The Yamaha TZ750, a legendary machine with hard edges, ridden, but never really tamed, does a hot lap of the IoM TT
Holy Shitballs – Yamaha TZ750 at the Isle of Man TT
H
Netflix Binge – Columbo
N
I have written before on my love of classic TV, including a Detective series from the early 1970’s, Columbo. Once again, I am back, re-watching the series, and I am again struck by the production quality, and the stories. Yeah, like many of the genre, the stories are predictable, but the theatrical presentation is outstanding, and the character Columbo, is the perfect vehicle for Peter Falk...
Doom
D
1993, December, actually a little before, I had the inside tip, and an FTP site to get this new game, “Doom”. I remember downloading it at 16kbps dial up. and installing the shareware “beta” on my computer, a 486DX33. I was captivated. A DOS game, it caused me to upgrade my ram and build a faster machine. But it was awesome. While it was not the first FPS (the first I...
Damn NCIS
D
Last weekend I finished the 12 seasons of NCIS that are available on Netflix. Not quite a binge watching, but a pretty addicting stretch of TV. While this isn’t a surprise, I often watch old TV shows and series on Netflix, I usually get to a point where I give up. Either the story line becomes tired and stale, or I get bored, and move on. Rockford Files and Columbo are two examples where I...
My affair with racing games
M
Coming of age at the dawn of the video game revolution, I pumped a lot of quarters into the machines. I loved many of them, but the one that really captured my attention was Pole Position. Prior to that I had played the “Night Driver” game on the Atari 2600 (I remember playing at a friend’s house) but it was primitive. Pole position, with its steering wheel and the perception of...
Toys – XBox One
T
With the move, I made a singular splurge. While I have cut way back on video gaming, I do have a humongous soft spot for racing games. From the first time I played the Pole Position arcade game back around 1983. I was hooked. My favorite game on my XBox 360 was the Forza series, and when the premier launch game for the XBox One was to be Forza 5, I knew I was doomed. I held out for over a year...
California Dreaming – Automotive Edition
C
Living in San Jose, you see more than your fair share of Tesla’s on the road. Smug people driving their zero emission vehicles. (although, truth be told, I see probably four Nissan Leafs for each Tesla I see, there are a LOT of Leafs here) Heck, on one message board, someone talked about how they had run a special power line (high current, separate billing from their home) to their garage...
#400 – Better Make it Count
#
I was looking at my dashboard, and realized that the next post would be #400. Wow, 400 times I have had an idea to share and jotted it down. What to write about? Well, there are plenty of things to discuss. Today (May 28) is my wedding anniversary. 14 years ago today, I married the love of my life, and have been happy ever since (just don’t tell her, she thinks she ruined my life…)...
Grocery Shopping Theatre – The beer selection
G
The local Fry’s Foods is a smorgasbord of people watching. A few days ago, I was in the mood for beer, so I maundered in the alcohol aisle. In front of the cooler with the microbrews and imports was a gentleman (and that is a loose interpretation) who was idling in front of the good US micros. I watched him hem and haw for a few minutes. I could almost see him thinking out loud: “I...
Pleasant Memories: Necco Wafers
P
My grandfather on my mother’s side passed when I was pretty young. I don’r remember when, but I do remember fishing trips, and an annual weekend in Yosemite to play in the snow. Driving the big Ford pickup truck, with a camper on it, we would head out. And there was always an adequate supply of Necco wafers in the cab. We would probably go through 2 rolls each way. All us kids would...