Sharing Interests

Last night Kelly bought herself a mountain bike. The last bicycle Kelly had was a Huffy. It is possible she was ten at that time. Having never really bought something like this before, Kelly didn't know what she was looking for. She was a little out of her element. I went through this whole process last year so we made a plan and went out together. We hit a couple different bike stores and she rode a few different models around the parking lots. We also learned that just because a bike is more expensive and has pricier components, doesn't mean that you're going to be comfortable on it. It's better to have a bike that's strong and you feel confident riding. We settled on a Specialized. It's the same frame as mine and I know it can take a lot of abuse. Just as important is that Kelly really liked the feel of it. She will be able to attack harder trails on this bike than she would be able to handle with one that she's not as comfortable on. The big differences between her's and mine is that Kelly's bike has 24 speeds, mine has one. But Specialized took that extra money saved by not having gears, derailers, etc and put it into fancy components like disk brakes, stronger wheels, better shocks, and so on. Downside for me is that I have to walk up the big hills while Kelly can stay on her bike.

We'll be going out somewhere this weekend for a ride. Nothing too challenging at first, just some easy dirt or gravel tracks, maybe a jogging trail. Kelly and I have always had very different interests. This always serves to keep things interesting because one of us will usually come up with an idea that the other hadn't thought of. But it also makes it tough for us to find an activity (other than wine tastings) that we both want to do. But going on bike rides is something everyone likes so I'm pretty excited that we can start enjoying that together.

A little off topic here, it's almost time I bought a new phone. My Nokia POS just isn't cutting the mustard anymore.

Just Another Crappy Monday

The theme of the day is, “at least I’m not in New Orleans.”

Beer Stuff

I'm really doing this just to appease Davis. I like beer. Real beer. Not the watery rejects from prohibition that survived by disguising themselves as horse urine before making a comeback by appealing to the lowest common denominator. I mean the stuff that good red blooded Americans began brewing based on recipies handed down after generations of uninterupted brewing in the old countries. That's real beer.

Consequently I am going to review the beer I'm drinking right now. Just because I like beer doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about when I review it. That's why I'm not posting here or here. Those guys actually know what they're talking about. So on to the review!

I'm drinking a 22oz bottle of Pikop Andropov's Rushin' Imperial Stout, brewed by Hale's Ales in Seattle Washington. I want to start by saying this beer is BLACK. It looks like the used motor oil that just leaked all over the inside of my trunk. Other stouts seem to lighten up a little bit at the edges but this one is thick and black. No I'm not going to make that joke no matter how easy it is. At first I wasn't a big fan of the flavor. It tastes way too sour. Honestly I considering not finishing the bottle. But it's starting to grow on me. Maybe it's the easy drinkability. When I said thick I meant the color, it's really got a rather watery mouthfeel compared to some stouts. But it does go down easy without making me feel like I just ate dinner. Or it might be the 8% abv. Either way, I am going to finish it up. This beer wasn't a waste and it is rather unique. There are better imperial stouts out there however, so I don't think I'll be picking this one up again.

Good Times Live in New York

This time I made the most of the weekend.  No more falling asleep in a recliner.  This time I fell asleep at a bar.  And then again on a subway.  At which point I woke up on a different subway facing the opposite direction and thought the train had turned around and was headed back to the city!  I’ll have to write all about it when I get the chance.  That won’t be soon though.

Things got really busy around here all of a sudden.  Well not really all of a sudden, it’s been like this for a couple weeks now.  I like working 15 hour days as much as the next guy, but it doesn’t really leave much time to update the ol’ blog now does it?  I’d say postings are going to be rather intermittent until about mid-September.  Then, provided we get the job, I should be set for the year.  I’m ready to slack like I’ve never slacked before!

One last thought, Final should record a cover of Paint it Black.  Don’t give me any lip Jim, you owe me for not coming to New York!

Comments?

So far the only comments I've recieved have been by spammers (if I don't know you, don't plug your site on my blog) and my good friends at Final. Since I know most of the people checking out this blog aren't registered at Blogspot, I've made the comments open to everyone now. Feel free to leave me some feedback!

To Commemorate The Event

Hilarity

Henrico County iBook Sale!

I was there. I saw the beginnings of a riot. I picked up my camp chair and went home.

If you are unfamiliar with these goings on you can find out what the fuss is about here for the time being. I’ll post a link to the inevitable news coverage later. Let me recount to you the events of this morning. Kelly, Brendan and I had a plan. The Henrico Schools website indicated that the gates would open at 7am, the sale would start at 9am, and no camping would be allowed. We piled into Brendan’s truck around 5:15am with one chair each, ready to sit in line for three and a half hours. We thought that would give us a pretty good shot.

Arriving at the raceway complex, we saw a goodly sized line already formed in front of the gates, maybe 200 to 300 people and 20 cars. We were expecting that though, no big deal. We go park the truck and walk over to take our place in line. Walking past the gate we saw 3 police officers keeping order. Take note of that number now. Upon arriving where we thought the end of the line was, we found that it really just went around a corner and down the street. It’s still dark, we can’t see a lot, so we start walking. The end of the line isn’t within view. So we’re walking, walking, walking. The news reporters were saying there were hundreds and hundred of people in line. Liars. There had to be 4 to 5 THOUSAND people there at 5:30am. There were only one thousand iBooks for sale. Still unable to see the end of the line we turned around and went home.

The morning news was on when I got there so the little lady and I cozied up to see what we were missing. The talking heads were sensationalizing the whole thing. “Hundreds and hundreds of people.” Sure, way to give the stragglers hope. There seemed to be some tension building. More and more people had been showing up, people that had followed the rules set down on the website. Upon finding that those who couldn’t follow directions were going to buy all the $50 laptops first, these goody-two-shoes were becoming irate and formed a second line. Threats were made. Those three police officers called for backup.

At 7am the gates were flung open as promised. Line? What line? It was a stampede. You were waiting there since 1:30 in the morning you say? Tough shit, you just found yourself face down on the pavement being trampled. You brought your kid along to stand in line all morning? Firstly, what’s wrong with you? Second, that kid can’t run as fast as you. Better ditch him and hope he makes it out alright. It’s every person for themselves! There’s cheap laptops up for grabs!

I felt sorry for them in a way. Why would so many people throw away their humanity for cheap electronics? The news crew interviewed a woman who had been trampled by several people and was sobbing to the reporter. That's kinda sad. Then I noticed her tee shirt. I have little pity for a person that cries while their shirt screams, “LIQUOR” in large block letters.

Here’s that news link I promised. I hope to god I can find a video of that woman in the tee shirt. That was classic.

Edit: Here's the updated video with the interview with the trampled woman. Click on the "see video" link under the picture of the computer. Check out those threads!

Edit 2: The incident made CNN!

Walken 2008

Has anyone heard anything about this? Is it legit or are the good people of Overcity Productions just pulling our collective chain? I tell you what though, Ronald Reagan made the jump from actor to president. Arnold Schwarzenegger became the Governator. Christopher Walken is a better dancer than both those guys. I say why not? Our country has a fever. And the only prescription, is more cowbell!

Ups and Downs

The last week or so has been extremely busy at work. Me being lead designer for site design on a 43 million dollar project and my boss being out of town at a training thing for the week will do that. The meeting I was preparing for went great, preparation really does help. And I was able to leave work at 2:30 on friday and still have 15 hours of overtime for the week. All in all, rather successful.

Unfortunately my lack of sleep for the week caught up with me last night and as my wife and friends hung out trying to polish off the keg from our last party, I fell asleep on the recliner and basically looked like a goon. I'll admit, I was damn tired. But it's saturday, I got to sleep in right? Hells no. I wake up to the sound of claws on carpet. I don't know how long she had been at it, but the damn cat had decimated the carpet in front of our bedroom. New apartment, new carpet, good-bye deposit.

That brings me to now. What the hell do I do today? Buy a new scratching box for the cat for starters. Then I have to start making up for lost time. Last night was a good opportunity for fun and I missed it. Well tonight I'm on a mission.

Stupid F*cks on Live

I just wanted to drop a quick post about an occurrence last night. I was playing some Halo 2 online, the first chance I've had in a while I might add. The night was going well, I was earning levels pretty quickly. Then this happens. F*cking guy decides he's going to have a grand time blowing his ass up with grenades and dragging his team down with him! Honestly I don't really care how he gets his jollies. It's not like I was even doing that great in that game. But I lost a whole goddamn level because of that guy. Well I left feedback on him for Bungie, but from the look of his stats he's been banned before. Whatever, when he wakes up in the morning he'll still be an asshole.

BF Goodrich Tour T/A Pro Series

So I get this email from my dad today.

Hi Nick,
My co-worker went to Sam's Club and found this SUV tire for his Subaru but could not find the info on it at the tirerack? Got a minute to help? BF Goodrich T Pro.
Love Dad

It was an absolute bear to find anything about this tire, but here's what I came up with.

I found some forum posts asking if anyone has tried those tires before, but there were no responses to any of the questions so I’ve no idea if they’re any good. It seems like no knowledgeable internet users have touched them before.

“Has anyone used BFGoodrich Tour T/A Pro Series tires from Sam's Club? Link to tire
I can't find any infomation about them on BF Goodrich website.”

“I was just wondering if you ended up buying these tires and if so, how do you like them? I was checking them out myself but am unsure about the reliability. If you can help, that would be great.”

I did find this post at a Nissan Xterra forum regarding a similar situation.

“The BFG Land terrain is a walmart version of the rugged TA. they are built to Walmat/ Sams club specs. Im sure it would be a decent tire for the money although it doent have the rim bead like the KO has and starts with less thread depth than other BFG ofroad tires. Hope this helps ya in your peurchase.”

So here’s what I think is going on. I think they start with either the BF Goodrich Touring TR4 or SR4, then modify it to Sam’s Club specs in order to get the price down a little more, then sell it as the BF Goodrich Tour T/A Pro Series.

As you can see from that link to the Touring TR4 review from Tire Rack, it’s a decent tire. Nothing outstanding, but no glaring faults either. Sam’s club probably altered it somewhat to bring the cost down, maybe a little less tread depth or something. I set the tire size for both the tire rack and sam’s club links to the same size so you can compare apples to apples for price.

The thing to remember though, this tire was not designed for SUVs. It’s a car tire straight up. If you follow this link you’ll see that tire rack breaks up the tire lines into two very distinct categories, and I think they’re right to do that. Your coworker is probably alright using this tire because except for the Subaru Tribeca, Subaru vehicles aren’t really SUVs, they’re really Impreza’s and Legacy’s with an extra couple inches of ground clearance, softer shocks, and a skid plate or two. It’s fine to run passenger car tires on an Outback, though you do loose some of that off road capability. I’d probably recommend a tire with a more aggressive tread pattern however. I definitely wouldn’t recommend mounting a passenger car tire on a Tribeca or any other true SUV though. They just aren’t designed for the extra weight or high center of gravity.

I hope you found that all helpful and informative!

Since I had such a hard time finding anything on this tire I figured I should probably post what info I did find online. If I got something wrong, or if anyone has anything they'd like to add please leave a comment.