mention the reduced wear and tear on my car, which doesn’t exactly use the cheapest tires, oil, or parts.

The decision to bike commute isn’t strictly financial, though. I love riding a bike, and I already ride about 14 miles in the morning before I drive to work, anyway. I figure I’ll just skip the driving part, and still get a nice bike ride in every morning. I will likely still want to drive the car occasionally, and I’m okay with that. However, this way I don’t have to drive, and if I have to do any major work on the car, I don’t have to worry about having it done by Monday morning.

So what do I need to do to start commuting to work? Well, if you know anything about me, you’ll know I researched it extensively beforehand. I scrounged through every forum and blog I could find for bicycle commuters, and came up with some very interesting tidbits of information. With places like BikeForums.net there was plenty of experience and advice to learn, which I soaked up. Here’s some of the most important things I learned so far, pre-commute:

1. Any bike will do
I looked at my tired Schwinn/Pacific mountain bike. It is the perfect commuter bike in that it has all the mounts for fenders and racks, has wide gearing, is comfortable, cheap, and fairly reliable. It doesn’t take a lot of money to get a decent commuter bike if you’re not picky. As long as you can ride it comfortably far enough, and it can hold everything you need to bring, then it’s a good bike. You will want to upgrade it at some point, but it’s not required to start with.

2. Be Prepared
You have to know what you’re getting yourself into. You need to practice the route on a non-work day, to figure out the best route to take. You need to assemble what you need, so you can find out how to carry everything. Make sure you have a way to clean up at work, and a place to store your bike. Make sure the bike is tuned up, you have what’s needed to fix a flat tire, basic tools, etc. If the weather looks bad, make sure you have appropriate raingear, or at least a towel to dry off when you get there. If you ride in the early or late hours, invest in a good lighting system (doesn’t have to be expensive).

3. Don’t Worry About Being Too Prepared
No matter what happens, it’s not the end of the world. There’s very little chance you’re going to lose your job over a simple mistake, or an accident. People are generally forgiving, and you can learn from your mistakes. If you work at a job where simple mistakes are not tolerated, I’d highly recommend rethinking your career choices anyway.

I’m looking forward to commuting, and as I go, I will document the lessons learned, and maybe give some encouragement along the way.

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Times They Are A Changin’

I’ve had this blog up for quite some time now, and I suppose it’s time for me to branch out into something besides just blogging for fun. Debbie (my wife) and I have been tossing around the idea of starting a professional blogging/writing career, which seems hard to do at first. We’re still doing some research on it, however, and there’s a good possibility we’ll be brightening up the page a bit and offering more than just witty commentary and cool geeky posts… we may actually start producing e-books and articles (with videos) for download. We just have to figure out how to get it started, and we’ll see where it goes.

Here’s to the future!

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Live Looping: Music For People With ADD

I’ve recently run across a type of musical performance called “Live Looping” which involves a performer on stage using a delay device to layer sounds until they have an entire song. After watching some of these musicians, I am extremely impressed, and very much inspired to try it myself. I will have a detailed video on how I set my rig up later on, but for now, I’ll just say that it is incredibly fun, and perfect for musicians with Attention Deficit Disorder. Why? Because you not only get to perform the whole song, but you get to do it all yourself, jumping from instrument to instrument, and part to part, while keeping track of everything you’ve done already.

I’ve got two guitar amps, a digital effects unit, a MIDI keyboard controller, a computer, and a MIDI footpedal controller. Oh yeah, and a couple of guitars!

I know it’s kind of a tease to just describe it without some sort of photo or video, so here’s something to tide you over! This guy is one of the best I’ve seen at this kind of music. Yes, this is what I am wanting to learn how to do.

[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EF3V3BsZDI”]

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Living Life With Significance

Have you ever thought about what separates great people from ordinary people in history? It’s more than being rich. They were remembered through time because they impacted enough people to make a difference. They lived their lives with meaning, with significance.

I have been wanting to have more of an impact on the world around me for years. But as most of you know, corporate America doesn’t care about innovation or impacting people’s lives if there’s no money involved. I can see myself in the near future breaking out of the corporate mold that has held me in prison for so long. It has provided a living for my family, yes, but has stripped me of the ability to do anything but work 8 to 5.

For me to make an impact with my life, I am going to have to step out on faith, and find a way to make a living doing something more than paperwork. We will see, in the near future, how successful it will be. Wish me luck.

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A Letter Of Complaint To Ubuntu 9.10

Okay, most of my readers know I’m a big proponent of Linux as an alternative to Windows. But lately, there’s been dissension among the ranks. And in a rare fit of frustration, I find myself dissatisfied. I suppose I should be more specific. I’m not installing Windows on my workstation, not getting rid of my MythTV box. I’m not talking suicide… just need to get a few gripes off of my chest about the best free OS ever made.

For years, I used Red Hat Linux. It was the de facto standard, and most servers ran it. Then along came SuSE Linux, which was a huge step in advancement. There are still times when I wish I ran a SuSE distribution, it’s that good… at least as of a year or two ago it was.

Then I discovered the phenomenon of Ubuntu, and all its flavors. For people like me who wanted to try out all the newest apps and have them work out of the box, Ubuntu was a Godsend. Everything worked for me right off the bat, it had all the apps I wanted already in the repositories, and you could get it with different desktops preinstalled.

However, in a surprising turn of events, I’ve discovered Ubuntu has utterly failed in several categories in the last year, specifically with version 9.10. I happily ran Ubuntu 8.10 for quite a while, and had no issues until I replaced my graphics card one day… all of a sudden it wouldn’t autodetect it, and I couldn’t get X to work right no matter how hard I tried. When I tried putting the original card back in, the system was rendered useless. So I backed up my stuff, made a note of apps I wanted to install, and did a fresh install of Ubuntu Studio 9.10. This is when the irritation set in. Continue reading “A Letter Of Complaint To Ubuntu 9.10”