Review: My First Week In Merino Wool

Last month I swore off synthetic jerseys for good and made the switch to merino wool. Now the act of swearing something off seems to imply that the line has been drawn in the sand, the switch has been made, and said behavior would end the very moment the swearing took place. The problem with this particular swearing off is that merino wool is kind of expensive.

It's taken me a month but I finally purchased a couple of wool jerseys and so far I am very happy. Both jerseys were purchased on eBay where I avoided the sometimes ridiculous cost of super fancy wool. The first is a short sleeved retro jersey by Sombrio which includes a shifty looking dirtbag with every purchase.

The second is the Bodyfit260 by Icebreaker; a company well known for their quality wool performance wear and a penchant for creepy pseudo-bestiality in their marketing campaigns.

"Our fine clothing is made from the pubic hair of freaky man/sheep centaur things we find wandering around middle earth, I mean New Zealand"

It's been too warm to really give them the proper going over. I did wear the long sleeve Icebreaker all last week where the temperature ranged form 45° to 70°. In the mornings I had to wear my vest to block the wind as that seems to be the only thing merino wool can't do. The wool regulates temperature extremely well. I was warm at 45° and warm, not roasting at 70°.

The 260 weight wool is not ideal at 70° but it's doable and I can't say that for a thicker synthetic. For additional versatility I got the short sleeved lighter weight Sombrio jersey. On warmer fall days I can wear it combined with my wool arm warmers if they're needed.

As a bike commuter this flexibility is priceless, (almost). This time of year I usually have to stuff my bag with additional jerseys and arm/knee warmers to combat the temperature fluctuation. With the wool at least I can leave the extra jersey and arm warmers at home.

The best part is, after a week of commuting in the same jersey it didn't smell... really. Merino wool has broken The Great Stink Cycle! This makes me, my co-workers and most importantly my wife very happy.

I am pretty pleased with merino wool and excited about adding it to my commuting arsenal. 

he he...  arse...

Fall Colors On This Morning's Commute

It was overcast this morning so the colors didn't come through as bright as I would like but you get the idea.



Click here for a larger version.

The 2010 Silver Spring Zombie Walk

This 2010 Silver Spring Zombie Walk was this past Saturday. To put yourself in the right state of mind please watch the following video before you look at the photos below.

Is it wrong to take pictures of zombies while they piss?

I picture of myself with the original zombie.

MEEEEEEEEEP....    MEEEEEEEEEEEP....

Halloween: Shaun Of The Dead Badge

I just whipped this up for Halloween. 

Click for the printable version.

Don't say I never gave you anything.

Captain Obvious Strikes Again!

I just want to ride my bike to work while questioning everything around me in peace.

This is a blog post.

Fugazi Tuesday

Because that's what day it is. Honest, check your calendar.

Conversations With US

"I believe that Americans are being systematically and intentionally divided into opposing groups by a political strategy and media ratings model that thrives on conflict and tension between these perceived factions."

That quote was almost enough to get me to start following Conversations with US, then I saw he that he is doing it all on an LHT (yeah you know me) and I jumped on board.

Check it out.

2010 DC Tweed Ride Announced!

Join us for the 2010 Tweed Ride! from Eric Channing on Vimeo.

Time to sharpen my mustache.

Rain Rain Do Your Worst

Well not your worst. Now that the weather has gotten a little cooler, biking into the office in the rain has gotten a little easier. It was cool enough this morning that I was able to wear my rain pants without bursting into flames. This means I didn't arrive at the office covered in mud and road dust. Yes I did sweat in the pants but with the temperature in the 50's it was a lot more manageable than road sludge.

Although it's not as bad as the last morning rain commute, my office still takes on a shanty-esque appeal on foul weather days. Thank god I'm the designer and everyone expects me to be a little strange.

Happy Thursday muthah fuggas!

Weekend Of Awesome

This is going to be an awesome weekend. Everybody says so.

My weekend is going to go something like this:


and sound a lot like this:


I may also be involved in something like this:



I expect by Monday I'll be feeling a little like this:

Expect great things people.

(all via tgh)

Georgetown Gets Some Bike Parking

WABA just installed 3 on street bike racks around Georgetown.

WABA dude ensuring that the new bike racks are leanable.  

Read the article "Another Good Day for Georgetown Cyclists:"

We didn't even have to use our A-K.

Facebook Thinks I'm Gay

Almost every day Facebook tells me I'm gay (not that there's anything wrong with that), and I need more gay activities in my life. It all started about a year ago, when I noticed that the advertising tiles on the right side of Facebook's secondary pages were getting increasingly colorful... rainbow colored in fact. Over the months I wondered about the origin of these ads and what I might have typed or clicked to become a blip on Facebook's gaydar.

Over the last week or so I collected evidence of FB's campaign of fabulousness in my honor. I call this matrix of gay advertising...

"The Gaytrix"

This was just a few days worth of screenshots.

Somewhere in an advertising database deep in the bowels of FB headquarters it says "Oh Hell Yeah" in the "GAY?" field next to my name. I don't care about the ads one way or the other. I usually ignore them, but I couldn't stop thinking about how it all worked.

How does the Gaytrix choose its next victim? What are the determining factors? How gay do you have to be before FB recognizes you as such? I'm gonna say not very gay at all. Maybe it's not an algorithm that makes these decisions, maybe it's a legion of pencil pushers plodding though piles of images, status updates, and comments. Maybe one of those pile plodding pencil pushers took a liking to me, hoping that and onslaught of gay advertising would be the tipping point making me come out and join the mustache parade. 

Probably not. I probably said something so terribly gay that it left the FB computers with no other alternative than that I was very very gay and in desperate need of a cruise, a big bear gay cruise to cOPENhagen to be exact.