Facebook interaction gone wrong.

What started out as conversation about football turned into the garbage you see above.

M and E are two facebook friends who support opposing football teams. I should note that I am fb friends with E but not M. I do not know M at all. During the conversation (which did not include) M refered to E's team as "a bunch of girls" or "homos". This goes on for several comments and at this point I decide to crash the party (see 1st comment). I cut out E's comment because this doesn't really involve them but let's just say E is agreeing with me and M's following comment doesn't yet address me, per say, but it's more directed towards E... until I interject again.

My point in all of this was to try to educate this person that being a homo or a girl should not be an insult. As you can see, I failed. I'm proud of myself for staying calm and not resorting to name calling as opposed to M, who feels the need to refer to me as and idiot or an asshole several times.

My question is, should I not have gotten involved? I admit, this conversation did not involve me and maybe I had high hopes of trying to educate someone who has influence over the life of a small one to understand that what they are saying is indeed homophobic and also a little misogynistic.

Am I being way to sensitive? Probably, but I'm tired of this type of trash talking. It's trite. Come up with something new. Or better yet? Let the players do their job and support your team. End of story.

Firefly Bicycles

They are doing some AMAZING things over there at Firefly.

Stainless steel XCr bike built with internally integrated wiring for Shimano’s top of the line gruppo, Dura-Ace Di2. It uses a battery to power the front and rear derailleurs. If that wasn't enough they hid the battery system within the frame. What.



Check it out here

Maybe Sparrow.

Oh my sparrow it's too late
Your body limp beneath my feet
Your dusty eyes cold as clay
You didn't hear my warning

Rest in peace, Mom.

Do blondes really have more fun?

I guess I'll find out soon...





















Many thanks to Andrea at Biyoshi salon for turning my black hair blond (it took serveral hours). Also I should thank KA (and La, in a way) for putting Manic Panic's toner in my hair to help get rid of some of the yellow. It looks rad now!

Rani does not agree.

Chose your bike route carefully...

When I took this job at BU I knew I was going to shave off ~4 miles round trip from my commute and in addition it would be less hilly; but I wasn't excited. Sure, my commute was going to be shorter but it was also going to go through a less savory neighborhood on a bike path. Either that or I could bike on Huntington which is also the route of the 66 and the 39 buses, along with the E line. Hurrah!

So I usually chose the bike path, sometimes taking Huntington if it's really dark as the SWC is not well lite. As an aside, I did report the lack of lighting to the Mayors office which they replied, "Sorry, the SWC is not under the jurisdiction of the city. We'll report your complaint to the State". Yeah, that issue never got solved.

I hate bike paths. Especially bikes paths like the Southwest Corridor. Why? Because even though it generally has two designated paths, one for bikers and one for pedestrians, the pedestrians rarely ever pay attention to this distinction between the two. In addition to the pedestrians I have to worry about intersections along the bike path at which cars are known to run reds, take turns without looking for bikes (or pedestrians) even when we have the "walk" symbol, or just block the intersection forcing me onto Columbus so I can cross. Awesome.

Lately those two routes just got even more depressing as both contain memorials. On huntington a ghost bike stands as a memorial for Eric Hunt. A young cyclist who was killed in April when he was hit by a MBTA bus.



The second memorial is on the SWC, near the Jackson Square T stop. It marks the site of the death of a 14 year old boy who was shot repeatedly the Saturday before mother's day.



I wish there was more respect for the lives of others. I also wish I didn't have to bike past these sorts of things on a regular basis. It's just fucking sad.

I also wish Boston has the cycling infrastructure of the Netherlands... it's all wishful thinking.

You have a blog?

A while back my wife and I were discussing the existence of my blog (or rather its non existence)...

Me: Look, I'm a fair weather blogger, okay?
KA: No, you're not a blogger at all.

It's true. I've abandoned my blog out of shear laziness. Actually, I hate writing so I'm not sure why I thought I'd be able to (or even want to) maintain a blog! Though lately I've been thinking that this might be a good outlet for me to discuss certain things that others might be tired of hearing me talk about. Okay, I'll be honest. By things I mean bikes and by others I mean KA (and possibly the majority of my facebook friends).

Speaking of bikes, have you met Jude Richmond and Lucy?


Jude Richmond is a 2008 Bianchi Axis cyclocross bike. Why do I have a cross bike if I don't race cross? Well soon I hope to "race" cross but in the meantime it makes a fantastic commuter bike. I'm hoping to knock off those knobby tires for the summer and put on some faster ones.


Lucy is my baby. She's a Nishiki Marina 12 speed that was manufactured in April of 1982. She came to me through my wife who was about to sell her when I asked politely (whined) if I could keep her. She's now my main squeeze and I'm hoping to convert her to a single speed/fixed gear soon... which will probably be the topic of my next blog entry.

Hopefully I will have other things to talk about besides bikes but I can't make any promises.