2006.02.20 1327
* rode down to malmö to see MadeOutOfBabies. it was super. not
a whole lot of people there but i had a great time.
* i dont know exactly how far it was (probably 10-15km each way), but the lund-malmö-lund ride is pretty flat and entirely on
huge, smooth, completely lit bikepaths. it was well after dark when i headed out, but no bike light needed, just sailing across the fields
in the night, dodging bunnies and watching owls fly along the path next to me.
* one more experiment tonight (fingers crossed, etc etc) and then it's trying to tie up loose ends by the end of the week.
* the Tour of California has started. Velonews has a
great story about the prologue in SF.
* i love my fixed gear bike. it feels great on the flats and in a couple months i'll be strong enough to put it to work crushing
some of the rolling hills of the willamette valley.
2006.02.12 1808 i've only got 2 more weeks here and it's been clear for 2 days so i took another quick bike ride, this
time to the town of Dalby, about 10km away. Dalby is the home of scandinavia's oldest stone church- i stopped in and took some
pictures. on the way back the sun peaked out from underneath the thin clouds and lit up the fields. i want to come back here in
the summer and ride to the arctic circle or something. the bike (with it's newly redished wheel) felt super and i know that when i
get back to OR im going to have to be real careful not to jump my mileage up too quickly. ride photos and
some older stuff
2005.02.05 just got back from copenhagen, spending an afternoon watching some of the
Copenhagen 6-day!(in danish) The velodrome (aka
Ballerup Super Arena)(also danish) has a
250m track with amazingly steep banking on the ends. the pros didnt start racing for a couple hours after i got there, but there
were junior and kids races to watch in the meantime. i'll put some pictures together soon... including some blurry pictures of
the derny races.
2005.01.24 2318 oh boy! i put on my new chainring and sprocket and things are much, much better. it turns out that
Stronglight has a bit of a reputation for bad quality-control on the concentrickery of the bolt-circle and the chainring itself. in
other words, the chainring was off-center. im trying to figure out a simple way to measure this and i may post some nerdiness about
it soon. anyway, the new one is much better.
so i'll go ride in the snow and do battle with these crazy swedes on their 4-season cruiser rustbuckets. plus i promise
a pastry update as soon as i am somehow simultaneously less busy and less lazy.
2005.01.23 1213 so my plans to go see
SuburbanKidsWithBiblicalNames
were spoiled by snowstorms and subsequent train
and bus cancellations here in Skåne. instead, however, i went to the opening for an exhibition here from
AKAD focusing on a few interesting architectural research projects.
(or is that research architecture?) pedantic semantic confabulations abounded in the panel discussion on saturday, but i could only
deal with it for about 1.5 hours. delightful.
oh and it's official- im staying until Feb27.
2005.01.17 2051 so here's some news: i may be staying here in sweden until the end of february. still a bit up in the
air, but the general idea is to get some experiments taken care of before i go back. no bike parts yet. plants, beer and tourist
activities in copenhagen last weekend with L-H. also, the danes have something called "breakfast chocolate". some photos from the weekend.
2006.01.12 1133 uhh... i havent gotten hit by a volvo yet, mostly because i havent been riding my bike- im into crunch-time
here at work. im going to go to copenhagen again this weekend but that may well be my last bit of free time here. i also ordered
some new bike parts- a new 47-tooth chainring and some sweet miche cogs- an adaptor threads on to the usual spot and then the splined
cog slides on to the adaptor. the whole thing is held on by the usual lockring.
business cycles has some nice pictures.
2006.01.07 1835 bike: i just lowered the chain tension to reduce the symptoms of my cattywhompus chainring/crank. it
sounds tolerable now and i think it will be safe enough to get me up to speeds where my chain falling off could mean a hospital
trip. perfect. anyway, here it is
2006.01.02 2250 on the bike front- i think my crank and chainring are warped or off-axis somehow. not sure
how it happened, i dont think it's workable as it is- there's too much eccentricity and lateral movement of the chainring to get
a smooth rotation.
2006.01.02 1011 im registered for (the 2 day version of)
the 2006 Seattle-Portland ride. are you?
2005.12.31 1617 just one quick thing before heading off to jb's Commonwealth newyears gathering. here are some new swedish words. i cant speak swedish very well, but if
they keep this up ill do fine. happy new year to you when midnight comes around.
2005.12.28 2116 im back in lund after a super couple days in Göteborg with Emily, Hans, Madeline and Matt- we had
great food (including some pickled herring, a turbot cooked in salt and some crazy-delicious stew that hans made) and interesting
drinks (snapps/aquavit is basically flavored vodka- varieties abound and h+m have quite a stock... also some christmas
beers). also trips with matt to the Universeum and
the greenhouses at the botanical gardens.
check out some of my pictures.
2005.12.23 2308 bike update!
2005.12.23 1047 i got my bike! well, mostly. i put the old pedals and stem/handlebar back on so i could go for a ride last
night. more details and pictures soon. jens did a pretty nice job on the wheels, including polishing up the wide-flange campy front
hub he found me. it's gonna be great. hopefully i can pick up some old mtb pedals in GBG next week.
2005.12.21 1440 today is the shortest day of the year and here in Lund that means 7 hours between sunrise and sunset.
happy solstice to everybody. one thing that's neat is that a full moon in winter traces the same path as the sun in the summer-
something very apparent here when the moon rises in a completely different part of the sky than the sun.
2005.12.20 1943 apple thinks it's great, i think it's sad and creepy.
this guy is too busy to watch TV and the
new iPod really makes his day- and prevents him from having pesky conversations on the bus. (NYtimes article via Apple's webpage..)
2005.12.17 1745 darn that left-wing media bias- it's so bad that it forces fine upstanding citizens like Jack Abramoff to
pay writers to get the truth out about his clients! even
yahoo reported it.
in other news, a swedish woman takes on muhammad ali's daughter in boxing tonight- it's on the undercard of John Ruiz's title
defence. ruiz may have a tough time using his annoying hugging techinque against the seven-foot monster Valuev. oh and pro
boxing is illegal in sweden. some legislators have their sights on kickboxing and MMA as well.
2005.12.16 21.26 for the zero of you interested- one step closer to lloyd dobler's prediction coming true: kickboxing and MMA events are
going to be regulated by the California State Athletic Commission. there's lots of info
here in the form of pdfs of the legislation and such... Sport
of the Future! also related: recently the House voted against forming a national boxing commision, something that would appear to
improve safety for fighters but that was actually fought against by various state athletic commissions for 'introducing red tape'. im not sure what the story is.
2005.12.15 1812 whew- 830 to 530 at the Lund Solidstate Physics Christmas Symposium. talks were decent, maybe a bit rushed
but overall a very good view of what goes on here. im impressed by the cohesiveness of the research over a wide range of topics.
grad students here work on what we would consider more than one project- they're often involved in some aspect of other students'
research and yet seem to get done in less time than we do... one thing is that their coursework is much more specific to their
research starting earlier.
we also saw a lecture by one of this year's
nobel prize winners Roy Glauber, which was pretty great- a chronologically driven summary of photon coherence and such. it was
also interrupted by a fire alarm. people couldnt believe that a nobel laureate's lecture could possibly be interrupted by such
a triviality and left the building at a pace that would have made many American schoolteachers cry.
also of great importance: we had a big traditional swedish christmas lunch! i took some pictures... they're
here. lutefisk was really not that bad- especially compared to some salmon that was sadly putrified into gravlaks... my plate
of appetizers (read: cured fish and meat) didn't really serve its function, but i still did damage to some meatballs and whatnot.
2005.12.14 2315 hmph. i knew going to harvard was worth something- a crew of 3 harvard physics folks showed up today
and through the prestige associated with their school managed to find out about the local wireless network. probably by asking.
anyway, i now have a decent connection in my humble abode here- call me via skyp whenever! email me if you want my
screenname or just look it up. somehow this makes up for me not being able to do laundry for the past week... ugh.
2005.12.12 1118 just got a price estimate for my wheels (rear hub i brought from PDX, front hub is an old wide-flange campy
hub that Jens had laying around) some plain-jane (but nice?) new Mavic MA 3 rims and 6Kr/spoke (!?)... basically we're talking about wheels
costing about $200 for the set plus the $60 i paid for the rear hub. in terms of bike parts it's not so bad, i guess, but in terms
of total dollars for this project, things aren't looking so good. jens says he's got a timetrial bar i can get from him, which would
be sweet and hopefully he'll take pity on me and give it to me for cheap... anyway, i could have a complete bike by sometime
next week.
2005.12.10 1841 another pleasant saturday doing next to nothing- it turns out that there was no BJJ class because
everybody (except the 2 other guys out of the loop) was down at a MMA/Thai Boxing event in Malmö so i missed class and a chance
to watch some competition. instead i spent my day and dollars on this spread. also in there are some
PDX food photos, including Best Burger In Oregon and Most Amazing Shushi Place Ever.
maybe i'll start a scotch page to go with the pastry one... (yes, nerdy, i know). and also, check out Laphroaig's
fan club.
it's like Cabinet selling off their magazine-sized plots of
property in their independent nation of Cabinetlandia...(landlocked somewhere in Nevada, i think).
and, by request: what they sell at the christmas market in Lund. that's right- just when i was giving the
impression that sweden was civilized, the truth comes out.
2005.12.08 16:12 CET im back in sweden! no dastardly delays or tiresome train malfunctions this time around.
in fact, im already at work checking up on stuff and trying to make sure i dont waste the rest of the week. ryan and ali's wedding was
great and my frantic days in portland were a lot of fun.
2005.12.03 1001pst ryan gets married today! i'm going to put some photos of the wedding up
(have to take them first). unrelated: NEW BIKE PARTS!.
2005.12.01 1730PST back in the nonspecific northwest! having a super time in portland despite a pretty shitty day of
travel to get here. travails will be detailed soon if im bored. but at the moment, too much fun running around with groom-to-be
ryan shannon, receiving superduper birthday presents and planning various gift exchanges. fantastic.
2005.11.27 1401 uh oh... a new pastry has entered the arena of gladiating goodies. i dont have pictures
yet because once i tasted it, there was no way i could wait until i had my camera before finishing.
saffron cardamon pastry. not too sweet but a great balance of flavors and a lovely softness.
another thing missed by my camera: the christmas market. most of it was terrible- eminem flags, knockoff soccer jerseys, etc. but
there was an oompah band playing christmas songs and a lots of kids in snowsuits.
i think it will continue on the weekends until christmas and really, it can only get better.
2005.11.26 2040 ok folks, the moment you've all been waiting for:
The Bike Saga Begins!
2005.11.25 1604 snow! it looks like it's sticking, but hard to tell because it's already almost totally dark at 4pm. had
a great night out in Copenhagen with some physics lads. danish bike culture is amazing, christmas beers are good and it's nice to
finally hang out with some people outside of the work environment.
2005.11.24 1238 this is big news, people: i got a bike. im doing some more frantic web research to get the full backstory
so i can put up the whole story. current hypothesis: 70s raleigh that was once lovingly cared for, then over the years it was hung
with a variety of decent parts before it sat (outside?) for a few years. big question: will the bottom case hold a new bottom bracket? who knows? more soon.
oh yeah, happy thanksgiving!
2005.11.23 906 so i recently got Skype, which is like a car-phone
on the information superhighway. or like a cellphone for a spider on the world-wide web. the point is
free computer-to-computer calls. (including Mac-to-PC, which is hard to find)
my id is 'nonabelian' so you should reach out and touch someone.
me.
but on the phone.
the internet phone.
2005.11.22 1709 and in baseball news NOT already mentioned by tim
: Dave Niehaus is up for nomination for the Frick Award-
go vote for him!
2005.11.19 1745 one more round of photos of yummy stuff here. also, spoke to some locals
about the suit-sizing business. they say it's typical that store-people just can't be bothered with what americans would generally
expect as regular service.
2005.11.17 1502 so today is the first time here i've felt any kind of pressure or discomfort (at least partially)
for being a foreigner in Sweden. today at lunch i went in to town to get measurements for a tux that i'm to wear at Ryan and Ali's
wedding- no dice. now it's true that i, as a Gentleman or whatever, should know all the relevant dimensions for renting a tux, but
i dont. where do people learn those things? evidently not from the men's store that i went to that had a wide selection of
good-quality suits, shirt and pants. and definitely not from the tailor that i went to where the woman stood there and told me with
a straight face that they couldn't do it while we're both standing 4 feet away from a bunch of tape measures...
anyway, there were numerous verbal miscommunications and plus maybe they wrote me off because i look a bit scruffy, but it would
have been a very different story if i spoke Swedish.
of course all of this is incredibly trite as far as 'problems for foreigners' go...
2005.11.17 909 frost here last night! soon there will be santaclauses running around, 5 feet of snow and polar bears.
2005.11.14 1406 bad news on the bike front- the frame that was to be made into a fixedgear is no more. jens' other
option: an 'intermac' (intermec?) timetrial frame from the late 80s. he's supposed to bring it in so i can check it out
(just like the other frame...) offhand i would guess that it wouldn't be a good bike for turning into a fixed gear. it's made for a
26" front wheel and last was run with a disc wheel in back and tubular rims... idunno... i cant find any information on the
frame. it's possible that it was some kind of custom or something made for a race team sponsored by intermac (which is an italian
stone and glass company). it has eliptical tubing and the clearances might be too tight to run anything except real small tires-
both things im not too excited about.
hopefully things will work out one way or another.
2005.11.10 659 so im on the mighty X2000 train on the way back to Lund from Göteborg. how was it?
* hans and madeline have a sweet apartment in a neighborhood that features
Bengans record store and (according to hans)
the best bakery in all of sweden.
* just down the street is Anders' bikeshop (all in swedish- sorry), which is an old-school/vintage/kickass bike shop run
sortof as a hobby by Anders, a nice enough guy who was wearing a brooks wool jersey when we came into the shop. the place is only
open 3 evenings a week, but had some pretty sweet stuff (carradice bags, all things brooks, christiania bikes, pedersen cycles, etc etc) . including this.
* the Architecture in Helsinki show was a little odd- the venue was a smaller chamber of the Gotham-borg concert hall, so all plush
seats and such. however, this (and swedish social control) meant that everyone sat nearly motionless for the entire evening and
clapped politely at the end of each song. (and when songs were introduced, which was doubly weird). MORE IMPORTANTLY: the set
was pretty great and the company was enjoyable: mr matt nowlin accompanied hans and i, so the three of us could reminisce about our alma mater and discuss various erudite topics.
*turns out the bread from that bakery is pretty good- i had some for breakfast. here are the only other
pictures i took- i left my camera at hans+madeline's apartment before we went out, so no photos of the show, matt, madeline, the bike
shop, etc- sorry.
2005.11.06 2142 a couple things, both food-related:
* i have discovered a Better Sockerbulle. here's the entry in the Lund Baked Goods page.
* i had a hard time keeping a straight face when i saw this icecream in the grocery store. ok, so i couldnt keep a straight face and had a hard time not laughing my ass off. then i bought it, of course. you need to look at that link- if
for no other reason than it took me a while to do.
2005.11.05 1854 here's something to think about for you folks waking up on the west coast: some
more pastries, suckers!. also, a some more plant pictures and a picture
from my trip to Malmö
2005.10.31 1842 here's something to think about for you folks waking up on the west coast: some
pastries, suckers!.
hopefully i'll be able to keep that page updated- im mildly committed to it as evidenced by the semipermanent link on the left hand column...
2005.10.31 1335 dwilson's book hits the shelves! go see him at one of his book readings/talks/whatever. also, the robot uprising site is looking awesome.
2005.10.31 856 so this shit has just been sitting on my computer all weekend, but it's about to hit the surface streets near the interstate of information. two quick images first: a poster i bought from a bookstore in Lund. it was printed in the DDR, used at a school up north of here and is totally tubular. really. it rolls up onto this cool hanger thing and is totally self-contained.
this this is a picture of the cephalotus plants at the botanical garden, mostly for phg and mk.
2005.10.30 2037 i was looking through some of my recent photos, being overall quite satisfied with the detail
and resolution and such. in doing so, i noticed this. i've walked past them at least 5 times-
i love the pastries there, but damn...
2005.10.29 14:58 what's on tv in sweden on a saturday afternoon? (i know it's the question everyone's asking.) the Eurovision song contest. including some 'highlights' of the past 50 years of fabulous costumes, inspired dancing and that special type of song that can only come out of european popular music.
2005.10.27 1026 just a headsup about upcoming shows for all you musically-inclined readers in southeastern sweden:
* a scandanavian version of Ladyfest is going to be in
Lund soon- i'll sure as hell go see The Gossip even though im not a lady.
* i thought it was babu, but it's not, its Guru, suckers- his only swedish concert- i will also be attending the hell out of this show.
* i know i've mentioned it before, but looming on the temporal horizon is the musical event of the month, season, whatever: Architecture in Helsinki doing their delightful 8 piece thing here in november.
i tried another bakery this morning- the cappucino was burnt, sandwich was good and they have some nice looking pastries. i also tracked down the TunaConditori- it's right across the street from my apartment... i'll try their stuff maybe tomorrow or next week.
this weekend:
im going to go check out the scandanavian open
brazilian jujitsu tournament in malmo on sunday. the locals from brasa will be there, some competing. should be good stuff and a fun first trip to Another Town.
2005.10.26 922 where did i get that delicious apple maringue? at ramklint's! they dont have any pictures of it, unfortunately. ive been going there for coffee and a sandwich in the morning because all the cool-kid cafes dont open at least till 9. i checked out the bakery case this morning and it's got scores of delicious-looking pastries. i'll get some pictures up in here before too long. not that i'll be the first- this japanese person that lives here is fastidius in documentation. maybe some day i will learn from the master. WARNING: page (even the translation that ive linked to) includes sound that you may find annoying, delightful, embarassing
or enthralling
2005.10.24 1040 went to a nice brazilian jujitsu school on sunday- i'll probably try to get there twice a week for classes.
regular jujitsu classes, a fixed-gear bike and frequent trips to the greenhouse in the botanical garden will all be key to wintertime survival.
2005.10.23 1714 so while i was out i succumbed to all the tempting signage
and got some apple maringue with vanilla cream
sauce at one of the (at least) 5 or so bakeries/cafes that have it advertised. if i could figure out how to make umlauts, i'd try to spell it in swedish, but it seems to be beyond me at the moment. anyway, im a complete idiot for not taking pictures of it, but here's what i wrote at the time:
i'll tell you what's great: apple maringe and vanilla sauce. the apples in the filling are fresh but finely diced and layered between two sheets of light sponge cake. the maringue is as light as can be and dusted with fine sugar (not powdered but finer than US white sugar). somehow the vanilla sauce's cool and rich creaminess is still a pleasant contrast to the incredible sweetness of the cake- it's a good thing i got a cappuncino to go with it because otherwise i may have suffered an overdose of The Sweet. so even though it's fairly complicated in construction, the feeling from it is one of simplicity- there's a balance between the clean apple taste and the supercreamy vanilla sauce all wrapped up in a very sweet but light-textured package. i'd try them all over town if i wanted to die by sugar poisoning.
2005.10.23 1622 i started up a flickr account. here's a little slideshow from my walk around town. and here are some images of carnivorous plants from the greenhouse at the botanical gardens. view and spew, preston, because these pictures are sick. the greenhouse is not impressive in its size but the collection is amazing. while not competing in terms of scale, the density of plants, their condition, variety of species and climates and the attention to detail in constructing exhibits may be on par with Kew Gardens in London or the Palmengarten in Frankfurt.
2005.10.21 2216 trying to get texshop and some other assorted crap installed but i only have a borrowed wireless connection so it's a bit tough. rain started tonight but i managed to run downtown for a kebab while it was still sunny and breezy. the city center is nice, what with all the shops, a 7-11, an art museum and a big market (more details when i have time to look around) all on cobblestone streets and only a few cars.
2005.10.21 1120 ok so i have "archived" all previous entries using very sophisticated means (i.e. renaming the file), ushering my blog into The Swedish Phase. very exciting. jt suggested i get a bike- if i do, it'll be a fixie because riding tsal's in Ballard last weekend was a lot of fun. also, this way i can combine learning how to ride a fixed gear with not knowing the traffic laws and bike mores of a foreign country. track skids and spoke cards, here i come!