midtoad’s mess.ages
excellence in creative mediocrity

Afternoon rays on Port Phillip Bay at Frankston, Victoria, Australia, during a ride around the bay.
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PHP is okay for whipping up something quick, but once I start getting into more complicated stuff, I start to feel lost. I’d rather work in Python. So I’ve begun the job of moving my BikeRoots site over to Python. There were a few things involved…
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The Bike Roots database is now in test. It only took the better part of an afternoon to modify the PHP code from the Flight Poetry website so that it could be used with my Bike Roots database. That’s the benefit of having used a MySQL database for both sections. I would have preferred to use Python instead of PHP, but it’s always easier to modify code than to write new code. Once I get up and running, though, I’ll have more time to make the switch at that time.

So far, I am only presenting a collection of routes, with no way (yet) for the user to submit new route information. I’m also not ready to present graphical images of the routes; that should come in the next few days. In the meanwhile you can check out the database here.

Visitors to this site may have noticed a curious phrase in the Quotes section (top-right of the page). The quote is by Nicanor Parra, and it says “Let’s not fool ourselves: the automobile is a wheelchair (No nos echemos tierra a los ojos: El automóvil es una silla de ruedas”.)

Nicanor Parra is one of Chile’s better known poets, in his 90s as of September 5, 2004. He’s survived socialism and military dictatorships, and so is well-equipped to comment on life in that country (or all countries).

The phrase in the quote comes from his book “Obra Gruesa”, released in the 50s. Interestingly, he recycled a number of his better-known phrases in a poem entitled Frases, in 2001. It appears here and is quoted below:

No nos echemos tierra a los ojos
El automóvil es una silla de ruedas
El león está hecho de corderos
Los poetas no tienen biografía
La muerte es un hábito colectivo
Los niños nacen para ser felices
La realidad tiende a desaparecer
Fornicar es un acto diabólico
Dios es un buen amigo de los pobres.

You can find more poems from the Obra Gruesa (and other works) at the Universidad de Chile’s Cultura website.

You might think that Nicanor was speaking strictly about the automobile as wheelchair, and conclude that he is dead right in his opinion. Millions and millions of able-bodied individuals are converted by the automobile from being active citizens to being slothful, overweight invalids who are apparently incapable of walking, running or cycling even a couple of blocks.

But it appears that Parra may have had a wider purpose in mind, with the automobile being only one symbol of a world of consumerism that turns us all into slavish addicts of the latest and greatest, thus crippling our ability to think for ourselves and determine what things are really necessary in life. More power to him!

First time I’ve written a post that has four categories!

I ran across a cool software project called Leonardoserver , hosted on Sourceforge. It’s a project licensed under the GPL that allows paragliding federations to easily offer on-line contests. You can find one example of such a contest at paraglidingforum.com.
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I’m in the process of kicking off a project called Calgary BikeRoots. It’s a website for and by Calgary-area cyclists and other non-motorised commuters such as walkers, runners and skaters.
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Q and I spent some time today exploring and developing the beginnings of a new bike trail in the urban wilderness. It runs about 1 km along a south-facing hillside, and should be rideable much of the year.
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If you live within 5 km of downtown Calgary, and want to arrive or leave during rush hour, you’ll find that a bicycle is consistently faster than a car - even if you’re slow and out of shape. And, (hidden bonus), with a bicycle there is no rush hour!.

Even if you live 10 km away from work, it’s still faster to ride a bicycle, when you consider total time over a week. As a cyclist, you’re getting a free exercise program thrown in, so you can avoid 2-3 hours on that activity each week. The bike still wins!

Given that it’s slower, more expensive (see my other post today), harder on the ecosystem and on your clogging arteries, what’s the excuse not to ditch four wheels for two?

A SUV owner is e a breed apart - a type of person who justifies his purchasing decision by comparing his vehicle to others only a slightly higher up the evolutionary sequence, and then consoling himself that it’s only slightly more (inefficent, larger, more dangerous, expensive - pick two) than the alternative. But is that really true?
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In my Quotes section there’s a quote by Nicanor Parra: “Let’s not fool ourselves: the automobile is a wheelchair.” I found this in the book “Men for the Mountains”, by Sid Marty. It’s a profound statement about the debilitating and insidious effects of the car upon our society. But is there more to that quote?
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You’ve read about those psychological experiments in sensory deprivation, the ones where they block people off from the outside world and all outside influences, suspending them in floating sea of warm fluid… and after a while they lose complete track of reality? Well, something similar, though less dramatic happens with motorists…
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A new website has been launched for Calgary-area cyclists: CalgaryBikeRoots.com. The premise of this site is simple: provide a more enjoyable experience for cyclists, so as to encourage more people to get out of their cars for at least some of the trips they have to make.
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Every day I park my bike in the parking garage at my workplace, and I watch as one person after another drives in, alone, in a massive SUV or truck. I can’t help but think “can’t you figure out how to get to work for less than $50,000?”
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