redkow97

I'm coming up on my 1 year anniversary FAST. Here's my take on wedding receptions in general: people want to 3 things when tehy attend a wedding reception: food, booze, and dancing. As 'special' as all the ceremonial 'stuff' may seem, it's boring for guests. No one is entertained by watching your wedding party dance... Sorry. This is what we did - guests are seated and wedding party is introduced (to the "nooma nooma song"). Wife and I entered to Rage Against the Machine's cover of "renegades of funk." (i wanted "know your enemy," but she talked to the DJ) As soon as we walked in, we immediately cut the cake (you've got everyone's attention, and once they're eating, you do NOT get it back). Also lets teh staff cut cake while everyone eats dinner. MOH and best man speeches take 5-20 minutes, depending on who gives them, and then we ate, then greeted our guests while they ate. As the first of them were finishing up eating, we did our first dance, then followed that immediately by a COMBINED mother/son and father/daughter dance. There were still plenty of pictures of me and my mom, and Sara with her dad. skipped the "bridal party" dance all together (we didn't have an even number of people anyway - I have 5 friends and 2 brothers. Sara has 4 friends, a sister, and my sister) went right to bouquet toss and garter toss (i could have lived without both), and kicked off the party. Like I said - watching you dance is boring for your guests after 30 seconds. Watching the wedding party dance is even MORE boring. get through it as fast as possible, and get to the fun part. so pick whatever song is short and tolerable to you and your fiancee.

there's a school for that? I thought it was just twist throttle, and/or dump clutch. if you crash, try it again without the crashing...

I may have to join you shortly.

it disturbs me that there are people dumb enough to do this riding in anyone's "I" group...

^which engine? the 2.0 or the 2.3? and i would bet the Mazda 3 revs to at least 6 or 7k why wouldn't you rev it beyond 1.8k starting off? It's not a truck, nor is it a heavy car. A little slipping of the clutch isn't going to hurt it. What's your daily driver? I find it kind of humorous that a guy with a 2003 R6 as his listed bike complained about lack of torque

I picked the first example on this page of the thread. I'll expect you to correct me when I do a math problem wrong.

I'd prefer to forgo the thread and just continue judging/correcting people when they use poor grammar.

My gf and ME. you would not say, "this is a picture of I," therefore you don't say, "(this is a picture of) my gf and I." you would say, "this is a picture of me," therefore it's correct to say, "(this is a picture of) my gf and me."

damn, my dad sold his GS500 for way less than it was worth a few months ago. he barely even rode it. the previous owner was female and had lowered it and everything... Perfect first bike. The GS500 linked looks pretty good. the EX500 will have noticeably more power though. I'd ask $1800 for mine on CL, and be happy to get $1500, so I don't think $1200 or so would be out of the question for the one linked above. mine has 15k on it, but is a couple years newer. My wife rides my EX with only MSF course experience (on a TW200), so it's definitely manageable for a beginner.

my only experience with Roush Honda is with a shop trying to order parts from them and getting dicked around. "yeah your part's here." Show up at the shop, and the part is NOT there. Happened more than once. it sounds like Rick Roush has his head on straight, but is either hiring ninnies, or he's not giving his employees the flexibility to provide proper customer service without his intervention... I can sympathize with the employees in the latter situation. My boss tells me, "negotiate with this vendor," but when I report back to my boss that the vendor won't meet us half way, he goes and offers concessions that I'm not allowed to make to get the deal done. Basically I look like the a-hole for "being stubborn" because i'm following the 'rules' put in place by my boss, and he looks like the nice guy because he gave the vendor what they were asking me for. I guess what I'm saying is, don't get too down on teh service department if they're following the letter of the contract.

The civic is a decent car, but expensive for what you get. Plus everyone will assume you're a teenage girl. The only car you could put a civic next to and have it look manly is a VW beetle. My dad has a corolla, and when he was shopping them, I encouraged him to drive the "S" model. He did. his report was, "the corolla has no business even pretending it's got any sporting aspirations whatsoever. The 'S' model is a waste of money, because the corolla is what it is: slow, but high quality." Now that he's in his 50's, I think that's all he wants, but even he admitted it was a kick in the junk to get rid of his Taurus and realize the Corolla felt under-powered by comparison. The Mazda 3. I like the look of the first generation better. Only meaningful difference between first and second gen is that the option engine in the 2nd gen is now a 2.5 liter instead of the 2.3 for basic transportation, I'd go with the base 2.0 and a 5 speed. If that feels too anemic, the 2.3 is very nice in a car that small. I haven't driven the 2.5, but two of my coworkers have Mazda 3's. Between them, and a friend, I've driven the 2.0 and 2.3 with an automatic, and the 2.3 with a manual. If you can find that combo, I highly recommend it! edit - don't write off the kia Forte either. The "koupe" is actually really good-looking, and the sedan gives you a lot for what you pay. The warranty makes it a pretty safe buy too.

if you're a level 1 rider, I'd save your money on track schools and just do STT days and really bug the hell out of their coaches. Without knowing your skill level, I'd say do a day in Novice, and ask to be in the fast group. I would assume you'll do well there, and want to register in "intermediate" the following day. TRACK DOWN THE COACHES in intermediate, and ask for feedback. The coaches in "I" are usually pretty under-utilized, which means they probably have time to work with you one-on-one quite a bit. Schools are great, but they get expensive, and whoever's name is on the school can only work with one or two people at a time. if you're an "Advanced" pace rider, then yeah, look into riding schools, but an STT coach can explain more basic stuff just as well as Freddie Spencer. If you really want something more in-depth, look at NESBA's "Skills Enhancement Days" as well. There's one at Putnam later this summer. the basic format includes: - a morning track walk - 'fly by' rides from Control Riders, to illustrate what you're being shown on the track walk - TONS of one-on-one time with instructors, and then open track in the afternoon (with instructors available for more one-on-one time, if you want it). Those usually run about $300 for a day. "Beginners" are on Saturday, and "Intermediate" riders are on Sunday. I'd start in the "beginner" group just to be safe. Plus, if it's a track you've never been to before, you might be surprised by how quick the 'beginners' at an SED are.

I thought my prior post addressed this, but... Kids have limited rights. There are a lot of "legal" activities that aren't allowed on school grounds. Don't we REQUIRE kids to attend school? Do you consider that a violation of their freedom as well? when it comes to freedom, schools should be "multiple choice," not write-in your own answer. You get a list of subjects to schedule classes, and some are required to graduate. Adhering to the dress code is no different. These kids are getting to choose from 2 colors of pants and 3 colors of shirts. That's not any more unreasonable than being told that they have to take 3 years of math and 2 years of a foreign language. They still get to choose whether it's algebra or calculus; or French or Spanish. at my high school, I got to choose what specific subjects I took, but I still had to accumulate a given number of class credits each quarter, and I had to have a certain number of math, science, language, history, and 'arts' credits to graduate. I'd hardly call that a violation of my freedom.

actually 2 hours and 40 minutes. a "normal" lunch is really an hour and 40 minutes. I'm in "I" group, so on a 'normal' day, I would start my lunch break at 11:20, and not ride again until 1:00 Novice guys wouldn't start lunch until 12:00, but they also wouldn't ride again until 1:40. we will have PLENTY of time to cook lunch on Sunday. I have a smaller camp grill that I can bring if the big grill isn't going to make the trip. Just have to make sure i grab a new $3 propane cylinder.

I think I support a dress code in public schools. It's the lesser of two evils. what damages Dick & Jane more; the imposition of a dress code, or little Johnny a-hole acting out? if a dress code helps control Johnny (and statistically, I believe it does), that's a bigger benefit to Dick & Jane than their 'self expression through fashion.' These kids get to choose from 3 colors of shirts and 2 colors of pants. that's reasonable. To me it's no different than saying: "biology, chemistry, physics - take 2 before you graduate," or "spanish, french, german - choose 1 and take it for two years." or are we restricting kids' freedom too much by not letting them fill every period with gym and study-hall too? They're kids - by definition, they don't always know what's best for themselves.

ding ding ding! we have a winner! you can't make all the symptoms of being a moron illegal - people just come up with new and more creative ways to be morons. with alcohol, there's a biological correlation between consumption and reaction time. With texting, there's no such correlation. Some girl on "good morning america" could text like 60 words per minute blind-folded. Assuming she could do it one-handed, I'm betting she could text and drive just fine. My point is, even if I suck balls at driving period, it's possible that someone out there can drive better than me while they are texting. Running red lights, weaving out of your lane, and generally failing to pay attention is already illegal. If there's not a cop around to see you breaking the existing law, what makes anyone think there will be a cop around to see people texting while driving? pointless legislation.

hot pit. pull up to track marshal, stop, go. Hand up/leg out by turn 8, pit-in, and repeat.

NESBA is riding Summit Main this weekend and Mid-Ohio Monday and Tuesday. Brian might be occupied for the next few days. some of the control riders are doing Summit, Mit-Ohio, then driving to VIR, and riding NJMP immediately after. They're literally riding more in 10 days than I'll ride all season. must be a rough life, right?

"if you want to know who wears the pants in your relationship, when you go to bed at night, and you get out of bed to turn off the light, look back at the bed - that's who wears the pants in your relationship." - Bill Engvall

"necessity" is a viable defense to some crimes. ...but they'd still have to pay for any property damage. It's one of the (many) mixed-messages in the American legal system. if a small child wanders into the road, and I swerve to avoid him and crash into your car instead, I will probably not be cited for any crimes, but I will still be liable for the damages to the car. Cars are a poor example, because of insurance though. Say i'm on a bicycle, and I pull the same scenario and destroy your mail box. I still have to pay for the mail box.

people believe what they want to believe, starting with "you can be whatever you want when you grow up" and "all men are created equal." If Obama really wasn't a native-born American, the democrats have had more than enough time to come up with one hell of a convincing fake birth cert. And why even bother? this is the type of thing they check pretty early on in the primary process. Why would they pick a guy with such a glaring vulnerability? with W's shit approval ratings, and against a walking zombie like McCain, they could have gotten Tracy Morgan elected...

this should be a sticky somewhere... I don't recall if there's a "touring" section in the Riding Styles forum, but that would seem ideal. I've been meaning to buy a battery tender anyway

The rider is lucky that none of the drivers protecting him were killed. Depending on what they charge him with, and what the common law in that jurisdiction says, he could have been liable for the deaths of anyone else involved.

Stan Lee? I know enough to recognize him. I just don't know the back-story on the villains in Ironman. their origins, their 'powers' etc.

as an addendum to my previous post, I should note that 4 bikes might be a bit much for a single-axle 6x12. And electric brakes will be a MUST with more than 2 bikes. it may also be more tongue weight than you want to deal with. the really nice thing about the pit-bull system is that you can do 3 bikes in a single row across a 6' wide trailer, or, if that's just a tad tight for your liking, it's even easier to mount the middle one backward. This really helps with keeping weight over the trailer axle, and off the tongue of the tow vehicle. cruise the for sale section on the WERA board, and you can get some killer ideas for setting up an enclosed trailer.