Sweet Pilot G2 pen upgrade
I got the idea from an instructable I spotted a while ago, forget the url but you could google it.
A Mont Blanc rollerball is a very nice pen, it writes smoothly and the body is nice and solid and has a good heft to it, the downside is that they go for about $200 give or take. If you're like me, pens come and go for some strange unknown reason. Whether it is lost or "borrowed" from my desk, they just don't seem to last. I think the most I've spent on a pen for myself was about $80, I have no idea how long that one lasted but it wasn't worth the $80 for the amount of time I had it in my possession.
Anyway, this rocket scientist figured out that a Mont Blanc rollerball refill (about $12 for 2 of them) is almost exactly the same as the G2 refill and in fact, that the only significant difference was the length. He also discovered that if you hack off a few millimeters off the end of a Mont Blanc refill, it fits perfectly in a G2 giving you the writing smoothness of a $200 Mont Blanc in a $5 pen. Now the G2 is no Mont Blanc, but it's a pretty decent pen ergo-wise.
So I tried it and it works, here you go.
G2 cart on top, Mont Blanc below, notice the blue end is a little longer
Loaded up and it writes so nice
The Mont Blanc refills are $12 for 2
Labels: DIY
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Coke can stove test
I decided to do the classic 2 cup of water boil time test with that backpacking stove I made out of two coke cans. Using my swiss tool I bent a coat hanger into a little ultralight stand. Of course, if you really wanted to save weight you could just dig a small hole or use sticks or rocks to hold your pot over the stove. I'm pretty happy with the stove as it performed coming to a boil in rougly 4 minutes. :) The can of fuel was about $5 at the local Home Depot, it burns clean and fairly hot. I recorded a small 1 minute video as well after the stove had been on for about 3 minutes. The coat hanger worked fairly well, if I was going to keep it for actual use I'd sand off the paint on it, but I suspect I'll just use rocks or sticks in the field.
This particular design has paper towel folded over inside the walls acting as a wick. I also use larger weep holes in the base and it seems to do well. The amount of fuel required to boil 2 cups of water is exactly 2 tablespoons, not bad. To carry the fuel you can just get one of those little containers from the travel isle at the local drug store.
Part way into the video you'll see me stick my hand in there, showing the time at about 3min after starting the fire. All in all it averaged to almost exactly 4 minutes. I should also note that I'm probably only about 100ft above sea level.
Labels: backpacking, DIY, gear, outdoor
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Freedomland
We've just had so much to do lately we haven't really had a chance to get away and have a little break to ourselves. You know how it goes, lots of things going on at work and you start to realize all your weekends have been prebooked with things you may not really have much interest in doing. Not to mention the fact that we're still unpacking from the move, we did get a pretty cool house in a nice neighborhood, but man I hate moving. Anyway, when the opportunity arose for us to duck out to Tahoe, well we just couldn't say no.
From our location in the bay area Tahoe is about a 3hr drive, so it's not terribly far, but it isn't exactly right around the corner either. We went up Friday night around 7pm and the traffic was light, but the conditions going in got increasingly worse. Not much moonlight, lots of rain and fog thick enough to obscure most of the windy road. That was especially interesting in areas that more or less had cliffs on one side or the other with no guardrails and people trying to go well over the speed limit.
You know how everything is connected in ways we sometimes don't realize... I wonder if my driving at a sane speed and creating a slight backup in some of the especially dangerous parts forced someone else to slow down, which prevented that person from flying over the edge. I'd like to believe so, especially when I think about the guy in the minivan that floored it around me while honking and swerving as he careened down a wet, windy road with a sheer cliff on the side.
So, aside from the adventure getting there we had a great time. We got in some hiking, some sightseeing, toured around the lake and of course a few bucks in gambling entertainment. I even had to MacGyver a fix to a leaking fuel line on the big Jeep, turned out we sprayed about a 1/4 tank before I caught on to it. DOH
I guess that explains why I wasn't getting tailgated on my way up that last twisty section of road lol. Anyway, here's a few more pictures we snapped along the way. I love Tahoe. :)
Great views of the lake
We saw lots of this cool looking moss on our hike.
My girls :)
Flora (You might laugh at her jacket, but the low was 20 degrees F!)
The crazy dog.
My girls.
Flora and me, she's my best buddy.
Labels: outdoor, travel
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Navigation tools
My very first GPS was one of the very early civilian models from Garmin, it had an external antenna that you could adjust. I got the "military" style model and unfortunately it was pretty much a piece of junk. The antenna was not very tough and while simply trying to rotate it the thing popped off. When attempting to put it back, some of the connecting points snapped. Thankfully, I was able to return it and purchased a Magellen unit. I liked the Magellans in that they were self contained, waterproof and had a very simple interface.
Of course this was back in the days when a GPS really only gave you data. Direction, speed, latitude, longitude and sea level elevation. On top of that, it was $300. I used that thing in combination with USGS topo maps for many years, it came with me on Jeeping adventures and backpacking trips into the unknown. Unfortunately it finally gave up the ghost a few months ago after providing me with over 10 years of service. Time for a new one and while I was at it, I figured I might as well go full bore and see what kinds of topo software was out there.
After a bit of research I settled on the Magellan eXplorist e210 United States version. Without going into detail on the specs, you can google those, the device comes preloaded with a US map containing major roads, parks, airports and waterways. For more detailed maps you can upload them into the unit via special software.
Now personally I don't really care too much about a detail map on a tiny little GPS screen. The zoomed out major roadways is fine for my purposes, any real detail requires a real map. Not to mention the fact that if your GPS dies for one reason or another, you better have a real map and compass handy or you might not be making it back to camp. Another nice feature is a dual level backlight that allows you to choose a dim or bright setting, very nice. Considering the fact that the backlight on these things can be a real power hog.
Here's the dim setting, note that I'm not tracking any satellites yet as I just turned the GPS on and I'm inside an office building with it pointing away from the windows. However, if you'll notice in the next picture, it started the tracking process anyway and locked a satellite. From everything I'd read and now experienced, this GPS handles satellite aquisition and lock extremely well. I don't yet have a handlebar mount, so to tracklog I just fire it up and toss it in my bag and it works just fine.
Another one of the nice features with this device is being able to set something called a track log, which more or less just records a ton of waypoints automatically as you move along. The nice thing about this is that you can wander off wherever the hell you want, then basically just tell it to do a return trip and it will guide you back the way you came.
The other nice thing about that is that not only can you use it to record locations with a route to get there as well as how to get back to say... camp with virtual breadcrumbs, but you can import this data into good topo software, like the TOPO! maps software from National Geographic. Now that is super cool, with that little feature when you return from a trip you can download the data off your GPS into your PC and see where you went on your map. Of course one of the primary reasons for getting the GPS is that you can also plot charts on your map and upload them to your GPS as a route that you can follow.
Combined with the very awesome National Geographic TOPO! map software, this little guy will be seeing a lot of use.
Now that I can print my own 100k and 7.5' topo maps I can feel free to abuse them and mark all over them and with the routes I create on it uploaded to my GPS, I can feel confident that not only will it lead me where I want to go, it will get me back home as well.
Labels: backpacking, gear, jeep, outdoor, travel, xt225
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Mad world musings
At work people were talking about Gore and when I saw my mom yesterday she wouldn't stop warning me about West Nile virus. Kinda funny when you think about how and what order we sensationalize things.
Al Gore got the Nobel Peace prize, but Mahatma Gandhi did not.
Crack cocaine possession is a 24 year prison sentence but manslaughter is 3.
Media spread fear of West Nile Virus has people running away from dead birds and living in fear of mosquitoes even though nationally it claimed only 100 lives in 2004 while the flu killed nearly 60,000.
And what's the latest craze? We've had everything from killer bees to bird flu, what could be next in our state of fear? Killer brain eating amoebas. Sounds like a bad movie.
So we're being told to avoid water now? How many affected? Oh yeah, 23 nationally over 10 years. I think you're more likely to accidentally drown in your coffee cup or slip in the shower and break your neck.
Labels: opinion
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Ultraflate2 "hack"
So I picked up one of those co2 charged refill solutions, I'd never really needed one for my mountain bike cause well... not much volume and I didn't race XC but I'd rather not have to pump up one of the tires on my new XT or on the RM by hand.
Anyway, the Ultraflate2 uses a proprietary co2 cart to lock you in with consumables, of course they also WAY overcharge for them at $4 a pop. Considering the fact that a 12gram co2 from Crossman goes for about 50 cents, I'd much rather use those. Ultraflate took that into consideration, so they made their proprietary cans longer than the standard ones you can find anywhere.
So what do you do? Drop a dime on them, so to speak.
So measuring their tank in the device we see that it sticks out just a bit and measures a total of 3.53" If you drop a standard 12gram in there it will not stick out past the top, preventing it from functioning in the device.
Take a dime
Drop it in there and put in a normal 12gram co2 and crank it down, not overtight, but you'll need to put a slight dent in the dime, so a bit of force.
Once complete, back it off and drop in a fresh co2 and look, it measures out at 3.54"
How much does this save you? Well, 25 of the 12gram carts will run you $12.50 and 25 of the proprietary ones will set you back $100.
Labels: gear, mtb, xt225
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Yamaha Serow XT225
Well here's my 2002 XT225 the day I brought her home. Obviously not the greatest pictures, but you get the idea. In the background you can see my RM125 2 stroke and my FZR600 (soon to be retired.) I'm doing what I can to make the move over to dual sporting and dirt only.
I love this bike, it is such a blast to ride. This bike is not about super high speed, or huge travel suspension for flying off of jumps; but at 194lb, it is a sweet little trail bike and at roughly 80mpg, I won't mind commuting on her. The previous owner added some padding to the seat, but otherwise left the bike stock. I've got some changes in mind already, some more off road oriented tires and a rear rack and some handguards to round out the package.
Labels: xt225
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
For NIN fans like me, this is huge
08 October 2007: Big News Hello everyone. I've waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.Look for some announcements in the near future regarding 2008. Exciting times, indeed.
posted by Trent Reznor at 10:45 AM. 270 Comments
Awesome. Labels: music
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
US Civilian Marksmanship Program
http://www.odcmp.com/
Did a practice shoot this last weekend for the CMP. I had never gone to an organized event like that before and it was a lot of fun. I have to admit, right off the bat I was concerned about even getting a shot on the paper, I mean I'd never shot at anything past 100 yards before and even that was with a powerful scope. For the CMP you can't use optics so I had to pull my scope, well at least I thought I did, one of the guys told me I could have left it and just kept the caps on, dang... I had it zero'd nicely at 100 cest la via.
Anyway, my irons were last zero'ed for 50yd so I had to make some adjustments, but after 5 clicks back I was good and zero'ed for 200 yards, too cool. 
Anyway, after a brief sight-in stage we got to it. We did the standard fare stuff, standing (offhand), sitting and prone (laying down). I was actually quite shocked at how accurate you can actually be at that sort of range with only the iron sights.
The different stages had different rules, like 60 seconds to fire 10 shots offhand, 70 seconds to drop from standing to prone and fire 10 shots, there was also a slow prone, 20 shots in 20 minutes session. That one was especially grueling, but it was nice to have the extra time to really setup your shot.
I'm still curious to see how I scored, I have 4 of my targets so I could run some totals, but hey I was just glad to participate it was a load of fun and hey, I know I bagged at least 1 ten ring! :) At 200 yards with iron sights and from the sitting position, not bad, well, for me at least.
Here's how they score:
Expert ----- 90% and above (450 and above on a 50 rounds for score course)
Sharpshooter ----- 80% to 89% (400 thru 449)
Marksman ----- 70% to 79% (350 thru 399)
Unqualified (Unclassified) less than 70%.
Oh and I made that hat I'm wearing in the pictures, more on that later though.
Labels: shooting
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Ultralight backpacking stove
So I'd seen plans for years about little backpacking stoves you can make requiring merely a couple of coke cans a swiss army knife and a few minutes of time, but I'd never really gotten around to making one. I had been using nesbit tablets, which function, but I'm really not a big fan of them. Anyway, someone had posted a video on metacafe showing his own modified and simplified design and I figured I might as well give making one of these a shot.
Now, he simply states that you need to prime it first, then he is shown holding a lighter under it for a few seconds before lighting the jets. Of course, anyone that knows how primed stoves work realize that is total BS because you really need a priming pan, which defeated the whole point of his "modified" stove as it was supposed to be a completely simplified version of the different styles out there.
Anyway, I don't like the priming pan idea, it's just one more thing to carry around and lose. I'd prefer for the entire unit to be self contained. A great website, zenstoves.net goes into detail on the design and theory behind many different styles of these little stoves. Personally, I prefer the open top style, though slightly less efficient it lights instantly and the jets come on when ready.
I am somewhat happy with the performance I'm getting, though I do want to change the design a little and make the top hole smaller, I don't think it needs to be quite so large. Anyway, here's a shot of the flame you get for 5 minutes from a couple tablespoons worth of denatured alcohol.
Labels: backpacking, DIY, gear, outdoor
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
Site relaunch
I've switched to a blog style format almost entirely for the sake of ease of updating the site.
Crazy as it may seem, this is an undoctored photo of a white shark investigating a scientist in a kayak. I suspect he was reconsidering the idea of getting that close to the shark.
PermaLink / Posted by: Tony
A Mont Blanc rollerball is a very nice pen, it writes smoothly and the body is nice and solid and has a good heft to it, the downside is that they go for about $200 give or take. If you're like me, pens come and go for some strange unknown reason. Whether it is lost or "borrowed" from my desk, they just don't seem to last. I think the most I've spent on a pen for myself was about $80, I have no idea how long that one lasted but it wasn't worth the $80 for the amount of time I had it in my possession.
