2 Wheel news

All righty, time to update with a little bit of one of my favorite topics: bikes.

"Manana". My beach cruiser/rat rod. She was made from a few spare parts, but is mainly a 1980's Murray Monterey. I painted it flat black, rode it for a while, then decided to paint on some black rubberized coating. Big mistake, the coating was horrific. Over the last 2 weeks I have been working on it again, and got it back to flat black primer, and I have all the parts cleaned up and ready to assemble. Only major flaw this time around is the fact that the paint has some kind of silver flake to it. Rather annoying since I took the time to strip, paint, and wet sand to get it looking nice, only to have a bad can add a little bit of sparkle. After sleeping on the matter I decided it is not that bad to look at, and I want it finished, don't want to wet sand and spray another few days. On Friday the 27th, the rat will be back.

Bike sales have been going up due to rising gas prices. If you commute to work, good on ya. I keep wanting to, but the ride home is uphill and the weather is hot enough to cook you medium rare. If you bike to work, or school, or just for the fun of it, I strongly recommend using two locks. Get yourself a U-Lock, and then get yourself some security wire and a good padlock from the hardware store, don't trust cheap cable locks. Use both anytime you plan on walking at least two steps away from your bike, they are becoming a hot commodity.

Best wishes to my workplace's Director of Operations, he decided to strap back into the saddle at the local BMX track, and ended up eating the dirt pretty hard. Broken collar bone, broke 4 ribs, and had a concussion. Get well soon Rick.

The Step Out to fight diabetes Walk-A-Thon that happens in my hometown is going to be happening in October, and this year my team is going to bike the entire route. We think it will make it a little more fun, and plus it got me thinking up a great team name: "Crank it". I will post a link to the fund raising website once it is up and running.

Interesting sight

So after I got home today from work, and as I was exiting my vehicle and thinking of how quickly I could get inside from the heat, I noticed something. It wasn't too far out of place, but it struck me as funny, and I wish I gotten it on camera. The neighborhood mailman was making his rounds, pushing his cart around. Just as he was about to turn onto the street I live on, there was a horn honk. Next thing I knew I saw a big brown UPS Truck pass by near him, he looked up when he heard the honk, and waved to the driver as he passed. I know there is not exactly a war going on between the United States Postal Service and UPS, but to see two individuals working for companies that compete with each other, and knowing each other well enough to give a wave and a honk to say hello, seemed so random and out of place. I guess we really all can get along in this world, I saw proof of it this afternoon around 3:25pm.

Wii-Ha

Almost one week ago a friend of mine very graciously loaned me her brand new Nintendo Wii and let me borrow it for a week. Me and Wendy put in some time on it, how much time we did is our little secret. Here is my review of the Wii.

Out of the box this unit had everything to get it going, plus two games. Wii Sports, which ships with all the wii's, and DDR Hottest Party with 2 dance mats.

Wii sports can be very fun, but it is most fun when you have two players. Only having one controller might seem like a letdown, but it turns out you can play bowling and golf with 2 players on just one remote, you just have to keep passing it back and forth. I went ahead and purchased an additional controller as a way of saying thank you to the friend who loaned it to me, and to make things more interesting whenever we all get together to play again. The bowling has to be the easiest game to pick up, and can be very fun against a friend or two. Golf might not be for everyone, but for some odd reason I liked this one, and once again it is more satisfying against a friend. Boxing is good and definitely gives your arms a workout, but you better have a nunchuck or two to be able to play this game, and landing your punches on specific body parts can be tricky at times. The baseball game is nice, most baseball games I have every played I gave up on because there was too many things you had to be in control of. Here you either bat or pitch, all other duties like fielding and base running are taken care of, but don't think that makes your opponents too easy to defeat.

Wii Play. This game came with the extra controller I bought. Ity is advertised as being a game sold with a bonus controller, however, it should be looked at as getting a controller and getting a $10 game to go with it. Good for learning the basics of how to handle the remote, and some of the games are worth a second go round like Find Mii (finding identical "mii's"), laser hockey, the shooting gallery, and the every popular Cow Racing, but other than that there is not much else to this game.

DDR Hottest Party. Me and Wendy love this game, but there is a catch. First off, this version of Dance Dance Revolution uses the controller and nunchuck as a way to get your arms involved in the game, but it is best to turn this feature off, along with the "gimmicks" feature that is used in 2 player mode. Second, you need to make sure you have 2 dance pads, and that you feel the rhythm with your body, not your eyes. Wide range of difficulty depending on the setting you have it on, and how fast the song is that you picked. Really gets the heart going and probably gives the Wii Fit a run for its money with how many calories you can burn during your playing time.

So, final thoughts. If you are wondering which console to get, the wii is a great choice. It is cheaper than its competition, but some games are a little more pricey because of the add-ons you need to run them (nunchucks, wii fit has its own board, ddr has dancepads, etc.). Wii sports is fun, Wii play is so-so, and DDR hottest party is sure to bring out your inner dance machine.

Making the grade

Today I went and picked up an order at Best Buy that I had purchased online and chose to pick it up at the store when it became available. This was the third store I had done this at, so I decided to grade three stores on this new concept of making the purchase at home and picking it up at the store to avoid the long lines and the shipping fees.

Store 1: Circuit City
I give them a D, I wanted to give them an F, but I am giving them the benefit of the doubt. I purchased a video game through their website and selected "pick up in store". I went in with my paperwork and was told that since the game was slightly older they didn't have it in stock, I was going to have to order it online and wait to have it shipped to me. Also, they had a policy that stated if i didn't get my purchase I would get a free gift card, never got it. Their whole system needed a overhaul or a swift kick in the pants. That was about a year ago, they may have gotten better since then.

Store 2: Best Buy
I give them a C. I was able to make my purchase online, and got confirmation when it was available from the store's merchandise. Went to pick it up, and the girl behind the counter told me that she had just gotten back from maternity leave, so she was having to get familiar with her job again. Add to that the fact that she probably never processed an order like that before and I could have saved time by showing up and buying the thing in store. Long story short, when it is available it really is waiting for you, but employee experience will determine how much time it takes to actually walk out with your product.

Store 3: Wal-Mart
I give them the highest grade of the three with a B. I purchased an item and did their "site to store" option. This means instead of it being delivered to my place and charged for delivery, it is sent to a wal-mart store I choose and I go and pick it up. I would give them an A if they pulled the product from their merchandise instead of a warehouse, then there would be less time between ordering and pick up. Some would argue to pay the delivery fee with the price of gas as it is, but I live pretty close and my car gets about 33-34 mpg, so I do see some savings in it.

Stay tuned

I celebrated the fact yesterday that I have been part of helping someone move for the 5th time in my life. Once was a former bible study group leader, two times were for Wendy, and the other 2 times, including Monday and Tuesday of this week, have been my friend Ben. After having to move items such as a bed, couch, and entertainment center down a staircase, and sometimes back up one, we quickly realized why people like to pay professionals to move their stuff. On a more happy note I wanted to once again congratulate him on his new digs, very sweet place. He wanted to invite everyone on the internet to come to a party to help break the place in, he is located at *This post has been hacked by internet monkeys to avoid personal information from being leaked out*, and the phone number you can reach him at to RSVP is: *Once again, internet monkeys*.

Hope to see you there!

1.8 Liters of fury!!

The following story is completely made up and for entertainment purposes only. Racing belongs on the track, not the street, and always buckle up.

So there I was the other night out in my sentra when I attracted the attention of a V-8 powered vehicle next to me. We exchanged glances, then patiently waited for the green light. After what seemed like an eternity, we had a green, and we both launched. My tires let a little squeal escape and I soon had traction. Foot to the floor I let the little power plant wind out to within about 500 rpms from redline, then grabbed for second. By this point I am hearing the car next to me screaming, and I realize that we were both going all out and I was holding dead even with them. I start to climb through second gear, but I realized that I needed to shut it down and slow up because I needed to be in that lane for the stop light that was quickly approaching. Clutch in and tapping the brakes a bit I saw the other vehcile quickly shoot off from beside me, and I merged over. Don't underestimate the power of the 1.8L Sentra!! Ok, ok, so I am leaving out two important details of this story. First off, the other vehicle was driven by a good friend of mine (whats up Peaches!). And second of all, it was a full size 4 door 4WD GMC truck, stock for the exception of a bolt on exhaust, and with leather interior (sweet ride).