Having to sell the BMW motorcycle. Really sad.

I'm the first owner. I bought this 2007 model around April 2008 new. It has about 14,300 miles on it (still riding, changes daily). It's blue metallic. I just had it in for it's 12k service at around 13k miles.

First owner selling 2007 BMW 2007. Factory/dealer additional options over base:

• Extended, transferable warranty until 2013 - unlimited miles
• Heated grips (left one replaced under warrantee this month)
• TPM - Tire Pressure monitoring - Tells you the tire pressure of front/rear tire
• ABS brakes (front dual disc, single disc rear)
• On board computer - Displays Avg MPH, Avg MPG, Instant MPG, miles until empty
• White turn indicator
• Center stand
• Rear, expandable, saddle bags.

Aftermarket upgrades:

• Soft trunk bag - BMW branded, top quality, bought at dealer.
• Rear LED light - brigher!! Safer.
• Rear LED turn signals - brighter than stock
• Corbin customized seat - bought at factory in Hollister
• Taller after market windscreen - California Scientific out of West Sacramento - bought at factory.
• Bar backs - move the bars 2" closer to you - more comfortable upright riding position

All service has been done at A&S in Roseville. New rear tire at around 7k miles. Registration is current, and paid through April 2010. Bike is paid off and clear title. Non-salvaged. I can show you the bike week nights after 6, or Saturday.

This bike has never been dropped/down. No scratches, except a few minor ones from normal wear near the false tank. Bike is in great shape.

Click to view larger size.

The Garmin GPS mount is on bike, as pictured, but will be removed prior to sale. It is not included with the bike - unless you want to pay for it.

Use the feedback to contact me if you're interested. I'm located in Sacramento, CA.

Found this poem in 1994, and remains my favorite to this day.

Does It Matter?
My parents asked me if I am gay
   I said, "Does it matter?"
   They said, "No, not really."
   I told them, "Yes."
   They said, "Get out of our lives."
   I guess it mattered.

My boss asked me if I am gay.
   I said, "Does it matter?"
   He said, "No, not really."
   I told him, "Yes."
   He said, "You're fired, faggot."
   I guess it mattered.

My friend asked me if I am gay.
   I said, "Does it matter?"
   He said, "No, not really."
   I told him, "Yes."
   He said, "Don't call me your friend."
   I guess it mattered.

My partner asked, "Do you love me?"
   I said, "Does it matter?"
   He said, "Yes."
   I told him, "I love you."
   He said, "Let me hold you in my arms."
   For the first time in my life something matters.

My God asked, "Do you love yourself?"
   I said, "Does it matter?"
   He said, "Yes."
   I asked, "How can I love myself? I am gay."
   He said, "That's the way I made you."
   Nothing again will ever matter.

--Author Unknown

Apple released a new phone, so all the Apple sheeple are going crazy to feed on the new iPone.

Lets look at the true cost for a moment. For comparison, my phone cost me about $199+tax for an HTC Touch Windows smartphone - so about $250 w/tax (due to funky math with instant rebates). My monthly rate is $33 for unlimited text, unlimited internet, and 450 minutes of calling with Sprint. BTW, my evening minutes start at 7pm and go until 7am. This costs me about $396 a year.

Now compare this to the new Apple iPhone. It's $199 for the phone, plus $52 taxes (California), and $39 setup fee = $290. So, only $40 more than me - not bad for an amazing product in itself. Now, lets compare the cost to my phone for the same services:

Feature	My Plan Spring	iPhone 3G
450 Minutes	$30	$39.99
Unlimited Internet/Data	Included	$30
Unlimited SMS	Included	$20
Unlimited MMS Send Picture/Video	Included	Not capable
Total $ for 2 year contract Includes price of phone	$1,075*	$2,587*,**,***

* = Estimated CA taxes on the very conservative side. ** = Not owning an iPhone, I'm not sure about any other hidden charges there may be. Don't forget, people buy many millions worth of $$$'s at the iPhone app store. *** = ATT evening minutes are from 9pm until 6am. I don't see an option to change this to 7pm when doing a pre-order on their website.

So please, stop asking me why I don't want an Apple iPhone. I'm paying $1500 less for my 2 year contract than an iPhone, and I'm still getting a new phone every two years

The sad thing is, people would rather have their fancy iPhone than putting the same amount of money into an IRA or other form of savings.

BTW. I've had my phone for about a year now and noticing the battery isn't holding a charge - time to replace the battery - try that with your iPhone.

So, I finally have Boxee running with Ubuntu 9.04. There were a few hurdles to get over, but everything is running smoothly now. Here are some notes in case I ever need to rebuild in the future (Ubuntu 9.10?).

Tip 1: Disable pretty graphics from the appearance control panel. Set to none.
Tip 2: Mount to storage server using SSHFS. 1) Send root's and the 'boxee user' public DSA SSH key to the 'boxee user on server'. 2) Automount SSHFS w/auto reconnect of SSHFS = icing on the cake.
Tip 3: Let boxee alone for awhile so it can index your content.
Tip 4: Don't use Intel video cards. Stick with Nvidia. Cheaper cards work fine. 8400 is a bit too much.
Tip 5: 4GB of ram is cheap.
Tip 6: use 40/80gb drive for client machines. Data will be stored on server. Doesn't needs to be fast either. A slow 5400 is even better. Boot time is still quick. Less noise/heat/electricity.
Tip 7: Find a good sources.xml file for more/better internet streaming content. Need to tackle this.
Tip 8: Disable/remove services you don't use/need from Ubuntu. IE: Bluetooth daemon if you don't have bluetooth.
Tip 9: Profile the OS bootup to get things started faster. Also knock down GRUB timeout to 1 second, not 0.
Tip 10: ***GET A REMOTE CONTROL*** - OMG - what a difference. I bought a cheap $24 jobbie off Newegg and it was plug-n-play (nearly). Just did 'sudo aptitude install lirc lirc-x' and it just worked! I even put the sensor aimed at the wall behind the speaker and it works. Can't even see the IR receiver.

Hurdle #1: Video goes fast then slow, audio cuts in/out.
Fix: Remove pulseaudio, install esound:
sudo rm /etc/X11/Xsession.d/70pulseaudio
sudo killall pulseaudio
sudo apt-get remove pulseaudio
sudo apt-get install esound

Hardware:
Motherboard - ASUS p5q-em
4GB Ram
80gb 2.5 SATA (Laptop) drive
Intel (duuu) 2.6GHz core 2 duo
8400 nVidia based card

Results:
Nice! Content is stored on my NAS (Network Attached Storage) and everything just plays. HD content playback is smooth and crystal clear on my Sammy 47' via HDMI.

The crazy people at "Yes on 8" are truly out for blood. Apparently, telling lies and using kids as pawns to claim that allowing gay people will hurt kids was just not enough. Now, the "Yes on 8" folks are resorting to a little blackmail.

Yesterday, a San Diego business leader who is against Proposition 8 announced that he received a letter from the Proposition 8 Executive Committee requesting funding and revoking his endorsement of the NO on Prop 8 campaign.

“Were you to elect not to donate comparably, it would
be a clear indication that you are in opposition to traditional
 marriage. You would leave us no other reasonable assumption.
The names of any companies…that choose not to donate…to
ProtectMarriage.com…will be published.…We will contact you
shortly to discuss your contribution.”

You can see the scanned copy (PDF) online. What's next? Some weapons of mass destruction?

After all the frustration and time over the dead BMW F800ST, it came down to a bad battery. They warrantied out the battery, and the bike is running fine. They said I should plug the bike into the battery tender once a week or so to keep the battery topped off. The service guy said that the alternators cannot keep the battery charged - and that this is a problem for all BMW bikes. Think they would have fixed this on a "luxury" bike that is supposed to be the standard for reliability. Crazy electrical engineers at BMW.

Yesterday, I drove my bike to work. Then to lunch, and back to work. Afterwards, drove home then over to dinner at mom's place. After a lovely time visiting and eating some good food, I donned my gear and set out for my way home. Put the key in, let it do it's little diagnostic / boot-up sequence. then hit the starter and NOTHING. Everything died. Removed key, and reinsert. No diag.

Okay. So dead battery? Take out emergency tool kit, take off false tank, and jump start the battery. NOTHING. Called BMW roadside service at 8:30pm. Long story short, they scheduled a pick up today to get my bike to the nearest dealer (which is where I bought it).

The next morning, I called BMW roadside to activate the predetermined plan to get my bike towed while I was at work. They got the tow truck out to mom's and loaded up the bike and took it to the BMW dealer. I didn't have to talk to tow company, or supply anything other than my name and VIN number to BMW roadside assistance. They took care of everything.

The BMW dealer didn't get a chance to look at the bike today as they are still busy with high season. They scheduled a 2 hour service time for tomorrow - hopefully they can fix it in two hours, we'll see. My hopes are high, but my realization for this is low.

Just for the record, after 5 months or so the bike has a total of about 8200 miles.

As many of you know, I picked up some new wheels a few weeks ago. It's a new 2007 BMW F800ST. But wait, 2007 isn't new - what gives? It was a dealer demo unit with 1400 miles on it, not previously registered/owned.

After driving two variations of this model, and thinking it over for a night, I decided to buy it. It's a beautiful machine. I enjoy it so much that I've been putting about 700 miles a week on it, and absolutely love every mile of it. It's FAST too, much faster than any of my previous bikes.

I've done a few mods to it already. I rode down to the Corbin factory down in Hollister, CA with two buddies - Phoenix and Kevin. They kept me company as I had a custom seat made to fit me. WOW. That was definitely worth it as the stock BMW seat is horrible. I also replaced the brake light with LEDs as well as the rear turn signals. I did this so other drivers can see me better. I also added a Garmin ZUMO 550 GPS to the handle bars. Next on the list is a new wind screen as the stock one isn't very good at all.

I've posted the pictures for David's birthday party online. Enjoy.

I've uploaded (a while ago) the pictures from Folsom Street Fair for 2007. Due to the content of the pictures, you must be 18 and over to view them. If you are, here's the link. The password is simply "notakid" if you are 18 and over.