Riding It Out

Bump starting ain't so bad...

2008-05-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well, it may have been bad for Erin. She was the one pushing me down the drive way. After a couple of tries, we got the bike to start. And it runs like normal, so to me this seems to be a starter issue.

I called Renton Motorcycles and they're booked solid until the 21st. They said that if I can get the bike in before then, they will do diagnosis before the 21st. Looks like I'll try to take it over on Friday. Gotta love technology.

Crap.

2008-05-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

My bike won't start. I was going to ride it down to my mom's place. I got it started it, and then realized I needed to pull my helmet out of the top case. Shut it off, got the helmet out, and now it won't start. It won't even crank. Battery's not dead, because I still get gauges, lights, and the fuel pump comes on like it should. But, no cranking.

I'm thinking I'm going to need to do a little bump starting tomorrow to get it going. I hope that works. Argh.

Diesel vs. Gasoline

2008-04-05T20:46:00.000-07:00

I drive a 2002 VW Jetta GLS TDI. It's an automatic. I bought it back in 2005 when gas prices were a lot different than they are now. I ran a comparison of prices with my older car, a 1995 VW Jetta GL. So here's what it looks like today after I paid $4.22 for biodiesel (B5). Granted, these are highway figures. My old Jetta got around 25mpg in city and the diesel Jetta gets about 32-33mpg in city; 35mpg if I'm really babying it. These prices are current as of today.

I think this guy should take a look at my comparison. He's paying way more than he should.

Gas: $3.42 - 31mpg on highway
BioDiesel: $4.22 - 39mpg on highway
DinoDiesel - $4.09 - 41mpg on highway

400 miles of travel

Gas - 12.9gal used - $44.12
BioDiesel - 10.26gal used - $43.30
DinoDiesel - 9.76gal used - $39.92

$ savings in %:
BD and DD are 1.8% and 9.5% cheaper tank for tank than gas, respectively.

fuel savings in %:
With BD and DD, you use 20.5% and 24.3% less fuel than gasoline, respectively.

Diagrammatical

2008-03-30T21:32:00.000-07:00

There's a Visio diagram about a quarter of the way down for It Was a Good Day that was just too awesome.

Rap Represented in Mathematical Charts and Graphs

Deltalina

2008-03-26T22:01:00.000-07:00

She's attractive, yes, but it's the "ding" of shiny teeth about 80% of the way in that cracks me up. And, the photography in this video is impressive. Great lighting, cool framing, and very relevant content. Almost makes me want to pay attention ;-)

(via Wired)

Rally season 2008 is back on!

2008-03-01T16:31:00.001-08:00

Chris Baldini's Mazda 323
Originally uploaded by BernieC

Hell yeah, baby!

Have a look at the photos...

Erin and her ring...

2008-02-18T23:41:00.001-08:00

Erin and her ring...
Originally uploaded by BernieC

It's true. I'm getting married! April of 2009, everybody! :-)

Official-ness

2008-01-28T23:32:00.001-08:00

Erin's Moving Day!
Originally uploaded by davem.com

Well, it's official, Erin lives with me now. w00t!

We managed to get our U-Haul from one of the most unorganized and dirtiest hardware stores in Ravenna, just barely got the U-Haul filled (see the photo!!), dodged a bit of snow, unloaded in the rain, and managed to get everything done in one day.

Still a bit of unpacking to do, but she's settling in now. What's next? Just wait and see ;-)

Last night - Blue Man Group

2008-01-25T08:38:00.001-08:00

Good show. 12th row, in the aisle, at Key Arena...

Woah.

2008-01-17T23:36:00.001-08:00

I had to watch this one twice.

NSFW (Not Safe for Work)

Rockin' the Macworld

2008-01-14T23:08:00.001-08:00

If only I was. I'm quite excited to to see what Apple introduces in a few hours. As you may remember, four years ago I went to a Macworld. It was pretty spiffy. Take a look at the picture, for proof.

MacBook Air? Time to wait and see!

It's Fancy Feast Time!

2008-01-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

Holy poop, YouTube!

2007-12-30T23:40:00.000-08:00

Fun at home before NYE... oh how those cats hate me.

Thule Trail

2007-12-17T18:34:00.000-08:00

Think Oregon Trail, but with cars, CDs, bags of food, and dice games.

Totally awesome.

Source: Thule Trail

Want.

2007-11-20T21:58:00.000-08:00

Want.

Source: errorwear

Ninja Parade

2007-11-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

Vista and Leopard's Windows Filesharing

2007-11-18T00:41:00.000-08:00

Vista is a pain in my ass. Leopard, decidedly less so, but still a pain. The two of them together? Well, please just kill me.

First issue - Vista can't connect to a fileshare I set up on my Leopard-based PowerMac. Vista complains that I've entered the wrong password. On the Mac, /var/log/samba/log.smbd says this:

[2007/11/17 22:57:59, 0, pid=475] /SourceCache/samba/samba-187/samba/source/auth/auth_odsam.c:opendirectory_smb_pwd_check_ntlmv2(446)
opendirectory_ntlmv2_auth_user gave -14090 [eDSAuthFailed]

From this site, I found that when entering the username on Vista, you have to do it in the format of IPADDRESSusername. So, if the server's IP is 192.168.1.1 and the username is bob, then you enter 192.168.1.1bob as the username on Vista. And then enter your password like you normally would.

Second issue - Vista's Windows Backup and Restore Center gives you the option to backup to a fileshare. Seems like a no-brainer, eh? Well, not so much, as evidenced from posts like these. I eventually found that I had to use the registry edit to change Vista's LmCompatibilityLevel from 3 to 2. That seemed to do the trick.

But of course, Vista has, yet again, failed in its backup. The network share is no longer available, or some such BS.

I love Windows. Gah.

Patience

2007-11-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

I found out someone loves me today. What a nice feeling.

So I'm a day late...

2007-11-01T22:52:00.001-07:00

Happy Halloween? Yes, I was Boss Hogg one year for halloween. I haven't dressed up in a long, long time. Maybe next year :-)

Modern art masterpiece

2007-10-05T08:33:00.001-07:00

10-05-07_0758.jpg
Originally uploaded by BernieC

Awesome graffiti near work.

Wild West Rally 2007

2007-10-04T11:30:00.001-07:00

Paul Eklund's 2004 WRX STi
Originally uploaded by BernieC

This past weekend I went east to Pullman, WA with Erin, Dave, Sarah, and Scott. We met up with Derick (who lives in Pullman) for the Wild West Rally in Pomeroy. Being the first time that this rally was run in Eastern Washington, the rally saw a lot of retirements. The roads looked to be smooth and fast, but with some very technical bits which caught almost half of the teams out.

I brought my camera with me, but accidentally left it in my bag at the hotel. The pics I have were taken by Erin and Derick: Flickr Photo Set

In other news, will it please stop raining so I can ride the motorcycle? :-)

Ah, September.

2007-09-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

Bring on the TV...

Heroes, The Office, Earl, Simpsons, Family Guy, Battlestar Galactica, and today, while on a walk I see a bill posted for this.

The War
A Ken Burns Film
7 parts, starting 23 September 2007

What I did on a gorgeous Sunday...

2007-09-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

What a gorgeous day it was today to go look at gorgeous cars at the Kirkland Concours d'Elegance. Take a look at the pictures I took...

Labor Day, as it actually happened.

2007-09-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

The ride's actual route actually turned out to be very close to what was planned:

Highlights from the trip included:

A nice chat at Seattle's Colman ferry dock with a gentleman carrying a parrot. His duck was in his truck (I kid you not.).
Another nice chat with a septuagenarian Texan who was traveling the country in his small SUV. He had a very impressive setup in his vehicle for documenting his trip.
Taking "action shots" of Dave and I on the road up to Hurricane Ridge. Hopefully I'll get some pictures from him soon.
Saw a former coworker and friend of his (a guy who used to park his motorcycle next to mine at my office) at Hurricane Ridge.
Lunch at a diner just outside Port Angeles with slow service because one of the two cooks had gone to jail during the weekend (doh!)
The first 23 miles of highway 112 were recently oiled and graveled, making traction less than ideal. Dave told me later on that, at one point, his bike was not responding to steering input on one stretch of road. I just noticed that the bike felt a little bit looser than normal.

So, all in all, a good trip. Hopefully I'll be able to fit another trip in before October.

Labor Day

2007-08-27T10:05:00.001-07:00

I haven't been riding as much as I was this time last year. August has been an unusually mild month. With I-5 being under construction for part of it, I spent a couple of weeks at home and just didn't get out much with the bike.

That should change this weekend, as it's labor day. Here's my mapped out route I'd like to take on Sunday. Hopefully it'll happen.

Here's the full route, courtesy of Google.