Myspace

Have you gotten sucked into the Myspace thing? I have. I didn't mean to. Hell I didn't even want to! It started simple enough. I was getting blogging so I was checking out some other blogs, and types of blogs and what not. I did a search on Technorati and when I found something I wanted to read it was on somebody's Myspace page. In order to leave a comment I had to sign up. I tell you whoever thought of that gimmick is a real genius. Of course I signed up. I had the best of intentions. I was just going to leave a few comments on some blogs, and that was going to be it. So when I went to my homepage and it was all plain looking I felt I needed to fill in a few details. That sound you hear is the ever sucking sound of Myspace sucking people in. Now I've figured out how to have colors, and fonts, and pictures. Worse yet everybody I know seems to have a Myspace page. Funny they never told me about it. It's like we don't talk about "myspace" while we're in "meat space" So now I am getting invites to be friends with people and clubs, and I'm like when did all this happen. It's just funny. I don't like it when people at work look at my page. I don't know why but I'm starting to separate myself from my work people more and more. I used to socialize with my co-workers a lot but not anymore. I've seen some of my co-workers myspace pages. I don't invite them to be my friends.

Tax Time

I did my taxes last night. Yep both federal and state. Took me about 10 minutes. Now for one thing I only had one W2 this year, and I've lived at the same address for the entire year so that all helps. I don't own anything, and so far nothing owns me, but I'm sure there's a creditor out there that thinks otherwise. Last year I spent some time delving into my Turbo Tax. You know really trying to itemize all my deductions, and what not. After all my efforts Turbo Tax told me to take the standard deduction, and stop trying so hard. Fine! So after I was finished, and ready to file my 1040EZ I found out Turbo Tax wanted something like $50 for a federal filing, and another $30 for the state. What! That's $80 taken out of my return. I tell you I was so close to just doing it since I was getting a return. But I just couldn't stomach the idea of giving up the money. I turned to my trusty friend Google, and started searching for other online tax services. That's when I discovered Average1040.com. This site is super simple. You enter your info in a series of boxes, and if you do something wrong a pop up gives you suggestions. After all the important data is entered you get to print out your forms, and review them before transmitting. Best of all $6.50 to file. Not $50!
At first I was a bit skeptical of this site as it is so simple. I was sure that my identity, or maybe my sanity would get pilfered, then horse traded around the internet, but I took a gamble on them last year, and everything went fine. So I had no worries about going back this year. It's definitely not for everyone. Other tax sites offer more features, services, and information, but if those services aren't needed then I say stay away. Oh, and California offers their own online tax filing system for free. Now you can't beat that price.

So What is Mickey going to do with his tax return? Spend it wisely by paying down his credit card, save some money for that trip to Italy? Hell no! We're going racing of course. My "A" engine which has been sitting on my garage floor for way to long is going to go to rehab.

That's a good story my "A" engine. I like to call it that. Makes it sound like it's important. And it is, or at least it will be. Way back when I first started racing my partner, and myself kept blowing up engines. Now mind you I built all those, but that in it's self doesn't mean that's why they blew up, but up they blew non-the-less. So I spent some money, and paid an engine guy to build me up a really solid bottom end. That's the crank, and transmission part. I never got that thing to run right. Every time I thought I had found the problem I bought some fancy racing part to replace the problem part. So after nearly three years I have every hop up part you can get for an EX500 engine. Transmission, cam-shafts, head, valves, pistons, lighter, stronger, faster, and with more power, and never has the damn thing run correctly. I wasted the first two races last year trying to get it to work right. So mid season I took the think out put on the floor, of my garage, and there it has sat ever since. The thing is that in the brief moments it did run correctly it was fast. The bone stock engine I have now probably makes 55hp, and the one siting on my garage floor probably makes 65hp, and that's a big difference in racing. So in the continued effort to throw good money after bad, I'm going to take my "A" engine to a professional racing engine builder, and this time it's going to run great. I just know it!

Brrrrr it's cold!

OK so my version of cold is different from other peoples. My friends back east tell me cold is below 30, and my friends down south tell me cold is under 60. Well most of the country has had some kind of cold spell in the last week. So doesn't that seem like a perfectly good time to go to track and test out our new suspension components? Sure why not?
On Tuesday my friend Craig, and myself trailered our bikes up to Sears pt. The ambient temperature was 29°F when we arrived at the track our bikes being covered in frost from the short trip across the golden gate and to wine country. I'm not used to seeing my race bike with ice on it's windshield!

I went out for my first session around 9:30am, and the temp was still under 40°. I was wearing my normal Under Armor clothing as well as my LL Bean thermals under my leathers, and I had a sweatshirt on top of all of this. While sitting still in the pits I was nice and toasty, but holly shit it was another story all together when I got moving around the track. The wind cut right through my many layers, and I was cold quickly, but it was tolerable. I wish I could say the same for my fingers. I came in after about 4 laps because I was having trouble squeezing the clutch, and brake levers. One thing that I had no problem with was traction. Many riders that went out early where spinning tires, and slipping around the track as they slowly built heat into the ice cold tires. Not I! I had acquired a set of tire warmers before December, and thanks to help from friends and family over the holiday a brand new Yamaha generator. With my tires heated to a toasty 70°C (158°F) my bike stuck like glue to the track. Well unless I did something stupid like run over the curbing. Hitting one of those was like riding on ice, and for all I knew they may have been covered in ice! Eventually the day warmed up, and the lap times dropped. By no means was I hitting the times I was in August but it's good just to be out there.

Some other possible exciting news is my possible inclusion into the California Superbike School. Awhile back the school had sent out a mass e-mail looking for riding coaches. I took the level 1 school several years ago, and I'm still on there mailing list. So on a whim I filled out the application, and e-mailed it back. Low and behold they e-mailed me asking for me to do a phone interview. Holy Smokes Batman! I thought I looked pretty good on paper, but I didn't hold any hope of them actually taking me seriously. CSS is the largest, and oldest motorcycle racing/track riding school anywhere. They do classes all over the world. Now I was nervous. I set up a phone interview, and for the first time in forever I had to interview for something I really wanted. Yesterday I had my interview, and it went really well. After my conversation I've been invited to tryout. Now I have to go down to southern CA for a trackday and prove to them that I can ride well enough to be a coach, and that I have the aptitude for being an instructor. It's not going to be easy, but I think I can do it. Amazingly enough work has supported me in this endeavor. That's good because if I get the job it means I'll be traveling all over the country. Can you imagine getting paid to ride a motorcycle? Someone else's motorcycle that is prepped by professional mechanic , and comes with all the safety gear? Yeah me neither.
So far 2007 is starting strong. I plan on keeping it going that way.

What is Mick-e?

If your reading this you know that I am Mickey Fimbres.
So what is Mick-e? Well it started at what feels like the dawn of the internet, or at least the internet to me. The very first time I used that "handle" was when I set up my first e-mail address. I think it was my earthlink account, and was still going to SF State in 1997 when I sarted using that name. Obviously some Disney nut had taken the name Mickey for their e-mail address so I had to think of something clever. That was ten years ago and for all I know I was drunk as a skunk when I thought it up. But I kept that name going. I used it again when I started playing games online. When I first started playing Unreal while living at 255 Moscow. All the other players had some cool screen name, and I couldn't think of anything. I remember a roommate of the time had his screen name as "zestyscrotum" I thought that was pretty funny, but I couldn't think of anything that funny so Mick-E it was. Later on when I would play other games online I was alway Mick-e. No matter what game or what venue nobody ever seemed to have that name. It was sort of my niche in the cyberspace world. Later when I started posting on internet message forums I didn't even hesitate to select the name Mick-e. It has become by domain in the electronic world. So I was horrified when I started to create this blog that "Mick-e.blogspot.com" had been taken. So I typed in the stolen domain to see what the other "mick-e" had to offer the electronic world. Like so many things in this cyber world there was nothing at the end of the tunnel. Just somebody sitting on the name. So once again challenged to create a new electronic indentity I combined elements of my past, present, and hopefully future. "Mick-e" 10 years of electronic history. From the golden age of the internet when everything was new and possible. "693" my racing number. It represents the here and now. It has taken a lot of dedication not only on my part, but my friends, and family to stay focused on racing. What will come of it only time will tell.
So Here I am at the start of 2007. I posted a picture of me at Sears Pt rounding turn 2. I've looked at that picture a hundred times, and I still find something new in it each time I look at it. What do I see tonight. Me looking forward to the future. What does it hold in store for us? I like this picture. Sometime I think I look completely relaxed. Just chillin' makin' my way 'round the bend. Other times I look at it, and I see the intensity in my body language. What is all that anger about? Tonight I see me looking forward leaving 2006 behind, and starting 2007 on a positive note.
Ahh goodbye 2006. Funny but almost every year I spend the first couple of months struggling to write the new year "07" on documents, but this year it hasn't been an issue. I think it's because I'm so ready to leave 06 behind me. 2006 was not my best year. Now it wasn't all negative by any means. First off I'm lucky that I started dating a girl at the end of 05 that still finds it in her best interest to associate with me even now at the start of 07, and together we went to Italy to work on a wedding; not all that bad. Work sucked. No matter what I was involved in it just wasn't satisfying. It always seemed like the grass was greener on the other side. The other side of what is the question? My bike racing didn't offer much satisfaction ether. I started 06 by crashing in March. My bike died on the starting line at the first race of the year. Money or the lack there of kept me from racing in April, May, and June. Then in July I came down with a terrible flu. I had a fever of 102°, and the ambient temperature was 107°! Oh I raced anyway thanks to the help of Sophia littarly spoon feeding me, and physically helping me get on my bike. Why the hell did I do that? Anyway. I crashed in August, and again in September causing my teammate Erice to crash. That sucked. It's one thing to crash your own bike. It's another thing altogether to have to drive you friend to the hospital because you fucked up.
Yet I still feel like 2006 was a break out year. Even though worked sucked I still like doing lighting. I even like most of my clients. Even though I threw my poor motorcycle on the ground over and over again I still posted my best lap times ever. Hell even with a 102° fever I set my best lap time ever at Thunderhill!. And through all of this BS I am still with a girl that doesn't think I'm crazy, (well not totally crazy at least)
So here we are January 2007 home of Mick-e. I hope to update this blog once a week. Perhaps more often.. most likely less, but none the less my point is to write about things in my life, and hopefully all the people that I do a shitty job of communicating with (if you're reading this you are one them) can check here every now and then when they are bored to tears with their own lives, and see what has become of good old Mick-E.