carryology

in the age of the pre-industrialized world, a man was judged by how much he could carry on a horseback getting from point a to point b. fast forward to the modern day, it's just me and my ride, with the pony out of the equation, and me possessing exactly the horsepower of 1.

the task at hand: getting from the house to the ups store on kirby ave.
round trip distance: 7.2 miles.

but before i could set off, there were some stuff i needed to figure out, like how to fit all these crap into my bag.

checklist:
- package
- u-lock + cable
- wallet
- spare tube
- 15mm wrench
- multi-tool
- pump
- extra sweater

and this is the end result:

the cell phone is for size comparison.

putting my foot down along kirby is like smearing butter over your croissant - so damn smooth, but the experience was somewhat marred by the fact that i had to battle all the traffic from the saturday morning brunch crowd. it was as if everyone was headed to panera bread next to the ups store, i kid you not. and i think i looked a tad ridiculous with my white wayfarers and an oversized messenger bag on my back, but that's how i roll son.

and of course some stats for the trip:
total time: 31:43
total distance travelled: 7.02 miles
average speed: 13.3 mph
max speed: 24.6 mph

the legs feel awesome, and i finally got to ride mon vélo!

+listening to: nothing

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master and apprentice

this man is one of the reasons i still bother to drag my ass out of bed every morning. he's a beautiful man, i simply don't know how to describe him otherwise. hopefully one day i'll get to ride a frame built by him, one weld at a time in his little workshop. and then i could die happy.

i've been waiting for this issue of Rouleur to show up in the mailbox forever and damn, it's worth every second of the wait. for it features not only Nagasawa but his master Ugo De Rosa.

just to give you an idea, here's my favorite quote from the feature: When Nagasawa inquired how he should go about building a frame for Eddy Merckx for that year's Giro d'Italia, De Rosa simply replied, "Like an offering to a god".

wowzer.

+listening to: nothing

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killing time

theme of the week: endless lab reports. an exercize in back-to-back sleep deprivation. come to think of it, this might become the permanent modus operandi for the rest of the semester.

the only thing worth killing, be killing time and the only soul worth saving now be saving mine.

it does not help one bit that the weather is completely fucked.

i NEED to ride mon vélo.

+listening to: machine gun man by zakk wylde

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zzz

left my lab notebook in the photocopying machine at grainger on thursday.and now it's gone. it's not in the machine, neither has anyone turned it in to the front desk. argh it's got all my experimental data in it. it also has my phone number, email and address, but so far no one has tried contacting me.

really hope the person realize that he can't just tear out the pages and use it for his lab cause all the pages are numbered. and if he decides to use it as scratch paper or something, then... i've nothing more to say but damn son that's some loving expensive scratch paper you've got there.

sigh.

+listening to: nothing

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found

12 hours of school is not fun. hope i'll never have to do this again, ever.

on a side note, i think i've found my favorite brew for now. sam adams noble pils. this is one brew where you can taste the hops partying in the bottle. so refreshing on a winter night, with a square of bitter chocolate. it just gently reminds you that spring is not that far away.

ahhh...

+listening to: nothing

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winter birds

the chill was somehow negated by the presence of some good company. thursday doesn't sound that bad anymore.

it's new years eve. mom and pop are probably having a huge feast as i plunge myself into the depth of a bunch of monotonous words. meaningless banter which somehow i have to make them sound as if they actually make sense.

snowed in, no way to ride. it's hard to make sense of my being when i stop pedaling. i don't think many people get that. i feel at ease, at peace with who i am on the bike. because it's just me and my machine. when i stop, my machine stops too. we're truly one with each other, which no human relationship so far has come close, yet. maybe i'm too much of an idealist in that department. maybe someone just like me exists only in my head. or maybe i'm just looking for someone who truly gets it.

weekends are the only things i look forward to now.

+listening to: nothing

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simple man

was just reminded of the song simple man, and when i listened intently to the lyrics again, i realized the similarity between the subject in the song and me are striking. it's almost as if the song was written for me.

maybe there's someone out there who's just like me. who shares the same circumstances, who is in the same situation. i would really like to meet that person. or maybe i've already met that person but i just don't know yet.

+listening to: simple man by lynard skynard

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regret

regret is probably the worst feeling on earth. more so than sorrow or sadness, more so than heartbreak.

you can literally feel regret in your chest, it's an indescribable hurt that tugs at all your innards at once. it is so fucking painful, it is so fucking real.

maybe the agony is also associated with not knowing how to remedy the situation, for after all what has been done cannot be undone. the scars were left, the impact were felt.

i've always lived by the motto "love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." i guess i've already trampled on the last one so many times that "i'm sorry" is starting to sound a little meaningless coming from my lips. so i'm left with regret, hope you can feel that maybe regret has an ounce of authenticity left in its name.

i wonder what good am i, if i'm just going to repeat the same mistakes. i guess that's just how i am, living life one mistake at a time. i've stopped counting.

+listening to: nothing

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