Today I competed in my first bike race. I never imagined I'd be into mountain biking, it always seemed like something intended for a weird hippie-jock subculture, like something you graduate to when ultimate frisbee losses its rush, but I was wrong and now I'm hooked.



I borrowed a bike from my shop's Cannondale rep, ran the course once Wednesday after closing the bar the night before and suffered for it, but I went back today and didn't do half bad. The race is intended to be a 40 mile endurance race (two 20 mile laps), but my friend and I signed up as a team and each just did one of the laps along with 24 other men's teams and some coed teams. I ran the second lap which put me in an odd position, as I was fresh and full of energy passing people that were already 20 or 30 miles into the ride and understandably going slower, but I got over it and just pedaled as hard as I could. Bonus: in true Git'r Done style, I rode straight through the finish line up a hill to the parking lot where there was free beer and barbecue.



I shouldn't go nuts with war stories, but there were a few crazy moments including an accidental endo that I rode for a good fifteen feet after incorrectly attempting to jump over a fallen tree at high speed (this was my 4th time mountain biking and it's all still very new to me). Fortunately I set the rear wheel back down and pedaled out of it to the cheers of the group behind me. Otherwise mostly smooth sailing, just a few steep climbs on which I tipped over due to lack of momentum.

About the bike: Cannondale F29 1, a 27-speed U.S. made aluminum hardtail frame with a carbon Lefty fork. The Lefty is that crazy looking fork that comes off the headtube to the left and only connects to one side of the front wheel. Why? It's light as hell (3 lbs), it's crazy looking, and I imagine that you can change the tire without even removing the wheel. Crazy. The bike also has 29-inch wheels as opposed to standard 26-inch mountain bike wheels. Why? Basically, the bigger the wheel - the smaller the obstacle. Bigger is better.

Friend Austin Alter has begun blogging. Mostly he is following election happenings.

Austin is a fellow barduate and celebrated author of Rhode Island School of Design: Off the Record and assorted other fiction and non-fiction.

Although I still have to pick up my last paycheck, I think it's safe to say that my messenger days are over for now. I think I was a pretty decent messenger, and I definitely had the hang of it by the end, but I still don't feel qualified to speak with any authority about 'what it's like' especially in light of how few people make it a career and how many people make it a lifestyle. I will say that it is really really fun and can be a huge rush and/or a really big pain in the ass.



These are maps of all my pick-ups and deliveries for one day. Kinda sloppy with the screen shots, and I over-loaded Google Map so it's one day but it had to be on two maps. The satellite and street versions are the same route but the two sides are separate parts of the day. (U on map #1 on the left is the same location as A on map #2 on the right, if you are actually trying to follow the route alphabetically.)



Awesome city, great rides.

This really doesn't warrant much attention, but should be given a passing nod.

I just got an email informing me that "People are searching for you on Spokeo."

'Whoa thanks Spookiou, wait I'm sorry who are you?'
'...Oh ok, I see you're some sort of hybrid of social networking sites and those adds about finding your friends from highschool that use those old vintagey looking yearbook pictures...except you sort of work like an RSS feed...'

'Yeah ok, I get it; you let me keep track of my friends' various social networking and other public/semi-public internet activity... and it says here that you track everything on the following sites:

Do you know how many of your friends blog on MySpace or upload photos to Flickr? We don't think you do. Spokeo searches popular networks for your friends' blogs, photos, videos and music. We guarantee you'll learn something new about your friends. Do you know how many of your friends blog on MySpace or upload photos to Flickr? We don't think you do. Spokeo searches popular networks for your friends' blogs, photos, videos and music. We guarantee you'll learn something new about your friends. So you've found a lot of friends, and they're spread out across many networks. How do you know when they post new blogs and photos? Spokeo checks your friends' content so you don't need to visit their websites one by one. With Spokeo doing all the work, you'll never miss a thing. So you've found a lot of friends, and they're spread out across many networks. How do you know when they post new blogs and photos? Spokeo checks your friends' content so you don't need to visit their websites one by one. With Spokeo doing all the work, you'll never miss a thing. 43 Things Amazon Bebo Blockbuster Blogger Buzznet dailymotion deviantART Digg Flickr Flixster Fotolog Friendster Hi5 iLike imeem Last.fm LinkedIn LiveJournal Multiply MySpace Netlog Pandora PhotoBucket Picasa PictureTrail Slide Stumbleupon Twitter Upcoming Veoh Vox WebShots Windows Live Spaces Wretch Xanga Yelp YouTube Facebook Notes & Shares

'weird...'

In retrospect, it was nice of this crazy friend activity aggregator to give me the heads up that someone has been using it to follow my activities, but its a bit ominous because I'll never know who it was. Wouldn't it be so much cooler if people could get together on some sort of group-blog long-distance friendship forum and share their interesting updates and check each other's when they felt like it instead of getting things fed to them RSS-style....

As of last Wednesday, I have joined the ranks of New York City bike messengers. Having only spent 4 days out on the street, I am far from qualified to write anything about 'what it's like'. Instead I present shameless plugs for the lasercave zine library.

Monday scored as the coldest day this year [that I bothered to check the weather] starting at a whopping 14 degrees ("feels like -2") as I crossed the Williamsburg Bridge at 9 am. Winds ranged from 16 mph to 23 mph. The temperature maxed out at 25 degrees ("feels like 11") around 4 pm and dropped steadily until I finally took the subway home around 8 pm out of exhaustion.

Anyone who grew up in a mid-Atlantic state could prepare for such a day, that's really not a problem; said person could even be ready to spend the whole day outside, although that might present a slightly more complex situation. But the job of a courier is only 50% outside and actually presents what I have found to be the most complicated layering problem yet. Half of the time is spent exercising outdoors pretty seriously, then most of the other half is spent waiting for -- and riding in -- the elevators of egregiously overheated buildings.

I won't tech out too hard on how the human body works or the functions of different clothing materials; suffice it to say that you spend the whole day sweating and divide that among time spent standing fully dressed in a heated building and exercising in temperatures well below freezing. With little room to carry extra clothes or water, each layer has to count.

I don't want to toot my own horn too hard here, but I made it through the day without overheating, getting too cold, or getting sick (I admit that I was pretty dehydrated and had a serious case of the sniffles at the end of the day). The information needed for such a feat is available in the layering zine (link pending) but I'll give a quick breakdown.

From head to toe, inner to outer:

-basic synthetic hat, nothing special, some sort of acrylic blend you buy off the street covered with my helmet
-wool scarf, military surplus, wrapped around nose mouth and neck
-polypropylene base layer (tight fitting long sleeve thermal)
-thick cotton hoody (Killer Kotton can be used against itself to keep you cool if you anticipate overheating, not suggested for inexperienced layerers)
-down vest
-northface unlined outer shell, pit vents unzipped a few inches
-fleece mitten/fingerless glove fold-over combo
-two pairs polypro long underwear(synthetic/moisture-wicking thermal)
-cotton-esque (oridinary) pants
-one pair very heavy smartwool socks
-converse chuck taylors, hightop

Admittedly my footwear was inadequate and my feet did get cold a few times, but never to the point of numbness. My hat was also a bit of a risk, but it payed off and rarely was I too hot or cold.

Tuesday I wore the same thing and it was a little warmer but wound up snowing/sleeting all afternoon. Again, comfort was in full effect.

A few notes on layering before I move on:

My veteran boss suggests vaseline (petroleum jelly) smeared on the cheeks/face as protection from the wind. He swears by this instead of wool scarves. He also suggests scraps of plastic bag between two pairs of wool socks to cover the toes and stop the wind.

I also found that having the option of pulling down a zipper or two to let in a little air around the neck was a crucial bonus, and I carried, but never used, a spare thermal shirt and a light fleece balaclava.



PART II

The second 'cave zine that has done me right in my new line of work is --of course-- How to Bag. Tim's bag owned the comfort sector of the business and although the durability verdict is still out, preliminary results look promising. Of course style takes a back-seat in this discussion but I feel the need to address that as well.

As I exit one of the many towers of commerce and excess that litter midtown, another messenger is unlocking his bike from the same parking meter. After a brief exchange about the weather he says, "that's a great bag." When I give him the story, he tells me that I'm in the wrong business, gesturing to my bike. Of course Tim receives design credit, and above that I owe him for the inspiration, but the comment was gratifying none-the-less.

Functionality being the primary concern, I should say that the bag has held a lot of weight (although comfort diminishes on the higher end, as with any bag), and at one point it contained a champagne bottle, two phone-book sized packages, a 3 foot roll of blueprints, something that resembled a tickle-me elmo jammed into an over-sized envelope, and five or six large flat envelopes. On a separate occasion it accommodated a 2 foot by 3 foot box containing sample floorboards and tiles as well as numerous rolls and packages. I could go on, but I think it is sufficient to say that the bag is really great. So bag it up already!

I suppose I shouldn't leave without mentioning a little about the actual job. It's exhilarating and reminiscent of the ambulance work I did (radios, paperwork, rushing, etc.) What it lacks comparatively in responsibility for the lives of others, it contributes to your own self-awareness. The first two days were very reminiscent the second level of Skate or Die 2 and I caught myself singing the theme song several times. On the whole it's fun, but it isn't easy to justify the expense of my own sweat and blood for a job that oils the wheels for corporate machinery. Still looking for the answer to that.

Since my last post, I have been living in Brooklyn and working for the art department of a children's television show. I guess that I have been in and out of the workforce for about 9 years now, but I would say that this is the best job I've ever had. I don't feel like I'm doing much to change the world, and I doubt that I could spend my life in the television industry, but it has been a great time.



Unfortunately, Playhouse Disney didn't like the show as much as I did and they have decided not to pick us up for a third season of shooting (even though we were going international), so as of november 21st, I am unemployed again, but it was a fun while it lasted. I worked long hours for a relatively minimal rate with no overtime pay, regardless of how long we went, but it was worth it to work with such cool people and have something interesting to do every day.



The head carpenter on our show is a Columbia Grad, a Vietnam vet, a professional drinker, a screenwriter and - among a bunch of other things - an amazing carpenter, rigger, and person. Everyone I worked with had experience in a variety of fields and I feel like I benefited a lot from working with all of them, but he made a really lasting impression on me. Even though the job was a television show and I don't own a television or watch any outside of lame bars, I felt invested in the whole thing because I could learn from and work alongside people I liked and respected. At times it transcended working for a paycheck, which I think is a rare experience to have at a place of employment, especially in a place like New York. A lot of the crew also worked/work on Sesame Street, a show that I feel was very important to my development, so that was an added bonus.



There are a lot more pictures and things to say, which I may or may not get around to putting up, but I apologize if the behind-the-scenes shots have ruined the magic for anyone out there who still watches puppet shows.