the (un)real thoughts of realbt

It all started in June. I decided I would buy a bike and start cycling to work. Over a hill, and over a bridge, the trip takes only about 20 minutes — which is usually a little bit faster than taking transit. It’s good exercise, and cheaper than transit (bike not included).

Off I went to Sport Chek to buy the cheapest bike I could find.

$109 + tax later, I had a cheap bike.

Within a few weeks, my front tire came loose. Something in the axel went funny, and the wheel rotated on its axis ever so slightly. That’s not good. So I took it back and had them fix it. Warantee service #1. The friendly bike mechanic at the store gladly fixed it, but said that it would likely happen again because it’s a cheap bike, with cheap parts.

Granted, when you pay $100 for a bike, you don’t expect it to last for ever. Daily use was not what was intended for this bake, apparently. But that’s like saying that if you buy a cheap car and the transmission falls out four weeks later, it wasn’t intended for daily use.

So my cheap bike was nicknamed Adam, after Adam Sandler and my altered version of one of his dumb songs: Piece of Shit Bike.

Skip ahead about 6 weeks. I was riding home, just about to go over the Burrard Bridge, when my gears went all funny. My chain didn’t fall off (although that has happened countless times), but it went all funny, and I could no longer shift into 6th gear. I managed to climb over the bridge, and even up all the hills. But as soon as I got to the top, the gear sproket thingy on the rear tire came all loose. When I peddled, the chain turned through the sproket thingy, but the tire didn’t turn. Nice. Good thing I made it to the top of the hill first.

Warantee service #2.

Today, I took my bike back and had a chat with the same friendly bike mechanic. First, I asked for my money back. No dice. Then, I asked if there was anything else that could be done (trying to avoid having the bike serviced a second time in as many months). The manager became involved and offered me an exchange for another bike. I was able to talk him down a little bit lower on this bike.

Another $180 + tax later, and I now have a bigger and lighter frame, a better bike, and a larger bill. Or at least I will when I pick it up tomorrow after work.

So much for the flight of my cheap bike. Intending to spend under $200, I’ve now spent nearly $300. How did that happen?

Let’s hope the new, yet to be named, bike works out better.

I think it’s quite puzzeling that the Conservative television commercials are much more amature and have generally lower production values than the NDP commercials. The NDP commercials are polished, not corney (and that has nothing to do with a Harper/Layton comparison), and slam the Liberals without appearing terribly negative. What gives?

I found the first snow fall of the season raining upon me as I walked to the bus loop from the computer science building on campus last night. Not a little, but quite a lot. It was sticking, and also quite wet, I soon realised as I pulled out my umbrella in hopes of staying dry. Typically quiet around the science and engineering end of campus at 11pm, the snow further absorbed any noise from cars leaving the parkades and others like myself leaving labs late in the last week of the term.

Despite all the work this term has brought with my rather heavy load, I am feeling rather pleased with the progress made so far on my computer graphics project. Last night I created a spot lights in our “game” as well as implemented a vary crude shadowing algorithm. (Who knew rendering even fake shadows would be so difficult and slow.)

It seems it snowed over night. The ground is white, and traffic is no doubt a mess in the lower mainland. All the signs of the first snow fall of the season.

CBC is back. Now I can read Canadian news again.

I watched part of the US Vice Presidential debate tonight. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it other than complain about Edwards. I’m not even listening to the analysis of the debate, but it seemed pretty clear to me that Cheney looked generally more competent than Edwards.

Not to even touch on the fact that Edwards completely sold out on all of the marriage issues. He continued talking about how he and Cheney agreed on the definition of marriage, and harped on the fact that Cheney has a gay daughter. At least Cheney looked like a dignified moron.