Personalities, Who Needs Them?

     It's Thursday, so of course that means my sinuses are acting up. I don't understand this at all. It seems like every Thursday, I get hit hard by my allergies. I'm starting to wonder if it is some kind of psychosomatic thing, but I don't know what it is that I would be trying to avoid. I don't mind work, and I love going to my ukulele class. If it is that, then I should just be able to turn it off in my head. I just have to figure out what it is that is causing it.

     Enough about that. I got stuff to talk about. First thing is enneagrams. This is something I learned about a couple of days ago. It's a personality test along the lines of the Briggs Myers. Instead of a bunch of letters you get a number value. I don't put much value in these tests, but I take them from time to time, and for the most part, they line up with who I think I am. Well, I took this test, and I have to say, it was an exact match. So much so, that it was a little disturbing to be reading about myself in that way. This site Enneagram Institute will tell you all about the different types. You will have to search out a test for yourself. There are several sites dedicated to it, so it won't be hard to find.

     I'm questioning on whether or not to tell you what type I came up as. I think I will hold it off. If you go to the site, read through the types, and take a guess at what type you think I am. As I said, I know it, and it is definitive. Even down to my depression and anxiety. It even goes into things that you can do to help yourself out, and oddly enough, I've been doing those very things on my own. Trust me, the alternative is not pretty at all. If you take the test, let me know what type you came up as. I'll announce in Sundays post, what type I am. Happy testing.

     I thought for sure that I would be working 5 days this week, but I was wrong. Yesterday we got a machine running that had been down for repair. I figured with it coming up, we would have to run it the rest of the week. Well, in a way we did. We ran it today, and got everything we needed out of it. that means that I am off on a Friday again. I know I said I was going to take advantage of my Universal pass, but I think I'm going to go see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 instead. I've heard that it is better than the first one, and that is a very rare occurrence. I'll let you know what I think of it.

     Ever since I upgraded to a new phone, I've been struggling with the headphones I use at work. Since the new phone is bigger, it fits in my pocket different, which creates a problem with the cable for the headphones. I constantly bump it and dislodge it slightly which cuts off the playback of whatever I'm listening to. 5 weeks ago, I decide to finally get a pair of bluetooth headphones, and not just any bluetooth headphones. I went with the new Apple AirPods. There was a 6 week wait on shipping due to demand. I was supposed to get them next Friday, but they showed up today, a week early. Before you even start, I know that they look goofy, but looks is nothing I care about. I knew that they would pair with my iPhone easily. In fact they paired easier than I thought they would. All I had to do, was open the case next to my phone and they paired within a second. A screen popped up on my phone showing me just how much battery life the case and the headphones had.

     I tested out their sound out immediately. they sound great. My biggest concern with them was that when I am at work, I usually only keep one in, and tuck the other one in my shirt. I need to hear what is going on around then plant. I was worried that these would only work if they were both in my ears, but I quickly put that worry to rest. I can keep one in the case, and the other works just fine on it's own. I can leave the case with the other one in my pocket. I did find out something that I found very cool. As soon as I take them out of my ears, they turn off. They know when they aren't in your ears. It's pretty amazing. They have no buttons on them, so I was wondering how I would answer a call or use Siri. All I have to do is tap on the AirPod itself. I just give it two taps above the stem, and it activates.

     Since they are only contained to the buds themselves and have no unit to connect to, their battery life is limited to 5 hours of play, but a quick trip to their case for 15 minutes, and you have an extra 3 hours of listening time. This should be perfect for me. I do have a few more tests I need to conduct. I need to see if they can work when I'm wearing my helmet. I know that I can put on and take off my helmet with them in, but I have no idea if I can use any of the voice features when they are inside the helmet. It is supposed to have some feature that knows when you are talking at drowns out al other ambient noise, but I don't know how that will work when they are surrounded by padding in a helmet. I'll test all that out tomorrow when Saki and I go for a ride. Oh, I am using them right now. I connected them with the MacBook so that I could listen to the new lp from LP. It's good by the way.

     I worked more on Round About again tonight. I was having trouble with some of what I worked on last week, so we hammered that down. While we did, my teacher showed me that what I was playing in that song, is in a whole lot of other songs. The chord structure we are using is the same in that song, as in Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, Blackbird by The Beatles, and Dust in the Wind by Kansas. Same chords all with a slightly different flavor. I was blown away. Every time I learn something like that, I'm more and more glad that I decided to pick an instrument up again. Music really is amazing.

     Sinuses are attacking and my eyes are watering like crazy, so it is getting harder to see. I'm going to call it a night in hopes that with a night of sleep, these allergies will be gone. Oh wait, before I go, I got the best email today. It was from Netflix saying that a new season of Unbreakable Jimmy Schmidt was coming out next week. I'm pretty excited about that. I really enjoy that show, and have been craving new episodes. If that show doesn't appeal to you, and I can't understand why, the new season of Sense 8 is out now. I haven't had the chance to sit down and watch any of it yet, but I will be soon. That is a very weird show. I call it an adult Stranger Things. Well kind of. Anyway, I need to go before I can no longer see at all. Peace in and goodnight.

Vampires, Noodles, And Halos.

     I think this post is going to be full of videos for you to watch. I hope you have some time. The first one I'm going to share with you is from Matt & Kim. I mentioned before how they started a series of videos called Matt & Kim Show Ya Stuff. It's a fun series and they post new videos every Monday & Thursday. I watched the newest one this morning, and it is hilarious as always. It takes place before Kim had surgery on her knee, which just happened last week, so she is hobbling around at an awkward pace, which in itself is kind of funny. They are talking about Kim's weird childhood, which let's face it, we were all pretty much weird as kids in one way or another. Kim however, found a way to take it to that next level.

     There is a part in here that I can relate to, up to a point. She mentions how after watching Lost Boys, she wanted to be a vampire. That I could relate too. Lost Boys was an alluring movie for young teenagers at the time. It showed a new type of vampire. One that was edgy and cool. They dressed wild, and rode motorcycles. What is not to like about that? I could relate up to that point, but then Kim took it that one step further, which is both funny and disturbing. If you have a Youtube account, you really should subscribe to their channel. It is a lot of fun, and will always put a smile on your face. Now for the video.



Also, if you have Instagram, you should really follow them there as well. They put up some of the best Instagram stories. They are so funny. There is one in particular where Matt was looking at a plate of desserts and it read "stressed spelled backwards is desserts". He then turned the camera on his shocked face and said, "How the fuck did I never know that.". Hilarious.

     The next video for today, is from a new favorite of mine. A couple of weeks ago, I found Rosie Gabrielle. She rides motorcycles all over the place, and ht current series of videos is in Oman. She is riding alone on a big KLR adventure bike. I'm going to try to start the video at the part that I really want you to see, because it is just so fun. She is done with her riding for the day, and makes camp. After making camp she makes her nightly meal, and that is when the fun begins.


I really hope that worked as far as starting it from right before she makes camp. If not, go to the 6:28 mark. Although the entire video is worth watching, and if you have the time, definitely do that. She is a supreme badass. She also has an Instagram account where she posts pictures from her adventures. She is a very good photographer. You get to see some of the shots in the video, but there are more on her Instagram. I'd post a link for you, but I'm far too lazy tonight.

     Before we get to the next video, I have a story for you tonight. This happened in my very own home state of Florida. Not far from me to be exact. A little 9 year old girl was at Moss Lake with her family in Orlando. She was swimming in the shallow water, when a 9 foot alligator chomped down on her leg. Now in most situations like this, you would at the very least lose a leg. This little girl, starring danger in the face and with a cool head. stuck her fingers up the gators nose. I know what you are thinking. That seems like the dumbest thing ever. I'm here to tell you that it isn't. This little girl paid attention when she went on a class field trip to Gatorland. One of the handlers was wrestling a gator, and she noticed that he would stick his fingers in the nostrils of the gator. This caused the gator to lose it's breathing ability, which in turn made the gator open it's mouth. So when that little girl stuck her fingers up that gators nose, she was able to pry open it's mouth, and extract her leg from this teeth. This really brings new meaning to "fight like a girl" don't you think. Julianna Ossa survived an alligator attack, what did you do this weekend? Sadly the alligator was put down, because it had attacked a human. I don't necessarily agree with that course of action. We do it a lot as humans. When an animal acts like an animal, and yes I know that gators are reptiles, i'm generalizing here, we tend to kill it.That is just my 2 cents worth. The real moral is, no matter what you did this weekend, you still didn't fight an alligator and win.

     Final think, I promise. I was listening to an interview on the Howard Stern show today of an artist that hit the scene pretty hard last year. He had been a song writer for 5 years before that, and wrote hit after hit after hit, for other artists. Someone finally convinced him to sing some of his own songs, and history was made. He has been a top selling artist every since, and some are calling him the savior of "real" country music. I heard this gentleman for the first time when he performed on Saturday Night Live. He was good, and although I understood why he was considered country, he really isn't. He falls between the cracks as an artist that really defies a genre label. If he made his start about 30 years ago, he would have been mainstream rock, and tend to put him more in that category than country, but maybe that is just me justifying my liking of him. I'm not a big country fan, and really don't listen to much of it outside of Jimmy Buffett and the Zac Brown Band. two artist that I also put in that, not really country category. During the interview he played a new song. It was just him and his guitar. Now I can't find that version for you, but I do have the album cut. There is a little more productions and his voice is a little more country than it was in the studio this morning, but none of that matters. What does matter, is that it is a really good song. So good in fact, that it is Favorite Song of the Week. This is Chris Stapleton with "Broken Halos".


That is just good stuff right there. I hope you got to take the time and watch all of these. They are all meant to put a smile on your face, and a dance in your step. This life is too short, so why not enjoy it while you can. Peace in and goodnight.

Adventure Time Series: Exploration?

     Oh do I have a headache. Starring at this screen is not helping either, but I have a few things to tell you, so I'm going to just toughen up and get through this. I got the greatest key tag in the mail on Friday. I ordered it from Motoloot, that is the same place I got Melvin from. This one is perfect, and it is all about Saki.

What I tell you? Is that not Saki in a nutshells after all, Saki's full name, or  ahem, title is Saki the Kawasexy Ninja 650. Saki was excited, and that meant we needed to ride. First stop was the bank of course, and I am growing even more confused by that one particular bank teller there. I ended up at the window next to her because she was working the drive thru again. As I walked by her, she made a point to say hi and call me by name. Of course I realize that that all could be polite customer service, but I just get this feeling. Maybe that is because of my attraction to her, and a lot of wishful thinking. I don't know, it's just really confusing to me. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

     Friday's ride was all that involved. It was more of a clearing my head kind of thing, but something really good happened when I got home. I checked my email, and I had one from Harbor Freight. It was a brand new bundle of coupons. Guess what they had on sale? Yep, it was that workbench that I plan on getting for the, oh, get ready for this, because I changed the name, Ultimate Motorcycle Lounge. Sounds classy now right. anyway, that bench is only available online and not in the store, so I did order it even though I'm not quite ready for it. I still need to move some things, and get rid of other things. In the meantime, when it arrives, I'll leave it in the box so that I can stash it off to the side until I am ready for it. That being said, the Ultimate Motorcycle Lounge is coming along nicely.

     That brings us to Saturday, and Saturday was a day full of plans, but none of them set in stone, with the exception of the time I was supposed to meet my friend for the preliminary photoshoot for Saki. That meant I had a few hours to kill and ride. I headed out to my favorite twisty spot, and got about as lucky as you could get. As I was pulling onto the road, a Deputy Sheriff was just leaving. I'm not saying that I would be breaking any laws, but it's best that he wasn't there when I was. I needed to make one stop before hitting the twisties though. When you go down the road that leads to them, there is this little offshoot of a road. It's gated but looked like a great place for a picture. I had to make a stop. I'm in the search of the perfect shot, and that was along the lines of what I want in that perfect shot. In truth, my idea of the perfect shot, is a long desolate road that has a canopy of trees over it. I would park Saki across the middle of the road, and get the shot with the road edges framing Saki as they ran off into infinity. I have yet to find that road, but this seemed close. A little secret, I got quite a bit closer to that shot today. More on that later though.

Not too bad right. It almost has the look I want. The fence is in the way, but it adds a little something on it's own. Gives Saki that caged beast sort of appeal. If you saw it on Instagram I added a new hashtag that was, and I'm not going to do it in hashtag from here, cause that just makes it hard to figure out, but it was, not a garage beauty but a street beast. Saki is a road warrior, not a little thing that stays in the garage. I know too many people that have bikes but never ride them. I don't want to be like that, and neither does Saki.

     With that shot logged away in the phone, I set out to conquer some curves. I'm still working on ride position, and getting those lean angles over just a little more each time. I went through the curves a little faster than I did the last time I went through and it felt good. When I got to the end of that section of the road, I noticed another bike coming up behind me. He ended up turning around to hit it again, because he apparently didn't know abut the big looping turns just a little further down the road. I hit those and then took a long way back around down a road I hadn't been down before. I was half hoping that that guy was still riding the twisties, but he was nowhere in sight. I did mess up one turn going back through, and it was because I over though it. I slowed down too much going into it, and over shot it a bit. I should have maintained my speed a bit and hit a better entry angle. Live and learn though.

     After that, it was nearly time to meet up with my friend. I headed to the spot that we discussed. It is an old abandoned housing development that lost funding. They paved the roads around it, and even put in a few sidewalks, but there is only one house that got built, and it is a derelict now. It's a perfect spot for the shot, because nature is fighting to take it's rightful place back from the asphalt and concrete. The back road is heavily overgrown, and just adds a natural conflict of beauty. I turned into the neighborhood, and as I took the first corner heading to the back road, I saw a Deputy Sheriff patrol car hiding in the overgrowth of a split road. I couldn't turn back at this point, because I was obviously already in there, so I continued on by it. I rode at a casual pace all the way back around to the entrance, and then bolted out of there. A little ways down the road, I texted my friend telling him not to go there. I was too late, what I didn't know, is that he was right behind me. He went left when I went right out of the place. Our little secret spot has been compromised. We are still planning on using the spot, but we now need alternate locations, and are now scrambling trying to find some. That was part of what I was doing today. I'll get to that in just a bit.

     We finally met up, and decided we needed to go talk to one of the potential models. The one that he has been talking to about this whole things is giving him a vibe that she is going to be a no show, so we were going to see one and line her up as an alternative. This meant that we had to go to the strip club. I hadn't been to the strip club since I stopped drinking. This was going to be an adventure. We picked his wife up, and headed to the club. The new model was leaving soon because her shift was over, so we had to get there fast. We made it just in time, but she decided to stay longer anyway. She is quite beautiful. In her heals she is around 5 foot 9 inches. Perfect for the photoshoot. She will be able to keep her feet on the ground while sitting on the bike. She seemed rather excited about it as well. Melvin might even get in the pictures. I showed her the helmet with Melvin on it, and she fell in love. If we pull this shoot off, I'll try to get a picture of her wearing Melvin.

     Good news, I was able to visit the strip club and not drink anything other than Sprite. I still had fun, even though we were there on business rather than pleasure. We didn't stay long, we needed food. We tried a new place in the area. It's a wood fire pizza place, and the pizza was fantastic. Since I changed my eating habits around, two things that I haven't had in a while are pizza and a cheeseburger. Don't worry, even though I had a few slices of pizza, I didn't endanger my weight loss plan, and I will have a cheeseburger again. If you know me, you know that I am on the forever search for the perfect cheeseburger. So far, My Brother's Bar in Denver has the best that I've ever had. I ended up being the designated driver the rest of the night, which kind of sucked. I was more of a taxi service than anything. I did have a good time though. It was good to be out with friends. Since I've stopped drinking, I haven't had that experience, so it was good to get out and be around people. WE finished the night playing a few games of chess I hadn't played in possibly decades, so I got trounced pretty bad the first two games, but I made a valiant run at the third game. Still didn't win, but I made him work for it.

     That brings us to today. I got out as early as I could, which really wasn't all that early, but it was better than going out in the afternoon. I wanted to check out this park, that is in a location that seems pretty hidden away. I rode there and hit the park, and it was a bit of a bust. There were people at the boat ramp, but not at the little playground. It didn't really have a good spot to do a photoshoot anyway, but that didn't mean I couldn't stop and get a good picture of Saki, so I did.

These were taken on the road that lead into the park. It's that canopied road, but it isn't long at all, so I parked Saki on one side of the road, and walked to the other side to get the shot. Saki looks like it is hiding in the trees. I like it because all that plant life behind Saki, is what I grew up with. I played in woods just like that as a kid. It's great to see places like that around still. I left that area, and quickly ran into a guy that was on the side of the road with an Indian Motorcycle. It was a beautiful old bike. If I had to take a guess, I'd say that it was from the 40's or 50's. It had an old leaf spring front end, that made it look super cool. He was trying to get his bike started as I rode up. I asked if he needed any help. He said no, that it was just a stuck carb. He was going to keep trying to crank it over, but if he couldn't get it, he said he was less than mile from his house. He lived on the road we were on. I wished him good luck, and then set back off. I was looking for a new location for the photo shoot. Soon after that I rolled around a corner, and what did I see, but a road very similar to what I've been searching for. Not for the photoshoot, but for my perfect shot. I had only passed that guy on his bike, a bicyclist, and one car the entire time I'd been on the road. I quickly rode onto the wrong side of the road, and turned Saki to park right across the center line. This is what I got.

I think it works. It isn't the canopied road that I've been searching for, but it has the desired affect that I've been searching for. I'll still be looking for that one road. I know it's out there, but until then. I have the near perfect shot. I did post a version of this on Instagram today, but I saved this shot just for you. That brings me to something I've been wanting to tell you about. As you know, I've been taking quite a lot about this motovlogging thing. I've been setting up my old Youtube channel for when I can get it going. I've also been switching things over to the Counterfeit Squirrel brand. I know that sounds like such a corporate word, but it does have some value. That value is what I have been keeping to myself until now. I plan on having the channel to support this blog, and vice versa. They are going to feed one another. The blog will be here to tell you the story, and the channel will be there to give you a little added dimension to the story. Eventually I will monetize the channel. When I do, my plan is go give half of everything earned on there to a random charity. I will be doing this on a monthly basis, and the charity will be chosen by you. I will create a list of charities that I thing are in need the most, and each month, I will post that list, and take a vote on which one will receive the money. In a way, you will be donating the money to charity. I can guess your first question. Why not give all the money to the charity? That is a great question, and there is a reason why it will only be half. I plan on using the rest to cover cost that come up. For instance, the places I go to will usually have an entry fee. Then there is gas for Saki, and maintenance. I will also use what isn't given to upgrade equipment for the channel and for this blog. I want to give you the best experience I can, in the best way that I can. The better the equipment I get, the better quality videos and pictures you will see. I really think this is going to be fun, and I can't wait to take you along with me on these adventures.

     Before I call it a night, I got one last picture. Also, I almost forgot to tell you about Saki off-roading it today. On my exploration, I turned down a road, that turned into a dirt road. Saki was not pleased about this. Saki's suspension is not made for a rippled, loosed sand, and gravely road. I took it slow though, and made it back out without incident, but it was a little hairy there for a bit. Not to mention, I have been playing around with different air pressure in the tires, and I have it a little higher than normal right now, to test it out. That isn't a good idea if you want to take a sport bike in the dirt. Regardless everything is fine, and here is that final picture. If you do follow me on Instagram, you would have seen this one today as well. I posted it as part of a multiple picture set. Instagram has that now. It's where you can post multiple pictures in the same post. The person viewing them, simply has to swipe right to see each additional one. You can follow me here. Also, until I get the channel up and running, and even while I have it up and running, I will be posting Instagram Stories when I do the Adventure Time Series. You will get a day of summary of what is going on in advance of both the videos and the blogs. I do have a few more things to say about the Instagram page, but I'll save that for another time. Peace in and goodnight.

How To Really Confuse Someone.

     I called it. I walked in to work this morning, and found out that I am off tomorrow. I knew it was coming, despite the best effort of the second shift messing things up. They had one of the machines go down on them, and it just happened to be the most important machine running. This lead to a nice little series of events, yesterday morning. Remember when I told you about the plant manage throwing a chair around the other day, well, first thing Wednesday morning I walked in, and one of my coworkers told me that second shift messed up one of the machines, and the PM was angry. I asked him flippantly, when wasn't he angry. About a minute after that, he roared around the corner and started angrily yelling at me about what he wanted me to do. I stopped him mid sentence, and told him that he was going to have to bring his tone down a bit. I was completely aware that that was probably the worst thing to do to someone that has anger issues, but I was feeling good, and no one was going to mess up my day. He turned a death stare on me, and asked if what he wanted done was too much for me. I off course said no. I was going to get everything he wanted done, I just wanted a different tone coming from him. Mind you, I hadn't even clocked in yet, and wasn't on the clock. I started to go off on me again, I just looked him in the eye, told him that it was going to get done, and that he needed to get rid of the aggression and anger at me. We would get through the day, just like any other day. I think that broke him. He wanted to be furious, but he didn't know how to do it after that. It made what was starting out as a great day for me, into an even better one.

     Anyway, with that machine being down, we had to make up the difference on what it was running, and you would think that would extend our week, but the machine got going again, just like I said it would, and we managed to get it all done by today, which meant that our week was shortened. All in all, I'm not that upset by it. I said a couple of weeks ago, that I had already planned for this anyway, so I'm just going to enjoy the down time tomorrow and relax.

     I learned something new today. I thought you said that you should always learn something new? I did, and I do, but this was one of those interesting things that I'd never known. I learned this from my ukulele teacher, who is now becoming my guitar teacher. I worked on the guitar today again, and I'll get to that in just a bit as well. I mention that I had looked at a few guitars online and narrowed it down to two of them. they are both Gibson guitars. I don't know much about guitars, but I do know Gibson, and I chose these two more on appearance than anything else. They vary in price from expensive to a little more expensive. I will have to save the money up for either one of them, but what I learned. My teacher was telling me of the difference between Gibson and Fender guitars. I also look at Fender. Basically they are vastly different. Gibson has more of a deep melodic tone, where a Fender has a more high pitched twangy tone. Gibson did everything to go at that sound as well. The wood the chose the scale of the neck, all of it was for that deep tone. Fender on the other hand, did everything to accentuate that high pitched twangy tone. They have a longer scale on the neck, and the woods for the body have a higher pitched natural tone. I was blown away by this. I thought a guitar was a guitar. I knew that different woods had different tone qualities and all that, but I figured like with my ukuleles, that they could do different sounds and such, but that isn't the case. A Gibson has a specific sound that they are looking for, and the same for a Fender. I can appreciate that. Gibson is definitely the guitar for me though. I like the deeper richer tones, and from what he was telling me, Gibson is a brainless choice when it comes to that. He also said that if I ever had to get rid of it, it wouldn't be hard to sell, cause people are always clamoring fora Gibson. When I get closer to buying one, I'll fill in the details a little more on what one I'll be getting.

     On to the music. I was thinking of a song last week that we could work on with the guitar, but for some reason, it just wouldn't come to me. Today, I remembered what it was. It's a little song by the band Yes, called Round About. If you think you haven't heard it, i'm going to tell you that you probably have, you just don't recognize the name. Don't worry, I'm going to post a video of it, so that you can take a lesson. This song is rather technical, and a bit overachieving on my part, but I think I can do it. We went through the intro and the first couple of bars today, and it wan't as difficult as I thought it would be. Anyway, here is the song.



     There is a lot going on in just the first few bars of that song, and it only gets more involved as you go along. This is going to be fun. That's all I have for now. I'll let you know how the prelim photoshoot goes on Sunday. I'll take a few shots of my own to share with you. the full shoot is supposed to be on the 20th. That one, I don't know if I will be able to get shots, since a model is going to be involved. I'll have to get her permission to post anything. Next weekend is the Parrotheadfest that we are doing in lue of going to the Jimmy Buffett concert. Tickets were way to expensive, so we decided to have our won concert, by listening to the broadcast of that very concert. In case you wanted to listen as well, you can go here. Just click on that link on Saturday night the 13th around, I believe 7:30 and you will be listening along with us. I did get to see him live once, and it was a great show. I hope to see him live again someday, but I might have to sell a kidney to get there. Peace in and goodnight.

A Rant And A Rave.

     I want to start this a little different tonight. It's going to be a bit of a rant about a company I ordered something from. On March 12 I ordered a couple pair of shoes from Stellar Kicks. I went against my better judgment on this one, and ordered despite the fact that it was a company selling knock-off Chucks. They had a neat design and that was the only place you could get them, and they had them marked way down. When I finished the order process, they posted a small note that said it would take 28 days for delivery. I thought this was a small joke until I saw the shipping notification 8 days later. The origin of the order was in China. That's right they shipped out of China on March 20th. This is clearly one of those companies that opens up shop and then runs to a different name a little later after they've sold their product. I can't tell you if the product is any good or not, because I still haven't gotten it. Today is May 2nd which makes it well over 28 days that they said it would take. When I checked the tracking today, which I had stopped doing for a couple of weeks now, it said that it was "On Route". No change from what was on their the first day that it was available. Here is my recommendation, if you see Stellar Kicks come up on something you are looking at, and you get the idea to order something from them, don't. Shut the page down and move on. They may just have a great product, but it will take you forever and a day to get it. In truth, I am more upset with myself for ordering from them, than the order not being here yet. I knew it was a bad idea, and I did it any way. Live and learn.

     Now that that is over with, let's move on to bigger and better things. I have that preliminary photo shoot this weekend for Saki. The forecast is calling for clear skies, which is much better than it has been thus far this week. It has rained both days, and that means Saki has been stuck in the garage. Tomorrow looks promising though. We'll will see though. Oh, while on the subject of weather, it looks like I may have to cancel my Friday plans. Not because I'm working, I'm still pretty sure that I will be off, but because the forecast is calling for storms on Friday. The park isn't that fun when there is inclement weather about.

     I had another small shock when I weighed in today. Today is of course my late in the day weigh in, which is after I've been eating and drinking all day. I came in just a pound over Saturday's weigh in. That means that I've probably lost a bit more weight, and next Saturday should tell the tale on that. I usually weigh in any where from 3-5 pounds heavier on Tuesday's, so if that holds up, I've lost another 3 pounds, which would put me at my lowest weight since 2007 I believe. Everything is going in the right direction, and when I up my workouts, It will be a tremendous boost to the weight loss. If I keep up this pace, I should hit my goal weight by next month. As of Saturday, I needed to lose another 13 pounds. Doesn't seem like a whole lot, but in order to do it right, you should average about 1 1/2 pounds a week. If you lose too fast, you run the risk of malnutrition, sagging skin, and even more severe health problems. The goal weight is just a goal and I cold even surpass it. This isn't a diet, this is a lifestyle change. I've overhauled my eating habits, which even includes my stop to alcohol. My food choices are more about energy as opposed to satisfaction, and the strange thing about that is, that I feel more satisfied now, then I did before. I feel good, my disposition has even gotten better, not that I had a bad one to begin with, but I don't get mad at things any more. Take today for instance. The plant manager had one of his episodes where he threw things around. One of the things was a chair, that I needed to run a machine when I could get to it. Instead of getting mad about that, and storming over to get the chair, I left it where he tossed it. I just let it slide off my back and found a stool to use instead.

     I can't say that what I am doing would work for you, but I can tell you one thing. You have to make a commitment to a complete change. It can't just be something that you are going to do temporarily in order to get a quick fix. A quick fix is just that. It won't last. If you start down a path, you have to stick to it or face the same scenery that you have always faced. Change your point of view.

     It's that time again. Favorite Song of the Week. This is another new one from a band that has been around for a little while. The released this song last week and it was a small precursor to the sale of tickets for a new tour starting this fall. I of course managed to get a pre-sale code, but alas they are only coming to Tampa on their one Florida date, and it is on a Sunday night. Not that I would have found anyone to go anyway. The good news though, is that I got to see this band in Colorado the first time I went out there. It was a good show. The new album is titled MAN I A, and yes it's spelled just like that. I pre-order it, and that is how I got the pre-sale code for  the shows. When you watch the video, make sure that you really watch it. They added the lyrics at the bottom, so you can know the story they are telling, but the video tells an even more distinct one. The ending might just open your eyes to a few things. Here is Fall Out Boy, with their newest song "Yound and Menace".



     One last thing before I call it a night. I mentioned a motovlogger in my last post by the name of Rosie Gabrielle. Late Monday evening, she posted a new video on her channel, and it is just as remarkable as her other ones. I hope that you took the time to watch a few of them. If not, take a look at the Channel Trailer of hers that I posted in the last entry, then go to her channel and take a look at her latest video at the very least. It's good stuff. Peace in and goodnight.

Find The Beauty In The World.

     It was an uneventful weekend, which is a good thing, but leads to not having much to write about. I woke up on Friday with nothing planned or anything to do. I didn't head out until later in the day, so that I could stop off and get lunch, but I ended up not doing it. I decided instead to make my own lunch/early dinner, and make it much healthier. When I make my steak on my "fast" day during the week, I actually make two of them. The first one I had with the broccoli, and this one, I just simply reheated and made some rice to go along with it. I know, my life is overly exciting.

     Saturday was much of the same, but I ended up going shopping at the local hardware store for a few things that I needed for the Ultimate Motorcycle Garage. I'm still working on it, slowly but surely. I bought a new utility knife with blades, and a couple of pairs of locking pliers. They are quite essential to any garage, and I only had one old rusty pair sitting around. I also picked up a rubber mallet, for those times when I need to bang on Saki but don't want to damage anything. There are a bunch of things that I will eventually need, and one of them is a motorcycle lift. I have my eye on one at Harbor Freight. It is on sale right now for $100 dollars off, and I would buy it, but I don't have enough things cleared out of the garage to have a place to put it. I'm going to have to wait on it, but that was the plan anyway. That will probably be the final piece of the puzzle anyway. With the front end stand in place, I have everything I need to do some proper maintenance on Saki. The lift wold just make things much easier, because I could raise the entire bike to a level that I wouldn't have to duck down and bend over, or slide under. That will happen, but at a later time. Right now it is more important to get rid of things that I don't need, and get things in that I do need.

     Once I clear the things I don't need, the first big thing to get in the garage is a workbench. I have one already picked out from Harbor Freight. The have a nice small bench that has a couple of drawers for storage of tools, as well as a peg board to hang things from, plus it has power outlets and and LED light on it. It's perfect for what I need, and is real cheap at $99 dollars. Once that is taken care of, I need to get some lounge type seating for me in there, and I'm going to go with a fan until I can get an air conditioning unit in there. It will be cheaper, and still cool me off while I'm working in the garage, especially when I have the door closed. The AC unit will come into play once I start fine tuning things in there and getting the media center up and running.

     Yesterday, while perusing the ol' Youtubes, I came across a channel for a female motovlogger. I'mm always on the lookout for female riders that vlog, mainly because I want to see the female point of view, and I also want to see more women riders out there. This one that I came across was unique. She is doing her mototvlogging while riding bikes around the world. The first one I watched was her going on her first ride with her new bike in Oman, which is in the Arabian Peninsula. This new bike was one that she wasn't all the familiar with. It was taller than what she normally rides, and is made for on and off road riding. Pack a bike like that down with equipment to travel for a couple of weeks, and it makes the bike even more unstable. That being said, she was doing a great job until she hit the dirt roads. That is when she had to do some riding that was a little above her skill level. She ended up dropping the bike. Since this is an adventure bike, it is very heavy, add all the equipment to it, and it is even more so. She couldn't lift the bike up. She had to run back down the hill and get to the village that she had just left to get help. She had to wait for the daily prayer until there were people to help her. A couple of men drove her back up the hill and when then arrived, there was an SUV waiting by the bike. Her initial reaction was that they had hit her bike, or that they were taking her gear that she had to leave behind with the bike. She was wrong on both accounts. The gentleman that stopped, turned on her lights so that no one would hit her bike, and then he stood guard over her things. There is a lesson here, and I'm going to get to it, but first I want to share her channel trailer with you.



     Her name is Rosie Gabrielle and she is a freelance photographer and world traveler. The emotion in that trailer is real. I watched a few of her videos and she is a truthful person. She wants the world to be a better place, and she is showing you the beauty that is everywhere. The lesson from above, is not to judge people. Meet them, and learn from them. You might find that you have so much in common with them, because in the end, we all just want to live in peace.

      Here is the other thing I got from watching her channel. This is what I want my channel to be like. That is the idea behind the Adventure Time Series. I want to show the things that are out there. The culture around this and other areas. I want to learn and have you learn along with me. I want to show you that there is more out there than you realize. I'm finding this out for myself every time I go on a new adventure. I learned quite a bit at the Navy SEAL Museum, and I hope that I passed some of that on to you. When I can get that channel up and running, I'm hoping to share more of that experience with you. The Instagram Story helps a bit, but that is fleeting and goes away after 24 hours, the channel would be a permanent fixture. There is so much in this world to see, and I want to take you along for the ride to what I can see.

     I know I should stop there, because that was rather dramatic, but I do have one last thing to tell you tonight. Remember when I said, that I felt I was setting up for another big weight loss? I was right. I dropped another 3 pounds this week. Still not where I want to be, but heading in the right direction, and the mirror is agreeing to it. This is all still part of a first phase. I get my nutrition locked down, and when I het the plateau that is coming, I enact phase two. Phase two takes more of a physical demand. I start adding things to my workouts to shock the system. I won't go into all the boring details here, but this is working, and I'm loving, not only the way I'm looking, but also the way I'm feeling. I still haven't had a drink of alcohol, although I did really think about it for the first time on Friday night. I started saying to myself that I could go and just have two, but I know myself all too well, and two turns into 5 real easy, so I didn't go.

     That's all I have for now. I'm going to make the prediction now, that I will be off on Friday, and if that is so, I think I will head over to Universal again. My bill paying day is Friday, so I will do all that Thursday night, and get it over with, so that I'm free and clear for another month. Peace in and goodnight.

Saki Can Fly.

     Ok, so this is one of those rare times when I write the title first. That title would lead you to believe that Saki has taken wing, but there is a little exaggeration going on there. Saki is in fact, floating in the air tonight, with the assistance of the rear wheel stand, and the brand new Pitbull front wheel stand. I finally broke down and bought it. I will eventually get a matching Pitbull rear wheel stand, but the one my ukulele teacher gave me, will do just fine for now. More on my ukulele teacher later. I took a couple of pictures of Saki up in the air, so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about.

The first one is of course the front view, so you can see the new stand in all of it's glory. The second is so you can see that both tires are off the ground. This is going to help me out with a lot of things when I work on Saki, and even when I air up the tires. Before this, I would have to roll Saki back and forth to get the front tire valve in the right spot so that I could get to it, and it's still not that easy. I have a giant front disk brake on there, and it isn't all that easy to get around.

     It actually took me a little longer than it should have to figure out how to get Saki up on the new stand. It turns out, that there was a small rubber bushing or stopper, that I had to pull out o the triple tree in order to put the adapter for the stand in. From now on though, it will be a much simpler process.

     I mentioned earlier this week, that my ukulele teacher wanted me to start working on the guitar. This week was the first time I was going to be getting in a little full scale six string action. Since I didn't have to carry the ukuleles with me, I was able to ride Saki to my lesson. My teacher wanted to see everything I had done to the bike in person. He has a slightly older model, but hasn't really done much to it, so I think he was looking for some ideas. When he was finished with the lesson that is right before mine, he came out, and asked if the bike was outside. I said yes, and he ran out the door to go look at it. I think he fell in love. He showed me a picture of his bike, and it is very similar to Saki, so he could do pretty much everything I have done, and make it look very much the same. His paint scheme is slightly different, but it's still the red and black. I think it is even the same candy persimmon that Saki is, so all the levers and things that I've gotten would work with his as well. Talking about this just reminded me, that I was supposed to email him a link to my levers. I think I'll do that right now while it is on my mind.

     Ok, I got that out of the way. After he looked over the bike, we went in, and started grinding on the ax. That's super cool guitarist lingo to say that we played guitars. He asked me if I wanted to keep the lingo an terminology real, or to translate as it relates to ukulele. I wanted to keep it real, and besides, it would all translate once I dropped below the fifth fret. That is where I tenor ukulele scale starts. If I was to capo the fifth fret of a guitar it would be nearly the same as playing a ukulele, as long as I kept to the top 4 strings. If you have never played guitar, this is going to sound very strange to you. As you are looking at a guitar in someone's hands, the top four strings are the bottom four strings. Sounds strange right? I still haven't really figured out why it is that way, nor have I asked, but if I had to take a wild guess at it, I would say it is that way, because when the player looks down at their own strings, it is all reversed. The top is the bottom, and the bottom is the top. Even as I typed that, it didn't make any sense to me, so I'm sure that you are more confused as ever. Here is something easy though. That same capoed guitar, is exactly the same as my guilele. Except for the fact that it is much longer and heavier. What does all of this lead to? Well I'll tell you. It leads to me starting to do research on buying an electric guitar. Don't worry, I'm going to tie all of this into the Ultimate Motorcycle Garage. Remember that media area I was talking about? That is where the guitar and amp could be. I could serenade Saki.

     Yes, even I know that it's starting to get a bit weird at this point. Enough about all that though. As I predicted, I'm off tomorrow. I have no plans for this weekend, so I think I'm going to start that whole reading of books thing. I'll start by finishing that one book, and starting the second one, so that when the third one comes along, I will be kind of ready for it. Let the reading begin.

     I have made a final decision on the next adventure, which by the way, I have decided to all the Adventure Time Series. Well, it will start with that, and then there will be another part which says where I went. I'm coming up with this stuff, so that when I finally start doing a motovlog, I can spin this into that very easy. I'll just use the same title for both, and save myself the brain melt of trying to come up with multiple titles. I still have to work out all the details of the ride and what not, but on May 28th you will see the next installment of the Adventure Time Series, or whenever you get around to reading it. Technically it will be ready around 10-11 PM on that Sunday night. You may have noticed, that I haven't said where I'm going on this next adventure. That is because I'm not going to say. I'm going to let the suspense build and you will find out the location when you read it, or if you watch the Instagram Story that I post on May 27. That's cheating though and you would never do that.

     Well, I need to get up and do some reading tomorrow, so I better get to sleep. Peace in and goodnight.