Banal Leakage » missing

Something’s Missing

martymankins — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:37:18 +0000

I’m sure most of you have noticed, with the exception of Scooter Sunday videos, my blog has been pretty quiet lately.

It’s not that I don’t have anything to say. I’ve got lots to write about. But I’ve just not made the time or had enough motivation to write a new post. Hey, at least I’m being honest.

I’ll admit that some of it is summer related, although I can’t really blame the lack of writing on my enjoyment in the sun. Up until the last few days, we’ve hardly had any sun. Mostly rain. And lots of it. No one wants to read constant blog posts filled with complaints about how much rain there is.

So what gives? What can you tell us, Mr. Mankins? Give us the scoop.

The Future of Banal Leakage

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been contemplating making some changes out here. More than just a template update or a formatting change. And before you ask, NO, I am not shutting this place down or quit blogging. I plan to keep Banal Leakage up for as long as I have something to say. After all, the main reason I started this blog was to have a place that allowed me to write more.

But I really want to change some things about how I blog here and what I blog about. So here’s a list of the various changes I want to make.

Scooter Sundays

This is obviously one of the parts of my blog that I enjoy doing. Sometimes there’s delays [like this week], but it’s mostly related to trying to film the various parts of each episode and putting it together to make something that not only provides entertainment to my readers, but also to me once I watch the final edits.

So while I’m working towards regularly posting each episode on a Sunday, there’s also lots of behind-the-scenes details that will provide a cleaner look, easier navigation and better video viewing options. Stay tuned.

Regular Posts

I’ve been doing the two-posts-a-week for sometime now and sometimes only one post a week. Even for me, in my laziest of modes, it’s not enough. I need to post more and more often. And not just needing to, but wanting to. There’s a lot of topics and subjects that I think about, but then don’t share them on my blog. I want that to change.

More Details About Me

Which leads me into my next change. I plan to share more about me. Not too deep and there’s still some subjects that are off-limits for a public blog. But there’s a lot that happens to me or things I experience that I feel like sharing. I read other’s blogs and enjoy their posts that reveal more. Peeling back a layer or two that gives insight to not only the writer, but also letting the readers give their perspective.

Don’t get me wrong… I like to entertain my readers with posts about music, movies and food. But there’s more that I’d like to write about and share with ~~all 40 of you~~ the collective readership here.

Other Projects

I’m also working on a myriad of other personal projects that are taking much longer than I expected. I think at times that I am spreading myself thin, but at the same time, I get another idea and think about it for a while before adding it to the mixing bowl. Of course, not all of my ideas come to fruition. Most are notes that I carry around with me on my phone. They are ideas for stories, web sites, domain names, blog posts, articles, data backup systems, exercising I need to do, places I want to travel to, drinks I’d like to make, etc… etc… etc.

Out of these hundreds of notes, there’s only been a select few that have been or are getting made into something public. A short story, a novel, a blog [you are reading it now], some short films, scooter and snowy videos and a screenplay. Then there’s those couple of “if I could complete these soon” projects that I really am putting time into, but they seem to be more involved than I imagined. Progress is moving forward, even if it is in small steps.

Nutshell

So have I confused you more than I helped clear things up? Let’s summarize the above:

I will be posting more than two posts a week and they will be more personal and revealing.
Scooter Sunday is here to stay, but I am working on some improvements, one of which will be revealed soon.
I have more things to do then I have time to do them in, but I still would like to complete some of them in the near future.

All clear now? Nope? Well, then ask away in the comments. I await your perplexing questions.

Scooter Sunday #12

martymankins — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 19:15:48 +0000

There’s something different about this week’s Scooter Sunday. Can you spot what’s missing from the photo below?

Yep. No scooter. And it’s not in it’s shed, either. Let me tell you a sad tale. No, it’s ~~stolen~~ not that sad. But if you know how much I love my scooter, you may need a tissue.

Time for a Check Up

So last week, I took my scooter in for it’s 1200 mile check up. I did the 600 mile check up last year and want to keep this as properly maintained as I can. With the 4th of July weekend backlog the service department had on ATVs and motorcycles, it took almost two days for them to complete the work on my scooter.

Time for regular maintenance

Thursday, I got a call around noon that my scooter was ready. I left work, drove to Honda World in Sandy, parked my car, paid my bill, hop on my scooter and ride.

Not Quite Right

As I’m driving down the road, something seems different. I notice the brakes are a bit tightened up, but that’s always the adjustments they do. I get within half a mile from home, and the scooter slows down to under 10 mph. I can’t go any faster. I stop the scooter, get off and notice smoke coming from the front wheel.

That dark brown icky stuff is not normal

I get back on, start it up and finish riding the block to my house. As I was pulling into my driveway, I saw that the speedometer was not working. I’m fucking pissed. I spent two days without my scooter, and now there’s something seriously wrong. I call up the service department and they tell me to drive it back down to them.

I try to push the scooter and can’t. The front wheel is locked tight and won’t move. I go into the house and get a wrench and loosen up the front brake. It moves! It then occurs to me what happened: they tightened the front brakes way more than they should have. And the heat from the brakes must have melted the speedometer part inside the front wheel. Grease is now dripping down on the ground. Getting more pissed off by the minute. I grab some towels to clean up the grease and make sure the scooter is operational and drive it back down to the service guys.

They take it in the shop and make the exact same assessment that I did 15 minutes earlier. They apologize and tell me it’s a week to order a new speedometer cable and related parts. They are covering all of it because they fucked up and should have road tested it. But at this point, I just want to make sure it’s fixed right so I can enjoy my rides again. With the weather nice and gas at $4.20 a gallon, I am missing my scooter a lot right now.

4th of July

With the sadness surrounding my scooter, there’s only two things that can help take my mind off of this: fireworks and alcohol. Now I know what you are thinking: you should not mix those two as dangerous things can happen when drunk people are running around yelling “Woo Hoo!” while holding a BBQ lighter and a brick of firecrackers. But there were no fireworks allowed at Bear Lake. So it was just alcohol.

80% sober at the time this photo was taken

Seriously though, we had lots of fun. Our good friends Kris & Karen and Jaime & Ryan invited us. There were a few boats, which we went out on the lake the next day. For the almost 30 hours we were there, it did wonders for taking my mind off my scooter.

So hopefully, by next week’s Scooter Sunday, I’ll have my scooter back and can be back on the road having fun and saving gas.

You Know You Have Too Many Gadgets When…

martymankins — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:26:43 +0000

Yep. All those devices are mine. And that’s not all of them. Those were just the ones I cared to remove from my backpack. But for a time, one of them was missing… my white iPod.

On most trips, I tend to pack the things I want/need. It’s frustrating to be away from home and not being able to find the one thing you are wanting. So it’s best to be safe and pack as much as I can. Our most recent trip was no exception. And since I tend to carry a lot of shit around with me on a daily basis, all I needed to do was bring my backpack. Problem solved.

I had added some new songs and podcasts to iTunes the other day and wanted to update all of my iPods (I have 4, including a Shuffle not pictured above). I grabbed each one out of my bag and proceeded to go through the update process:

silver Shuffle. Check

orange Shuffle. Check

blue nano. Check

30gb iPod. Uh oh… where the hell is it??

Tracing back my steps since the last time I used it, I tried to think of places it might have been. In the past, I had a habit of leaving various electronics behind when I travel, which prompted me to contact all of the hotels we stayed at on our trip.

Nothing.

I then started thinking of places inside the house I might have used my iPod.

Nothing.

At this point, I started to worry, that maybe it really was gone. I started to picture where it might be now….

Seeing my frustration, my fiance asked, “Did you check all of your bags?” Well, of course I did. I always do that. But just to rule out the option that I might have missed a bag or two, I did one last search….

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Now how long it had been in a bag that I rarely use (and one that didn’t go with me on my last trip), who knows. But it didn’t matter at this point. It was found.

But it did prompt me to consider the following… do I really need to carry four iPods with me? I mean, how many songs and podcasts could I listen to at one point? Can’t one of these things fill my needs? If I only had to keep track of one iPod, then I wouldn’t need to wonder where the other three are and can avoid time-consuming searches for a misplaced gadget.

Time to think and re-evaluate what I have and pack around with me.

Stay tuned.