Hey! Hey! Over here!

Hello! I've been distracted, lazy, busy, confused and generally unable or unwilling to write anything here for a while. Has everyone been well? I haven't been doing much blog reading either.

I deleted my Facebook account! Couldn't be happier, really. I mean I have this blog thing and Twitter if people want to check in on how I'm doing. There's something about facebook that is just tiresome (at least for me) compared to these other platforms. Perhaps it is the constant reminders of the ways in which I'm letting others down by forgetting birthdays, etc, because I don't go on it enough. Anyway, I'm gone from facebook and it feels good.

I hadn't been using Twitter much at all and thought I would give it a try. I'm kind of digging it. There is such a crazy stream of stuff (if you follow many people) that trying to keep up with everything isn't even an option. Going on twitter feels more like popping into a bar and chatting with or eavesdropping on some people you sort of know.

I've done a couple of things on Twitter that simply must be stored forever here on the blog. They are way too awesome to just get lost in the fast-flowing river of tweetiness.

First, there was a hashtag thing called #ReplaceALetterRuinATvShow that triggered my WTF Syndrome (see sidebar) pretty bad:

And today after work I did an animated gif thing that was kind of cool, I thought. It has since morphed into a video:





That pretty well sums up where I've been lately!Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Things People Say Fridays #15: Yeah, Buddy!

Wednesday of this week was a pretty snowy day in London Ontario, pushing the limits of my relatively skinny tires in the morning and exceeding them sometimes on the way home. I tweeted something after my ride/walk home on Wednesday evening:

At the time I had just arrived home having seen many smirks and even overhearing some mildly derisive comments, so you can understand. However, now that a little time has passed I have remembered someone who was much more positive about my winter cycling efforts:

I am a firm believer that somewhat wild looking dudes with snow and ice in their beards are more likely to speak deep truths than the rest of us. I mean, if you're not going to listen to this guy, who are you going to listen to?

Not actual "yeah, buddy" guy. I was unable to get a usable image from the video. I thought this might do instead. pic source

Thanks, bearded cycling brother. You get it, and that's enough for me.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Weather Widget / Gadget / Doodad Thing

Most reasonably small and simple weather things you can post on your web page don't have wind direction or speed on them, and that has always bugged me. You don't have to cycle very much before you start to really notice and want to know what the wind is doing.

That is why I'm pleased to now offer such a widget / gadget / doodad on my sidebar. I'm extra pleased that it is an Environment Canada doodad, free of strings or sneaky links to ads or anything like that.

If you don't live in London, but live in Canada, here's a link to the page that will generate your city-specific code:

https://weather.gc.ca/business/index_e.html#weatherlink

I have re-sized mine a little to fit my page better... if you live in London, ON and want one just like mine (and really, who wouldn't) just copy n' paste the code below:

<!-- Begin WeatherLink Fragment -->
<iframe title="Environment Canada Weather" width="260px" height="230px" src="//weather.gc.ca/wxlink/wxlink.html?cityCode=on-137&amp;lang=e" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<!-- End WeatherLink Fragment -->

If you don't live in Canada, well, sorry. This is just one of the many things about my country that is better than yours. Don't get me wrong, I love and admire and even envy the < insert desirable quality here > of < your country name >. < Your country name > ain't Canada though. Not by a long shot. Canada so totally rocks it is almost embarrassing. Almost.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K