Serenity

I got a chance to go see an advance screening of Joss Whedon‘s Firefly movie thanks to the Dallas Browncoats.

This movie is simply amazing. I was blown away by it. The script, the cinematography, the special effects. Just incredible. I’m not going to post a single spoiler here, but if you were at all interested in the Firefly series that briefly aired on Fox, re-watch them, in order, and then go see this movie. It opens on September 30.

Shiny!

10,000 Mile Service

After the disaster yesterday I got the fluid changes done this morning, tweaked the mixture screw a little more, and gave the bike a bath. All that’s left now is to grease the steering neck and swingarm bearings. But I’ve got to buy a new grease gun since the one I’ve got is too small for the tube of grease.

The bike looks good with the new air cleaner. I’d been running that Dragtron for so long that I’d forgotten how nice the hamcan looks on the bike. Plus, washing the road grime off really does make it look good. There’s chrome under there!

Working On The Sporster

I set aside today to work on the Sporster. The left turn signal switch was broken and needed to be replaced and I planned to do a 10,000 mile service. Well, I got the switches replaced with new, shiny chrome ones. But in the process of doing that I had to remove the throttle cables, which meant that I had to take apart the air cleaner. This was a good thing because the air filter was shot and the air cleaner itself, a Dragtron II, was in pretty bad shape. I couldn’t find another filter and so I went up to American Eagle Harley Davidson to pick up the Screamin’ Eagle air cleaner that I’ve been putting my pennies away for. I also had to pick up a new enricher cable because the one that I had on there was broken.

So now the bike’s got a shiny new air cleaner and is running much better. I didn’t get to the fluid changes or the bath, so that’s the plan for Sunday.

R.I.P. Dora

I got a phone call this morning, it looks like Dora wasn’t long for this world. We’ll just have to see how Reese takes it, but they’re going to try another fish later on in the week.

The New T-Bag

My new Sidekick came in today. It’s a little bit wider than I thought it would be, but it certainly doesn’t lack for space to store stuff. It’s pretty empty even with the laptop, cables, and other miscellaneous junk in there. The new universal mounting system that T-Bags developed is pretty cool. It made me feel better about paying for this bag, knowing that I don’t have to pick and choose the kind of sissy bar if I were to move up to another bike.

Hats off to Cycle Customizing for fantastic prices and a great overall buying experience.

T81A Found!

It arrived this morning, and I’ve powered it up, done a full reset, and started programming repeaters in. I’m thinking I’m going to have to get ahold of someone with a better antenna because this thing just can’t consistently hit repeaters that it should be able to. I’m hoping there’s no internal damage, but the fact that I can’t hit 444.150 from 183 and Empire Central with 5 watts is not making me feel all that good.

Reese’s First Pet

We bought Reese his first pet today, a golfish that he’s named Dora. The bowl’s up high where he can look at it but can’t touch. I don’t think the poor fish would survive all that long around 3 year old fingers.

At All Costs

After resisting the temptation for a good while I gave in and bought the advance reader copy of At All Costs, David Weber’s latest book in the most excellent Honor Harrington series. I couldn’t put it down, so to speak, and finished it early this morning.

It’s a really good book, better than War of Honor because it got back to a little more action and a lot less politicing. It’s interesting the way this was written because a good chunk of it takes place at the same time as Crown of Slaves.

Mr. Weber’s certainly hinting at which way this series is going to go, and I for one am eagerly waiting for Mesa and the Sollies to get what’s so obviously coming to them.

Pandora’s Star

I just finished reading Peter F. Hamilton’s book Pandora’s Star. It’s a well written, but large, book, with multiple story lines that he’s started bringing together near the end of it. It starts telling the story of humanity’s expansion into the universe via wormhole technology and their encounter with an alien species whose though processes are so alien to humans or any of the other alien races that it sets out to exterminate all other species.

The book ends with a cliffhanger, but the next one in the series, Judas Unchained will be released in early 2006 so I’ll just have to wait until then.