Roger Bikes

Category: Off the Bike

  • Dominoes is your competition : 67/100

    Just over a year ago Victor Ramirez gave a great presentation at WordCamp Atlanta about how he was managing blocks for Dow Jones, who use the new WordPress editor as the backend to all of their publications. He described a block they created for the byline that made it 1 million times easier for the writers to use.

    The success of the byline block was due to the creating a process that the user was used to. The initial idea was to give the user a drop down list of all the authors available. This solution was untenable due to the large number of authors. Instead they took a page from Facebook’s friend search. In this case as you start typing the authors name it would show results that match the name. A little extra development work created a solution that users were already used to.

    He had a great analysis that developers and designers might consider when building websites/apps: think of the Domino’s website as your competition. The user experience of the Domino’s website is a very engaging experience (as long as you can see). From start to finish the website keeps you aware of the process and doesn’t try to force you into a new way of doing things. It is an experience that users enjoy and look forward to.

    Is it possible to make all websites and apps like the Domino’s website? Maybe not, but it seems useful to think of websites and apps outside of your industry as competition. People only have so much time in the day. At some-point they may have to decide between spending time on your interface or Domino’s.

  • Nice touch Gutenburg : 66/100

    I had been playing around with the new WordPress editor, called Gutenberg, since it was officially released with WP 5.0. Since the beginning it made sense that the WordPress editor needed an update. Compared to using other web apps like Facebook or Squarespace the WP editor was a relic.

    Since I started the 100 days of blogging challenge 65 days ago I have been writing in the new editor everyday and there are a few things that I have come to enjoy:

    • Title change also updates the permalink
      • When you change the title of a post it also updates the permalink. This used to be 2 separate edits and its nice to have it as one action now.
    • Copy a URL, Select text, paste, link created
      • Creating a link is super easy. Copy the URL you want to use for a link, select the text you want to convert to a link, and paste. Done.
    • Pretty much everything about adding an image.
      • The initial steps of adding an image are not much different. You choose between uploading an image or selecting from the media library. Once you select the image there are a lot more options available. I am a big fan of the full page image option, but it is easy to move the image around the page too.
    • Writing space that is conductive to creativity
      • A cluttered workspace is not conducive to creativity. This is applicable to an editor as much as a desk. The new editor is clean and simple. I have my View set to Fullscreen Mode only and miss nothing.
    • Keyboard shortcuts
      • The new editor has some nifty keyboard shortcuts that speed up the writing process by letting you stay focused on writing. My most used shortcut is the forward slash/question mark key – ‘/’. Use it when you start a new block. It will put you into a block navigation menu. Start typing the name of the block and it will appear like a Google Auto Suggest. I use it mostly for a heading or images.

    How about you? Are you using the new editor? Do you have any tips and tricks?

  • Rattlesnake : 65/100

    Rattlesnake : 65/100

    Today marks the first time I have seen a rattlesnake on our land. It was more than 500 feet from where we live and spend most of our time. I am not thinking about relocating it but it is a good reminder that we have company out here.

    The great news is that rattlesnakes love rodents and help keep their population in check. The other good news is that I have a name for the area I saw it in: Rattlesnake Alley.

    In other news that fenceline trail is ready for riding. Total lap length from the new cabin entrance is 0.82 miles. I ran a few laps this afternoon and am getting in just under 5 minute laps. Riding it has helped me see a few things I can adjust to make the ride a little nicer. Overall I am very happy with the trail. It can be ridden by anyone but is still challenging enough to be a workout.

  • Start with a note : 64/100

    Start with a note : 64/100

    As I am writing blog posts I get new ideas. A lot of the time I let the ideas go without making a note. Sometimes I let the idea sidetrack me from the original post. There is a 3rd option that I am starting to use: make a new post and add some thoughts on the idea. This post started as one while I wrote post 63 and 64.

    This is helpful in a few ways:

    1. I capture an idea to think about later.
    2. I have multiple posts ready as drafts that I can jump into anytime.
    3. When its late and I need to get something up I have an ace in the hole! 🤠

    Tonight is a #3 type of night. I picked my bike up from the welder and it is looking good. He took all of the old weld off and cleaned up the tubes. Then he welded them back together. Titanium is a tricky metal to weld so I was very happy with the work he did.

    Nice weld, dirty cassette!

    After that I returned some items to Home Depot and picked up a battery powered string trimmer, using curb side pickup to minimize being in the store. Then I swung by Tractor Supply to grab some fencing for our new apple trees.

    Once I got home I broke out the new string trimmer and immediately needed to charge the battery. It didn’t take long and I was cleaning up the edges of the yard. The battery lasts about 30 minutes of full use which I am very happy with. Once it is empty I plug it into the charger which is charged by our solar system. So I am mowing the yard with the power of the sun, which is kinda cool.

    I then took the trimmer to the fenceline trail and it did really well. I have been trying not to remove the roots of grasses from the tail area. Doing so makes the trail become moon dust which isn’t what I want at all. Leaving the grass roots makes the trail hold together. It also means the grass will grow back but that was gonna happen anyway. Besides now I have a battery powered string trimmmer!

    I finished the fenceline trail pretty quickly. The north side is mostly grasses and was a bit easier than all of the bushes on the south side. I haven’t had a chance to ride it because it was getting late and I needed to plant the apple trees.

    We picked up a Honey Crisp and a Machintosh at the local nursery yesterday. We also got a pretty good introduction to raising apple trees. The first lesson is that you need to plant them in the evening. This gives them an night to adjust to the new location before the sun rises and bakes them.

    I got them planted just before dinner but still needed to put up 6 foot fencing around them. The fencing keeps the deer from eating the leaves and killing the tree. Fencing is a process that I do not necessarily enjoy. It is hard on the back and hands, but when its done well it feels good. I got the fencing done at 10pm and realized I needed to write a blog post.

    Workout Detail

    I am on vacation so there will be no ‘workouts’. However I spent the entire day working in the sun and have the farmers tan to prove it. The nice thing is there are water spigots spread out on the land. So I was able to refill my water bottle a lot.

  • WordPress Temp Block : 63/100

    Is there a block for the new WordPress editor that acts as a temporary holder?

    What I am looking for is a block that holds a space for an image to be added later. I add the block then add some text describing the image. There is a visible button in the block that says something like: “Convert to Image block”, and the entire box as a different coloring to make it stand out. Later I come back and click the button. The block converts to an image, the text is added to the Alt tag, and the Image Block option buttons appear. I select my image and publish the document.

    If any temp blocks exist in a post then the post cannot be published. This could be adapted to serve as a placeholder for quotes, links, videos, etc.

    Is there something like this out there already? I have searched but nothing even close comes up. It seems like most blocks are for final publishing, nothing for pre publishing seems to be available.

    I know I can create a block by myself and am looking into that, but why reinvent the wheel if something already exists like this. I think this would be useful as it would allow me to continue the writing process without stopping to find the image, then crop, optimize, upload, and adjust it. I could leave one of these and keep on writing.

    Later when I am reviewing the post I will see the temp block and replace it with the image or whatever else it was place holding. There would be no danger of publishing the post with the temp text as the block prevents the post from being published if it still exists.

    If you know of something like this please let me know. If you want to help me build this I am open to any advice and recommendations. If you think this is a bad idea please let me know why.

  • Thank U, next : 62/100

    Thank U, next : 62/100

    What a day! I got up and headed for Sharkstooth trailhead to work on my section of adopted trail. I took a small backpack with 100 oz water bladder, 4 apples, 2 PBJ’s, and some shotblox in case. I also had a second pair of socks, rain jacket, and first aid kit. For tools I took the Rogue Hoe, a farmers file, my switchblade wood saw, and some gardening snips.

    I am going to do a more thorough write up tomorrow about the whole experience but I can tell you that section 12 is open for business. It took 4 miles to get to the far end of my section. I did some work on various parts and reported one issue to the Forest Service using their GIS app. Overall the section is in pretty great condition and I am ready to handle another section whenever they are ready.

    It was a beautiful day and I have a number of great photos to share. However I am very tired and am going to keep this post short.

    Workout details

    Hiked 8 miles with 2000 feet of elevation gain in 4 hours.

  • Vacation : 61/100

    Tonight marks the start of a week long vacation. It’s going to be a staycation but we have some family visiting. Not a lot planned other than no work for a week. While I enjoy my job a lot it is nice to take a break every so often.

    Tomorrow my plan is to get up early and head into the mountains for some trail work. I mentioned a few times that the Mancos trail group has changed things up this year for COVID. Instead of meeting in a group and working one section of trail a week they have gone with a trail adoption plan this year. The trail is the Mancos spur and has been divided up into 14 segments. I got segment 12 which is pretty remote. I will drive just over 20 miles to the trailhead then hike about 1.5 miles to my section. All of which will be above treeline. I will be sure to take photos and make it tomorrows post.

    I dropped my bike off with Eric, the owner of Myth cycles, yesterday to get the cracked weld repaired. He seemed pretty optimistic about having it fixed by Friday which would be nice. I am also really interested in having him build me a custom bike, but I need to save my money after the solar system for the cabin.

    Overall I am looking forward to spending some time on trails in the mountains and on our land. It will also be nice to spend time with family and catch up on life.

  • Audiobooks : 60/100

    I have been listening to audio-books consistently for about 4 years now. It started when I got the AirPods and I grew tired of the irregularities of Podcasts. I signed up for Audible and haven’t looked back. There are 2 things I am looking for in an audio-book:

    1. A topic or story I am interested in, and
    2. A good narrator(s)

    The first one is obvious and the nice thing with Audible is that the browsing feature is pretty good. They also have everything. So if I hear about a book on the radio or in an article I can pull up the Audible app and 99% of the time find it right away.

    The second one is more tricky. You can listen to the 5 minute sample of a book and feel like the narrator is going to be tolerable. Then after 10 hours of a 20 hour book you might begin to get annoyed with certain quirks a narrator may have. I have stopped listening to many books halfway through due to the way a narrator says certain words.

    One nice thing about Audible is that you can return a book at anytime for up to a year after buying it. So you can get a book and listen to the whole thing and then return it. Audible calls it an Exchange and you should take full advantage of it. I am not suggesting that you listen to entire books and then return them. But I have listened to 90% of a few books hoping they would get better only to finally realize they aren’t going to get better, and exchanged them for something else.

    Audible has made it easier, and harder, to exchange a book recently. Now you can exchange a book from the app. You used to have to log into the website and dig for the return page. They have made it harder by putting a type of lockdown on your account if you return too many books in too short a time. When you hit that mark you have to call Audible and get the exchange done. Its a little inconvenient but not as bad as returning a physical book.

    I like to switch between various types of books. I like science fiction and listen to a few books a year. Most recently I listened to Exhalation by Ted Chiang and enjoyed the short stories.

    This winter and spring I had a biography/memoir kick:

    First Man by James R. Hansen about Neil Armstrong, its the book the movie with Ryan Goslin was based on. I cannot recommend it enough if you are interested in manned space flight. Also Neil Armstrong was a badass mother f@*#er.

    Acid for the Children by Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers. He reads the book and its an awesome insight into a wild life.

    The Push by Tommy Caldwell is story of the author’s life as a professional climber and how the impossible is possible. Also there is a breathtaking movie about this book called the Dawn Wall.

    Born a Crime by Trevor Noah is the funniest and saddest book I have ever listened to. Racism is such a horrible thing and Trevor does a great job of reading about his experiences growing up in post apartheid South Africa.

    An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hatfield is another great book about manned space flight. Chris’ voice is wonderful to listen too as he explains how he got to space and then stayed there. This book helped me refocus myself and my life on trying to be the best I can be.

    Currently I am doing some history with The People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn. This isn’t the history they taught in most public schools in the US. If you need help understanding where Black Lives Matter is coming from, this book should help.

    I don’t listen to audio-books all of the time. However there are times when I am tired of music and need more than just a podcast. I will always have a few books in rotation ready to go. If I am driving more than an hour by myself I will usually put something on.

    Workout details

    My back is still pretty sore from the weekend so I went for a nice walk on my trails today. I got 3.3 miles in and had a nice long phone call with my sister. She is in Arizona right now and we both agree that everyone has lost their damn minds.

  • Getting things done : 59/100

    This weekend was all about getting things done. Kate’s sister and 2 teenage daughters are going to visit with us later this week. So we wanted to have things nice for them. Of course we will practice safe distancing.

    The first main project was getting the solar system wrapped up. We still needed to hang the 4 panels on the top of pole mount. Then we needed to tidy things up like the weeding and all the little things to make the place look less like a construction site.

    Yesterday I posted about the weeding I did for the patio. We also made a run to the dump with the leftover construction junk from the drywall project. Today we tackled the solar panels and then focused on getting everything nice and tidy.

    We waited 1 week to hang the panels on the pole to let the concrete cure. Today we assembled the top of pole mount which the panels were then hung from. The mount is remarkably light for its size and strength. It took us a few hours to get it assembled 7 feet up on the pole.

    While this mount does not rotate to track the sun it does tilt depending on the season. In the summer, when the sun is higher in the northern hemisphere’s sky, the panels should be more parallel to the ground. In the winter, when the sun is lower, the panels should be more perpendicular to the ground.

    There are a variety of methods for figuring out what angles are best. I like this site as it has a nice equation based on your latitude. The site also points out that while adjusting the panels for summer and winter gives a good amount of increased performance, adjusting it for each season(4 times a year) only returns marginal improvements. Based on its equation we should have the panels at 13 degrees from horizontal in summer, and 51.5 degrees from horizontal in winter.

    The top of pole mount we have has 6 settings for tilt: 15, 25, 35, 45, 55, and 65 degrees from horizontal. So in the summer it will be set at 15 degrees and in the winter we can go either 45 or 55. 55 is closer to the equations number so we will give it a try this year. The date to change to summer tilt is March 30th, and for winter is September 10th. I have set calendar reminders to do this every year moving forward.

    Once we had the panels hung and connected it was time to clean the place up. Kate and Bill took care of the inside of the cabin while I handled outside. The first thing I did was remove the weeds from around the cabin. I created a 3 to 5 foot area surrounding the building. Then I came back and sprayed a borax/water mixture to help prevent them from growing back. Personally I don’t like plants growing close to a building. They tend to grow into cracks and cause problems.

    Once we had everything done the place looked great. We still need to put finishing trim in the windows and doors, but that is a project for down the road. For right now we are at a great stopping place and its time to relax and enjoy things.

    Workout detail

    I have been slacking on my regular workouts, but its all been supplemented by manual labor. Today was no different. Tomorrow I am taking my bike to a custom frame builder in Durango to repair the cracked weld. Hopefully I will have the bike back soon!

    In other news, our local trail group has assigned trail sections for maintenance. This is their method for handling COVID but still having us maintain the trails. I have a 1.25 mile section of trail to cut brush back on and ensure the trail is in good condition. The section is pretty remote and above treeline. I will get to drive about 10 miles into the national forest and then hike a couple of miles to get to the section. I am really excited about this and will be sure to take photos and blog here about it.

  • In the Weeds : 58/100

    In the Weeds : 58/100

    The thing about weeds is that pretty much any plant can be one. The qualification for being a weed is that you are a plant that someone doesn’t like. This opinion is based on years of research talking to dozens of people in the farming/gardening community here in Mancos, CO.

    For the most part I am indifferent to weeds. I like having a yard of somewhat uniform grass to mow and look at, but I am not a lawn aficionado. If some thistle shows up in my lawn I will probably pull it up. If bind weed shows up I will ignore it.

    The catch to this is on my trails and gravel patio. In those areas the presence of any plant is problematic as it interferes with the area’s purpose. The purpose of a trail is to allow for unimpeded travel. A plant in a trail can impede travel by tripping you or getting stuck in your wheel. The purpose of a gravel patio is to create a space set apart from the grasses and other plants. Having a single plant there is not a problem. The problem is when there are hundreds of plants.

    This was the issue facing us after letting the plants take over our gravel patio this spring. When we first got back on the land we were using the patio all the time. The weather was still chilly so we fired up the wood fire pit and the propane fire pit every night. Then the cedar gnats showed up and dove us inside.

    When we first visited Mancos in 2017 we stayed in an area with no cedar gnats. Then we bought our land and the first summer were told how bad the gnats were, but didn’t see them that year. It was a very very dry year though. Last year was a wet year but we spent late May and June traveling to Europe and missed the gnats. Our dog-sitters who stayed on the land did not miss them and they also bit up our dogs. This is the first year we have been on the land and it hasn’t been a total drought, and the gnats have been a problem.

    These are biting gnats and they are really small and annoying and they bite you and spit anti-coagulant which irritates the heck out of you. They are bad during the day and even worse at sunset. They are so bad we are planning on traveling next June already.

    Since we stopped using the patio because of the gnats we let the plants take over. Things got out of control and then we just stopped trying to do anything and it went full on jungle. My mother and step dad are visiting us tomorrow so we figured it would be a good time to clean up the patio. There is only one tool for this job: the Rogue Hoe!

    Less than halfway started.

    The technique here it pretty straight forward: dig up the gravel and the plants come up with it. The execution is a bit more strenuous and tiring. After 3 hours it was done and the difference is amazing. Now we just need to stay vigilant so the jungle doesn’t return.

    Done and classy

    Workout details

    3 hours of weeding.

    We left one Sunflower