well, 21 days later and i’m finished. took it out for a ride this evening and man it’s sweet. final weight is 19lbs and went a bit over the $1k budget. i test rode it with my mountain bike pedals/shoes since i haven’t picked those up yet, and there’s still some fine tuning to do… but so much for this being a long term project =p

while i had the tools out i tuned up costin’s front brake:

and i also tuned up my mtn bike’s bottom bracket (and thanks james for letting me use your sweet bike stand):

has gotta be the best tv program i’ve ever seen. it’s the only show on tv other than 24 that i watch on a regular basis. and last night’s episode really had me feeling for that character locke… like when his father jacked his kidney i really felt sorry for him. i can’t remember the last time i connected with a character in a tv show or movie, not that my dad’s ever stolen my kidney, but you know. anyway, in last night’s episode when boone gets all fucked up and the now semi-crippled locke takes him back to camp, and dr. jack asks what happened, i thought’d've been so fucking funny if he said “he was in a plane crash, again”.

i’m quickly becoming the grumpy complaining, horn honking old man. every morning i get on the freeway at the lakewood 405 entrance… the sign clearly says “2 people per green” and it has for a year, but still people refuse to go through more than one at a time. anyway, i’ve kinda come to grips with that one. but on the way home i get on the inglewood 405S exit and it’s always been a huge line of cars at 4/5p… so it seems that the stoplight people decided to just turn off that light to help alleviate that problem, but now the fucking thing is is that the sun is at the perfect angle at 4/5p to make it look like that damn red light is turned on, so everyone waits for it to turn green and then eventually goes through when they realize how stupid they are. but the person behind them doesn’t realize what just happened so they do the same thing. and here i am, 20 cars back, honking the entire time.

i’m posting a message from my phone just because I can.

recently i’ve found more and more that if you just go ahead and complain about something, esp if it’s with a big business that values your return visit more than the value of what you’re complaining about that you’ll often get your way. last month i complained about availability at office depot and got 100 free dvds. 2 days ago i ordered some bike parts that were delayed in shipping so i complained:

Subject: RE: Order # 1669424

Dear Mr. xxx,

I have issued a credit back to your account for the express shipping costs.

Regards,
Amy
Performance Customer Service

—–Original Message—–
From: Kento [mailto:kento@xxx.com]
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 10:03 PM
To: CustomerService
Subject: RE: Order # 1669424

When I placed my order it said that all items were in stock. I selected two day shipping expecting to receive it this tuesday… Will I receive any credit for the difference I paid for the two day shipping since your system incorrectly reported its availability?

i’m starting to see how those crazy people that yell and complain about everything end up that way.

took the train to la last night and just left my car at work… i still can’t get over how ghetto la between my work and downtown is. and the people that get on the train are all freaks. white boy eminem rappers singing the whole ride, huge fat black woman yelling on their cell phones and nasty hookers galore. anyway, it beats rush hour traffic and $35 valet parking.

why are japanese people so silly?

i didn’t even bother to read the boring story that was under this picture.

ben bet james $20 that he would be convicted of child molestation. i’d tend to side with james, but i doubt ben’s taking any more action on it.

although i just read this:

“Jurors in Michael Jackson trial can hear testimony about past sexual abuse allegations, judge rules.”

from www.cnn.com

had easter breakfast with my mom at hof’s hut, then played some golf with ben, shot a bland 45 but i hadn’t played in a while. played some cards with ben, then went to dinner with shal. afterwards we saw that bernie mac/ashton kutcher movie about black people… the part where they were telling black jokes was funny. me and shali were telling each other the other black jokes we knew for the rest of the movie. but other than that it was kinda “eh”. we brought in a bottle of tanqueray and mixed it with some 7-up to keep it lively, but that still only produced a few laughs, the best scenes were in the previews.

“50% of all stores are supermarkets”

re golf: “the reason i’m playing so poorly is that i’m bored”

re poker: “you can’t win if you don’t have the cards”