|
|
|
Musings brought on by whichever brain cells happen to be firing at the time.
Archives
David's home page Recommended blogs Jeff Duntemann Roger Schlafly Joel On Software Bob Congdon Shirky Jim Mischel Mike Werner Carla King Dana Blankenhorn Dan Bricklin Gray Watson Eric Sink Zimran Ahmed John Ludwig Joi Ito Venture Blog Lawrence Lessig Dave Winer Michael Covington Tim Oren Charles Hudson Carl Zimmer |
Sunday, November 23, 2003 - Pahrump, Nevada - Playing with tigers
 Feeding time for Pebbles Zuzana and I are in Pahrump to visit her exotic pets. The newest addition to the family is a baby tiger named Pebbles. She's already 95 pounds and growing fast. Look at the size of her paws in the photo. Pebbles is going to be a big girl when she's all grown up.  Pepper Pepper is enjoying an early Thanksgiving dinner. Needless to say, Zuzana buys frozen turkey in bulk quantities. The tigers aren't at all picky about how it's prepared. 
Friday, November 21, 2003 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Supermoto racing
 Brett Fladseth The parking lot at the Rio casino has been transformed into a supermoto racetrack for the AMA Red Bull Supermoto races. Our very own Brett Fladseth of Seattle is racing today. We're here to cheer him on and enjoy the excitement.  Supermoto is to motorcycle racing what the decathlon is to Olympic sports. In the same sense, it's a reaction to how overspecialized racing has become today. To win at supermoto you have to excel at dirt riding, motocross and asphalt racing. Oh, and you have to do it all within the same race and on the same bike. The best part about supermoto is the audience doesn't have to sit in a grandstand and view the action from a distance. You come right up to the edge of the track. I saw some people waving their hands at passing riders to tell them what place they were in. 
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - Las Vegas, Nevada
Lost Wages, Nevada! This isn't exactly my kind of town. I don't gamble, don't smoke and drink only lightly. My aversion to gambling is based on the religion of simple arithmetic. The odds favor the house therefore I won't participate. (Yes, you can count cards at blackjack but it takes time to train yourself and if you actually succeed they reward you by throwing you out. The return on effort isn't there.) I don't understand the attraction of gambling. I walk the floor of the casino and look at the people playing the slot machines, roulette and blackjack. They don't look like they are enjoying themselves. The old people feeding money into the slot machines are especially sad. Is this just a way to pass the time? Is there nothing better to do with the limited time they have remaining on this planet? I must never end up like this.  Zuzana Kukol The plan is to indulge myself in my principal vice of motorcycling, visit good friends and soak up as much sunlight as possible before returning to Seattle. That's Zuzana in the photo. She raises tigers and other exotic creatures (more on that later.) We're going to visit her tigers and do some dirt riding in the desert. Should be fun!  Mark Van Deventer Zuzana introduced me to Mark Van Deventer. Mark is a professional Porsche restorer specializing in early 356s. He has over 3,200 hours in the 356 in the photo and it's just about ready to paint. Some of the body components were too far gone to repair and had to be carefully recreated by hand. People love these cars so much they will go to any effort and expense to restore them to concours condition. This one should be complete in time for a competition next summer. Mark just finished helping with a Jerry Seinfeld commercial. He supplied a blue Porsche 356 that plays the part of a cross-country touring car for Jerry and a cartoon animated Superman. In the commercial, Jerry accidentally locks his keys inside and Superman offers to use his super strength to tear off the door or his laser vision to burn a hole in the lock. Jerry refuses because, he insists, they are on vacation and everyone knows that when you're on vacation super powers are strictly off-limits!
Sunday, November 16, 2003 - Scottsdale, Arizona
 Eshaia and Peter Kukol I'm in Scottsdale to visit my friends, Peter and Eshaia. I put new tires on the R1150RT. It's just passed 30,000 miles and has gone through three sets of Bridgestone Battleaxe tires since new. The Bridgestones are Seattle-tested and I enthusiastically recommend them for all wet weather riding conditions. They have never given me a moment of doubt. The Phoenix BMW dealer carries only Metzlers which have the reputation of being a longer-lasting touring tire with a harder rubber compound. The Metzlers are even quicker than I expected given their reputation. My RT handles like a different bike- lighter and faster to turn. But does it come at the cost of poorer traction in the wet? I had absolute confidence with the Bridgestones but I have to admit these Metzlers make me a little nervous. Put this in the believe-it-or-not category: Over 30,000 miles and my RT is still on its original OEM brake pads! Granted, much of that distance comes from touring but this is still amazing. I carried a spare set on this trip expecting to replace them along the way but it looks as though the originals have enough life left to get me back home.
Saturday, November 15, 2003 - Tombstone, Arizona
 Turns out there really is a Boot Hill cemetery in Tombstone! It's been preserved and is worth a visit if you're in the area. I regret that I can't say the same for the rest of the town. It's there, alright, but it's been shamefully transformed into a yuppiefied wild west cartoon town where the old saloons and bordellos now serve up kitschy souvenirs and overpriced ice cream. Actors in costume walk the streets and perform gunfight reenactments on the hour. But mostly the old wooden sidewalks are crowded with camera-packing, polyester-wearing tourists. Like me. A man will go the devil pretty fast in Tombstone.... Faro, whiskey and bad women will beat anyone.  Billy Clanton, Frank McLaury and Tom McLaury are buried in Boot Hill. They made history on October 26, 1881 by dying in the famous gunfight at the OK corral. Quite a few graves are marked "unknown"-- presumably because markers and records were lost over the years. One "unknown" is clearly an original being marked, "found in abandoned mine, 1882." There is no shortage of murder victims and even a couple of people killed by Indians. Interesting enough but the strangest were the graves marked "legally hanged." I had to pause and think about this for a minute. In those days it seems it was necessary to make the distinction between someone legally hanged and the other, somewhat less formal, method. Now, boys, don't you go tryin' to take justice into your own hands. Ain't right. We'll give him a proper fair trial, legal and all, and then we'll string him up.
Monday, November 10, 2003 - Austin, Texas
 Steve and Heather Stafford That's my brother Steve and his wife Heather. I'm in Austin, Texas to visit them and to see some old friends. One of the best things about travelling is reuniting with family and friends along the way. My partner from Cinematronics days, Kevin Gliner, has a new startup. Knockabout Games is making games for cell phones. First up is Precision Pinball which is especially interesting because 3D Pinball for Windows was Cinematronics's first successful product. I hope it will be at least equally as successful for Knockabout. The demos Kevin showed me were impressive and he has a good business plan. He won't need it but I wish him luck anyway. I'm thinking of moving back to Austin some day and one of the reasons for my visit is to get a good look at real estate here. Things have noticeably improved since my last visit in June. The inventory of unsold houses in all market segments is smaller, prices on high-end homes have fallen a little closer to earth and there is even some new construction. You can never call a market bottom until after the fact but this has the feel of being near a traditional bottom. The catch is that interest rates are almost certain to rise next year which will be a negative damper on any recovery. I don't expect things to stabilize until interest rates have risen and remained high long enough to force the existing pool of reluctant sellers to capitulate and take their losses. I'll have better visibility on this next summer.
Friday, November 07, 2003 - Sanger, Texas
 Anita and Ron McDonald I'm in Sanger, Texas visiting family. Sanger is a small town in north Texas about a half hour north of Dallas and Ft. Worth. That's my wonderful Mom and her terrific husband. There's nothing quite as nice as coming back home!  New puppies! Mom and Ron raise Old English & Bullmastiffs and run the Southern Breeze Kennel.  My wonderful Mom and me |