Matthew Lang

Never tried riding a cyclo-cross bike, but if I ever wanted one, then this Orange would fit the bill nicely.

via Singletrack

I wonder how waterproof it is?

via Kottke.org

I initially drafted this in August 2011, during my stint on
750words.com. Since then it's been sitting in a file waiting to be published, until now.

I've just had to run back up the stairs and console our 4 year old son who was scared that the aliens and robots in space would come down from space and get him. Poor little guy. He's probably the biggest fan of Star Wars I know, and he watches and plays with his Star Wars stuff everyday. Since we moved him into the larger bedroom though, he's become a little restless at night and he frequently worries about things coming into his bedroom.I was a kid once, and I remember going through the same thing. E.T. the Extra-Terrestial had just come out at the cinema and I think it was my birthday. As a treat, my mum and dad took me to the movies to see it. At the time I had no idea what the movie was about and at the start you are faced with this creepy little creature being chased through a forest.Now when you've barely just started school and you're not very wise to the world and everything in it, the first thing that springs to you're mind when a bunch of guys are chasing something through a forest is that whatever they're chasing, that thing is dangerous and should be caught right away. Eventually the guys give up and the creature finds itself, looking down on the suburbs of a sprawling American city.

After that experience I had plenty of nightmares about the strange little alien getting chased through the forest (who wouldn't at that age), but nothing compared to the thoughts I had at the last house that we lived in before moving back to Scotland.We had a nice detached house with bedrooms upstairs. I always remember being similar to the Elliot's house in the movie. The similarities don't end there though. Across the road from our house was a spot of wasteland and next to that was the dual carriageway. After that was a hill with trees dotted all over it. I didn't know what was on the other side, but I didn't need to ask. My imagination was running riot.Every night my imagination told me that there was a stranded alien over that hill and it would be my house it would be curious about. I think the worse thing was that my bed was at the top of the room and when I lay in my bed, I would look down at the bottom of the room, where the window was. What did my window look onto? The tree covered hill across the road.Now at the time, I didn't know why my bedroom window was open. Apparently it was too hot at night, so my mum would leave the window and curtains open slightly to let some cool air in after the house was baking all day in the summer heat.Now you might laugh and mock, but when you're a kid, there's no bounds to your imagination. You don't know about the physical constraints around the world. In your eyes, anything can happen. The cardboard box that your parents new television gets delivered in becomes a space ship, the back garden becomes the venue for an epic battle with giant robots, the stairs become the biggest mountain in the world, and you must scale it all the way to the top. Too bad most of us lose that imagination as we get older.

I think it's great my son has such a vivid imagination, he creates anything out of whatever he has and he loves pretending and using his imagination. Looking back at my episode in Calgary with E.T., I realise how much of an imagination I had. I know I had seen the movie and I simply lifted that scenario to my own world, but it was my first experience of really using my imagination. Since that chapter in my life, I've been a frequent reader of sci-fi and fantasy books, and I've started writing my own short stories. All because I freaked out over an alien that I thought lived in the forest across the road from me.

When my son is a bit older and wiser, I'll remind him of how great his imagination was when he was little boy and the things that he used to make believe about and be scared of. He would do well to keep his imagination fed with a genre of his choice. I know he's going to be a great golfer when he's older, but there's no harm in having a backup career in case that falls through.

The notes are for you. Don’t worry about your handwriting, the spelling, or what someone else will think. These are your notes. If a thought occurs to you, write it down, pat yourself on the back, and go about your business with a smile. Later you can leaf through your notes with a puzzled expression on your face until you stumble across that gem, that little something that has value, and feel the sense of relief and triumph.

— Scribble notes are nuggest of gold by Who Writes For You

Which is why I always carry my Moleskine everywhere with me.

While social networks might not be at the forefront of your worries, there has been a rising interest in Twitter recently. Tim Bray lists his reasons why people are looking at alternatives to Twitter.

I've found that I wasn't really getting much from Twitter and have decided to take a little break from Twitter over the next few months to see if I really do need it.

... by Elliot Jay Stocks. Blog posts grouped together by year with a description for each year. Easy to find a post in the archive you've already read, but also good for finding interesting posts you haven't read yet.

via Curtis McHale

... a long walk with the family, spending the time with your kids and their pastimes, a good book, preparing a large family dinner, catching up with friends over a coffee, a round of golf, a bike ride. Whatever your rest day is, make sure it is restful.

An impressive collection of books by Cultural Offering. Makes me wish I had a larger house for a collection of my own books. Unfortunately our pokey little house in the UK will only allow me to have a small collection of books next to my new office at home. Still, a small collection of my favourite books is better than none at all.

Might have to make a wee visit to the store when we visit the in-laws next year.

via The Verge

Another little gem that hit my inbox courtesy of Caesura Letters:

Sitting at the edge of the universe prompts me to ask the same questions I find myself contemplating as I look up into the starry night sky: How did this universe come into being in the first place? How did this mind-achingly massive void of nothingness get here first? What, precisely, is nothingness and how much of it is out there beyond our universe?

— Edge of the universe by Caesura Letters

Get your daily dose of solitude with Caesura Letters. It's the one thing that makes me want to open my inbox every day.

Defense is prepared. It is what we do with what the world throws back at us.

via Cultural Offering

The new Kindle range from Amazon is looking really good. I particularly like the look of the new Kindle Paperwhite. As a purchase though, it might have to wait a few months. I'm not done with my existing Kindle to justify purchasing another bit of tech for the sake of a few new features.

Give me Nicholas Bate's get real kit over the oh-so tempting one any day.

After seeing this posted on various blogs I'm subscribed to, I decided to list my five favourite books of all time.

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens - I've been reading this book every Christmas for the last 25 years. A classic piece of writing that restores my faith in humanity every time.
• Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - The first adventure book I ever read and is responsible for my love of fantasy and adventure books.
• Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien - Fantasy is my preferred genre for reading most of the time, and this trumps everything I have ever read in the genre so far. The amount of detail and work that went into the book is just astounding.
• Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read - I never heard about the story of the crashed Uruguayan plane in the Andes until I was about 12. The story itself is a harrowing account of how far humans can be pushed to survive.
• A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin - Forget the HBO TV series that made this mainstream. The books in this series, still unfinished, are such a refreshing change from the usual books in the fantasy genre.So there you have it. I've nothing as deep as War and Peace here.

I tend to stick to the fantasy genre for most of my books, but I have been branching out into some more historical areas in recent years. Conn Igguldenn's Conqueror and Emperor series are both highly recommended and at the moment I have started reading through the Aubrey-Marturin series by Patrick O'Brien as recommended by Michael Wade.Instead of nominating 5 others to participate, I'm just going to leave an open invitation to you all to join in. Come on, get those 5 favourite books of yours listed.

Pretty sure that @andygumley will probably have his eye on this to compliment his road bike. Wouldn't mind it myself, especially since it's a titanium frame.

This would make a mighty fine addition to my Langster.

I use Markdown everyday, so it's great to see TextDown, an Markdown editor extension for Chrome, that I can now use across different platforms.

Like most people I've spent my fair share of money on apps for the iPad, but recently I've found that I'm just not using them that often. The problem is that while I like the apps themselves and chose them for their functionality and their ease of use, the freqeuncy with which I use them just isn't right. When was the last time I wrote anything with iA Writer? I can't remember.With web apps though, I'm finding that they are more accessible to me during the day at work and at night when I am at home.

I looked at a number of apps for keeping a journal before I ended up writing Journalong, and the same goes for writing. I managed to write a whole book with 750words.com. The only reason I didn't use it every day after NaNoWriMo was the fact that the pressure to write 750 words became a bit too much. My journal is for every day thoughts, but typerighter is for taking those thoughts and fleshing out something more fuller and richer.

Web apps like Typerighter and Journalong also work well on my mobile devices. I don't want separate apps for each device I have.Don't get me wrong, native apps have their places where they don't require a web interface. However if a service has a web interface with no need for a native app then I will use that service as it's web interface is easily accessible from the number of different of platforms and devices I use on a daily basis.UPDATE: Since publishing this, I've deleted my Typerighter account in favour of writing using Sublime Text 2. Typerighter is a great product if you need a minimal writing interface, but I've started using ST2 for writing as it's easier to pick up my drafts which are kept in Dropbox.​ Maybe I'll go back to Typerighter when they let you connect to your Dropbox.

Building habits and routines is a great way make sure you're staying on top of life but for all the structure that you have built, sometimes you just need to let it all slide. And that's exactly what I did last week. Took a holiday from the humdrum habit cycle.The last couple of weeks have seen some major upheaval (the good kind) in the Lang household.

Little baby Drew is a great little boy, but like all babies he needs constant feeding, changing and sleeping. Rather than fight a losing battle trying to work on Journalong, do some blogging and get stuff around the house. I let it all slide.It was just time to take a holiday from all my usual day to day habits. RSS reading, spot of writing, journaling and everything else. The great thing is my habits have become so ingrained in my daily task lists that I immediately returned to my usual schedule today. There was no procrastination in getting started or reminder needed to get back on track. I simply decided to start my habits again.If your habits are ground in to what you do then it's okay to take a break from them every now and again.​

Jason was my reason for taking up mountain biking and remains an inspiration for hundreds of mountain bikers in the UK. A talented rider taken too early from us.

Ride free Jason.

Awesome use for some old mail bags. I know it's not the usual Fixie Friday bike, but pickings were slim this week.

via Instructables

Yip, Toronto is home from home. Wish I had more opportunities to visit.

via Daily Dose of Imagery

Because everything you use and do on the web doesn't need to be freaking instantaneous. The slow web is definitely the way forward.

Top geek in the entrepreneur and web development world says that formality is a virus. Thank goodness there are people in the world with their heads screwed on like Curtis to remind that a little formality and humdrum is okay.

... worth building.