Quote of the day:
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)
April 30, 2008
Bike+Art=Show
Today I registered to submit artwork in the Bike+Art=Show on May 17th at Junctionview Studios. I'm hoping to create some bike-inspired artwork to sell, make some scrill, and buy my girl some fine things. Anything left might go towards buying some bike stuff. Check out the site--I will be uploading images in the next few weeks. Junctionview Studios is an impressive studio space that serves as headquarters for a larger number of Columbus' premier artists and craft-ers... More to come!
Quote of the day:
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)
Quote of the day:
Happiness depends upon ourselves.
Aristotle
Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, & zoologist (384 BC - 322 BC)
April 27, 2008
No mow!
Just mowed the back lawn. Not sure why. Obviously, it was an effort to comply (at the eleventh hour) with the lawn laws of our municipality. As I was mowing, I was thinking one thing: "mowed lawns are terrible and ugly." Compared to the scattered clumps of uneven grass, dandelions, and common violets, a mowed lawn is a lifeless carpet; a barren desert. It offers no habitat, no food, and no refuge for almost all native Ohio wildlife. I say "almost all" because I realize there are some invertebrates at the interface of topsoil and atmosphere, protected in the dense forests of turf grass, and in the tangled mats of roots there. Dandelions [interesting note: the name comes from the French phrase, dents de lion, or "teeth of the lion"] offer nourishment for bees and other insects and are well adapted for frequently mowed lawns that don't have frequent applications of pounds of herbicide.
The other evil half of mowed lawns is the air pollution caused by conventional gas-powered mowers. Supposedly, 54 million Americans mow their lawns each weekend and use 800 million gallons of gas annually (Source ). Can you imagine how much air pollution that equals? Good, because I don't want to figure it out. It would only depress me. As a new homeowner, I was pressed to purchase lawn equipment to manicure my first suburban yard. After reading many mixed reviews about human-powered reel-mowers, I settled on a $20 gas-powered option found on Craigslist. Since last July, our lawn has been mowed maybe 5 times. That sucks. I hope that C and I will gradually replace most of our lawn with native-plant garden space (a.k.a. wildlife habitat and smörgåsbord). I imagine the front yard bordered with prairie flowers; the back yard, with...more prairie flowers? And vegetables!
Anyways, this rant won't be very conclusive. I wanted to vent my disdain towards mowed lawns, and the bitterness I feel toward out-dated suburban tradition...
In other news: I lost my phone on a bike ride! (Call me so I can add your number to my contact list!) Also, we are finally plugging plants into our gardens. Currently, the tomatoes seem to be settling in, a few pepper plants have claimed a spot, and yellow summer squash have been given copious space to stretch out and soak up the sun. A ton of strawberries plants now have flowers and I'm excited to think of all the fruits we'll be able to use in smoothies, ice-cream, and yogurt.
The other evil half of mowed lawns is the air pollution caused by conventional gas-powered mowers. Supposedly, 54 million Americans mow their lawns each weekend and use 800 million gallons of gas annually (
Anyways, this rant won't be very conclusive. I wanted to vent my disdain towards mowed lawns, and the bitterness I feel toward out-dated suburban tradition...
In other news: I lost my phone on a bike ride! (Call me so I can add your number to my contact list!) Also, we are finally plugging plants into our gardens. Currently, the tomatoes seem to be settling in, a few pepper plants have claimed a spot, and yellow summer squash have been given copious space to stretch out and soak up the sun. A ton of strawberries plants now have flowers and I'm excited to think of all the fruits we'll be able to use in smoothies, ice-cream, and yogurt.
April 19, 2008
Every day is Earth Day
What did I do today before lunch? I bought a bike [I'll explain], planted a tree, twice!, hung out with Alden, and blogged while C was at work. That amounts to a morning in the life of a man committed to reducing his carbon footprint, perhaps; or is he just a man obsessed with bikes and landscaping for self-satisfying reasons?!Never mind that dramatic introduction. I am really excited for a few reasons today: I bought a new bike and finally planted the Norway spruce that C's parents gave us for Christmas. Now, on to explanations.
The bike! You might have been asking yourself "Didn't David just buy a bike, hardly longer than a month ago? Wasn't he so proud that he posted pictures of it on his blog? Is he that capricious and insatiable? The answers to those questions are: yes, yes, and sometimes! It turns out that the Schwinn Probe single speed I bought at Third Hand Bike Co-op, was just not as perfect as the image I had constructed in my head in the minutes when I was inspecting the bike. I will admit, it was an impulse buy fueled by my desire to commute with a road bike, get "in" at the Co-op, and be seen cranking one gear only. After a few weeks of riding, I decided the entire bike was a little small for me and made funny noises and realized I would have gladly spent a little more money for a better bike that suited my needs. Without further ado, I posted some flicks on
I've been gathering inspiration from the
April 14, 2008
A note about [healthy] obsessions
If you haven't talked to me in the past few weeks or haven't checked out the History on my internet browser you might not know that I've been cultivating a growing obsession with road bikes. I know this because C is starting to poke fun of my incessant mental clogging of thoughts about bikes, buying bikes, building bikes, riding bikes, and visiting the bike co-op.
I've been developing a theory about the importance of minor obsessions: if you want to get good at doing or knowing something, you should get obsessed with it. When I was in junior high I became obsessed, to the max, with skateboarding. Now, I don't mean to suggest that I am or ever was good at skating, but let's admit, I got pretty not-bad. I wanted to read every magazine until its pages were falling out; I wanted to watch every video until every trick was memorized. I wanted to embody the sport by wearing the shirts of skateboard companies and dress like my favorite professional skateboarders. I drew logos of those companies from memory on my school notebooks and the soles of my shoes. I skated every day, snow or shine, and took afternoon naps on the half-pipe in my backyard. My mantra was "Skate or die."
In high school, I developed an obsession with "punk" music. It was important to me to seek out and listen to all bands that were ever cited as influential in punk rock history. (Fortunately, I should note, skateboarding and punk rock were assumed to go hand-in-hand, so that relationship continued.) I wanted to get involved in the core punk scene in Cincinnati, know the "anybody who's anybody," and get known. I wanted to be be hip to all the obscure bands found on the patch of every punk kid's jean jacket. Maybe I got near the top of the scene... I was in a couple of bands and knew a lot of really good and generous kids in a few different cities across a couple state's boundaries. Maybe this example isn't as illustrative of my point as the skateboarding one...
My point is, it was really the obsession that kept my devotion, fueled my determination, and resulted in my self-defined success. So, whatever it is you hope to learn or get involved with: get obsessed with it.
I hope C is mostly supportive of my latest craze. I think she is. I'm trying to keep it curbed, realizing that I have more important priorities to give attention to: like my beautiful wife and my adorable puppy. Still, how cool is it to have a really nice hipster bike that would command the envy of hipsters everywhere??? Seriously.
I've been developing a theory about the importance of minor obsessions: if you want to get good at doing or knowing something, you should get obsessed with it. When I was in junior high I became obsessed, to the max, with skateboarding. Now, I don't mean to suggest that I am or ever was good at skating, but let's admit, I got pretty not-bad. I wanted to read every magazine until its pages were falling out; I wanted to watch every video until every trick was memorized. I wanted to embody the sport by wearing the shirts of skateboard companies and dress like my favorite professional skateboarders. I drew logos of those companies from memory on my school notebooks and the soles of my shoes. I skated every day, snow or shine, and took afternoon naps on the half-pipe in my backyard. My mantra was "Skate or die."
In high school, I developed an obsession with "punk" music. It was important to me to seek out and listen to all bands that were ever cited as influential in punk rock history. (Fortunately, I should note, skateboarding and punk rock were assumed to go hand-in-hand, so that relationship continued.) I wanted to get involved in the core punk scene in Cincinnati, know the "anybody who's anybody," and get known. I wanted to be be hip to all the obscure bands found on the patch of every punk kid's jean jacket. Maybe I got near the top of the scene... I was in a couple of bands and knew a lot of really good and generous kids in a few different cities across a couple state's boundaries. Maybe this example isn't as illustrative of my point as the skateboarding one...
My point is, it was really the obsession that kept my devotion, fueled my determination, and resulted in my self-defined success. So, whatever it is you hope to learn or get involved with: get obsessed with it.
I hope C is mostly supportive of my latest craze. I think she is. I'm trying to keep it curbed, realizing that I have more important priorities to give attention to: like my beautiful wife and my adorable puppy. Still, how cool is it to have a really nice hipster bike that would command the envy of hipsters everywhere??? Seriously.
April 9, 2008
Run = done
Well, it's about time I write this overdue entry about the marathon. This past Sunday, C and I, together, finished the full Athens Marathon in just over 5 hours. Here's a photo of proof: 
C was pretty miserable throughout the last 21.2 miles, but I'm proud that she stuck with it and am impressed with how strong she finished. I'm glad I ran with her too: first, she was my inspiration to run; second, I was worried about her either being in too much pain to finish and/or not finishing and being disappointed with herself; and third, I had a stronger desire to run with C and share the experience with her and to act as a motivator for her than I did to find out my best finishing time. Overall, we finished 192nd and 193rd of 213 full-marathon runners.
My recovery has been better than I expected, although I must have twisted my ankle when I was hobbling around after the race, 'cause now it's killing me.
I think this is ridiculous, but I will admit, I kinda' want to run another one. But seriously, the training sucked. Rather, it sucked up all my time. But honestly, I don't think I've ever been as healthy as I've been during the past several months of running 4 days a week. I hope I will keep running, often, and with some long runs every now and again.
--
In other news, Spring has sprung in all its conspicuousness around our home. The big shrubby tree is flowering beautiful white and good-smelling flowers. Small bulbs have busted out of the ground and flowers have appeared there too. For as much as I like plants, I really don't know anything about ornamentals. Alden is really digging this weather too, and it's fun to lay in the grass with him on these sunny afternoons. I've transplanted some strawberries to a pot and the tomatoes in the basement are really pushing for a bigger container. Now that the race is over my mind is turning to road bikes and skateboards. I really hope to build a good road bike, up from a frame I recently acquired. Stay tuned for that project...
C was pretty miserable throughout the last 21.2 miles, but I'm proud that she stuck with it and am impressed with how strong she finished. I'm glad I ran with her too: first, she was my inspiration to run; second, I was worried about her either being in too much pain to finish and/or not finishing and being disappointed with herself; and third, I had a stronger desire to run with C and share the experience with her and to act as a motivator for her than I did to find out my best finishing time. Overall, we finished 192nd and 193rd of 213 full-marathon runners.My recovery has been better than I expected, although I must have twisted my ankle when I was hobbling around after the race, 'cause now it's killing me.
I think this is ridiculous, but I will admit, I kinda' want to run another one. But seriously, the training sucked. Rather, it sucked up all my time. But honestly, I don't think I've ever been as healthy as I've been during the past several months of running 4 days a week. I hope I will keep running, often, and with some long runs every now and again.
--
In other news, Spring has sprung in all its conspicuousness around our home. The big shrubby tree is flowering beautiful white and good-smelling flowers. Small bulbs have busted out of the ground and flowers have appeared there too. For as much as I like plants, I really don't know anything about ornamentals. Alden is really digging this weather too, and it's fun to lay in the grass with him on these sunny afternoons. I've transplanted some strawberries to a pot and the tomatoes in the basement are really pushing for a bigger container. Now that the race is over my mind is turning to road bikes and skateboards. I really hope to build a good road bike, up from a frame I recently acquired. Stay tuned for that project...
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