Gramercy

I have no idea what you do for a living.

Conference calls are inefficient. We do tons because our company is global so we have calls with Europe and Singapore every week. Microsoft Live Meetings help.

Welcome to corporate America. If you don't have a specific agenda, nothing will get done except discussing another meeting time to actually get something done.

gsteinb

I'm a buddhist meditation teacher who runs, along with other programs, a teacher training program. My organization, due to our particular focus, is very heavy on mental health professionals.

hack

I used to have calls like that. I'd get horribly frustrated, interrupt, and try to drive the call forward. I've since changed employers, but I couldn't stand the time wasting for teh sake of time wasting. I had things to do that were more significant than worry about so and so's thoughts about the other so and so's ideas. Take care of that offline, let's stay focused and get done what we need to get done. Just writing this fills me with anxiety I used to get during those calls.

gsteinb

I'm, like, right there exactly.

echappist

what if I add some stevia to it?

globecanvas

From extensive experience, I find that everything is better, things are more productive, and people are very much happier if whoever is organizing a call or meeting sets a firm end time and sticks to it. If you have any control over the agenda, maybe you can make that happen.

furiousferret

They're typically drawn out. My co worker is typically to blame because every answer requires a detailed explanation. For example if someone asked, 'Is bike racing fun?' he'd cover everything from power meters, carbon bikes, teams, and drafting and not really answer the question. I would just say, 'yes'. Then there are others that feel obligated to speak. All these elements makes for a snore fest. Thank god for phone games!

gsteinb

eff all this bike stuff. my wife persevered at her hospital and with the arrival of new VP has been given cart blanche to name her role, position on the org chart, and her path to being the second in command. super proud.


oh, wait. we weren't talking about bike stuff were we?

furiousferret

It's your thread, talk about whatever.


Grats to gsteinwife.

globecanvas

I registered for Tulsa the other day. Noted in passing that it's a week later than last year. Mentioned it to my wife today. She pointed out that it's on our anniversary.

oops.

carpediemracing 

^ oops

gsteinb

don't sweat it…wives are more trouble than they're worth






oh wait. where were we?

Ygduf

sounds to me like you planned an anniversary vacation in beautiful Tulsa OK.

Enthalpic

Your wife is a hospital executive? I never would have guessed that after the kickstarter campaign for the gluten free bread thing.

gsteinb

She's in the marketing and creative dept.

Enthalpic

On the topic of Conf calls... they are annoying but I still prefer them to real meetings because I can play on the web or my phone.

Homebrew01

Same here. Clean the skin with Isopropyl alcohol first.

Homebrew01

We have a status meeting most mornings, with some people calling in. After the first few minutes, we get down to business, finish the meeting and get to work.
Similar with my wife's conf calls. We're in computer stuff, if that makes a difference.

waterrockets 

Thx. Still busy as hell, but settling into it. This other job opportunity is giving me a bit of a runaround on a decision, so I'm distracted too.

Yeah, it's a pretty simple comfort equation. My tolerance level might be slightly smaller than a pea. Lancing stops the thing in its tracks, so it's really the beginning of the end at that point. I never let them get big enough to abrade any more. No reason to.

Again, it's just a comfort thing. 10 seconds with a straight pin followed by one very aggressive squeeze is much less discomfort than waiting to see what happens with the abscess. At least once you get over the initially strange act of stabbing yourself.

waterrockets 

Why the hell is this the conversation that brings me out of the woodwork?

I'm riding too, but consistency is suffering. No base, but decent top end.

Oh hey, by the way, I learned today that we all have a medical condition:

furiousferret

I binge eat like cray. I'm the eating version of Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. I'll eat clean for 2 weeks then just go on a 5k calorie bender. Its a vicious cycle.

bmcphx

Finally broke down and bought new tires. Has anyone heard of tires/wheels being incompatible before? I had Schwalbe One 25c on my Enve 3.4 clinchers and the day I got them I noticed the tires were very easy to pull off the rim with little force bare handed. It had never been a problem until last week (coincidentally when I started riding late in the day in warm temps) when the bead started coming unseated and the tube would explode. This happened twice and i got a new tire, but it still happened with the new tire, so today I decided it's time for new ones.

Went back to Michelin Pro4 and they feel resistant to mount/unmount like a tire should. Hopefully this is a fix, but wtf.

revchuck 

I got a new bike recently (Specialized Allez Comp Race) that came with Roval carbon wheels. When I built the bike up, I swapped out the stock tires for a set of Michelin Pro4 Endurance ones. They went on by hand where I usually need a tire lever. No problems, though. Wheels and tires have manufacturing tolerances, and bad tolerance stack rears its ugly head every so often. When my two main wheelsets had 32 spoke aluminum rims, the same tires went on the Open Pros easily but required a tire lever for the DT Swiss RR465s.

carpediemracing 

^ my understanding, coming from a wheel person, is that rims are all over the place. The tire manufacturers are a bit closer in sizes.

My friend worked for a wheel (not rim) company for a number of years. They sourced rims for their wheels and found that the actual rim sizes varied greatly considering they were all considered 700c rims.

With tires there are tighter ones, ones that stretch a bit more, etc, but they tended to be consistent for a given tire. This is because the tire manufacturing process is pretty stringently controlled - molds, much narrower window for acceptable bead length, etc.

With mold-produced carbon rims the rim diameters should be more consistent. However any extruded and rolled aluminum rim will have a wider variety of actual diameters or circumferences.

grolby

Yes, the actual manufacturing variance for rims and tires (maybe mostly rims, according to CDR) are wide enough that occasional incompatibility can be expected. Fortunately, it's pretty rare, but it is incredibly annoying when it happens. I have a pair of Challenge Strada Bianca clinchers, and they are simply far too tight on Velocity A-23s. I can get them on, with great difficulty and usually a ruined inner tube along the way, but riding on them would be foolish because if I flat on the road, I'm basically screwed.