2014 Triumph Trophy Part II

There is no better way to wring out the good, bad, great and ugly of a motorcycle than to take a multi-day trip on it.  Even better if the weather is a spectrum of perfect to heinous.  Mission accomplished.  I recently got back from a few days away on my (relatively) new Triumph Trophy SE.

I'm a member in a couple motorcycle online forums and a lurker in many more.  It is easy to sit back and read post after post about how terrible any given bike/marque/brand/model is.  There are slightly less posts how a given bike is the last word; the best never to be bettered.  The two most polarizing bikes, Harley Davidsons and BMWs seem to represent the best and worst of this - castigating every flaw with a motorcycle while remaining fiercely brand loyal.  There is a dearth of honest reviews from real people.  While most motorcycle magazines will point out issues encountered, the overall honesty is often in question since manufacturers also advertise in said magazines - although sometimes reading between the lines can point to bikes that may have less-than-desirable features.

The reality is, vehicle manufacturers go to great lengths to build, refine, test, and market motorcycles while balancing what a very broad array of people will want as well as balancing cost, manufacturability and repairability.  The result is almost always a sound bike built for a target.  The balancing act means that nothing will ever be perfect for everyone.  But, being content in the middle ground is a good place to be.  The big watch out for people is to not buy something if it isn't really what is wanted.  If someone wants to tour, a CBR250 probably isn't the best choice.  If someone wants to go crazy fast, a Sportster probably shouldn't be high on the list.

So a few days ago I found myself several hundred miles away from home parked in front of Hotel Room 6.

The trip away from home was threatened to be hurt by inclimate weather, but it remained dry the entire time.  Thinking back, what I noticed most about the trip away was what I didn't notice.  Compared to my ST1300, there was very little fatigue in my back or wrists.  While not as comfortable as my Goldwing, the bike was wonderful for the several hundred miles.  This is especially important given my mode of travel is to go-go-go with stops only for fuel or the relieving of biological function and every effort is made to have them infrequent and occur simultaneously.
The trip north did have a significant east wind.  This resulted in amazing fuel economy when going west, but was a constant battle when going north.  Fighting the wind as it ebbed around terrain changes made the last few hours tiring and I was happy to be done for the night in Room 6.

I spent a couple days away from home before heading back on only a slightly different route.  Half the trip home was spent in rain which ranged from light to torrential.  Again, the Trophy did a marvelous job, keeping the adjustable windscreeen in the sweet spot to allow good protection from the weather and still being able to see over it was easy - I've always been a proponent of never looking through a motorcycle windscreen.  Since I also own a Goldwing, I cringe every time I see some dude on a GL1800 with a picture window size aftermarket windshield - ugh...

The second half of the trip home was dry, bordering on hot.  So the overall trip gave a little of everything.

There are probably only two small issues encountered that were real for this wring-out.

Cruise Control
The cruise control on the Trophy worked wonderfully and I'm sure having it helped with the lack of fatigue after many hours on the bike.  The cruise control on the Trophy can be deactivated by hitting either brake, the clutch or rolling the throttle off.  This last feature is a really nice way to turn it off when coming up on a situation which requires it, but it was a bit sensitive.  On a few occasions, the combination of wind gust and hitting a road bump in just the right (wrong?) way turned the cruise control off by my bumping the throttle forward.  In theory, this isn't a big deal as a slight movement of my right thumb resumed speed control.  In practice, it was frustrating.
Given that I've used the cruise control in many other situations without experiencing this, I'll attribute most of this annoyance to the high wind and gustiness.  I haven't seen it on my trips to work or other instances when I have been using cruise control.  A slight adjustment of my hand position did help as well.

Antenna
The stock antenna on the Trophy is troublesome.  At the right combination of windscreen and antenna position, it is fine.  And, both do adjust - the windscreen electrically for wind protection and the antenna angle moves mechanically.  In the wrong combination, the wind deflected by the windscreen hits the antenna resulting in violent movement of it (that might be a bit of an overstatement), at times resulting in a Galloping Gerdie oscillation (definitely an overstatement).

Luckily, the fix for this is pretty easy.  The stock antenna unscrews with a male m5 thread on the antenna base.  This is a fairly standard antenna fixing, so a trip to Autozone resulted in a shorty replacement.

With this replacement, I am nearly certain that regardless of windscreen position, there is almost no chance that the antenna will wag around, even remotely.  So far, I haven't noticed any significant difference in radio reception either.

And, I actually like the looks of the shorty antenna a little better!

2014 Triumph Trophy SE

We were introduced on April 1, 2006, but the story starts a year before that.

On an early spring day in 2005, I suddenly realized I had no choice.  I needed to buy a sport bike.  I already had a Harley Davidson Electraglide, so the sport bike was a significant departure.  I can't explain the logic, but I had no choice in the matter.
A bit of searching showed a lot of sport bikes quickly get beat up pretty bad.  Recalling an in-passing conversation with a coworker the previous fall, I contacted Matt who confirmed he was selling his 2001 Honda VFR.  A few conversations and a test ride later and I bought the low mileage bike for a fair price.
I doubled the mileage on it that summer and loved it.  There were two real problems with it though.  First, I couldn't carry anything outside of my pockets on it.  The lines on the bike were gorgeous and the thought of destroying it with beetle bags or scratching the snot out of the rear end with textile bags was horrifying.
The second problem?  I was always getting into the triple digits on the bike.
Of all the motorcycles I have owned, that VFR had the best voice.  The growl from the exhaust under a heavy throttle at speed combined with just the right amount of whine from the gear-driven cams combined to an intoxicating sound.

The next spring the VFR had to go.  On a glorious April 1, after contacting many Honda dealerships the plan was to start close to home and ride until I found the right combination of price and trade-in.  I sealed the deal at the second dealership I went to and rode home on my new 2006 Honda ST1300.  This was the beginning of a strong friendship.

That ST1300 grew to become my best friend.  I commuted on it most days during three seasons.  I had impromptu trips to see friends or nowhere in particular.  With a humongous gas tank and reasonable mileage, I could leave home and arrive at Terry's house in Northern Michigan without even stopping.  Helibars was about the only modification that the bike needed.
I went through a lot during that friendship, even killing my second deer while on two wheels.  On the good days, we had a constant conversation through throttle, brakes, seat...  On the best days, the bike was an extension of me.
It was not an easy decision, but at some point I knew the friendship needed to come to an end.  I would often find myself far from home with a desperate need to get home fast which would mean long hours on the interstate.  Not having cruise control could make this painful even with the Helibars (I had grown fond of cruise since I also owned a GL1800 which replaced the Electraglide).  A few other reasons helped my eyes move toward new bikes; while an amazing bike, the ST is a bit long in the tooth, and Honda's recent direction of new bikes can generously be described as odd.

There were really two bikes I considered to replace the ST1300, bikes that had the minimum of what I was looking for:  The Triumph Trophy SE and the BMW R1200RT.
The nearest BMW dealerships are almost two hours a way.  Even my born-in-Germany die-hard biker acquaintance described both of them as sub-par (he surprisingly chose Buell until they were folded by Harley Davidson).  And, I'm just not ready to feel that proud of myself and say, "Yeah, I'm a BMW guy."
I had cut my teeth on British cars, working as a line mechanic on aging sports cars descended from the crown.  I paid for college on Lucas electrics, bad gearboxes and questionable front suspensions.  I love British vehicles, quirks and all.  There was no choice.

A few visits to nearby dealerships and a down payment later brought a new 2014 Triumph Trophy SE.
I picked up the new bike on a warm very-early spring day.  The 'wet' in the picture below is melting ice in the shadow of the garage I had to survive.  Interesting friendships almost always start out with a story.

True to British form, there are a few quirks compared to the refined ST1300.  Everything is computer controlled and it takes rolling a few tenths of a mile for the computer to fully sync up.  The most interesting manifestation of this is that after refueling, the bike needs to think and decide if more petrol was put into the tank before displaying the new fuel level.
But, the bike is lighter, faster and more agile than the ST.  Compared to the ST, cornering on the Trophy feels more like the vehicle is right on the balls of its feet, ready to spring where I will it.  The computer is filled with a wealth of information and a quick flick of my left thumb can ease my paranoia toward low tire pressure.  The various combinations of suspension make more difference than I would have expected, and much more difference than the rear preload on the ST1300.  Wind deflection is more pronounced with the windshield up and still free flowing down; I just wish the antenna was stiffer so it didn't violently bounce around when the windshield is set to push air toward it.

It was hard to sell my best friend.  But, I'm starting a new friendship and that is always exciting.  I am on the cusp of creating many new memories with the 2014 Triumph Trophy SE.

More Stuff Tends To Clutter Life, Not Improve It

Wednesday is garbage day.  The catharsis of being about to put just about anything I can carry out by the road and have it disappear by the time I get home from work is wonderful.  The cost model seems crazy though.  It costs the same amount for me to throw away my one average plastic bag as some of my neighbor's enormous weekly piles.

I've lived in this house now for about 3 years.  When I started thinking about moving (well before it was even close to reality), I started looking around at all the stuff I had accumulated.  Much of it was fairly well organized, but much of it was also rarely used.  In the house I had stuff stored in the basement, a storage room in the attic area and closets, drawers, etc. with more rarely used stuff.
In the garages, I had even more.  The smaller garage was a 2-story and the second story was a sorry state of equipment, building materials and general mayhem that I kept "in case I ever needed it."
Before moving, I threw a lot of it away - for many weeks I had mountains of garbage to rival my neighbor's.
It was hard to throw away some of my treasures, but as moving became more real getting rid of stuff that had sat for so long felt pretty good.
After moving, I was determined to not let it get to that state again.

Over the last few weeks, I've been reorganizing some rooms; making better use of the space in the basement and allowing for a "guest" bedroom - which really means a bedroom for me most of the time.  This prompted some second looks at what has not been touched in the last three years.  In place of much of the borderline garbage at my old house, this time it was mostly usable.  I frankly didn't have the energy to sell much of it, and didn't want to landfill it...yet.  There are many people who have not yet learned the third rule of life.  I thought about putting stuff like complete fishtanks including wooden stands on Craig's List, but I really don't relish the idea of people who want free fishtanks coming to my house.  I put them on the bulletin board at work and the response was frightening.  I can only hope the stuff brings them more pleasure than it did me, sitting in storage for years.

Since I rarely dress in anything but casual attire, a recent wedding prompted me to look at some clothes, my nice clothes that rarely get worn.  I realized that after sitting for so long, many of them had smaller stains and a general very dingy appearance.  I was keeping them only because they were expensive when I bought them, but in their present condition, I would never be able to wear them at the times one might need sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes.  They are in purgatory until a wash determines whether they should be kept or meet the big truck on a Wednesday.

At the same time this is happening, I also find myself unable to throw away stuff.  Furniture from the room to become the guest bedroom is now in the basement and the pole barn.  If I was truly able to live what I believe, I'd have a bonfire.  The end of Windows XP means the perfectly functional computer I am typing this on will eventually become a security risk, albeit slight.  It isn't powerful enough to run Windows 8; can I justify the cost of Windows 7 for the remainder of its support life?
Microsoft is encouraging the increasing of piles of stuff.

More stuff tends to clutter life, not improve it.  I often find more enjoyment out of getting rid of something that hasn't been used in a long time, over buying something new.

Often...

The Experts Tell Us We're Wrong. But, We Are Not.

I don't pay for TV.  I can afford it, but I can't justify it.  It often feels like I'm one of the last eight people in the US who doesn't pay (outright) for TV in any way.
From what I was able to find online, about 20% of the US does not pay for TV in the form of cable or satellite.  However, a majority of that subpopulation watches online.  Since I live in a rural area, my choices for internet access are limited and I'm currently connected via cellular.  This makes online TV viewing realistically a non-option.  My 10GB data allowance would allow between 10 and 20 hours of streaming viewing if I did nothing else with my data.  I often don't use all my data, but I don't want to shell out extra money for data overages and so my streaming viewing is capacity constrained.
This puts me in the category of around 5% of the US who doesn't pay for satellite or cable and also doesn't stream content online.  I'll trust I'm in good company.  Michael Powell pushed for all-digital broadcast TV.  The over-the-air HD TV is great, but I'm convinced the real reason for this was to push more people into pay TV since OTA coverage is more limited, making OTA TV such a fringe that it can be eliminated.  This would free that electromagnetic spectrum for other uses, but probably not a better internet option for me.  The tyranny of the majority if one believes that TV is a necessity (I do).

This posting isn't about the evil ploy of Michael Powell though.  But, since I don't pay for TV, I end up watching a lot of PBS.  I'm convinced I'm not the target audience for PBS though.  Every time they do their "Pledge Week" they change programming to material I have no interest in.  This is fine since after contributing once to NPR, I'll never contribute again.  That one contribution to NPR has resulted in a solicitation-mail deluge that is hard to comprehend.
PBS and NPR claim to be "commercial-free" which is untrue.  Their commercials are compacted in the week(s)-long money drubbing in the form of pledges and "underwriters."  The difference between an underwriter and a company buying air time in the form of a commercial is unclear to the average viewer or listener.

This posting isn't about National Broadcasting either.

A few Weeks ago, Chris Kimball on did a "Tasting Challenge" on America's Test Kitchen for coffee.  This was likely an older rerun.  His choice and the choice of the "Experts" was Peet's Cafe Domingo.  This coffee was on sale so I recently bought some.  It was good, and tasted...like coffee.

The coffees I buy most often are Kroger's Private Selection Sumatran Mandheling, Caribou Blend and Peet's House Blend in that order.  Perhaps for the same reason I don't pay for TV, store brands end up taking a lot of room in my shopping cart.  Peet's and Caribou typically only leave the store with me when on sale for a good price and/or with a coupon.  They aren't necessarily better, only different.
Growing up in the late 70s/early 80s, "generic" where products of unknown origin and quality in white packaging with black writing.  These were often sold in their own aisle (remember that?).  Now, they are usually called "Store Brands" - or sometimes "Private Label" and are right alongside the Oreos, Tide and Kellogg's boxes in the store.  The products have often improved and sometimes to the point where quality is similar to their branded shelf-mates.  Packaging has also improved, but is somewhat irrelevant.  I can't decide if I miss the black and white packages or not.

Taking a page from branded producers, store brands often have a tiered approach.  Alongside Kroger's Brand are Private Selection and Simple Truth.

If the quality of all products we buy lies on a bell curve, below some quality isn't worth it at any price.  Above some quality is all good enough.  Enter the "Experts" to tell us what we should buy.  Cafe Domingo was fine, but not worth a price premium over Private Selection.  Kicking Horse, Paradise Roasters, Peet's, Caribou, Private Selection - I guess I'd rather wade through the odd bad bag of whole bean coffee than rely on Chris Kimball to decide what is good for me.  Anything but Starbucks, lest we all end up wearing the same Mao Pajamas.
I actually like America's Test Kitchen and Chris Kimball.  I once made their recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies and they tasted like chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients
1 ¾ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (8 ¾ ounces)
½ tsp. baking soda
14 Tbsp. unsalted butter (1 ¾ sticks)
½ cup granulated sugar (3 ½ ounces)
¾ cups packed dark brown sugar (5 ¼ ounces)
1 tsp. table salt
2 tsps. vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 ¼ cups semisweet chocolate chips or chunks
¾ cup chopped pecans or walnuts, toasted (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the oven rack in the middle position.  Line 2 large (18×12 inch) baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Whisk flour and baking soda together in medium bowl and set aside.
3. Heat 10 tablespoons of the butter in 10-inch skillet (if possible, do not use nonstick) over medium-high heat until melted, about 2 minutes.  Continue cooking, swirling pan constantly until butter is dark golden brown and has nutty aroma, 1 to 3 minutes.
4. Remove skillet from heat and, using heatproof spatula, transfer browned butter to large heatproof bowl.  Stir remaining 4 tablespoons butter into hot butter until completely melted.
5. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla to bowl with butter and whisk until fully incorporated.  Add egg and yolk and whisk until mixture is smooth with no sugar lumps remaining, about 30 seconds.  Let mixture stand 3 minutes, then whisk for 30 seconds.  Repeat process of resting and whisking 2 more times until mixture is thick, smooth, and shiny. 
6. Using rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir in flour mixture until just combined, about 1 minute.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts (if using), giving dough final stir to ensure no flour pockets remain.
7. Divide dough into 16 portions, each about 3 tablespoons.  Arrange 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheets, 8 dough balls per sheet.  Smaller baking sheets can be used, but will require 3 batches.
8. Bake cookies 1 tray at a time until cookies are golden brown and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft, 10 to 14 minutes, rotating baking sheet halfway through baking.  
9. Transfer baking sheet to wire rack; cool cookies completely before serving.

The Experts will gladly tell us what to buy, but not benevolently.  That is done by the average reviewer.  If Winston Churchill said that the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter, then the best argument against ever buying anything again is a read-through of online reviews.
People are much more likely to complain than express satisfaction - especially in the anonymous and vociferous world of online reviews.  Read through reviews of anything on Amazon (or heaven forbid online reviews of vehicles or electronics) and it is a wonder that anybody buys anything; everything is fatally flawed.
At least we know this, since that is what the Experts tell us.

Enjoy the coffee, Cafe Domingo or not.

Please don't feed the animals - they enjoy being miserable

This can be a brutal time of year.  The enjoyable activities of fall and winter are long over.  Spring seems like it is just about to happen, but there is a lot of winter left to endure.  We do begin to get those initial warm days which are nice for a time, but they enhance the pain during winter's relapse.

As 2013/14 has been a particularly heinous winter, the malaise can be as bad as ever.
For whatever reason, this also tends to be an evil time at work, with more unreasonable demands, irritable coworkers and a general working environment that spirals down to the lowest common denominator.

Last weekend saw one of the brief warm and sunny days.  Heavy rains the few days before washed away most of the salt and allowed a first motorcycle ride for 2014.  Since it is rare to not get the motorcycle out at least a couple times every month in the winter, this was a nice breather.
After a tolerable day yesterday, the forecast calls for a winter storm bringing rain, ice, freezing rain, sleet and snow to the area.  As much as meteorologists get verbally beat up for imperfection in the models, they usually do get it mostly right.  This morning saw everything coated with ice and the predicted unfriendly radar.

NPR had an interesting story earlier this week.  It asked the question (NPR never answers anything) whether something is good due to intrinsic qualities or if there is something else, even chance playing a role.  The conclusion of some research by Princeton's Matthew Salganik was that chance plays a significant role.  The extension of this was that it could apply to things in everyday life as well.
This seemed to be a bit of a stretch based on the brief synopsis of the research, but it validates my belief so it must be true.  I'm pretty convinced that a few simple decisions I made around the age of 15 lead directly to where I am now.
The seemingly small decision to purchase my first car, resulted in my getting a job a few years later at an auto shop, which led to me working as a mechanic a few years later.  With a few Twists, this is the reason I was able to (and decided to) continue in college through graduation, resulting in my current job and current position in life; good, bad or other.
If I wouldn't have bought that car, would I be destitute and homeless?  Probably not, but the tree of events is there.  Seemingly small decisions can end up having huge implications years down the road.

My oldest dog has kidney disease.  As a result, she is on Science Diet K/D.  While every day is different, the food has helped her immensely.  But, she hates it.  She has gone form a beagle who excitedly scarfs down food to picking at it very slowly.  With two other beagles waiting and anxious, she has to be isolated until she eats her food.  In order to encourage her to eat, she gets a combination of dry and canned K/D plus a few spoonfuls of Heinz gravy (no protein).  With this buffet served twice a day, I am surprised she doesn't eat more exuberantly.
Without her knowing it, there is little question this despicable food has improved her overall life expectancy, if not her life.

So maybe there is a bright spot to this horrid time of year.  Wet, snow, ice, cold, mud...
"Knowing that things come to an end is a gift of experience, a consolation prize for knowing that we ourselves are coming to an end." - Tobias Wolff

The cold weather is forecast to be in place for longer than normal this year, but it will end.

Even if tomorrow turns out to be unpalatable, I'm confident I'll wake up one day closer to something better.

Three Books Not To Read (and what to read instead)

I only read nine books last year (I keep a list).  This is pretty paltry compared to the early and mid 00s when the average was closer to 25.  There are real reasons for the lower number that aren't important here, but I should hope I'll be closer to at least an average of one a month this year.  I've already read four so there is a chance.

Some of the books I've read over the last decade (when I started keeping the list), I've read because I 'thought I should.'  These are very often classics or books espoused to be influential or on some of the Top xx list of books.
Three stand out that I'm glad I read.  Not because they are good, but because they are terrible.  I've previously mentioned Under the Volcano, so while it could be included here, it won't explicitly be.  Admitting I don't think these books have much in the way of redeeming qualities is an invitation for criticism as these books have strong defenders, "It changed my life."  I do think they could make good roughage for a goat.
Sure to inflame even more passion, I'm suggesting alternatives that are similar in flavor, but worth far more than the paper and ink.

Book 1:  On the Road by Jack Kerouac
What is most surprising about this book is that it is a story where absolutely nothing happens.  There really is no plot.
It is widely told that Jack Kerouac wrote this in one feverish event on one scroll of paper.  It doesn't matter whether this is true or not, but the stream-of-consciousness is evident throughout the book.  In addition to bringing a tedium to much of the book, it also means that what doesn't happen in the book could be mixed up in any order and essentially be the same book.
Tolstoy is quoted as saying there are only two stories ever written:  A man goes on a journey and A stranger comes to town.  On the Road is both and neither.  Since this book is credited with helping to start the "Beat Movement,"  it says something about that movement.
Of the three books, On the Road is probably the least objectionable.
Read Instead:  A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren
This book tells the story of the fringes of society, the lost soles who are made better through hardship if also low ambition.  While it is set in the '30s, it could be set at just about any other time in American History by changing some of the details.
In contrast to Jack Kerouac's book, it has a beginning, middle and end and includes trivial things like character development.  Nelson Algren (and A Walk on the Wild Side) is said to have been influential to the beginning of Hunter Thompson's writing, specifically his book Hell's Angels.

Book 2:  Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
I'm probably not the right generation to have read this book and I've never self-injected drugs so I'm probably not the right audience.  How this book consistently ends up on many of the top-100 lists says something about the types of people who popularize these lists.  William Burroughs has an interesting life-story and his various biographies are worth investigating, if a bit on the hairy side.  William Burroughs was quick to point out that Naked Lunch was not a novel and part of the intent was a book that could be opened up to any page at any time an read.  Mission accomplished, gibberish published.
The book has several parts repeated verbatim so I guess it could be gibberish repeated as well (with apologies to Robert Frost - And miles to go before I sleep and miles to go before I sleep).
The best part of the book is the epilogue not published in the original version where William Burroughs gives his theories of drugs and addiction based on strong personal experience.
As an aside, the movie Naked Lunch written and directed by David Cronenberg is excellent.  The movie contains the essence of the book within an actual story that includes a lot of the commentary that William Burroughs might have been trying to communicate if he wasn't quite so drug addled.  Naked Lunch is one of the few exceptions where the movie is much better than the written prose.  "I advise avoiding the book." -Charles Poore
Read Instead:  The Rum Diary by Hunter S. Thompson
It would be almost too easy (cliche') to advise reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but The Rum Diary is a much better book (the movie version of The Rum Diary is beyond terrible though).  Like Naked Lunch it is loosely based on autobiographical events while Hunter Thompson was living in Puerto Rico and tells the story of a man realizing something lies beyond the lack of accountability many of us wish we could live in.  "There was an awful suspicion in my mind that I'd finally gone over the hump, and the worst thing about it was that I (sic) didn't feel tragic at all, but only weary and sort of comfortably detached."

Book 3:  The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
I have a hard time deciding whether The Catcher in the Rye or Under the Volcanoe is worse.  The Catcher in the Rye tells the story of a self-absorbed student.  After being expelled from school, Holden Caulfield goes on a field trip to New York to rid himself of all the phoniness exposed in the world.  J.D. Salinger is reported to have done little writing and publishing after the attention given to The Catcher in the Rye but perhaps that happened too late.
Read Instead:  Sounder by William Armstrong
Sounder was one of those books I read in junior high, reread as an adult and was very glad that I did.  It tells the story of a share-cropper family in the Jim Crow South.  In addition to the more obvious themes of race, justice and of gaining maturity, it also touches on deeper subjects such as loyalty, and justification for doing wrong.

In retrospect, On the Road, Naked Lunch, and The Catcher in the Rye made an impression on me, even if it was a negative one; these books are much more memorable than other books I read and honestly enjoyed.  A world with only positives would be pretty monotonous so I guess there is at least one redeeming quality.
These books make it tragically hard for me to pick up other titles that I think I should read.  I have picked up books such as Gravity's Rainbow many times and put it back down every time out of the sheer horror its promise induces.  However, I also avoided A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, but finally read it about three years ago and really enjoyed it, especially since the edition I read contained both the US and the UK endings.
The reading of these books doesn't have to be an either/or.  But, definitely make time to read A Walk on the Wild Side, The Rum Diary and Sounder.

Flame on.

Weltschmerz

Triaphilia:

1. The fear of the number three.
2. The belief that bad things happen in sets of three. 

It is nowhere near my birthday, but three things happened in the last three days to make me feel very old.
I've never really felt old on my birthday.  There have only been two birthdays where I did have a sense of decrepitude.
The first was when I turned 28.  At some point in grade school like everyone else I learned simple math.  One test problem was to calculate how old I would be in the year 2000.  I correctly calculated 28.  While many childhood memories are gone forever, I vividly remember thinking about the age of 28 and how impossibly old that was.  That stuck with me on my birthday in 1999.
The second birthday when I felt old was when I turned 36.  Shortly after I started working after college there was one of those horrible forced department social events.  One of my new coworkers was sitting across a picnic table from me and was making derisive comments on my age.  When I asked how old he was, he replied, "36."  Looking at this guy across the table I thought he looked significantly more ancient.  When I turned 36, I recalled the incident and wondered if the past years working for that company had resulted in new hires thinking I was much older.

The Three Incidences in the last Three Days:

I don't understand the compulsion to do this, but occasionally birthdays are celebrated at work with small posters proliferating how old someone has become.  Friday was such a day with one coworker.  Knowing about when he started with the company, I assumed we were close to the same age, but he has maintained the frat-boy look for around 20 years now.  For some unexplained reason, the posters in this case hit a raw nerve coupling that frat-boy look with the reality that we're nearly the same age (he's a few years younger).

I had to ship a small package by FedEx and stopped by a local office down the street from work.  In front of me in line was a woman and presumably her daughter shipping an overnight envelope.  The daughter was a bit animated, almost hyper and the banter between the two females the FedEx clerk suggests they stop by often.  I merely had to drop off my prepared box and the woman and her daughter were blocking the door as I tried to leave while they looked at a postcard (or something).  As I worked my way around them, I saw the girl attempt to suck in her words as she said, "You almost stopped that old man from leaving." to her mother.

I woke up this morning, early as usual.  As I made coffee, I had a few eyebrow hairs just in my peripheral vision that were an immediate and significant annoyance.  I grabbed my rarely-used electric razor to cut the offending bastard hairs away.  In a brief instant, a significant portion of one eyebrow was gone.  This prompted a bit more looking and the horror of bushiness that my eyebrows had become before being scythed by the razor.  Wisely, I only briefly tried to further trim my way to some sort of repair.

I'll be living with this one for a while.  They will grow back slowly to their old-man disheveled appearance and I will embrace them.  I briefly thought about cutting them off completely to see if anyone would notice.  Eyebrows are an anomaly.  I strongly suspect most people would notice a difference in my appearance, but not be able to figure out what it was due to - at least for a few minutes.
I could pretend I was Bob Geldof from the end of Pink Floyd - The Wall.

Which brings up a good point, have you seen recent pictures of Bob Geldof?  Maybe I shouldn't worry too much about how my appearance may have changed over the years.

Weltschmerz:

1. Mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state.