Making This Interesting

So I don’t quite have enough interesting things in my own life to talk about, and I’ve also grown up enough since I first starting blogging very sparingly a long time ago to realize not too many people care what I think about my life. No harm there, I think it’s fair. I don’t care much about the boring little details about everyone else’s life either.

Now, instead I’ll be blogging about what I find interesting in the world today. Well, interesting enough to share, at least. Let’s make this blog worth reading, shall we?

First up, Kotaku. This has been one of the sites I’ve visited almost every day since I discovered it. Why is it awesome? Well, it’s really only awesome if you’re entertained by video games news. But if you are? AWESOME SITE! Check it out. But it’s not just limited to games, there’s a whole series of these RSS style news feed sites with a informal reporting style. Check out: Gizmodo for computer/gadget stuff, Deadspin for sports stuff, Jalopnik for car stuff, they’ve even got one called Jezebel which is just all girlie stuff. Check it out!

Also, another obsession of mine: Slickdeals.net. It’s a site updated and maintained by it’s own, free to join community about nothing but awesome deals for anything on the internet, constantly updated. Great deals on anything from a clearance on sports bottles to outrageous deals on brand new TVs. I’ve bought quite a few things from posts on there. Check it frequently, though. The deals usually die fast. ;)

And lastly, Philip DeFranco, or sxephil of YouTube. He does a daily, 3-4 minute “show” talking about whatever in the news was particularly funny/entertaining that day. I don’t need say more, just give it a look. The guy is hilarious and worth your handful of minutes spent giving him a shot. Trust me on this one.

 

Alright, that’s it. I’ll be back.

Blizzcon and driving

So I just got back from a vacation. It was great, I must say. I had an awesome time. I left from Great Falls, Montana and drove with Ally to Redlands, California. Let me tell you, that’s a rough drive…

Going from Montana to Cali, I was able to take the I-15 the entire way! This is great because it makes the route simple to drive. It’s also terrible because it’s, Get on the freeway –> Set Cruise Control to 80 –> Wait 2 days. >_< Terrible! There is NOTHING from here to Cali… NOTHING. Ally and I swapped driving responsibilities a time or two per day, but it only helped a bit. When your co-pilot is sleeping, the Zune on shuffle gets old real quick.

That all said, I made it there and back, all in one piece. My most anticipated stop in this little adventure was Blizzcon 2009. Undoubtedly, a fun event. I’ve got a handful of photos of it on my Photostream, but overall I really didn’t take as much pictures this year as last.

Ally and I met a really cool Canadian couple in line right behind us and actually spent a whole lot of the convention with them. I discovered, Canadians are very friendly. My new friend Chris offered me one of his Rockstar drinks within a matter of minutes from meeting him. I gotta say, if all Canadians are this friendly, I’m moving to Canada! xD Needless to say, they were a pleasure to hang out with. Also, I met up with quite a few of my Guild-mates from my guild Reckoning on the server Dragonblight. Also, a treat to hang out with. Ate at PF Changs with Mike “Willican”, “Katt”, and the Steves (“Toad” and SteveO). Also, met with them at The Yardhouse before we left Anaheim. That’s really the best part of Blizzcon. Not the events or cool swag to buy from the Blizzard Store, it’s really the friends you meet. We may all be World of Warcraft playing nerds but everyone is so friendly and social, it’s really a cool and unique experience.

I also visited the family a lot. Not much to say there, it was the norm. Stay at a couple people’s houses, went out for food a lot. I just wish I had more time to do it all. With how thin I had to spread my time with all of the various parts of my family, I couldn’t do anything significant with any of them. Regardless, it was all fun and absolutely worth the trip. :)

And that’s it! Blizzcon, driving, and my family. The driving took forever and there wasn’t nearly enough time for it all, but Blizzcon was a treat and the family was nice to see. Now I’m home! Back to the grind. >_< We’re in the middle of a huge, annual inspection here at Malmstrom AFB and it’s going pretty poorly so far, from what I understand. Oh boy, here comes the fun… lol

Let’s Wreck Our Motorcycles!

So you may or may not have known, I own(ed) an ‘09 Yamaha FZ6R, in black. It was hot… Like, real hot. I loved the bike, and I thought I was getting pretty good at riding it. The day before yesterday I was on an open 2-lane highway, almost zero traffic, taking turns fast and dragging my feet. It felt amazing. For the record, I had only owned this bike for a month now, and had never been riding in my life before I owned it… I was falling in love. Fast.

However, my fun ride didn’t last for long. At about 2:30 PM, traveling back the way I came down this highway, I took one turn too fast. It was good at first… I went from the outside of the lane, to the inside, then the turn got real sharp suddenly. On the way down the highway the other way I didn’t notice how sharp the turns started. In fact, the sharp beginnings of every turn down the road probably helped keep my speed in check. On the way back though, it caught me off guard. Just as I realized I wasn’t going to be able to keep it on the pavement, I panicked and squeezed my front brake.

Before I explain what happened after that, let me explain why it was wrong and what I should’ve done. In this scenario, where I knew I was going to have to go off the road, I should’ve instantly brought the bike up straight, eased off the throttle, and gently applied both my front and rear breaks as I went off the road into the gravel/grass. There was a fence just a ways off the road, but there was no ditch. I should’ve gone off intentially.

What did happen though is I squeezed my front brake hard out of fear… As it happened, I instantly thought, “Fuck. Dan, what did you just do?!” and my back tire slid right out and my bike was on the ground, sliding fast.

Now, at the speed I was going on the freeway (limit was 70mph) getting thrown off a bike in a turn is… Rough. Real rough… Like, unimaginably rough. It was, hands down, the most violent experience of my life. I felt like a little rag doll that just got picked up by a deranged little boy and slammed around into everything near me with an uncontrollable anger. I couldn’t tell what was happening.

Grass. Sky. Grass. Sky. Faster and faster. Harder and harder. I had no control.

Eventually, I stopped. First thing I hear after I become motionless is my bike’s horn sounding non-stop. I knew it was broken. Joe, my supervisor in the Air Force, was riding with me and just far enough behind to not actually see it happen. He quickly caught up and called an ambulance.

I laid there. The pain was intense. I thought I broke my knees. Foolishly enough, my legs were pretty much unprotected when I left. $200 helmet, $200 racing jacket, gloves, steel toe boots… and extremely thin jeans. –_- It was dumb to go with weak leg protection, and I had just found out why. But, my legs were not broken. I had horrific road rash (and I’ll go into that later), but the intense pain in my knees was just from them haven been slammed into the ground so much, so fast.

Between Joe making the call for an ambulance and them showing up, I realized my collar bone hurt… Badly. It eventually started hurting more then my legs did. Then the ambulance arrived. They were asking me questions, trying to asses what kind of condition I was in. I was actually very surprised at this point. Though I was in intense pain, the slight joking attitude Joe and the first responders had with me really helped me get through it. I even got Joe to snap a picture of me posing there on the ground, all jacked up from the crash… Am I crazy for worrying about someone getting a picture of me like that more then actually getting treated? Maybe, but it’s a sweet picture. :D

Shortening up the long treatment process that took about 24-hours to get me back out the hospital door (and still in pain), I gotta say: The worst part of the whole visit was having my road rash cleaned. Though I was on some morphine, them scrubbing my raw, aching legs, then getting in with a tool and sprays into the lacerations, was the worst pain I’ve experienced in my life. The nurse who treated me what nicest person I interacted with there by far, but she also put me through the most pain by far. >_<

But regardless, the whole hospital experience over with, x-rays, knee surgery, etc., I’m home now and taking meds every 4 hours. I’ve got gauze on both knees, and immobilizer on the left knee, and a sling I can wear at my own discretion for my right collar bone with you can see sticking out under the skin since the ligament that holds it in place is completely broken. Also, I have a small fracture in one of the wings of the vertebrae in my lower back but they didn’t give me a brace or anything since it’s not an actual spinal injury. It’ll just be uncomfortable for a while.

What’d I learn from this all? Well for one, I learned not to slam on my breaks mid-turn (I knew it, but know I know not to do it when I panic too xD). Also, I really learned that protective gear is everything. If it wasn’t for my gear, I could very well be dead… Did I mention that I took out a stop sign? Yeah, that would’ve been bad news if not for the helmet and thick, padded jacket.

Anyway, that’s my story for a day. I can’t wait to get back on a motorcycle, but it’s going to be quite a while. :(
For those of you interested, the pictures of the crash can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/midsof1/sets/72157619882530333/

My First Blogger Blog

So I’ve decided that, when I find time to, I’m going to try blogging again. It’s typically good for oneself to keep a “diary” so… here we go:

One of the newest things in my life: ‘09 Yamaha FZ6R: Mine looks like this. :) I gotta say, riding is great. I never thought I’d like motorcycles, but after getting one… I’m absolutely hooked. And I mean HOOKED. Before any of you get worried, I’d like it to be known: Before I ever got my bike I took the Motorcycle Safety Course and got the endorsement on my license. My first experience every riding was in a safety course, so I’ve got a mind for safety when I ride… That said: Speed feels amazing on a bike. 70mph in a car? Whatever. 70 on a bike? Euphoria. :D

I’ve also been exercising a lot more. Now I’m running about 3 to 3 and a half miles every other day, and my distance is only getting better. I’m starting to shave some of the beer gut I’ve developed off and I generally feel better overall every day. Being in shape is great, and I think I might become a full-blown runner. I hope to get into some running marathons sometime down the road. :)

So I want to end this on a very important note… If you have a computer (hint: You do.) then you need to go here and spend $10 on that masterpiece. I don’t care if you usually play games or not, just do it. You’ll thank me. Also: My ID is “gamerdan”. Go ahead and add me. :)