Bah! Star Wars is everywhere!!!

So as I'm sure you are all aware, Star Wars is back with a new film (Episode VII) coming December 18th, 2015.  So of course Star Wars is on EVERYTHING. Smartphone games, jewelry, food, toys, apparel... *sigh* tone it down people, it's not even out yet and my excitement is over and now I just find the prospect of a new Star Wars film to be unpleasant at best because we have many more to come after this one which means we will see Star Wars on everything for the next decade or two. 

I will be running for President in 2020 and 2024

I'd like to officially announce my intentions to run for President of these United States both in 2020 and 2024. While I'll not turn 35 until spring of 2020 I'll use 2020 to begin to expose the country to what I will do for them, in 2024 I will ideally win the election and become the President of the United States of America. I will not care about re-election and will focus on getting things done, not securing votes for 2028. Lobbyists and other interests will not pursuade me with promises of favors or money when I'm out of office. I'll do my best to make our country great again.

An example of something that could be done right now: I heard on the wireless yesterday that we are going to take another 10,000 Syrian refugees this year… here’s a idea, a really good one. Put them all up in Detroit. Seize abandoned apartments and houses and give them 6 months free in them. Pour a few million dollars into re-opening some groceries, barbers, nail salons, fast food places etc up there. Give them all a 500$ a month stipend for 6 months. Spend 30 million on stipends and 10 million on re-opening businesses. Give the manager positions to current Detroit residents and then fill the rest of the positions with the refugee adults. 40 million spent, thousands of jobs created in Detroit and abandoned buildings populated with a healthy boost to Detroit's economy. 

My Sondors electric bike came today!

Well well well, to all you haters and trolls that have cried since February claiming we'd never see our bikes... not only did my bike come today but it was fairly easy to assemble (hour and 45 minutes but that was mostly due to swatting mozzies every few seconds and the fact that I'm quite heavy and it's 88F and 65% humidity). The bike is both exhilarating and terrifying. I took it for a quick two laps around the neighborhood finding if I put it at full throttle for a single second and then let off I'd still be going several miles an hour at each stop sign. Using the front or the rear brakes provides stopping power more than adequate for stops you know are coming up and applying both at once stops the bike more than fast enough for 99% of emergency stops. I don't know how fast I was going but it was faster than I go down my street in the car. Picked up a group of kids that were going "woooaaahhh" and pedaling as fast as they could trying to keep up with me.

The bike claims a net weight of 62lbs and a gross weight of 76lbs however UPS had it listed as 89lbs on the tracking info. I can't honestly give you a good judge of character as I Olympic lift as well as lift random heavy things for farmer's carries and the like so the box was just an awkward size, the bike itself is quite easy for me to pick up and carry distances. Men and women that don't lift regularly (and especially smaller ones) might have issue with the box or lifting the bike above their waists but even then you could load it into a truck fairly easy I imagine by just getting one tire up first like I used to do with my mountain bike as a preten.

I was able to lift everything straight out of the box by pinning the cardboard between the table and my leg, it definitely would have been easier to rip the box open but I wanted to use it to hold the packing material as I pulled it off the bike. The tire on the left is only attached by a zip tie.

Not pictured is a box or two and the seat. Ignore my tangled hose, I water my garden most nights and got tired of wheeling the hose up every night.

It looks way way better than I ever could have hoped. I'm not happy with how I have the handlebars but I was starting to get dehyrdated and my head is pounding. I took it for a quick spin and then called it quits for the evening. Tomorrow morning I'm going to ride it around town (a few square miles) till I either get bored or till the battery dies while tracking with whatever GPS app I find for my iPhone. It wasn't hard for me to pedal it at all without battery assist so if it dies on me I'll get home fast. I imagine I get bored or overheat (looking like 90F and more humidity tomorrow) before the battery runs out though but I'll fix the handlebars then. Right now the throttle bar is in the 5/7 (depending on what side you are on) o'clock position AWAY from me and the little wing/paddle things on the handlebar are in an awkward position too so I'll fidget with it tomorrow until it feels right.

So has anyone else noticed Caitlyn Jenner is Venus?

So I was sitting here just now and it hit me. Bruce Jenner as Caitlyn Jenner is Walton Goggins as Venus on Sons of Anarchy!!! 

The Sondors eBike by Storm Sondors starts delivering to customers

So in February I mentioned the The Sondors eBike by Storm Sondors and how I had contributed. In fact I was one of the very first contributors. Well they began being delivered today... you see they manufactured them in the order of most popular color combinations... so people that paid for theirs LONG after I did, are receiving their bikes today yet I was one of the first TEN BACKERS and my bike is listed as number 1520 for production. My bike has yet to even leave China, if it's even been made yet. Gee thanks Sondors! What a slap in the face.

Here is one that was delivered to another contributor

Photo of J.R.'s bike assembled and ready to go!

I must admit, it looks awesome. Mine will be black frame with black rims and supposedly is being manufactured now (however once it actually goes into a cargo container it'll be a month or more than I see it)... sooo my bike won't make it here to Indiana till August at the earliest, so much for the July I had been expecting all along, having been one of the first contributors. Really really disappointed. I was also told during the campaign Mr. Sondors wanted to have a conference call with me as soon as the campaign ended to personally thank me for being such a big supporter, well that never happened either. "Storm" feel free to reach out and set that up if you want and explain to me why you shafted us first contributors... I mean hell if you would have said "yeah we are going to ship black/yellow first, would you like to choose that instead since you were one of the first backers" I would have gone "sure!".

My 'interview' with Ryan Reynolds

Recently (on May 1st) I asked Ryan Reynolds a quick question on twitter "You're suddenly homeless, what do you write on your cardboard sign to earn the most cash?" His reply:

““GoFundMe”. But for serious, Habitat for Humanity’s mission is to end the need for those signs. Follow @Habitat_org”

You sir, are winning. Not only did you play along and answer my silly question you used it to plug a worthwhile charity. P.S., I actually liked you as the Green Lantern brother! Check out Habitat for Humanity on twitter.

You know, with all of the good work Ryan Reynolds does, I wonder if he’s a fellow freemason. Reach out Ryan, let’s chat!

What's new with me?

Well, haven't had much to update with but here's something...

Working on selling one of my sites, had an agreed upon amount with one buyer and they've been dragging their feet (going the slow route of incorporating, paid for their EIN instead of generating it for free online on the IRS site etc) so after a few weeks of delays I entertained another buyer who was offering 20% more... buyer wanted an absurd amount of paperwork (for a domain and current content) and I obliged because I want to be done with that property... well yesterday he sends me TWENTY-THREE pages of legalese in the form of two contracts to which I promptly replied I would not be signing that or anything like it that I'd only sign a generic transfer of ownership as we'd be doing the actual exchange of the domain and site via escrow which would offer protection for both parties in the exchange.

Other than that, I wrote an article earlier this year titled "Put Your Dues on Autopilot" and submit it to the Midnight Freemasons. It was selected for publication a few weeks ago and I'm honored to have my drivel alongside pieces by some rather interesting Brothers. 

Letter to my father, 2015. Year 17.

Well dad, in 3 days it will have been 17 years since I watched you draw your last breath and you'd think by now writing these annual letters would be easy but they are still rather difficult.

Not much has changed since last year, I started CrossFit which is a fitness regime that's a lot of chaotic repetitive stuff combined with Olympic lifting. I also made more money last year than any year before by a long shot and probably more than I'll ever make in any year to come. Sadly I'm in the process of shutting down my business (well, at least the part making all the money) for various reasons and realistically I don't see myself ever being able to make the kind of money I am from it again.

I honestly don't have much else to say. Every day is basically the same in my life and honestly they all seem to blur together. It's quite boring and absurdly repetitive. I miss you dad, maybe I'll have something better to share next year.

Re: Mars Missions Are A Scam

So I was reading this article on BuzzFeed about missions to Mars yesterday and something really upset me...

“The trouble is, according to Do’s report, the plants growing the colonists’ food would quickly make too much oxygen and suffocate them.”

Alright. Someone isn't thinking. At all. Don't get me wrong, we are not ready for manned missions to Mars unless they are suicide missions. But, we can easily solve the above mentioned problem.

So in the greenhouses you use some gas sensors and a simple pump to pump greenhouse air out and atmospheric air in... you see:

Earth's Atmosphere: 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.039 carbon dioxde and miscellaneous traces 

Mars' Atmosphere: 96% carbon dioxide, 1.9% argon, 1.9% nitrogen and miscellaneous traces.

Many forms of algae can create nitrogen from carbon dioxide as part of their day to day life so you could keep nitrogen levels at 78% via your algae.  You figure out the best carbon dioxide levels for the plants in the greenhouse(s) and keep it there, if it's toxic to humans they use breathing apparatus or simply pump air out and then bring it to human-safe levels during work periods. PROBLEM SOLVED.

Wait, hold up Ryan, where are we getting all of that water for tanks and tanks full of algae? Well first you take enough to have some small tanks going. Then we turn to biological hydrogen production from algae, photosynthesis in cyanobacteria and green algae splits water into hydrogen ions and electrons. So use algae to make hydrogen. 

Pretty much get two parts hydrogen for every part of oxygen in something not unlike an engine (fuel cell). Introduce a burst of energy (say a spark) and you get an explosion. You now have an explosion and some water. While we don't do this on earth for clean drinking water due to the simple fact it would be extremely dangerous to do this to create enough water for thousands or millions of people, this would be ideal for use on Mars. You see, you have a separate habitat that is used for this, then you have a few small units in the room that are filling with the appropriate gasses, igniting, small amounts of water come out and the small detonations you capture the energy for use. The units refill and detonate again.

While this wouldn't create massive amounts of water, it would slowly add to your available water stores allowing you to bring more algae on, add more crops, support more humans until a better technology is developed (or a cheaper method of delivering supplies to Mars is found) or even until exploration can take place and perhaps find easily accessible water (likely ice) on Mars.