They just added biking directions to google maps this week.  Very cool.

I was looking at directions on how to get to Chris King when I stumbled across this (there’s a Portland Trail Fest thing coming up in April I thought might be cool to check out).

Previously, I’d been using another service, ByCycle Trip Planner, whenever I wanted to go somewhere and wasn’t sure where there would be decent bike lanes or paths.  They only had it Portland… and Milwaukee, Wisconsin ironically – my previous residence.

The service was great but what google has done is even better.  The different suggested routes, help to avoid steep hills, etc.  It’s all very thorough.

They even have a nice YouTube video explaining it:

Maybe next time you need milk and eggs you can ride your bike?

My Dad and his wife Mary flew out this past weekend to visit for a couple of days.  We went out to the airport to pick them up.  Here’s a dark picture.

And here’s one with a flash.

Wow.  White-out.  This leads me to believe I have a shitty camera (PowerShot SD1000).  I thought it was great at the time I bought it but perhaps it is time for a new one.  Heidi and I were trying to play with it while waiting for them to get off the plane.

Self portraits are hard when you are trying to hold the camera and not look like it’s too close or see your arm holding the camera.  Every shot to me looks like I have double chin because of trying to hold my head up.  Maybe I do.

We spent time just hanging out.  Since they only had a couple days, we didn’t want to drive all over showing them sites like we did back when they first visited Portland for our wedding in September 2007.  So we watched movies (good ones like Open Range and bad ones like Pandorum), had fires in the fireplace, watched the winter Olympics and just hung out.  I did a bunch of cooking too (Cinnamon French Toast and Bacon, Sausages and Eggs, Steaks and Dungeness Crab).  The old man got a kick out of New Seasons, especially the butcher shop/meat counter and almost fell over when someone approached us twice and asked us if we needed help since that’s not common in stores back east.  We also went to HUB for beer and pizza – well root beer since the old man doesn’t drink beer.

It was great to see my Dad again and have a room in the house for them to stay.  I took them back to the airport using the bus and train.  A good way to see Portland in just a couple days I think.

It’s springtime in the Pacific Northwest in February apparently.  Sunny and 60s.  I feel guilty looking at the weather temperatures back in Chicago/Milwaukee where it’s below freezing and/or snowing every day.

The first day this season I’ve been able to ride without rain pants or tights on.

My trusty steed has been getting me back and forth to work, running errands, and keeping rain off me all ‘winter’ long.  I guess it’s time to give her a bath and lube her chain.

Comcast announced back in December that it was launching a data usage meter and mentioned it on their blog.

While I’m thankful that they created the tool, I think the entire download cap is a little dubious.  More and more content is being made available over the web, movies, streaming live TV, downloading and installing games etc. and suddenly we are capped at 250GB per month.  We could wax and wane about how 250GB lets you download x number of movies but like anything, over time, setting that maximum has set a precedent from which we will always be measured. As more content gets converted to higher definition, larger file sizes are created and suddenly 250GB will not be enough.  Then Comcast can say, “well we will increase it to 500GB, that’s a 100% increase!”, and so there’s that precedent coming up.

If I use my bandwidth test from November, and I was to download something at my max bandwidth of 16 Mb/s, then in just 36 hours, I would use up all my bandwidth for the month.  [Math: 16 megabits per second = 0.001953125 gigabytes per second; 250 GB / 0.001953125 gigabytes per second = 128,000 seconds which translates to 35.55 hours].

Anyway, the tool is available from your users and settings tab.

And my current data usage meter.

Note that I’m already up to 45GB and I have yet to even stream a movie through Netflix or Amazon.  I think a majority of bits came from buying a few games off of Steam, some of which have large (5-8GB) installs.

The lazy man, I’m-too-groggy-to-do-anything breakfast.  Pour granola in bowl, pour milk, commence eating.

(Yes Dad, this is very much like the ‘stick & twigs’ breakfast you commented on yesterday. Further, note that the Granola is bought in bulk, I’m using organic milk, and I’m weighing it on a scale to make sure I don’t eat more than 4 ounces.)

Lest you think that’s healthy granola, it’s not.  Over the past few years I’ve found I’m constantly looking at the ingredients label on things and buying less and less processed food.  Portland does have a great selection of grocers and local organic food.  That’s another storey.  One of the helpful things about our grocer, New Seasons Market, is you can shop online and get nutritional and ingredient information.