Social Networking Pet Peeves

So I'm on a rant today. Not a roaring fire-breathing thrashing and breaking things kind of rant, but more of a steaming raised eyebrow rant where I have the obvious visible exterior that screams "I am going to slap you if you keep being stupid."

So let's talk about stupid social networking pet peeves that I've developed. You may be thinking, "who cares about pet peeves of someone else" but given time you'll think like I do. And that is why I bring this up. It's contagious. I was in your shoes not so long ago. No more digression, let's start looking at my social networking pet peeves (SNPP).

SNPP #1: Baiting

People will post in their status or their twitter something that is actually noteworthy. It's enough to make you go "Wo! Wait a minute, something serious happened to my e-friend. What's going on?" Then you read their whole long diatribe to find out they didn't give you the key information you need to truly ascertain the severity of the situation. Your fingers twitch as you click in the reply box, intent on asking about the conveniently missing information. You start typing, and then stop. They just baited you. And you almost took it. They are fishing for e-friend comments. They are wasting your time. You have to wonder if the event even happened, or if it did how exaggerated was it made by the status post in the hopes to get a bunch of sympathy responses. I say screw that! When someone baits me now, I say "screw you" in my head and keep going. If they really wanted me to know, they wouldn't bait me.

Examples of baiting:

"I have to go to the hospital" but never saying why.

"I have to put my dog down" but not saying why.

"I was pulled over" but not saying why.

"I almost hit a customer" but not saying why.

"Some bad crap happened today while [insert_whatever] and I am very [insert_sympathy_incurring_emotional_state]" but never saying what happened

SNPP #2: The "woe is me" vs "i sniff myself" personas

Social networking is a lot like looking at the world with 3D glasses. On the one side you have the rose-tinted glass with certain people. Their life is super cheerful and happy and lucky. They have whatever they want, do whatever they want, and they are always cheerful. Their pictures show them with a shit-eating grin and it's enough to make you vomit after the first couple months. Then there is the opposite. The "woe is me" crowd is enough to make you almost de-friend them. It's like they are a spokesman for country music. They lost their dog, their house, their lover, and now god is pissing on them. The only good thing to come out of all that, is when one group recognizes the other, and go at it bashing their respective personal beliefs of the world on each other's head.

SNPP #3: The Robot

This person never posts. They setup some app to post quotes. You get 5 invites a day from them to play some e-game from them, but it's all an automated script generated response driven by the need to mass spread the social networking e-life excuse.

SNPP #4: The Vicarious Shadow

This person never posts anything about them. It's all their kids, their spouse, their co-workers, their neighbors, etc. Their avatar is surely a picture of them with other people. All they can talk about is other people. They never really share themselves with you. You may as well not have friended this person at all, but rather just friended the people they are talking about, because you really don't get a glimmer of their life.

I am sick and tired of baiting and eternally happy/sappy people. Robo-friend and Vicarious Shadows are easily fixed with the "ignore" feature. You don't realize how pissed off you are with baiting, until you find yourself trying to e-strangle the imaginary necks of people who post. If you don't feel comfortable sharing the details to important events in your life, then don't share at all.

Muscle Soreness and Exercise

I start this blog with an interesting anecdote. Aristotle was a famous Greek philosopher. His writings covered many subjects, including "physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology." i.e. he was well respected by fellow philosophers. He also said the world was flat. He said this based on his experiences and theories. Was it right? Most of us would agree he was not correct in his flat Earth theory. We still respect him, but acknowledge that his flat Earth statement was a guess and nothing more.

Recently I have started a new workout routine unlike anything I have ever done before. I learned most of what I know about weight lifting, body building, and exercise from guys back in my home town's gym. One of which had competed internationally in power lifting including the Olympics. Another had competed in the Mr. Utah body building competition. What they taught me was good, but I'm learning now, was a lot like Aristotle's Earth claim. Sometimes people make guesses, and when they aren't disproved they start spreading them as facts.

So the new routine is encouraging me to be as inefficient as possible. Efficiency is the bane of muscle growth and fat loss. Our bodies learn to adapt quickly, and adaptation leads to efficiency. So the routines I'm on right now, are quite inefficient, encouraging a total body workout that let's every body part push hard. I'm doing high reps, and lower weight. And I have never had a workout like these, that has me walking away short of breath and feeling like a Mac truck hit me.

This week though I started a new phase of this routine. This phase encourages me to workout more frequently, and I found myself sitting at my computer uncomfortably sore (but not painfully so), and hesitant to workout. For years, the common gym rat will tell you that you should not work a muscle that is sore. You let it repair itself. Doing so can cause "horrible" damage to the muscle. So why would this routine, written by several fitness and health experts (who gathered information from subject test groups and scientific studies conducted across the nation over decades) encourage me to "horribly" damage myself.

The answer I found, is that the intuitive logic of letting your muscle soreness stop before resuming exercise, is wrong. The reality is counter intuitive.

Before I go on, I need to be very clear that I'm not talking about excessive hardline workouts with very heavy weights and very low reps. Heaven forbid you tear a tendon or ligament because you try to power lift your max.

But you really are encouraged to work a muscle that is sore. Ironically, you'll heal even faster if you do so.

Don't take my word for it. I'm a nobody gym rat that was as misinformed as the rest of you. But here are some excellent references.

"But if your muscles are a bit stiff or sore, go ahead and train them. Your body will ramp up your recovery processes in response."

http://atozfitness.com/wordpress/tra...etter-results/

"Sometimes trying to work through an injury makes it worse, and sometimes it makes it better."

http://louschuler.com/blog/Pain+Drain

Best plan I can come up with, based on this new finding, is that unless I am so horribly sore (like the first time you did Deadlifts in your whole life), and I haven't experienced a "bad" pain from a workout, go ahead and go lift. If I can maintain proper form, then go for it.

What's the difference between a bad pain and a good pain. For me, DOMS is a good pain. The wiki on DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) also indicates repeated exercise actually helps in the healing process. When you twist an ankle, pull a muscle, or anything that involves sharp pain, probably lay off until those symptoms dissipate.

I could be wrong. Maybe I'm making an "Aristotle" mistake. Perhaps the findings about exercising when sore are all incorrect, and the findings of doctor's with injured patients are wrong, as is all the studies about DOMS. Maybe in 10-20 years a new study comes out that shows new evidence that suggests you completely wait until you are not sore anymore. When that happens, I'll adapt and learn. I won't just stick my chin out and ignore the facts when thrown at me.

We should never stop learning or improving. What we knew yesterday is not enough for today.

Birthdays and Underwear Gifts

I have something to say. That’s right. I do. I want to talk about the dreaded gifts that people give to others for birthdays, Christmas, or whatever special gift giving event is relevant.

Underwear is not a gift. It’s a necessity. Just like water to drink. You wouldn’t give someone water for their birthday. “Hello my dearest…I got you a 20oz of water for your birthday”. Hell no! You get dumped for that kind of scandal. Seriously! What were you thinking? The same goes for socks.

Eventually you’ll ask yourself, why underwear and socks? What makes them such a mock gift as compared to a new watch or a t-shirt. I’ll tell you. They are a necessity. They are things we wear that no one sees. No one cares about them. All that matters is you have them on you. In fact, you don’t even need them, they are just nice. Disagree? There wouldn’t be phrases like “going commando” if you could disagree. Sandals and sockless shoe paraphernalia is sufficient reasoning.

Now there are times that it counts. Like the underwear you expose part of in the back (if you are sexy enough to warrant showing off part of your ass to begin with, which is an entirely different discussion in and of itself). This underwear may have bright colors, or is embroidered, or has a design that implicates a certain pre-disposed attitude that might result in events that are less likely without aforementioned underwear. Or socks that are meant to be shown, perhaps with bright colors warped out of the 1980s and somehow re-instituted as in-style (for the criminally insane of course).

Is it ok to give them? Yes, but not as the only gift. It shouldn’t even count as part of the gift budget per say. After all, the gift recipient is going to need to receive these “necessary” items with or without the gift giving event that is being observed (such as a birthday).

So why do I have a bone to pick on concerning this subject. Well when you get right down to it, knowing you are going to be getting “necessary” items for an upcoming gift giving event is just downright irritating and pisses me off. I’d rather just skip the blooming event all together than involve myself in such a hoax of an idea. Necessary items are given regardless of a gift giving event. Give them if you must, but not as part of any gift-giving budget.

What else counts as necessary items? Gasoline for your vehicle for commuting to work. What about sun glasses when you have to drive into the sun (to and from work). Water and sufficient food to live on. A seat belt in your car.

Let me ask you this. If your seat belt was broken. Would you get it fixed now, or wait for a birthday so someone could gift you an unbroken seat belt?

Ya, well…you’ve got my drift. Underwear is a truly sucky gift for any event, especially a birthday. And along with that goes all the other necessary gifts that must be given (or self-purchased) regardless.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

Motorcycle Safety and Sales

Why is it, every motorcycle accessory salesman seems to think they are experts in motorcycle safety?

I'm not speaking about the motorcycle salesman in general, but specifically guys at the accessory counters.

First Experience

I really wished my motorcycle had cruise control. Now I’ve looked into adding cruise control, and there are these fancy vacuum kits that give you that option (but they are difficult to install and you have to do-it-yourself). The alternative is a throttle lock or palm rest. So while at the dealership I ask the guy about it. He says, “I wouldn’t dare put one of those on my bike. They are dangerous!” I ask why. He says “Well, they are just a friction lock on the throttle. You hit the brakes and the throttle is still on. It can ruin your engine, brakes, and possibly kill you because you don’t brake in time. Also if you set it on a flat and hit a hill, you’ll go -30 mph up the hill and +60 mph going down the hill.”

Ok ok ok! I get it. Bad idea right? Wait, there is the option of Brakeaway Cruise Control. This little bad boy disengages the throttle when you pull on the front brakes (and if you know anything about motorcycles you always use both brakes, never just one of them). I bring this up as a counter point and the salesman goes “Well…uh uh uh, uhm…I wouldn’t use that thing. How much is it?” I say $200. He says “Heheh, I wouldn’t buy it for that.” I say “What’s the alternative?” *dear in the headlight stare* -from the salesman

Honestly, what the hell? He is unable to offer me an option for a true cruise control install (remember do-it-yourself only and quite complicated). Or a $30 throttle lock that doesn’t disengage. Even if they would install the vacuum cruise control kit, it’d be $1000+. But a $200 alternative that solves the “danger” problem while giving my right-hand a break is beyond their realm of thinking. I saw the gears in his head just seize up.

Second experience

I will need to be able to take one of my daughters on the back of the motorcycle come school season. The alternative is I store my bike for the entire school year (which is not appealing to me…why buy one if you don’t ride it?). But my girls are little. So I did some research. What did I find?

Well for starters, the obvious points are very important. A child should have a DOT helmet (and no half-helm or open-face either…we’re talking full helmet protection). A jacket and gloves, some good shoes (no sandals). But is that enough?

One concern immediately apparent to me was a child’s ability to fall asleep easily pretty much anywhere. We go for a ride and they zonk out if the trip is more than 5 minutes. What happens if they zonk out on the back of a motorcycle and you hit a bump or heaven forbid have to deviate from a straight line and turn. *rolls eyes* The child would simply fall off. To make matters worse I know kids can’t focus on any thing for very long. They’ll get distracted and next thing you know they’ll slide off because they were too busy looking at the dog in the back of the truck next to them or the neat toy store that we are passing buy. How do we fix this problem in a car? Car seats and seat belts.

But strapping your child to the motorcycle is dangerous. In the event of an accident, it is not recommended that you remained firmly attached to your motorcycle. A motorcycle is heavy, hot, full of fuel, and can smash you. A rider who comes free from one in an accident slides along the pavement (which is where good leather comes in).

So I ran across this Child Riding Belt product. It gives the kid a place to hold onto, and straps them to the rider. It reminded me a lot of a mother kangaroo with a papoose (on your back). So after much searching we find a shop selling them in Grants, NM. We drive there (1 hour drive) and buy it. I return to Albuquerque and head to a local dealer to get my oldest girl a helmet. I’m telling the guy about it, and he looks at me with big guys and is like “No no no, I’d never use something like that. You can’t strap them to a motorcycle. Riders have to be free from them in the event of an accident.”

At this point, I probably had a look on my face that said “I so want to slap some sense into you, you silly idiot that you are.” I said, “They are strapped to me, not the bike.” He shakes his head vehemently, “I would never do that to a child on my motorcycle. They can just hold onto your belt loops.”

I don’t lose my temper with strangers often. When I do, a bit of my father comes into play. This guy wasn’t listening or thinking. He was regurgitating rancid half-thoughts that meant nothing to anyone but the zombie populace that define most consumers.

I said, “Sir, do you have children?”

He said, “No…” and looks at me with an infamous dear-in-the-headlight stare.

I said, “I thought not.” I continued, “Do you know what would happen to a child on a motorcycle passenger seat if they were there for a long ride?”

He said, “No” and now he looked like I was going to slap him.

I said, “They fall asleep. And if they don’t do that, they get distracted by the first brightly lit colored object in their view. They are more likely to fall off when I’m driving than any accident related injury.”

He just turned his head and stopped. I don’t know what is wrong with these people. They give advice on subjects they know nothing of. It’s like the couple that doesn’t have kids that decides to saddle up next to you at Church to give you parenting advice. Who the hell do they think they are? This guy doesn’t listen and doesn’t think.

Some people don’t think things through. They just spew forth things they were told that they never thought about. Really, if this guy was so insistent he’d refuse to sell me a child’s motorcycle helmet because he’d realize that them not getting on at all is the real safe answer.

Supporting Others' Rights

I remember having a talk with my Dad about flag burning. I was vehemently opposed to the idea and antagonistic to those who would burn it. I assumed my Dad (being a vietnam vet) would strongly agree with me. But he turned and looked at me and said "They can burn it if they want." He continued to say, "American soldiers have fought for freedom of religion and speech and died for it, and even though they burn the symbol of those freedoms, it is their right to do so."

That changed my entire lookout. It took years for me to realize the extent of this change. But when I see someone complaining and moaning about how another person (or group) is expressing their freedom of religion and freedom of speech (whether that be protesting or political), I am reminded of the way my Dad looked at me when we had this conversation. People have died for that right. If there is anyone we should be angry with over legal inequality, it is the government.

Corbin and Suzuki C109R

Well, I really should be writing more on the Küryakyn, but I'd rather take a small breather and talk about Corbin products. Why? Well, I hit on the most important feature Küryakyn has to offer. They have other stuff that is quite valuable. I'm hoping that they get some air filter units for the C109R that are as cool as what I've seen Küryakyn do for other bikes. But for now, I wanted to talk about an accessory brand known as Corbin.

http://www.corbin.com/shop.shtml

Corbin has been around for a while. They make some of the best seats, bags, and fairings available. So that's what I'll be showing. Now my bike has a blue/white color scheme with studded black seats. If at all possible I will show pictures that reflect that.

1. The Duel Tour Saddle seat. It's a nice seat. It costs about $500. It has a lower back rest for the passenger and driver. This is a good (and bad) thing. On the plus side your back is supported. On the negative side, it is a lot harder to mount your ride unless you practice yoga. I almost did not include this product here. I will tell you why. There is no studded seat option. They do have a million options for textures and colors. I can have a blue rattlesnake leather texture if I wanted. But no studs. My bike looks good with studs. :(


2. The front fairing. Normally I'm not a fan of a fairing. They give me this old man shiver. But considering the way this bike looks with the fairing and bags, etc, it looks pretty nice. It is pricey coming in between $1400 and $1600. There is one up side to a fairing over my current wind shield. My current wind shield blocks all wind to my face. This prevents my helmet vents from cooling my face. So I get hot and have to crack my face shield.




3. Fleetliner Saddlebags. 10 years ago I'd rather be caught dead then on a motorcycle with leather bags. Leather bags were a sign of old school hog riders. The fandangled new modern shiny hard bags were a by product of elderly retired cross-country guy/gals on their 1k lb gold wing. But becoming a parent changed things for me. I crave the ability to have some kind of baggage space on my bike. And not some tank bag (which scratches the paint) but real actual cargo space. Having embraced the classic cruiser style, my leather bags that I use fit the theme real well. The problem is they obscure where my helmet lock goes and have no locks. They look like old school leather bags, but they actually have a form fitted shape with some plastic clips hidden underneath the fake belt-buckle style clasps. So why upgrade? Well, they prevent me locking my helmet and can't lock. That means when I go to the movies, store, or anywhere that my bike will be out of sight for more than 5 minutes, I dare not leave anything in them. The fleetliner bags are the premier bags in the motorcycle bagging world. They are large enough to put a full face helmet. They contour with the body of your bike hugging it closely. They lock. They are water proof. The downside? $1600. The only feature they are missing is being able to snap off quickly in the event I want to cruise and show off my big fat rear tire.



4. Fleetliner Trunk. This is a great looking trunk. It works with the Suzuki backrest or the Corbin backrest. It matches the color of my bike. You can also fit two full-size face helmets in it. It locks. The downside? Well it is $1600. It also doesn't come with a better backrest for the rear passenger which is quite common with this size of a trunk for the passenger. As far as I know, it doesn't snap off either.






The full picture? Let me show you.

Before & After:



My opinion? Well, I just don't know. I like the way my bike looks now. If I could figure out how to lock my helmet and get some black-leather bags that lock and have studs, I'd be happier I think. But the corbin gear is pretty sweet looking.