Blogs for June 2007

Week ending June 24th, 2007
Friday night my friend came over and helped me work on my cover song. She has a nice voice so when all the tracks are done it will sound pretty good. We hung out for a while and had dinner and basically just chatted about nothing in particular. She's cool peeps and good to hang out with. We'll finish up the song after I get back from my vacation after the 4th.

Speaking of the vacation, my best friend from HS called on Saturday to check the fight info and set up a golf game for Friday. We haven't played golf since I was home in 2005 so it will be good to hang out with him and rap about what's been going on in our lives. Everything is all planned out. I'm taking my nieces and nephew to Bush Gardens in Tampa a week from tomorrow so I bet they are looking forward to that. I know I am. Haven't been to an amusement park in a while so that'll be fun.

I just got through watching the MotoGP race from the UK. Nicky had his best grid placement all year and just like the last wet race, he tucked the front. There's been at least 3 wet races this year and he hasn't done well in any of them. At least the new chassis seems to be working for him and hopefully he can get back on the podium soon. Keep the faith, bro.

Oh yeah, this past week at work was excellent. I got to do some serious testing in the lab on servers that were breaking down in the field. I got the problem to duplicate in the lab but for different reasons. I have a couple days next week to resolve the problem before I'm out of town. Work's been going great and I love it. I just can't wait to get moved to SD and cut out this long commute. Only 5 more weeks of driving before that happens. That reminds me, I need to start packing!

Not much else going on this week. I was going to post a rant but figured why bother? Not my place to criticize or judge others so I will leave that alone. That's one thing I am learning. The less I say the better off I am. "Silence is a friend who never betrays." (read Proverbs for that one).

When I get back from Florida I am going to tear into the RR. It needs a lot done. The chain/sprockets, oil, filter and air cleaner need to be changed as well as replacing the water-wetter and fluid. I also have to safety-wire the water drain bolt. They almost DQ'd me from WSMC last month for that so I have to get it done. Next month will be my last race on the 180 rear tire. I have a new set of 190s ready to go and will also rework the stock suspension (new valves/internals) and get it setup by a pro. I'm hoping the bigger tire and suspension changes will give me more grip and the confidence to go faster at Willow.

A special shout out to my friend Adrian Limon who is going to be married next weekend. Brother, I wish you and your soon to be wife the very best. You both are great people. Just goes to show you that God richly blesses those who live in His word and you both have been doing that. Congrats!

I'm out of here to see "Rise of the Silver Surfer". Have a good one!

Week ending June 17th, 2007
Another great week in the books and one more closer to my trip home to Florida. I'm really looking forward to hanging with my friends and family.

This week at work was spent on some of my EMC training. That was good as it has helped me better understand the architecture of the systems and how control center and power path work. I'm going to sign up for the EMC classes soon. It requires a two year commitment to my employer but I am ok with that as the training cost well over 10k.

I had to be at the office on Friday morning for a meeting so I decided to drive my truck. BIG MISTAKE. Hah. I thought I would give the Bandit a break and since it was Friday it wouldn't be as crowded on the roads. Well, there go my lack of perception skills - exposed. The Del Mar fair is this week and the roads were jam packed. I left the office at 1:30 and did not get home until 4:00 pm! I'll be great when I move closer to work.

I just got back from WSMC weekend so the RACING page has been updated. I arrived at the track late on Saturday afternoon and was surprised to see there were a lot of open spaces. Some of it had to do with everyone going to Miller this weekend and some of it may have been a protest against what happened with Larry (OR maybe just that it was Father's Day???). Either way, it was an interesting weekend and I was not really happy with how I performed. In fact, I downright stunk up the joint. See the racing page for the GORY details.

The song is coming along great. I have a friend coming over soon to help me finish up the back up vocals. She has a great voice so it will definitely help make the song even better. Hopefully I'll get it on the site soon. I have put one of my mom's covers up there as well. She had a great voice and I think it would be a shame not to share it with others. It's a song I remember her singing as a kid and always made me sad. Go to the MUSIC page to hear it.

For those asking, I am up to Hosea now so I should be finished up with the OT soon.

I'm getting myself cleaned up as I am bolting out of here to hang the rest of the day with my friend. Hope you had a great week. Oh yeah.....

Week ending June 10th, 2007
I'm updating the blog early this am (Sun) as I slam a hot coffee. Getting ready to bolt out of here in a few minutes and hang out with friends for the day.

Last Sunday, after I made my blog entry, my friend and I went to dinner and the movies. She's interesting in learning to ride so after a nice dinner and the movie I took her for a safe but spirited ride through Santiago Canyon Road. The road has a lot of overhanging trees which act as a canopy most of the way. When you ride at night your headlights illuminate the trees and it becomes a really serene, romantic sort of ride. She definitely enjoyed riding on the back of the Bandit and said other than the blind drop (it's really neat but can scare you if you don't know the road) she had a great time. So did I :)

This week I turned in my notice that I am not renewing my apartment lease. It's funny but they countered by offering to "only" raise my rent by $75.00/mo. Ummm.....no thanks! I mean, my place it great and all. A/C, attached garage, W/D hookups inside (coz let's face it, sharing laundry facilities really bites!), etc. I have found much better places in SD -- for less money -- with better amenities. (like a bigger garage, an extra room, two stories, etc).

Friday night I went to dinner with my friend Alex and his wife, Irena. We went to "You and I Sushi" in Laguna Hills. That's the place we had a SCS get together a couple of years ago. It's good to see Alex and his family are doing well. Alex works for Toyota now so when I buy my next truck, I'll see if he can swing me a deal (that or use my EDS GM employee discount). I think for now I am done buying new cars. Maybe an '08 600RR so I can keep up at the track. (haha, it ain't the bike -- it's the rider who's slow!)

Saturday morning I got up early to help my friend Derek clean the carbs on his 1985 Yamaha 700 Maxium. After we got 'er humming like a sewing machine he treated me to Indian for lunch. Thanks mang! Let's do that again soon before I leave. After that it was my work out then church at 6:30 with Doug Fields. He's great and always keeps me laughing. Yesterday was about circumcision so you know it was hilarious (yet still a good message).

Speaking of working out, switching my lifting to Fri/Sat/Sun (off Mon-Thur) instead of splitting during the week has really helped out a lot. The pure whey protein isolate shakes I am taking ($50.00 a jug!) has been helping too so thanks, Dan! I've gained 10 lbs of muscle without adding fat or using steroids. My goal is 180lbs and super lean (11% BF right now) by the end of 2007 and that seems very attainable.

That's it for now. WSMC next weekend then Florida on the 27th (no blog report that week as it will be combined with the week after).

Stay out of trouble :)

Week ending June 3rd, 2007
What can I say but another fantastic week! I managed to get two very important projects completed at work. Both of them patches for ECC. These were two solutions that had to go out to the field ASAP so it really built a lot of confidence to get them completed and approved so quickly. We all celebrated by having dinner after work on Thursday with one of our vendors.

Speaking of which, that dinner was interesting. It turns out the Regional V.P. is also a rider. We got to chatting a bit about riding when my friends mentioned that I race. The V.P. was like "Oh really? Tell me more about that..." so we got into a long discussion about my goals as a privateer racer: a) Not crashing, b) Not getting lapped and c) Not finishing last - haha. Anyway, I mentioned I was looking for a sponsor and they seemed very interested in getting involved. Stay tuned, I might just have major (read: monetary investment) sponsorship in the next few months.

Saturday I rolled into the 6:30 pm service at Saddleback when I noticed the band was about to go on and there were no stage lights. It seems the person who normally runs them wasn't there. I mentioned my previous musical/stage experience with lighting so I got nominated to run them. They have a very complex lighting system and it took me roughly 15 minutes to really start to figure it out. Once I got it going things were relatively OK. I didn't blind anyone and most people didn't even notice (except when I was fumbling around looking for the spotlight to put on Pastor Clayton - haha). Best of all, no one got hurt (grin). So...I got to serve the Church in a way that I had never thought of before. Too bad I am leaving OC and Saddleback soon. It was fun running the lighting and I had a front row seat for Rick's sermon.

This week I was asked if I would do a special "newbie" training session for a group of new female riders. My friend, who lives in Riverside, had attended one of my newbie rides and said she learned a lot and asked if I would do it again for her and many of her friends. I told her I would be happy to. Stay tuned as I'll be posting more info on the time/date of the class if you are interested in attending. Make note, this is a female rider only class.

Lastly, the cover song isn't done but that's because I need a female vocalist to help me with the backup tracks and one of my good friends is going to help me. That will delay the release of the song but I promise it will be worth the wait!

That's about it for now. I am getting ready to go to dinner/movies with a friend. Should be loads of fun because--she sure is!