I should be doing significant things with my brain, my words, and my time. I could be writing about Serbian elections, or the impossibility of reconciling love and practicality, or even about Oscar nominations.
Instead, all I want to do is play Bookworm Adventures.
So I went on a group ride with the crew from 530riders.com on Saturday. It was a fun ride, lasting about 4 hours with a few rest stops… but unfortunately, the end of the ride saw me lowsiding the Ninja on Russell, coming back in to Davis. I followed the person in front of me too closely and didn’t notice them reduce speed drastically in the first part of a 40mph sweeping left turn. I hit the brakes to avoid tagging his back tire, went off the pavement, and lost traction. The bike slid out from under me, and we both skidded about 30 feet on grass and dirt to end up in a ditch.
Damage to me: one bruised elbow.
Damage to gear: armor is a bit green, burrs everywhere, helmet is iffy and being replaced.
Damage to Ninja: right handlebar insert snapped, right footpeg/rearset snapped, right front turn signal popped off, left front turn signal housing/lens broken, sidestand bent, and the all-important Vacaville Motorsports license plate frame snapped. Light scratches to the plastics.
Lesson: DON’T TAILGATE! Also, for in-turn panic braking, straighten out, brake hard, resume turn - don’t try to brake and turn simultaneously.
Here’s a link to the group ride thread… the last three pages or so have commentary on the ride, as well as pictures. Here’s a link to my Flickr photoset of pictures I took on the ride… nothing too exciting there, though.
I just got a voicemail from the dealership in San Jose that Rosette has been sitting at for five months. They FIXED HER!
Two weeks after I bit the bullet on the Ninja. It figures, don’t it?
Tony Chung is a good friend of mine from high school, and one talented cat. We made a little bit of music together back in school, and would probably have continued to do so if I had been better. 
He went on to do crazy things, including recording and releasing a Chinese album in Taiwan! I wish I had that kind of drive….
Anyway, he’s always spreading out into more and more venues for success, and his current one is a Lebron James commercial music contest. I don’t really know the details, but he needs support in the voting at the contest website. I’ve listened to what he submitted, and as usual, it’s completely awesome. If I’d known he could make hip-hop beats as well as completely rocking the piano and guitar, I would never have stopped rapping…. So let’s help him out a little bit, and check out this video message from him about the contest details!
Since reinstating my World of Warcraft account in December, after about a year and a half away from the game, I’ve mostly been having semi-nightly sessions of an hour or so each with Alice. She’s somewhat in love with the game, helped a bit by the pets you can get: she’s a dwarf hunter, and currently has a bear pet (”Pooh”), as well as switching between a little kitten and a prairie chicken from the secret chicken quest as non-combat pets. While we play, she’s always cooing at Pooh, telling him what a good bear he is whenever he kills something… etc. It’s absolutely adorable.
Anyway, most of my playtime has been with her. She’s got her female dwarf hunter (marksmanship), and I’ve got a male gnome mage (fire spec), both 17 right now. Today I spent a couple of hours while she’s been in class on catching my “main” up a bit. She’s a human rogue (assassination), and I’ve spent very little time with her, compared to how much I used to play before I quit the first time. Mainly I just bounce around with her any time I have a hankering for some grinding, pounding out quests, nabbing loot, and collecting herbs and leather to mail off to the other two characters. I’d forgotten how enjoyable it was to just do some mindless grinding. WoW, I’m glad you’re back in my life, even if it’s in a limited manner!
It’s not new to me, but lately I keep coming back to the Shins’ album Chutes Too Narrow. I’m generally a pretty mainstream kind of guy, so I’m not trying to claim any special indie cred or anything, but I like every song on that album a whole lot more than any of the (really decent) songs that have floated around since the band got really popular.
I’ve also been listening to a lot of Avenged Sevenfold’s City of Evil… go figure. Also, Rise Against’s The Sufferer and the Witness.
The Alliance Vehicles page has been created and updated with information about Eug’s vehicles. The future will bring Alice’s car, as well as other interesting vehicles Eugene is involved with or has wrenched on.
The Nook has finally been reinitialized! It has now become the Franco-Taiwanese Alliance, to reflect current events.
Welcome! Try not to break anything, please.