Spring has arrived

• This week was the first evening we were woken in the middle of the night by our weather radio warning us of a severe thunderstorm in the county somewhere.
• Right now we're sitting through our first tornado warning for the county.  No tornados to report at this time but it is raining quite heavily.  This leads to....
• Its raining and blowing so hard our dogs, normally not ones to mind the water but rather enjoy it, have opted to stay inside, even when given the chance to go out and play.

Welcome to spring in Kansas.

Another Great "This American Life" Story

Well, I haven't got around to my "top ten" list for "This American Life" yet but I've got another clip from one of the shows. I've actually had this sitting around for a while but didn't have a good way to share it until I recently set up my Google site. 

Anyway, if any of you have ever spent any significant amount of time overseas, particularly in a culture where you don't know the language, don't know the customs, don't know the how much you should tip, and don't know how to get a taxi ride back to where you're staying, well, this show is for you.  I heard first before our two weeks in China and after that trip can identify with it even more.

I hope you enjoy it.

(Oh, the full show is here: listen online for free, download the show for a buck (well, actually $0.95 USD).  You'll get tired of hearing me say this but this will surely be one of the best dollars ever spent.

FDIC Ride-Along

In the same spirit as a police officer ride-along, This American Life did a piece recently where one of their contributor's got to sit in on the process of the FDIC shutting down a bank in Vancouver, Washington.  Here's the clip.  The whole hour is good to listen to, though, and I'd recommend that you check it out.  

(In addition to listening to all their old episodes online for free and subscribing to their podcast where you can download the latest show for free, it looks like they've added the option to purchase individual episodes for $1 from their website.  This is a steal!  One hour of fascinating radio to own and cherish forever for less than anything you can buy at Starbucks. I'll have to put together a "best-of" list so that all three of my loyal readers can get the most bang for your bucks.)

What I've been up to

When I was trying to explain to one of my brothers why I haven't posted lately due to end of semester school work, he suggested that I post what I've been working on to my blog.  In that spirit, here is a paper I turned in yesterday that I've been working on for a week or so. I've two tests this week and another project due next Monday. (and another next week and another the week after that, and another test next week...)

I highly suspect that this will be the content on the blog for the next month.  I hope that you like electrical engineering!

And the new motorcycle is...

... as you can see its not a Honda Rebel.  That deal fell through for mysterious reasons that are not clear at all to me.  After not getting back to me in a week and a half (after several calls) I finally managed to get a hold of him and he informed me he had "waited too long" and that he couldn't register the bike to sell it to me.  The motorcycle was no longer for sale.

(Side commentary:  I don't buy his story completely.  I've learned recently that Kansas requires that all vehicles be registered at all times and this guy had left the bike unregistered for over a year.  I believe that there would be some complications in registering it but there is no way that the State provides no means to register a vehicle with a valid title and bill of sale whose registration has lapsed.  Put differently, what is he going do with the bike if he can't register it.  It has no license plate so he can't ride it.  Is he going to sell a wonderfully cared-for bike for scrap metal?  I think there is more going on here than I was told.)

Thus began a month long search for my scooter replacement.  Compared to what most people were asking on Craigslist, most motorcycles weren't even an option for me.  If I was interested in the bike and the price was not too far from what I had, I would email and ask if they were flexible on price.  Some were, some weren't.  Lots of emailing, phone calls, even checking out a few bikes in person.   Katie was highly involved in the approval process as I wanted her to be comfortable with whatever I ended up with. When all was said and done, I ended up purchasing a bike that I found one of the very first weeks I was looking but took nearly four weeks to finally take a look at.  Shown above, the bike is a 1996 Kawasaki KLR250.  Until I get a chance to repaint the body, we call the "Teal-mobile".

I've ridden it to work and school for two days now and I'm very happy with it. It has a few minor things that need to be repaired, the biggest one is a leaky fuel shut-off valve followed by a carburetor rebuild.  Right now, with neither of those fixed, the bike has a tendency to leak fuel while parked (unless I get the valve in just the right spot).  I should pick up the gaskets for the valve on Monday and be able to fix it that evening. Until the carburetor gets rebuilt, though, I'm keeping the gas can in the Buick so that Katie can fill it up and bring me fuel when (not "if") I forget to close the valve when I park.  I just know that's going to happen at some point.

Things I like about the bike: its simple (single cylinder), not expensive, liquid-cooled, doesn't get blown around in the wind near as much as the scooter, it fits my height well, has low mileage, generous suspension for handling the potholes of Wichita and should get good fuel economy (we'll see after a few tanks).  

Things I don't like: its teal and purple and it leaks gas.

That's all for now.