Meet Sturmley, Jennifer's birthday robot. He took a fair bit of time to make but, like many such things, the result was satisfying. He's composed almost entirely of bike parts, mostly a Sturmey Archer 3 speed hub with some chains and pulley wheels as part of the affair as well. He doesn't fetch us coffee or do anything cool, but he does look great and he can roll on his own tank treads.

This is what happens when it snows in Philadelphia. Jennifer and I went to the store to get some black pepper and instead found that all of the table and kosher salt had been cleaned out. Philadelphians don't really understand winter. I can only hope the stores have had time to restock since Saturday as Snowmageddon Part II has arrived and who doesn't need some table salt to aid snow melt?

I've been spending a lot of time in the basement recently. I'm currently working on a bamboo and carbon bike for myself, and also a bit of a birthday present for Jennifer. I will post pictures of it at the appropriate time, which will be this coming Saturday, of course. I'm rather pleased at how it turned out, but I'll leave the final judgment to her.

We've also been watching a great deal of Daily Show episodes online. I like the show overall, and I really love the way that Jon Stewart, or at least his writers, are able to call out humor in the idiocy of our country. My main gripe is that the show could be so much better. With all of Stewart's penis jokes and googly eyes it's kinda like watching a precocious 15 year old ripping on politicians. I laugh at the penis jokes, as intended, but it's only my lizard-brain giggling. My other critique is the inconsistency with which Stewart approaches the interviews. With arch-rivals such as Lou Dobbs or John Yoo, he's an extremely good interviewer; asking hard, probing questions and letting his respondents answer for themselves (mostly). With people who are non-controversial though, he asks nothing but slightly insipid leading questions. It's like he has no faith that the people on his show have anything to say for themselves. If that were the case, why have them on in the first place?