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Shiny_Earl's LiveJournal:
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| Sunday, October 4th, 2009 | | 5:22 pm |
Slimy Crud Run
Today was the Slimy Crud Run, semiannual excuse to get your bike out and hang out with a couple thousand of your closest friends. It is cool in that all bikes are welcome. I took hundreds of pictures, my favorites are after the jump ( after the jump... ) | | Sunday, September 27th, 2009 | | 8:49 pm |
Bad Idea! Fun Idea!
I bought a Motorcycle, a 2008 (although the VIN says 2007 and who are you going to believe, the nice man at the dealership or your lying eyes?) Ducati Sport 1000S. It was both a fantastic deal and a pretty stupid idea. I still have a Ducati Monster 620D for which I have not finished paying. But how many times is a Sport 1000S offered for essentially half price with only 383 miles on the odometer? For all I know, once only and never to be repeated. I was probably only four or five months away from paying off the Monster, although now that I have two payments to make that timeline will have to be revised. 383 miles is not even through break – in period on the engine, so the manual tells me in scary terms not to let the RPMs climb over 6000 until after I have completed the 1000km 1st service which is to say 620 miles. With 610 miles on the odometer, I will take it in for that first service on Tuesday night. The first ride was home from the dealership in Saukville to Madison WI. Including the detour for lunch, it is about 90 miles of mostly straight roads. The bike is certainly different from the monster. The biggest difference is of course the riding position. The ergonomics are straight from an uncompromising sport bike. The suspension is much firmer, I imagine if someone had lain a page of Braille on the street that I would be able to read it through the grips. Wisely I let my backpack ride home in the passenger seat of my friend's truck. Even with that compromise, I still had the familiar 'wrists smashed with a hammer' feeling that it usually takes me all day on a racing bicycle to earn. Suddenly the reviews I read that complained about the posture on this bike seemed less like the whining of sissies than valid criticisms of a flawed masterpiece. Because the bike is a masterpiece. Every person who knows motorcycles that I encounter while riding wants to talk to me about it. The eye of fellow motorcyclists is drawn to it and they cannot but offer their opinion. Mostly it has been positive or inquisitive. I tell them that it is only my second bike and that it wants to go much faster than posted limits, that it is much more fun on the curves than in the straights, and that in my opinion, it needs to lose a little weight. My favorite thing though, is the way it sings when the revs climb towards 6000 RPM. Good little boy that I am though I have not exceeded the forbidden number yet. I plan to change that. Current Mood:  content | | Sunday, March 1st, 2009 | | 10:34 pm |
So, am I the only one that feels a little guilty that I am not more interesting on livejournal? I feel like, 'hey I have this page and I'm not doing anything with it'? Am I dissapointing my hypothetical public by not sharing every little detail of my life? Or am I a boring person that thinks he's interesting only to be proven wrong everytime I post?
So I am mildly and unspecifically unsatisfied. I find that this mood has a smell, which is to say that when I feel this way, I smell something I cannot identify. It is a bland smell and I am pretty sure it is some sort of olfactory hallucination. I doubt that someone has been shadowing me my entire life with an atomizer of 'eau de ennui', just waiting me for me to be bored and restless.
| | Sunday, December 7th, 2008 | | 7:46 pm |
Yay!
I love Metalocalypse. But it is like rich food, I can only take so much at a time. I have season two on DVD, so it will be a good week with 3-4 episodes every night. What's not to love? | | Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 | | 9:37 am |
Snow!
mmm. snow. I loves it. Ski season is finally here. It is the time of year for mental health and being able to cope with anything. I store up angst and frustration all week and within two runs of my Saturday ski trip it is all gone, like it never even happened. Speed thrills make everything better. It is foreign to me why people don't enjoy going fast. Doesn't everyone have a little voice in the back their head that says "We can go way faster than this!" I have to keep that on a tight leash when driving, or riding the motorcycle. But skiing or snowboarding I get to tell that voice "you think we can go faster? Ok, Let's do this. How fast can we go?" How do people go from loving to ride slides and swingsets as kids and end up as grownups who are totally risk averse? Fear of injury can't be the whole answer, I have a rebuilt knee, and I still ski every chance I get. I have a playlist on my ipod for snowboarding. The songs range from surf guitar to speed metal but the unifying theme is Whee! any suggestions on music I may not have considered for that list? Current Mood: happy | | Friday, October 10th, 2008 | | 6:00 pm |
| | Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 | | 9:09 pm |
| | Sunday, September 21st, 2008 | | 10:10 pm |
thought experiment
So I think the economy is tanking and in a year we will look back at the fall of 2008 and wonder that we had it so good. I think we are headed for a full on depression. Given that I believe unemployment will skyrocket in the next couple years, I believe whatever administration gets the white house will eventually turns to massive public spending to motivate the economy. So let's put on our economist's hat and ask ourselves, if we were running the show, what pie in the sky project would you push? A bridge to nowhere in every pot? More foreign military adventures? what are your favorite and least favorite ideas? I'll go first. I would love to see a passenger rail network that would rival the ones in Europe or Japan. With windmills along the right of way. Other acceptable projects for me would be a national healthcare and a manned mission to Mars. What I hope doesn't happen, more large scale military actions, or just bailing out our current system without any regulatory reforms. What do you think? Current Mood:  contemplative | | Saturday, August 9th, 2008 | | 6:22 pm |
| | Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 | | 7:46 pm |
Hooray me!
So, good news, I will be starting a new job at work on August 18th. This means I earn more money and escape from the call center... right back into IT work. Sometimes I feel as if IBM AS/400s have been stalking me throughout my career history. This weekend I am excited about this: http://www.italianmotobrunch.com/
and this: http://www.rockerbox.usI have also been talking to my orthopedic surgeon as my knee has been giving me trouble. I will probably ski with a brace this season, and if it doesn't get better with exercise, he can still go at it with the Milwaukee Sawzall. | | Sunday, May 11th, 2008 | | 9:34 pm |
I need to learn to finish the things I start.
Here is a list of books that I am about halfway through reading
Soldiers of Reason -The RAND corporation and the rise of the American Empire. Alex Abela City Of Tiny Lights. Patrick Neate Detective fiction about Pakistani private eye in London The Russian Dubutante's Handbook. Gary Shteyngart fiction. Russian immigrant gets involved in organized crime. The Histories. Herodotus Translation of the famous classical greek known as the 'the father of history' and also 'the father of lies' for the many fabrications and inaccuracies in the book Devices and Desires. Fist book of KJ Parkers engineer trilogy. mostly abandoned because i started reading with book 2 and know how it will end. Imperial Spain 1469-1716. J. H. Elliott reading this as part of my fascination with Carribean history. If we look under the bed: Water in Environmetal Planning. do I want to be a hydrologist? I will read this book and find out. The Sot-Weed Factor. John Barth. Historical novel often cited as one of Pynchon's inspirations to write Mason and Dixon. (my favoritest book ever.) (free copies supplied on request.) (no I don't go around violating my favorite author's copyright. you let me know if you want it and I will buy you your own copy) Feast of Souls. C.S. Friedman good fun fantasy in the bathroom: Aztec. Gary Jennings Historical fiction set in the last days before Columbus Ooh look also under the bed: Oil. Upton Sinclair. the inspriration for the movie 'There will be Blood' The Name of the Rose. Umberto Eco (its tough sledding, i liked 'Foucalt's Pendulum' and 'Island of the Day Before' better) Villa and Zapata- actually couldn't find this one. but I know its down there hiding somewhere amidst the dumbells, bike locks, bike shoes (2 pair), slide scanner, keyboard, (computer) mice, laptop, magazines (ski and computer not porn), Clock radio, courier bags, backbacks and snowboard. More than learning to finsish what I start, I need someplace to put all this stuff. Current Mood: Cluttered | | Saturday, May 10th, 2008 | | 3:53 pm |
Red ones go faster.
Once again I journeyed to Elkhorn for the Italian Moto brunch. The chocalate chip pancakes are very good. But I could make those here in Madison. http://picasaweb.google.com/BadIdeasPoorlyExecuted/MotoBrunchMay1008Clearly red ones do go faster. As one person there said, all it takes is a commitment to eat nothing but ramen for a year. Given my income, I am sure that would be more like 3-4 years. Current Mood: impressed | | Sunday, March 16th, 2008 | | 12:52 pm |
It's time.
It is spring ish enough that today, instead of skiing, I unleashed:
The Revenge of the Return of the Son of Bike Dork Man Rides Again 2: The Electric Bogallooening.
I like riding, but on out of shape guys like myself, the bike gear looks pretty horrid. If I am going to repeat on the Horribly Hilly Hundreds, I need to get started training. Ideally like 3 months ago. It was a chilly slow ride, but no point in killing myself yet. I will throw in a lot more interval training this year since I am not going to do spring league Ultimate again. Current Mood:  lethargic | | Monday, January 28th, 2008 | | 5:35 pm |
Damn you Mild Inconvenience!
So I went snowboarding on Saturday, I felt sure I could get in a few runs with my friends before ducking out a little early and catching some roller derby. But then... Mild inconvenience!
I have been a skier since 1984. I have skied on 3 continents, including Antarctica. I have spent more time on the slopes, than I have spent at some of my jobs. This means I have ridden my share of ski lifts. I have ridden rope tows, handle tows, magic carpets (it's a kind of lift not a real magic carpet), t-bars, poma lifts, chair lifts, highs speed detachable quad chair lifts, and gondolas. Some of these lifts, have been brand new, some have been virtual antiques. But on Saturday, for the first time, I got stuck.
Ski lifts stop all the time, usually because someone isn't paying attention and gets knocked over by a chair, or a ski pops off or a ski pole gets dropped when the chair scoops them up. Usually the chairs begins their climb again in less than a minute as a red faced skier endures the silent smug mockery of everyone watching.
But on Saturday, the lift stayed stopped. My friend and I watched the dwindling number of skiers and boarders descend the hill beneath us. Since no new skiers were getting off the lift the hill emptied pretty quickly. Gently, the chair glided backwards a foot. This never happens. Ski chairs go backwards about as often as bullets do. At that point I knew something was wrong. Luckily it was a relatively warm windless afternoon and both I and my friends were wearing good warm ski clothing. Ten minutes later a ground crew snowmobile roared up the hill underneath us. Ten minutes later, it went by in the other direction. The chair glided backwards another foot. and stopped.
Four or five chairs in front of us, where the contour of the hill brought the hill to within 15 feet of the chairs, snowboarders unbuckled their boards and let them drop. Actually they kicked them to the side. Then they slid out of the chairs until they hung beneath them and dropped. they landed in untracked snow, buckled their boards on and rode away.
Now the ski patrol began to show up and looked at the lift and began speaking into their radios. Presently the grounds crew came back with plastic drums tied to the back of their ATVs and snowmobiles. The ski patrol gathered in pairs, one pair to a lift tower.
That particular lift is a double chair, so two people go up at a time. In a previous weekend I noticed the chairs were numbered, and bored, watched them go by until, the number passed 88 and reset to one. So there are 44 chairs going up the hill and 44 chairs going down. It was a busy day so all of the chairs were occupied, although several of the chairs must have had only one rider. The upper limit therefore of the chair is 88 riders. There were probably 70-75 of us then stuck swinging in the breeze.
I had my ipod, and I can truthfully say that electric six is a pretty good soundtrack to listen to while watching a chair evac unfold. The Ski patrol began moving beneath each chair and yelling reassurance to us. Once they let us know everything was going to be OK and they were going to get us out there as fast as they could, they returned to the plastic drums. They brought out rope, and a sort of bosun's chair designed to be suspended from the rope. and the gun. The gun is a bare bones steel stock and a softball sized rubber ball connected to a bucket of pull string. (this is plastic string designed to unspool quickly and not tangle primarily used to pull cable through a conduit when installing wiring in buildings.) with a loud bang, the ski patrol fired the ball over the ski lift cable and the pull string spooled out behind it. Another ski patroller quickly gathered the ball and attached the climbing rope to it. As the climbing rope was pulled up, it carried a steel tube that fastened to the lift cable, allowing the rope to slide over the lift cable without abrasion. Then the chair was attached to the climbing rope and pulled up to the lift cable, while one patroller held a thin guy rope attached to the bottom of that chair which kept it from swinging and hitting someone.
Once the evac chair was raised to the lift cable, it was allowed to slide to the first chair. The skier in the clair was instructed to put a strap over his head and shoulders, and then slide onto the evac chair. The patrollers then belayed the evac chair to the ground. This procedure repeated for the second rider of the chair lift. Then they took the whole mess down, moved down the hill to the next chair and started over. I was in the chair for about two hours before I got down.
And that is why I couldn't go to roller derby on Saturday night. Sorry. | | Friday, January 25th, 2008 | | 6:47 pm |
Roller Derby!
So I have an extra ticket for roller derby tomorrow night. Anyone interested? | | Saturday, December 15th, 2007 | | 6:38 pm |
Skiing or Snowboarding?
I am a big winter sports nut. If anyone is interested in joining me, tomorrow I am heading over to devil's head over by Devil's lake. I want to get there by 10 and probably stay and ski and board until 4 or 5 ish. I go most weekends when the snow is on the ground, sometimes even both Saturday and Sunday, so if this weekend doesn't work, just let me know. Consider this an open invitation. | | Thursday, November 15th, 2007 | | 6:44 pm |
on with the memeage!
I participated in ithis meme on ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) chuck4's page and now I must continue the meme! Comment and I will: 1. Tell you why I friended you. 2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, etc. 3. Tell you something I like about you. 4. Tell you a memory I have of you. 5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you. 6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours. 7. In return, post this in your LJ. | | Saturday, November 10th, 2007 | | 8:34 pm |
A brisk day for a ride
So, I did get my stack of chocolate pancakes this morning in Elkhorn WI. Between one thing and another I showed up about an hour late, so I had to wolf them down before the ride got started, but they were some damn yummy pancakes.
I brought my camera this time so I can share some of my favorites. Once again, there was no parking next to the other bikes when I was parking, so my bike is the black one in the parking garage.
The owners of these bikes can really ride. Generally speaking when I ride, I am pretty sane. Many of my friends accuse me of driving like a grandpa, and these folks would probably same the same thing about how I ride. I followed them for a bit on the group ride, and it is safe to say that I have never ridden like that in my life and they still dropped me like yesterday's bran muffin. We were riding on some backroads and I was usually at least a quarter mile back at every stoplight. It was pretty exhilarating, but I sure don't feel comfortable riding that fast on public roads.
Current Mood: relaxed | | Thursday, October 4th, 2007 | | 7:19 pm |
Electric 6!
Electric 6 is playing at the high noon saloon this weekend. I stopped by after work to pick up my ticket and they told me they were only selling tickets online or at the door the night of the show. WTF? I of course will try and get a ticket online but it seems stupid as hell counterproductive not to sell tickets to upcoming shows at the actual venue.
If the weather is nice, on Sunday I may do the http://www.slimeycrudrun.com/ it sounds like it could be fun ish. So to all my motorcycle homies. be there or be square. chuck4 I am looking at you.
| | Saturday, September 8th, 2007 | | 6:08 pm |
A good day for a ride
It was a great day for a ride today. So, in celebration of the weather I and the only other person I know with a Ducati rolled down Hwy 12 to scenic Elkhorn WI to check out the Italian Motorcyle Brunch. It is held the second Saturday of every month, and it was pretty cool. I have to admit that aside from a Vespa scooter and a Moto Guzzi from like the '50s my bike was probably the smallest displacement, at a mere 620 cc's. However, by being more aggressive with the throttle it was possible to keep up with the riding at least till we hit interstate speeds.
Some of the people showed up in one piece race leathers and looked like they were there to shatter every speed limit in the state. I didn't ride with that bunch. The sight of 20 -25 italian sportbikes lined up in the September sun was beautiful. I may have pictures later. Today was the first day I tried riding with ear plugs. They hurt my ears a bit but there was a lot less mental fatigue from trying to tune out wind noise.
Now there are 614 miles on the bike and it is time to visit the mechanic for the first service. I expect my wallet will not like the procedure. |
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