Tag: blog

No Sweat

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

You know the old saying “No Sweat” which typically means no problem.  Well, in my case it is a literal translation.  When I’m riding the bike there is literally no sweat coming from my body.  The only thing that is wet on me is my collar and my hair as well as the helmet straps.  When I get home from my long bike ride I take off the helmet and let my hair dry and that’s the extent of the problem.  I don’t have to change my shirt or quickly take a shower because my body is drenched because it just isn’t.  My body is as dry as a bone all except for my cranium.

I mean, I’m very grateful that I am not sweating and ruining shirts with the sweat stains or having to buy so much Degree for men that it will last me until eternity.

Maybe the weather is the problem.  Maybe since it’s in the 70’s outside when I go riding.  It’s too cold for me to sweat.  In fact if I didn’t wear a helmet made out of Styrofoam I probably would be completely dry.

So, I absolutely will not need bike shirts until Spring of 2009 when the weather is going to start getting too hot again,  I have faith that when it is so hot outside like 100 degree weather, I will be drenched just from typing this blog out.  Hmmm maybe I should wear bike shirts and shorts everyday in the summer lol.

Light Set for Bike

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

My light set finally came today.  I bought it exactly a week ago on Saturday and it came today which is a Saturday hehe.  That’s ok, I wasn’t too impatient… NOT!

I installed it immediately and almost right away I ran into a huge snag.  The headlight could be installed in 1 of 3 locations.  2 places on the handlebars, the screw on top that you use to adjust the handlebars but that screw doesn’t come out.  You unscrew it and it is connected to the bottom of the pipe to tighten the handlebars so when you adjust it to go up or down it tightens.  Then there is a screw in the middle of the handlebars in the front that you use to adjust the handlebars to tilt them up or down.  That screw comes out but it was too thick to go into the hole for the light bracket.

So my only alternative was the brakes.  As soon as I took the screws off the brakes I messed things up.  The diagram shows that you have to remove the brakes and put the light behind them so it’s all the way in the back which I was able to do no problem.  But when I went to replace the brakes and tightened the nuts the brakes wouldn’t work.  They were locked in place.  I didn’t put it back on right and the way the spring is on there you cannot put something behind it.  It’s just not done.  So I had to take the light off and figure out how to get the brakes back on right which I eventually did.  I got the manual out but couldn’t find it in there.  It then occurred to me to look at the back brakes to see how they are installed lol DUH.  Anyway, I got them back on and put the light in the very front of the brakes.  It’s all good now.

The generator got put in place and so did the back light.  It all works.  Although I can’t really tell in the daytime, I have to ride it when the sun goes down to see how well it all works.  From what I remember when I was a teenager and having this same light system the lights aren’t very bright when you are riding a normal speed which I guess is 10mph.  When you are going down hill the lights turn on bright because you picked up speed.  So it makes sense that when you go faster the lights go brighter.  And of course as soon as you stop the lights turn off.

I’m just glad to have it finally so I was able to check that off my wish list for the bike.

Spam

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I just love spam.  I much prefer it after I’ve fried it in the skillet so it’s a little greasy and it’s a little scorched.  Although it cooks good in a toaster oven as well.  Then I put mayo on 2 slices of bread and eat it like a sandwich.

The spam that I do hate is the ones that come with links and gibberish in the form of comments on my blog.  Although I do appreciate the fact that someone out there took the time to look at my blog, I think… or maybe it was a bot who found my blog site and started posting junk.  I don’t know.  All I know is I much prefer it in the form of a sammich.

PlayStation Store

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

Wow I just read on the PlayStation Blog that the PlayStation Portable is going to get a firmware upgrade to 5.0 which will allow you to go to the PlayStation Store using the PSP to buy and download games, demos, wallpaper, themes etc.  All you have to do is sign in to your account and they keep your credit card info so you just buy something and you don’t need to worry about entering your credit card info.  Which is actually dangerous unless you have a very good password with at least 20 digits with random letters, numbers and symbols.

Ok so I just went to the PlayStation Store website and it says that the website is going to be down until late October cause they are totally redesigning the website so you can download to your PSP or PS3.  How will they make any money if their website isn’t operational for 2 weeks?  LOL.

Wow I just read the full blog and they are also adding a full keyboard for texting instead of like a phone.  That’s pretty cool and I can’t wait for that.  It will make texting on the PSP much easier I think.  They are also adding a sleep timer that can be used for playing music on the PSP.  I am not quite sure what that means, maybe if you set it for 1 hour then in 1 hour the PSP goes into sleep mode so you don’t waste your battery.  Like if you must have music on when you go to bed.  I actually like that idea because I do like to hear music when I go to sleep but don’t want it to run all night.

Longer, Harder and Uncut

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, Diet, ExerciseLeave a comment

Ok.

I thought the ride would get harder because when you push yourself to go that extra block you use more energy to get there.  Well, when I got to Eye st. I decided to just keep going to Chester and I made it so then I was able to turn right and go back to 3rd.  It was actually easier coming home on Chester than it was going to California on H.  Maybe because I knew I was coming home.

Hmmmm, let’s see, what is uncut…  Well, this blog is, there are no commercials.  So there 😛

By the way, going from Eye to H to California to Chester to 3rd then back to Eye was only 1.6 miles and I’ve been going 1.5 miles turning on Eye instead of going to Chester while on California.  I know, 0.1 mile is not a lot and 2 min extra is not a lot but I started out with 15 min for 2 days then got to 17 min.  Who knows, tomorrow I might do 17 min again or I might do 20 min and 1.7 miles.  The point is that I’m getting my legs used to the work.  The first day my legs were in agony, I could barely move.  Of course today when I came home I could barely walk, I looked like i was an old man using a walker again lol.  But that’s what it takes to get the muscles back into shape.  A little pain at the beginning so I can go the distance with no pain at all.  That’s why they say “no pain, no gain”.

I remember as a teenager riding my bike to school in the morning and not being the least bit tired from the bike ride, then riding home, putting my McDonald’s uniform on and going back out the door on my bike to work.  When I got there I had no pain in my legs because I was so used to riding a bike that my legs were never in any pain from it.  I think because I was so thin back then helped my case because I have 100lbs more than I did 22 years ago.

Also when I was 22-23 years old and I rode my bike from North Hollywood all the way to Hollywood and I did that several times a week too and it would take maybe an hour but it didn’t matter, I was never in any pain.  And I never had a water bottle with me because it wasn’t that hard that I needed water.  Although now that I think about it I probably could have used a water bottle lol.  But that trip was uphill and downhill and curvy.

Oh and when I was 19 and I lived in Canoga Park I used to ride my bike once in a while on the Santa Susanna Pass going to Simi Valley to visit my Aunt Betty at Ralph’s.  That never even phased me.  Although I was a bit winded, I needed water lol.  But I got through it no problem and the ride home was a breeze because it was uphill the entire way there so it was downhill the entire way home.

OMG! Look At My Fortune Cookie!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Ok, we went to China Town Buffet for lunch and as we were leaving in the car I opened my fortune cookie and this is what is said:

Is that crazy or what?  In my previous blog I was so upset about my battery being 1mm too big, my bike case being too big and the pump gauge not working.  Then I get this.

I found a solution to the Dell DJ.  I strapped it to the back with a rubber band and have it plugged it, it’s charging now.  I can keep the bottom piece off as long as I keep it from getting dirty so Darrin bought me a neoprene case at Target today.  He also bought me a helmet.   I really have no excuses for riding my bike now to get exercise.  The helmet looks horrible though lol.  It’s not that particular helmet, it’s helmets in general because my face is so round and it basically shows off just how round my face is.  But, I have faith that in time my round face will turn a bit more oval and I won’t look as ridiculous.  I will have to get me a new pair of sports sunglasses so hopefully that will even my face out lol.

I Can Do 2 Shows…

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

I was worried when we got Digital cable that because we had to have a cable box that I would have trouble when I have 2 shows on at the same time.  Without a cable box I can record 1 show on my dvd recorder and watch another show on another channel by hitting the tv/vcr button.  But with a cable box, the dvd recorder only records what is currently on the cable box channel since the tv is always on channel 3.  There is no getting around that.  Forget being able to record ever again.

But, thank goodness for the internet because if I have a show on ABC and NBC at the same time I can just go to that networks website and watch the show on my computer.  Last night I had 2 shows, both on at 8pm.  Pushing Daisies on ABC and Knight Rider on NBC so I watched Pushing Daisies last  night then this morning I watched Knight Rider at the NBC website.

Unfortunately, not all networks do that.  Well, mostly they do but like the CW channel, last year I missed a couple of episodes of Smallville and Supernatural and they had all their other shows on their website but those 2 they didn’t for some reason.  I ended up having to download them via emule.

The networks that do have their shows on their website “on demand” they keep the current season on there from episode 1.  Heroes for example, when season 2 began they removed all of season 1.  Since season 3 has already begun they have totally removed season 2 except for the last episode of that season.  I don’t know why keep the last episode, maybe so people can catch up first.

The point of this blog was to establish the fact that I’m happy I can watch my shows if I miss them hehe.

Smallville and Supernatural…

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Smallville came on and I was shocked to see that Clark had lost his powers but near the end of the episode he finally got them back but the “martian” lost his by helping Clark get them back.  He works at The Daily Planet now and there was talk of a costume so hopefully he will get his costume soon.

Supernatural began and they showed Dean in hell then next thing he’s in a coffin and digging his way out like a vampire would.  I was way off in my last blog about Sam casting a spell or whatever.  I thought maybe he had made a deal similar to the deal Dean made to get Sam back but he didn’t.  It looks like he has friends in high places lol.  Really high.  Like heaven, that high.  God commanded an angel to pull him out of hell because Sam and Dean are needed to be alive.  So, why didn’t dad get a reprieve?  We will see next week as per the advertisement about how people are coming back.

New Blog

On By Michel McDonaldIn BlogLeave a comment

I’ve decided to change the way my blog looks.  I wanted it to be cleaner and to be able to add paragraphs and images and with the way my blog was I just wasn’t able to do that.  This will make my blog look a lot better and it archives itself so I don’t have to anymore.  Although I will keep my past archives on the site.

I sure do hope this blog works out.  The last blog program I used just didn’t work out.  I actually preferred my blog to be on the main page of my website but I’d gladly give up that ability to be able to not have to edit after each post to add paragraphs and images.  Also this has a spell checker hehe.