Matthew Supert

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. 

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. 

This past week I had the opportunity to attend my first out of state conference for work. It was the ICMA (International City/County Managers Association) conference in Phoenix, Arizona. 

Overall the conference was fantastic and it really gave me a great perspective of how there are similar people who face the same trials and issues that I do in my career. There must have been probably 4,000-5,000 people attending in total. 

Most of the sessions that I attended were very well put on and the keynotes each day were great as well. I was also afforded the opportunity to go off site for a couple of excursions, one of which was to the Boeing Mesa facility where they make the Apache Helicopter. 

The only "negative" from the event, if you could even call it a negative was an observation that I had with some of the other attendees. Most of the the sessions that people attend are designed to get people thinking about different ways to approach problems in communities. In most conferences and newsletters that I receive these topics tend to be mostly the same and focus generally upon either how we need to do more with less or engage citizens more. What gets me at all these is that these are recurring topics so people obviously aren't trying to apply ideas that they learn. Even more than that though is that I am surprised by how many people during question and answer sessions asking for specific answers to their problems from the presenters. More often than not I hear questions like; "What are the top three things I should do?"

I was amazed at how many seem to miss the point. The point of these sessions isn't to tell you how to do something. It is merely a process to get your own juices flowing. What worked by the presenter most likely will not work for you and to think that it will is naive. 

Let's not ruin the overall experience with that point though. Overall the entire conference was great and I cannot wait to go to next year's in Boston should i be afforded the opportunity. 

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. 

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. 

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Despite my better judgement I decided to go ahead and buy it. I'm calling it my early birthday present to myself since I am turning 30 this year. It is such a sweet ride in so many ways and I am super excited to ride it despite my guilt. This does mean that my trusty ZR-7 will be trying to find a new home in the near future. If anyone is looking for a great commuter and weekend warrior bike, then let me know!

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. 

So I went on a really nice big ride last week up to the Grumpy Troll in Wisconsin with RTRC. I have come to learn that any ride lead by Martin in the group results in an all day adventure. I have no problem with that, but we were out riding from 9:30 until about 8:00 pm that night. Of course my GPS seems to have failed on me with dead batteries again so I did not get the route. I reeally need to keep a closer eye on that sort of stuff. 

Also my saga for a new motorcycle is slowing continuing. I am sort of actively looking for something and have calls into two dealers. We will see if something develops, but I can't say that my experience with either dealer has been stellar as of yet. I feel like I need to pull teeth to get any sort of information out of them. You would think they would be making more strides to get me content when they have a person approaching them with a potential sale. 

If it happens it happens, if not I will truck along perfectly fine on my ZR-7. Actually I suppose I should say I might. Even if this purchase through a dealer doesn't play out I have a real inkling to try and sell or trade my ZR-7 on Craigslist for a dual sport, likely a KLR. Something about the dual sporting really seems appealing to me and I figure at this point I will get a standard street bike again eventually so why not get the dual sport in the garage?

Again, I think we will just sort of see what happens. 

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to do a demo day at BMW of Countryside. I had a pretty fund time there and was able to ride two bikes. First up was the F 800ST. I really wanted to get on the F 800R, but it was booked and the ST did offer me the opportunity to check out its capability as a touring option. Overall it was a pretty nice bike, but even at 5'8" I found my legs a little bit cramped on the bike. I couldn't really see myself riding it for longer than a few hours.

Later that day I had an opportunity to get on the R 1200R though and as soon as my butt hit the seat I was impressed. Very comformtable, with a nice blended styling. The demo unit they had was the R 1200R classic which featured some additional chrome work as well a super nice blakc with white racing strip paint. Overall I came away very impressed with the engine too. The boxer engine had a great feel to it and the bike is a nice "do-it-all" platform that can easily accomdate luggage for touring. 

I actually stopped by the dealer last week to get pricing info. Nothing to speak for yet, but I hope I could possibly make pricing work out on this one. It was a great feeling bike all around. 

August 10th, 2012

The war with the rabbits has been on going for almost three years now. Both countries to the north and to the west appear to have been invaded and completely conquered by these free loving savages. I am surprised that the north was conquered due the border protection they had from their Dramatic Ordinance Gunnery System (D.O.G.S.), but the enemy appears to have gone underground and is fighting with guerrilla warfare. Ultimately it appears to be stalemate with no side gaining an upper hand at this point. 

Initial encounters with the rabbits were mostly benign, but it is clear now the mistake we all made three years ago. What was once thought to be a mutual trade agreement of foraging in exchange for cat entertainment was clearly just a ruse for the rabbits to determine the weaknesses of our command infrastructure. 

This afternoon our uneasy stalemate was destroyed. While doing standard reconnaissance and mowing one of our scouts on patrol found an old chipmunk hole to apparently be inhabited by the rabbits. This clearly is a breach of the Beatrix P. treaty of 2010 and definitely and act of aggression towards our way of life. Without further intel we can only assume this location is being setup as a forward operating base for future invasion plans. 

Word was quickly passed to the Home Committee and to the Prime Minister and an emergency meeting was called. Recognizing the quick downfall of both the east and northern territories over the past years a decision was quickly made to immediately neutralize the situation. A vote was held and with no opposition a full nuclear strike was ordered to neutralize the threat and impart a decisive blow against the invader. It has been determined that a strong response is required, something that will get their attention. 

Therefore issued as of 15:00 hours all command line troops have been given a green light for a full artillery strike with an 80lb wet mix concrete bunker buster. Those issuing the order recognize the importance of the measure, but we all pray that any troops in that bunker get out before the final round.

God help them all.......