Thoughtless

In Madrid, Although it is actually legal to park a motorbike on the pavement (I think the only legal requirement is to leave sufficient passage, a meter or more), the council has started placing motorbike-specific parking spaces. There are very few of them and thet are usually located in places with a large affluence of bikes.

It is almost "normal" to find brutes who will park in double line without a care for the people affected. This subject you see below not only had the cheek to park as you can see, blocking not one but 3 bikes (4 if you count mine due to not being able to park it) but when he returned to his car and I told him off (though in a very polite tone) also had the gaw to beckome cocky and confrontive. Thoughtless, ill-mannered and bad driver. What more can you ask for?

Sadly, even with this picture, reporting to the police would be useless as it would lead no-where. That doesn't stop me reporting it here...

Chatting about all this with my friends, we've decided to open up a new blog where we can publicly report (within legal bounds) all those barbarians (and valkiries, as there are a lot...) drivers out there. You can find it (in spanish only, sorry) at [salvajesalvolante.blogspot.com] and, naturally, you can all report!

Happy biiirthdayyy!!

A few miles into my return trip home from Barcelona, my little blue doll clocked her 70.000th Km like a champ. This year she'll be getting her dress (body) fixed as it is a little worn and she deserves to be treated like the lady she is.

Happy birthday, my darling!

Frankenstein was science fiction!

Some days ago, a new bill of law was aproved to enable scientists to do investigation on Human hybrids. Naturally, if that is where you stay, the idea sounds terrible! We all think of the Island of Dr. Moreau or similar ficticious stories. Eventually, any evil scientists could create monsters and mutations. Imagine being surrounded by people with horns, hooves, feathers and other alterations!

At least that is the vision of simplistic moralists. The reality of it is much more positive. The idea is to do investigation on the union of genes to better understand how genetics work in the real world (and not just in paper), to really understand how things like cancer, Altzheimer's disease and other illnesses work; since, now a days, all we can do is treat them with a bare minimum effectiveness. To do so, they need to use human embryos either created in a lab (with no divine intervention nor any kind of bed) or embryos from in-vitro fertilizations that are destined for destruction. Therefore, is giving them a positive use worse than to simply discard them? No one would give them a christian burial, nor even a name! But the goal of these investigations is not to create mutated beings but to examine the cells and genetic combinations at the cellular level. There will be no people with horns (at least no more than there are)[untranslatable joke. In spanish, it is said someone carries horns when their couple has been unfaithful] nor feathers nor super-beings nor anything like that. What there may be is less sickness and death.

To come up with cures for illness, scientists of all times have had two ways to go: experimentation and investigation. The first is based in the "trial and error" process based on educated guesses with basic knowledge of the base and the desired effect and some means to provide it. The second, much more effective, is based in really understanding the process of an illness, all its causes and then find a way to interrupt or impede the process. For this method, the key is the to understand of the process.

In the case of cancer, we know very little of the process nor why some cells "decide" to turn against their own environment. The "cures" that exist consist of killing these rebelious cells with heavy radiation or to extract the lot and hence stop the advancement of the disease since we don't actually know how to stop the disease itself. Also, Altzheimer's and other neural diseases' patients are left with little more than our attempts at making their life a little more comfortable. Can you imagine what this means for their families? The feeling of helplessness, injustice... I know some of you have actually felt this first hand. I'm one of you.

Even though, moralists ride on their righteous horses of truth and sacred to defend these "human lives", these souls tortured in glass tubes. They say this goes against God. They say it's immoral. They say they will create "frankensteinean" monsters. That it will lead to genetic racism.

How little they remember that these kinds of investigations have allowed parents to give life where they couldn't previously generate it by themselves. How little they remember that diseases now considered "common" have killed thousands in the past. How little they think of the inmorality of saving lives and the reasons that push scientists to these lines of investigations. Of course! Scientists are all evil and set on the anihilation of the human race and their immortal souls.

Yes, obviously, there is a lot of money to be made with these investigations and there are people with low morals ready to sell themselves. As there are in every human circle! (Let us remind these moralists of the many church scandals, the abuses of the clergy, so often living in ritches whilst people around them died of hunger and the fact that if they auctioned all the treasures of the Vatican they would wipe off hunger from the face of the Earth). Back in the subject, this is the reason why there are legal regulations, inspections every 3 months, records of all the activities carried out as well as the origin and destination of all embryos used. Could this lead to a future like the one portrayed in Gattaca or Blade runner? Doubtfull. Possible, but doubtfull. Let us remember that the goal of Science Fiction is to take the possibilities to the extreem and then some; to stretch the imagination further than what is probable.

... And, why not, to teach us where we can go wrong (remember that next time you are offered some Science fiction and you think "Bah, rubbish").

DIY II (The Shoe)

Due to a series of circumstances not relevant here, I found myself in posession of a camera tripod (that my good friend Yago gave me for my birthday) which I couldn't use, since the shoe (the piece that links the camera to the tripod for fast release) was lost.

Curiously, one would think such a piece would be cheap and easy to purchase since it is relatively simple to misplace it. Naturally, since Yago bought it in El Corte Ingles (the spanish Mark's and Spencer's), that was my first port of call. I was surprised to learn they don't have spares for this or any other tripod. My next step was to call up the oficial service company. To my amazement, they don't even import the piece because "it ain't worth it" (!!!). I was sugested a Universal shoe. Still dazed at all this, I shopped around a couple of photography stores and found that they not only had never heard of a Universal shoe, but also that the best course of action was to dump the tripod and buy a new one (!!!!!!).

Naturally, and specially considering the little use the tripod had had and that it was actually a birthday present from a friend, I was not willing to give up; and seing the world was not willing to help (I was quite willing to pay the postage from the US!), I decided that help should come from oneself first and that I would make myself one.

First we must observe the link in the tripod and analyze what shape it should be (as trying to remember it was difficult and useless).

With a paper template, I cut a metal soul from a can of a well known and enjoyed beer (niiiice)

Then, using the paper as a guide, plasticine and a metric 6 screw (the standard for camera links) kindly donated by my pal El Prenda, I made the mold in which I would later pour the bi-component resin. I also added the metal soul for reinforcement.

Once the piece is extracted, you clean off the plasticine (if you were enough of an idiot to not lubricate the mold) and you shave off the excess to obtain the first prototype.

As you can see, the piece fits perfectly on the trypod and could be used as it was without problems.

... buuuut, being a perfectionist, this prototype was full of bubles, the metal soul was not needed, the shape wasn't quite right (though it works fine), so we can use this as a template (so we can save on the use of papers and so on) for prototype 2.

... this time remembering to lubricate the plasticine adequately, of course...

Just so not to bore you, I did a couple of tests with black tints (a universal one for paint and some black spray paint) which were a disaster though also funny. The bi-component resin reacts with water (in the tint) and some other component (in the spray paint) which resulted in a completely useless black plastic foam.

So, back to basics, I did a piece in resin (pure and normal) and after extraction and shaving we obtain the following piece. We can paint it with some cheap black spray paint so it's a little more discrete (wouldn't want a white piece between the black camera and the black tripod).

The result, as you can see, is a perfect shoe we can screw on with a simple 1 or 2 cent coint (and leave it on, of course) which will allow us to enjoy our great present from a friend without anybody's help.

DIY I (LED back light)

As some of you know, some time ago, fed up of paying 6€ a pop for each lightbulb of my bike's back light (and it carries 2) and the fact they only lasted a while, I decided to change the old tungsten filament system for a much more reliable and low-consumption LED system, which is now so highly in fashion they're using it on trafic lights, signs and yes, even back lights on trains, bikes and cars.

The problem is I commited a beginners mistake. I assumed (which makes an ass out of u and me) the voltage would be stable at 12 volts, but when on idle, it doesn't get higher than 11,3, which is inadecuate for the original circuit. Also, at full working voltage it ended up being less bright than I thought.

Here are some pics of the original light

So now, with a little more time and experience, and looking forward to my trip to Jerez, I decided to redo the light.

We start by making a bigger plaque, which will allow for more LEDs. As my good frien El Prenda says, measure twice, cut once.

You put in the LEDs and solder all the components (this is the most involved part and I didn't take many pictures because I was busy soldering)

Here is the completed circuit and the installed light:

And here it is, working, the difference between the position light and the brakeing light. Now noone will be able to say they didn't see me brake!

One of these days...

We come and go. Busy in our days full of things that "need" to be done. We create a little space for ourselves and, soon enough, someone comes algong and fills it with some unsolicited task. Depending on who, we may even appreciate it, even with the loss of our space. Alas, someone needs us...

So we postpone that task, that project, that something we were going to do, for another moment.

Sometimes it doesn't even need another person's interaction to postpone things. That wardrobe that needs reorganizing. That room that needs sorting out. To place that carpet we have tucked away. Changing the clothes. Try to bring some logic to our library! Oofff... But life likes to throw spanners in our cogs and to design tangents to our roads. One day they need you a little more at work, the train is late, the weather conspires against you... and you get home and you really don't feel like attending those things you had set out to do today. Better do it on another of these days...

We have all received those pretty "carpe diem" powerpoints reinforced with the experiences of someone who's been on the brink of death. But in all truth, Carpe Diem is a hard motto to follow in the real world. We all have things we want to do and life sets out to deny them. In the wise words of John Lennon (I think) "Life is what happens while you're busy making plans".

But when one only has to answer to oneself, those failures, those delays seem less important. In the end, whatever you don't do today... you can do some other time. The importance seems to be acquired with someone's dissapointment. Thus we are one day faced with the thought "One of these days I gotta call X and see how he/she is doing...". We may even plan the call that evening. Doubtlessly, life will throw something at that one, too.

Someone (who deserves more importance than a simple "someone" expresses) recently took it upon themselves to remind me, also, that we can't lay all the blame on life.

Sometimes we are centered on the immediate, the easy, things or people that give us directly good moments. All that, in some manner or other, leaves us with a footprint in our lives is, in a sense, complex.

If you pay close attention, the footprints in life are the creases in our skin, more or less indeleble marks (funtionally directly proportional to the amount of botox used). Folds that don't hurt but, sometimes, when we see ourselves in the mirror, make us think.

Maybe that's why we leave what we can really say or do for "one of these days...". We wait for that day in which all will be easier, in which we will feel like talking about outselves or return to the past (with its fairies and its devils)

Thank you for the reminder. To my new set of intentions I add the one about not hiding from those who make me feel exposed (someone, again, someone who deserves much more importance than a simple "someone", also reminded me of the advantages of leaving yorself exposed; those who are trustworthy will make good use of it), call now instead of later, do today if I can. This year, not "some day".

So, what have you got planned for "one of these days"?