I am trying very hard not to read every article of "Jay Leno's Garage" column in Popular Mechanics. I'm at work today and I should be working. But I keeping finding myself reading it, and thinking, I'll just finish reading this article and then I will go back to work. Most people know Jay as the host of the Tonight Show and as a stand up comedian.  However most car guys know that he has a garage to drool over.  I just found his column today while reading another article in Popular Mechanics on Alternative fuels.

Enter Bernard Juchli, foreman of the "Jay Leno More-Money-Than-Brains Garage." Bernard has built numerous race-winning cars and worked on many projects over the years. He took one look at this project and said, "Just shoot me now." -- Jay Leno

This is my favorite quote so far and it is from the article "Now That's a Hot Rod" a hand built hot rod with an 800+ bhp 1560 ft-lb of torque engine out of a M-47 Patton Tank.

Have a quick read, it's some fun stuff.

I have my iPod sitting here next to my laptop, and I am listening to Ravel's Bolero. The first piece of classical music I can remember listening to and simply loving. Bolero has been in my music collection ever since I've had a music collection, and I've had one for a long time. I was the kid in Jr. High that saved his money up to buy music. Tonight I was reminded of this amazing piece while reading an article in Wired. The article is entitled: "My Bionic Quest for Bolero". "With one listen, I was hooked. I was a 15-year-old suburban New Jersey nerd..."  The article is an amazing piece about a man who lost his hearing, but not his drive to hear Bolero again and all of the trials he went through to hear it again.

That first line in the article reminded me of my first time listening to Bolero, I was at my Grandparents house, my Dad's Mom and Dad, standing at my Dad's side, in their leaving room and Granddad put on this record and turned it up loud. I could feel the drums in my chest, and I had goose bumps on my arms and legs, I couldn't believe the sound that was coming out of the speakers. I kept looking up at my Dad and Granddad, they stood in the middle of livingroom, eyes closed and I could see that they could feel every note, and there was a smile that came when a new instrument would coming in, the oboes came in and it was subtle and yet felt like getting hit with a ton of bricks, this music was just so intense, and it kept building. The build up in the piece is so intense that I kept waiting for it to end and wishing it wouldn't at the same time. I was 8 or 9 at the time, so I wasn't able to put my feelings about this piece of music in to words, or the wonderful feeling of sharing the music and the moment with my Dad and Granddad.

Granddad and Grandma are moving back up to our neighborhood, they'll be a block or so from Mom and Dad, I feel certain one of the things we'll do while moving them in to their new place will be to dust of the albums set up the turntable and give Ravel's Bolero a quick spin.

As I mentioned earlier, I am a motorcycle guy. I grew up being a motorcycle guy, because my Dad is a motorcycle guy. His favorite brand is Honda, even though he currently has a 2001 Triumph Daytona 999i, so of course Honda is my favorite brand too. As I got older also started to gravitate towards the one-offs. The machines that was built for one season of racing, or because someone had an idea on how to do it different. Dr. Tuluie's Tul-Aris 780, an innovative frame and suspension system of his own design, mated to a 780cc 150bhp snowmobile motor and a custom designed transmission system (snowmobiles don't have transmissions like motorcycles, they use a centrifigual clutch, or CVT (constant volecity transmission). His transmission has a carbon fiber case, very exotic design to say the least.

Well surfing around this afternoon I found a great little video of another one-off a, six cylinder 250cc GP bike called the honda RC174 that was originally built in 1966. This one is a replica made by George Beale, man the sound of it is amazing. Check it out and let me know what you think.

“It’s funny that pirates were always going around searching for treasure, and they never realized that the real treasure was the fond memories they were creating.”

-- Jack Handey

So the stepdaughter a while back brought a mama cat home that she rescued from something or somewhere, I don't remember as I stopped listening to anything after hearing "I brought a cat home."  Now don't get me wrong, I love animals and I have special place in my heart for cats. I loved my cat Rufus, he was my buddy and I still miss him.

So the mama cat gave birth to kittens as this what mama cats do. The kittens were given away when they were the right age except for one that we've call "Kamakize". Not my favorite animal in the whole world, as he is the animal equivalent of that really annoying kid in the grocery store that throws things in the middle of the isle as you are trying to walk past, and laughs when your cart hits the box of oatmeal he just chucked. I not sure how he got that name but I suspect it has to do with the way that he hides under things and attacks your feet when you walk by. Anyhow, "Kamakize" gets neutered and of course we go to get the mama cat spayed and she was pregant again. So she had six little grey long haired kittens. Now when I walk to the train in the morning I look at all the cats in the neighborhood, and I yell at any grey long haired cats walking around, "you owe me money".

Well as I posted earlier, I am home sick with a cold. So I am sitting around watching daytime television. First, lets just say that I am pretty sure that I've lost brain cells from this stuff. After a couple of hours of watching Maury, Jerry and Montel I was looking forward to Jakers, as it is more intellectually stimulating than the previous shows. However while I was watching Maury, a episode called "Who's your Daddy" where a women who brought eight guys on the show to have a paternity test, it made me think, I wonder if I can round up the neighborhood cats and take them on Maury to find out which one is the Daddy. It's gotta be easier than the show I was watching as it can only be one of four cats that are the Daddy.

Walking to the kitchen to get some coffee, I saw the dog, followed by the mama cat, followed by Kamakize, followed by the alpha kitten and thought "What a Menagerie!"

Some of you know that besides being a code monkey, I am also a car and motorcycle guy. Yes I know, now I don't talk incesently about cars or motorcycles, but I can. I just choose not to as to not bore the general public, but I got to thinking, if my C# code ramblings don't put you to sleep, I'm sure a post about a car or bike every now and again isn't going to bore you to tears either. Besides there are already posts about that kind of stuff here, they've just been cleverly disgusted. Remember the post about Fuzzy? Hate to break it to you,  but that post was about a Bike that my Dad, Brothers and I turned into a quad. So anyhow, I've added two new categories, cars and motorcycles. Speaking of motorcycles, Ed turned me on to a great new motorcycle news blog called The KneeSlider, if that kind of stuff interest you, check it out.

We'll since I am confessing to be a car guy (don't worry this isn't a shock to my Beautiful Wife, she already knew), I have to tell you that sleeper cars are my favorites. A sleeper for those of you that don't know is a car that looks like your granddad's car (Not my Granddad he's a Kelly and therefore has a pretty hot Avalon, you've probably seen him, he's the guy in the silver car that passed you in the fast lane... Love you Grandpa!!!) that is faster than the camaro down the street, you know the one that the guy is always cleaning on the lawn with a cloth diaper while he lovingly rubs the fenders and looks adoringly at it. Surfin' the net this morning I found a great example of a sleeper from one of my favorite shows. It's called TopGear and it's a BBC show that is only on cable/sat here in the US, and being that I have neither of those, I watch it online. TopGear isn't your typical Automotive show as people that don't even like cars are entertained by it. That is because the host Jeremy Clarkson, is funny, entertaining, informative and can poke fun at himself. Anyhow I hope you enjoy, the video of a Mitsubishi Lancer four door, keeping up with a Lamborghini Gallardo.

I have a cold, a kick your butt, nose won't stop running, sinse pressure arisin' cold. So I am sitting in bed (I love my wireless network) watching "Deal or No Deal" rooting for a women who's giving half of the money she wins to the Special Olympics, and sweating my face off. In this cold induced state I have questions floating through my head. So I will list them here for you in no particular order.

• Why is it that the common cold isn't cured yet?
• Why is a square of toliet paper smaller them a square of facial tissue?
• Why am I watching "Deal or No Deal"?
• How am I not asleep yet?
• Should I build a HTPC (Home Theater PC)?

But I mostly wonder about the toliet paper verses the facial tissue one the most.