Today I went down to the DMV and got my motorcycle endorsement. So now I can ride home from work at night legally, which is always a good thing. The guy who processed my paperwork at the DMV did everything in such a slow and deliberate manner that I think he does it on purpose to annoy customers. The little half-smirk he had on his face lends my theory some credence. There was a customer there who kept trying to jump the line. When you go into the DMV you take a number and they call up the numbers in order, so it's generally pretty obvious when it's your turn. She jumped up every time a number was called and went to the open counter only to get sent back when the real number-holder got there. It was pretty entertaining to watch. I'm having more fun riding the bike now that I have a few days out on the public streets. I still get nervous because people really don't see motorcycles. There's an intersection on the way to work with a Yield sign that most idiots treat as a merge sign, rolling straight through into the lane without looking left. They couldn't see me in my truck, and with the bike it's ten times worse. Every couple days I have to swing wide left and gas it a little to avoid getting creamed. Still working on riding one-handed so I can shake my fist or make rude gestures. I manage to do the motorcyclist wave when passing oncoming bikes, but I think shaking my fist might cause the bike to become unstable. And speaking of driving/riding like a moron, here's a little video out of Australia that is pretty hilarious.



My big fantasy baseball trade (I traded away Jimmy Rollins and Nick Markakis for Jhonny Peralta and Vladimir Guerrero) has started working out the way I envisioned. The players I got have had a smoking couple of days, so I'm up on the trade by 7 runs, 3 home runs, 5 RBIs. The guy I traded with has only got one or two stolen bases out of the players I gave him and batting averages are extremely close for both sides. I am worried that giving him Nick Markakis could have been a bad move as he's been pretty hot, but I didn't really have any other outfielders that he would bite on. I think the trend will continue and hopefully the changes I made to my pitching rotation will pay off and put me back in contention in that league. My head-to-head teams are slowly dropping in the standings, as my teams started out very hot and have cooled down since the All-Star break. I should still make the playoffs, but it's going to be a tough post-season for me.

As for Fantasy Football I somehow managed to schedule my first draft for drill weekend and so the software auto-drafted my team. Mot of my picks turned out pretty well, but my receiving corps is pretty weak. My running backs aren't exactly the ones that I would've chosen either, mostly due to durability issues. I'm looking at a starting lineup of:

QB - Tom Brady
WR - Torry Holt
WR - Marvin Harrison
WR - Chris Chambers
RB - Frank Gore
RB - Brandon Jacobs
TE - Jason Witten
K - Stephen Gostkowski
DEF - Minnesota Vikings

It's a decent team with top-ranked players at the QB, TE, K, and DEF spots but the potential for injury and/or struggles at the WR and RB spots mean I'll probably be playing the waivers a lot to keep the team competitive. I suppose that's about enough about Fantasy Sports for now.

On the miniature wargaming front I am still doing a lot more thinking about projects and making very little progress toward actually completing any of them. There are so many different armies and warbands that I'd like to plan/purchase/prep/paint but when the time comes to actually get started I find that I have very little motivation. I saw some photos today on the Grimsby Wargaming blog of a game featuring hundreds (if not over 1000) figures on the table. The historical period doesn't interest me much but the idea of massed lead and plastic (plastic may be considered heresy among the Grimsby group but I tend to prefer plastic figures) is quite titillating to those of the wargamer persuasion, although it is a rare gamer who actually has a large force painted for any of his periods and genres of interest.

I didn't get any work done on my Orcs and Goblins tonight, possibly because I didn't feel like watching a movie. I think I'll probably go to bed (relatively) early rather than work on any figures. I've been having trouble getting my Savage Orc Shaman to fit into the Savage Orc unit. It's a common problem I have with character models in my armies. My Skaven Warlord only fits in his unit of Stormvermin facing to the rear, and I had to trim the Army Standard Bearer's tail so he could rank up with the other Skaven. The character models in Warhammer just seem to take up a lot of space outside the confines of their bases. I'm thinking about removing the Skaven characters from their current bases and placing them on elevated terrain bases so they can be easily located and rank up properly. I may wind up doing the same with my Orc and Goblin characters.

I went to the DMV today expecting a long wait since I had several tasks to complete while there. Luckily I got there just before the noontime rush and only had to be there for about thirty minutes. By the time I left the place was standing-room only, so I was pretty lucky. After I got my license plate I had to wait to take the test for my Motorcycle Instruction Permit, and the guy next to me asked me what kind of bike I have. I was very happy to show him a picture of it on my phone. He told me about his Honda Shadow, which he apparently just got running after a year or two. It's interesting how your hobbies can spark conversations with people you'd never approach in day-to-day life. It's always interesting to see who approaches me when I wear my World of Warcraft t-shirt or carry a White Dwarf magazine around. I think tomorrow I may actually ride my bike around the trailer park a few times, depending on the weather. I picked up a motorcycle cover tonight, as the wind has been picking up and there are rumors of rainstorms. I wouldn't want my baby to get dirty and wet. The consensus seems to be that my wife is either very cool or very misled to let me buy a crotch rocket. I don't think I misled her all that much, so she must be a cool gal. Either that or the pregnancy hormones have altered her judgment. She did think that once I bought a bike I would shut up about motorcycles for a while, but my commentary has just become a little more focused while possibly increasing in quantity.

Here's another bike they had at the shop that is absolutely mean-looking. Try not to get goosebumps while watching the movie. There's another video on the BMW motorcycles site

I didn't wind up going to bed early, so I decided to add this video that one of the guys in my Guard unit showed us.