Jul 11 10
BradLife, Transportation
After a long delay through a busy June, I finally got my bicycle out and ready to ride. I am getting in better shape now just riding laps in the subdivision and hopefully get out on the trails soon. (Link to a PDF version from NIRPC available here.)
At the risk of sounding like a 10 year old being overly proud of his wheels – I present- ‘Ol’ Blue’, my current bike:
Note that it is a shaft drive bicycle – no chain so I don’t get grease on my trousers. Very handy for commuting to work. Note the fenders – I am old fashioned enough that I do not want water and purple mulberry juice sprayed all over me by the tires.
Shifting is on the hand grip. 7 speeds is about the same range as 17 gears on a chain bike. An 8 speed chainless offers about the same range as 20 gears on a chain bike.
Anyway it feels good to get out and ride again.
Other Northwest Indiana Cycling links:
NIRPC Ped and Peddle
Calumet Citizens for Connecting Communities
Jul 09 10
BradLife
Water daily, fertilize every two weeks.
May 09 10
BradLife garden, suburban farming
First Tomato Cam Pic.
Apr 19 10
BradLife, Movies and Television television
I called the cable company last week and reduced my service to Basic Cable. That means out of 20 or 30 basic channels I get all the Chicago stations, some South Bend TV stations, C-Span, 2 shopping channels and about 8 Spanish language channels that I have no clue what they are saying. I think there are a couple of religious channels thrown in too. In short, about 1/3rd of the stations are either selling something or not in English.
I miss Turner Classic Movies horribly but while I enjoyed it, I just did not watch it enough to justify the cost and I have a lot of old movies on DVD. I just was not watching it enough. TCM was a good way to find old movies I had never seen before, so I will miss it doubly.
I am going to start using Hulu and AppleTV more instead of cable.
Also, I am re-engaging with Lakeshore Television, our own local PBS station. They usually have an interesting documentary on as I climb into bed at night so I’m enjoying that. WYCC (has about 4 channels on digital) out of Chicago is also good.
I sometimes think we need to force ourselves to quit gazing at distant horizons in order to notice and appreciate the Good Things that are right under our noses.
Apr 07 10
BradLife burns harbor, duneland, wikipedia, zombie
I got a message on the internets yesterday asking me if I had put the Great Zombie Coverup info about Burns Harbor, IN in Wikipedia. Unfortunately no I didn’t, but I am jealous as heck of whoever did! I am on record as saying I thought zombies might be lurking in Porter Co., but I was thinking Hebron (still think so,) not Burns Harbor.
Upon finding out about the article I lost no time in emailing my friends and neighbors. I sent them a copy of the text of the “Zombie Coverup” paragraph about Burns Harbor from Wikipedia (which has since been redacted):
It is speculated that The Great Zombie Invasion of 1949 almost destroyed any chances of an incorporated Burns Harbor. It was in this year that the reanimated corpses began to invade the southern tip of Lake Michigan. With the Port of Indiana and Bethlehem Steel being easy access points for the walking dead to come ashore as well as very noisy areas that attracted the attention of the flesh-seekers, it was no surprise that this area of Porter County Indiana was a prime feeding ground for the undead. Little is known how the zombies came to be un-alive, but the fact remains that they decimated the socioeconomical infrastructure of this region. While the dead walked, consumed, and turned the majority of the residents to their own, a plan was being formed.
The Citizens of Westchester for Zombie Annihilation and Reform(COWZAR) formed a plan, and with the assistance of the National Guard and Bethlehem Steel this plan, known as “Plan Z” came to fruition. In this plan, the remaining survivors were evacuated, examined thoroughly for signs of infection, and in the event that signs were found, creamated(sometimes while still alive), leaving only the zombies. Once the bombers were assured that civilian casualties would be at a minimum, the area was blanketed with bombs. This took out the majority of the undead, but a few stragglers happened to be in the wrong place and remained animated. The second stage of Plan Z entailed ground forces performing a sweep to rid the area of the remaining zombies. After several weeks and more casualties than anticipated the area was considered clean, but quarantined until it could be sterilized. Over the next few years, the National Guard performed tactical strikes at vital, classified areas for further sterilization. It is speculated that there may still be a secret detail on guard at areas of the shore to this day, but this has not been proven nor confirmed. In 1953 the area was re-opened for habitation, but the flow of residents was slow. In mid 1953 the steel mill donated a large amount of money to build houses and stimulate the local economy in order to re-habitate this area. Houses were sold cheap and bonuses were given to mill employees who utilized this. Within a year, the area that would become Burns Harbor was beginning to resemble what it is today. Evidence of the outbreak are still apparent in street signs for “Restricted Areas” as well as heavily secured entrances to various hot spots disguised as steel mill gates. Many current residents believe that if you enter these areas, there is a high chance of infection and that some of the fenced in and guarded areas are being used for experimentation on the living dead. Some believe that there are in fact several “specimens” still roaming, kept at bay only by new residents “placed” by the government and zombie hunters disguised as paramedics, firefighters, and police. Spread the word, as wikipedia won’t let this stay up long.
The local Chesterton Tribune reported on the Wikipedia Zombie Burns Harbor article: Wikipedia exposes Great Zombie Coverup in Burns Harbor. Great article. I love the quote from Town Marshall Jerry Price in the Tribune article.
My sources speculate that the paragraph was added to the Burns Harbor, IN entry on or about April 1st, April Fools Day. What a wonderful prank and it also shows that the people of Burns Harbor have a great sense of humor.
I wonder if Zombies will be the costume of choice for Halloween trick or treaters this year?
Mar 26 10
BradLife
I will be the first to admit I know only some HTML 3 or 4. I can do some light editing on XHTML. And some really minor editing on PHP. In other words, I know enough to be dangerous to myself. I’m just not a coder of any sort.
So I’m sort of proud of myself that I edited the templates on the blog here to include the frellin year on each post. Why the heck would the designers leave the year off? Anyway it was driving me nuts. So not to toot my own horn but my l33t coder mojo was working and I figured out adding the year. Yea me! 
Mar 10 10
BradLife blogging
I have several subjects I want to write about, I started a couple of new blogs at Blogger, thinking that a single subject per blog was the way to go. But several of these topics will only get intermittent play from me so I thought maybe just a subject category on a larger blog would be better.
Another factor was that I was not completely happy with Blogger as a platform, there were new social media – synergies – I wanted to experiment with and Blogger just didn’t make them as easy to implement as I thought they could be. Ditto WordPress.com which I have used on and off over the years. Posterous has some neat posting features but not being able to really edit the templates and make it my own, soon bothered me.
I had this laundry list of features I wanted:
- smartphone screen friendliness;
- the ability to admin and post from a smartphone;
- a directory;
- static pages as well as blog posts;
- my own domain (I always recommend this to other but fluff it off for myself)
- serious integration with Twitter and other social media. I really want to see how blogs, readers, social media and search engines can all interact.
Anyway, the free hosted blog services just were not going to meet my needs. A WordPress blog on my own hosting and domain seemed the way to go. I’m a bit of a plugin addict, and WordPress is so popular that there are usually a dozen plugins to choose from for every need. (But note: there is not one H.P. Lovecraft plugin.)
Some blogging features I like:
- The ability to subscribe by email. A lot of internet users just do not understand about feed readers, but they do understand email and I think being able to be informed of new blog posts by email is important.
- Sending a tweet to Twitter automatically with each new blog post. Half the reason for me blogging is because there are some subjects that just cannot be handled in 140 characters.
- Automatic daily digest of all of my Tweets on the blog. Blog posts are permanent whereas Tweets soon fade but they gain a second life in an archive. Plus there is some linky goodness going on there – Google may or may not like it but tough – I like the synergy here.
So there you have it – nothing radical but I’m interested in what I can make of it.
Mar 10 10
BradLife
I just had the fastest, most painless, vehicle emissions test – evar! My car is finally old enough to require an emissions test before I renew my plate.
25 years ago taking a vehicle in for mandated air quality emissions testing meant long lines, long waits while cars raced their engines with probes up the exhaust pipe, paperwork, grease, and bureaucracy. Today it was maybe 10 minutes, my car’s computer talked to their computer and they worked out some sort of computer-y deal and I pass. I’m digging it. 
RSS
Recent Comments