Beatrice Shilling

Beatrice Shilling (8 March 1909–1990) was an aeronautical engineer who was responsible for correcting a serious defect in the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine during the Second World War. She also was a well-known racing motorcyclist.

Shilling was born at Waterlooville, Hampshire, the daughter of a butcher. After working as an electrician and electrical linesman, she took a degree in engineering at Manchester University. In the 1930s she was recruited as a scientific officer by the Royal Aircraft Establishment.

In the 1930s Shilling raced motorcycles around the Brooklands circuit and was awarded the Gold Star for lapping the track at over 100 mph on her Manx Norton 500.

During the Battle of France and Battle of Britain in 1940, it became apparent that the Merlin-engined RAF fighters had a serious problem with their carburettors while manoeuvring in combat. The negative g created by suddenly lowering the nose of the aircraft resulted in the engine being starved of fuel, causing it to cut out unless pilots flew inverted before diving. The opposing fighters did not have this problem. Shilling devised a solution which was dubbed "Miss Shilling's orifice". It was a small metal disc with a hole in the middle. After it was fixed into the engine's carburettor, it was able to reduce the fuel starvation of the engine. By March 1941 the device had been installed throughout Fighter Command as a stop-gap until an improved carburettor became available in 1943.

Shilling was once described by a fellow scientist as "a flaming pathfinder of women's lib"; she always rejected any suggestion that as a woman she might be inferior to a man in technical and scientific fields. She married George Naylor, a bomber pilot with No. 625 Squadron RAF. Shilling worked for the RAE until the mid-1960s.

She held a doctorate from the University of Surrey, a CEng and was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Women's Engineering Society.


Click for a bigger pic:

Sunday Streets

Yesterday was San Francisco's Sunday Streets. They basically shut down Embarcadero for a few hours and made it open to the public to ride bikes, walk, run, and just not worry about cars. Every once in a while San Francisco reminds you that it is a cool place. We went to go run 4 miles. But I had been having such bad shin splints that I was just going to walk it while Lori ran. Then I decided, oh, maybe I'll do a half mile. I just took it really easy and slow and ended up jogging the whole thing. Not quite 4 miles, but it was still a really good run (unlike Friday's insanely windy, shin-splint filled day).

This week's runs summary:
Tuesday: 2.21 miles, 24:02
Friday: 3.22 miles, untimed
Sunday: 3.25 miles, untimed

We have a 4 mile run next Sunday, I think we'll do fine if we just take our time and not worry about breaking any records.

Here's some pics from yesterday.

Cliff Maniacs

My buddy Tom and I decided to have a man date yesterday and climb the cliffs around Ocean Beach and the Suttro Bath ruins. Nothing like climbing jagged rocks in worn out Converse.

Click for all the pics

Outside Shots

Can you tell I'm excited? My new tires come tomorrow; they're going to change the whole vibe of the bike. Also A buddy is giving me a 21" Bultaco rim + brake too. Woot!

Triumph Progress

A little more progress on the 1962 Triumph Bonneville chopper.

I finally mounted my seat last night. Took me a while to get all the parts. I started with a skinny Bates seat pan I got from my buddy Caffeine, and seat hinge and seat bungs from Fab Kevin, and 4" springs from Justified Defiance. Thanks again to Ted for letting me borrow his MIG welder.

The hinge stuck too far in front of the seat for my taste. I wanted the hinge to be more or less under the tip. And it was pretty crooked. So I cut the slotted bracket off and moved it back about 2." I also gave the rear of the seat a more pronounced curve.








I tacked the bungs on. I pretty much just wanted them vertical.


After moving the seat into place, I marked where I wanted it, taped it up, and welded on the front hinge. And probably caused a wire fire inside the tubing.
[img]http://vorhese.com/gallery/albums/album302/sP1040529.jpg">







I adjusted the hinge back and forward a little to get the springs to sit correctly. And I finished welding the seat bungs which I wont show because it looks like bird crap. I couldn't really figure out how to get into the crannies to weld it right. I'll just grind them down and have a professional do them correctly for me.


I still have to figure out a way to make the sissy bar, mount the fender, make foot pegs, fix the kickstand. Then I can tear it all down.

More Petaluma Pics

Thanks to Jess, she found some pictures of Lori and I running the Petaluma Race.
Wow, I do look like a dork.

Donkeys for nothin and the chicks for free

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

The next day the farmer drove up and said, 'Sorry, Chuck, but I have some bad news. The donkey died.'

Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Chuck said, 'OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with a dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

The farmer said 'You can't raffle off a dead donkey!'

Chuck said, 'Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $998.00.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

Chuck now works for Morgan Stanley.

Y'all

I lived there for 3 years. Austin seriously is the only good thing about it.

A Pacific Sunset

Ah, date night. What you do to kill the monotony of weekly Jeopardy and chicken breast-based meals. And also what you do to remind the woman you love that you still got it. Today we decided since it has been so ungodly warm around here we should go to the beach after work and watch the sunset. And bring the dogs. And have a bbq. You have to remember that a nice evening around here is rare. It's usually foggy and freezing by about 5PM. But the week has been an abnormally hot week, so we knew we had to pounce on the opportunity when it presented itself.

Lori gets home at 6:30 PM. Sunset is at 7:50 PM. We didn't have a grill or food. So we met at Lowes right after work and picked up portable gas (shock, awe) grill and some food, ran home, loaded up the mutts and headed out. We made it to Pacifica by 7 PM. I spent the next 20 minutes walking to our spot on the beach and assembling the grill. We got things fired up just in the nick of time. I can't believe everythign actually worked out so smoothly.

Go team Hooper-Friend!

All pics

60's style

I've got new tires coming, some velocity stacks, finned exhaust clamps, and some other misc stuff. It's slowly taking shape and coming together. All that's left is everything.

Petaluma Foot Race

EDIT:
Results are in:
369 Runners in the 3 mile race.
Lori - Place: #2 in age group Overall: #102 Time: 32:02.7
Me - Place: #3 in age group Overall: #97 Time: 31:42.7

...

Well, we did it. Today was our first organized run in Petaluma. We did the 3 mile course. I finished at about 31:30 and Lori was right behind me at 32:00 (both unofficial times, we're waiting for our results). Both times are easily personal bests for 3 miles. Not bad for only starting to run 3 1/2 months ago.

It was really a load of fun, and I can see how running can get addictive. I wasn't sure how I was going to do, or if I'd even be able to run. I've been struggling with bad shin splints for two weeks, and both runs this week haven't been that good. I spent the last 2 days icing my shins every 2 hours, doing shin exercises, and popping Ibuprofin. I stretched like crazy before the race. And it must have paid off, I didn't have any issues. I'm going to take it easy for a week to heal, but we have a 4 mile at the beginning of next month.



Lori doesn't like my black socks.

Beware the bald spot

Alright, Veronica got some teasers up on her blog of our engagement photos.
http://www.verosuh.com/blog/

And also this snazzy slideshow.

Weekly Running Summary

As I'm really not on the C25K anymore, I'm going to just summarize my week's runs. The big deal this week is Lori and I got our arch and gait tests done at Road Runner and fitted for proper shoes. It's pretty interesting to watch slow motion video of the way you run. I have flat feet and over pronate. I've been suffering a lot of leg pain and shin splints since last Saturday and figured it was time to get the right shoes.

WEDNESDAY - ROUTE MAP - 2.28 miles, untimed.

FRIDAY - ROUTE MAP - 2.63 miles, untimed

SUNDAY - TRACK - 3.25 miles in 38 minutes 35 seconds, 5.05 mph avg.

So next Sunday is our first run, 3 miles, in Petaluma. I think we're ready.

It's a good friday

I whipped this up this morning. It's just line art tinted in Photoshop. I may watercolor the line art later.

A Boy & His Monster - final

I finally finished the water color. I tried some new things and have some ideas to improve on my next one.

Nooner

I jetted home for lunch today to get my run in I missed yesterday. Everything below my knees has been killing me since my Saturday run; so bad that I could hardly walk. I decided to see what happens and ran today, with Luka. I had a 2.58 mile run around Orange Park planned. After the first 1/4 mile my legs/feet/ankles didn't hurt anymore. But I was feeling nauseous. And now I know why. I did my run in 22:41. That's a 6.8mph avg, a 8.79 minute mile. Christ! I knew I was pushing myself too hard but I didn't realize I was running that fast. Luka was a pretty good boy, too. He, for the most part, ran right along side me. We got home and stretched. My legs feel really good again. And Luka passed out. It helps me with my guilt of leaving them in their crate all day.

Engagement Photos by Vero Suh

Sunday Lori's coworker and friend Veronica Suh took our engagement photos. We met up at 7:30 in the morning in the Mission. We brought 3 different outfits and had 3 different locations. We struck a few poses in the Mission, hung around some bums, watched some skanks come in from their all night partying, Lori dented my Desoto laying on it (kidding!). And then we headed to Alamo Square for an outfit change.

We had to drive the Desoto into the city and park on a hill, my favorite thing in the Desoto. After laying in some cold, wet grass it was time to move on to location 3. Just as Lori and I started changing our clothes in my car, a bus of foreign tourists pulled up to start taking pictures of the Full House houses. Great. The second they saw my Desoto they flocked right to it and started taking pictures. And we're practically half naked. To make matters worse, in order to park on that hill, I chock my tire to keep it from rolling back. It's a delicate maneuver at best, especially on as steep of a hill. It was Lori's job to remove the chock while I pull the Desoto forward. Wouldn't you know, as soon as she hopped out, the tourists started screaming at her to pose beside the car. We got the hell out of there.

The last location was Fisherman's Wharf, another tourist spot, to take some pictures on the Carousel. We stuffed our faces with cotton candy, I almost puked, and the shoot was over. Veronica is a fun photographer to work with. And I pity her that she had to somehow make me look photogenic. Hopefully soon she'll have our pictures up, but for now she has this teaser up on her blog.

http://www.verosuh.com/blog/


And, not to forget, I didn't forget to do any art last night. I spent 2 1/2 hours watercoloring the drawing below, and another 40 minutes this morning. I think I have about an hour-half left. I'll post it when it's done.

Goodbye KLR

I sold my KLR650 last night. A little bitter sweet. I have some good memories with it, especially my ride in Mendocino. But I didn't really ride it anymore, and I need to start working on getting out of debt. I took a little hit on price thanks to my wreck, but I feel I got my money's worth out of it. I need to sell my truck next, that one will make a huge difference in my debt/monthly payments.

A boy and his monster

Ok, it's a big Where The Wild Things Are ripoff (and throw in some Labyrinth, Muppets, and Moomintrolls), and poor one at that, but it's what I felt like drawing tonight. I'll start watercoloring it tomorrow.

Chicken in the pot pie

It's late, I'm tired. And I hadn't drawn today yet. Lori says I should take a day off, for the Lord. I just couldn't do that. So I whipped this up really quick. I was trying to channel R. Crumb and Daniel Clowes... probably not the most technical drawing ever, but it gets the point across. While Lori and I were walking on Embarcadero in SF today, a fat, gross Swedish Rockabilly couple walked by us. This is sort of how I remember them.

She's Just My Type

Lori cooked me a delicious rib eye steak dinner tonight, and she inspired me to do this for her.



Which brings me to another issue, and anyone interested in the quality of their internet browser needs to pay attention. You won't see the above drawing like you are supposed to if you don't have color management in your browser enabled. The drawing will look very washed out. Safari and Firefox 3.1 have color management enabled by default. But any other browser needs to have it enabled. It's very easy to fix and will make the images that your browser displays look like the image should.

In Firefox...
1. In the address bar type "about:config" without the quotation marks.
2. Click past the warning screen
3. In the search bar type "gfx.color_management.enabled" without the quotation marks.
4. When the result pops up, click the "false" until it says "true"
5. Close the browser and restart it

If you did it right the above drawing will look way different.

Ok, so now I need to go to bed. We have engagement photos tomorrow. Another long day.

C25K Week 8 Summary

We're stepping it up a little bit a week. This week was the first time we've actually run outdoors not on a track. And at about 6PM it's cold and very windy in South San Francisco, and the hills blow. But we still pulled through.

W8D1 - ROUTE MAP - 2.5 miles in 30 minutes, 5.0 mph avg.

W8D2 - ROUTE MAP - 3.0 miles in 36 minutes, 5.0 mph avg.

W8D3 - TRACK - 3.0 miles in 35 minutes, 5.15 mph avg.

Next week we're going to try to do 2.5 to 3.0 miles Tuesday and Thursday, and increase our Saturday run to 3.25 miles. We have a 3.0 mile run in Petaluma in 2 weeks and a 4 mile on May 3 in San Francisco.

Reckless Rectified

Ok I'm a little more happy with version 2. We ordered a 3" wide stamp tonight from this place. Woo!





This weekend I'm going to do something less graphic design and more artsy. I haven't visited my water colors in a while. I have a big weekend ahead. Tomorrow I'm showing my F1 to sell, tuning my RD350 with some buddies, jogging, doing art. And on Sunday Lori and I are going to the city at 7:30 A.M. for engagement photos. My favorite thing... hamming up for the camera!

Hipsters are ghey

Thanks for the link Rach!
http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/mis/1104232595.html
"So i am riding my bike this morning toward work... going down Pierce from oak, real steep with a busy stop sign at the bottom if you dont know the hill... Of course, since i also ride a fixed gear bike, i was taking it easy, i do in fact savor my life and i dont want to loose it while cruising to work. So, in my drowsy slow state, a beefy hipster, as well on a fixed gear, fly's by me at top fucking speed while leaning his head to give me a dirty, 'your slower than my grandma you wimp' smirk... So at fucking 9:30 in the morning, going nearly 30-35 miles an hour, with no brakes, runs the stop sign to find himself cruising right toward 3 bikers, absolutely trapped to crash... right before the douche bag collided with the poor nice commuter man, i heard one of you poor bastards yell, "WHOA!!!" and BOOOM the hipster flew so far over his handlebars, all i saw was his mangled body and bag just slam and tumble for a days. Luckily the commuter man was barely phased, he was able to slow down and come back to ask if you were ok. With all that adrenaline pumping threw your beefy head, you managed to spring up and yell, "WELL I DONT KNOW WHOS FAULT THAT WAS!" implying that it was the old mans fault for going slow... well if you really don't know who's fault it was, i will tell you, it was yours dumbass! hahah. Man that was so funny dude, i cruised by, looked you straight in the eyes, and smiled a big happy smile, but you and i both know i was cracking up on the inside!!! haha we all were. i was having a drowsy shitty morning, but thanks to you, i am still laughing! yay for hipsters on their fixies!!!! -Martin "

Stamp it

Last night's work, logo artwork for Reckless Rover stamp. I'm actually redoing it tonight because I feel it lost it's personality from the original sketch.

Art Month has begun

I promised myself that in April I will be doing something art related every night, be it sketching, illustration, painting, whatever. I've been out of the art mood for so long I needed a severe kick in the butt to get my creative juices flowing again. Trying to tackle art with fiancee, dogs, work, making dinner, running, motorcycles, cars, and regular chores is going to test me.

I set up my area last night. Lori didn't understand why it took me an hour just to get started. It's all about preparation and work environment, people.


My first assignment is to create a logo for Lori's dog treat business Reckless Rover. I did some thumbnails for her to look at. The idea is to make a rubber stamp of the design, so it needs to be a simple, bold and one color design.


Next step was drawing a couple more detailed versions of the direction we want to go. She liked the one in the upper left. I thought it was a bit too busy and detailed, so I drew the final one on the bottom right. I do believe we'll be going with that one. Tonight I'm doing a final drawing and putting the text on.