How To Remove A Stubborn Lug Nut

If you’re trying to remove a stubborn lug nut, maybe your shotgun will get it loose.

Most reasonable people would not even think to use a shotgun to remove a seized bolt of any kind. Maybe he saw the episode of The Simpsons where Homer was using a gun for all sorts of houshold tasks.

I thought it would be fun to make a list of things you can do with a gun, so you can replace many items with just one useful tool. Some of these you probably already know about, some no so much.

So, here it is, my top 11 list of useful things you didn’t know you could do with a gun:

1. Open another beer – I say “another” because it’s likely that you have already had a few.
2. Paper punch, just make sure that if you are punching holes for use in a 3-ring binder you space them properly.
3. Tire removal, as described in the article.
4. Releasing air from a tire.
5. Celebrating, just like they did in the old west, or at least in movies about the old west.
6. Signaling the start of a race.
7. Adding ventilation to the soffit of a house.
8. Fixing a leaky faucet.
9. Aerating your lawn. There is a potential safety issue here – make sure you have your utility lines marked before you do this. A shotgun with large pellet size would probably work best.
10. Harvesting apples.
11. Getting a cat out of a tree.

I feel it is my responsibility in this world where people don’t know that coffee is hot before they pour it into their laps that I am not responsible for anything you do with this list. Actually, it’s probably best if you don’t read it at all.

If you have any uses for guns, other than their intended purpose, share and enjoy!

Worlds Hottest Chili Pepper

If you had a chance to take a bite out of the worlds hottest chili pepper, would you do it?

 Watch the video.

Best. Commercial. Ever.

Personally, I think this is one of the funniest commercials that I have seen.

See the video at YouTube.

Enjoy.

This Is My Blog, There Are Many Blogs Like It But This One Is Mine

Some people make money with blogs, others don’t. Then there are some that just blog for the sake of blogging. That is what I do. This is my first and last post about blogging.

I have had a website of one kind or another for quite some time. You can see the progress that I have had over the years at Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The site has almost always been a place for me to post items of interest to me for sharing with my friends and family.

Some years ago the trend of blogging appeared. There was now a name for what I was doing with my website, and the new software was becoming available to make adding content to the site easier. I started to use the new software, and it was indeed easier and much faster that hand coding my own HTML.

As time went on I slowly (very slowly) became aware that people with websites much like my own were making money off their sites. I was way behind the curve with this trend and I knew nothing about it. So, after doing some research, which didn’t take very long, I put my first Google AdSense ad on my site. The thoughts of money rushing into my checking account filled my head.

Nothing happened.

The important thing about monetizing your blog is that people arrive at your site and click on your ads. In order to arrive at your site they have to have some reason to be there, and that reason is content. My site content is more about what I feel like writing rather than a means to get people to my site to see and click on my ads.

If you use StumbleUpon, and I highly recommend that you do, and you have the correct interest checked, you will find you are able to stumble across hundreds of blogs about blogging. These blogs will give you tons of advice on how to make money with your blog. They will tell you about optimizing your site so that search engines find it, making sure that your ad is in the right place, and advice about how to get people to look at your blog, which is the most important thing.

So, I joined some of the programs that are available and added ads to my site and waited. I continued to read articles about blogging and attempted to use the advice I was given. The problem is that I just wasn’t interested in making blogging a full time job. The people who make modest amounts of money from blogging need to continually generate new content across the multiple sites they need to maintain just to keep that modest revenue stream flowing.

A recurring piece of advice on many of the sites was to determine your niche, and stay in it. Well, my niche is me and I am interested in many things. I have come to the realization that I am not interested in posting about one specific thing. I want to post whatever I feel like whenever I feel like. I’m not interested in maintaining a posting schedule where I feel like I need to produce content on a deadline. It’s just not what I’m interested in doing.

You will notice that all the ad content has been removed from my site, as I am no longer interested in attempting to generate any money from this blog. This will continue to be a place where I write when the mood strikes about anything that I feel like. If you like it, then feel free to read it. If you don’t, so be it.

A Joke That I Have To Share

I obviously can’t take credit for this joke. I have seen it floating around in a couple places on the internet, and I thought it was funny enough to share.

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the Loan officer. She says she’s going to Europe on business for two weeks and needs to borrow $5,000.

The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Mercedes Benz SL 500.

The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, she has the title and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car collateral for the loan.

The bank’s president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blond for using a $110,000 Benz as collateral against a $5,000 loan.

An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Benz into the bank’s underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41.

The loan officer says, “Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire.

What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000?”

The blonde replies, “Where else in New York City can I park my Car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?”

Green Means Go, Red Means Stop, Yellow Means Go Very Fast!

Doesn’t anyone know how traffic lights work anymore? What is the deal?

Let me clear up any confusion that people might have. There are three lights on a traffic control signal. Sometimes they are vertical, sometimes horizontal, but they always have the same meanings.

The red light means stop. This means that you should not enter the intersection. There are exceptions to this, in some areas you are allowed to make a right hand turn on a red light. This also varies from intersection to intersection and state to state. Be sure you know the rules wherever you are, and read the signs. A stop is successfully executed when your vehicle is at zero velocity. You can tell this has happened by the fact that your vehicle is no longer moving forward. If you are experiencing any forward motion at all, you have not successfully executed a stop maneuver. If you find that you are moving forward, continue applying pressure to your brake pedal until you detect that you are no longer moving forward. I know this seems obvious, but the majority of people seem to have allot of trouble with it. You should remain in a stopped state until the traffic light turns green, at which time you can proceed into the intersection as soon as you’re sure the the knuckleheads on your left and right have successfully executed their stop maneuver.

Now, the green light. This light generally means it’s safe to cross the intersection. This does not mean that you should blindly rush into the intersection. You need to keep your eyes open for people that are unsure how to execute their stop maneuver from the left and right. This does not mean that you need to slow your forward velocity. It simply means that you have to be aware that the majority of drivers are very bad at successfully executing their stop maneuver, and they may still have some forward momentum as you approach the intersection.

Lastly, we will cover the yellow light. This one seems to give people the most trouble. The yellow light means a couple of things, which is probably the source of the confusion. When the light is yellow, if you are approaching the intersection you are not to enter it. Nor are you to slam on your brakes. If you have time to execute a safe and controlled stop maneuver you should execute one at this time. The reason you should not enter the intersection is the other meaning of the yellow light, and that is to clear the intersection if you are in it. The example would be if you are executing a left hand turn and you were waiting for traffic to allow you a gap large enough to proceed. The yellow light is your signal that it’s time to get going. May times you will find that your progression through the intersection is hampered by oncoming traffic that obviously does not know what a yellow light means. This is when you become aware that people seem to think that the yellow light means they should accelerate to whatever speed they can obtain before the light turns red. Although you know, after having read this, the proper meaning of the yellow light, the people approaching the intersection at ever increasing speeds may not have read this. Caution is the rule here, simply wait for them to pass and get out of the intersection. It is not acceptable to become stuck in the intersection. Backing your car up at this point is also unacceptable.

I hope that you have learned something from this. More importantly, you should practice every day.

To review:

• Red = stop
• Green = go
• Yellow = stop if possible; clear the intersection if you are in it, do not enter the intersection.

So you have examples of good or bad intersection behavior? If you do, share and enjoy!

UPDATE: Seems that in Minnesota, it’s not illegal to enter the intersection on a yellow light. So it’s clear, yellow is for leaving the intersection, not entering it. Read the article here.

HD Sportsters are for Women?

While at a motorcycle rally this weekend that was open to all makes and models of bikes, I overheard someone make the statement that HD Sportsters were for women. I’ve heard this statement made about various makes and models of motorcycle before, but I have never understood it.

Is there really any motorcycle out there that is specifically made for women? Are women’s needs in a motorcycle different than men’s? There are only a couple of things that I would think would be a factor in making a motorcycle less appealing to a woman, and those things would be weight and seat height.

The weight of the bike seems obvious. Generally women are not as strong as men. You may be able to find me the occasional exception to this but it’s generally a fact. The problem is that you don’t need to be strong to handle a large heavy bike. They are not heavy once they are moving and would only be a problem at low speeds if you had really short arms which isn’t a gender specific trait.

The seat height comes into play in the fact that women are generally shorter than men. Once again, this is not universal. In order to safely handle the bike at a stop you should be able to plant both of your feet flat on the ground. I have seen many cases where people can’t do this, so even this does not seem to be an absolute requirement. However, I would not ride a bike when I couldn’t plant my feet on the ground.

So, are HD Sportsters lightweight bikes with low seat heights?

According to HD’s website, the unladen seat height of a 2008 Sportster XL 883 is 29.3″. Here are some more measurements:

2008 HD Sportster XL 1200L – 28.0″
2008 HD Dyna Wide Glide FXDWG – 28.5″
2008 HD Fat Boy FLSTF – 27.5″
2008 HD V-Rod VRSCAW – 27.1″
2008 HD Electra Glide Standard FLHT – 30.7″

So it seems there is not much difference among HD models and seat height. If the seat height were the only criteria, the V-Rod would be the best women’s bike.

What about weight? The 2008 Sportster XL 883 weighs 583 lbs in running order.

2008 HD Sportster XL 1200L – 581 lbs.
2008 HD Dyna Wide Glide FXDWG – 678 lbs.
2008 HD Fat Boy FLSTF – 714 lbs.
2008 HD V-Rod VRSCAW – 670 lbs.
2008 HD Electra Glide Standard FLHT – 780 lbs.

There is some difference here.

This still leaves me unconvinced. So let’s hear what you think. Are there specific models of motorcycle that are marketed toward one sex or the other?

Scared of the Dark

I like to get to the office early. This gives me time to get things done before anyone else comes in and starts to bother me. Sure, sometimes I’m posting stuff, but in general it’s a great jump start to the day.

One of the side benefits of this is that no one else has arrived before me and turned on the general overhead lighting. In my office this is about 15 overhead pendulum lights with about 4 10 million watt fluorescent bulbs in them. Basically it seems like stadium lighting. I’m sitting here this morning, and the lights are off, or at least as off as they get; when they are off there are two or three of the individual bulbs that remain lit for security lighting or something (as if the motion sensors of the alarm system needed light to work). There I sit happily in the dark, when someone else comes in. I know what is going to happen, but I still don’t like it. I hear the snapping of the switches, one by one, and then the angry buzz from the lights. Slowly they ramp up to full intensity, and I begin to type up this post.

Here is the question of the day:

Why do we need general overhead lighting everywhere?

What is the purpose of lighting up an entire office with overhead stadium lights when all you need would be the light provided by your computers LCD screen. Or, if you need more than that, why not a small white LED? Those suckers throw off some bright light, and won’t bother others. Not all of us feel that we need to have the entire area around us illuminated to work. This would not necessarily apply to all work situations, but I bet it applies in almost all offices.

My theories are:

• Ever since the light bulb was invented, we have considered it such a huge leap forward that we feel the need to constantly bathe ourselves in artificial light produced from electricity to show those monkeys and other lower forms of life who is the man.
• Since everyone who was not already alive since the invention of electricity and the light bulb has been raised with the luxury of cheap and available energy at the flick of a switch, we take it for granted and eventually develop the need for it.
• It’s scary in the dark. Or at lease the power companies want you to feel uncomfortable in the dark, if you don’t turn on a light how are they going to make any money?

First you should know that I’m not an environmentalist as such. I am pro-earth, and pro-living things in general and I think it’s a really good idea to come up with ways to extend the consumable resources we have at our disposal, but not at the sacrifice of my personal convenience or comfort. This means that I like air conditioning, internal combustion engines that run on gas, and so on, but that is not an excuse to waste it. The same goes for coal to light the sun simulators hanging from my office ceiling.

Second, I’m not trying to start a crusade against general overhead lighting. It just seems that in these days of awareness that we have a finite quantity of consumable resources that we use to fuel our modern world it would be smart and efficient to douse the overhead lights in favor of more specific task oriented lighting. The side benefit would be a tremendous savings of electricity as I’m sure that lighting up a few dozen task lights at peoples workspaces would use less power than firing up sixty overhead lights.

So why don’t we do it? I suppose it will take some law to be passed before common sense will prevail. I’m sure that most people would enjoy having more light provided by their own task light rather than the harsh general overhead lighting. And this isn’t even getting to the point that the overhead lighting is useless once the sun comes up, unless you don’t have any external windows in your workplace.

So the next time that you come into work early, and you are one of those people who likes to turn on all the lights, try to avoid the urge to turn them on and just see if there isn’t enough light around already. If there isn’t, get a small light for your workspace and try that.

I bet you’ll like it!

It's almost riding season

Not too much longer to wait and the snow and salt will be off the roads and it will be time to get that motorcycle out of hibernation. I can’t wait.

One of the best things about owning any vehicle is customizing it to make it your own. Anyone can add or modify the parts on their motorcycle to suit their own taste. This is probably the second most fun thing that you can do with a motorcycle, the first is riding it, of course.

This year I plan on adding a couple of upgrades before the riding season starts. On my list are:

1. Oil pressure gague
2. New sissy bar
3. Performance air cleaner
4. Carborater upgrade
5. Handlebars

The oil pressure gague I received for my birthday last year, I just didn’t have time to put it on. I figured that I would rather be riding than installing something. The new sissy bar is to replace the one that I have. I got a new Corbin seat last fall and with this seat the current bar is too short.

The performance air cleaner and carb upgrade are both related. I need to change the jets when I install the new air cleaner otherwise it’s going to run lean. I’m going to use the K&N air filter kit, and the Thunderslide carb kit. Apparently the polymer slide that comes in the Thunderslide kit will make the throttle much more responsive, I’m looking forward to that.

I might skip the handlebars, I’m not really sure yet. I do know that I would like some mini ape’s, much like the ’07 softail customs have. But if I do that I’m going to want to conceal the wiring in the bars, and also replace the cables with stainless steel braided lines. I might wait until next year for that.

I’ll post pictures after the installations.

Let's replace the MPAA's ratings board!

I watched a movie last night called “This film is not yet rated”. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend you do. It is a documentary about the MPAA’s ratings system, the ratings board, and the ratings appeal board. It is all incredibly interesting, and you will be surprised what you don’t know about how films are rated. This movie is available at NetFlix.

Although I don’t have any proof myself, the film indicated that if a movie were to receive the NC-17 rating (which is a replacement for the X rating) they could loose millions of dollars. The bigger impact, which probably relates to the money loss is that the movie will not get to as large an audience as PG-13 or R rated movie as many places won’t show NC-17 movies. So there is big money involved in the ratings system as it is today.

One of the things that stands out the most to me was the fact that the ratings board does not have a defined set of standards for rating movies. What is basically amounts to is a room full of anonymous individuals making spot judgments on what they see or think they see on the screen. According to the MPAA website, they have a list of what the ratings mean, but in the movie the examples given indicated that there is far more individual judgment applied by the ratings board. It seems that films from the big studios get far more leeway and feedback then films produced independently.

Why not have a system where there is a clear list of criteria that a movie is objectively judged by? That way anyone can take the list and see exactly how the rating was applied to the movie. If you were to couple that with a brief synopsis of the content of the movie I think that parents would have a better way of determining if they want their children to see the movie, which is supposed to be what the ratings are all about. Even this is questioned by the film, as it seems that there are far more implications tied to a films rating than just protecting children.

Another thing that really struck me was the way that sex and violence are rated. I watch plenty of movies, and I can certainly tell that violent content is far more prevalent than sex. To me that seems strange. Here we are in a society where you are constantly barraged with images of violence and you hear about how we, and our children are more and more desensitized to it. If you are religious, then violence is a sin, and so is sex. So then why are violence and violent situations rated far more lightly then scenes involving sex?

Why do we still use the MPAA to rate our movies? Why doesn’t someone create an independent ratings system that has well documented and objective criteria with which they can apply a rating to a movie? Why is sex worse for children to see than violence?

The film itself is rated NC-17 by the MPAA, which is mostly due to the fact that they show and compare scenes in the film that have been rated NC-17. However these scenes perfectly illustrate the inconsistencies in the ratings system. See it and judge for yourself.