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Showing posts from February, 2007

36 degrees and sunny

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Mornings like this make me want to say "Thank You, Widder for making electric heated gloves!". I don't mind 36 degree breeze blowing up under my chin in the helmet, but cold hands are my struggle. My Widder electric gloves kept my fingers and hands nice and toasty for the one-hour ride to the office. The sun rising over a partly cloudy sky made an awesome painting to enjoy as I rode. Once I got past the guy in the volkswagen that was bound and determined to run over me (swerved in front of me twice), it was an enjoyable and peaceful ride.

A Beautiful day for February

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51 degrees F in the biggest city in the south spells a GREAT day to commute on a motorcycle. I wasn't the only one with that thought as I met at least half a dozen different bikes on my commute, even one non-V-twin (and yes I still waved). Today marks the beginning of Lent (Fat Tuesday then Ash Wednesday...) and what a gorgeous day for it.

Sysinternals

If you haven't heard, Microsoft bought out Sysinternals which has supplied Network Admin with free tools like PSTools, Process Explorer, etc. They have added several neat utilities including an Active Directory Restore tool. Check them out at Sysinternals

AVG Free...still free

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There's been some misunderstanding, miscommunication, etc about AVG Free lately. Users of AVG Free 7.1 will receive a screen that says the version is no longer supported. It DOESN'T mean it is not still FREE. You can upgrade to AVG v7.5 Free for...FREE! Here is how...from their website: Update of AVG 7.1 to 7.5 Run the AVG Free Edition 7.5 Setup program Click "Next >" on the AVG "Welcome!" screen Click "Accept" on the "License Agreement on Use of an AVG Free Edition" screen Select "Repair installation" on the "Select Setup Type" screen and click "Next >" Select "Restart the computer now" (pre-selected by the program automatically) and click "OK" on the "Installation Complete!" screen to restart your computer and complete the installation and as always, home users can download AVF Free Edition v7.5 by going to their website: AVG Free Edition Downloads

A Wake-up Call

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Nice morning about 39 degrees F when I left the house. At about 7:10am, the sun was beginning to think about coming up with a heavy cloud cover making it pretty dark. I had just got Autumn up to highway speed on the 4-lane divided highway near our house and had moved over to the left hand lane to pass some slower mini-vans and suv cages when a hawk jumps to the air from the grass median to my left and just clears my helmet by 5 or 6 feet. Now that will get you to full alert better than any caffine intake I have ever experienced. Yes, I ducked out of reflex! "I think I soiled my armour" - one of the knights after encountering the killer bunny - Monty Python's Holy Grail

Quote of the Week

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“Anarchist or not, I stop for stoplights, I stop for stop signs. I watch every car. I don’t trust any car coming anywhere at any time.” - Peter Fonda

Tattoo and the Bible

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Here is a good look at the scripture regarding tattoos by Chuckk Gerwig: Tattoo and the Bible

We Interrupt this Winter for a Brief Period of Fall

Yesterday was a wonderful day for February. It was up to 53 degrees at lunch. The commute home was like riding in fall instead of winter. It was refreshing to ride without wearing all of the winter accessories (scarf, electric gloves, half mask). It won't last long as two fronts are moving through today/tonight and temperatures are headed back down, but I enjoyed it while it lasted :)

Stewart Wins the Bud Shootout

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Congrats to Tony Stewart on winning the Bud Shootout at Daytona. Things got wild on the last lap with Dale Jr. getting the the back of Elliott Sadler causing him to crash into the outside wall and collecting Denny Hamlin. The Toyotas have some work left to do as they dropped like a rock thru the field.

Good Reading

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Peter Egan spent 10 years writing and sending in articles to every motorcycle magazine imaginable before Cycle World Magazine agreed to purchase an article from him in 1977. The editor of Cycle World was smart enough to realize what was lying in front of him and Egan became a regular contributor. "Leanings" is a collection of 27 of Egan's stories reprinter from Cycle World Magazine. His stories covers his personal adventures from setting out on an ill-fated cross-country trip with his wife on a british twin, his journey on Route 66, a trip on a Honda 50 accompanied by a bicyclist, and more. Living in rural Wisconsin, Egan gives an everyman perspective on kick-starts, Wisconsin winters, classic and modern iron, and simple adventures of life. You can find a copy at: Half.com

Dallas Cowboys Hire Wade Phillips as Head Coach

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Well, all of the rumors are now ended, as Dallas has signed on Wade "Stinky" Phillips as the new head coach. I don't know if I am excited about this or not. I think he will be an asset to the defense, but I'm not to sure about what he brings to the table for the offense. And the defense typically doesn't put a lot of points on the board. Here's the story at Fox Sports: Cowboys Hire Phillips

Strength...

I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains. - Psalm 121:1-2

It's the Simple Things...

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You renew your license plate tag for your car or truck. Now comes the difficult part. On the left side of the tag is a decal with your birth month on it. On the right side of the tag is a decal with the year on it. In your hand is a new decal with the new year of expiration. What side do you put it on? According to logic and according to the instructions of the tag office, you should put the new year's decal over the old year's decal. Seems reasonable, right? Evidentally not, I continue to see tags like this one where the owner thought the new year decal shouldn't cover up the old year decal, so they smack it over the month decal. As I drive behind them in traffic, I think to myself "watch this person closely. If they can't handle putting a renewal decal on their tag right, they probably can't handle merging traffic, four way stops, and motorcycles riding near them."

Handy Gadget

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So you're laptop (or desktop PC) won't boot up and stay running and your job depends on the files on the hard drive. What do you do? Well if you're lucky, you can pull the hard drive and set it up as a secondary drive in a working pc and move the files. But having to do all the jumper settings and tearing into another PC is a pain. And, if it is a laptop, where are you going to find a secondary channel for the small hard drive? Well here is a GREAT solution for under $30. It's an adapter that will allow you to run a 2.5", 3.5", or 5.25" IDE or SATA drive from a USB (2.0) port. They include a power adapter as well. You can get it from PCMicrostore: PCMS 2.5" / 3.5" / 5.25" UNIVERSAL USB 2.0 TO (IDE / SATA) COMBO ADAPTER KIT Bytecc made a similar device but many folks have had issues with it. The PCMS adapter works great! The best investment we've made in a while.

Let the Good Times Roll...

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We've weathered the cold and suffered the DTs of not having our fix of the aroma of racing fuel and it's time to get back to it :) DAYTONA Baby! The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series kicks off with racing at Daytona. Saturday night is the running of the Bud Shootout - a 75-lap hype race for everyone who qualified on the pole during the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Series season and for previous winners of the Bud Shootout. Televised live on Fox 8:30pm. Sunday will see pole qualifying carried by Fox live at 2:15pm, and Thursday is the running of the Twin Qualifier races to determine starting positions for the second row and back. SPEED Channel will carry the twin qualifiers Live beginning at 2pm. Friday (16th) will see the NASCAR Craftsman Trucks run their season opener at Daytona telivised live by SPEED at 8pm. Saturday will will host the NASCAR Busch Series at Daytona live on ESPN2 at 1:15pm. It all leads up to the Great American Race, the DAYTONA 500 Sunday, Feb 18th 2pm on Fox. Green flag

CDC Ignores Flaws in Firefighter Safety Gear

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Over the years, I have dealt with a lot of incompetence, but the CDC leadership takes the cake. They hired an engineer and career fireman to investigate firefighters deaths and to determine what could be done to prevent future deaths. When the guy started drilling to the bottom of the problem, they wrote him up for doing his job and fired him for refusing to ignore critical information. Having served as a volunteer fireman for several years with hand-me-down and out of date equipment, I'd like to punch the CDC leadership for their mishandling of this and the deaths that occured due to their lack of action and their forcing this firefighter out of his job for trying to protect the lives of other firefighters. Read the story at MSNBC and take pride in your government hard at work... Flaws Found in Firefighters' Last Line of Defense

Wild Hogs

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What happens when four guys decide to buy motorcycles and make a road trip? I swear, I think I know these guys :)

mmmm Muffins!

Another Cowboy in the HOF

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Former Dallas Cowboy receiver and 3-time Super Bowl Champion, Michael Irvin inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite a checkered past. Irvin elected to HOF - Sports Illustrated

Snow

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Woke this morning at 3am to let the dog out and there was snow on the ground and more falling. It was absolutely gorgeous. Woke to the alarm at 6:20 and it was all ice. Turned on the TV and there were wrecks at every ramp on the highway south of us for 6 miles, so I called in to announce I'd be late. By 9 it was raining and the ice had melted, so I caged it in to the office. I'll never understand the mentality of the drivers here. I could have easily driven into work this morning under the weather conditions we had, but with these folks all crashing trying to drive like it was sunny and clear I decided I'd pass on the experience. There is a big difference! They attempt to drive like it is sunny and clear even when it is raining (cutting over close in front of other automobiles, pulling out of interesections in front of traffic, etc). So, I've just elected to avoid the situation and let them do their thing today and then rode in a little late.