New Toy/Valuable Planet-Saving Vehicle

My wife lost her job so I had to take a second one. Don't despair.  I ran my web-site as a part time gig for eons and can do it again. And I LOVE my new job at The Bicycle Man. Unfortunately the commute is 16.8 miles each way over one of the largest hills in the area. I get off work at 6:30 or 7 more often than not so riding a bicycle means getting home after the kids go to bed. So I sold out and bought a motor scooter. After researching and searching for months I bought one I'd never read a word about. It's a brand new old stock 2006 Honda Big Ruckus. 250cc engine, top speed of 75-ish and two big cargo racks. Doesn't look as sleek as the more fully faired scooters like the Yamaha Morphous I thought I wanted but can carry a lot more. Virtually no internal storage but the big racks more than make up for it. And since it's higher it can lean farther and is a blast in the twisties. Unfortunately it cost $5700 when it was new and people thought it was overpriced for a "naked" scooter. I got mine for $4500 tax tags and title out the door from Arkport Cycles. Would have never even considered it if the salesman (who is also a recumbent bike rider) hadn't made me test ride it. So much easier to ride than the Morphous. And while the Morphous has 31 liters of internal storage...  That's it. No place to attach a rack. In the attached pic, my BR is carrying a big pack of puppy pads, a 15 pound bag of cat food, a 12 pack of PBR and two half gallons of soy milk.  With room to spare... And I admit... I did sort of fall for the looks. I've racked up 650 miles in less than two weeks. When it gets cold I may look at a Honda Reflex or Silver Wing but for now I'm very happy with my naked Big Ruckus.

Unexpected Addiction

When I first saw commercials for the Nintendo DS Lite a couple of months ago, I knew that I must have one. Which is weird... None of the other couple dozen or so handheld gaming systems that have entered the market during my adulthood have tempted me in the slightest. I had one of the original monochrome Gameboys when I was a kid but then I got into PC gaming and my standards became too high for a handheld to fulfill. Before the DS Lite, the closest I'd come to buying a portable gaming system was picking up a Sony PSP in a Circuit City, thinking it was too big and putting it back down. So I'm not entirely sure what attracted me to the DS Lite.

It may have been some subconcious attachment to the Gameboy of my youth, but I don't think so. I only had three games for that ancient brick and honestly was much more infatuated with my Apple IIGS at the time. It may have been my Jobsellian fetish for white Lucite. I've also always liked anything from the land of the riding sun and the DS Lite is quite possibly the ultimate personiphication of all things Japanese. I was also quite happy to see the touchscreen interface and my ears definitely perked up when I heard Wi-Fi. The two cartridge slots also seemed extremely hack friendly.

Whatever the reasoning, I finally nabbed one while my wife was on a trip with the kids for a couple of weeks. I went to the store intending to buy a couple of PC games but wound up fiddling with a DS Lite and passing on the games. Instead, I went home and picked up a new-in-box DS Lite from eBay for a lot less than the $129 the store was asking for it. (Don't feel bad. It was a Wal Mart that lost the sale. Not a locally-owned retailer)

After I bought my new toy, I did some searching on the net and found a lot more than I was expecting. (I like to do my consumer research AFTER I make the credit card payment. It makes me unique.) There are a TON of accessories available for this puppy. Skins, cases, styli, Japanese release software... And what's amazing is that it's all so cheap! Cases average around $10-$15. A replacement charger is $10. For a guy whose used to paying iPod prices for accessories (my iSkin case was $39) DS accessories seem like a steal.

Now even my poor wife is being sucked into my new addiction. Which is a good thing really. I'm sure that my new money-sucking hobby would have gotten me in a lot more trouble if she didn't like New Super Mario Bros so much. We even broke down and bought a second unit. Now I have a shiny black DS Lite and she and my son share the original white one.

So now that Nintendo has worked its way back into my life, you'll be seeing a lot more about the DS Lite and its plethora of games on this site. Hope you enjoy.

It's Not a Purse!!!

Unfortunately, my new Timbuk2 Metro isn't European so I can't scream the other half of that famous Seinfeld line. Luckily, my new "man bag" is so cool that I really don't give a rat's posterior what anyone thinks. I've been resisting the idea of carrying some sort of bag or pack for awhile now. Instead, I had taken to clipping all of my gadgets onto my belt. This was, to put it mildly, not cool. One of my Australian friends used another word... Daggy. Being insulted in languages I barely understand was the final straw. Something had to be done.

I thought about a fanny pack for about three seconds. Then I started looking at backpacks. All of them were either too big or too small and not quite what I was looking for. Then I found the Metro on display next to the backpacks. I've had a Timbuk2 messenger bag for almost 10 years now and it's still going strong. My current bag is a bit bigger than what I need but the Metro is just right.

The Metro is about the size of a largish purse and easily swallows my Treo 650, 60 GB iPod, Nintendo DS Lite and all of their cases and accoutrements easily. The best part is that you carry it messenger-bag style (slung across your chest and riding on the small of your back) so it doesn't look too pursey. The only time I feel slightly effeminate is when I swing it around to remove my wallet or keys or something without taking it off. My wife insists that it looks fine and not girly at all. Then again she's used to all of my cycling friends and has seen more than her fair share of Timbuks over the years. It's fairly waterproof and judging from experience, I'm sure it will last for many years.

I bought the bag from a local Easter Mountain Sports store for 20% off. Mine is black with a red stripe. That style isn't available on the Timbuk2 site so I assume that mine was ordered in that color especially for that chain of stores or is a discontinued color. There are several color schemes available on the site ranging from basic black to hot pink to high vis orange. If you're a gadget addict like me, I highly recommend one. More info at Timbuk2's site.

WOO HOO!!! New Web Site!!!

Well my primary web site at www.bentrideronline.com has finally been revamped. Only took four months! Anywho... Much easier for me to update now and leaves me some more time for stuff like... Updating this blog! I just bought a new domain and will be moving this over to a new site shortly so stay tuned...

Obviously have been busy...

The volume of posts to this blog show you how busy I've been lately. I had to basically rearrange my entire professional life the last few weeks to respond to the increase in traffic on my web site. Good problem to have, but I was getting swamped with e-mails/phone calls/etc...

Went to PA to ride with some people at one of my favorite shops, Recumbent Bicycle Riders. Good weekend, great people. Had to give a little speech at the Friday night dinner that people seemed to enjoy well enough.

Apple Boot Camp Software

So much for Apple's policy about "not supporting" Windows on their new Intel-based hardware. Apple announced today that it has begun a public beta test of a piece of software called "Boot Camp". This new program allows Intel Macs to dual boot in Windows and Mac OS-X. It will be a standard feature in the new "Leapord" version of OS-X.

The Flip-Flop on policy is a bit annoying but I applaud Apple for swallowing their pride and embracing the inevitable. I'm the biggest Mac Geek there is but even I've been tempted to buy a PC just for gaming and using the mapping software for my GPS if nothing else. VirtualPC just doesn't cut it if you're on anything short of a dual processor G5. I was on the fence about buying a new Intel Mac now or waiting until next year's tax gift from Dubya (already spent this one). Now I'll be pulling the trigger on a new Intel iBook as soon as they become available.

Arctic Monkeys For Real

I may be a bit late on this one but I STILL see people bagging on the Arctic Monkeys because of the megahype they received prior to the US release of "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not." Well all I can to the naysayers is shut the hell up and buy the damn album. It's one of the best albums of the last ten years and it's not the band's fault that the hype machine went into overdrive. If you were 19 or 20 and record company came knocking on your door, you'd let them do whatever they wanted to promote your album also. That's a lot of Benjamins (or Queen Marys or whatever they have on the pound) to turn deal with at that age.

Anyway... Enough ranting and back to the album. The lyrics on this record are amazing. If you speak fluent Brit, you'll probably enjoy it more than the average American but you can appreciate it even if you've never seen as much as a single Monty Python episode. Alex Turner's vocals aren't particularly crisp but they fit the music very well. Actually the same can be said for the rest of the band as well. I don't think that any of them are the best in their respective fields but the total package is near perfection. If you're a fan of Franz Ferdinand, The Killers or Britpop in general you have to buy this album.

Purpose of this Blog...

I'm a freelance writer by trade. Or at least dabble in it for a living. My primary source of income is my recumbent bicycle web site at www.bentrideronline.com. It's a lot of fun but obviously pretty focused on one subject. Freelancing can be very frustrating for a guy whose his own editor 95% of the time. So I thought I'd take a shot at this blogging thing and see if I could scrape together a couple hundred bucks a month from it.

The general subject of this blog is ... Well there isn't one. It's just about an idealistic twenty-something tree hugger turning thirty, trying to raise a family in an increasingly strange world and the hypocrocies involved in all of that. I'm a music addict so expect a lot of talk about the soundtrack of my life. I'm also a bit of a Mac addict and gadget geek so I'm sure to talk a lot about the various bits of tech that keep my life going. Like most writers, I like to hear myself talk so there will also be a fair amount of commentary thrown in. Hopefully you get a laugh every now and then. Enjoy!