robotech_master (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
robotech_master) wrote2008-01-28 05:29 am
robotech_master) wrote2008-01-28 05:29 am
Fogliosity & Scooteralia
Well, I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep (yay me) so I've been doing a little web browsing before going to give it another shot.
My Phil Foglio interview came off yesterday and went pretty well; it went to an hour and a half and is available in two parts from The Biblio File. My prospective next guest won't be as interesting to as many people, but will be interesting to me: Lawrence Rowe, author of the book Tempus Fugit. It was an interesting book, an attempt to answer the question "what would the Founding Fathers think of modern life," though it does have a few flaws. The sequel will hopefully be out soon (if it isn't already, I haven't checked). I'll interview him about the writing process, his decision to self-publish, and perhaps ask him what the Founding Fathers might think of the current Presidential primary season.
Also yesterday, my Mom and Dad came up on a whirlwind visit. My Dad carpentered up a ramp to let me get my new scooter up and down the stairs and into my apartment overnight, while my Mom bemoaned the state of my apartment and did some of my dishes. It's a really great ramp, made of treated lumber; it even has an eyelet in it and a chain screwed into the wood beneath my door to hold it in place, just in case the weight of the scooter would push the ramp off when rolling it down. It's a great answer to the problem of getting the scooter indoors, and works a lot better than the table leaf I'd been using as a stopgap.
Dad also brought a length of heavy 3/8" chain and a good tough padlock, which between them add about ten pounds to the weight of my bike and probably take a couple of miles per hour off the top speed. I probably could just have gone with a cable lock, given that what really resulted in my bike getting stolen was not so much the lock as it was leaving it in the open over a long holiday weekend, and I won't be leaving my bike outdoors overnight anymore anyway. But at this point I'm a little paranoid, and I couldn't find a cable lock as tough as I wanted in the local stores, so it's better to be safe than sorry.
I promised to talk more about my new scooter, didn't I? Well, it's a yellow 2002 CPI Moskito MZ, and it had just a hair below 600 kilometers on it when I got it (when I got to the gas station and filled it up, it was reading 600 even). I paid $600 for it (well, OK, my Mom and Dad paid the $600, but I handed it over), plus $65 for a new battery, and it was such a steal at that price I almost feel guilty for not forcing the lady to take another hundred dollars or so over what she was asking. She probably could have gotten a grand for it easily; the mechanic at the shop said that they'd probably have asked $1500 for a bike in that condition. The shop would only have paid her $600 for it, so she figured it was better to sell it directly to someone for that price than to let the shop take a markup.
It's an excellent bike in all respects. It has some features that my old one didn't have, like a smoother, more reliable kick starter (which uses an internal spring instead of direct gearing so I just have to push it down and hold it for a second or two), and a turn signal that actually makes a noise while it's on so you don't forget about it and go for miles with the signal blinking. And you literally can't get bikes like that in the US anymore; the shop owner said he wished he could get more like it but they no longer import them over here. The only problem is that it's still factory-restricted to 30 miles per hour, but the scooter shop mechanic promised to look into that for me. I can live with it locked to 30 for a day or so, it's better than taking the bus.
My Phil Foglio interview came off yesterday and went pretty well; it went to an hour and a half and is available in two parts from The Biblio File. My prospective next guest won't be as interesting to as many people, but will be interesting to me: Lawrence Rowe, author of the book Tempus Fugit. It was an interesting book, an attempt to answer the question "what would the Founding Fathers think of modern life," though it does have a few flaws. The sequel will hopefully be out soon (if it isn't already, I haven't checked). I'll interview him about the writing process, his decision to self-publish, and perhaps ask him what the Founding Fathers might think of the current Presidential primary season.
Also yesterday, my Mom and Dad came up on a whirlwind visit. My Dad carpentered up a ramp to let me get my new scooter up and down the stairs and into my apartment overnight, while my Mom bemoaned the state of my apartment and did some of my dishes. It's a really great ramp, made of treated lumber; it even has an eyelet in it and a chain screwed into the wood beneath my door to hold it in place, just in case the weight of the scooter would push the ramp off when rolling it down. It's a great answer to the problem of getting the scooter indoors, and works a lot better than the table leaf I'd been using as a stopgap.
Dad also brought a length of heavy 3/8" chain and a good tough padlock, which between them add about ten pounds to the weight of my bike and probably take a couple of miles per hour off the top speed. I probably could just have gone with a cable lock, given that what really resulted in my bike getting stolen was not so much the lock as it was leaving it in the open over a long holiday weekend, and I won't be leaving my bike outdoors overnight anymore anyway. But at this point I'm a little paranoid, and I couldn't find a cable lock as tough as I wanted in the local stores, so it's better to be safe than sorry.
I promised to talk more about my new scooter, didn't I? Well, it's a yellow 2002 CPI Moskito MZ, and it had just a hair below 600 kilometers on it when I got it (when I got to the gas station and filled it up, it was reading 600 even). I paid $600 for it (well, OK, my Mom and Dad paid the $600, but I handed it over), plus $65 for a new battery, and it was such a steal at that price I almost feel guilty for not forcing the lady to take another hundred dollars or so over what she was asking. She probably could have gotten a grand for it easily; the mechanic at the shop said that they'd probably have asked $1500 for a bike in that condition. The shop would only have paid her $600 for it, so she figured it was better to sell it directly to someone for that price than to let the shop take a markup.
It's an excellent bike in all respects. It has some features that my old one didn't have, like a smoother, more reliable kick starter (which uses an internal spring instead of direct gearing so I just have to push it down and hold it for a second or two), and a turn signal that actually makes a noise while it's on so you don't forget about it and go for miles with the signal blinking. And you literally can't get bikes like that in the US anymore; the shop owner said he wished he could get more like it but they no longer import them over here. The only problem is that it's still factory-restricted to 30 miles per hour, but the scooter shop mechanic promised to look into that for me. I can live with it locked to 30 for a day or so, it's better than taking the bus.
no subject
This sorta thing is more a problem when people build decks out of pressure-treated lumber; it'll collapse in about 5~10 years unless you use special screws.