I started off yesterday pretty lazy, just working on some stuff on the computer. I felt like I wanted to go for a ride, but didn't really have a destination until I found out a friend's birthday party was happening in Manhattan Beach. I needed to go to Hollywood first, though, to check in with Hollywood Pro Bicycles. So I decided I would take the subway over to Hollywood, and then ride to MB from there. Kathy would be meeting me at the beach, so I'd stick the bike in her car and only have to ride one-way.

The ride took me the length of the Ballona Creek Bike Path and then from the airport down to Manhattan on the beach bike path, so of the 20 miles I would put close to two-thirds on bike paths. That makes for a nice trip. I think it took me an hour and fifteen minutes, including hitting seemingly every red light on La Brea and riding into a headwind approaching the ocean. My ride was slightly different than that shown in the map -- instead of starting out by going east over to Vine only to come back west later I just went straight down La Brea to Jefferson. That worked fine (other than the lights).

The bike shop's going to order a tribar (vaguely like these, but differently shaped) for me to try out, which I'm looking forward to. I really want a grip position that'll keep me low and leaned forward for speed and power.

I set up enlightenment 0.17 on my laptop today (click on the image, and then all sizes to get the full sized image).

Wow.

Since I last took an e17 screenshot in December, they've added multiple desks, key bindings, and a whole host of other things that make e17 into a very usable window manager. It's still under heavy development and probably not even close to a release, but in my playing around it's working just fine. It still just supports one background on all desks and there isn't any true support for transparent terminals yet, but I think it's close enough that I'll use it on the laptop.

There's so much movey-goodness that you can't see in a static screenshot, but I still think the shot looks great.

I'm about to set off from JPL to Kathy's new apartment in Studio City. Roughly that means taking this route, though obviously being on a bike I won't be hitting up the freeways. bikemetro gives me a route that's 16.68 miles long, and overall drops 518 feet. In between, though, it first goes up 200 to 300 feet, then drops 900 or so, and finally rises back 150 - 200 feet. That should make it a bit of a workout.

I'm more worried, though, about the fact that there are 24 steps to the directions. I wrote them down on an index card, now we'll see how I do at reading the card and road signs while negotiating traffic. This is one of those situations where a GPS unit would be mighty handy.

I'm about to head out on my bike ride back from JPL to Downtown. The JPL Weather Station says that the current temperature is 88 degrees. That's down only two or three from today's high. The solar raditation, though, is down from close to 100 watts/sq. foot to 48.6. I guess that means that while I'll still sweat on my ride, I won't get too burned. I am getting a sizeable farmer's tan, though.

The LA Weekly cracks me up. In March they asked us

Ever wonder why a leg of the Red Line ends at Wilshire and Normandie, miles short of the museums and office buildings that would make it worthwhile to thousands?

I said that no, I hadn't wondered that, seeing as the line actually ends one stop later at Wilshire/Western.

And now in this week's issue they tell us where to drink along the Red Line. But again something funny caught my eye.

The Powerhouse, across the street to the east from Hollywood & Highland, the Red Line’s penultimate stop, deserves the honor of your visit if only for its dive-bar tenacity amid rampant swankification.

Hmmm... My dictionary tells me that penultimate means next to last. And my handy Red Line map tells me that there are in fact two stops past Hollywood & Highland. And just a bit before this we read

Traxx has a timeless romanticism about it; it also has great crab cakes (although you might have to eat them standing up). When you’re done, take a calm walk among the train-runners past the many numbered tracks toward Vignes Street, make a right at the end of the tunnel, and board the subway for central downtown.

I know, they probably just wanted an excuse to talk about tracks and numbers and such, but if you're giving people directions, don't make them walk more than they have to. The Red Line entrance before the train tunnel is much closer to Traxx.

It's Metro's Bike to Work Day, so that's what I did. Well, ok, I did it 'cause that's what I do every day, but it still counts. And JPL was having a Bike to Work event too, so I ended up with a $20 gift certificate to Pasadena Cyclery and a Metro-branded patch kit.

This morning didn't begin cycling, though. Instead I threw my bike into the back of Kathy's Explorer and we headed to Hollywood, catching the 6:30am showing of Episode III at the Arclight's Cinerama Dome. Reserved seating meant we left Downtown at 6 and had plenty of time to spare once in the theater. They installed digital projectors in the Dome for this movie, so the best movie-watching experience in LA is now even a bit better. And off-peak tickets (6:30am is definitely off-peak) are only $11. And yes, I liked the movie. I didn't see Ep. 1, and I thought Ep. 2 was ok, but I thought 3 was very good.

Ah, LAist, late to the story and skimpy on the details... Today they discover the Midnight Mission saga that became a story about a month ago when the new facility opened. The Christian Science Monitor did a piece of reporting so shoddy that I don't really feel the need to link to it and put it onto the AP wires, and now here we are still having to talk about it. Brady rebutted the piece on April 19th, and I covered NPR's followup on blogdowntown a week ago. But today LAist jumps in. Aside from their usual lack of timeliness, they also lazy their way around some important facts you would think the extra time would have allowed to be researched.

In the comments to one particular blog post, Justin Wisniewski of the Midnight Mission explains that the majority of Midnight Mission isn't government funded and that most of the amenities are a necessity for getting those who are homeless and want to re-enter society to succeed.

More correct would have been that the CS Monitor's so-called "amenities" are really just essentials, and that the facility intentionally receives no government funding for their operations.

The facility also seems to be in response to the renewed interest in downtown as a residential area and the desire of those moving in to have the homeless off the street. Affordable housing in a community with rising rents and increasingly upscale constituents doesn't seem like a solution that will be welcomed.

Ummm... Here's the thing. Homeless people living on the street are a problem. It's bad for the neighborhood, but far more importantly it's bad for them. As someone with a definite interest in Downtown, I don't care what the rents are in the building next to mine. Affordable housing has its issues (mainly in regard to economics), but I hardly think Downtown is somewhere snooty enough that people care that those next to them don't quite match the median income. People want a neighborhood that's liveable, and having homeless people living on the streets is just as bad for those individuals as it is for their neighbors.

So after all my talk about the LA River Ride I didn't end up riding. My alarm went off at 5:30 this morning, and I'll be honest -- I just didn't feel like riding a bike. I guess this is why you register ahead of time: to give some incentive to follow through. I don't feel too bad, though; I did ride 100 miles this week and will do about the same next week. I think that earns me the right to a little Sunday afternoon rest if I choose to take it.

So apparently this afternoon there was a fire in Elysian Park. I'm trying to figure out exactly what time I would have been through there, 'cause it wouldn't have been much before the 1:55pm time the report mentions. I had probably been through the area mentioned less than a half hour beforehand.

And no, I didn't start the fire. I think I might have seen the smoke later, though.

Update (just a minute later): I just noticed that you can see the smoke in this picture I took at 2:07pm. I also see from timestamps that I came across the 110 just after 1:30pm, so that confirms the half hour or so time difference I had guessed. I would have come across on the Park Row Drive bridge, just above Academy.

My plan to take an easy 5 - 10 mile ride today as a warmup for tomorrow's LA River Ride didn't quite happen. Instead I got a little carried away and rode from Studio City to Downtown -- the long way. I rode Moorpark over until it ended at Riverside, then Riverside east past Disney and through bits of Burbank and Glendale before wandering into Griffith Park. I bought a smoothie and a bottle of water at the Pony Ride Refreshment Stand, and watched little kids ride ponies and trains. Then I got back on the bike and rode the rest of the way through the park, and continued along Riverside until it ended at San Fernando. I took that to Pasadena Ave, which put me on the North Broadway bridge, and right back on my normal route home from work.

But instead of just making the easy ride home through Chinatown I got the bright idea to check out Elysian Park. I pass the North Broadway entrance all the time, and I'd heard of the park but never been in it. I had no idea that it was close to 600 acres. I also had no idea that it went up so far. And yet, I rode most all the way to the top, even stopping to buy a snack and check out an inning of Little League at Elysian Fields.

Coming down was easy. The road wound down to Stadium Way, and then from there I hit Elysian Park Dr. down to Sunset. A left on Sunset took me to Beaudry, which quickly connected me to 2nd St. and the tunnel under Bunker Hill.

bikemetro puts the direct route from my start to finish at 13.5 miles, but I'm pretty sure the way I did it had to be 20. No matter which is technically correct, my unofficial mileage count for the week has now just crept over the century mark.

50 more tomorrow...

I'm still on track for the bike miles I mentioned earlier this week. I rode to work and back four times this week (20 miles each; 5 there -- with a train -- and 15 back). Then today I rode home from Hollywood and Highland, which I think is just a touch under eight miles. I'll take a similar ride tomorrow just to keep limber, and then should set me up to be feeling good for Sunday's LA River Ride. All told I should end up with around 150 miles this week.

While I was in Hollywood today I bought an Arkel Tail Rider from Hollywood Pro Bicycles. Very cool shop just a block off the Red Line station, and they carry a wide range of Arkel bags. I've had the Arkel Briefcase for a couple years now, and it's held up perfectly. I got the Tail Rider for those instances where I don't need all the space from the briefcase, just enough to carry tools, my lock, and maybe some snacks and water. Check out the features page -- the rain cover, the vertical shape, and the expandability really sold me. I told Alan Thursday that there was no shopping around -- the Tail Rider was what I wanted. Hollywood Pro Bikes had one, and now I have it. I'm happy.

A while ago now I upgraded both Kathy and my computers. Mine I replaced just guts; new CPU, motherboard, memory, etc, but still the same case. Kathy's computer, on the other hand, was in a tiny Dell minitower that had the motherboard connected into the the frame. Seeing as the motherboard was fried and the case wasn't even normal size for a mini motherboard, we ended up buying her a new case and ended up with the old one as junk.

I knew that it was bad to throw computers away thanks to their various heavy metals, but I wasn't exactly sure where you were supposed to take them. As a result, I did nothing, and for a while now the old case has been in the back of her Explorer.

Turns out the City of LA has an E-Waste program, so we just need to take it to one of their collection centers. That's really easy, and it makes me feel pretty dumb for not figuring that out a while ago.

Yesterday, riding home from work, I took it a little slower and stopped to take pictures on the Arroyo Seco Bike Path. When I first wanted to ride the path I had no idea where exactly it started or ended, and even when I found it a lack of marking made me unsure I was in the right place. Hopefully someone in my situation will see these pictures and have a littler clearer idea what they're looking for.

The path starts (on the north) back behind a park (Arroyo Seco Park?) off Marmion Way just east of the river and the 110. It ends in Ernest E Debs Park. There's one other access point in the middle. Nothing's marked, so just look for a ramp down into the riverbed.

I didn't put too much thought into the idea that summer meant working full-time and therefore meant back to back bike ride days. I'm sure in a couple weeks this won't be an issue, but on day two I can say that my legs are pretty tired.

They better get over it fast, though, 'cause Sunday is the LA River Ride and as of right now I plan on doing the 45 mile ride from Griffith Park to Long Beach (plus a couple miles here and there). Of course it's also a ten mile ride from my apartment to the starting line, so added all up that makes it a 65 mile ride -- perhaps more like 55 if I take the Red Line over to North Hollywood and come at it that way. That, plus riding in to work and back four days should give me a week total of around 135 - 145 miles. I know that's not a lot when it comes to serious bikers, but it's a good bit on my beat up urban mountain bike.

Interesting to see this statement in a Daily News article on the upcoming Mayoral election:

Both had busy Sundays, with Hahn visiting churches in South Los Angeles - accompanied by his mother, Ramona, and sister, Councilwoman Janice Hahn - as well as meeting with seniors at the Jewish Home for the Aging in Reseda.

Hahn was actually at Bel Air Presbyterian for the 11am service. He arrived around 11:20 and was brought up front. Pastor Brewer then asked him a couple questions about how Christians should pray for their mayor and what he appreciated about his mother. They stayed until just before the closing song. A few weeks ago Hahn had been to the 9am service, but hadn't been able to make the 11am then. A few months ago Sherriff Baca came to answer the same question about praying for leaders.

I hopped on my bike today after checking the weather report. It said it would be fairly cool, so I put a long-sleeve on and a t-shirt on top. Of course then it turned out to be misting rain in Pasadena, so I got a little wet. Oh well.

What really annoyed me, though, was the Gold Line. I got onto the train to find that they were doing construction work installing a fence on the LA River bridge. All week trains are going to be running every twenty minutes from 9am to 3pm. Apparently, "work can only be safely accomplished during daytime hours." Perhaps they had notice on the trains at the end of last week, but I last rode a week ago so I don't know. I got there today twelve minutes after the last train had departed, so I only had to wait eight.

Another oddity -- We pulled into the Heritage Square/Arroyo Station and came to a stop. It seemed to be a little longer than normal, and then I noticed that the operator was coming (I was in the rear car). He came in the front door, walked along the car, walked out the back door, and then walked back to the front of the train and we started back off (after a little jerky stop still along the platform).

A pair of fare inspectors got on the train at Union Station and rode to Memorial Park without checking anyone's tickets. At Memorial Park they started talking to another pair of inspectors that were at the station. I never saw any fares inspected.

I spent all day working on an enormous rabbit trail I got sucked down with eThreads. It all started yesterday, when I decided I really needed to get my act together and get category support working in eThreads. I got working on that, and then got an idea in my head that I wanted to do something that seemed simple and nifty, but didn't work right when I implemented it. So what do I do? Of course I don't say "Oh that was dumb, let's just do it the old reliable way." No. Instead, I say, "Hmmm, I wonder what would happen if I entirely redefined this huge piece of how eThreads works?"

And now, 14 hours or so of coding later, I just checked a 4000+ line diff into revision control. My crazy idea works, but something's leaking a good bit of memory and I have no idea if I've put speed holes in my hood or just shot my speed (extra points if you know the Simpsons reference).

On the plus side, none of the new components show up near the top of my initial profiling, so I think that's a good sign.

I don't know quite what to make of this, but I am absolutely caught up in the Danielson Famile right now. It's not like they're new to me or anything -- my first mention of them here was way back in 2001 and I had bought albums of theirs in the '90s. But I don't think I've ever quite been as big of a fan of the sound as I am right now. And they've put out albums in the last couple years... I need to find those. Perhaps a trip to Amoeba is in order tomorrow.

So to celebrate finishing up for the summer yesterday I... went to the grocery store. I hadn't been there in a while, and had been doing way too much eating out. The complete barrenness of my cupboards was reflected in the total cost: $130. Vons claims that without the club card it would have been almost $200. In any case, I now have food. This morning I ate Crackling Oat Bran, which I swear I haven't had in over a decade.

Von's also had New York strip for $3.99/lb, so I now have some steaks to be grilling up on the roof.

In only a little over six hours I'll be done with my two remaining finals, ready or not (and the answer is most likely not).

First up, at 11am, is my class on Public Service in an Urban Setting. I get to answer questions about different motivation theories that cause people to volunteer, and what the role of volunteers is in the community.

Second, at 2pm, is Earthquakes. It's mostly multiple choice, which is good for my process-of-elimination brain.

And then, by 3:30 or so I'm done... for the summer. But that's beyond the scope of what I care about right now.

I've been quiet around here over the last few days for a reason. It's finals time. One tomorrow, one Wednesday, two Thursday, and then I'm done for the summer. I'm ready (for it to be over, not for the finals).

(Errr... I guess "tomorrow" is today.)