In order to delay the inevitable freakout that's coming as I realize how close I am to actually going out and doing this, I've decided to move on over to www.crazyguyonabike.com
I think the layout over there is going to be more conducive to making this trip easy to follow and interesting. It might be a quick move though, I'm not sure what their policy is on swearing. Fingers crossed!
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=3Tzut&doc_id=5644&v=8
Note: Don't panic that the Firstgiving thingy is gone! There's a new fancy way to donate to the Humane Society directly on the new page. Oh happy day!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Seriously. the homeless have it figured out.
So planning is going well for the tour itself. I ended up making some fairly drastic changes to my equipment kit, which I'll discuss in some later post, but overall I feel VERY prepared for everything from August 20th onwards. That'll change and I'll be posting here sometime in early August with a post somewhere along these lines
So leaving here early doesn't change what I'll do when I get back, but since I don't plan on renting a new place until I get back, it does raise the interesting question of "where the hell am I supposed to live for the 25th through the 20th?" As time got closer and closer I was starting to worry abou this a LITTLE bit, until today I realized I had less than 2 weeks left here.
So I made a few phone calls and got a bit of the time taken care of. From August 18th-20th, I'm going to stay at studly Brett Murphy's pad, and try not to get in the way of whatever it is that weirdo does in his free time. From August 15th until the 18th, I'm going to either crash at my friend Kyle's place, or with my friend Steph Castro. This method of crashing with a different friend for a few days each time seemed to be working well, until I pretty quickly realized I'm an obnoxious, juvenile dickhead and have no friends to speak of. What was I gonna do for the bulk of my homeless time?
Enter the Roadrunner Hostel, Tucson's world-famous "only hostel".
http://www.roadrunnerhostelinn.com/content/view/21/46/
It actually looks like a pretty sweet deal. The rate is actually CHEAPER than my monthly rent here, and it at least doesn't strike me as a complete fleabag place.
Now, considering I'm planning on living out of several elaborate garbage bags for over 2 months, living out of a suitcase in a not-horrific hostel or crashing on friend's floors should hardly be the worst thing in the world. Also, from what I understand (and everything I understand comes from movies) hostels are full of interesting, diverse people, nearly all of whom are half-naked European models who walk around topless, sleep with anything, and can really plug you into the local social scene. Now I stopped watching that particular movie about 30 minutes in, but if I had to guess I'd assume it ended on a similar note, perhaps with all the roomates getting together and organizing a bake sale to buy a plasma screen TV for the local old folk's home.
This leaves on the 25th thru the 1st to deal with. Honestly the new people aren't moving into here until the 1st anyway, and that's assuming anyone rent the house starting then, so I can probably just get my stuff out of here but retain a sleeping bag and suitcase and crash here.
So yeah, it turned out a bit more complicated than I anticipated, but it seems to have turned out okay. In particular living in a nice-seeming hostel for 2 weeks might be particularly enjoyable. I'm not 100% how much my currently car-free lifestyle is going to bend me over for all of this, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to rent a car a few days here and there.
GOD HELP ME WHAT HAVE I DONE HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP I'M SO FUCKING SCREWED ABORT ABORTBut for now, yeah, pretty laid back about that. The problem is what do for the month beforehand. Due to some fairly abrupt changes in my roomate's plans for this house, I found myself being told in early May that I had until July 25th to get my sweet, muscular caboose out of here. My original plan had been to just stay here, store my stuff at my friend Brett's place a few days beforehand, and just go straight from here to the road. I'd figure out where to live when I got back, paying for 2 months rent while I'm out in East Humpty, Missouri getting into knife fights with hobos for dibs on the best box car seemed like something I'd like to avoid.
So leaving here early doesn't change what I'll do when I get back, but since I don't plan on renting a new place until I get back, it does raise the interesting question of "where the hell am I supposed to live for the 25th through the 20th?" As time got closer and closer I was starting to worry abou this a LITTLE bit, until today I realized I had less than 2 weeks left here.
So I made a few phone calls and got a bit of the time taken care of. From August 18th-20th, I'm going to stay at studly Brett Murphy's pad, and try not to get in the way of whatever it is that weirdo does in his free time. From August 15th until the 18th, I'm going to either crash at my friend Kyle's place, or with my friend Steph Castro. This method of crashing with a different friend for a few days each time seemed to be working well, until I pretty quickly realized I'm an obnoxious, juvenile dickhead and have no friends to speak of. What was I gonna do for the bulk of my homeless time?
Enter the Roadrunner Hostel, Tucson's world-famous "only hostel".
http://www.roadrunnerhostelinn.com/content/view/21/46/
It actually looks like a pretty sweet deal. The rate is actually CHEAPER than my monthly rent here, and it at least doesn't strike me as a complete fleabag place.
Now, considering I'm planning on living out of several elaborate garbage bags for over 2 months, living out of a suitcase in a not-horrific hostel or crashing on friend's floors should hardly be the worst thing in the world. Also, from what I understand (and everything I understand comes from movies) hostels are full of interesting, diverse people, nearly all of whom are half-naked European models who walk around topless, sleep with anything, and can really plug you into the local social scene. Now I stopped watching that particular movie about 30 minutes in, but if I had to guess I'd assume it ended on a similar note, perhaps with all the roomates getting together and organizing a bake sale to buy a plasma screen TV for the local old folk's home.
This leaves on the 25th thru the 1st to deal with. Honestly the new people aren't moving into here until the 1st anyway, and that's assuming anyone rent the house starting then, so I can probably just get my stuff out of here but retain a sleeping bag and suitcase and crash here.
So yeah, it turned out a bit more complicated than I anticipated, but it seems to have turned out okay. In particular living in a nice-seeming hostel for 2 weeks might be particularly enjoyable. I'm not 100% how much my currently car-free lifestyle is going to bend me over for all of this, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if I had to rent a car a few days here and there.
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Winning hearts and minds
It's been *gritting teeth* helpfully pointed out that for a blog about an alleged cross-country bike trip, there's been precious little talk about biking, and even less talk about biking from San Diego to Boston, and a surprising amount of movie reviews and juvenile swearing.
Fair enough. There's only so much I can babble about bikes and keep it interesting, y'know. Unless you folks want deep, thoughtful discussions about 14mm headset spacers being awesome, or how the SRAM Powerlink is the single greatest advancement in bicycle chain maintenance since the threaded pin extruder. In which case I'm more than happy to oblige.
So back to this post's title. I'm coming back from work, just about home, and feeling pretty down. Bookman's failed to have a book I wanted at two different locations, my MP3 player was 7 minutes into Dvorak's Carnival overture because I haven't figured out how to arrange my MP3s to keep boring instrumental music off my biking playlist, and Debrah Messing had grown a day older and uglier without appearing in my room wearing a French maid outfit and a grim determination to give her stupid French husband a reason to divorce her.
I was cruising down the bike lane at an intersection. This is always tricky because someone in the right lane might want to make a right hand turn at said intersection, and considers it their civic duty to cut off/cripple any and all bikers to their right when making any lane changes. I imagine they do this while gripping the wheel in white-knuckled fury, screaming "NOT TODAY, PEDESTRIAN!!!!".
So I sneak a glance behind me, and sure enough, some guy is indicating he's going to make a right hand turn. I jam on my brakes, come to a stop just in time to avoid crashing into his passenger side quarter panel, and rip off my headphones. I usually just try to give people who cut me off the staredown of a lifetime, because I'm a coward, but this guy was getting out of his car and I guess I panicked a bit..
Being irritated beyond belief, tired, and apparently suicidal, I screamed "WATCH THE FUCKING BIKE LANE, COCKFACE" and hammered my fist down on top of his trunk. I felt it dent pretty good. I then immediately took off on my way straight down the road. I didn't stop for conversation, or to see if I'd left a permanent dent, I felt I'd made my general feelings clear on the situation. I'm absolutely sure I effed up his trunk pretty good. I have no idea what year, make, or model the dude's car was, but it was something that was made within the past few years.
Now, I'm not a bicycle activist. I genuinely believe bikes shouldn't be considered this idealized pedestrian/vehicle hybrid that can go wherever it wants, and cars should just have to deal with them. In a fair world, they should be, but as I learned in my sophomore year of college when I admitted to having a crush on KD Lang in the early 90's, life is often cruel and unfair. The fact is 80% of all people are retarded and in their own blissful cloud of daydreaming when they're moving around. This includes bikes and cars. If a car and bike get into an accident, the bicyclist loses 99.999999% of the time. Bikes don't belong on the road together for the same reason chicks don't play in the NFL.
However after being car-free since October '08, I'm starting to understand why a lot of bicyclists are complete douchebags to cars. We're woefully outmatched and the people in their goddamn cars know it. If I had a wooden nickel for every time I've been run over, had stuff thrown at me, screamed at in an attempt to startle me and make me fall off, etc... well, unless I was at Yoken's* in Portsmouth, NH, I'd just have a lot of useless wooden nickels I guess, but the point is I'd have a lot. And it gets really aggravating. At this point I'm not sure if some kind of summit meeting is needed or what, but it's outright war between cyclists and motorists at this point and seeing as how I made the stupid, stupid decision to be a cyclist, I'm starting to feel like I chose to be a power forward for the Washington Generals.
Geez I just realized I hope that guy doesn't end up behind me any time soon.
* Holy crap, they closed down Yokens?!! CURSE YOU, PROGRESS!!!
Fair enough. There's only so much I can babble about bikes and keep it interesting, y'know. Unless you folks want deep, thoughtful discussions about 14mm headset spacers being awesome, or how the SRAM Powerlink is the single greatest advancement in bicycle chain maintenance since the threaded pin extruder. In which case I'm more than happy to oblige.
So back to this post's title. I'm coming back from work, just about home, and feeling pretty down. Bookman's failed to have a book I wanted at two different locations, my MP3 player was 7 minutes into Dvorak's Carnival overture because I haven't figured out how to arrange my MP3s to keep boring instrumental music off my biking playlist, and Debrah Messing had grown a day older and uglier without appearing in my room wearing a French maid outfit and a grim determination to give her stupid French husband a reason to divorce her.
I was cruising down the bike lane at an intersection. This is always tricky because someone in the right lane might want to make a right hand turn at said intersection, and considers it their civic duty to cut off/cripple any and all bikers to their right when making any lane changes. I imagine they do this while gripping the wheel in white-knuckled fury, screaming "NOT TODAY, PEDESTRIAN!!!!".
So I sneak a glance behind me, and sure enough, some guy is indicating he's going to make a right hand turn. I jam on my brakes, come to a stop just in time to avoid crashing into his passenger side quarter panel, and rip off my headphones. I usually just try to give people who cut me off the staredown of a lifetime, because I'm a coward, but this guy was getting out of his car and I guess I panicked a bit..
Being irritated beyond belief, tired, and apparently suicidal, I screamed "WATCH THE FUCKING BIKE LANE, COCKFACE" and hammered my fist down on top of his trunk. I felt it dent pretty good. I then immediately took off on my way straight down the road. I didn't stop for conversation, or to see if I'd left a permanent dent, I felt I'd made my general feelings clear on the situation. I'm absolutely sure I effed up his trunk pretty good. I have no idea what year, make, or model the dude's car was, but it was something that was made within the past few years.
Now, I'm not a bicycle activist. I genuinely believe bikes shouldn't be considered this idealized pedestrian/vehicle hybrid that can go wherever it wants, and cars should just have to deal with them. In a fair world, they should be, but as I learned in my sophomore year of college when I admitted to having a crush on KD Lang in the early 90's, life is often cruel and unfair. The fact is 80% of all people are retarded and in their own blissful cloud of daydreaming when they're moving around. This includes bikes and cars. If a car and bike get into an accident, the bicyclist loses 99.999999% of the time. Bikes don't belong on the road together for the same reason chicks don't play in the NFL.
However after being car-free since October '08, I'm starting to understand why a lot of bicyclists are complete douchebags to cars. We're woefully outmatched and the people in their goddamn cars know it. If I had a wooden nickel for every time I've been run over, had stuff thrown at me, screamed at in an attempt to startle me and make me fall off, etc... well, unless I was at Yoken's* in Portsmouth, NH, I'd just have a lot of useless wooden nickels I guess, but the point is I'd have a lot. And it gets really aggravating. At this point I'm not sure if some kind of summit meeting is needed or what, but it's outright war between cyclists and motorists at this point and seeing as how I made the stupid, stupid decision to be a cyclist, I'm starting to feel like I chose to be a power forward for the Washington Generals.
Geez I just realized I hope that guy doesn't end up behind me any time soon.
* Holy crap, they closed down Yokens?!! CURSE YOU, PROGRESS!!!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Kyle reviews pointless shit nobody cares about (for a change)
#1. My '09 Trek 7.3FX (B-)
Ah, the old Trek. I've taken to calling it my "beater", but honestly it was an expensive-ass bike when I bought it and it's still in pretty good shape. I put over 3000 miles on it in just over 5 months, so it got worked a little harder than the good folks are Trek probably intended it to. Anyways, here's my thoughts:
Components:
The Front derailleur is complete crap. It's a C102, whatever the fuck that is. I was forced to learn the Shimano hierarchy a long time ago, and this thing doesn't even show up on it. That either means it's a one-off model for this bike, or it's the REALLY cheap kind they put on Wal-Mart and Target bikes. I tend to think the former, just due to this bike's price, but even then it was still garbage. I could just never get it to behave. Front derailleurs with a triple chainring are hard enough to get adjusted properly, but no matter what I do this one still rubs in chain combinations it shouldn't. I don't cross-chain, I'm talking rubbing in the third chainring and the smallest cog in the rear cassette (i.e. the highest gear possible).
The rear derailleur on the other hand, was pretty solid. It's a Deore, which is pretty much the entry level component group for Shimano mountain bikes (there's Altus as well, but for "real" bikes pretty much everything starts at Deore). It needed tightening up fairly regularly but shifted well enough, and I did beat on it a bit when I was starting out and it never jumped the chain or complained.
The brakes were crap as well. They were V-Brakes, which I'm not terribly familiar with, but the rear one especially was always horribly out of alignment. You all know what I'm talking about. You pull the brake lever, and one side yanks 4 inches to the rim, and the other one barely moves. That's a brake out of alignment. Ugh.
The tires are another thing I was not terribly impressed with. They're Bontrager Hardcases, they're supposed to be DESIGNED for city riding, and I was still constantly popping tubes on glass and wires in the road. The rear tire even ended up getting slashed, forcing me to purchase a new one. The wheels are fine for most applications, but if you're a big guy and will be carrying 30-50 pounds of stuff, I don't think the 32 spoke rims are going to hold up well.
The frame I will say nothing but good stuff about. It was light as hell, responsive, and looked really sharp to boot. The frame was definitely the best thing about this bike.
Durability:
I'm not sure if maybe I got a dud or what, but this bike didn't hold up REAL well. The rear tire died, so I had to replace that. The headset is making a creaking noise when I put weight on it, I'm not sure what's causing that. A spoke on the rear wheel spontaneously broke. The chain is either warped or stretched because you can see it changing angles as you're riding.
3,000 miles isn't a TON of mileage for a brand new bike, and I was getting it tuned up and checked over fairly regularly. Enough stuff went wrong with it that I'm pretty skeptical it'll still be alive a year from now.
Suitability for Touring:
This bike would've worked fine for touring. I really believe that. It has braze ons (holes) for everything: fenders, racks, water bottles, you name it. The geometry was nice and relaxed, the chainstays were plenty long, and it felt stable when weighted down.
For those of you reading this who're looking to do your own tour someday and you're on a budget, and you've only got around 700-800 bucks to spend, first look at the Windsor Tourist. But if that's sold out (which it always is) then check out this bike. The fact that there'll likely be a local Trek dealer for it is a plus.
#2. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (B+)
Let's get one thing straight, I watched the original movie 7 times. IN THE THEATRES. I fucking loved that movie. In terms of pure action movies, it goes
#1. Terminator 2
#2. Transformers (First one)
#3. The Rock.
Since I would gladly punch Michael Bay in the neck if I thought I could get away with it, I'm not sure why I like those two movies so much, but there it is.
I went to the midnight showing of this movie and it was freaking awesome. Now let me clarify that a bit: There isn't a single aspect of this movie that is well done that doesn't directly have to do with giant robots killing each other. The acting, the plotting, the "humor" (Hey let's have the Mom curse and eat pot brownies! We're so edgy and fresh!!) and all that other crap was uniformly horrible. But holy crap were the action parts good.
Getting back to that Michael Bay comment, he's a horrible person and should probably be melted down into a sticky goo to be used as a low grade asphalt sealant. Seriously, as a person, any time you watch an interview with him blood will start shooting out of your ears. And as a director, he can make stuff blow up really well, but he's completely incapable of doing anything else. What saves him in the Transformers movies is the steady hand of Stephen Spielberg.
Now, again, by himself, Steve-O is a fucking mess. He used to make cool, edgy movies. He kind of jumped the shark with Saving Private Ryan, and then he made War of the Worlds (good movie completely destroyed by the ending, and that had Spielberg's sweaty fingerprints all over it), started digitally editing out rifles and turning them into walkie-talkies, and finally made the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
(There's two schools of thought on that movie. Some people feel it was an entirely acceptable, possibly even engaging summer popcorn flick. Others, like me who had The Last Crusade on VHS and watched it no less than 4,349 times as a little kid, have a less charitable view. Specifically, me and the writers of South Park feel Spielberg systematically raped Indy over and over again, in front of very eyes, then leaving his useless, steaming corpse in front of us before peeing on it and walking away)
But combine Bay's over-the-top "everything must explode, all other concerns are secondary" approach to filmmaking, and Spielberg's "what if you replaced that mean looking shrub with a magical Happy Tree that grants wishes and gives hugs" modus operandi, and you get a pretty good flick.
Now having said that, I think maybe Spielberg lost a bit of control over Bay in this movie, because a lot of non-action bits have degraded into sheer lunacy, and boring lunacy at that. I tend to imagine Spielberg's reduced role happened suddenly, and nothing was ever the same afterwards. A conversation like this probably happened.
Spielberg: Mike, I've been reading the script, and, uh, I've got some concerns. Do you really think we should make two of the comic relief robots into the most offensive ethnic stereotype ever made in the history of film?
Bay: It's what the fans want Steven. We got away with Jazz in the first movie, didn't we?
Spielberg: Yeah but, I dunno, one of the ones in this movie even has a gold tooth....
Bay: Fuck you, Steve. Transformers made over 780 million dollars, I am Michael Bay and I am a genius. You're not going to deprive the fans of my awesome ideas.
Spielberg: Okay, but....
Bay: No, I said fuck you. Now the two robots that've got your panties twisted are twins.
Spielberg: Twins? Wait, what, like they got made at the same time?
Bay: NO they're twins. And now there's a girl robot.
Spielberg: How can there be a girl -
Bay: FUCK YOU NOW ONE OF THEM HAS AN AUSTRALIAN ACCENT. I can do this all day.
Spielberg: But that doesn't make any-
Bay: NOW SHIA LEBOUF IS GOING TO DIE AND HAVE A VISION OF ROBOT HEAVEN!!
Spielberg: Now wait just a sec-
Bay: I AM MICHAEL BAY, I MADE BAD BOYS II!!!! I SHALL NOT TOLERATE YOUR INSOLENCE!!!!
Still, though, yeah, B+. Dude they shot Devastator with a rail gun.
Ah, the old Trek. I've taken to calling it my "beater", but honestly it was an expensive-ass bike when I bought it and it's still in pretty good shape. I put over 3000 miles on it in just over 5 months, so it got worked a little harder than the good folks are Trek probably intended it to. Anyways, here's my thoughts:
Components:
The Front derailleur is complete crap. It's a C102, whatever the fuck that is. I was forced to learn the Shimano hierarchy a long time ago, and this thing doesn't even show up on it. That either means it's a one-off model for this bike, or it's the REALLY cheap kind they put on Wal-Mart and Target bikes. I tend to think the former, just due to this bike's price, but even then it was still garbage. I could just never get it to behave. Front derailleurs with a triple chainring are hard enough to get adjusted properly, but no matter what I do this one still rubs in chain combinations it shouldn't. I don't cross-chain, I'm talking rubbing in the third chainring and the smallest cog in the rear cassette (i.e. the highest gear possible).
The rear derailleur on the other hand, was pretty solid. It's a Deore, which is pretty much the entry level component group for Shimano mountain bikes (there's Altus as well, but for "real" bikes pretty much everything starts at Deore). It needed tightening up fairly regularly but shifted well enough, and I did beat on it a bit when I was starting out and it never jumped the chain or complained.
The brakes were crap as well. They were V-Brakes, which I'm not terribly familiar with, but the rear one especially was always horribly out of alignment. You all know what I'm talking about. You pull the brake lever, and one side yanks 4 inches to the rim, and the other one barely moves. That's a brake out of alignment. Ugh.
The tires are another thing I was not terribly impressed with. They're Bontrager Hardcases, they're supposed to be DESIGNED for city riding, and I was still constantly popping tubes on glass and wires in the road. The rear tire even ended up getting slashed, forcing me to purchase a new one. The wheels are fine for most applications, but if you're a big guy and will be carrying 30-50 pounds of stuff, I don't think the 32 spoke rims are going to hold up well.
The frame I will say nothing but good stuff about. It was light as hell, responsive, and looked really sharp to boot. The frame was definitely the best thing about this bike.
Durability:
I'm not sure if maybe I got a dud or what, but this bike didn't hold up REAL well. The rear tire died, so I had to replace that. The headset is making a creaking noise when I put weight on it, I'm not sure what's causing that. A spoke on the rear wheel spontaneously broke. The chain is either warped or stretched because you can see it changing angles as you're riding.
3,000 miles isn't a TON of mileage for a brand new bike, and I was getting it tuned up and checked over fairly regularly. Enough stuff went wrong with it that I'm pretty skeptical it'll still be alive a year from now.
Suitability for Touring:
This bike would've worked fine for touring. I really believe that. It has braze ons (holes) for everything: fenders, racks, water bottles, you name it. The geometry was nice and relaxed, the chainstays were plenty long, and it felt stable when weighted down.
For those of you reading this who're looking to do your own tour someday and you're on a budget, and you've only got around 700-800 bucks to spend, first look at the Windsor Tourist. But if that's sold out (which it always is) then check out this bike. The fact that there'll likely be a local Trek dealer for it is a plus.
#2. Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen (B+)
Let's get one thing straight, I watched the original movie 7 times. IN THE THEATRES. I fucking loved that movie. In terms of pure action movies, it goes
#1. Terminator 2
#2. Transformers (First one)
#3. The Rock.
Since I would gladly punch Michael Bay in the neck if I thought I could get away with it, I'm not sure why I like those two movies so much, but there it is.
I went to the midnight showing of this movie and it was freaking awesome. Now let me clarify that a bit: There isn't a single aspect of this movie that is well done that doesn't directly have to do with giant robots killing each other. The acting, the plotting, the "humor" (Hey let's have the Mom curse and eat pot brownies! We're so edgy and fresh!!) and all that other crap was uniformly horrible. But holy crap were the action parts good.
Getting back to that Michael Bay comment, he's a horrible person and should probably be melted down into a sticky goo to be used as a low grade asphalt sealant. Seriously, as a person, any time you watch an interview with him blood will start shooting out of your ears. And as a director, he can make stuff blow up really well, but he's completely incapable of doing anything else. What saves him in the Transformers movies is the steady hand of Stephen Spielberg.
Now, again, by himself, Steve-O is a fucking mess. He used to make cool, edgy movies. He kind of jumped the shark with Saving Private Ryan, and then he made War of the Worlds (good movie completely destroyed by the ending, and that had Spielberg's sweaty fingerprints all over it), started digitally editing out rifles and turning them into walkie-talkies, and finally made the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
(There's two schools of thought on that movie. Some people feel it was an entirely acceptable, possibly even engaging summer popcorn flick. Others, like me who had The Last Crusade on VHS and watched it no less than 4,349 times as a little kid, have a less charitable view. Specifically, me and the writers of South Park feel Spielberg systematically raped Indy over and over again, in front of very eyes, then leaving his useless, steaming corpse in front of us before peeing on it and walking away)
But combine Bay's over-the-top "everything must explode, all other concerns are secondary" approach to filmmaking, and Spielberg's "what if you replaced that mean looking shrub with a magical Happy Tree that grants wishes and gives hugs" modus operandi, and you get a pretty good flick.
Now having said that, I think maybe Spielberg lost a bit of control over Bay in this movie, because a lot of non-action bits have degraded into sheer lunacy, and boring lunacy at that. I tend to imagine Spielberg's reduced role happened suddenly, and nothing was ever the same afterwards. A conversation like this probably happened.
Spielberg: Mike, I've been reading the script, and, uh, I've got some concerns. Do you really think we should make two of the comic relief robots into the most offensive ethnic stereotype ever made in the history of film?
Bay: It's what the fans want Steven. We got away with Jazz in the first movie, didn't we?
Spielberg: Yeah but, I dunno, one of the ones in this movie even has a gold tooth....
Bay: Fuck you, Steve. Transformers made over 780 million dollars, I am Michael Bay and I am a genius. You're not going to deprive the fans of my awesome ideas.
Spielberg: Okay, but....
Bay: No, I said fuck you. Now the two robots that've got your panties twisted are twins.
Spielberg: Twins? Wait, what, like they got made at the same time?
Bay: NO they're twins. And now there's a girl robot.
Spielberg: How can there be a girl -
Bay: FUCK YOU NOW ONE OF THEM HAS AN AUSTRALIAN ACCENT. I can do this all day.
Spielberg: But that doesn't make any-
Bay: NOW SHIA LEBOUF IS GOING TO DIE AND HAVE A VISION OF ROBOT HEAVEN!!
Spielberg: Now wait just a sec-
Bay: I AM MICHAEL BAY, I MADE BAD BOYS II!!!! I SHALL NOT TOLERATE YOUR INSOLENCE!!!!
Still, though, yeah, B+. Dude they shot Devastator with a rail gun.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Packing
Here's my reading list for my trip:
#1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
#2. Stephen King's "It"
#3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
I actually had to think about these, because books don't pack well and space is at a premium (especially since I learned I packed wrong, more on that later). I picked It because, well, it's cheap and it's 1000 pages long. Don't get me wrong, It is the start of Stephen King's long slow spiral downwards, which ended with him crashing to Earth like a common commercial jetliner with the ending of "The Gunslinger". But it has a scary, scary clown and also has a scene where Swamp Thing rips off a 10 year old kid's head, so it's got some stuff going for it too. Being 1000 pages long is a plus, it'll take me awhile to burn through it.
I picked the last Harry Potter book because I haven't read it in over a year, it's the best one, and I have a soft spot for it because it's the one where Ron finally grows a pair and gives Hermione the Bad Touch. Good on you, old bean.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is probably the single greatest idea ever. The writer takes public domain books about boring nonsense like romance and class struggles, and inserts a bunch of random zombie mayhem. It's still the original book, which I've never read, but now there's the occasional scene where Catherine kills some ninja by ripping out their still-beating heart and eats it. So I'm like kind of culturing myself.
So about packing, yeah, I did it wrong. Two big, bulky items, my air mattress and tent, were gonna get bungeed to the top of my trunk bag. There's these bungees cords built into the top of it that you can slide stuff under. There's no good pictures of this thing on the 'net so I'm gonna have to do all of this with MS Paint.
That's like a top view of the bag. Those lines are the bungees. You can have things under them, like this.
Looks like a pretty solid setup, right? However my rear bag isn't waterproof. It has a rain cover that goes over it, for when it rains. I can't show this well in Paint without it being a big yellow rectangle, but it's just a yellow covering with elastic seams that slides over it.
The problem is that it fits pretty tightly, so the stuff can't go under it, and it covers the bungees. So now there's no way to attach them.
I could just use regular bungee cords, but then I also realized that the tent and air mattress (which CANNOT get wet or they'll grow mold) have covers, but they're not waterproof. So even then I'd be in trouble when it rained
So I might have to put some of those big items in my front panniers, which ARE waterproof, but then I obviously have less room for other stuff.
It's a little late in the game for serious packing problems like this, so I have to figure this out pretty quick. One idea is to just put both the tent and mattress in a big waterproof garbage bag before bungeeing them down, but that'd look pretty tacky and would probably vastly increase the chances of some random cop deciding I'm a homeless person.
Other than that, nothing much to report. The Surly is in the shop getting her one month checkup, so I'm back to the Trek. After this, I'm probably going to sell the old girl. I figured I could wait awhile to do it, but then I just realized this trip is only 2 fucking months away. TWO MONTHS!!
#1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
#2. Stephen King's "It"
#3. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
I actually had to think about these, because books don't pack well and space is at a premium (especially since I learned I packed wrong, more on that later). I picked It because, well, it's cheap and it's 1000 pages long. Don't get me wrong, It is the start of Stephen King's long slow spiral downwards, which ended with him crashing to Earth like a common commercial jetliner with the ending of "The Gunslinger". But it has a scary, scary clown and also has a scene where Swamp Thing rips off a 10 year old kid's head, so it's got some stuff going for it too. Being 1000 pages long is a plus, it'll take me awhile to burn through it.
I picked the last Harry Potter book because I haven't read it in over a year, it's the best one, and I have a soft spot for it because it's the one where Ron finally grows a pair and gives Hermione the Bad Touch. Good on you, old bean.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is probably the single greatest idea ever. The writer takes public domain books about boring nonsense like romance and class struggles, and inserts a bunch of random zombie mayhem. It's still the original book, which I've never read, but now there's the occasional scene where Catherine kills some ninja by ripping out their still-beating heart and eats it. So I'm like kind of culturing myself.
So about packing, yeah, I did it wrong. Two big, bulky items, my air mattress and tent, were gonna get bungeed to the top of my trunk bag. There's these bungees cords built into the top of it that you can slide stuff under. There's no good pictures of this thing on the 'net so I'm gonna have to do all of this with MS Paint.
That's like a top view of the bag. Those lines are the bungees. You can have things under them, like this.
Looks like a pretty solid setup, right? However my rear bag isn't waterproof. It has a rain cover that goes over it, for when it rains. I can't show this well in Paint without it being a big yellow rectangle, but it's just a yellow covering with elastic seams that slides over it.
The problem is that it fits pretty tightly, so the stuff can't go under it, and it covers the bungees. So now there's no way to attach them.
I could just use regular bungee cords, but then I also realized that the tent and air mattress (which CANNOT get wet or they'll grow mold) have covers, but they're not waterproof. So even then I'd be in trouble when it rained
So I might have to put some of those big items in my front panniers, which ARE waterproof, but then I obviously have less room for other stuff.
It's a little late in the game for serious packing problems like this, so I have to figure this out pretty quick. One idea is to just put both the tent and mattress in a big waterproof garbage bag before bungeeing them down, but that'd look pretty tacky and would probably vastly increase the chances of some random cop deciding I'm a homeless person.
Other than that, nothing much to report. The Surly is in the shop getting her one month checkup, so I'm back to the Trek. After this, I'm probably going to sell the old girl. I figured I could wait awhile to do it, but then I just realized this trip is only 2 fucking months away. TWO MONTHS!!
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Effed up my ankle
So this weekend I was gonna do...something. I don't think I was ever seriously going to do a 50 mile plus ride, but I was certainly going to do something longer than my normal commute. Then I went to go play racquetball on Saturday, lunged after an 18 mph bullet launched by my friend's fiancee, and landed on the side of my ankle. Seriously. My foot didn't even hit the ground.
I heard a crunch, immediately got up, and limped around for a bit. It honestly seemed fine. A bit sore, but nothing extreme. I was even able to finish out that game AND do another one. When I woke up this morning though, it was still swollen and was turning some fairly interesting colors.
So no biking for me today. It still doesn't feel awful, and once I got up and was walking around for a bit it felt much better, so I don't think this'll be a serious problem, but I do seem to be getting banged up a lot lately. I've never thought of myself as particularly fragile (don't confuse that statement with me being stoic or anything though, if I get hurt I will do nothing but bitch and moan for days) so it's a bit disconcerting that I'm feeling constantly banged up somewhere.
So I spent today doing some home bike repair 101 type stuff. Currently I know how to change/patch a flat tire, do a quick-fix for a slashed or otherwise destroyed tire, kinda-sorta adjust a front and rear derailleur, and fudge with the brake and shifter cable tension. Friday however, I noticed my old Trek 7.3 had a busted rear spoke.
I don't really understand how it broke, the bike hasn't been ridden in over a week. Maybe it tried to kill itself out of shame. Maybe it was killed by ninjas for knowing too much, a la David Carradine. (I know it's way too early for that joke, but it's not really a joke. Ninjas are no laughing matter, young people.)
So I learned how to replace a spoke today (fairly difficult) and also did some futzing about with my saddle. The saddle's been a sore spot on the new bike thus far (GET IT!?!?!?!?) but the initial effort seems worth it. For those not in the know, i.e. anyone with normal societal tendencies, Brooks saddles are formed from a complex process that binds high quality leather with pure liquid pretentiousness. Want to see the box it comes in?
It's a fucking BICYCLE SADDLE. My favorite part was the faux-1880's style newspaper that explains in detail all the of the various ways people have changed the world for the better with Brooks Saddles. I shit you not. Because I already have my camera handy:
No but seriously, the Brooks Bugle is a great newspaper. It's informative, edgy, and isn't afraid to get the tough stories. I'm not sure about their journalistic integrity, it seems like maybe Brooks Saddles, Inc. in particular seems to get positive coverage most of the time, but I still found it less slanted than Fox News.*
Where was I? Oh yeah, so it takes a lot of adjustments and finagling to get a Brooks saddle to feel good, because it's made of leather. Not leather like a leather car seat though, or like a leather baseball glove. It's the hardest leather ever. You rap it with your fingers and it sounds like plastic. And the first 30 or so miles on it were horrible. It felt like I was sitting on Anne Coulter's face.
However after some tilt adjustments, and some indentations finally being made, it's already 1000% more comfortable. It's now got about 150 miles on it, and it's perfectly comfortable, comprable to my old squishy saddle. What makes Brooks saddles great, and is why I'm willing to completely embrace the dark side of bicyclist douchebaggery, is that it never gets UNcomfortable.
The knock against squishy saddles is that they're great for short trips, but after a long time in them with your jubblies all sunk in, stuff starts to go numb and cramp up. What you want is something that comforms to your shape like a squishy saddle, but ALSO is firm and supporting. That's what leather saddles do. People who I've spoken with that tour all swear by this thing. They say it's virtually the only way to stay comfortable in a bike saddle for 6-8 hours a day. I wasn't sure about all of that (and God dammit this paragraph reads like that time I was explaining the difference between solid top guitars vs laminate tops and FUCK YOU for not stopping me back then, Stew) but I DID know I'd tried two different normal saddles and they were definitely starting to make certain anatomical bits start to feel a bit cramped and oxygen-starved after an hour or two, and with this thing that's not the case. Instead of gradually progressing from "ah this is comfortable" to "Oh shit it's turning purple" to "Oh SHIT it turned black and fell off" over the course of 3 hours, the Brooks saddle simply starts at "Hmm, not bad" and stays that way. So I'm sold.
* It's okay Conservatives, I voted for McCain in the primaries before he tapped that shrill, disagreeable retard as his running mate.. Also HELL YEAH asterisks are back!!!
edit:
I think Jill must've stolen my camera at some point, because I certainly don't remember shooting this. Man that thing's a beast! And by "that thing" I mean Asaf, he's totally spooning on that bed.
I heard a crunch, immediately got up, and limped around for a bit. It honestly seemed fine. A bit sore, but nothing extreme. I was even able to finish out that game AND do another one. When I woke up this morning though, it was still swollen and was turning some fairly interesting colors.
So no biking for me today. It still doesn't feel awful, and once I got up and was walking around for a bit it felt much better, so I don't think this'll be a serious problem, but I do seem to be getting banged up a lot lately. I've never thought of myself as particularly fragile (don't confuse that statement with me being stoic or anything though, if I get hurt I will do nothing but bitch and moan for days) so it's a bit disconcerting that I'm feeling constantly banged up somewhere.
So I spent today doing some home bike repair 101 type stuff. Currently I know how to change/patch a flat tire, do a quick-fix for a slashed or otherwise destroyed tire, kinda-sorta adjust a front and rear derailleur, and fudge with the brake and shifter cable tension. Friday however, I noticed my old Trek 7.3 had a busted rear spoke.
I don't really understand how it broke, the bike hasn't been ridden in over a week. Maybe it tried to kill itself out of shame. Maybe it was killed by ninjas for knowing too much, a la David Carradine. (I know it's way too early for that joke, but it's not really a joke. Ninjas are no laughing matter, young people.)
So I learned how to replace a spoke today (fairly difficult) and also did some futzing about with my saddle. The saddle's been a sore spot on the new bike thus far (GET IT!?!?!?!?) but the initial effort seems worth it. For those not in the know, i.e. anyone with normal societal tendencies, Brooks saddles are formed from a complex process that binds high quality leather with pure liquid pretentiousness. Want to see the box it comes in?
It's a fucking BICYCLE SADDLE. My favorite part was the faux-1880's style newspaper that explains in detail all the of the various ways people have changed the world for the better with Brooks Saddles. I shit you not. Because I already have my camera handy:
No but seriously, the Brooks Bugle is a great newspaper. It's informative, edgy, and isn't afraid to get the tough stories. I'm not sure about their journalistic integrity, it seems like maybe Brooks Saddles, Inc. in particular seems to get positive coverage most of the time, but I still found it less slanted than Fox News.*
Where was I? Oh yeah, so it takes a lot of adjustments and finagling to get a Brooks saddle to feel good, because it's made of leather. Not leather like a leather car seat though, or like a leather baseball glove. It's the hardest leather ever. You rap it with your fingers and it sounds like plastic. And the first 30 or so miles on it were horrible. It felt like I was sitting on Anne Coulter's face.
However after some tilt adjustments, and some indentations finally being made, it's already 1000% more comfortable. It's now got about 150 miles on it, and it's perfectly comfortable, comprable to my old squishy saddle. What makes Brooks saddles great, and is why I'm willing to completely embrace the dark side of bicyclist douchebaggery, is that it never gets UNcomfortable.
The knock against squishy saddles is that they're great for short trips, but after a long time in them with your jubblies all sunk in, stuff starts to go numb and cramp up. What you want is something that comforms to your shape like a squishy saddle, but ALSO is firm and supporting. That's what leather saddles do. People who I've spoken with that tour all swear by this thing. They say it's virtually the only way to stay comfortable in a bike saddle for 6-8 hours a day. I wasn't sure about all of that (and God dammit this paragraph reads like that time I was explaining the difference between solid top guitars vs laminate tops and FUCK YOU for not stopping me back then, Stew) but I DID know I'd tried two different normal saddles and they were definitely starting to make certain anatomical bits start to feel a bit cramped and oxygen-starved after an hour or two, and with this thing that's not the case. Instead of gradually progressing from "ah this is comfortable" to "Oh shit it's turning purple" to "Oh SHIT it turned black and fell off" over the course of 3 hours, the Brooks saddle simply starts at "Hmm, not bad" and stays that way. So I'm sold.
* It's okay Conservatives, I voted for McCain in the primaries before he tapped that shrill, disagreeable retard as his running mate.. Also HELL YEAH asterisks are back!!!
edit:
I think Jill must've stolen my camera at some point, because I certainly don't remember shooting this. Man that thing's a beast! And by "that thing" I mean Asaf, he's totally spooning on that bed.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Oops
Hey so it's been awhile. Frankly, I'm not sure how many more times I could post "Gee whiz biking is hard" or "I sure do think redheads are hot" before it got grating. Besides, while updates here will be an every day type thing while I'm out on the road, you're just not missing much on a day to day basis here. It's been three weeks though, so here, let's take a journey together to discover what has usurped (editor's note: Douchebag "I read books which makes me smart" vocab useage alert!!) my time lately.
#1. If you're wanting to date an immature, catty 23 year old, then by all means do it (if she's cute enough). I mean, who're we kidding, right? We're all human. When the wheels fall off though, shrug your shoulders, make a mental note, and move on quickly. I think this is my roundabout way of saying it's hard to update a blog when you're spending 2-3 hours a day constructing elaborate theories to explain away giant gaping logic holes instead of admitting the chick you're seeing is a pathological liar.
#2. On the opposite end of the fun scale, it's also hard to update a blog when you're spending prime bike-riding weekends in Colorado, getting hammered on absolutely disgusting black licorice liquor. Bet you didn't know that kind of hell even existed, did you? I don't know why I segued from "not fun" into "fun" with drinking malted battery acid as an example, but... I dunno. Hey look here's Brett!
(I'd like to say that was a completely random, out-of-character "That's what she said!" comment at the end, but alas. We still think that's funny and use it as substitute for punctuation.)
#3. New bike hotness!!
Okay so if you'll recall, the beast of burden I chose for this trip is a Trek 7.3fx. A fine bike, a real man's bike. I think I also mentioned I was about to blow 4-5 hundred bucks swapping out various components to make it tour-worthy. It needed drop handlebars, a new drivetrain, a new saddle, blah blah blah.
I was already torn about spending the money to upgrade my current bike, or just getting a different one. My Trek is a great commuter, looks sharp, and let's not forget the awesome black on black color scheme. It matches my dark soul perfectly, like those edgy lyrics the goth kids used to write inside their Steino notebooks in high school before they went home to sniff glue and burn things.
On the other hand, it just wasn't built for this kind of thing. I mean it COULD work. Sure I COULD pay for 3 million dollars worth of plastic surgery to return Debrah Messing to her previous levels of hotness, or I could just throw 20 bucks at her younger, hotter protege Isla Fisher. And never doubt it, Isla Fisher would throw me a bone for 20 dollars. She's currently getting pounded by the same guy who dressed up as an angel and teabagged Eminem, and 69ed a 500 pound Latvian guy. This isn't someone with preposterously high standards.
So where was I? Oh yeah, I ditched the Trek and bought a Surly. BOO YEAH!!! (As always click on the picture for a decent view. Blogger, post-2004 thumbnail technology, have you two met?)
The Surly Long Haul Trucker is the Honda Civic of the Touring world. They're dull, conventional, and about as stylish as one of those giant Australian termite nests, but God damn they're built well, and even if you look like a tool on it, you'll be in good company because like 80% of everyone touring uses one. They are NOT cheap, but I actually got a discount from a local bike shop, in exchange for the humane society pimping them out, so I could kind of sort of afford it. It's hard to explain why they're perfect for touring without getting into horrible topics like "chainstay length" and "fork rake" so you'll just have to take my word for it: I am in way better position now than I was before.
Also, check out the GPS unit attached to my handlebars! It's like being in the glass cockpit of a fighter jet!! I'm still keeping my Trek for the time being, because I'm petrified of the new being stolen, but I'll obvously jettison it to some worthy individual before I leave.
So all that in mind, what's my current situation? We'll divide my end of May report card into bite sized segments I like to call Training, Planning, and Equipment Obtainment.
Training: F
There's no other grade I can reasonably give myself now. I've upped my weekly mileage from 100 miles per week to about 120-30, but that's still not really the point. Even 100 miles per week would be fine, IF I was knocking out the occasional 50-60 mile ride as part of it. Sadly I just haven't had a day lately where I was like "I've got 6-8 hours to kill, I might as well spend them on my bike!" I think I could do it without a problem, but I just can't be sure. There's a big difference between spending an hour in the saddle straight, and spending 6. It's similar to the difference between Eric Wolpert's penis size, and that of a normal human being. An ignorant girl with Eric might think he's all right, but as soon as anyone bigger than Vern Troyer comes along she's gonna be worried they'll shatter her spine with it.
My analogies are definitely getting worse. :(
Planning: B-
So far so good here. I've got places to stay lined up in Tempe, Fort Collins, New York City, and Boston, if I can find one place in Missouri or Illinois somewhere I think I'll be golden. My route's all firmly mapped and I'm starting to peruse Garmin's City Navigator 2010 maps to pinpoint camps, cafes, and other essentials along the way. Somehow, someway, my budget is still holding up as well. I still need to find a place to live for when I get back, and sell the remainder of my worldly possesions, but most of the big stuff has been taken care of.
Equipment: A-
I'm doing really well here. I'm basically done. A few eagle eyed readers pointed out my list of stuff to pack was more complete than the picture of it, and using a small tupperware container to stand in for "tool kit comprehensive enough to fix any bike problem that is the size of a very small paperback book" is easier than actually making said tool kit.
However, there's really not much I need now. There's a few random one-off things I still need, like 5mm socket cap bolts, bailing wire, and spare cyclocomputer batteries, but I daresay every major, difficult purchase has been made.
#1. If you're wanting to date an immature, catty 23 year old, then by all means do it (if she's cute enough). I mean, who're we kidding, right? We're all human. When the wheels fall off though, shrug your shoulders, make a mental note, and move on quickly. I think this is my roundabout way of saying it's hard to update a blog when you're spending 2-3 hours a day constructing elaborate theories to explain away giant gaping logic holes instead of admitting the chick you're seeing is a pathological liar.
#2. On the opposite end of the fun scale, it's also hard to update a blog when you're spending prime bike-riding weekends in Colorado, getting hammered on absolutely disgusting black licorice liquor. Bet you didn't know that kind of hell even existed, did you? I don't know why I segued from "not fun" into "fun" with drinking malted battery acid as an example, but... I dunno. Hey look here's Brett!
(I'd like to say that was a completely random, out-of-character "That's what she said!" comment at the end, but alas. We still think that's funny and use it as substitute for punctuation.)
#3. New bike hotness!!
Okay so if you'll recall, the beast of burden I chose for this trip is a Trek 7.3fx. A fine bike, a real man's bike. I think I also mentioned I was about to blow 4-5 hundred bucks swapping out various components to make it tour-worthy. It needed drop handlebars, a new drivetrain, a new saddle, blah blah blah.
I was already torn about spending the money to upgrade my current bike, or just getting a different one. My Trek is a great commuter, looks sharp, and let's not forget the awesome black on black color scheme. It matches my dark soul perfectly, like those edgy lyrics the goth kids used to write inside their Steino notebooks in high school before they went home to sniff glue and burn things.
On the other hand, it just wasn't built for this kind of thing. I mean it COULD work. Sure I COULD pay for 3 million dollars worth of plastic surgery to return Debrah Messing to her previous levels of hotness, or I could just throw 20 bucks at her younger, hotter protege Isla Fisher. And never doubt it, Isla Fisher would throw me a bone for 20 dollars. She's currently getting pounded by the same guy who dressed up as an angel and teabagged Eminem, and 69ed a 500 pound Latvian guy. This isn't someone with preposterously high standards.
So where was I? Oh yeah, I ditched the Trek and bought a Surly. BOO YEAH!!! (As always click on the picture for a decent view. Blogger, post-2004 thumbnail technology, have you two met?)
The Surly Long Haul Trucker is the Honda Civic of the Touring world. They're dull, conventional, and about as stylish as one of those giant Australian termite nests, but God damn they're built well, and even if you look like a tool on it, you'll be in good company because like 80% of everyone touring uses one. They are NOT cheap, but I actually got a discount from a local bike shop, in exchange for the humane society pimping them out, so I could kind of sort of afford it. It's hard to explain why they're perfect for touring without getting into horrible topics like "chainstay length" and "fork rake" so you'll just have to take my word for it: I am in way better position now than I was before.
Also, check out the GPS unit attached to my handlebars! It's like being in the glass cockpit of a fighter jet!! I'm still keeping my Trek for the time being, because I'm petrified of the new being stolen, but I'll obvously jettison it to some worthy individual before I leave.
So all that in mind, what's my current situation? We'll divide my end of May report card into bite sized segments I like to call Training, Planning, and Equipment Obtainment.
Training: F
There's no other grade I can reasonably give myself now. I've upped my weekly mileage from 100 miles per week to about 120-30, but that's still not really the point. Even 100 miles per week would be fine, IF I was knocking out the occasional 50-60 mile ride as part of it. Sadly I just haven't had a day lately where I was like "I've got 6-8 hours to kill, I might as well spend them on my bike!" I think I could do it without a problem, but I just can't be sure. There's a big difference between spending an hour in the saddle straight, and spending 6. It's similar to the difference between Eric Wolpert's penis size, and that of a normal human being. An ignorant girl with Eric might think he's all right, but as soon as anyone bigger than Vern Troyer comes along she's gonna be worried they'll shatter her spine with it.
My analogies are definitely getting worse. :(
Planning: B-
So far so good here. I've got places to stay lined up in Tempe, Fort Collins, New York City, and Boston, if I can find one place in Missouri or Illinois somewhere I think I'll be golden. My route's all firmly mapped and I'm starting to peruse Garmin's City Navigator 2010 maps to pinpoint camps, cafes, and other essentials along the way. Somehow, someway, my budget is still holding up as well. I still need to find a place to live for when I get back, and sell the remainder of my worldly possesions, but most of the big stuff has been taken care of.
Equipment: A-
I'm doing really well here. I'm basically done. A few eagle eyed readers pointed out my list of stuff to pack was more complete than the picture of it, and using a small tupperware container to stand in for "tool kit comprehensive enough to fix any bike problem that is the size of a very small paperback book" is easier than actually making said tool kit.
However, there's really not much I need now. There's a few random one-off things I still need, like 5mm socket cap bolts, bailing wire, and spare cyclocomputer batteries, but I daresay every major, difficult purchase has been made.
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