Oh My

I've got work in ten minutes, my left eye is twitching, I bought a 3DS in Obnoxious Purple, in the Spring I bought a Mosin Nagant 91/30 rifle, my bike still has inherent, Harley-based issues but it's getting better AND sometimes I remember that Blades of Hysteria exists...but I never know what to write. Write about me? Boring. The world? Too much. Maybe, just maybe I'll follow this up with something...who knows?

Don't mind me, just crawling through.

Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head...Good thing I have a Helmet

So much has happened since my last post. I’m finally not living in my mom’s house. Yay! A former college room mate of mine got hired where I work so now me, him, and his girlfriend are renting a small house 2 miles from our job. The savings on gas are pretty nice, though I still manage to put a lot of miles on my car. Helping with that however is my Buell, which is finally inspected. I’ve already put about 200 miles on it and it’s getting about 64mpg.  Hopefully it’ll do even better after the carb is cleaned out, which leads to a bit of a story…

Last weekend or so, a friend of mine gradumacated from Bloomsburg University. She invited a bunch of us up for it. Parking would be at a premium so I decided to take the bike. It was a little over 70 miles each way. I headed up Friday after work. The weather was gorgeous albeit a bit breezy and the bike was running great…until I hit the interstate. On the smaller highways the bike did great, but out on the interstate while maintaining a consistent speed, she’d bog down and stall. So for the next…40 miles or so I’d stall every 5^th mile and have to take refuge on the shoulder. Eventually I made it to the town of Bloomsburg and upon entering stop and go traffic (lights, stop signs, etc) the Buell ran like a champ again.

Then Saturday came. The morning was overcast. After the ceremony I parted ways with my friends and proceeded to stall out in the parking lot. Yip. Eee. I could tell the carb was flooding so I opened the air box to let the gas evaporate some. This helped more than I expected and I was soon on my way. Once out on the interstate again….it began to rain….and the bike continued to stall every couple miles. In the rain. (Mind you, I have less than 4 months’ riding experience) There were a few other bikes on the road and one guy on a big touring bike stopped to see if he could help me anything. There wasn’t much he could do but he did ride behind me to the next exit where I got off in hopes of finding…something. I found a gas station with a canopy and bathroom. Gave me a dry place to call my dad from. Being without a GPS (had one in my pocket but no way to use while riding) I couldn’t track down any mechanical help type places so I decided to just continue on. The bike stalled once on me after that and I realized that if I kept varying the throttle, she’d keep going. Wasn’t happy, but kept running. Once I was back off the interstates and on the smaller highways the Buell ran with no problems. Only thing I stopped for was to check out a new McLaren at a gas station near my house.

Anywho, it’s been determined that the carburetor needs a desperate cleaning. The previous owner used to run the bike with no air filter…surprise surprise. If that doesn’t help, a new spark plug may be in order as well.

I think that’s all I’m going to tell for now as I should be sleeping….

Battlefield Blue

Hello blogizens, I assume you have not consumed too many heavy metals since our last interaction. The biggest news I have right now links nicely to my last post. I mentioned wanting a motorcycle, and lo and behold, through the science of alchemy I converted a pile of cash into a Buell Blast!

It is a 2006 Buell Blast in Battlefield Blue with 2984 miles on it.  I love it. I rode up and down my dad’s cul-de-sac a few times this weekend (I’m not licensed, insured, or inspected yet) and it is sufficiently fun and terrifying. The Vance & Hines exhaust really makes some noise, louder than my dad’s 750cc Honda Shadow, which is good because people will hear me if they don’t see me first.

The three great enemies of a motorcyclist, so far as I have determined, are weather, cockiness, and everyone in a car.

Weather is pretty obvious; if it’s 10 below freezing, or precipitating in any way, you’re gonna have a real crappy ride.

Cockiness is part of the reason I went with a 500cc over a 250. I've been told that you learn a 250 too quickly, get cocky, and then screw yourself. A friend of a friend of mine had a Ninja 250 that he cornered too fast and hit cinders or a storm drain or something. In short, bike went down and took him with it. He now has a bigger bike, but respects it a bit more. A 500cc should be enough to entertain and scare me for quite some time.

Cars. They’re big. They’re heavy. They are often driven by oblivious morons. People don’t always recognize a bike in traffic, it just doesn't register that there’s a motor vehicle occupying that space and moving. Also, that jackass who’s willing to cut you off when you’re in a car, isn't going to care about a much smaller bike. You’ll just make a dent and fall over as he drives off.

Despite the likelihood of severe injury, I am really excited to get my permit renewed and start riding. Start off with short ice-cream trips with my dad or something and eventually move up to commuting to work. With all the miles I put on my Focus, this can provide some relief.

Expect more pictures of this as we go. In the meantime, I'm long overdue in hanging my Cuckoo clock. Where's my net....

Post Holidapocalyspe Update

So it’s a few days after Christmas and I’m spending money on myself, yay! Specifically on a book about Italian rapier techniques and finally, after much delay and forgetfulness, Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 on Wii’s virtual console.

This installment of the Sonic franchise is supposed to be a direct follow up to Sonic & Knuckles on the Genesis console. It’s been a while. I was pretty excited when this came out, but being a broke college kid I couldn’t justify the $15.00 for it. Now that I have a big kid job, why the hell not? (If you’ve ever downloaded on the Wii they use a classic Mario as the loading screen. He’s currently concussing himself on a brick right now.)

After playing it Sonic for a bit, I can’t help but feel that including the homing attack in a 2D Sonic was a mistake. When it comes to precision jumping, if you get too close to a ledge, Sonic will Homing Attack into the void and often kill himself or set you back in some way.

I got a new camera this Christmas so hopefully I’ll be able to post more photos of random stuff.

In other news….Magic has been pushed a bit to the side for now as the friend I play with most has lost interest in it. (He kind of burned himself out while dating his last girlfriend.)  I feel like I should be more excited for the current Ravnica set, but I just can’t justify spending money on it right now. Granted, I could go to a card shop on weekends, but keeping in Standard or other competitive play gets expensive fast. “You mean my deck will work better four copies of this card that costs $30? OK!”

When compared to something like getting a motorcycle, I just can’t support the addiction.  Did I mention I want a bike? Been looking at these:

Harley Davidson parts, designed by Buell. 499cc, single-cylinder motor. Enough to get me killed, but also get out of its own way.  

Alright, I need to go do...something, been sitting too long. Hopefully I'll get back to more regular posting.  

Until next time!