Its the final hours of Desert bus for hope 8. Yet again folks across the internet have pitched into raise a bus load of money to make childhood suck less for children around the world. It looks like it will all be over in 3 hours. That is unless something crazy happens like Notch, of Minecraft fame, wins another packet of silica gel in a last minute auction for $10,000. No joke, https://twitter.com/notch/status/41.....00736055640065 . Notch is a very charitable man. All of the money goes to a great cause.

If you want to join in the final hours come to http://www.Desertbus.org .

After the marathon has finished you can make donations to http://www.childsplaycharity.org/ .

Edit: A fun stat was pointed out they are raising money at an average rate of over a dollar per second.

Edit sooo umm yeah $627k+ get. Umm so another hour was added. 158 hours total atm.

This is why I look forward to this marathon every year. This evening in the same building there is a party going on. Its right on the other side of the wall. They decided to send a conga line out and through the other party. I don't why they decided to this it could have been a challenge from the chat.

Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z1AUf92-ag&feature=youtu.be

About 4 minutes later a couple of men in suits from the government show up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpnXHFd4bgI&feature=youtu.be

Anything can happen during this marathon.. Anything.

They have roughly have 24 hours left to go. Maybe a little more.

79+ hours in and over $250,000 raised so far. By the numbers that puts them $50k ahead of where they were this time last year. They have also reached the lifetime donation total of over $2 Million dollars. I've forgot to post this before here is a video brief of what's all going on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq5zv3I9hxQ .

This year they were also just interviewed by a member of NPR news. Currently I don't think they've said when it will be aired. This isn't the first time they have made the news. Last year they were interviewed by Al Jazeera America. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCDLNlP73g8 )

I should add their next guest Ken "Value Added" Stacy. What he auctions off are art prints sometimes originals of artwork that he has done for Marvel and Lucas studios. The auctions sometimes get pretty nuts with last minute add ons and smack talk going on in chat. This will be at 6 PM PST.

Something new for Child's Play (http://www.childsplaycharity.org/about) the charity all the money raised is going to they now also sending items to domestic violence shelters along with childrens hospitals.

They gave a good story as to these items get used by hospitals. I am going to relay as best I can. Something that has been done with cases of children in isolation or traumatic family events where parents and children are ending up in separate facilities for treatment hospitals have been setting up bed side Face time calls using donated Ipads. These are left running 24/7 so that kids will have constant contact with their family.

This year also Childs now has a lifetime donations counter on their page ($25+ million). By the numbers atm Desert Bus for Hope Marathon has raised closed to 1 out of every 13 dollars that comes into the charity.

Not bad for something that started with 4 guys in a basement.

Please check out the fun at Desertbus.org if you can't donate any money just spread the word.

The 8th annual Desert Bus for Hope Marathon starts 11/14 10am PST. Loading Ready run and an ever growing army of volunteers will be raising money for the Childs Play charity to provide books, games, movies and more for children's hospitals worldwide. Last years marathon raised over half a million dollars in just under 7 days.

If any of you have ever had to stay in hospital for a time you know how boring it can be. The main purpose of this charity is to provide entertainment for children in hospitals to make their stay suck less.

The crew of this marathon will be playing the game Desert Bus while also complete various challenges posed by the viewser. There will also live and silent auctions going on of handcrafted items and items donated from various video and tabletop gaming companies. There will be also guest call ins during the event. Its very entertaining time and rather hard to describe. This is something I look forward to every year.

Please check out the action at http://desertbus.org/.

I also apologies as I will be posting updates about this all week.

My mother came down with C-diff again last thursday. I guess she was never really past it the first time. It hit her harder this time. We decided to not go visiting family because this was a possibility two weekends ago. My sister was going to visit us this past weekend until it actually hit. From what has been described my mother may have to deal with this for the rest of her life.

I've been joining in a global augmented reality game. Its called Ingress. Basicly an untold number of locations around the world have been marked as control points for the two factions of the game to fight over. There are about 3 dozen points within a mile of where I live. Most of these are historical markers. So you end up learning more about the place you live or visit. Its fun and gets a person out and moving. The downside is like any game people can take it too seriously. One bad apple spoils the bunch as the saying goes.

I've read through  sethtriggs graphic novel series that he's been posting on here. It really makes a person think about their approaches to forming and maintaining relationships. I have a bit to learn yet. This is something I would suggest reading.

Its probably just from depression but I can't seem to get enough sleep. When I sleep its deep restful sleep. I just can't seem to stop sleeping.

http://cheezburger.com/8354348800

Edit:

Maybe they could have these at cons instead of ball pits.

I've double checked it with todays trip I have now biked over 1000 miles this year. It adds up to about 1022 miles from the number in my journals. Maybe I get that number up to 1500 next year. I've got a shopping list of things to get for next year. I need at least one new tire. The tread on one of the new ones I bought this year has about had it. New biking gloves, I've worn out my step dads old ones. New pads for my handle bars. A comfortable bike seat for my mountain bike. Another set of lights for my mountain bike. Bells for both bikes. Although I've worked out skidding my foot on the trail seems to get peoples attention faster. A pair of shorts and a hat.

Edit add another 3 34 mile trips, then a 7 1/2 mile one.

Well my mother has been in the hospital the past couple of days. She's been told its "Clostridium Difficile Colitis". In itself it does sound to bad but, she said every one the comes into the room is wearing hazmat suits.

Furlaxation was a blast. I did get to meet and kind of hang out with a few new furs. Wendell Wolf's birthday was that weekend. I had fun with that.  Punk_Cat gave me the idea of getting a birthday card signed by people at the con. So I spent part of it sneaking around a small Fur con with a card hidden on me. Want a fun game at a con? Try catch the fursuiter out of suit. The only down side to furlaxation is that it was ran like a first year event instead of a con in its 3rd year.

I also got out to the Morphicon picnic with Wendell last weekend. A good number of people showed up. It was a ok weather for it. It could have been a couple or degrees cooler for the suiters.

I will admit I have a strange reaction to fursuiters. If they're cute and or toony my inner child sees them as living plushies and wants nothing more than to take them home and cuddle the fluff out of them. The good news is I'm to awkward around people to interact with them.

Biking Sid another full trail (68 mile) trip with Wendell and another fur on Tuesday. Did 1/2 trip with Wendell bring a dog in his cart Sunday. Monday did the other half of that trip. I also did 37 miles today. The new estimate for milage is 825 miles. I think going for over 1,000 before the weather gets too bad is a worthwhile goal.

Edit

Add 15 miles and two 34 mile trips new number :908

Edit 10/05: 942 miles
edit 10/13: 976 miles

So this years Furlaxation is a go. This will be my second time at this con. The short and simple of a con meme, I'm staying at the con hotel. If you want to find me look for the guy with the light show in his tail. :) Also do not hug/glomp from behind, I'm a little jumpy.

---

Biking updates two 37 mile trips and a "30" mile one. I tried the trail with my new bike. The seat is not comfortable enough for that distance.


Today's run I managed to get up the hardest hill on the trail without walking up part of it. I didn't manage though to do all of the hills cleanly as my thumb got stuck under the shifter once :P What was also kind of cool at the point where I stopped before turning around two other guy stopped a little bit after me. The one commented that I was, "Making some serious time." That makes me pretty happy. I rarely ever pass or keep up with others on the trail.

I was able to get a hold of finance department at the local hospital last week. Today I received a letter with situation (ie: low income) ... and worthless insurance they have been able to declare me a charity case and they will be helping me with the costs. I have to call to see the amount that will be covered tomorrow. If I still have to pay off the $755.00 I'll be happy with that.

The guy that rents the apartment below mine offered to sell me his mountain bike a week or so ago for $100 bucks. I've bouncing around the idea of buying it off of him. Its a larger frame bike and my current / original one is a late 80's street bike. Its like looking at two completely different generations of bike. This Friday he spotted me and Wendell Wolf getting ready to just ride around town because the Library here closes too early. He offered the bike up again for $75 bucks.

On Saturday morning I decided to take my neighbor up on the bike. I did some basic maintenance on it. Wendell ended up stopping and helped me by showing me how to oil the cables and tune them. We ended up walking checking out the local lake. Neither of us had been there before. Its mainly a fishing lake out in the woods with a trail slightly better than a game trail around park of it.

Sunday I actually put the new bike to a bit of a trial. Wendell and I went biking like we have been doing except this time we biked up the hills around town. Honestly I wasn't able to bike the whole way up them. We visited the largest cemetery in town and a place he had done some construction work in the past. Its kind of strange in the cemetery it seems to be where a lot of people like to go to exercise and walk their dogs. Something I've never seen before was mausoleums cut into the hill of the cemetery. There was also one where they built a hill over the mausoleum itself.

On Monday I did the normal 30 mile trip on my original bike. After I got home from that trip Wendell texted me that a coworker of his might be interested in going biking. We meet up after they were done with work. Wendell's coworker had a few other things he needed to take care of that evening so he only joined us for a few miles. We however decided to continue on for the whole trip. At one point there we this orange and yellow thing with a flashing red light ahead of us on the trail. We pushed ourselves a bit harder to figure out what in the heck it was. It had to have been two miles before we could really work out what it was. What it ended up being was a man in a orange shirt with a yellow pull behind carriage for his kid. The red light we saw was actually a red flag that was catching the setting sun just perfect.

37 miles I can't remember which day.
30 miles Friday.
Unknown amount Sunday.
60 miles Monday.

On a complete side note I am rather grateful Wendell had the time to hand out as much as he did. I've been having some trouble with depression the past couple of weeks. I need to get out of this job.

I got just about to the halfway mark on my walk to work when it rain.It wasn't supposed to hit rain here so I didn't have my umbrella. So I'm sitting here waiting on my work pants to finish up in the drier. If it wasn't for the fact that I was walking to work it would have been fun. It was a nice summer rain. One Of my shoes did manage to come out dry... the rest of me... well..

To drained to type it out. 67.2 miles one day, biking with Wendell. I will update this some time Sunday.

So we started out just leaving early Saturday in an attempt to get to a restaurant at our normal destination. I rigged up a camera on my handlebars and set it to take pictures every once and awhile. This was just a test to see how it would work out.

We made it in good time and the food lived up to their reputation. There was supposed to be a storm that would hit us just as we got back into town. It had a different plan. It decided to strike while we were at the restaurant. When the rain had past we toyed with the idea of finishing the trail and going to the next city on it.

Wendell was told by someone the next section of trail was mostly open sky and not much tree cover. There was also no where on the trail to stop and refill/buy water It was a cool day and a little bit humid so we went for it.

This was another trip of animals running in front of our tires. What was unique this trip was that we saw snakes. All of them were garter snakes out warming themselves. We had one slither off the path as we went past. Stopping at a bridge we found another two. After that I nearly ran over a plump adult sized one on the path. I think I stopped about 15 inches from it. It was so cold that it didn't even react to us still I started to try to move it off the path with a pair of sticks.

We also had an incident with a deer. One section of the path that cut through a small hill. It was 4 foot or so on one side and maybe 10 or 12 feet on the other. We ended up spooking a deer there. This all happened in a manor of seconds. When It ran up the side it failed to clear the fence at the top of the cut. From what I saw it belly slammed it. After It freed its legs out of the fence it ran back across the path to the other side where it may have ran into another fence on that side. It cleared it on a second try.

Other animals we saw squirrels, rabbits, an opossum, llamas, cows, and bat.

We get to the city and what the trail passes through is an industrial park. It was composed of large clean quiet buildings and a wide rather flat road. For something called an industrial park it wasn't a bad looking place. After your got past the park a short section of trail leads you into the beautiful Tree park for lack of better term. It was a sidewalk that snaked through the cleared out area of trees. They were all large and there canopies block out the sunlight. The grounds were clean of litter forest or otherwise. It also had a wide shallow stream slowly flowing through it.

When we left this area the ran past the local water treatment plant. Across the road from that was a city part with a non-functional water fountain. This was a problem because we were running sort of daylight and were in the residential section of the city. There were no Minimarts or gas stations near there so we just ended up turning around and heading back.

Yeah I ran out of water on the way back. We made it back to the first town got ice cream and I got fluids in me. Then made our way back to my place. The boke seats we have are not comfortable enough for trips like that.

Last night I poked around on google maps to find a reachable place to refresh ourselves next trip.

Today and last Thursday were just typical rides. The repair work put it in good running order. The I no longer have to hold the rear gear lever in a certain position. I kind of miss that actually.

Sunday though Wendell Wolf and I did something a little different. Wendell designed and built a pull behind cart to bring his large dog along. Its quite well done there is one issue but he's already thought of a couple solutions for it.

So on this trip there were three of us Wendell his dog and myself. It was slow going as Wendell was now dealing with about twice his weight. With him pulling all that weight it took a lot longer then normal. Along the way a lot of people thought his large black dog was a bear. At one point someone drove past us three times before they noticed it was a dog.

On a side note by the numbers I've posted in these Journals I biked just shy of 400 miles.

Dropped my bike off at the local shop yesterday. They already were able to fix the rear derailleur and ended up with having to replace my rear wheel. It cost me about $38 for parts and labor. I'm back on the road now. I won't really get to test things till thursday.

Edit: Next on the to do list buy new pants and shoes.

So I am starting to get the paperwork in from my ER visit. I've got a letter from some group explaining how my insurance might handle things. My insurance company's website has a couple of claim entries from the hospital. These add up to $2,630.71. The good news is I'm covered for all but $755.89.... Well maybe, "You may owe" $755.89. I don't have an actual bill though.

I should qualify for the states low income medical program. So far this year my income puts me just at the poverty line. I'm going to check into my application on monday. If I don't qualify I should be able to put $50-75 a paycheck towards the amount.

Edit:

I should add I've made two half trips on the trail. One just to the halfway mark and back. The other was the full way but just as I was starting on my way back and my pedals jam. A quick adjustment to my rear derailleur and I was off. Then five feet later jammed again. Another adjustment and I was going again. It wasn't till I got back on the path I noticed I had a severe wobble. So I stopped. My rear rim was even more warped than after the crash and 4 spokes have now broken free. I called in a ride to get back home. I need to take my bike into a shop. Lets call 35 miles before the crash caught up with the bike.

Borrowed from  LeccathuFurvicael whom took it from  redcoatcat .

Comment below with an assumption you have about me and I will reply to that comment stating whether your assumption is true or false!

I did 30 miles Friday without any trouble. Today's though not so much. During my solo trips I listed to audiobooks while I ride using a phone in my shirt pocket. Well on the return path there is this one nice short drop that you can really get some speed on. I usually get over 25 mph. Just after getting down the drop and and starting up the hill after it my phone pops out of my pocket and starts tumbling down the path. I decided to slow down and get it. I decided to slow down way to fast. My bike slowed down faster than I did. I ended up getting projected forward in to the handle bars and on to my feet . I managed to take a few steps with my bike still under me before I lost balance and fell on my side and face.

I ended with two lacerations on my chin and scratches on my right side. I've got 7 stitches in my chin. Otherwise I'm ok. My phone that fell has several dings in it now and still works. I'll have to get a case for it. The other phone I have with my and my camera that was hanging from a pouch on my handlebars are fine. There are a couple of minor adjustments the need done to my bike and it will be in good order.

According to the bike data on my phone it went from less than 2 mph before I started on the drop to 28 mph at its last record 14 seconds later.

I'm going to be sore in the morning.

Unrelated:

EXP(EXP(SIN((x * 1.5) * arc))) * 10)

Where arc = 2*PI/360 and EXP is a function that returns the constant e to the power of the given value.

Gives an interesting waveform. Its looks like a good way of creating large and long hills with steep valleys.

if any one is interested I was thinking of doing a triple feature of Royal Institute lectures on friday. It would be rocket science , explosions and fireworks. These all all gear to junior high school level to increase interest in science. They do touch in on higher level topics but they do it well. So expect flashy and sometimes corny demonstrations. I don't really have a plan on when to start it so I am up for suggestions.

I did the 30 mile trip solo today. I didn't intend to go that far. I kept well maybe I'll get to X then turn around a few too many times. Despite leaving at about 5:30pm I managed to get home in good enough to that it was still light out. A lot of deer this go around.

We've been having a lot of ran so its been hard to find a time slot between storms to ride. I did two other 8 mile trips one yesterday and the other last week some time. I ended up taking my time on that trip and picked enough wild black raspberries to make a pie. Unfortunately chiggers. It was a good pie though.

On a side note I need to raise my bike seat and inch. I've noticed my knees move away from the frame to much when I peddle.

Edit:

Did another 30 miles Friday getting a few pictures on the way. There are various amusing signs along the path I got a pictures of all of them. I'll upload them later. I did 37 miles with Wendell Sunday. We went one "town" past where we normally stopped. Our bikes didn't fair as well as we did. He ended up with a punctured inner tube from the steel belt of his tire when we got back into town. My bike seat is cracked and might not have many miles left in it and we noticed My back rim has more of a bend in it now.

Wednesday 8.30 miles.
Thursday 8.30 miles.
Today 30.15 miles.

Its was a rather eventful trip with Wendell Wolf (Furballsuit) Lets see we had a squirrel dash from one side of the path to the other missing both our bike tires by inches. I found one patch of black raspberries that were ripe. Later we had a lizard that was sunning itself on the bike path dash across in front of Wendell after waiting till the last moment to move off the path. I had a small crash and skinned my knee a little bit. We stopped to look at some cattails at the side of the path. Five or so inches from my front tire was a small snapping turtle. It was about 3 or 4 inches wide. And on the way back Wendell had a rabbit run in front of his tire for a second.

Picture of the little guy: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13725646/

I'm getting back into biking with the help of Wendell Wolf.

8 miles Thursday.
23 miles on Friday.

30 miles on Sunday with Wendell on a local trail. He on the other hand is kind of crazy and did 50 miles on Sunday.

I'm going to start trying for just 11.5 miles on days I have a late shift at work. Hopefully a bit more on my days off. If the numbers on my biking app are to be believed this should help me drop a bit of weight.

Edit: And another 29 miles Tuesday

A little bit about a collab project I did with Furballsuit has now been uploaded. Check it out on my other account here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13545748/