Had an interesting ride at lunch today. I received my replacement Fulmer (Fulmer had recalled the Modus in January, I just found out about it last week) this morning -- I had them ship it to work, very fast turn-around. So I swapped out the visor and cheek pads (the stock ones are a bit thick and hurt my face after a while, so I "customized" the ones for the silver helmet I bought) and took a ride at lunch.

The recall replacement helmet fits better than the one I bought, the venting works better and it makes considerably less wind noise to boot. It's interesting the variance between the three XXXL (I have an enormous, oddly shaped melon) Modus helmets I've had from Fulmer. Based on this short ride, I'd say the recall replacement is the best of the lot, followed closely by the recalled one, with the purchased silver unit lagging behind.  

I took a short ride last night to a nearby HD dealer to pick up my new helmet.

I'm sitting at the stop light of the intersection of a busy road and an interstate and a kid and someone who I'm assuming is his little brother (maybe 10 or 12) pulls up next to me in a beat-up import. I don't take much notice, but I'm blipping the throttle a bit, just to hear the TORs burble. The kid sticks his head out the window and yells "Excuse me, sir? Nice bike! Is it fast?"

"Oh yeah."

"Has it got nitrous?"

Don't know where that came from - maybe because I'm a lard-ass - but whatever. I'm having too much fun, so I just grin.

"Nope. Doesn't need it."

In a moment of perfect timing, like something out of a movie, the light turns green RIGHT THEN, so I ignore my better judgment and twist the go handle. Maggie (my bike) yells "RRWAAAAAAAAWR!" and we launch hard, leaving the kid, his brother and everyone else in the dust.

I know it was childish, but it was so much fun to look in my mirror and see the kid sitting there with his jaw dangling.

What is it about these bikes that encourages this kind of behavior? Dammit, I used to be a conservative rider! I was even proud of my chicken strips, since they meant I was a safe rider! 

The Varmint over at AttackCartoons.com drew this for me. Freakin' awesome. 

I trucked Maggie home last night

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After the Iron Lady, Maggie Thatcher, of course. Yes, I'm getting a new Triumph *glee!*. The white thing on her seat is a "Don't sit on me, I'm sold!" sign. The vx800, as nice a bike as it is, just doesn't fit me very well, and I'm finally in a place financially where I can drop the hammer on a NEW bike. She's an '07 Bonneville Black, 865cc vertical (not "V") twin. The dealer is going to tweak the exhaust and install a center stand for me, and I get to pick her up Wednesday or Thursday.

Sadly, it looks like it's going to be raining for the rest of the week, so I'll have to truck her to her new home in my garage. 

I refuse to watch this on general principle. Yahoo describes the movie thusly:

An astronaut is forced to leave NASA to save his family farm, but he continues to dream of space travel and sets out to build a rocket inside his barn. Though his neighbors consider him an oddity, the media considers him a story, and the government considers him a threat, nothing can deter him from his dream to break through the atmosphere and orbit the earth.

What they don't tell you is that Billy-Bob's character is named "Farmer" in the hokiest Hollywood tradition of naming lead characters after their profession, or at least in relation to it, so the title can be a cute double-entendre. I can imagine the pitch meeting now -" See, J.B., he's an astronaut, who becomes a farmer, and his name is, get this, J.B. - Charles Farmer. Get it? Get it?"

Sorry, Hollywood, but that's not clever, and I refuse to take the bait. I don't care how damn good this movie is, I will never, ever see it. If it's showing on a flight, I'll gouge my eyes out and puncture my eardrums first. 

Background: Every Saturday, the Independent Film Channel shows a samurai movie, and for a few months they were featuring Zatoichi movies. The sword gods struck me with an undeniable craving - I HAD to have a Zatoichi sword!

But the commonly available Zatoichis are, for the most part, crap. They either don't look right, are built for wallhanging, or both. But if I refit the KC Korean, I would have a good blade and if it didn't look quite right, I'd have only myself to blame.

So in late May I contacted Cecil at KC. He's willing to custom build almost anything based on his production blades (Think of the mechanic in Mad Max: Speed's just a question of money - how fast do you want to go?). I wanted a removable tsuka (stock Koreans are pinned and epoxied), and preferably with a prominent hamon. After a few emails back and forth, discussing prices and options, I more or less gave up on the hamon. The stock Korean is differentially tempered, but the hamon is not dramatic and difficult to see without a polish and etch.

At this point, Cecil revealed that KC was revamping the Korean line with blackened iron fittings, and he would be willing to sell me the photographic prototype at a good price, if I could wait a few weeks while they arranged photography for the catalog and website. Since my main objection to the Korean in the past was the bright brass fittings, this sounded perfect. Deal struck and deposit made.

Fast-forward to Wednesday night. I came home from a hard day down in the pixel mine to find that UPS had dropped off my new "custom" KC Korean! read more (287 words)

Go here:

http://www.chrisis.org/lace_onscreen/vb_ninja.html

Scroll down and look at Hank's exposed (off camera) stomach.

Why does Hank Venture have TWO belly-buttons?

What, if any, is the connection between the extra belly-button and the fact that the Venture Brothers have no memories of their mother at all, and what then is the connection to the fact that Dr. Venture LACTATES when under stress?

Dot, meet dot. Connected.

(The Venture Brothers is the GREATEST cartoon ever.) 

Don't look for any new posts here, possibly forever. Frankly, webmastering AttackCartoons.com is taking up more than enough time and energy.

Comments will be disabled as time permits.

The Conan Project will remain available to visitors from the various Conan fansites.

Adios!