August 26, 2002
Riding Riding Riding..
So this weekend meant...guess what? Wow, you're right! Bike riding!
Saturday: Rochester with Annie. Distance: 20 miles. Terrain: Canal trails (mixed paved/hard packed dirt). Weather: Wetter than your mom with a midget. Hills: Mostly flat. Knee pain: moderate to severe.
The drive home was cool. The best part?
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| The scene on INTERSTATE 690 |
I almost plowed into traffic stopped on I-690 because there's a traffic light there. Only used during the New York State Fair.
Arrived in Syracuse in one piece.
Saturday night: A date of a very different sort.
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| CHAI |
I was able to partake of the best chai on the planet, thanks to Happy Endings. While at the coffeehouse I ran into old friend Megan, and met Morgan, shown below.
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| May I take your coat? |
We hung out at the coffeeshop for a while and gabbed about nothing in particular. Then I went home and slept.
Sunday: Highland Forest with Stephen. Distance: 12 miles. Terrain: Singletrack with typical offroad obstacles (rain washout, small ponds, large tree roots, bears). Weather: Dry, trails wetter than your mom with a midget due to rainfall Saturday. Mud. Hills: Yep. Knee pain: Mostly non-existant.
We got really muddy from riding in Highland Forest. Bikes were covered with crap. I heard a rustling off the trail we took. I heard reports of a bear running around later. Was it one & the same?
Monday: Rock Quarry with Amanda. Distance: 5 miles. Terrain: ROUGH. Weather: Dry. Hills: Yep. Knee pain: None.
Amanda ended up taking a really serious spill almost as soon as we started. I blame myself. I took us down some really technical portions of the quarry. The trail was windy in trees, on top of shattered/broken slate rock. Very hard riding.
Shipped off the big-ass computer I sold on ebay today. Glad to have it out of my hair. Sleep now. More talk later.
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Further back...
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Previous Trips...
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Hiking Mount Whitney, 2007 
Spring Break in West Virginia, 2005
New Year's in Paris, 2003-2004
Coming to America, 2003
Protesting in Berlin, 2003
Prague Bier-Tour, 2002
Dresden, 2002
Recent Reading
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Stealing the Network
I first bumped into the Stealing the Network series when reading the exploits of Joe Grand, one of the book's many hacker authors.
The 'Stealing the ...' series of books follows a rather disparate group of computer hackers as they help a former NSA spook (many of them unwittingly) gather the money he needs to retire.
The stories themselves are not fantastic fiction. The writing is uneven and choppy, the characters are stereotypical and not very well thought-out. What is fascinating about this book series is the technical accuracy of the exploits (at some points *too* accurate, with screen shots and step-by-step instructions).
It's a great series to read if you're a system administrator, or just getting into the wonderful field of computer security.
Rated 
by reid
on March 06, 2011
by reid
on March 06, 2011
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Close to the Machine
Ellen Ullman is one of those authors that somehow avoided my radar. Until now...
Close to the Machine is less a book than a collection of loosely related personal anecdotes from Ellen's time as a very rare thing -- a successful female bisexual independent computer programming consultant.
In the course of her work and relationship life, she learns hard lessons about programming, running a business, being lonely, and loving the wrong people. I found it particularly poignant being a crypto-nerd with difficult times in relationships and a more-or-less NDA'd, secret work life.
This book is a must-read for anyone into running their own business, programming, or anyone dating a person that is a business-a-holic or programmer.
Rated 
by reid
on November 23, 2009
by reid
on November 23, 2009
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The Long Trip Home
I had the joy of dining with the author in Florida. We went to a little Brazilian BBQ where he spoke with our waitstaff in (what I can only assume was) flawless Portugese.
Brian Wyllie spent 1969-1971 living in Brazil working for the Peace Corps. His recent book outlines his trip back to the United States via Bolivia, Peru, and the Carribean chain, by way of bus, train, and sailboat. The format comes spattered with observations from the modern day, and makes me think, "this must be what John McPhee's journal looks like."
The trip sounded like a fantastic one, but I was left wanting more detail...where did the gun (being snuck through customs in a variety of places, no doubt) come from? And how did Geneve's hair smell? Alas, we'll have to wait for another book to find the answers.
Rated by reid
on April 16, 2009
by reid
on April 16, 2009