Author: Michel McDonald

I live in Bakersfield with my partner of more than 30 years. I enjoy reading, crafts, sci fi, video games, and writing in my personal blog.

Bicycle Of The Future

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

2_bike_pres

Check out this new bicycle concept by Marten Wallgren who won the award for best concept in the competition called “Future City Mobility”.

This is a concept for the future so basically in 20 years you might see this in London Gardens which they say is a bus and bicycle only zone.

They don’t really give out much information as to how to obtain one of these bicycles other than showing pictures.  You go to the bus stop where you see all of these bicycles in a tree which stores the bikes.  I can only assume that these are all rentals because they each have a number on them like a license plate number.

When you are riding it you are building up the battery power with your peddling power.  If you are peddling while sitting straight up as if you are on a beach cruiser you are building 1x the battery.  If you are more leaning forward in a faster racing type of mode you are building 3x the battery.  If you are sitting up and letting the motor do all the work you are using the battery instead.

How this helps you out though is by you building up the battery to 100% when you get in a taxi or bus with a holder for this bike you get a free ride if you let the vehicle drain your battery.  I’m not so sure about a free taxi ride but definitely a free bus ride.

This is a neat concept but 2030 is a long way away and it’s possible that this is going to be a London only idea or perhaps it will be copied over to the US and everywhere else in the world before too long.

It will be especially neat if we get our flying cars by 2030 then there won’t be any cars to compete with on the roads because they will all be up in the air.

Weider Total Body Works 5000

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

I bought this home gym from the Wal-Mart website a couple of years ago called the Weider Total Body Works 5000 and at the time it was $99.  I forgot how much the shipping was though.  But I just went to do a search on that particular brand that I have to see if there was any new information such as blogs or instructional videos or whatever to give me more of an insight into this gym which houses more dust and spider webs that it should and I find that they dramatically raised the price to $174.  It looks like I bought it just in the nick of time.

My friend Sue calls it my Weider Total Towel Rack 5000 lol.  My aunt Betty has a treadmill in her living room and when I was there the last time it was folded it and it actually did have towels hanging on it lol.  I had to joke with her about that.

We Got Carded for Wood Putty

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Ok, I’ve been carded in my life for cigarettes when I was younger.  I’ve been carded for booze when I went into the bars when I was younger or when buying beer from the store.  No problem.  But I’ve never been carded for buying wood putty.

We went to Home Depot for prices on linoleum floors for the kitchen in the rental and while we were there Darrin needed some wood putty and we went to the self checkout lanes.  I scanned the wood putty and the screen said that we needed assistance from the employee who had to check Chips ID.

I’ve talked about Darrin here in my blog on several occasion.  He is 59 years old and he has gray hair.  He is hardly a person that you would card for something let alone wood putty.

I can understand carding for spray paint because I’m sure teenagers are always buying spray paint but wood putty?  Sheesh.  What could you possibly do with wood putty that would be destructive to someone else’s property?

Whatever.

Solution To My Back Problems

On By Michel McDonaldIn BikeLeave a comment

I’ve been thinking that maybe the solution to my bike seat problem might be easier.  When I was 17 I had a beach cruiser bicycle.  The seat was fat in the back and the horn was very small.  It’s handlebars were long enough that I could sit up while riding so I never had any back issues.

My bike is a mountain bike.  I only bought a “mountain bike” because of the price.  I bought it at Wal•mart for $60.  I really wanted a beach cruiser but they were too expensive at the time and same with the 10 speed road bikes.  The mountain bike was my only cheap alternative.

I’ve already changed out most of the bike and it’s mainly just the frame that is the same so why not just take the handlebar off and put a new one on lol.  When I get my next check I plan on buying one of these:

beachcruiserbar

It’s long enough that I won’t have to bend even a little bit to reach and I can sit up fully while riding.  As long as my seat is in the right position I won’t feel like I’m falling forward as long as I have some longer handlebars.

This handlebar is $10 plus $5 shipping from NYCBikes.com which is not bad at all.  However, I’m not sure if I want to wait for it to ship to me.  I mean, we have a bike store in town (they don’t have a website :() so I’m going to check with them first.  Hopefully they will have a black one so I don’t have to spray paint it lol.

I will probably have to wait another week or so before I can ride my bike again so by the time I get this I will be healed up again hopefully and I can resume my 4:30am bike rides.  I can also add more crap to my seat lol.

Oh the only issue I can see with this is that the brakes won’t be long enough to reach to the end of the handlebars but that’s ok, I’m sure that when I need them I will be able to reach for them.  Or maybe they will be long enough to get close to the end of the handlebars.

But you know what?  Maybe I’m going at this all wrong.  Beach Cruiser bikes are probably not that expensive at Wal-Mart.  The last time we were there they were $60 so maybe I should just get a new bike.  Beach Cruiser bikes don’t have hand brakes.  All you do is peddle backwards and you stop lol.  They don’t even have gears which might make it a bit easier.  I’ll think about it.

Shrinking Jug Keeps Milk Fresh For Another Week

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

Check this out from Dvice.com

Shrinking Jug Keeps Milk Fresh For Another Week

That is so cool!  I want one.  All you do is pour your new gallon of milk into it and then close it.  When you want some milk you just push the button and the milk pours into your glass or cereal bowl and the container shrinks in the process.  Since we always buy 2 gallons of milk I think it would be appropriate to buy 2 of these.  Although if one of these containers cost $20 – $100 then perhaps 1 will do lol.

It works by keeping the air out so when you open the milk it starts going bad because the air does something to it… just read the article, it makes more sense when they say what it does.

Back Meds

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

I went to the neurologist today for my regular appointment for my carpel tunnel syndrome and I mentioned the problems with my back and they gave me a steroid and a muscle relaxer.

I have to take one of them every 8 hours and the other one I have to take 6 pills today, 5 tomorrow 4 day after, 3 day after that, 2 day after that and then 1 on the last day.

I really hope this pain is gone at the end of this because I really want to resume my exercise.  I’m going to add strength exercises as well because I think that my back muscles just were not prepared for this new seat.

Back Pain

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

Well apparently this back pain is a bit more severe than I thought.  I just called the chiropractors office that I used to go to in 2005 and had to leave a message so I hope they get it by tonight so I can make an appointment to hopefully come in tomorrow morning.  I have a doctor’s appointment with the neurologist for my carpel tunnel syndrome near where they used to be but they aren’t too far from there so I will be able to walk there from my neurologist.

I was thinking of bringing my bike with me but I don’t have the proper locks and I’m afraid that my new seat and/or my wheels will get stolen.  I don’t have the money to buy 2 new locks/chains so I’m screwed and have to walk there from the bus stop in pain lol.  Maybe I can think of something though, we have some padlocks that maybe I can borrow from what they are locking and look for some chain that I can use.  Now that I think about it I’m going to start looking for those so I can at least chain up my seat for now.  I really don’t feel like walking all that way tomorrow especially with this back pain.

Cyclone Diet

On By Michel McDonaldIn DietLeave a comment

cyclonediet2I don’t remember when I bought this, maybe 2002 or 2003.  But it’s supposed to help you lose 10lbs in 48 hours.  I’m not sure if it worked or not, I highly doubt it though.  I think that you are supposed to drink 3 packets a day for 2 days and nothing else for the rest of the time and you will lose 10lbs.

It’s basically something that will clean out your system.  You know when you have to get prepared for a colonoscopy?  You have to drink this liquid for a certain amount of hours the night before your test and you are going to the bathroom every 5 minutes.  It’s basically the same concept except I don’t exactly remember going to the bathroom as much.  Then again it was so long ago.

The best thing I liked about this diet was that it comes with a cup that has a blender in it.  It’s not a blender in the respect that it crushes ice but more like it just blends a powder into a liquid.  I use it for mixing my slim fast when I’m not using ice when I just want to mix the powder into the milk.  I suppose you could do the same thing with your iced tea lol.  Just add your ice and your tea then put your sugar or sweetener and press the button and it mixes the sugar.  No need for a tea spoon.

Since this product has been discontinued what else am I supposed to do with the cup?

Stackable Fridge

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

unifridgeGot roommates who just won’t stop eating your labeled food?  Here is a solution.  This is a really good thing for roommates especially ones who are in college.

They don’t have locks on them and that’s probably a good idea to put on them but other than that it’s a pretty good idea.  It also saves energy because it has 1 power source which is on the bottom.  When you open 1 little compartment you aren’t letting out all the cool air.

I just wish that I was in college because I wouldn’t mind having one lol.  This would actually be great for work, you could have your own cube fridge with your name on it at work so you can leave your lunch in there and maybe even some other food and not worry that someone is stealing your food while you aren’t at work.

Cool Stackable Refrigerator Concept | Toxel.com

My Spirit Board Finished

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

Well I finally did it.  I made a spirit board.  No, not a “Ouija” board because that name is copyrighted.  This is my own personal creation.  Although I copied the idea, I burned it.

The font I used for the letters and numbers is Captain Howdy and the yes, no, hi and bye is obviously Comic Sans.  I didn’t want to have big words like Hello and Goodbye and I’m sure Hi and Bye are perfectly acceptable.

I added the sun and the moon because I read you are supposed to ask the “spirits” if they are from the sun or the moon.  Sun meaning good, moon meaning not so good.

Look, I don’t know if a spirit board works or not and I don’t know if or when I will ever use it, I just wanted to make one lol.

I showed awhile ago my planchette that I made but it was too big for this board so I had to cut a smaller one out of it and I am not going to drill a hole in it, instead the “spirits” can use the point from the top of it to point to everything.  I could drill a hole the size of a nickel but it’s not necessary.

For now I am finished burning but I’m not completely finished with it.  I still need to put some lacquer on it.  I’m waiting until I can buy a spray lacquer instead of wasting yet another brush that I can’t clean.  Also I’m sure spraying is smoother than brushing.

I hope you like it.  Oh by the way, the wood is the “irregular” from Walnut Hollow’s website so it was only $2.25 and it measures 13.5″W x 10.25″H.  Pretty good price for a spirit board right?

myspiritboard