The pixelbiker.com Blog
18.12.2008Baby, It's Cold Outside!I've been convinced for a while that it's going to be a long, cold winter here in the U.S.
I'm currently spending the night next door to where I unload early Thursday morning at Lemont, Illinois, suburban Chicago. It was 12 degrees according to my truck's thermometer when I got here at around 9:00 PM. It's likely going to get a few degrees colder as the night progresses.
Fortunately the wind is very light. At these low temperatures it wouldn't take much wind to really push the windchill temperatures down into the bitterly cold range.
Freight has been slow lately in many parts of the country. It's possible I could end up hanging around Chicago for a day or so waiting on another load.
I'm hoping to make it home to Arkansas by December 21 for time off.
09.11.2008Where Are We Headed?The U.S. Presidential election is now over. My initial gut feeling that I had way back in the Democrat primary proved to be correct -- Barack Obama ended up winning the election.
In the past few months, the U.S. financial system has really started to fall apart. The irony is that the problems with the economy have all been caused by government interference and ill-conceived regulations. The Clinton Administration started the ball rolling in the 1990's on getting banks to make sub-prime mortgage loans. Once started, this process continued. Next the would-be financial wizards came up with the idea of so-called financial "derivatives" and started selling these into the financial system. They are so complex that it's difficult to figure out what they are really worth. In many cases they may be worth nothing, so banks will no longer lend money to each other, thus freezing up the inter-bank credit markets.
These "toxic waste" derivatives have acted as a poison financial pill being fed into the system over a number of years. They have done what Osama Bin Laden couldn't do -- bring down the U.S. financial system.
For too many years, way too much of the economy has relied on credit in order to continue operating. Much of it is a house of cards. It's now in the process of tumbling down around us. Much of the economy is in real trouble.
Beware of the enemy within...
19.10.2008McCain/Palin Are Going To Win The ElectionI'm now convinced that McCain/Palin are going to win the election.
Remember Bagdad Bob -- the Saddam Hussein spokesman that spewed endless propaganda and bald-faced lies about how Saddam was still in control even after American forces had taken control of Bagdad?
The Democrats have become Bagdad Bob. Believing their own propaganda, they are are already measuring the White House drapes and setting up Presidential transition teams. Ooops. They are fools.
There are going to be lots of angry, extremely depressed Democrats after the election.
15.10.2008Council Bluffs, IowaI am spending the night at Council Bluffs, Iowa. I have a two-drop load. The first drop unloads here in Council Bluffs early tomorrow morning. The second drop delivers early tomorrow afternoon in Norfolk, Nebraska.
Here I am waiting for my food to come at the Sapp Brothers Truck Stop at Council Bluffs, Iowa.
10.10.2008Feeling Depressed? Read This...I have to admit for a couple of days there when the stock market started dropping, I started feeling a bit overwhelmed and was left wondering what there was to be optimistic about.
Then I realized there's plenty to be optimistic about.
If you find yourself feeling overwhelmed, then listen to the following episode of my audio podcast. I believe it can really help you see events in a much more positive light.
Podcast episode 907
02.10.2008Home Sweet HomeI made it home early Wednesday afternoon for a few days off work. I find it beneficial to take off work at least four days towards the beginning or end of the month and just get completely away from the truck for a while.
Of course the big news is all about the current global financial crisis. It's been brewing for a while. Spurred on by liberals in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Clinton Administration back in the 1990's, financial lending institutions were encouraged to make thousands and thousands of loans to people who couldn't pay the money back. Now the people who caused the crisis by requiring lending institutions to spew out poisoned debt to both U.S. and world-wide investment bankers are now trying to shift the blame to the very people who tried to stop it.
My advice for years has been to turn off the mainstream news media. Turn off the TV news and turn off the radio news. I find I'm able to stay much better informed by seeking out my own news sources on the Internet. The benefit of turning off the mainstream news media is that my attitude about life and the world in general is about 1000% percent better than it would be otherwise. The mainstream media will give you just enough information so you will come to their conclusions -- the world is going to Hell in a hand basket, humanity is the scourge of the Earth, we are all going to die, etc., etc., etc. There are entire news stories the mainstream media completely omits. Modern mainstream news is nothing more than left-wing propaganda designed to force the world into a one-world Socialist/communist government.
I find that by turning the mainstream media off, I am able to keep a much more clear-headed view of the world and it's much easier to see these people for who and what they are. It's much easier to fight these agendas with a clear head and a positive attitude.
27.09.2008Finding The Perfect WomanThe solution to problem of finding the right woman is very simple -- find a woman like Sarah Palin. Unfortunately there don't seem to be that many Sarah Palin's out there running around, but if you manage to find one know you've hit the jackpot. All of the other types of women are problematic. If you find a woman that despises Sarah Palin, DON'T move in with her !!!!
15.09.2008Found an interesting election-related siteA podcast listener sent me the link to a blog site he found written by John McCain's daughter Meghan, located at http://www.mccainblogette.com.
The site is a very interesting view of what it's like from inside a political campaign, including lots of photos and videos.
I've really become excited about the McCain/Palin ticket and will be voting for them in the upcoming general election. Arkansas is one of the states that offers early voting 30 days before the election date. I will make a trip to my local Courthouse once the early voting has started and cast my vote. Early voting makes voting a terrific convenience. I've voted using early voting a number of times now and each time I do I'm amazed that there are usually people waiting in short lines to take advantage of it.
At one time back during the Democrat primary I thought that Obama was going to win. I believe Obama would have one, had it not been for the game-changing move by John McCain of picking Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential nominee.
At this point the Obama campaign and the political left in general are flaming out. Democrats made a mistake in failing to nominate Hillary Clinton. I think they believed that Hillary would have galvanized Republicans into voting for McCain, so they picked Obama as the nominee. Governor Sarah Palin has galvanized the Republican party behind McCain, and the Democrats are left with a weak, empty, politically light-weight candidate.
Interestingly Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton share something in common -- they are both disciples of the late Saul Alinsky, the political hack from Chicago who wrote a book called "Rules For Radicals" in which he dedicated it to Lucifer (Satan) as the first "rebel." I will give one thing to Saul Alinsky -- at least he was honest, unlike today's liberals who try to hide who they are and what they stand for.
11.09.2008An election observation...There’s an interesting thing everyone can’t help but notice. By John McCain picking Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential running mate, Sarah Palin’s unique energy has been infused into the campaign, into many potential voters, and into McCain himself. With the addition of Palin to the ticket, McCain is a different man, voters are different voters, and the overall “vibe” of the campaign is now transformed. What I believe we are witnessing is the energy that Sarah Palin brings with her in turn is bringing out the best in the people around her.
The same principle applies to the Obama Campaign. Joe Biden brings his own energy to Obama and the people surrounding him. Biden has tried running for President many different times himself, and he’s never gotten more than a tiny percentage of the primary votes he’s participated in. Biden’s energy drags down Obama as well as that of the potential voters.
05.09.2008Bringing a load of Georgia peanuts to Hackettstown, New JerseyI picked a load of peanuts up earlier today at Dawson, Georgia. The load delivers early Monday morning to Hackettstown, New Jersey. The load consists of 20 giant canvas bags of peanuts The bags of peanuts weigh 2,270 pounds apiece.
I'm spending the night in Georgia parked behind a small fuel stop on I-20 somewhere east of Atlanta.
02.09.2008In a remains of Hurricane Gustav...I stopped late this afternoon here at Shreveport, Louisiana. My friend Ron Stroope came by and picked me up. After we ate at Logan's Roadhouse I spent the evening with Ron and his wife AJ at their home.
It's currently raining here with some fairly steady wind, but so far no really spectacular or particularly exciting or disturbing weather.
I'm on my way to deliver at 5:00 AM on September 3, 2008 at Sylacauga, Alabama.
31.08.2008Back to workI am now back at work. I'm currently stopped at Huntsville, Texas. I unload tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM in Conroe, Texas.
Over the next few days I should be able to get back into my regular trucking routine and catch up on my rest.
Friday John McCain announced his Vice Presidential running mate -- 44-year-old Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. I am very excited by the response people have to Governor Palin, and now I have a reason to get excited about the prospect of voting FOR John McCain for President.
24.08.2008Spent the day shooting photos and video at Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, ColoradoI spent the entire day today shooting photos and video at the Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes Park, Colorado. I've got more video to shoot before I compile it into the next HD video -- I'll probably do that Sunday evening after the final day of the 2008 "Learning to See" Chris Marquardt photography workshop/seminar comes to a close Sunday afternoon.
Rocky Mountain National Park is a very special place as anyone knows who has been there. The majesty of the place is utterly breathtaking.
Here's what I've judged to be the best photo out of the hundreds of photos I shot today. This photo was taken at Bear Lake inside the park. Bear Lake is located about 7 miles from Estes Park, Colorado.
22.08.2008Day one of Chris Marquardt's Fort Collins, Colorado photography workshopToday was day one of my friend Chris Marquardt's "Learning To See" photography workshop/seminar in Fort Collins, Colorado. As always, these events are extremely informative as well as a lot of fun to attend.
Here's the link to the video I recorded during today's workshop:
http://m.podshow.com/media/131/episodes/123243/truckertom-123243-08-21-2008.mp4
19.08.2008Heading towards Colorado tomorrowI've spent the past few days in Las Vegas. The New Media Expo ended early Saturday afternoon. I had a couple of extra days so I ended up spending them here in Las Vegas.
While I had the time, I was able to update the firmware on my Sprint HTC "Touch" phone which includes Windows Mobile 6.1. The Sprint-specific update boosts the EVDO data rate from standard EVDO to EVDO Rev 1. It also adds Sprint Navigator, which turns the phone into a true GPS capable of displaying a moving 3-D map image as well as speaking the turn-by-turn directions out loud. It also works in a "pedestrian" mode, which would make it handy when walking around in a strange city.
I also upgraded the memory in my 17" MacBook to 4 gigabytes, up from 2 gigabytes. The upgrade is simple and couldn't have gone more smoothly.
I also bought a "My Book" one terabyte external USB hard drive so I could have some space to archive videos to. It seems to work quite well.
Tuesday I'll be leaving Las Vegas and heading for Fort Collins, Colorado for the Chris Marquardt photography seminar that will start on August 21, 2008 and run through August 24th.
13.08.2008Made it to Santa Rosa, New Mexico on my way to Las Vegas, Nevada and the New Media ExpoI got up early this morning and my parents followed me up to the airport to drop the rental car off then came right back home afterwards. I had to sort through stuff and load my pickup. I finally got underway at 11:15 AM. I made pretty good time to Santa Rosa, NM getting here about 8:30 PM. I’m pretty tired so I should sleep pretty well tonight.
11.08.2008Long day todayEarly this morning at 6:30 AM I begin unloading at Temple, Texas. If all goes well that should take a couple of hours or so. After that, I'll drive about 130 miles from Temple, TX to the trucking company's Wilmer, Texas terminal just outside of Dallas.
I'm renting a car from Hertz. I'll have to go back to the Wilmer terminal with the rental car so I can get all of my stuff loaded into the car and then head home to northwest Arkansas. Once I make it home, I'll move everything from the rental car into my house, then have to take the rental car to the Hertz agent at the XNA airport.
Tomorrow I will be leaving for Las Vegas in my own pickup. If all goes well I should arrive in Las Vegas sometime Wednesday evening.
08.08.2008Stopped for the night near White Water, CaliforniaI picked up a load today that had two pickups, the first one at Lamont, California and the second at Vernon, California. The load delivers to Temple, Texas.
I must be home by 8/11/08 to start my vacation. I am driving to Las Vegas to attend the 2008 Podcast & New Media Expo at the Las Vegas Hilton. Las Vegas is a two-day drive from home in Arkansas. The company is going to have to swap my load out with another driver since the load delivers at Temple, Texas on the 11th -- the day I'm supposed to be home.
As a fail-safe, I will deliver the load to Temple, Texas early in the morning of the 11th, then drive the truck to the company's Dallas, Texas terminal, rent a car, and drive on home to begin my vacation. I'd rather be able to take the truck home, however, I'll rent a car if I must.
05.08.2008California has gone insane, I'm unloading in CaliforniaThe State of California has to be the most insane state in the nation. I read this article earlier today describing how so-called animal rights activists bombed the home of a scientist in Santa Cruz, CA that was using Mediterranean Fruit Flies in his experiments and I couldn't quite believe it. Here's the article:
http://vyoma108.blogspot.com/2008/08/biologists-bombed-in-santa-cruz-in-name.html
I checked with my friend, Michael Zwerling (MZ) that owns radio stations KSCO/KOMY and he called me back today confirming that the story was true. These terrorists belong in jail or worse, yet they are called "animal rights activists." What an insane state!!!!!
In any case, my podcast episode 865 is recorded and uploaded:
http://m.podshow.com/media/131/episodes/120882/truckertom-120882-08-05-2008.mp3
I also wrote my next "Truckers News" Tech Corner article entitled "Making The Switch To Mac."
Probably time to see if I can get headed to bed. I am currently at Tracy, California where I unload at 6:00 AM Pacific Time.
02.08.2008Drove across Arkansas and Oklahoma todayI drove across Arkansas and about two thirds of Oklahoma today, making it into western Oklahoma along I-40.
Ron Stroop and I recorded episode 15 of Ho! Agenda. The file is located at:
http://m.podshow.com/media/131/episodes/120649/truckertom-120649-08-02-2008.mp3
01.08.2008On my way to Tracy, CalforniaLate this afternoon they ended up dispatching me on a load that delivers to Tracy, California. I'm currently parked outside of Memphis, Tennessee taking my 10 hour break.
One of the fleet managers that's in charge of bitching at drivers for more than 30% engine idling time will likely be bitching at me. When I end up sleeping in the daytime in hot weather, the truck will be idling more than it would if I were sleeping at night when it's dark and the air is cooler with no "greenhouse" effect caused by the hot sun beating down on the metal body of the truck's cab.
Oh well...
30.07.2008Headed for GeorgiaI picked a load up at Fayetteville, Arkansas last night, which allowed me to stop by home for a few hours and visit my parents and nephew. The load delivers to McDonough, Georgia.
I watched something VERY scary last night on YouTube before I went to bed late last night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVZ4Lkm6JQw
It is a series of nine parts that make up a 17-year-old video interview of Yuri Bezmenov, a former KGB agent that defected to the west. This is very serious stuff that's being talked about!!
29.07.2008Waiting to unload at Russellville, ArkansasI got to stop by home for about 40 hours or so on my way from Yakima, Washington to Russellville, Arkansas.
Right now I'm waiting to get my load unloaded here at Russellville, Arkansas.
A bit over a week ago I bought a 17" Macbook Pro after getting completely disgusted with Windows Vista. I recorded podcast episode 860 this evening using an OS/X-only program called Ubercaster. The program is actually fairly sophisticated and will probably be quite usable once I get the hang of its many features.
The 17" Macbook Pro is a very cool machine. Amazingly, a 17" Macbook Pro weighs no more than a 15" machine from other manufacturers. I've also got VMware Fusion installed along with both Windows XP and Windows Vista virtual machines so that I can run Windows software that there are no OS/X equivalents for.
26.07.2008At Lincoln, NebraskaI made it to Lincoln, Nebraska about an hour ago. I filled my truck up with fuel, and am about to get headed towards bed.
The load I have I picked up at Yakima, Washington. It delivers to Russellville, Arkansas on Tuesday the 29th at 8:00 AM. Conveniently, I will be passing right by my house so I'll get to take advantage of that fact and stop a while.
I will have a late lunch with my friend Ken that lives here in Lincoln. Sometime early tomorrow evening I'll get headed towards Arkansas so I should make it home sometime in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
22.07.2008Parked for the night east of Seattle, WashingtonI've made it to near Seattle, Washington where I'll be unloading sometime Tuesday morning.
Right now I'm spending time trying to figure out the best way to edit the HD files generated by the Aiptek A-HD+1080p camcorder with OS/X. Final Cut Express 4.0 doesn't like the .MOV files that come directly out of the camera. There may be some way of converting them into a format that FCE will work with.
Hopefully someone will come out with a codec that will work directly with these files. Or, perhaps a new version of FCE will come along that will be more friendly towards these files in the future.
20.07.2008Spending the night at Laramie, WyomingI spent last night at Lincoln, Nebraska. This morning my friend Ken that lives in Lincoln came and picked me up and we went to eat and then stopped by Best Buy afterwards. I returned some un-opened software I purchased at the Best Buy store in Arkansas when I was home last week. I ended up buying a computer bag for this 17" Macbook Pro that I bought at Best Buy at home Friday afternoon.
I made it to Laramie, Wyoming where I'm spending the night.
18.07.200817" Macbook ProHere's my 17" Macbook Pro
17.07.2008Went for motorcycle ride todayThis afternoon I went for a motorcycle ride down old highway U.S. 71. I ended up stopping and spending some time at the newly-reopened Lake Fort Smith State Park. They had the park closed a couple of years in order to build a dam in order to enlarge the lake. Lake Fort Smith serves as the water supply for Fort Smith, Arkansas.
I had my Aiptek HD video camera with me, so I ended up recording a bunch of video in one of the boat ramp areas. I'll post a link to the video once I get it rendered and uploaded.
14.07.2008Catching up on vegetatingSunday was my second day here at home for time off. Since I've been home I've been a bit tired. The last three days I was on the road the schedule I ended up on caused me to have three days of not quite getting enough sleep in a row. It takes a while to recover from that.
So for the past couple of days I've been hanging around the house, not doing much of anything other than catching up on TV and not doing much of anything.
A bit over a month ago I put a podcast aggregator on my Sprint HTC "Touch" phone and have been using it as both my aggregator as well as podcast playback device. That's been working exceptionally well since it eliminates the need to synchronize my iPod with iTunes all the time.
I decided to move most of the podcasts off of my iPod and copy my entire CD collection to the iPod. Since I have hundreds of CD's, that process is taking quite a bit of time. I worked on that over much of the weekend. I'm now at least three quarters of the way so I should be able to finish the process soon. Once I get all of the CD's ripped into iTunes I'll back the files up onto a separate hard drive for safe-keeping so if and when something happens to my iPod I'll have a backup copy and won't have to go through this lengthy ripping process again in the future.
13.07.2008Sleepy dayI went to bed Friday evening at 10:00 PM as I was pretty much exhausted. I woke up at 7:30 AM Saturday morning. I was still feeling fairly tired, so I ended up sleeping in my living room recliner for a good three hours.
11.07.2008Exhausted but made it homeI unloaded this afternoon at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Afterwards I headed home for time off.
I really had to push to make it to Fort Smith. My delivery appointment was at 2:00 PM this afternoon. I got to Fort Smith about noon.
09.07.2008Reefer problems, had to stop at Bedford, Pennsylvania for repairsThings were going along great this afternoon until I discovered that my trailer's refrigeration unit had gone into an automatic alarm mode and was no longer functioning. I notified my company's breakdown department and they sent me to Bedford, Pennsylvania to get it repaired.
It took a few hours, but now it's repaired. My 14 hours for the day expired while I was waiting, so I'm having to spend the rest of the night here at Bedford.
08.07.2008Unloaded at Anderson, Indiana, reloading at IndianapolisI dropped my loaded trailer late last night at Anderson, Indiana. I was going to spend the night on the customer property in a truck parking area with a bunch of other waiting trucks, but around 3:00 AM the guard came out and chased us all away saying that the only people who were allowed to park there were drivers that were waiting on a load from there. So I came a few miles to a nearby Pilot truck stop.
This morning I'm heading on down to my company's Indianapolis yard to pick up a loaded trailer that delivers to Palmyra, Pennsylvania.
04.07.2008Made it to Carlisle, Pennsylvania...I woke up around noon Central Time at White Pine, Tennessee. I finally got underway around 2:45 PM. I made it over to the Knoxville, TN yard and dropped the empty trailer I had and picked up the loaded one and then headed for Pennsylvania.
I've made it to Carlisle, PA where I've stopped to take my break. That leaves me with about 100 more miles or so to go to get to Hazleton, PA where I'll drop and hook again on that end.
03.07.2008Got to meet up with my friend Jeff Forester, a.k.a. truckertwotimes.comThey ended up having me take a trade-in trailer from Altavista, Virginia to a Utility trailer plant in Glade Spring, Virginia and trade it for a new trailer. The new trailer is completely ready to go with all the Shaffer decals along with the Shaffer vehicle registration.
I'm on my way to the company's Knoxville, Tennessee yard where I'm going to drop this new trailer and pick up a loaded one that delivers anytime on July 4th to Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
In the meantime, I stopped at White Pine, Tennessee for the night. My friend Jeff Forester, also known as truckertwotimes, was able to stop by for about a half and hour or so and we got to have a short visit. I recorded video with the Aiptek A-HD+1080p camera which I hope to be able to upload soon to my Finding America HD Apple TV video podcast along with my regular podcast feed.
Jeff Forester, a.k.a. truckertwotimes.
02.07.2008Altavista, VirginiaI made it to Altavista, Virginia late this evening. Altavista is about 20 miles south of Lynchburg, Virginia. Lynchburg looks like a neat city, but there's no good way to get to it from Interstate 81. I had to drive my truck on roads that I'd rather not take a 53' foot long trailer down.
After my break is over it looks like I'll be taking a trade-in trailer from Altavista, Virginia over to Glade Spring, Virginia.
01.07.2008Met Podcaster Joel Mclaughlin TodayI never know what each day might hold. That certainly proved to be true today.
I got unloaded at Wellston, Ohio early this afternoon. Shortly after getting unloaded they sent a load that loaded in Columbus, Ohio going to Altavista, Virginia.
I'd been emailing back and forth with Joel Mclaughlin since this morning based on a short email he had sent as a result of my last podcast saying I was in Ohio. It turned out that the place where I was loading was located in downtown Columbus, just a couple of blocks from where he works. He was able to walk over and meet me near the entrance to the place where I was loading.
Joel and I have been emailing back and forth and communicating via podcasts for at least a couple of years. I knew we would get to meet sooner or later. One of these days we will get to meet again over a meal and be able to hang out together and talk gadgets longer than just a few minutes.
Here's a picture I took of Joel with my cell phone camera as he was showing me his small Linux-based computer.
30.06.2008Made it to Wellston, OhioI made it to Wellston, Ohio about Midnight Central time, or 1:00 AM Eastern time. About a 100 miles or a bit more were on 2-lane roads in Kentucky and Ohio. Wellston is located in southeast Ohio, and there just aren't any good roads that come to this area from the south, or from the north for that matter.
I find myself really liking the new tattoos on the sides of my head. Good thing, too, because they are in very prominent positions. It's weird -- for years I didn't think I wanted any tattoos that I couldn't cover up with a long-sleeved shirt, but starting about five years ago my thinking changed.
28.06.2008Light can do weird thingsI was laying back in my truck's sleeper yesterday evening when the sun was low on the horizon. The sunlight was streaming in through the truck's windshield when I snapped this photo of myself with my cell phone camera.
We often forget that the most important elements of any photo is lighting itself. Light or it's absence can completely alter the look and mood of any photo.
27.06.2008Got to eat lunch with my parents in Waco, Texas todayThey got the air conditioner in my truck fixed today by around 9:30 AM. It turned out that the condensor -- the big part that goes in front of the engine's radiator -- had to be replaced. Now the air conditioner is cooling extremely well and the truck isn't idling nearly as much as it has been during the past week or two.
After the truck was fixed, the dispatcher had me take a trailer to Waco, Texas to drop off to replace a damaged trailer that I brought back to the Wilmer, Texas company yard outside of Dallas. I was happy to drive to Waco, since that's where my parents are. They met me at a truck stop near their RV park and we ate at a Cracker Barrel restaurant.
I put up a video of footage I shot of riding my motorcycle with the Aiptek A-HD+1080p camera mounted on a handlebar tripod mount that I have attached to my motorcycle handlebars. Click on the picture to link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9dbNxKJGUw
In the last third of the video you can also see me getting a tattoo on the left side of my head.
I'm picking a load up early Saturday morning in Fort Worth, Texas that delivers Monday to Wellston, Ohio.
27.06.2008Spending the night at Wilmer, Texas just outside of Dallas.After I got unloaded early this afternoon I came over to the Wilmer, Texas company terminal to get a couple of things on my truck worked on. One of them was a leaking passenger side windshield. The other thing is that the truck's air conditioner doesn't seem to put out really cold air and it makes the truck idle excessively.
An outside contractor came this afternoon and re-sealed the top of the passenger side windshield. Hopefully that will fix the leak problem.
The shop didn't get to my truck before they closed and went home at 11:00 PM, so I'm spending the night here. Hopefully it won't be another lengthy wait tomorrow.
This evening I edited together another video that I shot with the Aiptek A-HD+1080p high-definition camcorder. I should be able to upload at least the iPod version this evening to my regular podcast feed http://www.truckertompodcast.com and hopefully start the HD version uploading to http://www.findingamericahd.com as well before heading off to bed.
26.06.2008Made it to Fort Worth, TexasI dropped and hooked two separate times on Tuesday. I dropped a loaded trailer at McDonnaugh, Georgia and picked up an empty trailer. I took it to a truck wash and got it washed out as well as filling the truck up with fuel. Then I went to Rome, Georgia and dropped the empty trailer and picked up a loaded trailer -- likely another load of so-called "Rice Krispy Treats." This load delivers Thursday at 11:00 AM here at Fort Worth, Texas.
I stopped for about 3 and 1/2 hours in Shreveport, Louisiana and ate barbeque with Ron Stoope as we did a mutual new electronic toy show-and-tell. I showed Ron my HTC "Touch" phone and the Aiptek A-HD+720p camcorder. He showed me his new Palm Centro phone as well as his new Gateway laptop computer. I also helped him set up a Windows XP virtual machine that he can run with an excellent program called "VMware Player" available at http://www.vmware.com.
Here's a picture of Ron I took with my phone:
Here are pictures of the new tattoos I got last Friday at a place called Brainstorm Tattoo in Fayetteville, Arkansas when I was home a few days ago.
24.06.2008Finally back to work todayAfter remaining home all weekend getting two "extra" days off work because I couldn't get the weekend dispatchers to answer the phone Saturday, I called in early Monday morning and got right through to one of the regular daytime dispatchers. She had a load for me to load at nearby Springdale, Arkansas within a few minutes while I was on the phone with her.
It only took an hour to load the load at Springdale. The load delivers probably Tuesday evening in McDonnaugh, Georgia near Atlanta. I have made it to Lincoln, Alabama where I'm spending the night.
23.06.2008Sunday eveningI was supposed to go back to work Saturday, but I couldn't get through to talk to anyone at the trucking company so after being on hold for three hours listening to their mindlessly cheesy "on-hold" music loop I finally gave up. I decided to wait and call them Monday morning.
I didn't do much of anything today other than sit in my recliner and watch HDTV.
22.06.2008I was supposed to go back to work today, but...I was supposed to go back to work today. I called the company dispatch about 10:00 AM and was literally listening to "on hold" music for three hours. At one point I called in on another line on my Skype phone and was on hold with two phones at once hoping they would answer one of them. After three hours it became pretty obvious they weren't going to answer, so I gave up.
I spent a good chunk of the evening editing my niece Melissa's wedding video. It took a lot of time and effort, but it was a lot of fun and I'm very pleased with the final results.
21.06.2008Fourth day at homeToday (Friday) was my fourth day here at home. I woke up at 7:00 AM and looked over at the alarm clock only to see it flashing, meaning that the electricity had gone out overnight. I immediately jumped out of bed with a start wondering if it was noon! Fortunately it was only 7:00 AM. I messed around the house for a couple of hours, then woke my nephew up and had him take me to the Honda motorcycle dealership to pick up my motorcycle. I bought him an early lunch/late breakfast at a McDonalds along the way.
The motorcycle was in fact ready to be picked up at 10:00 AM when they said it would be. So, I picked it up and then talked with my nephew for a while, then headed to my noon appointment at a local tattoo shop. I've got so many tattoos that I've completely lost count as to how many. I tend to go in spurts, sometimes as long as two years between more tattoos. I've been planning the latest tattoos I got today for a period of months.
Here's a photo I took with my cell phone camera of the artist tattooing me.
Here are photos of the new ink. A lion and sword on the left side of my head.
And a eagle and branch on the right side of my head.
It's been my experience that tattoos anywhere above the collar heal incredibly fast. Better blood supply equals vastly faster healing times than anywhere else on the body.
19.06.2008At home day threeI took my motorcycle in to the Honda dealer this afternoon to get the windscreen replaced as well as the turn signal assembly replaced with parts that I'd previously had them order last time I was home. They told me to bring it in by 2:00 PM.
I had my nephew come and pick me up at the dealership. We stopped at Wal-mart, and then went home for a couple of hours. We went back to the dealership at 5:30 PM, and after hanging out there for about 20 minutes they decided it would be tomorrow morning before they would have the work done. So, we will go back up there and pick it up around 10:00 AM tomorrow morning.
My nephew is spending the night with me.
19.06.2008Second day at homeToday except for a couple of trips down to West Fork, I hung around the house. Since I bought all that steak yesterday, I ended up eating here at home rather than going out to eat somewhere.
Before sundown I made a trip down to West Fork with the Aiptek A-HD+1081p camcorder and a tripod and recorded a bunch of video clips at West Fork's "Riverside Park." It's quite a picturesqe place set right next to the West Fork Branch of the White River. I've got the video rendering and hope to get it uploaded.
In the past, I've always felt somewhat self-conscious using a video camera in a public setting. I have no idea why that is. In any case, something clicked in my mind this evening that made it possible for me to forget about being camera self-conscious.
I am covered with tattoos, and will be soon getting even more in very prominent places that cannot be covered up. A long time ago I stopped being self-conscious about having tattoos. This evening I realized that why should using a camera in public be any different than being covered with tattoos? The fact of the matter, there's no difference. After that realization, it was easy for me to just go about my business of recording video and not even thinking twice about it.
The Aiptek A-HD+1080p camcorder is NOT a replacement for a high quality consumer camcorder such as the Sony HC3 HDV camcorder I've had for about a year. On the other hand, if you know the limitations of the Aiptek camera, it's possible to get acceptable HD video out of it. The old adage about never using digital zoom definiately applies to the Aiptek camera as well -- as long as the camera is zoomed all the way out, the cheesy fixed lens does an acceptable job.
18.06.2008First full day at homeToday was my first full day of time off this time after getting home late yesterday morning. I ended up meeting my youngest brother for lunch. Towards the end of the lunch, my nephew John Bradley came by the restaurant where we were eating at. Afterward John ended up following me over to Wal-mart and then home. He was looking for work, so I paid him to clean up the inside of my big truck.
This afternoon a guy came by that was selling meat. He said he had some meat that was "left over" that he was trying to sell, and I ended up buying about three boxes of it. It's really great stuff. He had beef steaks, pork and chicken. I didn't want any pork or chicken but ended up getting various cuts of high quality black angus steaks, including T-bones, filet minion, and hamburger. I grilled some of it earlier this evening and it was excellent. This is something I normally wouldn't have gone out of my way to purchase, however since the guy had it with him I decided to buy it on the spot.
Otherwise, I ended up getting a few things done, such as sorting through old mail. I decided to try getting the things done first I really don't want to do, and I have to admit that getting these things done does render a bit of a sense of accomplishment.
16.06.2008Made it homeI got unloaded at Morrilton, Arkansas this morning and then made it home about 10:30 AM, rather at least to where I park my trailer. I then got something to eat for lunch before coming on home.
I'm trying to stay up until at least 8:00 PM this evening. For a while there it looked like I couldn't resist taking a nap anyway, but I've made it to 5:11 PM so far so 8:00 PM is less than three hours away!
I recorded another video with the Aiptek camera early this morning while I was waiting on the beer distribuitor employees to arrive and unlock the gate. I'm in the process of experimenting with rendering the file to find out the best workflow, so hopefully I'll be able to get it uploaded or at least start uploading the HD version before heading off to bed this evening.
Now that I've played around with the Aiptek camera, I've figured out it's strengths and weaknesses, key pieces of information necessary for any camera in order to get the best video possible out of it. Armed with this information I'm getting some fairly impressive HD results with it. Simply amazing!
15.06.2008Waiting at East St. Louis, IllinoisI dropped the load early here in East St. Louis, IL this morning that I picked up yesterday afternoon at Manteno, IL.
I'm currently waiting to reload this evening at Granite City, IL, also located in the St. Louis area, with a load of beer going to Morrilton, Arkansas.
East St. Louis, IL Pilot Truck Stop:
14.06.2008Stopped for break at Effingham, IllinoisWhew. Finally got the load from California unloaded at Minooka, Illinois this morning. Picked another load up at Manteno, IL this afternoon that I'll drop at East St. Louis, IL.
Right now I'm taking my break at Effingham, IL. I've been up more than 24 hours at this point and am REALLY feeling it!!!!!
13.06.2008I-80 Closed In IowaThe best laid plans of mice and men...
I had it all planned out. I would arrive at Minooka, Illinois at about 3:45 AM early Friday morning for a 10:00 AM delivery appointment. All was going well until I found out that I-80 was closed in eastern Iowa.
I called my company, and they gave me a detour route around the closed portion of I-80. At Coralville, Iowa, take I-380 north to U.S. 30 east to Iowa 38 south. Great -- a few extra miles, but shouldn't take that much extra time. Hummm.
All well and good. I got to Coralville, Iowa and went north on I-380. Ooops -- a problem -- U.S. 30 east was closed. Downtown Cedar Rapids resembled a lake. I had to go all the way north to U.S. 20 east to Dubuque and then south on U.S. 61 down to Davenport. I got here about 4:00 AM. The 194 mile long detour burned up all of my time !!!!! 194 miles to go 61 miles !!!!
To add insult to injury, I've burned up all but 30 minutes of my logbook time for Friday just getting to Davenport, Iowa. To make a long story short, I can't legally get to the Minooka, Illinois destination until around 3:00 AM Saturday morning. Welcome to the world of trucking and logbook rules.
But all was not a loss. I was able to stop at Lincoln, Nebraska and my friend Ken came and picked me up at the truck stop and we ate at a place called "Famous Dave's Barbeque." Excellent food -- thank you Ken !!!
Afterwards we stopped by the local Best Buy and besides a 2.5" mm to 3.5 mm stereo adapter jack for my phone, I ended up buying an Aiptek A-HD+1080p video camera which was priced at an amazing $169 dollars -- for that price I couldn't pass it up. I had my phone with me and read a quick Amazon.Com online review which was very favorable which helped me decide. If I decide I don't like it, or it's not worth the price, I'll return it to my local Best Buy when I get home again in a few days for time off.
12.06.2008Cold and windy across WyomingIt remained cold and windy all across Wyoming. Here's I-80 in central Wyoming:
I've made it to Grand Island, Nebraska. It's warmer here. There was some lightning earlier and it looks like it rained a small amount here, but whatever storm there was seems to have passed.
My friend Michael Dell sent me the link to a motorcycle trailer he found for sale on Craig's List. This looks like it would be an ideal motorcycle trailer for my upcoming trip:
It looks like it would hold quite a lot of stuff, and it also has the added advantage of having a deck for a small ice chest.
The only problem with it is that the seller is in Michigan, and I'd have to have it shipped to Arkansas. On the other hand, I'll likely have to have any motorcycle trailer that I buy shipped to Arkansas so that's going to be something I'm going to have to deal with one way or another.
11.06.2008Cold and windy Evanston, WyomingI woke up about 10:00 AM Mountain time. I parked at the eastbound side Wyoming scale near Evanston on I-80.
It's cold and windy here. I bet the people that live around here are wondering if summer is going to forget them this time around.
11.06.2008Pushed hard across Nevada todayDriving east on I-80 at Elko, Nevada.
I spent last night at some little place called Gold Run, California. I got underway around 1:30 PM Central time and apart from stopping for fuel and something to eat, I pushed on across the rest of California over Donner Pass on across Nevada, Utah and have stopped to spend the night at the state line Wyoming scales. At least Wyoming has a large parking lot in their state scale facility and the people in the state scales dealing with truck drivers are always as friendly as can be. In Wyoming if your truck isn't equipped with an electronic "Pre-Pass" they want you to bring your truck registration in so they can document the trip across the state, along with wanting to know what you are hauling.
Driving East on I-80 from Elko, Nevada. If you look carefully you can see snow on the mountains in the distance through my truck's buggy windshield.
I'm shocked by the cold temperatures here at Evanston, Wyoming -- it's actually all the way down to 38 degrees. I've had to go from air conditioning back over to heat with the optimized idle.
10.06.2008Enjoyable afternoon and eveningAfter the load got loaded at Union City, California, my friend MZ, a.k.a. Michael Zwerling, met me at a place on a side street where I could safely park my truck so we could get something to eat and hang out a bit. Here's a picture of MZ I took while he was driving:
After we ate at a Chinese restaruant we went to MZ's house and I worked on re-installing Windows on his 24" iMac:
Michael's neighbor Larry Wagner was hanging out with us while I was reinstalling Windows XP on the iMac in VMware Fusion:
After I left there I had to stop in Sacramento, California to get diesel fuel. This picture is a bit dark, but this is the first time EVER I've bought diesel that was $4.999 per gallon. Where in the world did the idea of pricing gasoline always ending at 9/10's of a cent ever come up at?
I've stopped for the night at a small fuel stop in the Donner Pass area along I-80 near the California-Nevada border. I'm going to have to push fairly hard over the next few days to make it to Minooka, Illinois by Friday at 10:00 AM to deliver this load.
09.06.2008Union City, California
I'm currently backed into the dock waiting to get loaded at U.S. Cold Storage in Union City, California. The place is located in a sort of industrial park type area, but I guess since it's located in town they have limited parking. The street out front allows parking along the sides of the street, but is posted no parking for commercial vehicles over 3 tons. Despite being posted this way there seem to be plenty of big trucks parked along the sides of the street so apparently the city doesn't enforce the no parking rule for large, heavy commercial vehicles.
Where to park a truck for more than a few minutes is a never-ending problem that no one ever thinks about unless they have driven a truck.
09.06.2008A Friend Called...Synchronicity. It's interesting when things end up just sort of happening and fitting together for no apparent reason.
After I got unloaded at Tracy earlier this evening, I was offered two loads. I ended up selecting the one loading in Union City, CA in the San Francisco area.
Later, my friend Michael Zwerling that lives in the San Francisco Bay area happened to listen to my latest podcast and found out I was unloading in Tracy, CA, so he ended up calling to see if we might be able to get together for a meal.
So, it looks like I'll be able to get together with Michael for a meal sometime tomorrow and catch up on stuff. I couldn't have planned it better. Serindipity can be an awesome thing!
08.06.2008What the load turned out to be...
The bills of lading for the load I'm currently unloading at Tracy, California were pretty non-descript, mentioning something about "baked goods" of some sort with a bunch of product numbers.
When I opened the trailer doors I discovered that I had a load of Kellog's Rice Crispy "Treats."
The name "Rice Crispy Treats" has always sort of bugged me. Why do people give treats to both dogs and kids? Do dogs and kids have something in common?
08.06.2008Waiting to unload at Tracy, California
I arrived at Tracy, California about 45 minutes ago, or about 6:30 PM local Pacific time.
The place is apparently too new to be in the GPS databases. I tried calling them and actually got a hold of someone on the phone, but he didn't have a clue where he was at, he could get from Stockton to Tracy to work and back and that was it, he knew nothing else. I looked at the map a third time and figured out how to get here. When I got here, the guard was rather unhelpful -- he told me to come back at 8:00 PM, which is about 45 minutes from now.
I started recording my podcast earlier. Now I think I've got a topic to talk about for the main segment -- why are some people as helpful as can be, while other people seem very unhelpful and oblivious as to the benefits of being helpful and giving of themselves to others.
08.06.2008Had time to make more changes.
I'm currently stopped and spending the night at Ludlow, California. Ludlow is a tiny desert outpost located along I-40 in southern California sort of out in the middle of nowhere in the desert. There's a couple of convenience stores and a small restaurant here, and that's just about it -- not a whole lot to Ludlow! I remember stopping at Ludlow a few times back in the late 1980's to eat at the restaurant and use the pay phones. The pay phones never did work right! Today, some 20 years later, there probably are no payphones. Sprint PCS works great out here in the middle of nowhere!
I spent some time this evening adding some pictures to the FAQ section of this site. The first two people also made the first two pixel area purchases proving that the PayPal functionality is working properly.
Now it's time to start promoting in order to give this site as much value as possible to the advertisers who have placed their confidence in my ability to promote and thus make their ad buys here worthwhile!
07.06.2008Site Is Up & Script InstalledPixelbiker.Com is finally up and the Million Pixel Script Pro is finally installed. At this point I've got a bunch of work to do customizing the site so I can start publicizing it!
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