the 'resurrected or summer is over' entry

dedicated to my most interactive reader, you know who you are

i once read somewhere that a blog that hasn't been updated in 3 months loses it's relevance. maybe i should take note of that and put up an out of business sign. or maybe i should just forget about any ambition of relevance i might have, and stick to the as-long-as-the-updates-are-more-frequent-then-christmas-i'm-doing-ok approach.

it's been a great summer. busy, because that's how summer should be, and warm, because that's how summer in nyc is. let me try to recap quickly. there were a lot of bike rides along the hudson river and elsewhere. there were some picnics in the park, some free concerts here and there (some paid ones too). there was a great trip to colorado (which i was going to write about earlier, but then never did). there was a really nice visit from my parents and there were some trips up north to vermont. some friends passed through nyc, and some even stayed for a while. and i guess that's the gist of it. oh, there was some tennis and web design too (one day i might even be able to present some of that to the world).

some of you might notice that there's no skateboarding in that list. since i've moved here i've maybe skated 5 times... that's 5 times in over 2 years! i guess i'm even less of a skateboarder than i am a writer! it's not that i'm too lazy, i've cut down on the amount of wheels and enjoy cycling more these days. it's - arguably - less hazardous and almost as much fun. i spent most of my childhood on a bmx bike and i still can't resist hopping on and of curbs and trying to 'wheelie' my folding bike. that's right: i have a folding bike. i know i look like a dork but for nyc cycling they are pretty darn convenient! especially when you live about 11 miles from downtown and can't avoid the occasional bike on the subway ride.

bicycling has been partly responsible for the lack of updates here. there's only so much internet time and it's spread thin between facebook, email, this journal and building a #bikenyc twitter following. if all goes well i'll be testing and reviewing a new type of city bike in a couple months and to be able to do a decent job at that i'm already creating some twitter buzz. after all it's almost 2010 and communication strategies have evolved since the centre for contemporary cultural studies wrote their mass media theories.

any time that's left is wasted on research for a 'from scratch' mountain bike build i'm working on and the occasional episode of true blood or in treatment.

one of my fellow cyclists here in nyc is david byrne. who doesn't let his bicycling conflict with writing, and wrote an entire book about it the bicycle diaries. he - and a few other interesting #bikenyc people - spoke at an event in a bookstore around the corner here (B&N union square). there are a lot of disadvantages of living in new york city, but what are the chances of david byrne dropping by 'de standaard' in tessenderlo to promote his new book? since this was a so-called opportunity, i attended the event and i must admit it was very interesting. i should really write an entire journal entry about it! maybe i will one day.

i haven't read the book yet, instead i'm reading dharma bums (kerouac), and how we are hungry by dave eggers - who also wrote the screenplay for where the wild things are! the new spike jones movie. Stay tuned for more book reviews!

so if you are wondering why it's so quiet here, i'm wasting time elsewhere. procrastination isn't just an amazing word it's a lifestyle.