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October 19, 2005
focus 
Okay, I think I am in the midst of a full-fledged midlife crisis. See, and I thought I had gotten that crap over with, already.
I got some really good bike reading in via cyclelicio.us. Fritz always points to some interesting stuff, and in the last while there's been Fat Cyclist writing on winterizing, Danielo's 9 reasons to drive a car, Jim Carson on the economics of bike commuting, Cycledog on the irrationality of fear, and the Journal of Applied Physiology on moderate excercise preventing and even reversing the accumulation of deep abdominal fat, which is linked to type 2 diabetes, high cholestorol and heart disease.
If you only have time for one timewaster (and it's not really one), go to Cycledog's entry.
Riding a bicycle on the road requires awareness, alertness, good judgment, and a wary eye on traffic. But it doesn’t have to involve mind-numbing fear. Maybe that’s one advantage of regular commuting. I see the same motorists day after day. They come to expect a cyclist somewhere on the road each morning. This is no exaggeration – I rarely have problems with motorists – and I ride a mixture of 4-lane arterials and 2 lane roads in suburban, rural, and industrial areas. The daily commute is a relaxing part of my day, not a stressful dash between home and work.I was thinking a lot about that entry as I rode into work today, and I hit the points one by one as I was commuting. I used the bike lane when there was one, and I used lane positioning when there wasn't. I tried not to appear "unpredictable and dangerous". All in all, it was pretty pleasant.
— cycledog.blogspot.com/2005/10/fear.html
I've also been thinking, for days now, about Neal Stephenson's message on his home page: his 'ongoing struggle against "continuous partial attention"'. He has a real point here: our multitudinous distractions can keep us from achieving our goals. For example: my office door is open, and cow-orkers come and go, talking mostly about non-work stuff. The cow-orker that I share the office with talks frequently on her cellphone. My phone has wrung already a couple times in the last hour and half. And I have three different email accounts open now.
Why do I need all this communication? I don't have a cellphone for a reason—I don't want to be that accessible. Yet, I check my email like a maniac. Why aren't I getting any list mail? Or personal email? Or comments?
I was thinking, too, of the amount of time maintaining two blogs takes. The old rule of thumb useta be that online journals should update daily on weekdays because people were following their bookmarks and going directly to the journal. In this day of newsreaders and bloglines, I'm wondering, does it matter if I update daily? Some prolific blogs can be kinda overwhelming when I open bloglines and see that there are 18 entries that have turned up in the last two weeks. Anyways, weigh in on this please if you care to.
Posted at October 19, 2005
Comments
I update daily because it helps me. I check blogs daily - I don't use any feeds. I go to the actual blog. Maybe that makes me old fashioned, but I prefer reading a few well written blogs that post frequently (at least a couple of times per week) over reading a bazillion blogs. It feels more personal to me.
I agree with your point about communication - every time I ride in the car with my husband and we are both talking to other people on our cell phones, I realize the absurdity of it all! :-)
Posted by: neca at October 19, 2005 12:53 PM
Here's some comment love for ya!
With feed reader software and services I don't think daily updating is all that necessary.
I agree that CycleDog is one of the best cycling blogs out there.
Prolific bloggers: You're not talking about me, are you? :-) I've been trying to cut down on it some.
Posted by: Fritz at October 19, 2005 2:31 PM
I read about some study in some paper (good on details, I am) that suggested that girls are encouraged to multi-task at an earlier age than body. Whereas boys are taught to facus on one task and follow it to completion, girls are taught to spread their energy widely. The study thought that this is why boys are better at math than girls.
RE: posting. I like daily updates. I wish that more people updated more often! I agree with a previous comment, I would rather read narrow and deep. I also go to the actual blogs and don't use blog lines. In my own blog, I update as often as I want/need to. And I think that you should do the same. Though I will miss you if you are here less often!
Posted by: Liz at October 19, 2005 5:01 PM
I'm still around, still reading regularly over here! I'm tending to make my blog entries shorter and more focused on one topic, except when I have some long narrative like a race report. I figure it's easier for busy people to skim topics that way and avoid the dreck.
Posted by: Nancy Toby at October 19, 2005 5:12 PM
Hi VJ..it's an interesting topic. I'm finding that I am tied to this laptop. At first, I loved it, and I couldn't get enough. Now I am wondering if it is an obsession. I can't give up posting though. Writing down the days and moments keeps me sane. I want a record of some sort. And I enjoy others' records, too.
Posted by: susan at October 19, 2005 6:31 PM
ah....
the pleasures of commuting via bicycle
every once in a while I need to put myself in check
like yesterday
I was headed to work on my short little commute
out the alley behind my urban house in DC
then down the road
in my own lane
as usual an SUV turning my way can not stay in their lane
hogging both lanes
as I moved out of the way knowing i would lose that game of chicken I uttered the words... "bitch" softly to myself
only with eye contact and loud enough for the driver of this car to hear
sure enough
he heard me
he stopped
he paused
I rolled forward and moved quickly onto work
in fact
I pedaled along like a bitch with its tail between its legs
as far as two BLOGS go....
it is easier for people who like my blogs on bikes to deal with my kid images
and for those who like my kid images to deal with my bike stuff
after all
being a dad is part of me
being a cyclist is part of me
there are other cyclists who understand the balance that I am trying to maintain
Posted by: gwadzilla at October 21, 2005 9:30 AM