recent happenings
I met some of the heads and national coordinators of the ECF while in Bruxelles and learned all sorts of stuff from them in the 15 minutes between their lunch and a meeting, including how the EuroVelo routes were planned and what the current status of the EV5 project is. Really exciting for me.
I have been fixing bicycles, doing some dishes, eating really tasty dumpster-dived food, attending art exhibits (a couple dancing strangely, inspired by projections on one wall of their enclosed space, while the viewing windows are opened and closed remotely by ropes... by members of the audience. Also, a projection of an open door onto a closed door, with a beach scene projected around it. After staring at the open door on the beach for a while, it's strange to see someone walk through the real door, or to step out into the ocean yourself.), talking with friends, checking out squats that offer various types of free/cheap services, learning linuxy things, biking around Amsterdam on 20-50 year old bikes (bicycles *own* this city, it's wonderful), and getting open-source maps onto my Garmin gps (thanks Mark! All the world's maps for free! No more expensive, proprietary, out-of-date, slow-to-load Garmin map nonsense!). Thus I am no longer dependent on Windows for my personal life. In fact my Windows installation broke a week or so ago and I don't even care to fix it any time soon. Woo! Feels good. I also wrote this post about working with old bike locks.
My current plans are to keep working on a whole bunch of projects:
keep fixing bikes and the bike system; try to introduce some personal responsibility to the system.
install Arch Linux with Mark's help. It is my way forward. learn more about linux
put all my bicycle-trip info up on eurovelo5.georgejemmott.com
plan a hitchhiking gathering in the US
meet up with old friends and contacts
rescue bikes from the city council, who "stole" them
organize my stay in Boston coming up
learn some Drupal by working on casarobino.org, sustainablepost.org, and nomadbase.org
build a relationship between the Casa and OCCII's bike repair workshop, ideally such that Casa residents can use it for free (if that's not already possible)
fix my laptop to the extent possible
more things I need to unbury from my to-do list...
I was also going to fix my bike (the middle sprocket in the front is stripped after riding 5,000 muddy kilometers and not knowing that I should take better care of my chain and replace it when it starts to stretch, so it needs new sprockets - a new chain ring and cassette), but have heard that bike shops in Amsterdam will rip you off if you're a tourist. That, combined with wanting to know just how much lower I want the front sprockets geared for the hill by my parents house and similar (I like hill-climbing with a loaded trailer, not accelerating when I'm already going 40 km/h), I'm going to put it off until I'm in California. Hopefully low gear lasts until then.
Thanks to Robin for providing a space where I can work on all these things and connect with all of these people who help to realize these goals. Hooray hospitality!
I have been fixing bicycles, doing some dishes, eating really tasty dumpster-dived food, attending art exhibits (a couple dancing strangely, inspired by projections on one wall of their enclosed space, while the viewing windows are opened and closed remotely by ropes... by members of the audience. Also, a projection of an open door onto a closed door, with a beach scene projected around it. After staring at the open door on the beach for a while, it's strange to see someone walk through the real door, or to step out into the ocean yourself.), talking with friends, checking out squats that offer various types of free/cheap services, learning linuxy things, biking around Amsterdam on 20-50 year old bikes (bicycles *own* this city, it's wonderful), and getting open-source maps onto my Garmin gps (thanks Mark! All the world's maps for free! No more expensive, proprietary, out-of-date, slow-to-load Garmin map nonsense!). Thus I am no longer dependent on Windows for my personal life. In fact my Windows installation broke a week or so ago and I don't even care to fix it any time soon. Woo! Feels good. I also wrote this post about working with old bike locks.
My current plans are to keep working on a whole bunch of projects:
keep fixing bikes and the bike system; try to introduce some personal responsibility to the system.
install Arch Linux with Mark's help. It is my way forward. learn more about linux
put all my bicycle-trip info up on eurovelo5.georgejemmott.com
plan a hitchhiking gathering in the US
meet up with old friends and contacts
rescue bikes from the city council, who "stole" them
organize my stay in Boston coming up
learn some Drupal by working on casarobino.org, sustainablepost.org, and nomadbase.org
build a relationship between the Casa and OCCII's bike repair workshop, ideally such that Casa residents can use it for free (if that's not already possible)
fix my laptop to the extent possible
more things I need to unbury from my to-do list...
I was also going to fix my bike (the middle sprocket in the front is stripped after riding 5,000 muddy kilometers and not knowing that I should take better care of my chain and replace it when it starts to stretch, so it needs new sprockets - a new chain ring and cassette), but have heard that bike shops in Amsterdam will rip you off if you're a tourist. That, combined with wanting to know just how much lower I want the front sprockets geared for the hill by my parents house and similar (I like hill-climbing with a loaded trailer, not accelerating when I'm already going 40 km/h), I'm going to put it off until I'm in California. Hopefully low gear lasts until then.
Thanks to Robin for providing a space where I can work on all these things and connect with all of these people who help to realize these goals. Hooray hospitality!
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