Thoughts on Music

This blog shall remain alive for a while, but used only for longer-form musings. The Twitter thing is pretty cool and really appeals to the short-attention span side of things...

For some reason, the song "Chemistry" by the great 90's band Semisonic was stuck in my head tonight. I don't know why. That album was their death knell. I loved that band.

Semisonic's

"This Will Be My Year"

Thursday's crush is a Friday night rush
And a Monday morning cry
It's the tail that you keep chasing
And it gets away every time

New Years Eve and it's hard to believe
Another Zodiac's gone around
While you drank yourself high on hoping
And watched the ceiling spin from the ground

Counting down from ten it's time
To make your annual prayer
Secret Santa in the sky
When will I get my share

Then you tell yourself
What you want to hear
Cause you have to believe
This will be my year

Pound your fist and cross it off your list
But you know you're not that strong
When the man at the stop light catches you
Singing along to a brand new song

Well maybe it's 
Trash or the overnight smash that brings a
Ship crashing through your wall
So you can make your grand departure
From a world getting way too small

One wheel in the ditch another
Spinning in the air
Put your pedal down to the floorboards but you're not
Getting anywhere

Then you tell yourself
What you want to hear
Cause you have to believe
This will be my year

Broadcast Radio is Dead

After the last commercial, will you please shut-off the transmitter...

The paradigm that we have operated under for so many years has changed. Ever since the first radio broadcast over 100 years ago, broadcasters have created empires built on advertising revenue. They put up huge towers and dispersed their message into the air and hoped that someone would hear it; this worked for a long time! Of course, we used horses for transport for a long time too. Now we look at beast-drawn carriages as the historical remnants they are.

You should look at your radio the same way.

Several years ago I finally had enough of cheesy car dealer and real estate commercials and bought an XM radio. What an improvement! Crystal clear audio, uncensored talk, commercial free music stations and you can hear your favorite station ANYWHERE in the USA. I liked satellite radio, I still do (such as it is), but it's days are numbered.

Remember, in paragraph 1 I stated that the whole paradigm of radio is about to evolve. XM is a smallish evolutionary adaptation. What if, there was a radio station tailored to every conceivable taste? What if it was commercial free? What if you could listen to it in your car, home, office, an airplane, or ANYWHERE on this planet? What if you had total say in the programming? What if there was never a song on it you didn't like? What if you could skip a song you simply weren't in the mood to hear a song that otherwise you would like? What if you wanted to hear a mix of only three artists, or of only songs about cars, or cheese, or dogs, anything else? What if you were in a friends car and you wanted to hear songs they or you programmed? What if you could introduce new artists to your music stream at a rate you control? What if, instead of the classic 'mix tape', you could create a station which only played songs you wanted someone else to hear? What if music, news, talk, weather, or traffic automatically adapted to your exact location at that moment? What if Clear Channel and CBS had absolutely no input into what you hear? What if everything I just suggested about radio was also true for what we currently think of as television and movies?

Does this some like a futuristic fantasy?
It's not.

And most of it is available to you TODAY.

What if instead of having a cell phone and a PDA and a car stereo (that can be stolen), and a home PC, and a laptop, and a camera, and a cable or satellite box you just had one, deck-of-cards-sized item that fits in your shirt pocket or on your belt?

Am I talking about the iPhone or Google phone? Well, those units get pretty close. Imagine living in a place that had publicly accessible internet from anywhere. Instead of towers blasting radio and TV signal all over the place, there are concealed antennae allowing your device to seemlessly connect to the internet. When you get into your car, you simply plug your 'receiver' into a docking bay (or it simply connects because you're in the car). Phone, internet, radio, everything. It's automatically hands-free and all you do is plug it in wherever you are; your car, my car, an airplane, office, doesn't matter. Instead of paying for cable/satellite, internet, XM, cell phone, home phone, and some other services, you pay one fee for all of that. Parking tickets? A thing of the past; text your parking space to the meter (like they do in New Zealand and a bunch of other places). Vending machines, grocery stores, just about anything.

So what's this all about? I guess I got carried away thinking about the ease we could introduce to the world. The reality at this moment is that I've discovered "Last.FM" and am very excited about the possibilities. If you look at the upper right corner of this blog you'll see a "Last.FM" window which can show you the last songs/artists I've been listening to, and, by the way, click on it and you can listen to the station that I programmed. I did my best to find bands that this service didn't have and I failed! I even found some bands I played with way back in the day, and they were there!

If you don't like my taste in music (and why would you?) create your own station and share it with the world.

Goodbye broadcast radio, it's been a good 100+ years...say hello to the Marconi, Edison, Tesla, and the buggy whip for us.
-
-
-
-
Good night Sadie.

Engine Room

The 15 second video shown below is what I used to think of as as Engine Room. It's where I worked at the South Pole...

Now, a room about the same size as where I slept during the winter of '08 at the South Pole, is what I consider an engine room. Due to an accute lack of space, I am building the engine for my new race car in my storage unit. Picture number 1 is of the block, in primer, after it was returned from the machine shop...

Below is the way the engine looks after a day and a half of work. In spite of some extreme OCD (new reality TV show?) methods of retaining all the various nuts and bolts, I've managed to misplace 2 head bolts...WAIT A MINUTE! I've just now realized where they are! Anyway, it's painted in Cummins Green in an attempt to coax the very last Newton-Meter of torque out of this measley 2.7 litre motor. Hopefully, the truck will be back in town in about 2 weeks. That will be mucho work. This blog should liven-up once it's here.

If you look very carefully, you will see a very small white dot which is actually a 2'x3' white target 200 yards away. We were trying to have a good time blasting away, but the 30 mph winds, which blew over the target, made anything more than 8 shots impossible. Hmmm, you can't see much in this picture...The tripod on the left is a terrible Winchester spotting scope (45x 60mm). It's nearly worthless. The item on the right of the shooting mat is my Savage Model 12 F-Class Open target rifle. Local competition with the rifle begins in a week. 

Tweet Tweet

I'm not sure how this is gonna work, but I've added my Twitter account on the Right-side of this window. I'll do a few tweets and see how it looks later.

Professor Satchafunkilus and 784 Miles

Thursday, I found that the bolts used to hold the crankshaft in the new race car motor were not meeting the specification defined by Toyota, so I ordered some new ones (and a few other small pieces) from a specialist company on the west end of the state. As it turns out, there was a rally event taking place not too far from there; ah sweet synchronicity. But Friday was still in the offing…

With no further work possible on the motor, and no shooting events scheduled, a motorcycle ride was the only logical choice for me. I wanted to get to some roads that I hadn’t previously covered, but honestly, there aren’t many in the state I haven’t seen. Knowing I was going northwest the next day, I headed southeast to climb Mt. Lemmon. No matter how much I want to like Tucson, the fact that there is no freeway other than the interstate passing through the southern portion of town really irritates me. After riding through the various business districts and neighborhoods, I finally got to the road up the mountain. There was little traffic, and fortunately, no cops. My particular machine seems to love the slightly banked, twisty mountain roads. I was a bit surprised to see snow on the north faces of the mountain while the thermometer on my bike read +55°F; it read +85°F thirty-minutes earlier. The roads pretty much top out at 8,000 feet above sea level. The ascent and descent were scenic and uneventful. For the ride home, I faced into the setting sun. As the sun retracted behind a few wispy clouds, saguaro cactus, and distant mountains, the sky did it’s oft ignored transformation from blue to black; it was an absolutely breath taking sight. Once in the black of night, I was riding among soon-to-be-planted fields. Aside from the feel of the wind, I think the smells are one of the best things about riding a motorcycle. Cattle, orange blossom, diesel, grass, sweat, dust. If you have the means, I strongly encourage you to get a bike and breathe-in the countryside.

The next day started before Starbucks opened. Riding west, the sun rose behind me, but found it’s way to my mirrors. It was like getting laser eye surgery; I was blind to everything behind me. This was mostly freeway riding, so expectations of excitement were pretty low. I made it to the Toyota specialist with no problems and they proved to be a wealth of information. From there, it was out to The Peoples Republik de Kalifornia to lend a hand to a few racing teams. I had only been there long enough to down a bottle of water when the call came over the two-way radio that one of the teams we were supporting was out of the race and needed the trailer. We loaded up a truck and headed out to where the stricken racer was waiting. He had done a bit of damage to his Ford Ranger, but was in good spirits and, most importantly, neither he nor his co-driver were injured when he failed to stay on course. We got him loaded onto the trailer and headed back to the pit area (about 50 miles away). About halfway back I realized I left my non-tinted glasses on the trailer. We stopped and looked, but it was way too late; they’re part of the desert now. With only prescription sunglasses, I had to leave the race to get home before sunset; mission accomplished.

I heard from a friend that the local Triumph club is considering a border to border ride; done in 24 or 36 hours. If I do it, it’ll be tough to blog in-situ, but it will be photographed and maybe I’ll have a helmetcam rolling for a few miles. The most entertaining parts will probably be the 20 minutes food/bathroom breaks from Mexico to Canada. Stay tuned as this one develops.

Before I left for the westbound ride, I got a hold of Joe Satriani’s new (to me) CD “Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion on Rock”. This was quickly transferred to my MP3 player for a 2-wheeled listening. I have Etymoic ER-6 headphones which work very well under a helmet; the sound quality at 75MPH (or faster) is fantastic. I have been a fan of Joe Satriani since I first heard him in 1988. His last couple of recordings have been a bit of a departure as they feature maturing compositions, not just “thinly veiled excuses for a guitar solo” and this record may be his very best. The syncopated, contrapuntal “Revelation” breaks new ground for Satch. It is a beautiful study in harmony and counterpoint rhythm. The last two songs are odes to Turkish musician Asik Vaysel. I don’t really know how to describe how amazing these songs are. Joe has been nominated for 15 Grammy Awards and has yet to take the trophy home; add this to the list of things I will never understand. There may be faster guitar players out there, but none equal the feel, composition, technique, and introspect that Joe Satriani consistently puts into a record. John Cuniberti who co-produced also deserves much respect. The recording has a great sound and they seem to have recaptured the sound that Joe was making on his earliest records (that Cuniberti also produced) that set him apart from all the other players on the planet.

I found out (second-hand strangely enough) that my truck should be ready for retrieval from the far-west fab shop in mid April. This means it probably won’t be ready in time for the Baja 500 in June, but the B1000 is in November. This blog should perk up a bit once it’s back here.

I know this was a long one…thanks for hangin’ to the end.

Progress

So here's where we started. Below is a shot of the truck after I ripped the engine out a couple of weeks ago.















When I showed up last Saturday morning, A decent amount of work had been accomplished. Previously, if I didn't do it, it didn't get done. With my partners on this project, stuff happens and I don't even have to be in the same state as the truck. This was my first view after Jim had done some fab work on the cage.

Once on the ground, some more tubing was added to strengthen the back end of the truck. When done, there will be a bunch of stuff added to the back end to help balance the whole vehicle.

By the end of the day, here's what it looked like back on the lift.

I'll begin building the engine next week once the rest of the engine parts show up. The diff's are with the Gear Guru, wiring diagrams are being drawn (by me), and the shocks and springs are en route. I'm hoping to re-assemble the engine in the next week or two and the truck should be back here before the end of March.

Although removed by thousands of miles, I still can't stop thinking about a simpler life in the most remote part of the world. Check out the sunset on the picture at right.

Old Dead Plants = New Horses

On the webcam picture on the far right of this page (--------->), it appears the sun has gotten quite serious about it's intentions to descend below the horizon. It's after valentines day, so the South Pole should be closed for winter by now. I wish the current residents a troublefree winter.

I got the engine fully torn down and delivered to the machine shop. They'll need the pistons to do the cylinder over-bore. I did not find anything wrong in the block; the pistons were a bit more carboned-up than I would have predicted. The balance shaft chain-works was quite complicated; it's a good thing I am eliminating all that monkey-motion with a hundred-dollar kit.I ordered all the engine bottom-end parts and the pistons arrived today. I'll deliver them to the machine shop tomorrow and they'll finish-up that work.

I ordered the front and rear shocks from Lee at RaceShock on Friday. We are getting 16" travel Sway-A-Way coilover's with Eibach springs and huge reservoirs for the rear. I'll get limit straps once these are installed. The front coilover's are a pre-configured kit from Sway-A-Way. There's not too much we can do with these until we get them into Lee's hands. His thought was that Camburg and Sway-A-way have already done the R&D on these, and will probably work right out of the box. After all, how many coilovers can you buy that are sold pre-valved and pre-sprung specifically for a race application? It was a slam dunk.

I had money sitting in my PayPal account so ordering the gauges from Summit (paid via PayPal) was about a one minute ordeal. Done. I have a list of all electrical systems/users and will begin drawing the wiring diagrams this week; work permitting. We'll be moving the fusebox from the engine bay ("Power Distribution Center" or "PDC") to somewhere in the cab. I may just eliminate/relocate all those circuits and delete the PDC altogether. I'll survey the contents of the PDC when I get out there next. I have contacted the BFG tire program and should be using their tires. The basic tire we'll get is the Mud Terrain T/A KM2; I am leaning toward the 32x11.50 . These seem the perfect compromise of ground clearance (only 0.5" of ground clearance is lost to the 33" tire) and unsprung weight. Also, a slightly narrower tire my find grip before the more 'floatier' 12.50.

Travel: Jon and I will fly out THIS FRIDAY the 20th.
Work this weekend: We decided on this itinerary so that we can maximize time-on-the-truck Saturday. I hope we can begin work pretty early, and carry-on as late as possible. With three of us there, hanging the fiberglass should be much easier than with two. Work to be accomplished on Saturday:
Hang the fiberglass..
Remove front diff for delivery to local guru.
Remove T-100 diff for delivery to local guru.
Mark and remove most aft-going wiring (will be re-wired after all other work is done).
Remove a wheel lug from T-100 (rear) and Tacoma (front) hubs for sizing-up heavier-duty replacements.
Remove lines and brackets from T-100 axle to facilitate 4-link fabrication.
Remove OEM fuel tank.
Remove OEM exhaust system.

Once the 4-link is installed and the cage is certified by SCORE, we can haul it back for the remaining systems to be installed. I think all parts have been sourced.

Here's a pic of the fancy 10:1 CR pistons...sexy indeed.

Choose Your Weapon

It's been a big week.

Phase 1 of my Ebay sell off went much better than expected. Everything I listed sold; some pieces for more than I paid originally. Phase 2 will be the last few items I forgot to list, but these are pretty much just some mic's and other small pieces I found in my storage unit.

An old friend John invited me to go "sporting clay" shooting with him and his wife. Sounds good, but I've never even seen sporting clays so this ought to be fun. I got to the range where I shoot steel targets with one of my pistols, but drove around to an incredibly beautiful, natural area where sporting clay machines are hidden among desert foliage. John gave me a few tips on using a shotgun; I've never handled one before. John and I shared one gun, while his wife and daughter-in-law each had their own. I hit a few of the flying 6" disks, 27 of 100 to be exact. What I didn't know until the end of the day, is that I was using a 20 gauge gun with the spread set to minimum. The whole idea of a shotgun is having a wide enough pattern that you don't have to aim like a sniper.


The whole experience was really great though. It's not rushed or intimidating (the World Champion shoots pistols where I do!) The scenery is spectacular. Here's a photo I took with my phone:

After day one I was so inspired, and since my Ebay auctions went better than expected, I stopped at a sporting goods store on the way home and picked up a shotgun. This morning, John called to say they were heading back there. Naturally, I was there. Different results this time. My 12 gauge with medium choke resulted in almost doubling my score from Friday. Watch for more improvement on this front.

I didn't get any pictures, but we made some progress on my friend Jon's Celica project. We should be pretty close to getting the beefy rear axle back under it tomorrow night.

Friday, I scouted some "roads" that we'll probably take the Celica and the new race truck on once they are done. These were perfect for the kind of testing that we need to do. Too rough for rally, too smooth for off-road.

Saturday, I reorganized my storage unit so that I can use it as a mini shop when I re-build the new motor in a few weeks.

Good luck to my old manager who has moved up the food chain to a directorship.

The Road to Ensenada Begins Here

It was a great weekend for the new race car project. On Friday, Jon hauled the now-stripped Toyota out to Jim's shop. Saturday, I flew out to Jim's and the three of us discussed the upcoming fabrication plans and some of the hard-parts that we'll be ordering. The big winner here is the budget! We finalized the suspension plans and saved a lot of weight and dough. Also, we found out that the front axle shafts that were going to cost $800, are only $150 when you know what to ask for at the auto parts store. Granted, the $150 shafts don't articulate as much, but that won't be an issue with the way we will limit the suspension travel. Also, we deleted the additional shocks and bump stops to save even more weight and money.

The roll cage tubing should be at Jim's this week and when I go back in a few weeks to remove the engine (and rebuild it here), the roll cage should be well under way.

Jon and I made the drive back through The Peoples Repubik de Kalifornia without interference from The Empire. Damn, I dislike that state. How can a state suspend item 2 from The Bill of Rights?

The gun show on Saturday morning was pretty good, but much smaller than the last one. I had a list of must-haves in order for me to shoot me first competition this week. Fortunately, I got everything, but still, I didn't have time to just wander around and see what else was there. I'm gonna be at Jim's when the next one happens, so I'll have to give some money to a friend to bring back some ammo (this town is practically devoid of 9mm ammunition).

That's all I have for now; have a great week!

Flight of the Conchords

Best show ever.


Maybe you need to be a jaded former nobody to get it, but this show is beyond hysterical. FotC is worth getting an HBO subscription.

Here's episode 1 of season 2.

Off the Wagon, On the Truck

You would think spending 13 months at the center of No Where, stripped of all vehicular distraction, I would have finally kicked the "let's build a race car" habit. Or, discovering new passions (like practical pistol shooting) would give me another avenue to apply my obsessive nature. Or, finding out that a lifetime of guitar playing is for naught and that another dime spent on musical gear is another dime gone (like much of my 401k).

But, alas, it is not so.

I have an addiction; I admit it. Fortunately, this habit will not be detected during a random test required by my employer resulting in me losing my job. No, this addiction requires that I spend my time, money, and blood building a race car.

And you can keep your 12 step program, I don't want to be cured.

I don't know where this came from. I did not grow up in a household of gearheads. True, it was Detroit, so maybe there's something in the water there that makes a boy grow up and want to build a car (or truck) that can go a little faster or a little farther. There is no great pay-off, no stardom, no beautiful blondes to take home. In fact, what is most likely are credit card bills, disappointment, and probable injury.

So it seems a bit auspicious that on the day of the last stage of the Greatest Race on Earth (The Dakar), that some close friends and I began deconstruction/construction of my new race car. While at the South Pole, I conceived of a plan to rally race a 2000-ish Dodge Dakota due to its reasonable wheelbase and v8 engine. However, in consultation with friends with more experience than I, it was decided that a super-short wheelbase and very light Toyota Tacoma 4x4 would be our weapon of choice to humiliate various Subaru's and Mitsubishi's racing in the California Rally Series.

Craigslist was consulted and we finally purchased the vehicle which will become the centerpoint of the dream. I say 'dream' because not only will we be competing in the California Rally Series, but we will attempt the 2nd greatest race on Earth, the Baja 1000 (and 500). The wheelbase is a bit of a handicap, but otherwise the truck should be fine. The truck will be the convergence of friends from many era's of my life. This truck will be their focus, for a while, too. There are a lot of hopes riding on these four wheels.

So here's how our hapless victim looked before the wrenches were taken out:

After a few hours with metric tools, we have reduced this otherwise 'OK' truck to this:


With the heavier bits removed, the truck is loaded up and headed to California where our third team member Jim will install a roll cage and a few other welding/fabricating tasks.

Stay tuned as this blog documents our build from rust to gory.

Google search meta words: toyota tacoma baja rally southpolerecovery spendeverydime racetillidie californiarallyseries creditcarddebt obsessivecompulsive rusttogory goingblindlywhererichmenhavegonebefore idontcarewhatthecardinalsdo

Party Like It's 2009

What a novel concept: A laptop on my lap. I thought these things could only sit on a shelf at the end of a bed 4' off the floor at the bottom of the world. This sure makes it easy to have a repeat of The Mythbusters playing on my Home Theatre PC and get caught up on email.

This morning, I joined a couple of dozen other Triumph owners on the annual ride to Tortilla Flat. Imagine my surprise to find at least 8 other Rocket III's among this fine British machinery. Last year, I could only read about the ride since I was otherwise occupied. When I got there and parked with my front tire into the sun, I saw that the front rubber was in desperate need of replacement. This will keep me off the bike until it's replaced.


Four Rockets ready for take-off.

If you have a sharp enough eye, you'll see more Rockets than you'd find at most dealerships.






A few of the gathering at Tortilla Flat.



So here's the deal on 2009: I really lost the desire to play guitar. I guess there's a good reason why I quit in 1999; I just don't care about making music. Now, I have almost 4-grand worth of gear...a stupid decision. Sure, it sounds great, but I can't play it in my apartment, and I'm not going to play in a band, so what's the point? I might be able to return the Fender guitar, but the rest I'll have to put on Craigslist or something like that.

Another hobby which I just discovered I really like this week is shooting. I never owned a handgun before and I now own 2. I shot them yesterday with a friend in the desert. It's very rewarding to hit the metal target....P-TING! There is a "world famous" (according to them) shooting match every Tuesday night about 20 minutes from here. But, neither gun will be very good at this type of shooting, so a 3rd gun is on the horizon. Aside from the initial purchase, this will be a pretty cheap pursuit. And, what else am I gonna do on Tuesday nights?

My main project will be a dual-purpose race car. The project was originally pitched to me as "do you want to drive Jims truck in the Baja 1000"? (Has there ever been a more rhetorical question?) As the "conversation" progressed (I'm skipping a lot here...) it became "Hey, why don't you buy a truck and all the pieces and we'll race it". So, I originally wanted to do a Dodge Dakota so that I could get something with a V8 already in it to go rallying. However, I'm told that a longer wheelbase (like the Dakota) is not good for rallying. So now we've agreed on a Toyota Tacoma, 4x4, regular cab, 4-cylinder. This has a 103" wheelbase, which is great for rallying, but is about 2 feet shorter than what is good for off-roading.

Who's involved? Jon is a friend of mine for several years. I have navigated his rally car in 3 events, and hung around for many other races. Jon has owned some cars together with Jim over the last couple of years. I met Jim in 2004 (I think). He's a really good guy and lives about 15 minutes from LAX. Jim owns "Advance Off Road" in CA where he will build the roll cage and most of the other fabrication. Jon and I will haul it back to finish the wiring, suspension, and whatever else. Jon and I will be commuting to LA to assist.

The schedule is to build it now-June. Race the Baja 500 in June (driven by me, Jim and Jon), a night race in California in August, Jim will drive it at the Prescott Forest Rally in October, and the Baja 1000 (driven by me, Jim and Jon) in November.

I'm finding the whole blog thing to be more trouble than it's worth. I think it's days are numbered; unless the truck build seems blog-worthy. Your feedback is welcome.

I guess I've been keeping my Antarctic blood nice and thick by riding my Triumph during the winter. At least once per weekend, I find myself way-colder than I would like. By April, I'll be complaining about how hot I am. It's hard to complain though; I really missed riding while I was "down there".

So there...you're fully up to date with me.



This is the day
Of the expanding man
That shape is my shade
There where I used to stand
It seems like only yesterday
I gazed through the glass
At ramblers Wild gamblers
That's all in the past

You call me a fool
You say it's a crazy scheme
This one's for real
I already bought the dream
So useless to ask me why
Throw a kiss and say goodbye
I'll make it this time
I'm ready to cross that fine line

CHORUS:
I'll learn to work the saxophone
I'll play just what I feel
Drink Scotch whisky all night long
And die behind the wheel
They got a name for the winners in the world
I want a name when I lose
They call Alabama the Crimson Tide
Call me Deacon Blues

My back to the wall
A victim of laughing chance
This is for me
The essence of true romance
Sharing the things we know and love
With those of my kind
Libations Sensations
That stagger the mind

I crawl like a viper
Through these suburban streets
Make love to these women languid and bittersweet
I'll rise when the sun goes down
Cover every game in town
A world of my own
I'll make it my home sweet home

This is the night
Of the expanding the man
I take one last drag
As I approach the stand
I cried when I wrote this song
Sue me if I play too long
This brother is free
I'll be what I want to be.

-Becker and Fagen 1977

Merry Yadda Yadda,,,

Alright, enough with the holiday thing. I did my xmas last week so I had some free time this weekend. This worked out OK, but I'd rather have done it like the rest of you; maybe next year.

After 6 weeks, I'm officially fed up with the management of my domicile. There are electric gates that my fob won't open, they close the package reception without notification, and they close the rooftop/cigar area without notification. This (and more) adds up to 'I won't be here anymore than I'm legally bound to'.

When I woke up today, the weather had cleared, and I decided to ride the mighty Rocket for a while. In spite of checking the weather, I still got snowed on. This would be perfectly acceptable at the South Pole, but on a motorcycle it sucks. It is now several hours later and I have still not fully thawed. I never used those glove warmers when I was in Antarctica, but I used 'em today! Here's a view:

The clouds in the background were carrying snow; I was only an hour north of Phoenix.

The one band audition I've had so far went OK, I have two more scheduled. The next two seem very similar to The Picardis band I was in at The Pole.

I'm still waiting for a Nordic Nymph to introduce herself, but maybe in time, this will happen.

I'm typing next to the pool and it's about 45°F. If I was on the sheltered roof like they show in the brochure, I'd write more.

Locals

I was cleaning up the micro SD card on my Google G1 and found this picture of my local bro's on it. I think it was taken by my IT guru without my knowledge. Everyone shown (and a few who are not) are the core of my crew.

Much respect.

Catch Up

Sorry so long to post...I have been going non-stop...Work, bands, bikes, racing, friends.

I now have a really good guitar rig and have been contacting local bands who are looking for a guitar player. In the time since I used to play alot, I have forgotten how flakey most musicians are. Although I play the instrument pretty well (it's been 30 years after all...) I don't consider myself a musician. I think of myself as a technician and as such, not subject to the same level of flakeiness that afflicts many musicians.

I created a MySpace page to pimp my skills, yo. That seems to be the common way things like this get done. I will not give that link to that page though; I will keep this world and that world separate. I'll let you all know once I find the right band.

I've been on the move so much (and working 40 hours/week), that I haven't had much time on my bike. I did ride to Kalifornia last week, but that was a boring freeway ride. Maybe this weekend, I don't know.

Work is progressing nicely. I have a little more responsibility than before, and am staying a bit busier; happily. 

The guy who used to live in this apt, has not successfully done an address change. Thus, I get a lot of mail for someone else. Loser.

My cheap Ford pick up is running fine. Time to get some groceries I guess.

A friend of a friend is trying to make it very easy for me to own a truck that will run a few off-road races next year and be able to do some rallies; best of both worlds. We'll see how this turns out...

So far, the Google G1 phone is miles ahead of the lame Motorola Q that I used to use.

It hasn't taken long for me to remember how much I hate broadcast radio. I may yet start my own radio station. 3 stations all playing AC/DC and all taking commercial breaks at exactly the same time; makes a guy wanna lock and load. I may need to get another XM radio (yes, I know about the merger). 

One of the foods I find myself enjoying more than ever is a well-made hamburger. Not the fried,  fast-food type, but a nice high quality one like can be found in the Four Peak Brewery or the Stockyards.

My cousin's speaker company SVS Sound has received great accolades from Sound and Vision magazine...way to go Ronnie!

I have been able to exchange a few emails with my good friend Ethan (blog linked at right). He's now touring Malaysia then heading for Thailand. I don't believe there is a better-qualified, more dedicated person who is not employed...makes no sense to me.

As you can now see, I'm all over the place. I am not really able to focus on any one thing, but am getting a wide variety of things rolling. I feel like I've put a new battery in an old truck.

I'm on the verge of some new things...watch this space for new and exciting stuff!