peter k
@peterskim
Living the car-free dream in Philly. Philly public school parent. Brompton Bicycles are the ultimate urban life hack. I mostly talk about Philly stuff.
One of the best things about biking to Lowe’s and Home Depot is they’re some of the few stores you can just roll your bike through the store.
One of the underrated features of the @bromptonbicycle.bsky.social that makes it a great commuter bike is its luggage system. I can clip various size/style bags onto the front of the frame, it doesn’t affect steering, it eliminates the need for a backpack, and actually makes the ride more stable.
There at lots of people from the poor to extremely wealthy who think owning a car symbolizes success. And they think having to rely on a bus in the summer heat is for losers, the poor, is undignified. It might not be “cool” to save $1000+/mo by relying on public transit… 🤷
Target's app defaults all pick up orders to "Drive Up" orders now. In the past, Target gave users the option to choose either Drive Up or Order Pickup (aka walk-up) when doing an in-store pickup. Now, if users want to choose walk-up pick up, we need to make 3 extra taps. ☹️
These flash flood alerts are so annoying. Unless there’s a fucking tsunami about to hit Philly, don’t send these obnoxious alerts! I just turned off all my alerts and I’m sure I’m not the only one. When these alerts get used for things that aren’t actually emergencies, they become less useful.
Season 3 just started on Apple TV. Good timing since I can now start reading Shift, the 2nd book in the series. The screen adaptation is so good. You definitely need to start watching from season 1 and it takes some time to develop but stick with it!
Just finished Wool, the first book of the Silo series. I loved the first two seasons of the TV show on Apple TV. Thoroughly enjoyed the book. The book is very readable. Pacing actually feels faster than the show. It took two seasons on Apple TV to cover just the first book’s material.
This car was creeping into the intersection well before the light turned green and I thought wtf, this should be no turn on red. But I looked around and didn’t see a “no turn on red” sign for the southbound 17th St traffic at Walnut. There is a sign for the westbound Walnut traffic tho.
Just watched the season 3 premier of Silo and I’m also reading Wool. When I look out my rear window, I can’t help but think it’s like the altered screen showing the outside looking beautiful but it’s actually toxic. Our greedy selfish choices as a society have made it unbearable to be outside.
There’s a block near us where no one had their stoop lights on tonight. I think they usually do so I don’t know what’s going on. In contrast, my block is much better lit. Stoop lights help improve safety for pedestrians at night.
This is what stands out to me. Wayne Junction and Temple University stations begging to have more housing, offices, etc built around them.
I love being car-free but I also miss the last car I owned, a 2011 Hyundai Elantra Touring. Mostly because even if I wanted to buy a new one today, I couldn’t. The Elantra Touring was basically a slightly longer version of the Honda Fit. We put 2 folding bikes and luggage in the back!
The maybe list for concerts the rest of the year. Got tix for the Delaware Valley Bluegrass Festival over Labor Day weekend and Switchfoot at the Fillmore.
I signed up for Bennett Compost because they use cargo bikes in some neighborhoods to collect compost. They typically use pickup trucks to get my compost but I noticed this near my house recently!
A reminder that if you have a small/medium dog and you like to ride bikes, consider getting a dog backpack. My mini schnauzer loves going on bike rides--when I lay the dog backpack on the floor, he immediately comes to sit on it! It's the bike version of dogs sticking their head out the car window.
I should’ve gotten an iPhone Pro instead of the base model all this time. The photos are so much better—this is from my local park. Since I have a DSLR, I just treated my iPhone’s camera as the lower quality camera I have with me all the time, so I had no expectations for it to take great photos.
The default lens for the iPhone 17 Pro is 24mm which is way too wide to be used as the default. Yes, it captures more of the scene but it also distorts the edges of the images which looks terrible IMO. You can change the default to 28mm or 35mm (my preference).
Lovely 5th anniversary ride for @wednightrides.org! Thanks to all the organizers, ride leaders, and volunteers for bringing together Philadelphians who love riding bicycles every other Wednesday for the past 5 years. Music provided by Chillhop Music Ouska - Pagsasanay chll.to/e870dd22
What a gorgeous night for a bike ride. Happy 5th birthday @wednightrides.org!
"Younger residents were far more likely than older ones to rate the schools as 'poor'" In my experience, young people without kids or just babies/toddlers have no clue what public schools are actually like. They just hear anecdotes that the Philly public schools are all bad and say they'll move.
The Brompton folding bike is a great example of how innovation is not always about technology—innovation at its best is driven by design and a better understanding of human factors (aka ergonomics). We don’t need AI or even electricity for the humble bicycle to change the world.
I brought my folding bike inside T-Mobile recently to pick up my new phone. An employee was curious and he was amazed when I showed him how quickly I could unfold my bike. He said “they’re making all sorts of things now.” I said this bike has been around for over 30 years!
I’m most looking forward to the improved camera in the 17 Pro. But I immediately noticed the difference in focal length. The main camera at 1x on the 17 Pro is 24mm equivalent vs 26mm on the iPhone 15. I don’t like the wider angle but you can change it to default to 28mm or 35mm. E.g. at 24mm:
My kids got me the @emilyrcwilson.bsky.social translation of The Odyssey for Father’s Day. Looking forward to reading it!