Calaz touchdown! I got my buddy from airport yesterday. We are tourist for 1 week with him hehe Welcome to DC calaz!

From Robert M. Pirsig – Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance (An inquiry into values)

… Kant says there are aspects of reality which are not supplied immediately by senses. These he calls a priori. An example of a priori knowledge is “time”. …
… We sense objects in a certain way because of our application of a priori intuitions such as space and time, but we do not create these objects out of our imagination, as pure philosophical idealists would maintain. …
… What we think of as reality is a continous synthesis of elements from a fixed hierarchy of a priori concepts and the ever changing data of senses. …

When people are fanatically dedicated to political and religous faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it`s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.

It`s not the technology that`s scary. It`s what it does to the relations between people, like callers and operators, that`s scary.

Any effort that has self-glorification as its final endpoint is bound to end in disaster. … When you try to climb a mountain to prove how big you are, you almost never make it. And even if you do it`s a hollow victory. In order to sustain the victory you have to prove yourself again and again in some other way, and again and again and again, driven forever to fill a false image, haunted by the fear that the image is not true and someone will find out. That`s never the way.

I know, I know… welcome to yesterday, old news. Whatever you call it! Pardus rootFS version 0.1 is out! Congrats to Uludag team! Big milestone. I wish I had some time to test it out. I have a phuckin` busy schedule (Pardus turkce)

Here! Download it! Test it!

Wheels of fire

Manowar

Since the dawn of time

I`ve rolled across the earth

Snipping in the dust

Long before your birth

Eatin`tar and gasoline

Every light I see is green

Open pipes, my machines`s triple-plated chrome
…

Spirit of the wheel

Wheels of fire burn the night

Ride across the sky

Wheels of fire burning bright

We live to ride

Motors running

Now you`re gonna learn

Waiting on the line

Make your tires burn

Fast, faster, faster, faster

Speeding always kills

Nothing else takes us to get these thrills

Spirit of the wheel

Wheels of fire burn the night

Ride across the sky

Wheels of fire burning bright

We live to ride

Blood and thunder on the road

My heart is pounding

My blood is nitroglycerin

I`m fire

Burning, burning, burning, burning

Ready to explode

Don`t want nothing left of me to scrape off the road

Spirit of the wheel

Wheels of fire burn the night

Ride across the sky

Wheels of fire burning bright

We live to ride

Clouds of smoke

Tires screaming

Fire in my hair

blown into a thousand pieces

Scattered everywhere

Fast, burn, burning, faster

Wanna take a ride

Spirit of the wheel

Wheels of fire ride

Spirit of the wheel

Wheels of fire burn the night

Ride across the sky

Wheels of fire burning bright

We live to ride

Kidney stone is not causing anymore pain or problems. I hope it`s gone!

Going to NYC this longweekend. At first I was thinking about riding there, but now that there is rain in the near future (and heavy rain!) I think I`ll drive. I`ll see Elif, Arzu, Mehmet and of course Oktay

I`ll stop by Baltimore to see my long lost cousin today.

I also started planning my world trip on a motorcycle in my head. I am thinking about keeping a written log on this. I don`t know if I will ever be able to do that trip, but I will try. I need to read some books and get informed.

Planning another BBQ maybe next weekend. It might be the last BBQ of the season. The weather is getting worse and worse.

Well that`s it for the quick and dirty near future plans

I woke up with a horrible pain this morning around 3 am. I thought that it was a gas pain related to holding your fart for too long… But it wasn`t… I waited and it passed. But not for long. It came back… With a vengance…

I went to George Washington University Hospital Emergency. I spent some 4-5 hours there, given painkillers and sent back home.

Then pieces of the puzzle started to get together… First I had a reddish yellowish pee. I thought it was because of vitamin C… Then I had some backpain. I thought I screwed my back again… The truth was out there. The kidney stone!

It is one of the most horrible pains ever, and I hope noone ever experiences that. Now I`m drinking water like a fish, peeing in a strainer and trying to find stones in it, getting high on painkillers… *Sigh*… What a life!

10 scooter riders are making the coast to coast adventure right now when I`m typing this on my blog. It is called the scooter cannonball. The “race” started from Virginia Beach, VA 12 days ago (Sept 10, 2005) and still going on now. Yesterday one of the riders got a nasty crash I hope he will get well soon. This is a 3500-4000 miles (5500-6500 kilometers) endurance event according to their website. I wish a safe and speedy pace for them and quick recovery for Rob Downs who crashed yesterday. The race blog is here.

I really had a good weekend. I met with friends, went clubbing, got drunk a bit, rode ~120 miles, ate good food, watched a good movie. What else do I need to be happy? I don`t know.

Sunday particularly was nice. I met with Atilla and Arman. Arman just got a 2005 FZ6. He had to spend some time on it. So we took him first to GW Parkway Southbound. There was some traffic, but the ride was ok as soon as we passed Old Town Alexandria. We made a mini stop at the house of George Washington @ Mount Vernon. Then went back to the Deluxe Diner near my house. Ate good food there with Ufuk joining us for company

After the lunch we left Ufuk and headed GW Parkway northbound all the way to 495. There we met my colleague Ming and his heavily modified lovely Yamaha Shadow cruiser. We took the georgetown pike (very nice and twisty) to route 7 and we rode to Leesburg. There we parked the bikes and went to Georgetown Café to get some desserts. Very nice place, recommended. We jumped back to saddles and headed to Washington.

On the way back we followed route 7, georgetown pike, Rt 123, Canal road and we arrived at Georgetown. We did the glorious Georgetown ride and went back home. ~112 miles in total. I have some pictures too. I`ll post them sooner or later

I was tired but Ufuk, Ozgur and Oyku were going to 40 year old virgin. So I joined them. I really liked the movie. I like Steve Carrel. He is a really good actor. He was hilarious in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy as a retarded weatherman. I highly recommend this movie.

The only bad thing is that I missed my running day this Sunday. But I think I compensated that with ~5 hours motorcycle riding I cannot run today either because I`m going to Stratovarious concert tonight. I can go back to running tomorrow.

This year the Turkish Festival of Washington, DC area will take place on Sunday, October 2 2005. The exact location is on Pennsylvania Ave. between 12th and 14th Streets. Here is a google map for you. There will be a lot of activities, delicious food, good music, tons of kids activities during the festival. You can also get a lot of touristic information about Turkey during the festival since one of the main sponsors is Turkish Embassy Culture & Tourism Office.

For more info please go to Turkish Festival web page. Also, distribute the flyers (PDF), be a volunteer, do something!

After realizing how my stamina is low by biking from home to work in 1 hours, I decided to do something about it. My mom is a track and field athlete, so it should have been in my genes! I decided to start running. So in the near future if this blog turns on to a runner`s blog, bear with me… I`m not planing to do a marathon or iron man, I`m just trying to gain a bit more energy, kick out bad stuff from my system by sweating, lower my bad cholesterol, etc…

I can run straight for 3-5 mins now. In slow tempo. I know that it is ridicilous, but it shows how bad I am right now on stamina issue.

So my program is to run/walk every other day for at least 20 minutes non stop. I will keep a track of my minutes here on my blog.

Day 1: (09/10) I ran 3 mins, walked 3 mins, ran 3 mins, walked 5 mins, ran 3 mins and walked 5 mins.

Day 2: (09/12) I ran 5 mins, walked 3 mins, ran 4 mins, walked 5 mins, ran 5 mins, walked 3 mins, ran 4 mins.

Day 3: (09/14) I ran 5 mins, walked 3 mins, ran 3 mins, walked 2 mins, ran 5 mins, walked 2 mins, ran 5 mins, walked 2 mins, ran 2 mins (arrived to the car )

Tomorrow another running day. If I can keep myself in a program like this, I will try to squeeze in cycling between running days. I need to come up with an exercise program with that too… But not now…