Category: SitRep

Updates abound.

• I finally got my road bike back up and running- broken spoke fixed and both tires swapped over for new wider/lighter/not cracked rubber. I haven’t been able to take it out, mind you- the weather has been garbage for two weeks straight- but it’s ready. Though the saddle has some discoloration- I’m not sure what’s happened there.
• A new crankset, bb, and chainring for my mountain bike should show up today. I’m stealing the current bottom bracket from my mountain bike and installing it on my gravel bike, so the mountain bike needed some new parts. Nothing too special (Shimano XT, if you’re wondering), but it’ll also let me swap some cranks out on my wife’s (amazing) burrito slayer.
• Camera parts continue to come together. After far too long, I’ve decided to standardize my camera mounts around a Manfrotto 200PL plate system- so I’ve been (slowly) amassing enough of the plates and mounts to cover most of my gear.
• I finally did some video work too- just for practice. I’m feeling better about getting myself comfortable with the new camera (and lenses, and codecs and whatnot), so it’s good to have some stuff come out of camera looking pretty good, and then be able to process it nicely. Progress!

Mid summer.

• Road bike is fixed. A call to the builder confirmed my suspicions- the frame, built in the late 90’s as a full-blown race bike was built with what his notes say were “minimal” clearances. He was certain I could get a 25c tire through (which is still better than my current 23’s), and he thought maybe, depending, I might be able to squeeze a 28c through- but I wouldn’t know until I tried and there were too many variables to wager a guess. So: I ordered some 26’s (that should come today), and that should do the trick. I wasn’t willing to wager $200 on tires that might not fit, so 26 seemed like a decent place to start. I fixed the broken rear spoke, too- it was nice to get the new spoke in there, bring it up to tension, and have the rear wheel come right back into true. I might have built those wheels properly 20 years ago.
• Tracking down a re-foam kit for old loudspeakers is… annoying. They exist, but they’re a pita to get ordered and shipped and all that. So: on the list, but trying to find the most elegant solution.
• Looking at power management solutions for the rack system (again). I’ve got the 120v AC power mostly dealt with- planned, anyway. But the 5v DC USB powered stuff needs to be sorted out, too. While it’s convenient that so many things are USB powered, it’s annoying to have an endless array of tiny power supplies eating up space on a power strip. To that end, I’ve had good luck with Ankler PowerPorts (they do 120 AC to 5v DC with 6 ports), and the two I have are fully occupied, so… it’s looking like I’ll need a third to deal with the stuff in the rack. And some more USB micro cables, too.
• I’m about ready to start devoting some time to that new video series I mentioned a few weeks ago- building out a proper full-sized set of videos about William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. I’m pretty excited to work on something like this for the first time in a while, and I’m also wary of putting work out into the public like this (as it’s always rough on the ego).

Back at it.

• I broke a spoke and flatted on my road bike yesterday, so now I need to fix the wheel and deal with tires. The rubber on that bike is pretty old, and while it looked to be in ok shape, it has some cracks and signs of age- so that’s likely to be  a new set of tires. I need to find out how large a tire that bike will fit, so I’m going to try to get in contact with the builder and see what he can tell me. Ideally, I’ll be able to fit a set of Compass 26c (or, maybe 28c) extralight tires. Maybe even a second set for the gravel bike (they have a 26″ x 1.8″ and 26″ x 2.3″ I’ve had my eye on…)
• My Raspberry Pi 3 B+ came, and it’s up and running a Minecraft PE server. Setting up a Minecraft server on a RasPi should be easy, but because my kids play the PE variation of the game (via iOS devices instead of desktops), the sever software is more obscure, and finding a version that will run on a Pi is… annoying. Regardless, it seems to be working. Now I need to look into plugins and whatnot.
• The “new” stereo is up and running. As per usual with me, there are things to work out, but for right now it seems to be working ok. It looks like the speaker’s woofers will need re-foaming, but I’ll get that sorted.
• My Software Defined Radio came- it’s super neat to be able to listen to all manner of stuff floating around the airwaves. In theory, anyway, as my antenna is pretty small and I’m not finding many signals I can actually hear. I’m working on a better solution, so we’ll see.
• I still need to build my rack mount for my office. I don’t want to rehash all the things that have gotten in the way, but there’s just been no time to get it all done. Soon, I hope, as it’s nearly the only thing between me and a finished studio.

Whoops! I managed to blow up my bandwidth for last month, so this site was inaccessible for a few days. I’m back, now. Updates!

• I’ve gone through the media files for this site and thinned things out a bit- I foolishly left some photos at pretty high resolution (and thus larger file sizes…), so I’m hoping that’ll do the trick and keep bandwidth under control this month.
• I’ve been ill, so my riding has been pretty much nil for last couple of weeks- and now the weather is super-duper hot-and-humid, so… yeah. Biking is frustratingly on hold for a bit as I recover.
• As always, I’m an adaptor away from greatness: I was recently gifted a vintage NAD amp/receiver with some Boston Acoustics speakers, and those have becoming my new office sound system- but, as would always be the case, I’m short a pair of slightly obscure adaptors to make the final connections work. Typical.
• My kids are starting to play a bit more Minecraft- and now they want to play together in-game. That’s pretty easy at first- they all play on iOS, and the can see local games. But it’s fickle and requires the host to always be in the game- they’d like to share a game a be able to work on it whenever. So: I’ve a Raspberry Pi inbound to be built up as a local Minecraft server. Should do the trick.
• I’m still writing my newsletter. I just sent out #93 a couple of days ago, and (as per usual with newsletters) I had a few people immediately unsubscribe. That’s how it is- I get that. It’s just a drag to see your subscriber count creep slowly down every time you actually send something out. I’m trying to figure out what my goals for that newsletter are (or even what my purpose for it is). Am I writing it for me? Am I writing it for some imagined audience?

Here’s where things stand:

• I’m in a small holding pattern on the custom rack cabinet build for the studio- it’s really just a matter of finding the time/weather combo to make it happen. It’s likely a one or two day build, but those two circles in the Venn diagram just haven’t aligned, yet. Some of the power management I was waiting for is there, though, so that’s one less holdup on the buildout (when the cabinet is done).
• I found an excellent solution to storing large format art that’s not framed. I’d nearly resigned myself to needing to hunt down a map file (and find a place to put that), but I’d been stalling (as they’re expensive and bulky). Through sheer dumb luck I’ve stumbled across a method that involves hanging the work off stringers- and it’s totally something I can build.
• I’ve been working on a streaming setup- I don’t really know why, but it seemed like a good idea? Anyway, I’ve found that my Mac Mini I’ve hot rodded still doesn’t quite have the horsepower to deal with three HD cameras at the same time, so… it’s also patched into the xserve (which I mostly leave off, these days, as it’s loud and power hungry… but when you need horsepower, it’s got it (still!)).
• I haven’t been filming a lot recently- there have been too many other projects on the front burner, and something(s) had to give. I’m trying to get back to that, now- as well as putting some time on on my still photography. I’ve been away from it for a little while, and video and still have always been good at pushing some creativity back into my routine, which has obvious benefits elsewhere. The gallery of one of my bikes in the previous post would be the very start of this project.

 

What’s happening.

• The studio desks and shelves are basically done. I have one or two small half-depth shelves to get done/up for material storage, but the major surfaces are all there (including a wiring trough I’m super happy I built). A further update on that on the project page.
• I’m ready to build the rack for all my gear. The only real hangups are getting the actual material (it’s another two sheets of 3/4″ Birch Plywood and a bunch of Maple 1″ x 2″), and the internal wiring for it all. I’ve decided to sub-divide the internal power management so I can enable various sub-groups of gear (and cut down on vampiric power losses). I’ll need a couple of rack mount power strips for that. And I need a big set of casters, too.
• In the many years I’ve had a YouTube channel, here’s what’s happened with it: I made, about 5 years ago, a short series of videos meant to front-load some of the background information I needed students to know about William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. In the time since, I’ve posted many videos- some about making, some about bikes and bike riding, some about my kids. None of those has even come close to the viewership those old videos still see. Right now, five years later, those videos still represent the bulk of the viewing minutes/month my channel sees (which is, I hasten to add, not a large number). Maybe I should (finally) take the hint about the sort of content I should make (if, indeed I want to continue making content- which is another consideration entirely).
• It’s increasingly looking like I might be headed back to school- first, for a graduate certificate, and then (if I’m still into it…) tacking on a master’s program to that. I haven’t done graduate work in a long time, but I’m feeling like it’s something I need/want to get back to. A way to relight some of the fire about education and it’s place in the world.

Updates Holy Smokes the studio has updates.

• That’s both desks in, and I have some small half-depth shelves nearly ready to go in, too. Obviously, the large rack isn’t built yet, and clearly my cable management is still pretty rough. But progress none the less. Lots of full depth shelves to build, a rack to construct, lighting to deal with… so far, so good, though.
• I got my road bike out for the first time in 6 years (or so). It’s amazing on a couple of levels- that it still works (it’s nearly 20 years old, now), that it still feels so good to ride, and that all the controls and whatnot still felt like… home… after all this time. I’ll be riding this more, I think. In a concession to my age (what with being 20 years older than when I built the thing and my lower back not being as flexible as it once was), I might be swapping the stem to something slightly shorter and taller (it’s a flat 135 right now).
• The small parts storage expansion happened in a haze of sweat and humidity the other day. It wasn’t on my list the same way the studio had been, but I realized I actually had all the parts I needed. So out came the saws and drivers, and pretty soon I had a 100% increase in my small parts storage.

Hi All.

• I built out this site a little more- I’ve added a “Projects” menu item on the left hand side that breaks down some of my projects in more detail that I’d really want to drop in a normal post. If you’re into the minutiae, that’ll be interesting (a comprehensive look at my history and efforts with building shoulder bags?). Otherwise, maybe not so much.
• The studio overhaul is currently stalled. I haven’t been able to free up the time to get the lumber that’s really needed for the next step, so it’s on hold. More oddball hardware continues to arrive (a second two monitor mount, for example), but for the next step I need lumber. No way around it.

• A post shared by Tim Calvin (@nothingfuture) on May 14, 2018 at 6:59pm PDT

  I’ve been making prototypes of bike seat bags- these are super minimal (as I like them). Just enough to hold some tubes, a small multitool, and a tire lever (one!). I’m getting closer, but I have some refinements of my pattern I want to put into play before I consider making a run of them. Also, I tend not to prototype stuff like this in the eventual materials I’d use on a final product- so sourcing some better fabric goes on the to-do list.

• In the last week, I’ve fixed two appliances at the house- the microwave and the washing machine. The combination of youtube and a multimeter can get you pretty far, as it turns out.
• I upgraded my 2009-era Mac Mini (Core2Duo, yo!) with 4gb more RAM (now 5gb, up from 2), and an SSD drive (250gb, up from a 5400rpm 120gb mechanical drive). Holy hell what a difference! It clicks right along now, and it’s totally useable. Amazing.

I’m going for consistency, here.

• All the hardware for the studio revision is here. All that remains is buying the wood, cutting, gluing, nailing, sanding, and finishing the desks and shelves. Honestly, that’s like a weekend afternoon day to do. Maybe two. Building the rack case will take a little longer, but now that I’ve sorted out some of the construction details, even that shouldn’t be too bad. I’m starting to think about lighting and cord management again.
• I got a lovely couple of bike rides in this week- one on the mountain bike in some heat (90!), and the other on my gravel bike (where I got myself in over my head terrain-wise). Cycling seems to do something to me- nothing else really settles me as much, and I’m a much better person when I ride a bit. I think I took this for granted when I was younger (and rode all the time regardless of anything else), but since… it’s been interesting to rediscover this about myself.
• I’m starting to look at tandems. I had been thinking about a Salsa Powderkeg (a gravel-focused bike), but lately I’ve been second guessing that and looking at full suspension bikes. One of my kids is hounding me pretty hard to ride one, and I’d like to make it happen at some point. Just gotta find the right thing.