(no subject)

I realized last night that when I rebuilt my laptop a few months ago, I didn't back up my Minecraft stuff. And here I was convinced that, for once, I'd actually backed everything up!

My really large theatre is still ok on posicat's server, but I lost my Prairie Style house (based on the Robie House on the south side of Chicago) and the first theatre I made, a recreation of the Rhode Opera House here in Kenosha.

Oh well. I may rebuild something similar to the house on the other server that my brother is playing on. As for the theatre, if I build another one, it's going to be a lot bigger.

Here was my house:



And here was the old theatre:



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And this is a newer theatre that's gotten a lot more work since the point I made this pictures and only needs some finishing touches.



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But today, I need to go out and sell plasma and get my bike tire fixed!

(no subject)

My panniers arrived today! But before installing them, I had to buy an inner tube and figure out how to replace the one that popped.

I'd never replaced a tube on my own before, but it was pretty easy to do with a little help from instructional videos on Youtube. I was a little puzzled looking at the old tube; the place it popped was the valve stem. The entire stem had detached from the rest of the tube and, I assume, gone flying off to parts unknown, leaving a circular hole behind it. I've put a lot of time in on this bike without a flat so I suppose I was due, but I've never heard of getting one in quite that way.

So with the new tube on, I started on the panniers. It seemed fairly straightforward at first; just drape them over the rear rack and velcro in place. Except my test ride showed that I'd be smacking my heels against them on every pedal rotation. I looked online for ideas and came up with raising them higher off the rack with some kind of spacer, or moving them further back (possibly requiring purchase of a longer rack), or moving my feet out of the way while riding. Option 3 sounded atrocious, so I decided to investigate option 2 and see whether my rack would let me attach things further back from the seat.

I realized I could loosen the bolts attaching the rack to the seat post and slide the whole thing back several inches along the tracks in the metal arms that hold it in place. So I did that, but then found that, with stuff in them, the panniers extended too far back past the rack frame and swung right into my tires!

I thought about several ways to jury-rig them and settled on some small pieces of 1x1 wood I found lying around. I drilled holes in the front and middle of one and used twist-ties to attach it horizontally at two points of the frame, letting the back half extend out where the back of the pannier would rest. I did the same with the other and gave the bike a ride around the block. Though it looks just a little bit odd with the bags canted back along the wheel the way they are, I'm pretty convinced that the whole thing is going to stand up well. I guess I'll find out tomorrow for sure when I ride to school. I'm going to put some notebooks and things in there to simulate a load of school supplies and see how it goes.

If I should be in the position to buy a bicycle in the future, I'll have a much better sense of what I want. A commuter bike, not a mountain or specialized road bike. No suspension. Long chain stays to fit big panniers. Mounting points for racks and fenders. Higher, more comfortable handlebars to accommodate my problem wrist. Too bad I didn't know all that about 15 years ago when I bought the one I have now! That said, the one I have is really working out pretty well so far.