Loaded Duc

I am finally prepared, able and willing to make a pilgrimage to Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina by motorcycle via the "Broadway Across America", US-70.



If all remains quiet with work (please, please, PLEASE...remain quiet), I hope to begin the journey of my lifetime, to First Flight Airport, at 18:00 on Thursday, May 26th. It is a 17 hour ride to the Atlantic coast. I planning 3 hour, morning and afternoon rides plus the headstart on the first day. That puts me in Sea Level on Sunday. Monday morning, I'll ferry hop 4 hours north from Sea Level NC to Kill Devil Hills. Monday afternoon and Tuesday belong to the Wright Bros and Wednesday belongs to the beach sand. Thursday, I turn west along US-64 until it crosses US-70 for the return trip!


The Duc with panniers, top case, tail bag, fork/swingarm sliders, crash bars, my sweet shark evoline modular hat, motocomm riderlink and ipod (with top gun soundtrack).


Duc Garmin ready to lead me east


Crash bar and radiator guard.


Givi top case with light kit!

Owned.

An Engineer's target workload is 550 points. Here is a chart of the Engineering workload for the Southeast states. Who's that at the top of the game? I told you, Nashville is the center of the med tech universe...

Resolution

I resolve to put $1,000 in cash savings per month throughout all of 2011.

"Begin right and it will be easy. Continue easy and it will be right." --Chuang Tzu

Please don't take this as belittling the affliction, but I think we all as humans, particularly present company, suffer under ADD. It is the catch all diagnosis for everyone that falls through the holes of other disorders. This isn't entirely a bad thing. If we can get some growth out of recognizing and then tempering our more self-destructive tendencies, then hooray for us.

Therefore, I have come to the conclusion that I can better myself with a study of ADD. I've got to tell you, I've encountered some compelling information and eye-opening strategies in the first book that I am reading on the subject. 100 pages in and I have dog-eared 50 of them.

All of the following statements apply to me. This will be a living list as I get through more chapters.

1. The ADD mind "needs Intensely Compelling Motivations to grab their Dysregulated Selective Attention".
   This is the root of my problems. I can be intensely interested in tasks for a short turn, but it doesn't take much time before I experience what the book terms "Paralysis of Will". I don't want to do it anymore so I have zero willpower to motivate action.
2. The ADD mind "tend to process information at a mind-boggling pace and burn out just as quickly."
   Me to a T.
3. "The ADDer can be very touchy about being touched"..Some "don't like living with animals because pets don't have respect for their physical boundaries."
   Who does that sound like?
4. In addition to our physical comfort zone, we often feel our emotional space is encroached upon.
5. More to come as reading continues...

Microsoft Kinect...

Remember the holiday mania a few years back when no one could find the hot new Nintendo Wii and they were selling for $1,000 on ebay? The same might be happening with the Kinect. Gamestop reports that their PreOrders are Out of Stock. I have mine reserved. Hopefully, I will be flailing my arms around like an idiot on in a few weeks.

Bike Rally #1

"There's been a change in line-up. Nice to meet you Sally."

From 2010-10-15 Bike Rally

25th Anniversary

October 18th, 1985. The day that changed gaming forever.

Nintendo Entertainment System

I've still got a system. We should hook it up to my plasma and rock out on some Super Mario Bros.

Somebody stop me...

Crap...Nevermind. Carry on.



Motorbike seeking long weekend...

Countdown II

Got things going on for the next 5 weeks, but come October, let us welcome the Fall...

From

Tragic Epiphany

Sadly, I discovered what creates 'front butt' tonight.

What Happens In Vegas...

Party Countdown

If you don't know, you better ask somebody...

From Countdown

Covering my shame...

WITH AWESOME!

Hello World

Hello blog. How have you been? I know it has been a minute since we last spoke, but let's just blame it on my free-spirited independent streak. I make excellent progress just flying solo. You'll be proud to know that I've got A LOT done.

In the home arena, I now have a 15 year mortgage, skylights and new roof, new siding and shutters. I have put in attic stairs and have hired a contractor for my concrete driveway and detached deck. I'll probably end up hiring a mobile mechanic to help restore my little red sports car. Once that is done I can roll it outside and hire a contractor to finish the basement. I have discovered that one of the tenets of my life is that I hate doing physical labor and that I should hire people to do the things I don't like to do.

Finances are solid. I am anticipating at minimum a merit raise this year in addition to a 5% corporate bonus from profit sharing. Although I have been dropping way too many hundreds of disposable income on entertainment lately. But, as the guy in the video game shop said, "You only live once.". Sage words, my man wearing the greasy, labeled polo shirt and name badge. Sage words indeed.

Career wise, the rumors that I am not supposed to be hearing is that I will be promoted to Engineering level 2 this fall. Quite frankly, I deserve it and indirectly wrote as much on my self-evaluation form. Which one of your MFers knew that Nashville was the center of the medical technology universe? So many hospital corporate offices are located in and around Nashville AND the new convention center will be a world-class medtech showroom. Too much work...

Weight, well you can't OMGWTFBBQPwn them all. Actually, I am fluctuating around 225 with a spread of 219 - 227. I work hard to stay below 227 because for my height that is ground floor for the obesity department. I was hoping to be under 190 by the start of August, but my dieting rhythm was completely destroyed by a work trip to Atlanta back in April and a NYC trip in May. Oh well, I will go to the gym each day for the next 23 days to see where I end up by departure time.

Departure time? Oh, I am going to par-tay in Vegas! I'm not going entirely for the hookers, alcohol and gambling. I am going for the video games.

Well blog, enough about me. Let's talk about what you think of me.

WTH Facebook...

Something happened a few days ago that forced me to immediately deactivate and 'delete' my facebook account. I use the 'delete' word loosely because facebook makes it very difficult to rid the world of its property...uh I mean my profile. The first disconcerting thing I learned when researching how to delete their account is 'all your facebook are belong to facebook'! Anything you store on facebook belongs to facebook whereas facebook can do with whatever they like from now until the end of facebook. As someone working in the tech field, I sub-conciously acknowledge this when creating the account, but when it comes down to trying to delete a profile, I kinda feel regretful that I didn't take this knowledge more seriously.

The second thing I noticed was that while it is easy to temporarily deactivate an account, you will have to search the internet on how to delete an account. Google found a user-created facebook fan page that details the URL you will have to manually enter to get to facebook's delete form. Even when you complete this form, facebook's sirens entice you back by letting you know that your account will remain for 14 days and if you ever log back in, the pending deletion will be canceled and your account will be happily re-activated.

Oh, I left out what happened didn't I? Well, I use different usernames for video game websites and forums than any other accounts. It is my identity across games. A few nights ago, I had browsed my video game websites and forums before I went to facebook. In the upper-right hand corner I notice a friend suggestion that asks me if I want to add that "private video game website username" as a friend! The only way I can figure facebook knows this username is that it either read my browsing history, read my IE cookies or captured my username input. I don't put it past them because their founder and CEO is young and ambitious. I'm sure that he thinks, as many of the internet generation think, that everything on the internet is legal and fair game. That was WAAAY too intrusive to me.


6 days deleted and counting.

245

245. I had my yearly medical checkup this week. 245. My bloodpressure was perfect at 113/70. 245. My lipids and cholesterol are within the baseline. 245. Blood and urine tests came back nominal. 245. I hadn't weighed myself since...well probably since I worked at and worked out regularly at APSU. 245. Initially, the nurse placed the counterweight at 250 and when it slammed down, I thought, "W-T-F. How DARE that nurse think that I was 250 pounds!". 245. Fortunately, I kept that thought to myself because she didn't have to back the weights off very much before it balanced...at 245!

Since I was off work this week, and I had finally finished sitting on my ass to beat Crysis, I figured it was high time to shop around for a gym membership. I checked out APSU's Foy Center ($120 a semester + $10 processing), the Clarksville Athletic Club ($48 a month + $100 processing), but finally decided on a new gym near my house called Anytime Fitness ($39 a month + $50 processing). There were two advantages to Anytime Fitness. One is location, location, location. It is less than 5 minute drive from my house, but most intriguing is that it is accessible on my bicycle through neighborhoods. The other advantage is convenience. Membership comes with a RFID key fob that unlocks the door 24 hours a day.

I spent an hour with a personal trainer who really got to know my history and goals. I've decided that I want to get ripped. I want people to look at my biceps and get nosebleeds.

My main stumbling block will be diet. I absolutely love eating. I eat constantly. I will devour all food within reach. Whole large pizza's, 4 double cheeseburgers, 2 foot long chili cheese coneys with tots all chased by chips and cookies. As is common knowledge these days, eating many small meals is good, but only if the food is good for you. The trainer gave me some surprising tips. One, he encouraged me to buy foods packaged as appropriate servings. For example, after weight lifting, he suggested that I get lowfat chocolate milk from a convenience store...score! The other advice he gave is to stay away from all middle aisles in grocery stores. The good stuff is kept along the perimeter walls. What's along the walls are fruits, vegetables, meats, milk, eggs, etc. Neat.

So, I need to revist last year's resolutions and see where I am. I think I am batting about .333. I'm doing well at work, but I took a hit with family and friends. My fault since I tend to give up on social relations instead of working through them.

It's like a Half-Life 2 MMO mod of Mad Max

Whoa. I got into the Fallen Earth MMO stress test and I think this is the next iteration of MMO. It was frustrating at first and beta bugs abound, but the production value is beyond anything I've seen. You have to struggle through the entire turtorial to understand what I mean! The idea of an MMOFPS initially turned me off, but in this post-apocalyptic game, it just makes perfect sense and works! I love running around with an axe, machine gun and OMGWTFBBQ double pistols all visible on my avatar! Mounts in this game are horses (metal and flesh). Oh right, and your deaths really make sense in the game. When it happens the first time and you hear your guides explanation you are like, 'Whoa'.

There are so many options in character creation that I was overwhelmed. There are so many options that one of two things will happen. You will spend the entire first weekend settling on your character design or give up an hour into it and just start hitting the randomize buttons (one for face, separate one for body..there are that many options).

Crap. It's happening again...

I learned this week that I will be part of a company-wide computing security team that will create policies and procedures for keeping Cardinal Health computers protected from viruses and vulnerabilities. So much for staying under the radar.

Death of a friendship

My riding buddy is trying to kill me. He had me riding at the very top of my performance curve tonight. He was soo fast tonight that I had to take point several times just so that I could set a slower pace! I told him at dinner that after I finished eating his wife's cooking, he and I were OVER. YOU HEAR THAT STEVE?!? O.V.E.R.!!

Btw, when are you going to put up our stats?

The Nerdy Manifesto...diatribe...whatever

My last post has stirred my nerd-rage. GRRRRR!

The 2000s were supposed to be ours, the rise of a nerd nation. We saw Bill Gates, Berkley and Linux Tovalds make powerplays that positioned us as the cornerstones of civilization. We watched as our math and technology skills became mission critical to running the entire world. Y2K was our rebirth; the phoenix rose from the flames of destruction.

And then. In swoops this damned, dirty "geek" to steal it all away from us. With their anime hair and their G4 TV shows and their "are you one of us" quizzes. NO, you are NOT. It takes a lifetime of hard work and social-awkwardness to be this nerdy, GODDAMMIT. Yet, they get the credit and the glory for the benefits of technology because they seem "cool". Freaking paper-phoenices. It's decision time pasty-faced peoples of the world! Are you geek or ARE YOU NERD?!?

When you decide that you are ready, it's time to send a few CAPS-LOCK'ed emails.