yesterday started the same way as saturday, although all i had to eat to start was an apple, and i was out after that. 

i took the same walk through town to the same bike store and picked up the walmart bike, which had the brakes replaced and adjusted and a general tune-up done to it. this is marketed as a light weight aluminum frame 700c hybrid, but it is by far the lightest hybrid i've ever ridden, and i'd be more likely to label it a road bike; it will ride best on smooth and paved and clean surfaces, which are somewhat sparse here in the detroit-windsor area but do exist if you know where to find them. this bike is super light and picks up high speeds with minimal effort. it climbs up hills like butter, and faces minimal resistance in the windsor wind, which i often complained about when biking with my much heavier miele*, which is also aluminum but is actually a true hybrid (for example, it has a spring front suspension suntour fork. none of the others do, they all have rigid forks, of various thicknesses and sizes.). in fact, it's so light that the wind knocked it over when i set it down for a minute to wait for a train to pass on dougall last night.

i initially avoided taking this bicycle outside because i was concerned about it's flimsy build, but i had to take it in after i busted one of the brakes on it, just to verify it was set up correctly and there weren't any mistakes in the factory, and i rode it around yesterday after the tune-up to see if i felt like it could handle being outside. the bike store guy explained to me that it might have been the stationary that busted the brakes, and i shouldn't engage my brakes at all when on a stationary. ok. the brakes on the bicycle are working well after the tune-up; as mentioned, it is very light and very fast and very smooth. it seems sturdy. it handles and rides well - good turning, good response. i was able to dangerously weave through traffic on tecumseh rd like i like to rather effectively and able to hit turns and cut through narrow passageways at unrecommended velocities in ways that would frighten the elderly and cause them to yell at me, as has happened at least twice this month (i can't be sure i always heard them, as old people sometimes yell in ways that doesn't actually escape their weakened lungs). great. and i'm not even in shape, right now. so, this should be my new outside exercise road bike, right?

yes, with a caveat.

the gears are clicking, meaning i'm going to need to adjust the gears myself, which is disappointing after explicitly paying for a tune-up. i didn't explicitly say "check the gears" and should have, but that should have been a part of the checklist, too. they did what i explicitly asked for, and oiled it up; i was hoping they'd give it a more thorough examination and try to find problems with it. it seems like they didn't do that. that said, with a bike like this, it's potentially the case that everything is a problem, and you just need to wait for things to break before you replace them. if they had actually gone over it part by part, it would have ended up with a $1000 bill. i get that. 

still, the gears shouldn't be clicking when you take the bike out of the shop.

which leads me to the real problem with this bike and the real reason i'd be careful about riding it too hard, which is the flimsy drive train. the bike cost $340 with tax and the tune-up and brake replacement together cost $166. it will likely cost me another $75-100 to upgrade the drive train, which will likely also fix the clicking gears. i think. that's still under $600 for a bike that looks like it should cost well over $1000. i've consequently decided to:

1) see if i can fix the clicking gears myself. if it's a simple trial and error process involving turning a screw, and i can fix it myself, whatever, it's done. if it's something more than that, i'll have to decide what to do when i understand it.

2) after or if the gears stop clicking, i'm going to ride it until the drive train falls apart and then replace it. i'll get something economical but decent - that's my balancing proposal. i think that if that gets done, this bike will be ideal for hard exercise runs for many years, until i need to do it again. but, as i mentioned a few years ago, bikes are not immortal. you ride them. they break. you fix or replace them. so it goes.

if you're keeping track, that means i have a shopped vintage mountain bike for riding through detroit (a comparably bulky 90s gt palomar (it looks like a hybrid by today's standards because it's a 90s female bike)), a shopped inexpensive road bike (technically a hybrid) for exercising outside (a 2020s walmart hyper 700c, also female), a to-be-shopped vintage hybrid (technically a mountain bike) for grocery shopping and day to day riding in windsor (a light rigid bmx mongoose switchback (a male bicycle)) and a currently disassembled early 2000s miele siena hybrid 700c* (a true hybrid, also female) that i need to clean up and try to reassemble but will either leave inside for the stationary if it turns out to be fragile and unsafe for outside use or reclaim for day to day shopping, reducing the mongoose to a backup and putting me in the market for a cheap light bike for the stationary before november. if i can fix the miele*, the mongoose becomes the weakest bike, as it is old and worn out and not worth spending much on, but it is very useful for a heavy bicyclest like myself to have a general purpose backup bike, and the mongoose does that - i can ride it long distances if i have to, i can use it on bumpy terrain or flat terrain, etc. it could be a temporary exercise/road bike or a temporary day-to-day grocery shopping bike. so, this is what i'd like:

1. exercise/road bike:  walmart hyper 700c with increasingly subbed parts, as the stock parts wear out (technically a hybrid)

2. detroit bike: 90s gt palomar (technically a relatively light female mountain bike)

3. shopping/commuting bike: early 2000s miele siena* (technically a hybrid*)

4. backup bike: 90s mongoose switchback that feels like a heavy hybrid (technically a light mountain bike)

5. stationary bike: i'd like to get something very light. to be purchased second hand.

i then took the walmart bike out to walmart to get my two new coffee makers, and rode them both home. stop two was to the dollar store to get the glass mugs, and to freshco to look for some bacon, which they didn't have (they had some brand name lysol wipes). i then checked the close food basics for similar items, which they didn't have. so, i biked out to the metro because i knew they had nutritional yeast (a scarce item since the start of the pandemic, which has never recovered it's stock here in windsor), and also got some bacon while i was there, but they did't have any flax bread. so, i stopped at the freshco on the way back to get the wipes, dropped the bacon off at home, and then headed out to the superstore to get some flax bread, along with some nivea and a loofah.

that was that, and it should be the end of my shopping run for the month, i expect.

costs:

$180 - movers

$300 - bicycles

$70 - coffee related items

$300 - groceries, toiletries, pantry items

i snuck a double tomato sandwich (because i'm doubling everything this run) into my meal cycle and had one last night before i passed out and then this morning when i woke up around 6:00, along with a big cup of coffee in my new 25 ounce beer mug. the tomato sandwich was supposed to come up last, because i was supposed to make a salad out of the giant tomato that the food bank gave me. however, i decided at the last minute that i should buy fresh tomatoes for the salad and make two tomato sandwiches out of the giant tomato, due to the legitimately excessive giantness of the giant tomato. it was too giant for one salad, but about right for two sandwiches.

i did not need to make subs for my tomato sandwich recipe, except to use one tomato instead of two, which is as follows:

- two pieces of quinoa/flax bread

- olive oil margarine on the bread

- one half an avocado, diced, on each piece of bread

- one large clove (or two small cloves) of garlic on each avocado

- one tbsp of nutritional yeast on each side

- one tbsp of paprika on each side

- one tbsp of hemp seeds on each side

- five slices of medium cheddar cheese on each side

- one piece of bacon (cut in two or three) on each side

- a spiral of caesar dressing on each side

- a half a tomato on each side [due to the extreme giantness of this tomato, we did a 1/4 instead of 1/2]

- frank's

- pepper

- and a tall glass of grapefruit-orange juice

i regularly serve my coffee with chocolate soy, and am currently filling it up with vanilla flax, which was a food bank item.

i have now spent all day researching this miele bicycle, which is not what i wanted to do, and will need to spend the evening cleaning, which is what i did want to do today.

* this miele siena doesn't appear to be what it says. while the branding decals point to a procycle-era miele bicycle made in canada (2003-2004), i can't find any bicycle made by miele that looks anything like this, and it doesn't look like any other siena i can find pictures of. it looks a little more like a tuscana than a siena. more tellingly, there is a sticker on the bike indicating it's made of aluminum alcalyte, which is an alloy specially licensed to a high-end bike company called cannondale. i feel i've done as much research as i can and need to run it by some people with better knowledge bases, but it seems to me that the frame is a 2002 or 2003 cannondale scalpel frame and that somebody built a custom branded miele from that frame as a base. if i can verify that that is the case, i'm going to rebuild it as a 2002-3 cannondale scalpel, with equivalent (not identical) parts. notable is that this bicycle is a 700c hybrid, not a 26" mountain bike, but there are minimal explanations as to how a bike from this time frame gets this sticker on it, indicating it is made of this alloy. it could be that miele had some agreement with alcoa to sell this type of frame in canada, but more likely, i think, is that miele himself built this bike out of his special order factory in 2002 from an essentially pirated part that was otherwise licensed to cannondale, which he had a history of doing in the 80s with bianchi bicycles. the scalpel bikes had similar but more expensive suspension systems, meaning this was probably built to mimic one of those bikes at lower cost. that's exactly what i will do, as well - mimic the 2002-3 cannondale scalpel at lower cost, once i understand what model the frame came from, or how the frame was intended to be adjusted. i will probably need to completely rebuild the drive train; if i'm going to do it, let me do it right. i will still want this to be a hybrid for biking around town, but it's worth noting that this model of bicycle was intended to be a cross-country racing bike, much as the switchback was in the 80s. i don't have any interest in racing or in competition in general.

yeah. now that musk is disposed of, here come the big boys in exxon. do you remember who trump's first secretary of state was?

- kill the high speed rail

- slash the ev targets and emission standards

- start a riot

- aggressively go after the governorship

trump wants to launch a corporate take over of something. it looks like he's not going to take over canada. california would appear to be the new target.

in canada, the fact is that the british crown bought the land. there are treaties for almost every inch of land outside of bc and quebec, which the british conquered - which is considered lawful under european legal norms stemming from imperial roman law. those ideas don't make sense in the context of indigenous law, but it is the europeans sitting in the castles, applying their laws and they make the rules relative to their culture and norms.

it is also true that the government has repeatedly failed to adhere to the conditions in the treaties, and that in some circumstances it is unclear if the indigenous groups understood what they were signing. the treaties sell or permanently lease the land. that is easy for us to understand, but pre-contact north american indigenous groups had no coherent concept of land ownership. so, how can you sell something if you don't agree you own it?

in traditional indigenous cultures, the land is owned by the gods and humans are only permitted to use it. so, they have concepts of land use but not of land ownership. they also fundamentally share hunting and fishing grounds, which they hold as a commons (an idea that germanic culture had as well, and does continue to tentatively exist in british law).

there are good arguments that the indigenous groups thought they were exchanging the right to use the land in common and not selling it outright, but the courts have not really upheld that and the treaties say what they say. that's where ideas like the honour of the crown come in to enforce some kind of enlightened solution on a shitty situation.

but the lands were not stolen in any coherent legal sense. that's just incorrect.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadians-reject-that-they-live-on-stolen-indigenous-land-poll

gavin newsom is again repeating the "republicans are trying to take away democracy" messaging, which has repeatedly fallen flat with voters, who want the trains to run on time - and the looting and vandalism to stop.

if newsom wants to help his successor, he'll take control of the situation and clean up the mess himself. all voters are going to see is that trump is getting the job done and democrats are babbling about democracy.

i'm feeling way better this week.

i was never able to clearly determine if the stalkers were two men and a woman or three gay men, one effeminate or female identifying. if it is the latter, this person's behaviour would disqualify them from identifying as trans. this would have either been a very aggressive and dominant gay man in drag (a transvestite) or some kind of dom female. i've tended to lean towards them being a dominant transvestite looking for a slave, and misinterpreting me as one. i'm an anarchist that roots the core of my being in ideals of self-ownership; i'm not into bdsm, i'm not submissive and i have no interest in playing the role of anybody's slave.

however, they were trying to force me into some kind of gross male performative behaviour and were entirely unwilling to take no for an answer. it is the same people that were trailing me previously, as i have seen them following me around in the same boring, gas-guzzling muscle cars, which they think are "cool" and i'm supposed to give a fuck about.

i'm going to operate on the hypothesis that my entire disinterest in pride last weekend blew them off, which is partially the result of the condition i'm in. i have never had the slightest interest in gay men, and i would not be remotely interested in going to any sort of gay male sausage party. that's not my thing. i may have gone out dancing to a queer friendly venue full of people with mixed gender identities and sexual orientations if the situation were slightly different. i have gone to gay clubs sporadically in the past, but the logic has been that it's a safe place to dance where i won't get hit on by straight men.

i may be able to get out for the end of the summer, but my focus right now is domestic and will be for a while. with the opening of the new bridge, i won't have to find things to do after concerts anymore, either; i can just bike home. that doesn't mean i won't go to dance clubs at all, but it means i can be a little more selective and not need to find something to do from 12:00-6:00 in the morning, as i'm waiting for the tunnel bus to come back up.

bitch went all that way and didn't even get gifted a bagel.

she could've got a bun anywhere.

canada does not need fighter jets at all and should not purchase them at all. bombardier will not actually build anything if you write them yet another blank check. we don't need to funnel money back into europe, like we're reverting back to colonialism, and should strongly resist such a thing.

if our goal is defence and not offence, the money should be spent on norad, on the coast guard and, yes, on missile defense. boats that can accurately launch missiles large distances are more useful than fighter jets, for defense. we should also ensure we have the ability to manufacture drones effectively, but should not choose to actually manufacture them.

my politics in recent years are most closely aligned to the bloic quebecois and not to any of the major federal political parties. i have tended to endorse the green party, but i have rarely voted in recent elections.

i'll take the conservatives seriously on immigration when they acknowledge that jason kenney and stephen harper are the architects of the status quo, not justin trudeau.

the existing system has aided the conservatives at the expense of the liberals, who are losing safe seats due to high levels of immigration from conservative societies, which was kenney's plan from the start. our culture has shifted firmly to the right since 2005 as a consequence of all of this immigration from conservative cultures.

https://globalnews.ca/news/11234497/pierre-poilievre-canada-population-growth/

advocating for two states in 2025 is not a serious policy and is not serious politics and politicians that take unserious positions and advocate for unserious policies should be condemned for politicizing an issue that needs to be approached with great statesmanship.

ms. anand has demonstrated that she is strictly concerned about appealing to a small section of her constituency and not concerned about representing canada on the world stage. she's the wrong person for this important job.

this is horribly embarrassing.

are there sanctions against the terrorists in the palestinian authority and in hmas? the answer is no. canada only sees fits to sanction democratically elected politicians, not murderers and terrorists, and does so by cowardly falling in line behind neo-nazi parties in europe.

anita anand should immediately resign, or be immediately fired.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-sanctions-israeli-ministers-1.7556968