Archives June 2026

Yesterday I had a surprise FedEx delivery. It was the wheel Inmotion sent me to review, the V14 Pro. I knew it was coming I just was not following the tracking information. Like all Inmotion wheels I have experienced the last few years, the V14 exudes quality. It is designed to be a powerful and durable off road wheel. More than likely the only off road use it will see with me is the swamp. Most of my testing will be on hard surfaces.

I decided to do a live stream to announce the new addition. The stream went roughly two hours but it was hard for me to keep things flowing as there were not a lot of people in the broadcast. I typically rely heavily on answering questions and comments in the chat. When those are few and far between it becomes heavy lifting to have something to keep talking about. I wrote it off to people watching World Cup soccer and YouTube not sending out notifications about the stream for some reason.

I finally received a ship notice on the Flashforge Creator 5 Pro printer. Originally it was supposed to be shipping in mid-May. I have the newly elevated bench all ready for it’s arrival which should be next week some time.

I think we have our greatly revised road trip sort of set. Instead of doing a stupid long trip to Yellowstone in about half the amount of days you should we instead are going to drive up to the Blue Ridge Parkway, something I have never done before. It is supposed to be beautiful and more importantly much closer, allowing us to take time to smell and see the roses.

This weekend is looking to be more or less normal although I need to get out on the V14 so I can start my content creation process. I had hoped to play in another pickleball tournament on Saturday but the four potential partners I asked could not play for various reasons, or, they just don’t like me. 😉

Ever since I moved into the new house this corner has bothered me. I had an old wooden half bookshelf thrown in there that I had pictures haphazardly displayed on. It was too small to use them all and just looked bad.

When I was at Ikea over the weekend I saw these cool wall mounted shelf units. I didn’t have room in the Tesla so I just ordered it online instead through the Ikea app. I was pleased/surprised it arrived in a couple days.

Assembly of the unit was straightforward and easy. The most difficult part is making sure I got it centered on the wall and straight. Once mounted I placed a bunch of pictures on it as well as additional pictures on the wall. I think the end result is much more pleasing visually. It only took me three years to get to it…..

I finally got out to see the new Mandalorian movie which has been out for a couple weeks. I lacked urgency to see it because I read a number of lukewarm reviews on the movie. The only time slot that worked to see it last night was at the local IMAX theater which I had never stepped into before. It is small compared to some IMAX theaters I have been in but the biggest issue was it was like an ice box. Thank goodness we brought a blanket.

The movie met my expectations based on prior word of mouth. It’s basically a supersized Mandalorian episode from the series except it is missing any significant connection to the series story. It was clearly made to be a stand alone film that didn’t require you to watch the three prior seasons of the show. The plot which would have been more enjoyable in a long format tv season was condensed to fit the two hours it was allocated. Was the movie bad? No, not at all, I found it entertaining. The problem was when you are coming off a series that gave you near movie like effects every episode, simply shifting that to a big screen makes things feel a bit underwhelming. I’d give it a B.

I started off my Saturday with another pickleball session. It was my third day in a row so I was a little hesitant to push it. I seemed to get through play without a major issue however. I was undefeated in the six games I played with different sets of people including one “let’s play it back” scenario which I enjoyed. I was hoping to play in another mini-tournament this upcoming weekend but the three people I asked to play were unavailable for various reasons so I might just take a pass on it.

Saturday afternoon I went over to the east coast to do some shopping with my girlfriend, taking the Tesla to minimize fuel costs. Both malls we visited during the trip were absolutely slammed with people. I thought malls were supposed to be dying? I went and charged the Tesla during one of the sessions. The supercharger I went to had terrible speed of only 50kw because most if not all of the chargers were occupied. I sat there for over an hour. I am used to a big charge taking 20-30 minutes, this was like watching paint dry. By the time we got home it was after 9PM, a very long day of driving and walking. My knees and hips were not happy with me but I held up better than expected. I figured it was good training for our potential upcoming road trip.

Sunday was a very low energy day, perhaps because Saturday was a long grind. I got the necessary tasks handled as well as modifying my bench I originally built for my Bambu Lab A1. It was built to reside under one of my other workbenches however now I wanted it to be at near normal bench height to make it easier to work with my incoming Flashforge Creator 5 Pro printer.

Modifying the stand involved simply adding some 4×4″ legs to it. While I was at it I added a shelf to store filament as well as a front brace to increase overall rigidity. The bench weighs a ton as I used 2×6″ for most of it. I think it will work out well. All I need is the printer to verify it.

I had a chill night. I spent some of it continuing my quest to level all of my characters in WoW to max level. I almost have my second set of four to that mark. Once I do I will have eight at level 90 with another five or six to go. I really do enjoy just unplugging from reality for an hour or two to jump into the game.

I had to have blood drawn this morning as part of our health plan. Every two years we are required to have blood work done as well as a physical. At my age I really should get these things done annually but my dislike of anything and everything medical related keeps me on a must do only mind set.

My replacement credit card arrived yesterday evening which was nice. Getting it next day instead of a week later minimizes the disruption although the hassle of changing card information in all of the locations it is used as the default payment method never becomes less of a PIA.

I might get out to see the new Mandalorian movie this weekend as well as get some pickleball games in. Otherwise it’s a free flowing weekend.

Yesterday I got a text notification of $4.99 charge to the Microsoft store. Before I could even finish my thought of “I didn’t buy anything on the Microsoft store…” three more charges appeared in rapid succession, two more for $4.99 and one for $9.99 as the scammer was testing what he could get away with. Luckily Chase denied further attempts at that point. I could not believe it, my card had been compromised, again.

Those of you paying attention will recall I just had the same scenario go down roughly a month and a half ago. I immediately tried to see if I could establish any pattern. I had just gone to Cinebistro on Tuesday night, I recalled I also went to Cinebistro around the time of my last hack. However when I checked dates I actually went there fours days after my card was compromised the first time.

So now I get to go through the same annoying song and dance where I have to update the card in a ton of spots. The only good news is Chase is expediting the replacement this time so I may have a new card as soon as today. I am baffled as to where my information is getting compromised at. I am very careful with my card and go touch free wherever possible. It is rare I am actually inserting a card into a reader where it could be potentially skimmed. I will be making mental notes of anytime my card is inserted in a machine. Sure it could be compromised via an online breach but the odds of having it happen twice in this amount of time from that would be pretty remote.

I have a new wheel coming for me to review. No it isn’t from the company that I had the back and forth discussion regarding how they wanted me to do things their way or else.

I got out to see Backrooms last night, a rated R “psychological thriller”. The movie evidently is directed by a 20 year old that made a series of well known Shorts on YouTube exploring the Backrooms alternate dimension. The movie is bizarre and definitely unique. I think I liked it but I am not really sure, it was that weird. Make up your own mind. I guess I would give it a B+

We recently had one of my staff retire after nearly 30 years on the job. It’s a bit of a weird feeling when someone that was a day in and day out part of your reality suddenly not be. Since I started here in 2000 there has been some change in our department, we have had two firings and three retirements. Still, over a span of 26 years that’s not too bad. I already have hired his replacement whom will start next week. In the big picture it should be a good thing bringing in somebody young and motivated to learn and grow. It should only make all of our jobs easier in the long run.

I played pickleball Saturday morning after already playing in the tournament Monday and two lunchtime sessions during the week. I realized one of my favorite things in pickleball is after you beat a team and they ask if you want to “run it back”. To me this means the other team feels they should have beaten you but didn’t for some reason. I always welcome running it back, Saturday had one of those situations.

The team we were playing had two middle aged men, both with solid skills and better mechanics than I have. I could tell the one guy in particular was getting frustrated. He could hit hard and did so repeatedly at me however most of the time I blocked the drive cleanly back at him. One rally really pissed him off where he drove at me from near point blank range, I blocked it back to him in the air, he took another full swing sending another rocket which I blocked back at him as well. On his third giant swing he drove the ball into the net. I try to not react much externally when I make a good play like that but believe me inside my mind is yelling “yea get that shit out of here!” So in the run back game we beat them again, 11-7 proving it was not a fluke. I decided to leave on a winning note, happy overall with my play. Winning run back games are always fun for me.

Saturday afternoon I took on the task of replacing the American flag at the entrance of our development. Since I am a board member I saw the email where somebody commented how beat up the old one was which I honestly had not noticed. I offered to handle the replacement.

Whomever did it last used some creative rigging. The rope that the flag was attached to was falling apart and was wedged into the pulley so I was unable to lower the flag to change it. Instead I had to lift the entire 11-12 foot pole out of it’s base and lay it on the grass. When I bought the replacement flag I bought a replacement rope and hardware so the flag can be lowered and raised via the pulley instead of having to heave ho the entire pole out of the ground.

I got out for a short ride on Sunday on my V13 with the primary focus of testing my new DJI Mini mic set up. It’s inexpensive and much more bare bones than my existing OG DJI mic but it seems to work well. I like the small form factor and getting two transmitters for $79 seems like a great deal to me.

Last night I had to stay up until close to midnight to run a process at work. I decided a good way to stay awake was to live stream to fill the time, my 125th live stream episode. In the stream I talked about the recent changes in our community regarding e-bike enforcement which is bound to spill onto the legality of my electric unicycles. I also talked about my interactions with one EUC manufacturer who offered me a collaboration on one of their wheels. The collaboration had all sorts of conditions and instructions on how they wanted content created which I immediately pushed back at. It seemed like they wanted a glorified commercial for the wheel instead of an honest and open review. I ultimately told them no thanks and asked them to not contact me in the future.

By the time I got the process at work done my head did not hit the pillow until a little after midnight. It’s going to be a long day.