Onno's Blog

…or maybe just a little of it…

Last night my friend Mark returned to the live performance circuit with his brother-in-law, Jeff. Their acoustic duo is called Head Space. The performance was at the Cottage Hotel in Mendon, according to Mark’s email “a cool, roadhouse kind of joint. Good food, good drinks, ace sound system, and room for dancing.”

Well, that may be so but that was hard to determine at first. I had programmed the address into the GPS. When I got to the 64 & 251 junction it told I was there, I had arrived. However, nothing was to be seen. All was dark. I examined the four corners of the junction, seeing all the cars parked along the right hand corner and trusting that the GPS was right, it had to be the building on that corner. I parked, found the front door, walked in. Plenty of people inside a dark room: the storm had taken out the power in this area. Candles were out, the beer taps were still working: the party is on!

This evening four bands would be playing starting with Head Space. There was some discussion among the musicians: who needed electricity and how much? Someone found a generator, parked it outside the side door. It had just enough wattage to power the sound board, one lamp (so the sound guy could see what dials he was twisting), a few microphones and two loud speakers (one for the musicians so they could hear what they were doing, and one for the audience so we could hear what they were playing).

Mark and Jeff tuned their guitars and started playing. I believe Mark told me they hadn’t performed in years. Must have been a little unsettling to make the come-back under these circumstances. With just the one speaker I don’t think the musicians could hear themselves very well. But they did great playing songs by the Dead and others for about 20-25 minutes. At the end two little girls walked up to Mark seemingly to request a song. “Not sure we can do anything, we played all the songs we know,” Mark mumbled while bending over to hear them out. It turned to be a Happy Birthday song for a family member.

What was a bit sad for Mark and Jeff, but good for the evening, was that the lights came back on just a few minutes after their performance.

You can find the pictures I took in the gallery. I took some by natural light to give you an idea how dark it was while Head Space was playing.

This is a call to action for all knees! Join in protest before it is too late!

We have just become aware of this year’s Highlander Tour. Were previous editions already cause for concern, this time the course is truly offensive and entirely disrespectful of us knees. Not only does it contain Bopple but also hideous contraptions like Gannett, Stid Hill, and Sliter. Sliter… we mean, who names a hill that!?

As we all know us knees are under-appreciated, blamed for all kinds of things that aren’t our fault and at the same time the most hard-working joints in the body. If that brain above thinks something is funny then we’re jerked. If it is smitten then one of us takes the fall. If it looses courage then somehow we’re the ones who are weak.

But we digress. Bopple. The Highlander organizers misleadingly claim its incline is 23%. While we, the knees, would already protest to anything over the rate of inflation, its incline is more, much more. Usually well-informed knees who wish to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation have shared this picture with us that shows Bopple’s true incline. But there is more that upsets us, for example the placement of the cemetery near the top of this thing. Who thought that was funny!?

We must take action now before it is too late. Too many a knee succumbed on this climb, snapped, cracked, splintered, fell to the elements, blocked and bonked that we must shout loudly: “Just say knee!” To get our campaign under way we propose a march from the top of the hill to the cemetery. There we will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Knee.

But this is not just about us, knees. We must recognize that our suffering is shared by all joints. Let us call out to ankles, hips, lower backs, elbows, saddle joints (but not that pivot joint; that thing is a freak show). And let us stand shoulder to shoulder to the organizers of this event! Demand that Highlander be flattened!

Email us at KneesAgainstBopple@onno.com to show your support.

Signed,

Onno’s Knees
(on behalf of the Knees Against Bopple Action Committee)

Run over to install Club Rides on your iPhone or iPod Touch!

Club Rides helps you keep track of your bicycling club’s activities, see the yearly schedule of rides, keep track of your participation and mileage, view elevation profiles, and map the starting location.

You can view your rides by schedule, by distance, by starting location.

More information is on my Software page.

Club Rides comes pre-loaded with Rochester Bicycling Club’s schedule but can be easily customized to show your club’s schedule.

Go on, make me rich. It’s okay.

Last night I went to Magpie for Stephany’s fan club meeting (on Mondays we meet at Oxford’s). Sitting at the end of the bar overlooking proceedings. Two chaps walk in and set up shop near me. They were at Jines before to get a sandwich but there they just closed the kitchen, the waitress advising them to come here. The oldest of the two orders a turkey sandwich to go.

We start chatting. The younger of the two is an area native, the other from the Bronx and they learn that I am from Amsterdam. The guy from the Bronx asks how I ended up here in Rochester from such a happening place as that. “A woman,” I answer. I ask him about the Bronx and now being here? “A woman,” he answers. Then a girl comes past and he stops her. It is the waitress from Jines. He strikes up a conversation and starts to interview her.

> “How old are you?”
< “26”
> “Are you married? A boyfriend?”
< “No, no”
> “I have three sons,” he says and we start to relate their virtues: a good education (Alfred State), employed (the oldest is shoveling snow as we speak), from a good family (the Bronx, the Yankees!), lives in a safe neighborhood (the fine municipality of Penfield). Then he digs out his cell phone and calls his son Jason.

“Where are you?”
…
“We’re at the Magpie Pub. You need to come over.”
…
“You’re not busy, are you?”
…
“There’s this really nice girl, good looking, who wants to meet you.”
…
“Okay, well, maybe later then.”

We chat some more with the girl and then she wanders off to sit elsewhere at the bar. The three of us go back to talking about the Bronx, Penfield, Rochester and Amsterdam when some time later Jason indeed shows up. Dad’s friend looks around and says that the waitress is still here. I look up, see her sitting at the bar and walk over.

“Can I borrow you for a moment?”, I ask her. She gathers her drink, purse and coat and I walk her over to our little corner at the bar. There I put my hand on Jason’s shoulder and I say to her: “I’d like you to meet Jason. Jason, this is the girl we called you about.” They shake hands and take the table just behind us. They chat for quite a while, I believe phone numbers were exchanged. Romance blossoming.

Pleased with our result we turn our attention to Stephany to see if she could be matched with one of the remaining sons. “I have to get them out of the house,” the dad says.

I didn’t get such a phone call from my dad when I was 25. Okay, no cell phones but still. How different life could have turned out if I had!

Ever wanted to know where all those bytes go that manage to fill up your drive?

A few weeks ago I replaced the hard drive in my MacBook. Since then the old one had been sitting on my desk waiting for me to erase the data on it. This afternoon that gave me an idea: destroy the data on the drive by taking it apart and do some still photography.

Armed with various screw drivers, a tripod, a flash and a camera I set up shop on and around the dining room table to perform the operation (*). The hard drive plates themselves are of a very reflective metallic material so photographing them required putting them off center so that the camera didn’t show in the image.

As you can see this 320 GB drive consists of two double-sided plates and thus the arm has multiple heads to read and write data from and to the plates. Removing the metal case from the back side of the drive in order to get at the internals required some force so this drive this definitely dead and its data securely erased.

The 2.5" laptop drive

The processor plate

Back side

This drive has two plates

The reading arm

The plates removed

It is amazing that two of these thin 2.5 inch disks can hold 320 GB of data. Of course, the MacBook now has a 500GB drive of the same dimensions – the manufacturers continue to squeeze more and more in.

(*) One hard drive was harmed in the photographing of this blog entry…

On Tuesday it was sunny, cold and there was still snow on the ground – the perfect inspiration to take photos. Photos to then use to help my migration from iPhoto to Aperture.

This excursion further more enabled me to take photos of an area I’ve long wanted to photograph, an area where I am often enough, frequently with a camera on my person but I never take time for it: Honeoye Falls as we pass through it on our club bike rides. Every time we ride through the village and past the waterfalls I think “oh, that looks nice, I should photograph this.” But, as some know, I don’t like to stop while cycling if there’s not a cycling specific reason to stop. The result is that in this blog you seldom get to see the terrain we cycle through but instead more often these lunch time pictures.

So instead of Maximilian (ehh, the road bike) I took Dr Frits (ehh, the Mini Cooper) plus of course camera, tripod and much matters.

Sunny winter afternoons are perhaps my favorite days to go photograph because the sun hangs so nicely low in the sky causing the light to stroke over the landscape. The waterfalls were, except for a few streams of water, frozen over. It always amazes me that water flowing so swiftly can freeze.

From Honeoye Falls I went to Canadice Lake. Many of our club rides go past this lake along a lovely quiet bumpy road. Past the lake I turned Dr Frits left onto Reynolds Gull Road, an unpaved road that winds over the hill ridge to the side of Canandaigua Lake. But before getting there I turned right onto Canadice Hill Road through Spencer State Park. In September a bike ride took us this direction and I remembered it being quite beautiful.

The Falls and other photos are in the gallery.

On the way back I stopped in Lima for a drink and walked into a local pub. I sat down at the bar, peered over to the tap station to see what they had on draft and ordered a Labatt Blue.

Next to me an elderly chap and a woman in her thirties were having a bit of an odd conversation. She was, or was pretending to be, very in love with him asked him to have another drink with her. Said he that he needed to phone to see if he can stay out this evening and dug out his cell phone. He finished his call, put away the phone and said that he needed to go home to cook dinner.

He got, started towards the door but lingered at the pool table. In the meantime she started softly singing “Hepatitis, he has hepatitis”. One of the billiards players called out for her to shut up. She kept singing. Another one called to the bartender to call 911 and have her thrown out.
She leaned towards me saying: “He has hepatitis.”
“That is fascinating,” I mumbled.

More calls for 911 and for her to be quiet rang through the bar.

Realizing the time, I finished my beer and left

Mark and Chuck organized the first winter hike this Saturday. At first when Mark’s email arrived and spoke casually of a 9am start just outside Naples I wasn’t immediately motivated but I did yesterday succeed in answering the 6:45am calling of the bedside alarm.

I threw the snowshoes in the car. In Rochester the snow levels weren’t very high to require them but that could be different 45 miles south. It turned out there was a bit less snow there than in the city so hiking boots sufficed. The temperature was around -6C/20F and with virtually no wind keeping the chill factor at bay, this was quite manageable. A group of around 10 was gathering at the parking area at the bottom of Parish Hill road. But no Mark yet. And we needed him for the route. We could make something up, of course. Then a cell phone rang; Mark overslept but is on his way, we should start, he’ll catch up.

So we started the hike up the hill towards the top of the gully. And while we were admiring the view at the top of that climb, Mark made his appearance. With the group now complete we marched on towards High Tor from where there’s a great view back over Lake Canandaigua.

Circling around we came to the top of the gully on the other side. From here there was a good view on the frozen waterfall. Later in winter it is common to see ice climbers climbing up the waterfall. A scary undertaking if you ask me but I made a mental note to come back with camera and all in a few weeks. It amazes me that fast falling water can freeze.

Halfway I had a fun chat about animal tracks in the snow. Being a city boy I have no idea what prints belong to what animal; they could all be wolves as far as I’m concerned. My dad’s efforts notwithstanding – he grew up on farms – I’m also not very good with flora. I recognize oaks, tulips and roses and that’s about it. Oh, and Christmas trees, especially if they have lights in them.

More photos from the hike in the gallery.

Who says you have to do things in sequence? A few days late, here are images from the 500m (women, men), 1500m (women), 5000m (men) races from Saturday in Salt Lake City.

This morning I first visited a photo store and obtained a sturdy monopod. This made a huge difference. With the monopod to support the camera and the lens, the equipment is much more steady and makes it much easier to line up a shot. Together this allowed me to shoot at 1600 ISO instead of 3200 ISO yesterday which helps bringing down the noise in the images.

For the 500m races I found a spot just behind the starting line. The starter felt I was too close, that me or the camera’s shutter may distract the skaters and asked me to move back a bit. No problem, especially the start during the sprint distances is a nervous undertaking, so I moved into the stand behind the start instead. The elevation this gave me worked out just fine and thus everybody was happy.

The women’s 500m race was won by Beixing Wang beating Jenny Wolf in a direct race. Jenny had a terrible last turn almost veering way out. Jeremy Wotherspoon had a great start and then on the straight stood up coasting for the remaining 200 meters. It never became clear why.

During the 5000 meters race it was fun to watch Stephanie Beckert leaning over the siding cheering, screaming and shouting her brother Patrick onward towards a PR and German record. Immediately after his finish she had her cell phone in her hands texting the result to friends and family.

The pictures are in the gallery.

Today featured the 1000 meters and the team pursuit races. I was especially looking forward to the team races as they are a lot of fun to watch but was also hoping for fast times on the 1000m races. The previous two days saw many records broken: personal records, national ones and a couple of world records. This is a fast weekend because Salt Lake is a track at altitude and the weather (atmospheric pressure) seems to be cooperating too.

Although, good for the riders that speed skating is no longer really a winter sport what with these comfy indoor tracks. It’s gloomy with a mix of rain and snow.

A correction on Friday’s post: Sven Kramer did obtain an Olympic qualification on the 1500m, he needed to finish in the first 12, not the first 8. So his 9th place was all he needed.

And, in other news, there’s a lovely scandal brewing in the world of Dutch speed skating. During the 2006 Olympics it seems that the Telfort team for whom Greta Smit was riding offered Polish skater Woijcicka 50,000 Euro and a car if she would withdraw from the 5000m race so that Greta Smit could start in her stead. Studiosport.nl posted a video in which Ria Visser gives her “analysis”. Not one of her better moments. First, she complains that an athlete is accused and convicted before all proof is in – forgetting it seems that back in February she accused Pechstein of doping based on rumors. Then her explanation is that everybody makes mistakes so bribing at the Olympics is really no big deal…

Anyways, back to the skating at hand. Do mosey on over to the gallery to see the races.

This morning I flew to Salt Lake City in Utah to attend the world cup speed skating tournament that’s taking place here in the Olympic Oval. A 6am flight from Rochester via Chicago brought me here just after the 500m sprint races. That was a pity because Jenny Wolf skated a world record but the schedule didn’t allow otherwise.

The first 3000m women’s race featured Claudia Pechstein. Via a last minute court ruling she managed to gain access to the race while the review of her doping case is pending before a Swiss court. She was here to try and win German qualification for the Olympics later February. For that she needed to ride within 4:03:00 and finishes in the first eight. It didn’t happen.

Ireen Wust rode a good race and had the leading time for a while eventually finishing 4th. Moniek improved her personal record and she was clearly delighted after her race. The dual between Stephanie Beckert of Germany and Martina Sablikova of the Czech republic continued with Martina also winning this race.

Sven Kramer won a wildcard to start in the A group in the 1500m men’s race. He needed to finish in the first eight riders in order to gain an Olympic qualification. He did improve his personal best but in the end there were too many fast men today. Erben Wennemars rode a great race, fast, aggressive and collapsed on the side of the track after his finish so I’d say in good Erben style he gave it all. It was a good time but was apparently disqualified. The speaker in the hall never mentioned any of this. Just suddenly Erben’s name was gone from the leader board.

The race between Skobrev and Makowsky was very close and also Chad Hedrick’s race against Danny Morrison was exciting. But the crown went again to Shani Davis riding a world record and finishing a second ahead of everybody else.

The pictures are in the gallery.

More tomorrow:

• Women and men’s 500m
• Women’s 1500m, and
• Men’s 5000m