First Day of Classes

August 22, 2005 by Eric Richardson

Classes start today for my last semester at USC. I'm excited at the prospect of being done, but I can't say I have any desire to go back today. The object of most of my worry is Latin, which I'm supposed to know by now (seeing as I'm going into Latin 3), but really don't. It's going to be a long next few weeks as I really push to catch back up with where I should be. I'm just hoping today doesn't have any real content to it (no first day should) so that I can put off that first moment of being called on and not knowing the answer until Wednesday.

In a feat of good planning, though, I don't have any pre-noon classes. My schedule, in fact, looks like I'm cheating the system and taking maybe 8 units, when I've actually got 18 in there.

The New Bike Now Has 41 Miles on It

August 21, 2005 by Eric Richardson

35 miles riding this afternoon/evening. I'm exhausted. I started from my apartment, headed up past Echo Park to Sunset, and then took Sunset over to the Hollywood split and Hollywood to Hollywood Pro Bicycles over by Las Palmas. My carbon seat post won't stay put, but Chris wasn't in so I didn't get to do much about it. And so, yes, I rode 35 miles with a slipping seat post. — Continue Reading...

Longing for a Better Bike Route Tool

August 21, 2005 by Eric Richardson

My plan is to bike to church again this evening, though this time on a much nicer set of wheels. All of this cycling has made me really wish for a bike routing site that did a few more things than bikemetro does.

For instance, bikemetro tells me that from Runyon Canyon Park to Bel Air Pres there's an elevation change of 89 feet. That sounds nice, until you look at the elevation graph above (note that's just from the top at Runyon... not from Hollywood or Downtown). Yeah, sure, the end (~1300ft) is 89 feet above the beginning (~1200ft), but in between there are drops to about 1000ft and a bunch of 100 - 200ft climbs. I'd love to see the site just add up all the climbs and descents and give you those numbers, along with the overall change.

bikemetro has had some serious downtime issues lately, and I don't really know what their ongoing funding situation is, so it would be great to see someone put together a companion/alternative site. I could even do without any bike specific features in a pinch -- just give me the ability to exclude highways and route based on elevation change (factor flat in against short).

Happy Birthday to Me

August 19, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I bought my new bike today. All summer I've been sort of building toward it, and I've been telling everyone that what I wanted for my birthday was a little money toward its purchase. Well, I don't quite have all the money together yet, but this was the time to buy and I went for it. End of summer just happens to be when the model year transition occurs, so all the 2005 bikes are on sale to make room for the new ones that'll be arriving soon.

Hollywood Pro Bicycles had several different bikes in my size, so today I went test riding. I put a good little workout onto each bike on the streets behind the shop, particularly up and down Las Palmas between Hollywood and Franklin. In the end there was really no contest; for me the best bike was going to be the Devinci Podium. — Continue Reading...

You Too Can Protect Our Country

August 18, 2005 by Eric Richardson

I was on the bus yesterday and noticed that Bryman College now offers as one of its programs 'Homeland Security Specialist'. I'm pretty sure that says something important and scary about this country.

Would you like to aid in the protection of our country? Due to recent terrorist events, there is an increased demand for trained safety and security employees throughout the nation. The Homeland Security Specialist program will provide you with a solid foundation in planning, implementing, and managing security operations for an organization.

Yikes.