Devo decidermi a scrivere un post sui miei allenamenti in vista della Trans- Provence. Ad esempio questo weekend ho fatto due gite nei dintorni di Lugano; la prima di 30km e 1000m di dislivello, la seconda di 55km e 1850m. Questa foto però l’ho presa a Livigno, durante il giro della Pedaleda, quindi non c’entra.

I swear it was unintentional. Second post straight after [this one where I blurbed about my next camera]((/2010-08-19-my-next-camera.html), and here it is, the GF-1 in my hands.

So how did it happen: I spent last weekend in Livigno for some mountain biking. On Sunday afternoon, half an hour before end of business, I went into a shop and asked for the Panasonic GF-1. They had only the body, as they sold separately the 20mm lens which was part of the kit. So I asked, maybe you have a spare lens like the 17mm from some Olympus body?

I have sketched a series of yoga poses that I follow as a daily exercise.

I thought they might be of interest to someone else as well, so I’ve put them on this Flickr set.

Feel free to grab them, print them out but remember that they have been hand-draw¹ on a few evenings between August and September 2010, so be nice to them and send me an email if you need them for other purposes apart from your personal use.

I’ve stopped using my old Nikon D70s after it gave up once again during my last vacation (random failures in recording the photos on the flash card). For now I’m stuck with another remain of the past (Canon Ixus 60, small point-n-shoot with a 6Mp sensor) and my iPhone 3Gs. My plan is to get the Panasonic GF-1, which looks like the perfect solution for me: image quality on par with SLRs yet portable (almost) like a compact camera. However, I’m still waiting for the perfect deal (i.e., someone that goes to the US and gets it from amazon.com or B&H), so I can’t help but wondering when Nikon or Canon or Panasonic starts putting these features in a complete package:

Una bici dall’Africa, fatta di fil di ferro e perline.

Anzi, terza, o quarta. Diciamo meglio: seconda bici da vero offroad, senza contare la vecchia Merlin da trail¹.

Una seconda bici da affiancare alla mia Transition Covert insomma.

All’inizio avevo pensato ad un mezzo pesante da discesa pura, dopo aver provato la Mongoose Boot’r al Cimone bikepark; questa prova mi ha fatto vedere cosa ti permette una bici da DH, o meglio cosa ti perdona; velocissima, come me l’aspettavo, forse meno morbida nel copiare le asperità probabilmente perché la Boxxer Race che montava su è un pelo meno sofisticata della Fox Float 36 che ho sulla Covert. Ma sopratutto, sul ripido ti dava una confidenza estrema, che la Covert non dà; dimostrazione chiara dell’angolo di sterzo più aperto.

Ottobre 2009, nasce la mia acciaio; preparata con cura da Ciclistica¹.

Taglia 53, tutta nera: guarnitura, raggi, freno, pedali, reggisella. Una bellissima pipa in titanio ‘grammo’ e infine la sella rossa San Marco Condor.

Il rapporto e’ un 46x17; che a me non dice niente, essendo abituato ai 2x9 delle mie bici a ruote grasse ma in citta’ e’ abbastanza leggero e agile, e fuori mi permette comunque (frullando come un matto) di stare sui 30kmh – il che basta.

[Farewell, Facebook](http://www.flickr.com/photos/aadm/4855655751/#/photos/aad m/4855655751/lightbox/) (by aadm)

I got very bored with all this facebook craze lately so here’s what I did last June.

Using everytrail for iphone: the app shows for this particular trip 33km in 1 hour and 19 minutes with a resulting average speed of 25km/h.

The same trip displayed on everytrail.com is 1 hour and 46 minutes long, however, which makes for an average speed of 18.6 km/h.

I have paused the tracking after having arrived at destination, then resumed for the return trip. I think that everytrail.com does not understand the timecodes in the gpx file.

I am wondering about the next iPad. What is available now is certainly enticing and must be a joy for light computing / intense internet reading. I do have limited budget, however, and think that probably the iPhone 4 is a better way to spend my money. But I look at the iPad and keep thinking that it could be a photographer’s ideal machine; if only it had a straight usb port to connect a camera (if I travel light, I certainly do care about bringing yet another little piece of plastic).

Ieri sono ritornato in pista dopo quasi un anno. Anche quest’anno Mugello; come iniziare meglio la stagione? L’anno scorso uguale: prima volta che scendo in pista col 999, mi vado a infognare al Mugello. Pista facile e invitante per iniziare, col suo rettilineo infinito, i saliscendi e le curve cieche. I primi minuti sono abbastanza terrificanti se non hai un po’ di esperienza sulle spalle. Io ne avrei, ma un pizzico di nervosismo ce l’avevo.

D’estate si riesce ad apprezzare Milano; vai ad uno dei cinema all’aperto come quello del Conservatorio, ti vedi un film italiano, simpatico e non pretenzioso (mai l’avresti detto, è di Salvatores), giri in bicicletta senza rischiare di essere stirato. A volte, Milano è bella.

The creators of Lost, in an interview given in 2005 (right after the conclusion of season 1):

The survivors will not learn they are part of some dastardly experiment, or discover they are in purgatory, or wake up from a bad dream.

(The Laws of the Jungle by Lorne Manly, 18 September 2005).

So how did it end season 6, exactly ?

Leggevo questo articolo: Going Where A Lot of Other Dudes With Really Great Equipment Have Gone Before, di John Tierney (New York Times, 26 luglio 1998), e trovo questo passaggio che dà praticamente una giustificazione antropologica al desiderio che noi abbiamo di comprarci chiodi, martelli, piccozze, abbigliamento in tactel, etc etc:

It can’t be just a coincidence that the sex most interested in exploration is the sex most obsessed with acquiring gear. When Homo habilis fabricated stone tools 2.5 million years ago, his immediate impulse was probably to lead an expedition across the savanna looking for an excuse to use them – and then sell the gear to the rest of the clan.

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I’ve been a great fan of 24 since its first season, years ago. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the first season, and also the second and the third. However, the show has been moving towards full improbability with the latest seasons. I think I also watched season 4, and then I don’t remember anymore; maybe I’ve also seen season 5, but maybe I slept through some of the episodes – I honestly don’t recall. And then I didn’t even know they made yet another season (number six), and now I can’t be bothered finding out more about it even less watch it.