my life in california

2009-12-18T18:58:00.000-08:00

all flights are canceled. Well this is the current state of my vacation this year.

Now time to find some new flights, rebook them and get reimbursed for my loss of time and planning.

I'm kinda glad I got travel insurance and flight insurance for this trip.

So yes right now my flight from tomorrow is canceled and I will be in berlin a bit later. New flight is supposed to be on sunday...

...We shall see...

2009-12-16T22:17:00.000-08:00

I'm driving car's since years and never actually considered changing anything on them. As long as there running I'm happy.

Now with the motorcycle, well I got it since 2 weeks now and did already the first modification to it. I replaced the standard light bulbs with some fancy high lumen light bulbs. And boy what a difference these make, I'm finally able to see something on the highway at night and feel save driving on it.

So far defiantly the most rewarding 100$ I invested so far and cheaper than fixing a couple of broken bones, because I didn't see the pothole at 75mph.

I also know that I will install the same light bulbs in the next car I own, I'm just amazed at the difference. It's really light and day.

2009-12-16T00:23:00.000-08:00

planned for 2010, taking the bike camping in yosomete and later yellowstone.

required setup?

Something to work on in the next 4 month while I get my riding skills up.

required

tankbag
saddle bags

2009-12-15T19:14:00.000-08:00

Today I learned something new, how to push start a motorcycle and I have to admit it's a heck of a workout.

I got a call from a friend around 4pm that she is stranded and needs someone to deliver a can of gas to her car, sure not the big deal.
I was a bit frustrated since I just cleaned and lubed to chain, which was supposed to rest overnight. Reason being is that the lube can soak into the seals completely and 30 minutes are recommended, but a night was supposed to be better.

Anyway after riding to her house and picking up the gas, my bike didn't start anymore. Reason being, no electricity. At this point I remembered, wait I had the high beams running, while the engine was off. To keep the engine fan running, while lubing the chain. Seems that a motorcycle battery is drained much quicker than a car battery. In like 45 minutes or so...

So I googled on my trusty IPhone and found out that I can push start the bike, I just have to move it in first or second gear and it should fire up. 20 Minutes later I realized that the success is higher, if you turn the kill button off... Once this was done the bike stuttered and fired right up.

Guess I put in a new battery after my Christmas vacation, since I'm quite sure that the battery will be drained after being in the garage for 3 weeks, without running. And my car battery charger can't be used on the bike.

Also to take off the seat to reach the battery is kinda sad...

2009-12-13T19:12:00.000-08:00

Since we had some sunshine today, the weather was nice and warm. So I decided to visit my girlfriend in sacramento on the bike and drive down the old river road.

View Larger Map

Well the idea was good, but turned ~~sour~~ wet after I hit a mild rain in woodland. But motivated as I was I still kep going and the tunes of pink floid - pusle joined me at the ride. I was successfully avoiding the squirrel of doom and this time there was no stray dog on the road (last time I went this way I ended up in the dirt with the truck, to avoid hitting a stray dog)

65 Minutes later I arrive happy and toasty warm in sacramento. Sure my clothes were dripping wet. But my outfit kept me warm and dry more less. Even the glove liner worked well enough at this 50F day (10 degree celsius) and we went to the store to look at some warmer gloves for me. I was kinda scared about driving back and not finding the road again. (No GPS on the bike and ihpone/TomTom are not cooperating)

Sadly it turned out they had no decent gloves at the store. I mean they have at least 500 pair of gloves, but not the ones I was looking for and there 'winter' gloves were a joke in the first place. The only gloves I liked and which were warm and toasty (and heated with an additional plugin!) were way to expensive. At least I got a 10$ neck warmer, which makes live much nicer. Than we stopped at REI so that Ashley can get some warm clothes for Germany.
It's great that she plans ahead instead of freezing her toes off, that's going to be my job anyway. Since we all know that I'm always freezing.

2009-12-11T21:48:00.000-08:00

after I left work today I got surprised by the rain and it was so slippery that I decided to work the rest of the day from home.

Well I guess rest of the day is meant literally, since it's now 9.45pm and I'm still working. It looks like I fall into old habits and working on friday nights. Which turned out to be not the smartest thing todo, judged by past expiriences.

Anyway I decided to stop at the store and reward my self with some good chocolate, apple sauce and a 20 year old port. It's been a while since I had nice wine.

2009-12-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

Since it was raining I finally had a bit time to take some pictures of jasmine instead of always riding her or trying to learn to control her.

So just some quick shot's from the garage and I will try to provide some better shot's once the weather is nice and I take her outside for a long ride.

Isn't she beautiful? She even has character. Today the horn and rear signal stopped working.

I already got the signal fixed, loose connection and I guess the horn is the same issue.

2009-12-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

the biggest scam in the states seems to be the sales tax.

let's see you buy an item and you pay a tax for it? Ok I kinda agree with this so far. Than you take this item and sell it again. What happens to the buyer? He has to pay sales tax.

This translates into the following (fictive) example.

person A buys a motorcycle and pays 10k dollar for it. The sales tax is 10%, so 1000$
person A sells this bike to person B for 8k dollar, the sales tax is 800$
person B sells this bike to person C for 4.5k dollar, the sales tax is 450$
person C sells....

so for one item you the state got a total of 2250$ in taxes so far. Does this seem fair?

yes I had to pay sales taxes today for 'jasmine' And no I'm not happy about it. I just paid sales tax for my Passat 7 month ago...

2009-12-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

I was kidding since weeks, as soon as I get the bike it's going to be cold and rainning.

forecast for tomorrow:

-4 degree celsius
and rain...

i don't believe my luck...

2009-12-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

look what saint nikulaus dropped off at my door last night

here name is 'jasmine' and she is a 2005 yamaha R6

I also got some wonderful truffels from my beautiful girlfriend

2009-12-04T16:28:00.001-08:00

this mornign I stumbled over a deal for some logitech IEM's which were reduced from 400$ to 99$, one day only.

What did I do? Order 2 pairs like several other thousand people in the hope to sell it on craigslist for a quick 400-500$ profit. Let's see if it works out.... At least I got an order conformation before the logitech server collapsed.

2009-12-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

today I came home and found a huge package on the door step. What could it be?

Surprisingly my REI clothes came a week early and now I'm almost ready for germany this year. And quite sure that I'm not going to freeze again...

Only thing missing are socks and glove liners now. Yes I hate nothing as much as to freeze and as I know my girlfriend she want's to walk all over berlin in a middle of a blizzard...

jacket - wind/water proof
jacket liner - fleece
jacket liner - thermo
underarmor pants (base layer)
underarmor shirt (mid layer)
rei light weight shirt (base layer)
rei mid weight shirt (mid layer)
rei fleece pants (mid layer)
jeans (top layer)
gloves
hat

if this is not enough, I'm really running out of options....

2009-12-03T15:01:00.000-08:00

currently head direct is kicking out RE0 IEM for 79$ instead of 200$, since they are releasing the new version soonish.

There was no way I pass up such a deal and did not order these for my IPod/IPhone. Now all I need is a portable amplifier. I really like the iBasso T3 or iBasso D10, but I guess this has to wait till january/february/march.

But this also requires me to order a LOD for my I-Pod.

After all I still have to pay for registration, insurance and delivery for the bike, which is going to be another 400$. Not to mention the great steakhouse visit :)

2009-12-03T22:48:00.000-08:00

tonight I started reading the novel 'First Blood' also better known as 'Rambo', because the movie is based on this novel. Sadly the movie is not very close to the novel and the worst thing...

in the preface the author analyzed the movie against the novel and gave away the main difference. He explained the different endings in the novel and the movie. Or let me translate this, on page 5 he gave away how the book ends.

Thanks, not really motivated to read it now anymore...

2009-12-03T17:17:00.000-08:00

today I finally managed to connect my laptop to my little dot dac and have to say. The quality is quite impressive and I can't really complain. Now I just have to sort out all these bad quality < 256kbps mp3 files I have. Cause 128kbps sounds plain awful.

Advantage? Only have to buy cd's I really like and don't have as mpg3, since iTunes doesn't give you loose less compressed files :(

2009-12-02T18:47:00.000-08:00

yay my new cd and cooking book finally arrived. And so far I really like 'Anouar Brahem - The Astounding Eyes of Rita'

Not sure if I need a third cd from this band, since all there music sounds a bit similar. But it's just so calming and relaxing. Now one day I have to setup my system at home to rip the music from my cd's to a harddrive.

Why?

So I can listen to it on the way and while being at work.

2009-12-02T17:47:00.000-08:00

something is seriously odd this year. For non apparent reason what soever all my laptops just die

T41p (company) - blown logic board, blown display, broken fans and other stuff. I fixed it so often, not worth it anymore. Had it for 5 years+
X60 (company) - blown display after 12 month , replaced by myself, now blown circuit board after 18 month. Had it for 18 months
mac book pro (privat) - blown display after 12 month
mac book pro unibody (company) - somebody dropped it during the airline flight and now I have no: wireless, webcam, bluetooth, keyboard lighting and to get it fixed I have to pay 1000$ for a new display. Not worth it, for 1300$ I get a new macbook and use the one without a display as a computing node. Had it for 8 Month

anybody sees a trend?

Now I'm actually considering buying a netbook, just to have reliable internet at home.

arg...

2009-12-01T14:58:00.000-08:00

progress with the quest of conquering everystate in the USA, 2 more are done...

new jersey
arizona

conquered means I was there for more than a lay over!

2009-12-01T11:36:00.000-08:00

ich denke weihnachten kann kommen, endlich habe ich genug warme sachen zum anziehen...

under armor shirt
fleece pullover
fleece jacke
softshell jacke
fleece hosen
under armor hosen
handschuhe
muetze

I guess christmas can com, I finally got enough warm clothes to wear

under armor shirt
fleece sweater
fleece jacket
softshell jacket
fleece pants
under armor pants
gloves
hat

2009-11-25T16:37:00.001-08:00

verdammt die aepfel sind nicht versunken in meinem versunkenen apfelkuchen...

2009-11-25T14:44:00.000-08:00

how hard can it be?

2 days ago I tried to transfer some money from my account to the account of a friend in san diego. Online banking makes it easy and only charges you 10$ for a next day processing.

so I say ok transfer money, 20 minutes later I get a comformation that the funds are being transfered.

2 days later my online banking doesn't work anymore and the money is still in my account...

So I try to call the help line to figure out what's going on.

Great a voice activated system... Since I'm in no mood spell my name for the next 45 minutes I go to the bank to let them sort out this stuff...

Theoretically...

practically:

me: hi I have an issue with online banking
teller: please call the help line
me: the help line does not accept my accent
teller: please wait, we get somebody to make the call for you
me: thanks

assistant: how can i help you?
me: this is my prolem
assistant: no problem

45 minutes later. Assistane was transfered from customer service to online service to general service to wire service and back to customer service...

So I have a comfirmation for a transaction which never happened. At this time I just order a secoond coffee and think glad that I don't have to do these calls...

75 minutes later she tells me she can't do anything about the transfer and she can't help me with online banking.

So I'm back at calling the customer service....

Which repeatatly hangs up on me. 30 minutes later, I'm trying the online chat system, Which seems to be a stupid robot. Which does not get the message.

Example of the chat log:



Faith: Do you remember your passcode? Please do not disclose it to me.
You: yes
You: but the passcode is not the problem
Faith: Wonderful!
You: the error message I get since 3 days is: ' * We're temporarily unable to process this request. Please try again.'
Faith: http://www.bankofamerica.com
Faith: Please click on the above link to sign in.
You: i still get the same error message
You: ' * We're temporarily unable to process this request. Please try again.'
Faith: For security of your account we never store your passcode or have acess to them, I apologize, however, I will be glad to provide you a new temporary passcode immediately which allows you to change it to a permanent one, once you access the site. Will that be alright?
You: yes, sure
Faith: Sure, one moment please.

Surprisingly it worked. Only wasted 2 hours of my live and now running late with baking my cake...

update: just got an email that the none existing transfer was canceled...

2009-11-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

today I finally managed to find the time and desire to update my little dot mk1 with some better componets which I have laying around since a couple of weeks.

Well what did I do?

exchanged the standard chip to an LT1364 - Dual 70MHz, 1000V/µs Op Amps
exchanged the standard tubes to a pair of MULLARD CV131 6CQ6 CV4015 EF92 NOS

and how did it changed the setup?

First of all the amplification dropped a lot with the 'new' tubes. Instead of the 25% I now need to increase the output to 85% for the same amplification.

And the sound did get much worse, specially at higher amplification levels. Right now I'm going to burn the tubes in for the next 48 hours to see if it improves, but I don't really think so.

Fazit?

opamp was worth it,
tubes, were a waste of 40$ for this amplifier. Maybe one day when I get my hands on a little dot mkIV I have better chances? We will see. I actually lust more after a mk VII or even Woo Audio 6 Special Edition which has all the features I could think off, maybe in a year or so when I also got some grado SR-325is or RS-1. My reward for another visa?

Hey I can wish and dream, but first comes a vacation in utah and antelope canyon! Maybe finally hawaii...

Right now my wallet has to recover for the next 6 month. These last 2 month were way to expensive and fixie left me flat broke...

correction after listening to these new tubes 5 more minutes. They sound absolutely awful to my ears.

So I will try to burn them in the next 5 nights and see how they perform. Afterward I will try to use the other opamp I got for comparison.

5 hours later and the sound becomes worse and worse. They are getting more and more static noise and I think they are broken. Time to send the seller a complain...

15 hours later and it's obvious the tubes are just really bad and I guess I stick with what I have till my hearing is more improved. So I can actually take advantage of the finer details in the music.

2009-11-23T15:28:00.000-08:00

so my currrent expirience without a car is slightly frustrating.

Example I had togo to woodland 3 times this weekend at very odd times

friday 5pm - 11pm
saturday 6am - 1pm
sunday 6am - 1pm

Now since it was ridiculous cold I ended up renting a car for these days, which translates into another 200$ spend for renting the car and gas, frustrating at best...

So I'm looking now into the so called zip cars to see how this concept works. Which is basically a car sharing approach and could be cheaper. Not sure about it yet.

Why didn't I ride my roadbike out to woodland?

It was just to cold and dark, that's the only reason. But this is something of the past. Cause after renting the car I had the possibility to go shopping at REI, Cycle gear and Ikea which translates into

very warm heavy jacket
very warm light jacket
very warm heavy pants
underarmor shirt and pants
a new blanket and covers (Extremely warm and comfy, but makes it harder to get up in the morning)
candles, gluehwein and chocolate...
very warm gloves
sturdy pair of leather gloves
and some other stuff

so this should keep me warm in Germany and specially here.

2009-11-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

and the car is sold. The funny thing is I would buy another Passat without hesitation again.

cost of ownership in 7 month: 7,754 - 3500 = 4254$ a bit much for my taste.

So no car for the next 12 month :(

2009-11-17T23:43:00.000-08:00

mhm maybe I was a bit greedy. I had a buyer for the passat today who offered me 3500$ and I turned him down because I wanted 4000$. Maybe I should had just sold the car to him and have one problem of my mind?

Well there is always another day...