12/26/2005
Offline
Well, the site was down for about three days. Apparently a webserver at my webhost crashed. I still have no clue why, but I was told it was related to my account (huh?) and my account had been permanently suspended. After a bunch of questions to Tech Support they moved my site to another box, restored it to the 12/10/2005 version, and un-suspended the account. Other than not really telling me why the box crashed, or how my account was involved tech support was great once I started asking questions they got it back up. I just had to be patient, since it's not like my site is Yahoo, Google, or some site which garners tons of traffic. My webhost Canaca.com has always had great support, and I was worried for a while I might have to switch hosts or something which would suck because then I'd have to start shopping for another one that has low rates like them. My website is a hobby, a form of self expression... so having a good host like Canaca.com, at a good price is very important to me.

2006 is rapidly approaching, another year is about to pass. I don't know why, but I always look forward to the year ending, and dread the coming of a new year. This year Christmas really didn't seem like Christmas. Maybe I'm getting old, or I donno. I hope the new year brings good things for the world, and for us, our friends and family. If I don't post before Jan. 1st, Have a Happy New Year, and may the next bring you luck and good fortune.

12/22/2005
Distortedly Yours
Well we had our Christmas photos taken, and they came in today. I scanned them in for posterity, and so we have a CD backup of the hard copy photos we purchased... and as usual I had to manipulate them a bit. Recently I'd experimented with a wedding photo of my Sister-In-Law and her Husband in which they turned out like the royal family of England.

So I decided to try the same technique on our photo. Don't we look goofy. :-) It's been a cold couple of weeks recently, but I am looking forward to Christmas and getting to relax some (God willing) this holiday.

My new venture, Kickstand Critters didn't sell as well this year as I would have liked, and I don't know how they'll do this next year as alot of the places we did reciprocal links with have taken the links down for us, but we still have theirs up. We advertised in American Motorcyclist Magazine, which is a great publication, but it didn't generate enough sales for us for it to be worthwhile.

I am afraid magazine advertising is too expensive for this next year, and we really can't afford banner ads as we don't have an advertising budget considering how small we are. I kept getting phone calls from Motorcycle Goodies, Letters, you name it asking us to advertise with them... They were very nice, but can't do it. I only hope that word of mouth will spread, or 2006 will be the last year for Kickstand Critters.

Hope those of you who read my little journal have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a wonderful 2006.

Stephen

12/10/2005
Winter Leisure Ride
Well, I installed the new clutch lever on TPol (my Vulcan 750's named after the Jolene Blaylocks character on the defunct TV series: Enterprise). Why TPol? Well, I'd rather be riding TPol than Spock... ;-) Have I said that before?

The clutch lever took about an hour to install and adjust, along with putting the heatshield back in my left turn signal, and reinstalling the lens. Maru checked our tire pressure on both our bikes, and we walked through our normal inspection routine.

After we geared up we went for a ride for about an hour. We stopped at Home Depot along the way as I needed to get some compact flourescent bulbs. We switched to these a few years back and they have helped alot on our electric bills.

I'd seen some ice on the road earlier this morning when we raked the yard and bagged the leaves (most of them are down now thank goodness) and hung up our $3.00 Christmas Wreathes. Our wreathes are a Dollar Tree Special consisting of a $1.00 Wreath, a $1.00 big felt/plastic bow, and a $1.00 roll of plastic garland.

They've also got pine cones embedded in them that were collected below the pine trees at the local University. We've been using them for five years, but the garland yellowed I guess and we'll need to replace it next year. They're cheap, but they look nice, and they fit our budget.

Anyway, back to riding... There wasn't much on the roads by the time we went riding as the sun had melted it all. The temperature was about 50 degrees, but it felt like summer compared to this last week when we had temperatures below freezing during the day most days it seems. Maru's new leathers keep her pretty warm, and my skibibs are really great. I wish I'd had them for all of last winter. The HJC Balaclava is great that I found in a shop in North Little Rock by accident, that and the turtle fur keep my neck warm and toasty while riding.

A week or so ago we installed a new right passenger peg on her bike, and also the Buell frame pucks. They glue onto the frame using a primer (which preps the surface to accept the adhesive backing on the pucks). The primer is clear, and comes in little sticks you break to release the primer, and then brush on. You have to test fit the pucks, trace where they go with a pencil, and then install them. The new XB12X Dual-Sport from Buell has them installed when you buy the bike... They look really good on her bike, and were a good option to add as the frame holds the gas on the bike.

I'm waiting on my new tire for my Blast to come in, I can still get a couple hundred miles out of the existing rear tire before the wear lines are exposed... but it's taking forever for it to come in which is annoying. I may have mentioned it a while back, but my HJC Symax helmet is a size XL. Well, the XL and L size use the same helmet shell and impact foam... the only difference is the helmet liner.. The Large has a thicker liner, and the XL is thinner. Well, with well over a year on my helmet the XL liner seemed not snug enough.. and that bothered me. So I ordered a Large liner, and cheek pads and swapped them out. The helmet is really snug now, but it's comfortable. I should have gotten it in size L to begin with... but I'm glad to know I can get a new liner for it. I'll probably ride next year with it, and then retire it after three summer riding seasons... We'll just see.

I've started reading A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, I bought it when I was a teenager and reading about the Samurai. I never got heavily into it, and decided to go ahead and try to work my way through it. It's a bit cryptic, but I'm going to try. Well, I guess that's enough for tonight I need to practice my Kamae tonight for class tomorrow.

12/09/2005
The Novice Ninja - Mr. White Belt
My Gi, Bo-staff, Tabi, and Bokken came in today! Whoohoo! So I'm ready for class this weekend and won't be wearing sweats again. The Tabi are bizarre, it's odd to put on a pair of heavy canvas shoes with rubber soles that have split toes.. but I have more mobility when I kick with them on than with shoes or boots. I'm sure some of this has to do with the fact that they are not as heavy as regular shoes...

When I ordered my martial arts supplies, I accidentally put two Bokken into my shopping cart and checked out with them (well, actually, I think I added somewhere around 7 of them, and I deleted all but two of them..). Turns out that wasn't such a bad thing. While both Bokken are Red Oak, they were both made by different manufacturers it seems.

One is more dense than the other, and seems to weigh twice as much as the other. One comes with a white rubber ring to act as a guard, and they are shaped slightly different. The Bo-staff came in a six and a half foot long tube, the Bo-staff itself is more sturdy than the tube of course.. I guess the tube was just to protect the finish. The Bo-staff is HEAVY and made from heavy white oak and has a nice finish.

My uniform is a heavyweight uniform. I was advised to not get a lightweight, they're really cheap... both in price and quality and would easily get torn or ripped in class. I was advised to get a middleweight uniform at least... but the heavyweight uniforms were not much more expensive, and were of much better quality so I ordered one of those.

The stitching is very good, as my wife wanted to test it and started trying to jerk me around by the collar (gee, thanks honey!)

Bike Update
Last week I rode the Vulcan to work one day. I tightened the radiator hoses, bolted the cover over it, and got ready to ride. The weather has been super cold. I think it was Monday. Well, I warmed the bike up and circled the block a couple of times and then stopped to check the tires to make sure they were okay.. Well, I got about 2 feet from the bike when the unusually tall kickstand (which I had checked) decided the bike needed to lay down. Well, I rushed forward, and lowered the bike down gently some and got it back up. Somehow the clutch lever got bent... but that was the extent of it. No engine, exhaust or tank scratches or dents. No paint damage, no damage to the hardbags. I was really shocked. I rode to work just fine, and then when I got home I ordered a new clutch lever ($2.50) online. I'll be installing it this weekend hopefully.

After that I went out to check the bike again, and found that the left turn signal had moisture inside the lens. So I opened it up, and found somehow moisture had made it inside and had caused corrosion to the heatshield at the back. Well, I removed it, and a retaining clip and brought them in the house and cleaned them. When they were dry and the corrosion was gone I sprayed them with high-heat silver paint and will be reinstalling the heatshield, rubber seal, and lens again this weekend.

I haven't ridden this week, because of the sleet and rain we've gotten... and then today there was a bunch of ice still from the last few days. Hopefully the weather will warm up soon or all I will be doing is circling the block. I don't mind riding in cold weather but I don't like riding with heavy frost or ice on the road.

Gonna sign off, this is going to be a busy weekend... What with leaves to rake, laundry to put up, bike maintenance to do, martial arts class... some touch up painting to do in the house... The list goes on! :-) Oh, normal cleaning, yikes. Oh well. Oh BTW. We didn't put up our Christmas tree this year as we're not buying many gifts for each other this year. We decorated the 2' top of our tree in the base with a string of red lights, and maybe 24 ornaments, and a Christmas tablecloth around it... but that's about it.. Just a token decoration this year. I do need to put wreaths up on the doors... but that's about all we're going to do this year.

Me just standing...	Me acting stupid... :-)

12/07/2005
Subway Trains
Someone from a Theatre Group called Running Subway Productions contacted me a week or two ago about using my Snow Line image for a Christmas Card. Back when I was in High School I acted in a play our Drama Dept. put on, and also a community theatre play. I enjoyed acting, it was alot of fun and you got to become part of a close knit group for the duration of the production. As such I gave them permission, and provided a larger image for them. I requested to receive a copy of the Christmas Card, but never heard back.

Anyway, I lost the original Subway Train model I built when my PC crashed, and the high-res renders of the image. It was an experiment with tons of transparent planes in Ray Dream Studio to simulate snow, and worked pretty well. Tonight we have a forecast for snow in our area, but nothing has materialized.. and since the temperature tonight is supposed to be 32 degrees I don't know whether or not we're going to get any and if it's going to stick even if it does.

As such it got me thinking about building a new Subway Train model. So I whipped something up in Wings3D and Ray Dream Studio. The model is rough, but I like it. It's simple, and fits what I wanted. It's a basic subway train, with four windows, and a central door on the train. It has a driver's cabin at both ends, with headlights on each end and bumpers. One cabin is blue, and the cabin on the opposite end is orange. Anyway, I build a crude subway station, and rendered the image below. It turned out fairly nice, has a good illustration look to it and I kinda like it.

12/06/2005
Crime Watch
Well, the burglarizing of our neighborhood continues. Yesterday I picked up the Vanity Plates for our bikes, and then came home and dropped them off. When I was leaving to go back to work, I saw a vehicle abandoned (saw it in the act of being abandoned) by a man in a long coat and a stocking cap. He basically parked a 1970's Orange Chevy pickup at a stop sign, and took off.. I called the police and circled around and got the license number and reported it. As I was circling around (maybe 5 minutes after he ran off... literally ran a couple of blocks until he was out of sight) he or someone similar came back and saw me logging the number and took off basically.

Well, last night past 1:00 am I hear a rumbling engine as I am on my way to the bathroom. I go and investigate, and a black Chevy Tahoe, with 20" black rims, and blacked out windows is sitting at the stop sign beside my house. Well, I keep a watch through the blinds, and after 10 minutes, he rolls off. I go back to bed, but before I can crawl into the covers... I hear a rumbling engine again. He's back, so I go and log the license number... and wait. The vehicles license plate number was Arkansas - 973 JCT. Well, he drives off, same direction. I pick up the phone and call the police... While I am on the phone he apparently has circled the block and rolls back around to the stop sign. This time though he hangs out for 5 minutes or so.. and drives off... Just 5 minutes before the police arrive. I go out (poorly dressed so I ended up with a bad sore throat, and had to take today off from work) and give the police information on which way he went, and they (all three cars) head out to patrol. With the license number, they know where he lives (unless the plates are stolen). I wish I knew how to figure out who it is. It irks me, because some thugs literally roll into our neighborhood and start robbing houses.

For the last 6 years, this crap didn't happen. But now it is, so that means somebody has moved into the neighborhood. A criminal element.. and that bothers me. Anyway, I've now got a log book, have distributed Crime Watch and Neighborhood Watch information to my neighbors... and am logging anything suspicious I see throughout the day. Grafitti is now on my list, and gets reported. Suspicious cars, people, etc... get reported. I check in with my neighbors every couple of days now... and when I hear dogs in the neighborhood at night going crazy it wakes me up. I'm trying to stay on top of things, keep my eyes and ears open... but it's tiring. Will post more if/as things develop...

I'm quickly turning into the cranky old man of the neighborhood eh? Now I know how they get this way.

Oh almost forgot... Here's a little parody of the "Sex Up Your Living Room" image I did. It's called "Sex Up Your Dumpster"... I built a Dumpster model, and how do you pose a Dumpster to look good? Well, add mood lighting of course!