adding from scribefire
Well, I just might have to start updating this blog. I find that Scribefire has been updated. Cool!

silly video...if you are a parent, you'll laugh...and maybe anyway

Baby Fart

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myspace and facebook and tripod, oh my!

Not to mention email, both direct and group.  I throw a lot of verbiage out into cyberspace.

I'm having fun writing all this stuff, telling my stories.  Really, that's why I started doing this blog thing.  If I want to "be a writer", I simply have to write.  And if I want to write, I should have some sort of audience and a focus.  Sometimes I simply natter on, but I try to have something to say...not doing it too well at this moment.  Back to the question of where and why and how different the venues are.

I started to write bits about my cycling here.  Had I started it a couple of years before I did, I would have written about running.  And lately I've been writing (more over on MySpace than here) about my motorcycling.

I joined MySpace why?  Actually, must because I had heard about it, and because of one other person I knew.  Then I started finding more people I knew and a couple I did not, mainly other cyclists.  And that's when I started writing on the MySpace blog.  I had an audience.  I'm pretty surprised at the number of people who look, or the number of times the blog is viewed.

Facebook is more immediate for me than MySpace is.  The communications are short, and notifications are quick.  MySpace is more like a public bulleting board; Facebook is like leaving notes on your friends door.

And back to this Tripod blog.  Why use this one?  How many people read it?  I don't know.  But here, it's all about the writing; there are no other social aspects.  Also, this is not my only Tripod blog.  I run other blogs for my speech classes, and I add podcasts to them.  I may add video in the future.  I like the blog format because it is so easy to add things.

That's it.  I've answered my own question.  Good enough for today.

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bad kitty cat

from MySpace Videos

Bad Kitty Cat

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miles and miles

The odometer on the Suzuki reads around 11,800 miles, so I've put on close to 2,500 miles in eight weeks.  Not bad.  I don't know how many more days I've got to ride, though.  The winds have been buffetting me, and it gets a little brisk in the morning.  It may also be time to get some storage at the local place in order to have things under wraps for the winter. Five months would be about $150, I think.  Well worth it.

 

writing / being a writer
I think I've written seven or eight articles for the QCBC newsletter, which means I am writing.  I'm not exactly prolific, and I may have missed a month, but I've been consistent.  I've written a couple of good ones, a couple I've really liked, and a couple of snoozers.  I haven't written a horrific one yet, but it could happen.  A few people seem to like what I write; I've even had one piece of fan email.  Sweet!

been a month away from here

I do a lot of my blogging, if not all, over on MySpace these days, so I don't get here much.

Well, I'm legal now: I got my motorcycle license on Friday afternoon (Oct. 12).  I kicked myself to get over there, and the place was fairly empty when I got there.  However, my temporary insurance card had expired, and I had to wait about an hour, but when it came time to test, things could not have gone better.  I sailed through each of the four steps.  There's a box painted in the parking lot out back of the DMV.  First step is to ride down one side of the box, make a left turn inside some lines, make another left turn at the next corner, and then come to a stop with the front tire inside a box.  I did that fine, even did a nice little track stand for a second before putting my feet down.  Second task was to ride through some pylons, then do two right turns (reverse of the box) and then do a 180 inside prescribed bounds.  I'd had trouble with that one (hey, I had trouble with durn near everything in my other test), but this time, I turned the 650 inside the line required for 400s and smaller.  Third step was accelaration and stop.  I had to stop in either ten or thirteen feet; I stopped it in seven.  The fourth and last was an avoidance test, accelerate to a little intersection, then swerve left and stop.  No problem.

Yesterday, my gf and I went out to ride.  It ended up raining, first time for me.  I've ridden my bicycle in the rain, so it wasn't that new, but the speed was.  Everything went fine, except for the final intersection.  I was slowed almost to a stop, and my rear wheel just decided to kick out, and there I was, on my side.  I trashed two more of my signals and bent my rear brake pedal a bit.  Sooo, I'm shopping for signals on eBay and elsewhere on the web.

It's raining today; I won't be going out.  I was going to ride the mtb with friends, but that's not going to happen.  I also need to do homework for the class I'm taking.

I'm feeling a bit out of sorts, but I'll come out of it.   As I said, if you want more story, go over to MySpace.

commuted sentence

I've commuted on the Suzuki three or four times now, and each time I get more comfortable (oooh, scintilating relevation!)

It's true, nonetheless.  I actually enjoy traffic.  The cars give me a sense of space and pace.  Riding in traffic is kind of like racing.  I have to keep pace with the rest of the vehicles out there, and I simply.  I have to, so I do away with dillydallying.  A friend of mine told me that other day that I thought too much.  In some situations, yes, that's true.  I have to be confident in my judgements because I actually make pretty good ones.

I am just loving this bike.  Like my attitude towards buying the Zinn, I do not regret for one second buying the Suzuki.  It's just plain fun: not too strong, not too weak, lots of low-end torque, pretty forgiving.  Given what I paid for it, it's going to be a long time before I sell it, even if I buy another bike.  And there are now a good number of fun bikes I'm seeing out there.  BMWs, Urals, Royal Enfields, Triumphs, Suzukis.  I was interested in '70s Honda CB 750s, but I've got that basic bike in the form of the Suzuki I've got, so I think I should go a different direction.

Gotta go.  Keep the rubber side down.

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forty point nine miles later
On my Zinn this time.  A second Wednesday afternoon, hot and windy, but very enjoyable.  Two and a half hours, sixteen mph makes me a mid-pacer.  Sheesh!  But, that's where I am right now; I make no bones about that.  It's good to know that my friends want me out there, and that they'll take care of me.

a thousand miles later
I've been riding the wheels off my Suzuki, putting a thousand miles onto the odometer in the last two weeks.  One trip took me and the gf up past Savanna, IL, to Hwy 20 to turn around and come back down Hwy 84.  The other longish trip was up to Baldwin, IA, to the Tabor Winery, where they produce a nice deep red called Iowa St. Croix.  We found Hwy 136, a nice piece of twisty-turny 50mph road.  What a joy.  I've also commuted a couple of times and am loving it.  One problem, though: you can't carry a cup of coffee on a motorcycle, at least not if you are wearing a full-face helmet.