Things I’ve recently bought, downloaded, stolen or scavenged — and what I think about them.
Priority Continuum Onyx bicycle
My bike got stolen over the winter from the storage area in my apartment building. It was a whole thing. I bike a lot, especially in the summer, but I have a very utilitarian relationship to it. I’m just as happy to walk or take the bus or train. And I don’t enjoy working on my bike; I just want to ride.
So I wanted a bike that was flexible for a lot of situations and would be very low maintenance. The Continuum fit the bill nicely. I had a chance two summers ago to visit Priority’s shop and take a similar, previous model out on a test ride in New York. So while I hadn’t ridden the Continuum specifically it didn’t feel like a blind purchase.
Standard shipping was only $30, but for $70 more I could get it delivered fully-assembled by Velofix. No-brainer. It was immediately ready to ride, there was no chance to screw it up myself, no big box to drag upstairs, no packing material to dispose of. A nice young man named Brant (no not that one) helped fit it to me right outside my building.
About an hour after delivery it started snowing, hard, and didn’t let up for about 48 hours. And now I’m on my way to AZ. So I can tell you that the bike is gorgeous. Haven’t been able to ride much yet. Still, looking forward to whatever version of spring cruel Minnesota is willing to give us this year and getting some miles on the trail.
Kryptonite Evolution U-Lock
Though the storage area was secure, and inside of yet another secure area, I was a dumbass and didn’t actually lock my bike to the rack. It might have still gone missing but who knows. And my lock happened to be attached to it when it went missing. So I ordered a slightly tougher version of my previous lock. This is the one that Wirecutter recommends. I still see a lot of people using cable locks in Minnesota so hopefully mine will look like a tough target in comparison. Not that the thieves will care but I’m hoping to get at least two years out of this bike.
Ulysses App
I shared my first impressions with Ulysses in an earlier post. I’m still really liking it. I’ve never had much luck with applying GTD or other task management philosophies to getting writing done. Having a task like “write 500 words for chapter 2“ is too much friction and usually ends up making me bummed instead of making me feel excited to write. I don’t even want to create the task. Having little workflows for each of my channels and projects set up within Ulysses makes it clear what’s ready to work on without having to create tasks about it. I can just jump in to wherever I’m feeling energy and write.
Buckminster Fuller: Poet of Geometry
This is cool as hell. A beautifully-illustrated book about my main man RBF. Much as I love his ideas, it would be an understatement to call Bucky’s own writing dense. It is straight-up laborious to work through much of his prose. If I had a coffee table this would be on it, but I think it will make a nice sick day book.