...

yeah dats about it:

...

its all i feel like saying but rather than not say it i feel compelled to just say it, and of course wind up saying even more...

and to say that i've found new inspiration, a new muse if you will... my step-father claims to have inherited his father's muse. For them the muse was the force that gave them the ability to compose incredible sonnets, many of my grandfather's sonnets are published like this one, pop over to amazon and check out the rest of them...

so a muse to me is an inspirational entity - sometimes its been an animal, sometimes a tree, once it was a whole arboretum... and rarely a person...

these muses help fuel the creativity - but sometimes frustrate me to no end - seeing possibilities - having impossible ideas of brilliant concepts build up and drive me insane...

so..
on that...
fini

What the ***** h'v I been do'n

Seems a whole lot of nuttin lately - and - i donna like it sometimes - not talkin werk stuff - that's been rocking steady if a but foggy from lack of sleep and shizz - but i'm getting it done and its kickin aezz...

Damn if readin Jonny's epic about the damn Old P race in AZ this morn'n doesn't get me fired up and hungry for the same punishment... i'm digging the 'idea' of single speed more and more - diggin it in a way that means i wanna do it but haven't yet - i got the wheel that i built up on a 1x1 hub... the wheel rocks... but... um it's gotta be attached to a bike and what bike is it going on? That full on POS Mantra Carbon beast that i've got - yeah the one with the Rigid uniKlein fork - kinda deserves the single speed treatment... i mean fuck it is a rear suspension bike - i can put the front old school Manitou XCTi fork back on... i jumped it up with some mongo wide bars... gotta tweak and pick the gearing in front i think and then just farking go with it and start riding.

I keep thinkin about the Walden school of thought with the 1000 miles... at this rate i might have 1000 miles in two years if i keep thinking instead of riding... its just when the hell am i gonna ride? Looks like AFTER dinner if its gonna work - that or i bring the shit into my office and ride here - but who wants their office turning into a gym... its enough pain to have the Cross bike sitting here staring at me... its my albatross - and it aint' going away until i start riding something...

And yea - having a newborn AND a 4.5 year old in the house kinda screws everything up as far as me having me time, combined with the farking 1+hour commute each way every day... if only i couuld do it on the bike... hell that's something i've been thinking about doing for 5 years now... riding to work one day... 75-80 miles one way on the back roads... why the fuck haven't i done it yet? I dunno - summers get messed up and i get busy/lazy and i don't really have any good reasons why not - yeah it'd be stupid but its one of those epic stupid things that are worth doing...

Ane the whole "two niner" thing - the guys i used to work with at Velocipede are pretty harsh on em: "Why'd you want something that is heavier and slower"
To a point I agree, larger tires - more rotational force required to get em rolling... slower accel/speed changes, but bigger diameter has gotta be better for bigger riders like me and my 6'6" lanky big size... that and a two niner bike in MY size actually looks right - the XL Adroit or XL Mantra Carbon i've got look stupid goofy - like some tricky 20" bike or worse, like a Bike Friday: not that there is anything wrong with riding a Bike Friday... if you are traveling...

well i'm done - coffee break is over - work's not doing itself - and life, life rolls on and my frames are collecting dust... if nothing else they all need a good coat of pledge (lemon of course) if they are gonna be basement art fixtures....

whats up with the gates

they are ubiquitous on Flick.com right now...

its a short term exhibit set up... here's one example of someone's set

well here are a bunch of links

The Gates
its actually kinda cool... the post started off as a rant about the massive amounts of orange gated pictures... on flickr...

now...

damn its cool...

would be cool to head to NY to see em in person...

this is the pic i like the best... the overhead shot of them all
http://www.christojeanneclaude.net/sharedMedia/TheGates/update/tuesday/_H1U1462.jpg

anyway - no i didn't get on the bike - yes i got the plumbing fixed - yes there are visitors at home invading my space... hmmm maybe that means i have a better excuse to get on the rollers when i get home -BINGO-

(adding an addendum - freakin hell if there isn't a flickr.com account setup JUST FOR THE GATES

time to ride...

i've got a dream...

i want to race in the single speed clydesdale solo catagory...

in the endurance series here in michigan put on by fun promotions...

but...

that means i gotta start riding...

getting miles on...

and...

most "training diaries" for endurance races say you need to get on the bike in November and put on low intensity base miles for a May/June race...

its february...

i haven't been on my bike yet...

gonna happen?

prolly not...

i had to turn down an invite to do DALMAC so i can keep the dates open for TDIFest...

Call my crazy but a 12 hour mt bike race sounds a LOT more fun than doing a big social quad century...

harder?

definatly...

I miss mt biking...

and the bike in the basement collecting dust do as well...

we'll see - question is...

can i get on the bike this weekend?

even if just the rollers?

I really hope so...

this is very cool and probably what i should do:

Michigan coaching legend Mike Walden kept his road racers on a 42/15 fixed gear at a heart rate never to exceed 65% of their maximum until they had logged 1000 miles for the season, and he claimed a single sprint would negate all the "capillary developing" of this phase

how long will it take to build up 1000 miles on the rollers in the garage?

i think its a worthy experiment...

far more so than watching The Amazing Race...

at least Project Runway is over this week...

am i a link happy fool this morning or what?

i'm also a return happy junky...

why?

cause rather than having a paragraph full of those three periods (why the hell can't i rember what they are called-edit-GOOGLE RULES) i decided to try it with a hard return after each: ellipsis (and yeah now that i found it i remeber the name...

okay - well - i should get off so i can get stuff done so i can even have a 'chance' to get on the bike...

right after i fix the plumbing in the bathroom sink i'm guessing...

photography

i've mentioned Flickr a few times lately, and have added the recent upload links on the left...

i like how addicting it is, addicting in a way that is helping me focus on the creative, the presentation and the image...

i've spent so much time just 'snapping' pictures, not to say that i'm recklessly pushing the shutter and hoping for a good image - far from it... its just that before i'd dump a big bunch of unedited (except for rotation) files on a page and leave em up there... and forget about them...

with Flickr i've been forcing myself to thinking about cropping options and which one is better out of two... really starting to be critical about the images...

not only that but the inspiration from looking at others, while i may not have the 'resources' to really do what i want (black and white art nudes) i'm finding the occasional bouts of self portraiture and landscapes filling that desire... there is just something unmatched about the lines of the human body - not in a sexual way but in a sensual tactile way that other subjects cannot offer...

i guess also getting stimulated by the use of the new camera, also the freedom to drag around the old one... but now having used the new one the limitations of the D-460z are painfully apparent... but not limiting, fortunately...

so maybe what i'm saying is - between this oft neglected (in the past) blog and the Flickr space, maybe i can satiate the creative beasts that roam in my head...


maybe...


maybe just for a while...





and that would be okay...

Today's just been like this all day....

colors

if not a pure duplicate it is exactly what the i saw in terms of the feeling of driving into a rose colored snowstorm. The snow was just lightly falling as the sun was setting behind the bank of clouds. Thats gotta be how the light was getting that effect...

strangest thing was looking in the rear-view... it was the normal blue gray...


that C-7000 does a fantastic job at nailing the colors... I'm very impressed

that site meter i put up... kinda depressing... i knew no one was checking it out but ... now i know it... itssokay but kinda like being in high school where no one hangs out with ya - and you can make yourself believe it is because they are all busy doing other stuff... then when ya get told - no its cause you are too weird... taht kinda feeling i guess - maybe its that coupled with my lack of sleep and caffine buzz and massive hunger pangs and the 100 extra pounds my head feels light it weighs this morning.

Oh and next week is going to be hell.... i can feel it already... maybe i can just sink into the influences of Drunkcyclist.com and Flickr's groups... that or i could be productive at home and still have a hellacious week... not so much from the work side of stuff - but the 1+ hour commute... well lets say when ya get woken up 4 times in the course of 6 hours... THAT sucks...

... the drive ...

as interesting as it could have been this morning is was not...
few if any cars along the way to work...
roads just wet...
shoulders of the road covered in ice...
remnants of what might have covered the road hours earlier...



and through the mist...
and fog...
a sort of peace is felt...
as it passes by at 120km/hr...



--

yes the new camera showed up, its sweet... just have to get a card reader so i'm not chewing batteries while d/l-ing from the camera - esp those 45meg video files

what is a camera?

an escape mechanism?

I didn't start off this blog thinking i'd be all about the images, then i sort of went into the landscape stuff and now with the Flickr.com account i'm liking the ritual of updating and sharing and all...

still nothing redirecting here (other than one brief post at P.'s blogg which kinda strange as much as i think about it and as much as the on stage performer in me is craving broad mass appeal and attention, and considering as many times as i've mentioned it - i'm pretty cool with it...

Finally broke down and just got the C-7000... too many cameras to choose from, sooo soo many cameras with very similar functions... so while i still may be relegated to using the old D-460z as my traveling companion, i can be happy in knowing i've got a great 7 megapixel controllable setup when i need one.

Walking out to the car yesterday afternoon, the brilliant sun had left a nice salt crust over the whole car... and the sun's angle begged me to get at least one good image...


And then with the brilliance i realized with my glasses on i had a new opportunity to capture some images that were different than before... giving me one more mirror surface to play the light off of, and a couple i think were fantastic as black and whites...


the rest of the day's uploads are hanging out in my flickr space...

Three Days of Michigan

Driving home on Monday:


Same spot driving home on Tuesday:


okay well not quite the same spot... but the same sign...

now onto this morning:


SNOW! Yeah snow...

there are a few more shots like that over there - Big debate ranging in my head is new camera or no new camera...

THis ol' D-460z is SLOW - as in takes many seconds to write each little 1.3MP image... Spend $200 on a little nikon coolpix 4100 or 3200 or something? or jump into an Oly C-7000 or wait for the C-5500 to come out... ahh the fierce debate rages in my head - i should just get one, get it overwith and move on to the next interal head debate...

SLEEP

I

NEED

SLEEP

coffee don't do it anymore... it helps but... only a little

when the painter comments that you look like a raccon... that can't be good...

aahhh the joys of parenthood!!!!

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Soo whadda ya know

the pats pulled it off - and man did i enjoy watching it - as much as i could empathize with the Eagles fans... i was uncontrollably root'n for the Pats... even though my FFL playoff league was split between the teams i didn't realize until the game was going on how much i actually wanted the Belly-check boys to win...

oh and good news for the newest family member of ours - she was 3.995 kgs at birth
check this story out for why that's so good

images? today? yeah - i snagged the camera - but damn nothing noteworthy in the fog and drizzle this morning... too cloudy, no sunrise....

And oh BTW - support your LBS!

as seen on the drive

a beat up old caprice classic...

merging on the highway...

total rust bucket...

car is obviously neglected...

guy driving it is also neglecting himself...

well over 350 pounds...

car suspension is so toasted...

its sagging visibly under his weight...

And then you realize...

yes indeed Michigan is one of the fattest States in the union...

But surpisingly enough the beat up old car is a rarity...

Salt...

and big three connections keep most of the cars new(er) ...

i should have had the camera with me - to juxstapose the beauty of the sunrise through the fog and clouds...

Time warp

Issa what it feels like... everything a bit fuzzy... facts in order - wait - out of order...

Sleep - a valuable commodity now... how was i ever able to go on no sleep for so long... i must be getting old...

crazy stuff - cool stuff - just a bit - nuts...

a few cool links for today:
a photo 'mapping' site

okay - so there's just one...
---
i keep looking at this format and saying i'm liking it - but then sort of think........ there are really cool sites out there - cool set ups - but then this is mine - a few formatting bits nabbed from other places - but the colors, the image... all mine... the hard to readness of it... mine... but then being stuck in michigan - finding cool hip sites in NYC and heck even in AZ... i just sort of say... hmmm for a michigan basement dwelling giant... it works...

basement - yeah... they've just painted the facility here a peachy apricoty "orange" not a good strong Orange... but its better and brighter than the baby poop brown and tan that was down here before... and yeah - the formating at the facility is messed - it needs to be worked up a bit better - not all the pages are there - some are in process - others - not there yet... oh to be out of michigan... to take my two girls and let them grow up near the salt water - near family... near friends ...................... yeah - i'm a fan of the long strings of periods... my favority punctutation for thoughts... when i used to write letters -by hand- email them to girlfriends (doh - I said email... duh - MAIL - too damn switched - that or no sleep) they'd be these long stream of consiousness flowing random but connected documents... i'm not listening to yahoo now... i've got my winamp relaying T R A N C E kindom's full length DJ mixes as SR is pulling the nice 192 stream in to the HD (damn if music doesn't fill up HD space fast doing that)....

sleep and energy is tied to motivation i think - that and some people are hardwired to be that way.... that and what i think i'm finding is alot of the energy i find is from artistic expression, a littlle from teaching but nothing near what i used to beable to find, and what i still experience with a camera in hand looking to capture a moment, a scene, a landscape...

take my "Magic Hill" session (yeah those are the big image ones.... -meh- i can seem em fine) as an uneditied whole i really enjoy them... i think once they are trimmed down to an exclusive collection they will be impressive... I love my Lecia R3 SLR... but... the frugal side just has a hard time snapping through 160 shots in less than an hour... that and the instant gratification side doesn't want to wait for someone else to process them (color) or spend my time developing and printing (B&W) ... That Lecia Digital camera is something to lust after, but the practical side says - D70.... a mantra in my head now... D70 D70... down side is neither are cheap... and that new C-5500 from Olympus is looking mighty tempting... something to replace the good old dependable D-460zoom that'll be going on 5 years old that still kicks major ass even with a 1.3 MP chip.... ah well -

Manuel Le Saux is beaming in on the LAN... pretty nice - clean mix... i'm liking - need more coffee - might go find some... we'll see

till later