tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2 2008-08-28T21:39:31Z Movable Type 3.34 tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.536 2008-08-28T21:14:07Z 2008-08-28T21:39:31Z

When I first attempted to describe my job it came out something like this: "Well I go abroad to the UK to the users and discuss the tool set with them, understand how it works and then take their complaints,...

"Well, look, I already told you. I deal with the goddamn customers so the engineers don't have to!! I have people skills!! I am good at dealing with people!!! Can't you understand that?!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!!!!!" I had a moment of clarity today as I was enjoying my mid afternoon constitutional around the campus. I think my role has evolved into something a little more exciting.]]> ]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.535 2008-07-11T20:42:23Z 2008-07-11T20:48:32Z

I guess I'm really behind the ball with this update, but I was waiting on some more pictures from Vadim and they never came. I hadn't been to VIR is something like 3 years, way back on my F4i. Needless...

]]> VIR on a whole is a great track, a little far away and a little daunting, but a good notch in my CCS racing belt.]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.534 2008-07-02T13:47:15Z 2008-07-02T13:48:25Z

Last week I got a chance to try out my new bicycle as a commuting implement. [I told you I got a new bicycle, didn't I?.. woops] It was a total blast. There is a very active [but poorly...

]]> I had so much fun that today marks the fourth day in a row that I bicycled to work. I'm still working on the nuances of where to get changed, wether or not to shower, etc, but I'm having a blast. I feel nice and refreshed in the morning and don't feel so bad when I come home from work and flop on the sofa for a few hours. I'd like to think that I'm saving a bunch of money on gas, but since I've been motorcycling to work for a while now, I'm probabaly saving only $8-10 per week.]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.533 2008-05-28T19:38:40Z 2008-05-28T19:45:29Z

Wow, what a great weekend! This memorial day I took off Friday and spent all day getting myself prepared for a full weekend of racing and boy was I excited. Jenn and Vadim were on their way back from work,...

]]> Sat. night we went out for some Applebees and after picking up some Gatorade from Walmart I fell asleep mid beer while watching AMA superbike races on my laptop at 9:00. The next day was all action as I went through teching my bike, registering, wiring on my transponder, affixing my sponsorship stickers and rolling out for my morning practices. My lap times were hovering around 1:34:00 which is some of the better times I've run. I ran high 32s at the end of my last NESBA day though, so I knew I could pull out some more time. One of the problems that kept me from pushing as hard as I could in turn 1, a sharply decelerating long right hand turn was that the front seemed 'unhappy' with the transition. Vadim and I poked around and noticed that my front suspension was dangerously close to bottoming out. We cranked in some preload and off I went to my first official race in the Thunderbike series. The front suspension worked great and I brought my lap times down to solid 1:30s dipping into the 1:29:5s as well. I ended up finishing the race in 15th place out of 17. I did manage to stay in front of Vadim's friend JJ. That was a great achievement in my book. I didn't have long to get my head straight after the first race, so I re-hydrated, checked on the bike and went back out for the Lightweight SuperStock race. This class was made up of bikes very similar to mine, so there was a smaller grid [15] and the bikes were much more comparable in HP. I felt like I was tearing it up and quickly made my way up from my last place qualifying spot [qualification order is the order you register] up to where JJ [#774] was in my sight. I chased him down gaining only a few feet on him and passing a few guys trying to keep up with him. On the last lap coming into the back section I was a foot off his rear tire and I threw it into the final turn as hard as I could. I stuck into his draft trying to get up to him by the finish line, but he beat me by 1/2 a bike length. My lap time, 1:29:029. Decimating my personal lap record from a month ago by almost 4 seconds! The weekend was great, even though I only had time to do 2 races. I'm sure the next weekend I will try at least 4 races. The full pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/clarustnb/CCSSummitMainMay24th Thanks to Vadim for taking some great picture!]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.532 2008-04-17T14:38:29Z 2008-04-17T14:49:51Z

Well Bob, you wanted a challenge, so here it goes. It is a well known fact that starting in the early 70s, NHL players would stop shaving during the playoffs as good luck charm. This quickly grew into a fad...

]]> So I'm waiting on you Bob... where's your picture? Where's your beard? Alex mentioned that he too would be partaking in this event for the Flyers. For obvious reasons I did not mention our competition to him because if you remember, he had a full beard at the age of 14. Where's YOUR playoff beard? tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.531 2008-04-15T12:50:55Z 2008-04-15T12:55:04Z

Well here you have it, the finished product. As you can see there is the addition of the Zelda Hyrullian shield on the top tank of the bike, which Jenn and I painted on last night, in addition to the...

As you can see there is the addition of the Zelda Hyrullian shield on the top tank of the bike, which Jenn and I painted on last night, in addition to the twilight princess wolf from before on the side. It looks AWESOME.]]> All in all I am very proud / happy of the way the bike turned out; especially for a do it ourselves job. The way the shield crest wraps around the tank has a perfectly designed look to it that appears great from every angle. We also sponge painted the logo on, so it has a very weathered / textured look to it. Two thumbs way up!]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.530 2008-04-14T12:29:21Z 2008-04-14T12:32:47Z

Jenn has started the next/last phase of painting the racing SV this weekend. This includes created the stencil cutouts to sponge paint the Hyrulian crest on the top of the tank....

]]> I just have to make sure I keep the rubber side of the bike down. BeaveRun is notorious for me and an accident or two.]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.529 2008-03-31T15:30:44Z 2008-03-31T15:32:55Z

Painting is in full swing and continuing on my race bike. Jenn broke out the paints last night and started the first coat and first color of the Twilight Princess pattern for the upper fairing....

]]> Next on the to do list is to lightly paint a steel metallic flake paint over it to try and give it a more steam punk feel. I am hoping it will look more like dark blue metal coming through the primer, rather than the very blue bright color that it is now. Also, there is another logo that will be going on the tank soon too. With my next track even in 3 weeks, the season is in full swing!]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.528 2008-03-27T20:56:31Z 2008-03-27T21:07:03Z

Well we're starting, a little late, progress on getting the final touches of paint added to the bike. The first step of that is a "Twilight Princess" wolf....

]]> As you can see this is the beginning stencil that will be on the front sides of the upper. The plan is to create a stencil and 'sponge paint' the logo on in a nice black and metalic shade. I'll have some more pictures as we make progress. tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.527 2008-03-26T00:31:57Z 2008-03-27T19:55:10Z

As with any of my track days, there are always tons of stories to go along with this one. It was the first track day of the year and of course that adds a whole lot more of uncertainty. So...

]]> It was a great track day though. I beat my personal best time by 2 seconds. My lap times are not what I would describe as 'middle of the pack racing.' I certainly couldn't win a CCS race with my time, but I wouldn't make an ass out of myself. That in itself is very exciting. So come May I'll be at Summit again with CCS, hopefully to start making a name for myself. ]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.526 2008-03-24T16:09:29Z 2008-03-24T16:10:13Z

:: Standard GTalk conversation :: Me: so do you think the term "baby maker" should be plural? or is the singular entity representative of the pair James: they do not work independently its a solitary baby maker...

:: Standard GTalk conversation :: Me: so do you think the term "baby maker" should be plural? or is the singular entity representative of the pair James: they do not work independently its a solitary baby maker tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.525 2008-03-21T16:27:08Z 2008-03-21T16:35:47Z

Well this weekend marks the start of another great motorcycle season. My bodywork is back from the shop and the work is amazing. The body work has returned to it's original if not better condition. There isn't any real paint...

]]> Going forward though, I have a nice set of stickers to place on there and then Jenn has planned some designs to paint onto the bike. We won't be able to do that in time for this weekend at Summit Point, but here's hoping that by the next race it will be a little more colorful. tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.524 2008-03-20T00:38:23Z 2008-03-20T00:46:05Z

I've decided to undertake a massive nerd pilgrimage. I've acquired some new software that works on my laptop that will make it easy and awesome to work on a neglected collection of comics from my youth....

]]> I broke down and bough a new MacBook Air. Reviews and information will be forthcoming.]]> tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.523 2008-02-26T13:27:33Z 2008-02-26T13:30:05Z

I got to go to my second football match in the UK this weekend....

]]> Sadly it wasn't too exciting of a match. It was a 1-0 "One-Nil" match and the only point was scored at the other end off of a penalty kick. Neat enough, though; I was visible on Match of the Day as the Portsmouth striker went of a corner kick about 10 feet away from my face. There was plenty of shouting, screaming, singing and the like, and this time I was able to chant along most of the time as I think I have a handle on what and when to say. It's not really something you'd want to get wrong. tag:www.rizrar.com,2008:/clarus//2.522 2008-02-19T19:58:47Z 2008-02-19T20:09:54Z

Although my bike hasn't changed much from the pic below, I have begun the mental work of trying to scheme out what the final painted product will look like. When the bodywork returns from the shop it will have a...

]]> However to make it a little more intricate I was thinking of including the lines from the shirt above and attempting to incorporate the Master Sword and Hylian shield as well. Other ideas that are still floating around is a batman theme or a Heroes theme. The Heroes Logo would probably be the easiest as shown here: So any other ideas or suggestions for the ones I have already?]]>