Category Archives: About Me - Page 34

Trip Log 11/26/09

Posted by anachostic on November 26, 2009 No comments

In a previous blog entry, I took a ride to a local beach, but at the time the beach was closed for renovation, to be reopened in the fall. Well, now it’s the fall and I headed back out to see all the new and great changes that I’d nothing to previously compare to. It was a little late in the day, partly cloudy and about 65 degrees. I got a few blocks and decided, no, I am not going to make this trip without insulation. So I turned around and got my riding jacket’s rain liner, which is a great wind breaker as well.

Back on track, I realized, it’s pretty cold. But I pressed onward and I made good time because of my comfort level at higher speeds. Maybe a little over halfway there and I noticed there were some actual clouds ahead. If it started raining, I would be in a huge amount of trouble in this temperature. I got under the clouds and the temp dropped even further. But, no rain.

I made it to that park again and as fate would have it, the beach is still under construction. So, a good 1 and a half hour ride in the cold and wind for nothing. I need something to cheer me up. Oh, you poor thing. Have a donut.

Thank you, I will. That will have to do for now. It’s now mostly cloudy and the temperature drop I had earlier under the clouds is the new normal. So I slipped on my 2nd pair of slightly warmer riding gloves and blasted back home. So cold. So tired. So disappointed.

Trip Log 11/22/09

Posted by anachostic on November 22, 2009 No comments

Today was a beach trip. To a different beach, on a different route. That meant (oh boy) Interstate travel: 60 minutes at 70+ mph in chaotic conditions with a good wind. I could see that there were storms to the north and south, but I seemed pretty safe in my path.

An uneventful trip to the beach and a fairly empty parking lot. I had just gotten off the bike and gotten to the walkway when the parking authority vehicle pulled in. I walk back to his truck and asked if he could break a $20 for the meters. He told me not to worry and kept right on going. Slow day, I guess.

So I got my pictures and took a leisurely ride up and down the local roads. Not much traffic and what was there was casual. Stopped at a local place to have a lunch. The sandwich was not as I would have expected. What is the deal with sticking a huge pile of meat between slices of bread? You can’t get your mouth around it and all you taste is meat. There’s a balance when making a sandwich: the meat-to-bread ratio (or meat-to-bun as I originally termed it for fast food). You don’t want the flavor of the meat to be lost in the bread, nor do you want excess in the other direction. Some places just don’t get it.

I did bring along the Zune HD, but I didn’t get to do any Internet surfing. All the available networks were secured, insulting, or both.

So, I guess I won’t be going back there. I should have had the burger.

Cooking

Posted by anachostic on November 15, 2009 No comments

Ahhh. I just had a great meal, and I cooked it myself.

I hear you now. “What? Mr. I-eat-fast-food-three-meals-a-day-and-somehow-keep-living… cooks?” That’s right. And on top of that, I’m good at it. No, I’m awesome at it. I know this because I eat what I cook, and I’m one picky bastard, so my cooking must be awesome in order to meet my standards. Tonight it was a simple, fairly healthy meal of steak and rice. Ok, chopped steak and rice. Ok, it was actually hamburger and rice, only it was made so awesome it could have been steak.

Some of you might be saying, “Rice? that’s so bland and boring.” or “I can’t eat rice, they look like maggots.” Well, if you were eating with me, you’d be eating it because I make it right. And I’m going to share the recipe. There’s a special ingredient you might need to go to the store to buy, but it’s worth it. Now, here’s the ingredient list:

2 cups Rice
1/4 stick of butter

Yeah, I know. It’s awesome. You people who think you have a bowl of maggots in front of you aren’t going to complain when that larvae is coated in a thick layer of butter. And rice is boring? Try eating my rice with chopsticks. That’ll keep you busy. And thanks to the wondrous power of butter, it’s awesome.

Now, the entrée: steak/burger/whatever. There is a special art to seasoning beef before cooking it. I’ve seen plenty of marinades, rubs, and spices, but I know what I like. After all, I eat at Outback and Longhorn enough to get a taste of good seasoning. So, here’s my custom seasoning blend for my burgers:

Salt

If I wasn’t already employed, I’d be opening my own restaurant. I’m saying, it’s that good.

I remember when I first moved out and had never cooked for myself before. It could be the reason why I eat out all the time. But anyway, I took the time and mastered the art of cooking. All you people who say “I’ve never cooked. I can’t even cook a burger. Fire scares me.” Here’s my step-by-step instructions to cooking a burger:

Shut up
Buy a George Foreman grill
Cook a burger

I was going to write a book on this special technique, but figured the information is better in the public domain. If you fail to cook your burger properly, simply follow the directions again. Pay close attention to the first step – it’s the most critical. If you can’t get a good burger after five attempts. Throw all your George Foreman grills away and just disregard steps 2 and 3.

I’ll have to take the time someday to explain the killer grilled cheese sandwiches I make, but I’ll close with a tip on making tea drinkable. If you don’t like tea, it’s because you don’t have enough sugar in it. It’s that simple. In fact, I’ll bet you can eat concrete if you have enough butter, salt and sugar available.

Ride to Eat, Eat to Ride

Posted by anachostic on October 4, 2009 No comments

Just a couple of random bike trips for food. The first was to a place I’d not heard of before, although there are a few locations around here: Village Inn. I hoped this would be like a King’s or Eat & Park from the northern area, but was a bit disappointed. I tried the staple meal – burger and fries – but the burger had some seasoning or spice that wasn’t suiting me very well at all. I could only eat a few bites of it.

It’s not all bad. I gave up on the entrée and went to dessert. The chocolate pie was excellent and made up for most of the meal’s failure.

Then I went out to tourist country and ate at a Ponderosa. It’s a location I’d been to before when I was not a local resident. Interesting how differently you act towards attractions when you could go there every day… Not that Ponderosa is an attraction, but Old Town is right there and it’s Halloween, which means they have a big push on the haunted house.

This meal I was treated to the excellent stories of a very special person behind me. My impression is that he sees himself as some sort of consumer superhero. As I understand the story, superboy was performing some bank transaction through the automated telephone service and answered some personal verification question wrong. This immediately locked his account. To resolve this, he called the bank directly. I have no idea why, but he felt it necessary to disguise his voice, taking on the tone of an agitated old man with respiratory issues. “Yes, this is so-an-so *cough cough hack snork* and you have locked my *cough COUGH* account with your damn computer *gag hack*.” During this trial to get him verified, he answered all the questions correctly. If he didn’t know one (and I’m not sure why he wouldn’t know his personal information), he would have a coughing fit to buy time. Using typical hyperbole, he said they asked him a hundred questions. Then using some sort of hybrid of hyperbole and stupidity, he said they asked him for his grandmother’s maiden name, but he answered using her married name. The only thing I can deduce from these facts is that he was faking access to his father’s account (which would be his father’s mother’s maiden name).

Superboy goes off on a tangent. Now he’s pissed because everything’s a ripoff. Drinks are $2.50 (“that’s where they get ya”). The onion rings cost an extra dollar (“That’s a scam. They asked me if I wanted onion rings but never said it’d be an extra dollar.”). But like my Village Inn dessert, it wasn’t all bad (“The 10% coupon I used paid for the extra charge for onion rings”) , but at the same time, he wasn’t letting go. He somehow changes gears and relates a story about how he had to give a 7 cent refund to a customer because they felt they were incorrectly charged tax on a dollar item and how stupid and petty it was. He somehow fails to relate his current bitching about the dollar upcharge to this story.

Please let me out of here.

Trip Log 7/23/09

Posted by anachostic on July 23, 2009 No comments

This actually isn’t a motorcycle trip. It was a business trip. As such, a lot of the details are hush-hush, but the trip itself – travelling – is something I don’t do as much of as I used to.

To start the whole trip on a great note, I don’t even make it to the airport garage without incident. There are new traffic patterns I was unfamiliar with and when one sign says “Economy parking/post office next left” and a later temporary construction sign simply says “Post office”, I did not make the turn for economy parking. So one loop around the terminal so I can be logged into NSA’s database as suspicious, then back to economy parking from the other direction, which had no construction.

Step 1 complete; I’m parked. The shuttle bus is waiting and I hop on. The bus will stop at the Blue side first, then the Red side. Fine, I’m red. We arrive at the red side and I get off the bus. I’m the last one off because I’m not really in a hurry. The lone luggage bag left in front of the bus is not my bag. Suddenly, I feel I bit more in a hurry. I grab the bag and walk back onto the bus to explain what has happened. The driver was kind enough to drive back to the other side to see if there were some people freaking out that they had the wrong bag. There were no people like that there. I gave the driver my cell number and he said he would take the bag and my number to Lost and Found. Meanwhile, I had to get my boarding pass, with or without luggage.

The trip I was taking for business was at a resort literally in the middle of nowhere. 1.5 hour drive from any metro area. I was wondering if I could wear the same jeans for three days and maybe buy some souvenir shirts to wear the other days. I guess I could have shopped at the airport, too, but that thought wasn’t coming to me then. I walked down to baggage claim looking for Lost and Found. I found instead a security guard, who told me I needed to be back upstairs and across the road. Then he did something extra: he said he’d walk me there. That’s pretty important to my trip because the purpose of the business meeting was to extol the virtues of service, which the security guard had just demonstrated.

So we got to L&F and I fill out the contact form. The lady at the counter, again – pleasant, said that they already received the other person’s bag from the shuttle driver, they had contacted the owner, and that they would handle the exchange. Simple enough, as long as these people – who didn’t recognize their bag had a handle wrap on it and mine didn’t – show up before I have to run to my gate. As it turned out, it was only about 15 minutes that I had to wait and the crisis was averted.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, but the business portion was very good. The accommodations were impressive.

Being a remote resort area, it had a lot of walking paths and lots of greenery. It would be a botanist’s dream.

The only critique I could make, and I regret thinking of it now because I should have filled out a comment card, is that the whole place needed more garbage cans. You walk around a lot and typically you’re drinking something, but then you have to carry your trash around looking for a place to throw it away. I remember only one public garbage can.

So early in the morning we all headed back to the airport. I made the wise decision to walk from the entrance to the terminal instead of talking the tram. It didn’t seem too bad, the map even said 1000 ft to next terminal. Something wasn’t quite right though, because it seemed like I walked through an extra terminal or two. All told (thanks to Bing’s unit conversion), it was well over a mile I walked. Before breakfast. I’m a bastard when I’m tired or hungry, so I had both going on when I got to the gate. Unsurprisingly, a kiosk was very willing to take 8 dollars from me in exchange for a bag of chips, a bottle of Coke, and a bag of candy.

Boarding time. Looks like we’re early. And the staff was giving out coupons for free Internet on the plane. I didn’t feel like Internetting, so I passed. All settled in and ready to go. And we’re not going. Still not. Half an hour later, I’ve worked through 75% of my bag of candy and getting restless. More waiting. Finally, the answer comes out. They were trying to fix the computers for the Internet, they couldn’t, and so we’re an hour late and the coupons can’t be used on that flight (save them for another flight).

We’re back now. I got the same shuttle driver and I’m the only one on the shuttle. Will I lose my bag again? We chatted about the luggage experience and service and other minor topics. I tipped him at the garage. It’s really something I don’t normally do, and really not sure he deserved it, but I intended it to be a nice gesture that showed I was satisfied with the service of everyone at the airport: him, the Lost and Found department, and the security guard that escorted me.

Thank god. I can head home and eat. Oh wait, there’s new traffic patterns at the airport. This new road is nice. There’s my exit up ahead…. but this road doesn’t connect to that exit. Now I’m going off the opposite direction. Damn it. Another 20 minutes of time lost. Finally, the drama ends and I’m in familiar territory and here I am recounting it to the best person in the world.

What Is This? A New Post?

Posted by anachostic on July 19, 2009 No comments

You’ve got to be kidding me. What’s the occasion for this? Which freaking song are you still working on?

Well, the impetus for the post is the simplicity of Windows Live Writer. Having a nice WYSIWYG editor makes for less resistance to creating a new entry. But there’s other minor things that happened in the last year and a half that might be mentionable as well.

Currently the recording system is running Vista x64. This was a trial run on 64-bit to see if I could still get by, which I certainly can. Well, except that the CME UF6 doesn’t have a USB driver for Vista (except through a user patch), and no 64-bit driver at all. So, although I never used the USB functions of the controller, it seems I never will, either.

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of Windows 7, at which time I’ll rebuild the system for recording again. The system has no music software on it yet. I’ll also invest in a nice hard drive or two for performance and volume, although I don’t expect to do much physical recording, instead sticking to MIDI and VST, having the HD space is never a bad thing.

So, you know I have been working on this song… as the joke goes, “When’s your album coming out?” I’ve been playing the same songs for over a year. They haven’t been completed, but I expect when I get the new recording setup, I’ll be ready to put some tracks down and get some momentum. The plan is still the same, to do another CDD-type release – that is, non-sequence-based, more live-oriented.

Otherwise, musically, there’s not much to say. Well, my Mackie mixer has been powered on and running 24×7 for at least 5 years and my Event monitors have been doing the same for at least 2. That makes these devices a great testament to longevity , durability, and ecological irresponsibility.

Back for the Attack, or My Back’s Second Attack

Posted by anachostic on July 14, 2009 No comments

Somewhere around 10 years ago, I had a back “issue”. I wasn’t doing anything crazy, all I did was plug my laptop in to a power strip on the floor and stand up. Well, I didn’t get all the way up, because I was frozen in pain. The pale white, cold sweat kind of pain. Off to the hospital and then home for bed rest. If I remember correctly, it took at least a week to recover.

10 years later, I get an anniversary visit. Again, not doing anything stressful, but maybe I can identify a little more that contributed to it this time. The memories are not so pleasant as each one comes back to me. This time around I don’t have the luxury of higher medication, so I’m getting by on heat, cold, and Advil. I have a business trip next Wednesday; not sure how that’s going to go. But I’ve had a couple observations as I attempt to remain as still as humanly possible to reduce the likelihood of pain.

This is more of a restatement of a fact I learned 10 years ago. Once you have a back failure, you will never be the same. And that was true. Every once in a while I’d get a warning that I was doing something wrong or overdoing something else. I was always careful to take it easy after that. This time, I think I got the warnings too late.

Next, recovering from a failure is like playing Operation. You move slowly, carefully, trying to remain as steady and still as possible, then BZZZZT! – you get zapped. You freak out, nearly collapse from the stabbing pain (or just freeze solid), and you lose the round. You have to start over.

Typical things become scary as hell. Coughing, sneezing, going to the bathroom, all might trigger a slight pain or a massive wave of pain. I am sure it is just like having any abdominal surgery except on the opposite side of the body. Something simple like getting up to get a drink is not so simple.

Time seems to shift around. This morning when I sat on the edge of the bed and had a total seize, when I finally got myself lying down again, I looked at the clock. It was 9:00. The next time I was able to look at the clock it was 9:12. I must have passed out from the pain or something, because it only felt like a minute.

I’m not spouting these observations as complaining or whining. I kind of find them amusing. It’s like I was one kind of person – healthy, active (both overstatements, BTW) – and now I’m a disabled person. To me it feels like a test, like “let’s see how you handle this.” And for the most part, I think I’m doing ok. I’m still as productive at work as I was when I was at my desk. I am getting by with lunch delivered to me. If things get really bad, I might have to have food delivered or drive to a drive-through. I can’t walk for extended periods right now.

But being in this condition makes one wonder, what if I was like this for the rest of my life? That’s an answer I’ll not share.

Trip Log 7/5/2009

Posted by anachostic on July 5, 2009 No comments

Today I decided to do a follow-up trip to the beach. I had discovered another park with beach access that came highly recommended, so I headed out to that one. This time, I was a little more prepared: I took my GPS and an atlas.

Let’s set something straight first. This trip, I did not get rained on. That’s an accomplishment in itself. But the whole trip wasn’t a success. I started out like I usually do, getting a bottle of water at the store on the way. I should plan better for refreshments. Then I made the run with only a brief stop for gas. I found a place to eat right near my turn for the beach.

After a much-needed meal, I headed back the road to the park. It was a very residential area, which seemed odd that a public beach would require travel through such an area. But while slowly weaving through the roads, I saw signs directing to the beach. Odd. Once I got in the actual park, it seemed pretty empty. I wasn’t sure if that was due to my late-day timing, or because the park wasn’t well-known. A couple minutes through the park I got my answer.

The roadway to the beach, which is really just a big sandbar, is being renovated. So I parked the bike and went walking to see how much I could see. The answer: not much.

There was a nice picnic area and some benches for looking out at the water. The beach itself was hidden by trees that must line the road heading to it.

So, this trip is rescheduled for the fall. It seems like a nice place, and if it’s anywhere as uncrowded as it was today, it seems like a very nice place to visit. Unfortunately, it is a couple of hours away. I can’t remember the travel time for the usual beach, but maybe it’s comparable.

Trip Log – International Ride To Work Day 2009

Posted by anachostic on June 16, 2009 No comments

This is the first year I get to show my support for 2-wheeled commuting, and I’m proud. This is going to be kind of a rough one, because it’s my first ride on a dangerous interstate, the first where I am carrying a load (loaded backpack) and it’s going to be about 200 miles round-trip. But that’s ok, because on Ride To Work Day, I’m going to be out with bunches of bikes and it’ll be safety in numbers.

So imagine my distress when I roar out onto the interstate at 75 mph and there’s no other bikes out there. I counted two on the trip out and three on the way back. That was a real disappointment. But, I still remained focused on getting to work and back alive.

So first, riding at 75 is nothing like riding at 55. I had heard stories that as a vehicle approaches 70, the wind resistance increases at an exponential rate. This, I discovered first-hand. It was extremely similar to my experience doing indoor skydiving, except instead of 15 minutes in the wind tunnel, it was an hour and a half. I could not have done it without my CrampBuster. Although my hand did get a little cramped anyway, the ride would have been impossible without being able to relax my grip occasionally.

So midway through the workday, clouds gather and thunder sounds. No rain, though. The storm just passed to the south of work. I checked the radar before leaving work and saw I would pass between two strong storm cells on my route home. More good luck. And my luck continued until I reached the final waypoint. I had travelled too fast and caught the tail end of the one cell. Merging into traffic, things suddenly slowed down to about 30. That either means there’s an accident or a downpour brought traffic to a halt ahead. Noticing the shoulders of the road changing from wet, to puddles, to pools I guessed which one happened correctly. I also relegated myself to getting drenched yet again. And it happened. A good 20 minutes of steady rain compounded by semi trucks passing by with their excessive road spray. But still made it home in one piece.

Post-trip evaluation, I was soaked (nothing new there), my hands were numb (that’s new), and I was pretty exhausted. I cleaned up and went out for dinner in the car. After riding the bike exclusively for four days, the first thought I had when I pulled out of the driveway in the car was “This car is HUGE!” And it looked huge. The far corner of the hood looked like it was a mile away. It felt huge. It was like floating in a boat, where the motions I made on the steering wheel were disconnected and delayed. It is unreal what a perceptional difference there was.

Riding the bike to work every day is completely impractical for me right now, but if I lived closer to work, it would be a easy decision.

Trip Log 6/7/09

Posted by anachostic on June 7, 2009 No comments

Today I thought it would be good to see how far away a beach run would be on the bike. I mapped out a rough route and took off. This time I was prepared with GPS in pocket.

The ride out was pleasant and rather uneventful. The crampbuster did an excellent job maintaining my speed on the long stretches. I didn’t designate any waypoints, so I stopped whenever I felt I needed to get my bearings or take a break. Stops included, it took about an hour and a half to get to the coast. Still didn’t see any public beach access though, So I stopped for lunch.

On the way out, I asked where the beach access was, and was directed to a road not far from where I was. A short drive over and I came to the “beach”.

That’s actually a pretty flattering shot. That’s about all there is of the beach. So, with my curiosity satisfied, I headed back. I figured with less stops, I should get a more accurate time. Not surprisingly, things went to crap.

That’s actually a pretty flattering shot too. You can’t tell how dark it really was ahead. Sure enough, in the last 15 minutes of the ride, down it came. Fortunately, I think I missed the worst. I can tell this by arriving in the aftermath. Lots of debris in the road and a couple flooded road sections I had to avoid.

Now back home and warming up. The storm should finish passing sometime soon, then I can get out again.

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