Author Archives: Pat

The Big Texas Toy Run

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The bike got fixed just in time for me to do the toy run. It’s about the only large ride I do and that’s fine by me. The organizers added a third staging area in Grapevine last year as a test and apparently it worked out because they had it again this year, but it was done better. The ride out to the Arlington Convention Center was much better organized with our lanes coned off until we got on 360 South, which was shut down entirely.

They apparently had a pretty good turnout because I left the area at about 2:00 and there were still bikes arriving from the Dallas staging area.

Eragon

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I got together with some friends for a Christmas party and to go see Eragon. Well, at least the Christmas party was good. I guess reading the book first was a mistake because even though you could tell that it was written by someone a little younger, but at least he had talent enough to tell a good story. The movie really falls flat in a number of areas.

First off, it doesn’t merely diverge from the book, it changed whole sections, and not for the better. It’s one thing to shorten longer sections to keep people from having to sit through a too long movie, but even that one can be countered by the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies. What they did here was to completely change sections a-la Greedo shooting first.

Also, the acting was wooden and less than believable in many cases. I’m also going to lump the cinematography in here. The camera work was terrible. Too many closeups being used to portray I don’t know what. It just didn’t work.

I definitely wouldn’t go back to see this one again and won’t be buying the DVD. I’m not going to say that you should stay away from the movie, just that you should adjust your expectations accordingly.

Starter Gasket

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I just got off the phone with the shop and it turns out that it wasn’t a transmission leak at all and that all of the oil I’ve been seeing on the right hand side was due to a leaking seal between the starter motor and the cases. It’s being fixed as we speak and the bike should be ready tomorrow. I’m relieved to know what’s wrong and that it’s a relatively minor fix.

The Bike’s In The Shop

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Well, after dealing with a flat, a leak, and a few other little annoyances, I finally got fed up and called The Parts Brothers to pick the Sportster up and give it a checkup. I’m concerned that the leak is transmission fluid since that’s where it seems to be coming from. Plus there’s a few other little things that need to be done. So I should know more in a few days.

Weapons of Choice

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Being a big fan of time travel and military sci-fi this one caught my eye and I dropped it in my cart. Well, I finally got around to completing it and really enjoyed it. Basically it’s the story of a naval task force from 2021 which, through a disastrous physics experiment, a-la 1942, is sent back to 1942 and proceeds to mess up the Battle of Midway when the automatic systems take out most of the US Task Force.

It’s a really interesting premise because over the intervening 80 years there have been a lot of social as well as technological changes which make the assimilation of the two groups that much more difficult. It’s one thing to have a vastly superior warship at your disposal, but it’s another for it to be captained by a British woman of mixed Pakistani descent. And it only goes down hill from there. The author has done a really good job of making both groups reactions to the situation believable and consistent.

There are more books in this series and I’ll be buying them once my to-read stack has gotten a lot smaller.

Eragon

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Since the movie is coming out and there has been so much buzz about it I figured I’d give it a try. It’s a pretty good book, following a pretty classic Tolkienesque structure but with some interesting twists. The world the story is set in is consistent and believable and the book as a whole is a good freshman work from a really promising author.

In a nutshell, without spoiling anything, it is the story of Eragon, a country boy with a mysterious past, and the dragon egg that he discovers. Unfortunately for him that discovery throws him head first into a much more complicated situation than he ever imagined.

Bent Axles

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After noticing some really bad tire wear, I decided that I’ve got to figure out what’s really wrong. The wear pattern on the front tires indicated a camber problem because the insides of the front tires are worn almost flat while the outsides have plenty of treat left. The problem is that Wranglers have solid front axles so there is no camber adjustment like on independent suspensions. So I took the Jeep to Dallas Frame & Alignment to have them look it over. It turns out that both axle housings were bent, the front worse than the rear, but still both bent. They’ve been straightened now and all I’ve got left is to replace the tires a few months earlier than I would have.

I’m thinking that the damage was caused when I took that trip to Clayton because I was doing stuff I really shouldn’t have been attempting with a stock Jeep. But what’s done is done and I know better now.

The Stinking Rose

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While in San Francisco for business a bunch of us went to The Stinking Rose for dinner. They bill themselves as a garlic restaurant and they’re not lying. The food was excellent with nice, heavy garlic notes in everything. I had the 40 clove chicken and they weren’t exaggerating one bit. While it was a little pricey I’d definitely go back the next time I get out to San Francisco.

Semper Mars

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This was another one of my gee whiz purchases because it sounded interesting. It’s the not too distant future and the United States, Russia, and England are the last holdouts from a UN dominated world government. Tensions are high when the explorations of some 500,000 year old ruins on Mars turn up a discovery which threatens to force mankind to reevaluate everything we know about ourselves. Some people are intent on making sure that discovery never sees the light of day and all that stands between them are 30 Marines who are over 100 million miles from home.

It’s a well written book with great attention to detail and good character and plot development. It’s a great way to spend a few evenings.

A Fistful of Charms

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Having nothing but free time on the flight back from San Francisco I got to finish A Fistful of Charms, the latest in the Rachel Morgan books. I’m really impressed with the series because they keep getting more interesting and detailed with each new volume. In this one we follow Rachel, Jenks, and Ivy out of the city to save her ex and retrieve a missing artifact. True to form there’s more going on than that simple plot description would seem to indicate. As the story comes to a close more problems have been created than solved, which is saying a lot.