Norco CRD 3

The ride is like stepping onto an infinite, frictionless plane. You feel like one soft push would propel you to the horizon.

Norco's CRD 3 is the acme of modern bicycle design. Incorporating a space-aged aluminum frame, carbon forks and Sora componentry, the frame is light and fast; it's a precision instrument no less suited for conquering hills than a scalpel is for performing delicate surgery.

A day riding this bicycle is a religious experience. Your legs will feel energized as you waft through the misty dawn. Your beating heart will urge the sun along its azimuth as the heat of the day arrives. When your ride concludes, you'll be left spent but thirsting for more of what the CRD3 has to offer.

Panasonic RP-HV250-K Earbuds

Panasonic's RP-HV250-K headphones are great. You can use them to listen to any number of wonderful things: youtube videos, mp3s, podcasts, internet radio, etc.

That these deliver sound to the ear is quite a wonderful thing. Many illuminating works of art, science, journalism and so on have an auditory component; the audio delivered by these RP-HV250-Ks can really shine a light of enjoyment through clouds of profundity, illuminating the intellect and casting shadows on ignorance. They are well worth the ~$10 price tag, especially if you "borrow" a pair that someone else bought.

GoLITE P2

Do you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or the dreaded Seasonal Effectiveness Disorder (SED)?

The problem is that not enough neurons from the sun are passing through your eyes and reaching your cornea. It's a serious problem. Without the neutrons to synchronize your biotic clock with the Earth's natural rotation, your inner schedule won't mesh with Mother Nature's, and you'll be glum.

Don't let Nature get you down! Nothing diminishes life like a defeated soul. Inflate your self-worth by blasting yourself twice daily with a healthy dose of blue anions and pro-anions! The harsh light will kick-start your psychic drumbeat and get you back on the road to fruition!

Enjoy Life!

"Rain" by W. Somerset Maugham

Rain is a story about the logical and emotional edifice that is human ideology, which is built in a foundation in the brain of a savage animal.

W. Somerset Maugham studies a contrast of characters in this short story. A cynical first world war doctor is travelling to the South Pacific to adjourn himself from stress and recuperate from an illness. He and his wife meet and befriend a pair of devout missionaries along the way. The missionaries are proud of the progress they've made converting an island's native population the Christianity, but their methods are cruel.

The four are quarantined together on an island due to a smallpox outbreak. On this island, they meet a prostitute, whose soul the missionaries take a direct interest in saving.

The story is brief, but it gives a very unflattering view of devoutly religious behaviour. Psychologically assaulting the young prostitute, and with the threat of sending her to jail, the missionaries cow her to their will. For them, the ends justify the means, but their behaviour is very much unethical.

It is clear that it is wrong to pursue of an ideal to such an extreme that the methods used surpass human decency. Maugham gives a great example of this in Rain, and a good read as well.

Milton Farmer's Market

Bustling rumpus and Rustling bumpkins await at the Milton Farmer's Market! With fresh produce lining main street for as far as the eye can see, food eaters are in for a real treat at this weekly event.

With a wide variety of items, from spicy peppers to soothing honeys, the MFM almost assuredly has the farm-fresh item you're looking for. It's time for some good food!

Taco Bell 7 - Layer Burrito

When you're feeling low, burrito!
It's spicy and tubular
And good good tasting
Lovely, lovely lovely
Burrito!

Taco Bell's 7 - Layer Burrito is easily the best thing on their menu. Enjoy!

Jakt Shoe Rack

Capable of holding more than its own weight in shoes, Ikea's stackable Jakt shoe rack is a time-tested shoe storage solution. With the ease of stackability, the rack enables a user to store as many shoes as a closet can hold. The available colour options are, on average, pleasing to the eye. The durability of the product is within acceptable standards. All in all, Ikea's Jakt shoe rack will do the job it was designed to do.

Most human beings wear shoes. Unless you've undergone surgery to have both legs removed, or were born without legs, you'll probably own several pairs of shoes, and will need a place to store them. We humans evolved over the course of millions of years to have body parts in certain shapes that make the part in question amenable to its task. One of these body parts is the foot; there is an arch in the foot, capable of storing and dissipating energy, and adding a certain spring to our steps. The foot is narrow at the back, to match the size of our legs, but wider at the front to allow more surface area for out foot falls. The result is that the foot is an odd shape in all three dimensions. The garment designed to protect this body part, the shoe, must therefore also have an odd shape. As such, a large group of shoes is difficult to neatly store. Luckily your Ikea Jakt has a design to resolve these issues. Single layer shelves provide the needed storage space for your foot wear. Stackable, they can accomodate any wardrobe's pedal portion.

Jakts are available in a narrow range of colours which were deemed as "pleasing to the eye" by top Ikea colour engineers back when you could still buy these items. I think that Ikea had a thing going for bright obtrusive colours at the time, so you could get these shoe racks in colours like bright yellow, pink and olive (if I recall correctly). Most people bought the olive ones because the other colours would show dirt too readily. Regardless, there were a wide range of options to fit into whatever space-aged colour scheme you or your interior decorator desired.

Jakts aren't made of honeycomb titanium, but nobody ever accused Ikea of making heirloom quality furniture. In fact, most of their stuff has a fairly limited shelf life, especially on the lower end of their price scale. Jakts are on the lower end of the price scale, but the durability is acceptable. When under a high load, the plastic will buckle a bit, which makes stacking damned near impossible, but it's still worth a whollop.

To summarize, a Jakt shoe rack is a half decent shoe storage implement, and I don't regret living in apartment where two of them reside.