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Recently I have been disappointed in how hard it has been to really find an online review with any real content. Usually the reviews that people find when they spend just a few minutes of time online are written by a hired copy writer with the intent to gain profit. I would like to offer up a few reviews here and there on things I purchase or use. The following is for the motorcycle listed in the title of the article. To warn you, it really won’t have a ton of critical and negative information since I have love almost everything about the bike.

The Size

I was initially pretty worried about getting a bike with such a large motor, largely in part because of the sheer weight which drops in at 641 lbs. and the possibility of having too much power. When I started test driving them though, it was immediately apparent that Honda did an excellent job of balancing everything to make the bike extremely smooth and easy to handle. If you stand the bike up straight to move it with out starting it, or just take it out on a ride, you will notice it feels like a much lighter motorcycle than it really is but with the benefit of actually weighing more. Yes, there are a lot of benefits to having a bike that weighs more. Freeway driving is more solid even in windy conditions; pot holes and debris are less likely to affect steering, passenger weight effects handling less, etc. This is the largest motorcycle I have ever driven, but I have gone on plenty of rides on smaller bikes and have had absolutely no problem adjusting to the total 1312 cc’s my VTX has.

I am 6′4″ and really wanted a bike I fit on well because I feel so ridiculous on 750’s and 1100’s, like riding a 12 year old kids BMX bike. Personally I think I am still just a tad too tall for the bike, but nothing an adjustment on the handle-bars and foot pegs won’t fix. The turning radius isn’t quite as good as an 1100cc (Sabre) or 750cc (shadow) but still turns and corners quite well. The seat is only 27.46 inches off the ground so the ride is comfortably low to the ground but not too low. I test drove a Yamaha V Star 1100, V Star 1300, Kawasaki Vulcan, Honda Sabre 1100, and Honda Spirit 1100.

The Power

Riding this bike has been more enjoyable than any other bike I have ever driven. The 1312cc liquid cooled 52-degree V-twin comes with a SOHC valve train with three valves per cylinder. It has a 5-speed transmission, and power gets from the motor to the road over a drive shaft, rather than a chain. When I request power from the motor it gives me plenty, even at 110 MPH there is plenty of response still left. What is even more impressive, is when I was cruising in 3rd gear at about 40 mph and just floored it to get comfortably ahead of a car, the motor sent enough power to the rear tire, the bike actually peeled out. Peeling out from, just from speeding up while I was already going a decent speed . . yeah. . . plenty of power (which can still be used in moderation of course). Honda makes excellent vehicles and motorcycles, and the 2007 Honda VTX 1300c is definitely one of their best. Very low maintenance needed. The rear suspension has dual shocks that have 5 position spring pre-load adjust-ability, and using a tool kit built into the bike adjusting between these 5 positions is a breeze which is nice for the different comfort ride I want for free way use or taking a passenger on a ride.

Regardless of motor size, braking power is a huge requirement on any street motorcycle. My VTX 1300 has a 336mm disc brake with twin-piston calipers in the front, and 296mm disc brake with a single-piston caliper in the rear. Stopping and braking control isn’t a problem for me at all with these massive brakes. I really have been quite impressed with the response and maintained control when I need to make a quick stop.

The Style

The 2006 and 2007 line of Honda VTX 1300 models have three variations. The 1300R, 1300S, and 1300C. Each model from each year has its own line of color options on top of styling variations which is found in fender designs, rim size and designs, and handle bars. All three bikes have the same size of rear tire (15″ rim), but the front tire on the R and S are 17″, while the C has a sporty 19″. Like I was when I first test drove the VTX 1300, anyone who is used to riding smaller bikes will immediately notice how wide the gas tank is. Definitely not as big as the Honda or Kawasaki 1800 series bikes, but still wide none-the-less. Since styling is the only real difference between the three different 1300 models, my personal styling preference was to get the 1300c. I entertained the other models initially, but there isn’t a question any more that the C has better rims ( pretty frigging hot cast wheels as opposed to spokes that come on the S which I am not a fan of at all ), better handle bar styling, better color options- I got the Pearl Dark Blue on my 1300c, and much, much more attractive fenders.

The Bad

Two small hex-screws fell off the bike with in the first 20 miles of riding it. One is on the Odometer/Gas Tank plate and caused a horrible rattling noise. The noise was actually pretty annoying since I put 300 miles on it in the first 24 hours. The other screw was one of the two that held my license plate cover on, so not a big deal. They were both fixed on the first business day after I bought it. The headlight is pointed more up rather than down currently, and the speedometer is off a little bit. Monarch Honda in Orem, UT where I bought it offered to adjust the headlight, also not really a big deal. The speedometer though is a little annoying, and Monarch bike-techs said there was nothing that can be done. I intend to prove that statement false.

If you are considering getting a used 2006 or 2007 Honda VTX make sure the initial owners did the 600 mile tune-up. This is extremely critical. It’s not just doing the valve adjustment new bikes need, it’s removing and changing the oil that gets pretty full of metal filings caused by a new motor wearing in. Even if that was ignored and the oil was changed around 2000 or 3000 miles, plenty of damage was probably caused with the metal-filing-full oil that should have been swapped out. Not really my problem since the Odometer actually read “0 miles” when I drove it off the lot.

The 2007 Honda VTX 1300 Review Rundown

I really enjoy how smooth it drives. The Pearl Dark Blue looks amazing out on the road. The cornering and turns are great compared other 1300cc bikes, or ones close to it in size. The Passenger seat is a little narrow but I plan on getting a new one soon enough. There is lots of Chrome from front to back. Driver seat is comfortable and well positioned. Everyone driving around their 750’s and 800’s regardless of if it’s a Harley, Honda or whatever always turn their head and gawk. Stock pipes aren’t loud, but are big, beautiful and add a lot more chrome. They (the exhaust) seem to really be a trouble spot on collecting light scratches and that nasty chrome rust stuff that looks like brown spots. I decided to buckle down and really learn how to repair them, and wrote a tutorial on How To Repair and Remove Scratches from Chrome Exhaust. Owning your motorcycle for longer than just the summer time is pretty common. This Honda VTX is my first motorcycle, so I also spent some time learning how to prepare my motorcycle for winter weather and storage.

Check Out Honda Motorcycles Official Website for more info.

Check out my wallpapers of this picture. You can click on the image to be taken to the wallpaper versions of this picture.
-jon

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Grab the blue bar and drag it left and right to get a 360 shot of the bunny cake design.

My co-worker Devin, who operates Printer Hacks has been doing 360 product images for the company we work for, Sewell Direct. When our company C.O.O. had his birthday recently, his wife slaved all night making a cake in the shape of a bunny. They enjoy bunnies and rabbits in a way I don’t understand, but the cake was perfect. Don’t act like you aren’t impressed. Before we devoured the masterful rounded mass of baked dough and frosting, Devin was kind enough to immortalize this cake forever. A few people started getting emotional when it came time to cut the cake, but they got over it as everyone unanimously agreed the the rich, tender bunny goodness tingled our taste buds in a way few cakes have.

Getting a bunny cake that looks decent is a pretty hard task. Do a Google image search for Bunny Cake and you will see designs that are mediocre at best. This bunny cake though, was well crafted and cared for from initial concept through creation to consumption. If you are looking for a great design for a bunny cake this is the one because of it’s shape, bunny position, frosting colors and over-all appeal.

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Soon I will be posting a list of pranks on co-workers that have been pulled here in the office I work in, as well as pranks that will/should be pulled on co-workers. This post though is all about the ease and comfort of installing a quick Macro program which is really easy to use, and quick to install on a co-workers computer, and usually gets a good laugh (or a pissed off co-worker.) Please Macro responsibly.

It’s important to have a quick install macro because most of the time there is only a few minutes to get it on someone’s computer, fully installed, and then set up and choose what actions you want it to perform. Where I work though, the time we get to install the macro and mess with things is usually a little longer than average, because it is when a co-worker goes to play ping-pong and forgets to lock their computer.

There are millions (slight over-exaggeration) of easy install Macro’s you can download. The one I use for the pranks I pull on my co-workers is called amem5a. You can download EZ Macro amem5a at that link, or just search for the name on the Googlebot.

There are two ways to get this on your computer in an easy, swift manner which is important when you don’t have a lot of time to pull some pranks. The shorter time a co-worker is away from their desk, the less likely they are to think you have done something. You can send an instant message to their computer with a link to the download from the internet, just make sure you remember to close the window before you are done. One that my co-worker has done is actually storing the program and installing it from our internal network drive, (you can always throw it on a thumb drive too.)

For EZ Macros amem5 you might want to get familiar with exactly how it works so this prank on your co-worker goes smooth. It’s a free trial type of deal, so there is a few windows you have to click through to actually get to the program. Look at the many, many options you have and choose what you feel might do the most damage.

I always enjoy setting it to open up a long list of the largest and most annoying programs (open a few different anti-virus programs) just from hitting a single key stroke. This gives away that a prank has definitely been pulled on them. Maybe you can just have the key stroke open up notepad, then another key stroke opens up Internet Explorer. Have random things open up and watch the frustration build. It’s a fun idea to put the macro in the start-up in case they are dumb enough to forget to fully uninstall it.

This small little program doesn’t do it all but it allows you to use hot keys to launch macros, sets certain words that are typed that will launch macros, use certain programs being opened to launch macro’s, you can launch a list of programs using any action, have amam5 remember mouse and keyboard events (then they replay so it appears the computer is being remotely controlled), time delay a macro launch after a keystroke or mouse event, and more.

This program has an “install macro’s and hide” option that also allows for slight hidden operation. You co-workers won’t see this coming if they don’t have any experience using any type of macro’s.

Enjoy, and may your pranks on co-workers continue to flourish and provide laughs as your pranks drive a wedge between you and the poor co-workers you decide to pick on.

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Who wants to make a .gif like this with me . . . except better?

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In case you need some explaining, below you will find a couple websites with links, descriptions and maybe some images of those websites which I have recently stumbled upon and enjoyed, so I decided to share them.

The One Man Band by Pixar
Pixar has made some hilarious short films, or at least bought some short films and put their name on it. This one is called “The One Man Band”. It’s a funny video and goes with the great line up of video shorts we have seen over the years from Pixar. The links in the title or on the picture lead to a stumbleupon video page where this film can be viewed, but it is still hosted on YouTube so if it is blocked at your place of employment you will have to wait to see this one at home. (assuming you have internet there). It is about 4 Min and 30 seconds long.

The Hubble UDF Skywalker

NASA and the Hubble telescope have really been accredited for providing amazing images of our universe and deepening our understanding in many different ways. When we look up at the sky and see the stars spread out in our view, we don’t really get to see most of the real beauty out there. Realizing that there are billions of galaxies near our region of the universe, NASA used the Hubble to take 800 large frames using it’s deep space reach to look outside of The Milky Way. It was able to capture over 10,000 Galaxies. They provided us with a very simple website using a simple tool to be able to see these images. There are really beautiful pictures of some galaxy clusters. Keep in mind that the Hubble UDF Skywalker only took this of 10,000 galaxies when in our region of the universe there are over 50 billion.

The Blue Ball Machine

Pick a ball among the thousands and watch it’s path if you can. If you are the type of person to get sick from over-stimulation this isn’t the site for you. Click on the image to the left, and it will expand a screen shot to a larger view, but go the the actual website for the real fun.

An Awesome/Unique Blog

When I have a ton of time to waste on setting up a random site, I think something like this guy’s site on www.phatterism.com would be pretty friggin cool. It has a decent page rank despite not being SEO friendly, but keep in mind that from google’s perspective this guy has basically no content. The URL never changes, it’s basically the same front page the entire time. Anyhoo, go and click around on things though and see how stuff works.

The Zefrank Scribbler

Zefrank has had some pretty cool stuff. One of the pages that is just random, and fun to screw around on is called the Scribbler.
This is simple and still fun to use. Make a drawing of any kind using your cursor in the box, change a couple of setting, and it makes something based off of your drawing. Of course I figured out how hard it is to accurately draw anything using my MacBook touch pad, either that or I just have the artistic ability of an infant.

Everything comes out looking like a 4 years old scribbled it. Which is why it is called what it is. I did one drawing shown here with all the circles, and then found some that other people have done in the gallery they have on The Scribbler’s page. Go to their website HERE and try it out.

Don’t get frustrated when things don’t turn out exactly like you want them to, the best you can do is just try to organize the scribbling. When you finally get something down you like show off some of your stuff in a comment.

The Man In The Dark

Another website with a simple purpose. Go to the link above or HERE and just move your cursor around the screen. Sorry, this one doesn’t have a crappy screen shot just a link to it.

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This is not written to be the article that Lois Lane wrote in the recent movie, but you are more than welcome to read it from whatever perspective you wish. Her story won a Pulitzer in the fake world. I doubt I will ever write anything Pulitzer worthy, but feel free to remind me that my writing skills need a fairly large amount of improvement and be sure to mention I won’t ever win the Pulitzer. I don’t have the same readers as The Daily Planet, and I don’t live in Metropolis. To those random visitors I keep getting from Australia and England, Norway and Canada- please feel free to comment some time. If you must know though, yes, the story Lois Lane wrote in the recent Superman movie did inspire this ridiculous blog post.

The Story

When I think ‘why the world doesn’t need Superman’, I know he doesn’t exist. We create Movies, TV shows, cartoons, comic books, etc. around a character that isn’t real, but there is obviously a need and market for him because of the amount of media that is consistently produced. So as I discuss why the world doesn’t need “Superman” I may talk about why we do/don’t need the character and media surrounding him in our world. Superman was initially just a concept and character that was created by Jerry Siegel and Canadian artist Joe Shuster in 1933. Published by DC (Detective Comics). Since then, there are many volumes of different kinds of media surrounding him.

Why Do Many In Our Society Enjoy This Particular Fictitious Character?

As I was growing up, I always enjoyed movies and other media content that showed people with powers beyond the the limits of a normal human, or at least people and characters that had perfected a skill. The Flash, Batman, The Hulk, Wolverine, Superman, The Karate Kid, SpiderMan, Alex Mack, The Green Lantern, Iron Man, Captain Planet, and lets not forget the most important duo of all; Pikachu/Chuck Norris.

Many of them ( knowingly not all ) have a strong moral code and a secret identity that presents them as normal during the times their super powers aren’t needed. Clark Kent is a pretty famous one, considering we are discussing the need for Superman. This is probably incorporated into the characters life to make them easy to relate to, more believable, which is also why they all have at least one flaw or weakness ( to make them appear imperfect like we are ). Most of us probably want a secret power or two, and Superman has most of the ones that are on the favorite super powers list, making him again, even more appealing. Honestly though, most every country with citizens who can read and are allowed to read, have Superhero’s of some kind ( I enjoyed reading some of the Super-Heroes on Wikipedia that other countries have). Still, even 3rd world countries even have (Read the article)

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Mark Cuban’s Blog recently talked about how oscar.com is frustrated with YouTube for all The Academy Awards TV clips that have made it online since the show aired on a recent Sunday. There was over 200,000 views on just one of the video clips. In reaction, oscar.com didn’t take the route and to corroborate with YouTube to be able to control the marketing and clips like NBC did after the SNL “lazy sunday” video got huge.

They have filed law-suits and sent ‘cease and desists” to YouTube because they wanted user to watch these video’s on their website. Most of you should probably think oscar.com is absolutely retarded because YouTube was offering free advertising which obviously reached a large number of people. Oscar.com and The Academy Awards aren’t trying to sell media content on their site, they are trying to sell the brand. If they were trying to sell media content then obviously having the same content for free on YouTube is a bad idea, but when they are trying to sell the brand? Their advertising goal is just to provide free video clips so people will be more interested in watching next year and just remember and associate the brand basically. YouTube is very effective at reaching a lot of people, especially considering that in just a few days hundreds of thousands of people saw the exact same video clip.

One point Mark Cuban made that I thought was brilliant, was if oscar.com really wanted to plan things out to advertise really well, they would just lose the expensive lawyers they have to pay for this law suit, and hire a bunch of interns to upload controlled video clips to YouTube all day. Using random tags as well as relevant ones, and taking screen shots that might be misleading to what the actual video is. This is how companies actually use YouTube for free advertising all the time. Short commercials at the beginning of the clip, or a still image like a company name or website URL being shown constantly through the video. The oscar.com staff wasn’t going to charge anyone to watch the video’s on their site, just wanted to control the content better. n00bs. Yes, they can do this very thing on YouTube, and most people go to YouTube to find video clips anyway. YouTube really has become the standard for online video watching, at least for now.

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One of the comedians that I have really enjoyed is Brian Regan. The first time I watched his “I walked on the Moon” DVD I laughed so hard I almost cried. I bought a couple copies of the DVD and gave it to friends and family. My family especially loved him. His humor hits home because his jokes about real life things, which me and pretty much everyone raised in America can relate to. He has a clean humor and manages a whole set with out cussing or discussing the usual comedian dirt.

One fact of life, is that I go to the hospital pretty often. I don’t want to, it just happens. Brian Regan re-tells one of his experiences going to the ER which has forever changed the way I view my experiences in the hospital. I could be in the worst pain imaginable, but when the Nurse asks me to rate my pain, I at least crack a smile and usually bust up laughing.

I not only recommend his DVD and Audio CD’s, but I think everyone should become well acquainted with his stuff. You can get it as well as fan gear through a website devoted to Brian Regan called allregan.com which also happens to have many videos of his comedic skits so you can preview his stuff.

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Think of the most impact-ful, global-effecting events which have taken place to this point in 2007. If you immediately start thinking of the release of the iPhone, LED TV’s, Vista, Ghost Rider, Quantum Comps, Snakes on a Plane DVD, Taste Of Chaos Tour or if you even think of such vast impacting things as Senator Clinton’s Presidential ambitions or even the re-design of Fruit Roll-ups you have it all wrong, dead wrong.

Elgor, son of Arthos, son of Bametrix, Son of Maximus Decimis Surealist has summoned us all for the reckoning, or rather just to tell us that the one of America’s lowest life forms has now gone absolutely nuts. We knew she was crazy back when she married someone who was absolutely white trash, “Life comes at you fast K-Fed” and then actually had two kids with him. We most definitely thought she belonged in a turd farm when she repeatedly admits going to rehab centers (even while pregnant), or when she threw up all over herself in a club. For everyone who hates the pop world and everything it represents, she has been someone we make fun of, maybe not as much as Jessica Simpson (I had a can of “chicken of the sea” for dinner the other night BTW) but Britney Spears has really made me question where America really prioritizes the news we hear about. What has she done to remind me yet again that America cares more about our blond pop-stars than it does about a War we need to end, the millions of people still displaced from disasters, or the Department of Defense’s multiple attempts to convince us we need another 1300 nuclear warheads?

Enter: Bald Britney Spears. The News has been almost impossible to watch this past weekend because every story was about how America’s dream child went to rehab yet again, quit after a day and then decided to shave her head and get some more tats. Sure, she can do what she wants with out me really caring, it’s always enjoyable to have a celebrity be absolutely bonkers. I do kind of hate it though when this is all people care about and talk about on the news. It is not news. It is something I will really enjoy watching being made fun of on Conan, Kimmel, Stewart and Colbert. Inside I secretly wish celebrities lose all their marbles and doing the dumbest things we can imagine, because it feeds the comedians. They love it, and I enjoy their shameless side-splitting jokes about it.

I guess the funniest thing about the whole event, was actually Britney WANTED the press and fans to be there. Everyone has been suckered by another celebrity catching the news stations off guard and praying for another spread in the Enquirer, Star, Globe, Examiner. Prepare to see that bald head every time you go to the gas station or grocery store check out lines. Which gives me a break from Tom, Angelina, Rosie, Donald, Oprah, Brad, etc etc. She needed another stint to be in more tabloids and be the center of our news. She did an amazing job of it to. Sure the Paparazzi follow her all the time, but why did she choose to shave her head PUBLIC? Decided against doing it at home? Be serious. She’s staring at the camera man in the picture above and is happy everyone is going to be obsessed with her yet-again. She’s doing the same thing every pop-star before her has done: Make money; get famous; do absolutely ridiculous stuff. In retrospect, I have to say she has done something right though, since here I am writing about how stupid she is, guess I have been duped.

You hear Anna Nicole died?

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