Craig's List

I'm blogging from my "mobile office" (the shuttle van), so I won't go on too long. Yesterday was quite productive for me. I was packing up a bunch of my stuff, schlepping tubs and boxes up from the basement, and I decided I was going to try and git rid of some stuff.
-Electronic dartboard. Posted free on CL. Had five takers in as many minutes. Manny came over and picked it up within half an hour. I put a smile on a stranger's face.
-30 to 40 articles of clothing. Shirts and blazers I never wear anymore. Posted as free. Takers within minutes. Gone within 2 hours. No questions asked. As anonymous as a gloryhole. Is "gloryhole" one word or two?
-New Columbia Messenger Bag. $15. Gone before the Bristol race was over.
-Books. Over a hundred and thirty of them; that's a lot of WEIGHT when moving. Set aside 20 or so for a friend. Sold the rest to a kid who looked to be in his mid twenties for the sum of $25. I was as glad to get rid of them as he was to take possession of them. He was eager to get his hands on the Nietzsche and Camus. After he got there, I threw in a couple of Kurt Vonnegut books just because the kid seemed so nice and said he liked Vonnegut.
Feels great making my pile of shit that much smaller.

Reynolds Weld Lab Custom Recumbent

I could go on and on about this picture, but I don't think I need to. Picture says it all. This is probably around seven years ago.

An O-Maj (Homage) to my friend Steve

I talk about Steve a lot, so I figured I would profile him here as an honorary member of the Hoolie Crew. As such, he will be afforded full member status with benefits. If he visits your town of residence, you will provide him food, lodging, a daily stipend and whatever else he requests. This is the code we live by.

I met Steve a few years ago when I decided I would one day work for his company. Long story short…..that ended disastrously, but we became good friends and remain so to this day. Up until a couple of weeks ago, he lived within walking distance of my house. I had even worked my way up to the “drop in” (the unannounced visit). We have a standing Saturday play date, which most often consists of first-person-shooter campaigns on the Xbox 360.

Things of note:
1. “Corobra”, the moniker? That was Steve’s doing. He came up with the name.
2. We’ve been to junk yards, flea markets, and dirt track races together.
3. Holds his own at Scrabble.
4. Recently finished a 500 page tome on the life of JP Morgan.
5. Named his cat “Outback Steak House”. Outback for short.
6. He has prepared some of the BEST meals that I have ever eaten. A dang good cook.
7. Funny as hell. Too many one liners to mention.
8. We eat a hell of a lot of pancakes together. Mostly at IHOP.
9. Taught me how to make gravy for biscuits and chai tea from scratch.

An Almost Haiku:
Pistols and pancakes,
Hash browns and hand grenades,
Waffles and rifles,
Eggs and boast.

Street Fightin' Whore

What I mean is I'm quite a fan of street fighters. Here's some pics of a couple I've seen over the last few years. The one with the "shark" painted tank is okay. Notice that the guy has a flip cell phone jammed in the cheek of the helmet. Odd.
The silver Suzy on the other hand is just dead sexy. I love almost everything about that bike, the radiator, the coolant tank on the right side, the water pump on the left side, the wrist band wrapped around the brake fluid reservoir, the orange wheels, the shark fin tail section...even the hideous stock light.
Does anyone know what kind of bike that is?

Battlefield: Bad Company 2

Looking to get back into multiplayer online gaming, I've purchased Battlefield: Bad Company 2 at the suggestion of one of the draftsmen in the office. I have never really played war-sims so it has been a struggle getting up to speed. It is so unlike the FEAR2 clips I posted previously as you truly have to be concerned with taking fire from the enemy which really slows down the pace of the game. In any case, I have been having fun with it and am getting close to being familiar enough with the game to jump into online play. To me, The graphics are just stunning and I can't imagine where we will be in 5 more years with almost cinematic quality gameplay.

Randomness for Douglas

Reminds me of your "eye-picture" in Mountain View.

Yummy!

Between omelettes, barbecue and fresh-made salsa, I might have the goods to open up a restaurant, LOL!

TRON: Legacy

Be sure to watch in Hi-Def!

Mad Max

In my new temp job, I work around a lot of interesting and creative people, one of which is Randy. Randy is a serious car nut and handy with a wrench. I went into his office today looking for colored pencils and we wound up talking about his Corvette and his Torino. He has turned the Torino into a Mad Max Pursuit Car. Then I remembered I had seen a Mad Max "Interceptor" car on the highway and had even taken a picture because I thought it looked so cool. Turns out Randy built that very car himself. It's in the video. Check it out. First a pic of the Interceptor. Then the video.

FEAR 2: Project Origins

Just messing around after installing FRAPS, a custom screen capture program, on my PC. This is the 2nd game in the series and is a horror-based, first person shooter. The supernatural stuff I encounter at the end of the clip is pretty creepy, especially late at night!

Hell yeah!

Powered Armor level in FEAR2: Project Origins. I am a god!

Missing my baby today...

Dick forwarded me a picture of my late Boxer Maggie and it got me thinking about her so I dug out my favorite picture of her and thought I would share.

Bling is in the air - part2...

I hope you don't mind Joe but these need to be shared with all as the bike looks fantastic. Looks like we are going to make quite a splash in ES come the Spring Rally with yours and Dick's new additions.

Bling is in the air...

Had a visitor today and he was riding something green and shiny. Dick's "new" ZRX is definitely getting the "Frierson touch" and is really looking sweet!

When free wifi goes bad!

Ran across this clip today from a tech podcast I listen to regularly and it made me think of one of you more than the others! Enjoy.

Another Bad Boy...

I knew these pics would be relevant at some point.

Bad boys, bad boys...

Proud or shameful? You tell me!

Post Your Desktop

Here's mine! Been running Vista for a few years now with no issues and although I bought 3 licenses of Win7 when they had the sale on them upon initial release, I just can't warrant the upgrade right now consideing how great my machine runs. As a bonus, I posted another screencap of my basic computer specs.

Past Rides; A Call to Action

I really liked Chuck’s post about documenting our past rides. I took it as a call to action. I consider myself frugal, but looking back, I think that – like most Americans – I’ve always had a things for cars.
My first car choice was pure lust. I spotted this 1951 Dodge Coronet out near the lake one day and I knew it had to be mine. I paid maybe $1500 for it – in running condition – from a dirty old man who didn’t mind selling a heap to a starry-eyed kid. Bitter and sweet. I loved the car but it was a turd. Problems from the get go. It had three on the tree, but it was Fluid Drive, so you didn’t have to push the clutch when you came to a stop light. Wound up selling it to a guy who came and towed it away for me. Lost a little money on that one.


Next came the 1969 VW Bug. I was fresh on the rebound from the Coronet and wanted something I could actually drive, as opposed to something that just looked nice in the driveway. I paid around $1200 for the Bug. It had been gone through and was essentially a restored car, although not in show-car condition. I bought the Bug about a year before finishing high school and it got me through the better part of my Bachelors degree. It lived up to the VW name and served me quite well. When I bought my next car, my dad suggested I park the Bug in his barn, which I did. It sat there for probably the better part of a decade until it was sold in 2005 to partially pay for my 2003 Kawasaki ZRX1200.


Third in line was the 1989 Chrysler Conquest TSI. A dead-sexy, turbo-charged thrill ride. I loved this car. Adjustable suspension, stereo controls in the steering wheel, disc brakes all the way around. This car was the shit. I got it out of shape once on a back road and wound up turned wrong the wrong way, but luckily didn’t do any damage. A hell of a fun car and I’m glad I never wrapped it around a tree. Just look at that! I wound up selling it a few years after arriving in Kansas.



Number four was a 1987 Honda Civic Wagovan. Honest to god, that was the name of the car. Anywho, I wanted something different when I got rid of the Conquest. I was tired of chasing down 16-inch Z-rated 245/45 tires at used tire shops. What I got was the Wagovan. Some stoner had drawn dragons and snakes on the inside roof of the car with colored Sharpies. You could lay down the back seat and it was a perfect sleeping area. I had a canoe on the top of that car more times that I can count. It was great for car camping.



And then came the 1993 Toyota Corobra. I bought it in September of 2001 with 50k on the clock and it has 155k on it now. You all know this story. She’s been a great car. I’ve hauled motorcycles (PLURAL), couches, canoes, enumeratous furnitures. Fabulous gas mileage that can barely be matched by today’s hybrids.

Sapa Tatanka

Over the years I failed to document several cool vehicles I have owned, most notably a cherry 1974 Z-28 with a 4-speed Muncie and a 1986 Mustang SVO so I thought I would post a couple of pics of my 2000 Dodge Ram. Nothing extraordinary about her at all other than it represents the body style that "changed everything" in the world of trucks in America. I bought the truck from my brother in 2002 with less than 10K on the odo and she now has about 55K on the clock. The truck has been very reliable with the exception of the tranny which I had to have rebuilt because of issues that are well documented on the internet. I just got some Kumho Road Venture all-terrains mounted which I like very much and enjoy the "old school" look of tall, skinny, high profile tires. Like my ZRX, the truck is a great "15 foot" truck but any closer and you can see she's been kept outside the better part of a decade. I don't really put too much time and effort into keeping her spotless but I do use "Chuck's Tire-Foam" trick on the motor about twice a year and keep her cleaned up when the weather is nice. She has hauled a lot of rock and dirt, pulled her fair share of trailers and the 4-wheel drive has been invaluable here in the winters through ice and snow.