Cell Mafia

Why is it that those stories about astronomical phone bills are always related to Canada? There is this 85000 dollar case, and now this 20000 dollar case. Man, this country needs a consumer uprising. It's because of stories like this, that I stay with my 25 dollar prepaid vouchers. The most an evil corporation can steal from me is 25 dollar.

No turn on red

Damn! And again, I failed my motorcycle test. Here is Canada, you can turn right even if traffic lights are red. It takes getting used to for a Dutchman. However, turning right on red is not always allowed. In Richmond BC, I encountered this sign when doing my test. I failed to see the sign. On a positive note: doing the test is pretty cheap. I payed 50 dollar, which gets you: one car to follow you, one driver for that car, and one examiner that is a passenger in the following car. Two people, one car for one hour and it only costs you 50 dollars. Wages must be low.

Two way left turning lane

Sigh.... I failed the ICBC road test examination for my motorcycle license. I thought that I did very well, but the examiner disagreed. I did all the shoulder-checks, but he wants me to do the right shoulder check as the very last thing when turning right. Also, I did not use a two way left turn lane. Both were enough reason for a fail in their own right. This really sucks. 16 years motorcycle experience, two advanced rider courses, an "excellent drive" on my car road test here in BC, and still they manage to fail me. I'm convinced their driver training system is pretty broken. That's what you get if you give government tasks to commercial companies.

Patronising the Customer

The larger the corporation, the more disconnected it is with the customers. Take Suzuki for instance. Their patronizing attitude towards customers is very annoying. They sold me a top of the line sports bike. On paper, a 185 horsepower beast. In practice however, it does not come close to the Aprilia I used to ride in the Netherlands. Why is this?

Well, it turns out that not all GSX-R 1000 bikes are created equal. Those to be sold in North America have been neutered. This is probably because of the liability obsessed society. Now sure, I have no problem with a 300 km/h speed limiter they put on the North American bikes. It is unlikely I will ever hit the limiter. But then again, is a 310km/h bike so much worse than a 300km/h bike?

Far more worrying is what they have done with the ignition. To limit the power output in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear (the gears where you could be surprised by an unwanted wheelie), Suzuki changed the ignition timing.

Well then, a changed ignition timing. What is the result? A bike that runs rough, sounds unhealthy, picks up badly, and occasionally chokes or sometimes even stalls. It's very American to sell you the bad-ass hard-core image. But underneath, you have simply been sold an underachieving, rough running engine. Oh... and the icing on the cake: it will cause more polution, and use more petrol.

The Internet is the helping hand for the suckers like me, that got duped by Suzuki. It turns out that you need to fool the bike. By adding a single resistor to the wiring harness, you can dupe the bike's computer. It will think the bike is always in 5th gear. The 5th gear is the gear without any restrictions: normal ignition timing, and no speed limiter. The downside of this is that the gear-indicator on the cockpit always displays '5' or 'N'. I can no longer check what gear I am in.

Today I installed the Timing Retard Eliminator. And yes, it works. The bike is more lively, and picks up immediately. If you close and open gas, power is instant, where before it used to choke and sputter. This means that for tomorrow, I can do my motorcycle license examination on a proper sports bike. I'm pretty woried about it. It will be unlikely that I ace it, like I did my car license.

The youtube generation

Some people are so talented. In 1680 Johann Pachelbel composed his Canon in D. In 2005, a Korean kid named funtwo puts up his performance on youtube and hitting 46 million views. He does a very good Vivaldi's Summer as well.

Second Canada Day

Today, I celebrated my second Canada Day, together with Amy. It commemorates the forming of Canada. I got a paper flag out of it, both years. There are also ceremonies were new citizens are sworn in. Unfortunately we missed that one. Maybe one day I will be pledging allegiance to the Maple Leaf. Amy ate maple syrup on a stick, which is a traditional Quebec treat. I settled for Grandma Lee's sandwich.

Channel 9

Watching television here can be an ordeal. Euro 2008 games are broadcast live and uninterrupted fortunately. But other broadcasts are littered with a barrage of commercials. A nice relief from this is the public stations that are funded by private donations. I just saw a very interesting Frontline documentary on channel KCTS9. When googling for this station's name, I stumbled upon this hilarious video. It shows a pledge drive for the station. And remember: the station KCTS9 is on channel 9. Enjoy....

Where the Internet was born

I knew that the Internet was created as a defense initiative by ARPA, now called DARPA. What I did not know, is that the very first message ever sent over the network was from UCLA to Stanford. A student at UCLA decided to trace down the history, and find out what the actual physical location was, where the historic event happened. In what building, in what room, did it all begin? Room 3420 or room 3424?


Finding ARPANET: The First (Physical) Site of the Internet from Brad Fidler on Vimeo.

Nieuwe Blogger

Voor de reisverhalen van Bram senior en Els, kunnen jullie verder lezen door te klikken op Bram senior's eigen blog. Er is inmiddels een artikeltje gepubliceerd over Granville Island en eentje over het Maritime Museum in Vancouver. Veel lees plezier op http://bramstolk.blogspot.com.

Orange lion rides the GSX-R

My mother brought me a little orange lion mascot. It is now riding along with me on my crotch rocket, with the manes in the wind. I watched parts of the first game via sopcast. I must admit, I did not wear an orange jersey to work, but that 3-0 really got me in the mood for this tournament. Slant Six Games is very international, at least half the programmers here have a non Canadian background. This means that there is some interest for soccer here.

Road side entertainment

Last sunday, breakfast was interesting. While devouring the eggs and bacon, we had some nice road-side entertainment in the form of a Triathlon. It made up for those week long road closures around my building. A few weeks ago, Amy did some cycling in Stanley Park as well. In the picture you see her with our friend Slavica in the elevator, getting the bikes down to the street.

Geland in Vancouver

Tijdens onze succesvolle vlucht verrast met een mededeling van de cockpit dat NL met 3-0 gewonnen heeft.....geweldig zelfs de stewardessen in het oranje... dat is nog eens een voorbereiding.
We zijn nu in Bram zijn apartment en bekijken al zijn spulletjes... leuk hoor en een mooie buurt... alleen het regent nog al.

Ons hotel is hier 5 minuten lopen vandaan, we rijden rond in een Full Size Dodge...

Toen we onze bagage hadden en naar de uitgang liepen, stonden Bram & Amy ons op te wachten. Heerlijk, na een jaar elkaar weer te zien en heel fijn om kennis te maken met Amy. We zitten nu gezellig te kletsen en ik (els) heb natuurlijk de nodige vragen. Je kent dat wel van Rayman is laat...: wie is je vader en wie is je moeder? Nou Amy vertelde natuurlijk over haar Ned. wortels (haar moeder komt uit Wijk aan Zee, haar achternaam is Heusdens).

Groetjes van Bram senior en Els.

Safari

I went to Whistler on Victoria day. Victoria day is a national holiday, which means a Monday off. Whistler is a nice resort in the mountains, and will be a primary venue for the Olympics. It is a 90 minute drive from the city. While driving up the mountain, we saw a bear at the side of the road. This was my first bear sighting. It's pretty amazing to see, wandering around so close to civilization. In the city centre, just outside my apartment building, I got to see skunks, raccoons and squirrels. But the bear beats them all.

24 heures du Mans

For the first time ever, a Dutchman won the 24 hours of le Mans for motorbikes. Congratulations to Barry Veneman. See the press release of his team. And what do you know... he did it on my bike! This means that the GSXR1000 is officially the fastest production motorcycle in real-life conditions.

Baseball bat

This morning I picked her up. I was a little concerned whether the insurance guy would let me register and insure it on my Dutch license, but he did. Convincing him that I am a very experienced rider, with 14 yrs no claim and 80 percent discount took more effort. In the end he would give me a 40 percent discount instead. Well, at least it is something. I had my Dutch insurance company make a statement in English on my history. Insurance is very expensive over here. Maybe because there are more accidents in Vancouver than in Amsterdam? With the discount, I still had to pay over a 1000 dollars per year for simple liability only. I bought two heavy duty chain locks. In addition to this, I bought the most expensive motorcycle alarm that I could find. It even has a 2 way radio connection. If someone touches my bike I will be notified if I am in a 1 mile radius. I will have to get a baseball bat or a gun to deal with the low lives that try to take away this baby.

Road Insanity

Oops... I did it. There is no sane reason for it. It makes no sense what so ever. It will be utterly unusable. It is an unnecessary luxury. But boy oh boy, what a magnificent machine. Yesterday I bought this 2007 GSXR1000.



It's the pinnacle of motor sport, in the very exclusive category of 1:1 power weight ratio. It weighs 170kg, and it produces 170hp. To protect inexperienced riders, Suzuki put 3 control modes on the bike. So you can ride it with 50hp less when it rains. I am pretty confident that I can handle it though, thanks to my years of experience, and the two advanced rider courses I did with KNMV on the racetrack in Lelystad.

The bike I bought was a demo model, used by the dealer. It has 3000km on it, but the warranty will start the day I bought it. I intend to pick up the bike next weekend, when I will have received my leathers and helmet from the Netherlands. I have to look into insurance now. Fortunately, I had my "royementverklaring" from the Dutch insurer put in English, stating my 80% discount. I hope they will honour it here. At least the low tax of 12% made it a sweet deal. Buying a bike in the Netherlands will result in 19% sales tax plus 19.4% BPM tax.

All in all, Bram is now officially the fastest thing on the roads, here in British Columbia. Let's hope I have all the self-restrain that is required of me now.