I have received a friendly injunction to post a little more regularly.
I will post when I'm goddam good and ready.
I've been silent mostly due to the fact that I don't much fancy the thought of whinging a great deal on my blog and that's basically all I'd do at the moment.
For example: I took a tumble on the bike this morning. Some dude was turning right and the ute behind him — as you do — zapped around the dude by veering into the empty bicycle lane and parallel parking bit to the left. Except, as you'd have guessed, it wasn't empty: I was riding my bike through it at the time.
No harm done. I have a little bump on my elbow and a pedal is bent which I'm not fussed about — the pushy needs a fair bit of work anyway — and the driver was genuinely concerned and apologetic.
That sudden rush of shock and adrenaline you get at those moments is quite tasty, though. I basked in its afterglow for the rest of my ride to the office.
At such times it is common to get all militant about car drivers and rant about how irresponsible and dangerous they all are and then repeat the spiel about how bicycles don't waste fuel and fill parking spaces and cause traffic jams yada yada yada. People get so uppity about things. Bikes are better than cars. Cyclists are menaces. BMXs vs road bikes; Holdens vs Fords; Fitzroy St vs Brunswick St; Australia vs New Zealand; black vs white.
Get over it.
The driver of the ute could have looked more carefully for me, but then I could also have been more active when I saw the car stopping to turn right: that's a big flashing neon warning sign for a cyclist.
It's not a question of cyclists vs drivers. It is merely me versus the rest of the universe and that's true of each of us.
¶ 9:45 am 7 comments
Having strained my voice on the weekend I am trying to
recover by speaking as little as possible.
People come up to me at work and say “Yo ma homey ma homey yo dope punk da Harpmeister.” Yes this is exactly how we talk in the office “Yo da H-man yo ma Marx bro ma homey ma homey etcetera. Yo lay down some o dat mad phat linked list library shee-yit on me ma homey ma homey. Word.”
And I would like to reply “excuse me, there is no longer any requirement for a linked list library as I can just instanciate some objects and store them in a Vector. To rewrite such functionality would be a waste of everybody's time and I need to finish this GUI I'm working on by EOB tomorrow.”
But I'm trying to speak as little as possible so I say “sure.”
People stop me on the street and say “Prithee stay young ruffian. Whither thou on such a blustery and foreboding post-prandial hour? Dost thou not espy a loathsome tempest upon the lowering horizon? Get ye within yonder taproom and 'scape the fearsome bluster.”
I usually reply, when stopped in this way, “I wouldn't go in that pub if lightning was setting my clothing alight and the path to it was strewn with gold. And more than that, nobody ever spoke in that stupid ‘prithee’ way. ‘Whither thou’ for God's sake! Leave me alone. Freak.”
But no, rest is vital for a strained voice so I
reply “yep. Thanks.”
It's all about drinking lots of warm water, avoiding dairy
and being extremely compliant.
