Around the same time, I had helped my brother-in-law build his own NAS box with the extra machine that was lying around at my home. I decided to install FreeNAS 0.7.2 which I’ve played around briefly a few months back. The main reason I went with this version was that it had the ability for him to host movies, pictures, and music files using uPNP (Universal Plug N’ Play) so that he can stream his personal content from the NAS box to his PS3.

For my own purpose, I was thinking about replacing my current file server solution which consists of a Slackware 12.2 server which runs my Samba share for Windows, Fuppes for uPNP for my XBox 360, and LAMP server for my personal Wiki pages. The server contains a 20GB root drive, 250GB mirrored RAID 1 drives, and an externally attached 500GB mirrored RAID 1 drives. It is my primary backup server which serves up movies, photos, & music to the rest of my network. I’ve used up about 80% of my storage on this existing server so far so I think it was a perfect time to think about expanding out. With the possibility of using hardware that was more powerful, energy efficient, and quiet was very appealing.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to do a complete replace of the existing system. The software that I chose to run my NAS box is FreeNAS 8.0. This is the next generation of the software which is primarily built on the ZFS file system. ZFS is a fairly knew concept in which the software uses your hardware and create virtual devices and then device pools to manage your storage needs. It allows you to expand your storage needs similarly to how Drobo does it. This is a huge requirement for my next file server in which it needs to be expandable. I don’t want to go through the trouble of backing things up and replacing hardware and restoring from that backup. The downside of this software is that I lose functionality to share my media to my XBox 360 since uPNP was not available. I’ll also lose LAMP for my Wiki. The only way around this is to add my new build to my server farm of 2.

I carefully picked out my list of parts for the build. I started with four 2TB green drives from Western Digital (WD). I’m usually very hesitant in using WD as my drives but the years that I haven’t been keeping up, Seagate’s quality seem to have withered while WD has made great strides in the large capacity drives. From there I ordered the rest of my system which featured the following items:

• Asus E35M1-I micro ITX motherboard with a passively cooled AMD Dual Core E-350 processor
• 8GB G.Skill RipJaw 4GB x 2 Memory Kit
• Lian-Li PC-Q08 mini tower case which has 6 internal hard drive slots
• Antec 380W ATX power supply
• Verbatim 4GB Store ‘n’ Stay USB Drive

Stay tuned for Part 2 which will explain the build in detail.

As if the hard drive Gods gave me a gift, I have the yanked out hard drive sitting on my coffee table for the entire week. Through-out the week, I was figuring what I should do with the extra 500GB but it become more apparent when my 500GB disk array became at risk. I quickly swapped the hard drive out of the tray. The amazing part was that as soon as I popped the drives back in, the enclosure immediately knew what to do to recreate the copy without me doing anything. Apparently, this works because the enclosure checks the timestamp on both disks and the newest one will have their data mirrored. Amazingly enough, the disks were the same exact model and size.

So after I let the enclosure do it’s thing in generating a mirrored drive, I was back in business the next day. I quickly mounted the enclosure back and voila! My data was back and it was redundant again.

I can’t say how glad I am to have a fully redundant data storage system. Big kudos to DAT Optic’s ezRAID enclosure. They really work!

To whomever this may concern,

I came across this story online on http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_17766695 which described a 19 year-old woman who was under the influence and swerved onto a group of cyclists on Sunday, April 3rd. The part that really upset me was reading what Lt. Devin Chase had said, “It’s kind of a residential street, so we’re not sure if the bicyclists were staying on their side of the road or taking up more of the road.” First of all, why is this statement targeting the victims of the crime? If they were in anyway not on their side would mean that they were trying to fend for their lives by avoiding a swerving vehicle coming into their lane. Secondly, this type of response from the Torrance Police Department is insensitive to victims of the incident as well as to the entire bicycling community. It would have been more productive to not comment at all or perhaps use this as an example to help detract others from drinking and driving or under age drinking. Instead, the police department seems to go out of their way to blame the bicyclists.

I do not live in Torrance but have traveled into Torrance by way of bicycle. When I do come to Torrance I participate in the local economy by shopping at various restaurants, stores and vendors. Comments like this just shows that riding a bicycle in the City of Torrance is not welcomed. I will have to think twice before rolling into Torrance the next time I am in the area.

Regards,
Johnny Lam

Keep in mind this is my first ever call to action that was initiated without support from anybody else. I received a reply asking for a number to discuss further. Let’s see where this rabbit hole leads to.

It’s Day 2 now and my latest ride had me cruising through my community of town homes. A pathetic attempt but in the spirit of being on my bike, I had to at least do that. Otherwise, I won’t have the opportunity to do so since I have several events in the evening that will require me to be in a car. The month of April will be a month filled with bicycle related events. The big one being Ciclavia! This will take place on April 10th in which a 7 mile stretch of roads will be opened to bicycle and other human powered activity. The first Ciclavia last October 10th was one of the best times I’ve had on a bike. It brought the city together and made it feel more like a community. This is rare in a city that is dominated by cars where interaction only happens at the start and end of a drive rather than during the trip. I am eager to be riding through the streets of Los Angeles on April 10th.

For now, I need to tend to my stable of bikes. I’d like to include training rides within the next 28 days. There are a pair of brake pads and tires that I need to put on the road bike to begin doing that. Did I tell you I’m doing a charity ride called the Tour de Cure for the American Diabetes Association on May 1st? I signed up for the century ride which starts at the Long Beach Queen Mary. I’ll be riding through bridges that will be opened for cyclist only on this occasion near the Port of LA. The route will go into San Pedro, Palos Verdes, Long Beach, Seal Beach, and Huntington Beach. It’s going to be my first “race” which will be timed. I can’t wait to do this.

I’ll also have to kick off fundraising efforts for the California Coast Classic for the Arthritis Foundation. You’ll notice I’ll have my donation meter up on the right side of the blog for tracking purpose. Please feel free to click on there to support my ride. I need to raise $3000 to participate. Help a brother out!

So when I first saw a Surly I carefully researched which frame I wanted to build my bike from. The obvious choice was the Surly Cross Check. It was the most versatile frame they had. You can build it up as a normal drop bar cyclo-cross bike or you can build it up as a regular grocery getter / “city” bike, or even a single / fixed gear bike if you like. I wanted a city bike. I wanted something I can ride around the city with normal clothes, a front and rear rack, and fenders. What I finally got built was this work of art!

Say hello to my new whip! A custom built Surly Cross Check. This thing is loaded with a whole can of awesomeness! We’re talking about a 8-speed internal geared rear hub, a front dynamo hub with accompanying Busch & Mueller lights, and a chainguard!

Thanks to Jon Raspa & Josef Bray-Ali of the Fliying Pigeon LA bike shop for making this happen. These guys helped me pick out the parts that I wanted and hand built the 36 spoke rims and every component on the bike. I love you guys!

2010 California Coast Classic Tour from Johnny Lam on Vimeo.

But I digress. Happy new year to my few readers out there! The holidays came and went without much fanfare. As I grow older I realize I don’t want as much “stuff” as I once did. I’ve been on a consumption diet as of late. Leo Babauta of ZenHabits wrote a post entitled, “The Case Against Buying Christmas Presents” which I am very much in agreement with his views on what Christmas has become and why I don’t view it innocently like I once did. On my time off (compliments of my new employer) I spent time to reflect on myself. What really matters to me these days. I don’t want stuff to matter. I want experiences and relationships to matter more. Therefore, I’ve told folks I would rather spend money on an experience to enrich a person’s life rather than on something that can eventually break or be forgotten. If you’re reading this and you know me personally, please do not give me any more “stuff”. I would rather you take the money and donate to a fund-raising effort. I’ll take this time to pimp those out: 1. Tour de Cure which is a ride to cure diabetes. 2. CCC ride for the Arthritis Foundation. This will be my second year. The first year was AWESOME!

I’ve also been reading another blog called The Path Less Pedaled which documents the journey of a Long Beach couple, Russ & Laura, who decided to sell all their personal belongings and go on an epic bike ride in 2009. I have been reading their past posts non-stop on my in and out of work. This was when I ride the bus this week. So far I’m at August 2009 where they made it up to Portland, OR and have been cruising around there and are at the state of Washington. Both authors can write so I enjoy reading their recollection and Russ is a photographer so his pictures are amazing! Some are taken from his iPhone and edited on the fly. As I poured through their entries, I am constantly reflecting on my own situation. I don’t think I own as much stuff as they did but it is a considerable amount. I need to start going through my crap and throwing things away. Even though I’m not going anywhere (yet), I’d like to lighten up the possessions. I guess I’m striving for a more simple life. I’ve been striving for a few years now. To try to minimize as much as I can.

Another interesting point in one of Laura’s post mentioned the critical mass of stuff that needed to make a home feel like a home. To fill it up with the right things so that it was more inviting. Since they had to go through this mass cleansing, they found themselves torn apart by their stuff and their overall goal to get out on the road. I have similar sentiments about my current home of 2 years. I’ve be reluctant to furnish the place fully. My bedroom just has a bed and a side table that was given to me by a friend. My living consist of a lounge chair given to me by a friend of my dad and a futon bed given to me by a buddy of mine. Coffee table is something my uncle gave me that was sitting in his garage collecting dust. My rug was bartered for some work I did for a carpet company. I got my tv stand as a present for the gf. I did splurge on the TV. I’m slowly regretting that purchase but can’t bring myself to admit it because everytime I turn it on to watch sports, I am reminded why I “had to have it”. I’m being owned! On the other hand, I’m feeling the pressure to “feather my nest” so that it feels more inviting. I’m so torn.

On another note, I am going to be getting a new bike! The one thing I don’t feel guilty about buying for myself is this custom built Surly Cross Check built by the Flying Pigeon LA guys.

Isn’t she beautiful? Build details will come later when I go pick it up this weekend. It’s missing some lights and a chainguard in this picture.

I feel more open on my personal blog to express and rant. Unfortunately, due to a few life changing events I am completely overwhelmed with work and have been trying to waste my time more wisely. On a rare occasion like tonight, I am feeling a bit inspired to put some words here and give my dedicated readers an update of my life even though I know you don’t care or already know what’s going on. Hell, this will be good to go back and read my postings when I’m old and gray and say, “Thank you, you! For writing this.”

So what’s been going on? The most significant accomplishment that happened late September into October was that I completed my awesome ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 8 days. Words cannot explain how awesome this trip was. Therefore I’m just going to show you my Flickr photo set instead:

250 riders raised about $1.27 million for the Arthritis Foundation. It was so good that I’m going to do it again next year. Look for my solicitation for donations and leave some money in your budget to help donate to this great cause.

The second update in my life (or really my family’s life) is that my sister is finally married! Her long-time boyfriend turned fiance is now her husband. I gained a brother-in-law who I welcome to our family with open arms. I was part of the wedding ceremony which was a very simple and progressive combination of American and Chinese culture. Much like the way I would like to do it if I was getting married. Too bad that’s not happening anytime soon.

The third and final update is that I am in the middle of changing jobs. Yup, I am moving forward from my 7 year tenure from NBC Universal. Quoting the great Lebron, “In this fall — this is very tough — in this fall I am taking my talents to Culver City and work with Sony”. Last day is November 5th. It’s going to be a sad departure. I’ve given my best with this company and they’ve allowed me to grow and groom my skills as a Project Manager.

There you go! You’re caught up with my life now. Move along. There’s nothing else to see here…