looking into windshield solutions for the RS. the windscreen works just fine for one person, but this weekend j. and i rode up to ventura and depending on how our heads are some bizarro and annoying turbulence occurs around 80 m.p.h. the aeroflow is the front runner at this early point in the research, not cheap though.

two weeks, just under i guess, until we head up to laguna seca for the superbike races.

while the k is settling in just fine, lowell stopped by on a demo multistrada, the newest bike by ducati. its a beautiful looking machine, that i'm convinced photographs oddly in that it can look much more strange in pics than in life. lowell is convinced and as soon as he sells his st4s, and can get ahold of the "many streets" i reckon he will.
that v-twin sounds like an old machine gun; lots of rattles and mechanical parts shaking and kicking, whereas "1988" as its refered too, sounds like a big german sewing machine.

another odd one from our good friend senator frist:

"I have this fear that this zone of privacy that we all want protected in our own homes is gradually — or I'm concerned about the potential for it gradually being encroached upon, where criminal activity within the home would in some way be condoned," Frist told ABC's This Week.

republican leadership knows best how you should behave in your bedroom, so in order to save this privacy, they should poke their hands into it. that is, i THINK thats what this numbskull is saying, its hard to tell through his bushspeak.
great.

Doctor of Revisionism is a nice breakdown of quotes from the senate majority leader, who just recently said that WMD's was not the main reason for our war with iraq.

guess he's an official revisionist. dorks.

sorry i've been taildragging.
last weekend was spent riding up to san jose, dropping off first bike, fetching new bike, spending the night in s.f. and riding back the next day. a very satisfying, if exhausting adventure.

work keeps my nose to the grindstone, so i haven't made much time to post while here. with a trip planned this weekend - floating down the kings river - i'm hoping to post during the week.

as for the hulk: one so-so, one hated it. i'll pass.

Q: And also in the last, 2000 and coming up, the President will accept federal funds in the general election.

MR. FLEISCHER: Correct.

Q: Is there any dash of hypocrisy in that he doesn't contribute to that fund when he files his tax returns?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, interestingly, we talked before about taxpayer-financed elections, and while for the congressional races, Senate races and House races, and for overwhelming majority of the funds that go to presidential races is voluntary, there is that check on the tax reforms. And the best I remember this from IRS data is something like only 12 percent, or down to 8 percent of the American people check that box. So I think the President is in pretty good company with a number of American people who do not check that box.

Q: Why would he take the money, then?

MR. FLEISCHER: As you know, he's not taking the money for the primary campaign; he will take it for the general.

huh.

umbrella girls.

flash mobs, seems like a bit of fun for the internet set.
nice shot of the rug salesman. though i wish we had a closeup of the "hot date".

found a site of me as a dutch woman.
she ownes a bmw as well as a yamaha XT (!!), digs birds and travel. i'll pass on the kids thanks. she has a brief write up of some of her bike adventures, biographies of several bikes and a bmw off-roading class, that looks like a great deal of fun.

the superbike classic tix have been bought. see you there.

meanwhile, i'm trying to phase coffee out of the diet. tired today.

THE PRESIDENT: We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.

MC Serch Updates List Of Gas-Face Recipients
QUEENS, NY?For the first time since the list's 1989 release, MC Serch of 3rd Bass unveiled an updated Gas Face list Tuesday, removing such longtime recipients as Hammer and P.W. Botha in favor of more current wrongdoers. "Osama bin Laden... gets the gas face," MC Serch, flanked by Prime Minister Pete Nice, told reporters. "Bill O'Reilly, shut the fuck up! Gas face!" Also included on MC Serch's newly revised Gas Face list were Scott Peterson, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), and Grand Puba.

wow, dig this scale model of the solar system, 40 miles from the sun, represented as a section of a 50 foot arc, to pluto located where route 1 meets the 95 expressway.

beautiful.

finally the rose-breasted grosbeak is done, and a new Bird of the Week is up:

Inhabitants of the dense forest understory, Kentucky Warblers are furtive, cryptically marked, and famously difficult to see. They spend much of their time silently foraging amid low tangles and fallen leaves. Though the males persistently sing their rolling song in early spring--sometimes for hours, virtually without pause--they rarely venture out into the open.

The lunatics are now in charge of the asylum." So wrote the normally staid Financial Times, traditionally the voice of solid British business opinion, when surveying last week's tax bill. Indeed, the legislation is doubly absurd: the gimmicks used to make an $800-billion-plus tax cut carry an official price tag of only $320 billion are a joke, yet the cost without the gimmicks is so large that the nation can't possibly afford it while keeping its other promises.

But then maybe that's the point. The Financial Times suggests that "more extreme Republicans" actually want a fiscal train wreck: "Proposing to slash federal spending, particularly on social programs, is a tricky electoral proposition, but a fiscal crisis offers the tantalizing prospect of forcing such cuts through the back door."

Good for The Financial Times. It seems that stating the obvious has now, finally, become respectable.

It's no secret that right-wing ideologues want to abolish programs Americans take for granted. But not long ago, to suggest that the Bush administration's policies might actually be driven by those ideologues ? that the administration was deliberately setting the country up for a fiscal crisis in which popular social programs could be sharply cut ? was to be accused of spouting conspiracy theories.

Yet by pushing through another huge tax cut in the face of record deficits, the administration clearly demonstrates either that it is completely feckless, or that it actually wants a fiscal crisis. (Or maybe both.)

"As a citizen I don't like the consequences of this crusade, but you have to respect the conservatives for their successful strategy in gaining control of the national agenda. Their stated and open aim is to change how America is governed - to strip from government all its functions except those that reward their rich and privileged benefactors. They are quite candid about it, even acknowledging their mean spirit in accomplishing it. Their leading strategist in Washington - the same Grover Norquist - has famously said he wants to shrink the government down to the size that it could be drowned in a bathtub. More recently, in commenting on the fiscal crisis in the states and its affect on schools and poor people, Norquist said, "I hope one of them" - one of the states - "goes bankrupt." So much for compassionate conservatism. But at least Norquist says what he means and means what he says. The White House pursues the same homicidal dream without saying so. Instead of shrinking down the government, they're filling the bathtub with so much debt that it floods the house, water-logs the economy, and washes away services for decades that have lifted millions of Americans out of destitution and into the middle-class. And what happens once the public's property has been flooded? Privatize it. Sell it at a discounted rate to the corporations. "
...

"Understanding the real interests and deep opinions of the American people is the first thing. And what are those? That a Social Security card is not a private portfolio statement but a membership ticket in a society where we all contribute to a common treasury so that none need face the indignities of poverty in old age without that help.
That tax evasion is not a form of conserving investment capital but a brazen abandonment of responsibility to the country.
That income inequality is not a sign of freedom-of-opportunity at work, because if it persists and grows, then unless you believe that some people are naturally born to ride and some to wear saddles, it's a sign that opportunity is less than equal.
That self-interest is a great motivator for production and progress, but is amoral unless contained within the framework of community.
That the rich have the right to buy more cars than anyone else, more homes, vacations, gadgets and gizmos, but they do not have the right to buy more democracy than anyone else."
- Bill Moyers

what appears to be a good lookin' and werkin' blackjack trainer built in flash. i like blackjack. the last time i went to vegas i did well, small stakes wise, on the blackjack machines and then later got jacked on the blackjact tables at binions.
but it wasn't so bad, i didnt' catch the fever and lost the $50 i had ear-marked as loseable. it was fun though as the dealer was a cut-up who had a bunch of regulars at his table and would freely give advice.
just remember:

Playing Hit or Stand will improve your blackjack strategy, and increase your chances of winning money. However, unless you count cards, the odds of blackjack are against you, even if you are a perfect player. By chance, the outcome may sway in your favor from time to time; but the rule is: the more you gamble the more money you lose.

so it goes.

skies in los angeles.

laweekly has an article on 'backyard' wrasslin:

Chris, though, is a 90-pound weakling who would make Charles Atlas proud. What makes his size and weight notable is that he is an enthusiastic participant in the strange pastime that has exploded across suburban America over the past couple of years ? backyard wrestling. The young men who do it dress up in outfits worthy of their professional analogues in the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment, formerly WWF) and perform as characters of their own invention. Some of the kids Chris has associated with go by names like Scorpio Sky, Youth Suicide, Super Chunty and Ryan Rage. Chris, of course, is Mr. Fantastic.

billmon has another list of quotes, this time regarding our governments views on setting up a new iraqi government. it bleakly goes from "we'll be out of there in a few weeks as they are free to rule themselves" to "Q: when will the government be set up? A: I don't know." over a few sad months.

also tonight on marketplace, i heard a cool fact if you happen to be a CEO.
apparently stock options are OUT as compensation these days. who in their right mind would want the option to buy a stock that is now at a lower price than when the option was granted? not too many people. well, the new tax reform that was just put into place makes this new scenario possible:
you pay your CEO in preferred stock, a special kind i reckon, and at the same time, make sure that this kind of stock generates healthy dividends - some stocks choose not to issue dividends - i believe that microsoft just issued its first dividend ever recently.
anyway, so the CEO is getting paid off these dividends which, as of this last week, are now only taxed at 15%!
pretty cool huh?
since i get an actual paycheck, i'm taxed at the normal rate, something like 30% or such.

holy shit! the second annual lebowski fest in louisville!

another weekend cools down - a full work week is a long nap away.

saturday night began with an opening at the hammer, the christian marclay show. the girl had recently become a member so we were invited to the "director's reception", basically when the rich folk arrive and the food platters are out in addition to the bar. i had low expectations for the visual works, but i was pleasantly suprised. there was a larger film piece that i liked as well.
there are a few performances scheduled in the next month or so in conjunction with the show, they are listed here.

then we had to book, as i had fallen into a pair of tickets to see the flaming lips at the palladium.
such an enjoyable show, so many balloons, and 10 feet in diameter across at that! a stage full of "furries", santas and jesus (jesi?) and plenty of tunes. it was hard to not leave the place without having a smile on yer face. and if that wasn't enough, at one part, the video images behind the band were of aerobicise. i just about pissed in my pants.