Will Knott

I’m having (OK getting) a hard time getting out on the bike. So I thought “let’s try a more organised approach”. I tried out for the Track Cycling Ireland Open Day in order to get accreditation and try out track cycling properly.

To begin with track bikes are different to road bikes. Imagine a standard road racing bike. Then remove all the brakes and gears. It turns out that a track cycling bike is a fixed gear bike. Namely there is only one gear, and no freewheel. To go faster, you pedal faster, to slow down, you slow down pedaling. To stop in a hurry… well trying to back pedal is an interesting thing to do once you have a bit of speed built up. Its a different mindset to standard road cycling.

The truly weird part of being on the track; once you’ve picked up speed, you feels like you’re playing a racing game with the sound down. It might be me, but there is a slight disconnect between your legs motoring away, and your view of an empty track.

The velodrome on Sundrive Road in Crumlin is interesting too. Its an outdoor track in the middle of a park. Apparently during training you can get spectators hoping for a crash.

Its been upgraded, but since its an outdoor track, and track cycling is a high speed event played out of very thin pieces of rubber, if it starts raining heavily it becomes a dangerous practice.

About halfway through the accreditation, it started raining heavily. So I’ve not got the paperwork. yet.

The season starts properly in May, and I’ll have to try to finish things off on May 11. A bit like Tog, this is something I want to do.

And maybe try out the legs in a few open championships.

I can dream.

Will

Well 2007 is on the way out. And as usual in Ireland, all things come to a halt for a while. Christmas is a scary time of the year because, usually, everything gets changed this week. This is probably the reason why resolutions are saved for this time of the year in this part of the world. You’ve just survived one week of changes intact. Why not make more…

For some people, this is a time of the year when they are handed responsibilities that they normally don’t look after. (Some even learned new skills this way). These people (of which I’m one) have their lives thrown a little off kilter for a while. And they have to consider what’s important and what needs to change.

For others everything comes to a stop. Work stops. The life of the office stops (and some people try to hide the evidence of what happened at the office party… ah flickr and facebook) and the news cycle slows. For them this comes as a chance to think. And they have to consider what’s important and what needs to change.

So the adverts change from “buy this” to “stop smoking” or “start a new hobby with this magazine” and of course “sale now on…” since the Christmas stock costs too much to store.

And so the resolutions begin. The “I’ll never rush in to a sale again” is heartfelt but unheeded within a week. So I’ll ignore that one.

Yup… resolutions.

What do I want to do or change? Trust me I’ve had a while to think about these things so…

1) Be master of my own domain…
I don’t mean tidy the house (but now that you mention it, the bathroom mirror does need to b put in the bathroom. I mean it’s time that WillKnott.net and WillKnott.ie actually got used as something more than a redirect. Part of this is to do with changes that seem to be afoot. The “cork” in “cork-host” may need to change.
All advice gratefully accepted.

2) On your bike…
Personally, I need to get out more. I’ve used every excuse not to cycle this year. 2008 will see a saddle put under strain. Regularly. That and go back to Capoeira again. Things sort of stopped over December.

3) Learn (or relearn) a language…
I’ve always been more a OnLamppp man than an AJAX man. So I’m going to refresh and perfect my Perl, python and PHP. I do intend to get Ruby (and maybe rails) in my head. Sort of useful with a domain eh? Somehow I just know that Java will need something more formal than a commitment by me. Any pointer to classes or tutorials would be appreciated.

What, you assumed French? (Actually Portuguese would be useful for Capoeira but that’s another story.)

4) Take time to smell the roses…
Or actually plant them. Simply put, my garden is a mess. Actually that not true. I was careful. My garden is black. Black weed-proof plastic. I need to do some things. Lay a patio. Do “something” with a terrace. I genuinely don’t know what should happen out there. I do know I need the hardscaping finished. Help?

5) Give voice…
This is neither a resolution nor a commitment. But my attendance at PodCamp Ireland and the forthcoming Creative Camp gave me an idea… which I’ll post later.

I think that is enough. You can’t make yourself too many resolutions simply because putting too much pressure on yourself almost guarantees that you won’t do any.

Any resolutions or advice?

take care,
Will Knott

tags : 2007, 2008, change, resolution, domain, WillKnott.net, WillKnott.ie, cycle, capoeira, onlamp, garden, PodCamp, PodCamp Ireland, Creative Camp, podcasting