Grilling with the boys in the band
Fired up the new grill (Bauhaus, 25 €) with some old friends yesterday.
Crossing Germany by bike: From Rostock to Passau over Berlin and Prague
Part two of the remastered travelogue from my 2002 bike tour is now published:
Europe by bike 2: Germany and Czech republic
It’s much more interesting than the first part! Highlights include stops in Berlin and Prague. And beer.
It’s another 5000 words, enjoy!
En baby gallskriker vid ett bord i närheten. Så lustigt. Har den inte lärt sig att uppskatta en väl tillredd cappuccino i gemytlig miljö? Som dess pappa verkar avnjuta.
(Kraków, 9 augusti 2002)
Join me for a ride
For three Sundays in a row, I invite you to join me for a bike tour I made back in 2002. I biked from Stockholm to Krakow, via Berlin, Prague and Vienna: 2,700 km in 27 biking days.
I’ve rescanned the photos and spiced up the fact sheets with some newly acquired CSS3. You can call it a “remastered” travelogue!
Don’t just click and scroll, as we all do nowadays! This is 5,000 words! So if you’re interested, pour a glass of wine, or a cup of coffee, and give it half an hour.
Enjoy!
New tires for my Caad 10
I got a puncture last Monday, in the most inconvenient situation possible: In the middle of the runway as the rain was pouring down. It was actually quite a hefty hail storm and people were running for cover. But I enjoyed riding in the heavy rain for the first time. Until I felt the tire on the rear wheel burst.
Here’s the thing that caused it:
And this is from the inside. As you can see it sticks in a lot, so it had pierced the tube immediately, very cruel:
Here I have pulled out the thing a bit. It turned out to be a piece of stone, but sharpened like a little knife or similar. How evil:
This was my third puncture in only a month. So I decided to upgrade my tires. Apparently the Schwalbe Lugano that came with my bike are quite low-end. And also, I’ve had them for as long as the bike: 2,5 years and 6600 km. Now I ordered Schwalbe Durano S, which are lighter, faster and have better puncture protection:
It might be silly to order tires with white stripes. I mean, white of all colors. For how long will they remain white?
But the truth is that this was the perfect fit for my bike. In fact, these new tires complete my bike in an almost magical way. It should have been sold with these tires, I think. Just look for yourself:
Not a good position for my bike, but you get the point. I didn’t wanna set up a photo shoot – I wanted to get out and ride!
I rode the new tires today and it was wonderful. The bike looks so good! And I think they were faster too – I normally don’t top at 57 km/h on flat Tempelhof as I did now. And there’s a different feeling when I bike handless, a bit harder to control but I think it’s only that I have to get used to the new way it moves.
New Strava record
“Round and round and round” consists of 6 laps à 6 kilometers = 36 km on Tempelhof. Unlike the shorter sprint segments, this one is all about keeping a high pace throughout the long segment, about 1 hour in my case. Since the segment is so long, it captures relatively few bikers. I got place 9 of 62 on one of my last rides, when I biked together with two fast guys:
New Strava friend
My first one, actually. We biked and talked last Monday (before my puncture), and afterwards Strava informed us about whom we had biked with. As always, Strava has all the stats:
Just nu i iTunes: “Wish you were here”. Smäktande.
(10 maj 2004)
Goodbye, Flattr
It feels a bit cruel to quit my Flattr account while the company’s founder is in prison after a mock trial, but … I haven’t used Flattr much, and now they ask all users to update their account with correct personal details, or else you get deleted.
I commented to this change:
Now: Germany – Brazil
22:54. Update in half time: Germany is leading 5-0. What a historical game!
Svensk polis beslagtar politisk konst
Jag har länge varit emot lagen om hets mot folkgrupp. Det var den som gjorde Åke Green till en världsberömd martyr, eftersom han dömdes till fängelse efter att ha kallat bögar en cancersvulst på samhället i sin predikan, eller nåt sånt. Utan hetslagstiftningen hade han i stället fört en tynande tillvaro som bortglömd reaktionär pastor i en liten församling på Öland, eller om det var Gotland.
Och nu är det dags igen. Mycket av den konst jag hittar av Dan Park är förutsägbar och sparkar in dörrar. 50-åriga flyktingbarn, osv. Politisk konst. Som fram tills nu fört en rätt tynande tillvaro.
Nu är det väl inte denna politiska konst som utgör den “hets” som fick polisen att storma in på hans galleri och beslagta verken. Det var kanske något med hakkors eller något annat osmakligt.
Men konst ska få vara osmaklig. HAX skriver mycket bra på sin svenska blogg om att “konsten, litteraturen och journalistiken måste få vara fri” och att “yttrandefriheten måste försvaras”. Finns det då inga gränser? JO! Jag skriver under på HAX undantag:
Enda inskränkningen i yttrandefriheten jag kan tänka mig gäller sådant som kan utsätta andra för uppenbar fara.
Just så.
Googlar vidare på Dan Park, och upptäcker att han inte alls är så medioker som jag först tyckte. Detta har dock ingen betydelse för mitt försvar av honom. Även medioker konst måste försvaras! Men de här satiriska verken är ju fanimej briljanta:
Hur kan man få gatukonsten om “negerslaven” till rasism eller “hets”? Man kan ju lika gärna tolka den som en kritisk kommentar om hur samhället och den “vanlige svensken” ser på annorlunda människor.
Valaffischen med Alf Svensson hetsar ju mot KD, inte mot bögar.
Fritzlmuggen är bara fab. Vill ha! Påminner mig om när tyska satirtidningen Titanic utropade Fritzl till EM-maskot.
Om vi nu ska ha en hetslagstiftning måste man väl åtminstone se Dan Parks konst i ljuset av dessa tidigare och inte alls så uppenbara verk.
Men bottom line blir nog: Polisen har gått in på ett galleri och beslagtagit konst.
Polisen har gått in på ett galleri och beslagtagit konst.
Like others say, Flattr was a great idea, and I know it’s not your fault you have to do this. But…
I registered and filled up my account with 10 euro back in 2010. Now my account balance is 25 euro. So I’ve made 15 euros in 4 years. Almost 4 euros per year. And for that, the EU/US demands to know my identity.
It’s like with the buses in Stockholm – you can’t pay a simple fair with sms unless you register your prepaid sim card. I don’t like this development.
I voted with my feet when I registered for Flattr. I wanted it to work. I implemented it on my sites and encouraged people to use it. But now I must vote with my feet again, as a protest. Not against you, but against these silly laws.
Thank you for these years and goodbye.
And thanks to everyone who flattred me over the years! I’ve now deleted my account.