toddtalks

motorcycle track day

May 29, 2008 – 11:40 am
Over this past Memorial Day weekend, I went to Willow Springs Raceway near Edwards Air Force Base for a track day run by Hyper Cycle.  A track day allows you to bring a motorcycle to the racetrack and ride it as fast as you dare.  The cost is only $150, plus the cost of gas and tire wear. In order to participate, you need to tape over your headlight, blinkers and tail light and remove or tape over the mirrors.  This is required in case you crash, you don't scatter small shards of glass and plastic all over the track.  Last weekend, I rode my 1999 Kawasaki ZRX 1100 along with about 10 other fellow ZRXOA members. There are three levels based on rider skill: street, intermediate and advanced - I was in the intermediate group since I had taken the first two levels of Keith Code's Superbike School.  Each group goes ...

Posted in blogging |

featured t-shirt 3 - alice cooper

May 16, 2008 – 11:50 am
Alice Cooper - America '73

Posted in featured t-shirt |

political podcast

May 15, 2008 – 3:29 pm
Sam Harrelson started a new political podcast over at Geekcast.fm called RedHatBlueHat and invited me to participate on the first episode. There were some issues with the sound quality but the discussion went well. Take a listen and leave a comment. Thanks!

Posted in blogging, politics |

featured t-shirt 2 - kiss

May 9, 2008 – 8:47 pm
KISS - Alive 1977

Posted in featured t-shirt |

lessons learned - starting a blog

May 9, 2008 – 8:22 pm
Since I just launched this blog, I thought I would outline the steps I took to get it where it is today while it is still fresh in my mind.  I am by no means a code jockey, so this may seem pretty basic to some of you.  I hope this helps you improve your current blogs or get up the nerve to start one. From the time I decided to start a blog until the first posting took me about eight hours over three days to complete.  So there isn't really that much work involved since everything is so turnkey nowadays (gotta love those plug-ins). Before you get started, I suggest you create a bookmark folder and name it "my blog".  You should bookmark all the sites below and set your computer to remember the usernames and passwords.  It is also a good time to create a folder on your desktop ...

Posted in blogging |

featured t-shirt 1 - julliette & and the licks

May 7, 2008 – 10:26 pm
Juliette (Lewis) and the Licks - rock 'n' roll warrior

Posted in featured t-shirt |

gas prices

May 7, 2008 – 1:07 pm
So, I had the pleasure of buying $4/gal. gas this weekend for the first time. I filled up my Xterra (20 mpg highway) at the local Chevron station in Ventura, CA and snapped a picture when the tank was full (see pic after the jump). As you can see, I actually paid $4.019 for a gallon of regular gas. Came so close to $80.00 - maybe next week. The increased gas prices got me thinking about Clinton and McCain's idea of a gas tax holiday this Summer (I promise this blog is not going to be political). Essentially Americans would not pay the $0.18 Federal gas tax for a few months this Summer. I really hope that my fellow Americans realize that this is the wrong solution to the problem. If the average person uses 15 gallons per week, they would save $10.80 per month ...

Posted in rants |

toddtalks is live!

May 2, 2008 – 5:11 pm
Well, after years of meaning to and a few false starts, I have finally launched my very own blog.  I want to first thank Wayne Porter for never giving up on me blogging and harassing me for the past several years to do this. I would also like to thank Jim Kukral who helped me get this up and running so quickly. I also need to thank Scott Jangro, Sam Harrelson and Shawn Collins for added technical support. Everyone has been very patient walking me through all the hoops from buying the domain name to choosing a hosting provider, to picking a theme and customizing it, to getting all the necessary plug-ins plugged in. Although I think all Shawn really did was tell me he doesn't know how to help me since I am on a Mac. Wish me luck!

Posted in blogging |