My Motorcycle Story The story begins in 1984 when the Go-Bots were on TV. I remember getting the toy for Cy-Kill, leader of the Go-Bot Renegades which I had a lot of fun with. I also watched Transformers back then but they didn't have any cool motorcycles (at least not until 1986 when Wreck-Gar appeared in the movie, voiced by Eric Idle).
In 1985, Robotech was on the air (I remember running home from the bus to catch the last 15 minutes) and that got me really interested in motorcycles because of the Veritech Cyclone Ride Armor from the "New Generation" I totally wanted that toy but never got it, though I did pretend I had such a suit and could transform and all of that.
In 1986 the Kawasaki Ninja debuted in America and I remember seeing the commercials and thinking, "I want one of those!" This was well before I ever became seriously interested in cars (other than toys like Transformers), but of course, I was just a kid and dreams came and went pretty quickly.
Several years later, after I received my driver's license and was a Senior in high school, I got the itch again. I asked my mom for a motorcycle and of course she said no. IIRC, her reasoning wasn't so much around safety, but simply because I would be spoiled as I already had a car to use.
The next time I thought about motorcycles was around 2001 when Jordan Ho and some other folks around Chicago bought motorcycles. That piqued my interest so I used some of my expiring Delta airline miles to get a subscription to Sport Rider magazine. Then I was put in contact with an old MICDS friend, Allen McCoy, who was looking to sell his motorcycle (a Suzuki GS500 I think) in St. Louis. I didn't have the money and had no way to get it to Chicago so I passed on the deal. I even ended up transferring Sport Rider to Jordan as well.
Then in 2002, the Subaru WRX was released in America and suddenly there were two toys that I wanted. I started saving money as much as I could and even biked (on a bicycle) to work instead of taking the bus.
In 2003, I moved to Wheaton to save more money, but as it turns out my new landlord, Bryan Hsueh, also had a bike. Then, a couple months later, my housemate Adam bought a bike. I asked why he decided to get it and he responded, "A motorcycle isn't really something you think about, you just get it."
At this point, I had gone back and forth several times between the WRX and a motorcycle. What sealed the deal was when I was sitting at work one day, I hopped onto MSN and watched Subaru's presentation at the 2003 Detroit International Auto Show and nearly lost bladder control when it was announced that the Subaru Impreza WRX STi version would be coming to America.
That day, I made the decision that I would give up on my hopes for a motorcycle and stick with the car route. Within a year, I had the STi and started autocrossing it with Ben Huh in his TT and another guy we met named Bob in his Mitsubishi Lancer (not an Evo). Add in the purchase of a condo and motorcycles disappeared from my thoughts again.
Then, last year Bob told me he had bought a motorcycle. I was pretty surprised when he told me he got a Ninja 250 to learn on, a model I had considered as a starter bike myself. I told him to let me know if he ever planned to sell it.
Well, just two weekends ago, Bob e-mailed me to tell me it was for sale. It turns out Bob found a deal on a Suzuki SV650 and needed to sell his bike fast. So last Thursday I bought it. Now I just have to learn how to ride it... Posted 05/14/2010 08:20 PM in Cars, Motorcycles, Ramblings Link To This Blargh |
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My DVR List I've been having problems with my DVR. First, the second tuner stopped working so I couldn't watch in my room. Then it started taking longer to respond to commands. Now during playback it pauses every few seconds and the sound cuts out to the point that some recordings are unwatchable. Today, it started making clicking noises, which most likely means the hard drive is physically dying.
I guess I'm going to have to get a new one (and possibly upgrade to HD). Hopefully I can catch up on my recordings but I have about 80 hours of content. If my HD finally goes, I might lose a whole season of 24, Lost, Survivors, The Clone Wars, Caprica, No Reservations and various other items. Boo.
I also need to catalog my DVR recording queue so I can recreate it on the new HD DVR when the time comes, so here it is:
Lo-Mein Recipe for 100 Ingredients
10 pounds Cantonese noodles or similar pasta (spaghetti)
12 (14.5 ounce) cans chicken broth
1 cup sesame oil
4 tablespoons black pepper
1 cup white sugar
3 cups rice vinegar
6 cups soy sauce
4 cups Oyster sauce
2 large fresh ginger roots, cut into 1/4" slices
4 heads garlic, separated into cloves and lightly crushed
2 pounds green onions, halved
8 ounces cornstarch
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 head garlic, minced
1/2 pound green onions, cut into 2" pieces
8 pounds tofu, cubed
5 pounds mushrooms, quartered
4 pounds (about 12) Peppers, chopped
4 pounds Broccoli, chopped
Directions
Day before:
Noodles
- Cook the noodles, remove from water, rinse until cool
- Distribute into trays, cover with foil and refrigerate.
- Reserve hot water for boiling vegetables
Sauce
- Combine chicken broth, sesame oil, black pepper, sugar, vinegar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, ginger, garlic, and green onions.
- Bring to boil, then let simmer 30 min
- Remove ginger, garlic and green onions, allow to cool partially before refrigerating.
Vegetables
- Boil reserved pasta water
- Chop tofu and veggies
- Mix garlic and vegetable oil
- Boil peppers and broccoli, 3 minutes. They should be undercooked.
- Remove peppers and broccoli and let cool.
- Heat 1-2 tbsp garlic oil and stir fry mushrooms and green onions
- Refrigerate vegetables.
- Heat 1-2 tbsp garlic oil and stir fry tofu in batches (non-stick pan recommended)
- Refrigerate tofu.
Day of:
- Pour 2 cups sauce into the vegetables and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off.
- Make a slurry by mixing 2 cups of sauce with corn starch in a separate container, set aside.
- Bring remaining sauce to a boil
- When sauce boils, pour 1 cup sauce over cold noodles to warm and loosen up, mixing by hand is most effective.
If you need to wait until serving time, you can stop here for 1-2 hours max.
30 min before:
- Stir slurry until smooth, then add to sauce, bring to boil then simmer 2-3 minutes until thickened.
- Warm vegetables again.
- Toss noodles with vegetables (by hand is most effective)
- Pour 1-2 cups sauce over noodles and stir (with a utensil now as it will be too hot)
- Serve while hot.
Another near accident. Learn to drive in the snow people! Yesterday morning, after all the snow in the northeast (greatly exagerated in some areas, there were only 3-4" in the New Haven area) I was driving a couple co-workers to the client site in a Saturn Outlook (large, heavy, 7 passenger SUV with front wheel drive). I took my exit, a long sweeping cloverleaf ramp, behind three other cars going about 30.
Car 1, an old red compact, got a little wiggly and slammed on her brakes until she came to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Obviously, that exacerbated the situation instead of helping.
Car 2 had no choice but to brake and veer to the right to avoid a collision. They actually did an ok job, avoiding Car 1 and coming to a controlled stop on the shoulder.
Car 3 also slammed on their brakes, but swerved violently to the left causing the car's rear end to skid. The car slid to a stop, inches from the guard rail, perpendicular to the road, right in front of me.
So what was I to do? Obviously I hit the brakes, instantaneously setting off the ABS. With such a freaking large vehicle I knew there was no way I could stop. With Car 3 heading to the left and Car 2 heading to the right, I saw an opening.
I released the brake so I wouldn't skid and eased the steering wheel to the right and drove around Car 3, then turned back to the left, hugging the guard rail and quickly drove around Car 2 and Car 1.
While it wasn't as dramatic as my last near accident, my heart was beating pretty hard, though I didn't have any cool time-slowing-down effect. My co-workers complimented my quick thinking and we continued on our way.
A couple quick tips for anyone in a similar situation:
No sudden braking, you'll lock the tires and lose control (Car 1). Go easy on the brakes and don't expect ABS to save you since it is only marginally effective in low traction situations.
No sudden steering, you'll upset the car's balance and lose control (Car 3). Turn smoothly to help the car along the turn.
Your car is probably more capable of turning than braking, so evaluate options such as going around an obstacle instead of trying to stop (Car 2 and myself), keeping in mind the previous tip.
If you do lose a little traction, don't panic (Car 1). Instead, brake and steer lightly to maintain control and come to an easy and controlled stop in a safe place. The middle of the road is not a safe place.
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