What D&D Character am I?

This was fun. Somone posted this and I checked it out. I had some fun with the generator. When I have more time I might try to game it and see what results I can get.

I Am A: Neutral Good Elf Wizard (6th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-14
Dexterity-16
Constitution-13
Intelligence-17
Wisdom-16
Charisma-14

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment when it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Elves are known for their poetry, song, and magical arts, but when danger threatens they show great skill with weapons and strategy. Elves can live to be over 700 years old and, by human standards, are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Elves are slim and stand 4.5 to 5.5 feet tall. They have no facial or body hair, prefer comfortable clothes, and possess unearthly grace. Many others races find them hauntingly beautiful.

Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Sandy Earl's new 12/24hr Record

Sandy Earl recently attempted and pending ratification by UMCA broke the 12hr and 24hr cycling records in the female recumbent class. She broke the UMCA upright record as well but I believe it is spared by the category. I was an official and took a number of pictures of the event. Sandy is an amazing rider who has the endurance and determination to put the rest of us to shame. She is also very nice and a joy to work with.

The Officials were lead by David Bradley

As you can see he is a towering figure who made sure we did everything right. I had a great time and was honored to witness such an incredible achievement.

Sandy put together this great video of the event



I would love to work with any of the crew and Sandy again, I had a great time.

Politics are depressing nowadays.

I haven't posted much in the political realm recently. Mostly because I am depressed. The lack of any focus on jobs and recovery coupled with the deficit mania is infuriating. I also have a strong interest in environmental causes. I would love to see an investment in green technology and a carbon tax. Yet most of the news on these fronts is quite bad. I know that there was some progress on health care but I don't understand why I should be happy about moderate republican policies from the '70s instead of progressive policies geared to our current challenges.

I also have no confidence in our leaders to fight against the Republican suicide squad in office and in our media. I fear that riots and anarchy will end up coming to the US if we don't make some changes now.

Crashes and how it is always the cyclists fault

(Photo: Wash. Co. Sheriff)
A crash occurred in Washington County, OR. I used to live in that county. A pickup plowed into three cyclists from the rear on NW West Union Road about 1/2 mile east of the intersection with Jackson Quarry Road. Immediately the blame patrol works to blame the victims. Even with the picture to the right where one of the mountainbikes was embedded in the grill of the truck.

So we have a rear end collision. If it were a motor vehicle crash, the guy hitting from the rear is automatically at fault, but with bicycles it is all about how to blame the victim. Even though the pickup was going too fast for his headlights and driving too fast for conditions (by definition, he hit three cyclists). Everyone is already upset that the cyclists didn't have lights. Now sure, they probably should have, but they aren't required to and there is evidence that it wouldn't have made a difference. Because the driver hit THREE cyclists, one hard enough to embed the bike into the grill of his vehicle.

I understand why cyclists would want to review the situation to address what they could do better. But in no way should that have impact on who is at fault. The law is clear, cyclists are required to have rear reflectors. The bikes had those reflectors and studies have shown that reflectors are often better than lights in the cases where auto lights are very bright and wash out rear lights of the bike. With many cars running super bright LEDs now, it is important to have some reflectors facing backward. Reflectors are brighter under bright lights.

In the end the motorist outran his headlights or was not paying attention. Given the impact evident in the picture I suspect he wasn't paying attention. I am infuriated that the cyclists are in critical condition and paying the price for the motorists error. Additionally I can't abide how everyone wants to blame the cyclists who are the victims and give the motorist the benefit of the doubt. Our legal system posits innocent until proven guilty, but that doesn't mean that our outrage and frustration are required to wait for proof as well.


(source: bikeportland)

Tired but some thoughts on bikes

I am tired today, I have been slammed at work and kept chained to my desk by trying to support remote people via IM. My Mango is currently down while I deal with repairs and so I have been thinking about secondary bikes and fair weather bikes.

When I hurt my Mango (still a painful thought) I cleaned up and got both my Corsa and Raptobike road worthy again. The Raptobike process was basically filling the tires and adjusting the seat pad. The Corsa had been loaned to Doncl for testing and so I had to adjust the seat, change both tires and tubes. Then I had to get lights, seat bag, and all the accoutrements necessary for riding (water, snacks, keys, tools, pump) all set up.

The raptobike is still my favorite bike ever. It is just an amazing machine and now that I have the mango I am considering modifying my setup to be less commuter/tourer and more light and fast. I was thinking of changing the gearing from Rohloff to 65t big ring, and 9 speed cassette with 11-28. That is 42-108 gear inches, a bit high end but doable for a fast bike. Switch everything back to v-brakes and go as light and strong as I can with the wheels. I would put dacron wheel covers (home made) on the rear wheel too. I would strip off all accessories except the fastback bags. I would leave my tail lights on too (two on rear fork, one on headrest). I could remove the lights for racing. I could use this for sunny organized rides and group rides in the puget sound once I get my fitness back.

I am also considering the raptobike midracer.


Big wheels, fast bike, and it is a travel bike. Wow hard to resist.

Then Arnold at Raptobike also shows us his new prototype, the Raptotrike:




It blows me away that a tiny manufacturer based in the Netherlands has such a variety of amazing products. The raptobike lowracer is awesome and a great price point. I don't even see competition for the raptobike midracer, which is pretty amazing, and then the raptotrike tilting delta, wow. And Arnold wants to do a streamliner kit for the trike too.

Very impressive and I am a very happy customer of Raptobike.

Commuting in the rain

I just want to say, I commuted in the Mango today. It was raining and 40 degrees F. Yet I wore short and a t-shirt without using the foam top. It was a wonderful ride and great fun.

Deficit

It is pretty simple to balance the budget if you want to do it honestly. Cut military spending by withdrawing from Iraq, Afganistan and Libya, cut contractors from the military budget, reduce our military size and let the Bush tax cuts expire.

Now that we had our serious conversation can we stop trying to privatize Medicare and cut Social Security?

Cyclist run down - possible vehicular serial killer.

So I looked at my RSS feed this morning and found this headline "Encino cyclist killed in Leucadia; local TV speculates an attempted vehicular serial killer could be at work". Wonderful. I follow the linke and find out that there have been two cyclists run down in the same stretch of road both by a Ford pickup and both hit and run. To quote one of the articles:
San Diego County Sheriff's Department investigators are looking into the possibility that the driver did not stop because he wanted to hit the bicyclist.


Nasty.

Then I read the comments. Ugh.

First we have the Blame the victim style where it is just too dangerous to ride:
jaxd

What was the bicyclist doing riding on the road @ 1:00am? Not excusing the hit and run but common sense tell one that at that time there are DUI's on the road and it is not safe to be riding on the shoulder.

BikeAversion

When Americans would have to learn that riding a bike along cars is dangerous! Is like playing Russian roulette!!

Both offensive and inaccurate (riding a bike is safer than driving in terms of deaths/million hours).

But the real cake is the other two idiots (the story is only hours old so only 15 comments so far).
Huge:

How come these fools in tights dont obey traffic laws, if they did, this probably wouldn't happen

Huge:

maybe they should "Share the Road" and this stuff wouldn't happen. Take a drive down 101, you'll see what I'm talking about

Capn Crunch:

Let me guess. Was the bicyclist riding just on the painted line of the bike-lane, even though there was about 2.5 feet of bike-lane available? O,r riding side-by-side with another cyclist, instead of single-file? Just to make the cars slow down and go around, instead of co-inhabiting the road? Just asking...

I can't stand hate-mongers like this. It saddens me and my suspicion is that the posters are road ragers who threaten cyclists in real life. It makes my blood boil

Bikes and Preferences

Since I got my Mango Sport I have found it hard to commute and ride my other bikes. I will jump on the raptobike for a quick ride and sprint around my neighborhood or to get the mail, but I ride the Mango for most any long rides. The difference is when I want to ride with Kristin or a friend. Then I get on the Raptobike as it is better to keep the same pace as others. The few times I rode with groups on the Mango I really put-putted along.

What is amazing is that for commuting, there is no substitute. The Mango Sport "The Carrot" is so suited for packing a laptop, some tea supplies, my lunch and a change of clothing. To do the same with my Raptobike or Corsa means dealing with one or two panniers. With the Mango I just pack it into my backpack or place it loose inside. I get to work, pop out, grab the satchel and go inside. No worries about water proofing as the mango takes care of that.

I can't wait until Wednesday when I get the Carrot back.

Anticipation

The mango sport is at the shop today. I am getting the brakes tuned, bleed, etc. I can't wait for the Carrot to be ready. Anticipation is deadly.

Soon I will be back on the road:

A comparision of two incidents involving cyclists and motorists.

First up we have Portland, OR. Considered the front runner in the US for positive treatment of cyclists.

From: bikeportland.org

A Multnomah County Grand Jury decided today that 63-year old Candice Palmer — the woman who told police investigators she reached into her back seat to tend to her dog and then struck and seriously injured a man who was bicycling on SW Multnomah Blvd — should not face criminal charges.

Palmer's car swerved into 20-year old Reese Wilson while he rode home from work on the 6100 block of SW Multnomah Blvd on February 4th. Palmer had her dog in the car and reportedly looked into the rear seat where the dog was just prior to the collision. After hitting Wilson, Palmer's car ran through a fence and came to rest on the side of a house.

Note: the man (20-year-old Reese Wilson) who was injured died in the hospital.

So a elderly woman confessed that she drove with extreme negligence, then killed a man riding a bike and then drove into a house. The Grand Jury in Multnomah decided that this didn't rise to the level necessary to charge the woman with a crime. The comments on articles spent most of their time arguing about helmets for cyclists rather than any comments on the motorist responsibility.

Here is a sample of the first few comments posted on this story at KATU news

comment 2: They don't believe the rider was wearing a helmet. That's crazy these days. Thank GOD that I wear a helmet.
comment 3:It will be interesting to see what was the cause of this. Not faulting the cyclist at all..Could have been clipped when the car went out off the road.Of course not wearing a helmet wasn't the brightest thing either.
comment 4:Stupid Bikes! Stay off the street!

As you can see, all three put blame on the cyclist.
Here is the picture of the car post incident:


Now listen and view this video about an incident where a driver ran into 4 teens at an intersection and caused only minor injuries. Pay attention to the media and public reaction.


The difference is night and day.