Well, yesterday marks the start of the 3rd or 4th (I can’t remember how many exactly) time that Heidi has embarked on the famed trip to Iowa. The trip where I’m excited for the first day or two about having some free time to game, study, or whatever, and then by the third day, I’m so ready for my family to come home.

This time around, I reached that point somewhere around hour five. Heidi and I are a team. When we said for better and for worst we meant it. We’ve been through great times, and truly horrible times and each instance, I can’t imagine having anyone else by my side…

So, here I am… Alone… Nothing to do, while Heidi and Rhys are speeding across the nation to Iowa. They should be arriving in Roswell, NM right about now. I hope she sends pictures of the nutty crap in that town.

OH! And this year’s challenge for me is keeping her garden alive. Her first garden. The garden which is thriving, despite her self proclaimed inability to grow a garden. The garden which she has said brings her so much joy. Yep, I have to keep that thing alive… In the desert of Arizona… In the 107F heat… No pressure… LOL

I hate iTunes. On the Mac, in OS X, iTunes was pretty damn nice — I must admit. However, in the PC/Winders world, iTunes is a bloated dog of an application. I received a free 30GB Video iPod from Spacely Sprockets when they gave me my Surprise Vacation ™, and for what it does, I love it. I can put my music library on it, and it aggregates my podcasts. Arguably, it is responsible for my new podcast habit. So, I love all that about it.

More after the jump…

Wanna read the rest of Microsoft + Portable Devices = Retarded?

Thought I’d take a moment to share some Motorcycle Wisdom. I pulled this from the Motorcycle LJ. Post it up, and pass the knowledge on for all the newbies.

1. Don’t armor-all your seat. Ever. You’ll slide off.
2. Don’t tire-foam or armor-all your tires. This negates their grip.
3. An old toothbrush (or a new toilet brush) works really well to get wax/filth out of fiddly bits.
4. A patient friend is a priceless commodity when you need to bleed your brakes.
5. Wrench first, then manicure.
6. Armor-all does work well to get wax off of things like leather, naugahyde and plastic. So does “Pledge.”
7. Either gloves while you work or dark nail polish after… sometimes both. ;)
8. Nitrile gloves will not melt when exposed to gasoline, motor oil and other petroleum products like latex will. Latex lets gas through, onto your hands.
9. When the owner’s manual says to load the weight in your saddlebags evenly, believe it.
10. “Simple Green Automotive” is an excellent engine de-greaser and wheel cleaner.
11. “3-in-1″ oil is what you want to use to lube your kickstand, center stand, cables, pegs etc. — NOT wd-40.
12. A nice soft steel wool and some WD-40 will take rust off of chrome quite nicely.
13. Speed and wind on an open visor often work best to evict unbidden helmet-visitors. Sometimes stopping just gives them time to keep stinging.
14. Gauntleted gloves over the ends of your sleeves, and boots over your pants, keeps bugs out. The opposite setup keeps rain out.
15. Roadkill is slippery — it does not matter if it’s fresh or old. Beware wet guts. Rain rehydrates old roadkill and makes it slippery all over again.
16. Avoid soda bottles, even small ones. They might be full or capped.
17. Potholes hide in puddles.
18. If you find yourself freezing, underdressed and unprepared, layer newspapers inside your jacket. They make a startlingly good insulatory layer; better than nothing.
19. When sporting sunblock, try to wipe it off your face before you put a helmet on. In the hot sun, it can vaporize inside your helmet and the vapors are instantly in your eyes, BURNING AND BLINDING!
20. As much as you may want to, and as often as you’ve done it when you’re not traveling 50mph, resist the urge to kick anything when you’re on a bike and moving. It hurts. A lot. The boots won’t help.
21. Keep your visor closed as often as possible. Imagine being hit in the face with: a bird, a very big beetle, an acorn, a lit cigarette…
22. Riding at night, for some, is sheer pleasure. Keep the “small meal” rule in mind, though, and keep your eyes peeled for that little pair of reflective retinae. Hit things as square and upright as you can.
23. Know thyself — listen when your body tells you in needs food, water, if you feel yourself getting stupid. Don’t try to ride through these things; at best they’re a distraction you don’t need.
24. If you ever need to remove your kickstand, put it down and fill the gaps in the spring(s) with pennies — this will make removal & reinstallation a cinch.
25. Take care never to cross-thread your sparkplugs. Remove and replace sparkplugs only on a completely cold engine.
26. Believe and obey the torque values in your owner’s manual. (from catraprez: Unless otherwise specified, the torque values listed in a manual are for clean, dry threads. The torque value also takes into account the finish on a fastner, i.e. plain, black oxide, cadmium plated, etc. If there is any dirt or grime in the threads it will affect the torque value. Using the wrong type of fastener can also affect the torque value. Purchasing a tap and die set, even a cheap one from Harbor Freight, for cleaning threads will pay for itself and save you the aggravation of removing broken fasteners. Using (clean) oil, anti-seize or a thread-locking agent will require a 15% to 20% reduction in the torque value applied to a fastener. Using a socket extension will also affect final torque value.)
27. Avoid garbage trucks. They leak and spew. Same goes for lawn-care trucks with trailers, though not so much with the leaking and more with the spewing — leaves, branches and sometimes rakes and lawnmower blades. Same goes for RVs… you don’t want to think about what they’re spewing.
28. Pay attention to smells — the smell of unburnt diesel might mean a slippery spill. Burning rubber is sometimes a tractor-trailer messily losing a retread at 70mph up ahead. Burning brakes might mean traffic ahead has just stomped on theirs. (from bikergeek: The smell of pot means that the driver ahead of you is stoned. The smell of manure means that you might find a road apple right in the middle of the perfect line through that turn up ahead. In places where open range is common, you might find a cow. Or a cattle guard.)
29. The universal “rider in distress” signal is: put your helmet on the side of the road, closer to traffic than your bike is. Stop for bikers in distress; you may need to draw from the kharma bank yourself someday and it’s always better to be in the black!
30. Try not to use the brake on the wheel with the tire that has just gone flat. Brake with your good tire.
31. New tires are slippery. Be very careful until your new tires are “scrubbed in.”
32. It is not uncommon to have aching wrists and hands when you first start riding, tension and concentration tend to make you grip harder than you need to. As you get more comfortable on the bike you’ll stop getting the aches.
33. Soda cans can grab your tire if you roll over them. After 180 degrees of rotation, this is a nasty surprise when they hit your forks .
34. Ride your own ride. If you’re straightening out rural twisties for fun, decent friends would much rather wait for you at the next intersection than call a meat wagon to separate your body parts from your bike parts.
    From mistrtoad:
35. Judgment is more important than skill. In fact, it’s your most important skill.
36. Know the people you’re riding with. If you don’t, you’d better carry a bail bondsman’s number.
37. Friends, even new ones, won’t ride off and leave you. They’ll always wait at the turns. They won’t make fun of you for riding slowly. They will berate you for riding over your head.
38. Work on smooth first. Speed will come. The bike isn’t the reason you’re slow.
39. Expert riders use expert judgement to avoid using their expert skills.
40. Any time, any situation you are sharing the road with other traffic, you need a survival strategy. Assume nothing of other vehicles.
41. Ride in the rain so you know what to expect. You’ll never get “caught” in the rain again.
42. Learn exactly how little distance you can stop your bike in.
43. Quit looking at the scary guardrail coming at you. Look through the turn. Keep your head up.
44. The bike will lean a lot farther than you think it will. Keep pushing it down and pucker on through.
45. There is nothing more useless than road rage on a motorcycle. You knew that cage was going to do something stupid. Why get pissed when they do?
46. Don’t follow so close. Give me some space.
47. Never trust a bungee net to keep your gear from winding up jammed between your wheel and rear fender.

Just a nice article I stumbled on to today. Not all cagers are out to get us riders…

Motorcycle Accident

I wish I could figure out the little things that really charge your batteries. You know what I’m talking about. Some days, you just feel like you could take the world and kick its ass as easy as crushing the head of a duckling with your motorcycle’s front tire as you speed down Golf Links — and WHY ARE THERE DUCKS ON GOLF LINKS!? But, I digress.

Today was one of those days for me. I just feel good for some reason. Not sure why, because honestly, things aren’t really any better than they were yesterday. Don’t bother clicking on Comment, Jason, I’m not gonna bitch this time. :-P

I’m still a non-smoker, and it’s been harder than I thought it would be at first to get on the band wagon again, but I’m still holding. Also, Stussyman just pinged me and said he is quitting on Monday. Awesome! Good luck, brah, but I would highly suggest the patch. Cold turkey is tough shit. Anyway, you can do it! I still say we should bet something and let Heidi and Rach supervise it. :)

.NET is still not clicking… I think I’ve reached that point I always do where I’ll be stuck for a month or so before it finally just clicks… I think I need a break. So, tonight I’m doing that. Not sure what I will do, but I’m not coding.

Well, a couple days ago I started smoking again… Ugh… So weak. But, I quit — again — today so here we go. I’ll be cranky for a couple days and then back to normal. On the bright side, when I started smoking again, I hated it… It didn’t really feel good like it usually does, so I figure that’s a good sign. You know what they say, 53rd time’s a charm!

On the .NET front, I’m slowly learning more and more, and I hate to say it, but I like it! It’s a really neat thing they got going there, but it still makes me feel like I will have to change my first name to Darth…

All for now. Hope all is well out there!