God and bike repair

[jack]

*sigh*

Is there a God who designed the worlds[1] for the benefit of human life? Look at a world which *is* designed by intellegence for life: ie.[2] Sims. There's little real estate wasted on 10^big vaccuum[3] with no people in. All your actions are personality-relevant. It seems suggestive (though we're outside, obviously, so it'd hard to tell).

In fact, for I while I was considering fic in a matrix-like world, where they *did* twig because of such a philsophical point -- there were psychic powers which could only be explained by minds having a distinguished place above other matter (because the simulation made some optimisations).

Is *our* world like that? Maybe. It'd be hard to tell -- of all the random nuclear decays, etc, whcih ones cause a hurricane? Which ones stop one? Is the number statistically significant? Especially if the "god" is playing hide and seek.

Specifically, bike punctures must be fairly random. Do they happen statistically significantly more often when you're late for a date, a job interview, or doctor who[4]?

OK, sorry. All this is leading up to me adding a few steps to sonicdrift's really marvellous bike repair manual:

* Fix puncture.
* Wait overnight.
* Fix other puncture, two inches from the first.
* Wait overnight.
* Cycle 500 yds.
* Kick wall repeatedly.
* Examine tyre. The tyre has popped loose from the wheel, and a rabbit's ear of doubled up inner tube has popped out sideways and caught on one of the many struts designed to prevent easy maintance to the wheel.
* Try to reduce bike to pushable condition.
* Carry bike 200 yds.
* Partially deflated. Stuff bits back and push carefully 300 yds.
* Drink beer and write computer games.
* Blog about it.

[1] The first time I typed "word". Very saphir-whorph :)
[2] Or maybe eg. But The second part is the relevent one, in mind during the first half. Which is more correct?
[3] Hmm. Unless you count the MB of memory used for the OS. Is hacking out of the game program equivalent to us discovering, say, quantum entanglement? Hmm.
[4] Or all of the above, in the case of, say, Billie Piper :)

Update: I forgot * pour bowl of water on floor

Comments

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

To my shame, I have given up fixing punctures. It never works. I have also given up buying inner tubes that don't have hole sealant inside though :)

[satanicsocks.livejournal.com]

I rode my brother's bike yesterday. The only thing not wrong with it was the lack of punctures... the handlebars and seat were so loosely screwed on I was afraid they were going to come off at any moment, tyres nearly flat, front brake cable cut off, front brake pads and bracket entirely missing, gear changing extremely broken, wheels and spokes rusty...

He's only had it a few months, and it was new when he got it. This is why you shouldn't drink and cycle, kids.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I was quite pleased a few weeks ago to work in an office which keeps a puncture repair kit around. One day I will get round to actually carrying one with me, though whether that is before or after I get a puncture in an inconvenient place remains to be seen...