The DFAC surprised me today, by actually cooking up some good chow for Thanksgiving. I haven’t had dinner yet, but lunch was really good. I had some bird, prime rib, stuffing, mac & cheese, and corn on the cob.
Hopefully everyone back home has a good Thanksgiving, and with any luck next year I’ll be there for the meal(s) again.
Once more my credit card has unexpectedly jumped right out of my wallet and forced me to order motorcycle stuff. My leather ninja suit is complete. In addition to the motorcycle jacket and gloves I already had, I now have matching leather pants, complete with appropriate armor inserts, and leather boots that are also armored in the appropriate places.
As I read the rules, my gear meets the standard for most organizations and tracks, so I should have no problem wearing my gear for track days. The real purpose here is to have the appropriate protective gear for long trips and spirited jaunts through twisty roads. My minimal gear is my helmet, gloves, and jacket anyway – but if I’m going out of town, I’ll add the motorcycle boots and pants for safety’s sake.
Also on the menu, and thankfully I’m still researching here, are GPS, video, and communications equipment for the SV. As far as I can tell, Autocom make the best gear for the commo side of things. They even make a kit to interface with the built in intercom/CB on the GL1800 (paying attention Dad?). The goal would be private rider/passenger communication, and open bike to bike communication with one system. It looks highly possible, though also highly expensive – on the SV I’d have to go portable as I simply do not have the on bike storage space to keep it on the bike when I don’t need it. I’ll have to do more looking there when I’m phsyically around the bike, to see what my mounting options look like.
A GPS with appropriate map data, logging, and enough memory for a ton of waypoints would be great – especially if I’m going on a ride with a group that also has GPS. No questions about where we’re at, or how far the next stop is. GPS also gives me the ability to overlay my route to pretty maps from Google or other places, and that’s just cool. See the wish list for the unit I want.
Video is required to capture my various fun rides, just because I can. I shouldn’t really need any more equipment for that, just a mount. That’s all for now.
Roughly an hour after I showed up to work today, the mail came by and I had a package from Amazon.com. I found that interesting considering I’d already read my last order from them. I did what anyone would do and opened the box, only to find a gift wrapped book, while 1; curiosity++;
Inside was Mastering Regular Expressions, sent to me by wanders from planet.arslinux. The basic regexp-fu for perl in Learning Perl was extremely cool, and very useful. Hopefully this new book gives me some further insight into the world of regular expressions. At the very least it should save me some money by keeping me too occupied to spend more cash on motorcycle gear!
So I’ve been surfing around, looking at routes that claim to have a good deal to offer in terms of driving/riding excitement, and have decided that in 2006 I will ride at least two of them.
First up, FM335, 336, and 337 in the Texas hill country. I should be able to make that trip at some point in 2k6. Next is Tail of the Dragon, and the other roads at Deal’s Gap.
Wait, didn’t I say I’d ride at least two of them? Yet I only listed two? Guess that means I’ll be doing them both.
If you intend to send me mail – December 1st is the last day to send stuff. A month or so later I should be back home anyway. That’s all.
I recently ordered, and read The Basic Book of Photography, Fifth Edition and have of course come up with a shortlist of other goodies I must buy. As time permits, I’ll be trying some of the techniques and whatnot suggested with my Canon S410, and posting the results to my gallery. The wish list has been updated to include the things I’m looking for.
On the list are a few items, namely a camera/laptop backpack, a standalone storage device, and an accessory flash unit. The flash is probably going to come much later, as I should get to know the camera itself before I buy a whole bunch of more shiny gear to complicate things. The mission for the backpack is to have something I can put the camera, my lense(s), and accessories in, along with maybe my digital video camera, and my laptop. The backpack style makes the most sense for my needs as it’ll better allow me to grab my stuff, hop on my motorcycle, and ride out to somewhere that should be fun to take pictures.
The storage device is kind of a toss up right now. The one on the wishlist lets me take the flash card out, put it in the device and transfer all the data on the card to a hard disk in the device. One of those, combined with another 1GB flash card would let me shoot until I run out of batteries – instead of shooting until I run out of flash space. I get about 600 shots per battery, and I have three batteries – that’s about 8 cards full of pictures. I some how doubt I take 2000 pictures in any given day, but being able to would be fun. The only thing that makes this a toss up is the Archos. It has a screen, and a hard disk – and a USB port. There would be some lag time between photo transfer, and being able to shoot again, but I’d have a few other capabilities that are appealing. The Archos has a screen – so I could review shots on a larger LCD. It also has wireless capability, and runs Linux. I could also put the Archos in its cradle, and do a slide show to a TV w/ a remote control. The biggest issue is cost though. The Fujitsu is more than small enough to carry around, and if I need to view images – I can always do it on the Fujitsu’s fantastic screen.
It has been a really long time since I watched a movie that just made me say wow. That may well be due to my deployment, but really we get movies shortly after they are released. I can’t really think of anything that’s come out since I left in January that just left me wanting to watch it again. Batman Begins was a good movie – but I doubt I watch it again. I liked Into the Blue but that’s probably more a factor of Jessica Alba being hot than the movie being good.
Where are the Boondock Saints, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Way of the Gun, or Memento type films of today? They seem to be scattered and rare, which sucks because a good movie is a pretty good way to kill a few hours.
Earlier this week CPT Cahill, my boss for some 14 months, was killed in action. He leaves behind his wife and daughters, and a number of officers, NCOs and soldiers that knew and respected him. He was a good man, and one hell of an officer.
Edit to add: In Audie Murphy’s Boots – another article about CPT Cahill.
So, right now there isn’t a hard drive in my laptop. Why, you ask? At this red hot second, my 80GB drive is in the freezer, for the second time. I’m running Knoppix right now so I can maintain basic functionality. I’m going to order a 100GB drive this time, and a dual layer DVD-RW, but I’m shipping it home instead of to this sandy hellhole. I intend to create a backup image of my drive when it gets out of the freezer, and keep it on a friend’s external drive. If it goes completely tits up, no real loss – when I get back to the States at least I can get back in action quickly.
Got a footlocker today – should be more than big enough for me to send some stuff home early.