Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Ruwhei Alpha's LiveJournal:

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Friday, August 21st, 2009
11:06 am	241 days. I must be going for some record here in the lack of updates. Its not that things haven't gone on. Had a pay cut for this year. Riding has been an off/on thing. My latigo strings broke, and this is a simple repair but I seem to be flailing around at actually fixing it. My mother passed away in May, so now I have no parents. I have been really not wanting to post anything about that, because I know I'll get a lot of sympathetic I'm sorry's from folks, and it feels odd now that its been several months ago, and she had been going downhill for many months. There's a sort of relief that she passed away relatively painlessly and 'quickly' rather than suffering a lot, and the strain on finances for the medical care was extreme. Basically, if you're gonna get sick for a while, be prepared to be destitute. The whole health care debate (to me) is not really whether government should pay for health care -- it will one way or another -- its just whether the sick person should be bankrupt first. Most other things are pretty normal. The cars are starting to show their very long teeth, but I've been reluctant to buy anything new. Houses look very inexpensive now. I've often thought of renting my current house and buying a new house. I could use a vacation from obligation. I have decided I am an awful leader. I seem to lack some fundamental charisma to inspire people to participate toward some goal or activity. I don't really seem to know what causes this other than I seem to lack a certain 'knack'. As an individual participant people seem to like me and even admire or like my style, but the moment I'm in charge things fall apart. I think it might be because I tend to have expecations of people doing "A good job" or following up with their commitments, and when they fail to meet my expectations they get angry. If I were in their position I'd get sad that I was not able to achieve, so this is foreign to me. I really should buy a new tv one of these days. But its hard to justify, I watch so little tv -- maybe 2-3 shows a month. Might be making a trip in October; I'll let you know how it goes. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 1st, 2009
10:22 am	Birthday Happies! Happy Birthday to Murakozi and Hastka! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 29th, 2008
6:22 pm	Kaboom So across the street from me is a house. Behind that is another house, and a couple of doors down from that house... There apparently was some kind of gas leak. On Christmas Eve, this house *exploded*. And I do mean explode. The house literally became splinters of lumber. The neighboring houses took quite a bit of damage as well. One person died, and two people were injured. The Transportation Safety Board is here today investigating the accident. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, December 22nd, 2008
10:10 am	More stuffs Well, I spent last week in Denver, where temperatures dipped to -20F. I am not used to this type of cold, and I'd rather not have to deal with it again either. Its the type of cold you don't want to do anything with, just the kind of cold that makes you want to hide somewhere warm. It snowed on thursday to boot, although by then the temperatures were hovering around 20F. Got back home on Friday, and spend the weekend recovering. Rainy, rainy days though here. I read the first book of the Temeraire series, His Majesty's Dragon, on the plane. Not a perfect book, but I loved it. Author Novik really has been able to write a 'new' way to deal with dragon riders. That and the dragons themselves are quite interesting too. I'm looking forward to reading Book 2 (Throne of Jade) here shortly. Haven't been to see the ponies in a bit. Weather and travel has conspired to keep me away. Looking forward to a week off between Xmas and New Years. Get some rest, reset myself, etc. (Comment on this)
Monday, December 1st, 2008
2:32 pm	On a more humorous kitty note... Mechwarrior Kitty! Kitty and Pony! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
11:02 am	A passing Its been over 120 days since I last posted. That's not to say that things haven't happened -- many things have. I've been very busy and I'm afraid that's made me neglectful or communication and contact. For that I am sorry. Today is special, so I am here. ( A Passing ) (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 29th, 2008
6:11 pm	Sunday - June 29 Went riding today. Took Dia down the trail at full canter, rode her 'standing' so I was using my legs as shock-absorber. Apparently Gypsy, who is this giant Clydesdale cross, does not get along with Dia. This 1600lb 'cute-monster' ended up destroying half of the stall trying to bite and nip at Dia. Eventually Dia was moved, but Gypsy continued to try to pick on just about anyone in range. She's being quite the pest and I don't envy the stable manager's work ahead of them trying to fix the stall. The pipe corrals are bent every-which way. For the last few days we have had heavy smoke covering most of the valley due to the 1000+ wildfires that are scattered all over Northern California. Fortunetly all we got was smoke, but the smoke was thick enough to make your eyes water and for visibility to be cut to almost nothing. Temperature wise, we normally have high 90s during this time of year, and we actually had a day where the temperature didn't get about 70 - - that's how much the smoke blocked the sun. As of today the smoke is mostly gone but there's still haze hanging out there on the horizon. This entry marks the first entry since I upgraded my little file-server to Ubuntu. I had been using Fedora religiously for several years now. However, after I tried Ubuntu 'risk free' within a virtual machine, I saw that it was much more stable and the team maintaining it was more attentive to the user experience than with Fedora. So, after a reinstall, I just got Logjam going and that's what I'm using to make this entry. Logjam isn't quite as nice as some of the windows programs out there (in particular there doesn't seem to be a wysiwyg way of seeing bold/italics) but it'll do. I have been reading a new book, A Voyage Long and Strange, and I have found the author, Mark Horowitz, to be very interesting and fair-minded. He's also pretty funny, which is sometimes a rarity when reading historical non-fiction. At its core, this book is a discussion of the human experience as Europeans first 'discovered' the New World. It starts with the Vikings, and proceeds up to the later English colonies -- the focus here is the history on what would eventually become the United States, but includes much Conquistador stories. The book is divided into chapters, and each chapter is divided into two, interweaved parts. The first part of the chapter is the historical treatement - what happened in 1570 or whatever time. The second part of the chapter is the author's journey to that place in the present, talking to the people who live there and how aware they are of their history, and asking them how they feel about their past. This part is often hilarious, and sometimes wistfully sad as people are either ignorant of their past, or have twisted it into some bizzare vision of what happened. In some cases, we learn that the same prejudices of the past continue onto the present day; for example, the Spanish (catholic) massacre of the French Huguenots (Protestants) at what would eventually become Jacksonville, Florida, continues to evoke anger and religious tension to the current day where evangelical christians portray catholics as blood thirsty murderers, wheras the catholics vigorously defend their position that the French Hugenots had set up a military fort with many cannon and had designs on Florida conquest. Besides, after the Spanish massacre the French came back and performed an equally brutal massacre against the Spanish at St. Augustine, thus aussaging Gallic pride but perhaps not future religious affiliations. I think I'll end here now. Yay for short week next week and fireworks! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
9:18 pm	"Top 100 Novels" I promised to post something related to the top 100 novels and whether you've read them or not. Well, Randomhouse has their own '100 best' novel list. What's interesting about this list is that there is a 'critic's choice' list and a 'reader's list'. I think there is a massive difference between the two, and I'll post the top 10 here as an example. The Critic's List 1. ULYSSES by James Joyce 2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald 3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce 4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov 5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley 6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner 7. CATCH-22 8. DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler 9. SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence 10. THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck Ok, that sounds pretty normal. All of these are acclaimed books, although I don't really recognize #8 and #9 there. Now for the "Reader's List", the popular choices: 1 ATLAS SHRUGGED by Ayn Rand 2 THE FOUNTAINHEAD by Ayn Rand 3 BATTLEFIELD EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard 4 THE LORD OF THE RINGS by J.R.R. Tolkien 5 TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee 6 1984 by George Orwell 7 ANTHEM by Ayn Rand 8 WE THE LIVING by Ayn Rand 9 MISSION EARTH by L. Ron Hubbard 10 FEAR by L. Ron Hubbard Ok. WHAT THE HECK. Ayn Rand shows up 4 times. L. Ron Hubbard shows up 3 times! MISSION EARTH is in the top 10? Whaaat? BATTLEFIELD EARTH!? in the top 10? Interestingly enough, 11 is Ulysses, 12 is Catch 22, and 13 is Great Gatsby. Frankly, I am flabbergasted at the popular choices here being what they are. Pure Insanity. It is true that only books after 1900 were considered for this list. For the rest of the list, see http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100bestnovels.html (2 Comments |Comment on this)
10:56 am	"Account has not logged in 113 days..." Ok, so I logged in now. Lets see. I hurt my back (swollen muscles up the spine FTL), went to Boulder colorado and did some work and met up with Kakakourous, had all sorts of car problems (Battery died), the Kittenhead hurt his toe (broke his claw), blah blah. Life is just one of those continuing efforts, right? Well, lets see. Lets have a meme! The Big Read says that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they've printed. 1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 2) Italicize those you intend to read. 3) Underline the books you LOVE. 4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've only read 6 and force books upon them ;-) 1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen -- *Yawn 2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien 3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte 4. Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling -- *Starts strong. Last books require much more editing, I think. 5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee 6. The Bible -- * Does anyone actually "read" the bible? I've read a lot of it, but a lot of it isn't really "readable" like a regular book. Sort of like asking if you've "read" the dictionary, or an encyclopedia. 7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte *- Yes, in school. I thought it was dull. 8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell *- Dystopia tends to wear me out. 9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman *- I've read them all. They're decent books with a solid message that gets clouded by preconception and stubbornness. The author tends to come off as being a dip, too, which doesn't help spread his message. Another problem is that the books aren't quite as well written as I would like, a number of times I was frustrated by what was going on. Directly compared to the Narnia books, I felt that the books needed a better moral message rather than 'Question Authority, and question it constantly -- wait, forget questioning, just reject it altogether!' 10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Read in school. Was ok. 11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott -- I actually read this. You know, I didn't dislike it, even though 'nothing happens'. 12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy 13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller 14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare *- Even "As you like it"? The Sonnetts too? Come on. 15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier *- Wut? 16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien *- I really liked the Hobbit. Read it several times. 17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks 18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger *- Read in school. Didn't particularly like it. 19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 20. Middlemarch - George Eliot 21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell 22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald *- Read in school. Fond memories. Didn't relate to it though. 23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens 24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy *- Uh, no. My life is too short. ;) 25. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams *- I liked it ok. Also played the IF game. 26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh 27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky 28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck *- School. It was ok. Bleak. 29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll *- Read several times, it was a favorite. 30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame *- Wasn't particularly impressed. 31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy 32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens 33. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis *- Read these roughly 20 times. Used to be a trivia expert. Played on the MU* for many years. 34. Emma - Jane Austen 35. Persuasion - Jane Austen *- Jane Austen is not all that and a bag of chips. 36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis *- See #33. 37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini 38. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres 39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - *- I really should read this some time. 40. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne *- I've never read it, but Disney is Disney. 41. Animal Farm - George Orwell *- School. Thought it was cute, considering how brutal it is. Got the message, but it really didn't sink in. In a way, it was TOO much like reality, so the book seemed like a no brainer. But hey, talking animals. We love talking animals right? Bring the kids. 42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown *- Nah. Seems Insipid. 43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving 45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins 46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery 47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy 48. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood 49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding - Read in school. Liked it, related to it. 50. Atonement - Ian McEwan 51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel *- I've heard good things about this, but it seems spoiled to me. 52. Dune - Frank Herbert *- Read after I saw the movie. Surprisingly good in book form, but very easy to get lost in. 53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons 54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen *- Enough with the Jane Austen ;) 55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth 56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens *- Read in high school. Missed most of the point. 58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley 59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon *- Keep meaning to actually read this, other than leaf through it halfheartedly. 60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez 61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck 62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov *- Yay, Pedophilia for everyone! Skip the book, watch the movie... or ... not. 63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt 64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold 65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas 66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac *- I'm curious about this book. 67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy 68. Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding 69. Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie *- I'm scared of terrorists if I buy this book. 70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville *- Read in school. Fascinating book. I particularly liked the whole satanic ceremony in the bowels of the ship when Ahab 'gives up his soul' to hunting the white whale. 71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens 72. Dracula - Bram Stoker *- Quiz for everyone: How does Dracula die? That is true LOLz. 73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett 74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson 75. Ulysses - James Joyce *- I mean to read things from Joyce. The guy is either brililant or insane. 76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath 77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome 78. Germinal - Emile Zola 79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 80. Possession - A.S. Byatt 81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens *- Also was in the play as a supporting character 82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell 83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker *- I HATE THIS BOOK. I view it as very disgustingly anti-male 84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (Movie!) 85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert 86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry 87. Charlotte's Web - E.B. White *- Probably teaches the most valuable lesson any kid can have -- the world is not always fair or nice. 88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom 89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle *- I've read MANY of these. They're actually really good! Except for the last ones. The last ones are kinda Uh. Also watch "House" on TV. :) 90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton 91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad 92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery *- Read in school, fanciful, but dull. 93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - I love Iain Banks' books, I should read this one, though I hear its depressing. 94. Watership Down - Richard Adams (Ahhh, and the movie. <3) 95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole 96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute 97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas *- A long time ago, McDonald's used to give out BOOKS with their happy meals. This was one of them. I read the shortened version of the book and remember being annoyed that there were actually FOUR musketeers, so why is it always three? Give credit. ;) 98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare *- Yes, several times 99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl *- Yes, several times. 100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo *- Only the movie. The movie was enough. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
9:10 am	Yes, I'm still alive I guess I am! Fancy that. A lot has been going on, I just find it difficult to organize well enough to present it in a coherent manner, but I figured I ought to at least say a few things. First and foremost: I had a wonderful vacation. I took a cruise with family and friends to Roatan, an island in the Carribean off of the Honduran coast; Santo Tomas, in Guatemala; Belize City, and Cozumel, and also spent a few days exploring New Orleans. I hope to make more detailed posts with some pictures soon... when I got back work was at 150%. We are setting stuff up for the government so a couple of nights I didn't get home until past 11pm. A couple of interesting things: 1) "Hourglassing" has become a verb, to mean, "Being stuck in windows with an hourglass displayed". It kind of bugs me but I suppose its typical of English's ability to make up new terms out of thin air :) 2) Microsoft selling windows Vista Home for $99 when XP is $134. Desperate, much? 3) The republicans sent me a "republican census" which at first seems to be a questionaiire asking what they think the Republican's priority's should be. I was interested in this (mostly because I took it as a sign that the party is lost and confused), but soon discovered this 'census' was nothing more than a thinly veiled device to drum up the party faithful and get them back to toeing the party line. I did find the way it was set up to be clever -- all the questions are cleverly worded to make you answer "yes" even if you don't really agree. The overriding message is FEAR... fear of everything. Fear of immigrants, fear of terrorists, fear of taxes, etc. It is an interesting counterpoint to the current Obama campaign of "Hope". Will we see "Hope" vs. "Fear" in November? I doubt it, but there's a certain poetry to the thought. 4) Was supposed to get a new laptop in november! Still don't have one! But I did get a new desktop machine. Its quite spiffy, and has little blue lights. I'm not much for the bling, but hey, the case came with them, so what the heck. 5) Fence blew down. All the new posts I put up two years ago rotted through. I had waterproofed them and I had put gravel down, but I guess that wasn't good enough. Now I 'might see about putting up metal posts for my fence. Blahblahblah. Life goes on. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 6th, 2008
3:05 am	Album Cover Meme Don't usually do memes, but thought this one was worth a try. I'm no photoshop expert, but figure I could fiddle around with it to make something decent. The Meme: 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random -- The first article title on the page is the name of your band. 2. http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 -- The last four words of the very last quote is the title of your album. 3. http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/ -- The third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. 4. Use your graphics programme of choice to throw them together. And so I present to you Hot Rod's new album, "Their Salvation Near You". (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
2:00 pm	A New Year "When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere." -- François de La Rochefoucauld Wow. 2008. Another Olympic year, another leap year. This year started much as the same, though I think it will soon grow louder because we are going to be having a huge storm coming in. Its going to rain for 5 days straight, and I think we'll get some flooding. At the stables they've already moved everything off the ground in preparation for the tack room to get flooded. Lesson is probably cancelled, but if there is a break in the rain we might try a trailride. Times are quiet, unassuming, and rather tranquil. I continue to play video games, tinker with computer things, and when opportunity permits (usually on the weekend, but sometimes on wednesday evenings) go to the stables and do a pony ride. Speaking of I had the opportunity to ride a little paint pony, named Delta. Delta is one of the smaller horses around, even smaller than Dia. She turned out to be a little fireball but quickly peters out at speed. I was whippin' around the arena pretty quick but she's nothing power-wise compared to Dia! On the bright side, Delta is MUCH easier to ride in that her canter and trot are so much smoother. Dia's is so choppy still, I end up riding her like a jockey, bouncing up and down so quickly. After 8 months of horseback riding training, I'm pretty confident with myself. Oh, there's still a lot to deal with that's for sure, but I certainly feel "like I know what I'm doing". I've ridden Dia at a very quick canter and maybe even a gallop now, and she is pretty good with yielding and doing what I ask without a lot of fuss. I have her blanketed now, because otherwise she'll roll around and get dirty and then it takes me forever to clean her up before a ride. Christmas and New Years was quiet, and a good rest. I had a solid week off, and I got plenty of sleep. Stayed up too late, because I'm dorky like that. I need to get a new camera for my New Orleans and Latin America fun cruise, I think. I was thinking the Canon 5IS - all I wanted was a little point and shoot because I wanted the big zoom, but the DSLRs do tempt me. but I can't justify that kind of money (not to mention camera size) for the kind of point-and-shoot stuff I do. My motorcycle is still busted and rusting on the patio. Sad. Still want to replace it with another one, or something. Honda VTR or Yamaha FZ6? Who knows. Need to upgrade my computer here shortly, I'll go quad-core for sure, no reason not to these days. First day back at work is a bit dull. I suppose that's not bad news, but still. Lets me slowly get back into the swing of things, even if there are tons of password issues. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
11:20 am	"New" Mystery Science Theatre 3000 I used to be a huge fan of Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K).  Back in the early nineties I made it a goal to get all the episodes of the show on video tapes, and I traded tapes with people in those early internet days when my cable tv provider would not carry Comedy Central.  As with most things the show eventually came to an end in 1999 (Was it really that long ago??).  I retired my MST3K poster (second season, with Mike instead of Joel - but signed by all the cast members including Joel, Josh Weinstien and others) and quietly forgot about it, only to think about it now and again as the shows came out on DVD occasionally or I tried to recover one of my dusty, decaying videotapes. I used to keep track of what the cast members were doing through mst3kinfo.com, but after repeated news of who's birthday was coming up or which 1950's actor had died I got a little bored and stopped visiting.  I did attend Joel's TV show, "TV Wheel" in person, though I never saw it on TV (or seen a video of it - if someone has a divx/avi link to it let me know, I'd like to see it again). At the time I thought the show's strife was awful -- Joel and Josh and Tracy and others had left the show because they didn't want to be pigeonholed into a (successful!) cult tv show, they wanted to branch out and join the greater TV world.  They all got regular, if boring, jobs and fell into fame oblivion.  A few of the show hosts tried some other random film-related or book projects, which probably kept them fed but nothing was getting them out of the whole of obscurity that they had dug themselves into. In any case, while looking at msnbc today I ran into this article: Ex-MST3K stars, writers fill hole left by show.  Some of you remaining fans who remember the show may be interested to pick up or invesgitate one of the three projects being offered:  either the 'official' mst3k version by Jim Mallon (which seems to be devoid of all the creativity and writing of the rest of the cast), Rifftrax, which is Mike Nelson's offering, or the surprising entry by Joel (who I thought would never do this again) Cinematic Titanic. I don't think any of these offerings will remotely come to the "magic" or entertainment of the quirky little puppet show, but for those who remember MST3K fondly, its worth visiting and feeling the cuddly warmth of Joel/Mike & the Bots. (Comment on this)
Monday, October 29th, 2007
3:25 pm	A ladybug and her flower Halloween at the barn :) (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
1:20 pm	Recentage Sunday the 14th - went to an eventing show with the trainer and her daughter ... they won a few first places. Kinda fun - we took Dia too! We went off on the HUGE cross country track that they had at the show and ran around. Learned that a very fast canter/gallop on a ditch makes it easy to go heavy on the forehand, which results in stalling out - quite interesting. Wednesday the 17th - Arena practice, canters, got to talk with trainer and a couple of newbies... rode under the stars as its getting dark quite early now. Sunday the 21st - Rode a short arena practice, then trainer asked if i wanted to go on a little trail ride (hack). She had sold a horse a few months ago and the horse had come back with its rider. Said rider was asking for some help dealing with him, because he was having trouble. I watched him ride around but he seemed very newbie, he didn't even having rising trot down. The horse was learning some bad habits from him I suppose, because the horse was able to get away with not behaving for so long. So when his lesson was done Trainer asked me to go on a trail ride and she would ride this new horse, Rex. Right away out of the arena when she first got on him he half-reared and misbehaved and was quite pissy, and being that he was more or less push-button when he left the stables I think that's why I have the perception he picked up some bad habits. As I was telling the trainer, Horses don't grow out of problems, they grow into them! So we trail rode around the rice fields, mostly at a walk with the very occasional trot and just chatted. We had two major events. The first was that Rex spooked at some ducks or something and spun around, in turn panicing Dia, but we stayed in our seats and kept control! She was very proud of me that I was able to handle it so effectively, the trainer thought she was done for! But we both survived. The trail is very narrow, with water on one end and a ditch on the other, so falling off the trail would have been bad. The second event Rex spooked/misbehaved, which ended up with me and Dia being pushed off the trail against the ditch. Normally not a problem but I noticed during this, as Dia's butt swung onto the slope of the ditch, was that there was low barbed wire fencing there! I yielded Dia's rear away from the barbed wire, but this turned out to be the wrong choice, because she stepped onto the wire. I should have just given her leg and made her go forward up the ditch instead... oh well, 20/20. Dia got poked by the barbed wire and jumped forwards. I rode this out perfectly fine, but when I sent Dia on a canter she was very noticeably limping! At the time we saw no blood though. When we got back to the stables and had a closer look she had two cuts, one on the inside of her hock and one on the outside just above her knee. Nothing dramatic (although even tiny injuries on horses bleed like crazy) and I put her away to rest... trainer lady came and squeezed some of the blood out, probably to get out any of the gunk that was accumulating on the wound. By the time I put her in the stall Dia wasn't limping anymore, so I think it was pretty minor. I hung around the stables and helped out with a couple of minor projects before going home. :) (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
12:36 pm	Versys, and Research So here I am, sitting in hell, because my little bike is broken and so I've been 'forced' to drive a big station wagon to work. At least this gives me plenty of times to research a possible replacement/upgrade to what I have left, but the big question in my mind is... what? I've got some experience now, and some skill that will hopefully keep me alive in traffic. Now, I haven't made a decision as to what kind of bike I'd like to upgrade to. Most people are recommending a something in the 600ish range, but usually on the sportier side of the fence -- things like CBR600s and the venerable and near-universally loved SV650. I've been a little resistant - my little 250 was cruiseresque and I got used to that style of riding. On the other hand I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to some big fat cruiser that has trouble lane splitting, which I do a lot to get through traffic heading along town. Yet, I wanted something nice and comfy if I wanted to take a 3-4 hour ride. Anyway, in my research I ran into a new bike, the Kawasaki Versys. This is a new 'dual-sport' hybrid that is supposedly a pretty good all around bike. A parallel 650cc twin, about 70hp, compact with excellent gas mileage (50-60), a more upright position than a really sporty bike (thus not having to put weight on my hands, which I've always hated, and letting me see plenty of countryside). It was also very reasonably priced, about 6800. Check out the exhaust in the picture! Although a little top heavy, the more I read about it the more I got interested. The styling looks pretty decent to me, but some people have said its quite ugly ... though I like it more than its direct competitor, the vstrom. No ABS though. However, there is one significant problem... and that is that Kawasaki decided to bring this bike to the US from Europe at the last minute. As a result... IT CANNOT BE SOLD IN CALIFORNIA. All because of emissions. So the Versys, as interesting as it is, has to be stricken from the consideration list. Currently on the short list for upgrades: SV650, CBR600, VFR (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 20th, 2007
10:31 pm	A short story Once upon a time, a big development company showed up in town and bought up some land to develop on. This is something that development companies do all the time, as it is in their nature to buy vacant land to improve upon. Upon this land, however, was something unusual. Grazing upon the acres was a single horse. He had been there for who knows how long. A gruella gelding, quarter horse type, and branded upon his haunch was a large number 10. Nobody knows where he came from or who he belonged to -- but what was clear was that development of this land could not proceed until he was removed. The development company made known to its employees that work could not proceed while the horse was there. And among them someone who loved horses took him home. The horse turned out to be a diamond in the rough. He was very willing, healthy, and calm. He could do anything they wanted under saddle, and was easy to work with. He lived with them for a while, but his new owner had a lot of horses of her own. When someone she knew wanted a horse for their daughter, it seemed like a good idea to give the horse to them. He would be ridden more often, and loved and have his own home. And so he went to live with these others. "Call me if you have any questions!" they were assured. Time passed. Little was heard about the little wonder horse. But soon a call came. After many months, the daughter had lost interest, and the new owner was going through a divorce. But don't worry, they had taken good care of the horse. When they went to get him, they had found that the new owner had been feeding him large amounts of grain. The horse was obese, poorly exercised, and had foundered in the stall - a severe case of laminitis to the point where each step was excrutiating pain for him. He was trailered home right away. Jesse is recovering, now, and is slowly getting better, but he still walks very gingerly. He has had shoes put on for medical reasons, and is Dia's stallmate. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007
2:01 pm	Just a silly test This is just a quick test of the Jabber Protocol posting capabilities to LJ. (Comment on this)
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
6:44 pm	Stealership worries So I described earlier that I took my motorcycle to the dealer to have its front rotor replaced and get an oil change afterwards. They took a week for the parts to come in and to change the oil, and reported the oil was low and in poor condition. After changing the oil (their story changed, now they say before) the valves made horrible clacking noises and they recommended a valve inspection. I wasn't happy about spending another $170 on a valve inspection to fix a problem that the bike didn't have before I took it to the dealership, but I decided to go ahead and have them do it. I didn't want any problems. Another week goes by and they report that they did the valve inspection and that the valves needed adjusting, that they were significantly out of spec. So they adjusted the valves to spec. The "Noise was better" but still present. When I went to get the bike I still heard the noise. "Some noise is normal" they said - which is what the work order said - "Some noise is normal on this engine". At this point I was just glad to get my bike back after 2.5 weeks of waiting, so I paid my $500 and rode off. I rode up to the stables I go to (about 10 miles), spent some time there, rode to lunch (5 miles), and on the way home... the bike dies while rolling along at 30 miles per hour. When I try to turn it over it barely turns over, then dies. Maybe like a little "Squeak" of a turn over. When I get home (it took me a bit since the bike stranded me), I call them. "We'll give you an estimate on what it takes to fix it. I was afraid it'd seize up." Needless to say the confrontation began. From my point of view they broke the bike, and I told them that I wasn't going to pay for anything. I got a friend to throw the bike in his pickup truck and drag it back to the Stealership (Roseville Cycle Center, btw -- right now I'm not pleased with them). They said, "This bike has been abused and poorly maintained. We think it broke because of that." (True, I hadn't changed the oil in 3000 miles and in almost a year, so that does explain the crappy oil, despite it being synthetic). I said, "I took this bike to you and you changed the oil, and it had a clacking noise that I had never heard before. I know that its "He said, she said" regarding this clacking noise existing before or after I brought this bike in. I said fine, I was willing to accept that poor maintenance resulted in valve noise, and was willing to pay for a valve inspection. You inspected the valves and, after adjusting them, still heard the noise but told me it was normal and to "Enjoy the Bike". About 20 minutes of operation later, the bike is dead." They continued to try to weasel out of this and blame me for the problem, but they insisted they did not want a confrontation and that they want me to leave happy." So I left the bike there, again, though it won't be worked on until Tuesday. They told me that the sound it makes seems like the valve got 'sucked in'. They assured me they warentee their work. I'm considering disputing the charge (since I paid via VISA). Sigh, unhappy. My bike may be dead. Oh, they said "its just a 250. Those things only last about 10-12k miles anyway." (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, August 31st, 2007
10:33 am	The month in brief: I continue to work on canter and improving my seat while riding Dia. She is still very cute and very willing to do things. Recently she tripped or somethind and practically belly flopped on the ground (she went down to her knees) over a pretty simple little mound, I'm not sure what happened and the people riding with weren't too sure either. I didn't fall off or anything. She had earlier clothlined herself on a bank so that might have had somethign to do with it (nose in the dirt!). My car got broken into. They stole all the change in the car ($5), a crappy pocket knife that used to belong to my dad, and a checkbook. I had to cancel my account, get new account number, etc. They also ransacked the car so I had to clean it up. I may have left it unlocked, is why. Oh, they also stole some keys that belong to my mom - for her car. But since her car is in Los Angeles I think its pretty safe (assuming my brother hasn't sold it anyway). I went to take the motorcycle in for a rotor replacement (it was making noises!) and they tell me it was low on oil and after they start it up it makes noises and they want $170 for inspection! bastards. Advice seems to be to just 'do it yourself'. Work is stressful with deadlines looming. Coworker's house got broken into , they stole his stereo and HDTV. Funny, we were just discussing how HDTVs are constantly being stolen around here. (1 Comment |Comment on this)