Bike Resources

Printer-friendly version

Author: 

Taxonomy upgrade extras: 

Bike Resources
A.K.A. Your free ‘cut out and keep’ guide to the world of “Easy As Falling Off A Bike”

 
Just to keep you up to date with what's what in terms of the background resources PS and I have been working on to enhance / extend your enjoyment of the series (and act as an aide-memoire to past events), here's what we have lined up for you:

Current Resources:

Bike Archive
Bike
Episode Summaries
Bike
Location Map
Bike
And in the future?
Bike
EAFOAB Wiki
Bike
Resource Link Resource Link Resource Link   Resource Link


(More info after the break...)

 
Bike Archive
 
First up, the Bike Archive (originally conceived by Holly H. Hart with Angharad's permission, currently maintained by PS). All Bikeisodes up to the last multiple of 50 can be found there, arranged in searchable 50 chapter chunks. These are not only a great way to catch up if you're just starting to read the series, but (via the search facility) a useful way of reminding yourself when you last saw a particular character / place.

 
Episode Summaries
 
Secondly, there's the Episode Summaries (created by me, routinely updated by PS and I). Originally conceived as just that, they've grown to include a lot of other useful stuff:

  • It should open up on an intro page, which provides a brief synopsis, a tally count of the number of episodes summarised to date, and a few useful links (e.g. to dormouse related articles).
  • If you look at the bottom of the spreadsheet, you'll see lots of tabs. These are where the main content hides.
  • First up, three tabs worth of characters: Family, major characters and minor characters. Each time you'll find their full name, any other names by which they are (or were) known, who they are, and in which episode they first featured. For family, if we've been given their date of birth or any other information to indicate when their birthday is, you'll find it in the character sheet.
  • Then the summaries themselves, in 100 chapter blocks. For each episode, you'll find the episode number, the date of publication, the summary itself, any particularly interesting quotes, any significant events occurring, and the episode title (both the ongoing ones - e.g. "Daily Dormouse", "Wuthering Dormice", and one-off specials e.g. "Kilobike").

 
Location Map
 
Finally, PS has created a Google Map of significant locations within the story. Generally speaking, the markers for public (factual) locations (e.g. universities, hospitals) are accurately placed, but for other (fictional) locations (e.g. Tom's home, the Southsea hotel) the placement is more subjective, based on the best available evidence of where they could be if they existed in real life.

As far as I'm aware, the summaries should be editable by anyone with the link, and the map should be editable by anyone with a Google account (GMail, YouTube, Picasa, Blogger etc.)

 
And in the future?
 
Although the summaries are fairly up to date, there's always potential for improvement. So if you've read an early episode and spotted what you think is a classic quote, but neither PS nor I have seen fit to include it, feel free to go ahead and add it in the relevant column yourself. I do take regular off-line backups of the sheet, so you don't need to worry about potentially mucking anything up. Just grovel to me or PS if you accidentally overwrite anything, and one of us will sort it out when we next log into the site.

Having said all that, if by any remote chance you think we've missed an opportunity and there's something you're sure would make a great additional resource for the series, let us know! Just don't expect us to draw fan-art of the characters... :)

 
EAFOAB Wiki
 
Although the summary spreadsheet is a great way to store data, it isn't very user friendly - especially when it comes to editing. So I've now started converting the data in it to a wiki in the hope that (a) more people look at it, (b) more people edit it. At the time of writing (3rd Jan 2012) the character lists are up, together with the first 200 summaries. I'll make a formal announcement once I've eventually converted the lot, but if you want to take a peek and perhaps edit or tidy up what's there or add some new stuff, here's the link: EAFOAB Wiki.

Comments

Thanks so much

Angharad's picture

for all of you involved in this cunning plan. I'm still gobsmacked that two young men should give so much time to the ramblings of an old woman and her cat!(But I'm pleased you do).

Angharad

Angharad

Dim Prob

Nid yw'n broblem o gwbl!

(Terrible isn't it - I spent the best part of five years in the home of Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg and I have to rely on 10100 to translate to/from the native language)

The summary sheet was a completely bonkers idea of mine, but hopefully it will prove useful to someone, somewhere, sometime...

Anyway, now to update my offline copy before logging off and nodding off!

 

Bike Resources

There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't...

As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!

A labour of love.

I've just saved all the episodes so far by copying and pasting into Word (my favoured method) and it took me quite a while, so just how much time you two have dedicated to this excellent project I can't imagine. All I can do is thank you. I see from the statistics that it's now about 1.5 million words! An incredible achievement by all concerned and especially Angharad.

The spread sheet must also have taken some considerable time. I wonder if you could use 'Bike' as the specialist subject on Mastermind - I'm sure you'd score very highly :)

btw I noticed that episodes 451 to 500 have a strange font, different from the rest. It works OK when downloaded into Word but it's not as easy to read on-line.

thanks a lot

Robi

It's a known problem

I'm gradually getting all the parts of the archive updated with a common look and feel, but as you've noted it takes time. There are about four parts still needing work, and it will happen in time.

Priority Service


Bike Resources

Not a criticism.

I just mentioned it in case you weren't aware. As far as I could see it's just that group of 50 episodes. You've done a fantastic job.

Having looked at the map I'm tempted to take the campervan down there and explore the lanes on our long bike. It's a while since I was in Hampshire/Dorset, perhaps it's about time I corrected that :)

Robi

I've got so much respect

for the amount of intense devotion you've show to a really great series. It's really worth noting that not everyone can do the kind of work that you do here. I'm always impressed by your comments as well.

Your a class act.

Bailey Summers

Angharad's Bike Resources

Rhona McCloud's picture

I am quite new to BC and even newer to Bike having read only to 591 as of today. Still this blog is completely new to me and I'll need time to explore and also share with at least 3 others who have recently started on Angharad's trail.

Already I spot that there seems to be a map which should be fun as so far the story is often set where I lived and occasionally cycled for many years.

The posts here are several years old so there might have been lapses but I hope not as E A F O A B strikes me as a remarkable work whose moment has yet to come

Rhona McCloud