Uly's due Tuesday!

...but I bet he's late!

We saw Lilo and Stitch tonight at Mom's. Beck and I recently purchased a plush Stitch doll that we will soon vivisect and transform into the Dread Cthulhu! (Pics, will of course, be posted.)

- Steve

How providence has conspired to get my Scrambler rolling

I really felt that way today.

To preface, I'll tell you that it was two days before I saw the ad posted that my mind started turning towards getting a motorcycle. I wanted to spend $400 or less and then, there she was - The 1973 Honda Scrambler. I was the first to get to the guy's home and buy it.

So, since then, my gas tank has made its way to Center City Collision, Kevin's shop and he's undenting the can and repainting it as original. (Sweet!) He's a good friend and a badass pastor, btw. Props to you, bro.

I put a damaged camera for sale on Craigslist yesterday. Here's the ad:

5.0MP, 3x optical zoom and 32MB of internal memory (you can also add a memory card for even more space, but the internal mem will allow you to take up to 20 photos at a time.

Takes sharp, hi def pictures and it comes with the easyshare loading dock, manual & software installing cd.

The one issue the camera has does not interfere with taking photos - the directional thumbpad (like the thing you use to move mario around on a Nintendo) is not working. It was dropped and a connection was probably loosened.

Because of this, you cannot delete pictures while in the field and you can only view the last photo taken. This doesn't stop it from taking beautiful pictures still & the easyshare software is so easy to use & makes storing, dowloading & sharing photos a breeze. The camera looks new except for a few light scratches.

Please email me any questions. I'm willing to take $50 cash or a trade. An old mountain bike? Electronics? Make me an offer I can't refuse.

So, a couple of people respond including this guy, Mike, who wants to trade an old Ross mountain bike. I've never heard of ross, but what the hell? It's a cheap bike for a broken camera, huh?

We're all set to do this and the camera mysteriously stops working. Sucks and I can't get it to power back on at all. So I call him and say, at least it wasn't you calling me tomorrow thinking you got screwed, and he agrees, and we start to talk what else I've got for trade, because he really wants to unload this bike. He takes care of his mom who is very ill and needs to take care of himself and can't risk an accident, he says.

Anyway we get to talking about trades and craigslist sales and I mention the Scrambler. "A CL350, right, he says?" and I'm like, yeah, that's right. Anyway, dig it: He's had several similar Hondas and is Mr. motorcycle guru and tells me all these great tips to get the old girl running. Way cool! Plus, he says, he has other stuff to sell or trade and he still wants the camera, even if it is broken. He's looking for stuff to tinker with things.

(He knows Linux and how to make wifi work with too, but that's another story.)

Anyway, I traded my 1gig ipod shuffle and the broken camera for a sweet Ross bike - circa 1985 but in better shape than my Raleigh. It's nimble and quick, too. He also threw in two OEM Honda saddlebags for the bike and his and her helmets with plexiglass visors. And a Honda motorcycle jacket and a Harley D. rainsuit!!

Awesome deal.

Anyway, he says I can de-rust the tank by putting in gravel and something else (I have to call him cause I can't recall what the mystery goo is.) and then rinse with gasoline. A gas and mystery goo mix can clean the carb all at once, he says. No rebuild needed. And, silicone in the handlebars will dull the high speed vibes typical when taking Scramblers to highway speeds.

Anyway, I'm very excited.

Later, I had a wonderful dinner date with my dear wife. I love her so.

- Steve

The cold shower after the ride

...feels great.

Issac Rains (9-years-old and a family friend) and I rode 5 miles at the Lunken Airport Bike Trail today.

Issac did fine and I borrowed my friend, Laura Oster's recumbent Bike E. A great ride over all, but murder up hills! I had to walk it up one of them.



I rode 23 miles this week all together. Right on!

Becky and I are working to pay off any old debt or at least figure out where we are with it. My hope is that we can be, with the exception of student loans and the house payment, debt free in one year.

- Steve

Meanwhile in the Free World...

I have to say that I'm impressed at Lopez Obrador's response to the recent Mexican elections.

You can read his July 16 speech at the second information assembly in Mexico City's Zocalo here: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/21/18290426.php

He is doing now what Al Gore should have done in 2000 (and, arguably, what John Kerry should have done in
'04) - he's contesting the election results and defending the sanctity of the ballot box. It's a humbling thing for the mighty United States to be shown the way by an impoverished state such as Mexico.

There's an excellent podcast discussion of the election at Here On Earth: http://wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_060724k.cfm

In this program, host Jean Feraca discusses the similarities and differences this has with the allegations of American election fraud.

+A common thread of disaster+

Kevin Sites blog entry on the Israeli assault on Tyre, Lebanon - http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs7920
- is a shocking, disturbing portrayal of war's cost. The dust covering the faces in these photos gives the
subjects a gustly pale.

It's worth reminding ourselves that this terrible mess - war crimes and misdemeanors and all - is nothing new.

Check out Goya's 19th Century documentary masterpiece, The Disasters of War - http://goya.unizar.es/infogoya/Work/Desastres.html - and Vietnam Inc. - http://www.musarium.com/stories/vietnaminc/index.html

- Steve

I'm angry at you because of the part of me that you represent

Jung teaches us that the images of loved ones or rocks or anything in out dreams are archtypes, projections of ourselves in our unconscious mind.

I believe (though I don't know that the good doctor went this far) that our everyday, waking experiences hold the same symbolism. I had, recently, a tense moment with a loved one and perhaps this person's behaviors irritated me so because of I saw this behavior in myself.

Not rocket science, really, but worth reminding myself about this.

Maybe everything everything carries this symbolism. Maybe portents and signs, the shreiks of devils and the whispers of angels are a deafening chorus, surrounding us. And we simply choose, often, not to hear it.

Danger baby, Motorbike Zen and the last week of pregnancy

We think it may be. The due date is August 1 and we're anxiously awaiting our first meeting with the boy.

I have a new project, borne out of discussions with overprotective friends, worried about all the things Beck and I might do with the baby (like take him on the bus or take him on the bicycle using a child safety seat) that they certainly would not and consider dangerous. Danger Baby. We'll be photoshopping and staging seemily dangerous photos of our son in all manner of peril.

Baby with knives, baby bungee jumping, baby climbing the Empire State Building. Look for our new Danger Baby Web site coming this fall.

The Motorsickle
I removed and drained the gas tank tank today. It was, surprisingly, not bolted down - it just sits there, wedged on top, partially beneath the seat. I disconnected the petcock valve (pictured)
That's not mine, but it's a similar petcock valve. This shifts the fuel off and switches between the main and reserve tanks (These are really the same thing, it's just that switching to reserve siphons gas from a lower level of the tank). Motorcycles (many of them) don't have gas gauges and what you do is, you just run out of gas from the main tank and then switch to the reserve, which gives you about 40 miles of road to find a gas station.

I'm trying to do this operation on the bike with a lot of love. I find machines respond well when you don't half ass it.

- Steve

On the mend - also, anyone have a tarp?

So, after Friday's foot surgery I was once finally able to ride a bike again last night and tgoday. I missed being on two wheels. Heck, I missed being on two feet!

Long and short: I dropped a wooden privacy fence panel on my foot a month ago (!!) and, unbeknownst to me, a piece or pieces of wood became stuck in my foot.

Two weeks ago, painful wound sorta on the mend, I picked at my foot and out came a top-of-Lincoln's-head-on-a-penny size chuck 'o' pine. I heal some more, but my scar is more like a drum than a healing scar - the membrane has a litte cave behind it. What's that wedging it open? More wood or fibrous scar tissue. A utility-knife-session later I still don't know, but there's an end-of-my-little-finger sized lump there, on top of my foot.

One foot doctor won't touch it. Too deep and if he messes up, I'm messed up. Second doctor sticks me like he's kitting with three shots of lydacane and cuts a trench on top of my foot, digging out all the fibrous tissue he can. Seven stitches later, he still doesn't know if there's a foreign body in there.

Weekend finds me in bed, on my back, foot in the air. Hurt like hell and I couldn't walk. I can now (yeah!) On Friday it's back to Doc number 2, who will check me out and maybe go back in. I hope not.

The antibiotic spiked my blood pressure, too and I had to knock it off.

Also, anyone have a tarp I can borrow? My motorcycle is in the rain.

- Steve

Some thoughts this morning...

I think, following up on a post I wrote some weeks back, about some folks having an inability to imagine any (positive at least) future, that realizing that a positive outcome, that things will go well in the future may be about realizing that it's not *you* who will have to live the future - at least not the present tense you.

Raising a child is conceivable now (pun intented) whereas it wasn't a year ago. Past me, the me of several years ago couldn't have handled owning a house or working as a freelancer. Present me can. It's not the me of today who has to figure out how to live in SF. The present me only has to prepare the way for the future me, who'll have the skills to do what has to be done.

It's a lot easier to swallow that way, isn't it?

+Biking+
I rode 19 miles so far this week. To and from downtown on Monday (7m round trip) and all the way from Norwood to my mom's house yesterday (12.5 miles). I travelled the 12.5 miles in about two hours or at an average of 6mph - not crazy fast, but steady and I was able to move up the hills without stopping. I usually have to walk up the steep hills like Gilbert and through Eden Park, at least part way, but this time I moved with relative ease.

- Steve

What Materazzi said to Zidane (allegedly)

According to Wiki News it was an anti Muslim slur - Zidane is Muslim.

Headbutting incident

He was sent off for violent conduct after headbutting Italy's goalscorer, Marco Materazzi, in the chest in the 110th minute. The game ended in a 1-1 draw and Italy won the championship after a penalty kick shootout.

Both Zidane and Materazzi refused to comment on the incident. Zidane's agent Alain Migliaccio said, "[Zidane] told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn't tell me what."[13] Reportedly, the deaf forensic lip-reader Jessica Rees was employed to analyze the video sequences with the help of an Italian translator. According to these reports, Materazzi spoke in Italian - a language understood by Zidane due to his time spent with Juventus F.C. - and first told him: "Hold on, wait, that one's not for a nigger like you." As the players walked forward, Materazzi allegedly said: "We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore." Then, just before the headbutt, he was seen saying: "So just fuck off." [14] [15] According to Brazilian TV Rede Globo, a lip-reader claimed that Materazzi twice called Zidane's sister a prostitute.[16] Earlier claims about Materazzi having called his opponent a "dirty terrorist" have been denied by Materazzi, who reportedly said: "It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means." [17][13]

On July 10, 2006, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball for the best player in the 2006 World Cup. The winner was selected in a poll of journalists covering the tournament which began half time of the championship game, prior to the headbutting incident. Zidane won the contest with 2012 points, ahead of second place finisher Fabio Cannavaro, who polled 1977 points. Although the polling continued until midnight, most votes were cast prior to the headbutting incident.[18][19]

A three-integer system?

I've been reading a book on mathematics and have been trying to get a new grasp on numbers. I know math and some algebra and physics, of course, but all that really means is that I know how to drive this car called, "math."

I don't know how to take it apart and put it back together again. I'm an operator, not an architect.

In pursuit of this goal I'm trying to learn a three or six integer system, rather than our ten integer system (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, 10,11 and so on)

A three integer system would count like this:

1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, 101, 102, 110...and so on.

The math would give different results, but, fundamentally, I believe, reduce to the same thing in binary code.

So that's what I'm on to now. Different counting. Has anyone reading this tried that?

- Steve

Motorcycle Diary, Installment two

This is a much better pic of the bike (from a Honda Advertisement)

I also found the uber-alliance cool site about an electric conversion Scrambler.

Motorcycle Diary, installment one

Ok, so we've had the Scrambler now for about two weeks and she finally turned over today.

The bike is a 1973 Honda CL350 Scrambler with 25,000 miles.

It's in good shape for a 33 year old bike, though it didn't run when we bought it. The owner cited bad gas in the engine, turned to varnish and gumming up the works. I began to clean it yesterday and today, with some help from Rich, I got the throttle unstuck.

She turned over and roared loudly. It'll be a whle before she purrs, but it's really thrilling to hear the engine for the first time.

The electrical system and starter seem to be in good shape. I'll follow with pix and descriptions of the probable carb rebuild we'll be doing.

- Steve

"Did you call this number?" Some annoying things about caller ID

This morning at 7:45 (!!?) some cat calls us up asking if we called his phone.

Whacked Caller ID Dude (WCID): "Uh...oh, I'm sorry."

Me: "That's ok, hello." (I think I was pretty congenial for quarter till 8)

WCID: "Yes, did you call this phone?"

Me: "I haven't called anyone this morning."

WCID: "No, this was last - yesterday."

Me: "I call a lot of people. Who is this?"

WCID: "My name is Joe Cossick (sp?)"

Me: "Uh huh, yeah, I don't know you."

WCID: "This number was on my caller ID. Did you call my phone."

Me: "This is silly. Goodbye" CLICK

Dude needs better things to do with his time.

- Steve