as much as I’d like to think I don’t need the Internet’s validation of a purchase in order to actually make one, that’d be fallacy. I grep the web for insight from those who’ve purchased what I want for any tidbit of information they wish to impart.
In general, this grepping does one of two things: 1) makes me ever excited to the point where I don’t really care what I pay anymore (to a firm degree..) or 2) discourages me from that particular model, brand, product altogether.
first of all, wow… I can’t help but imagine how I would have handled such an experience. after going batshit crazy for a number of hours, I imagine a spiritual awakening (of sorts) and a heck of a lot of praying. I hope he was a bad man who deserved it, got his come-uppins or karma, and is changed for the better.
secondly, what the fuck?! how does this even happen today - what with a) emergency elevator-phones b) a SECURITY CAMERA; no one checks at all? c) cell phones - granted the guy was on a cig break, must not have had it on him… sheesh!
TRAPPED - The New Yorker
[ via waxy.org ]
update: I purchased this bike!
Needs
(and what the V-Strom offers):
- comfort: upright riding position, feet flat on the ground at stop, no major fatigue from just cruising
(fairly hard to judge from intarweb reviews and a brief sit on it at the dealership)
- great mpg: would love 60+
(concensus seems to be ~52)
- safety: high speed travel with crazy commuter cagers and the occasional lane splitting
(ABS! full frontal fairing.. additional safety accessories available)
- sports-like torque, great 0-60 - top speed no where near as important
(still need to test ride it… but reviewers and various tidbits from around the web show it on the slow side from what I’d like)
- love the way it looks: cruiser appeal with the protection of a touring bike, great color paint
(it almost has it all… it’s a teensy bit too bug-like lookin’ but compared to the alternatives hardly an issue)
- passenger comfort, storage
(the girlfriend wants to feel safe & secure too! laptop & lunch needs a safe place while I ride)
Big consideration: 75-90% highway travel (commute ~70 miles a weekday)
a concise video review of a very-similar model:
a short thread on how much I’m shooting for at the dealership.
official suzuki DL650 V-strom product page of the exact bike I will purchase (most likely.)
but… Master of Puppets, And Justice For All, Metallica (black album), and Ride the Lightning will forever be absolute works of musical genius.
my generation’s Classical Music.
…They [Researchers from several Japanese Universities] asked drivers to cruise steadily at 30 kilometres per hour, and at first the traffic moved freely. But small fluctuations soon appeared in distances between cars, breaking down the free flow, until finally a cluster of several vehicles was forced to stop completely for a moment.
That cluster spread backwards through the traffic like a shockwave. Every time a vehicle at the front of the cluster was able to escape at up to 40 km/h, another vehicle joined the back of the jam.
this issue is rather easily alleviated if people didn’t fucking tailgate. you don’t need to break when there’s slowing down in front of you, IF there’s enough space to compensate. it’s common sense people.
see?!
be a hero - dampen the shockwave - don’t tailgate.
in short - we caught the first 2-3 minutes (non game time) of super bowl 32 (XLII) consisting of the new england patriots and the new york giants. big frikken who gives a shit, right? anyway, grandma turned on the game because my grandpa would have, in life, been watching. Sarah and I both thought the sentiment was incredibly sweet. so after the few fleeting minutes… we went to dinner.
upon our return, we actually sat through and enjoyed one hell of an upset in the last 12 minutes of the game. the key, and ultimately game winning play was ny giants qb eli manning’s 45 yard pass to receiver tyree. it was absolutely awesome to see - the escape and throw and the catch barely held onto on top of helmet. the completion lead to a shortly thereafter game winning touchdown, 2 min to spare. patriots immediately appeared defeated.
anyone and everyone, football hater or empathizer would have to admit how exciting that historical display ended up. congratulations NY Giants team and fans alike; way to crush an otherwise perfect NE Patriots season - not that I care, other than the addition to the magnitude of the win.
Featuring J-dizzle Q-masta cookin’ up some Chicken Apple saus’g
and (starring) hebrew national :
first come first serve you snooze you lose rules in full effect: we ran out of sausages, then buns, then dogs - poor poor late comers.
lets hope these next 365 days are as great or better than the last.
celebrate life everyday.
(yesterday)
I hopped in again, started 3 new ppl. all the classes are belong to me. but am I going to level them all? hell no. am I going to level one back to the level I had my Closed Beta 2 mage prior to it’s envitible demise? Maybe. so far I’m liking the Cleric class the most.
if you don’t know wtf I’m talking about, here’s a good starting point Outspark’s page.
and fyi - I applied for a job there this week. the game seems to have a lot of potential, figured I’d love to get in on dat action while the gettin’ be good. the company is HQ’d in SF… so, if I actually did get a job there, I’d probably move closer. who knows though. I probably won’t even get an acknowledgement e-mail.
cest. la. ve.
life is funny. why do we always want what we can’t exactly have? is the grass truly greener on the other side of the fence? by gods it so often looks so. but most of us cannot jump into a new life direction simply because it appears greener.
maybe it’s genetics - there is some gene that permits the risk takers to leap at their very whim into incredibily adventerous and uncharted realms? for a large part, I envy these individuals. but a small, yet significant, part of myself enjoys who I am. I calculate my risks carefully; assessing my personal and professional situations thoroughly (oft to the point of madness) before the leap.
I have my moments though. maybe I have the recessive of the gene - when I’m truly stuck by beauty, I’ll leap. otherwise, I sit, wait, and ponder endlessly awaiting those moments of clarity….
hense here I sit… on the brink……
I hate bees. always have always will. ok, I have a sweet spot for honey bees - they are sweet and so is the fruit of their labors. yellow jacket wasps however, can go straight back to the fuckin’ hell that spawned them. without provocation, walking peacefully along the street I am bombarded and stung, a large an’ swollen bloody hole in my neck remains. the good news is that biotch didn’t make it back to the hive to brag about his/her score. dead bitch, squished beneath my mighty shoe. still, ow, and argh, arrrg.
you are loved and missed dearly.
this little gem of a clip is one of raw wildlife triumph without glam or editing techniques. captured by some lucky touristas who stumbled upon the story of a hurd of buffalo rescuing one of their own from *two* gangs of hunters - lions and crocs.
A Brawl In The Safari
sex. are you having enough of it?
oprah’s dr. oz sayz multiple times per week is da goodz foz youz.
“If you have more than 200 orgasms a year, you can reduce your physiologic age by six years…”
“…having sex with someone that you care for deeply is one of the ways we achieve that Zen experience that we all crave as human beings. It’s really a spiritual event for folks when they’re with someone they love and they can consummate it with sexual activity … seems to offer some survival benefit.”
cun ah getuh ahhmen!
