Why I Use Tennis Shoes, Toe Clips, and Straps For Cycling

There are a lot of cycling shoes out there.  Some are quite fancy, like the bindings on ski boots.

However, I've always used my leather tennis shoes with classic toe clips and straps.

Review of the Tubus Disco Bicycle Rack On My Classic Road Race Bike

After struggling with a number of ways to put a bike rack on my Specialized Allez Pro, I eventually bought a Tubus Disco bike rack.

The Tubus Disco rack is actually designed for bikes with disc brakes.  However, after visiting a store with Tubus products, and visualizing every rack up against my road bike, I decided on the Disco. 

Bike Racks on a Classic Road Race Bicycle That Has No Eyelets For A Rack

I always throw my lock, tire repairs stuff, etc. in my bike panniers.  In the past, when I've left stuff in panniers on the bike, some objects have got ripped off from inside the bags.   So, when I go to the store, the bags always come with me via quick releases.  Thus, my desire for a bike racks over the rear tire on all my bikes.  One set of bags and tools.  Just move them from from bike to bike.

I had a older Specialized Allez Pro from the early 90s.

I loved how this bike handled.  But, this bike did not have any eyelets for either rack or fenders.  :(

Galvin's Clock And Watch Repair - Awesome!

A while back, on Yelp, I gave a great review for my friend, Galvin, of Galvin's Clock And Watch Repair in San Gabriel, California.

But when I go back to the Yelp page, and find Galvin, my review is nowhere to be seen.   Why?

I've since heard that Yelp,  "charge businesses to remove or re-order bad reviews!".

And, at http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10168065-93.html, "six business owners said Yelp sales reps promised to remove or move negative reviews in exchange for advertising and that in six other instances positive reviews disappeared or negative ones appeared after owners declined ad deals."

Hmm.

When I met Galvin, I saw someone who had to be one of the best, if not the best, in the business of watch repair.  But he didn't have a lot of traffic.  I'd hoped a good review on Yelp would help all the wearers of expensive watches in Los Angeles find him.  They would be happy they did.

Well, since it's not appearing on Yelp, or when I do a search on Google, I'm going to just post the review on my own blog.  So there.

Here was the review I wrote:

The Stock Market and Your Girlfriend

The stock market is going crazy these days. And not in a good way. It's so unstable. All the different prognosis do not look good.

So much unlike earlier times. Usually, the markets were basically going to go up. Except for some periods. You could put your money into some financial instruments, and not worry about them. It was much simpler and more stable then.

I sure miss those days.


I think of what Bruce Springteen wrote in "My Hometown",

They're closing down the textile mill across the railroad tracks
Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back


Ever split up with your girlfriend, and regret that it had happened? Then wish for the good old days to return? But ultimately, they never do?

That's how I'm feeling about the stock market right now. I miss the good old days and long for them to return. But they are probably never going to return. At least not for a long while.

It's a whole new paradigm now.

Noticing The Inverse

The past year, I've finally put into words something that has been true for me for a very long time.

If have a certain quality, we will notice the opposite quality in others.  Here is a partial list of inverse qualities that I have noticed.

Personal Quality	Opposite Or Inverse Quality That You Will Notice
Honesty	Lies and Lying
Skilled	Incompetent
Reliable	Unreliable
Polite	Rude
Clean	Dirty
Good Work	Bad Work
Hard Working	Lazy
Experienced	Inexperienced
Intelligence	Stupidity
Generous	Cheap
Fair	Unfair
Loyal	Disloyal
Knowledgeable	Ignorant
Informed	Uninformed
Educated	Uneducated
Law Abiding	Crime
Non-Corrupt	Corruption
Non-Political	Politics and game playing
You are in Love	You can tell when someone is not in Love
You have a nice house, car, equipment, etc., well maintained, fully operational, and works properly.	Unmaintained ugly house, car, or equipment that works like crap, or doesn't work at all.
Quiet	Loud people
Good driver	Bad driver
Non smoker	Smoke from smokers (cough)
Rich or poor	Poor or rich
Healthy or Sick	Sick or Healthy

And so on. 

What is the Theme of Your Life?

Recently I read a fabulous article:

The Disadvantage of an Ivy League Education.  It was fascinating.  Written by Professor By William Deresiewicz, an Ivy League professor, who should know.  Read it first, it is self explanatory.   Here's a short quote:

...
In short, the way students are treated in college trains them for the social position they will occupy once they get out. At schools like Cleveland State, they’re being trained for positions somewhere in the middle of the class system, in the depths of one bureaucracy or another. They’re being conditioned for lives with few second chances, no extensions, little support, narrow opportunity—lives of subordination, supervision, and control, lives of deadlines, not guidelines. At places like Yale, of course, it’s the reverse.
...

I wondered if the ideas put forth.  Has my career been determined by the universities that I went to?  Had I gone to an elite university, would my career have been different?  Or not?

I then suddenly had the thought.  If your life were a movie, what would the theme be?  What simple theme would explain your life the best?  Think of documentaries, biographies, books, stories, movies that you have seen.   It's a fascinating question. 

Healing Infection, Inflammation, and Swelling with Magnets

Here is something that others have encouraged me to post online.

I went walking in the ocean one Sunday, and got stung by a stingray on the top of my right foot.  Ow!  I started limping immediately.

The lifeguards put my foot in hot water, checked the wound for the barb (none), and let me go. It bled enough.  It was tough to walk on it. I limped back to the car.

Unlike when I sprained my ankle at different times, this time the foot stayed swollen. I noticed that what seemed to be a liquid inside the foot moved to each side of the foot when I sat on my heels.  That is, when I eventually could sit on my heels, after a number of days.

I could only wear my really old loose sneakers.  If I tried to put on my regular shoe, or new sneakers, my foot was too big, and it hurt to get it in.  When I put my flip flops on, the straps  pushed the liquid away from the straps.

I tried some home treatments:  Topical anti biotic. Epsom salts and hot water. Topical colloidal silver.

On the Friday, the swelling still had not gone down.  I couldn't put my foot into my shoes.

That weekend, I decided to see if my violet ray machine would make a difference.

More Experiments With Magnets And Plants - 2010

In 2010, I wanted to plant some flowers again.  I wasn’t thinking of doing an experiment when I started; I just wanted to plant some flowers.  So I planted some Brown Eyed Susans in recycled containers that plants are sold in.

Immediately after the fact, I thought I should use some magnets.  Since magnets help plants grow, I came up with a hypothesis and experiment.

Davis and Rawls state that the south pole of a magnet will help plants grow.  And the north side will impede the growth.  The pole that faced the plants was the south pole.  I put the magnets close to the tray.  If the magnets did help the plants, then the plants closest to the magnets should grow fastest.

Again, everything here was the same.  All the seeds came from the same package.  All the soil came from the same package also.  The magnet used was a type N42, 1 inch square, by 3/8 inch thick.  Magnetized axially.  If you lay it down, the top is south pole, and the bottom is north pole, or vice versa.

You can see the results here.  The magnet is in the white 35mm film container.   

As you can see, the plants closer to the south pole of the magnet, grew faster, than the ones further away.  As I expected.  Proving the thesis. 

Experiments with Morning Glories, Magnets, and Magnetized Water, 2009

I've shown pictures of these experiments to a number of people recently, and many have asked me to put it up on the web.

I like blue, and blue flowers are relatively rare.  In 2009, I saw some packages of seeds for blue morning glories, and bought them immediately.

The same year, I'd bought some magnets.  I suddenly wondered, do magnets affect the growth of plants,  and was inspired to do an experiment.  Using the morning glory seeds from the same package, I tested for four different scenarios.

1 - Seeds, with powerful magnets inside the pot, and regular water.
2 - Seeds with regular water
3 - Seeds with magnetized water
4 - Seeds with regular water, with a purple plate under the pot

What is magnetized water?  It was water had been subjected to a magnetic stirrer.  I'd pour water into the container, and stir the water with a magnetic stirrer for about 15 minutes.  What is a purple plate?  I'd been told it was supposed to do all kinds of wonderful things, so I decided to include it in the tests.

The magnets I used were from KJ Magnetics, and are in this picture.

The sizes of the magnets are: