Remote

Nate

@voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone

mastodon 4.6.5

A little razzle-dazzle across your time-line • #WNBA League Pass Massiv • #PortlandFire • soy curl champ • he/him

An aging #punk living in #Portland

Absolutely ruining my 30 year old hardcore band (@groadudes@pdx.social) with #MIDI and other #musictech

Haven't electrocuted myself _yet_ with my #solar panel tinkerings

I ride #bikes, especially comfortable, sensible, #3speed bikes for transportation and fun at a #PartyPace.

235 Followers

179 Following

26 Posts

Joined August 17, 2018

JX:ATG:

https://www.groadies.com

NONTRAST:

https://www.nontrast.com

Punk Vids:

https://vimeo.com/nontrast

Bandcamp Collection:

https://bandcamp.com/illintechnology

Posts

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Jul 25, 2026

Replying to on m.ai6yr.org

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org It definitely looks like a car backed into it and significantly bent the seat stay. Quite possibly corrected. Some purpose-built frame alignment tools would be nice to use, but they're spendy so you may be able to improvise. If in your budget, and you plan doing similar work in the future, I'd recommend getting at least some dropout aligners, a derailleur hanger aligner and a frame alignment gauge.

3

0

1

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Jul 09, 2026

Some (very old) pals have an art opening at Mint Gallery Records (3912 N Mississippi) tomorrow (July 10). https://www.mintgalleryrecords.com/blogs/exhibits/art-club #Portland #PortlandArt #HowMuchArtCanYouTake

2

0

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Jun 26, 2026

One of the only bike shops downtown closed and is now a parking garage. ☹️ #BikeTooter

1

0

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @mossyfoot@pdx.social

@mossyfoot@pdx.social Wish I knew about how the Fire/Moda center business arrangement worked. Do the parking garage fees get split, or does the Moda center keep 100% of it? If the Fire could get a portion parking-garage-people to transition to non-parking-garage people instead, that's a decent amount of money per event that _could_ go to Fire merch instead (and maybe there's a split with Moda Center there too, dunno).

0

0

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone

@mossyfoot@pdx.social It would be harder to say "if you improved the situation, more people would bike, trust me bro"

1

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @mossyfoot@pdx.social

@mossyfoot@pdx.social oh, that's a good detail to share with my rep: lots of people arriving by bike means that the current system has significant efficiency costs: security having to do a lot of bag inspections that aren't necessary, and increased negative-interactions with event-goers

1

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @mossyfoot@pdx.social

@mossyfoot@pdx.social this is the primary parking area, but I don't like how secluded it looks. I would guess security walks by _occasionally_ during events.

0

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @mossyfoot@pdx.social

@mossyfoot@pdx.social I did not mention ebike batteries, but a similar concern. I wouldn't want to leave one outside with the bike because I'm guessing the bike rack area is poorly->entirely unmonitored but the arena would likely freak out if they were in charge of storing big bike batteries.

0

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone

@mossyfoot@pdx.social

People that don't arrive by car and bring a bag with them, very often only have the bag because it was needed to get them to the arena, and won't need it until they leave the arena. So, I don't want to have to go through an enhanced security checkpoint to bring my bag in, I would rather ditch it in a bag-check/locker outside the arena so I could breeze through security like everyone else.

0

2

1

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @mossyfoot@pdx.social

@mossyfoot@pdx.social Yeah, they really need to figure it out.

One detail I really underlined in the email to my ticket rep:

People that arrive by car and bring a bag with them want to bring the bag into the arena with them because they want access to its contents during the event, so restricting size of the bag is a valid consideration, as the seats are so small there's not much room to stash a bag.

...cont

0

2

1

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone

@mossyfoot@pdx.social While the seats I ended up getting are pretty good, I lost about 25 minutes of line time so I could've gotten significantly better seats had I wanted them. fin 4/4

1

0

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone

@mossyfoot@pdx.social everyone that showed up via bike, on foot, or Tri-Met were literally left out in the cold. Why did the email specify that people arriving via Tri-Met should use the North entrance? Why have a Welcome sign if that door wasn't going to be active? If that door wasn't going to be active, why not add some detail to the sign to point people to where they should go, not great, but better than what happened. Disrespect/disregard of people that don't use cars. 3/x

0

4

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone

@mossyfoot@pdx.social there were so few of us at the north entrance, we didn't even bother forming a line. We were all just sort of confused. Eventually someone pressed their face to the door and saw an _absolutely_ massive line wrapping around inside, but the doors were locked. Eventually one of the people in the line saw us and hustled over to open the door for us and then we had to walk to the very end of the line, which, of course, was in the parking lot. Everyone in the line had arrived by car. 2/x

0

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @mossyfoot@pdx.social

@mossyfoot@pdx.social I rolled up on my bike at like 8:45am in early November, so of course, rainy. I went to the north entrance (as instructed in the email) and there was a "welcome" sign with a Fire logo and several people milling about. No bike racks in sight, so I locked to a bench. Since it was out in the rain and early in the morning, I assumed it was okay because no one would want to use the bench. 1/x

0

2

1

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 10, 2026

Replying to @mossyfoot@pdx.social

@mossyfoot@pdx.social did I tell you my story about the absurd experience at I went through at Moda Center trying to buy Fire season tickets at the pick-a-seat event?

0

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 04, 2026

Replying to @ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org

@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org @wsslmn@mastodon.nl No real magic about belt drives, they work in a very similar fashion to chain+cog+chainring. You need a special cog and chainring for the belt, and you need a split in the frame to be able to pass the belt through. This frame appears to have a rear drop-out that bolts together to accommodate the belt. And yeah, this certainly appears to be a coaster-brake Shimano 3-speed hub. Sturmey Archer actually made (makes still?) a 3-speed internally geared fixed gear hub.

8

3

2

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 02, 2026

I started playing guitar decades ago, but anything but the most basic level of maintenance has largely been a mystery for me and I either paid a pro to do it, or simply lived with a poorly set up guitar.

Colin from CSGuitars has really nailed it with this video that covers basic guitar set up.

My favorite bit: the section where he explains that new guitarists are often trying to learn on a guitar that is poorly set up, making things so much harder.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WJtXpH9cQG8&si=Z0aPtVIQ4x0ujd6B

7

0

5

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · May 02, 2026

Replying to @shotgunseamstress@counterforce.social

@shotgunseamstress@counterforce.social I am only, like, 97% certain it was actually made but I’m pretty sure there’s a zine about the mid 90s Veruca Salt / Hazel tour and the Liz Phair / Sleater-Kinney tour news reminded me of it. Do you know if the zine exists / did you read it?

0

1

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Apr 16, 2026

Replying to @Inoreader@mastodon.social

@Inoreader@mastodon.social no

0

0

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Apr 09, 2026

Replying to @petes_bread_eqn_xls@mastodo.neoliber.al

@petes_bread_eqn_xls @Findingspress could be that many cycling injuries are caused by falls when mountain biking and most e-bike riding is happening on paved surfaces and involves less falling? Mountain biking drops off in the winter, so that could account for the seasonal differences? Maybe?

0

1

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @clickhere@mastodon.ie

@clickhere @baoigheallain I'm a guy with a low voice, so no matter how gentle I could say "on your left" at a volume that would be able to be heard by someone would likely sound like a gruff shout, so I definitely use my bell, every time.

1

1

1

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Mar 04, 2026

Replying to @baymud@mastodon.social

@baymud@mastodon.social loved all the Karplus-Strongy tones you were getting. I’m a K-S freak and glad I don’t have to tweak my DSI Desktop Evolver to get it anymore now that I have an Erica Streampipe. I mean, I love my Desktop Evolver, but now I can do other stuff with it.

1

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Feb 23, 2026

Replying to @RyanE@mastodonapp.uk

@RyanE@mastodonapp.uk @Techaltar@mas.to @notjustbikes@social.notjustbikes.com @nerd4cities@mstdn.social from City Nerd also connected the dots that suburbanites that _say_ they don't like the idea of """""15 minute cities"""", for some reason seem to like walkable/bikeable vacation towns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b6w814wXvc

2

0

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Feb 15, 2026

Replying to @timkahn@mastodon.social

@timkahn@mastodon.social Clueless people driving their cars in a dangerous manner. https://youtu.be/lH7vbsmJvg8?si=5JcqZxkAE2jFyDdf

0

2

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Dec 20, 2025

Replying to @arstechnica@mastodon.social

@arstechnica@mastodon.social so fucking ugly. They really really really don’t want people to buy their EVs.

0

0

0

0

Nate @voiceofunreason@xoxo.zone · Jul 17, 2025

Replying to @Techaltar@mas.to

@Techaltar@mas.to I live in Portland so that’s my local paper. Their website is brutal. Check it out on mobile, if you dare.

0

0

0

0

Remote instance

xoxo.zone

Open on original server

Media