I purchased a new ride last month, a 2003 Kawasaki KLR650. Got a great deal on it (I felt) and it is a real change from my usual type of ride. I love my FJ, the available performance (never did find out the top end, great to have a ride that controlled the Speed freak in me. I was amazed at how fast I did go - obvious not commenting on that here.) the look and just the whole attitude. I have posted it on a few sites for sale. The KLR has got so many good points going for it though, more economic to operate, tons of aftermarket parts (things like the Corbin seat I have received), the ability to tour on-road or off. It is light enough that I will be able put it on a trailer hitch tray to bring it with us when we head out camping or touring. I took it out to the Jordan Meadows west of Shawnigan to bang up off-road for a while. What a blast! In a little over a month I have racked up over 2000 Kms, not bad for such a bad weather month. I think I am going to be very pleased with this bike and where it will take me.
We got our Volkswagen Westy back (I also refer to it as the four wheeled money pit) after it failed us, yet again, on our way to our long awaited camping trip. Made it as far as Nanaimo before we had to pull into the local VW dealer. Long story short... Blew the engine, damaged coolant system = Lots of $$$$$. It had a 1.9 liter engine which is no longer available so it had to be fitted with a 2.1 Liter. Seemed to be running good, although have not had a lot of time to test it, (please see previous paragraph) so took it today and the Damn thing failed me yet again, thought it might be either alternator (I replaced this beginning of September) or Battery going flat. Alternator tested ok, Multimeter on the battery looked right. Next step Starter...unreal. Buying a new van one piece at a time. LOL
Some brilliant games out now, the obvious Halo 3. Picked up Medal of Honor: Airborne and Rainbow 6:Vegas. Hugely addictive. Over the next few weeks Call of Duty 4 and Unreal Tournament 3 are coming out. Love this time of year.
I was given a Cisco 2950-12 Switch, Have been spending a lot of time working with both telnet and web-interface for the switch. Been interesting to work at configuring it then monitoring or attempting to circumvent it. Or to launch an attack and then monitor the network for signs or pointers, or to configure the alarms to detect the attacks. Way too much fun.
EOF - LC
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Exploring the South Island
I went out looking for a decent camping spot, somewhere off the beaten path (as usual for me) somewhere Old Andre and myself can just kick and relax like we used to at Kalum. Me with a few brews in hand and him just happy to be off leash and exploring. Yesterday I went out to a site that was near East Sooke Regional park and was not surprised to find it was not suitable for what I wanted but it paid off in another respect and allowed me to try out the new lens I bought for the Canon Xti. I bought a Canon EF-s 10-22mm Ultrawide Zoom, after much reading it seems to be one of the best for a wide-angle Lens. Posted them here.
It was a really nice park , previously I had hiked in from Pike road to cabin Point but this was the first time I came from this direction. Some great family beaches, something to keep in mind for the next time we have visitors. Something about being here for four years still so much to get out and discover. Always very cool to find these spots and then to be able to share them.
Today I went on the hunt, west of Lake Shawnigan along the Old Port Renfrew forestry road then further down West Jordan Main. Some incredible spots, very similar to other forestry road I have traveled throughout the Province. A little different doing it in the Westy instead of the 3/4ton Ford, had to be a little more gentle... LOL. None of these spots are great places to break down if you know what I mean although at least the risk of crossing path with Mr Griz does not exist still be a long walk out. I was able to update the BC Off-roads map book with some details, what really surprised me though was the amount of Trespassing Warning Signs stating certain roads were restricted access only, as these all were on on Crown Lands I was a little confused as to how Land that belongs to everyone in BC could be restricted. I will go to the Forestry and Ministry of Parks and lands to verify access to these spots, besides I would like to pick their brains about possible secluded spots or rec sites, (not that it really stopped me from driving on). No pictures this time as most of the time was just spent driving.
If you take digital pictures, and you want to share them securely with family and friends without the hassle of them signing up to the various photo sites, try out PicMe not only is it straightforward to configure and index you can also choose which online resource can be shared with, but the best is how it lays out all of your sets on the desk, very intuitive, very visual makes you wish for a giant LCD display (64 OR BIGGER). It has several levels from the free version which would work for most folks to the higher storage and performance of the paid version.
EOF - LC
It was a really nice park , previously I had hiked in from Pike road to cabin Point but this was the first time I came from this direction. Some great family beaches, something to keep in mind for the next time we have visitors. Something about being here for four years still so much to get out and discover. Always very cool to find these spots and then to be able to share them.
Today I went on the hunt, west of Lake Shawnigan along the Old Port Renfrew forestry road then further down West Jordan Main. Some incredible spots, very similar to other forestry road I have traveled throughout the Province. A little different doing it in the Westy instead of the 3/4ton Ford, had to be a little more gentle... LOL. None of these spots are great places to break down if you know what I mean although at least the risk of crossing path with Mr Griz does not exist still be a long walk out. I was able to update the BC Off-roads map book with some details, what really surprised me though was the amount of Trespassing Warning Signs stating certain roads were restricted access only, as these all were on on Crown Lands I was a little confused as to how Land that belongs to everyone in BC could be restricted. I will go to the Forestry and Ministry of Parks and lands to verify access to these spots, besides I would like to pick their brains about possible secluded spots or rec sites, (not that it really stopped me from driving on). No pictures this time as most of the time was just spent driving.
If you take digital pictures, and you want to share them securely with family and friends without the hassle of them signing up to the various photo sites, try out PicMe not only is it straightforward to configure and index you can also choose which online resource can be shared with, but the best is how it lays out all of your sets on the desk, very intuitive, very visual makes you wish for a giant LCD display (64 OR BIGGER). It has several levels from the free version which would work for most folks to the higher storage and performance of the paid version.
EOF - LC
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Finally.....
Well nearly 6 month after the trip, and dealing with a catastrophic Hard Drive failure I was able to restore the majority of my pictures to my new drive. That was a nail biter.... I have posted some of them up to my flickr site here. For those of you who have been asking , thanks for your patience and enjoy.
Speaking of pictures if you cruise through my Set`s you will also see some of the Spare room transformation from 1970`s (Ugh!!!) textured white, sort of , walls to the bright colours that we choose to paint with. The tiling really came through in this room with those colours. We are looking forward to get the rest of the walls in the house finished in the fall (unless our weather keeps going like it has, has not been really conducive to working outdoors.), focusing on outside stuff right now. As we have discussed expanding our house by building off the front of the house on the present computer room and changing it into a very large and light Master Bedroom. Also building off the back of the house off the current Master Bedroom, changing it to a Sunroom and computer room. Figure this could ad about 400 square feet to our present small house, which would be welcome. Would need to be a mix of Professional contractor work due to both insurance and inspections, plus work that we could do ourselves.
Anyways enjoy the pictures....
EOF - LC
Speaking of pictures if you cruise through my Set`s you will also see some of the Spare room transformation from 1970`s (Ugh!!!) textured white, sort of , walls to the bright colours that we choose to paint with. The tiling really came through in this room with those colours. We are looking forward to get the rest of the walls in the house finished in the fall (unless our weather keeps going like it has, has not been really conducive to working outdoors.), focusing on outside stuff right now. As we have discussed expanding our house by building off the front of the house on the present computer room and changing it into a very large and light Master Bedroom. Also building off the back of the house off the current Master Bedroom, changing it to a Sunroom and computer room. Figure this could ad about 400 square feet to our present small house, which would be welcome. Would need to be a mix of Professional contractor work due to both insurance and inspections, plus work that we could do ourselves.
Anyways enjoy the pictures....
EOF - LC
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)