I was listening to my iPod so I didn’t quite catch what he said, but he shook his head after pulling ahead of me. Whatever. I made nothing of it, and just assumed he was pissed at something else, like one of the gazillion town cars in this part of town.

At the next red light I pulled right next to him and turned off the iPod. I wanted to extend some courtesy to a fellow rider, ask him about his ride. He just gave me a cold stare.

I asked him, “What’s up?”

“Sometimes you gotta save it for the other guy,” he retorted.

Finally grokking that he’s completely pissed at me and suspecting it had something to do with me passing him in the first place, I asked, “Why, what happened?”

Without letting me finish the question, he replies in an elevated voice, “You know what happened!” and then rides up 15 feet, ending our exchange.

Apparently, he got really mad at me and no longer wished to continue our acquaintance. I wanted to plead, to try to salvage what little is left of our shared experience, see if we have a chance. But I knew the wound is fresh, and this was not the right time.

Despite his arguing that I know what I did, I don’t. But I nevertheless felt remorseful for whatever it is that I might have done. I kept on his wheel for the next half-mile or so, giving him enough space to think things over, maybe reconsider his decision. But then I had to peel off. And he continued on his angry way.

And now I’m left, once again, rehashing my actions, his reactions, and how things could have been different. Should I have not passed him? Should I have used different words? Should I have tried harder to win him back? Really, he needs to know that I’m a nice guy and a courteous cyclist. In this world of lawlessness and town cars, I’m on his side. I’m a team player. I would save it for the other guy, if given a chance. I just don’t know what it is, or who the other guy is.

And so, I’d like to apologize to anonymous cyclists and other guys I may have passed and pissed, both in the past and in the future. And if you’re the guy from this morning, can we at least still be friends?

I suppose that this warrants an explanation. I was out on a solo 70-mile bike ride in Rockland County when, 15 miles before the finish, a 2-wheeled drifter on a carbon-fiber steed zoomed past me on a hill climb. He was obviously very strong, judging by his nearly effortless cadence and his zooming past me on a hill climb. Even as I was panting heavily at the top of my range, my pride got the best of me. I gave chase and caught him as the terrain flattened. After a brief respite in his slipstream, I pulled ahead, mostly because I like to prove my worth to absolute strangers. Not surprisingly, he remained on my wheel. As we approached a slight incline, I became winded and couldn’t quite maintain the brisk pace. So he pulled beside me, gingerly placed his hand on my lower back and thrust me up the incline. This at 25 mph.

Let’s pause for a moment. In the game of cycling, such a non-verbal cue is a clear signal. This dark knight was not racing me. He could have easily just glided past me, leaving me cashed in his wake. Instead, he offered cooperation. Without uttering a word he submitted that he’ll gladly scratch my back if I scratch his. Pacelining, after all, is a useful energy-conserving group-riding skill. I suppose there are other interpretations of the act. He could have been patronizing me, proving as he flexed his muscle that I was a non-threat to his cycling prowess. He could have been some personal trainer, and I was the lucky recipient of some weekend pro bono work. But I’d like to think that he was more interested in collaborating than in finding out who’s the better cyclist. And it was a simple matter of physics: I was in the front, drained of energy, while he sat in the back, invigorated. And he was more than happy to lend a hand.

In either case, I took the bait. I did not protest the contact. He pushed so gently and skillfully that I didn’t even flinch. With his arm-aided boost I was able to maintain the pace for another 2 or 3 miles. But then I was truly tapped, and I graciously gestured for him to take over. As he passed me, he did the unthinkable: he actually gave me a pat on the butt.

Let’s pause again to consider the butt pat. The pat was a few inches below where he initially touched me, so it was definitely a gluteal pat and not a lower-back pat. While it only lasted for a fraction of a second, I clearly discerned the firm yet tender touch of his bare hand through the thin membrane of my lycra cycling shorts. It was a simple pat, not involving squeezing or other risque gestures. I can only interpret that signal as a compliment on my ability to pull. Conventionally, a cyclist might acknowledge it verbally, with the words, “Good pull!” This ranger chose to be more poignant. And instead of being upset at having my personal space violated, I took it like a man. I welled up with self-pride and satisfaction.

I have to give this guy some credit. Not only did he choose to make a hand-to-butt gesture in lieu of a verbal comment, he also was insightful enough to anticipate my non-reaction. What does that say about him? What does that say about me?

After pulling for another few miles it was my turn to pull again. As I took over I did not dare to return the favor (although, in retrospect, that would have been quite amusing). I pulled the last few miles, up to the George Washington Bridge. At the end he passed by me and — lo and behold — gave me yet another butt pat! The last one was more powerful and momentous than the first, as it culminated the entire 30-minute partnership. I verbally thanked him for doing his share of pulling, and even wanted to talk to him, but he just rode off into the anonymous environs of New York City.

I followed him on the bridge path. After descending the ramp, he turned right, I turned left, and we parted, without a Bogartian sendoff or even a head gesture. I suppose if we still maintained the same proximity on the ramp, I’d receive another butt pat (I am not presently comfortable administering butt pats). But there was no such exchange. Our non-verbal partnership ended as abruptly as it began. It would now only exist in that brief moment in time on that stretch of road. And in our heads (I’d like to think that he thinks of me as I think of him).

I challenge anyone to provide an example where a butt pat would be considered socially acceptable without both parties ever previously exchanging a word. And yet cycling culture challenges such taboos. Cycling, and road cycling in particular, is a shared experience, experienced by individuals. Even though you’ve never met a cyclist, when you see one hammering down the blacktop at 25 mph, there’s already a lot you can tell about them. You can tell they’re passionate, willing to sacrifice an early weekend morning for a few hours of physical exertion. They’re competitive, respectful, and have an unusually high tolerance for pain. And they’re complete whackos. And if you pass such a cyclist up a hill and the stubborn idiot manages to hang on to your wheel, then it’s perfectly within reason to pull next to them and give them a good ol’ pat on the butt. They’ll actually appreciate it.

The second primary reason for renaming the blog is primarily motivated by the ongoing presidential primaries. I will make a small political disclosure. I am registered here in New York as Independent, and therefore cannot vote in the primaries. It’s okay because votes tend to count less in polarized states like New York. Still, I get criticized regularly for being a spineless moderate. I’m not a moderate, and I have a spine (yup, I just checked).

I tend to have fairly strong opinions, and I am not ashamed of them. But I cannot align myself with a singular political party or belief system. My Venn diagram just cannot be contained within another Venn diagram. But my Venn diagram does intersect somewhat with other Venn diagrams. There are many ideas in various ideologies that I embrace, but there are often some that I reject. Excuse the cliché, but I will not be defined by any one ideology.

To put it in lexical terms, some of these ideologies apply to me as uncapitalized adjectives (get it?), but not as capitalized nouns. I am libertarian, but I’m not a Libertarian. I am independent, but I’m not an Independent. And so on. (I am almost tempted to use an OOP metaphor that illustrates the benefit of interfaces over class inheritance — the GoF would be proud.) After much contemplation, I think the new title captures my superficial defiance of institutionalized over-categorization.

One last note. I am not generally opposed to the pigeonhole principle.

Yesterday, I finally got a nice, 500 GB, FireWire external hard disk so that I can begin to back up both of my Macs. Lovely. But now what? I am researching the best engineering solution to meet my requirements, listed below:

1. Back up of both hard disks

   I have a personal PowerBook and a work MacBook Pro. I’d like to back up both hard disks on a regular basis.

2. Consolidate data libraries

   I have an iPhoto and iTunes libraries on both machines. Both started from the same copy but have since diverged significantly. I would like to use the external hard disk to keep the libraries synchronized.

3. Granular File Restoration

   I would like to have the ability to synchronize, if I wish, a unique set of files to my local machine. For example, I’d rather keep my entire music library on the hard disk and only download a set of playlists that I want to listen to.

4. Sharing Data Between Macs

   I want to easily access data that originated from the other Mac. Say I have a license for an application on my PowerBook that I’d like to copy over to the MacBook. I know that I can do it over the network or BlueTooth, but is it possible to use the external HD as an intermediary?

I think that these four requirements pretty much sum it up concisely. Here are various solutions that I am contemplating:

• WD Backup
  The software that comes packaged with the hard disk. It seems pretty feature-laden, and I think it will meet Requirement 1, but I’m not entirely sure about the other requirements.
• SuperDuper!
  A widely-acclaimed disk recovery program. Uses sparse disk images to maintain active backups. It might be able to meet Requirement 2 by the creation of a separate disk image for specific libraries.
• unison
  An open-source tool for synchronizing multiple file systems. Combines functionality of rsync with SCM features. It seems that with some effort I’ll be able to meet all of the requirements.
• In-House Solution with SCM
  Write my own backup system that leverages a revision control system to meet all the requirements. I would probably start out with a golden disk that will contain a merge from both hard disks. I would then use some versioning features, such as branching and local checkouts, for granular control (Requirement 3). I would probably use Subversion or Perforce. But then I’d have to deal with scheduling. Besides the fact that this will probably be a pretty involved undertaking.

Some other considerations involve handling of the raw 500 GB of storage. I need to figure out whether I should go with a single partition or multiple partitions. I am considering reserving part of the disk to save movies from my DVR. Also, I’m thinking of setting up a RAID scheme, but that may be overkill.

So does anyone out there have any other suggestions or feedback about how I should go about doing this? I hope that I’ll be able to implement a solution before my hard disk crashes yet a third time!

Technorati Tags: mac, external hard disk, unison, perforce, subversion, backup

The Cross-Bronx never looked this AJAXy. I’ve been waiting for this a long time. Now I’ll be able to tell what a nightmare I’m about to drive into.

Thought it up myself. Really. Just wait for the keynote.