Shibbyonline

March Milage

Total cycling commuting miles for March: 349.8

My first event of 2009

Yesterday I completed my first cycling event of 2009.
Whilst the CCS Reliability Ride is not really a race, it is also a bit more than the Sunday club runs. Before the event I decided I would have fun and ride round with other CCS club members, but half way round that plan changed and it turned into an ‘eyes out’ dash to the finish.

The morning started with driving rain and a temperature just above freezing.
I headed out to the start to find the number of riders down on last year, but given the weather it’s not surprising. Still I signed up for the longer 48 mile route but opted for the slower cut off time of three and a half hours.

The weather did not get any better throughout the day, in fact knowing the route I realised that the last leg home would be directly into the wind.
Around the 20 mile mark we came down Semer hill, which is an 11% descent; not something seen in Suffolk very often. I started the decent on the back of the group but my fixed wheel momentum meant I soon passed the pack and onto the two lead riders; Viv and John.
They however saw this passing as a challenge and increased their pace. I saw this increase in pace and raised them a few rpm. Within two miles we had dropped the rest of the group and were the only three cyclists visible on the wet country roads.

The going was good with the wind behind us, it even felt like the rain had lifted. But we were still heading away from the finish. There is a slow long incline coming out of the village of Hitcham and then the road feels like it climbs all the way to Great Finborough. It was at this point I just put my head down and dug in. At first I was not trying to drop the other two, just find a good rhythm and keep momentum. When I passed into Finborourgh I looked back to see quite a gap and something inside made me push on rather than wait. Despite knowing that I was entering the return leg and a group would stand a better change in the headwind, I pressed on.

When I finally turned into the wind heading back towards Lavenham and then Sudbury I was running on reserve energy levels, I had not bought any food with me as it was going to be a leisurely ride. All I had was a some water and the odd bit of road grit, a bonk was looking inevitable.
At one point my vision was so blurry it was a job to see the road let alone keep a bike upright. Plus the single speed fade was wearing thin; all I wanted to do was change gear and let up a bit.
Pride is a very powerful emotion and it was the only reason I did not let up. I knew my pace had dropped right off, I was waiting to hear Viv’s voice behind me as he passed. But pride kept my legs turning and I soon rolled back into the start/finish hut.
I only had time for a tea and a bit of cake (I need to replenish some energy levels quickly) before Viv arrived. My time was 2hours 57minutes only three minutes ahead of Viv.

Macworld; What Happened?

I love all Mac related events, it’s a time that new shiney gadgets are unveiled and I work out how I can purchase them.
This years Macworld event started off with the shock of Apple pulling out and the main man Steve not performing another Steve-note.
But nothing compared to the actual event!

Let’s sum it up: iLife, iWork, iTunes DRM free and 17” MacBook Pro.

Honestly I do use iWork so I’m interested in that, not sure if web sharing is as cutting egde as they think. Just don’t build it on iDisk foundations!
But come on, is that it. Where is the updated Mac Mini, cinema screens, iMac revisions, the excitement!
I was really looking forward to a AppleTV related ‘one more thing’ but alas nothing.

Steve was right to spend the time with his family.

Happy New Year

As the World crashes into 2009 I dust off my keyboard. Nope not really I’m out somewhere enjoying myself but it felt about right to post a little note just to say have a good New Year’s.

Back on my bike

That’s right after a two year break I’m back on my bike and taking on the UK again. In 2006 I cycled from Lands End to John O’Groats, in 2008 I’m take the south bound road and cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End. This time around I’m hoping to raise money for the Breakthough Breast Cancer charity following on from my own personal encounters with the disease. Please feel free to donate any spare change. I’m joining forces with David and Harry again and hope to finish the journey in seven days. Not as fast as last time but apparently the weather will be against us most of the way; prevailing winds and all that business. Plus I’ve not ridden a bike any distance since… well the last time, so I’m expecting any ground breaking performances. Of course I would not be a the geek that I am if I did not make something of it. To which I present you with the Long Cycle Down web site. Yes I was watching Ewan and Charlie when registering a domain name. Please drop by and offer some support or make a donation.

Brighten Up The Office

If your lucky you have an office instead of a cubical. If your really lucky you have an office that is well looked after and painted in some subtle tones to inspire a relaxing working environment. If your me you end up in a studio with a bright yellow wall behind you and a bright blue to your right. This does not provide a perfect environment for the Creative Services crack team that is Jim Brown and myself. So in a Friday afternoon moment it was decided that we should spark the place up a bit, but rather than just obtain artwork or posters from the nearest shop we should think about it. What better excuse than to make some South Park avatars of ourselves and post up with something that matched.

Jim Brown

Adam Chamberlin

What a busy few months

Wow looking back at my site the last article I wrote was nearly 4 months ago. Damn the time flies when your on the cross roads of life and life changing decisions mean you have to take a break and access where your going. So if you know me or have followed this blog you will no doubt know that I work as a sales development manager for Oscar Products; a small local packaging wholesaler. Unfortunately thanks to this sudden movement in the “save the environment and don’t use a carrier bag” inspired by the Daily Mail and green movements. Now I’m not going to start the whole debate of should you do this or that with your packaging, but what I will say is that this sort of information damages. The damage this time around was the downturn in business for Oscar Products; so much so that there had to be some serious cost reductions to keep the company afloat. One of those costs was me. So instead of enjoying the beginnings of the summer I spent May trying to reflect on life and contemplating my options given that as of the 1st June I will be made redundant. Obviously the first step was to get my name on the local recruitment agencies and employment services. But my second step was to decide what I wanted to do as I saw this as a second chance. Of course my love for the internet came to the front so I started looking for a job in this industry. Easier said than done when you have no portfolio and nothing much to show for your time, so after a few set backs I sat down with Lucy and we talked about my options, we decided I need to start at the bottom again and work my way up; build a career and a suitcase of projects. In stepped Prolog; a local company but a National leader in logistics and fulfillment. Around Sudbury if you mention Prolog most people think you work on the Tiscali broadband call centre, however there is so much more to the company; one of those is a Creative Services studio that produces printed and new media in the forms of web sites. Turned out they needed a web developer, that also doubled up as a studio assistant with the printed stock. The salary was not right but the opportunities and inspiration was just what I was looking for. June 1st I started as the new web developer at Prolog. Within the first few weeks I was working on a printed magazine and experiencing Quark Express for the first time. A month on I’m producing company documents and helping the studio manager produce a national magazine. I’m now two months into my new job and so far it is looking great. So much so that I’m able to sit back down in the evenings and enjoy my time. Which will hopefully mean I can blow the dust off this site and get writing again.

The Day I Met James Toseland

James Toseland is the current World Super Bike Champion, and now the best British bet at winning the MotoGP. Think of him as the motorbike version of Lewis Hamilton. Now I will level and say I have not always been up to date with my knowledge of motorcycling, so put me up against a die hard fan of Mr. Toseland and honestly could not answer questions about his beginning’s in trial bike riding. Or how he got signed into the 125cc class and worked his way up to his current Tech3 Yamaha MotoGP deal. But I do follow the sport and I know a good rider when I see one, you can also tell that James has a stand up personality. So when I heard that he was going to be visiting Bowers Motorcycles in Bury St. Edmunds I decided to go along and have a nose. When we first got there the first shock was the crowd. Queues for autographs went three times the length of the store. Second was the fact that after seeing JT Lucy had a bit of a overwhelming feeling. I was slightly put off by the queue so decided to head back into town to grab some food and plan my offensive. Whilst sitting in Burger King I used the internet to find out some details, trying to come up with a useful titbit of information I could use as a question. Then behind us two workers of Bowers appeared. Turned out there was going to be a piano set and then a second round of autographs. I now knew my plan, go back to the shop, when the crowd disperses as James takes a break, pick my spot and wait for the crowds to return. Sure enough JT went off for a break and like Moses the crowds separated and I was able to find a location just feet away from the grand piano they had set up for him. Having waiting for a while people started appearing again, soon I was surrounded yet my view was perfect. James returned and set about a 4 piece musical set, containing songs he had written himself. If being able to ride a motorbike was not enough, the boy can really tickle the ivories! After the applause had finally died the security went about trying to form a ‘reasonable’ queue again. This is where I noticed a complete change in Lucy. She was now all ‘girly’ and going a bit week knee’d. She actually tried sweet talking the security guard into starting the queue behind her. It worked! We were actually second in line and my awesome question was fresh in my head. I was ready to walk up with Lucy and obtain a handshake and a signed poster. Yet when the time arrived it did not quite go as planned. That part of the female brain that makes women go a little bit crazy suddenly took over Lucy. She instantly stepped up to the plate, almost pushing me aside. Realising I was no competition for the 27 year old Superbike rider I opted to take advantage of the situation and took some more photos of Lucy with him. Finally Lucy’s feet touched back on tera firmer and she introduced me, now I got my handshake. I thanked him for the set and taking the time to meet the supporters, wished him all the best in 2008 and let the next in line take their turn. Strange how even though you think your fine, sometimes you just end up being polite and wishing people well. My question was discarded but I got to met a legend, one which will hopefully go onto bigger and better achievements. If not I’m sure he will be in the music scene very soon. Full Photo Set

So WordPress 2.5 Is Out?

Version 2.4 was skipped and the WordPress development team jumped straight from 2.3 to 2.5, and what a move it was. They have even updated the WordPress site to match.
To be honest this feels more like a full digit upgrade than a point improvement. But this could be down to the visuals more than anything.
The admin panel has had a complete make over, and whilst it is getting some stick and personally I still think Habari still has it trumped (I love that clean grey interface), it is far better than the previous versions of WP.
Included in this new release is a new ‘Media Manager’ which will make finding your included media files a lot easier. Apparently there is also a Media Gallery which I hear can be used as a photo gallery of sorts. So far I’ve not had enough time to really test all the new features and take it for a full test drive but so it looks and feels a lot better than 2.3.
Yep shibbyonline is now running 2.5 so time to update some plugins and fine tune some template tags.

No Longer Lost

How long has this show been running? I remember I first started watching series 2 a few years ago. In fact the first episode I saw was the beginning of series 2, with Desmond going about his life in the hatch. At the time I had Sky television and so could watch the show, yet I felt lost confused as there were references to the first series I did not get, there were also too many questions needing answers and I lost interest. Then when we moved we had to scarifice Sky; the joys of listed buildings. But Lucy had a friend that lent us weekly installments until he left and we missed out on series 3. But now thanks to the wonders of borrowed dvd’s, iTunes and the odd visit to the ABC website I am fully up to date. From the very first opening of the eye in the pilot, right up to Meeting Kevin Johnson. Deep down I was hoping it would answer some questions I had, like the reference to the Polar Bear, but no, in fact I’m now more confused; why was there a Polar Bear in the jungle. But that it the key to Lost, the story is just so intense that you can’t help but be totally sucked in. It is the reason that on some days I was watching 4 episodes in one sitting. I don’t mind that with each episode now you are left with more thoughts in your head, conspiracy theories left right and centre and the deflated thought that it will be another week until you get some answers.