PLAN is visit the remote Faroe Islands summer 2022 as part of my PLANNED Norway, Faroes & Iceland cycling tour. 🤞
Weird and evocative.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
iPhone LIVE Long Exposure Photos
There are many ways to create long exposure photos, but none on iPhone are as super easy and quick as LIVE:
- use the native iPhone camera
- make sure LIVE photo is ON
- use tripod to keep it solid
- set the self-timer so the camera is not BUMPED when you click the button
- using a 10 second timer you could put yourself into the long exposure (don’t move!)
- once the photo has processed, in your camera roll click the photo. Click the LIVE icon. Choose the Long Exposure option.
- you can edit to Long Exposure either in the iPhone or in the EDIT mode of the Photos app on a Mac (easier to see detail on the Mac)
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
No Man’s Land by David Baldacci
The 4th and final instalment of the John Puller series.
Quite good. My opinion of Baldacci was upped considerably after reading this series.
Paul Rogers has been in prison for ten years. Finally paroled, he sets out for revenge.
After his father is accused of murder, combat veteran and Special Agent John Puller must investigate his past and learn the truth. It leads right to Rogers.
John Puller is Baldacci’s version of Jack Reacher.
OVER the Handle Bars … 🚲
My Trek Checkpoint bike is still like new.
Today I flipped over the handlebars. First time ever, I believe.
I was wearing my helmet. But — happily — the Gymnastics training kicked in and I pulled off a shoulder safety roll with perfect technique. No damage. Helmet never hit the dirt.
What happened?
I was on level ground. Easy riding. INSTANT stop.
My fender somehow came loose and wedged behind the tire.
Weird. I’d never heard of this happening before.
It’s still on warranty so I’ll have the dealer fix it.
Reacher – season 1
I started reading the Jack Reacher books in 2015. Loved ’em from the start.
And there’s much to like in the TV adaptation of book #1.
Alan Ritchson almost lives up to the legend of Reacher.
250 pounds of vigilante justice.
I really liked the badass love interest in this one. Willa Fitzgerald as Roscoe Conklin.
YES the plot is kinda dumb. The book plots are pretty dumb too. Dozens of bad guys who never seem to shoot straight.
But I’m already looking forward enthusiastically to season 2. It got the green light only 3 days after release. This is a hit.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson
Isaac’s Storm (2000) is not Larson’s best book.
BUT it’s still worth reading if only to learn the history of weather forecasting. If you think it’s bad now, imagine how little they knew in the 1800s.
The people of Galveston had no warning. Few people evacuated to the mainland.
When it happened, the weather service mostly went into ass covering mode.
The 1900 Galveston hurricane was the deadliest natural disaster in United States history and the fifth-deadliest Atlantic hurricane, only behind Hurricane Mitch overall. The hurricane left between 6,000 and 12,000 fatalities in the United States …
In 1915, a storm similar in strength and track to the 1900 hurricane struck Galveston … but only 53 died mainly due to a 10 mile long seawall that had been built after the first disaster.
The book tells the story from the point of view of Isaac Monroe Cline (October 13, 1861 – August 3, 1955), chief meteorologist at the Galveston, Texas office of the U.S. Weather Bureau, now known as the National Weather Service, from 1889 to 1901.
But I never got interested in his personal life, nor the rivalry with his brother, Joseph.
My bike dropper post with 🧐SUSPENSION
- USD $199.00 Dropper Post (including shipping from California)
- CAD $128.00 Wolf Tooth handlebar lever
- CAD $102.90 Installation including cables
The only thing that worried me about my new Trek Checkpoint ALR 4 backpacking rig is lack of suspension. It’s supposed to have some suspension in the carbon fork — but I still find it a lot stiffer than my old hard tail Ghost.
One way to add suspension is with a special saddle. Makes sense.
When I first heard about this unique product — the PNW Coast Suspension Ext Dropper Post — I started research in earnest.
Dropper posts allow riders to quickly lift and lower their saddle without the need to dismount and loosen the quick-release seat clamp.
The PNW Coast Suspension External Dropper Post is the first suspension dropper post, combining ride smoothing suspension and the benefits of a dropper into one seatpost.
The post comes with 100mm or 120mm of drop travel. It is perfect for XC mountain biking, gravel riding, bikepacking, commuting, and much more.
So far I’m LOVING the ability to quickly and easily raise and lower the saddle, even while riding. I now have 3 different handbag placements and multiple seat positions.
But I still don’t have as much suspension as I’d like.
Click PLAY or see how it works on YouTube.
Click PLAY or see a review on YouTube.
Here’s a review from someone who rides in my own style. Gravel. Bikepacking.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Seize the Night by Dean Koontz
Mixed review.
An entertaining, funny horror story.
Seize the Night (1998) is the second in the Moonlight Bay Trilogy, involving Christopher Snow, who suffers from the rare (but real) disease called XP (xeroderma pigmentosum).
Actually, the 3rd book never got finished.
Fascinating characters, include Chris’ rich surfer bum friend Bobby Halloway. A smart dog. And a smarter cat.
It’s a great premise. The world is slowly changing due to an accidentally released virus developed by the U.S. military.
BUT … the plot bogs down in an endless and seemingly pointless series of adventures in an abandoned military base. They are suppose to be searching for kidnapped children — but seem to wander randomly.
The plot I’d give 2/10.
The entertaining banter and pop references kept me going.
I’m inspired by the Olympics
YES the IOC was too gutless to call out the totalitarian state of China for their horrific human rights record.
But I’m still happy the athletes got to compete.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
56 Days by Catherine Ryan Howard
Smart. Well written. A psychological thriller where everyone has secrets.
And it’s a modern book with a plot shaped by pandemic. The police using social media to track suspects.
Ciara and Oliver meet in a supermarket queue in Dublin and start dating the same week COVID-19 reaches Irish shores.
56 days later detectives arrive at Oliver’s apartment to discover a decomposing body inside.
… What happened?
Rick McCharles 