There really isn't a whole lot to talk about tonight. It's been rather relaxing the last two days, and that isn't a bad thing. I was going to try and make video tonight. For a couple of reasons. The first being, that I wanted to see how the low light feature worked in low light, and to ride around. Alas, my phone was running low on charge, and I don't like going out without the phone. I want it with me, just in case something goes wrong and I need to call someone. So, I'm going to wake up early tomorrow and do it. This gives me a chance to try something else out. I'm going to take you to my favorite sunrise beach, and there, I will attempt to use the time lapse video feature to catch the sunrise for you. If this all works out, I think it could be a pretty cool video. We will see.
Ukulele class was a blast tonight. I went with the FSOTW for my choice to learn, and it wasn't an easy song to figure out. My teacher looked like he wanted to strangle me at one point. i just laughed. I seem to give him challenges that other people don't. I think that is a good thing, because it gives both of us an opportunity to expand our knowledge. I had to tune down the ukulele a half step in order to get the right sound out of it. It all worked out in the end, and I now have a pretty cool song to play.
One thing I got to do tonight, was watch The Gong Show. If you've never seen The Gong Show, it is a variety show of really obscure acts. They perform and then based on the judges score, the winner receives a check for $2000.17. Yeah, it's not a real big prize, but then again, the acts aren't really all that good, and that is the charm of the show. Oh, I almost forgot the most important part. If the act is really bad, the judges have the choice to gong the contestant. that end their performance and they can't win the prize. This is a show that was on in the 70's and possibly the early 80's. Then it was only a half hour show I believe. It was just a really fun show, and this new inception is no different. They managed to capture the same campy funny quality that the original one had. There are lots of bad puns and jokes from the host. The judges are all in on the joke, so they crack wise as often as they can, and the humor tilts to the titillating variety. They always use celebrity judges, and the judges change each week. This weeks judges were, Fred Armisen, Elizabeth Banks, and Will Forte. The wining act this week was called Zombie Ballet. It was 5 women dressed up as zombies doing a dance routine, that could have had ballet moves in it. At one point, they went up to the judges and removed pieces of their skin and handed it to them. It was hilarious, and actually really good.
They tend to sweep the audience with the cameras from time to time, and everyone has a smile on their face. It's really just good old fashioned fun. If you have the chance, give it a try, or look up old shows on YouTube. They are there, and they are fantastic. I highly recommend the one where 80's band Oingo Boingo makes their first national television appearance. Yep, that is where they got their start, and they were a quirky weird band doing quirky weird things. You know what, you don't have to go look for it. I'll put it right here for you.
See that guy in the rocket ship flying around. That is Danny Elfman. If you don't know him, you have surely heard his music. He did the theme for The Simpson's, almost all of Tim Burton's films (actually I think he has done all of them, but I'm too lazy to confirm this), and he of course wrote all the music for the band Oingo Boingo. If you watched the whole thing, you saw that they in fact won. See, just good old fashioned fun. It makes you happy.
I was going to possibly go to Universal tomorrow, but they weather is calling for an 80% chance of rain, and that would more than likely fall in Orlando, so it looks like Universal is on hold, but I do have a 5 day weekend, so I could still go sometime this weekend.
Well the clock is ticking ever deeper into the night, and I need to wake up early if I want to get that video for you. If things go right it will be up on the YouTube channel sometime late tomorrow, so you can see it early if you don't want to wait. If you don't mind the wait, I will of course post it on here with the Sunday post. I'm off to bed. Peace in and goodnight.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
She Found The Blog.
I'm writing this early in the evening tonight because there are severe storms going through right now, and I'm not completely sure that I will have power for the night. So let's get to it.
The title says it all. Yeah, I wrote this one first and didn't wait until the end. My plans for Friday evening have been cancelled. She found the blog. It appears that she didn't like what she read. It seems we have different focuses in life, and that none of them overlap. I don't know what any of that means, nor do I need to.
I stand by everything that I write in this blog. It is all about my experience going through this life. The good, the bad, and the ugly, and if someone can't deal with that, than maybe it is for the best, that we never go forward with anything. As always though, I write this, and I will let it go. This is the end for OK Cupid. I should have shut it down when I was originally going to. I will leave it up until Thursday evening and then delete the profile. I'm only leaving it up now, so that she has the opportunity to see my response. It isn't anything angry or bad, it just simply said that this was unexpected and that I wish her the best of luck.
Now that that is behind us, let's get to the fun stuff. I got something in the mail yesterday, and it came from China. No, it's not the shoes I've been waiting for from Stellar Kicks. I've given up on them, and I will take this brief time to reiterate, don't buy anything from that company. What I did get, was the motorcycle lock that I ordered a week or so ago. I have a picture for you, but first I need to explain the picture. It is one of those mixed images, that show 4 shots. I didn't have 4 shots of the lock, so I added in one of the helmet with the mix adaptor velcro'd into place. I got that shot, and just blended it with the others to save a little space, and also because the app I have to make those mixed pictures no longer has the three spaces that their entire app logo is based on. That frame would have been perfect, but you have to work with what you have, so here it is.
That takes me back. I had three of their albums on cassette, and listened to them all until they wouldn't play anymore. It had been some time since I listened to them until this week, and I'm glad I did. Yeah the lyrics are cliche, and the music is dated, but sometimes you need some of that to make you happy.
As I'm finishing this up, the storms are starting to subside, so I will probably keep my power after all. Still, it feels good to wrap this up a little earlier than usual. I'm sure it will still go out in the email tomorrow morning. Peace in and goodnight.
The title says it all. Yeah, I wrote this one first and didn't wait until the end. My plans for Friday evening have been cancelled. She found the blog. It appears that she didn't like what she read. It seems we have different focuses in life, and that none of them overlap. I don't know what any of that means, nor do I need to.
I stand by everything that I write in this blog. It is all about my experience going through this life. The good, the bad, and the ugly, and if someone can't deal with that, than maybe it is for the best, that we never go forward with anything. As always though, I write this, and I will let it go. This is the end for OK Cupid. I should have shut it down when I was originally going to. I will leave it up until Thursday evening and then delete the profile. I'm only leaving it up now, so that she has the opportunity to see my response. It isn't anything angry or bad, it just simply said that this was unexpected and that I wish her the best of luck.
Now that that is behind us, let's get to the fun stuff. I got something in the mail yesterday, and it came from China. No, it's not the shoes I've been waiting for from Stellar Kicks. I've given up on them, and I will take this brief time to reiterate, don't buy anything from that company. What I did get, was the motorcycle lock that I ordered a week or so ago. I have a picture for you, but first I need to explain the picture. It is one of those mixed images, that show 4 shots. I didn't have 4 shots of the lock, so I added in one of the helmet with the mix adaptor velcro'd into place. I got that shot, and just blended it with the others to save a little space, and also because the app I have to make those mixed pictures no longer has the three spaces that their entire app logo is based on. That frame would have been perfect, but you have to work with what you have, so here it is.
The lock looks great on Saki, and the paint matches pretty close. I won't take it with me everywhere, but I will take it out when I think I will be going to a place that people would most likely mess with Saki a bit. It pulls the front brake lever into the grip and holds it there, keeping the front tire from moving. It will take a lot of effort to steal it. However, I don't think the lock is theft proof. The key is not an every day run of the mill key, but it also isn't a one of a kind key. It is generic, and could easily be overcome. It's not likely that anyone would put that kind of effort in to getting past it though, so I think Saki will be safe.
You can see that the mic adaptor looks a lot better from the original way with all the gaffer tape all over it. Cleaned up nicely. Now, I will more than likely be putting a single strip of gaffer tape over the adaptor just to be safe, but that will still be cleaner than the way it was. I'm happy with it. I think I will try to get a video together on Friday of just a fun riding around vlog for you to see. Maybe take you to some really nice visuals to see. I still owe you that ride over the bridge at Sebastian Inlet. Friday might be a good day for that. Which reminds me, Friday starts a five day weekend for me. I won't know what to do with myself.
Favorite Song of the Week? Oh yeah, it's here and ready for you. I'm still in that hair metal state of mind, and one of the bands that was a favorite of mine, came to me this week. This band, with it's piercing vocals, driving rhythm section, and searing guitars, had the potential to be one of the biggest bands of the era. There was only one problem. The lead singer and lead guitarist seemed to hate each other. Every story about them in the magazines were talking about how much they would fight with one another. George Lynch wanted to go with a heavier sound, and Don Dokken wanted more of the melodic ballads that they were known for. I think there was room for both, and their albums showed that, but they just couldn't see eye to eye. The broke up in '89 and then got back together briefly in the 90's but it wasn't meant to last. They still tour under the Dokken name, but only Don Dokken and drummer Mick Brown remain from the original 4 man lineup. Regardless of all that strife, their music lives on, and here is their first hit single "Alone Again".
That takes me back. I had three of their albums on cassette, and listened to them all until they wouldn't play anymore. It had been some time since I listened to them until this week, and I'm glad I did. Yeah the lyrics are cliche, and the music is dated, but sometimes you need some of that to make you happy.
As I'm finishing this up, the storms are starting to subside, so I will probably keep my power after all. Still, it feels good to wrap this up a little earlier than usual. I'm sure it will still go out in the email tomorrow morning. Peace in and goodnight.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
It Wasn't An Atypical Weekend.
Not a whole lot to talk about tonight. It's been an abnormal weekend, and not in a particularly exciting way. I did some more testing on Friday afternoon with the GoPro. I think I like the way it is set up right now, but I'll still do some more testing with it to make sure. I do need to do a night ride to see how the camera looks in low light. It is supposed to have an automatic feature that sets it to 30fps (frames per second) when it detects low light. That will allow the camera the time to pull more light in so that shot doesn't look overly dark. I'll check that out this coming week or weekend some time.
I helped a friend move more stuff this weekend. It was more of a short notice thing this time, but I had nothing planned so it was easy to fit in my non busy schedule. It turned out to be quite the adventure, or maybe misadventure is the right word for it. The washer and dryer that was at the new house, didn't really work as well as it was believed to work. That meant that we needed to get her washer and dryer, that she had planned on leaving behind to the new house. That was the easy part. Unhook a few houses, take a door somewhat off the hinges, and viola we were all loaded up.
We got to the new house and opened the door for the garage, and it had a slight unpleasant odor. Then we opened the washer that had stopped running on her. It was full of septic water, and it was bad. Putrid really isn't a good enough word for what this smelled like, and it was full. WE unloaded the truck first, so that everything could be out of the way, including the loading ramp on the truck, so that we could get that washer out of the garage, and tipped over to empty it's horrendous contents. During this process, I managed to get some of the water on my shirt. It was not good. That smell stuck with the shirt, and I could smell it the whole time. Fortunately, I had a thin, light weight hoody in my back pack, and when I was done with everything, I had that to put on. We got the old washer out of there and emptied of the foul liquid, and the new washer and dryer hooked up. My only guess as to what happened, was, that the previous owners, or someone, shut the water lines to the washer off. When my friend tried washing her clothes, it only pulled the water that had been sitting in the lines for however long the house was unoccupied, and it was all stagnate water that got septic. Before I hooked everything up, I tested the lines, and the water coming out was good and clean. Once we got everything in place, I ran the washer for a bit to see what the water looked like inside of it, and it was good as well. She could finally get her clothes washed, and it went well.
She had one more project for me before I left. She got a couple of Adirondack chairs and a wooden folding table to go on her deck. Let me tell you about this deck. It overlooks a lake that might be one of the most peaceful settings I've seen. it is beautiful, and these chairs are the perfect fit for her and that deck. I got the chairs together with some effort. The second was much easier than the first, and then I went to work on the table. Should be easy right? Only 4 bolts two legs and a table top. Yeah, I'm an idiot sometimes, and it took way longer than it should have. It's mostly because I didn't think and take the time to look at the bigger picture and only focused on the bolts and where they went. It wasn't until the fourth try, that I finally got it right. I had the legs wrong on all the other times, and instead of lining everything up first, I just figured I had it. Well, I didn't. When I finally lined everything up and then bolted it together, did we have a working folding table.
It wasn't the adventure time series, but it was an adventure. I didn't ride Saki over because there was supposed to be a very high chance of rain. Guess what didn't happen? No rain at all. I saw some menacing looking clouds, but that was it.
I didn't ride this weekend, but I did get something for the helmet set-up. I got some velcro strips to attache the mic adaptor. They seem to be working out fine, but I won't really know how well they work until I ride with it. It cleans up the helmet nicely. Well, as nice as can be with a whole bunch of electronic equipment and wires all over it. Regardless of how well the velcro holds, I think I'm still going to put a strip of gaffers tape over it, just to make sure it stays in place. I'll try to get a picture of how it looks now, for you on Tuesday.
The dinner meet up is still on. I haven't heard back from her this weekend, so I'm not sure if I should take that as a good, bad, or indifferent sign. She had mentioned earlier that she was rather busy this weekend, so I'm leaning towards indifferent. Could be bad though. She had asked me about my writing, and I have the obnoxious habit of being able to go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, about that when asked. I tried to cut it short? I"m sure I didn't though, so that could have been a bad thing. I guess I'll see. I have to find out whether or not I work on Friday before I finalize the plans, so if I don't here back from her when I message her with a time to meet, then I guess I have my answer.
It's getting late, and work is coming right around the corner tomorrow, so I better rest up from this day of complete rest, so that I have no issues on the job. Peace in and goodnight.
I helped a friend move more stuff this weekend. It was more of a short notice thing this time, but I had nothing planned so it was easy to fit in my non busy schedule. It turned out to be quite the adventure, or maybe misadventure is the right word for it. The washer and dryer that was at the new house, didn't really work as well as it was believed to work. That meant that we needed to get her washer and dryer, that she had planned on leaving behind to the new house. That was the easy part. Unhook a few houses, take a door somewhat off the hinges, and viola we were all loaded up.
We got to the new house and opened the door for the garage, and it had a slight unpleasant odor. Then we opened the washer that had stopped running on her. It was full of septic water, and it was bad. Putrid really isn't a good enough word for what this smelled like, and it was full. WE unloaded the truck first, so that everything could be out of the way, including the loading ramp on the truck, so that we could get that washer out of the garage, and tipped over to empty it's horrendous contents. During this process, I managed to get some of the water on my shirt. It was not good. That smell stuck with the shirt, and I could smell it the whole time. Fortunately, I had a thin, light weight hoody in my back pack, and when I was done with everything, I had that to put on. We got the old washer out of there and emptied of the foul liquid, and the new washer and dryer hooked up. My only guess as to what happened, was, that the previous owners, or someone, shut the water lines to the washer off. When my friend tried washing her clothes, it only pulled the water that had been sitting in the lines for however long the house was unoccupied, and it was all stagnate water that got septic. Before I hooked everything up, I tested the lines, and the water coming out was good and clean. Once we got everything in place, I ran the washer for a bit to see what the water looked like inside of it, and it was good as well. She could finally get her clothes washed, and it went well.
She had one more project for me before I left. She got a couple of Adirondack chairs and a wooden folding table to go on her deck. Let me tell you about this deck. It overlooks a lake that might be one of the most peaceful settings I've seen. it is beautiful, and these chairs are the perfect fit for her and that deck. I got the chairs together with some effort. The second was much easier than the first, and then I went to work on the table. Should be easy right? Only 4 bolts two legs and a table top. Yeah, I'm an idiot sometimes, and it took way longer than it should have. It's mostly because I didn't think and take the time to look at the bigger picture and only focused on the bolts and where they went. It wasn't until the fourth try, that I finally got it right. I had the legs wrong on all the other times, and instead of lining everything up first, I just figured I had it. Well, I didn't. When I finally lined everything up and then bolted it together, did we have a working folding table.
It wasn't the adventure time series, but it was an adventure. I didn't ride Saki over because there was supposed to be a very high chance of rain. Guess what didn't happen? No rain at all. I saw some menacing looking clouds, but that was it.
I didn't ride this weekend, but I did get something for the helmet set-up. I got some velcro strips to attache the mic adaptor. They seem to be working out fine, but I won't really know how well they work until I ride with it. It cleans up the helmet nicely. Well, as nice as can be with a whole bunch of electronic equipment and wires all over it. Regardless of how well the velcro holds, I think I'm still going to put a strip of gaffers tape over it, just to make sure it stays in place. I'll try to get a picture of how it looks now, for you on Tuesday.
The dinner meet up is still on. I haven't heard back from her this weekend, so I'm not sure if I should take that as a good, bad, or indifferent sign. She had mentioned earlier that she was rather busy this weekend, so I'm leaning towards indifferent. Could be bad though. She had asked me about my writing, and I have the obnoxious habit of being able to go on, and on, and on, and on, and on, about that when asked. I tried to cut it short? I"m sure I didn't though, so that could have been a bad thing. I guess I'll see. I have to find out whether or not I work on Friday before I finalize the plans, so if I don't here back from her when I message her with a time to meet, then I guess I have my answer.
It's getting late, and work is coming right around the corner tomorrow, so I better rest up from this day of complete rest, so that I have no issues on the job. Peace in and goodnight.
Friday, June 23, 2017
So Much To Get To.
Let's get into this. I mentioned on Tuesday that I had a few more things to talk about then, and in no particular order, here they are.
I got some bad news this past weekend. A very dear friend, perhaps my dearest friend has cancer. She is currently undergoing treatment for it. I won't go into any details because that is her story to tell, and she isn't quite ready to tell it. I need something from you. I would like you to send any positive, cheerful, happy, and healing thoughts her way. She is one of the strongest people that I know, but everyone needs a little help some time, and her time is now.
Remember a couple of months ago, when I said that I had my eye on an Alpinestars jacket. and that I might just get it at Cycle Gear. Well, since I was over in Orlando helping a friend of mine move. I thought that it would be a good time to stop of at Cycle Gear, and take a look at a couple of things. One being helmets. Since I have the GoPro mounted on my normal everyday riding helmet, I have to use my HJC to commute to work. The HJC is a great helmet, but it just isn't as comfortable as my Arai XD-4. I love my Arai, and with the GoPro on it, It's not really a viable option for commuting or just riding around when I'm not recording, so a new helmet is in my future. I wanted to get a look, and possibly try on an Arai Corsa X. I got both. They had several of th on the display shelf, and they happened to have on in Medium, which is the size I were, but you never know from helmet to helmet if the size is right. Let me tell you, the size was right on that helmet. It felt so good, and was so light. That will be my next helmet, but it is very expensive, and I'm going to have to save up for it, but I have other things I'm saving for as well, so it goes down on the priority list as long as my HJC is holding out.
The second thing I wanted to see, was if they even had the jacket I wanted. I wanted in the white and high-viz trim, and that usually isn't something some place like that would carry. Most people like black on black on black, but I want to be seen by other vehicles. Guess what they had? They had the jacket with the extra armor to put inside of it. This jacket is an upgrade in many ways from what I'm currently wearing. The back protection is very similar, but where it differs, is that it has chest protection as well.. My other jackets have no chest protection in them. This jacket has extreme venting in it. It's made of a mesh material that just lets air flow right through it. I know what you are thinking. With he chest and back protection in, how can that jacket breath? Alpinestars thought of everything. The armor itself is perforated so that air will flow through it as well, and it's done so, as not to damage the structural integrity of the armor itself. It was at the price that I wanted, so I couldn't pass it up.
This was from my Instagram post. it's a great looking jacket. I got the chance to ride with it on yesterday and it yet amazing. You could tell that it was there, but it didn't feel like a sauna in it, and it breathed even when I was stopped at traffic lights. I felt very well protected and not overheated. I am ready for summer riding.
I know i mentioned this in the past. I have a profile on OK Cupid. I thought I was going to get rid of it along time ago, but for one reason or another, I never got rid of it. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to toss it out. I deleted the app from my phone. I went to the website to delete my entire profile, and then thought, "what would it hurt to give it one more shot?". I contacted a few women that drew my attention. I actually heard back from a few of them as well. For the most part, it was the usual lack of conversation that would lead to absolutely no where. There was one exception however. One woman, could actually carry on a conversation. She was interesting, and unique. Most importantly, she was bold. After a few days of going back and forth in conversation, and good conversations, she asked me, if I wanted to meet up for dinner. I said yes. We are going to meet for dinner next Friday, not tomorrow, but next Friday.I'm not going to put any expectations on this. It seems that when I do, it all goes wrong. So, I'm just going to go into as if I'm meeting a new friend. It never hurts to have friends. I'll of course let you know how things go, but you will have to wait a little over a week for the details.
I'ts late, but it's finally here. The Favorite Song of the Week. This one is going back a long ways in my life, but there is a story that has to do with this song. I was in hairmetal mode this week, and started listening to some of my old favorite bands. This song came on, and it just took me back to my middle school days. When I was in eighth grade, a band came to my school and played a concert. I think tickets were $2 and it was near the end of a school day. I wanted to get out of class, so I went without knowing what kind of music they played or anything about them. The band was called Firefall I believe. They looked like rockers, but they played all kinds of cover songs. They were talented, and really knew how to play. They stuck to the current pop songs for the most part, but all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the began playing a heavy metal song. My friend and I jumped to our feet, and started banging out heads and tossing our hair around (I had super long hair back then). The lead singer saw us, and ran up the bleachers to where we were, and when he got to the chorus, he handed us the mic. I grabbed it, and started belting out that chorus. Then all of us sang the rest of the song together. it was real fun, and I think it made the bands day as well. It was the most feedback they got during the entire show, and it was rockstar. What were they covering you ask? It was non other, than the band Ratt, and their first hit song "Round and Round". Great song, and a fun video that features Milton Berle. The story I heard on how he came to be in the video is, that he was cousins with one of the guys in the band. Either way, it's a fun video, and you have it to watch right here.
Good stuff right there. I even learned how to play it tonight in ukulele class. It's far past my bedtime, and I have to work in the mooring. Peace in and goodnight.
I got some bad news this past weekend. A very dear friend, perhaps my dearest friend has cancer. She is currently undergoing treatment for it. I won't go into any details because that is her story to tell, and she isn't quite ready to tell it. I need something from you. I would like you to send any positive, cheerful, happy, and healing thoughts her way. She is one of the strongest people that I know, but everyone needs a little help some time, and her time is now.
Remember a couple of months ago, when I said that I had my eye on an Alpinestars jacket. and that I might just get it at Cycle Gear. Well, since I was over in Orlando helping a friend of mine move. I thought that it would be a good time to stop of at Cycle Gear, and take a look at a couple of things. One being helmets. Since I have the GoPro mounted on my normal everyday riding helmet, I have to use my HJC to commute to work. The HJC is a great helmet, but it just isn't as comfortable as my Arai XD-4. I love my Arai, and with the GoPro on it, It's not really a viable option for commuting or just riding around when I'm not recording, so a new helmet is in my future. I wanted to get a look, and possibly try on an Arai Corsa X. I got both. They had several of th on the display shelf, and they happened to have on in Medium, which is the size I were, but you never know from helmet to helmet if the size is right. Let me tell you, the size was right on that helmet. It felt so good, and was so light. That will be my next helmet, but it is very expensive, and I'm going to have to save up for it, but I have other things I'm saving for as well, so it goes down on the priority list as long as my HJC is holding out.
The second thing I wanted to see, was if they even had the jacket I wanted. I wanted in the white and high-viz trim, and that usually isn't something some place like that would carry. Most people like black on black on black, but I want to be seen by other vehicles. Guess what they had? They had the jacket with the extra armor to put inside of it. This jacket is an upgrade in many ways from what I'm currently wearing. The back protection is very similar, but where it differs, is that it has chest protection as well.. My other jackets have no chest protection in them. This jacket has extreme venting in it. It's made of a mesh material that just lets air flow right through it. I know what you are thinking. With he chest and back protection in, how can that jacket breath? Alpinestars thought of everything. The armor itself is perforated so that air will flow through it as well, and it's done so, as not to damage the structural integrity of the armor itself. It was at the price that I wanted, so I couldn't pass it up.
This was from my Instagram post. it's a great looking jacket. I got the chance to ride with it on yesterday and it yet amazing. You could tell that it was there, but it didn't feel like a sauna in it, and it breathed even when I was stopped at traffic lights. I felt very well protected and not overheated. I am ready for summer riding.
I know i mentioned this in the past. I have a profile on OK Cupid. I thought I was going to get rid of it along time ago, but for one reason or another, I never got rid of it. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I decided it was time to toss it out. I deleted the app from my phone. I went to the website to delete my entire profile, and then thought, "what would it hurt to give it one more shot?". I contacted a few women that drew my attention. I actually heard back from a few of them as well. For the most part, it was the usual lack of conversation that would lead to absolutely no where. There was one exception however. One woman, could actually carry on a conversation. She was interesting, and unique. Most importantly, she was bold. After a few days of going back and forth in conversation, and good conversations, she asked me, if I wanted to meet up for dinner. I said yes. We are going to meet for dinner next Friday, not tomorrow, but next Friday.I'm not going to put any expectations on this. It seems that when I do, it all goes wrong. So, I'm just going to go into as if I'm meeting a new friend. It never hurts to have friends. I'll of course let you know how things go, but you will have to wait a little over a week for the details.
I'ts late, but it's finally here. The Favorite Song of the Week. This one is going back a long ways in my life, but there is a story that has to do with this song. I was in hairmetal mode this week, and started listening to some of my old favorite bands. This song came on, and it just took me back to my middle school days. When I was in eighth grade, a band came to my school and played a concert. I think tickets were $2 and it was near the end of a school day. I wanted to get out of class, so I went without knowing what kind of music they played or anything about them. The band was called Firefall I believe. They looked like rockers, but they played all kinds of cover songs. They were talented, and really knew how to play. They stuck to the current pop songs for the most part, but all of a sudden, out of nowhere, the began playing a heavy metal song. My friend and I jumped to our feet, and started banging out heads and tossing our hair around (I had super long hair back then). The lead singer saw us, and ran up the bleachers to where we were, and when he got to the chorus, he handed us the mic. I grabbed it, and started belting out that chorus. Then all of us sang the rest of the song together. it was real fun, and I think it made the bands day as well. It was the most feedback they got during the entire show, and it was rockstar. What were they covering you ask? It was non other, than the band Ratt, and their first hit song "Round and Round". Great song, and a fun video that features Milton Berle. The story I heard on how he came to be in the video is, that he was cousins with one of the guys in the band. Either way, it's a fun video, and you have it to watch right here.
Good stuff right there. I even learned how to play it tonight in ukulele class. It's far past my bedtime, and I have to work in the mooring. Peace in and goodnight.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
There Is A Lot Of Stuff In Here.
We have a lot to get to, and a very short time to get it all in. Let's get to where we left of on Sunday. I owe you some pictures and I have them for you. It wasn't easy, they still didn't make it through the cloud, but if there is a will, there is a way, and I had the will and found the way.
This was the F-5E SSBD. It was a test aircraft that NASA used to test out hypersonic activity. The blue and red markings on the plane represent the sonic wave, and I wish I could remember the story the guide told us about it, but from what I remember, they were trying to find a way to lessen the decibel level in the plane, and the blue line represents the reduction. He mentioned that they were cocky and painted the lines before they even did it. This was maybe my favorite plane. It just had this really cool shape that reminded you of a pelican.
This is just one of the motors that they had laying around. They have several of them scattered throughout the museum. You can go up and touch them and see how massive these power plants were.
These two photos were taken in the memorabilia of then Warbird. They house quite the collection of artifacts, old photos, uniforms, dioramas, weapons, and even more. These two stood out to me. The first one is a photograph of the Women Air Force Service Pilots, and it was taken in Ohio in 1954. Theses were some badass ladies. the second one is an old camera that was used in recognizance missions to locate enemy targets. It was pretty big. To give you an example of the size of it, it was bigger than the average shoe box. It was really neat to see.
I had to get this one, because it was just too funny. I didn't ask any of the guides why they had these, but they were hilarious amongst all these large and historic aircraft. These were two kids toy planes, that they could get in and peddle around. Too much fun right there.
Here are more examples of the nose art. They are a bit more traditional as opposed to the Killer Bee one that I posted on Sunday night. The bottom one is from the C-47 that they had there. This plane just happened to fly in that morning. The guide I met at the door even had to ask if it was in the hanger that day. It was a troop transport plane and is pretty famous. I can't remember everything that it was involved in, but it has been in movies, it was in the D-Day invasion, and I believe at Normandy, but I'm not sure about that last one. Now it flies people for short trips to see what it was like to fly in one of these back in the day. They changed the inside around to a more relaxed seating. I asked the guide what it would take to get to go up in it, and she said, "Lot's of money." I figured as much. Here are two more pictures of it's inside.
The left is of course the passenger area. It has comfortable seats now, and a small table for, I would guess, the guests that paid a little more, and the one on the right is looking towards the cockpit from where the navigator and radio operator sat. It was a fun experience to stand in this plane that was over 60 years old, and still flew.
These two were just an attempt by me to be a little artistic. I'm not sure I pulled it off, but I still like them.
The final picture. This is a UH-1 Huey. These were highly used in Vietnam, and you've probably seen them in many Vietnam war movies. They are usually featured very prominently. This particular one, has a possible good story. I say possible, because the museum is researching it to find out it's validity. It is believed that this particular Huey was the very last one to leave Vietnam when American troops cleared out. If it's true, this could be the last chopper out of Saigon.
That's it for the Warbird museum. Now onto a few other things. I had a thought about this but cast it off, because I didn't really think you would be interested, but I could be wrong, so I'm going to delve into it. I"m talking about my GoPro set up for my helmet. I went into some vague detail about it, but never gave you all information. First I have a couple of pictures to show you what it looks like, and one thing to show you what to get instead of the bulky package of stuff that I don't necessarily need.
The first one is a multi shot so that you can see the camera, mount, mic adaptor, and the ic itself. If you blow it up, you can see the multiple extensions that I put together to make the mount so that it will go from the side of my helmet to hold the camera in the front. The picture on the left shows you what you should get instead. Live and learn. I like it the way it is for now, but I will eventually switch over to that little bag of extensions with the curved arm. That is the one piece that I needed when building the mount that you see on it. I have links for everything to make it a little easier for you, if you want something similar. Yes, even the bulky package of unnecessary parts
GoPro Hero 5 Black Hero 5
GoPro Hero 5 Mic adaptor Mic Adaptor
Giant Squid Audio Lab Omnidirectional Microphone Microphone
Soonsun Curved Extension Arm Mount Helmet Mount
Movo Furry Windscreens Windscreens
Gaffer Tape Gaffer Tape
Kupton Accessories for GoPro Bag of Stuff
Last, and probably the most important thing you can buy for the helmet mount are these 5M x 20mm bolts to replace the hardware the GoPro and Kupton give you for the mounting bolts. These clean up the look of the whole thing and get rid of those giant bolts (that although are easy to use, just add unnecessary bulk to it). Bolts
That is everything I used in that video that I posted on Sunday night. It works pretty good, if you have a helmet that has enough room to mount it directly to the front, you probably won't need those extension arms or any of that, but everything else will be very helpful. I am trying to see if I can get rid of some of the wind noise, but that might be impossible with my particular helmet. My Arai XD-4 does not come with a chin curtain. It only has a chin spoiler that kind of redirects the air, but doesn't block it out the way a chin curtain does, which covers the whole area from the front of the helmet to your neck. I may just have to live with that wind sound.
I did have something else that I wanted to talk to you about tonight, actually two more things, but I can see that this is already getting long, so I will save that stuff for Thursday night. I think I might even put off the FSOTW until then as well. There is a lot to digest here tonight, and it is nearing to midnight as I type this line you are currently reading. That means that it is time for bed, seeing how I wake up at 4 in the morning. Peace in and goodnight.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Adventure Time Series: TICO Warbird Museum.
I went on a little adventure this Saturday, and it was better than I had anticipated. The TICO VALIANT AIR COMMAND WARBIRD MUSEUM was the destination, in Titusville Florida. It all started in 1977 when twelve individuals decided that they were going to find and preserve old war planes. What they have today, is rather impressive of a display. The most amazing thing about this museum, is that it is ever changing, and that can be from day to day. Quite a few of the planes in this exhibit aren't only restored cosmetically, they are restored mechanically as well. That's right, these birds can still fly, and quite a few of them are in and out of the museum when their owners decide to take them out for a small trip, or to an air show across the country.
Enough of this let's get to the pictures, and I have a lot of them. Far more than I probably have room to put here. I'm going to have to cherry pick the best of them. I also have a little something special for you at the end of this. On to the pictures.
Ok, I just checked, and for some reason the pictures haven't loaded onto my laptop yet. This creates quite a dilemma. I found a simple but annoying solution. I won't be able to share the majority of the photos with you tonight, but I do have a good number of them to give you an idea of what this museums houses. I should be able to have some more for you on Tuesday. This was a much larger exhibit than I had anticipated, so maybe two days is worth it. I still have the surprise coming at the end though, so just hold on.
This is a full scale and working replica of Manfred von Richthofen plane. He is more widely known as the Red Baron. The legendary pilot for the Germans in World War II. The wonder of this craft goes out with another pilot and has arial combat shows for people across the country, and from time to time, leaves the plane at the good ol' Warbird.
This chopper had an interesting story. It of course so service time in World War II, but the interesting part is after it's service time. It was later owned by Winnebago. That right, the company that makes RV's. The redid the entire interior to make it look like a camper, it even has a porch light still on the inner door from when it was outfitted that way. They have since reverted it back to it's original glory.
I don't remember all the stories about these planes, but it is just so incredible to be able to get close enough to touch them, and they guides encourage you to do so. They want you to know what the planes feel like. The picture to the upper right is my favorite one of the day. That happens to be the intake for an F-14 Tomcat. I was able to stick my head entirely inside of it. The Tomcat is the same plane that is featured in Top Gun and was a juggernaut for the Air Force for quite some time.
Alright, the lop left is a shot looking in the Restoration Hanger. I forgot to mention that they have three hangers. The first one is the WWII era hanger, then the Restoration Hanger, and lastly the Vietnam Era Hanger. You can see that they are currently working on a few planes. The total number of planes in that area currently stands at 3 with a 4th one soon to join them. The top right is an example of nose art. You probably have seen it more often as pin up girls. I have examples of that as well, but I'll save that for Tuesday. The bottom picture is the control panel for the bombardiers in the cockpit of a B-52 Bomber. The Air Force cut this cockpit off the entire plane, and used it as a training cock pit. The Warbird has restored the entire inside and is currently working on the outer shell. When it is finished it will be housed in and out of the Vietnam Hanger. They plan on cutting a hole in the wall facing the runway so that when you climb up into the actually cockpit you can look out the window and see the runway beaconing you for take off. It should be ready in a year.
These final three shots were from the Vietnam Hanger. I really liked the top shot because it was a warning on the fuselage of the plane so that you would know just how far you could go before you would get something amputated by the propellers. Interesting little fact, on one of the planes (which was an operational plane) that I was able to go into, had those same markings on the inside. There happened to be an emergency escape hatch right there, so you knew that when you went out that hatch, you better go the right direction, or you weren't going to make it.
That's all I have for pictures tonight. I promise more for Tuesday, and I have some really good ones coming. I hope you enjoyed these so far but it's time for the surprise. I got my first video up on YouTube and I will be able to share it with you here. I edited down as much as I thought I could and still make it somewhat not boring for you. The entire thing is 14 minutes and 54 seconds, so I hope you have a little time to kill. I'll leave you with that video, and as always, peace in and goodnight.
Enough of this let's get to the pictures, and I have a lot of them. Far more than I probably have room to put here. I'm going to have to cherry pick the best of them. I also have a little something special for you at the end of this. On to the pictures.
Ok, I just checked, and for some reason the pictures haven't loaded onto my laptop yet. This creates quite a dilemma. I found a simple but annoying solution. I won't be able to share the majority of the photos with you tonight, but I do have a good number of them to give you an idea of what this museums houses. I should be able to have some more for you on Tuesday. This was a much larger exhibit than I had anticipated, so maybe two days is worth it. I still have the surprise coming at the end though, so just hold on.
This is a full scale and working replica of Manfred von Richthofen plane. He is more widely known as the Red Baron. The legendary pilot for the Germans in World War II. The wonder of this craft goes out with another pilot and has arial combat shows for people across the country, and from time to time, leaves the plane at the good ol' Warbird.
I don't remember all the stories about these planes, but it is just so incredible to be able to get close enough to touch them, and they guides encourage you to do so. They want you to know what the planes feel like. The picture to the upper right is my favorite one of the day. That happens to be the intake for an F-14 Tomcat. I was able to stick my head entirely inside of it. The Tomcat is the same plane that is featured in Top Gun and was a juggernaut for the Air Force for quite some time.
These final three shots were from the Vietnam Hanger. I really liked the top shot because it was a warning on the fuselage of the plane so that you would know just how far you could go before you would get something amputated by the propellers. Interesting little fact, on one of the planes (which was an operational plane) that I was able to go into, had those same markings on the inside. There happened to be an emergency escape hatch right there, so you knew that when you went out that hatch, you better go the right direction, or you weren't going to make it.
That's all I have for pictures tonight. I promise more for Tuesday, and I have some really good ones coming. I hope you enjoyed these so far but it's time for the surprise. I got my first video up on YouTube and I will be able to share it with you here. I edited down as much as I thought I could and still make it somewhat not boring for you. The entire thing is 14 minutes and 54 seconds, so I hope you have a little time to kill. I'll leave you with that video, and as always, peace in and goodnight.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Gotta A Test Video For Ya.
I want to start off by saying that I'm happy that no one was killed in the shooting at the GOP Congressional baseball team practice. Although two members of congress are still in critical condition, I'm hoping that they make a full recovery.
Now the second thing is, that the media is putting this Viles name out there. I've decided from now on that the people (and I use the term people loosely when it comes to those who do these kinds of acts) that do these types of things will from now on be referred to as Viles. They are less than human, and calling the animals gives animals a bad name. Anyway, the news media has jumped all over this, to find out as much information about this Vile as they can. I condemn this practice. The Vile was captured, there is no need to know anything about him. The public doesn't need to know him, doesn't need to know what he is about, doesn't need to know anything else until his trial, and even then, the only thing that needs to be known is what the verdict is. Stop glorifying these Viles.
Enough about that. I did a thing yesterday. I got the GoPro together, put it in the helmet mount and took a short video. Oh, I got some pictures with it as well.
I'm not sure how I feel about the photo option. Due to the fisheye type of style of the GoPro, it makes the shots look really weird. I will play with the camera feature more and see if there is another way to get a more normal shot. It may work best for scenic shots though. I'll give that a try this weekend. Back to the video now. I shot a quick little video with it attached to the helmet and me wearing it, to see what it would look like. This doesn't have the mic plugged in yet, and I still want to do a little more without the mic before I plug it in, and begin that testing. The main reason I'm doing that, is because in order to mount the GoPro on the helmet with the mic plugged in, I have to break the door off the USB port to get it to work. That is the bummer about the GoPro. They didn't put thought into adding a mic while wearing a helmet. This will more than likely eliminate the waterproof effectiveness of the Hero 5. Once I plug the mic in, I will look at ways to seal that area somewhat to keep it safe from rain or what not. In the meantime Here is the video I shot. I added some music to it, just to see how to do that. It's not slick at all, just playing around and this is what I got. I posted it two different ways, because the first one is giving me an error message, but says that it is uploading. In case that one doesn't work, the second one should. In the event that they both work, let men know which one you like better, or if there is any difference at all.
like I said, there is nothing slick about it. I didn't play around with any other editing other than adding the music to the background, and I need to figure out more on that, so that I can lower the levels, and fade it in and out.
I'm going to try to ride around tomorrow after work and get some video on Saki, but the weather may not cooperate. It has been raining most of each day this week, so Saki has been hanging out in the lounge. I'm still planning on the ride for Saturday, but right now, the forecast isn't great. I'm hoping that the rain will hold off just long enough to get it all in. If I do, I will have the camera along with me, and that might be the first footage with the mic hooked up. I'll try to get a little video together for Sunday. It will be part comparison footage, and part, what I hope it will eventually be like once I start posting to Youtube.
I'm getting pretty tired, but there was one more thing that I have for you. I ordered this motorcycle handlebar lock which looks simple and pretty cool. When I get it, I'll let you know how it works out. I'm hoping for the best, but it was only $29.99 plus shipping, so It could be total garbage. Here is the link to it, so that you can check it out yourself Motorcycle Handlebar Lock . It looks kind of cool, and yes I did get it in Saki red. By the way, Saki red is basically any candy type of red, i don't discriminate on the candy reds. I know they only call it red, but it looks to be that anodized red, so it should come out looking pretty close to Saki red.
It's going to be a busy weekend, so I better get some rest now while I still can. Work tomorrow, along with GoPro testing, if I can get the rain to stop falling for about an hour or so, then the weekend holds the ride (rain still an issue) and helping a friend move into her new house. Peace in and goodnight.
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
What's In The Box?
I was all set to rant and complain a bit tonight. I checked the tracking on my GoPro order, and found an alternate tracking number was listed. When I checked that tracking, I found out that it was the return tracking for the order. It was delivered early Friday morning. I was bummed. My order had already been returned and I still had not heard back from GoPro about what was going on with it. Well, I received two packages in the mail today.
I think I'll nickname Christian here, Soulman. That kid has soul, and that is something you just don't hear anymore. He was so nervous before he began, that you though he was going to blow it, but the second he started singing, he took on a whole different persona. He commanded the stage. He had swagger and named the stage like a lion on the prowl. It was truly enjoyable to watch, and I hope you feel the same way.
Favorite Song of the Week? You don't have to ask for it, because you are going to get it. I was reminded today of one those bands that everyone seems to remember as One Hit Wonders, but this band had quite a few hits. They formed their band in what is now Somerset, England in 1981. Oh yeah, they are an 80's band, and if there is a type of music that challenges that soft spot in my heart left for Funk music, it is 80's music. I'm a kid of the 80's so naturally I love the music. The first time I heard of this band was when their album Songs From the Big Chair came out. It was a huge hit with the single Shout proclaiming that they had arrived on the scene. Many hits followed one right after the other with the song I'm sharing with you tonight being the third big single off that album. I like this one because ti's bit smoother than the others, and the video is just plain weird. So here is Tears For Fears with "Head Over Heels".
Great stuff right? They are currently on tour with another great 80's band (they had some really great songs int eh 70's too) Hall & Oates. If they come anywhere near you, go see the show, It should be fantastic. Peace in and goodnight.
The one on the right was expected. the one on the left however, was a total surprise. What was in them. Well, I knew the one on the right was The Frame, that I ordered for mounting the GoPro on my helmet and have access to the ports so that I could hook up the audio cables. The one on the left, i could only speculate about, but I had an inkling as to what it was.
The GoPro has arrived. They sent it out as soon as possible I guess. I still hadn't received anything telling me what was going on with it. I'm currently charging the second battery as I type this. Which brought my attention to something I will need to get. That would be a battery charging unit. You can charge the battery in the unit itself, but in order to charge both batteries, they have to take turns. The good news is, that I can pick that up locally, and don't have to send out for it. It will make things much more convenient.
I ran through the small introduction on the GoPro and have a mild familiarity with it now. I can do the basics. I know how to bring up the camera option, the video option, and everything that goes along with those things. It can shoot video up to 4K and will shoot pictures in either RAW or jpeg. Which is better than I thought it would be. I always shot in RAW on my camera, so it will be fun to get back to some of that with this little camera. Speaking of little, This thing is tiny. When I say tiny, I mean really tiny. Length and width is smaller than a credit card. It's maybe an inch and a quarter and its widest from front to back. It's light too. I think the whole package weighed less than 2 lbs. and that included the second battery. The batteries aren't much bigger than an domino.
I'm going to start playing around with it tomorrow. Trying out the camera and of course the video. Also I will be trying the voice command. You are supposed to be able to simply say, "GoPro record" and it will. Same thing with pictures, just say, "GoPro take a photo". I'll try all that out tomorrow and let you know on Thursday how that works out. I'm going to test it on the helmet some other time. I want to see what the raw audio with the camera itself picks up before I plug all those audio cables in. Don't worry, I'm not thinking about just tossing those aside. I just want to know what it sounds like by itself first. I'll try to get a video together of stuff as soon as possible. You can compare the sound difference from raw to cabled. This is going to be fun.
I really do appreciate GoPro getting this to me as fast as they could, despite all the problems. Their representatives were all fantastic when I spoke with them, I only wish I could have been a little more in the loop on what was going on, but I'm not sure they really knew what was going on. They are a big company with separate departments that maybe don't have the best communication between them. Either way, I can recommend buying from GoPro directly. The other order that came today, was from them, and it arrived right on time without any problems. The other one was a freak occurrence, and that is what I'm chalking it up to.
With all that out of the way, let's get to the fun stuff. It's Tuesday, so that means AGT was on. It was an ok episode. Good acts, and the like, but nothing that really stood out as spectacular. That was, until the final act of the night. Up until that point, I was planning on not posting anything from the show, but they literally saved the best for last. It was a 16 year old kid named Christian Guardino. This kid has been through some stuff in his short life. I'm checking the clip right now to see if they go through what happened to him. Hmmm, they don't give the little back story in the clip I'm going to share with you. I'll fill in what I can remember. When Christian was younger, he completely lost his sight. He had to get around with a cane and everything. It was pitch black for him. His parents heard of a new gene therapy, and decided to take a chance on it. One day in the hospital he opened his eyes and said< "Mom is that you sitting over there?" It worked. His vision isn't perfect, but he can see again. Pretty amazing, but this performance might be even more amazing.
I think I'll nickname Christian here, Soulman. That kid has soul, and that is something you just don't hear anymore. He was so nervous before he began, that you though he was going to blow it, but the second he started singing, he took on a whole different persona. He commanded the stage. He had swagger and named the stage like a lion on the prowl. It was truly enjoyable to watch, and I hope you feel the same way.
Favorite Song of the Week? You don't have to ask for it, because you are going to get it. I was reminded today of one those bands that everyone seems to remember as One Hit Wonders, but this band had quite a few hits. They formed their band in what is now Somerset, England in 1981. Oh yeah, they are an 80's band, and if there is a type of music that challenges that soft spot in my heart left for Funk music, it is 80's music. I'm a kid of the 80's so naturally I love the music. The first time I heard of this band was when their album Songs From the Big Chair came out. It was a huge hit with the single Shout proclaiming that they had arrived on the scene. Many hits followed one right after the other with the song I'm sharing with you tonight being the third big single off that album. I like this one because ti's bit smoother than the others, and the video is just plain weird. So here is Tears For Fears with "Head Over Heels".
Great stuff right? They are currently on tour with another great 80's band (they had some really great songs int eh 70's too) Hall & Oates. If they come anywhere near you, go see the show, It should be fantastic. Peace in and goodnight.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Really? Hazardous Materials? What Else Can Happen?
This whole thing with then GoPro has been a complete disaster. You remember the thing about the credit card snafu, and then there was the errant tracking number that didn't exist. Well, there is a new dilemma. Late Friday I checked the tracking because the order had not arrived. It still said that it was in transit and that it would be here by the end of the day (Thursday). I had to get up early on Saturday to take my car to get serviced, so calling them was out of the question for Friday night, and maybe, just maybe it would say something different in the morning. It did. When I checked the tracking on Saturday, it now said that the package was being returned to sender due to a hazardous materials issue. Apparently, and this is only a complete guess on my part, something in the package blew up and began leaking, or something blew up or leaked on the package. Either way I still don't have what I ordered, but I do have everything else that is supposed to go with it to make it work. I do have some good news on that front, but that will come a little later.
When I got home form getting my car taken care of, I called GoPro to find out what was going to be done about the whole thing. What exactly is their policy in this type of situation. Once again, the customer service representative was really nice and did their job well. I'm not going to yell and rant at someone for something that they really have nothing to do with. The gentleman was going to contact the shipping department to find out what was going to happen next. He looked at the tracking information, so he saw the same message on it that I did. This is the thing that has bothered me about all of this, Neither UPS or GoPro has contacted me about this package being returned. I had to find out through tracking and calling around for myself. I lay that fault on GoPro. The representative told me that as soon as shipping got back to him, he would email me with the information of what was going to happen about my order. It is the weekend so I really wasn't expecting to get an email, and good thing, because I haven't. It would have been nice to find out that GoPro was indeed on top of things, but they clearly aren't.
The sale is over, so if my order ends up being cancelled and they reimburse my card the money, I can't just go out and get what I ordered without paying more for it. That would set things back to the earlier time frame that I talked about. I'll see if I hear from them tomorrow. I really have no idea what more to do at this point, other than wait. I think I will give them until Wednesday before I call them again, to see what is going on.
In the meantime, I lucked my way into a good seat up with the GoPro. I watched a video today of a motovlogger that I follow, who was talking about his new vlogging set up. He has the GoPro Hero 5 Black, which is the same one that I ordered. He got the mic adaptor that I ordered, and he also got the same exact microphone that I ordered. That was the thing that I lucked into the most. I had no idea what mic to by. I just looked at a few different ones, and read a couple of reviews, and this one seemed the best. It wasn't the most expensive, nor the cheapest. H mentioned in his video that he had heard about those items form other vloggers, and that he heard it worked well. He did a test ride with the new set up and it sounded great, so I have high hopes for the content I will create with it. That is of course, if I ever get the GoPro that I ordered.
Enough about that. Needless to say, since I was on the phone with GoPro for quite some time after I got back home, I only had a short amount of time to ride, so I couldn't do the ATS. That means that it is rescheduled for this coming Saturday, but already the forecast doesn't look good, however, most of the rain had been coming late in the day, so if I go in the morning like I plan to, I should be able to get it in. It's not a long ride, in fact I rode by there on my short ride on Saturday. I still managed to get soaked on the way home. I had spent all Friday evening detailing Saki for the ride to. Oh well, gives me something to do again. I enjoy getting in there and cleaning everything. Which reminds me I nearly forgot about Friday.
Harbor Freight was having a big parking lot sale this weekend. I decided that I would head over before everyone got off of work, so that I could get a couple of things that I needed. The one key thing was a 1/2 in. torque wrench. This was very important because I needed the 1/2 in. so that I could tighten the tires to the right specs when I did a chain tightening or when I eventually change my tires. I still need a couple of things for the tire changing part, but I have everything I need for proper chain maintenance now. The torque wrench was on sale for $9.99, it is normally around $60. That is quite a deal. The most expensive thing I bought, was a set of wrenches. They weren't on sale, but I did go there for the specific reason of getting a good set of metric wrenches, and these happened to be sitting right next to the ones I was going to get. Even though they were $6 more than the ones I went there for, I just couldn't pass these up. Here's a picture to show you why.
Pretty sweet set of wrenches right. Here is the bonus, they ratchet on the closed end. No more turning the wrench over or readjusting to tighten things. Oh, and there is a bonus bonus. Guess which one is he perfect size for the K&N oil filter? Yep, It's the red one that matches Saki to a T. I actually giggled when I tested it out. It's going to make oil changes just a little more fun.
Also on Friday, I woke up early enough to ride out to the beach to see the sunrise. While I was there I snapped a few pictures, You may have seen the combo picture I posted on Instagram. It had this photo of Saki.
When I got home form getting my car taken care of, I called GoPro to find out what was going to be done about the whole thing. What exactly is their policy in this type of situation. Once again, the customer service representative was really nice and did their job well. I'm not going to yell and rant at someone for something that they really have nothing to do with. The gentleman was going to contact the shipping department to find out what was going to happen next. He looked at the tracking information, so he saw the same message on it that I did. This is the thing that has bothered me about all of this, Neither UPS or GoPro has contacted me about this package being returned. I had to find out through tracking and calling around for myself. I lay that fault on GoPro. The representative told me that as soon as shipping got back to him, he would email me with the information of what was going to happen about my order. It is the weekend so I really wasn't expecting to get an email, and good thing, because I haven't. It would have been nice to find out that GoPro was indeed on top of things, but they clearly aren't.
The sale is over, so if my order ends up being cancelled and they reimburse my card the money, I can't just go out and get what I ordered without paying more for it. That would set things back to the earlier time frame that I talked about. I'll see if I hear from them tomorrow. I really have no idea what more to do at this point, other than wait. I think I will give them until Wednesday before I call them again, to see what is going on.
In the meantime, I lucked my way into a good seat up with the GoPro. I watched a video today of a motovlogger that I follow, who was talking about his new vlogging set up. He has the GoPro Hero 5 Black, which is the same one that I ordered. He got the mic adaptor that I ordered, and he also got the same exact microphone that I ordered. That was the thing that I lucked into the most. I had no idea what mic to by. I just looked at a few different ones, and read a couple of reviews, and this one seemed the best. It wasn't the most expensive, nor the cheapest. H mentioned in his video that he had heard about those items form other vloggers, and that he heard it worked well. He did a test ride with the new set up and it sounded great, so I have high hopes for the content I will create with it. That is of course, if I ever get the GoPro that I ordered.
Enough about that. Needless to say, since I was on the phone with GoPro for quite some time after I got back home, I only had a short amount of time to ride, so I couldn't do the ATS. That means that it is rescheduled for this coming Saturday, but already the forecast doesn't look good, however, most of the rain had been coming late in the day, so if I go in the morning like I plan to, I should be able to get it in. It's not a long ride, in fact I rode by there on my short ride on Saturday. I still managed to get soaked on the way home. I had spent all Friday evening detailing Saki for the ride to. Oh well, gives me something to do again. I enjoy getting in there and cleaning everything. Which reminds me I nearly forgot about Friday.
Harbor Freight was having a big parking lot sale this weekend. I decided that I would head over before everyone got off of work, so that I could get a couple of things that I needed. The one key thing was a 1/2 in. torque wrench. This was very important because I needed the 1/2 in. so that I could tighten the tires to the right specs when I did a chain tightening or when I eventually change my tires. I still need a couple of things for the tire changing part, but I have everything I need for proper chain maintenance now. The torque wrench was on sale for $9.99, it is normally around $60. That is quite a deal. The most expensive thing I bought, was a set of wrenches. They weren't on sale, but I did go there for the specific reason of getting a good set of metric wrenches, and these happened to be sitting right next to the ones I was going to get. Even though they were $6 more than the ones I went there for, I just couldn't pass these up. Here's a picture to show you why.
Pretty sweet set of wrenches right. Here is the bonus, they ratchet on the closed end. No more turning the wrench over or readjusting to tighten things. Oh, and there is a bonus bonus. Guess which one is he perfect size for the K&N oil filter? Yep, It's the red one that matches Saki to a T. I actually giggled when I tested it out. It's going to make oil changes just a little more fun.
Also on Friday, I woke up early enough to ride out to the beach to see the sunrise. While I was there I snapped a few pictures, You may have seen the combo picture I posted on Instagram. It had this photo of Saki.
With a picture of the sunrise above it. It looked pretty good, but I had a better picture of that sunrise, and I've been saving it until now.
I honestly don't know if I will get a better picture of a sunrise than that right there. I saved this one for you. I told you a while back that this is what everything else feeds. the Instagram and soon the Youtube channel. It all is just tiny tendrils that lead back to this, and you deserve to see the best picture of the sunrise. When I looked at that picture after taking it, I already knew that it wasn't going on Instagram and was only going to be posted here. I hope you like it. Oh, and in case you didn't see the Instagram shot, Here it is so that you can compare.
It's not a bad shot of the sunrise. I used the rule of thirds in in it, but sometimes the rules get in the way. I believe they did when it came to the sunrise shot with the sun being centered. Sometimes it all comes down to your eye, and what you see versus what you want everyone else to see.
That's all I have for you. I will keep you updated on the GoPro fiasco, but I'm sure I won't have anything to tell you until Thursday. Peace in and goodnight.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
It Will Get Here When It Gets Here.
Aargh! It's been a somewhat frustrating day. I mentioned the difficulty with the GoPro order, well, it has continued, but in a different way. I got the shipping notification, and when I checked the tracking on it, it said that the shipment was canceled by the sender. This left me confused. I went to the website and plugged in my info and on there it said that the order had shipped. I checked the tracking through that, and it said that the tracking number didn't exist. More confused. I figured that I would give it till today, when the order was due to arrive before I started doing something about it.
Today arrived and the package was due to arrive via FedEx. FedEx goes through my neighborhood rather early, so my order should be at my house by the time I get home. I arrived and only my stuff from Amazon had arrived. Time to call customer support. I dialed the number knowing that I was going to be on hold for a while. I was hoping that it would be early enough so that I could still get everything done and make it to ukulele class. That wasn't meant to me. At the 45 minute mark, I emailed my teacher saying that I wasn't going to make it. I finally got a hold of an operator, and was redirected to billing again. This made me think that there was something wrong with the credit card again. I really didn't want to go through the whole order process again for this. Maybe it was a sign.
I finally got to someone in billing, and they were just as confused as I was. The order had gone through, and it had shipped, but it didn't' ship FedEx like it was supposed to. There was no reason for why either. The guy on the line gave me a new tracking number for UPS, that said that it was arriving today. He had me look it up while he was on the line to verify it. Everything checked out, It would be here by the end of the day. I went out to Saki's Lounge and busted open the goodies from Amazon. I wouldn't be able to get everything set up, but I could get a head start on the mounting for the helmet. I ran into a slight problem there. With the stuff that I got, I had to construct a bracket for the mounting, and figure out a good spot to put the adhesive for the mount that goes directly on the helmet.
The first problem is, that my helmet has beveled edges to it on the chin bar, so it's not flat, and there isn't a clear area to mount the bracket so that it will be to the front of the helmet. I think that is the best view, plus if I position it just right, I can look down at the screen to see what it is doing. I finally got the bracket built up to how I want it, and positioned it pretty good, but I needed to test it with the helmet on. The first place I put it was no good. It was too high, and interfered with the closing of the visor. I had to reposition. After a couple more tries, I finally got it in a good place. I locked down the base. That's when I found new problem. the case that came with everything is good, but I won't be able to run the mic cables from it. There are no openings for it. No mic, means no sound. Well there will be some sound, but it won't be of a good enough quality that anyone would want to listen to. I had to venture back online and find a suitable replacement. It's not a total loss though. I can test the angle of the camera while riding with this on in the meantime. Not to mention, It will be useful in other applications. I need a couple more things, and I should be set.
While I was at it. I found a good spot for a handlebar mount. I'll try that angle out as well. Eventually I may buy a second GoPro for a camera facing me. Most motovloggers do this, so it isn't anything out of the ordinary. This is where that other case can really shine. I won't need a mic cable for a bar mount camera.
With all of that figured out. The waiting game began. It is now 11:10 at night, and UPS hasn't delivered the package. According to tracking, which I just looked at, it will be delivered by the end of the day. I highly doubt that. We did have some heavy storms today, so I'm sure that delayed things. I'm guessing it will be here some time tomorrow. I'm off work tomorrow, so I have a few options. The first one is to stay home and wait for that package. This isn't a very good option, because tomorrow is slated to have a low percentage chance of rain. This leads me to my two other options. I can either go to Universal, because that pass is going to run out soon, and ride a few rides, and eat in Diagon Alley, since I've never done that before, or, I can ride Saki for the first time this week. I think I can swing both. If it doesn't rain until later in the day, It is a 20% chance, then I can ride Saki early in the morning, and then go to Universal. Boom, two birds with one stone. I can wait on the GoPro. I won't be able to do much with it anyway. I can shoot some test video with it, in the helmet location as well as the handlebars, but I can do any audio until I get the mic adaptor in on Wednesday of next week, not to mention, I have to wait a few days for the new case that will allow me to feed the mic cable into it.
This brings me to my plans on Saturday, which seem very up in the air. Although tomorrow is supposed to be a 20% chance of rain, that drastically changes for Saturday, which is forecast as a 90% chance of rain. If that really is the case, I doubt the weather people because there track record isn't so good lately, I won't be able to do the ATS. I did mention that I have next weekend open to do it as well, but I'd really like to get it done on Saturday, and maybe take the GoPro along for the ride to see just what I can get. What ever I do manage to get, I will try to make a short video to post on here on Sunday for you to see what the future may hold.
Speaking of the future. I have a lot of things to look into and learn. I'm going to have to learn video editing on the fly, plus I'm going to have to learn how to do graphics, intros, and outtros. I need to figure out if I want to put music into this, and if so, what can I get away with. GoPro has a new service that was editing software and a music library to use for your videos, but it's a monthly fee. It's only $4.99 a month, but I'm waiting on that until I see what I can pull off. You also get a 20% discount on accessories from GoPro if you join. That might be worth it if I need other things. They do have some neat stuff, but that will be down the road.
I'm sure this is going to be daunting, but I do enjoy learning new things. This is going to be fun, and I will finally get to take you along for the ride. I learned today, that the Hero 5 is voice activated, and you can tell it to take a picture. This is exceptional, because I can finally get that shot of what it looks like going over the Sebastian Inlet. I'm hoping for a clear day like the ride to the McLarty Treasure Museum. I'm hoping to blow your mind a little. That's all I have for tonight. Peace in and goodnight.
Today arrived and the package was due to arrive via FedEx. FedEx goes through my neighborhood rather early, so my order should be at my house by the time I get home. I arrived and only my stuff from Amazon had arrived. Time to call customer support. I dialed the number knowing that I was going to be on hold for a while. I was hoping that it would be early enough so that I could still get everything done and make it to ukulele class. That wasn't meant to me. At the 45 minute mark, I emailed my teacher saying that I wasn't going to make it. I finally got a hold of an operator, and was redirected to billing again. This made me think that there was something wrong with the credit card again. I really didn't want to go through the whole order process again for this. Maybe it was a sign.
I finally got to someone in billing, and they were just as confused as I was. The order had gone through, and it had shipped, but it didn't' ship FedEx like it was supposed to. There was no reason for why either. The guy on the line gave me a new tracking number for UPS, that said that it was arriving today. He had me look it up while he was on the line to verify it. Everything checked out, It would be here by the end of the day. I went out to Saki's Lounge and busted open the goodies from Amazon. I wouldn't be able to get everything set up, but I could get a head start on the mounting for the helmet. I ran into a slight problem there. With the stuff that I got, I had to construct a bracket for the mounting, and figure out a good spot to put the adhesive for the mount that goes directly on the helmet.
The first problem is, that my helmet has beveled edges to it on the chin bar, so it's not flat, and there isn't a clear area to mount the bracket so that it will be to the front of the helmet. I think that is the best view, plus if I position it just right, I can look down at the screen to see what it is doing. I finally got the bracket built up to how I want it, and positioned it pretty good, but I needed to test it with the helmet on. The first place I put it was no good. It was too high, and interfered with the closing of the visor. I had to reposition. After a couple more tries, I finally got it in a good place. I locked down the base. That's when I found new problem. the case that came with everything is good, but I won't be able to run the mic cables from it. There are no openings for it. No mic, means no sound. Well there will be some sound, but it won't be of a good enough quality that anyone would want to listen to. I had to venture back online and find a suitable replacement. It's not a total loss though. I can test the angle of the camera while riding with this on in the meantime. Not to mention, It will be useful in other applications. I need a couple more things, and I should be set.
While I was at it. I found a good spot for a handlebar mount. I'll try that angle out as well. Eventually I may buy a second GoPro for a camera facing me. Most motovloggers do this, so it isn't anything out of the ordinary. This is where that other case can really shine. I won't need a mic cable for a bar mount camera.
With all of that figured out. The waiting game began. It is now 11:10 at night, and UPS hasn't delivered the package. According to tracking, which I just looked at, it will be delivered by the end of the day. I highly doubt that. We did have some heavy storms today, so I'm sure that delayed things. I'm guessing it will be here some time tomorrow. I'm off work tomorrow, so I have a few options. The first one is to stay home and wait for that package. This isn't a very good option, because tomorrow is slated to have a low percentage chance of rain. This leads me to my two other options. I can either go to Universal, because that pass is going to run out soon, and ride a few rides, and eat in Diagon Alley, since I've never done that before, or, I can ride Saki for the first time this week. I think I can swing both. If it doesn't rain until later in the day, It is a 20% chance, then I can ride Saki early in the morning, and then go to Universal. Boom, two birds with one stone. I can wait on the GoPro. I won't be able to do much with it anyway. I can shoot some test video with it, in the helmet location as well as the handlebars, but I can do any audio until I get the mic adaptor in on Wednesday of next week, not to mention, I have to wait a few days for the new case that will allow me to feed the mic cable into it.
This brings me to my plans on Saturday, which seem very up in the air. Although tomorrow is supposed to be a 20% chance of rain, that drastically changes for Saturday, which is forecast as a 90% chance of rain. If that really is the case, I doubt the weather people because there track record isn't so good lately, I won't be able to do the ATS. I did mention that I have next weekend open to do it as well, but I'd really like to get it done on Saturday, and maybe take the GoPro along for the ride to see just what I can get. What ever I do manage to get, I will try to make a short video to post on here on Sunday for you to see what the future may hold.
Speaking of the future. I have a lot of things to look into and learn. I'm going to have to learn video editing on the fly, plus I'm going to have to learn how to do graphics, intros, and outtros. I need to figure out if I want to put music into this, and if so, what can I get away with. GoPro has a new service that was editing software and a music library to use for your videos, but it's a monthly fee. It's only $4.99 a month, but I'm waiting on that until I see what I can pull off. You also get a 20% discount on accessories from GoPro if you join. That might be worth it if I need other things. They do have some neat stuff, but that will be down the road.
I'm sure this is going to be daunting, but I do enjoy learning new things. This is going to be fun, and I will finally get to take you along for the ride. I learned today, that the Hero 5 is voice activated, and you can tell it to take a picture. This is exceptional, because I can finally get that shot of what it looks like going over the Sebastian Inlet. I'm hoping for a clear day like the ride to the McLarty Treasure Museum. I'm hoping to blow your mind a little. That's all I have for tonight. Peace in and goodnight.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Problem, What Problem? Oh, I'll Figure It Out.
Christine Archibald
Kirsty Boden
Alexandre Pigeard
James McMullan
Kevin Clark
Kevin Lawson
Robert Snyder
Brenda Montanez-Crespo
Jeffery Roberts
Then first four names are known victims from the London Bridge incident. The second list of 5 names are the victims of a mass shooting in Orlando Florida yesterday. There are 7 deaths related to the attack in London, but those are the 4 confirmed names of the deceased. There are a few others that are missing, but until I have confirmation of whether they are alive or dead, I won't post them here, out of respect for their loved ones. The media here, is going out of it's way to learn everything they can about the shooter in Orlando. I've said it before, and I will continue to say it. I condemn any media source that names these people, and by using the term people, I am giving them far more respect than they deserve. Once they are caught or dead, there is no reason to know them, they should be forgotten. Those names above, they should be remembered.
On to something a little more lighthearted. You've seen me write all that above before, so enough of that. My body is still out of sorts, from eating so poorly last week. I've gone back to the way I have been eating the last several weeks, but it takes time to get all that poison out of my system. I'll survive though, and will end up better for it in the end. I learned a valuable lesson. I can't go back to that person any more. I'm sticking with the clean eating.
There was a bit of a snafu with the GoPro order, and maybe a new snafu, but I'll get to that one a little later. The first one, was something that was unfortunate but in a good way. I know, that sounds like a very weird way to put it. Let me explain. I received an email from GoPro yesterday about the time that it should be sending me a shipping notice. That wasn't it though. Instead I received an email saying that there was a problem with my order and that I needed to call their customer support line. Well, when I got home from work, that is exactly what I did. I was put on hold, and stayed on hold, and stayed on hold, and then there was an option for a call back, when an operator was available. I took that option. About an hour later I got a call. It was GoPro. There seemed to be a problem with billing, so they transferred me over to Kim in billing. She was rather delightful to talk to. I know that my credit card was fine, and that there was plenty of funds on it, so I wan't sure what was going on. It turns out, that they were tripping the fraud prevention feature with that particular card. There was a couple of reasons for that, that I found out. The first being that the order seemed a little out of the ordinary for my purchase history. I tend to only use that card for small items, and never spend more than $100 dollars. This order was a bit over that. The second reason is, that the phone number attached to the card is my home phone, and when I filled out my information for GoPro, I used my cell phone. The bank was having trouble getting a verbal confirmation from me, because I wasn't home, and they weren't using my cell number. Like I said, unfortunate, but in a good way. It proved that the fraud protection is very active, and they are looking out of me.
I got all of that taken care of, and the order confirmation was sent out last night. Here is the new snafu. I got the shipping notification a little earlier. Normally tracking info takes about 24 hours to be available, but I thought I'd check it out anyway. When I opened the tracking data, it says that the order was cancelled by the sender. I'm hoping that that is some glitch and that the new tracking info will be updated tomorrow some time. I'll know better what is going on by then. I can't worry about it now, because it's too late to do anything about it, and I'm going to have to wait anyway.
If things go right, and the order is on it's way, I should have most of what I need to get started by Friday. The only thing, and it's kind of an important thing, that I will be missing, is the mic adaptor. It won't be here until next weeks some time. That doesn't mean I can't test out the camera though. I have helmet mounts coming, so that I can get that all worked out, hopefully, I just have to leave room for the adaptor. I can start testing this weekend. Now for this weekend though. the weather is not cooperating with me. It's been raining all week so far, and early reports had it clearing up by Thursday, but that has all changed, and it doesn't look like the rain will clear until next week some time. That could cause me to postpone the next ATS. I could ride in the rain, but it's not practical. There is no point in going somewhere to look at a bunch of things in the rain. Not to mention that it won't lead to very good pictures of what it is I'm going to see. If it doesn't work out this weekend, I will try to reschedule it for the following weekend. I have it open, so we will see. Saki is getting rather bored of hanging out in the lounge every day. Speaking of the lounge, I've come to another conclusion on the name. It will no longer be referred to as the Ultimate Motorcycle Lounge or UML, from no on, it will be Saki's Lounge. I like that better, and it rolls off the tongue a little easier. Also, because of all this rain and not riding Saki, I won't be get that 87 octane fuel in Saki till whenever. I need to see if that solves some problems. It can wait though.
AGT was on tonight, and there were a couple of acts that stood out, but I'm only going to share one with you tonight, because it really needs to be shared. Here, just watch the video, and we will talk after.
Incredible right? I shared this, not only because it was the Golden Buzzer, and not because of how talented Mandy Harvey is, but because of her drive and determination to do something that she had probably been told not to even attempt. Her song and the story within it, says it all. She is going straight to the live shows, but I think she is going to go quite a bit further than that. This is only the beginning for her. The best part for me, is when she gets to the second chorus. Until that point, she couldn't tell the crowd reaction. She couldn't hear them. When she hits that second chorus, people begin to stand up, and it overwhelms here, and you can here her laugh in glee. She wasn't expecting that, and it was a wonderful, real thing. Let this video be a lesson to you. Never give up on a dream. You can make it happen, with determination and perseverance.
It's that time again. What time is it? It's Favorite Song of the Week time, and do I have a funky one for you tonight. You may have heard this particular song in a commercial recently for the new iPhone 7/7+ Portrait app. Then scene is a barber shop that makes everyone look their best, but it's the pictures the guy takes with his iPhone using the portrait feature that brings it all together. On a side note, that portrait feature is pretty amazing. Here is a look at Saki not using it, and using it.
The portrait feature adds depth to the photo by blurring or taking the background out of focus. It makes for some pretty great photos. Back to FSOTW. William Onyeabor Nigerian was a funk musician, and you know how I love my funk. He died earlier this year at the age of 70. He was rather reclusive and in 2014 a documentary was made about him, and the efforts to find him for an interview. Enough of that, let's get to the music. Here is William Onyeabor with "Fantastic Man".
That's funky right there. Before I leave tonight, I have to make a correction from the last post. I misspelled Gal Gadot's name, spelling it Gardot, that is wrong. The first one here is the correct way, My apologies to Mrs. Gadot. I'll see you on Thursday with what information I have about ATS. Until then, peace in and goodnight.
Kirsty Boden
Alexandre Pigeard
James McMullan
Kevin Clark
Kevin Lawson
Robert Snyder
Brenda Montanez-Crespo
Jeffery Roberts
Then first four names are known victims from the London Bridge incident. The second list of 5 names are the victims of a mass shooting in Orlando Florida yesterday. There are 7 deaths related to the attack in London, but those are the 4 confirmed names of the deceased. There are a few others that are missing, but until I have confirmation of whether they are alive or dead, I won't post them here, out of respect for their loved ones. The media here, is going out of it's way to learn everything they can about the shooter in Orlando. I've said it before, and I will continue to say it. I condemn any media source that names these people, and by using the term people, I am giving them far more respect than they deserve. Once they are caught or dead, there is no reason to know them, they should be forgotten. Those names above, they should be remembered.
On to something a little more lighthearted. You've seen me write all that above before, so enough of that. My body is still out of sorts, from eating so poorly last week. I've gone back to the way I have been eating the last several weeks, but it takes time to get all that poison out of my system. I'll survive though, and will end up better for it in the end. I learned a valuable lesson. I can't go back to that person any more. I'm sticking with the clean eating.
There was a bit of a snafu with the GoPro order, and maybe a new snafu, but I'll get to that one a little later. The first one, was something that was unfortunate but in a good way. I know, that sounds like a very weird way to put it. Let me explain. I received an email from GoPro yesterday about the time that it should be sending me a shipping notice. That wasn't it though. Instead I received an email saying that there was a problem with my order and that I needed to call their customer support line. Well, when I got home from work, that is exactly what I did. I was put on hold, and stayed on hold, and stayed on hold, and then there was an option for a call back, when an operator was available. I took that option. About an hour later I got a call. It was GoPro. There seemed to be a problem with billing, so they transferred me over to Kim in billing. She was rather delightful to talk to. I know that my credit card was fine, and that there was plenty of funds on it, so I wan't sure what was going on. It turns out, that they were tripping the fraud prevention feature with that particular card. There was a couple of reasons for that, that I found out. The first being that the order seemed a little out of the ordinary for my purchase history. I tend to only use that card for small items, and never spend more than $100 dollars. This order was a bit over that. The second reason is, that the phone number attached to the card is my home phone, and when I filled out my information for GoPro, I used my cell phone. The bank was having trouble getting a verbal confirmation from me, because I wasn't home, and they weren't using my cell number. Like I said, unfortunate, but in a good way. It proved that the fraud protection is very active, and they are looking out of me.
I got all of that taken care of, and the order confirmation was sent out last night. Here is the new snafu. I got the shipping notification a little earlier. Normally tracking info takes about 24 hours to be available, but I thought I'd check it out anyway. When I opened the tracking data, it says that the order was cancelled by the sender. I'm hoping that that is some glitch and that the new tracking info will be updated tomorrow some time. I'll know better what is going on by then. I can't worry about it now, because it's too late to do anything about it, and I'm going to have to wait anyway.
If things go right, and the order is on it's way, I should have most of what I need to get started by Friday. The only thing, and it's kind of an important thing, that I will be missing, is the mic adaptor. It won't be here until next weeks some time. That doesn't mean I can't test out the camera though. I have helmet mounts coming, so that I can get that all worked out, hopefully, I just have to leave room for the adaptor. I can start testing this weekend. Now for this weekend though. the weather is not cooperating with me. It's been raining all week so far, and early reports had it clearing up by Thursday, but that has all changed, and it doesn't look like the rain will clear until next week some time. That could cause me to postpone the next ATS. I could ride in the rain, but it's not practical. There is no point in going somewhere to look at a bunch of things in the rain. Not to mention that it won't lead to very good pictures of what it is I'm going to see. If it doesn't work out this weekend, I will try to reschedule it for the following weekend. I have it open, so we will see. Saki is getting rather bored of hanging out in the lounge every day. Speaking of the lounge, I've come to another conclusion on the name. It will no longer be referred to as the Ultimate Motorcycle Lounge or UML, from no on, it will be Saki's Lounge. I like that better, and it rolls off the tongue a little easier. Also, because of all this rain and not riding Saki, I won't be get that 87 octane fuel in Saki till whenever. I need to see if that solves some problems. It can wait though.
AGT was on tonight, and there were a couple of acts that stood out, but I'm only going to share one with you tonight, because it really needs to be shared. Here, just watch the video, and we will talk after.
Incredible right? I shared this, not only because it was the Golden Buzzer, and not because of how talented Mandy Harvey is, but because of her drive and determination to do something that she had probably been told not to even attempt. Her song and the story within it, says it all. She is going straight to the live shows, but I think she is going to go quite a bit further than that. This is only the beginning for her. The best part for me, is when she gets to the second chorus. Until that point, she couldn't tell the crowd reaction. She couldn't hear them. When she hits that second chorus, people begin to stand up, and it overwhelms here, and you can here her laugh in glee. She wasn't expecting that, and it was a wonderful, real thing. Let this video be a lesson to you. Never give up on a dream. You can make it happen, with determination and perseverance.
It's that time again. What time is it? It's Favorite Song of the Week time, and do I have a funky one for you tonight. You may have heard this particular song in a commercial recently for the new iPhone 7/7+ Portrait app. Then scene is a barber shop that makes everyone look their best, but it's the pictures the guy takes with his iPhone using the portrait feature that brings it all together. On a side note, that portrait feature is pretty amazing. Here is a look at Saki not using it, and using it.
The portrait feature adds depth to the photo by blurring or taking the background out of focus. It makes for some pretty great photos. Back to FSOTW. William Onyeabor Nigerian was a funk musician, and you know how I love my funk. He died earlier this year at the age of 70. He was rather reclusive and in 2014 a documentary was made about him, and the efforts to find him for an interview. Enough of that, let's get to the music. Here is William Onyeabor with "Fantastic Man".
That's funky right there. Before I leave tonight, I have to make a correction from the last post. I misspelled Gal Gadot's name, spelling it Gardot, that is wrong. The first one here is the correct way, My apologies to Mrs. Gadot. I'll see you on Thursday with what information I have about ATS. Until then, peace in and goodnight.
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