Weekly Rochester Events #227: Approximate Pie

Thursday, May 15, 2003

Oh, what else. A few weeks ago, I borrowed a G-Tech Pro device from a friend at work and popped it in the Civic. It gets the performance I expected when the car was new so I guess it's doing pretty well ... 0-60 in 10.4 seconds, 60-0 in 152 feet, and a quarter mile in 18.12 seconds at 76.8 miles per hour. Since the thing works on force sensors, I thought I might be able to get a quarter mile time on my bike. I had a 12V battery pack and put it in the box on the back of the bike, and strapped on the G-Tech device. I tried four or five runs, but no matter what, I couldn't get it to calculate the quarter mile time. It erroneously made a guess at a 0-60 time even though I never made it to 60, but no luck on the quarter mile. When I got back home after a half-hour or so of exhaustive sprinting, I figured that if I accelerated for 10 seconds (the first 0.028 miles) with an average speed of 10 miles per hour then maintained 19 miles per hour for the duration of the quarter mile, it would be 52 seconds with a final speed of 19 miles per hour. If I topped out at 22 miles per hour instead, it would be around 46 seconds. It's definitely faster by car.

Speaking of cars, [whoa whoa whoa ... hold off on that segue.]

On Wednesday I took the day off and got to go to Lilac Festival. I got my annual dose of fried dough and walked around. Oh, and I got to do some serious walking in my sandals that I made from old car tires [watch it ... not car talk yet.] They're basically working prototypes and are not comfortable enough, but they stay on, didn't break, and didn't cause any blisters yet. While I was there I saw these Global Electric Motorcars, LLC cars and got some information [wait for it ...] Afterward I stopped at the somewhat new Japanese restaurant Ichiban (1330 Mt. Hope Ave.) I got some sushi and it was fresh and pretty good. After getting accustomed to their style, I liked the higher-than-average proportion of vegetables in the rolls. The flavors are subtle and balanced, but don't really blend. I'll still recommend them, though, and they may be a good alternative for nearby take-out ... oh, and the ambiance is a bit sterile, so make that two votes for take-out.

[Ok, now ...] speaking of cars, I went to Doan Dodge (4477 Ridge Rd.) afterward and test drove one of those nifty Global Electric Motorcars, LLC cars. We could only go around the parking lot because they won't go fast enough (about 25-30 mph maximum) for Ridge Road ... a definite minus. Also, they drove like nice little golf carts. While cute, and at least an effort out of a major car manufacturer for some middle-ground electric vehicle, it's completely inadequate for what I'm looking for. I gave the salesman a bit of an unwelcomed lecture about what I was looking for: a one- or two-person vehicle with a little storage space that has a range of about 50 miles (the GEM has a respectable range of 30 miles) at 45 to 50 miles per hour. As I told him, I can replace 0-4 mile trips largely with my bike, but most of my local commuting is in the 4-20 mile range so I'd need a vehicle that can get me there and back on a single charge. Plus, it would need to be able to keep up on all secondary roads which is the reason for the 45 MPH speed.

I don't think he really cared to hear about it at all ... he just wanted whatever bonus they get for selling the $5,000 golf cart.

Ok, enough car talk for now. I went to Tapas One Seventy Seven (177 Saint Paul St.) on Tuesday night but the TestDate event had been cancelled. I assume it was because of poor turnout. I had decided not to go but I wanted to stop in and see what it would have been like with more people.

Oh yeah, and on Saturday I worked as a housing contractor for Flower City Habitat for Humanity through Single Volunteers of Rochester. When I went to lunch at O'Bagelo's (165 State Street) I felt like I never wanted to do construction work again. We were cutting and installing drywall and I felt bad because we needed to ask so many questions and made some minor errors. Erwin, our supervisor from Habitat, was very tolerant and didn't get mad or do things for us, unlike myself who would have totally flipped out when people didn't figure things out. Anyway, the afternoon went much better and we got into the swing of getting stuff done without much supervision. The guy who was going to do the taping was very pleased because the seams were tight and the screw holes were well spaced. Our group of 6 or so people basically finished about 2 rooms and part of the bathroom which I think was pretty good. By the end of the day I changed my mind and think I'd like to go back and try it again.

On the entertainment front ... eh ... nothing thrilling. I got to the 13th anniversary show at The Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) on Saturday but just sat in the bar area in one place for a few hours as people I knew came up and talked to me. It was pretty crowded and that was way easier. I also got down there on Tuesday and saw a couple good bands ... a really good non-jammy groove rock band Sexual Marmalade and a "underpower pop" (as I called them ... like power pop, but with less power) band Coppards. Other than that, though, I was pretty much a shut-in.