Bikes ... passion .... ride

I'm in happy metal land. Bikes, bikes bikes and more bikes. Riding, ridden, ready to rock. My bike is coming along nicely. Got ,speedo bracket done, butchered a mirror off the scooter, and discovered that the absolute cheapest round headlight belongs to a golf. *grin* So several hundred rand less than i origionally worked out, several hundred rand left to go. I'm fired up though, the possibilities, the sheer "art" of it all. It's not about speed. Speed is there sure, in bucketloads, but it's about the look, the feel, the MACHINE of it.

I'm over 100 000 kms now. In bike terms its an old man already. A streetfighter because the plastics are crashed, but i look at my beautiful bike and see cuts and scrapes and bruises from our various fights. I see my mistakes and others in her metal. But more than that, i see the soul of a bike. It has never left me stranded. Only thing i've ever asked my vehicles? Get me home. All i ask.

Blogs, love em. Blogs on bikes, even better. Blogs on old bikes ... being fixed even better.

Aside form my own bike being purdied up, i got 2 more that need attention. The CB and the scooter. Cb mine, scooter mine now. Need engines for both, except the chances of getting origional for either is very slim. SO, anything that'll fit, we'll make it fit! Looking for a twister engine for the cb, if anyone has one lying around? And the scooter, well lets see what we can get. I want a cafe racer. Wife wants the cb as is ... i want art, she wants ... less traffic, we'll find a compromise :D

I've also managed to get some parking space at a local mall. I want a riding / training club to get started. I'm not qualified for ANYTHING, but hey, i'm not asking money. I want people to come and learn for themselves, practice in a safe place, but most of all share experiences and knowledge. It's possible, isn't it? Again, patch wearers can go bleh somewhere, i want to be helping those who need the help, and would accept it. I got 2/3 other guys, all experienced who are interested in helping out. Just BASIC stuff, which the dealers do not even consider worth mentioning.

So ... bike engines? Bike instructors? Bike rides!

Of course, my biggest obstacle in all this is egos. Other people's. *shrug* i won't bug ya, just leave me alone ... Again i'm a lazy bastard, i see problem -> solution.
Problem: too many riders without a clue, the "proper" people for the job not giving a damn unless they make money out the deal.
Solution: do it yourself.

Here is what has me so fired up for building bikes, in no order at all:

http://shinyakimura.blogspot.com/
http://caferacersreturn.blogspot.com/
http://blackridergarage1.blogspot.com/
http://4qconditioning.blogspot.com/
http://kemosabeandthelodge.blogspot.com/
http://www.8negro.com/

That should keep you busy a while. Just bikes, and metal, and art.

Let the debate begin

Thank you Dreamfoundary.

UPDATE:

Traffic

So we got it bad huh? Real bad.

msnbc

A traffic jam stretching more than 60 miles in China has entered its ninth day with no end in sight, state media reported.

Motorists have taken to card games or chess to pass the time, Sky News reported. Others joked that "concerts should be held at each congested area every weekend, to alleviate drivers' homesickness," the report said.

Residents from communities alongside the expressway have seen opportunity in the traffic slowdown, setting up food and drink kiosks for the drivers.
__________________________________________________________________________

Of course, bikers wouldn't be stuck. They'd be there already.

JHB Suspending road traffic enforcement?

www.fin24.com

I Quote:
Pretoria - The controversial Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act is proving so unaffordable for the Johannesburg Metro police that the city is even considering suspending traffic law enforcement.

Postage amounting to R10m a month, a R98m claim and a 63% (R145m) fall in annual income from traffic fines have plagued Johannesburg.

Before Aarto came into force, Johannesburg sent its fines by ordinary post.

But the Aarto act prescribes that this should be done by registered post, which inflates the price by about R15 per notification.

Not even 80% of the fines sent at great expense by registered post are fetched from the Post Office, according to the report.
__________________________________________________________________________

Brilliant!!! THIS is why i love africa. Bumbling beaurocrats can't even get a speed fine done right.
Good. May they suffer the death of a thousand cuts.

Me ride ...

So i'm cruisin down life's lane ... as you do. Had a head full of bikes and racecars lately, not bad for a little boy. Would be nice to actually get some real riding done soon. I got a date with the Crystal Shop in Magalies.

News around me has been bleek. Government shutdown. THIS is why i hated the world cup. Everybody who called me a naysayer and negativist, THIS is what i was unhappy about. Take your sports and stadiums and parties and shove it. What we are witnessing is the most extreme clash of the titans in history. The world's super rich playboys and personalities, against the one of the poorest communities in the world. None of us has money any more, not spare. You know, for doctors and hospitals. I sell my soul for the ticket, the private hospital ticket should my family or i suffer from the inevitable consequences of life.

Not that life should be easy. I remember God saying something about "toil". But this scenario hasn't been helped by the sheer greed mankind has ... where a million rand motorcar will stop by a dirty child in the road, and not even see it. When the driver of the million rand motorcycle is a public official who created that child on the side of the road through theft, fraud, expensive parties, tendtrepreneurships and just plain patheticness, WHAT THE FUCK? At what point does the tension snap? People forget how easily cars are stopped by half bricks. The rich are making their move by making police steal babies off mothers backs outside shiny shopping centres. God curse them and their offspring for such a crime against life.

We see xenophobia, one of the most convulted pieces of propaganda i have ever seen. It's fucking racism you dolts. You know? The same victory over apartheid you smear in out faces, you lost it. The pigs are in power, and They stink. The animals are hungry. As disappointed as i am with the teachers, and nurses, and officials, this is an inevitable event, and i am most grateful that i am not as severely inconvenienced as most. Like the guy who lost his hand because of it.

ITS NOT WORKING. When i have to explain to someone that our social model is broken, and they argue against me. Oh no we have it right, it's them gots it wrong. Oh? Ok. But the problems run so deep, even we the "middle class" are so busy with working, traffic, and soapies, not to forget actual LIFE somewhere in between. Perspective is lost. With all this shit going down some snide little cow offs herself and it's "tragic"?!! And of national interest? Fuck off. Bread and circuses all over again and i want to cry.

I'm part of a robin hood project, take from rich give to poor. It's hardly much, but every bit helps. My biggest problem is getting around those who have the ego problem. Every good and kind act needs to get over ego. Isn't that odd? (usually it's your own).

I scrubbed a doll clean earlier, and i got sung "thank you for doing that" by my daughter. Perspective. Most important.

Now i go battle the machine, the lunchbox's front brakes. I lost last night in my other interfacing with the machine. Bike's steering head and front assembly. Didn't have money for parts and don't have the tools either. *sigh* money again, lol. But i have brake pads and hopefully all the tools i need.

Got all i need. That's an affirmation. you should make it too. May not be much, not always what you want. But it's true, and powerful.

peace and love

ride me ...

From: freebikermag.blogspot

Zwelinzima Vavi

Zwelinzima Vavi's address to the Ruth First Memorial Lecture
17 August 2010, Wits University

This is a most important speech, please read it. Not only a vicious enictment against the rainbow nation and it's pigs, erm leaders, but it states clearly why we are beset by strikes again.

Nedbank's CEO earned 43 mil last year! That is obscene. And it shows how far apart we are. Further in fact, than during apartheid!! We are more divided economically than during apartheid. Read that again. We middle class types are paying syupid amounts into the government, yet NOBODY save the ANC members are benefitting in any way. The only way the poor are benefitting in my opinion by by the selfless giving of these same overtaxed middle class.

This government is not only failing, it is working very hard at fucking this country up. Cosatu (mostly) is the only real hope of change, since the only thing that the ANC respects is a mob.

High time Cosatu moved onto DA pastures and enjoys the fruits of western thought. Enough with this child-in-a-sweet-shop mentality that threatens us all with a fate worse than apartheid could ever be.

Petaminx Dodecahedral puzzle

Petaminx Dodecahedral puzzle will drive you insane



Is there ANYTHING more that can be said???

Motorheads

www.motorheads.co.za

The coolest thing i've seen for a while!! A diary with all the major (and minor) motor vehicle events in South Africa. You want one.

Africartoons

africartoons

Faith Hope and Charity

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

OR

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.*

Why love or charity? i'm going to have to research that.

Faith Hope and Charity were 3 bi-planes who held off the italian airforce over malta, early ww2. Saved my grandad's life no doubt. They were outclassed in every way, by machines a generation ahead. Vastly outnumbered, and requiring major repairs almost every time they ewent up, truly were 3 machines so aptly named. He told me once of sounding the air raid sirens, then watching the me109's go straffing the streets and houses.

1 Corinthians 13:13

Synchonicity

You're walking alone minding your own business, when suddenly facts are beating up your mind from all directions at once. Connections you can hear click as they slide perfectly into place in your mind.

Last night i had the honour of watching 2 owls come say hello. Myself and the kids just watched them quietly. We think they're nesting in the palm tree just outside, we'll be watching for more sightings!! I saw one at first, as he was denied dinner by a quick witted little bird, then as i was admiring the second sprang to focus on the next door neighbours roof. Beautiful birds! Too dark for photo's though.

Then we were doing some internet searches on a famous sa politian. The kids could only name mandela ... a sad state of brainwashing if i've ever seen it. So i introduced them to the late Field Marshall Jan Smuts. As politically correct as an awb member in soweto, yet fascinating and definitely worthy of praise for the very full and positive life he lived. A decorated soldier and statesman, the only man who signed both the Treaty of Versailles and the UN. Much of the importance escaped the kids, who apparently lack any real education.

Anyhow, we did a comparison between Smuts and Mandela, and found the famous black guy sadly lacking in credentials. WHY is he so damned famous? More famous than any other world leader since Ghandi, who was also a manufactured item, and also closely linked to SA. In this age of media celebrities, Mandela has become an icon, an untouchable. As big as the poep i'd say. Our own little poep, how convenient. This was a curious conversation in it's own right, but then today a new article was brought to my attention, about some of the skeletons in his closet. Unacknowledged children, wife beating, the usual sa fare. Add in the blood diamonds, and several other questionable events, well he is no saint, not even an admirable man. Just another problem.

Despite all the greatness, his legacy looks no different to apartheid's. A few fantastically rich men, millions of people with neither shelter nor water, and a government that seeks to destroy everything in it's path.

I listened to Bruce Dickinson last night, from whence came the previous post, which started all sorts of correlations in recent thought. Then i was reminded of the "11 phenomenon" ... a few webpages and such and synchronicities were literally screaming at me. Bible passages i quickly looked at echoed in ideas i'd just been thinking of.

BANG BANG BANG

I have no ... conclusion or anything. But the clicking into place of each part is re-assuring, it reminds me that there's stuff in my own head i don't understand. Yes, i like not knowing about the workings of inside my head. Perhaps a great epiphany awaits, i'm overdue for one. But for now, just alert, watching and waiting. For another message or sign or fact to help me understand this really very bizarre planet we share.

EDIT:
About mandela and synchronicities, i only found this now:
Nonexistent Mandela?
by Anonymous
2010-08-12 11:00

Thats just wierd.

1000 Points of Light

You can sail in the desert with a ship of fools
You can smuggle in Moses and his book of rules
But you can't take a mother and give her back her son
What kind of freedom is bought with a gun?

People like to build their prison walls
When they're afraid to look inside a...

Thousand points of light
Are the muzzle flashes in the night
And the freedoms you profess to hold
Won't bring the dead back from the cold

Political speeches, they're lying in the mud
Nothing else matters but money and blood
Tyranny of freedom is do what you like
There's a world gone crazy, 'cos it can't say no

People like to build their prison walls
When they're afraid to look inside a...

Thousand points of light
Are the muzzle flashes in the night
And the freedoms you profess to hold
Won't bring the dead back from the cold

A thousand points of light
Are the muzzle flashes in the night
And the freedoms you profess to hold
Won't bring the dead back from the cold

[George Bush:]
'What is it that produces the light?'
'What is it that makes these thousand points of light shine?'
'What is it that will make America a kinder and gentler nation?'
'Perhaps I should ask who, who is it?'

There should be time for love
But there's too much room for hate
Too much sliding of the truth
Too much abuse of wasted youth

There's a time for dying
And a time for living, too
Had enough of media lies
Had enough of your alibis

A thousand points of light
Are the muzzle flashes in the night
And the freedoms you profess to hold
Won't bring the dead back from the cold

Thousand points of light
Are the muzzle flashes in the night
And the freedoms you profess to hold
Won't bring the dead back from the cold...

Bruce Dickinson - Balls to Picasso

Meeting Yourself

“when you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him, you will see yourself. As you treat him, you will treat yourself, as you think of him, you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself”

Heroes

Here is my latest hero.



Julian Heicklen was born at an early age. At 8 days, he was circumcised. This was so traumatic that he did not walk or talk for a year. There was nothing unusual about his early development. He went to Cornell University to become the usual engineering nerd.

Unfortunately, while in high school, his uncle gave him a book about the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. To complicate matters, while at Cornell, he read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. He transformed from the ordinary engineering nerd into a raving maniac about freedom. Ever since, he engaged in all sorts of socially unacceptable behavior. He stole a house, won the Yom Kippur war for Israel, corresponded with Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov, tried to sue the U.S. Post Office, smoked pot at the main gate of Penn State University every Thursday for 3 years, had a municipal law declared unconstitutional, and distributed subversive material at the U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan. He has been arrested 23 times and incarcerated 8 times.

He has the delusional idea that he can transform the United States from a totalitarian government into a free society. His wife and daughters are trying to get him committed to an old age home. He prefers prison where he has around the clock police protection, something he could not otherwise afford. In addition, that is where the interesting people reside.

Rock on!!!
http://jailedactivist.info/activists/julian-heicklen/

Auto life

From plasma crystals and helical structures towards inorganic living matter


Abstract. Complex plasmas may naturally self-organize themselves into stable interacting helical structures that exhibit features normally attributed to organic living matter. The self-organization is based on non-trivial physical mechanisms of plasma interactions involving over-screening of plasma polarization. As a result, each helical string composed of solid microparticles is topologically and dynamically controlled by plasma fluxes leading to particle charging and over-screening, the latter providing attraction even among helical strings of the same charge sign. These interacting complex structures exhibit thermodynamic and evolutionary features thought to be peculiar only to living matter such as bifurcations that serve as `memory marks', self-duplication, metabolic rates in a thermodynamically open system, and non-Hamiltonian dynamics. We examine the salient features of this new complex `state of soft matter' in light of the autonomy, evolution, progenity and autopoiesis principles used to define life. It is concluded that complex self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter that may exist in space provided certain conditions allow them to evolve naturally.

ok, for all the NON particles theorists, the short version.

Plasma, left to itself in space, automatically arranges itself into a double helix spiral, which then proceeds to behave like something alive. Life is a default action of matter in the universe. This blows the lid off the probabilities of extra-terrestrial life, producing DNA is what the universe DOES.

The entire understanding of the universe has just been jarred, but i'm not surprised. As above - so below, in action, the fractal universe at work.

We tend to think of ourselves in a "web" in 2-D thinking, whereas we're connected in all directions, even those we don't yet know about, like macro and micra connections to things. I guess astrology is a "spinoff" of this theory, but astrology is not science, not truly, it's human, ie flawed, even if "creative license" is the excuse.

Let there be light. And there was love. This love burst into our universe as the big bang. It condensed into raging burning matter and still carrying VAST kinetic energy. Once cooled, it had the natural ability to organise itself into something more than itself. We are the direct intended result of the universe being created, to sustain life. Abundantly.

Conspiracy of SAPS

The point of the Selebi victory is not that a single man faulted, but that he was dragged kicking and screaming from amongst his high powered friends and brought to order. The fact that his friends tried to protect him all the way speaks volumes for the determination of the prosecutors.

The point of the Selebi victory is that ALL of his friends should be similarly brought to book. And they can be. Now the man who instigated the investigation is fearing for his life, not from Selebi, but these "friends".

From IOL: Paul O'Sullivan, the man who blew the whistle on corrupt police chief Jackie Selebi, has laid a charge against Gauteng police intelligence chief Joey Mabasa, who he claims is involved with a gangster who has taken out a contract hit on him.
...
O'Sullivan believes Mabasa, who was the first person to be phoned by Lolly Jackson's alleged killer, George Smith, deliberately ruined O'Sullivan's investigation into Jackson (who O'Sullivan was investigating for links to Selebi) and then gave the documents relating to the probe to gangsters who have arranged for hired killers to kill him, just like Jackson was.
...
The Saturday Star has received a comprehensive dossier containing what appears to be affidavits of underworld figures all blowing the whistle in exchange for indemnity and transcripts of conversations between O'Sullivan, Mabasa and other senior intelligence officials.
end.

This is direct evidence that the entire top echelon of the police is corrupt. Cele's little games are only the start of this war against the citizenry. Again, we all suspect Selebi will be either found innocent on appeal, the SCA has shown several times recently their penchant for political verdicts. Or, he'll be diagnosed with the rare "shaik syndrome".

Blog awards

So i'm perusing the South African blogosphere again, haven't done it or a while. Some really good stuff there. Lotsa crap. No really, tons of meaningless drivel.

Each to their own :)

Here's some that caught me fancy, never know what it is, some it's the feel of the site, some it's the photo's, some the mood of the person. Nice to feel that other people are doing stuff, just like you. This blog is about the inside of my head, which is odd. Yes, both ways.

In no particular order, i present my pick of the blog awards, which by the way i don't think i've seen them ALL, so if i've missed one please let me know :)

http://theartistandthewriter.blogspot.com/
http://spearthealmighty.blogspot.com/
http://strangestthings.wordpress.com/
http://takemyhandfollowmethere.wordpress.com/
http://letterdash.com/ThinkFFS
http://prisonpocket.blogspot.com/
http://01universe.blogspot.com/
http://blindcripple.co.za/
http://quietriotgirltakesnote.blogspot.com/

Must add i've got some friends and other local stuff on the right, always someone with something to say.

peace

PS, let's see if this works:



PPS Clever monkey.
PPPS Gawds it's big hey?
PPPPS Fixed.

They're coming to take us away

Look at these men's faces. They are policemen en route to arrest a journalist. These are our enemies now.This one in front looks a common ganster. Behaves the same way too. They are trying to get us you know?

EDIT!!!!!

IOL
Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika's case has been thrown out of court, TheTimesLive website reported on Thursday.

"The Kwa Bokweni court prosecutor has declined to prosecute Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika, saying he has no case to answer," reported the website.

It quoted the prosecutor, a Mr Erwee, as saying he had declined to prosecute him "on the grounds that he has no case to answer".

But Wa Afrika has not been released by the police yet.

WTF is going on here???

Ok, more edit stuffs:
So this journalist was arrested, marched to court, where the prosecutors declined to charge him. The person was not released, and after several hours of closed door meetings the charges were re-instated.
The apparent reason is a resignation letter of some sort, but we have monkey Cele claiming at the start of a press conference on this matter:

At a briefing convened to clarify the "incorrect and worse, misleading" article, Cele told reporters in Pretoria on Tuesday he did not sign a R500 million lease agreement for an 18-storey building in the capital city, but only a "needs assessment".

If he had signed the lease, to run over 20 years, it would have meant had not followed correct tender procedures.

Sunday Times editor Ray Hartley said the paper had a copy of the signed lease in its possession.

Wa Afrika was arrested a day after Cele called him a "very shady journalist", and when asked if he would take action against the reporter, he replied: "Time will tell".

The crux of the Selebi problem is not that a single man fell, but that he represnts what still stands in govt, claiming all authority over us.

Road surfing continued

So after my little session this morning, i was looking through the blog awards, just seeing what's out there.

And i found this. 

Found at: http://www.guywithcamera.co.za/inspiration/dopamine/

The Photographer, Dustin Humphrey is represented by a Production House in California called Reel Sessions.