Bigfoot Sighting!

So I'm looking at the surrounding neighborhoods of a few addresses with Google Streetview because I'm lookin' to find myself some new digs right now, then low and behold I see Bigfoot! ...or a big crusty dude, I dunno -- Just thought it looked funny.

I could play with Google for hours on end =)

Uncapturable

Went for a +300 mile ride on the bike in the Sierra Nevada's up above Yosemite this weekend. It was mostly for pleasure but is was also so I could get a feel for riding long distances and research feasible travel times for my trip next month. I wasn't planning anything special, but what I ended up with surely was special.

Nothing fit in my camera though. The trees were too big, the roads were too long, the vista's were too breathtaking and the people were too cool. All I got were little pinhole shots of the big picture... Its funny how it always works out that way, pixels are no match for the mind's eye.

Hypothetical Theme Camp

The other day I was idly browsing through the 4th of July sale papers when I happened upon an ad, “Buy one, get one free” on whole bags of Missile Pops. As usual my mind started to wander and soon enough I was thinking about nuclear weapons and Burning Man… Yeah, that’s how I tick : )

So, here’s my idea for a camp. The basic premise is to give away America’s nuclear arsenal (figuratively that is), one pop for every missile in America’s stockpile. The parallels and imagery are almost perfect; I think that it would be a really informative yet fun hit! Check it… The theme this year is the American Dream; Missile Pops are red, white and blue. The logistics of refrigerating and disposing of +5500 frozen missiles on the Playa would be an expensive nightmare, just like America’s nuclear weapons program. A Burning Man theme camp would cost about 4% of my yearly budget, we spend 4% of our discretionary budget every year on just maintaining our nukes alone ($35bn).

I suppose that there would have to be something cool about the camp too, I’m not sure what, but something cool. For sure it would have one of those panels where you dramatically count down from ten and turn matching keys or something =) A set time everyday for the giveaway would also be needed so that I wouldn’t be spending all day there. 3:25pm would be a good time to start; I think people would dig having ice cream at that time… It’s also the exact time that America officially entered the nuclear age back in 1942 when the first nuclear reactor went online right under the football field at the University of Chicago (try passing that one by OSHA these days).

So anyways, that’s my idea. Whaddya think?

Summer Vacation!

Last night was my first night of freedom in a while; though I didn’t really do much, it was still nice. Now I have the next eight weeks to do whatever I want. I learned quite a bit last semester, most notably that I study best while listening to either abstract electronic music or free-form jazz. Any other types of music don’t seem to stimulate the same areas of the brain; I’m thinking that it’s the creative portions.

The road trip planning is going swimmingly; I ordered the last of my hot weather gear yesterday. I think that I’ve also found the book I want to bring, it’s called “Narcissus and Goldmund”, it was recommended by a friend and I think that it will go quite nice with what I’m going for.

Next thing I should probably start doing is some endurance training, my itinerary for the whole road trip goes something like; “ride 300 miles… hike around… camp… repeat…” for two weeks straight in the southwest heat.

Anyhoo, let the freedom commence!

Bring it on

I'm not really sure the reason but I think that when I moved from the Bay to Sacramento I turned into a high temperature junkie.

At first I was pretty miserable, even though I was no stranger to triple digit temperatures I think that I was still shocked at the reality of the climate I was entering. The heat was relentless... It would be in the 80s when I stepped out the door for work and then it would climb up to 110 (or higher) by lunch and just sit there all day. Sadly I spent almost all of my first summer here exclusively in air-conditioned spaces, I was just so overwhelmed at first.

The summer a year later was even worse though, one of the hottest on record. It was made even more uncomfortable for me since my primary mode of transportation at that point was a motorcycle. I didn't even have proper hot weather gear either; I was riding around in unventilated gear on top of a hot ass motorcycle that rode on pavement that I'm sure was melting. I think that was the point when I began to love the heat though.

It almost became a game...
Starting point: Auburn, ca
Objective: See how far can Aaron make it before he gets heat stroke and starts seeing spots.

50 miles? 75? If you can make 90 you're over the East Bay foothills and home free! I think it was this little test of will that compelled me to make friends with the heat.

Now I love it, whenever I see the mercury start to rise I find myself consciously saying “bring it on &*#@$!” Last year I only turned the AC in my car on a handful of times.

So, what this all leads up to... This August I have tentatively planned a trip across the Southwest on my motorcycle. I realize that yes, this is not quite the time that other people usually do this sort of thing, but it’s the only time I have available. Oddly enough though I think that it’s the best time for me. What could be a better theatre for an old fashioned vision quest than wide open spaces, red painted canyons and the whole bigger than thou nature of that area combined with the cathartic element of oppressive, never-ending heat.

This week's climbing temps has got my imagination going and and I'm rearin to go…

Yay Planet Earth!

I must still be on my hippie high horse after Sunday's Earth Day festivities...

Today the people in my department asked me if I would get us a set of glass basins so they could wash parts with acetone and white gas like they do in other departments. I told them flat out no. When they asked me why I told then that it wasn't necessary, there are other ways, and it creates an evil, caustic, and flammable slurry in the end for which we have no procedure for disposing of here (even though I know we're going through a couple gallons of this stuff a month).

What I brokered with them in concession though was that they could use the waste jet fuel simulant, which also acts as a light solvent, for cleaning gunky parts up. Once done it should then be dumped in the hazmat drums that we have specifically for any sort of fuel/oil product. This is 180 degrees out from other departments where I don't even what to know what they do with their waste products, last time I checked guys up there were still dumping grease contaminated sonic cleaner down the sink....

So yeah, crisis partly averted. It really kinda worried me since I know that my boss doesn't give a crap about that sort of thing, in fact I'm sure that if they went over my head on this they would get the green light. I don't think they will though, they saw the distressed look on my face when they asked me, so they know its more than me just being a typical dick boss. Stuff like this matters, even if it is just three people not dumping hydrocarbons all over the place. If you look at the fact that one-gallon of petroleum ruins like a couple hundred thousand gallons of drinking water, that’s pretty freakin’ serious if you ask me.


</Captain Planet Rant>

Aaron's Bike Experiments

In slight homage to the upcoming Maker Faire I posted up a little vid of my current bike project.


The State of California had a problem with my bike having the incorrect mileage readout on the odometer when I went to transfer the registration from Nevada to California (they hate out of state things just so you know.) So I decided to fix it myself...

Problem with the bike being that it was 4000 miles short of where it should be, which meant I had to somehow put 4000 miles on it pronto or I wouldn't be able to register it. So rather that take a trip down to Southern Mexico, as nice as that sounds, I decided to jury rig the bike's speedo.

My first idea was rather crude and merely a product of me being pissed off, but my final solution turns out to be much better, and quieter :-P

Check it: www.youtube.com/watch

Groundbreaking Discovery!

Mosquito-Hawks/Eaters don't eat mosquitoes...

My world is shattered.

After sitting in an evening class being pestered by both mosquitoes and supposed "mosquito eaters" last night, I decided to do some research.

Wikipedia entry for the Crane Fly (Mosquito Hawk): ...crane flies do not prey on mosquitoes as adults, nor do they bite humans. Some larval crane flies may on occasion feed on mosquito larvae.[1] Adult crane flies feed on nectar or they do not feed at all; once they become adults.

Not only don't they eat mosquitoes, but their vegetarians...

How many parents tell their kids this silly myth about "no, don't kill that, he's a good guy...". What a freakin' misnomer, thanks parents of the world. You can bet that I'm gonna raise my kids right. When they point and ask me "whats that" I'm gonna tell them the truth, "that my child is the worthless drunken flier of the insect kingdom".

Happy Friday =)

choices, choices...

Whether to attend quite possibly the most interesting lesson in my Astro class, the one on black holes, neutron stars and such...

Or

Go see the Subhumans, where I can scream idealistic slogans till my throat goes hoarse, mosh, grapple, and bounce till I can move no more.




Sigh...

Sofa King, We Todd Ed...

Yup, thats me... I'm surprised that I've lived as long as I have.

For some reason I thought that it would be a great idea to ride from Reno, over Donner pass, to Roseville through a snow flurry, at night, on a motorcycle!

Goddamn... what a scary and cold situation. Despite several layers of clothing and chemical hand warmers I still felt like I was tobogganing naked!

I also literally experienced brain freeze. No matter how hard I tried to cram myself into the space between my gas tank and the windshield, the aerodynamics of the situation left the top 3 inches of my head exposed to a wind chill factor of -5 degrees.

I lived though, and my new bike is home safe in the garage. As stupid as that was, it all seems worth it.



The other cool scheme to kill myself that I hatched today was to go visit this pot field up in Dutch Flat that somebody told me about. One of my favorite summertime hobbies is exploring the backwoods of California and taking pictures. It would be super-cool to take a bunch of pictures in the middle of a magical mystical marijuana field. Especially one 10 miles down a dirt road surrounded by hand painted signs that read "Yankee go home, or we'll shoot you!".

I'll let you know how that one goes...