Joe's Personal Blog

I recently attended the 2014 Washington DC area Awesome Con,  http://awesomecondc.com/  , a comic-con event at the Washington DC convention center.  My wife and I had never been to this type of event and had no idea what to expect. We purchased one day tickets that were a bit pricey at $30 each. We had a fun afternoon even though we didn't plan ahead or allocate enough time.   It wasn't too crazy while still being whimsical enough to be different and fun. Awesome Con had a comedy night, a party and a concert. We missed all of those so I have no information to offer about them. About 20% of the folks were dressed up in costume.  They got lots of attention posing for pictures with other attendees. The kids really liked the costumes. Awesome Con is primarily aimed at fans of comics, science fiction and fantasy print and visual media. This event was mainly made up of 4 parts, Artists , Famous People, Sessions and Vendors.   Artists occupie...

This is an easy evening snack that uses stuff you might have in your pantry.   We came up with this snack as something tasty we can make by raiding the pantry.  I originally stuffed the cheese inside the olives but the clams taste better. You'll need one can of extra large pitted Black Olives, one can of chopped clams some cheese and a toaster oven. Don't cut yourself opening the cans! We tend to pick up canned goods at Costco because they have good quality products and because they keep well as our "stuck in the house" supplies. Somehow they tend to work out in almost the exact proportion.  Drain both cans and dump out their contents.  You want them reasonably dry. Stuff each olive with some of the minced clams. Its a lot easier than it sounds. The clam pieces tend to be small. Sometimes there are big clam bits.  Chop them up or eat them when no one is looking. Lay the olives out on a piece of aluminum foil.  The wire rack in ...

We purchased a new 2010 Rav 4 V6 AWD after we got rid of our 10 year old Chevy Tahoe.  We needed something to tow a pop-up camper and take us to where the snowboards roam free.  The car has great pickup, sticks to the ground in bad weather, has good rear storage, good power outlets and tows our pop-up with ease.  It is seems like a more stable tow vehicle than our Tahoe was with less bobbing and tail wagging.  The only thing missing is a trailer brake controller. The roof rack is easier to get to for the snowboards and it gets a lot better MPG when running up to the PA mountains 1 to 2 days per week.  (We do miss the space of the old beast though. It was the car we did a lot of family trips in.) We put 56,000 miles on the Rav 4 in 3 years. Ridiculous Problems Rear Brakes:  The rear disk brakes lightly seize every night there is moisture in the air. You hear a dragging sound in the rear when backing out of the driveway. This is followed by a large clu...

One good source of small gift or project boxes are the various gift card tins available around the holiday times.   GameStop used to have a nice set of tins that looked just like various video games. Here is a bad picture of the set I have.  TI MSP430 launchpad and Arduino boards fit with a little metal cutting. The left column from top to bottom is a Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Sony PS2 The right column from top to bottom is Playstation 3 , Nintendo Wii and XBox 360 They all open a little differently which can change how you use them for a project. I've done some tin smithng on the PS/2 and PS/3 cases to make projects fit inside.

The Europeans seem to have large pool of aftermarket Suzuki Savage parts than we have in the USA.  I wanted to update my luggage rack from the flimsy OEM version and wanted to replace the sissy bar that I hacked off to mount my luggage rack. Finding a Sissy Bar on EBay I wanted something different than an OEM Sissy Bar and the "artistic" Sissy Bars that show up on the US EBay site. I purchased a JF Motorsport  256220000650 Aluminum SissyBar on Ebay.  The product sticker makes it look like the bar was made in 1999. Freight from Europe was reasonable and 3 weeks later it showed up.  I really like the look of the bar and back rest.  It is the same height as OEM with a larger pad. You can see it mounted on my bike here. The turn signal is loose because in preparation for mounting the luggage described later. There are, however, some things purchasers should be aware of. The padded backrest is bigger than the OEM and ...

The Suzuki S40 is the latest incarnation of the LS650 made since 1986.  It is a beginner and in town motorcycle that is 352lbs, only 50lbs heavier than the MSF course bikes. You can find them used on Craigslist at reasonable prices.  Sellers are a mix of those moving and those who realized that riding a motorcycle wasn't for them.  My bike is pictured below with the OEM windsheld and Shad top case. This is an old picture. I've mad a couple modifications to my S40 Headlight Upgrade I'm always looking to make myslef more visible so did a simple headlight upgrade.  A stock 5 1/4" headlight is standard, shown on the right.  The mounting holes and rake of the S40 are the same as the larger Suzuki Marauder so they are a direct swap. I purchased mine on EBay from Pinwall Cycles.  It came off of a bike they were parting ouit and was in excellent condition.  Make sure that you get the base and the bell. You can see the difference between the size o...

Admore Lighting makes LED products that can be added to many types of topcases and hard saddlebags. They also make standalone light bars for motorcycles. The units are powered off the mains and are microprocessor controlled. They come with dual brightness LEDs that act as run and brake lights. They are also capable of acting as turn signals when tapped into the turn signal circuits on the motorcycle. I don't think you need load resistors when using as turn signals but haven't played with that feature because I didn't want to tap my turn signal lines. I would probably contact Eastern Beaver to see if they could make cable extenders that I could tap into. That would let me restore the bike to original condition without any tap holes in the signal lines. Steps  1.        Open the case and remove the 3 reflector retaining screws in the case lid and remove the reflector. There are two small washers in the end wells in the lid.  Make sure they ...