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Since the group ride today was scheduled to last over 5 hours and would include both Big & Little Walker mountains (roughly this route with some extra), I made sure to get some Mountain Dew on our early convenience store stop. However, since the sugar in regular Mountain Dew tends to make me irregularly hyper, I got Diet Mountain Dew.

Around hour 4, I started to feel drained and tired. Then, crossing the Eggleston Bridge, I became dizzy. After the bridge, there is a short, steep ascent. Just 30 seconds after I began the climb, I almost fell over. So, I unclipped my pedals, but this only made me more dizzy. As I tried to re-mount the bike, I feel over in a stupor that law enforcement officials would have described as DUI.

At this point, I was a minute or more behind the other 4 guys. Once I had gathered enough strength to make the climb, I mounted the bike going downhill and then turned back uphill. They were waiting at the top, taking the first group break in over 35 miles. I told them what happened and was immediately reprimanded with, “that’s what you get for drinking Diet Mountain Dew.”

Oh. That makes sense. Though I had been progressively eating chocolate granola bars, my sugar intake was otherwise nonexistent. My blood sugar was terribly low, particularly after I exerted myself so much going over both mountains where I earned the polka dots. Getting Diet Mountain Dew makes sense for someone who is going to be sedentary, but my body was turning any input food into energy the moment it hit my lips. Some extra sugars were necessary.

On the last 1.5 hours of the ride, I was taunted by the local litter. Mountain Dew cans, 24-oz bottles, 2-liters, even the 8-oz mini-cans - they all were roadside ready to mock my lapse of purchase earlier in the day. Without a doubt, the most common soda litter on the return trip home was Mountain Dew. Dozens of reminders to no longer buy Diet, Light, Zero, Plus. I should just start packing a little Ziploc bag of confectionary sugar on my longer rides to avoid such a disaster.

You’re welcome to celebrate in your own way, if at all, but I recommend spending the holidays having watched at least one sentimental, cheesy, holiday film. Be it It’s a Wonderful Life or A Charlie Brown Christmas or Love Actually, just make sure you aren’t watching it too intently, since holiday films were meant to be watched in bits & pieces while you actually spend time with important people. It’s the same approach used for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which no one actually watches but everyone has playing in the background while preparing food or giving hugs. We get enough Al Roker as it is.

To make another bold recommendation, don’t stress over the gifts. My error in years past has been to ignore the this-is-what-I-want lists and instead come up with my own this-is-what-I-think-you-actually-want lists. It partially works, for those of us with moderate insight. However, if you’re courageous enough to press on with your gifting ingenuity, then do it early - it will take twice the time coming with something wonderful and then make it happen, compared to just buying the requested DVD box set. Also, remember that ordering online takes time, but it is worth it compared to the prices charged at Target or GAP or what-a-waste-of-your-time-BestBuy. If someone really wants a Pleo, then succumb to the request, but only if the returns and invested interest are equal or greater than what you’re putting out. (The real Pleo’s are overrated anyways).

Finally, savor the people. I don’t thrive on my own, but I get by. I become alive when I can converse with friends and family. When it comes to the holidays, I tend to quietly enjoy the family environment out of nostalgia and my contemplative nature. Plus, now with a baby nephew, I’ll probably just stare at him wondering what he really thinks is going on. Then, I’ll teach him some new words while my sister’s not looking. Before he goes home, he’ll be able to recite off at least one poem by Keats. Or cummings. Both quality poets, worthy of my nephew’s admiration. Anyways, remember that others make the holidays; doing it alone is not worth it.

I know there are a few days left, but I checked my calendar and discovered it’s the 21st. So, there’s still much to do before 2008, but I’ll give my best a bit early this year. Thanks for a wonderful 2007 and all of the things I look forward to next year.

To make my bike lighter, it would be wise for me to cut back on the breads and occasional gorging of sweets. But, that’s the wise solution. Sometimes I prefer the long way around a problem; oftentimes the view is more enlightening, actually.

The goal was to lighten a wheelset by 25 grams. Yes: 0.055 pounds. The problem: those pesky magnets that are included with chronometers, so that, with each revolution of the wheels, the magnet will pass by the fork-mounted unit for the calculations. In addition to scarring the beautiful appearance of bladed spoked with this gaudy piece of magnetic-molded-into-plastic, the unnecessary size kills aerodynamics and creates an obvious imbalance for rotation.

The solution: find a small, powerful magnet capable of triggering the unit while minimizing aerodynamic drag and aesthetic losses. I posed my problem to a few of my engineering friends and one of them mentioned I should search for “rare earth magnets”. And I did. And I found a very small magnet, indeed, to further this experiment of mine. And, truth be told, I found it at a magic shop online.

I’ll be honest, when I realized that magnets were sold through magic shops, my respect for the field was seriously destroyed. But, for my purposes, the magnets will serve a mighty purpose, far less clouded in mystery than their expected use. Also, neodymium magnets are remarkably strong. This little thing is able to pick up my keys, which is a respectable feat for my pockets let alone a miniscule magnet.

Doing the calculations to approximate the gain in efficiency is pretty neat. The two factors that change are the moment of inertia of the wheel and the drag. However, finding the new drag coefficient is practically impossible without windtunnel testing. So, just from the weight loss, I am looking at a gain in performance of about 0.002%. Nice.

Mission Accomplished.

Once a year I purposefully watch music videos. Occasionally, I stumble across something spectacular and try to spread it around, but I typically wait until the Best Of 20XX lists are released by music/mp3 bloggers who know what they’re talking about. There are a few lists already surfacing, but Pitchfork’s gets the gold.

The shining standouts: RJD2 (bottom page 4, alphabetically listed), Blonde Redhead (page 1), Feist (page 3), Health (page 3, at least I love it), and The Wrong Trousers (page 4).

What is so wonderful about this list is that 1) all of the videos are linked to video-hosting websites, and 2) more than a few are fan videos. Artists who support RIAA initiatives to start bringing down any YouTube videos that include copyrighted material (even if it is fair-use) are just as behind the times as dial-up connections and zip drives. As an artist, having your music video posted to YouTube is one of the most important and viral ways of extending the fan base. Most musicians understand this, but some are still living in the past.

And, regarding 2), when I saw the “music video”, if you can call it that, of The Wrong Trousers playing “Video Killed the Radio Star”, my jaw dropped for the entirety of the home-video-style recording. A double bass, a mandolin, a harp - what’s not to love?

It turns out this group is amazing and has their own MySpace page, naturally. Somehow the band reminds me of Kings of Convenience or what translating Charlotte’s Web into music would sound like. Somehow. I really like it, though. But I am also a sucker for a good harp. And who isn’t?

But, if you aren’t going to take the time to watch all 50 videos, then I must absolutely recommend “Work It Out” by RJD2. I love music videos that use live street scenes, particularly from New York. It’s just amazing how some people try to avoid interacting with performers who are being recorded; the passerby acts as if the person is some lunatic with money and time to waste. The girl at 2:32 is a perfect example - covering her other ear while on the cellphone, totally ignoring the guy except being sure to step out of the way and avoid any further internet-worldwide humiliation. Great video, anyways.

Without too much grandeur, I made a final departure from the lab today. Of course, I’ll be back even before the year is over to do a couple of random things, but the research I had begun this past spring was complete when I turned in the report and associated documents. The project will likely continue, but I will not be working on it this coming spring. The spring has enough academic difficulty brewing, so I would prefer to not overcook myself when the temperatures will likely keep me on my feet.

But, leaving the lab, I was looking forward to a big, planned ride that I had devised yesterday. Then, it started to rain. And rain hard. And I became rather disgruntled at this fate. Since no academic requirements hover over me to otherwise direct my rainy day activities, I had to pace the house in search of outstanding projects I’ve forgotten about over time. First, I cleaned and organized my desk - probably the true default house chore when you’re too bored to look harder for something better to do. Then it occurred to me.

I had been meaning to do this for ages, or months, I can’t remember which. Personalizing a helmet is always a nice touch, but when done properly, done in Helvetica, and then polished over so that it is effectively air-brushed into the plastic - the end result is wonderful. I’ll take care of the general road helmet soon, since I quickly got used to doing this on the TT helmet.

I still need some color but I don’t think Letraset makes color types. And, frankly, I don’t want any more text. Maybe some logo or geometric shape. I’ll hear out any recommendations should you have one. It would be preferable to avoid stickers.

Anyways. It’s amazing how quickly you immerse yourself in personalizing a helmet and further amazing how 3 hours can fly by.

I am terrible at Christmas shopping. To some extent, it hurts because I get frustrated with “this is what I want” ideas I receive but also because I end up scavenging stores and the internet for something different and inevitably become lost in what I was thinking of in the first place. A trip to Amazon this time of year means I will end up buying 3 things for friends/family and 3 things for myself. However, brick&mortar store shopping is focused and deliberate, and I almost never buy anything extra since I realize how much mark-up there is already.

But. I have no idea what to get for this kid. He’s a mystery.

I was looking for some old toys for him, but I discovered that old toys are usually a) farm-related, and he will probably never have a clue what a farm is, or b) automobile-related which I don’t intend on encouraging in him, or c) weapon-related, and I most certainly won’t promote his enlisting. But, some weapons are ok. Unfortunately, “baby crossbow” doesn’t turn up any legitimate hits. Someone could make a fortune on that, too.