things go bad and then get better

On Tuesday evening I come home from work to find my motorcycle tipped over and leaking antifreeze. So I called my insurance and the police to make a claim. When the police officer begins to leave the parking lot I look over at the driver's side fender of my truck and notice that there is some pretty major damage there. And at that time I remember how my truck was "squeeking" when I turned a low speeds. So I filed a second police report for a hit and run on my truck the night before. I couldn't believe that I had two insurance deductibles to pay all at once now!

The week went on and I found out that the hit and run caused over $3000 in damage with over $1200 damage to my suspension alone. The guy really must've wacked my truck hard. I also get a call stating that my motorcycle will be filed as a total loss since its value is less than the cost of repairs. Now this may sound bad, but think about it. This means the insurance will give me money for the value of my bike minus my deductible! My deductible for my truck is paid for!!!! I will miss having a bike, but really I need the cash more and I wanted to get a new bike next year anyway. If I have the cash, I will do that.

Then on Friday I worked until midnight. The whole day I was disturbed by my boss repeatedly for status updates. I work faster than 9/10 of my co-workers on SW builds and I really didn't appreciate the constant pestering. I understand he was only bugging me because his manager was bugging him for updates constantly. That still didn't stop me from getting annoyed and giving him overly verbose updates just so he'd get off my back :P Anyway I told him that I was going to dinner and if he needed the build finished when I was away that he could have somebody else start where I left off. And I think by this time he had noticed that I was giving him such up-to-the minute updates because I was frustrated because he replied saying that my work was really appreciated and that I could hand over the build if I wanted to. But that wasn't the part worth writing home about. He told me that because of my hard work, he had given me a BRAVO award and bonus. This award is given to people who go above and beyond their job description and I don't think that many people are getting this award in such a tough time for the company. So this really made my day. The award gets put in my permanent file as well so this will help me career-wise when I am looking for a promotion or to negotiate a raise. This is really the best thing to happen to me at work. So things did get better, all around.

my life in pictures

Yamaha FZ6

I have found a new bike that I want. (If I ever get the money) It really has about everything that I want in a bike right now. And this bike is the Yamaha FZ6. Believe it or not, the thing that won me over hands down with this bike was the center stand. Most bikes don't come with them anymore, and this makes it a lot easier for them to tip if you inadvertently park it on asphalt on a hot day.

Besides the center stand, this bike as a lot of features that won me over from the Suzuki SV650 and Kawasaki Ninja 650.

• Larger 5.1 gallon tank
• Digital speedometer
• Digital fuel gauge
• Digital temperature gauge
• Dual headlights (more visibility)
• 4 cylinders (smoother ride)
• higher seat height (I'm tall)
• comes in blue (the Ninja 650 doesn't come in a color I like for 2008)
• Has less fairing than the Ninja 650

And most importantly, the exhaust sounds super cool :P

The down sides are the following

• under seat exhaust (possibly hot, and less storage)
• battery under fuel tank (harder to get to than most bikes)
• $500 more than the Ninja 650 (although, I'd pay that much more for the smoother 4 cylinders, dual headlights, and digital display!)

Even with those down sides, the bike is still the all around winner. It has very little fairing, so the bike looks like a bike and not some plastic toy on 2 wheels. It's got a lower displacement engine (so that it won't be too powerful for my novice skills). And I really think it'll save me gas money. Of course, the time it would take me to repay $6,999 on gas with 20MPG savings would be astronomical. But still... it's a cool bike :)

Life's boring

That's why I haven't posted anything lately. Well that reason and I've been busy doing work in the evening. I swear, I'm never going to get this house built. Banks are ridiculous! What else? My motorcycle is dead. The brake caliper started seizing and I didn't notice, so the rotor is scratched. So I have to replace the caliper, rotor, and brake pad. That's a pretty penny. I shou'dve bought a newer bike.

It was warm outside this weekend. So that made it enjoyable. I am buying a new bicycle. I found a pretty good deal on a bike at Dick's. It has 21 speeds, front shocks and a shock on the seat so it should be a pretty comfortable ride. They call it a comfort bike, but it's built like a mountain bike except the tires have a less aggressive tread. It's $160. That's a little pricey, but seeing as I bought a bike at Target for that much on Saturday that I found out was way too small for me after riding it. I decided to get a bike from a real sporting goods store where they had bike frame sizes for people over 6'. I wish i hadn't left my dad's old bike outside so much in college. If I had brought it out of the rain and snow and all that junk, it'd still be ridable today. My mom's bike still looks new. It's been garaged since 1990 :)

Look Ma, no booboos!

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/03/24/poof-no-injuries-motorcycle-airbag-suit/

It looks like motorcycle jacket developers are finally implementing airbags to prevent injury during a fall off a bike. I for one really welcome this because single vehicle crashes account for about half of all accidents. I mean imagine half of all accidents having people walk out with only bruises and no broken bones. Most of the impact is on your torso during this kind of accident. I'm also assuming that everybody wears helmets :P Anyway, follow the link to see the video of how the system works!

I beat K to it!

The Chicago Spire

My weekend was pretty laid back because I have some crazy sinus cold that just kicked in Saturday morning. I hope it goes away Monday, that would be great! Anyway, on Friday, I hung out at Kristin's house and just lounged around. We talked a lot. I dunno what we talked about though. The cold is making me delirious!

Saturday, I watched a lot of TV in the morning and learned a quick way to make puff pastry, how to brine a pork roast (soak in salt water) and that Donald Trump is building a 90 story building in Chicago. Of course, that will be ironically "trumped" by a 150 story building scheduled to be finished in 2009 in the north side of Chicago. This building will be the tallest in north America, and strangely it will look like a giant screw. After that I rode my bike 10.4 miles to the youth group leader thing I do at the church. That was a lot of fun! I wore earplugs for the first time and it was so peaceful and quiet. I found myself becoming overly comfortable while riding like this so I made it a point to remind myself that I have to maintain 100% attention and scan for potential hazards just like they taught me in class! Luckily my nose behaved for the whole bike ride! After the youth group I ordered fried rice and watched Donnie Darko with Kristin. I still don't completely understand what the director was trying to get at in the movie. But I think Donnie could travel through time or something. Or he was just super crazy!

On Sunday, Kristin and I made white bean and chicken chili, sweet potato chips, with some special cornbread muffins with green onions, sour cream, sharp cheddar, and creamed corn inside. They were very soft and moist. With a little tweaking they could be some fantastic snacks! My nose is driving me crazy today and I think the cold is worse, but what can I do but wait it out... well I guess I could take 6 Sudafed, 1 Claritin, 2 Tylenol, and one vitamin! That oughta fix it! wait.... nope, didn't help.

Riding a motorcycle

It really is a different experience. I've been riding for a little bit now and I am finally getting used to how it feels. The wind and the movement of the bike due to road grooves and imperfections was the hardest to get over. But once you get used to the fact that the bike will move around a little and nothing catastrophic will happen, then it's not too bad! I've got a few hundred miles under my belt now so any time I'll be a pro, j/k!

Kristin rode on the road for the first time today. I am so proud of her :P

Last Weekend (and Monday)

I had a pretty fun-filled weekend and I really enjoyed it. On Friday, I went hot tubbin' I still can't believe I didn't know there was a spa in the club house all this time... I'm gonna use that thing like all the time now!

Saturday was a very busy day. I woke up at the crack of dawn.... well 7AM... so that I could get to the DMV to have class M added to my license. However, I was planning on going up with Kristin, but when she came over that morning, she forgot her course completion certificate (that you need to waive the written and riding test) so I decided that I'd just go on Monday. In the afternoon, Kristin, her sister, and I went to Lynfred Winery for a tasting and a tour. They gave us a lot of wine, and at first I was trying to drink it all, but eventually I asked for less in the glass. Kristin and her sister asked for a lot less after their first "samples." It was pretty fun though. After the winery, we needed to walk off all that wine so Kristin and I went to the local nature center and park and I explained the finer subtleties of milkweed and Kristin told me all about the park. After the enlightening walk, we both went to church and then met up with the church's youth/young adult group for a BBQ. Everybody was nice, but it seemed like everybody was just too nice and it made me a bit uncomfortable. I like it when people don't act all fake. Who knows maybe they're all just genuinely nice. I'm just not used to that.

2008 Chevrolet Camaro

But the day wasn't over! Next we went to see the Transformers movie. It made me want to buy the new 2009/2008 Camaro instead of the new 2008 Challenger. GM is doing a much better job keeping the Camaro on people's minds than Chrysler is with the Challenger. Chrysler is keeping the Challenger development pretty secret and most consumers know just about nothing about the thing except to expect only a high-end SRT version the first year and have the regular models come out the second year. Nobody even knows for sure if a manual transmission will be offered on the base models. If they don't that'd be sad and I think a lot of people would be upset that it was not an option on a powerful sports coupe. The Camaro will definitely have a manual option, which is what I'd get if I bought a sports car. If you can't handle the manual, you don't deserve to have a sports car :P But back to the movie, It was very action packed and it made me remember my childhood days. Kristin was right about it though, it was a guy movie. I'm glad she came anyway.

After all that fun on Saturday, I relaxed in the morning on Sunday and then Kristin and I went to a wave pool in the area and we relaxed for at least 4 hours. I have sunburn! I put tanning lotion on my lower arms, face and neck because those are the only tan parts of my body, so none of that is burnt, but I have a red patch on my body that looks like I was wearing a sizzling hot t-shirt. It's fun! After that, we went on a long bike ride around the area and we raced and Kristin won. Shhh don't tell anybody.

I missed lunch technically because we went to the water park around 12:00. So I was hungry at about 5:00. We decided to go to Bahama Breeze and eat some Caribbean food. I had the jerk chicken pasta and Kristin had a Cuban sandwich. I wasn't too impressed with either however. I could not taste any jerk flavoring on my chicken because it was sliced almost deli-style. But the food definitely had a good flavor. I just wanted jerk-flavor! Kristin's Cuban, seemed American, with it's salami and lettuce and tomatoes. It had plain mustard on it too, which I'm not a big fan of. I blame my dad for forcing us to eat it on our sandwiches as children! I love brown, spicy, honey, Dijon, and about any other mustard, just not the plain. After the restaurant we watched Arachnophobia. It was not as exciting as I had hoped it would be. By today's standards the movie was very slow and not very suspenseful. It really is amazing how much movies have changed since 1990. Back then, people thought that movie was awesome.

Since I didn't get my license on Saturday I decided to wake up at 6AM on Monday to make it to the DMV at 8AM. I thought I had read that they opened at 8AM. Well, they do on Wed-Sat. But after arriving at 7:40, I find that they are closed on Monday and they open at 9AM on Tuesday! So I still don't have my license. But I plan on going around lunch and getting it done for sure!

At work, they are starting to force people to get their new ID badges. I was trying to let mine completely fall apart before I got my new vertical-oriented badge. I mean it was only half peeled and the clip was holding together pretty well with tape. It still had a lot of life left in it! But now I like the new badge because it is all pristine and not warped or peeling :)

All done

I'm completely done with my motorcycle class. I am not a proficient *cough* motorcyclist and I feel like I can do anything!!! woohoo! Actually riding a motorcycle is a serious responsibility and should not be taken lightly. Being a responsible rider means constantly riding with your full attention and most critical thinking to avoid hazards. So everybody who rides bikes should remember to be safe. The End :)

Weekend Fun

Starting off with Six Flags on Thursday was just the beginning to a great weekend! I took the day off and went to the dentist and had all the bulbs replaced behind my instrument cluster. I can now tell what speed I am going at night again! After all that I headed to Six Flags for the evening and I had a great time because the lines were short and I got to spend time with my favorite buddy Kristin!

Friday was very laid back. Kristin and I just went to the store to buy our required gear for the motorcycle class and we watched The Manchurian Candidate.

calathea ornata

Saturday was great because I got free plants! Kristin gave me two gift certificates for a greenhouse that she'd gotten from work that were worth $40! So I bought two awesome plants! One was a calathea ornata, which has very dark leaves with beautiful pink stripes that look like they were painted on with a brush. The other plant was a Madagascar jasmine. This vine is supposed to grow several feet long and have fragrant white flowers.

Later that day the motorcycle fun began. We learned the basics of motorcycle operation and even had the chance to ride them. Everybody in the class caught on quickly and I was surprised at how easy they were to operate even though there practically 4 ways to kill the engine... Fuel cutoff switch, ignition key, engine kill button and lastly releasing the clutch when the bike is in gear and holding the front brake!

Sunday was much of the same thing. But first we went to church, then more motorcycle class. This time we made it all the way up to 3rd gear. Although I swear the guy in front of me wasn't shifting because at several times when we were supposed to be in 3rd gear, he was going about 15mph and my engine was about to bottom out so I had to engage the clutch and break several times! I was impressed with how well Kristin was doing especially since she doesn't know how to drive a manual transmission car! The instructor said that I was a fast driver, but I was only trying to see what the bike handled like around cones and on turns in a safe environment. I'd rather learn this in a parking lot than on the street when swerving around a pot hole can be life or death if a mistake is made.

I'd like to emphasize for all the people that may be fearing for my safety on a motorcycle that I do not currently plan to buy a bike, but if I do decide to within the next couple of months, it will have a small engine and I will be driving in places where there is little traffic and at low speeds for at least a year. I don't want to get hurt either folks! I talked to a couple people that ride bikes regularly, and one who has been doing it for 14 years. He even has a street bike (speed bike), and they have never been injured while riding. During one of the safety videos, a guy said that the only incidents he has ever been in (close calls or car crashes) were partially due to his inattention, or risky driving. And I do think that is true, if you are riding a bike with your full attention and at safe speeds and actively accessing potential risks all around you, you should be able to avoid 99.5% of accidents pro actively.