Just found my new motorcycle... (hopefully)

..

Steve "Carpy" Carpenter is an artist (there's no other word for it), living in SoCal. An ex-pat Brit, he's loved, and built, cafe racer-style bikes for decades.

I ran across his web site, cb750cafe.com the other day, and ever since then I've been daydreaming about buying, and riding, one of his bikes. They are, in a word, sexy.

I have no idea how I'll pay for one, but his rates are reasonable (if you're not looking for a full-bore show bike anyway) and he ships anywhere in the Lower 48 for only $600. Check out these photos!!

(Click the image for the full version - sorry about the funky formatting)





I've loved the cafe look and style (race-inspired dropped handlebars, cut-out gas tank, single seat, stripped-down instrumentation, etc.) since I saw my first modded CB750 at RPM Honda in Chicago, where I worked as a service writer in the late 80's. I had no idea that anyone was actually keeping the cafe style alive, and Carpy's not only doing so but improving on the look - many of his signature items like his tanks, seats, tail lights and handlebar hardware are custom made.

There are many, many more on his site - please do check it out. Carpy documents the rebuilds, start to finish, which is and of itself really something. So, so cool!


..

The douche-baggery of MoveOn.org...

Man, I'm pissed...

If the video is even still up, take a look at THIS.

According to the email I just got from MoveOn.org:

It's not like they hate voting. They want to do it. They know they should. And mostly, they intend to. But some of your friends won't get around to actually voting because they haven't been reminded vividly enough.

That's why we developed this funny, scary video. It shows people what it might look like if we lose the election by a single vote: theirs.

In the video (in case you can't see it), a fake news reporter tells the world how McCain won the election because I "forgot to vote". there's even a page after the video where you can list your unsuspecting friends' names and send them personalized copies, making them feel like shit too!

I'm sorry, but this is pure douche-baggery. I've heard other people tell me that they won't deal with MoveOn any more because they left a bad taste in their mouth. Guess I know why now, huh? Ever since I purchased a set of Obama campaign buttons from them, they've barraged me with daily emails, most of which I don't read. Now they send me this, a fear-mongering ad that tries to scare me into something I was going to do anyway??

I know emotions run high close to an election, but... damn. Seriously- whoever had this bright idea at MoveOn should help the Republicans next election - they're the people that have to reply on fear and guilt to get out the vote. What a bunch of nimrods ((shakes head)).

I've removed myself from their email lists and wrote them a scathing letter, denouncing their actions.

I also want to point out that the buttons I got from MoveOn were total pieces of shit - they fell apart within 10 minutes of being removed from the packaging and would have been lost if I hadn't took them home and filled the back of the button with silicone.

Bottom line - if you want to contribute to a campaign, do it direct through the candidates' web sites (copied below), and don't use MoveOn.org. Their stuff is crap, they'll barrage you with email, and they do crap like shame and guilt you instead of appealing to your better nature.

Candidate donation web sites:

John McCain For President

Barrack Obama For President

..

"I say 'let your children die'..."

The Huffington Post has a piece up detailing some of the threatening and insulting voicemails they've received since the allegations of voter registration fraud came to light. Even though they're very upsetting, they're definitely worth listening to.

CLICK HERE FOR THE HUFFPO ARTICLE

From the article:

"...Henderson-James also provided reporters with examples of emails sent to ACORN employees since the Republican barrage of allegations began. In one, an ACORN manager in Ohio is told that she is "going to have her life ended."

Another refers to "corrupt ni**er Muslims." A third, with the subject line "You blue gums," says, "You blue gums are not going to steal the election. All of you porch monkeys need to go back to Africa."

ACORN, a membership organization, works largely in lower-income and minority communities but engages in outreach to all demographics, including white, African-American, Hispanic, elderly, and college student groups."

For the record... I congratulate ACORN for their continued work to register voters in traditionally under-served and disenfranchised communities. You guys are doing good work and I see and acknowledge your... well I guess in light of this, the only word I can use for what you're showing is "bravery". Be safe and know that this American citizen applauds your efforts.

To anyone that's run across this as a result of a blind web spider search: ACORN does nothing but register voters. They don't sign up voters "for" a certain candidate and they definitely will not be in the voting booth with those folks when they go to pull the lever. Also, for those screaming "election fraud" - election fraud only occurs when someone appears at a voting location and attempts to submit a fraudulent ballot. Nobody's turned up at a polling station with a fake ID in the name of "Micky Mouse" or "Bart Simpson of Fumundamyballs Lane" that I know of. If you have such evidence, please let me know. Better let the FBI know, as that would indeed be a crime.

In other words:

"ACORN denies trying to falsify voter registrations and asserts that any falsified forms were submitted by dishonest employees trying to avoid work. The group also notes that fraudulent registrations seldom are used to cast actual ballots. Independent studies show that cases of actual vote fraud are extremely rare. For example, a report coauthored by the nonpartisan League of Women Voters found only four fraudulent votes out of 9 million cast in Ohio between 2002 and 2004. That report concluded that fraudulent voting was statistically rarer than being hit by lightning. This year, despite claiming widespread fraud, the only evidence Republican officials have been able to point to of fraudulent voting itself is one man whose allegedly ineligible early vote was caught by Ohio authorities last week. Late last week, G.O.P. representatives also claimed to have discovered evidence that 28 primarily Hispanic New Mexico voters had cast illegal votes in this year's primary election, but ACORN representatives on a conference call Monday morning claimed to have made contact with four of those voters, discovering that while all had registered for the first time this year (three were young voters and the fourth was an elderly immigrant who recently became a naturalized citizen), all had cast their votes legally. After learning of ACORN's findings, the RNC appeared to abandon its claim. " (Same source)

It seems obvious that some people listed joke nanes on registration rolls. And, seriously... it wasn't smart to pay people based on the number of signatures they turned in - obvoiusly that tempted some unscrupulous ACORN employees to pad their lists. Big mistake.

But that's no reason to threaten poeple's lives and call them "corrupt". That's the result of McCain's fear-mongering. Plus, keep in mind that in calmer, saner times, even McCain and other key Republican office holders supported ACORN as well.

The Big Lie

Yep... it's the Big Lie alright. The good news: the media ARE starting to stand up and call Douche-baggery. Namely:

Oct. 13: Rachel Re: Even though a bi-partisan panel found that Gov. Sarah Palin abused her power by firing former police commissioner Walt Monegan, she’s telling the media that she was cleared of any wrong doing? Really? Can this be true?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27171061#27171061

The bad news? Nobody seems to care.

Hello? Hello??? The best-case scenario here is that Palin's simply too delusional or feeble to understand clearly worded decision against her. This isn't a politician saying "Well, they had their opinion and I disagree and I'll be sure to appeal that, as is my right. Until then watch me shoot this wolf from a helicopter! Pew! Pew! Pew!" This is flat-out refusal to state the reality of the finding.

My take on it is that she's certainly smart enough to understand that she's lying. What's sad is that so few people seem to care that she has zero respect for the people she claims to want t0 lead. Such obvious falsehoods (unless they're inspired by insanity) bespeak an attitude that says "I know y'all are too stoopid to realize I'm lyin'".

E-book Update: Stanza!

Oh, Lordy... my crumbling resistance to the wiles of the iPhone have just crumbled away to nothing.

While I was researching the Kindle, I ran across something called Stanza.

What is it? It's basically an e-book reader application, available for free, for the iPhone and iPod Touch. According to the Lexcycle Stanza web site:

Featuring a clean, well-organized interface, Stanza is expressly designed for reading digital publications, including electronic books, newspapers, PDFs, and general web content. Stanza is built from the ground up to make reading on your Macintosh or Windows laptop or desktop an enjoyable and hassle-free experience. It gives special attention to details that are usually overlooked in other software readers such as hyphenation, text columnation, automatic text scrolling, and user-friendly page and chapter navigation. Lengthy content that can be tedious to read using a web browser or PDF viewer is easy and natural with Stanza.

Stanza features built-in support for HTML, PDF, Microsoft Word, and Rich Text Format reading, as well as all the major eBook standards: unprotected Amazon Kindle and Mobipocket, Microsoft LIT, Palm doc, and the International Digital Publishing Forum's new epub Open eBook standard. In addition to supporting a plethora of formats, Stanza features an open API that allows developers to implement support for their own document formats. Stanza is more than just a reader: it is a reading platform!

This is huge, huge news. As cool as the Kindle is (I love the "electronic paper" that makes it unique), it's still basically a dedicated device. Not so Stanza. It's an application, one that runs alongside the iPhone's other functions. With Stanza, I can (and will) listen to music while reading a book, and then hop onto a web site, all while sending and receiving text messages, for instance. And since I'm sure that I'll be carrying my iPhone with me everywhere, I'll also be carrying my books along with me at the same time, all in the shared device.

Sweet.

Even better, Stanza will export other files into Kindle's proprietary format. Again from the Lexcycle Stanza site:

Stanza is also the first program that has a built-in export feature especially for the Amazon Kindle. Your PDFs, Word documents, and other eBooks can all be exported to the Kindle's native format and copied over to the device using a USB cable. Get a paper-quality reading experience for all your electronic documents with this innovative new device!

..as well as other formats...

Last, but not least, Stanza has an experimental new feature that allows you to export your books to MP3 audiobooks. Your entire audiobook can then be added to iTunes and synchronized with your iPod or other digital music player. This technology enables the blind and visually impaired to enjoy a wealth of electronic documents.

For me, the ability to to word searches and to drop multiple bookmarks in a single text is a really sweet option - I know from experience that I'd use this all the time. I also like that text can be scaled in size, the fonts can be changed, and even the background color and text color can be changed on the fly.

Yep... I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this one.

Have any Kindle or Stanza stories to share (good or bad)? Be sure to leave a Comment below!

What Publishing Can Learn From Music

As a writer, I follow discussions about e-books and digital distribution carefully. I want more people to read my book. Period. I'd like for people to pay me, so I can keep writing (or, at least, write faster, since currently my day job eats up 45-50 hours of my writing time each and every week), but it's the reading that's the thing.

I also was, and still am, a person that vehemently opposes DRM (basically, copy guard) on music. I begged and pleaded, along with tens of thousands of others, way back in the mid-90's, for the Sony's and BMI's and Virgin's of the world to grant users access to their master song files in digital format at a reasonable price (we suggested a quarter each). This was in the days when the only way to "share" music files was to search FTP directories in the (often vain) hope of finding a complete song, ripped at some horrendously low bitrate. The recording industry, knowing that "sharing" was beyind the technical capabilities of 99.99% of music consumers, basically laughed and mocked us and more or less dared us to scale the walls of their ivory towers.

Then came Napster, and, well... you know the rest. Who's laughing now?

Why am I telling you this? Because if you're a writer OR someone interested in intellectual property distribution via electronic channels, then I suggest reading this interesting article over on HufPo, titled "What Publishing Can Learn From Music". Good stuff, filled with many chewy links.

Enjoy!

PS - Did I mention that my first novel, Blood Magic, is available in eBook format at Fictionwise.com? if you'd like to see Blood Magic or Nights of Sin on Amazon's Kindle, be sure to click on the links below and look for the "Request This Book On Kindle" links just below the main cover photo!

Blood Magic

Nights of Sin

Thanks!

"Nobody (BLEEPS!) With John McCain!"

See more Hayden Panettiere videos at Funny or Die

In a word: ROTFLMAO.

"I think there are three things all citizens should do: Smoke cigarettes. Vote for John McCain. And not wear seatbelts..."

NOTE: NSFW. The hawt chik uses the "F" word, like, 3 times. You have been warned.