Archive for the ‘Fun!’ Category

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Spooky Tooth Death Race

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Here’s an event I’d love to attend, just for fun; the Spooky Tooth Bike Shop’s annual Death Race! Not an actual death race (as in the really bad movie with the same name) just a fun annual event which is pretty much just an excuse for a customers together to show off their wacked out motorized creations. And an opportunity for Spooky Tooth to say thank you to their customers, and for their vendors to show off some of their new stuff. But it looks like a total blast!

death_race

I stumbled across their website a while back whilst shopping for an electric motor for my bike, and have been getting their newsletters ever since. Spooky Tooth specializes in retrofit kits to add a gas motor to a standard bike; they also sell some pretty funky bikes, and of course they sell funky bikes with motors on them too. I’ve got an electric motor on my bike, but have considered a gas engine as well; they’re a bit louder, and you’ve got the exhaust smell to deal with, but what you’d gain in range might be worth the tradeoffs. Harlan’s Bike & Tour in Sioux Falls sells some bikes that are similar in design, and I’ve seen some motorized bikes running in & out of their parking lot, so I’m sure there would be some local help in getting things rolling.

But the ultimate cool would be one of the crazy fat-tired retro monstrosities you see on Spooky Tooth’s site. One of these days…

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Happy Tolkien Reading Day!

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Today is Tolkien Reading Day; go enjoy your favourite J.R.R. Tolkien book for a while today!

I’ve read Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy a number of times, but I think the book of his that was most enjoyable was The Hobbit. I’ll have to sit down with a copy tonight… And maybe a pint of bitters lifted in memory of old Tollers!

hobbit_cover

I’ve also read The Children of Húrin and The Silmarillion; the latter is almost necessary background reading in order for The Lord of the Rings to make sense. The Children of Húrin is sort of an oddity in that it was never completed during Tolkien’s lifetime; his son, Christopher, used the original manuscripts to build the final work which was published in 2007, almost 90 years in process! It’s a bit of an odd story too; the Wikipedia page has a good summary, although I’d recommend avoiding the spoiler if you’re going to read the book.

Whatever your favourite, be sure to pick up a volume and spend some time in Middle Earth today!

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Oh No! Not Mr. Bendo!

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

It’s a sad day. Mr. Bendo, a Sioux Falls landmark since 1963, fell victim to a drunk driver last night. Some bozo who’d had a few too many tried to take the corner at 12th and Cliff Ave. a little too fast and knocked Mr. Bendo’s right leg out from under him. According to a story posted at ksfy.com, the owner plans to fix the leg and put him back up.

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I took a little detour past Buck’s Muffler on my way to work this morning, hoping to get a photo of the carnage, but all I saw was two guys with a hose & a broom cleaning up the mess. I hope they get Mr. Bendo put back together and back in place just as quickly!

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BMWotD — ’88 M5 Race Car!

Sunday, March 14th, 2010

Here’s something you don’t see every day:

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One of the Fastest M5’s in the country

1988 E28 M5 VIN# WBSDC9305J2791570 prod date 6/87

Just in time for the racing season. This Race Car needs nothing to be raced next weekend.

Top Speed Over 170 Mph

3.9 6 Cylinder w/ over 370 rear wheel horsepower

  • Weighs Just under 2500 LBs
  • All Receipt’s and Complete Build Sheets Fresh S38 Motorsports Engine only 1 Race
  • Comes With lots Spares
  • Comes AMB transponder and lap timer
  • 2 Rear Ends 3:91/3:73 Precision Engineering Built
  • 8 Fiske and 4 BBS Lightweight Wheels
  • Wolf 3D+4 Fully Programmable Engine Management
  • Ground Control Double Adjustable Shocks & Struts
  • Fully Adjustable Suspension Front And Rear
  • AP 6 Piston Calipers Front and AP Rear Calipers
  • Carbon Fiber Hood
  • Carbon Fiber Air Intake
  • Carbon Fiber Air Damn

This is A Completely Sorted Race Car, Campaigned in Scca and BMWCCA. Will pass all tech inspections. Holds Many Lap records and Many Overall Wins.

S38 b38 BMW Engine, Balanced and Blueprinted, Head match ported and polished. Stillen Crankshaft, ARP Bolts and Studs Throughout. Over 370 RWHP.

Has New FIA 6 Point Schroth Belts, Current Window Net, Momo Seat and Steering Wheel. Comes with Spares. Spare Carbon Fiber Air Damn, Spare Rotors w/Hats for Front and Rear. Back-up Master Cylinder, Hydroboost, Brake lines, Various Rate Coil Springs

Comes w/2 Sets Full wets and 1 Set Intermediate wets, 3 sets of slicks; 24 tires total.

The car is (was?) owned by David Daniels, and is pretty well known to people in the E28 community. For a non-turbo engine, it’s HP output is as high as I’ve ever seen in an E28. And stripped down to 2,500 pounds? Wow. The E28 is notoriously heavy and difficult to strip down for racing, but Daniels used a lot of carbon fiber & fiberglass to help keep the weight down. Here is a video of it going up against an E36 M3 (owned & driven by Brian Watts.) In the video, the M3 can outrun the M5 in the straights, but the M5 walks right on by in the corners. Tells a lot about the work that Daniels put into the chassis and suspension! And about the driver!

The car was up for sale on eBay, but the auction ended with the final bid at $21,100, and the reserve not met.

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Like The Hulk…

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

I watched an(other) episode of My Name Is Earl, a couple of nights ago, and got a good laugh from Earl’s brother Randy:

You know I get angry when I’m hungry. Like the Hulk, only I don’t get all green and muscle-y, I just get dizzy and snap at people that don’t deserve it.

I can so relate to that!

my-name-is-randy

I don’t buy into the whole karma thing — do good things to balance out the bad things — but the show is pretty entertaining. And it’s refreshing to see sitcom characters demonstrating some honesty instead of the usual mess of trying to hide their mistakes. That and the whole trailer trash atmosphere of the show makes for some good, (relatively) clean entertainment. And Randy… He is just a hoot!

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Rickshaw USA — Sean & Coop’s Big Adventure

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

The brother of a long-time friend of mine is on an amazing adventure; he’s riding a pedicab on route that nearly circles the continental US. His route took him through Baton Rouge, LA, recently, and he was featured in a local ABC news report:

Sean started out his trip from New York in the enormous Thai-style rickshaw you see pictured below, but found it wasn’t quite up to the trip and ended up being replaced by a more modern pedicab about a 1,000 miles into the trek. I’m sure he misses the built-in sunshade, but won’t miss the extra weight; the old one weighed about 700lbs and had only 3 gears! His knees will thank him in twenty years or so.

sean_rickshaw
sean_pedicab

When asked why he’s doing this, it seems there are a lot of things motivating him; from his FAQ:

Q. Why are you doing this, what is your cause?
A. My cause is because.

My buddy John (Sean’s brother) says he’s doing it to avoid work. “Because” seems to be a better motivation, so we’ll stick with that. And what he said in the interview about the importance of having an adventure rings true to the romantic in me. I wish I’d had the gumption to do something like this in the years before wifejobkidshousemortgagecarsstuff, because I sure don’t see anything like it happening in my future.

Sean is now in the Gulf states region, and his planned route will take him…

… west across TX, NM, and AZ up to Vegas then over to Cali. Up Cali and try to go as north as possible depending on the terrain then head east thru Montana (one of the states I’m really looking forward to riding thru, Big Sky!!) Head into the Dakotas, stop off at my brothers in Sioux Falls. Then hit up my home state of Iowa try to meet up with Ragbri. Hang with my folks for a week or so. And then haul butt to NYC.”

His original plan was to hook up with RAGBRAI 2010, but considering he also planned to be in New Orleans by Christmas, RAGBRAI 2011 might be a more attainable goal! It’s cool that he’s planning a stopover in Sioux Falls; should be a big party at John’s place!

Sean & Coop’s Blog

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This Guy Is Certifiably Nuts

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Is this guy nuts, or am I just overly risk-averse? Photographer captures amazing images of lions after submerging himself in watering hole for three months

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Amazing photos, to be sure — kudos to photographer Greg du Toit — but the aftereffects seem a bit costly to me…

… diagnosed with deadly malaria twice after contracting it through mosquitoes breeding in the pool…

‘The doctors panicked when they noticed that my red blood platelet count was sky high,’ Mr du Toit said.

‘The first real symptom was blood in my urine, which is when I went for blood tests. The blood test confirmed that I had Bilharzia.

‘It’s caused by a type of flatworm which had spent part of its life in water snails and the other part in my liver. It left me weak and in bed for weeks.’

He added: ‘The high red blood platelet count signalled that I was carrying a lot of parasites. This included numerous species of internal worm parasites and a particularly nasty external worm parasite known as Hook Worm.

‘This worm was actually visible under the skin of my foot and would move at night. It became a game to find the worm in my foot each morning.’

After a long stint sick in bed recovering, Mr du Toit was finally given the all clear following courses of powerful antibiotics, pesticides and by spraying liquid nitrogen on the parasites visible under his skin.

To get the “frog’s-eye view”, du Toit apparently just waded into the pond until just his head was above the surface of the water. No flippin’ wonder he picked up so many bugs, being marinated in a cesspool like that! And to top off the exposure to who-knows-what unseen threats, he’s just “a leap away” from the wildlife he photographed.

The lions knew there was something in the water but we think they only recognise humans when they are upright on legs so they took little notice of me and my camera.

He added: ‘It was worth it 100 per cent and I would do it all again, worms and all.’

I wonder if he thought to use something like a drysuit to keep from becoming a large parasite-infested pink raisin. Any bets on whether he finds another pool &

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“Being Veep Is Easy”

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

Vice President Joe Biden had some notable things to say about his Executive Branch position today…

Just moments before the afternoon session (of the today’s health care summit at the Blair House) got underway, C-SPAN’s cameras picked up audio of Biden chatting casually with participants.

“It’s easy being vice president — you don’t have to do anything.”

Whomever Biden was chatting with said, “It’s like being the grandpa and not the parent.”

“Yeah, that’s it!” replied Biden.

Good grief, what a buffoon. And to think that the people who voted to put this guy a heartbeat from the Presidency were worried about Sarah Palin… After all of his gaffes last year I’m surprised he’s still allowed out in public.

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My New Front Plate

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

I found the perfect accessory for the front bumper of my Rustoleum-painted BMW…

rustoleum_euro_plate_sm

There are a couple of sites that will make custom Euro plates, for not a lot of money; this one is especially cool because it’s got an interactive tool that lets you see what your plate will look like.

Who cares that the US Spec e28s don’t have provisions for the wide Euro plates; it’s an easy retrofit, and they still look right at home!
1st5er_Small

But it’s on the Euro bumpers that they really shine!
roy_w_m5

Photos borrowed from mye28.com buds SWattersSR and RoyW; Thanks!

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What? You Don’t Believe Me?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Have you ever approached an intersection in a car with your turn signal on, conspicuously reducing your speed, and have another motorist wait at the intersection to see if you actually turn before they make a move?

That happened to me on my way to lunch just now, and it kinda makes me laugh… A lady sat at the intersection down the road from work waiting to make her left turn, and didn’t move until she saw my front wheels rounding the corner. Not another car on the road for a quarter mile in either direction, my turn signal was on well ahead of my intended turn (and I know for a fact that it works), I was slowing well ahead of the intersection… Even if I was moving at the normal pace for traffic on that road, she would’ve had plenty of room to get up to speed ahead of me. Yet she sat there like she didn’t believe me.

Makes me wonder how many times I’ve done that same thing.

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