May 31 - 2016 at 04h
Hi guys!
Today I am going to talk a bit about me, about bikes and about the intersection between me and the bikes! Aside from that, I will talk about a few other things too, here is a quick summary for you:
- My bike
- My story with bikes
- Why I like bikes
- Bikes/Mountain Bikes
- Bikepacking
- DSP, my job in it
- The book I am reading
- I am hungry!
- A friend is buying me the new pokémon!
- Game engines, blender, BDX.
- Tea
- Why is this post so big??
- My art
- Curious names of stuff in the bike in portuguese
- Freeciv
- Violin & the joy of playing on the streets
My Bike
This all started a few weeks back when I finally got enough courage to check in which state my old bike was. It is a very cheap bike, maybe around the $100-$200, but I was excited to pedal again! The overall state of the bike was okay-ish (wheels were a bit off) but there was a major problem: the screw that connects the handlebar to the fork was unusable (aside from the fact that using a screw for that is already a sign that the frame is not of the same size as the fork), so the handlebar did not move the fork as it was supposed to!
I got around that making a few extra holes in the frame and putting a few extra screws, but it was a completely makeshift solution! I was not happy with it, neither very confident (specially around cars or bigger vehicles).
So, I used it a bit but then started looking at buying a better bike and from there things went on and I got to know bikes a lot better, I can say... they are awesome animals :P!
My Story with Bikes
Bikes were in my life since a very early age. I got my first bicycle when me my family lived in an apartment, but the building had a nice (concrete) playground that was pretty good to pedal on. It was also there that I flew out of the bike and landed on concrete a few times.
I kept biking a few years but then almost completely stopped until around five years back, when my dad got me the cheap bike I talked about and we went biking a few times (me, my brother and my dad).
And then I stopped again (we all did), mainly due to the fact that our bikes were too cheap and always got some kind of problem when we wanted to used them.
Why I like bikes
I will just dump here a few reasons I like bikes and the idea of using them as transportation.
- They cause few accidents
- Accidents involving only bikes are usually not fatal
- It is fun to use them
- They are cheaper
- Pedaling is an exercise!
Summing up all this, I like to believe bikes are the best means of transportation for most of the use cases.
Bikes & Mountain Bikes
There are a lot of types of bikes, speed bikes, mountain bikes, hybrid bikes! All kinds of them!
Each type of bike has one or a few use cases in mind. For example, comfort bikes are supposed to be fun to ride and comfortable, while mountain bikes should be resistant and deal well with sudden impacts due to terrain.
I am specially interested in mountain bikes because they allow you to ride in non-urban areas (like where I live) and they can handle the usual urban areas. Not in the most efficient way, of course, but they can do what, for example, speed bikes can not do: take you where you want without you having to worry too much about terrain.
Aside from these specializations, most bikes are the same, they have:
- two wheels
- two hubs (where the wheels meet the hull)
- a frame (the "hull")
- a handlebar
- a lot of other stuff
but the important part here is that there are industry standards for most of this stuff, so you can create the bike that best suits you if you have enough knowledge.
Bikepacking is where biking meets backpacking. I already said I like biking, now I am going to say why I like backpacking. And from there you can easily guess I love the idea of bikepacking.
First of all backpacking gives you the ultimate sense of freedom, of being yourself and is also a great way of traveling and seeing the world without the hype and extreme capitalism that comes with the usual traveling methods and destinations.
Then, backpacking makes you happy. Probably due to the said above, but there is also more to that, a more primordial reason: the human body is tuned for the nomad life humans are happy while traveling and this is probably instinctive.
DSP
What Digital Signal Processing has to do with bikes? In your life, probably nothing. In mine, it was used for a freelance job I did and it is how I got some extra money for a bike, so thanks DSP I guess.
Book
I said this a few times here before, some of the stuff I read or watch does not sound like me or like what I do at all.
I am reading one of those "teens" books called "Trust Me, I am Lying". Not very good but not the worst ever, and it entertains me before I go to sleep so it is all good.
I was hungry
And then I made something to eat. Cooking is awesome. I will learn to cook more stuff (chew-mein/yakisoba, I am looking at yahhh)! I cook, you should too! Go cook! Long life to cooking!
Pokémon
A friend is going to buy me the new Pokémon! Thanks Biaah! (I bought her a toaster, so this is more like an exchange)
BDX
I think I said here before:
I LOOVEEEEEE MAKIIIING GAMMEEEESSSSSS!
Okay. Now the entire world knows! Just to be sure though...
I SAID I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE!
And one of those days I was searching for game engines (I always do, because there is always something new), and I stumbled across this magnificent thing called bdx.
The idea is simple but super effective. Get libgdx, use it as runtime and use Blender as an game editor!
The result is a very easy to mod engine where you can extend it in any way you want, and it is also 100% open source!
I tried it in a little game about space, and I really recommend it! If any of you (~caasi?) likes making games/would like to make games, check this out!
Tea
Tea > Coffee
Why is This Post so Big?
I have no idea. I was asking this myself... I guess I am just in the mood for writing... or maybe it is due to the fact I have been away for too long and too much stuff happened? I dunno.
Art
Some folks say there are two very distinct types of intelligence (actually they say there are more than two, but that is not the point). Artistic and logical. Up until there okay, but then these folks usually try to separate and make them the most different stuff. They create different learning paths for each one. They say people are born with talent for one of those.
Maybe that is true, but all this talk does is it makes people who are good in one of those things feel like they should not be trying to learn the other. That is absolutely no good. Life is short and we should (as someone here in the tilde said before), be always learning meaningful stuff. And what is meaningful? It is a complex topic, but if you find it cool, that is sufficient.
All this introduction to say I do not embrace the stereotype of programmers not being artists, not being writers, not doing sports... and also to post some of my own art here :P
The Girl in Red
Digital painting, made with MyPaint.
Concept Art for a Samurai
Digital painting, made with MyPaint.
Samurai
3D Model, made with Blender.
Bike Stuff in Portuguese
While I was researching about bikes, I found some curious things about translations.
First one, and the funniest. We all know that "frame" has a lot of meanings, but they are mostly about two things: painting medium and related/structure or hull and related.
In Portuguese, the hull (frame) of the bicycle is called "quadro". Quadro in Portuguese is the name of the painting medium, and not in any way related to structure.
Second one, the hubs are called in Portuguese "cubos", which means cubes. The only thing "cubos" and "hubs" have in common? They sound very alike. What do I think? Someone said hub and someone heard "cubo".
Third one, and I am not sure if this is universal, but bikes in Portuguese are sometimes called "magrelas" (skinnies, as in a skinny person). It is worth noting that words in Portuguese have gender, so "magrela" is feminine (the masculine one being "magrelo").
Freeciv
The multiplayer is great!
Violin & The Joy of Playing on the Streets
One of the most gratifying things one can do is play on the streets. Its simply amazing. I am not sure if I said this before, but here where I live we have small island in the city's river. People usually go there for sports (it is a great location, could be better taken care of but it is great anyway). I go there to play (also to run/bike), and it is absolutely amazing, specially at sunset...
ENJOY THIS MONSTER POST MY DEAREST LITTLE PEOPLE!