Project: Rich

I am officially M1-class licensed and insured. Vroom vroom.

Rainy in SoCal today? I wasn't expecting this. It's a nice surprise. Well I'm finally a licensed motorcyclist. Went in to take my written test last Friday and barely passed my first time through. I had no idea you now have to take the basic driving test along with the motorcycle test when you go in for a license. Caught me off guard. Here are the questions I missed. What answers would you have picked?tr>td width="20">td class="small">1. To predict how a hazard may affect you, it's important to:font color="red">(a) Watch for brake lights or turn signals.(b) Adjust speed to get around the hazard.font color="green">(c) Know the speed, distance, and direction that the hazard is moving.2. To see better when following a vehicle at night:font color="red">(a) Increase your following distance and use your low beam.(b) Drop far back and use your high beam.font color="green">(c) Use the headlights of the vehicle ahead.3. If you must stop quickly while turning and you are unable to straighten the motorcycle first, apply the:(a) Front brake and increase your lean angle.font color="green">(b) Brake harder as the lean is reduced.font color="red">(c) Brake first and then lean away from the turn./tr>/table>Give me your answers and I'll post up the correct ones in a week or so.So now it's time to look for insurance. I'm not in too much of a rush. Took the bike in for full service a week ago and I wont be getting it back until this Wednesday. Nothing wrong with it. Just wanted to do the basic service and have them do a safety inspection. Man, am I looking forward to getting it back.

Well, I did it. I finally got my motorcycle this past Tuesday. It's a 1997 Suzuki GS500E. It's a different bike from the one I talked about in a previous post, and it's just as nice. Just need to go in and grab the license from the DMV on Friday, get the thing registered, get myself insured, and I'll be good to go. Pics to come soon.

Alright. I know I've been saying it for a while now, but I'm this close to getting a bike. Have already made arrangements to pick it up this Sunday. It's a 1994 Suzuki GS500E which is basically a naked sport bike with a much smaller engine. These bikes are know for being indestructible and maintenance free which is a perfect combination for being a first bike. Best of all, it's not powerful enough to kill myself on. I'm doing this the safest way possible and that means getting something that's gonna get me comfortable to riding over the next year or so. You can see pics of it from the actual ad here and here.

I can mark the day. As of two days ago on Thursday, I am officially debt free. I owe absolutely nothing to anyone what so ever. My last payment was for my car loan on the Camaro. Should have the pink slip in another month. Go me!

Shit yeah! Leinart is staying a Trojan to finish up his senior year and try for something that no team has ever done before... win three consecutive BSC championships. "I realized the opportunity right now to support my family by going to the NFL early, but to me I think college football and this whole atmosphere here and being with my fans and my teammates is ultimately more satisfying and will make me happier than any amount of money could make someone happy," said Leinart.You gotta appreciate someone like this. He's forgoing a pro career and millions of dollars to do something that pay nothing but respects.

I was watching Garden State the other day and realize a couple of things. First off, I find it very easy to relate to the main character, Andrew Largeman. Here's a depressed guy struggling with his career, completely void of showing any real emotions (although he does feel them), and not sure exactly how life should be lived. I'm not saying I'm depressed all the time, but right now, I certainly am feeling a little down. I wasn't able to really celebrate any of the holidays because of work and the extra time I put in. As far as not showing emotions goes, that's just something that's been with me forever. I'm fine when it's a forum that I'm use to (like say this blog), but in person I'm pretty numb most of the time. Ask any of my ex-girlfriends and I'm sure they'll confirm it too. Anyway, it's these similarities with this character that make me so much to this flick.The second thing I realized is how it's not such a bad thing for being like this. Why? Because I am a little more closed up and because I do struggle with what is the best way I can live my life, it's going to take only the most amazing girl in the world to help me open up and show me how great life can really be. Isn't that just awesome to think about? I know that a girl I meet in the future and actually will want to know will be someone that can't help but make me a better person. My ex-girlfriends in the past have been able to help point me in the right direction, but I wouldn't say any of them have taught me something life changing. That's why I know the person who will affect me this way will be picture perfect. Yup, I'm claiming it right here. I can't think of a better depiction of the "perfect girlfriend" than what Natalie Portman was in Garden State.The perfect girlfriend.Maybe these things really only happen in the movies. Maybe I'm just too much of a wishful thinker when it come to this kind of stuff. Still, the thought of me meeting someone as perfect and life changing as I dream of brings a smile to my face and definitely helps me get through the rut.

Do you have an iTunes account? You can donate directly to the American Red Cross for the tsunami relief through the iTunes Music Store. Find more info here.

7:30pm - Man! I wish I could see it. The BCS championship game is on right now and I'm at work. With SC up 38-10 at the half, doesn't look like much of a game. Still, I'd love to see the sad looks on the Oklahoma player's faces right about now. My prediction for the final score... Oklahoma 13, USC 394.9:18pm - Home now. So my prediction was a little off. It still doesn't take anything away from their win. Last year they had to share the championship. This year it's all USC. Everyone knew they were good, but I don't think anyone (including myself) knew exactly how much better than Oklahoma they actually were. Hope Leinart is back next year.

Has everyone seen the satellite images of Indonesia and Sri Lanka before and after the tsunami? It's quite breathtaking how powerful the Earth can be when it wants to.

I'm on this high of trying to see all of the movies I've missed over the last month or so because of some reason or another. I have a list and am checking them off one by one. One this weekend was The Life Aquatic. It's nothing to write home about and I'll prove that right now.The other I just came back from was Closer. I'm not sure where to begin with this one. It's a story of two couples in love and the drama that's created when the man from couple A gets involved with the woman from couple B. The thing that's great about this flick is its characters. They cover the spectrum in personalities and you're bound to related to at least one of them. Some of the things they do are strange to down right disturbing, but it never seems out of place. It perfectly captures the feelings that go through your mind during a lover's quarrel and that's why the things they do feel so real and are completely forgivable.I have a new flick to place into my top ten for 2004. Closer is a brilliant movie with very mixed emotions and not seeing it would be a great injustice to your heart and mind.

I don't know about you, but I'm very glad to see crappy 2004 go away. I'll keep my fingers crossed for 2005. From all of me to all of you, have a happy new year.

I've been waiting for this movie for a while and it was finally released on this Best Buy Tuesday. Garden State is definitely on my top 10 list of movies for 2004. Zach Braff makes his first big screen writer/directorial debut and, although it's not perfect, it's definitely very good and just makes me can't wait to see what's more to come from him.The flick is about a guy named Andrew who's eking by life as a struggling actor. Then with one phone call, he's forced to go back home and deal with a lot of internal conflict head on that he's ignored for many years. In the end, Andrew just might begin to find there's a lot in life worth enjoying and living through.Not that anyone cares, but I think I might put together a top 10 2004 movies list. If no one else enjoys it, at least it'll be something that keeps me busy through the night at work.

I did find time to watch a little TV this weekend. There was this great program about string theory on PBS called The Elegant Universe and based off of a book of the same name. String theory is the "theory of everything" in that it brings unification to two very opposing ideas, gravity and quantum mechanics. If there was ever a program called "string theory for dummies", this would be it and it's absolutely engaging. You can actually watch the entire program online before you buy the DVD which I plan to do.

Normally, I would love the weather we're having here in SoCal. It's very windy with a slight drizzle and suppose to turn into thunder storms and heavy showers later. Yup, normally I'd love it, but not this week. It's just adding to the frustration at this point. This is easily the most stressful week I've had since the last time our server took a dump which was two years ago and it seems there is more to come.So some things about this holiday weekend. Well, celebrated Christmas with the family over at grandma's house, exchanged gifts, and ate way too much. My parents got me my motorcycle jacket. Go figure, now I have everything but the motorcycle. That's coming next month for sure. I'm looking at the naked sport bikes (ie. Honda 599 or Suzuki SV650) and the lower end fairing sport bikes (ie Yamaha YZF600 or Honda F4i).I was able to get my traffic school done online. It's the first (and hopefully the last) time I've done the online thing with traffic school. Let me tell ya, it's way better than the classes and you can cheat your ass off with it. The 4 hour course took me about 15 mins. Nice.Anything happen with you this holiday weekend?

Another fun filled night at work. We're gonna take a break tomorrow and pick it back up Sunday morning. I'm still gonna be here until midnight or so tonight. I guess I'll track Santa and listen to A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack until then. Fun times.When all of this stuff at work happened earlier in the week, I thought to myself that I'd have no problems sitting in here all weekend. It's not like I'm gonna feel bad for missing the holiday weekend. Well I was wrong. I most definitely would like to be sitting at my parent's place right now with my family than here in this dark, cold, and lonely office building. :(

Can you seriously believe how quickly the year has gone by? I mean it's Christmas in another 2 days. That's just ridiculous. I'm sure a lot of people have this holiday weekend planned already. Want to hear my plans? I'm going to be at work until midnight tonight. Tomorrow, I work from noon to midnight. Xmas Saturday I get a break. Then I get to work again Sunday from midnight to noon. Then I get to do that again for the next couple of days after that. Sounds like fun, right? We had a bit of an emergency this week and now a bud and myself get to spend the rest of the weekend and through next week restoring a server. Yup, I get to play the role of "dumb tape loader". To tell ya the truth, I really don't mind at all. I probably would have been doing nothing anyway. Now I have something to keep me occupied. I guess since I am here by myself for the next couple of days, I'm sure I'll be posting a lot of early morning nonsense.

Here are very hard to come by leaked press photos of the 2006 Corvette Z06. It's not scheduled for release for about another 20 days.ul>

The second trailer for Batman Begins is here! They're playing in the theater and it's going to appear on the main site tomorrow. Only one word came to mind after I saw it. Wow! This thing has potential to exceed every expectation of what a Batman movie should be. You can check it out early here, but the quality is pretty low. I am way too excited about this flick and I need that movie poster.Anyone catch the War of the Worlds trailer yet? Doesn't show much, but you can definitely bet on something special happening when you throw Steven Spielberg behind a project like this. I'm looking forward to it.The trailer for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was also released this weekend. Yes, I know it's Tim Burton and Johnny Depp, but I'm having a hard time imagining how it's going to be anywhere near as good as the 1971 classic. Should still be pretty fun.

I had some time to play around with MSN Spaces (Microsoft's online consumer blogging tool) and I have to say, it's pretty impressive considering how simple it's intended to be. Obviously, they aren't expecting to convert over people using tools like Moveable Type or Radio blogging tools. It'd definitely not going to get anyone away from the many online content management systems out there like PHPnuke, Mambo, or Drupal. I see Spaces as being an alternative for the people using things like LiveJournal or Blogger, and it's a much better alternative if you ask me. I literally had my Spaces site up within seconds. If you're using one of the cheap online based blogging tools, Spaces is definitely worth a look and it's completely free (for now).