bike rack etiquette

i haven't really ranted about anything in awhile, but this morning something happened which bears mentioning. i've decided there is an art to racking your bike at a bike rack. the guy who parked his bike next to mine clearly is not an artist nor does he have good manners. why in the world would you park your bike so close to someone else's that your handlebars are literally deforming your neighbor's seat because they are on top of said neighbor's seat? and why would you block someone else's lock to the degree that they are clearly going to have to move (or wrestle) your bike out of the way to even get a chance at unlocking theirs? wouldn't you be worried your relatively nice bike was going to get abused more than it needed to? i feel that if you cycle enough to have clipless pedals on your commuting bike (like this guy did) you should at least have some clue as to how to rack your bike without being a jerk to those around you...especially when there are plenty of open spaces on the rack, obviating the need to put your bike on top of mine or anyone else's.

after some pushing, tugging and plain brute force, i got my bike unlocked and out of the rack this morning...fortunately for the owner of the bike on top of mine, i was tackling this problem after my yoga class, so i was relaxed enough to not just use my keys all over his paint job.

deep breath.

ok, now that that's out of my system, it's wednesday! i had my second digital signal processing class last night. i'm liking the class and the prof, but by the end of 2.5 hours of lecture, my brain is a little fried.

i'm building a device to trip people (for research purposes, not to be a bully), and i have been doing research online to find components for the device. in doing so, i discovered that shimano tiagra components are not limited to use on bikes...they're also used in fishing!

on a completely random note, this month's issue of trail still has some pretty cool pictures!