A just finished up the payment and paperwork on my new-to-me 1125CR. Yippie! Now all that remains is getting squared up with DMV (paying sales tax and registration fees, and getting my tag) - always a fun trip to look foward to.

This winter’s been mild. Hopefully it starts getting even warmer soon - once it’s consistently in the 40s-50s in the morning and afternoon during my commute time, I’ll be gladly riding it!

Setting aside my opinion that the IRS is nothing but pure overhead and that income tax should be abolished, the IRS sucks.

I filed my tax return on the morning of Feb. 2, and it was accepted by the IRS on the same day at 9:36 AM. According to the refund cycle schedule, this puts me at the very beginning of the Feb. 15 cycle, meaning my refund should have been direct deposited into my bank account today.

It wasn’t. Surprise, surprise. Furthermore, the “where’s my refund” page shows that they have no record of my refund. Apparently, this is a known issue, and I should receive my refund in “10 to 21 days.” Seriously? How hard can it be to process returns and display their status online? Why is the government so afraid of streamlining stuff like this, and so afraid to actually utilize technology? Another great example of this is the absolutely horrid tracking provided for packages mailed via USPS. Until recently, the site wouldn’t show you much of anything until after the package had been delivered.

My tax return this year was very basic. So basic, in fact, that I don’t see why their computers can’t automatically process it and give me my money within a day or two. It really needs to take 3 weeks? They can’t even keep to their refund cycle? Ugh.

I wonder what would happen if I sent the IRS a bill with late fees and interest charges, and made threats to them over the phone. That’s what they do to you when you owe them money…

This is the 2009 Buell 1125CR I just bought (more accurately, I’ve put a deposit on it, but I’ll be paying the balance either this or next week).

It’s got around 7700 miles on it, and is mostly stock. I rode a friend’s 1125CR last summer and loved it - and now it’s my turn to have one.

I may or may not sell the 2008 Blast that I’ve been riding. If the opportunity arises, I’ll sell it for the right price, otherwise I’ll just keep it as a beater.

A quick post to throw down some random thoughts/updates.

First, on the gym front. Since my last update on this topic, back in early December, I’ve been going more-or-less every weeknight. My weight hasn’t gone down too much, however, I am definitely building muscle, and my body seems to be leaning out a little. Last month, I clocked in at 23.1% body fat - not too terrible, but definitely overweight. My goal is to bring this down a fair bit, and rather than looking at the scale, I’ve decided to gauge my progress via monthly body fat analysis at my gym. Once spring sets in, towards summer, I’ll be spending less time at the gym (to make time for summertime interests) - perhaps 2 or so days a week (albeit, with more intensity during the time spent there).

I’m happy with my progress so far. I’m going to continue training at the gym and pushing myself harder, and keep making attempts to eat healthier. One major health step I’ve made is to cut soda out of the majority of my diet - instead of being a go-to beverage, it’s now a treat to be had once every couple of days (instead of a couple times a day).

Second is the topic of dreaming. Lucid dreaming (or, more accurately, the goal of getting to the point of lucid dreaming) has been a goal of mine for quite some time. At one point, I was keeping a dream log to track my progress, but that didn’t end up faring too well. I may take another shot at maintaining a dream log (which would be a separate blog) - stay tuned for details on that.

I’ve just bought a new motorcycle as well. More details and pics on that will be posted shortly.

So, I finally got un-lazy enough to update my website and résumé. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s finally off my todo list.

Of course, the website is mostly overkill at this point anyway. It’s never maintained (I’d rather spend time blogging about projects and such, not that I do that very often either), and is a big wall. I’m actually considering replacing it with a much simpler business-card-style website, which is something a friend was talking about and experimenting with lately.