Thursday's Percussive Lunch Hour - ZOMG Edition

Yeah I've not been posting this week for a good reason: on Monday my weakening 4 year old video card finally died a horrible overheated death, and on Tuesday as I was on my way to my drumline rehearsal I remembered that 2-3 years ago, my best buddy Letrange had given me a spare video card that happened to be nearly identical to my own, an Asus GF8800 GT with 512mb of RAM (mine had 1024 though). So yesterday I went through my 'puter stuff boxes, found it, swapped the old one, and spent a good 3 hours on Skyrim XD

But more important in this post is the video. Now why would I, CozmikR5, die-hard fan of Santa Clara Vanguard and Phantom Regiment, be posting a Blue Knights video? Well, the reason for this post is not about the drumline, but the actual drums themselves. You see, my instructor and drumline director Jacques Charbonneau got tired of waiting around for sponsors, not to mention got tired of practicing on wooden beams. So after holding a survey to find out how interested us members would be in going on after the Wishmaster fund-raiser show, he took a dive head-first and went out to buy THESE VERY INSTRUMENTS! I don't want to know how much he paid for 'em or how much blood he gave in exchange. All I know is that at some point around the 20th of June the drums will leave their previous home at BK HQ in Denver Colorado to their new one in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu Quebec.

As I've mentioned not too long ago, I myself will be at the helm of Bass Drum #5, which is a 32 inch monster of a drum. My parts aren't too complicated, but it will be fun as hell, especially on the fortissimo excuse-me-while-I-destroy-your-kidneys parts! You can be sure that at the first occasion we get to play on the ex-BK drums there will be an impromptu photo session and I'll be posting a few for sure.

Until next time, fly loud!

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Nostalgic Edition

Yesterday I was hit by a case of nostalgia and I was thinking a lot about... I can't really call her my ex but let's just say a Special Someone who took some distance when everything started to go awry in my life. I still talk to her and we try to see each other once in a while but yeah, it's not quite the same anymore even if there's still some current passing between us.

Ma chere Cindy, je te dedie cette toune.

o7

The Weekend of Awesome

Some may wonder why I write about the last weekend on a Wednesday, but yesterday I had a really busy day followed a brain-dead evening, and on Monday I was still technically in my weekend because it was Victoria Day. And having started my weekend on Friday at noon it was clear that this weekend was going to be filled with nothing but Awesome.

The festivities started when I joined up with my friend André, the world's most generous music lover. This is the guy who takes me to an unbelievable amount of shows; in his own words, "the shows I attend are shows I would attend whether or not I was accompanied, so might as well buy a second ticket and invite someone who would appreciate it." And about one out of five shows I'm apparently the lucky someone! I do try to make it up to him by inviting him to pre-show suppers and stuff, and last Friday before seeing The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway we went to Vallier Restaurant, owned by one of my friends from the Virtual World days, where we had lamb ironically enough. I didn't see the irony until the next day! Anyway, the supper was great and after a nice walk we were ready to have our brains exploded into next week. You see, "The Lamb" is one of those shows I never thought I'd be able to see because it was performed in 1975 (I was 5 at the time) and Genesis started to go their separate ways soon after. But Genesis is really big up here in Montreal and there are a few covers bands, but The Musical Box took the cover band thing to the next level, reproducing the old shows so accurately that even the Genesis members approve. To make sure they get everything as close to the old performances as possible, Genesis has helped Musical Box with equipment like the slides for the background projections and the insane Peter Gabriel props and costumes, as well as with old techs and engineers that worked on the original shows. The result is nothing short of the genuine Genesis experience. And oh my Gods did it rock! I can safely say "Scratch one off the Bucket List, I have seen The Lamb!"

Coming out of the Bell Centre and floating a few inches off the ground, I was stopped by a street drummer who noticed my Rush 2112 T-shirt. I told him I was also a drummer and a short discussion ensued. The fun part was his attempt at a parting shot: a one-handed roll with the stick bouncing off the rim. "Not bad" I thought (insert Obama face here). "Nice! Can I try something?" says I. "Sure man!" says he, and he gives me his weird disco-reflective sticks. I crouched down because his snare was really low and proceeded to play a truncated version of Three Camps as fast and hard as I could. The crowd loved it so I was happy :)

After parting with my buddy I was still very much on the post-show high so I decided to drop by my favorite watering hole, Brutopia, where I was treated to a blues band, great beer and the friendliest waitress in the universe. Perfect way to end a night! Of course I would go back to Brutopia the next day because of our EVE Meet, which was going to be a lot quieter than the last one, which is a good thing because OMFG the hangover last time! Other bonus, Friendly Waitress Caity is in our section on Meet nights :) But previous to the meet I got to do something I've been wanting to do for a long time: practice my drumline parts outdoors on a beautiful summer day, Drum Corps style. I WILL be doing this more often!

On Sunday the beautiful weather was still very much in effect so I didn't stay inside for long, but in the afternoon it got pretty damn hot. This was fine because I was going to my friend's Airsoft business for his Gun Tech Day event. My buddy Moogy made this event to teach Airsoft gun owners the ABC's of weapon maintenance, and it also gave the n00b that I am the chance to test the comfort of a lot of different rifles that are great for what I want to specialize in, close quarters combat. I had already mentioned to Moogy that I had a thing for the H&K G36cv, but he wisely told me "Come to the store, try out a few, and see which rifle is the comfiest." It turned out we were both right: the G36cv is very comfortable, but I did find one that feels slightly better, the SIG SG552. But even with that in mind it's looking like I'll be getting the H&K for a few reasons. It can be modified to use M4 magazines, which can be great on the field if you run out of ammo as the majority of people use M4 variants. The other reason is the ease with which the spring can be replaced, to go from an outdoor gun to an indoor gun and back in a few short minutes. And another plus is that should the battery die the gun can still be manually cocked and shoot single shots. The slight downside, my expert buddies are steering me away from the cheaper model, but for good reasons. Cheap versions are cheap and not as easily fixable. So yeah, I'll have to bite the bullet so to speak and spend a good 400$ on my gun when I start out. Ah well, I still have my crazy summer to go through :) The event was followed by a humongous BBQ at Moogy's place. How could a great day end better?!

And finally on Monday I was able to take things easier, just go outside for the simple pleasure of going outside, and in the evening I was having supper with my dad for the first time since he came back from Thailand; now you know why I have "Bangkok" in my time zones list! Once again I ate a tad too much and rolled out of the restaurant, full to the breaking point of BBQ'd chicken.

The only thing I found missing from my weekend, there wasn't time for bike rides. It was pretty hot during the days but I always prefer evening/night rides because it's cooler and no sun is burning you, and the winds are usually a lot calmer. Plus, there's something about that evening summer scent that just tells my brain "You are free!, Enjoy it!"

And voilà! One awesome weekend down and the official summer hasn't even started yet. Here's to more awesome weekends, maybe a bit less booked but always with great people. Thanks to each and every one of those who made this one so special!

Fly with a good crew

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Lamb Edition

This. Tonight. Holy Shit. That is all :))

o7

The unexpected promotion

Talk about a surprise! I never even imagined the phone call I received yesterday just over an hour after posting my last blog update. I had posted on my drumline's Facebook page my desire to start learning the tenor parts mostly out of curiosity even while realizing the massive hurdle this represented. But apparently Jacques, my instructor and the drumline's director, had other plans in mind. A second member was starting to skip rehearsals for personal reasons and Jacques needed to know what was up. It turned out that this guy, bass drum #5 player, would be getting busier and would be stuck missing more rehearsals and that his future in the drumline was iffy. Jacques asked him if he was alright with having me replace him on bass drum #5, and a few minutes after the positive answer I received The Phone Call.

It must've have sounded pretty weird to any by-standers as we immediately started looking at the bass drum parts and started speaking in the "tap-tagadap, tap-tagadap" universal language of drummers! So in the span of two hours I went from bracing myself for the ultimate drum learning challenge to a slightly lesser challenge but still oh so rewarding. Of course now being two months into the schedule I have some catching up to do. The next time we all meet the drumline will be learning its fourth tune, and this one will be brand new for everyone because it's off Nightwish's newest album "Imaginaerum" which wasn't out last year. But not wanting to lose any time and still giddy from the fresh news I got on my practice pad as soon as I got home from work; good thing I had previously printed every drumline section's parts! As I had posted before in video format the first tune I had to learn was "Dark Chest of Wonders", and re-learned it I did. In one short evening I was able to memorize pretty much all of it; not bad for my first night as a bass drum player :)

What was even more amazing though was the torrent of congrats and support e-mails I received from my drumline mates and also from the outside. As I'm writing these words I literally feel like a million bucks and although I will practice a lot on my own, I simply cannot wait for May 29th, which will be my first drumline rehearsal on my new "instrument"... yeah we're still waiting for our drums. But at least I know I will be playing the biggest one :))

Fly loud

o7

Opportunities, Airsoft and Lucky 37

Opportunities

Relax and take a deep breath, this won't hurt a bit...

Yesterday evening I was going back to the drumline after a 4-week hiatus; I had to miss the practice two weeks ago because I was recovering from the last stages of a flu attack. I did my homework and studied my sheet music, listened to the tunes and kept a toned down version of my rudimental workout, but exactly two weeks ago even though I was done with the fever, muscular aches and coughing, my brain was reacting to every single hit of my sticks on the quiet side of my practice pad. So there was just no way I'd be able to spend 3 hours in a room filled with 20+ drummers playing wood beams (yes, we're still looking for instruments). It was great to come back to the drumline to find that not only I wasn't lagging behind my mates, I was also playing along with some snare parts during the warm-up, to the dismay of some of my cymbal line mates.

But earlier in the day as our director/instructor sent us the e-mail reminder for the practice session he also had a bit of sad news accompanied with an invitation. Because of personal reasons, one of the multi-tenor line members had to call it quits, leaving his spot open. I've had regrets about never having marched Drum Corps before but yesterday it hit me the hardest. "Ben, you should get on the toms!" one of the cymbal girls told me, as I was standing next to one of the best multi-tenor players I know. The offer is at the same time tempting and almost inconceivable. Without wanting to toot my own horn, I admit I got some chops; I may not know every hybrid rudiment but I can play some pretty mean drag-a-diddles and flam accents. And behind my kit I'm no slouch either. But multi-tenor, that requires a set of skills I've never had the chance to practice. You have to mix the intricacy of rudimental snare drums with a flurry of motion that makes the best rock drummers drool with envy. If you want to know what I'm talking about, look up "Bill Bachman" on YouTube and make sure your jaw is protected.

In order to make it on the tenor line on the same level as the other three players I'd have to 1- get myself a tenor practice pad (thank various gods we have cost price on all Vic Firth merchandise), 2- find a tenor player who can teach me, and 3- practice harder than I have ever practiced before, even at the height of my Zeppelin cover band days. Well for starters, I won't impose myself and say "pick me, pick me!" because I know there are some awesome Drum Corps trained players out there, but yes, as opposed to snare players good tenor players are fewer and farther between. So what I WILL do is this: make sure I've got my cymbal parts down to a science and start practicing those tenor parts on my own. I'll try to get some of Bachman's books to get started and I will bug the tenor line as much as I can. This is the ultimate drumming challenge for me and even though the chance is very slim, I simply cannot let an opportunity to learn like this go by!

Airsoft

Yep, I'm free-falling deeper into Moogy's rabbit hole! I received an invitation for a little event which will happen this Sunday at my friend's store which he called "Gun Tech Day". On hand will be some Airsoft experts talking about gun maintenance on various models, and answering any question regarding the sport. In short, a perfect event for a complete n00blet like me to get a feel for this Airsoft thing. I may even invest in my first piece of Airsoft gear and most important one, face protection. We'll see how this goes because I also have some cycling expenditures this week.

Lucky 37

Are you one of those that lined up for hours on end on May 15th to play the brand new installment of the Diablo franchise? Are you one of those that got the dreaded "Error 37"? I hear that "37" is now the new Number of the Beast XD Stuff like this is the reason why I never EVER pre-order games to play right at release. I play games to have fun, not to work as an unpaid beta-tester. And as great as some games are, maybe even Diablo III, they are always released with a certain amount of bugs, and in the case where an internet connection is required there is always an obscene amount of traffic at launch. So before I even think of getting the new Diablo I'll let you guys find all the ugly shit and when I do get it the game will be perfect, and maybe even cheaper :)

Fly where your heart tells you

o7

Edit: well, it looks like I won't have to practice those crazy tenor parts because... I just got promoted to the bass drum line !!!

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Rabbit Hole Edition

I did mention something about a rabbit hole this week so I just had to post this. Enjoy and watch out for the weird mushrooms :)

o7

Letting the hook sink in

Moogz you evile person you!

Well, even though my buddy told me he didn't have a "plan" to draw me into the hobby of Airsoft, I must admit that one week after diving head-first into gun-nut heaven (also firearms opponents' hell) I've looked a lot deeper into the sport and what got a few of my friends totally addicted to it. And I can safely say that as opposed to a couple years ago when I was first introduced to Airsoft, this time around I'm hearing the call. I can think of a few reasons why I didn't get interested at first. At the time I was neck-deep into EVE Online and God knows how much of a time sucker that can be. My boys were younger, and relations with my ex were a lot more strained. My finances were steadily heading for the Downward Spiral. And to top it off I was an emotional mess. Put all that together and it's easy to see that I wasn't ready to try new stuff, even though I had a good feeling about how fun it could be. Playing a first-person shooter in real life sounded fun, but equipping myself didn't. Fast-forward to today and I can feel that this is changing.

Now I will admit right away that there's no way I can dive in really quick for a few reasons: my boys are still young and I have 'em every other weekend, and even though my finances are slowly getting better they're still precarious. Not to mention the drumline practices. But seeing the friends that I get to see less of because they basically got out of gaming (for the record, my buddy Jeremy aka Moogy is a 3D modelling teacher) is a great thing. And on their side they know how serious I could get into this because they've seen my Quake antics, only this will be Real Life instead of pixels and guess what, it's also much needed exercise! But that said I do have A LOT to learn. But everyone is a n00b at one point so I'm taking it in stride.

So what is my "indoctrination" plan? Just like I did at the end of 2007 for EVE Online, the first thing I'll do will be to read/watch/listen to any Airsoft guide, video, podcast and equipment review I can lay my greedy paws on. Maybe I should put Quake aside for a bit and get into something more tactical; my computer is already too old for the newer games like Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, but the older ones will work just fine. Even though practice makes perfect, I'm sure I can find some guides about basic tactical behavior on a battlefield.

Second, I need to start looking into the basic gear I'll need so this means a trip to the local army surplus. What I think is the basics would be the camo overall, boots, gloves and head/face gear. A tactical vest would be a good idea too. I have to ask around to see what I can go on the cheap side on and where it's better to splurge. A good example, the boots; a set of brand new Terra Military boots is not cheap, but they may be a lot more durable and most importantly comfortable that cheap army surplus combats. But I don't have the budget to go all out right off the bat so I gotta get my pieces here and there (let's not forget all the bike gear I'm shopping for).

And third, the gun of course. I don't want to spend too much on the very first one because I KNOW I will beat it up. But that said I can't go too cheap either because I will want some sort of reliability so I gotta find that sweet spot. Another thing my buddy pointed out to me, you can't do internet shopping only. The gun that looks good may not be the gun that feels good. And in the kind of rifle I want to get the choice is quite staggering. What I want is basically the close-combat short rifles because that's the play style that suits me. So far the gun that calls out to me the most is the Airsoft version of the H&K G36C. This may change after I've tried out a few but it's safe to say that this is the first gun that actually appeals to me (I'm not American and usually don't give two shits about guns). What a find to be a plus is that the company that makes it (Umarex) has it in two flavors: 140$ starter gun and 380$ higher-quality. And from what I've been reading up on both models this is a really good gun to start with. But I will heed Moogy's advice and actually try it and other similar rifles before I take the jump. But I don't know... the G36C is looking mighty sexy :)

Getting the gun is one thing but I have to admit, apart from knowing about 'em from my interest in history and shooting them in videogames, I know Sweet-Fuck-All about guns. Sure I know about pure basics like "finger off the trigger" and "careful where you point that thing", but I can't expect other people to care for MY equipment all the time. This is where my "cheap gun first" mentality comes into play, that way if I decide to get deeper into the rabbit hole I'll know what I'm doing. The main is this: even though Airsoft guns require no licenses or permits to own and to operate, they should still be treated as if they were the real thing with all the respect that this implies. Moogy went even so far as to take a firearms handling course but then again with his company he gets to handle lots of 'em. I have never considered owning a gun before but even if my Airsoft rifle is partly made out of clear plastic and is looked upon as a toy by some people I will handle it with extreme care.

So yeah, the hook is in and I think I can see the boat on the horizon, with Moogy holding his net. I did tell him he was an evil person :))

Real-Life FPS FTW!

o7

Gilles Villeneuve: 30 years already

On May 8th 1982, I was an 11 year old boy sitting in my room listening to the radio waiting for any kind of news of my hero who was qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix held at Zolder; live TV feeds of F1 races were few and far between back then, especially when the races were in Europe. Only I didn't hear about where Gilles placed; I heard about where and how hard he landed. I had lost my hero, but a legend was born.

Fast forward 30 years and Scuderia Ferrari paid Gilles Villeneuve quite an hommage, by letting his son Jacques drive the car which not only gave Gilles his highest placing in the World Championship, but which also participated in one of the greatest, if not THE greatest duel in motorsports history.

Salut Gilles, et merci Jacques.

o7

When friends throw you a line with a hook

Registration and permit not required?!

Last saturday was a truly epic day. The weather was stunningly beautiful and our scheduled EVE Meet turned into a roaring party with a lot of people celebrating a lot of occasions from Ph.D.'s in particle physics to birthdays, also ex-gf's moving out, 100 million skill points in EVE Online (gratz Cartboard Box!), and a birthday girl reaching her 18th year of existance, becoming of legal drinking age in Québec. The party ended at Cartboard's place in the wee hours of dawn, and let's just say I was feeling each one of my 41 years yesterday!

But before I made it to the meet I was given an invitation to go to an event I had never even thought of going to before and I admit I felt slightly out of place; I went to my first ever gun show. Unlike the United States, Québec does not have a huge firearms culture but we do have our own tiny version of the NRA, though we do not have our own Charlton Heston! But no worries, actual firearms wasn't the reason I was going to the event. You see the buddy who invited me owns a company that specializes in a particular hobby and he was at the gun show to show off his own weapons. Although they are sometimes very realistic, the weapons aren't real; Jeremy's hobby is Airsoft.

With a cheaper entry-level price than paint-ball (decent starter guns go for 100 to 200$ CDN, and 5000 Airsoft BB's for 25$), and the guns being sometimes near-exact replicas of the real thing, Airsoft is starting to gain a lot of popularity among not only shooting sports aficionados, but also among gamers bred on first-person shooters like yours truly. I mean, how awesome is it to own an M249 machine gun that's close enough to the real thing that a magazine made for the real one fits the Airsoft gun?! We were quite amazed when a guy from another table came over with magazine in hand and said "OK, I've seen your gun all day now, I gotta try this!" and it fit like a glove. Another funny comment we kept getting was "is that gun real?" on guns like HK replicas, a sweet-looking Galil, and even the M249; yeah, a full-sized machine gun that's not even legal in my country and it doesn't even have a trigger lock XD But in general the feedback was very positive even from what I would call die-hard gun freaks. I did see one exception who was very vocal about saying that these were only "toys from Walmart" but he's been known to have had negative comments for my buddy for a while. Let's just say that the general positiveness over-balanced his views on Airsoft quite nicely. And anyway, the guns can be so realistic that they have to be treated with the same respect as real guns; police forces can and will confiscate guns that are out in the open, and people can get in seriously deep shit. Not to mention all the safety procedures one has to observe. My buddy even went as far as getting a true gun permit, even though no permit required for Airsoft guns.

So to tie in with my title, yes, Jeremy has been trying to get Little ol' Moi on the Airsoft bandwagon for a while now, and for the first time since he first introduced me to his then new hobby about 2 years ago he's coming very close to succeeding. Of course with the side projects I have now may not be the best time to start investing in Airsoft gear but I must say that having spent an entire day checking out the guns and learning about 'em enough to help my buddies answer people's questions towards the end of the day did leave its mark. The main problem I've had is that a lot of my buddy's games are organized either on weekends where I have my boys (they're way too young to play Airsoft and my ex would have my head) or on the same Tuesday nights as my drumline practices. Obviously in that case, the drumline wins. But I have the feeling that now that he knows how close he is to reeling me in so to speak he will schedule an event on my time. At worst, I can go to his place which happens to be about 15 minutes by bike from mine and we can shoot BB's into targets in the basement. But yeah, I have the feeling that Jeremy will be seeing me a bit more often this summer, and I can sense that he's readying his net to take me out of the water and into the boat!

For more information on Montreal's Airsoft scene, visit Taktik Airsoft's website. Keep in mind that most events posted there are for the Montreal region but the site does have some useful links and videos.

Like Internet Spaceships, Airsoft is also serious business!

o7

Friday's Electric Supper - Party Edition

I knew I was going to post my music video late, but I never expected my choice to be so easy. In memory of Adam Yauch, aka MCA of the Beastie Boys, here is the tune that sent 'em on the rocketship to SuperStardom.

Party like there's no tomorrow!

o7

Friday video soon™

I'm on 1-day Dad Duty today so the video will get posted somewhere around supper time.

In the meantime, May the 4th be with you!

o7

The Little Things

Should look a little something like this (no, this ain't me and/or my bike!)

The weird spring I was describing not too long ago is starting to go back to normal, which means I can once again get my mind in a bike touring gear. Let's see just how weird: on March 20th I was riding my bike to the first drumline practice in shorts and T-shirt, and and the next day I was having a beer on a patio not only in shorts and T-shirt, but at 10PM. Seasonal norms: 4 degrees Celsius! Two days later we were below the freezing point with heavy wind chill. After that it rained a lot, winds blew a lot, a bit of nice weather mixed in, but nothing ressembling a pattern. And then again a really short hot spell of 29C, and last weekend just around the freezing point and crazy winds. Oh and I managed to catch a flu last week. Kinda hard to plan riding days! But now May is here and despite a slow start things are slowly looking up, with weather temps around the seasonal norms (10-15C) and slowly climbing on the forecast. I'm crossing my fingers for light winds this weekend!

With the big bike ride plans I also need to start thinking about the little things that will not only be useful on a multiple day journey which will not always be in or close to a big city but which could also save my ass. If you look at the map I posted a while back, you see that my 550 kilometer ride forms a triangle, so I can easily split my trip in parts 1, 2 and 3 for planning purposes. Each part has it perks; for example, part 1 will be relatively flat (if slightly uphill) as I will follow the Ottawa river, but going almost due West can mean some pretty stiff head winds at times. And if I want to make big mileage in single days, this is where I have to do it. Part 3 should be fun; apart from a slight uphill between Mont-Tremblant and Ste-Agathe, the ride will be all downhill with the wind mostly at my back all the way to Montreal. What will make the last part even easier is that almost all of it will be on bike paths with zero traffic. And yes I plan the few days after the ride to be absolutely blissful!

The part that's got me not really worried but where I know I have to plan a bit more carefully is part 2. From Gatineau to Mont-Tremblant there aren't many roads so getting lost shouldn't the problem. But on the one road that links Thurso to St-Jovite there aren't that many villages and/or camping grounds. So even though I kinda want to go out on an adventure I do need to plan on some possible hard living, which is the whole point actually. Here is a small overview of what I will want to have with me on the trip:

- 2-person tent. Not that I plan on having any company, it's fun to have the extra room and anyway the package isn't too big and will easily fit in the BOB trailer.

- Heavy-duty plastic tarp. No, not the one that comes with the tent, an extra one. It can be very useful to protect the tent against winds or sideways rain, and if you have to camp out in the open it can also provide some shade. But yeah, the main purpose is wind and rain protection for either the tent or the bike/trailer, whichever needs it most.

- Better/extra tent stakes. The ones that come with tents do the job, but it's never a bad idea to have better ones and more of them.

- Multi-purpose emergency crank radio. I usually use my smartphone for various things like listening to radio, checking the news and weather, playing some games, and oh, making phone calls. But out in B.-F.-Nowhere my phone will 1- lose connection, and 2- lose power. The crank radio will be able to keep me informed in order to keep my phone's battery for actual phone calls, but the good radios even have USB plugs to keep a small charge in the phone if I absolutely need it.

- Multi-tool and/or Swiss Army knife. Made by Victorinox. Accept NO substitutes!

- As much dried fruit and imperishable snacks as I have room for. This trip will never be super far from civilization but if I'm stuck in the middle of Part 2 and a coming storm bogs me for a day and a half 30 km from the nearest village I will want to replenish my calories to actually make it there.

- Most important, a decent First Aid kit. Bike spills suck, and happen when you least want them to. Ask the guys who got pushed into a barbed wire fence at the last Tour de France! So going on a 550 km tour I do have to be ready to clean any wounds I may get, and bandage myself up if need be.

I've actually found a few models of radios I want to buy so over this weekend I will test 'em and one will become the winner. This will allow me to go to this store on the South Shore of Montreal called Mountain Co-op. The prices are awesome, and over the next couple months these guys will know me by my first name :) I also have a date to shoot for now: September 4th, the Tuesday after Labor Day. I just have to not abuse too much in the beer department because that weekend is also an awesome beer festival (remember that fort I went to last summer?). One thing is for sure, with the spring finally blooming I'm extremely anxious to get some mileage under me and finish acquiring the gear that will make big bike trips not only a possibility, but a way of life!

Ride far

o7

ZOMG THE LOLZ !!!

I've always said I hate making money in EVE, that's nothing new. But what irks me the most is that not only do I not have a lot of patience for any kind of actual virtual work, I also lack the brain power to think up unbelievably brilliant scams like this one to get rich quick:

The 6 Billion Opening Gambit

I think I may have busted my spleen over this one XD

Golden Lobster and DOATSP, I salute you!

o7