Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you.

The horrible events at this year’s Boston Marathon have put me in a melancholy mood, and I turned to MetaFilter to make better sense of the senseless tragedy.

After reading the thousand-or-so comments that came before, I said (in part)

I'm surprised the last main entry before this one is a note about Steve Jobs’ death. Weird.

Much time has passed since and I am finally beginning to feel I understand some of the contours of this new life outside of academia. I often boggle at my good fortune and am humbled by its challenges and privations. More rarely, I note a small success, a shift or crystallization of things into greater understanding. I can see pieces fitting together.

Having undertaken a fair share of soft and hard reboots, I’ll edge in by noting that yesterday was my first bikeaversary (not recommended practice to increase daily follower rates, I know.»Anil Dash notes the Twitter verification process “offer[s] the tidbit that ‘Live-tweeting a relevant event can increase your daily follower rate by 260%.’”«)

That is, the bike I paid Mission Bicycle to build for me was ready for pick up on 29 February 2012.

The changes that simple vehicle has brought to my life are profound. I know extolling the virtues of a bicycle will sound childish to many, but the experience has been transformative. Every time I get out on my bike I’m improving my health, I restrict my carbon footprint, I increase my sense of well-being, I see cool stuff, and I connect with others.»And, yeah, sometimes I give some people the bird. To be clear, I pretty much stay within the law including the obeying of traffic lights.« For me it’s the opposite of getting in an automobile (public or private). Looking back over the course of forty years, I realize it's always been this way.

Coming home from work yesterday, I'd finished logging my 471st ride for a total distance of 2441.07 miles, most of those miles done right here in SF.

I love it.

I’ve loved biking since before my first paper route and that love grown to massive proportions since March when I got my black bike, huitlacoche, at Mission Bicycle.

Looking ahead, Friday, 28 September 2012 will be the 20th anniversary of Critical Mass and Mona Caron has created a poster to commemorate the event.

Today I’ll be riding with San Francisco Critical Mass for my third (consecutive) ride. I hope you’ll come, too.

Took this picture yesterday in the middle of my Bay-to-Breakers training run.

Thing is, sublime views like this are a regular thing in SF and every day is a beautiful day.

I’m so glad I’m here. I think you should come, too.

We’ve been waiting for you.»I don’t know why this phrase popped into my head. Googling on it yields results for pages that address spiritual and religious matters. Though I am an anti-religious science-inclined agnostic and believe that what we know about our universe is the product of empiricism and the historical record, I am OK with this unexpected link between marking time and things unknown. Happy New Year.«

one last time…

Mind-blowing documentary about the people who come to The Gathering of the Juggalos. In the Vimeo comment thread, user Daniel Cronin links to photographs taken at the gathering over the last two years.