Zyclara Treatment

Having recently experienced another recurrence of skin cancer, my Dermatologist suggested I try the new anti-skin cancer drug Zyclara. Zyclara causes the auto-immune system to attack pre-cancerous lesions under the skin and may reduce or future outbreaks. It's a topical cream that is applied to the skin for 14 days, then a 14 day break and then another 14 day treatment. Sounds easy enough.

Many new drugs have some crazy side-effects, Zyclara has some side effects, but what you really need to respect are the direct effects. The primary direct effect is the eruption of itchy, scratchy, inflamed, puss-filled sores. It got so bad at the end of the first week I started to worry that I was allergic to it -- the symptoms of allergy ARE "swelling, redness and rash". I Googled "Zyclara" and after looked at the images I realized that my experience was pretty typical. At the end of the first treatment I had over a dozen scabs and sores on my face, under my eyebrows and along my hairline. I was a mess.

The sores healed quickly after the first treatment and after the 2-week break I only had a couple of light pink patches to remind me of the worst sores.

The second 14-day treatment was a little easier but I still broke out pretty bad. This time the sores were on my cheeks and jaw line and were generally smaller and less agressive that the first session.

My second session ended 2 days ago and my face is now starting to heal. I had planned to add pictures of my face taken during treatment but after uploading them I've decided they are a little too gross and deleted them.

New Garden

One of the things we enjoy most about being back in California is the consistently beautiful weather. While we miss the snow of Colorado a bit, the temperate weather here provides a long growing season to grow a healthy vegetable garden.

We built a couple of small raised beds in the back yard and installed a simple irrigation system controlled by a battery powered timer. Last night we planted tomatos, cukes, zuks, peppers, basils, cilantro and Garbanzo beans.

BMC on the Bayshore

I've got about 400 miles on my new Black Mountain Cycles Cyclocross bike including a couple of rides over 50 miles. What an awesome machine. Thanks to Mike at BMC for an excellent frame design and meticulous assembly.

It's configured for long, comfortable, all day epics on multiple terrain types. It has large, lightweight 29er knobby tires and wide 52/42/28t front and 11-36t 9-speed rear drivetrain.

I'm currently running a hybrid brake system with a TRP Mini V-Brake on the front and Avid Ultimate cantilevers in the rear. I chose the Mini-V in the front to reduce the front brake shudder that plagues many cyclocross bikes. The shudder happens as the front fork flexes and the brake cable tightens/slacks.

I've done a couple of white-knuckle decents and I'm really happy with the results so far.

Check out the killer Timbuk2 seat-bag in orange and brown! A score from the bargain-bin at the local REI. The spare 29er tube is so large it needs the large-size seat bag. Since these pictures were taken I swapped in an old Nitto lugged seat-post which has a huge amount of set-back to match the Brooks saddle and and fits much better than the 5mm setback one shown.

My what big tires you have...

One of the biggest reasons I picked this bike is the tire clearance. During the build I installed Kenda Karma 29x1.95 (50mmx700c) tires. These are massive tires for a cyclocross bike and just fit -- they had to be carefully massaged to properly fit. I love those big 29ers but they are best when used on long dirt-centric rides. For more road-centric (but still multi-terrain) rides I'm looking for a slightly narrower and smother-rolling tire as an alternative to extend the range to 75 miles and beyond.

I've been riding a pair of Schwalbe Marathon XRs on the IndyFab and LOVE them. They may be the best tires I've ever owned. They are incredibly durable, have a stiff carcass that prevents pinch-flats and some magical belt under the tread to prevent punctures. The tread is smooth rolling but offers enough traction to handle anything including hardpack and mud.

As for reasons beyond understanding, Schwalbe only made them for a a year and stopped a couple of years ago. I have the last two I own on the IndyFab and don't know what I will do then they are worn out.

So if you know of any light-weight, large-volume, fast-rolling, thorn-proof cyclocross tires in 38-45mm, drop me a note.

MonsterCross

Since we returned to California, we have been adjusting to living an a much smaller space. I'm not sure it's any more "green" than out LEED certified house in Colorado, it sure is smaller. As such, that last thing I need is another bike and yet I find with the warmer weather a man's thoughts turn to new bicycles. I've been riding my custom Land Shark cyclocross bike since the early 90s. In it's current configuration I can just shoe-horn a set of 38mm knobbies on it but unfortunately Tom Ritchey stopped making the 38mm MountCross tires about 10 years ago and my last set are worn down to the threads. There are few tires in that size that offer an agressive off-road tread; most seem to be made for hybrids and tracking bikes and have compromise treads best suited for road and gravel. Since it is a custom frame, I specified a lightweight racing bike but it's been 7 years since I raced cross, and I find that I use it as a replacement mountain bike more that a competitive cross racer.

With that I mind I've been looking at frames that are built to use a larger tire. I want something that that can handle extended off-road use but not climb like a pig; not quite as big as a full-size 29er which can get as big as 2.5", but larger than the the 38s I'm limited to on the Land Shark. Panaracer makes a very nice looking tire in 700X45c that seems to be about perfect for my application.

With all this in mind, I'm really excited about the cyclocross built by Mike Varley at Black Mountain Cycles in Pt. Reyes Station, CA. It fits the Panaracer 45s and even larger 29x1.9"tires and has a lot of the same measurements as the Land Shark. It would be easy to swap parts from one to the other pretty easily. Is it time to retire the Land Shark?

Learning about bikes

I've been riding a custom fillet-brazed Landshark Cyclocross bike for ~15 years. It's had three different drivetrains, 4 different wheel-sets, and a dozen seats. I love it but yesterday I realized that it may be time to replace it. Last weekend I rode a friend's carbon Ibis Hakkalugi on the Montebello/Steven's Canyon loop. Yesterday we did the same ride again only this time I rode the Land Shark and it scared the hell out of me. I was slower up and down and found the flexibility of the frame was a little scary, and the shudder of the fork under braking was terrifying. I really missed the solid feel of the Hakka' and the confidence inspiring front disk-brake. The Hakka also has almost 2cm more top-tube witch makes it fit better than the shorter Land Shark.

Maybe it's time to retire the Landshark...

RuBo

Will Ruth Bourdain become more popular than either Ruth Reichl or Tony Bourdain?

Find out here or here or get a semi-regular fix via @ruthbourdain

Predictable fitness behavior

Interesting demonstration of the lemming (and sloth) like behavior of americans. this chart shows a regular and predictable spike in Google searches for the word gym in the last few days of the year. It also shows how quickly interest (of should we say commitment) declines thereafter. Gym operators better be allocating their ad budgets appropriately. The Gizmodo source

Working a new machine

I've been doing a little consulting work recently and one of the side benefits is the place has a very nice semi-pro espresso machine and proper grinder, so I've been able to practice my espresso kung-fu on something new. It literally took me a year to learn how to use my Expobar well so I'm quite proud that with a fresh bag of Intelligentsia Black Cat I was able to produce acceptable shots almost immediately and great shots within a couple of days.

The machine is a double boiler Vibiemme and since it's in an office environment it gets much more use then my Brewtus and was filthy. Has no one hear of the portafilter-wiggle? I spent a little time each morning cleaning the machine and the Mazzer grinder to rid them both of the burnt Starbucks crap they've been eating for years. Now on a steady diet of Black Cat the pair are clean and happy and producing very good espresso. Now if I can just get people to replace the portafilter after they use it instead of leaving it on the tray.

Cyber war? Hah!

The DDoS attack on Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and the Ex-half-term Governor of Alaska in support of WikiLeaks is a drive-by shooting compared to this stealth missile (or maybe the better analogy is a Predator drone, but I digress).

Stuxnet is a spectacular demonstration of what is possible with enough skill, time and money. It represents an unprecedented level of self control, subtlety and effectiveness never seen before by any malware. Three, count em, three individual zero-day exploits, controlled replication and a self destruct timer?

..and speaking of DDoS, didn't the whole "Jillian Assange is a criminal" thing get decided in the early 70s when the supreme court ruled the NY Times could publish the Pentagon Papers?

Oh yeah, did you hear that the FBI is now accused of planting multiple backdoors into the crypto libraries of OpenBSD. If true, this one's gonna leave a mark as the code in question is ~10 years old now. @HowdTheyMissThatOne

New Passport

For some crazy reason I thought passports expired on your birthday. I learned on Wednesday that I was wrong and my passport has actually been expired since June.

Not any more. Thanks to these guys, I have a shiny new passport with all maner of anti-counterfeiting tech. What a spectacular service they provide, I got a call from my personal advisor immediately after filling out the web based forms and received regular updates the whole way. My new booklet arrived this morning, just in time for a trip on Sunday.