Working two jobs and keeping sane is not easy while living in San Francisco. Then add hobbies such as having a motovlog, riding a motorcycle in the bay area, and having time to have a personal life with friends and family. Yep, life ain’t all that easy being on the grind and getting paid.
Category: Random Rant
Random ramblings that are just off tangent from the rest of my topics.
Living In The Fast Lane | 2015
Now that we are towards the end of January, I can reflect at 2015 as a year of fun on two wheels, hell there were times when I was living in the fast lane. I hit a stupid fast personal best top speed of 168 mph, rode a slew of different kinds of motorcycles; from Harley Davidson’s Sportsters and Dynas to Suzuki’s, Triumphs, and even a Can Am Spyder. Since I live in the wonderful San Francisco Bay Area, I had the opportunity to ride year round from the FREEZING December weather to scorching 100 degree weather. Rode with friends and family throughout the Bay from Stinson Beach to Alison’s and Four Corners to Angel’s Camp. Had one too many close calls while splitting lanes to riding with a friend that low sided. 2015 gave me a solid year of riding under my belt while at the same time gives me excitement as to what 2016 will bring. I leave with you below a video montage of my 2015 year. See you out there on the streets and ride safe.
Rainbow Six Siege
In the late 90’s, or pre 9/11, I was introduced to the game called Rainbow Six by my uncle. This was the first game where I learned how to hack a game and edit the various stages and scenarios by determining how many enemies there would be, dictating the path that they would roam, how sensitive they are to noise and movement, and their level of difficulty. There would be many nights of little to no sleep as I would spend hours customizing scenarios then sharing and playing the scenario with the wonderful online community. Ever since then the brand Rainbow Six has held a special places in my heart.
Fast forward to today we have the hundredth iteration to the game under the title Rainbow Six Siege. One big difference about the game is that there ain’t a story online and it is purely a PVP and PVE (scenario/terrorist hunt) game.
There are a slew of FPS games out there but what draws me to the game is that it is a much slower paced game than others, especially since each player has a single life per round. There is so much great things going for the game that I can talk about this game however what irks me is that Ubisoft servers are horrible, too many dropped matches… Check out this communication thread between my brother and the Support team.
Sigh… Below is my rant on the game, just the thought of writing about the experience is depressing. With that said, I still love Rainbow Six Siege… Odd, right?
Riding In The Rain
Summer is here and that means fun time in the sun! Maybe not! Summer in July?!? Sure why not, we’re in a drought.
Group Ride This Weekend!
Hey folks!
Super excited to let you all know that I’ll be going on a group ride this coming weekend! I’ll be riding with family and friends from Dublin to Sacramento to who knows where to next. This group ride is technically my first, I’m not counting my ride with my sister and brother a while back since it was my first time riding.
In the past I tried to get in on some group rides but they never happened. After this coming group ride, I’d love to a lot more group rides under my belt. To do that, I’m planning to hit up a forum that I frequent and look for local meet ups.
Ninjette.org is a site that I frequent that is made of a community of Ninja 250cc and 300cc riders. The folks at ninjette.org are friendly, welcoming, and knowledgeable that I’m looking forward to hitting up the forums on the site to see when the local group ride will be.
Another way that I’m going to get more involved in group rides are by attending meet ups in the area for fellow motovloggers. Every now and then motovloggers get together to meet in person, network, build relationships, shoot the shit, and most importantly, ride. With summer almost here, I’m sure to find a motovlogger meet up soon.
That is my plan for now on getting getting more group rides under my belt. I’m positive that in time I’ll be able to getting in more group rides, whether if it’s with my family, friends, and/or strangers, I see a lot of group rides in my future.
Future Sailor No More
Yup… I backed out of my contract with the Navy.
A few days ago I have made my decision to pull out of the DEP (Delayed Entry Program) with the Navy. Making my decision was not easy, honestly I am still disappointed at myself but it is something that I will have to live with. I am disappointed because enlisting in the military is something that I have wanted to do since I was young and my heart is still telling me to go. However my head is telling me that I have to be an adult and make a smart decision.
Finances are the main reason that I backed out of my contract. I had a contract with the Navy where my rate would had been AECF (Advanced Electronic Computer Field) and learned the ins and outs of computer electronics. The schooling for the job would have been six to eight months on top of two months of basic training. While at basic and A school, I would be losing roughly a third to half of my current income. Even though there are almost no expenses while at training, I still had responsibilities that I have to take care off such as rent, student loans, credit cards, insurance, etc. Even though there I had options on handling my finances, I did not want to defer my student loans, nor pay the minimum balance of my credit cards, and did not want to become a financial burden to my girlfriend while away on training.
If I went to the Navy, after schooling I would had either went back to the job that I had before leaving for basic or start a new career in computer electronics. There were no guarantees that I would had found job in the civilian world in computer electronics, if I would had landed a job within that field then it would more than likely had been at an entry level position. If I did go back to the job I had, it could set me back on my career as well as stunting my growth with the company. Also that means the skill that I learned would had turn into a hobby, which is an expensive investment just for a hobby.
A few years ago I graduated with a bachelors degree in Interior Design, currently have a job that I love that pays decent, and I am establishing my career in design. I am at a point in my life where I can make something of myself instead of starting over fresh. If I went with the Navy, I would had enlisted as an E3 (Seaman (SN)) since I had college degree. Enlisted service members with no prior college credits or degree would normally start at the lowest rank of E1 (there are ways to enter basic as an E2). Even though E3 is not the lowest rank, I felt that I would be selling myself short since I have invested in myself by going to college and getting an education. Taking a huge pay cut as well would definitely be selling myself short, literally.
As an adult I had to make the right decision and that decision was to not set myself back in life by taking two steps back to take one step forward, which is what I would had done by enlisting with the Navy.
There is nothing wrong with enlisting with any of the military branches, I just decided to enlist at the wrong time and wrong stage of my life.
Leaving A Legacy
Today a coworker of mine had a seizure while at work. Call me sheltered but I’ve never seen anything like that before. Seeing a friend go through such pain and not sure how things would go made me think about life and what type of mark I want to leave behind.
Bike Porn
So…. Still riding and taking more pics with my muse while I can, from Napa to South Bay and all around San Francisco.
Life On Two Wheels
Last September I finally had the opportunity and privilege to do an activity that many of my siblings do, that is ride motorcycles legally.
Happy Daylight Savings!
With the eve of Day Light Savings here, I’m looking forward and planning on maximizing all the daylight that I can by getting up early to exercise, capture some pictures, and catch more sunsets.
I can finally wake up early since I’ll be waking up at my ‘regular time’ and run on the beach on a more consistent basis. With me not being a morning person, getting up early to run outside in the cold before the sun gets up, was a challenge. There were many days I would wake up with my alarm blaring in my ear but once I reach to hit the snooze, I could tell how cold the outside world was; so I’d quickly jump out of the covers, dash to the heater and turn it on, then dash back and jump into bed. I would lay in bed curled up as a log all nice and toasty wide awake but afraid of the cold, so I would start planning out my day in my head, check Facebook and Twitter on my phone, and kick myself for not turning on the morning news. An hour or two goes by in a flash then I would start cursing myself and mentally pumping myself up to get out of bed. Thirty minutes goes by before I can finally peel myself off the bed but once out of the bed I am moving. Get the espresso brewing, iron my clothes, make myself breakfast and lunch, scarf down my food, brush my teeth, kiss my girlfriend good morning/bye, and I’d by out the door flying down stairs, already running ten minutes late to work.
NO MORE!
Thank you to ‘Merica and all those farmers that needs the extra time for farming, I will no longer be a victim to the clock and get up out of bed early!… Well that’s the idea.
Anyway, here’s a short clip of a time lapse I captured yesterday as the sun was setting, just playing around and testing things out. I get off at five most of the day, that should be an ample amount of time for me to shoot down to Slacker Hill as the sunsets for a nice long time lapse video. Will definitely need to purchase the app, Lapse It, so that I can render videos at 1080p.
Cheers!
johnydecali 