This weekend consisted of me: hanging plywood on all my walls in the garage, painting said plywood, loading up 920 lbs of junk from my garage into my old Dodge truck and hauling it to the local dump.  Playing SIX games of softball on Sunday (makeups due to rain). And somehow drinking 15 beers and winning over 50$ playing Poker on Saturday night.  Needless to say, I am tired.

So, I decided to finish my garage out after receiving word from my folks that they were getting new furniture and didn’t want to throw away the existing stuff they had.  So I figured I’d finish the garage out before putting it in there.

My garage (and basement) are different from most.  My walls are poured concrete up to about the 4 foot mark. Then its stud walls up to the ceiling.  The ceiling was already rough drywalled so I only have to paint that part.   On the walls I hung 3/8 in. plywood instead of drywall for it’s durability and the fact that I can screw directly into it without having to find a stud.  Then I painted all the wood with a semigloss white paint.

I had planned on using an acrylic based concrete sealant on the lower part of the wall but after testing it out on a small area I realized the finish would end up being too flat for my liking so I will be returning the can and getting something water based with more of a semigloss or gloss finish to it.

I had a bunch of old furniture in the garage that I figured I could use parts of for shelving.  So I went to work on our old entertainment center, and my daughter’s old headboard with my trusty circular saw and what you see below are some of the finished shelves mounted to the newly painted plywood walls.

More to come!

I am posting this directly from my iPhone using the wordpress app!

Be sure to check out http://qik.com/theglog. It’s a new app I installed that let’s me stream LIVE video + sound directly from my iPhone!!!

It’s not like I haven’t already been using the 3.0 software already (ahem Torrents), but Apple has finally after I think 6 or so “betas”, released the official 3.0 software (that I am downloading as I type this).

The best features of this update have got to be landscape keyboard  for email/sms/web/notes.  And cut/copy + paste.  Which just about all the Iphone/Ipod touch users have been BEGGING for since the release.

Now I stood in line for 3hrs on release day back in 2006 to get my 1st gen Iphone (for $600.00) and upgraded to the 3G model about a month ago (for $199.00).  Now Apple goes and releases the Iphone 3G “s” (for speed) and lowers the price of the 3G to $99.00 (yeah eff you too Apple).  I managed to sell my original Iphone to a friend for $100.00 so I guess (including the $100.00 gift card from Apple) have spent about $600.00 total on my 2 phones.  So NO, I will not be buying a 3Gs untill either my 3G dies or gets stolen.  Apps load just fine for me on my 3G.

Now if Apple could only figure out how to get REAL FLASH SUPPORT on the Iphone I would be happy. Cmon guys, its been 3 years, I’m sure you and Adobe can figure out something already.

Well I’m off to install my new software, note to other Iphone users, make sure you create a backup of your existing Iphone before updating any software.  I guess I will be Jailbreaking it again! Head on over to www.quickpwn.com for all the jailbreaking goodness you can handle.

For a direct download of the 3.0 software check out Sizlopedia here: http://www.sizlopedia.com/2009/06/17/iphone-30-firmware-download/

Thats right, more updates to the CBR,  this time its a new taillight.  This one is pretty cool, its all LED and actually integrates the brake light and the rear signals into one unit.  Its MUCH brighter than the OEM taillight and signals, which makes me more visible on the road and thusly is more safe  

So here is a breif rundown of all the changes to the bike this season:

Koso Digital Gauge package (awesomme)

RK Chain/Vortex Sprocket set (gold is the bling)

Galfer Stainless Steel Brakelines front and rear

EBC Front Brake Pads

Refinished Brake Calipers

Wave Cut Front Rotors

Samco Silicone Hose Kit

LED Integrated Taillight

Carbon Fiber Exhaust Mount

On a completely different topic, being that time of year, I got back into team sports.  Last weekend was the season opening Softball Tournament and this past week was my first Volleyball game of the season at work so things are definitely in the up-swing.  The only problem is we have had rain every day for the last 2-3 weeks or so.  Yes…the grass in my yard is like a foot tall and will soon be qualified as a miniature rainforest.

Check out the pics of the CBR in the gallery: 

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I added a gallery called NEXTGEN and I am testing it out.  So far I only have pics from my latest project which is rebuilding my brakes on my CBR.  Enjoy! 

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Yes I know I haven’t posted in a while, thats because I’ve been busy with other things…. like getting my motorcycle ready for the season!!!

So far I’ve:  Changed the Sparkplugs and Oil/Filter.

Added a new gauge cluster. 

Installed a new set of sprockets and a new gold chain.

Hopefully I get some nice weather here pretty soon… I’m seriously jonesing for a ride!!!

Pics for the curious: 

I love it when people say: Wow it was so warm out yesterday and today it’s 30 degrees cooler!  I bet everyone gets sick!

Well in reality, the weather has NOTHING to do with whether you get sick or not.  Yes our mothers and grandmothers always told us to wear a hat and coat in the cold weather to keep from catching a cold, but technically, it doesn’t really help that much.

Germs, i.e. bacteria and virus are what get you sick, fungi as well believe it or not.

Why do people seem to get sick in the colder months? Because our immune system is over-stressed and can be caught off guard, thus allowing germs to take root in our bodies. 

What is the easiest way to combat these baddies?  WASHING YOUR HANDS OFTEN AND THOROUGHLY.  I can’t say this enough, the amount of times I see some dude/kid walk away from a urinal or out of a stall in  a public men’s room only to check their hair in the mirror and REACH FOR THE DOOR HANDLE on the way out without even rinsing their hands.  That’s right, these guys go from holding their man meat, right to grabbing the door handle and out they go.

Disgusting isn’t it?  Yeah this is why I have never touched the handle of a door in a men’s room in my adult life.  I use either a paper towel or sometimes my shirt if no paper towels are available (stupid electric hand dryers).

I keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in my car and in my office at work, I make sure not to touch my face or put my fingers in my mouth for any reason (unless washing my hands first).

I bet your probably thinking:  ”This guy is pretty anal about this whole germ thing!”

Well you are right, I am… I missed 2 days from work last week due to a bad chest/head cold, and I have no idea how I got it, noone else in the household was sick, just me so I probably got something from either the public or from work (where half the guys dont wash their hands after pissing).

Do us all a favor, wash your hands several times a day, cover your mouth when you cough/sneeze and if you are sick, DON’T COME TO WORK!

A bit of a back story:  My father and I have similar likes and dislikes when it comes to music.  I.E. classic rock, 80s hair bands, metal, you get the idea.

On Sunday whilst on the way to the bowling alley, we were in my car flipping through the stations trying to find something decent to listen to.  As always I became frustrated at the horrible amount of CRAP radio that has saturated modern radio stations lately.  Every station that claims to be “THE” Classic Rock station, is nothing more than a carbon copy of the next one, playing the same 3-4 songs from The Eagles, 38 Special, Molly Hatchet, Ozzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the like. Here and there they will mix in some Led Zep, or Metallica to try and appeal to the “heavier” crowd.

Sickening, because the classic rock stations around here are essentially “southern” rock with a dash of decent music thrown in.  Yeah… I may be ranting but I absolutely hate it.  

So people say: “Go buy an XM radio!” well I can’t justify that being that I only drive about 8 miles to work and don’t really travel all that much.  

But I found an alternative!!  Some time ago I was searching around for some Internet Radio, originally I was using Shoutcast stations via Winamp, but I found a similar trend, the stations played the SAME songs over and over, just like broadcast radio.  

Someone told me to try out Pandora.

All I can say is WOWZERS! The premise is:  you think of an artist, or song that you like, create a “station” using that information, and Pandora does the rest!  For example, I created a station with the band Cinderella (80s hair band), the first song it plays is a Cinderella song, then it starts playing songs from artists that are similar (Slaughter, Skid Row, Scorpions, Ratt) AND more Cinderella songs.  

The true beauty of Pandora is the ability to make your stations even better via the ability to tell the station whether you like or dislike a song on the fly. So if a song that you don’t want to hear comes up, you simply hit the thumbs down button, and Pandora will never play that song on that station again!  Vise versa, if you DO like the song, you hit the thumbs up button, and it will play more frequently. 

The simplicity of it really is what makes it so enjoyable.  I have the Pandora app on my Iphone and love it as well.  There are some advertisements on the interface, but nothing imposing or annoying.  

Go give it a shot!

Most people don’t know but I had a Cornea Transplant in January 2007, since then the vision in my left eye has been about 20/2000 (yes 2 thousand) with glasses. I recently went back to the eye doctor and got a new perscription.

After trying on like 100 pairs of frames, I finally decided on one made by Levi’s of all things. Anywho, I can see about 20/40 in my left eye now with these new specs, and am having a hell of a time actually focusing on anything. The Dr. said I’d have to retrain my brain to use my left eye and I can already tell it’s going to be hard.

Well here is a pic I took with my iPhone:

Probably one of the funnier “commercials” out of SNL or Saturday Night Live in quite a while.

Enjoy: