David Jack Wange Olrik

Today marks the day where we have officially been without a car for a full week! While there are many who have survived without a car their whole life, and don’t see this as something special – it is a a big deal to us because we have grown used to the comfort and ease that a car brings you.

We decided to go green a few months ago¹, so we bought a trioBike with two bikes and a carrier, and have been using that and public transportation² as our sole means of transportation³ since.

So how did the first week go? – I think it went OK, apart from a few minor snags like loosing the bracket that fastens the carrier to the bike, a flat tire and being stuck at Copenhagen Central Station because some guy got hit by a train⁴.

I would lie if I said I didn’t miss our car⁵, but when I see people looking for places to park, and when I drive past gas stations and see the gas prices – I miss the car less and less.

Using the bike for all of our transportation needs forces us to take it down a notch, relax a little and plan our activities a little more which in turn helps us keep the stress level down – so it’s all good

1. Mostly because my wife wanted to go back to school so she could learn to design beautiful things – and that school is crazy expensive. [↩]
2. Which is actually quite good in Denmark, when you compare it with the rest of the world. [↩]
3. Except for the one or two times we borrowed a car for transporting stuff too big to fit in the trioBike [↩]
4. He god messed up pretty badly, but I think he survived it. [↩]
5. This October has been the coldest in years, and our car had climate control and seat heaters. [↩]

Tomorrow is May 25th, also known as Towel Day amongst friends. This is the day where we celebrate the life and works of my favorite author of all time Douglas Adams¹. Douglas is the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a most excellent book about another book that is equally excellent.

A towel, it² says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.

So, do as the book says: “Don’t forget your towel!”

1. Douglas is the reason for my weird obsession with the number 42 [↩]
2. “It” being the The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [↩]

Ever since reading the holy trilogy soon to be hexology in my early teens, I have had a “secret” obsession with the number 42. My phone number begins with 4242, my license plate is 42, I have a lot of pictures on flickr in the 42 group.

Just the other day I was playing around with twitter and discovered that my twitter id ends with 4242.

Coincidence? – Maybe, but the number still carries a very special meaning for me and always will

“Six by nine. Forty two.” “That’s it. That’s all there is.” “I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe”¹

I look forward to the 6th book in the trilogy, and even though it won’t be Douglas Adams’ own words directly, I still believe Eoin Colfe² will be able to capture the mood and the spirit of previous books in the series.

Don’t forget your towel!

1. Douglas Adams (1 January 1980). The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. [↩]
2. He’s even on twitter! – but then again who isn’t [↩]

The most promising “bring your files” app has finally appeared in the App Store, and at a very nice price as well

I have tried both Files and DataCase, both are nice – each of them have their strengths and weaknesses.

For now I think I’ll stick with DataCase, as it has most of the features I want.