2012 Wrap Up

2013 is here!!!  So last year I had a whole bunch of goals from last year . Did I complete most of the ones I set out to do?  Let's find out and givet hem a quick review. Let's cross of what I think I succssfully accomplished. 

  1. One Song a Month 
  2. Learn about Buddhism 
  3. Skydive
  4. Finish furnishing house
  5. Personalize office
  6. Donate at least $100 a month to charity  
  7. Learn to rock climb
  8. Cross country ski
  9. Be a better husband
  10. Zen
  11. Go on a date once a month with wife
  12. Go see a musical  
  13. Pickup model building again 
  14. Goto a concert 
  15. U of I football game 
  16. Ride more motorcycle
  17. Don't look back in anger 
  18. Replace valves in other 2 toilets 
  19. Build a workbench
  20. Take more quiet time
  21. Expand my musical repitoire
  22. Be patient

OK......So not too bad. I missed some of the big items, but some of the smaller more interpersonal items I definitely accomplished. This year has been very busy though with Megan getting into the full groove with her new job. I think one thing Megan and I need to focus on this year is more personal time together. But I will save that to a post next week for my 2013 goals. 

Thoughts on the past week.

So Guns………… So I was initially going to prepare a whole long discussion on the whole aftermath of the shooting, but instead of espousing a lot of text, I am just going to bullet point my thoughts.

  • Children Died.
  • It was horrible and I cried.
  • Journalists interviewing the children are in poor taste.
  • Journalists still have every right to do it.
  • The parents need to say no.
  • Let’s stop pretending journalists are some sort of bastion of integrity. Journalism has always been a slimy business in America.
  • Your prayers aren’t doing shit to help anyone. Take real action.
  • Don’t treat children like idiots. Talk to them and let them process this event. Don’t hide it from them.
  • God and schools have nothing to do with anything.
  • The gun was the mechanism, not the cause of this problem.
  • Don’t erode civil liberties in the name of protection.  
  • Mental Health is ONE OF the root problems.
  • Assault rifles are not what the media is telling you they are, and they are not what you think they are.
  • Stricter gun control does need to happen in this country.
  • That said people should be able to own any gun they want for whatever reason they want.
  • Self-defense for gun ownership is mostly bull shit in my opinion.No one I have ever known or talked to has known anyone who has ever been involved in an incident needing a gun for self-defense.
  • Stop with the hyperbole.
  • People are upset and want answers.
  • Don’t let emotions rule your judgment.
  • Sometimes there are no answers.
  • Sometimes there is no solution.
  • Sometimes there is nothing that could possibly have been done to prevent something.
  • This is the real world and bad stuff happens all the time. Face it. Accept it. Learn from it. Grow from it.

November 2012 Reading List

Time for another reading list update. 

As 2012 is coming to a close, I have to say that the reading list this year has been a pretty good one. I am on track for fifteen or sixteen books read if I keep my pace up through December. It is hard to believe that I haven't posted one of these since April. 

Anyways, tons of books read. Most notable of them has been the first two books of the John Carter series. Yes, the same John Carter that Disney tried to make into a movie last summer. While the movie wasn't a smash hit at the box office. the first two books in the series are absolustely incredible. They are adventure pulp fiction at its best, and I was litterally on the edge of my seat while reading them. They have quickly gone to the top of my favorite books shelf. They are also public domain so if you have an e-reader, go download them for free. 

I also read books two and three of the Harry Potter series. I remember why those movies are so engaging. Nobody but J.K. Rowling can make boarding school sound so appealing. 

Finally I just started reading "The Hobbit" again last week. This year is the 75th anniversairy of the book and the movie is coming out in December. I think it apt to re-read the book, since I haven't read it since about fifth grade. To be honest I remember almost none of the story and I am amazed again at how good the book is. I am surprised how much the tone really comes across as a children's book though. The whole prose really gives a sort of Narnia vibe a little bit, much more so than the "Lord of the Rings". 

You can see above that my childhood copy is a bit of a wreck, so I am actually reading a copy I bought my wife several years ago. 

First GoPro test on my motorcycle

About a week ago my wife bought me a GoPro for my birthday. So with some luck the weather was nice yesterday and I decided to ride my motorcycle up to my parent's house for breakfast to test it out. I tried the timelapse feature on the bike. I have to say I am impressed, ignoring the fact that my windshield on my bike is covered in bugs. I am sooooo stoked to use this thing next season on rides. 

Building a Tool Kit for My R 1200R

So one of the first things that I have noticed since getting my R 1200R is that almost all of the bolts on the motorcycle are Torx screws. That means all of my metric tools that I own will not work and I unfortunatley need to pick up some torx tools. As with most motorcycles, the bike did come with a basic tool kit, but to be honest it is something to be desired. It just does not inspire confidence for something that I would want to rely on when broken on the side of the road. So over the past couple of weeks I have been doing some research to try to find some tool rolls or kits that I can add to my bike. Unfortunately the pickings do not seem to be all that good and one of the only pre-made kits i have found is from Cruz Tools. Now, the kit looks fine, but it is not exactly what i am looking for. 

So I have decided to build my own tool roll. A quick search online for what other people are using lead me to some nice R 1200GS links. These are of course not my bike, but the bikes are close enough that everything should work. Here are the links. 

http://www.r1200gs.info/misc/toolkit.html

http://micapeak.com/checklists/R12tools.html

I am going to use these for the basis to build my kit over the next couple of months. Now, I personally am going to be buying Craftsman tools. I know that Craftsman sort of gets some flak these days, but in my opinion they are still the best hand tools around. I just have no frame of reference online for a lot of the other "no-name" brands and I always read about problems when pieces break or don't fit right and strip a screw from cheap branded stuff. I'll pay a bit more for the Craftsman stuff, but it will last forever and I know it will work properly when I need it. The last thing I want to happen is to strip a screw head in the middle of nowhere when I really need my tools to work. The extra $20 now could save me a ton of headache later. 

So far I have picked up just an adjustable 3/8" rachet with an adjustable head and a torx head set T-15 through T-50. I believe I need a T-55 or T-60 as well, but this should probably get me through 80% of the bolts on my bike right now. 

Additional items that I need to pick up will be some allen wrenchs, and appropriately sized wrenches for stuff like the oil filter, etc. Now I have been reading online that some people have picked up some open/closed end wrenchs. I am curious if these are really needed or if I can get by with just getting some equivalent metric sockets. It could save me some space.

Anyways, I will see how this builds out.

Ridelog 10-20-12: I am an Idiot

So yesterday I was supposed to do another group ride up to C9Y in Iowa. Unfortunately that ride was canceled due to scheduling conflicts. I opted instead to do a long ride myself to checkout the Illinois River Road Scenic Byway

I knew from the outset that this was going to be a long ride, and it was. It was probably 500 miles. So instead of getting a nice start on Saturday morning, I ended up sleeping in until about 11:00 am. I didn'tget out the door until noon. I was determined to get his ride in so out I went. Overall I have to say the ride was just "so-so". There were nice bursts of some scenic areas, but I was surprised at how much of the road didn't follow the river and was just on farmland back roads. I was pleasantly surprised by how nice Peoria was by the river though. I want a nice little residential road up above the town on a ridge that offered a good photo. Now, I don't take a lot of photos on my rides, and I really should probably take more. You can see from the photo above however, that my photo obviously did not turn out. When I took the photo my phone said "processing" and I had thought it taken the picture. Clearly it looks like it took the photo after I lowered my camera down. Not a bad shot of the asphalt though, if I do say so myself. 

So as I was traveling down I made it to the southern most point in about four hours. Remember I left at noon, so that means that I wasn't going to get back until 8:00 that night. Yesterday's high temperature was about 53 degrees as well. So after getting lost a little bit I was trying to make a high tail back north to get on the highway before dark hit. Of course, to add to my woe, I got pulled over for speeding and received a ticket. 

Ultimately I did not get home until about 8:15 last night. I was freezing and tired and apparently I do not know how to take a photo. I did learn however that the seat on my new BMW is comfortable enough to go all day in. I road basically eight hours straight and did not have a sore butt. 

October 2012 Video Gaming

It has been several months since I have posted a video game blog. That is partly because I haven't really played anything that has caught me as of late. The whole video gaming scene seems to be winding down for me at the moment as we are in the last doldrums of this console cycle.

The highlight over the past couple of months of course has been Portal 2. That is just such a good game in almost all of its design respects. There isn't a ton to say there that hasn't already been said. 

One of the more weird games that I am playing right now is called "El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron". Overall the game is terrible. Gameplay is atrocious and boring and it is too Japanese. The one redeeming quality of it is that it has a very cool design aesthetic. The game has these moments that switch from cell shaded, to silhouette, to side scrolling cartoonish. There is even a brief moment that goes into anime. It is with this design alone that I am sticking it out to try and get through to see how it ends. 

Ride Log: 09-30-12


View Ride Log: 09-30-12 in a larger map

Nothing spectacular for a ride this afternoon. Just a quick two hour jaunt near the Shipping and Sanitary Canal west of Chicago. While scoping this one out I notice a road that ran parallel to the canal and though that it might have offered a good view. Unfortunately it ended up being mostly industrial areas which at one point road right through the middle of an oil refinery. I even managed to skirt around the outside of a forest preserve. 

Ride Log: 09-23-12 - Starved Rock


View Ride Log: 09-23-12 - Starved Rock in a larger map

A little over a week ago I bought myself a new motorcycle. A lightly used 2012 BMW R 1200R Classic. The bike is gorgeous and is black with white racing stripes, spoked wheels and of course the great BMW boxer engine. I am turning 30 this year and starting to feel a little old, so I figured I would treat myself. 

To christen the new bike I decided to do an afternoon run down to Starved Rock. I am slightly ashamed to say this, but I have never been to Starved Rock before. I was in for a treat, for the ride was not only a nice one, but the state park is beautiful. I will have to make sure and go back there this fall to go hiking with the changing leaves. 

A Perfect Game

Have you ever had one one of those games where you couldn't miss a shot? You are just on and you are making incredible shots that you normally wouldn't make. Hit the angles, get the digs, make to impossible shots and return them like a pro? Yeah, that was my opponent today at tennis. I honestly did not play an awesome game, but I was putting some really nice shots into corners that most opponents would not have gotten to. The guy I played tonight not only got to my shots, but hit really solid winners back to me. More than once he would put a perfect a perfect lob over my head while I was at the net and it would land right on the back of the basline.