Beautiful Women, Halloween and Sexy Costumes. A Trend? I hope so.

There has been an increasing trend over the past 20 years or so, for Ladies of all stations in life, to wear sexy costumes for Halloween. I highly approve of this phenomena. Little Devils, & Angels, Pirates and all sorts of lovely costumed Ladies have made Halloween more enjoyable for Myself, and countless scores of grown Men over the years. Every Halloween party I have been to in the last ten years has been awesome, mostly because of costumes made available thru internet distributors such as cococostumes.com .

My Lovely Friend, Irina Voronina has much to do with the day to day operation of cococostumes.com , and even is one of the gorgeous models of all the cool stuff on the site.

If You are looking for a cool costume for Your significant other, or are a Lady looking for a great year round resource for sexy costumes and dance wear, I highly recommend cococostumes.com.

The Biker approved this message.

Motorcycle seat evolution.

If You have spent any time on a stock Japanese motorcycle, excluding the modern versions of the Honda Goldwing touring bikes, You know that for the most part, the factory seats on them is an insult to Our heini’s.

I figure, that Kawasaki spent about $4 to make the stock seat on My Concours14. A motorcycle company that prides itself on the technology of it’s incredible 1400 cc engine, has no clue when it comes to a bikes seat.

After riding on this torture device for a while, I had to do something. I’m a hands on guy, & I was positive I could do better.

Evolution #1. That something was to get My little industrial sewing machine fired up, learn how to use it, and make My own. Rebonded foam, & high density foam was sourced from an internet warehouse. I added some foam to the stock seat under the factory cover. Then I reinstalled the cover. The results, while not hideous, they were close. It was a lumpy mess. Looked like I was hiding last years leaf raking stuffed under a wetsuit. Do it over buster.

Evolution #2 After that fiasco, it was time to get more serious. This time I went to My local Tandy’s leather supply, & bought a black leather upholstery hide. While the 1.5 oz leather that they sell is a little light for a motorcycle seat, it was by far more robust than the stock plastic cover. Working on My sewing machine, I soon had a technique down for laying down a pretty decent single stitch.

Taking the seat completely apart, I completely changed the profile of the seat, & added foam to build it up.

I re contoured the seat foam to maximize the comfort. I did the best I could at keeping it esthetically pleasing, but comfort was My main objective. My first attempt at a quilted leather cover started out with high hopes.

The longer I worked on it though, the more I realized, I just didn’t have the experience to do something that complicated. I started a second cover that was plain leather with no design. This is what I ended up with.

It was very comfy, & I was pretty happy with it…at first. My seat was super high. High enough in fact, that it changed My relationship to My handlebars, & My pegs. The extra leg room was nice, but being stooped over more was an issue. Also an issue was no longer being able to flatfoot at a stop. Still, I rode on the seat for an entire season.

At one point, I removed My bags from the bike to wash it. That was when I said to Myself, Self…that looks awful. She really looked goofy with the bags off. Something had to Be done.

Evolution #3 Custom seat. It’s time for a custom job. The seat makers on the table all had great seats. At a substantial cost though. One place in Florida, makes great touring seats that run upwards of $750, & are very big. They are not bad looking seats, but look like a Goldwing seat, & kinda out of place on a sport tourer.

Enter Seth Laam of LAAM Custom Seats. http://yourcustomseat.com/ Seth knows motorcycle seats. Although a relative youngster, He has been doing the motorcycle seat gig for 12 years or so. I gave Seth a call. Told him of My attempts to do My own mods on a seat, & fully expecting to be laughed outta my socks. Seth, however, was very sympathetic, & led Me thru a series of questions He used to determine My needs. I was impressed. I boxed up the monstrosity I built, took it to UPS, & sawed off My left arm to have it shipped to Him. After considerable time in transit to & from Seth’s shop, He had My seat done in record time. I got it back, & immediately put it on the bike.

This seat is a work of art. Seth does bang up work. Not only is the seat beautiful, made with quality materials, & comfortable, but it will also hold My hat. That is VERY important.

Contact Seth at his shop (530)282-LAAM, on the net at http://yourcustomseat.com/ or on facebook @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/LAAM-Custom-Motorcycle-Seats/351353608256078

I highly recommend giving Seth a yell, & talking to him about Your seat. Damn fine job.

In a Mass Knife Fight to the Death Between Every American President, Who Would Win and Why?

Reblogged from Face in the Blue:

Hello everyone!

One of my most-visited sites on the web is Reddit.com, and one of my favourite subreddits is HistoricalWhatIf, an online community that debates historical hypotheticals. Earlier today someone asked the question, In a mass knife fight to the death between every American President, who would win and why? Someone beat me to the obvious answer that a final showdown would see Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt doing a dagger-wielding version of a Mexican standoff, so I took it too far and walked through how I thought every president would turn out.

Read more… 2,926 more words

Pretty sure Teddy would best all comers.

The Universe Has a Good Laugh

Reblogged from Stately McDaniel Manor:

File this one under the heading of: Cosmic Justice.  I just finished reading Marcus Luttrell's latest book: Service: A Navy SEAL At War.  Luttrell is the SEAL whose first book Lone Survivor will almost certainly become a classic of the military genre.  If you want to have a better understanding of those who have written a blank check to us all in any amount up to and including their lives, Luttrell's books are mandatory reading. 

Read more… 714 more words

Marcus Luttrell's shot story on how Chris Kyle gave instant Karma to some oxygen thieves.

4x5 Kodachromes

Reblogged from Pavel Kosenko's blog (English version):

My Russian blog started to be visited by many English speaking readers after I posted the following post. I thought it would be great to give this post a special place in my new English blog, and let it be one of the first publications.

***

I regularly visit the www.shorpy.com in order to get inspired by the colors of Kodachrome photo film.

Read more… 1,374 more words

Incredible pictures. What amazing detail. Anyone on My blog that wishes to see what photographers strive for, should look at this page.

JEEPING …..The art of getting dirty and going broke while slowly heading nowhere and taking all day to do it

Jeeps. I love them. As I have gotten older, My attitude has gone from,”Hey, lets hike up there to see if there is anything interesting.” To,”Hey lets Jeep up there to see if there is anything interesting.” A Jeep as it comes from the factory is a damn capable off roader, but sometimes, just a little more oomph is needed. Then comes the lift kits, & gear changes to render the little grocery getter Cherokee into an off road beast.

Now, I don’t enjoy taking My junk off road to thrash the hell out of it, & break my shit. There are folks out there that do that shot, but I like My Jeep, & that bastard has to get Me home afterward. Jeeping for Me, meand My Jeep needs to get Me to the places I want to see, & then getting Me home again. Some of those places are pretty tough to get to, So a little more clearance was necessary. Just a couple of inches to get appropriately sizes tires. Since this also involves long distances on the highway, the height had to be kept at sane levels.

Once the lift is in place, and 31″ tires that have a little more versatility installed, the speedometer, and low end torque of the engine suffers quite a bit, so time for a gear change in the axles.

A lower gear, (higher numerically) allows for less engine and transmission strain during hill climbing or slow speed crawling. This prolongs the life of all related components, & makes for more reliability in a vehicle that will transport You to & from remote locations where breaking down is not an option. Having fun is the name of the game, & it’s no fun having to walk for a cell signal in the middle of nowhere, so You can get Your junk towed.

Now that My particular Jeep is modified, I’m able to go to places like this.

And this.

My goal in this article, is to get more people interested in Jeeps & Jeeping, because, there more the demand, the better support there will be from the aftermarket companies that make jeep accessories, & replacement parts. The Jeep Cherokee in it’s newest form is at least 11 years old, so aftermarket support is important to keep these fun & versatile vehicles on the road, & off of it.

Keep on Jeepin.

Money, Guns, & Apple Pie. Part 3 : The Russian

Some of, if not all of this blog post, may, or may not be a work of fiction…except for the parts that really happened.

Read Parts 1 & 2

Now that I had a little food down My neck, & Kong along with his buddy, Chicken Little were dealt with, it was time to deal with the task at hand. I needed to hit the road, & get to Vegas. Finding out what was going on with Murph was time sensitive. Also, I was going to have to recruit a little help. Hopefully, The help I had in mind was not somewhere on the other side of the planet. That tends to happen with surveillance experts these days.

A corporation that goes by the name of BOHICA LLC, included on it’s board of directors, several experts in the security area. How bout that name…I’m the Chairman of the board, & I threw the name out to the other members as a joke, & they all went with it. Crazy fucks. Do a web search if You don’t know what it means. Most former former Military folks know. My immediate plan of action was to make a phone call, so I put on My helmet, jumped on My Connie, & pulled out of the lot onto US 50 again. Rolling the speed up to about 80MPH, I pressed the key for voice activation of My helmet commo set. “Call Vic” I said into the mic. there was a pause, and the ringing of a phone. Vic, a former Staff Sergeant in the US Army, & now one of the board members of BOHICA LLC. A person that came over from Russia, Vic is one of the most dangerous people I have ever met, & one of the best looking. That right, Vic, or formerly, Staff Sergeant, Victoria Pavlovich. She prefers Vic, as it’s short & to the point. She isn’t one for small talk. At 5’10″ and with the looks of a supermodel, it’s a little tough to grasp just how dangerous She is. I once saw Her kill an insurgent with a knife, & then go straight to a large rock, to sit down to have lunch, & that was as a civilian. I’m glad She’s My friend.

“Yeah” Vic said into Her phone. “Hey You.” I said. “You in the office?” “Shit”,She said. “What do You need now?” “I need you to put up a bird” I said. “Have it follow My GPS signal, & fly ahead of Me to look for cops on US 93 toward Vegas” She responded with,”Wow, that’s not illegal or anything.” “Cry Me a river.” I said. “I need to get to Vegas in a hurry. Somebody there needs My help.” “OK”, She said. “I’ll have the bird out there in 15. I’ll let You know when you can open up Your bike.” Then, She hung up.

I rolled along, and just as I came to the turn for 93 south, I saw the red light given off by the hot gas coming out of the surveillance drone’s tiny jet turbine. About that time, My headset chirped, & Vic was on the line. “Road is clear”, She said. “I’ll buzz You back, if You need to slow down.” Then She hung up again.

I let The Connie stretch it legs, then I set the cruise at 150 MPH. I’ll be in Vegas in no time.