/** * file: karbytes_05_july_2023.txt * type: plain-text * date: 05_JULY_2023 * author: karbytes * license: PUBLIC_DOMAIN */ Today karbytes ordered a multi-speed adult mountain bike for approximately $90 (not including taxes) to pick up in the Pleasanton Walmart store (and karbytes has 4 days to pick it up before the item is released back into the market). Today karbytes called the Trek bicycle shop in Castro Valley on the phone and asked them if they assemble pre-assembled bikes from Walmart. The store employee who answered the phone asked me if the bike to assemble is a one-speed or else a multi-speed bicycle. I said that it was a multi-speed bicycle. Then he looked up how much the service cost would be and when the service would be expected to be complete. The service would be $103 and the service will take a few days because there are multiple service orders ahead of me. Earlier today I left most of the contents of my backpack in my room at home so that i could fit some or all of the pre-assembled bike in my backpack. * * * At approximately 2PM Pacific Standard Time, karbytes picked up its bicycle order from the Pleasanton Walmart, placed it in a large shopping cart, pushed the cart to the parking lot, put the cart in the shopping cart queue, and removed the big box with the partially assembled bicycle in it. Then karbytes carried it to the southwest side of the store and took a photograph of the box in front of the Walmart sign in the background with karbytes' Samsung Galaxy Android phone. karbytes named that image file bike_in_a_box_05_july_2023.jpg and uploaded that image to the public GitHub repository where this note (i.e. karbytes_05_july_2023.txt) is located and also to karbytes' Instagram account (which is a public Instagram account). * * * Between 4PM and 2:30PM on 05_JULY_2023, karbytes manually carried the box containing the bicycle from the Pleasanton Walmart store to the East Dublin BART station and boarded a train with it. Then karbytes rode the train to Castro Valley and then manually carried that box to the Trek bicycle shop in Castro Village. For approximately $70, karbytes was able to pay for the bike in the box to be assembled. The shop clerk said that the bike would likely be ready in two hours. Now karbytes is thinking about making its next major purchase a bicycle trailer and picking it up in store. karbytes can then use that bicycle trailer (for less than $200 without accounting for taxes) to purchase at least one additional bicycle from Walmart and haul it using the bicycle trailer and functional bike to the Trek bicycle shop to have that pre-assembled bicycle also set up there. At the very least, karbytes is coming up with a system for (probabilistically speaking) never being without a bicycle nor the means to transport relatively bulky cargo which is impractical to carry by hand using a bicycle trailer. (This line of text was added to this file at approximately 4:30PM on 05_JULY_2023). * * * At approximately 5:30PM karbytes picked up its assembled bike and uploaded a photograph of it to karbytes' Instagram and to the GitHub repository where this note is located. The bike is a bit too small to be considered comfortable enough to ride (but it does seem to be useful to karbytes as a "ghetto" bike to make long flat commutes along pavement take significantly less time than they would by walking). * * * This line of text was added to this file at approximately 7:10PM Pacific Standard Time on 05_JULY_2023. karbytes briefly stopped at its home in Castro Valley to collect its laptop, camping batteries, extra clothes, and Bike U-lock (and also to briefly take a shower). Then karbytes rode the bike carefully down the hill to the Castro Valley BART station. karbytes plans to leave its new bike locked to a bicycle rack in Dublin in a relatively secluded location so that the bike is in a handy location in case karbytes needs it for commuting to work along flat paved grounds. (Honestly, the main purpose of karbytes acquiring and riding that bike has already been fulfilled (which is to show karbytes via firsthand (and hands-on experience) how to purchase and set up bicycle cheaply and quickly). * * * This line of text was added to this file at approximately 8:30PM Pacific Standard Time (by karbytes, of course (and all the files which are added to the GitHub repository which this file is inside of (and all other GitHub repositories which are part of the same GitHub account as the GitHub account which hosts the GitHub repository which this file is inside of) is intended by karbytes to solely be updated, created, and deleted by karbytes instead of any other entity)). karbytes decided to replace the relatively high resolution image named huffy_kids_bike_05_july_2023.jpg in this file's repository with a lower resolution version of that image by downloading that respective image from karbytes' Instagram account and then uploading that lower resolution image under the same name to this file's encompassing GitHub repository. That is to make the raw GitHub file render-able as a web page which can be saved to the WayBack Machine. Some types of files which are uploaded to a GitHub repository (particularly image files which are especially large in terms of data size) have no such corresponding raw file web page. karbytes makes a point of restricting the files which it adds to its GitHub repositories which are showcased in the web page named KARBYTES_CODE_CONTINUES on the website named Karbytes For Life Blog dot WordPress dot Com to files which each have corresponding raw file web pages which can be saved to the WayBack Machine such that those WayBack Machine saved web pages display the corresponding file content in the form of an image, plain text, or playable video. * * * This line of text was added to this file at approximately 9:10PM Pacific Standard Time. When karbytes tried to locate the raw file web page of the file named huffy_kids_bike_05_july_2023.jpg which was downloaded from Instagram, karbytes saw that the image file was still too big to be displayed inside of its own raw GitHub file web page (which includes no hyperlinks nor any other extraneous content). karbytes then used a free online application to reduce the resolution of that image to a variable extent specified by karbytes. Then karbytes uploaded that compressed image file named huffy_kids_bike_05_july_2023.jpg to the GitHub repository where this file (i.e. karbytes_05_july_2023.txt) is located and was happy to discover that the image file now has its own "isolationist" home of a web page which only displays that image and no other content and which can be saved as a web page in the WayBack Machine database.