This game for the Nintendo DS looks very cool. It’s kind of like a Myst-type adventure game, and I really love the artwork. I hope the soundtrack is good. I find that I like games that play like reading a book. I would love to play a game that is a combination of Detective Story ebook and Choose Your Own Adventure book. The gameplay wouldn’t need to be anything special or complex, but the story would have to be good and lengthy, like novel-sized. Trace Memory has been described as “book-like”, although some have said that it is too short. Hopefully there will be more games like it. You can check out more images from Trace Memory at IGN, and here are some cool wallpapers from the Japanese site, where the game is called “Another Code: Two Memories”. And here’s a link to a really cool “trailer” movie.

OK, this is my dream bike. A Honda CB400SS… available in Japan, but not in the U.S. Bummer… It’s got the classic style, but with updated components. If only they sold this in the States, it would be so cool. I love the white tank with rust-colored graphics. The blue and silver color scheme is nice too.

Check out the cool wallpapers they have at the Japanese Honda site.

So, I have been having tons of fun restoring my C70 these days, and still love it, but I have my eyes on a new (old) bike… a Honda CB350. These were apparently very popular in the early 70’s, and tons of them were sold here in the States. I see ads for them every so often, prices ranging from “free” to $1,500 for a close-to-perfect specimen. I am interested in a “runs, but needs some work” condition model. The motorcycle itself is not really a sought-after classic, but I like the look of it, and it’s small, light. Plus, parts are readily available on ebay, with more availability and cheaper than C70 parts.

One of the things about the C70 is that, although it goes up to 40mph, it takes it’s own sweet time to get up to speed. I guess that’s the trade-off, however, for being so economical (over 100mpg). But being rather slow makes it more dangerous, even for neighborhood riding. The bigger bike is safer, since it can pull away from tailgating cars more easily. With the C70, once you hit 40, that’s pretty much it. The CB350, from what I have read. has enough power and zip to accelerate faster than most traffic. (How’s that for rationalizing)

My thinking at this point is that I need to get fix the C70 to as good a condition as I can, then sell it to fund my CB350 project. It’s funny, but a nice C70 sells for pretty good money. I think I would be able to get $1,000 for it. By my estimate, I have put a grand total of $500 into it, including buying the bike itself.

At any rate, to do more restoration on the C70, I need to wait until we are in the new house, so I can unpack all my tools and C70 parts. Plus, we will have a 2 1/2-car garage, which means more room!!! So, this project will have to wait until 2006. In the meantime, I still have some things I can do to the C70, like work on some electrical issues.

I’ve been eating a lot of Chipotle lately, because both me any my office-mate Chris really like the food there. I always get the carnitas burrito, and vary the salsa they put on it. It’s so good! The other day, we went there for lunch, and we got our lunches for free! The owner of the Chipotle (on Parmer and Metric) told Chris to pick a number between one and ten. Chris said, “Five” and the owner said that our burritos were on the house. How cool was that?

Drawing another masterpiece!

Apparently I am the last person to know, but here is a pic of the Nintendo Revolution, and it’s cool controller. The controller’s got motion sensors in it, so you can use it as a pointer, or a sword, or a baseball bat, etc. Apparently in one of the demos, it was used as a dentist’s drill. The Revolution is going to be able to play all the previous Nintendo games, too, which is very very very cool!!! Here’s an article all about the new controller and game console. There are more pics of the controllers there, too!

A couple of our good friends are moving back to Japan in a few days, and they sold us a small flat-screen (not flat-panel) tv and a really cool Aiwa surround-sound system. It’s got a huge subwoofer, two front, two rear, and one center channel. It’s a pretty sweet system. I hooked it up last night and put in Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away) to test it out. It sounded awesome! It was already 10:30pm, and Bay was still up, so I couldn’t put in Star Wars and crank it up, but I will this weekend. We have been wanting a surround-sound system for a while, so it worked out great. Except that we are going to miss our friends. 🙁

Yamaha has some neat little models of their motorcycles that you can build. Just print out the pdf’s, cut the pieces out, and you can assemble a cool little motorcycle. The YZF-R1 also has a cool toolkit, jack-stand, and other accessories.

That’s on my temporary driver’s license. It means I can legally operate a motorcycle! I was only planning to renew my regular license today, then study the little Motorcyclist’s Handbook before taking the test at a later day, but after waiting an hour at the Texas Department of Public Safety (DMV to you non-Texans), I said to myself, “I’m not waiting here again” and I decided to just take the motorcycle test. I figured that the info from the MSF course was still fresh in my mind, so I had a good chance of passing. The test was done on a computer, with 20 total questions. You can skip questions, and they will be repeated later. You only actually need to answer 14 right, so I skipped a bunch, and answered the easy ones first. I then came back to the ones I skipped, answered three of them correctly, and the test ended, indicating that I answered 14 correctly (100% correct) and I passed. Woohoo!

On Saturday, I woke up bright and early and met my fellow students at “the range” which was the Pflugerville High School parking lot. There, we met the instructor, and those without their own helmets and/or gloves got fitted with ones the class provided. I had my HJC half-helmet and leather gloves, so I was all set. The bikes that they had for us were Honda Rebels. The two students who had the most experience got the two Rebels, which were 250’s, and the rest of us got the Eliminators, which were 125cc machines. In all, there were seven of us, because one of the women from the Thursday night class didn’t show. Anyways, we all got our helmets and gloves on, then got on our bikes. The instructor led us through a quick tour of the bikes, then we “power-walked” our bikes to the staging area, and the actual range.