commit 815a34091572ee99bdd67dd7d197580045738b87
parent cbea2b356dd27d1d5b7622e61aa1f1720def07ce
Author: David Eisinger <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2023 11:56:21 -0400
Continue iterating on backups
Diffstat:
7 files changed, 644 insertions(+), 358 deletions(-)
diff --git a/bin/backup b/bin/backup
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ urls.each do |url|
begin
title = page_content
- .scan(/<title>(.*?)<\/title>/mi)
+ .scan(/<title[^>]*>(.*?)<\/title>/mi)
.first
.first
.strip
diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-1-march-2023/craigmod-com-ts8csh.txt b/content/journal/dispatch-1-march-2023/craigmod-com-ts8csh.txt
@@ -1,349 +0,0 @@
-
-About Craig
-Books & Essays
-Talks
-Membership
-Shop!
-“Special Projects” Membership
-Podcasts:🎧 On Margins & SW945
-Newsletters:📩 Roden & Ridgeline
-
-
-Header image for Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
-
-
-Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
-
-Reflections on eighteen months of electric bike ownership
-
-
-
-My electric bike sings, emits a nearly imperceptible hum from its tiny motor. I
-love its song. A song of peace and magic. Has money ever bought as much delight
-as the delight of an electric bike?
-
-The first time I rode one was nearly a decade ago, in Kyoto. The electric bike
-I rented was huge and unwieldy, but that tug of its motor never left my mind. I
-went to climb a hill and it felt as if a giant had gently placed his hand on my
-back and pushed me forward. That stupid smile has been on my face ever since.
-
-Two years ago I rented another one. This one smaller, lighter, the motor more
-powerful. I was convinced. This is the way. Eighteen months ago, in the heart
-of the pandemic, I committed and bought my first electric bike and have never
-looked back.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
-Indulge me — a summer afternoon: Soaring down the coast, the ocean to one side
-and a strand of old pines to the other. The afternoon sun beats down but it
-feels cool and there’s something irrationally stirring — downright emotional —
-about the efficiency of this dumb machine beneath my body. The motor looks too
-small — just a black cylinder on the hub of the wheel. And yet it moves. It
-sings that song. A subtle hum. A beautiful hum. It makes me want to ride and
-ride, ridiculous distances, nonsensical distances. I don’t want to get to where
-I’m going because I want the ride to last longer. I want to linger in this
-space as long as possible, this space of smooth and efficient movement through
-the world, gliding in near total mechanical silence, just the sound of rubber
-on the pavement, wind in my ears, breaking waves, salt, the smell of pine. This
-is what electric bikes do: They drive you insane with the poetry of the world.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-A strange trio A few of my old bikes: A mamachari, carbon fiber road bike, and
-Kalavinka
-
-#So Many Bikes
-
-All my standing life, I’ve biked. As a kid I rode a K-Mart Huffy to a rusted
-nub and then managed to nab a Haro Group 1. As an adult, bikes have been one of
-my few material indulgences (unwittingly, organically). In the past twenty
-years alone I’ve owned some fifteen bikes. I’ve had aluminum and carbon Bianchi
-road bikes. I’ve had steel Kalavinka keirin bikes with gorgeous head badges.
-I’ve had folding Dahon and Birdy BD-1s. I’ve had a handful of beloved brandless
-throwaway mamacharis — shopping bikes — that have proven hearty and fun in
-their own ways, and have each died uniquely. I’ve gone out of my way to get a
-handmade Arrow cruiser from a builder in Ogikubo. I still have a custom orange
-Moulton that I’ve modified into a single-speed city bomber that goes remarkably
-fast while floating atop its simple suspension.
-
-And on and on — bikes. Why? Because as any bike lover will tell you, to be
-ensorcelled by the bike is to crave one and only one thing: More bike. Each new
-bike is like riding once again for the first time. Exploring a city on a
-mamachari is different than a BD-1 is different than a Moulton. All thrilling.
-The bikes change, and so, too does your relationship to the pavement. My love
-for bikes has no categorical allegiances; if it has two wheels, and pedals, I’m
-interested. I want to ride them all.
-
-A Moulton Tiny, but fast, nearly flawless as a city machine — a Moulton with
-converted stem, Sugino cranks, coaster brake
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
-Summers in most of Japan have never been easy. The temperatures England flirted
-with in 2022 are temperatures Tokyoites have contended with for centuries (and
-now contend with ones even higher). Crushing heat coupled with suffocating
-humidity. A three-shower-a-day kinda summer. Watch an Ozu film and observe the
-languid and supine impulse of its inhabitants during summertime scenes — that’s
-not affect, it’s survival. In Japan’s August, you simply can’t walk a block
-without losing most of your moisture.
-
-Bikes have always helped. A bicycle generates a microclimate with minimal
-effort. Standing on a street corner you may be soaked, but on a bike, the wind
-whooshing past, you are crisp(er) and dry(er). An electric bike only amplifies
-the effect.
-
-When I was a child I dreamt of having a personal helicopter. Powered by my feet
-and a bit of magic (certainly not gasoline, oddly, thinking back on it now). I
-imagined quietly gliding over the city in this tiny contraption, floating from
-home to video rental shop to diner, stopping by a friend’s house along the way.
-An electric bike gets me most of the way to this feeling.
-
-In the past eighteen months I’ve put several thousand kilometers on my electric
-bikes. It feels like cheating in every best possible way. I live in a seaside
-town south of Tokyo and traffic can get ridiculous, its ancient roads sized for
-horses, not cars. The electric bike swoops between and alongside these stale
-processions of heat and burning fuel. Drifting behind a gas-powered scooter or
-moped feels like observing some Victorian contraption — inefficient and loud
-and clunky and burdensome and pollutant. And not much faster (often much
-slower) or more useful than an electric bike.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-A Vanmoof and a BESV My friend's S3 and my BESV (the X3 looks like a slightly
-smaller version of the S3)
-
-#Electrics
-
-I own two electric bikes. My first purchase was the strangely named BESV PSA1 —
-which is a smaller wheeled (20"), rear-wheel drive machine, with mostly
-off-the-shelf components allowing you to customize it to your liking. ^1 And
-then, because I was so enamored by the BESV — so seduced by its small motor of
-umph, so wanting more and different electric bike experiences — I went and
-picked up a front-wheel drive Vanmoof X3 — the smaller-wheeled brother (24") to
-Vanmoof’s (quite frankly) giant S3 — just a few months later.
-
-I love them both like damaged brothers, because both of these bikes are flawed
-in frustrating ways.
-
-The electronic brain on the BESV is as dumb as they come.^2 The settings reset
-each time you turn the bike on. The acceleration curves feel unrefined —
-herky-jerky, you might say. Its app is the worst app I have on my phone — badly
-designed, nearly functionally useless, clearly engineered without love. And
-yet. Despite these flaws I put hundreds of kilometers on this thing in the
-first month. The front and rear suspension turn every road to glass, and are
-even fine for dirt trails; I find myself hunting down paths through parks I’d
-never otherwise think about. Suddenly every hilly road is a thing demanding to
-be explored. Up up up the little machine yells, and you follow its command.
-
-Guests who stay at my studio are given the BESV to ride. We take it down the
-coast. It never fails to amaze. One friend felt compelled to pet it upon
-dismount, saying, Good job, buddy, so quick and deep was the affection for the
-thing.
-
-The Vanmoof is much smarter — the brain and software within it are refined, the
-app good, the acceleration curves smooth — but the bike is all custom
-components, and they aren’t the highest quality at that. The automatic shifting
-mechanism on mine failed twice in the first two months, requiring shipping the
-bike to the Vanmoof store.^3 The seat post bolt broke off in the post. The
-original plastic pedals felt cheap and flimsy (pedals are one of the few things
-you can swap for your own). The aluminum frame is too stiff for the speed the
-bike generates — it can feel like you’ve been rattled to death after a bumpy
-road. (And stiffness mitigation by lowering tire pressure seems to only
-increase possibility of puncture.) But, more than all that, the design of the
-bike has a dangerous fundamental flaw: The bottom bracket is simply too low.
-
-Of all my many, many bikes, I’ve never had a pedal bottom out. On this Vanmoof
-X3? Dozens of times. Most critically during a turn at speed — the pedal hit the
-pavement, jumped the bike sideways, and sent me flying. It’s the only bad crash
-I’ve had in decades. So I’ve had to modify the way I ride — no pedaling into or
-out of turns, hyper awareness of deviations in lateral road slope — because,
-despite all this, I can’t stop riding this stupid thing. It sings — that hum.
-It is joy. I reach for it daily and it takes me around the peninsula and makes
-me happy to be alive.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-BESV @ Lee's Bread, Oiso I've written about three electric bike rides for
-Papersky Magazine: Misaki, Oiso, and Yokosuka.
-
-Allow me to share a dirty secret: More often than not, at midnight I can’t
-repress the impulse — I have to take a bike out. Out the bike comes and
-together we head into the empty streets of my town and hum our way all over,
-visiting temples in total silence. There are no cars. Often no people. It feels
-illicit — this slipping around town, this sliding into temple parking lots in
-the shroud of the night, looking at their old beams, feeling ten years old and
-grateful for both the ability and awareness to be doing just this very thing at
-this very moment.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
-I’ve long since posited world peace could be achieved if you bought everyone in
-the world a bike, but now I want those bikes to be electric. I want everyone to
-feel this silliness, this punch-drunk stupidity of pure love, this sense of
-cheating the rules, the norms, this sense of ever-present delight. At our
-worst, humans mindlessly consume, sear the earth and each other, fill our
-bodies with poisons. At our best we invent electric bikes. Batteries have
-gotten more efficient, motors smaller and more powerful. The last decade has
-brought great efficiency to these machines, and the next ten years will only
-double down on these gains. Electric bike numbers are up, year over year over
-year. Tremendously so. Those who know, proselytize. We can’t help it. The charm
-is too great. The game non- zero sum. The more people who know, the better the
-world. It’s a wild notion, this sense of goodness to be had if you just reach
-out for it. Goodness with no real downside. Like solar panels or wind turbines,
-electric bikes are machines that buoy the spirit and the earth.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
-Buy the best electric bike you can within your budget. Stretch if possible.
-Usually, the more you spend the lighter the machine, the more powerful the
-motor, the longer-lasting the battery. Depending on which country you live in
-top speeds will differ. In Japan the bike’s are capped at 24km/h. In America,
-32km/h. Some places only allow for pedal-assist — meaning the motor only works
-when pedaling. Others allow throttles, blurring the line between bike and
-scooter. Laws will change in the coming years as more people adopt the machines
-and cities themselves adapt. This is just the start. Ten years ago it was
-fairly rare to see an electric bike around Tokyo. Today, it seems as if every
-parent hauling their kids is doing so electrically.
-
-A good strategy: Find a local bike shop that will let you try out several
-electric bikes. Some have front-hub motors, others rear-hub motors. Others, the
-motor sits in the center, between the cranks. Each has a subtly different feel.
-Going up a hill, a front-motor’d machine may skip or slip as you pull back on
-the handlebars, but on flat land will feel more like being tugged through the
-world.
-
-Sure, electric bikes aren’t cheap. But I believe they’re a rare object to be
-well worth the cost. This in spite of their annoying flaws, their often bad
-software, their defective geometries. Because they open the world. Whatever
-world may have been nearby, an electric bike brings it nearer. This is worth
-more than you might estimate. These bikes sing their little songs and the smile
-on your face makes you look like a village idiot, but what a wonderful idiot to
-be.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
-A summer night: Biking home alongside a river. The air is thick with humidity
-and cicadas vibrate wildly in the distance. The moon is out. My choices:
-straight home along the shimmering moonlit river, or take a detour, up into the
-dark mountains, doubling the distance. To my surprise, I choose the mountains
-almost every time. More! That tiny child who fantasized about helicopters
-yells. More of this, whatever this is. More more more. And so I feed that
-impulse, an impulse generated and nurtured by the electric bike. Into the
-shadow mountains we go, up, pushed by the hand of that giant, always present,
-always ready to help. It is a ridiculous thing. A thing of peace and magic. An
-owl hoots. The smile has never left my face.
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
-#Noted:
-
-━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
-
- 1. I upgraded my BESV to an SRAM drivetrain and Paul brake levers and Klamper
- disc calipers, some MKS pedals, and a set of Brooks grips and saddle and it
- feels wonderful through and through. These Paul Klampers are mechanical.
- The Vanmoof uses (generic?) hydraulic brakes. After thousands of
- kilometers, my conclusion is: hydraulics feel nice, but they are fussy (and
- perhaps Vanmoof’s chosen components are sub-optimal) and difficult (?) to
- tune on your own. In the end, I just don’t think they’re worth it. Too
- “delicate.” The Pauls feel as fresh today as the day I put them on, whereas
- the hydraulics have required much bikeshop tuning over the course of the
- last eighteen months. Were the Vanmoof more flexible, I’d happily swap out
- for mechanicals. This lack of flexibility is a bummer because, unlike an
- Apple iPhone, for example, where the components tend to be best of class
- (think: modem, CPU, camera unit, etc), the physical components on a Vanmoof
- most definitely aren’t — nor do they offer the option to pay more to get
- better components. ↩︎
-
- 2. Oh, how I wish this thing was open source, hackable — because it’s so close
- to great. Sadly — and I don’t know how else to frame this — it feels like
- the engineers behind the software don’t ride bikes. At least not this one.
- The software flaws are so fundamentally obvious, that anyone who had a)
- access to the code, and b) rode the bike, couldn’t NOT fix these obvious
- issues. What I really wish, though, is that I could slap the Vanmoof brain
- onto the BESV body and, well, then we’d be in Electric Bike Elysium. ↩︎
-
- 3. I’ve since learned — the drive train of the Vanmoof is not to be “ridden”
- like a “bike” but rather, “feathered” like a delicate sand castle — assume
- the gears could explode at any moment and apply the least amount of
- pressure you can; the motor is strong enough to take care of most of the
- rest. In this way, the Vanmoof feels more like a moped that uses “pedal
- assist” as a suggestion than a pure electric-assist bike — a smart way to
- get around motorcycle laws in most countries, which I assume is the main
- point. Not to say you don’t get a workout on the Vanmoof, you do, but not
- nearly as much as the more classically committed BESV — which really does
- require you to pedal.
-
- Maybe this is a good place to bring up the question: Why not just get an
- electric scooter? I think it mainly comes down to flexibility and
- philosophy. With a pedal assist bike (even if the pedaling required is
- minimal) you simply have more flexibility in parking, in riding, in
- “lightness” of transportation, than with an electric scooter. Also:
- Insurance costs, maintenance, and higher base cost. And philosophically,
- being able to still use the bike as a “bike” without power feels like an
- aspect of these machines we shouldn’t be so quick to toss aside. ↩︎
-
-
-
-This essay, published September 2022. Thoughts? Email [email protected].
-
-Craig Mod, his head, floating at the bottom of the article
-
-Craig Mod is a writer and photographer based in Japan. He's the author of Kissa
-by Kissa and a MacDowell, Ragdale, and VCCA writing fellow. His essays and
-articles have appeared in Eater, The Atlantic, California Sunday Magazine,
-Wired, Aeon, New Scientist, Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Yorker, The New
-York Times, The Morning News, Codex: Journal of Typography, and elsewhere. He
-writes newsletters, oh yes, newsletters: Roden & Ridgeline.
-
-The work on this site is supported in part by paid memberships.
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diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-1-march-2023/craigmod-com-yw1bcq.txt b/content/journal/dispatch-1-march-2023/craigmod-com-yw1bcq.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,349 @@
+
+About Craig
+Books & Essays
+Talks
+Membership
+Shop!
+“Special Projects” Membership
+Podcasts:🎧 On Margins & SW945
+Newsletters:📩 Roden & Ridgeline
+
+
+Header image for Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
+
+
+Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
+
+Reflections on eighteen months of electric bike ownership
+
+
+
+My electric bike sings, emits a nearly imperceptible hum from its tiny motor. I
+love its song. A song of peace and magic. Has money ever bought as much delight
+as the delight of an electric bike?
+
+The first time I rode one was nearly a decade ago, in Kyoto. The electric bike
+I rented was huge and unwieldy, but that tug of its motor never left my mind. I
+went to climb a hill and it felt as if a giant had gently placed his hand on my
+back and pushed me forward. That stupid smile has been on my face ever since.
+
+Two years ago I rented another one. This one smaller, lighter, the motor more
+powerful. I was convinced. This is the way. Eighteen months ago, in the heart
+of the pandemic, I committed and bought my first electric bike and have never
+looked back.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+Indulge me — a summer afternoon: Soaring down the coast, the ocean to one side
+and a strand of old pines to the other. The afternoon sun beats down but it
+feels cool and there’s something irrationally stirring — downright emotional —
+about the efficiency of this dumb machine beneath my body. The motor looks too
+small — just a black cylinder on the hub of the wheel. And yet it moves. It
+sings that song. A subtle hum. A beautiful hum. It makes me want to ride and
+ride, ridiculous distances, nonsensical distances. I don’t want to get to where
+I’m going because I want the ride to last longer. I want to linger in this
+space as long as possible, this space of smooth and efficient movement through
+the world, gliding in near total mechanical silence, just the sound of rubber
+on the pavement, wind in my ears, breaking waves, salt, the smell of pine. This
+is what electric bikes do: They drive you insane with the poetry of the world.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+A strange trio A few of my old bikes: A mamachari, carbon fiber road bike, and
+Kalavinka
+
+#So Many Bikes
+
+All my standing life, I’ve biked. As a kid I rode a K-Mart Huffy to a rusted
+nub and then managed to nab a Haro Group 1. As an adult, bikes have been one of
+my few material indulgences (unwittingly, organically). In the past twenty
+years alone I’ve owned some fifteen bikes. I’ve had aluminum and carbon Bianchi
+road bikes. I’ve had steel Kalavinka keirin bikes with gorgeous head badges.
+I’ve had folding Dahon and Birdy BD-1s. I’ve had a handful of beloved brandless
+throwaway mamacharis — shopping bikes — that have proven hearty and fun in
+their own ways, and have each died uniquely. I’ve gone out of my way to get a
+handmade Arrow cruiser from a builder in Ogikubo. I still have a custom orange
+Moulton that I’ve modified into a single-speed city bomber that goes remarkably
+fast while floating atop its simple suspension.
+
+And on and on — bikes. Why? Because as any bike lover will tell you, to be
+ensorcelled by the bike is to crave one and only one thing: More bike. Each new
+bike is like riding once again for the first time. Exploring a city on a
+mamachari is different than a BD-1 is different than a Moulton. All thrilling.
+The bikes change, and so, too does your relationship to the pavement. My love
+for bikes has no categorical allegiances; if it has two wheels, and pedals, I’m
+interested. I want to ride them all.
+
+A Moulton Tiny, but fast, nearly flawless as a city machine — a Moulton with
+converted stem, Sugino cranks, coaster brake
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+Summers in most of Japan have never been easy. The temperatures England flirted
+with in 2022 are temperatures Tokyoites have contended with for centuries (and
+now contend with ones even higher). Crushing heat coupled with suffocating
+humidity. A three-shower-a-day kinda summer. Watch an Ozu film and observe the
+languid and supine impulse of its inhabitants during summertime scenes — that’s
+not affect, it’s survival. In Japan’s August, you simply can’t walk a block
+without losing most of your moisture.
+
+Bikes have always helped. A bicycle generates a microclimate with minimal
+effort. Standing on a street corner you may be soaked, but on a bike, the wind
+whooshing past, you are crisp(er) and dry(er). An electric bike only amplifies
+the effect.
+
+When I was a child I dreamt of having a personal helicopter. Powered by my feet
+and a bit of magic (certainly not gasoline, oddly, thinking back on it now). I
+imagined quietly gliding over the city in this tiny contraption, floating from
+home to video rental shop to diner, stopping by a friend’s house along the way.
+An electric bike gets me most of the way to this feeling.
+
+In the past eighteen months I’ve put several thousand kilometers on my electric
+bikes. It feels like cheating in every best possible way. I live in a seaside
+town south of Tokyo and traffic can get ridiculous, its ancient roads sized for
+horses, not cars. The electric bike swoops between and alongside these stale
+processions of heat and burning fuel. Drifting behind a gas-powered scooter or
+moped feels like observing some Victorian contraption — inefficient and loud
+and clunky and burdensome and pollutant. And not much faster (often much
+slower) or more useful than an electric bike.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+A Vanmoof and a BESV My friend's S3 and my BESV (the X3 looks like a slightly
+smaller version of the S3)
+
+#Electrics
+
+I own two electric bikes. My first purchase was the strangely named BESV PSA1 —
+which is a smaller wheeled (20"), rear-wheel drive machine, with mostly
+off-the-shelf components allowing you to customize it to your liking. ^1 And
+then, because I was so enamored by the BESV — so seduced by its small motor of
+umph, so wanting more and different electric bike experiences — I went and
+picked up a front-wheel drive Vanmoof X3 — the smaller-wheeled brother (24") to
+Vanmoof’s (quite frankly) giant S3 — just a few months later.
+
+I love them both like damaged brothers, because both of these bikes are flawed
+in frustrating ways.
+
+The electronic brain on the BESV is as dumb as they come.^2 The settings reset
+each time you turn the bike on. The acceleration curves feel unrefined —
+herky-jerky, you might say. Its app is the worst app I have on my phone — badly
+designed, nearly functionally useless, clearly engineered without love. And
+yet. Despite these flaws I put hundreds of kilometers on this thing in the
+first month. The front and rear suspension turn every road to glass, and are
+even fine for dirt trails; I find myself hunting down paths through parks I’d
+never otherwise think about. Suddenly every hilly road is a thing demanding to
+be explored. Up up up the little machine yells, and you follow its command.
+
+Guests who stay at my studio are given the BESV to ride. We take it down the
+coast. It never fails to amaze. One friend felt compelled to pet it upon
+dismount, saying, Good job, buddy, so quick and deep was the affection for the
+thing.
+
+The Vanmoof is much smarter — the brain and software within it are refined, the
+app good, the acceleration curves smooth — but the bike is all custom
+components, and they aren’t the highest quality at that. The automatic shifting
+mechanism on mine failed twice in the first two months, requiring shipping the
+bike to the Vanmoof store.^3 The seat post bolt broke off in the post. The
+original plastic pedals felt cheap and flimsy (pedals are one of the few things
+you can swap for your own). The aluminum frame is too stiff for the speed the
+bike generates — it can feel like you’ve been rattled to death after a bumpy
+road. (And stiffness mitigation by lowering tire pressure seems to only
+increase possibility of puncture.) But, more than all that, the design of the
+bike has a dangerous fundamental flaw: The bottom bracket is simply too low.
+
+Of all my many, many bikes, I’ve never had a pedal bottom out. On this Vanmoof
+X3? Dozens of times. Most critically during a turn at speed — the pedal hit the
+pavement, jumped the bike sideways, and sent me flying. It’s the only bad crash
+I’ve had in decades. So I’ve had to modify the way I ride — no pedaling into or
+out of turns, hyper awareness of deviations in lateral road slope — because,
+despite all this, I can’t stop riding this stupid thing. It sings — that hum.
+It is joy. I reach for it daily and it takes me around the peninsula and makes
+me happy to be alive.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+BESV @ Lee's Bread, Oiso I've written about three electric bike rides for
+Papersky Magazine: Misaki, Oiso, and Yokosuka.
+
+Allow me to share a dirty secret: More often than not, at midnight I can’t
+repress the impulse — I have to take a bike out. Out the bike comes and
+together we head into the empty streets of my town and hum our way all over,
+visiting temples in total silence. There are no cars. Often no people. It feels
+illicit — this slipping around town, this sliding into temple parking lots in
+the shroud of the night, looking at their old beams, feeling ten years old and
+grateful for both the ability and awareness to be doing just this very thing at
+this very moment.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+I’ve long since posited world peace could be achieved if you bought everyone in
+the world a bike, but now I want those bikes to be electric. I want everyone to
+feel this silliness, this punch-drunk stupidity of pure love, this sense of
+cheating the rules, the norms, this sense of ever-present delight. At our
+worst, humans mindlessly consume, sear the earth and each other, fill our
+bodies with poisons. At our best we invent electric bikes. Batteries have
+gotten more efficient, motors smaller and more powerful. The last decade has
+brought great efficiency to these machines, and the next ten years will only
+double down on these gains. Electric bike numbers are up, year over year over
+year. Tremendously so. Those who know, proselytize. We can’t help it. The charm
+is too great. The game non- zero sum. The more people who know, the better the
+world. It’s a wild notion, this sense of goodness to be had if you just reach
+out for it. Goodness with no real downside. Like solar panels or wind turbines,
+electric bikes are machines that buoy the spirit and the earth.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+Buy the best electric bike you can within your budget. Stretch if possible.
+Usually, the more you spend the lighter the machine, the more powerful the
+motor, the longer-lasting the battery. Depending on which country you live in
+top speeds will differ. In Japan the bike’s are capped at 24km/h. In America,
+32km/h. Some places only allow for pedal-assist — meaning the motor only works
+when pedaling. Others allow throttles, blurring the line between bike and
+scooter. Laws will change in the coming years as more people adopt the machines
+and cities themselves adapt. This is just the start. Ten years ago it was
+fairly rare to see an electric bike around Tokyo. Today, it seems as if every
+parent hauling their kids is doing so electrically.
+
+A good strategy: Find a local bike shop that will let you try out several
+electric bikes. Some have front-hub motors, others rear-hub motors. Others, the
+motor sits in the center, between the cranks. Each has a subtly different feel.
+Going up a hill, a front-motor’d machine may skip or slip as you pull back on
+the handlebars, but on flat land will feel more like being tugged through the
+world.
+
+Sure, electric bikes aren’t cheap. But I believe they’re a rare object to be
+well worth the cost. This in spite of their annoying flaws, their often bad
+software, their defective geometries. Because they open the world. Whatever
+world may have been nearby, an electric bike brings it nearer. This is worth
+more than you might estimate. These bikes sing their little songs and the smile
+on your face makes you look like a village idiot, but what a wonderful idiot to
+be.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+A summer night: Biking home alongside a river. The air is thick with humidity
+and cicadas vibrate wildly in the distance. The moon is out. My choices:
+straight home along the shimmering moonlit river, or take a detour, up into the
+dark mountains, doubling the distance. To my surprise, I choose the mountains
+almost every time. More! That tiny child who fantasized about helicopters
+yells. More of this, whatever this is. More more more. And so I feed that
+impulse, an impulse generated and nurtured by the electric bike. Into the
+shadow mountains we go, up, pushed by the hand of that giant, always present,
+always ready to help. It is a ridiculous thing. A thing of peace and magic. An
+owl hoots. The smile has never left my face.
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+#Noted:
+
+━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
+
+ 1. I upgraded my BESV to an SRAM drivetrain and Paul brake levers and Klamper
+ disc calipers, some MKS pedals, and a set of Brooks grips and saddle and it
+ feels wonderful through and through. These Paul Klampers are mechanical.
+ The Vanmoof uses (generic?) hydraulic brakes. After thousands of
+ kilometers, my conclusion is: hydraulics feel nice, but they are fussy (and
+ perhaps Vanmoof’s chosen components are sub-optimal) and difficult (?) to
+ tune on your own. In the end, I just don’t think they’re worth it. Too
+ “delicate.” The Pauls feel as fresh today as the day I put them on, whereas
+ the hydraulics have required much bikeshop tuning over the course of the
+ last eighteen months. Were the Vanmoof more flexible, I’d happily swap out
+ for mechanicals. This lack of flexibility is a bummer because, unlike an
+ Apple iPhone, for example, where the components tend to be best of class
+ (think: modem, CPU, camera unit, etc), the physical components on a Vanmoof
+ most definitely aren’t — nor do they offer the option to pay more to get
+ better components. ↩︎
+
+ 2. Oh, how I wish this thing was open source, hackable — because it’s so close
+ to great. Sadly — and I don’t know how else to frame this — it feels like
+ the engineers behind the software don’t ride bikes. At least not this one.
+ The software flaws are so fundamentally obvious, that anyone who had a)
+ access to the code, and b) rode the bike, couldn’t NOT fix these obvious
+ issues. What I really wish, though, is that I could slap the Vanmoof brain
+ onto the BESV body and, well, then we’d be in Electric Bike Elysium. ↩︎
+
+ 3. I’ve since learned — the drive train of the Vanmoof is not to be “ridden”
+ like a “bike” but rather, “feathered” like a delicate sand castle — assume
+ the gears could explode at any moment and apply the least amount of
+ pressure you can; the motor is strong enough to take care of most of the
+ rest. In this way, the Vanmoof feels more like a moped that uses “pedal
+ assist” as a suggestion than a pure electric-assist bike — a smart way to
+ get around motorcycle laws in most countries, which I assume is the main
+ point. Not to say you don’t get a workout on the Vanmoof, you do, but not
+ nearly as much as the more classically committed BESV — which really does
+ require you to pedal.
+
+ Maybe this is a good place to bring up the question: Why not just get an
+ electric scooter? I think it mainly comes down to flexibility and
+ philosophy. With a pedal assist bike (even if the pedaling required is
+ minimal) you simply have more flexibility in parking, in riding, in
+ “lightness” of transportation, than with an electric scooter. Also:
+ Insurance costs, maintenance, and higher base cost. And philosophically,
+ being able to still use the bike as a “bike” without power feels like an
+ aspect of these machines we shouldn’t be so quick to toss aside. ↩︎
+
+
+
+This essay, published September 2022. Thoughts? Email [email protected].
+
+Craig Mod, his head, floating at the bottom of the article
+
+Craig Mod is a writer and photographer based in Japan. He's the author of Kissa
+by Kissa and a MacDowell, Ragdale, and VCCA writing fellow. His essays and
+articles have appeared in Eater, The Atlantic, California Sunday Magazine,
+Wired, Aeon, New Scientist, Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Yorker, The New
+York Times, The Morning News, Codex: Journal of Typography, and elsewhere. He
+writes newsletters, oh yes, newsletters: Roden & Ridgeline.
+
+The work on this site is supported in part by paid memberships.
+
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+
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+
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diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-1-march-2023/index.md b/content/journal/dispatch-1-march-2023/index.md
@@ -32,6 +32,6 @@ Links:
[2]: https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2022/programming-is-a-pop-culture/
[3]: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/style/julia-cameron-the-artists-way.html
-[^1-backup]: <a href="craigmod-com-ts8csh.txt">Backed up 2023-04-03 23:56:02 -0400</a>
-[^2-backup]: <a href="www-baldurbjarnason-com-7p5031.txt">Backed up 2023-04-03 23:57:18 -0400</a>
-[^3-backup]: <a href="www-nytimes-com-tq2xdi.txt">Backed up 2023-04-03 23:57:38 -0400</a>
+[^1-backup]: "<a href="https://craigmod.com/essays/electric_bikes/">Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life — by Craig Mod</a>"; <a href="craigmod-com-yw1bcq.txt">backed up 2023-04-04 15:54:35 UTC</a>
+[^2-backup]: "<a href="https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/2022/programming-is-a-pop-culture/">Programming is a Pop Culture – Baldur Bjarnason</a>"; <a href="www-baldurbjarnason-com-7p5031.txt">backed up 2023-04-04 15:54:36 UTC</a>
+[^3-backup]: "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/style/julia-cameron-the-artists-way.html">Julia Cameron Wants You to Do Your Morning Pages - The New York Times</a>"; <a href="www-nytimes-com-tq2xdi.txt">backed up 2023-04-04 15:54:36 UTC</a>
+\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-2-april-2023/index.md b/content/journal/dispatch-2-april-2023/index.md
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ tags:
- dispatch
---
-March was great -- took a two night/one day work retreat, spent a weekend out in the woods with the family, had my annual trip to Las Vegas, and participated in Viget's [Pointless Week][1]. Also got to spend some quality time with Nevie; she's a great kid and it's amazing to see her personality come out.
+March was great -- took a two night/one day work retreat, spent a weekend out in the woods with the family, had my annual trip to Las Vegas, and participated in Viget's [Pointless Week][1][^1-backup]. Also got to spend some quality time with Nevie; she's a great kid and it's amazing to see her personality come out.
<!--more-->
@@ -52,5 +52,6 @@ Links:
[10]: https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2023-03-14-how-to-tell-if-ai-threatens-your-job/
[11]: https://jeffhuang.com/designed_to_last/
-[^10-backup]: <a href="blog-testdouble-com-rtepba.txt">Backed up 2023-04-03 23:50:56 -0400</a>
-[^11-backup]: <a href="jeffhuang-com-arq78r.txt">Backed up 2023-04-03 23:51:02 -0400</a>
-\ No newline at end of file
+[^10-backup]: "<a href="https://blog.testdouble.com/posts/2023-03-14-how-to-tell-if-ai-threatens-your-job/">How to tell if AI threatens YOUR job: No, really, this post may give you a way to answer that</a>"; <a href="blog-testdouble-com-rtepba.txt">backed up 2023-04-04 15:39:36 UTC</a>
+[^11-backup]: "<a href="https://jeffhuang.com/designed_to_last/">This Page is Designed to Last: A Manifesto for Preserving Content on the Web</a>"; <a href="jeffhuang-com-arq78r.txt">backed up 2023-04-04 15:39:37 UTC</a>
+[^1-backup]: "<a href="https://www.viget.com/articles/the-enduring-point-of-pointless-corp/">The Enduring Point of Pointless Corp | Viget</a>"; <a href="www-viget-com-5w5oyj.txt">backed up 2023-04-04 15:52:27 UTC</a>
+\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/content/journal/dispatch-2-april-2023/www-viget-com-5w5oyj.txt b/content/journal/dispatch-2-april-2023/www-viget-com-5w5oyj.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,284 @@
+Skip to Main Content
+Viget
+
+ • Work
+ • Services
+ • Articles
+ • Careers
+ • Contact
+ • Open Menu
+
+Navigation
+
+Viget Close
+
+ • Practice
+ • Work
+ • Services
+ • Articles
+
+We’re a full-service digital agency that’s been helping clients make lasting
+change since 1999.
+
+Contact Us
+
+People
+
+ • Company
+ • Careers
+ • Code of Ethics
+ • Diversity & Inclusion
+
+More
+
+ • Pointless Corp.
+ • Explorations
+ • Code at Viget
+
+Featured
+
+
+Read the Article: AI in Recruiting
+
+Newsletter
+
+AI in Recruiting
+
+
+Read the Article: The Enduring Point of Pointless Corp
+
+Article
+
+The Enduring Point of Pointless Corp
+
+The Enduring Point of Pointless Corp
+
+[pointless-sticker-bear-article]
+Brian Williams
+
+Brian Williams, Co-Founder & CEO
+
+Article Categories: #News & Culture, #Employee Engagement
+
+Posted on March 24, 2023
+
+ •
+ Share
+ •
+ Share
+ •
+ Tweet
+
+Pointless Corp. is the innovation lab at Viget, where we step away from client
+work to make fun and useful things for everyone
+
+“Neither pointless, nor a corporation” is how we describe Pointless Corp. here
+at Viget. We founded Viget – an actual company – in 1999 during the original
+dot com bubble to build web products for clients. Serving clients has always
+been our purpose or … point, if you will. Over the decades, we’ve done just
+that, completing thousands of projects for hundreds of clients. Never
+forgetting that we exist to serve our clients has been key in our longevity.
+
+About a decade in, we felt the urge to build and launch our own projects.
+Pointless Corp became the internal brand we adopted to remind ourselves that
+these projects can be fun and useful but don’t replace the primary point of
+Viget. A line from Harry Nilsson’s The Point! referencing the Pointless Man
+serves as inspiration: “a point in every direction is the same as no point at
+all.” We wanted the freedom to experiment in every direction.
+
+So we did. Ideas and teams formed fairly randomly, and Pointless Projects began
+to fill the gaps between our client work. Projects like HeyCraig (2009), which
+sent you an email alert based on your Craigslist search (before Craigslist shut
+us down and added the feature). Or Tincan’d (2011), a simple video call
+platform before Zoom or Google Meet. Or BabyBookie, the baby due date office
+pool app over 500,000 people have used since launch in 2012.
+
+These projects allow our teams to work without the input (including, ahem,
+revenue) of clients, so we’re more free to experiment, wear different hats, and
+learn … a lot. We apply what we learn back into our client work. Along the way,
+we get to know each other better, scratch our entrepreneurial itches, and
+hopefully put some fun and/or useful things out in the world for others to
+enjoy.
+
+For many years, we organized an annual optional Pointless Weekend. We’d kick
+off hackathon-style on a Thursday evening and wrap on a Saturday evening with a
+functional product out in the wild, as I described back in 2012. It’s always
+been an intense, enjoyable, but rather exhausting 48 hours. Photos from 2011,
+2014, and 2016 bring back some great memories.
+
+Photos of Pointless Weekend 2014
+Pointless Weekend 2014 spanned three Viget offices
+
+A couple of years ago, we shifted the schedule to start on Wednesday and wrap
+on Friday. This made participation easier, allowing parents and others with
+weekend commitments to join. It also allowed projects to wrap up just in time
+for our Friday staff meeting. We awkwardly called it “Pointless Week” even
+though it was still only two days.
+
+New for 2023: Pointless Palooza
+
+Two things I like: alliteration and lollapalooza (specifically circa 1992, but
+that’s a story for another day). So Pointless Palooza was an obvious choice for
+what to call our little two day adventure. In addition to a new name, we’re
+trying a few other changes this year:
+
+Pointless Executives. Nothing injects new energy like new leadership. We handed
+over the Pointless reins to two trusty execs: Andrew (day job: developer) is
+our Pointless CEO and Aimee (day job: project manager) is our Pointless COO.
+They’ve done a phenomenal job setting a vision, planning, and leading the
+activities. Their enthusiasm helped inspire more than half the company to
+participate with a record number of projects and great results.
+
+Pitching & Team Formation. Previously, project ideas were “pitched” with a
+single slide and a tight 1-2 minute segment at a staff meeting. These were fun
+and lighthearted, but didn’t always capture the full vision, and teams often
+formed and morphed during the kickoff night. This year, project ideas were
+shared more gradually via collaboration in Slack and Notion. Project teams
+formed with more structure in advance, and team members had some time before
+the kickoff to marinate on the idea and get excited to build.
+
+Even More Remote Friendly. There’s something magical about kickoff-pizza,
+launch day donuts, and in-person collaboration. But there’s something even more
+magical about collaborating with dozens of teammates around the country
+(especially when it’s supplemented by sweet swag boxes and Divvy credits for
+remote treats). Hybrid teams work. We still had fun in-office connections, but
+most of our Pointless Projects this year are being worked on with distributed
+teams, much like our client work.
+
+Photo of Pointless Branded Stuff 2023
+Pointless Branded Stuff 2023 including a t-shirt and sticker pack -- very
+corporate
+
+Some things haven’t changed from prior years. Team members are still swapping
+roles – PMs writing code, designers running projects, the list goes on – which
+means steep and rapid learning curves. We’re still trying out new technologies
+and approaches to our work, which means unexpected blockers and great insights
+to share. New connections are being formed, especially since more than half of
+this year’s participants are in their first year at Viget and experiencing
+their first Pointless event. Forming authentic co-worker connections isn’t
+easy, and our culture is stronger today than it was at the start of the week.
+
+So what projects will launch? I won’t steal their thunder, but we just wrapped
+the presentation portion of six Pointless Project teams at our weekly staff
+meeting and it was the most we’ve laughed, cheered, and been inspired in a long
+time. I expect articles will be written and shared in the days and weeks ahead
+outlining the thrills (and mishaps) of the teams this year.
+
+Photos of Pointless Palooza 2023
+Pointless Palooza 2023 was a blast!
+
+Pointless Corp. is more than an annual palooza. We work on projects throughout
+the year in the gaps between client work, weaving the teamwork, learning, and
+teaching values of Viget into all that we do.
+
+If this is the kind of work and culture you might enjoy, learn more about our
+culture and job openings – perhaps you’ll be able to join next year’s Pointless
+Palooza. After all, inspiring people to join us is unapologetically part of the
+point.
+
+Brian Williams
+
+Brian is Viget's co-founder and CEO. He does everything from advising our
+clients to building our conference tables with his bare hands in our Falls
+Church, VA, HQ.
+
+More articles by Brian
+
+Related Articles
+
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