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2006-12-04 - unnecessary bike info

I filmed the TV. I'm pretty sure it's not entirely legal, but my workout it so incredible cheesy, I just had to let you in on it....

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Now I will take you through my bicycle maintenance venture.

I set up my bike on the bikerack on the back of my car in our apartment garage and used that as a workspace. It was perfect.

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Equipment I used to remove the chain and clean my cranks. (Blue pitcher with warm water and Palmolive.)

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The most important tool for my job: this little thing is used to remove the old chain, and then put on the new chain. It's like a mini vicegrip that has a point that pushes out the pin that holds the chainlinks together. (Sorry it's blurry.)

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Here's the dead chain after I removed it. RIP, chain.

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My dirty cassette and hand. (I'm so retarded, I wanted to include my dirty hand in the picture because I thought it looked badass, but I couldn't figure out how to position it so it would look like I was actually doing something with the bike, but it's hard to do that AND take a picture at the same time when BOTH my hands were grimy. Here is the final result...)

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This is how you tie up the (new)chain to make it easier to use the tool. (I used twisty-ties.)

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The new chain on my bike!

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Close-up of the clean casette - I had no idea it was silver - it'd been black for so long.

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And now I know you're just dying to know how the freezer looked after I cleaned it all out, aren't you?

Look at this!

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I had to go to the store tonight - I'm making Amor a pizza and I needed some yeast. There's a new sculpture nearby that looks fucking amazing at night.

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There's the full moon above it.

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This one's blurry, I'm still figuring out the best way to take pictures of things at night.

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It was definitely Monday today.

I stayed up late with Amor watching the rest of Godfather 3 - it took us a whole week to get through the damn thing.

Late night is pretty much the only time I have to hang out with him.

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From my comments box. Dom's making me think about things. Damn you, Dom.

dom - 2006-12-04 09:43:32
so, was your time away from alcohol and caffeine worth it? did you get any benefits? and aren't wookies like distant relatives of ewoks?

First things first. Ewoks and Wookiees are not related. For starters, Ewoks are forest dwellers with hardly any technological advancements. On the other hand, Wookiees are extremely proficient in technology. I mean, Chewbacca could fly the Millenium Falcon. Can you see an Ewok doing that? I don't think so.

Moving on, the time away from alcohol and caffeine was very, very good for my personal constitution.

I have to say that it was more difficult being away from caffeine than it was alcohol, which surprised me.

My liver definitely feels so much better.

Benefits from staying away from alcohol and caffeine for a month include:

1. I appreciate caffeine more.

2. I need to have a set limit for myself when I am drinking. I haven't decided if it should be 2 or 3 drinks. I think it will be 2 if it's pints of beer, and 3 if it it's wine or regular size beers. I am 85% ready to make this commitment with myself.

3. I already knew I acted like a complete moron when I would drink, so seeing other people act like complete morons when they drank and I was sober wasn't all that revealing.

4. My mind is definitely more clear and I feel empowered to have more control over my drinking alcohol. I used to be able to have more control over my drinking, I just felt like over the past 2 or so years (Hmmm, coinciding with grad school, maybe?) it's just been more out of control than before.

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More bike stuff.

You can read about it here:

Now that my new chain's on, it appears that my chainrings and cassette need to be replaced. All those years of riding with a diry chain has ground them down, and my chain jumps around.

(These are the circular disc things with little teeth on them all the way around. There are some by the pedals/cranks and the other is around the back wheel - this is known as the cassette.)

Plus, I need my gears adjusted. There are some gears into which I am unable to change.

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I need to go. I've spent 45 minutes creating this entry.

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