I picked up a Motorola H390 Bluetooth headset the other day, and was surprised to find that it wasn’t made in slave labour camp #15 in The PRC. This isn’t a review of the headset itself, but in case you were wondering, is light, non-servicable Li-ion battery lasts long, it fits Asian ear geometry reasonably well, and is acceptably comfortable. It works flawlessly with a Motorola RAZR.
Monthly Archive for July, 2009
Haven’t gotten much riding in this week. I was going to take a spin this afternoon, but the weather threw a monkey wrench in that plan. It was beautifully sunny on the Windward side around ten, but not an hour later, it was dumping in Biblical proportions. This continued through sunset. Oh well. It’s looking like this may continue all weekend. Kuso!
After work tonight, Root and I stopped by Nihon Noodles on South King Street for dinner. Located in the building where Bunmeido used to be, this ramen shop opened recently, and only came to our attention a couple of weeks ago. Sharing parking with a couple of bars, the small parking lot was full to over capacity with double-parked cars. We luckily found street parking. Keep this in mind when you come here. Outwardly, the storefront didn’t really match the ramen shop atmosphere, and on entering, the interior was even more unnatural. White marble walls and dark marble tables with indirect lighting and icicle Christmas lights seemed more at home in a lounge or bar. Perhaps when they moved in, they inherited the décor from the previous occupants. We were seated quickly and given water and menus. I wanted the Hakata ramen, but I figured I’d try a combo to get a taste of some of their other offerings. My Noodle Combo came with three “Yokohama gyoza”, a mini curry rice, and a standard size bowl of Hakata ramen for pennies under $11 USD. The ramen alone would have been about $8 USD. Continue reading ‘Edible Briefs – Nihon Noodles Ramen’
We hadn’t hit St. Louis in a while, so we went up to play on Monday morning. When Ckucke called me on Sunday night, I briefly tossed around the idea of taking the XC bike, riding up, then coming down. Ckucke was fine with this. Better judgement kicked in, and it was decided that it would be a F/R bike day. I met Ckucke and JT and we did a quick circuit of Upper Dunps while we waited for Root to show up. Root was coming into the park when we reached the road, so we all tried to get a tow up the hill from his Corolla. There wasn’t much to grab onto, and I was on the left, so I was holding on with my right arm with the shoulder separation. Ckucke managed to hold on until the parking lot. Two dudes in a maroon Toyota pickup pulled in just after us. At first, JT and I thought it was Kevyn, since the paint color was the same as Jesus truck – like maybe he was coming by to hassle us. They had gone down once and were shuttling back up. Continue reading ‘Down Time’
On the way to Kahuku last night, just as the Foodland came into view in Laie, I mumbled “Isnt Laie Point around here?” Dave suddenly exclaimed “TURN HERE!” So I slammed on the brake, probably freaking the heck out of the pickup truck behind me, and jammed into the right turn leading to Laie Point.
Dave apparently has never been here, the subject of much discussion, and source of one of our favorite movie quotes. “Dis is Laie Point. Its so beautiful. Its my home”.
Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! It’s SCCA Test and Tune day at the stadium! A day for all the SCCA geeks (and geekettes) to bring their cars out and drive them all day on the course. The weather was clear, and hot. I see many a lobstered racer tonight! It was a full house for the entire day, so turnover was kinda slow, sometimes almost 30 minutes between runs, but it was enough time to weight my car, and get in about 7 runs. Enough to start to get a feel for the car, get the tire pressures sorted, discover that this Corolla is fun, and get an unexpected kustom tuning job. Continue reading ‘Test n Tune, Shake n Bake’
Today, I saw something I couldn’t quite figure out. It was a dude on a chrome Bianchi fixie, but he was all decked out in matching tighties and jersey, with an expensive helmet, glasses, and clipless elf shoes like some Tour de France team rider or something. He was pimping the racer steez, but he was on a fixie and had a messenger bag. Huh? It was a fixie bike, but it had those behind-the-seat triathlon bottle cages (not the best match for the messenger bag). What? His bullhorn bars were wrapped so thickly with grip tape, they were about as fat as Red Bull cans. Um… Everything about him and his rig was non-sequiter. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he had aerobars, but I didn’t look. At least his wheels matched… Continue reading ‘I H8 Fixies’
Unlike “Oyster stouts” which generally don’t contain oysters, but were meant to be quaffed with oysters, milk stouts – also known as sweet stouts – are actually brewed with the adjunct of lactose, a sugar derived from milk. This sugar is indigestible by the brewing yeast, so it remains intact in the brew after fermentation, retaining its added flavor and nutritional value. The lactose generally imparts a mild sweetness to the stout, and adds a moderating smoothness to the flavor. This sweet stout from Kiuchi Brewery in Ibaraki Prefecture in central Eastern Honshuu, Japan, is a fine example of this relatively unusual variety. On opening, there is very little carbonation – only enough to generate a moderate but short lived head. The color is a deep, opaque, coffee brown. There is a distinct sweet aroma. The initial taste is lightly bitter. The lactose imparts a smoothness to the middle, moderating the bitter and smokiness from the dark malt. The malt is present, but moreso as an aroma rather than a flavor. It isn’t sugary sweet, but the combination of the roasted malt flavor and the lactose, yields a taste almost reminiscent of coffee with cream, especially in the finish and aftertaste. The mouthfeel isn’t thick, but it is smooth. This is a warm, flavorful, and smooth beer. Excellent. I look forward to trying their other offerings. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Hitachino Nest Beer Sweet Stout’
I saw this the last time I rode my bike to Foodland for Wernesgruener. I forgot about it until I saw it pop up in the Foodland sale ad today, so I did a little online research. The official Speight’s NZ site indicated it was not sold on the USDM because of some issue with registering the name. Was Hawaii not part of the USA again? It was a twelve pack, which worried me a little – if it was just a six pack and it sucked, it wouldn’t be too bad to finish – suffering through twelve bad beers would bite! My apprehension stemmed from having tasted Steinlager, the only other beer from Aotearoa available here that I know of. The weather was terrible when I came through the Wilson Tunnel, so I headed straight over to Foodland to grab some. Continue reading ‘Beer Is Good – Speight’s Gold Medal Ale’
My legs were tired from Sunday’s trail ride, but the weather was nice, so I went out for an easy ride to loosen things up. I kept the gears and effort low. Instead of doing laps, I stayed away from the climbs and just went back and forth up top. My hamstrings and calves were noticeably tight.
D = 11.89 km (7.39-miles), Vavr = 14.5 km/h (9.0-mph), Vmax = 35.4 km/h (22.0-mph), T = 49-minutes