Various videos of the University of Toronto Human Powered Ornithopter have been making the rounds and I thought I would link to one here because it’s related to stuff I think about a lot but never do anything towards.
Also, a while back I posted a video of people doing wingsuit flying in Norway. I saw another awesome video of that today so that’s here too.
Let’s see, what else is going on. I’m older now. I suppose that goes without saying but there you are. I’ve been slowly getting back in shape after a year or so spent working and eating and sleeping and not a whole lot else. It is fraught with peril and not just because of the aforementioned olderness. The lifting and rowing are coming into line but how much / how fast is not really worth mentioning. I mention all this in service of me potentially buying a bicycle. It’s been a while since I’ve been on one and while I still have my old mountain bike from 1993 I’m leaning in the road bike direction. The idea is that May 26th is ‘ride your bike to work day’. This is more of a challenge for some people than others. For me it would a 54 mile round trip. Thankfully we are in the midst of an office construction and remodeling frenzy which will result in showers.
There’s a substantial bicycling community at work and it would be nice to have people to ride with. I really like the rowing machine but it gets old sitting in a room rowing by yourself staring at the wall. I don’t think that the bike will replace the rowing but it will be another option for staying active in a low-impact sort of way with potential social benefits as well.
I’ve been reading a lot lately. I won’t go through the whole list but today I finished Zero History by William Gibson and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also read the Harry Potter books (finally) and they were entertaining as well. I believe the next book to arrive will be the fourth Terry Pratchett Wee Free Men series book. Those came as something of a surprise to me. I decided after reading Neil Gaiman’s Graveyard Book which was targeted at a younger audience that I might give the Pratchett ones a go too and was rewarded handsomely for it. Then it’s the next Stephen Donaldson Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant book and finally, rounding out the great 2010 Amazon pre-order fest, book 13.2 of the Wheel of Time.
That’s it for now.