Classic Books not equal to Good Books

So, I read the series of books recommended by Asimov which included books on robots leading up to and including the Foundation series. Very good. Anything by Asimov is good in my opinion.

Then I got this reading list of the "best" by random house Board. Going down the list, I read Anna Karenina and Middlemarch. Tolstoy is quite worthy of his position as a great writer, George Eliot is appropriately placed as a minor figure in literature. Then I picked up Ulysses by James Joyce and quickly returned it to the library without finishing it. What a piece of crap.
Then I read Brave New World. That one was tolerable. It has survived the test of time by criticizing social issues which still exist now. One must forgive those dead authors for their lack of tech savvy since there is no way anyone could predict the path of science and technology.

The Sound and the Fury is another overrated novel probably only appreciated by Lit majors who believe what their professors and other "experts" tell them. IMHO, another piece of crap.

I think I'll switch to the Reader's list of the top 100, or at least be a lot more selective by researching the books before ordering them from the library.

Given that I am most comfortable in worn, unstarched, and often unwashed cotton, and can often be found with a tool of some sort in my hand instead of a piece of paper, I still aspire to consume things of the world of starched linen and dark wood boxes entombed in stone buildings.
Shit is shit, however, no matter the container or the status of those who recommend it. There is no need to get sick with intellectual cholera by eating something based on the "status" of the ones proffering.
We should be reinforced in that lesson by the current generation of Harvard post-graduate professionals and politicians who continue to drive our economy to utter ruin by their total lack of a sense of reality.
You might even be able to say that traditional higher education is limited by its incestuous relationship to itself, and if we as a culture wish to go to a more perfect social order we should be extremely critical and continually force a re-examination of all prior knowledge and expertise, judging harshly on criteria of practical and measurable benefits. Yes, I know that's also BS on all but an individual basis. But then all human culture extends from the individual. So even though it takes a lot of time, judging others is probably a good survival strategy.
My judgment: Random House's Best of list sucks. Mostly. Except for the ones I like.

gay marriage, healthcare, households

The root cause of the marriage debate is that marriage is mixed in with the definition of a household, which has tax, benefit, and inheritance (money and assets) issues attached to it.
This root issue needs to be talked out.
A household under the legal definition is at odds with the natural or functional definition of a household.
A household should be allowed to be children supporting parents or parents supporting dependent children regardless of age, or a legally declared household (i.e. two or more adults, etc.).
Government should be structured under the principle that it will free the people to organize themselves as they need to, not as the government dictates.
A change in the legal definition of household could help relieve the health coverage problem we currently have, especially the very critical elderly care problems that are bound to get more critical.

OM guitar

Visualizing the new rosette which will be handmade on the top. The center of the rosette will be an interlocking wave pattern surrounded by multi-color bands.


This is a new top for an orchestra model acoustic guitar. The body is walnut, mahogany neck, Honduran rosewood fretboard, and Sitka spruce top, trimmed probably in maple. It will be a left handed steel string guitar.

Commuting on a race replica

All the issues with this bike are resolved and it's been my commuter bike for almost two weeks while the car is in the shop.
A v-4 engine like on this bike has a lot of torque, so it accelerates really fast. Handling is neutral but responsive without being twitchy. I have learned that I need to temper my driving and slow down so the cage drivers have time to see me and respond. It's hard enough on a normal bike to be seen, but when you're riding a fast bike like the Honda Interceptor, the rider must slow down so that the drivers see more than a blurry streak or the sudden appearance of a vehicle where there was nothing before.
For a little while, I was riding without instruments and judging speed by flow of traffic and wind resistance. Once I got the replacement instrument cluster, I realized how fast I was really traveling. The bike is very smooth and quiet, and the small fairing displaces enough air over the top of my helmet so that I was not able to correctly judge my speed or acceleration. Also, I can now calculate my fuel efficiency, which is just under 50 MPG in city driving.
Not bad for a $900 bike.

This motorcycle is a 1985 Honda VF700F Interceptor.
The paint scheme is black and white instead of the factory Blue and White.
When I got it, it had been dropped a number of times and worked on by a monkey with wrenches.
It is now almost in good enough condition to be seen in public.


The motor is a low mileage replacement. The cams are shiny and smooth with no sign of pitting.

Improvements made include;

• Cleaned and lined the fuel tank.
  
• Replaced the exhaust system. The header pipes are wrapped.
  
• Replaced the head gasket on the rear bank and also a broken head bolt.
  
• Re-torqued both sets of heads and adjusted the valves.
  
• Cleaned the carbs.
  
• Replaced various screws and bolts, re-tapping when necessary.
  
• Got new turn signal lights and rear view mirrors.
  
• Repaired the radiators and replaced leaking cooling system gaskets.
  
• New tires.
  
• New paint, to do; decals, pin stripes, clear coat, etc.
  

On the wish list; new wind screen, replace sprockets and chain, 750cc engine.

VF700F back to life

This 1985 VF700F Interceptor is running after some repairs to the cooling system and the motor rear bank of cylinders. It's now time to put a paint job on it. The original paint was blue on white, but I'm leaning toward black & white or a dark charcoal & white, since I've got yellow decals.

Out with the old bikes, in with the new one.

Sold the GS750, Sold the GS450L, sold a guitar, transferred money from an investment account.

Got a '85 VF700F for $900 plus have already bought parts for about $300+.
Is there money left? You betcha. Pay off a CC, get a bike!

This is a nice ride, it just needs to be brought back to a reasonable maintenance level.

For me, one of the nice things about getting used bikes is, if they aren't wrecked, they only suffer from benign neglect. Easy to get them back running.
The reason is that many who purchase bikes don't know how to keep a shovel in good running order, much less a motorcycle. Bad for them, good for me.