Back at the beginning of this blog’s existence I wrote some about Barry Schwarz’s book The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. Recently I’ve thought that maybe he should have written a bit more about when more is less. He does devote some space to the subject of how meaningless some of our choices […]
Category Archives: Personal
Judging Reader
There’s been some kerfuffle around lately after an NYT article on “literary deal-breakers” — that is, what books, or lack of, would make you run away from a date or relationship? Two of the websites I read have a thread devoted to this. Some of the conversation has inspired interesting thoughts about people’s attitude to […]
The baby goes to work
Today was the first ‘true’ test-ride for Meg, to work and back (19.5 mi round-trip). I’m feeling pretty comfortable about this being the bike that I ride most of the time for the next 5+ years, but I’m positive now that I need to change the handlebars and I think I may need to change […]
The positive side
I’ve written a lot of posts, over time, about the most negative parts of cycling — altercations with motorists and poor design or condition of road facilities. But thankfully there are mornings like the one last week when I got off the train in Sunnyvale, walked my bike off the main part of the platform, […]
Test ride: sequential comparison
Today I decided that I wanted to ride Meg (the Terry Madeleine) and Maia (my LeMond Alpe d’Huez) right in sequence to do a closer comparison, because after a few more (utilitarian) rides on Meg, I wondered if maybe I was too stretched out actually. The utilitarian rides were interesting because they were rides I […]
Glorious bike day
Today is a glorious bike day for two reasons. One, it’s the first time I’ve been on a bike in a week and a half, due to my flu. I’m still coughing, but I’m feeling pretty decent otherwise, so I decided that I was ready. I managed to ride two miles at a decent clip […]
E-bills
For a long time I was reluctant to switch my bills and statements to electronic, because I like to get the bills in the mail and have a physical record of them, and leave them sitting until I pay them so I don’t forget. But I got really tired of all the junk they send […]
Unusually for an X, he was also a Y
While re-reading The Right Attitude to Rain, I came across several quotations I thought about memorializing in my Facebook profile, including this one: How many people in the United States believed that they had been abducted by aliens? It was a depressingly large number. And the aliens always gave them back! Perhaps they were abducting […]
Finally, some decent news on wiretapping
House Democrats have some vertebrae left in their spine, at least, having refused to rubber-stamp telecom immunity. Good for them, even if the whole issue of warrantless wiretapping in general is still a mess. If you’re less lazy than me, you could write to your House rep congratulating or reproving them, but I’m going to […]
Cough medicine
I don’t remember if my parents ever gave me cough medicine as a kid (they probably did) and it’s been a while since I was sick enough to need it, but let me tell you, I had no idea dextromethorphan was such a freakin’ miracle drug. I slept (if a bit restlessly) all through last […]