Kalimat al-Mutafalsif

Pretty things are always dangerous, you heard me right. You can see the truth in this everywhere you look. In nature most animals have learned that if whatever they're trying to eat is pretty, it usually has some form of poison. Look at deep sea creatures, get drawn to a light and its always a predator. As humans we can even see this in bars, the prettier she is the quicker and more painful the shoot down will be. (Ok, I kid on the last one, but felt I needed a third example).

The same principle goes for riding motorcycles, if its pretty it ends up being dangerous. A specific example is the fall. I love riding in the fall as it reminds me of when I was learning how to ride and there's a nice crispness in the air. That throttle snaps just a tad quicker than in the hot mugginess of summer. The roar of your pipes carry just a tad further across the still morning, scattering herds of deer that a few months ago would have been asleep and off the roads by this time. Finally you get to ride in the most beautiful display of foliage fireworks you'll get all year. Explosions of red and yellow and orange flash past as you lean through the turns and push that crisp air just a tad harder than you did during the summer, racing to get one more run in before your tires are too cold to really lean.

And that's when it gets you, you round a corner, blast through that patch of leaves that you expect to fly up around you like in the commercials and all of a sudden you're sliding off into the trees which aren't quite as pretty when you're hurtling headfirst through branches and road signs. What happened? Well, those pretty leaves which you were enjoying happened to still be wet underneath from the rains yesterday or the day before. As you were mid corner your rear wheel caught a pocket of wet leaves that acted exactly like ice and you lost the rear, leading to a good fast low side and gear check. Its exactly like riding a bicycle over a crushed water bottle, all of a sudden something's stuck under your wheel and instead of being connected to the road you're sliding. And once you lose the rear, its game over on a motorcycle.

Yes, riding in the fall is gorgeous, and I love it. Had a great ride today (in the wet) with leaves showering down around my helmet (the road appears completely different on two, you're surrounded by the leaves swirling around you) and a gray sky bringing out the difference in colors all around. But you always have to remember, if its pretty its probably more dangerous. So ride just a tad easier when you come to a leaf filled road, as fun as the commercials are you don't want to take the chance of hitting a wet patch underneath the top layer, or a pothole that's been covered, or a sewer grate that might still be cold, wet, metal that will love to just eat your wheel for dinner.

Ride to live, period.

My last post was about getting out on a dirt bike to do stuff I felt completely uncomfortable doing, for the sake of practice. It turns out this is more important than I thought.

Last night I went to a local shop that was having a seminar on tires and chains, and it was awesome. Now, I knew as I was leaving that I'd be hitting rain, but it didn't look like it'd get terribly nasty, and, hey, I have the gear for it! When I left I packed everything up (zip-lock bags for everything I care about, rain pants on over my jeans and pads, plastic bags inside my boots) in case I hit rain before getting to the shop. Only bit that I carried with without wearing was my rain jacket as it was HOT out (in all black leather). I learned all this on my trip back from Indiana, and how important staying dry is for maintaining your concentration. The last 5 miles or so of my trip to the shop was a mad dash through the rain, rather than putting my jacket on, as I was close enough that I didn't want to stop. However, I got there almost on time, and mostly dry.

The seminar was great, I learned a ton, but some people kept asking questions, and I saw the sky outside get darker, and darker. Finally we got to the end (checking out the bikes of the few people that road) and I got mine in second. After thanking everyone for putting it on (free of charge!) I geared up to roll out.

To set the stage, it was about 9:15, pitch black, and thunder storming, but I assumed that I was good to go. I had all my gear (except for rubber kitchen gloves under my leathers, as I felt I'd be done soon enough) on and had 240 miles of rainy riding at Interstate speeds with rain gear, and forced myself to experience riding without rain gear for about 10-15 miles in pouring rain just in case. I was fairly confident that if I just stayed off the major highways I'd be fine. That little instinct probably saved me a world of hurt.

As I pulled out onto the first road I flipped my face shield down to block out the rain, and was a bit annoyed at how dirty it was. I tried to wipe it off, but it didn't help. With rain on there, and probably all the bug guts and dirt from my Indiana trip, any ambient light washed out my vision completely. Cars coming towards me rendered my vision useless. I started to experiment with opening the face shield slightly over the next mile, but I simply couldn't see any signs well enough to read them, or judge distances in the best of circumstances, and couldn't even see my speedometer in the worst.

50 miles from home, that late at night, there's not too many options. I could have stopped, tried to clean my helmet (with what?), tried to figure out how to cut down on glare from cars (it has a built in sun visor), or kept riding and opened the shield. I kept riding and opened the shield.

From my experience coming home from Rolling Thunder I knew what rain felt like on bare skin, and hard rain through leathers, but I'd yet to be smacked in the face by it at speed. Its not fun without goggles, as every time you turn your head to check a cross street, look down to check your speedometer, or look up to read a sign rain blasts into your eyes, and of course you can't close them, you're moving at speed. In addition, simply looking forwards your face is getting smacked by rain... and water at 50mph stings.

After a few miles on the outskirts of the town this shop was in, it started to really suck. The street lights started disappearing, the street moved down to one lane, and my glasses were well and truly soaking wet. My vision was maybe at 100 feet, and for pot holes and debris in the road it was literally when I hit it, I'd know. I basically picked a mini-van, and stayed behind it, following their lights into the darkness. Then we got into tree-lined on both sides, and there was no ambient light, I actually preferred this, as with no cars coming I could actually see! However, with cars coming I was again unable to see anything but the car's headlights.

Around here, sucky turned worse. My engine started sputtering when I'd idle. So the first stop light I pulled up to, I saw my RPMs start dropping, the engine coughed, and she shut off. Not this again. This happened in the rain storm after Rolling Thunder, and the only solution was to keep RPMs up around 5-7k (idle is around 2k). As I'd rev, great spouts of steam would come flying out the front of my bike like a pissed off dragon coming awake (it'd be colored red from the car tail lights in front of me). Naturally this means that to stop I couldn't clutch in, drop to first gear, and brake. I had to clutch in, set my throttle quickly to about 50% and brake (using on the front brake in the water) while holding the throttle in the same hand. Cramp Buster saved my life... maybe literally. Oh, and fun fact, if your glasses' lenses are at the temperature of air moving at 30mph, and soaking wet, what happens when you stop at a light? That's right, completely fogged up. One hand on the clutch, one on the throttle/brake... there's no way to take them off and nothing to clean them with if you could.

So the rest of the 30 miles to home is a blur of adrenaline influenced memories of lighting cracking overhead, thunder rolling by (only at stop lights, couldn't hear it as I was moving), pot holes barely avoided and not avoided, shoulders ridden on, medians missed by inches, and me screaming the Dropkick Murphies' version of Amazing Grace into the night. I had two guys try to take me out, one caught himself, the other I had time to avoid.... I'm sure he saw me, simply didn't care. Ate water from a semi cab hitting a pot hole next to me, and nearly caught a deer (it crossed in front of the car behind me).

Most terrifying ride of my life.

But... I'd experienced riding in the rain, so that didn't scare me. I'd experienced what rain feels like on bare skin, so while it stung it didn't phase me past the first 5 minutes. I'd ridding at night and in thunder storms, so those weren't the bits that bugged me. What scared me was not knowing what was more than a second in front of me for more than 90% of that ride, and knowing that if something did come up I had no escape options. Thanks to the practice I forced on myself earlier in my riding career (and someone looking out for me), this situation turned out alright. I made it home within an hour and a half, I didn't hit a single object, and I think my bike isn't very messed up. When I arrived home, I got off the bike, looked up into the sky, and pulled a Shawshank Redemption, amazed and thankful that I was home, and in one piece.

So the next time you think "Gee, I could do X, but its a little not good for it right now" ask yourself if you might ever be caught in the same situation without experiencing it. Then go out and experience it so you can have some control over the circumstances, I'm so thankful I did.

I bought Tina a little less than a month ago, she's my Yamaha XT350 dual sport (also called an enduro) which is a dirt bike that can also be used on the street, depending on what tires you put on.I'm enjoying her aside from two small problems.

The first is she is kick start. Now, this shouldn't be a shock as she's older than I am, but its different than the electric start I'm used to. Meaning, I actually have to work. For those that have never had the honor of trying to kick start a bike, its all technique, and before you have it down, its all frustration. You sit there and crank, crank, crank, trying to figure out where top dead center is, where the start of the combustion cycle is, and how much gas to feed in.

The other issue is, well... I'm only comfortable on a nice smooth road, perfect riding conditions and not much traffic around. Which leads to at least a small bit of nervousness when you remove any of the above conditions and replace it with something a little worse. Say, rain.... or a poorly paved road... or a dirt track that's NOT a road. When I got my first bike, I had to force myself to get on it... I'd enjoy it when riding, but before hand the idea of cars around me, or learning to turn faster made me not want to ride. So to buy a dirt bike was a promise to myself to suck it up, and try more of riding that scares me.

Naturally with a bike that I have problems starting and not liking to ride on anything worse than, oh, Pennsylvania interstate roads, I decided to go hit up a local rock (too big to call them gravel) road to get some practice. That's the sane thing to do, right?

Rode down the "road" once, and found a nice paved road on the other side. Figured I might just take that road home, my practice complete. Then I realized that on the 65th anniversary of D-Day, heralding our entry into World War II, I was going to take the cheap and easy way out. After that I had a better idea, I'd ride back up the rock road, STOP (forcing myself to practice breaking on a poor surface), then turn the bike off to take pictures.

With that in mind, I rode back up the road, skirted some water, came to a stop, and flicked the kill switch. I have to say it felt good to know I wasn't going the easy way, and the silence was quite nice. I took 10 minutes to walk around, take some pictures, and enjoy the gorgeous afternoon. Finally I got back on, took a few stabs at starting the bike, got her going, and rolled on home.

Practice makes perfect, and I intend to practice as much as it takes to feel comfortable on the dirt and comfortable starting the bike, even if I'll all alone in the middle of no where.

Weather forecast on Monday was rain all week, bleh. Needless to say when I stood up from my cube and saw the sunlight streaming through the window this afternoon I immediately thought of a ride. However, due to recent storms in the area I didn't really trust the roads (dirt washed into about half the intersections, sand into the other half, and still had some branches and stuff laying about from the trees that went down. Bummer... It being a cooler day due to the storms, I decided to get my roommate out to learn how to ride (ok, get a very beginner quick course) to see if he likes it.

I gave him a spare helmet, a nice leather jacket, my gauntlets (about the only non-expendable gear) and we took Tina out to a local parking lot that is used for the MSF course, so it had all the fun lines showing turns, braking lines, everything.

He did quite well, first we got used to the feel of the brakes by rolling forward and applying them. Then I had him feel the friction zone for the clutch by letting it out just until the wheel rolls forward the slightest bit. Then we did 'power walking': Letting the clutch out enough to roll forwards, giving it a tad of gas, and walking along with the bike. After that he wanted to pick his feet up so he did two 1st gear passes of the lot, staying upright. Finally we wanted to see 2nd gear, so I gave him the longest shot across the lot, and he managed to get up into it twice before we called it a day! Quite successful, with only two stalls and no drops.

But what struck me most was the memories it brought back. I did my course in the middle of summer (about 10 months ago) so it was a little hotter, but the smell was the same. There's something to the smell that a small 'thumper' engine gives off that just takes me back. The nervousness of dropping the bike, the joy that first time you pick your feet up onto the pegs, the realization that counter-steering actually works... all of it. It was nice being on the other side of the bike this time, and giving some one else that experience, although I have to say the nervousness of the bike going down is still there.

It was an afternoon well spent. I'd highly recommend everyone spend an afternoon like that learning how to ride. Even if you don't end up a rider, you may never touch a bike again. But you'll feel the wind in your face, and the bike responding to your input and you'll realize why people say "Live to Ride, Ride to Live".

Rolling Thunder is a motorcycle gathering/parade to publicize POW/MIA issues. "To educate the public that many American prisoners of war were left behind after all previous wars and to help correct the past and to protect future veterans from being left behind should they become prisoners of war-missing in action." The main portion of this event is a parade through downtown Washington, DC, from the Pentagon around the Mall, however many riders come from all over, and there's smaller groups that journey together from California every year which is just as much a part of 'Rolling Thunder'. All told, the bikes participating in the event is in the hundreds of thousands (now-a-days over a quarter million to 300 thousand), while the number of total bikers descending on the city is even greater (some like to ride in before the parade and park to see the memorials).

Ride route:

I've been attending this for the past 7 years, the first 6 as a spectator, and this year as a rider. It is an experience both ways.

As a spectator you get to enjoy DC, seeing the popular sights, and have the backdrop of hundreds of thousands of bikers rumbling past just a few feet a way. You can usually feel the parade up to a block away on some of the faster sections. In addition you can walk around, see the vendors there, listen to some good patriotic music, and witness people paying final respects to comrades from years ago. Its very powerful to see giants of men stepping off chromed out behemoth bikes and breaking down crying at the Wall.

As a rider you get to spend a lot of time waiting around, that's the route I went this year. Got down to the pentagon parking lots (staging grounds for the parade) around 10am.

I believe I was in lot 3 of 5, but no one knew for sure... all we knew was we could see a few thousand bikes in each direction.

Of course, its not *just* for bikes. There's some appropriately painted trikes, trucks, and cars.

Finally after 3 and a halfish hours, it was time to roll out! The excitement level shot way up at this point, and the noise was deafening with everyone revving their engines, good to go.

Sadly my timing got off and I thought the camera was on when it was off, and vice versa, but managed to get some footage of the parade. You'll notice my hands are bear... I always wear my gear, but for 10 miles an hour in 80ish degree weather, I was stripped down to just my helmet for protective gear. I wouldn't have had that on but I thought it was required.

I like this one as a shot at the Capital... I thought I was taking pictures, nope, video. Oh well.

You cans ee my confusion here... I "turn it off" twice (when my hand goes over the frame). I only include it to show the guy giving everyone high-fives (I obliged him) towards the end. His hand musta been HURTING.

And the last segment, ended by my pulling over on the off ramp to gear up and get gone.

It was a great experience. Met some cool people, heard some stories, saw some awesome bikes. Best of all I was able to show some support for those in the military now, and vets, something we don't do enough. I'll be back next year, you can bet on that.

Currently I have two bikes in my stables (sadly, simply a parking space out front with the bikes crammed into it).

1985 Yamaha XT 350 - "Tina"
This is a FUN little bike that I just got yesterday. It's 24 years young, and still running in near tip-top shape. It looks no worse than my 14 year old bike did, so she's got many years left in her.

This is a dual-sport with semi-knobby tires that I intend to use for some street putt-putting around for groceries and the like locally, then learning how to ride on dirt and off-road as well. In addition, I have a few friends who want to learn how to ride, and I'll show them a thing or two on here as I don't think it can be that hurt from one fall.

2001 Suzuki SV650 - "Qarina"
This is my main bike, and my main love right now. She's an '01 SV that was chopped up a bit to be a nice streetfighter. The front end was swapped out for an '07 GSXR 600 front, the handle bars were replaced with clip-ons, some good shocks are in there, and the pipe's an old one that's not made anymore that sounds beastly. Then everything was painted black. Gorgeous.

I use this bike for everything... from runs to the store to runs 5 states west. She's teaching me confidence in my tires, and how to go fast in turns, not just straights. I average about 200 miles a week on her, and its no where near enough.

I've been silent because I've been busy with a few things. Chief among these is exploring my passion for motorcycles. I've put darn close to 3000 miles on the bike I bought mid-February, 1448 of which were a trip to Indiana that last 8 days. It was a wonderful experience, everything looks better on a bike.

(Click for high-res version)

I got my motorcycle a little over 4 months ago and had a blast learning how to ride, enjoying taking the slower roads, and having a new way to clear my mind of any issues. She was a good little bike, not too underpowered, and on a warm afternoon she'd pull all the way from first to 6th beautifully!

Unfortunately I've learned that that warm spirit takes a mean turn into cold distance as the temperature goes down... the hard way. So for those of you who met Kari, bid your farewells, she's on her way out. What i thought would be an amicable break up is really going to be me dumping her for as much as I can get. Before I post the picture of the day, I'll point out that I'm 100% ok, and she didn't go down or anything, just had issues with staying on... while I was doing a fair clip... 70 miles from home... up in the mountains... way after dark... when I didn't have cold weather gear.

So, without further ado, I present Dead Bike Walking!

Now to go find another way to plug the hole in my heart, already have a few plans in motion, but I'll wait to see what pans out before posting about Kari's replacement. Unfortunately it'll take a bit longer than I'd hoped due to the cost of a tow home, even with roadside assistance on my insurance.

Its been a long time since I've written anything, I've kept busy at work and at play. On the work side I'm going to look into what it will take for me to actually run Three Planets as a real company, mainly for tax purposes and my own sanity. On the play side, there's been a LOT more developments.

I just picked up a motorcycle about two months back since one thing I love to do while stuck on some code is drive. Naturally I figured that riding would be an even better escape. It turns out it is, but I'm concentrating too much on the riding to be able to head-code. The upside is, this is probably the most fun activity I've ever found. So, meet Kari:

I realized on Sunday that I've put 1000 miles on her in the month and the week since I got my license, not too shabby considering I probably spent on the low side of $100 of gas for that entire time! Since she's an older bike, I'm doing as much of the maintenance as I can, so that I'll only need a mechanic for major operations. More on that later.

I also (very, very recently) decided to get into Gun smithing. To that end, I'm going to be making an AR-15 over the next month(s), and keeping track of my progress here.

So, what do the two new activities have in common? Both of them stem at least partially from an interest to be reliant upon only myself for work. This comes from the programming I do, where I have chided others for not thinking outside of the box, and really doing anything they want with the code. It finally dawned on me that that goes in all walks of life, and you can even approach it in the same way.

Lets take the Gun smithing, for example. I'm approaching this from a design perspective first. I laid out what I want to use the gun for, then set my constraints (money), and planned out the parts. This is exactly the same method I take for programming: First I'll plan out how I want it to look/act, figure out what corners I have to cut to keep it within my memory/CPU/bandwidth bounds, then start with the functions.

In this case I decided I want something for (eventually) match target shooting, for medium ranges (100-600 yards). My constraints were that I wanted to build it all myself, short of fabricating the parts, and that i didn't want to spend more than $700 on the total cost. So far I've decided on the following:

• DPMS Lower Receiver, stripped (already purchased)
• DPMS Lower Receiver parts (already purchased)
• Advanced Technology 6-position collapsible stock
• Ergonomic pistol grip
• 20" chrome lined barrel (not sure of manufacturer yet)
• Flat top upper receiver with rails
• Generic bolt/bolt carrier, stripped

It should be a really fun project, I look forward to learning a new machine and how it all works. This will also mean that from now on my firearms will be like my computers, completely unique, and I'll have an intimate working knowledge of each and every part.

So why now? Why am I trying to learn all this new stuff once I get out of college, and not while I was in it? The answer here stems from some conversations I've had about why I enjoy firearms, and thoughts I've had after them. The short answer is: "I'd rather learn how to shoot now, when I don't need to, than later when I need to, but don't know how." I don't think carrying rifles in public is necessary, though I am a vocal defender of the 2nd amendment, however I do think it is very short-sighted to assume you'll never need to use a firearm, and therefor write them off. Didn't you learn how to change a tire, even though you may never need to, perform CPR in gym class, or how to balance an equation in science (or for the scientist, write in plain English, or not blow up the world)? Sure, all of those will be needed a whole lot more than shooting, but other than CPR shooting might be the most important to know if any of those situations came up.

Now, I considered myself set once I learned safety, and how to aim properly. But lately I've been thinking that its really short-sighted of me to assume the rifle will work perfectly all the time. More importantly, I don't know when its not working at 100%, because I don't understand it all. Just like the sorority girls whose computers I'd clean up at the end of the school year, I might not realize all the junk that is building up inside my gun. So, I've decided that I need to know at least basic gun smithing, just in case. Knowing this will keep me, and those around me when I shoot, a whole lot safer in the long run, plus save me money!

The motorcycle is the same story. I have no idea what's going on, and if you read up on an inline-4 engine, there's really no excuse for that. So again, I'm teaching myself basic mechanics in order to keep my machines running as smoothly and safely as possible.

And if you think about it, these skills of checking the usual fail points, oiling the squeaky parts, and throwing your own custom parts in, are the same across many fields, not just mechanics, gun smithing, and programming. So get out there, and get yourself head first into a new field today!