Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Wasting time!!!

I feel like too much of my time is wasted!

Writing or reading blogs are just two examples, I would have to say that between sleep and eating (sleep = 6-8 hours, eating = 3-5 hours if you dine with others) your losing 8-10 hours of your day! Now lets put work in there, 9 hours for me, plus 1-1.5 hours for commute (both ways) and I'm down to about 4 hours a daytime for "me"! Lets through some Heather into the mix and now I'm into negative time!!!!!

So what is one to do? I mean really, do I cut back hours at work, drive faster, sleep less, all have potentially nasty side effects.

I want to launch my self-made web app. I have a slow, clunky version running now. I built it over some 6 months and have refined it over a year or so, I have GRAND plans for a revision but as you see I only have 4 hours to split between studying for computer certifications, code writing, wife and house maintenance, relaxing, TV, video games, and heaven forbid... exercise! There is a wild and uncharted web out there full of fun and interesting applications. I want to be a user and or a developer for most of it! I see a cool site and I can't help but think, how did they do that, and I want to build one just like it to see if I can figure it all out. Alas, I need to be the FIRST to build something. I do not see the potential for things to make money, I guess I just don't see the world like that.

Note to self: Make and keep your goals for life.

Monday, August 20, 2007

Liquid Cooling Garment!

Modeled after what NASA uses to cool off astronauts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_Cooling_and_Ventilation_Garment
I'm thinking of taking a length of tubing, sewing it to coveralls or a nylon "warm-up" style suit and using a submersible water pump (http://www.mainlandmart.com/aquapump.html) in a simple soda cooler full of ice and water. Using valves similar to those used on IV tubing the system will not leak while off the bike and the tubing will not need to be refilled for each ride.

Maybe I will need to use a sealed circulation system using antifreeze for the circulatory fluid and a reservoir of ice water to cool through a radiator to ward-off growth inside the tubes. Or just pump chlorine or vinegar through it once in a while... not sure :P

or maybe just use something like this: http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/4/19/448/1388/ITEM/SixSixOne-Core-Cooler-Personal-Radiator.aspx

Monday, August 13, 2007

Hit by a car!

Well it finally happened, I have now been intimately acquainted with a car on the streets of LA!

Incident:

I was traveling North bound on Canoga avenue and while passing through the Oxnard intersection I noticed a car staged in the exit of the Fry's parking lot making a right into the one way flow of traffic. I moved from my lane, lane #2, into the #1 lane (of fast lane) on the assumption that the car would pull out into the center lane, the one I was in. As I continued on my way I realized the car only paused in its progression to the center lane and was QUICKLY entering my lane! I swerved toward the center median and hit the gas hoping to pull myself out of danger. I got most the way out of harms way but was struck by the front left corner of the car, about the wheel well or so. The impact was over so suddenly I am still unsure what EXACTLY had happened. My foot peg (the thing I stand on) is gone, and the foot brake pedal is bent, badly. As close as I can figure the car hit my shin (based on the bruise and the melted hole on my riding paints) and that must have pushed my foot out of the way of the foot well and in-turn kept my foot attached to my leg.

I waved the driver over to the side and got off my bike, naturally a bit shaken!

The driver of the car and I exchanged accusations, he said I hit him because plainly I must have turned left from Oxnard and run (50-70 yards) and hit him! I was astonished! A witness pulled over and offered his contact info to me, the driver that hit me asked for the witness's description of events.

The witness said he was surprised I didn't go down, and told the driver that I had been riding in the #1 lane and he (the driver that hit me) changed lanes into me, almost killing me!

The driver that hit me quieted down and began apologizing.

Estimate:

1 foot peg = $100
1 Brake lever = $50
Labor = $140
New paints = $150

Still able to do a Scottish jig = Priceless!