So...now, all of a sudden, everyone wants to dump their SUVs and big trucks. What a joke! I've seen more SUVs, vans, RVs, big trucks and other gas guzzlers with for sales signs slapped on them in the past weeks than I care to count anymore.

And every car lot on the planet advertises their great gas mileage. Now. After the fact.

We, the crazy liberals, have been preaching this stuff for YEARS, hello! Where has the rest of humanity been this entire time? Asleep at the wheel (literally!).

I'm amazed by our collective stupidity. We bought our Hummers and Escalades all on credit and we're paying the piper and now,everyone's up in arms? Like they didn't see it coming? Like no one knew? Like no one can believe the price of gas?

Well, guess what? You're stuck with your dinosaur!

And everyone who was unkind to pedestrians, bicyclists and all the so-called "lowlifes" who ride the bus can eat crow.

I see no reason to empathise with these complainers/whiners in line at the gas station. I really don't. We did it to ourselves.

love,
Poly

Tunnels freak me the fuck out. It's like some sort of illusion where it feels like the tunnel is moving around the stationary traffic. It's very disorienting. Anyone else get the same feeling?

On the other hand, this was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon.

One of the local boutique dealerships in Phoenix sponsored a stop for the Duck Truck this weekend. There was free food and Ducati demo rides; what's not to like?

d_klein and I showed up around 8:45 and signed up for rides. The first time around I rode a Hypermotard and the second swing saw me in the saddle of a red 848.

( Very short reviews )

Has anyone tried Scorpion helmets? My Icon Alliance is getting pretty ragged. I've got the xeno long oval head, so the two that usually fit me are Icon and Shoei. The TZ-R fit me pretty well, but it's about $100 out of my price range right now.

How are the Scorpions in terms of breathability/comfort/wind noise?

mood: working music: Rob Zombie "iron head"

Another - OMG I love Ravelry post.

Sly showed me how to do a SSK yesterday morning. I havent practiced it like I did the PFB and KFB so when it came time to do it ... nothing,

I went to the Tips & Techniques Forum to write a post asking about it and as soon as I put "SSK help" in the subject line a frame showed up on the right with all these previous posts with SSK in the topic.

W00t!

Like a fiery tear, a stream of molten rock creeps down the face of the Llaima Volcano in Cherquenco, Chile. The volcano, one of South America's most active, spewed lava for a second straight day.

You can have your cake and sleep on it, too, in Manchester, England, where Best Western Hotels marked 30 years with a king-sized confection.

Ten thousand women with sticks: Led by Sampat Devi Pal (foreground), pink sari-wearing vigilantes patrol Attara village in the Bundelkhand region of the northern Indian state Uttar Pradesh. The women are members of the Gulabi Gang, a band of 10,000 females battling for women's rights.

Olympians already feeling safer: If there's anything that strikes fear in the hearts of terrorists, it's Segway-mounted paramilitary policemen. Here they roll into action at speeds exceeding 4 mph while drilling for the Beijing Olympics in Jinan.

-----------------

Have the Chinese thought about the social fallout from introducing thousands of people from other cultures into their country?

Next I shall wiggle my ears: In case you were wondering, 7-week-old ring-tailed lemurs can indeed roll their tongues. (Bristol Zoo, England.)

check out these awesome fireworks packages!

i love this pic the best. especially the baby on the right resting his head in his arms. :)

mood: amused tags: funny

  I've been trying to find the weight of oil that goes into an 82 Honda Silverhawk. My searches online have been unsuccessful, so if anyone knows a link to the manual or can just answer the question would be appreciated. Hope y'all have been enjoying the holiday weekend. Thanks and Peace  

mood: hungry

Our neighbors recently cut down their palm trees and now we have a bunch of scorpions in our house.  We've killed half a dozen in the past two weeks.  We've done some research on them and found out that they're quite venomous -- enough to potentially kill our small dogs -- and very difficult to get rid of.  We're really worried about the danger to our dogs.

Any advice for getting rid of them???  We have no idea how they're getting in. :(

I have a 1992 Yamaha FZR600 that I love. I bought her for a really good price, knowing she needed some work. The fork seals where pretty much blown, and leaking, I've been riding her on the blown seals for a few months, witch cause quite a bit of a mess. The excess oil manged to screw up the speed cable, and it came apart the other day while riding. I plan on getting the forks checked out to make sure they are still in good condition, then I'm replacing the seals, spark plugs, fuel filter, clutch cable, front brakes, rear brakes, and possibly fixing the fairings and having the panels resprayed a flat black, with metallic silver accents, in the same pattern as factory.

location: Fall River, MA mood: determined music: Beck - Hell Yes

I hope your day is filled with love, joy, and friends.

*long snug*

>^..^<
.

And some sad, geeky news.

Led Zeppelin won't be letting Guitar Hero or Rock Band have access to the master tapes of their songs any time soon. Jimmy Page isn't comfortable with giving other companies access to the masters.

I guess I'd rather have no Led than horribly covered Led.

But it hurts, somewhere deep in my heart, that I'll never finish off a set with "Stairway."

Something interesting from the world of film. I should have posted about it a few days ago, but never got around to it.

Back in 1927, Fritz Lang debuted Metropolis, a German film about a bleak, cold, mechanized future. Ever since, the look of the film has been influencing artists of all stripes - from film, to animation, to novels, to video games, and everything in between.

Recently, in Buenos Aires, lost footage from this film was discovered. To give you an idea of how important this is, the longest cut currently available is around 118 minutes long. The original film probably clocked in around 210 minutes. That's over an hour and a half of characterization, plot, and nuance that has been kept from critics and fans alike. This footage, once restored properly, could change the way the film is viewed. It could change history itself.

The new cut will come out on DVD, and you can bet I will be picking it up. If only I had Blu-Ray and hi-def.

If you want more news stories on this monumental find, you can check Ain't It Cool News and Reuters.

Pictures of the lost footage can also be found at Ain't It Cool.

Do these things work?

And more importantly, will it ruin my hard drive if I have it on the bike?

im waitittttting to make the post that goes 'yay, we are all moved/settled in' but its not happening for a while. the living room is packed fulla boxes and shit that we need to get unpacked. its daunting, so i dont blame felicia for not doing it, but im sick of looking at it. anyways, itll happen eventually, and then ill get to make the post and then there will be pics and then i never want to move again.

i have this insane internet crush. he lives in sf, but hes in san diego for the summer. i was up till 4am talking to him. at one point last night we seriously considered buying me a redeye plane ticket so i could be there to celebrate the 4th with him. then we regained our sanity. regardless, its about as huge as an internet crush can possibly be.

things are looking up on the jobfront too, but thats all im gonna say about it until everything is OFFICAL becuase i dont want to jinx it. also, as the tons of fried rice in my fridge will attest, living with a chef is awesome.
so are GM "oh's!" which are a knock off of honey nuts but a ZILLION times better. holy shit are they good.

thats all, happy 4th!

Okay, it's been a little over 3 days since I took a 40 MPH tumble after hitting a deer on a backroad close to home. I was fully ATGATT. Full-face helmet (Shoei RF-1000), 2-piece leather zip-together suit (Teknic Chicane), leather gloves (Held Profi), and race-style boots (Sidi Vertigo).

Damage to me: left clavicle broken in 2 places, small scrapes on my left knee and left wrist. NOTHING else, other than a few minor bumps and bruises, and some sore muscles in my neck.

The bike was a 2001 SV650 naked. I had installed a set of Motosliders frame sliders and swingarm sliders last year. They saved the bike's ass.

( pictures )

Keep in mind that the bike and I both hit the pavement at about 40 MPH, and slid maybe 75-100 feet before stopping.

The gear is all still usable, though I am going to be sending the helmet back to Shoei for a free examination/x-ray, and at least replacing the visor and the visor mechanism.

I'm estimating about $150 to fix the broken bits on the bike, not counting superficial cosmetic damage like the back side of the mirror and the turn signal, but including replacing the damaged sliders.

The lesson to take away from this is the one that lots of us try to drive home repeatedly around here. ATGATT. Buy good gear and wear it ALL the time. I saved myself a LOT of road rash and further bodily damage by dressing for the crash. I'm not sure what could be done to help mitigate the risk of collarbone damage, but I'll be looking into it. The gear did its job, and did it well. None of it was cheap, but if I had been riding in jeans and a t-shirt, I probably would not have been typing this today.

As for the bike, I think every single street bike I own from now on will get a set of frame sliders or a similar type of crash protection. The sliders saved it from a LOT of expensive damage.

I'll be 4-6 weeks at the minimum to heal up to the point where I can properly use my left hand and not have to wear a shoulder brace. But rest assured, as soon as I'm able, I'll be back on two wheels, and looking out a LOT more carefully for brown forest rats.

Just had a proper non-A&E appointment. No scaphoid damage, infact, no bone damage in the wrist or hand at all. So it's just the fractured radius which will be 6 weeks in a cast I can even type with! Some hand pain when moving fingers but this is all soft tissue damage. My wrist seems to have taken my entire weight in the accident because there's not even a bruise anywhere else.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k100/Brimstonewolf/DSCF0003-2.jpg

As for Rapt0r, new crank case cover will be 65 quid plus labour and trailering my bike to the shop and back plus new engine oil. The part will be in next week so in the meantime I've covered the hole and cracks with duct tape to keep the elements out. I also asked how much for the plastics and it's over 300 euro (That's a lot of dollars). It's all one piece too which means there's little chance of an intact piece at the scrappers. I'll probably order a replacement piece but not for a paycheck or two.
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k100/Brimstonewolf/DSCF0002-1.jpg
http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k100/Brimstonewolf/DSCF0001-3.jpg

Pretty harsh deal for such a minor accident but such is life. Now to schedule some lessons.

Larry Harmon, the man who turned Bozo the Clown into a franchise died at the age of 83.

The Bozo I'm most familiar with operated out of Chicago. I do remember watching the show on TV and thinking that ping-pong ball game seemed just way too easy. But then I think of how much ping-pong balls bounce...

Anyways. He was a funny guy, that Bozo.

I have started the infamous Clapotis and have thus learned how to purl forward and back as well as knit through the back loop.

and yes, there was much clapping when I finally went "Oh!!! Am I using the same stitch to purl twice? Ooooooooooooooooh!"

tags: knitting

So last weekend I had my first ride at a mx track in 8 years. Phew. I'm out of shape but it feels good to be back where I belong. Everything up till this point has only acted as a substitute for motocross, so it finally became time to cut the BS and just do it. And I did it!

I'm not quite ready to accept the fact that two strokes are so passe. In eight years time they've been completely phased out, are you kidding? If I keep riding, I'll have to get a new bike next year to save from looking like a total scrub.

A lot of the maintenance I have learned as I have gone over the past 2 months, and some of the members here have given me help. I managed to drain old premixed gas and bleed my front brake lines with the help of people here, and successfully!  This week I've had to replace my front brake lever (it fell over and bent the old one in the rain), and managed to keep the thing running. Next on the list is replacing the very old grips, replacing the spark plug (the old one is working, lol), and cleaning out the carb. Then chain, tires. And a suspension rebuild. oy. Then top end rebuild. major oy. Anywho...

Is the cleaning out the carb a difficult thing to do as a complete maintenance novice? I am extremely tentative about touching anything with the jetting, but I do know it's running rich. My powerband is very narrow and at this point only I've been able to keep it in that sweet spot (but people riding it are usually on 4 strokes). I know people here said it is a two stroke and it's gonna be smoky etc, but it's actually spitting a little bit of oil from the exhaust. No bueno. What to do?

And thanks for help here, everyone!

Trying a new track tomorrow evening, I can't wait! ;D

mood: anxious

i got my new 08 BMW F650GS on Monday and holy crap is it amazing! (that's my husbands 08 KLR 650 beside mine, and our 2 old honda's further down)

Last night, I dreamed that Greg's parents hated me, which made me hate them. Also, they lived in some weird hippie-cult house.

Don't you just love dreams?

mood: bored music: "Fools Gold" - Bree Sharp

Thanks to all of you who've been thinking good thoughts for me. I went to the hospital again yesterday, since it seemed to be getting worse. This time, I ended up with a diagnosis of uvulitis instead of pharyngitis. It'll still be a few days before I can speak normally and at least a week before I can sing, but I'm taking my steroids and two kinds of antibiotics and motrin to keep the swelling down. Fortunately, throughout this whole ordeal I haven't had a fever, so that's one less thing to worry about.

As it happens, I'm still here, alive, and in little danger or permanently losing my voice. It turns out uvulectomies are very rare, and wouldn't be performed unless this was a long-term, chronic condition. Anita O'Day had her uvula acidentally cut when she was a kid, and although she had a great singing career, she had no vibrato. Seeing as how I perform a lot of opera, jazz, pop and blues, losing my vibrato would be terrible for me, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

In the meantime, I'm eating lots of really soft foods (soup! yogurt! tapioca!), and staying away from close contact with people. It's a bacterial infection, but the doctor I spoke to yesterday told me I could still give it to others. I'm a very sharing person in general, but this is not something I want to spread around. I wouldn't even let my dad give me a hug yesterday.

Anyway, I'm taking things as easy as I can, and am grateful for the support of my family and friends. It's just another bodily glitch, and though it may hurt a lot and be very frustrating for someone who puts so much value into her voice, I'll get through it. It also helps that I have a very nice neighbor who brings me things like popsicles and other spare groceries she has lying around the house.

mood: icky, but getting there...

GIT! - Utah govt employees move to 4 day work week


In a yearlong experiment aimed at reducing the state's energy costs and commuters' gasoline expenses, Utah is about to become the first state to switch to a four-day workweek for thousands of government employees.

cell just went off at 11:56, and I've deleted all the alarms. It's not even one of the normal alarm chimes.


Does it know I'm getting an iPhone?

Does anyone know of a reputable manu that makes universal fairings similar to this?






I LOVE the look of it, but RUBBER BAND mounting?  The first time i get on a highway, it's gone :P

A delicate ribbon of gas -- a remnant of a supernova that occurred more than 1,000 years ago -- floats eerily in our Milky Way galaxy in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. The supernova was probably the brightest star ever seen by humans and surpassed Venus as the brightest object in the nighttime sky, with the exception of the moon.

Dancing to music they cannot hear: In Jinan, China, deaf-mute performers practice a performance depicting the thousand-handed goddess Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, or Guan Yin, for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics Games.

Dribbling while Rome burns: Ninety-five-degree heat at the Colosseum causes a legionnaire to sprinkle his pate with bottled water.

China, home of first green Olympics: A swimmer emerges from coastal waters in Qingdao, China, the venue for the 2008 Games' sailing events. City officials are mobilizing 10,000 workers aboard 1,000 boats to clear the water of a massive algae bloom. They say the job will take two weeks.

--------------------------

That …. That cant be safe

You can't be too careful: In Herrsching, Germany, where temperatures hit 86 degrees, four friends guard against dehydration, heat prostration and sobriety.

One good shove and they fall like dominos: Barn owl tipping in Amman, Jordan. (Ghamadan Zoo.)

Because Durbin is a goof -

When I find myself in times of trouble

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, letter B.

And in my hour of darkness

She is standing right in front of me

Speaking words of wisdom, letter B.

Letter B, letter B.



Whisper words of wisdom, letter B.



And when the broken hearted people

Living in the world agree,

There will be an answer, letter B.

For though they may be parted there is

Still a chance that they will see

There will be an answer, letter B.

Letter B, letter B. Yeah

There will be an answer, letter B.

Letter B, letter B,

Whisper words of wisdom, letter B.



Letter B, letter B,

Whisper words of wisdom, letter B.



And when the night is cloudy,

There is still a light that shines on me,

Shine on until tomorrow, letter B.

I wake up to the sound of music

Mother Mary comes to me

Speaking words of wisdom, letter B.

Letter B, letter B.

There will be an answer, letter B.

Letter B, letter B,

Whisper words of wisdom, letter B.

I'm in the mood for Abba because really, when doesnt Abba work?

my cell has started this random chiming on random hours. wtf it started at midnight last night

[stress]
So, last minute I find out that the 4th O'July party is bein held at Donkey Island. My roomy found out last minute too. You'd think that we'd know sooner since we live there. So, I'm not goin out tonight. Just gonna stay home and clean, clean, clean! It's gonna be fun though once all the work is done.
[/stress]

[booze]
Got a seedless watermelon soakin up a bottle of Skye vodka chillin in the fridge. Tickle me stoked!
[/booze]

[awesomesauce]
HUGE BBQ AT MY WORK TODAY! w00t!
[/awesomesauce]

[/post]

I figured this would give my watchers something to think about.
(and maybe some clues to who I am)

( Kiped from Bookwench )

This is the only time you'll ever hear me 'defending' the Republican party, so get excited:

I hate it (hate it) when I hear people trash talking McCain because "Omfg, he left his invalid wife for Cindy McCain and what kind of person does that?! What an asshole and horrible person he is; there's no way he should be president because of this, omggggggggggggggg."

I'm sorry, but weren't liberals upset when people wanted to impeach Clinton for getting a blowjob? Remember? Bad moral example, liar, bla bla bla? Remember how liberals thought that was nobody's business?

Yeah. Same thing applies here.

People from both parties and all walks of life have affairs and do horrible things to their spouses. It's nobody's business except theirs. Leave it alone.

mood: pissed off

http://www.suomy-usa.com/

Time to snatch up spare parts, if you own any of their gear.

Addendum: Per mrcrash this doesn't mean Suomy products will no longer be available in the USA... just that Suomy-USA, the commercial entity, is going bye bye. More details in the comments...

Bullet-proofness of an EX250.

Sitting since October or earlier. Same full tank of gas, just some seafoam.
Battery was shot. Got a new one.

Sonabitch screams like a monkey on crack.


It was nice to have a playbike again, even if I will rarely get to ride it!

Now to get flushmounts, or at least a bolt to keep the leftside in the fairing!! HA!