Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Recycling Expanded in Tally

Now you can recycle almost ALL plastics in Tallahassee. #5 plastics used to not be recyclable without going to a special non-city program called Gimme 5. I'm not sure why plastic containers over 3 gallons are not recyclable. I'd think that bigger containers would be easier to recycle. If they don't fit through machines, then you could just chop plastics up earlier on during the recycling process (or so I think in my ignorance).

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Education Pays

I guess I'm posting this to remind me why I'm still in school...maybe provide a little motivation.











Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Shaving Lubricant

Tonight I tried a new shaving lubricant. I'm not crazy about shaving cream. I don't go through it very fast, so it's not super expensive for me. I also don't like that it clogs my razor. I had been using Shave Secret ever since I got a hold of a free sample at a race. Tonight I used my face wash. It's made by Desert Essence and it's their Tea Tree/Awapuhi variety. The razor slid comfortably across my skin and the hair didn't get stuck between the blades. The only downside is that it's the slipperiest of the shaving lubricants I've used so far which made it hard to stretch the skin to get a really close shave.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

High Tech Invisible Sunglasses

Knockaround was selling (is now sold out) of a pair of invisible sunglasses. They're pretty sweet. I think they'd go with anything.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Bike Crash Today




























I'm ok. No injury.

I was stopped at the light at Call & Stadium on my way in to campus. It turned green and I began to cross Stadium. At about 3/4 of the way across the road, I hit the pavement. My left foot had come off the bike because the left crank arm had cracked about halfway between the spindle and the pedal. Luckily, there was no car traffic moving past me and I wasn't hit by a car. A pedestrian asked if she could help so I asked her to drag my bike to the corner. I assured her that I was OK and thanked her for her help. At that point a motorist who was turning left from Call Street campus side onto Stadium Drive said that her husband works in an adjacent building and that she could help. I asked for ice. She was very nice and I am grateful. That ice helped me keep the swelling down.

At that point, I appraised the damage: bloody left elbow and left knee. I can bend my joints fine without pain, it's just a little bit of road rash. A minute later, I noticed that my shorts were torn from above the wallet pocket to below the cargo pocket on the right side. My boxers are also torn and my butt's visible. At the moment, I didn't care. Later I wished I had a safety pin, but then realized that I had a pair of board shorts in my backpack so I slipped them on over everything else. Further damage was only noticed when I got home and took off my shorts. I'm scraped up on my right butt cheek and bruised and scraped on my left one. When I was taking a shower, I noticed that my left hand has a few pieces of black top inside. I pulled the biggest piece out but I think I'm going to let the tiny ones work their own way out.

I called Micah to see if he could get me since he has Mondays free and Erin had to work. I forgot that she was on her lunch break and would be free. I had been on my way to eat lunch with her so she offered to pick me up when I called to cancel our lunch plans. Micah showed up with first aid stuff and ended up taking my bike to the shop. He had already spoken with KHS by the time he arrived. The bike will be fixed tomorrow. Erin took me home, but had to go back to work.

If this crank arm had to snap, it did so at an ideal time. I was going slow on flat land without moving traffic next to me. I wasn't on my way to an appointment (or to run my experiment!). I didn't get injured and my head never touched the ground. I'm feeling a little sore now a couple hours later. I bet I'll be pretty sore tomorrow. With the exception of it happening on grass, I couldn't ask for a better crash.

The failed crank arm broke almost perfectly in half as you can see in the picture. I didn't get an amazing photo of the fatigue, but you can see the metal has turned a different color near the convex portion of the crank arm. There is some missing metal because the two pieces won't fit together quite right.

Cat on Boat Plays with Dolphins

See a video of a cat playing with dolphins.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

120°F!

I was on my bike at an intersection today and my Stem Captain thermometer said it was 120°F! I wanted to get a pic and post to fb, but I was in traffic. By the time I got to Publix about 3 minutes later, it had dropped to 110°F and that happens all the time so it didn't really warrant a picture.

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Fake TV

There's an energy efficient device called FakeTV that's a burglar deterrent. It makes it look like you have a TV on in the house but it's really just an array of LEDs. They have an assortment of good arguments for why this is a good product. It's good to use when you're home alone or out of town. I only saw this recently and thought it was cool enough to share on my blog, so check it out.