I played and beat Call of Duty 4 and Braid, and watched/played Dead Space to chapter 3, and briefly touched Fable 2.
There’s a small part of me that feels guilty for playing after I said I’d swear off games for a year, especially while I was up north this weekend visiting with Law and Cookie, but really this is what one does when one visits Law and Cookie… play video games. This is because they’re both in the game dev industry. Law is a designer of sorts for EA, I’m not really sure what his title is but he has influence over how his projects are created. Cookie is a 2D artist with Activision. When we weren’t hanging out at the crib we went out for food–mandatory for that area–and ran some errands.
Law’s friend D came over Sunday night and brought some grass-fed cow to try out, and I must say I liked the flavor of grass-fed steak better than corn-fed.
All in all a good trip. Law is in Quebec on assignment now, I’m getting ready to go to OTS, parents and alot of my extended fam getting ready to go to Thailand… November seems to be the month of everyone-is-gone.
Well, I better finish up my LA trip before I’m gone, too. Peace.
10 days left! First thing I did today was go to the computer. Got an email from Meetup.com about stuff happening in Denver which sparked curiosity about what’s going on in LA. I check the website and start browsing stuff happening this week near the 9-triple O-4, and of course the list is long. This catches my eye:
A small snicker, I only briefly imagine what that’s all about. I peruse the list just to see what’s going on tonight (Maybe I can check out some place called Mozambique tonight, saw it twice on the list).
Then I wonder about Dayton, OH, as I’m apt to do these days, and wonder if meetup is used there. So I switch the location and the list is short, but something catches my eye:
I mentally hmmm out of concern. What is this 9/11 truth? So I google “9 11 truth” and start reading the webpage. Top article about someone who wrote a book called End of America, referring to Army Times about an article referring to quelling civil unrest by our military, and how we’re becoming a nation run by martial law once city at a time.
Does this concern me? Yes, but I would like to think that all manner of obstacles and power checks that I personally know are in place would stop something like this from ever happening. We have great leaders in our military… Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines. I’ve been in for 4 years as an Airman First Class/Senior Airman/Staff Sergeant and plan to go on as a 2nd Lt and beyond, and I can say as a fact we have great leaders from within the military. We are all professionals at arms, and we all swore to protect the president of the United States and the Constitution. Said article refers to us answering directly to the president, which is true, as we are the executive branch of government, as in we as the executive branch put into action/enforce the law. The executive branch, however, does not simply consist of the military, but also your civilian police and FBI, and pretty much any enabler institution that brings the letter of the law to physical realization.
But we know this. My issue is that what isn’t said in said article is that we as military members have a choice to disobey direct orders when there is a clear reason to do so. You won’t find Army troops shooting civilians protesting in Washington DC… it’s funny, because the article cites a demonstration from World War I veterans… yet our nation has allowed even larger peaceful demonstrations since then. Million Man March, anyone? The let’s-fall-down-in-major-intersections-in-an-attempt-to-stop-the-”American-War-Machine” protests from just a few years ago, which, by the way, were dealt with by the civilian police force. Anyway, you won’t find the military shooting peaceful demonstrators. If, God forbid, the situation ever came where we were ordered to do such a horrible thing, that would be in direct contradiction of the rights granted to us as residents of this great country by the Constitution, which we swore an oath to uphold and defend upon entry to service, free speech included. We can say “no”. Perhaps we’ll get fired or in trouble, but people such as the author of End of America and the folks that participate in 9/11 Truth tend to forget that regular human beings are what operate the military. Sure we might be trained and conditioned to react in a battle situation, but we aren’t trained to lose our humanity. When I push myself to run in the morning, I think about my parents, my sisters, my friends, my brothers and sisters in arms, and then… I think about the murderers. The rapists. The people who hate me because I joined the military. The people who don’t understand and don’t want to understand why I do what I do. And you know what? I run harder. I push myself at work to do what I do, because these people are America… the people I love, and the people that I don’t. There are no romantic thoughts of being a hero for just the good, flag-waving people of our country up in this head. All I say is to someone who may spit at my feet is “You’re welcome.” Spit in my face, and you’ll get a knuckle and teeth sandwich. 
Then, as if to put the last nail on the coffin for the credibility of the website, I look further down the page at an article talking about how Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW):
From 911truth.org front page:
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – One hour before the final presidential debate of the 2008 campaign, fourteen members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) marched in formation to Hofstra University to present questions to the candidates. IVAW had requested permission from debate moderator Bob Schieffer to ask their questions during the debate, but received no response.
The contingent of veterans in dress and combat uniforms attempted to enter the building where the debate was to be held in order to ask questions about poor veterans’ healthcare and supporting war resisters of the candidates, but were turned back by police. IVAW members at the front of the formation were immediately arrested, and others were pushed back into the crowd by police on horseback. Several members were injured, including former Army Sergeant Nick Morgan who suffered a broken cheekbone when he was trampled by police horses before being arrested.
As my TI from BMT would say when she caught one of us doing something crazy, “Oh really? Really? ” Private organization requests permission from what is essentially a private debate run by a private company. Request unanswered-slash-denied. Okay, perfectly acceptable. Whatever broadcast company Bob Schieffer works for (I can’t remember at the moment) has the right to bar private citizens from entering their private event. That’s like me barring IVAW to march into my backyard to protest, hell to the fuck-no. Go stay on the government-owned sidewalk.
Then the phrase “attempted to enter the building” is quite benign but doesn’t describe the manner in which they attempted. They’re already not invited, why are they still attempting to get in? Isn’t that considered trespassing on private property? I can only imagine that on the use of force model, they went from cooperative to resister, passively or actively I don’t know. I understand that private citizens were allowed to watch the debate live, like university students and such. Maybe if the IVAW guys didn’t arrive in such a showy manner they would have been let in. I don’t know. All I know is that “no means no”, and if IVAW as a group was not invited to participate in the debate, then IVAW as a group should not have tried to march in and circumvent the wishes of the event holders.
I Ctrl+F4′d that window with a snicker. Those 911truth guys are just conspiracy theorists, and the truth is much less complicated than what they wish.
Anyway, after this I was reading up on Law’s blog, and came upon a link pointing to the hypocrisy of the Democratic party. The article didn’t talk about how Obama specifically was a hypocrite, but rather various other people in the Democratic party who portrayed a disdain for the very people they’re supposed to be supportive of, the lower and middle class. It got me to thinking about my own political stance. I’ve always considered myself independent, and as far as the spectrum goes I’m left of center. When I make decisions on political views, it’s because I have a personal reason to do so, and not because all the cool people are/aren’t doing it. I re-evaluated what party I’d identify with, and I think I should just sign up to be a Democrat. I had a discussion with Law a while ago and I think we still disagree on signing up to a party without 100% adopting its views. I originally asked why he didn’t just join a political party so he could vote in primaries, but he said he didn’t agree with any political party. I see it as working within the system to bring about the change that I want. He sees it as being dishonest, being “Republican” without actually being Republican. I see it as a party name, he sees it as the identity of a party. I’m gonna get the chance to visit with him and Cookie this weekend so I’m sure we’ll argue that all we want. I’ll probably get pissed, but that’s just because I’m a hothead. I think I’ll register Democrat when I go to Dayton next year.
Also, I already voted for this election by going directly to the county registrar in Norwalk. I voted for Obama because I’d rather him be my boss instead of McCain… Obama just seems to have a clearer view on what he wants happen to our country than McCain does. I wanted McCain to win the republican nomination in 2000, but this year I don’t want him to be president… it’s a different time, and we’re in a different place, and we need a different leader. That’s my personal stance.
I voted no on Prop 8, not because I have gay friends (which I found out a few months ago I do), but because I thought about it and maybe it’s time we tried this out. Lord knows that the average straight person around here doesn’t think marriage is sacred, what with all the people who marry for reasons other than love (fucked and got pregnant, need citizenship, girl just wants a doctor for a husband, Britney Spears and her 48-hour vegas marriage, crazy high divorce rates, etc.) so the “sanctity of marriage” is already lost… it has been for quite some time. There are gay couples that wish they could get married, that love each other very much… the law should protect them just as much as it protects the people who marry only to take advantage of the perceived benefits.
So yeah, no on Prop 8 because I think in this secular day and age it’s really an irrelevant issue, and the sooner we get it over with the sooner we can focus on the things we actually need. Ridiculous pay increases and better incentives for teachers and nurses, anyone? I’ll pay obscene amounts of money for a great teacher for my (future) kids. I want nurses to be happy so if I wind up at the hospital I’ll get some good healthcare. Knowledge and health are the cornerstone of a thriving society. Without that the infrastructure built on top will topple over. The workforce becomes dumber and dies sooner. Clean methods of power? You betcha, I heart solar energy and high-efficiency wind power generators. And I personally harbor the crazy notion that space travel will be the next gold rush–after we figure out the power situation. I mean, we’re making money on wall street now by other people making money? Oh really? Really? I want a buck in my hand to equate to a dollar worth of something else I can hold in my hand. I’m just saying we can get resources from space if we just went out and looked. Let’s resolve every other earth-bound problem, then we can look to the stars for the way distant future fate of our race. But that’s back-burner head-in-the-clouds thinking for now. Let’s secure democracy for all. Quality healthcare for all. Awesome education for everyone. That’s what we need to be doing.
Phew! That was long. I have no idea why I blab on so much about random crap, and I barely get out. Hyperactive mind, I guess. Well hasta tomorrow.
Still waiting to go to OTS.
I think from here on out I’ll be spending less time in LA on non-holiday season leave. Like the next time I take a random leave like this one I’ll be on a cruise or try going to Europe or something. Home has been kinda boring, with just random outings on the weekends with whoever had something going on. Except for the maybe two times a week I’ve been visiting with friends, I kinda wish I were still back in my apartment in Colorado… at least it wouldn’t be such a pain in the ass to get everywhere. 
Yeah, traffic is bad if not worse than I remember. At least a few years ago I could go down the freeway in the dead of night and not expect a traffic jam somewhere, but now… it’s like there are a whole hell of alot more cars on the road. I ran into a traffic jam at 10PM last week… where is everyone going at 10PM??? I think it was the Dodger game letting out, though, so maybe it was just a fluke. That was last last Saturday, now that I think about it. I was actually going home to shower and meet Kyuu Hee and her friends to watch Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Yeah… I’ve been curious about this every time I’ve seen it, I didn’t know what it was. If you’re in LA and want to see this show… I don’t recommend it. Not because the show was bad… I actually don’t know. What ended up happening was we were standing outside in line for about an hour, since Kyuu Hee suggested that the line gets long to see this thing. (I love her, but sometimes either she wildly exaggerates, or her words simply conjure up pictures in my head that are vastly different from what she’s attempting to describe. When she described the line, I was thinking a line for Best Buy Black Friday in Silicone Valley, or a highly anticipated movie premeire in Los Angeles, where the shit goes around the building… maybe I just didn’t notice how far back the line went but from the people arriving after us walking from the front to the back after purchasing their ticket, it didn’t seem like alot of people went to the line after we got there. Again, probably just a difference in perspective.) The damn thing started a few minutes late, which we realized as my Cali-acclimated group started complaining about the cold, and of course I’m there in my T-Shirt trying to figure out what their cold tolerance is. Fall and Winter in CO is cold. LA winter is like a slightly chilly dining room in Carl’s Jr. I can even ride around on my bike some nights without any sweater… I’d die of hypothermia if I did that in CO. So once they started letting people in we all got frisked as we went inside, as I guess the theater has had problems with bringing weapons into the venue previously… I’m fine with that. Managed to chat a bit with a Navy reservist working as part of the security detail there, that was cool. When we finally got seats inside, and the thing started, we ended up watching various people explain the rules of the theater and plug various other… I guess indie arts or shows or something… for AN HOUR AND A HALF. WHAT THE FUCK? I mean, as a guy that’s easily amused I wasn’t like “Can we please get to the actual show?”, as it was nice to see that this group of people apparently was enjoying a modest amount of success at… whatever it is they do. I think. But really, I paid $10.50 to see Rocky Horror Picture Show, not to hear about a delivery of the theater rules rife with lame humor and inside-jokes that I didn’t understand, followed by an hour of plugs for various other shows in town, plugs for special guests, plugs for voting No on Cali Prop 8, and then some kind of de-virgining ritual for people who went the first time. I didn’t go up, of course… not that hardcore about seeing some show, but it seemed kinda juvenile. Anyway, after ALL of that the movie/show started. For those who haven’t been to one of these shows, the movie is supposed to play in the background, and people in front do some kind of stage performance of the movie… probably you’ve heard if you look it up on the internet. So, going in, I was expecting that the movie and the live show would kinda play off each other somehow… like the movie would provide some backdrop for actors to play parts, or the actors would talk to the movie, or something. The reality is way dumber than what I made it up to be, however… it was just actors acting out what was going on in the movie! It’s like watching a lame B-Movie at home with people who are playing a drinking game while acting out what’s happening on the TV in your living room. Even worse, I couldn’t understand what was going on in the movie because the sound wasn’t as high as most movies go, probably because they need people to hear the actors. But then I couldn’t even hear the actors because none of them had microphones. We all ended up leaving after the movie started, because some of us were tired, and the rest of us couldn’t hear/figure out what the fuck was going on. Also, the venue was filled with LOTS of underage folks. Alot of folks there were turning 16, 17, and 18… not really my kind of crowd. They were actually doing some Rated R stuff in the theater… I remember being 16 and wanting to go see the Rated R movies coming out on the weekends, so I don’t blame them for being here. I guess if I were younger I would have been into the show, but now as a 28 year old guy I really didn’t have an inclination to stick around.
I don’t fault these guys for delivering a bad performance. The cast and crew obviously were huge fans of Rocky Horror Picture Show, but I think the trouble lies with the whole cult culture surrounding this performance. It’s as if they don’t really expect people to come see the show for the first time. The acting was sloppy, as if they were doing it for the 100th time, and everyone else in the theater has seen it 100 times, so who cares if we screw it up because the people in the theater know what we’re supposed to be doing, right? It was like saying “Oh it doesn’t go like that? Well you know what I mean!” throughout the performance, to which I reply “No, I don’t know what you mean” and just left. The people doing the show were great people, but it just feels like they were all personally rejected from something in life, and that they somehow found each other and share that bond of all having been rejected from a social group or something. I don’t say that to demean, but that’s just the impression that I got. A group of people sharing that sentiment and then building their own social group, I can imagine that group becoming exclusive by itself, and like I said, that’s just the impression I got.
Kyuu Hee was apologizing to everyone afterwards… not profusely, but I guess she felt pretty bad about calling us all to see this show only for us to leave 10 minutes after the actual show started. She kept saying how it was different when she saw it years ago, and that the crowd was older and the show was better, but I think it’s just that we’re too old for this kind of thing, or our tastes are different from what they were years ago. Going to this thing as a 16 or 17 year old would have been sweet… I might have chatted up the girls, or at least had opportunities to get rid of my inhibitions in a setting where others seemed to be doing the same thing. But personally I’m at an age where I don’t want to even hang out with girls under 23. Once you’re past the binge drinking days/months/years of “turning 21″, it pretty much all blurs together. Like I stopped caring how old I was after 22… it all just feels the same year after year.
Anyway, for Kyuu Hee’s sake, and I’m sure she’s over this by now, but I still have to say I had a good time. I got to chat with her and EF from high school who I didn’t really know back then but is actually quite nice (a good catch for a lucky guy, hell I’d ask her out if circumstances were different). I think I enjoy just hanging out with people more than I like doing stuff with them.
(abrupt end… I saved the post, stepped away from my PC for a bit, then forgot I was writing a blog note. It happens.)
from http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/index.html
I think it’s javascript, I haven’t viewed source to yet to see how he did it. Go check it out, and tell me if you scored better.
Well I’m in Los Angeles now… and I’ve been running errands in the morning/early afternoons, and in the evening I’ve been playing Warhammer Online at Howie’s Game Shack in Westminster Mall.
The trip over was certainly an adventure. I had decided I couldn’t wait any longer and I ended up leaving Colorado Springs at like 9 in the evening just to get a head start on my half-cross-country trek to Los Angeles. I made it all the way to Golden, CO, when one of my tires decided to go flat on the C-470. I’m hauling a 5′ by 9′ rented trailer from UHAUL with my motorcycle in it, and as I go over a bridge at the speed limit of the freeway, my steering wheel starts to vibrate slightly. My tach starts to rise and my speed slowly drops. 70 miles per hour. 65 miles per hour. 55. 45. When I hit 45 I had a split second moment of alarm, then I pulled over to the side to figure out what’s wrong. As I’m slowing down I realize what’s going on, as I smell rubber burning and my car feels like one of the wheels is oddly shaped. Yep, I have a flat in the front right tire. I pray to God that my spare is working, and sure enough it’s ready to go, sitting underneath all my crap in the trunk. This was the second time in my life I’ve had to replace a flat on my car, the first time being in my high school parking lot while I was still driving my first car. This was, however, the first time I had to do any freeway shoulder-side emergency maintenance, and getting out of your car while big ass trucks zoom past at 75 miles per hour during Denver rush hour (read: not Los Angeles bumper to bumper rush hour) can be pretty intimidating. Deep breath, wait for a big space between cars… and go. I ended up switching to the spare tire, throwing the busted one in the ramp trailer with my bike, then I proceeded to pull off the freeway at the next exit (Kipling Parkway). After calling the shop (thanks SSgt(S) SAS & Mr. RG), I found out that I had fortunately enough gotten off the freeway and right at a Big O tire store. I ended up spending $500 to get all my tires replaced–Subaru recommends that all tires be replaced if the tread depth between old and new tire is more than 3/32″… mine was almost double that. I pull into the shop at about 7 AM, tires come to the store by 11, and I’m out by 12 PM… half the day gone thanks to my roadside mishap.
So I’m going 75 MPH, eastward down the I-70, even though I have a trailer and there’s a sticker on these UHAUL trailers that say “Speed 45 Limit” on them. I have a little MPG display in my dash that I can switch to and see how much fuel I’m burning to move forward. With cruise control on, I was watching myself do 12 MPG, and stupidly pass by Grand Junction, CO without topping off my gas. I cross into Utah, expecting Green River, UT to be like a few minutes away, I’m thinking to myself “yeah, I’ll gas up at Green River, right before the 109 Mile no-services zone.” Nope. I switch my hud to the display that shows me how many miles I can expect to drive on my current fuel reserve. 120 miles as I cross the state border… “okay”, I think to myself, no problem getting to the next small town with a gas pump to refuel. 110 miles. 100. Concern on my face, I pass a sign that says “Green River 67, Thompson 34″. Now I think, alright, I’m going to gas up at Thompson. So I’m putting along, every couple of miles seeing signs for Thompson getting closer. Eventually I see a lone Shell sign over a hill, and suddenly my engine starts to sputter. At first I think it’s another tire problem, which would be extremely shitty seeing as how I’m literally in the middle of nowhere, and a lone gas station is up the road, first one I seen since I crossed into Utah. Then I’m wondering if it’s something worse, seeing as how I’m towing a few hundred pounds of motorcycle and trailer behind me in my little Subaru Legacy 2.5L GT. I look at my gas gauge… quarter tank. I look at the mile estimator… 50 miles. No gas light. No check engine light. I’m now praying to God that I can make it to the Shell station at Thompson so I can at least get help… possibly. I climb over a hill and my engine sputters hard, and then I realize that I’m actually out of gas (this happened to me once before on my motorcycle back in Colorado Springs). For those that never experienced running out of gas on the freeway, it feels like your car just starts engine braking, i.e. you downshift once, put your car into gear, let the clutch go, and experience your car braking without you actually applying brakes. So I go over the hill, then when I get to the top I put my car into neutral and coast down the other side. Great, I think to myself. Then I look ahead and see that in order for me to get to the gas station I need to go over one more hill. So I put my car into drive once I reach the bottom, and I start accelerating. My engine starts to brake again, and this time it actually feels like something is stopping my car rather than the rapid but steady slowdown I experienced back in Golden, CO… as if I were driving into a wall of water and suddenly created alot of drag. I pull off to the side of the road, and I’ve got the gas pedal all the way down, just trying to get to the top of the hill. I think the 30 seconds it took to get to the top of the hill, with the gas pedal down, and my car sputtering forward at about 10 miles per hour, were some pretty long 30 seconds (not the longest) in my life. My car would surge forward at 10 miles per hour, then would slow down. Surge, slow down. Each time my car slowed down I was praying it had one more surge in it, just to get over this hill. And eventually… the car comes over the peak. I put it into neutral and coast down the freeway exit ramp, I do a “hollywood stop” at the stop sign at the bottom of the ramp turning into the road, then continue to coast right down into the fuel station, right up to the pump. Wow. Thank God I made it… I know I’m being watched over and my ass just got saved once again.
Sure enough, I had run out of fuel. As soon as I put that filthy 90 octane gas into my car, the engine revved up like a champ and I was on the road again going to Green River. Lesson learned, I would fuel up at half tank from now on, because apparently my gas needle and mile “guesstimator” are not always correct, what with the recently changing driving conditions my car was experiencing.
The 2nd day of my trip wasn’t so bad. I spent the night at Washington City, UT, (which has an awesome Holiday Inn Express, by the way). Las Vegas was hot, as usual, and normally would not be a concern except today I was hauling a trailer with a motorcycle, so on those uphill climbs I was in the slow lane with the rest of the trucks. Once again learning the hard way, I noticed during my ascent of a mountain during the previous day that my engine temp started rising, and I figured out that simply dropping my speed and turning off my AC allowed my engine to keep under the H line, in a more normal range. I tried to keep it under 3k RPM, 2.5k being the ideal from what I noticed. At times this meant going up a hill at 25 miles per hour in CA. Then once I got into Los Angeles, I realized that no one obeyed speed limit signs… not even the trucks. So me and my trailer were going above the speed limit, but still at the speed of traffic, even though trucks and autos with trailers were supposed to be doing 55 MPH max. Oh well, when in Rome. Because I think it’s more of a hazard if I’m the only jackass on the right side doing the speed limit when everyone (trucks included) was doing at lest 65-75, 10 to 20 miles above the limit for trailers.
All in all I got here unscathed, and I have to say I’m pretty happy about that. That was last Thursday afternoon. Since then I’ve been running errands, and I’ve tried to space them out to one or two a day so I’d have something to do each day, at least in the morning. Since then, though, I’ve replaced my rear brakes, got my oil changed, got my emissions inspection, got new Cali plates, met a girl who hasn’t called me back, and played a shitton of Warhammer at night in Westminster. Also hung out with Alvin, Kyuu Hee, and Janet over the course of last weekend. This weekend… I dunno. I want to go out, and I might end up lone wolfing this shit for the first time because it’s getting boring playing games all night.
By the way, when I left LA in 2004 all I saw were fat office chicks… now I’m back and good lord all the girls are smoking hot. Even the older ones (read: mid thirties). Hell I saw what had to have been a lady in her late 50s, even she looked cute… great shape, nice face, and took care of her silver hair. I’m amazed and how different this town got… it’s like all the fitness that I expected to see in CO, I end up seeing here in Los Angeles. Just goes to show that the world changes all the time, continuously. It’s one thing to know, it’s another thing to see and understand.
Anyway, I’m done blah blah blahing here for now. Gonna go look for some adventure in the Cali sun.
Hasta, cavrones.
Hey guys. Just wanted to say, thanks for all the text messages. 
Ah… November is coming up quick, and October just in front of it!
I’ll be leaving the Springs within the month, and I only have one regret… I wish I bought my bike sooner than I did. Like, when I first got here.
As most things go I know I did things when I was finally ready to do them, but still now that I’ve been planning for this trip and doing my practice runs through the mountains, I wish I had more time to ride around before I leave. I want to take a trip to Kansas, down to Texas, then through NM and back, camping each night and doing a hotel stay every third if I’m out that long. I want to explore alot of these backroads that are literally all over Colorado. Phantom Canyon yesterday was challenging, but awesome… I wish I had friends that I could have shared that experience with. I don’t want to wait until I’m retired to do all this stuff… I’m young, and I need to do this now.
It’s funny… I never thought about camping until I started seriously considering what I’d do for vacation. Camping was always something these silly CO natives did, and I just never thought to try it. The few times I went camping as a kid my family always brought a ton of food with them and made it like a stay instead of just camping on the way to someplace… thus I always thought camping would be an ordeal. Not so… I’ve realized all I need is a tent, a sleeping bag, and a relatively clear place to put down camp for the night. Perhaps it’s not as hardcore as some would want, but that’s all I need. I don’t want to cook or catch my food or whatever, I’ll leave it up to the roadside diner to refuel me. Maybe someday, but not now.
Well it was a beautiful day, for the most part. I woke up about 7:30AM, puttered around my apartment for a little while, then decided to equip my bike with the new saddlebags I bought, some Monzas from Firstgear.
I hadn’t looked at the saddlebags after I brought them home, so when I opened them they had a bunch of straps, some hard plastic sheets, and two bungee cords. Okay… what the hell do I do with all this stuff? I had bought the bags thinking that I could just throw them over my back seat and be good to go, but looking at all this included stuff made me think about whether or not my “throw and go” hypothesis was flawed, since I hadn’t thought about how secure a simply-resting saddlebag would be at 85 MPH (or higher). So, I just did the best I could. Threw the bags over the seat, kinda pinned the two rear straps underneath each tail blinker, and used the bungees on the front to secure them to the new saddlebag brackets I installed. These damn things don’t come with an instruction manual so I pretty much just jury rigged what seemed to make sense to me.
Turns out I did pretty well, as far as bags go. I wanted to test them out, so I put all the stuff I normally carry in my backpack (rain gear, towel, tire pressure gauge, windex wipes, and a ride journal that I never use) into the saddlebags, then packed the backpack into the bags as well. I also put in a shirt to see if the insides would stay dry. Then I geared up and headed for the mountains, which had some dark clouds forming over them at about noon today.
I had no real plan, I just wanted to ride. I ended up heading for Hartsel, CO first. The ride there was nice, but halfway between leaving downtown Colorado Springs and getting to Woodland Park I saw a few drops of precipitation hit my faceshield, so I pulled over and donned my rain cover–just the top half. This ended up being fairly nice, as my protection leathers are a porous textile, and past 30MPH it’s easy to forget I’m wearing a jacket due to the amount of wind that passes through… the rain cover acted as a windbreaker and allowed me to avoid alot of the wind chill. I stopped at Hartsel to fuel up and have a cup of hot cocoa. I bought a map as well, a hard plastic one that I checked out to plan the rest of my trip.
Here’s where I have a “lessons learned” that I need to do when I go to Vegas, or any future trip longer than 2 hours. I need to mentally note my next stop, and make an effort to rest. I kinda screwed up today… after I fueled up and continued from Hartsel, the next time I actually turned off my engine was back home in Colorado Springs, and I got back here by way of Denver. 
I rode a good 150 miles without taking a break, that’s like a 2 hour trip. I need to take a break at least every 75 miles… otherwise I start getting agitated and the ride becomes less fun.
Case in point… I decided to tail some guy who flipped me off on the road, at about 70-90MPH. Bad idea. I could have gotten hurt or worse, fortunately after a while I decided to let my anger go. Not sure what this guy’s problem was… but his Colorado license plate read “018 IUE”. So… look up the address and let me know where he lives. Maybe my next trip can be to slash someone’s tires.
Anyway, on the way back home from Denver it began to hail and I almost got run off the road by some retard in a Cooper Mini. I know this isn’t my fault, but thinking back I could have easily avoided this situation by rolling back on my throttle. See, for some reason this Mini was pulling out of the shoulder, and I guess he just decided to gun it without looking who was in the road he was merging in to. Well, unlucky for me he decided to try to take my space… luckily for me I swerved and the car that was in the next lane saw what was happening and backed away. I’m just lucky really that I didn’t wreck. The driver in the Mini was shooken up, because for the next couple of miles he drove at least a good 10 seconds behind me, which equates to about a quarter of a mile away at the speeds we were going.
I just got home finally about an hour ago. I checked my bags and sure enough everything inside was dry… nice. Even the shirt I threw in there showed no signs of even a drip of water. I think I’ll be ok for Vegas as far as packing enough clothes for a 4-night excursion. I just have to remember to take breaks at least once an hour so I can continue to enjoy the ride next month.
I just have one question…
How is a nude female model able to look sickeningly hideous and bombshell alluring in the same photo set?
I stumbled upon a set of photos of some girl, and one of them is on my desktop, but some of them she just looks gross. And she’s not even doing anything lewd, just poses you’d find in Playboy… quite tame.
I just confused my penis.
Alright, so far I have the following people who sound like they’ll be able to go:
Then the following will possibly go, still checking schedule:
I possibly have a room at the Jockey Club, no word on that yet. It’s my folks’ timeshare and they’ve offered it to me many times before but I never used it, I figure I should ask them this time before I just go and get my own room to save some money. If alot of people end up going then please make arrangements on your own, sorry. I think I can comfortably keep like 3 people in the suite, but if you want privacy then get your own room, of course. (Read: if you meet someone at a club you want to take to your room, you’re not taking them to the suite.)
My plan is to load up my bike and take 2 days to get there, snapping pictures and taking frequent stops along the way and on the way back, stopping for the night when it gets dark and continuing when the day breaks. I plan on travelling at a pace of 50mph, taking in to account food and gas stops and sleep breaks at roadside hotels. I also plan to set aside $500 for gambling and food while in Las Vegas. The important thing is that I plan to be in town the afternoon of the 19th and leave on the 21st, Friday to Sunday stay, returning to town Monday evening.
ALSO… I’m printing business cards. I just had this crazy idea, like I’d hand these cards out if I happen to talk to someone interesting, kinda like “you met me in Vegas, holler at me when you get home”. I know… it sounds stupid, but I really want to try this. Call me crazy.
If I somehow win big, I’m paying for a grand dinner Saturday night, and a round or two of drinks that same evening. I have no plans on coming back richer, I just want to have fun, but hey if I somehow make $700 on roulette again… then okay. No use keeping that money in the pocket in the company of friends.
Ok, if I think of any additional details and when I hear back from the Jockey club, I’ll follow up this post.
