Tag Archives: buy buy buy - Page 9

The Next Big Thing

Posted by on August 24, 2014 No comments

Surprise obsessions are a difficult thing for me.  I started last week on a sudden quest toward a dual purpose.  Like many other inspirations of mine, it’s a race to finish the quest before the desire runs out.

I’m actually not sure where the spark came from, but it’s been something lingering inside me for a very long time.  The end result will be this: to own a complete collection of albums published under the MCA Master Series label and secondly, to create framed artwork of the album covers for my walls (copyrights be damned).

Let me explain the history of my experience with MCA Master Series.  When I was in my impressionable youth, I had acquired a home stereo, which had the new-fangled tech of the day – Digital Compact Disc – and I was building a CD collection of my own.  My stereo was monstrous, like most probably were at that time.  A full component system with receiver, dual tape deck, CD player, and the requisite 4-ft tall, 15”-woofer stereo speakers.

Around that time in my life, I was trying to figure out “who I was” and “who I wanted to be”.  One thing that I thought I wanted to be was “high-class”.  That didn’t necessarily equate to “rich” but more about appreciating art and music beyond the standard radio fare.  Let me quickly find an image that sums up my youthful vision…

…well now.  That was not a quick search at all, and this isn’t even what I think I originally had in mind, but:

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That’s more or less what I imagined, reclining on crazy-modern couches and listening to… what?  Something pretentious classy, sure, but what was that?  I hadn’t found it yet.

As luck would have it, around that time, the MCA Master Series was releasing albums, and because I lived in a tiny dump of a city, no one would ever buy that stuff, so it ended up in my music store’s bargain bin – my default shopping section.  The first album I bought was Edgar Meyer – Dreams of Flight.  I was incredibly attracted to the cover art, because it looked as modern and abstract as I imagined my future listening room would be.  The music was clean and clear, jazz/classical, and I grew very fond of it.

Also around that time, I had read some articles mentioning the band Acoustic Alchemy and I noticed they were on the same label as Edgar Meyer.  A nearby pawn shop supplied me with these and many more of the MCA Master Series catalog.  All were enjoyed (except Booker T Jones, which is the only one I now regret throwing away) and are in my current collection.

Fast-forward to recent days and I’m finding a nostalgic desire to have that innocent dream of what my future could be – relaxing in a modern sofa (which I do have, now), listening to New Age/Jazz/Classical on a high-end audio system, maybe reading some e-books.

My adult sense of appreciation enjoys this music label for another reason.  When you put all the albums together, you have a incredibly cohesive marketing design.  There’s really something to be said for that, and it’s something that I feel might be lacking today.  Because I know the MCA Master Series is all high-quality, I can scan a rack of CDs looking for their consistent design and find something in a flash.  Using the same fonts on every album, with a dash of color for uniqueness, was a genius move.  You can see the same marketing technique if you are a Telarc or Rykodisc fan – just scan for their logo in the spine.  Windham Hill is another example, as well.

Back to the story, I’ve been hammering online sources and local sources for these really old, out-of-print CDs (yes, 30 years!).  I don’t want any reissues, if they exist.  I want these albums for the original artwork as much as the music.  Less than a week into my mission, I have purchased six missing albums.  Right now, I have 13 out of out of 43, with 4 en route, leaving 26 left to find and purchase.  I’m estimating at least $150 to finish out this collection.

What will that mean?  I’ve talked about collections again and again in my blog.  And the truth is still there.  This collection will mean nothing to anyone else but me.  But let’s discard that fact and think about phase two of the plan.  Scanning the album covers and getting them printed and framed as artwork.  Granted, some of the covers aren’t really suitable for framing, but many of them are.  Framing 43 covers?  Gah!

I’ll have to post some updates as I progress through this collection growth.

Random Pieces

Posted by on July 10, 2014 No comments

Recently, Flickr, which is part or Yahoo, decided they were going to do away with integrated authentication (OAuth, SSO, whatever you want to call it), meaning you had to have a Yahoo login instead of logging in with a FaceBook or Google account.  Curiously, Microsoft Live wasn’t included in the SSO program, even though Yahoo has a good working relationship with Microsoft.  But none of that matters now.

Predictably, people are up in arms that they have to have a Yahoo login.  I’ve had a few Flickr accounts over time, two still current, but will probably drop down to just one.  That remaining one was integrated with FaceBook, so I had to go through the process of creating a new Yahoo account.  I didn’t like doing it, but what I do like is having 1TB of free picture hosting that I can access via API.  Let me explain that value a bit more.  Hopefully, Yahoo doesn’t read this post and figure out how to stop it.

I have a virtual server with GoDaddy that I can use to host whatever web sites I want.  It’s certainly not the fastest server in the world, but then again, I don’t host the biggest sites in the world.  As part of this bare-bones plan, I have about 30GB of drive space, 20 of which is used up by OS and system applications.  So, space is definitely at a premium. 

If I’m going to host a web site that has a photo gallery, which I do as part of a side project I’m involved in, things get a little tense.  But, with a little clever coding, I can host all the photos on Flickr and use their API to display the albums and photos on my website.  You’d never even know the images are on Flickr unless you look at the URLs, and what normal web user does that?  So, even with a free account, you can have 1TB of photo hosting – with no advertising.  Sounds a little too good to be true.  But I’m grateful.

And for that one reason alone, I can tolerate having a Yahoo account.  And I’d have to tell any of the people all upset about having to create a Yahoo account:  You’re late to the game, guys.  Flickr used to have its own login before Yahoo bought them and before SSO became a “thing”.  Would you have been upset that you had to create a whole new Flickr account to use their service?  Of course not.  Get over it.

In other news, for the afore-mentioned side project, I just purchased a vinyl cutting machine and heat press machine.  It seemed like a good purchase at the time because of all the team jerseys that were always needed on short notice.  And also, I am a big proponent of doing as much myself as possible.  When you control everything from end-to-end, your costs and timelines are more predictable.  (It’s almost like dropping login support for other parties and doing it all yourself, eh, Yahoo?)  Outsourcing the printing of the jerseys had previously resulted in different costs, sometimes due to rush jobs, sometimes due to the printer’s whim.  One job resulted in an incorrect name printed, with no time for correction since we paid out the nose for rush processing and shipping anyway.  So bringing the shirt printing in-house was, to me, the best solution.  Par for the course, both machines had to be rush shipped so we had enough time to print jerseys for the next game.  Even so, buying entry-level equipment only cost about $600.

Now that I own this equipment, there is a serious potential to make that money back and then some.  I have to say, the setup and operation of this equipment was really simple.  If you can: use any graphics program, print a document, follow directions, and count, you can probably run a t-shirt business.  And I have to say, watching a vinyl cutter, which is just a plotter with a knife instead of a pen, is mesmerizing.

Back Into Music, Do They Still Make Music?

Posted by on June 25, 2014 No comments

Like the changing of the seasons, it’s time to cycle back into music-making.  It’s been quite a long time since I’ve had any major interest in it.  I guess mostly because I haven’t felt like I’ve had any time.  Everything seems to be experienced in small doses here and there, and when I take a long time to sit down with an idea and try to expand it, I start to feel guilty, like I’m not paying attention to something that needs attention.  This sort of meshes in with prior posts about how fleeting inspiration is and how life gets in the way. 

Sometimes a real inspiration-killer is the effort it takes to set up and manage a recording session.  When your time is limited, you kind of have to have everything planned in advance.  You can find plenty of videos of musicians sitting in a studio, trying out different things until something gels.  I used to have that luxury; I don’t feel I have that now.

Like when you have a good starting riff, then you go searching for the right sound patch to express it.  Half an hour later, you’re midway through one synth’s patches and still have a few more synths to go.  I guess that’s why so many people compose on a piano or acoustic guitar – deal with the sounds later.

So, I’m upgrading my office studio again, adding a third monitor to my computer to be wall-mounted above my keyboards so I can keep the recording software in front of me (Cubase in ma face).  In past setups, I’ve had my computer to my side and to my back.  I hope that being in front will help me be more productive since I don’t have to turn around all the time.

I’ve burnt out two mixers over the last few years, so I’ve been playing through headphones.  That’s also going to be rectified with the upgrade – another mixer.

Yikes.  Looking back at previous blog posts, it looks like I’ve been musically idle for over three years.  That’s really no good.  Oh, no…  Checking my hard drive, the last thing I recorded was back in 2009.  Where does the time go?!  That is nothing like the changing of seasons, that’s more the changing of a generation.

And speaking of generations, it goes without saying that music is “done” differently now, and I have little interest in trying to do it that way or trying to sound similar.  I do wonder if the effort to create modern music is more or less than what it takes me to do it the old way.  For example, I have to write and play multiple tracks for a 4 minute song.  Newer composers have to find to find a bunch of samples that work well together, loop them in some coherent order and then spend who-knows-how-much-time applying effects.  At least that’s how I view modern music.

I listen to old-style music written in the new way and it seems to be the worst of both styles (effort-wise).  Writing and performing everything, then embellishing it with effects and post-processing.  That seems like so much effort, and it seems like so much more than I could devote in my tiny blocks of available time.

Like when you have a complete song, then you go searching for the right effects to apply.  Half an hour later, you’ve run through one effect unit’s settings and still have half a dozen different units to go.  On one track.  It feels like I’ve been there before.

We Will Beat Any Deal!

Posted by on May 3, 2014 No comments

A recent forum post was relating a story of how a car sales person defended the use of high-pressure tactics and treating customers like idiots:  The technique will work reliably as long as WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) still has viewership.

Now there’s an idea!  Clearly, the salesman is referring to the fact that the customer will pay extra as long as there is some spectacle involved.  The buyer gives an offer and, pow!  Clothesline!  The salesman falls to the ground, stunned.  The salesman counters the offer and the customer deflects it with a wave of his arm.  The crowd is screaming for the customer to win.  The salesman runs to his corner and tags his manager.  The manager comes out and is immediately knocked to the floor by a demand of an extended warranty!  Such spectacle!  So much glory!

But, through application of standard car sales tactics, like a never ending line of opponents, the customer eventually gets tired and just wants the match to be over.  The dealer wins, again!  But it was a good show, so at least there’s that.

CYA UPS

Posted by on April 28, 2014 No comments

I hear and read a lot of stories about theft of packages.  Fortunately, I’m in a good neighborhood, so nothing of mine ever walks away.  But, aside from that, I know there can be misdeliveries, and then it’s more a matter of having honest neighbors.

I was checking the status on an order (a new computer for a client) and it just got delivered, about 25 minutes ago.  On the website, I saw a note that said “Left at: Font Door” and a link that said “Proof of Delivery”.  I thought, awesome, what proof of delivery is this?  I was expecting to see a picture of my package in front of my door.  Well, no.

I was disappointed.  It was just a bunch of text with dates and times and numbers and junk.  And my disappointment made me think, someone needs to do this.  Clearly, they have wifi to transmit the time of delivery back to the office and then off to the website.  Why couldn’t they include a picture?  In the event of misdelivery, a customer could possibly identify a neighbors door where the package was left.  By showing the package was there, it would make it clear whether the package loss was theft or driver error.

In fact, if I was a UPS driver, I think I’d be snapping a pic with my cell phone at each delivery.  I’d have photographic evidence in case anyone accused me of messing up, plus I’d have time stamps and even GPS coordinates.  This is a very litigious world we live in, and everyone needs to watch their own ass.  And it’d be good customer service.  That too.

Watch Out.

Posted by on December 14, 2013 No comments

I mentioned in a past post that I have a small watch collection.  I say it that way because recently, I considered collecting watches.  I thought I had a fair collection – isn’t more than one a collection?  I had one valuable watch handed down from my dad, four watches all of the same make, just slight variations, then two gifted watches that I didn’t care for.  My plan was to start collecting watches I like.

A little bit of research online showed that that’s not what “watch collecting” means.  Watch collectors are, put bluntly, fucking snobs.  There seems to be only a couple of ways to garner the respect of a watch collector.  Either already have a collection of high-end timepieces, or if you  are starting out, ask for advice and say your budget is something like $5,000.  So, my “collection” of sub-$100 watches is probably an insult to their art.

I had mused on collections in a really old post and came up with the decent conclusion that a collection really only has value to the owner, not to anyone else. (like hair, I said.  Crazy.)  I thought a bit more on it and considered the absurdity of the concept of collecting. Here I am buying $70-100 watches and there’s a whole lot of people out there that couldn’t (or wouldn’t dare) buy a single watch for more than $20.  In that regard, I am very fortunate for my situation, but I certainly don’t have the audacity to look down on someone because they don’t see some perceived value in watches that I see.

And that’s kind of the point.  Why do we collect things?  The high-end watch collectors must be smitten with the amazing craftwork in a watch, and I can understand that.  The issue is that the appreciation of the complexity of the watch is not what is conveyed to a potential fellow collector.  And someone that is buying a watch for a new collection (with a budget of $5k), clearly can’t appreciate the device at the same level.

Really, after all is said and done, a watch tells time.  A $20 Casio digital quartz watch is just as accurate as a Rolex, and doesn’t come with a regular maintenance schedule.  If you’ve never known about luxury watches, yes, they do need to be serviced regularly.  Pay a lot up front and keep paying on schedule.  So, the argument “That watch will last for your lifetime,” loses its charm a little when you have to effectively pay the cost of a new watch every few years.

Given all the thinking I’ve done on this now, I am going to go ahead with my “collection”, although it’s not going to be classified as a collection.  I’m not sure what else to call it.  It’s just a set of watches that I like looking at and wearing and that have the expected purpose of telling time.  As part of their purpose, they match my wardrobe and match the activity I have planned while wearing them.  That’s a balance of practicality and fashion. 

Maybe someday, I will have the desire to own a device with an amazing internal structure and will find the cost of owning it to be worth the reward.  But that day is not today.

Prime Season

Posted by on October 31, 2013 No comments

A little while ago I was shopping on Amazon’s website and the product I found had two sellers from which to buy.  One seller was cheaper, but wasn’t eligible for Amazon Prime’s free shipping.  The other seller was Amazon itself – so, free shipping – but the price was more expensive.  If I had to pay shipping, the cheaper vendor would have won out.

This got me thinking about a couple of things.  First, I had a little bit of pity for the seller who wasn’t Prime, but he probably gets business from non-Prime members, so that’s ok.  The other thing I thought of more carefully is the Amazon Prime membership itself.

Let’s forget the other benefits of Prime like the free streaming videos.  Let’s just say that when you buy a Prime membership, you are paying shipping costs in advance.  That is, you put $80 in a shipping escrow account and you use it up throughout the year as you buy Prime-eligible products.  How long will it take to use up that $80?  Maybe 10 purchases, give or take a few? 

Now, what if all the products you were buying with free shipping were a little more expensive than other sellers, but still cheaper than whatever it would cost with shipping from those other vendors?  Even if it was just a couple of dollars, it’s still cheaper, right?  A bag of gummy bears for $8 with free shipping or the same bag for $6 plus $4 shipping.  It’s $2 more on the product, but $2 less after shipping is considered.

But… you’ve paid for shipping in advance, remember?  You are chipping away at your escrow account slower than you might have thought, because you’re contributing a little bit towards shipping by paying a slightly higher price.  So, while you may think you’re getting an awesome deal by purchasing Prime, it’s not that awesome.  It can still be very good, though.  That 10-purchase, break-even point we estimated earlier could easily double.

The more important part is that Prime incentivizes you to buy from Amazon and not from other sellers – even other sellers on Amazon.  This means the profit from the sale of the item stays with Amazon.  And if Amazon is lucky, you won’t use so much free shipping as to burn through your escrow.

To summarize:  You pay more for a product from Amazon than from another seller.  The additional profit for Amazon goes to offset the cost of the “free” shipping.  You are also paying for some of that shipping from your purchase of Prime.

This is like a wet dream for number-crunchers: to come up with the perfect balance of item pricing that undercuts the competition by the smallest amount and still convinces the buyer to choose Amazon.  Can you imagine the computing power that is likely devoted to this formula every single day?

Un-Disposable

Posted by on October 23, 2013 No comments

Today I felt pretty good about myself.  I kept myself from spending more money.  I did this by simply repairing what I intended to replace.  This story goes back a little ways.  It’s about my watch.

I can’t recall if I’ve mentioned my watches before, but I have a small collection – a collection I recently am trying to build up a little.  I don’t really like heavy things on my wrist, so I have been attracted to Skagen watches because they are so thin.  When you get them in titanium, they’re even lighter.  As an aside, the current trend of huge watches offends me greatly.

I’ve been wearing Skagen watches for probably over 15 years.  One of the first watches I had, I loved.  Then the battery went dead.  So I filled out an RMA form and mailed the watch off to Skagen for battery replacement.  I never saw the watch again.  Worse, I never saw that model again, so I was never able to replace it.  I think I didn’t wear a watch for a period of time after that incident out of grief and protest.

Years go by and I’ve got a few more watches, a couple Skagen and a Wenger.  One day, I snag the mesh band on something and it pulls a link out, causing a sharp spur.  So I go to Skagen’s repair site and find that a replacement band is about $25.  That’s $25 on a $70 watch, quite a decent percentage of value.  So I balked at replacing the band.  Instead, I spent $100 on a new, nicer Skagen.  It made sense, and that watch has served me very well for years.

But the watch with the broken band has been sitting in my watch case ever since.  I really do like it – the lightest one I have and it has numbers on the face, instead of just ticks.  So recently, I went back to the Skagen website to order the band.  Now all of a sudden, you can’t buy replacement parts.  You have to send your watch to a service center for repair.  Yeah, I’ve been through that one before.  No thanks.  I search around online and the supply of replacement bands is very small and more expensive.  What the heck is going on?

I found my answer: Fossil bought out Skagen.  And with that purchase, they completely changed the way service is done.  I have little love for Fossil.  I owned one watch by them and it never “worked” for me, then it stopped working, literally.  So it was a huge disappointment to hear the news of the sale.

Now, I was going back and forth between buying a replacement watch ($70), or actually paying the now $30+ just for the band.  Oh, and the battery needs replaced ($12).  Then it hit me.  The Dremel!  I have tools!  I can grind this spur down, and if I fail at doing that, what have I lost?  I was prepared to chuck the watch anyway.

So, with the precision of an amateur dentist, I chose a grinding bit and went to town.  Totally anti-climatic, it took like 3 seconds and I had a flawless result.  Why I didn’t think of that earlier, I don’t know.  No, I kinda do know.  I’m a wasteful, consumerist American.  Everything is disposable. 

But, I’m  compelled to look for a deeper meaning here.  Why didn’t I just toss the watch and buy another?  After all, I did buy a replacement model and still didn’t throw it out.  Maybe I have a deeper connection with that watch than I realize.  I’ll get the battery changed this weekend, and I have a new watch in the mail, and I have a plan to buy another watch (maybe even two) on my upcoming vacation, so we’ll have to see which watch gets the most face time in the end.

Revamped Office

Posted by on October 18, 2013 No comments

Welcome to my hell.  Actually, I mean, welcome to my productivity trap.

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Many years ago – 8 to be precise – I made the purchase, nay, the investment, in good office furniture.  I ordered from Staples’ business collection, the Bush Cubix series.  Not so long ago, I revisited that purchase and was utterly shocked that I had spent nearly $500 on two pieces of furniture: a 60” desk and a bookcase.

However, as time has proven, you get what you pay for.  This furniture has been excellent despite the fact that I’ve never taken care of it at all.  But all that is going to change soon.  As you can see, my workspace has become a storage space for everything.  It has no purpose, and when I sit down at it, I am uninspired and lost.

To begin this change, I spent another $500 on two more pieces from the Cubix collection: a 3-drawer storage unit and a stand for my printer and papers.  I can’t get the hutch and locker yet.  Someday…  But, this is going to get the stuff off my desk, giving me a clear view with less distractions.  Then once everything is off, I can clean the desk.  There are some chips in the finish from a very poor decision I made one night involving a clamp.  While bemoaning the fact that my clean desk was still going to be marred, I hit upon an idea that gave me hope and inspiration for the future of my home-office work.  That idea is the humble leather desk pad.

Ok, maybe it isn’t humble.  In a lot of ways it’s pompous, since it’s a executive thing, but it doesn’t have to be.  Look at the current state of my desk.  Look at how many things are sitting in front of me.  Now imagine a desk pad blocking all that junk.  The desk pad says, “No.  Not here.  This is not storage area, this is creative area.”  And that is where I am drawing my inspiration.  In the chaos that is my desk right now, the desk pad is going to be a sanctuary of openness.  Things enter that sanctuary to be worked on, then are retired to their homes.

Of course, the new furniture is the other part of it.  Right now, there is no home for everything on my desk.  Also, my files are in a box in the closet off to the side.  Because it’s such an annoyance to go to the closet and get the filing box, papers to be filed pile up in my “outbox” on the right side.

Not shown in the picture is my bookcase, which is stuffed full of junk.  Yes, there’s books in there, but there’s also spindles of DVDs, envelopes, paper, labels, a drawer organizer with all my office stuff in it, manuals, and some art.  Art that is crowded out where it doesn’t  even look like art, it looks like junk.  So with the addition of my new storage units, I can get the stationary stuff and DVDs out of there.  It will give more room for proper display.  It will probably kick off another round of downsizing, as I re-evaluate the things I haven’t touched in years.

Since I have at least a week to wait for the new furniture, I have plenty of time to dwell on this, make notes, research and consider different layouts, and write about it all.  My home office is also my studio, with a recently-reduced number of keyboards (2), and some guitars.  The picture shows the heavily-underutilized rack stand, acting as a printer and mixer stand, with a couple of drawers.  I have a couple of torch lamps in the corners that are probably ready to be retired.  I can replace them with LED sunlight lamps if needed.

The bottom line is, I need to visualize what I want.  And what is it that I want?  I don’t host guests in my office.  My original layout accommodated stepping between computer and keyboards when recording.  Maybe I need something like that again?

And then…

This is my new workspace. 

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The desk is no longer against the wall, it is now in the center of the room.  One of the biggest things this relocation did for me is put the ceiling light directly over the desk.  Now I am not backlit while at the desk and my keyboard doesn’t suffer from being completely shadowed.

As mentioned, I now have a three desk storage unit to hold all my desk pieces and files.  I have a printer stand that has taken a lot of clutter off of my bookshelf.  My bookshelf is now in front of me, where I can put some more artful items.  Although the pictures don’t show it, I also have shelves on the wall.  I now have more shelf space than pieces to put on them.

And in the center of the desk is the desk pad.  I have used this just as I describe.  It is a clear space (except when the cat feels like being the center of attention).  I bring items into that space: bills, letters, computer parts, whatever.  I do the work and clear it out.  And as with my new tool kit, there is a place for everything.  I do have a junk drawer, which will need to be addressed, but that also means that everything in it needs to receive a designated place.

Has it helped my productivity?  I think it’s a little early to tell.  I am happy for all these changes, but honestly, it did not cause a huge change in motivation.  I think I’ve been going though a slight bout of depression, from which I am now recovering.  If that’s what it was, then it’s good I’m coming out of it into a more organized living area which will be receptive to creation.

The Tools of Efficiency

Posted by on October 15, 2013 No comments

Oh, wretched neglect. 

I pulled my motorcycle, Nile, out after yet another long period of ignoring.  The poor thing was covered in cobwebs and everything in the trunk was mildewed to death.  I might need to buy a new trunk, it’s so bad.

But you know what?  I have pulled Nile out on average only once every six months and she has never let me down.  It takes a bit to start, but the battery is never dead, she never fails to eventually start, and she rides as solid as I would expect.  Because I ride so little, I can never tell if she’s riding poorly or not.

But it’s now beginning to be riding season here, with the deadly heat, bugs, and monsoon rains going away.  Which means it might be time to begin considering spending money on something different.  The bike needs new turn signals.  The rubber stalks are dry-rotted to the core and are literally crumbling apart.  So, I purchased new turn signals.  That will probably end up with a blog page, with pictures of the whole process.  And then, I’ll do the front signals.

In order to change out the front signals, I’ll need to take the front fork apart.  That requires a 22mm socket, which I don’t have.  You know what that means… shopping!

So, long story short, a 22mm socket is $7 at Sears.  But, they had a 255-piece tool kit on clearance that included a 22mm socket for only $180.  The decision was pretty easy.  See, the last time I bought tools was probably about 15 years ago.  It was an entry-level Craftsman socket set.  That set served me very well for all those years, but taken as a whole, my tool collection was pretty poor.  The sockets were “organized” in ziplock bags, the wrenches were incomplete, random, china-made castoffs.  Despite having a massive two-level rolling toolbox, I didn’t have any way to organize my tools.

Now with this set, every piece has a molded place in a removable tray.  My wrench set is fully complete and my socket set is expanded.  The kit makes the task of replacing the motorcycle turn signals a breeze, knowing I have the exact tools I need right at hand.  I don’t have to fish around for the right sockets or wrenches (usually discovering that the size I need is not in my collection).  Most importantly, finishing up means returning each piece to its proper place.  This will make me more productive in the long run.  It’s the same premise I based my office redesign on. (future post spoiler)  And despite having more tools now, having a cohesive set makes it seem like it’s one unit, instead of sets of sockets, wrenches, and screwdrivers.

But, back to the bike.  I have changed out the rear signals and I have been riding more.  I did recently  get soaked to the bone on one ride home from work – just like the good ol’ days.  And I still can’t complain that Nile has been rock-solid for me.