…I’ll be opening up my Marzocchi Super-T Pros for the first time. Wish me luck!

And then a bit later on…

I’ve just had one of those “OH B******S!” moments.

I went over to the Windwave site and downloaded some of their excellent technical guides to servicing your Marzocchi fork. They explain the whole oil and spring change in a very clear and simple manner — unfortunately they can’t take human error into acocunt.

I took everything apart. I poured the old oil out. I noted how the oil in the damper-cart leg was black and horrible, and how it was lovely and clean in the other leg. I replaced it with new oil. I put everything back together. I rode around the car-park, noting that the fork is now a lot more supple, but there’s still perhaps a little too much oil in there. “I’ll sort that out next time around”, I think to myself.

And then it happens. I’m disposing of the old fork oil when “Ooh, whats that?”. That’ll be one of the washers from inside the fork then. That really ought to be on the inside of the fork. But I’ve got no daylight left, and there’s no lights in the garage. There’s no way in hell that I’m doing this in the flat.

Oh well, that’ll have to wait for next weekend then. The complete lack of daylight in the winter is such a pain in the backside! You live and learn…

And then about a week later…

I emailed Windwave during the week to find out where the mystery washer should go. It took about five minutes flat to take the top-cap off of the the fork, take a few bits out, put the washer back where it was supposed to go and then put it all back together. I could probably have done it in the dark. I still think there’s a bit too much oil in there but I’ll test ride it first.

I read a lot of websites – people’s weblogs, journals, news sites, bike sites, the list is endless. It takes me absolutely ages to trawl through them every day. The list of sites seems to grow on a fairly regular basis too, so the trawl takes longer every time. I need to look at every single site to see if its been updated, and quite often they haven’t, which is just wasted time. This needs to be fixed. Its taking too long and its too much of a distraction.

Now, I’d heard about RSS, but I didn’t really get it or what it did. Then Thunderbird came along and BISH BASH BOSH! It all made sense.

You know when someone sends you a new email, it appears as a bold item in your inbox? Well now you can do that with your frequently-read websites.

You’ve tempted me. How does it work then?

Its remarkably simple to set it up:

1. Open Thunderbird. Now go to File > New > Account
2. Select RSS News and Blogs, and then press Next a few times.
3. You’ve now got an account set up. Fire up Firefox (or your browser of choice) and come to this very site.
4. You see that RSS 2.0 link towards to bottom of the sidebar? Drag and drop that onto News & Blogs in Thunderbird (see below).

Now whenever I update my site, the new article will show up in there. The same goes for any other sites who offer an RSS feed:

What’s more, if a site offers RDF or Atom feeds instead of RSS, they’ll work too. Just drag and drop the link in exactly the same way.

Alternatives?

If you don’t like Thunderbird, there’s plenty of other RSS readers out there aswell. One that I’ve heard very good things about is FeedDemon, which comes from the same stable as the rather wonderful TopStyle.

There’s something screwy about those pictures…

It might look like I’m using an Apple computer in the screenshots, but sadly its all an elaborate hoax. I’m actually using the Flyakite mod for Windows XP SP2. Sadly I can’t afford an iMac right now…

All of my CDs are now in iTunes. Rock on, quite literally. Methinks I’ll be needing something slightly bigger than a 20gb iPod…

I seem to have had this cold ever since we went to New York. That’s getting on for a month now, and I just don’t seem able to shake it. Every time I think I’m nearly there, progressing along the road to a snot-free existence I’ll have a couple of late nights or something and just relapse into it.

I woke up this morning so bunged up with phlegm that I could barely speak without coughing a gallon or so of the stuff up (so much so that when I phoned work to tell them I wouldn’t be there, they didn’t understand me at first).

So now I’m consigned to a day of drinking Lemsip, not watching daytime T.V. (its always painfully bad) and trawling the internet for something interesting to read. This is why I avoid sick days unless I’m feeling really crappy. They’re just so flinking dull.

Still, at least the music is making me feel better. I got a text message read out on Radio 1 this morning (something about the Thirteen Senses album being ace), and now I’m listening to Talk Talk‘s Spirit of Eden, which always cheers me up. Its a beautiful chilled masterpiece, completely unlike the synth-pop that made their name. You’d probably hate it.

Hey! You lot! I know that you’re still using Outlook or Outlook Express to read your email. That makes your computer ridiculously susceptible to email-borne virii.

The answer to this problem is simple. So simple that even my mum has done it.

Get Thunderbird 1.0.

It’ll even import all of your emails, server details and so on from Outlook for you. It’ll help filter out all of the junk mail you get. If you’re geeky enough it’ll even help you with RSS feeds and Newsgroups. So go do it.

Update

Daniel Wang has written a guide to help users migrate to Thunderbird 1.0, with useful information for users of Outlook, Outlook Express, Mozilla, Eudora, AOL, and other mail clients .

Its only a short blast through town, but I always seem to turn it into a balls out rampage from A to B.

The Cove is set up as a 32:16 singespeed. I tend to go everywhere at the fastest possible speed, so I always find myself spinning out on the long straight bits.

The flip-side of that is that I can accelerate out of junctions like an ICBM. If there’s any moisture or ice on the ground I find myself spinning out the back wheel as I try to force the full power of my legs through the balding rear tyre.

If there’s any traffic that I have a cat in hells chance of keeping up with, I’ll play the part of that cat and stick to their bumper like a limpet. I’m learning to trackstand for longer and longer at traffic lights, and on the narrow roads, waiting for cars to come the other way. If there’s a kerb in my way I’ll try to hop up it. If there’s a fast sweeping corner I won’t brake if I can get away with it. I’m even starting to dart through gaps in the traffic only slightly wider than my handlebars. Every morning and evening bring me a new challenge.

Its just pure unadulterated fun!

I had meant to ride my bike up Leckhampton today, but Brett saw to it that I didn’t. By the time I got myself together, he’d put my bike on the back of the car and was waiting impatiently for me.

So I skipped breakfast. Bad move. Instead, I bought a load of custard doughnuts from the local co-op and wolfed them down. JABBBA!

We got up there and I was immediately hit by just how unfit I was feeling. Its about three weeks since my last proper bike ride (barring the five-minute commute I’ve started doing again recently). That’s far too long. I’ve also had my perpetual winter cold, and have been going to bed far too late. Its added up to a catastrophic effect on my fitness.

I was immediately hit by just how unfit I was feeling.

If it was my lack of fitness that nearly killed me on the way up, coming down the hill was an entirely different story — this time it was my lack of confidence that saw to me. I just wasn’t willing to commit to anything at all for the first couple of runs. The sticky mud wasn’t helping my mindset either (even if it wasn’t actually affecting the handling of the bike a great deal). I was making stupid mistakes everywhere. Washing out in the mud and landing my hip on a big tree-root didn’t help matters.

It wasn’t all bad. I was flowing beautifully through some of the trails – from the chute down to the new rock garden was working beautifully for me, as was the last section down to the car park. That last section flows beautifully. Its just a pity that none of the rest really came together for me. I’m never the fastest rider of the bunch, but today was especially bad.

I guess I’ll just have to keep on riding, keep on building the confidence back up. It’ll come back, it always does.

One day I’ll nail that trail top to bottom. One day.

I’m slowly but surely going through my CD collection and sucking it all into iTunes. Its one of those things I’ve wanted to do for ages, but just haven’t been able to until recently — I’ve only just got a PC with enough hard disk space and processing power to cope with the job.

Its having a nice side effect — waking me up to old albums that I’d almost forgotten

So far I’ve only decided against importing one CD, an old Smash Hits compilation that I was given for Christmas in 1998 — largely because its a steaming pile of doo-doo. Put it this way: its got Kavana, Boyzone, Aaron Carter and 911 on there (I look forward to the backlash from their fans).

This process may be a bit boring and laborious, but its having a nice side effect. Its waking me up to old albums and EPs that I’d almost forgotten that I ever had. I stick iTunes on random play and find myself listening to things that hadn’t even left their CD cases for years. Things like Orbital’s In Sides (I had the poster years before I eventually bought the album) and Everything But The Girl’s Walking Wounded, which I was so re-enamoured with that I’ve listened to it all week at work!

Even if you can’t be arsed to plug them all into your PC, I reccommend that you go through all of your old CDs and pick out some classics you’d forgotten about. Put them on, turn them up loud and enjoy them all over again. You know it makes sense!