Pronounced (cal-vin-uh-lee-bru)

What’s up everyone, those of you that know me know that I’m an overly active individual, I just like doing “things”. I think it might have something to do with my moms “you can do anything” attitude. Back in August or September, I joined a gym out here in Southern California called No Limits Mixed Martial Arts. It’s the largest gym I’ve worked out in (roughly 70,000 square feet). They have three rings, two cages, a whole bunch of bags, an upstairs for yoga, lots and lots of room for wrestling mats, and a full weight room. Yeah, it’s pretty big.

When I joined, my goal was to get into BJJ but I heard the training was pretty tough and that I should consider some cardio kickboxing. I did that for a couple of months to strengthen myself up and increase my endurance then decided to start up the BJJ classes. The first class I took was insane, as a matter of fact, if I think about that day really hard, I’ll probably pass out. It was a no gi class (since it was my first class, I didn’t know the difference) I was tired, out of breath, and as much as I lift weights, NONE of my muscles were working, it was a nightmare.

As beat up as I was, I managed to wriggle back the next morning to take the gi class. That class started off a little slower paced but I learned a lot of useful things. Once the lessons/techniques were covered, we went live and again, toward the end of class, it felt like an elephant landed on top of me and took a nap. Do you know what it feels like to have an elephant take a nap on top of you? The next day, I squirmed to the next class, limping and aching, and repeated the process. After class was over, I felt like I was gonna pass out again HOWEVER, I didn’t feel like that until after class, progress baby! I’m three weeks into it and I plan to update you all often.

Here are a few birds eye visuals of my practice grounds.

Photos courtesy of No Limits MMA

Happy Monday everyone. First things first, let me start by apologizing for my two week hiatus. I just picked up a new hobbie and it’s been taking up quite a bit of my time. I think I’m back on track though, so let’s get moving along.

For some time now, I’ve been looking for a decent iPhone application that will allow me to tune my instruments accurately. I just ran across the Cleartune app which is a chromatic tuner that will tune just about any instrument that can sustain a tone. If you’re a musician and you own an iPhone, this application will be perfect for you. Click here to find out more information about the app. I’ve included a photo below that shows off the sleek note wheel along with the tuning meeter.

Good morning everyone! I hope this Monday finds you all in happy spirits. I Just finished a fabulous BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) work out this morning and while I was sitting in a triangle one thought crossed my mind, the NBA League Pass iPhone application. Not that I was thinking any less of my opponent, but sometimes between all the huffing and puffing, I’ll briefly (without thought) go to a happy place.

The NBA League pass is an application that let’s you watch live NBA games directly on your iPhone. Enough said, I don’t think I have to go into any more detail about that. One cool feature however, is the ability to catch replays of games that you might have missed. This is a great application for watching highlights, getting scores, or just taking a moment out of your day to watch a little TV if you’re not necessarily in front of one. It’s about $20 for a half season pass and more information about it can be seen by going to: the NBA.com website

It’s been a long time (two weeks in fact) since I’ve given you an old school Friday classic motorcycle post. That’s why today I have something special to present. There is a ton of history behind this company (along with every other one) so in my attempt to keep it brief, I’ll have to leave out some things but the goal is just to give you a little history lesson.

The Italy based Aermacchi company, founded in 1912 was actually an aircraft manufacturer (don’t you love how just about every motorcycle company started out doing something completely unrelated before engineering motorcycles?). Production stopped at the end of World War II but many decades later, Aermacchi is still highly known for their jet trainers. Around 1945 the company started production on the MBI which was a three wheel truck. Lino Tonti was the actual designer that introduced the motorcycle design and in 1950, he designed a (not so contemporary styled) 125cc one cylinder two stroke engine called the Macchi. Picture a scooter/motorcycle mesh if you will. The Macchi went about 45mph and had a three speed transmission. The production of bikes stayed pretty consistent in that style until about 1955. A fellow by the name of Alfredo Bianchi took Tonti’s place when he left the company. That’s when Aermacchi started producing really futuristic sport style looking motorcycles.

Aermacchi produced the Chimera which was an interesting bike. Everything was enclosed in the body work which at the time was allow die castings and steel pressings. As cool as the bike was, and as much as everyone loved it, it didn’t get much playing time. After 1964, production on the bike was stopped with only a few bikes produced. People were interested in seeing the engine of the machine and the Chimera was a little too ahead of its time.

Aermacchi might be better known for its history of racing. In 1958, they brought us 250cc’s on the Grand Prix circuits and winning came very often for the racers who rode those bikes. Aermacchi and Harley-Davidson teamed up and created a company called Aermacchi Harley-Davidson and the bikes they raced with had Aermacchi Harley-Davidson badges on the tanks. Those were street bikes that were converted to racing bikes. The two merging companies took 50/50 shares and that ultimately tapped them into the North American market. In 1972, Harley-Davidson took control of the company by acquiring all shares and Aermacchi concentrated on the production of military aircraft.

Some photos below for your viewing pleasure:

4.5 Horse Power Ghibli

Photo courtesy of unkown source

The Chimera originally had a 175cc engine and then graduated to 250cc

Photo courtesy of Vanishing Point Bikes

Aermacchi Harley-Davidson Ala D’Oro had a 350cc engine

Photo courtesy of unknown source

Aermacchi Harley-Davidson

Photo courtesy of Moto Italiano NY

Ladies and gentlemen, I just happened to run across this video and damn near fell out of my chair watching this. What we have here is a confrontation between a 67 year old man and a (I have no idea how old) ghetto a$$ black dude. Pardon my french, I try to keep it clean but when I see something this ghetto, I just can’t help myself. Now people, as a grown man, I would NEVER get in someone’s face, especially in a crowded place. It’s extremely immature, disrespectful, and it makes both parties look like a$$e$. Not to mention, if you get knocked out, you don’t wanna be the one starting the fight it just makes you look stupid and I’m pretty sure it’s a self esteem killer. If you’re not the one initiating the confrontation and you get knocked out, oh well, it sucks, but you weren’t looking for trouble anyway and that person that hit you will probably just burn in hell anyway. So just go to Starbucks, tell them what happened, and you’ll probably get a free drink.

With that said, I’m not gonna take sides and say who’s at fault because it takes two people to argue BUT, if you plan on getting up in someones face, you deserve what you get. Enough talk, see the video below and let me know what you think.

P.S.
Let this be some words of wisdom… “Never argue with fools, cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who”. Plus, you’ll never know if you’ll get knocked out and need an “am-ba-lampse”.

Good morning people. I had one heck of a grueling night. I decided to do a late workout, and right now, I’m paying the price for it. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu training is some serious stuff. After coming home, I didn’t want to do anything but take a nice hot shower, put on my PJ’s, and listen to a little bit of Sade.

I probably wouldn’t go so far as to call this an album review because I already knew I was going to like it before it even came out. You can catch me any given day walking around singing her music out loud. I only do that with Sade, Maxwell, and Jay-Z. Sade has proven herself to be a true soldier, and not just of love, but through surviving the test of time. What she lacks in production, she definitely makes up in sound. I can listen to any one of her albums repeatedly and feel soothed by her mystic melodic tone. Her last album, Lovers Rock came out in 2000, which went triple platinum, and since then, we’ve been waiting for the next one. I’d say we’re in need of her timeless melody. At night, once you’ve rinsed the dirt from your hands and get your glass of wine ready, that’s when her music is the most effective.

In her Soldier of Love album, she has some reggae influenced jams that are just heart throbbing, the song Soldier of Love is obviously one of them and her Babyfather song gives me that reggae swing. I’m personally into her slower jams, I just love to hear that drawn out voice. The Moon and the Sky and Long Hard Road are my modern day equivalents to No Ordinary Love and Is it a Crime. It’s definitely an album worth buying and with all great albums come great tours, so I’ll definitely be on the lookout for when she comes to Southern California, and I’ll be sure to keep you all informed when such an event is set to occur.

Do you remember when you got your first cell phone? How old were you? Were you in college/high school? Were you older/younger? It’s so important to bridge the gap between the time when we went from pay phones and beepers to cell phones. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to not only be there at the start of digital communication, but to have had a hand in providing about half of Santa Clara with a Sprint PCS cellphone. Yes, I was a sales representative and one of the best at the time I might add. While working there, we were all given free phones to use which brings me to topic at hand. My first cell phone…

When I first started college back in 1996, a friend of mine told me that digital cell phones were going to be the next biggest thing to hit the technology industry since the internet and that I should consider getting a job before the hype caught up. So being a starving college student, I applied at Sprint PCS as a sales representative and actually got the job. I was told that I’d get a free cell phone shortly after being hired. I ended up getting a Samsung SCH-1000 and loved it (it didn’t hurt that I didn’t have to pay a monthly bill). A few months later, the industry was flooded with cell phones. Back then, Sprint PCS had the largest nationwide network and was one of the first (if not the first) companies to introduce Digital communication using CDMA technology (code division multiple access) which made your communication safer than Analog. By the end of the late 90’s the market was flooded with users who had purchased their first mobile phones and since then, the demand of communication technology has been steadily increasing. Cell phones are getting better, smarter, smaller, lighter and are completely accessible now. Some companies don’t even require contracts anymore. That’s perfect for someone getting started with their credit, or not having credit at all who is in need of a mobile phone.

As far as text messaging goes, we didn’t get text messages quite yet, so our old pager codes rolled over to our cell phones, and a lot of us still kept our pagers turned on throughout the transition. Such beautiful times. Parents, be sure to let your kids know about that transition in technology, it’s important they not only know, but understand how good they have it now.

Good morning everyone, well I hope this morning finds everyone in good health, good spirits, and with full bank accounts. It’s that time of the week for another iPhone App Monday selection. Now, with my selection today, I just may have led myself straight to Apple Hell but “what are you gonna do ya know?” (I say that in my best Sly Stone impersonation). Installous is one of those applications that require a jailbroken iPhone. If you haven’t read my post on jailbreaking your iPhone, clicking here will be a good place to start reading more on it. Once your iPhone is jailbroken, you’ve opened your device up to a whole new world, so Dorothy, you won’t be in Kansas anymore.

What does Installous Do?
Very simple, the application installs iPhone applications on your phone. Anything you can find in the app store, you can find on Installous but get it free. I know i know, it’s illegal to do such things but it’s out there and the purpose of iPhone app Mondays is to keep you informed. My advice would be to use it for trial/testing purposes, if you’re interested, buy it, or leave a donation. With that said, if you’re interested in trying the app out, follow these steps:

1. Open up your Cydia Application
2. Click “Sources”
3. Look near the top right, and click on “Edit”
4. Click “Add”
5. Type: http://cydia.hackulo.us and make sure you spell that correctly. You’ll be warned about copyright information
6. Wait a few seconds for Repo to be added
7. On the “Search” page, look for hackulo.us repo directory, click it
8. Install Installous and restart your phone, launch the app, and you’re on your way

Hopefully this was an informative iPhone App Monday. Like I said, I might spend a little time in Apple hell for posting this but the information is out there, and it’s something I found to be pretty interesting so I thought I’d share it.

First I talk about motorcycles, then I talk about iPhone applications, I brush up on a little bit of fashion, and now I turn to my inner geek to talk about some programming. I know programmers don’t want to read a bunch of unnecessary stuff, so I’ll get right into it.

Have you ever loaded an external .swf file that contained audio and couldn’t control the sound?? Well I have, and it drove me crazy for hours (days even). The solution is actually a fairly simple one. First off, let’s create our variable for our SoundTransform() class and load our external swf file:


private var new_var:SoundTransform();
private var loaded_swf:Loader = new Loader();

loaded_swf.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, loaderHandler);
loaded_swf.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR, loaderHandlerError);
loaded_swf.load(new URLRequest("swf_files/movie_name.swf")); //in my case, it was a swf from some third party server


Then let’s add the handler and error functions:

private function loaderHandler(e:Event):void {

    var mc:* = e.target.content;
    addChild(mc);
}


You don’t have to add the error handler function but it’s good practice, last thing you want are errors popping up everywhere. Looks tacky.

private function loaderHandlerError(e:Event):void {

    trace(e, "File Unable To Load");
}


In your handler function, instantiate a new SoundTransform(); class and set the volume property between 0 and 1 (0 being muted). Then, last but not least, use the soundTransform property of your target.content (in our case, mc) and set it to your SoundTransform(); class (in our case new_var):


private function loaderHandler(e:Event):void {

    new_var = new SoundTransform();
    new_var.volume = 0;
    mc.soundTransform = new_var;
}


Then compile, you won’t hear any audio. Hopefully this will come in handy for someone like it did for me.

Wow, it’s been nearly a month since my last post on the JimmyJoeBob project. I had a few of my cycle buddies hit me up and say “hey man, what’s with all this fashion nonsense, get back to the bike” and you know what, you guys are absolutely right, it’s about time to get back to it. Even though I’ve been away for a couple of weeks, it doesn’t mean that progress has stopped. I’ve still been working on it, but I’ve been doing a lot of waiting around for parts. Usually little things too like gaskets and screws. Whatever though, slowly but surely.

So, day three consisted of a few modifications that have changed the look and feel of the bike. I removed the original handle bars and bought some new drag bars from MikesXS along with some grips, a throttle cover, a clutch cable, driver and passenger handlebar switches, black clutch and break levers, and a master cylinder. I also got some new pipes from some cat on eBay, but they ended up being the wrong size “silly me, I should have checked it out as soon as I got them in the mail”, but what can I say, lose one to get one. I ended up coming across a 4 to 1 Vance and Hines pipe that I was going to sell, but decided to keep. Good choice too, cause I think it looks and fits a little better than the other ones I had. I had the black header wrap on the other ones though, ahh man, they would have looked so good.

My goal is to get everything back together so I can actually ride this thing by the time Spring Break hits. My next tasks are going to be getting my gear shift cover back on and getting that 4 to 1 on. I’m also sending my tank, side covers, and fenders over to a friend of mine out in Bakersfield for a little paint. Sooner than later I hope, this stuff starts to add up. Anyway, I’ll leave you all with a few pictures below. Feel free to comment.

Front view:

I took my fuel tank to the radiator shop to remove some rust, they got rid of all evidence of my whacked out sanding job, thank goodness:

Right hand side master cylinder, switch, break lever and grips:

Left hand side switch and clutch lever:

Here’s a back view of that:

Drag Bars and all other components:

Front view: