No news
No news is good news right? Or is it just a boring existance?
There’s been a lot of things going on but no time or desire to blog about everything.
Setup twitter on my balckberry…
Setup twitter on my balckberry… Now the fun begins!
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Daring Hill Adventures
After puttering around the driveway and the street outside I was ready to take the bike down the hill and toward a real road.
Background:
I live on Daring Hill Ln. It’s called Daring Hill rightly so. It’s a significantly steep dirt/gravel hill up to the road that levels out and then round the corner to my house. So going down and then back up the hill was giving me a little concern.
The experience going down the hill was perfect yesterday. I turned the bike around and plowed back up the hill with no problems at all. It was a very happy moment that I didn’t have any problems going down or up the hill. I feel somewhat silly for being concerned but for not being on a street bike in almost 14 years it can pass it off for that. If it was a dirt bike I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it.
Anyways today I got home from work changed pants and grabbed my gear and pulled the bike out of the garage to go for a ride. This was my first on street adventure with the new bike. So I went down the hill and down the road to a real paved road. By the way, we live a little over a mile off of a paved real road.
When I got to the end of dirt and to the beginning of pavement another biker was coming from my left. I was waiting and as normal I got the friendly wave. I waved back as he passed and started out onto the paved road. As I did so I stalled the bike! Yes I stalled it on my first outing to the pavement. I’m still getting used to the clutch and the “friction zone” so in time and practice I won’t do that. I can drive a stick-shift car/truck second nature now but I remember back when I first started and how many times I did the herky-jerky and stalled it out.
I take the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Beginner Riders Course on Wed/Thur/Sat/Sun and hopefully I’ll do well with that and get my full motorcycle endorsement. Right now I’m riding on a permit which allows sunrise to sunset which is actually really cool.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Happy birthday to me!
Well June 16th was my 29th birthday. Yes still young but I still feel very old.
I got a lot of great presents from the kids and Erin gave me the best of all. In fact I have a picture of it….. No, not that. We talked and agreed that I could get a motorcycle. It’s been years… over 10 to be exact since I’ve ridden a street motorcycle. I’ve been on dirt bikes since but not a street bike. So before and during and after my birthday I was shopping and looking and sitting and thinking and looking and sitting and thinking… You get the point.
Well, I decided on a Yamaha V-Star 650 Custom. I was thinking of getting the 1100 but I thought twice about it since it’s been a long time since I’ve been on a bike I didn’t want to be stupid and start off to big again and the 650 gets better gas mileage and that’s one of the big points. Park my big truck and start riding a motorcycle to work.
So, here’s some pictures of the birthday and some of the motorcycle.
Here is the picture of the half-eaten cake on my birthday. Notice there are candles in it but it’s already eaten??? Hahahaha well father’s day and my birthday are generally back to back. We didn’t have enough candles so there’s 20 candles and a big 9 from Conner’s birthday. There’s Rowan giggling in the picture
And here’s a picture of the bike with the kids posing… notice Conner’s “I’m cool” look and stance…. Yeah he’ll be a biker 
Slow Internet
The connection from this card is so-so… The speed is better than a 56K dial up modem but not by much. A lot of the time I actually think the modem would be faster. The reliability of this card or AT&T service, not sure which stinks! It drops connections a lot and the speed goes from slow to worse all of the time.
Usability within different OS’s is interesting. Currently the card is connected to a Linux box acting as a DHCP server and Internet facing router for my home network. The card works fine under Linux using native kernel drivers. The configuration is as simple as any other modem and the ppp connection just works. The card works just as well under Windows XP which is what my work laptop runs. But the funny thing as with most things is that it doesn’t work at all under Windows Vista. Others have reported that it works but nothing I have done will get the card to work under Vista. The software installs, the drivers load everything looks like it should work. I hit the connect button and it says it’s connected but there’s absolutely NO data traffic. I sniff the connection and there isn’t anything come or going through the connection. Oh well the Linux box can continue running as a router for now.
I did buy a modem the other day but it wouldn’t even power on so I returned it. I may get another one and set it up as a backup just to have when AT&T decides not to work.
Everyone asks what about cable or DSL? Well it’s just not available out here yet. So I’ve looked into Satelite but that is so expensive just to get setup with the upfront purchase of the equipment and such. Plus they have Fair Access Policies (FAP) which means you only get a certain amount of bandwidth per day or with some per month. So for me it may or may not be useful since I do a lot on the internet. I know for sure I couldn’t actually download much of anything certainly not a Linux ISO that would blow the FAP immediately.
Yes, I’ve thought of getting a T1 to the house, but at $500 a month I can’t quite justify that. Not yet anyways and no my work won’t pay for it, I tried that as well 
Sprint has their EV-DO service half a mile from my house… which really sucks! That would be great to have at this point. I’ve did sign up and buy an adapter to see if I could get it but the signal just didn’t reach me. I’ve thought about trying again and buying a booster and antenna to try and see if that works, but then again that’s several hundred dollars for a boost and antenna just to see if something works and if it doesn’t the hassle of returning everything if they will take it back.
So in the meantime I live in internet purgatory….
Time since updates…
Got tractor… it’s helped a lot in clearing out the soon to be garden area. The area is clear and mostly clean and we are beginning to plant.
Corn has been planted
Giant Pumpkins have been planted
The chickens have gotten larger and their house is 99% complete. I still need to add nesting boxes and put a hinged cover over one of the windows to get access to the nesting boxes. Will be done soon but the chickens aren’t yet laying and won’t for a few months.
On the same subject of the chickens Erin has decided to try the “free ranging” method and now for two days the chickens have been running free. They are enjoying it eating up the greens and the bugs.
“Free Organs” Post on Craig’s List Leads To Organ Harvester Frenzy
Be very, very careful what gets posted on the internet…..
Link: http://www.bbspot.com/News/2008/03/free-organs-on-craigs-list.html
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Thursday, March 27 12:00 AM ET
“Free Organs” Post on Craig’s List Leads To Organ Harvester Frenzy
By Brian Briggs
Portland, OR – Vince Hopper hangs on to life at a local hospital after fighting off organ harvesters who came to his apartment searching for “free organs” advertised on Craig’s List.
Police arrested several harvesters, but organ seekers made off with a kidney, half a liver, two fingers and a pancreas before the crowd was dispelled.
“I woke up and there were these people lined up with scalpels, steak knives, hacksaws, basically anything that could cut. I didn’t know what the hell was going on at first. Then some guy mentioned a Craig’s List ad, and I was screaming that it wasn’t me who placed the ad. Some guy pulled out my organ donor card and showed it to every one. That was all the confirmation they needed,” said Hopper.
Hopper said he was just happy he only lost “internal organs. If you know what I mean.”
Many of the people who didn’t get organs were considering suing Hopper and Craig’s List. Greg Belton, who came looking for a spleen, said, “I spent $50 on ice. Somebody’s going to pay for that. It’s false advertising or something.”
Another man hoping to add an appendix to his collection said this was the second time he’d been burned by Craig’s List. “I’m going to go back to using eBay for appendixes. They’re much more reliable for that kinda thing.”Related News
Authorities are trying to track down who placed the ad, but said this isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Police detective Rod Stumpley said, “Last week we had people come and take kids from homes after a ‘free kids’ ad was placed, we had a Wal-Mart cleared out after an ‘everything’s free’ ad was placed. It’s on the Internet so you can hardly blame people for believing it.”
A representative from Craig’s List said that people shouldn’t believe every “free organ” posting on the site, and that harvesters should consult with the donor before removing his pancreas just to be on the safe side.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (1)Redneck First-Aid
Two Southerners were having the blue plate special at their favorite watering hole, when they heard an awful choking sound. They turned around to see a lady, a few bar stools down, turning blue from wolfing down a Specialty Burger too fast.
The first Southerner said to the other, “Think we otta hep?”
“Yep,” said the second.
The First Southerner got up and walked over to the lady and asked, “Kin yew breathe?”
She shook her head no.
“Kin yew speak?” he asked.
She again shook her head no.
With that he helped her to her feet, lifted up her skirt and licked her on the butt. She was so shocked that she coughed up the obstruction and began to breathe with great relief.
The First Southerner turned back to his friend and said, “Funny how that there Hind Lick Maneuver works ever’ time.”
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