July 25, 2004
Tractor Pull at the Sewage Pits
Went out on a long reconnaisance ride through some parts of Singapore we just discovered. During the ride I found a very tidy looking trail leading northwest. While all day we'd been riding on over-grown macadam, eroded washes, and jungle duff, this looked like a trail of bermuda grass that was even mowed. Figuring it a small pipeline access to somewhere good, I headed off.
The first bit was wet, but I churned through it without too much trouble, trying to keep my feet in the pedals. It was soon OK because the path dried out again.
That was false security however because a moment later I'm up nearly to my wheel hubs in absolutely fetid mud, spinning at 100rpm and moving 1mph. The wheels were spinning up an absolutely repellennt anaerobic black sludge. It was indifferentiable from plain old sewage. It was sewage for all intents and purposes. So now I'm shin deep in sewage and stalled out. My friend is howling with laughter behind me (he bailed when he saw my problems).
I can't describe how sickening it is to be covered in sun-baked sewage mud for the remaining two hours of our ride. Along the way I saw a tiny 1m diameter mud puddle. I vainly tried to drive back and forth through it to rinse the sewage from my tires and drive train but it was totally fruitless.
It didn't make it any better that I had to stow away my camelback tit because sewage was being sprayed onto it from the wheels. ugh. I've had two Dettol (Asian Lysol) showers this afternoon in an effort to rinse away the leptospirosis and flesh-eating bacteria.
Verdict: Gross
Hilarious line in this week's Economist
[referring to the Greek expertise in managing and trading oil tankers and bulk commodity shipping fleets] "That in in sharp contrast to certain other perennial investors in shipping: on the waterfront of Piraeus, where owners and their agents mingle, they say that, while God gave the Saudi Arabians oil, he fortunately gave the Greeks the Norwegians."
July 21, 2004
Japanese Etiquette Question
After enough years in Asia I have a basic knowledge of manners and customs that saves me from making really serious gaffes when I meet Chinese or Japanese.
Ironically, discussion of Japan's strange customs is so commonplace now that everyone does actually know most of the arcane rules of Japanese culture... don't pour soy sauce on white rice, only pour drinks for other people, not yourself, and that you don't sit until Mr. Big sits, etc. etc. etc.
Even if you don't, there are a thousand sources of information on Japanese etiquette. You can read a two page summary and be safe in twenty minutes.
Alas, I've finally found myself in a situation where none of my Japanese manner guides explain what to do:
- You and your wife volunteer to 'hamster sit' a Japanese family's hamster while Mom, 7 yo daughter, and 3 yo son go back to Tokyo for summer holidays. While they're gone, 'Dori' the hamster becomes very stiff and her pulse becomes very low (as in zero beats per minute low).
So what's the right etiquette in this situation?
Danny Gregory: Everyday Matters
Illustrator Danny Gregory's blog, Everyday Matters, should receive a lot more recognition than it apparently gets.
Most blogs are a farrago of tedious screeds, the banal, and indirections to someone else's article.
Illustrator Danny Gregory smashes that stereotype with his own blog, Everyday Matters. Several times a week he posts a brilliant ink and watercolor sketch from his journals. Lately he's posted side-splitting "My Summer Jobs" anecdotes as well.
July 11, 2004
July 10, 2004
Finally... a picture of our dog, Mona
This is Mona, the six month old puppy we saved from the pound. She is very timid, but with the help of our highly-regarded dog trainer, Shiloh, she is getting better every day.
Also, I realized that Tien-Ling's digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 2500, a little point-and-shoot, actually has a serviceable macro mode. Damn, there have been so many times I wanted my (currently lost) Exilim to be able to take a macro shot. All the while this camera has been able to.
Seriously weird... Commando Groupies in Afghanistan
Americans held over 'fake prison'
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan authorities have arrested three American citizens accused of running a fake prison in Kabul, U.S. State Department and Afghan officials say.
The raid came after Afghan citizens reported their family members missing over the past several months.
At a news briefing Thursday, State Dept. spokesman Richard Boucher identified all three as American citizens, noting "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men."
Now it gets really weird. Last December I wrote a very complimentary review of a book called 'Task Force Dagger: The Hunt For Bin Laden." It followed the war against the Taliban as led by several small groups of Green Berets.
It's principal author was Robin Moore, but he had two other contributors, including J.K. Idema who "is a Green Beret who fought with the Northern Alliance for ten months in Afghanistan and had extensive experience with the British SAS in the 1970s and 80s."
You know what's coming next...
"At a news briefing Thursday, State Dept. spokesman Richard Boucher identified all three as American citizens, noting "the U.S. government does not employ or sponsor these men."
He identified two of the men as Jonathan Idema and Brent Bennett, but could not release the name of the third because he had not signed a Privacy Act waiver."
I think the chances of there being two J. Idemas in Afghanistan are very, very slight. So basically these guys are total freaks. There must be more to this story than is being reported,
Idema and his colleagues told Afghan authorities they were operating the prison because they wanted "to take part in the war on terror," the Afghan official said.
The Americans did not torture their prisoners, but did administer "some beatings," the official added.
Were they secret private torture consultants? Were they tacitly known by the US Military but then exceeded some threshold and had to be brought down? Are they just mentally ill sadists?
At any rate, this is some embarassing tarnish on the Special Operations groups in Afghanistan. I'll be very interested in how this story develops. Is it buried? Does it start to unravel into something more and more obscene? More banal? Maybe expose other privateer 'commandos' operating in Afghanistan, Iraq ? I'm sure everyone even tangentially related will be trying to distance themselves from this asap.
Followup, ok, I was right. This is the the same guy, J. K. Idema. He sounds like a freak, like guys who dress like cops and stop women at night. He had "suspects" in his house, beaten, and hanging by their ankles. Psycho.
July 04, 2004
Forty minutes left in the weekend
Random weekend events: Bikes, Dogs, Ants and Med School
Had a thuggish bike ride this evening. The guy I was riding with had just picked up his new Trek 8500 (cool bike -- very light with a brutal Fox Float front shock). Departed late, so halfway through the jungle we hit sundown. This was my first ride with my fully-charged set of Jet Lites. 31die brought them over from the USA for me. One is a 12w halogen light and the other a 20w. One is handlebar mounted on a slick machined clamp. The other is mounted to my helmt on a tearaway fitting. Since my friend had no light, I gave him my handlebar light and kept the helmet light. These things were insane -- they are truly night suns. The have a wide spread, but shoot deep. It's amazing how much better a helmet light is for riding fast, twisty singletrack. You can lead into the turns and see what's coming.
It was a fast ride. The only thing that slowed me down was some nasty creature that bit or stung my ass cheek. It must have had medical training because it stabbed me in the same place I last got a shot in my butt , except this has felt like a four-hour long injection and shows no abatement. The only change is that now it's pus-filled now and has an enormous red-ring around it, so I suppose it was some sort of ant bite. Ow. [Note to self: don't get bit by any more jungle ants]
I stopped by at Treknology today to discuss my shifting problems and my hypothesis. Allan is working there again and is very good to talk to. He agreed with my diagnosis and so this week they're going to redo the cable and housing. I'd try it but I don't have a proper cable cutter which is vital to a successful install. [Note to self: sort out tool kit]
This is the one week anniversary of our new dog. Yes, that's right, last Sunday we took a dog home from the SPCA. It's a female mongrel that we named Mona. When I'm feeling loving, I say she looks like a scrawny mix of a german shepherd and a labrador. When I'm not, I say she looks like the dog from the Simpsons. There was a lot of the not-loving going on this week. She is incredibly timid and only likes Ling.
It was looking like a terrible mistake until I got a reference to a top dog trainer in Singapore. $900 and six weeks later we are expecting to have a 80-90% of a normally functioning puppy. (It's 5.5 months old) She's showing just enough improvement to make this not hopelessly frustrating, but not enough to make this especially fun. We're giving her our best shot for six weeks and hope everything works out. When I find my missing digital camera I'll post a picture.
I guess not much else going on. Brian Cooper, any time now, should be finally graduating from his four-hundred year long medical school training and be officially beatifed as an Emergency Medicine Doctor. Congratulations Brian
Trek Liquid 20 transmission problems
Considering how expensive my Trek Liquid 20 was, I've never been happy with the accuracy of its shifting. The rear derailleur tends to pop and jump around, especially under load. I've taken it for serving a couple times and it seems ok, but sooner than later it's doing it again. I've tried adusting it myself, but as far as I can see, all the high/low limits are set properly. The mechanics at Treknology said full-suspension bikes tend to have this problem when they're flexing.
I went on a jungle ride Friday. We took along two bikes, my Liquid and an older Trek 6500 hardtail. The shifting was a dream on the 6500 while the Liquid shifting fucked up numerous times, and normally at critical junctures (a quick shift before taking on a little spurt uphill, etc). That was enough for me; something must be done.
Without looking very hard I found some excellent bicycle maintenance resource guides. Utah Mountain Biking has an excellent series of repair writeups that not only are well-written, detailed, and accurate, but also have accompanying photos. I spent an hour this evening reading a number of very literate, very knowledgable articles written by Sheldon Brown on these shifting problems.
First problem hypothesis: Dirty Cables, not misadjustment
The thing is, when I tune this myself, all the shifts work fine and accurately. It's only under hard use that things fail. So I actually think all the motion limits are set right, and the index tension is probably set at least close to right. Several sources agree, dirty cables add friction to the system and retard proper movement of the derailler.
How dirty could my cables be? Enormously dirty. The huge amount of mud and water I've punished that bike with have already destroyed a headset. It's a lot easier for cables and housings to suck in mud than the headset. In muddy conditions you're supposed to clean the cables once a month. I've never cleaned them ever.
Cleaning the rear derailleur cable
I disassembled the cabling and cleaned everything up with combinations of WD-40, a bowl of soapy water, and lots q-tips and blowing. Opinions differ on whether I should be putting any lubrication on the cable before I run it through the housing.
Problems
Immediately I noticed that the big rubber boot that protects the cable as it enters the derailleur was cut and ripped. That's definitely bad. It will let crap in and hold it there. Hopefully I can buy a replacement. I doubt patching the boot would work. There may be a better material to protect it with. Perhaps something like the boot I protect my rear Talus shock with would do.
The second problem I found was that it's nearly impossible to re-feed the cable through the housing. The cable catches on the internal plastic lining of the housing. I don't want to force-feed the cable because I'll either peel back some of the cable strands or I'll damage the interior lining.
In trying to remember the order with which some of the pieces went back together I realized that the center segment of housing that makes the connection between the top tube and the seat stay runs very tightly across a part of the suspension geometry which moves with the shock. It runs so snug, in fact, that it wears the cable housing and has worn part of the paint/metal off this part of the suspension. When I compared it to the other bike (which tends to have less shifting problems) I realized it was noticeably shorter. I think this is the principal problem -- the bike itself stretches and pulls the cable when I'm riding, probably introducing some of the shifting error.
It's hard to imagine how the manufacturer let this happen (why aren't they all the right lengths?) but maybe the blame should go on the mechanic who assembled the bike, and he just cut the cable too short.
Solution
So tomorrow I need to see about getting a new boot, adding some mudproofing, lengthening the problem section, and figuring out how to reline all the cabling. If I change cable housing I'll need access to a cutting tool for index cable housing.