Fifth Anniversary - Updated Again
Permalink | March 29, 2007 by John in Motorcycle
Yet another anniversary passes of the day I bought my Triumph Bonneville America. I’m getting misty.
Update 1:
Now the downside.
THIS THING IS KILLING ME. For the past few weeks I’ve been trying to get the valves adjusted. One of the bolts for the exhaust-side camshaft is frozen. I can’t get it out. I’ve tried penetrating oil, an impact driver, an impact wrench, and I’ve broken four sockets (T-30 Torx). I think it’s welded in there. I don’t know if the threads are galled. I may have to drill the thing out, extract it and helicoil the hole. If I have to do that I’m sure it will take weeks to get a replacement bolt from England.
Update 2:
On the advice of one of my online buddies I latched onto the bolt with vicegrips and the bolt came loose just like that. It was stupid-simple.
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John McCain: Bandwidth Leech
Permalink | March 27, 2007 by John in Current Affairs, Web Design
Another example of how politicians (and their staff members) don’t “get” the intarweb — John McCain’s MySpace Page “Enhanced”:
McCain’s staff used his template, but didn’t give Davidson credit. Worse, he says, they use images that are on his server, meaning he has to pay for the bandwidth used from page views on McCain’s site.
Also, discussed over on Newsvine. Originally found via Mike’s blog.
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Update: Make or Break Time
Permalink | March 26, 2007 by John in Weightloss
In reference to this previous post of mine, I did manage to go to the health club on Sunday and use a treadmill. I stayed on it for a half-hour, with my heart rate in the “fat burning zone,” hovering around 118-120. Most people take walking for granted. I used to love to walk all over the place. Today, if I walk much farther than six doors down to the Fenske’s house or the length of the parking lot at work, I start to experience all sorts of aches and pains, not the least of which is my lower back.
As I suspected, however, I was able to keep walking on the treadmill because A) I didn’t push it too hard, and B) I was able to support my lower back with the hand rails on the machine. That’s not to say it didn’t cause me any discomfort, but it is doable. I’m not completely crippled. I plan on going back Tuesday night, the last day of the freebie week, for another half-hour jaunt.
I don’t want to clutter my house with more exercise equipment; my elliptical coat rack takes up enough valuable space as it is. I don’t want to pay $42/month for Crossroads membership; I won’t use most of the amenities they have to offer. Truth is I hate health clubs. I’ve been a member of three of them since 1989, and while one of them had a great atmosphere and nice people, it was the exception, not the rule, in my opinion. I don’t like to exercise at home; I like to chill and be lazy at home. So that leaves me, essentially, at the new 24hr Fitness place that just opened up. Reportedly they only have machines, no pool, no hot tub, not even any locker rooms. They also cost somewhere in the mid-$25/mo range. That’s definitely doable.
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Like, totally, gag me with the Patriot Act!
Permalink | by John in Current Affairs
Words fail me. (insert obligatory, overused phrase about the terrorists having already won, here).
My National Security Letter Gag Order - washingtonpost.com:
The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that the FBI was seeking this information. Based on the context of the demand — a context that the FBI still won’t let me discuss publicly — I suspected that the FBI was abusing its power and that the letter sought information to which the FBI was not entitled.
I resent being conscripted as a secret informer for the government and being made to mislead those who are close to me, especially because I have doubts about the legitimacy of the underlying investigation.
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Take as much as vacation as you want
Permalink | by John in Consumer, Entertainment
My patronage of (and love for) Netflix is just that much more validated, beyond the fact that they continue to spank Blockbuster.
Employees at the online movie retailer often leave for three, four, even five weeks at a time and never clock in or out. Vacation limits and face-time requirements, says Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, are “a relic of the industrial age.”
Netflix’s time off rules - or lack thereof - are part of a broad culture of employee autonomy instilled in the company when Hastings founded it a decade ago. The executives trust staffers to make their own decisions on everything - from whether to bring their dog to the office to how much of their salary they want in cash and how much in stock options. Workers are treated, as Chief Talent Officer Patty McCord likes to say, as adults.
So Netflix is one of those employers, like Google, Pixar, et al. Companies of this breed are nigh mythological.
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