Be the Adult

  So Many Things Wrong... Looking at this picture (and others) of my fellow motorcyclists and me in action really helps sort out what's going right and wrong with my riding. When I dice it up with other novices, I'm at the point where I can out-turn and out-brake people on liter bikes, but I'm also getting smoked by folks with whom I'm evenly matched, and then there was my track-neighbor who was riding a Ninja 400, getting faster by the session. It was her marked improvement (and willingness to study the craft and receptiveness to coaching) that's the focus of this post. Basically, I can pass the majority of people in my run group, but there are a few people I get stuck on. Our speeds are close enough in corners that whoever's in front stays in the front until we get to the straightaway. This is basically how it went w/my friend on the 400. If I was in front, I'd pull away most places, but she would never be too far off as she carried speed and I overbraked.

  Hasn't this thought exercise already been conducted? Zuck's been posting messages for Meta on Bloomberg lately talking about augmented reality and how it'll help firefighters working in a burning building, among other things. This got me thinking about the Digital Twin work I've been doing in the highway traffic management space, along with The Matrix, Total Recall, and Wall-E. From the sound of it, the huge investment Meta's made in the Metaverse hasn't gained a lot of traction, but I wonder if it's because we're at a 'good enough' phase of living life online. For example, you can watch movies while doing dishes or driving- who wants to be tied down with a clunky headset? With a very small sample size of kids and adults in my neighborhood, it seems like the grown-ups get disoriented while the kids get a hot-spot on their forehead from the weight of the device. It seems like most of enjoy some good, always-on distraction, but don't want to

  After several track days on my Triumph, I realized I'll never take my riding to a higher level on a bike that I can't afford to wreck. Not that I want to wreck, but I'd rather have something a bit better suited to the task. After looking around for a month or so over the holidays, I found a 2008 R6 that belonged to a former rider coach, second owner, all paperwork, and three boxes of spares. After some of the comical experiences I had in my shopping process ("You can fix that, bruh," "Hmmm, didn't notice it had no coolant. Hadn't ridden it in awhile," "I know nothing about the bike- I'm selling for a friend and he's not available."), the seller was a breath of fresh air. The bike had been down a couple of times, but it appeared solid, had good history, and it was priced right. As I drove home with a new-to-me R6 on the trailer, I committed myself to the following: Flush/change all fluids Adjust cables Change spark plugs Replac

Welcome to the addiction. I heard that at my first track day as we were wrapping up the last session and I embraced the words, rolled around in them a bit, and determined that yes, this is good. And expensive. I'm thinking this year's season is over as the leaves start to turn, and like most things in my life, I have some summary data in order to budget for next year, which is likely to be more expensive because I'll likely try to go every chance I get. Also, a friend reminded me last Sunday that they do track days in Vegas, California, and Florida year round, so there's that. Here's a summary of this year's spend for all things track related: Expense Cost Notes Consumables/Travel     California Superbike School (CSS) $5500 Two days at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, two days at VIR Airfare $350 Back when flights were cheap and we were still weari

  I've been thinking about this for a really long time. We're the sum of our experiences, and while I can take credit for some of my good fortune, I stand on the shoulders of the many, many people in my life that helped me learn something whether it was terribly negative, wonderfully positive, or something right in the middle. For many of the people in my life, I could write page after page, but instead I'm going to give each person one sentence, and not the easy, obvious sentence, but one that's particularly dear to me. Without further ado, my Wall of Thanks: John Jamison - Teaching me how to shave correctly. Michael Gura - Smoked Salmon is good and yes, it's not all that hard to start your own company! Keith Goodwin - Made me realize many of us join the military for the same reason; to catapult ourselves out of a dead-end. Sabrina Menear - She was only one year older than me, but she seemed so knowledgeable and worldly. Also introduced me to the Scorpions 'Lov