The Allstar Game

San Francisco hosted the MLB Allstar game earlier this month. I was the lighting designer and project manager. I got back from Italy on July first around 8pm, and I was on site at 9am the following morning. It was not easy going from the super chill Tuscan lifestyle right back into "the pace" but I didn't really have much choice.

I have to say that if one is going to have to go right back to work this was as good
as it could be. A rare sunny warm week by the bay. The project was massive. I had I had 6 other Impact project managers working on it each paired up with a union head electrician, and I designed, and oversaw the whole thing.

The tents started being built on June 22 (the day I left for Italy) and the first day

of lighting installation was July 1st. The first of the two events was July 9th. We took one day off for the 4th so it was 8 days of install for a 3 hour party. Yee Haw!
The end product was definitely one for the picture books.
I've posted a few of the pics from my camera. I want to get some others.

In other news I plan on racing mid August. Unfortunately I've got another monster event to deal with first. Virgin America "Paint the town Red" Can you believe I have to light 5 SF civic buildings in red for 5 nights. Not an easy task.

Italian Adventures

I recently got back from a trip to Italy.
It was great. I got to join Sophia's family for a reunion abroad. The combined extended family made up 42 people. We rented 4 farm houses on a converted 15/16th century abbey in the Tuscan country side.
http://www.abbaziadispineto.com/
It's difficult to put into words all the fun that was had.
We flew out of SF, through Frankfurt landing in Florence. We spent a night there before heading down to the abbey on Saturday June 23rd (yes I spent my birthday in Italy).
Saturday morning we (Sophia and myself) picked a KTM 640 Adventure from a company called Stradanova. They where a cool group of people real enthusiats, but a little less than organized. It's good to see that motorcycle people are the same all around the world!












Once at the abbey the week was mostly spent doing very little. A day trip here and there, lots of cooking, but mostly lounging.


























Everyday there was at least a little riding. Some days the riding was more. The roads on the abbey property are all dirt, and there where some really fun and challening "tracks" as well. Around the abbey is the heart of Tuscany, specifically a national preserve called The Val d'Orcia http://www.nautilus-mp.com/tuscany/presentazione/valdorcia/indexing.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Val_d'Orcia
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1026
It made for some of the most breathtaking motorcycling ever. I spent a lot of time twisting my way through this amazing landscape. Some days I would go for a ride in the morning, then come back to the abbey, pick up a passenger, like Sophia's brother Steven, or sister Eva and head right back out. Many of the roads I explored where groomed dirt roads that would past ancient farm houses.
Amazing stuff.






It was a great trip, and I had a lot of fun being there. I honestly wasn't ready to come home.

Race 2

Full race report coming soon. Here are some pics in the short term.

The First Race

I haven't done much of a write up of my first race weekend. I guess maybe I just didn't want to talk about it.

I did really well in my first two races of the day on Sunday. Both of them where classes my bike isn't competitive in, but they where fun, and I diced with many other riders.

For 500 Twins, my main class, I got a fairly poor start, and went through T1 in 6th of something. I picked off a couple of bikes in T2, a couple more including my racing partner Eric in T4 and that left me in Third place. We went through turns 5-8 and I was gaining on the 2nd place guy. Coming into turn 9 I closed the gap in a hurry. I'm really good on the brakes. I knew for sure I could get him into T11, and take 2nd place. However exiting T9 my bike started running on 1 cylinder (it's a twin) and I looked down and I could see that it had over heated. So before I got to T11 I pulled off the track totally dejected. There went my first AFM trophy.

So we loaded up the bikes, and went to Tommy's to drown our sorrows in tequila.

Racing season starts this weekend

My first race of the year is this weekend, and amazingly I'm almost ready for it.
I wanted to keep this post short as I'll do a much longer race write up, but I wanted to get some pictures of the bike out there.

Easter Sunday

Today is Easter Sunday, and in the bay area that means the Mt Tam Easter Sunrise Ride. This has to be my favorite ride of the year. The ride started years ago as a vintage group but has grown to all motorcycles, and is now a bay area tradition where people would ride to the top of Mt Tamalpais to watch the sun rise . People gather up at Tam Junction which is where Hwy 1 splits off from Mill Valley, and heads up the mountain. The SFMC folks gathered at the club house at 4am, and left just after 4:30am, and we arrived at Tam Junction just before 5am.










There must have been 300 bikes at Tam Junction. We chatted with folks, and kick tires for a few minutes before beginning our ascent. Riding up Mt Tam is a wonderful challenging ride in the daylight, at night it can be treacherous. The ride is tight, twisty, often covered with leaves, or dirt, and everything is damp from the famous bay area fog. So with that said it's every bit of a race to the top of the hill. The first group to leave are usually the fast guys on supermoto's that don't want to get caught in the in the main pack. Riding fast at night is a whole new test. You want to go as fast as you can to keep the guy on your tail at a distance, but you need to leave enough room for error to correct when you think the road turns right, but actually goes left. It happens it's dark.

So when the first group left I wasn't quite ready and I knew I had my work cut out to weave my way through them. It turned to be pretty easy. Once I got past that group I hooked up with rich from "The Wreckin Crew" a local club, and we quickly put some distance between us. Rich was on this ratty old BMW that he's owned for years. He really shouldn't be that fast on this beat up old bike, but the extra headlight he mounted was useful.







A short while later Allen Zino passed us riding us KTM Adventure. It made me laugh because he passed us with all this bravado like we where so slow. Let me tell you it's not easy leading in the dark. When you're following someone you have their tail light to follow, and you can use their headlight to see further. When you're in the lead there's nothing to see except what your headlight is doing, and with the dark, and fog it isn't much. so Allen blasts by us, all elbows out tough guy looking, then immediately slows down. Yup I thought so. The three of us motored away and where the first ones to the parking lot on the top. Not bad. One CCM supermoto, one KTM adventure, and haggard old BMW. That does a pretty good job of summing up the kinds of riders here in the bay area. The poser sport bike crowd won't be out of bed by the time I get done writing this.

Once at the top most people with either walk up to the look out tower, which is a treacherous hike to itself, or the end of the foot path. Either one offers stunning views of the bay area.

Like I said before I love this ride. Only the most dedicated of riders are willing to get out of bed when at 3am to ride their bikes up a twisty mountain road at night. Most of these people are skilled riders representing all walks of life, and styles of riding. It's great to see how motorcycles can bring together such a diverse group of people.





Last years ride was brutal as it was pouring rain. Still about 100 die hard folks showed up, and rode that twisty mountain road at night in the pouring rain. It was damn fun!
For more info about Mt Tamalpais check out: http://www.mttam.net/

Health Care in Vegas

I just got back from doing an event in the fabulous town of Las Vegas. The event was a a presidential forum on health care. Both parties where invited, but only the 7 Democratic front runners accepted the invitation.
It may not sound exciting, but if you think that one of those 7 people is going to be the next US president it actually was. One thing about it that was really cool is that I hired my of one old college buddies (from Junior college mind you) to be my head electrician. Below is a picture of Vince hard at it.



The event was televised, and web cast so it was mainly about TV style lighting. I've become much better at it, but I still need to develop in that area. considering I've had no training other than trial and error I think I'm doing pretty good. The venue was the Cox Pavilion adjacent to The Thomas, and Mack Arena on the UNLV campus. Below is the rig starting to come together.


We had a really tight load in as there was only one day for install, focus, and rehearsal. The morning went well. I'd flown in the day before, so I was well rested, and ready for what ever might pop up. We used union labor for most of our installers. That's IATSE Local 720, but the venue provided the riggers, and they where not very good, and as such the install didn't go as rapidly as I'd have liked. Actually all the departments, lighting, video, audio, and scenic where behind so at least I wasn't holding anyone else up. Below the rig is finally up off the ground.


We ended our day at 11:30pm which was at least an hour, and a half later than hoped, and I hadn't really accomplished much as far as programming goes, but the rig was up, focused, and ready for the show. Below is what it looked like when it was too late to think anymore.



I got to the venue extra early, like 7am, to finish up some programming, because I just wasn't satisfied with where I had left it, and the press was being let in at 8:30am. I had noticed a small dark spot downstage center, and there wasn't anything I could do about it, as the light hitting that area was directly over a seating area that had already been occupied by some early press arrivals. I told myself it would be fine, but I should have forced the point, and made them move to get the scissor lift out as Hillary Clinton decided to park herself squarely in that dark spot. Lesson learned.


John Edwards, there where more people taking pictures of his wife than him.

















Obama





























Hillary













I have more pictures, but they all start to look the same, just different candidates. It was an interesting event to be apart of. There was definitely an air of excitement from everyone involved. I like doing gigs like this. Thye have much more meaning than just making a party look good. Later that evening instead of partying it up with my old college chum, I'm old, I crashed out in my hotel room, and I watched the event on the local news. It looked pretty damn good I thought.

Rumble Fish

I don't like fish. I don't know why really. Perhaps it was the fish sticks growing up.
I keep trying it, and I keep not liking it. I think it's the "fishy" taste. So why the hell do I like sushi so much? I know that doesn't make any sense at all. It's true though. And when the sushi is good it's really good. In other cuisines the difference between good, and OK can be subtle. Good Italian is fabulous, but so-so Italian is not bad. It's so not that way with sushi. Anything other than really good sushi is awful, and when it's good. It's really really good.

This little sushi joint opened up near my house, awhile ago. I walked by it for months, without going in. It had been a sushi restaurant before, but it changed hands, and was renovated. It looked modern, and fancy inside, and I thought it didn't fit in the outer Richmond sleepy neighborhood so I didn't really pay it any mind. There are many good sushi places out here. I don't know why there is such a concentration of good sushi joints. People come from all over the bay area to eat in this neighborhood. I don't know where they park when they come here, but come they do. I don't remember what motivated me to first go in, but I thought it was pretty decent the first time around. I've now been back several times, and each time I walk away thinking "I can't believe I live this close to great sushi" This place could bankrupt me.

What is it that makes a great sushi joint. Simply put: fish. You can make a place look great with fancy art work, and pretty decor. You can make a place stand out with themed settings, and sassy waitresses, but in the end if the fish isn't fresh the place isn't any good. So When I say Rumble Fish is a great sushi joint it's because first off the fish is fresh. The first couple of time I went there I wondered how could this little neighborhood joint get access to such fresh fish. In case one didn't know there is a whole world of politics when it comes to getting access to the highest level of fish. You see fish is graded when it comes off the boat. There actually a group of people that touch and smell every fish, and give them a rating. The higher the rating the more expensive, but there usually aren't very many in the highest level. So who gets to buy those highest rated fish? That's where the politics come in. If I wanted to open a sushi restaurant, and I went to the fish market not know anybody I'd be lucky to buy fish that was worthy of BBQ. So how was it that this start up no name restaurant was serving delicious fresh fish? Last week when I was at Rumble Fish I met a lady that gave me the dish. The new owner had worked, and trained at Ebisu, and that restaurant is like the sushi training grounds for the bay area. So that explained the fish.

Beyond the freshness is the style. I'm told it's very Japanese style but
California cuisine. The chef uses minimal rice, and large portions of fish, unlike other restaurants where the opposite is true. Everything is very delicate and lite.

At first I didn't want to go there because there wasn't anybody in there, but now I know the food is so good it doesn't matter if I'm the only person. Besides I'm starting to like listening to old 50's rock and roll while eating sushi. You see the chef plays these oldies tunes while making the sushi, and the music spills out of the kitchen into the dinning area. You can see his reflection in the window rocking out to oldies. It's fun.

Another Fine Day

On Monday March 19th I spent the day circulating Thunderhill Raceway (http://www.thunderhill.com/) flogging my little EX500.

In typical format I was up at 4am, the truck having been loaded the night before, then over to my friend Craig's to pick him up, and the bikes, which where loaded onto his trailer the night before, and off we went. It's a 2 1/2 hour drive, but it goes by quickly as we catch up on each others stories.

Once there we where set up quickly, and after a short riders meeting we where out on track.

It was a great day of riding for me. The early sessions I spent reacquainting myself with T-hill as I had not been there in many months. I was stiff, and for some reason not super confident. So I took it slowly, and built up speed as the day went on.
I had some suspension issues in the first session. I had left the settings as what Phil from Aftershocks had preset them at, and it wasn't working. Under braking I could feel the front tire push, and when I checked I could see that I wasn't using all the travel in my forks. I checked my notes from last season, and made some adjustments, and that helped.

The time spent down at Willow Springs definitely changed by perspective of what is fast. I used to think T-hill was, and there are fast parts, but it's not the same. So when I got my confidence up I really started attacking corners that used to spook me.
I know for sure I was going through turns 1, 2, 8, 9, and 10 faster than I had before.

One fun aspect of the day was working with my friend Craig.

I went out in 3 or 4 of his sessions and we worked on things for him. It was fun. I would lead for a couple of laps showing lines through turns, and body positioning, then I would follow him, and see what he picked up. By the end of the day he had really picked up the pace. I think I rode in something like 11 or 12 sessions. I did 7 A group sessions, and I think 3 or 4 B group sessions with Craig. I am sore today!
But my fitness training is really paying off. I didn't get fatigued at the end of the day, but I need to work on my mental fitness so I can stay totally focused for 6 laps. Baby steps



It's a long day getting up that early, driving 2 1/2 hours, riding all day, then driving the 2 1/2 hours back, and then unpacking, but damn is it good fun!

The Fastest Road in The West

3 Mondays ago I strapped by trusty EX500 onto my beat up Pathfinder and went down to Willow Springs International Raceway, dubbed "the fastest road in the west" I can say one thing for sure, they ain't kidding!

I started off by driving down to my parents house on Sunday. For some reason I was in a hurry, and bombing down I5 at 85mph with my bike on the back. That was not good on the gas mileage, and I think I was getting something extra awful like 13mpg. My trip home I kept it under 75mph, and I got a better 16mpg. When you're traveling 400 miles 3 mpg can really add up. I hung out with mom and dad, and that was cool. Considering that they only live 8 hours away I don't see them very often. When I got to Bear Valley Springs there was snow on the ground. By the time I got up to their house at 6000' there was at least a foot of snow. It was a little hairy getting up, and down their driveway with my bike wagging on the back, but made it none the less.

I got up at 5am on Monday morning, and followed my dad down the mountain. I got to the track just before 7am, and the gates where closed. I was a bit shocked. Up here in NorCal the tracks usually open the gates at 6:30am, and bikes on track by 8:30am.
I would find this to be a theme for the rest of the day. I don't know if it's best to call the atmosphere laid back, or unprofessional, but the guys I normally ride with are a lot more polished.

I rolled out onto the track around 9am. WSIR, also called the big track as they have several different tracks at the facility, is 2.25 miles long with only 9 turns, and two of those are actually one really long turn. It is really amazing how long you go really fast. Turns 1,2, and 6 are taken in 5th gear, and Turns 8and 9 are taken in 6th gear. Turn 9 exits onto the front straight. With the way my bike is geared 5th is something like 90-100mph, and 6th tops out at 120mph. I'm not kidding. I was taking turn 8 with 6th gear topped, and bending it in, nothing flicks at 120mph, getting all the way over on the side of the tire, and staying there for what seemed like ever. I even bounced my knee off the ground a couple of times. Over the course of a lap I would down shift only twice, and up shift three times. That's a really long time to be holding the throttle wide flat open. It's so different for me. At Sears Pt I down shift at almost the entrance of every turn, and up shift at the exit of every turn. It's something like 24 shift movements per lap, and at willow it was 6.

In my second session I had a bit of an altercation with another rider. He'd come across my front wheel on the brakes, and I almost ran into the back of him. I hate it when riders on big horse power bikes pass me, then park it in the turn. I went and found him in the pits and we had a "discussion". It ended with the track promoter separating us. We shook hands and essentially said stay out of my way. One thing that had come up was I said it was my first time at the track, and I was still learning, and he'd said I didn't belong in the A group. In my 5th session of the day I passed him on the outside of T2, and he passed me back on the front straight. When I went around him again in 2, I made sure to keep up the pace all the way through the rest of the lap to try to gap him enough so he couldn't motor me on the straight, he didn't. After that session he found me in the pits, and said to me, "I guess you learned the track" with a big smile.

It was a great day of riding. Of course I had gone down there to do my evaluation for the California Superbike School. I didn't get in. I didn't know the curriculum well enough. Oh well. They said if I took a couple of their schools I could make a good instructor as I ride really well. We'll see. It was a long drive back, but nice watching the sunset over the mountains.

Tomorrow I'm headed off to Thunderhill Raceway where I used to think Turns 7, and 8 where fast. I curious to see how that plays out. I've been going to the gym pretty often, and I saw my personal trainer again yesterday. I think I'm making some good progress, and tomorrows bike flogging will let me know for sure.

Super Moto Madness!

I did some serious supermoto riding over the last couple of days. For those of you not familiar with this check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermoto.


On Sunday there was a large gathering of supermoto's at Alice's, a frequent motorcycle destination in the Santa Cruz Mts. People where starting at designated meeting points, and riding to Alice's together. I hosted the SF meeting at Farley's coffee house in Potrero Hill. The number of bikes that showed up at Alice's was impressive. When I first got my supermoto bike in March of 2002 it was unique and got a lot of attention, but times have changed. There must have been 50 bikes on Sunday representing most of the manufacturers. In the city I had met up with a guy name Carl, and when we saw the large group we decided it best to cut out early, and go riding as riding with a large group can have disastrous results. We had a great time riping around the hills. Carl is a very skilled rider, and he's better in some places than me, and I better than him in others. So it was a lot of back and forth with nothing stupid happening just hard riding. We met up with another group that had broken away and, I was a little leery. To bad my suspicions turned out to be true. The group decided to stop on a long straight and practice wheelies. I pulled over, and mentioned to Carl that this was not a good idea. It took 5 minutes for someone to crash, and crash big time. When we got to the guy he was pretty beat up, and had a dislocated finger. I give the guy credit as he was tough. He had somebody hold on to his finger, and yank it back into place. Then he rode back up to Alice's. Not to bright but tough. Carl and I decided to ditch this group, and went back to thrashing about the mountains. By the time I got home I was exhausted. I felt like I had been at the track all day.

On Monday my friend Craig called me and asked If I wanted to go ride supermotos at the track. I was a little hesitant, but he had both his bikes prepped, and on the trailer. How can I pass that up? I went home, and threw my riding gear into my Pathfinder, and went over to Craig's. Since he was providing the bikes I offered to tow the trailer. A supermoto track day is very different from a sport bike track day. The track is a go-kart track which is small, tight, and twisty. It only costs $20, and the track stays open 'til 8pm. I started the day by riding his Honda CRF150. A little bike meant for as a transition bike for large kids or small adults. It doesn't make much in the way of horsepower but the brakes are good, and it's fun to ride. Craig was riding his new to him Kawasaki KLX300 which is a full sized bike, but still smaller than most other supermotos. For example by CCM is 600cc's and weighs 350lbs, where as the KLX is 300cc's, and weighs around 260lbs. By my third session I was turning laps faster than Craig had on this little bike, and I think that was frustrating for him, as I had not been on that track since 2003, and I had never ridden this bike before. We switched, and I got to ride the KLX, and I immediately got into the groove. The larger bike fit me better, and the extra power made it more challenging. Withing a couple of laps I was cutting times way faster than I did on the little CRF. We switched back, and I went out and seriously thrashed that little bike. I just kept going around and around. Eventually it got dark and they turned the lights on. It's so much fun to ride fast at night! I kept riding, and found myself alone on the track. Most everyone else had left already. Ultimately the organizers declared the track open to anyone as it's normally broken into session base on the size of bike, so Craig came and joined my on the track. He chased me for awhile but he couldn't close the gap. I really rode the snot out of that little bike. I must have rode for an hour continuously. I guess that gym training is paying off.

It's been three years since I was the Stockton kart track. I am a completely different rider. I have three years of road racing under my belt with thousands of miles, and hundreds of hours throwing a bike around at race speed. I was really nervous about going to Stockton. Those fears where melted away by lap two as I learned the lines, and started pushing harder. That's the real difference. I have such a better concept of what it takes to go fast, and what if feels like when a motorcycle is at it's limit. I almost crashed several times, but I was always able to recover, having found a new limit I set out to change something to as not to crash again, but never slowing down. It was damn fun.

Careful What You Ask For

So I've been frustrated with work recently as the projects I'm working on aren't very challenging, and all the new large scale events are going to the other designers. I've got plenty to do, but nothing new and exciting. Although I did a themed party recently that was super cool looking, but it rained all over us as we set it up so that sort of took some of the joy out of it. Today I get a phone call to do a health forum. Apparently this is a national discussion on health care in the US. It will feature many of the democratic presidential hopefuls of 2008. The venue is an arena in Las Vegas, and it will be surely televised as well as web cast. OK now we're talking something I can sink my teeth into (oh that's another post for later). When is this fantastic show I get to work on? March 24th the same day as the first AFM race of the year. I bummed. I'm trying so hard to get ready for racing season, and now I'm going to miss the first race. Anyway it's a good show, and I'll be glad I'm doing it, but missing that first race will take some of the joy away.

Grammy awards - what where they thinking?

I watched the Grammy Awards last night. What where they thinking? I like watching award shows as they are usually have big production, and the latest in new production technology. The Grammy awards are usually the grand dame of awards shows. Big lighting and video rigs to match all the big name entertainment. But this year to put it plainly sucked. How the producers managed to make every song sound the same is amazing. The lighting was awful. Every act looked exactly the same. Keyed from a follow spot front light, and lots of bluish white back light, boring. The producers even managed to make Gnarls Barkley boring. They took a great dance song, and removed the dance part, why? How about that country tribute or was it an Eagles tribute? If I didn't know that was Rascal Flats, or Carrie Underwood, and just listened to it then I would assume it was a party band covering the Eagles. Boring! I am so disappointed. I like to watch the show and see the new toys which is mostly video elements, and see where the production industry is going, but if this is our direction it looks like I'm in for a really boring career.

Working it out.

I'm trying to get my body worked out. What? Well for starters I have things that hurt that I'm trying to fix. I hurt my left wrist in a big get off at Thunderhill last March, and it hasn't healed yet. Mostly because I crashed in August, and September both times aggravating the injury. Nothing was ever broken, just sore. After 9 months of sore I went to see a doctor, while I'm there I figure I'll have my knee looked at because it hurts like hell when I run.

I've got Kaiser so I have to start out with my primary doctor. She's a family practice doctor so after a few minutes with her I asked to see a sports medicine specialist. By the way I don't mind going to see the doctor because she's the hottest doctor lady I've ever met! I get a bunch of X-rays of both my knee, and wrist. Of course the x-ray technician is my friend Mole (http://www.myspace.com/the_mole_hole), and it's a completely different experience getting x-rays by somebody you know. I see the new wrist guy, and he pretty much told me there wasn't anything to do about my wrist. Soft tissue damage and it takes a long time to heal. He said if it still hurt in a year we'd do surgery. Great.

On to the knee. I go back to the doctor lady to review my x-rays, and she tells me that I have a small sign of arthritis in my knee. That's possible right. Let's see I broke that leg right where the tibia meets the knee joint. I did that while prospecting with the SFMC, but that's a story for another time. I also played sports in highschool, and danced in shows until I was 18 so any amount of damage may have happened. I used to have to tape my knees up before a performance so I went along with the diagnosis. OK off the the physical therapist to evaluate my knee (not as cute as my primary doctor). She bends me, stretches me, twists me, and comes to the conclusion that there's nothing wrong with my knee. Huh? She thinks it has something to do with my sciatic nerve. Oi! This actually makes sense. I've been seeing a chiropractor for a little while now dealing with some other issues involving my hip, neck, and arm all of which have a relation to my sciatic nerve. OK so two different people have diagnosed the same issue, but are going about different ways to fix it.

This all comes back to being healthy which in end makes me stronger, more limber, and more able to throw my bike around the track. Of course it has to come back to that doesn't it! All parties say I need to exercise more, and I completely agree. I'm not getting younger and thinner, well except for my hair. I know I need to get more physical activity in on a weekly basis. Prior to this round of doctoring I was making an attempt to get to the gym, or ride my bicycle in an effort to increase my stamina as I am getting tired half way through a race. Right now I'm only getting to the gym once or twice a week, and that's not going to cut it. Tomorrow, thanks to Sophia, and her mother I'm going to meet with a physical trainer who will help me create an exercise program that will be specialized for my motorcycle racing, and hopefully help with my other health issues.

One side effect of all this is cost. Chiro is at least $200 a month, gym $85ish, docotrs visits, x-rays, and so on it adds up. It's tough. I'm trying to live cheaply so as I can have money for racing because I got myself into trouble last year, but at the same time if I'm not fit what's the point. It's an example of how health care in this country is in need of some kind of overhaul.

The first race in at the end of March so we'll see if we can make any improvements by then.

The Ballet

I went to the San Francisco Ballet on Tuesday night. We're very lucky here in the city by the bay. The city is host to some great arts institutions, symphony, opera, ballet and others. Great stuff. I love the ballet. Did you know that the SF Ballet is the oldest professional ballet company in the US? I had no clue. I figured that honor would go to something like the Joffrey in Chicago, or The American Ballet Theater.
Tuesday performance had three pieces. The first was very traditional Balanchine stuff and a complete snore. The second was with three men which is not typical and it was pretty cool. The last however was amazing. Very eclectic unique even. The lighting was awesome. In someways the lack of light was as impressive as what was lit. Very stark. Light coming from only one source, or one direction made for some interesting looks. It was fun. During one part my mind wandered a bit, and I thought of how a professional motorcycle racer is like a professional ballet dancer (you knew we'd get to that part). No really think about it. A ballet dancer has complete control over their bodies, extreme focus, and they make it look easy. They glide across the stage, and hit their precise marks over and over again. there bodies have been trained for years to have one unique function - dance. We think of that racer muscling his machine around. It seems so violent. Tire shredding horsepower trying to throw it's controller onto the ground at every chance. But if you watch a GP race with out the sound off you can see the delicate balance the racer has, the control in extreme conditions, hitting his marks over and over with exact precision and gracefulness as the bike slides around.

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.