Broom's Blog

Stop being an Asshole!

2007-02-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

subscribe, visit or flame my new Blog!
Broom's Blogs

crap!

* New Blogs!! *

2006-11-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

I have officiallly moved my blogs!

subscribe to and visit my new blog at broomsblogs.blogspot.com

I switched to bloggers beta version. it supports tags, so i can combine all my blogs in one. i've added some nav at the top so that you can easily look at the main topics on the site. if you have feedback, positive or negative, feel free to leave it on the new blog!.

see ya!

BlogMailr is Live!

2006-11-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

My first site since I've been working at telligent is live as of yesterday. Its kinda cool, especially for designing and developing the entire thing in one week.

Its a site that lets you post to your blog via email. So you can blog anywhere, anytime. I'm actually posting this from my email right now.

If you want to use it, its free!

Published with BlogMailr

Nicky brings home the Championship

2006-11-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Nicky Hayden for winning the MotoGP World Championship! There was a lot of people that didn't think he was going to pull it off in the last round in Spain, but when Rossi went down it sealed the deal.

Next years is going to be a very interesting season with the new bike rules. Everyone will be on new machines and some new stars will shine. mainly nicky's teamate Dani Pedrosa.

One of the coolest parts of Nicky winning the world championship is that he grew up here. He's from Kentucky, but as a kid he raced the exact same little series that i race (TMGP) and on the exact same bike. From there he went on to race in the CMRA which is another texas based series that i have participated in, and i'm hoping to get a full season's worth of racing in their series next year.

New Developments

2006-10-31T14:23:00.000-08:00

I started a new project the end of last week. we basically designed it in a day and are in the middle of development as i type. i think it's going to be pretty cool. i would show you what the site will look like, but for now i'll tease you with this.

I've also started a blog account on blogger's beta version. So if you're subscribing to this blog, you should subscribe to my blog at http://broomsblogs.blogspot.com/ instead. as soon as i get some free time i'm going to transfer all my stuff over there and create a much more involved site than whats here. it will be split up into different sections and also include my portfolio. i've been wanting to do this for a while, but haven't figured out how to go about it with this version of blogger. i think the beta version will make it possible. we'll see.

oh, and a site i worked on launched this week. its the official blog for microsoft vista (their new OS). it can be found at http://windowsvistablog.com/. an unaffiliated blog about the site can be found here. i should note that this wasn't really my design, but i was heavily involved in the project and elements from my designs went into this one.. so i can take some credit.

Pink for October

2006-10-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Web sites will Go Pink during the month of October to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research. Find out more about this at the pink for october site, and donate for the cause if you can.

I know people close to me that have been through and overcome breast cancer, and i'm sure a lot of you do too. some arn't so lucky.

Google's new shoes

2006-10-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

I ran across an article this morning about google's recent purchase of the site YouTube. I know that they had made the purchase already, but i didn't give it enough thought as to what it meant, or to how much freaking money these internet companies are bringing in.

If you don't know, google bought YouTube for $1.65 Billion Dollars, or to be more specific, $1.65 Billion Dollars in stock. i don't really follow the market closely, but that much money in google stock has got to be a good thing. i can't imagine it doing anything but going up over the years. either way, that is A LOT of freaking money.

What i found interesting is why they bought YouTube, and what made it valuable enough to google to spend that kind of cash on. Bokardo.com talks about the term "top-of-mind". Basically its your first thought when someone mentions something. for example: communities = myspace, search = google and video = YouTube. this makes YouTube very powerful. more than i first realized. Basically Google is betting a lot of money that YouTube will remain top-of-mind over the next few years so that they can recoup they expense in advertising and search hits, or however they make money on there. with the pace of the internet, you'd think that any website that is top-of-mind today has a 50-50 chance of keeping that piece of mental realestate tomorrow. there's always something new. some new web2.0 thing-a-ma-gig.com to make what we used yesterday obsolete. Google doesn't think so which is why they made this purchase.

What makes that even more interesting is when you think about what they could have bought with that kind of money. imagine the possibilities. out of all the major business moves they could have made with that kind of money, they bought a community video site. Susan Mernit wrote a nice blog on what that means about the future of business on and off line.

Texas State Fair

2006-10-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

Megan and I took ayden to the state fair this saturday. It had it's ups and downs, as does anything with a 3 year old, but we had fun. we didn't realise that there was a big football game there that night, so there was a TON of ghetto people there. the fair is always full of interesting people, and around 9 or 10pm it always gets really packed, but it was especially bad that night.

the people watching was fantastic. i really should have taken some pictures of it. it was seriously unbelievable.

Ayden really liked it though. he got some ice cream, some funnel cake and rode some rides like a big boy. dad got a couple beers and a corn dog, and megan had the traditional corn cobb. I was on a mission to eat some fried treats such as oreo's and twinkies, but i couldn't find them. i did come accross one booth that sold them, but i didn't have any tickets to get some with at that time and figured i'd come back. I never saw it again. that place is bigger than you think! i was dissapointed that i didn't get to try one.

most of the pictures are Here. almost all of them of ayden of course.

Kool Keith, Grumpy Kids and Beer.

2006-09-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

Friday

my weekend started off with the excitement of a long awaited show, Dr. Octagon. AKA: Kool Keith. AKA: Black Elvis.

Everything i had heard about his shows (which wasn't much in hindsight) was good, and i thought i know kool keith well enough from listening to his music to make an educated guess about what his show might be like. One person even told me that he had heard about him coming out on stage wearing fried chicken... sounds fun to me! So, we meet up with garrett (g3pO) and scott (scooter) for some pregame drinks at the dubliner. we were all excited about the show and headed up to granada at about 11:30. i downed a couple more beers and felt nice and loose. ready for a show.

to my disappointment, the show was horrible! really disappointing. everyone i was with agreed. i was even considering leaving half way through the show. i'm not sure what happened to kook kieth, but i lost a lot of respect for him that night. the sound was bad, show-man-ship (sp?) was non-existant and everything else about the show sucked. Even the crowd. you normally expect a lot of white kids to go to a hip-hop show like this, but this place was packed full of the nerdiest damn white kids in town! -lame.

Saturday

Saturday my parents came into town for ayden's birthday. I headed out to grapevine at about noon to get set up and make a trip to sam's for beer, cake and candy while ayden goes to his grandma's house to take a nap. i knew that was a bad idea the second i heard about it.

anyone know what happens to a 3 year old with no nap, lots of people and a pile of presents in front of him that he can't open yet? what a mess.

all in all, eveything went well. the weather was nice and we hung out outside a lot. ayden came around after getting some cake and opening everything. it just makes me mad when its obviously an important day for everyone's sanity to give a 3 year old a nap, but it doesn't get done due to someone not having the balls to make a kid take a nap.

Sunday

Sunday began with a trip to our favorite mexican breakfast spot off harryhines. i have no idea what its called, but its the best stuff i've found in dallas. after filling myself with eggs, beans and potatos, my parents and i went to north dallas to check out my new office. Dad and i play a little table tennis, i get a phone call that my condo is filling up with water again (stupid neighbors) and we head to megan's graduation party.

we sat around on megan's parent's porch all day drinking beer, eating fajita's and drinking more beer. it was a great way to end the weekend. i was a little afraid of what i might feel like at work today after all that, but i actually feel pretty good. better than i usually do on mondays.

today is megan's graduation, and i'm sure we'll be going to the bar again. i haven't done this much drinking in years.... especially without ever actually getting drunk!

Birthday

2006-08-31T12:11:00.000-07:00

This month ayden turns 3! geeze, he's almost a "big kid" now. all he needs is a dirtbike.

If you can come, let me know.

update

2006-08-29T09:51:00.000-07:00

so, I'm sure you're all wondering how the new job is going.

to be honest, it couldn't be better. i love this place, and, if it wasn't for megan, i'd like it better than being at home. I'm productive, creative and in a great enviorment where i'm trusted to handle my own schedule and be productive in my own ways. on top of that, i get fed on a regular basis (always a plus for me), my insurance is awesome and i can walk to lunch everyday if i choose to.

only thing i'm missing at the moment are some completed projects. so far i haven't had a project go into production yet, but that should happen soon.

you might remember me mentioning the little photo shoot that steve did of megan and i a few weeks back while we were shooting her boards for her portfolio. one of these picts is in the header of this blog, and steve just sent me two more that he touched up. i think they're pretty cool...

glasses

2006-08-17T08:14:00.000-07:00

I got my first pair of glasses in 10 years this week. I had a pair when i first got my contacts when i was about 16, but never wore them. So i'm basically wearing glasses for the first time today after wearing contacts every day for the past decade.... wow, i'm getting old.

I like them, its nice to have some glasses so you don't have to depend on your contacts all the time. right now they're driving me crazy because they keep sliding down my nose. I'm going back durring lunch to see if they can adjust them or something. its also hard to get use to not having everything in focus. even things that i see through the glasses arn't totally in focus unless i'm looking at it from the center of the lense, and when they start sliding down my nose some it makes everything slightly out of focus which sucks while driving.

Besides that i like them, and they're made by converse! i didn't even know they made frames.

New Look!

2006-08-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

My Blog got a new look today. I designed this concept almost a week ago, and made a lame attempt to code it in CSS from scratch, but soon found out that i knew much less about CSS than i thought i did...

My original design looks like what you see here (click for a larger image). Its suppose to be all my sites rolled up into that one package. It would include my many blogs (mountain biking logs, racing logs, this blog etc.), along with links to my flicker account (i have one, but haven't used it yet) and will also contain my portfolio and news that goes along with my work. I'll get it figured out soon enough.

The photograph is curtousy of mr. steve ray.. Now that i look at his site that he's building there, you might say i took a little bit of inspiration from him too for the new site design... thats ok though, we work together on things. actually... he copied me!... heh heh. anyways, we rented lights and everything to take picts of megan's boards for her portfolio, and while we were at it we had a little photoshoot consisting of megan and i acting dumb. They came out pretty cool, and i'll post some up soon. Steve did some magic on this one to make it look cool... maybe that was a little black magic. I look like i'm in my 70's. regardless, i think its cool. i have recieved some wierd reactions though.

Intel Macs

2006-08-03T07:38:00.000-07:00

I got a new 20" duo processor iMac with the new Intel processors at my new job. Cool! an iMac that can run faster than my G5!

Suddenly we all realise a little secret. Adobe isn't supported. Every thing i use it adobe! It all has to run under a piece of software called Rosetta. Ok, problem solved... right? Well, not really.

These programs are very intense, and run a lot slower under rosetta. I can deal with it, but its annoying to have a new kick ass computer and not be able to take advantage of it until Adobe comes out with new versions of software in 2007. A good blog from adobe about their situation can be found here.

Another problem is that the new processors need a special plugin to view flash files on the internet. the computer is shiped with this plugin (or so i'm told), but when you install any macromedia software (one of the suites i use) it replaces that plugin with one that isn't compatible and you can't figure out why you can't see any flash on the internet. you forget how much flash is out there until you can't see it. Well theres a fix for this too. Flash Player 9 Public Beta. ok, about 45 minutes of research and i've got that problem solved.

Overall, I think everything will be ok. Its was really dissapointing to discover all these problems with my new iMac though. At least I'm not editing video anymore.

Qoute from apple about Rosetta:
"Most existing applications will continue to run, thanks to Rosetta. Pro applications from Apple — including Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Aperture, Logic Pro, Logic Express, Shake and Final Cut Express — are not supported by Rosetta."

Maybe that means that they run under native mode instead of rosetta, but thats not what they made it sound like.

hmm... i'm still not sure what to think about this.

The Long Way Around

2006-08-02T10:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend ayden and I watched every episode of The Long Way Around. Its a series about Ewan McGregor and his friend Charlie traveling from London, across Europe and Asia, to Alaska and finally ending their trip in NYC. They did all this on a couple of well equipped BMW dual sport motorcycles. It was very inspiring and I really enjoyed it. Even Megan watched a lot of it, and i think she might have liked it a little too.

I'd really like to do some more adventures. A long hiking trip in the mountains, a trip on the bike from Cali to Alaska on the bike, backpacking Europe... I hope that I get to do some things like this before too long. Right now I have too much going on to plan an experience like that.

Oh, and i also ran across the US stop on the MotoGP tour on ABC or something like that. I dont' get speed with my cable, so i don't get to see any of the races. I was happy to catch this one, even though it wasn't the most exciting race I've seen.

start of a new era

2006-07-31T17:29:00.001-07:00

After almost 6 years, I've left TIGI.

it was a long 2 weeks after i gave my notice that included a hard talk with Bruno (CEO) as he tried to pursuade me to stay. I wouldn't say a bad 2 weeks, just long. I was ancy to start the new job. I was sad to leave all my friends there, but it wasn't hard to leave. I'm really excited about my new position. I've got my own office in a fun enviorment, a fridge full of beer, covered parking and what looks like a full plate of exciting work.

Today was my first day. I spent more than half the day loading programs and getting my computer set up. The rest of the day i used to knock out a couple small projects. So far things are going really well and I have lots to do.

Superbikers

2006-07-19T14:40:00.000-07:00

I finished and launched a site for the Oklahoma Superbikers last night. I'm pretty happy with it, mainly becuase i figured out (with a little help from steve) how to make blogger feed the content. Every section on the site except for the galleries is fed by a blog. What makes that special? anybody that can figure out how to use blogger.com can update their site at will. that means they don't have to bug me to update, or pay someone else to do it.

there are still a couple of things I'd like to improve. One is the banner on top. I'd like to find a better, clearer picture. The other is that the site is really tall to accomidate the longer sections without creating a second scroll bar in the content window (like this site has in the longer sections - YXR100). I figured out how to make the window as big as it needs to be automatically according to how long the content is using CSS (cascading style sheets). CSS is amazing and i'm excited to learn more about it. I'm going to try to get around to redo-ing the site in CSS, but i dont' know when i'll be able to make that happen. for now it'll have to do as is cause i have to go home and put together a dirt bike motor.

New Job

2006-07-17T19:40:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY got a new job. i had an interview last week with a company called Telligent. They are a software company comprised of some of the best guys in the country. They develop community type programs that run things like match.com and various other community/blogging/forum type sites. I'm super hyped about it. I've been looking for a job for something like 9 months now, and I finally got one, and its a good one.

My official titile is "Web Designer", but i'll also be doing some print when it comes in. I was originally going for an Art Director position, but I have to move on and get more experience in web design and the workings of an agency type enviorment. I think that if i do well, an Art Director position might not be too far off.

I guess it's not an agency really. Theres only about 3 people in the creative department, and their primary job has been to design the projects that the software guys have been creating. The demand has grown enought that they are actually branching off from Telligent and creating a creative group called Sound Creative. I'm pretty excited about this as well. It's a small group of people trying to make this new "company" successful. I'm excited to be a part of it in these early stages and i hope that i can become a key player in making it a success.

Anyways, I start 2 weeks from today. Monday, July 31st. I'm ready... I'm afraid these next two weeks are going to be looooong.

Oak Hill Raceway

2006-07-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to Oak Hill Raceway near tyler, TX. we normally don't race this track because it's not in the Texas Mini GP series that i run (its part of the big bike series, the CMRA), but its a lot of fun so we do it anyways. the tracks we normally run on average about a half a mile. this track is almost 2 miles long, so you're wide open almost the entire track railing around fast, bumpy turns. at first its a really scary track due to higher speeds and lots of bumps and sealer all over the track, but once you get the hang of it you realise that you can go flat out around many corners without even slowing down... thats a rush.

unfortunatley our weekend didnt' go so well. i won't go over the endless list of things that went wrong, but i'll tell you the 2 big ones.

1. when you go to oak hill, you get the luxury to drive on the hot pit and unload all your stuff from the truck right into your pit. well we unloaded, and then the truck died. dad had to tow me off the track. turns out it was the fuel pump wich is inside the gas tank... and i just filled up. while we raced dad rounded up the parts, drained the tank, took it off, repaced parts and waited for me to finish racing so that we could lift that heavy bitch back up under the truck. this is no easy task. you're laying on your back in the dirt under a truck with about 4 inches of clearance from your face to the truck. then you have to figure out how to lift this heavy tank off the ground from that position.

2. our bike died after 3 and a half hours of non stop racing. we were suppose to do 6. we thought the top end siezed, but turns out it was the bottom end. i felt really bad that everyone didn't get to finish the race, especially since we were in 3rd and not far behind 1st and 2nd. I'm trying to keep my head up with hopes that after i fix this problem the bike will be good for a while... thats what we said last time. these bikes are suppose to be low maintence, cheap racers... i've dumped a lot of money into that bike trying to keep it on the track this year.

besides that, we still had a lot of fun with the time we did get on the track. Mom and dad were there as always, dusty flew in from pheonix and ayden was with us too. overall i was still able to keep a smile on my face.

picts of us from the race can be found here Oak Hill 2006

Mountain Bike

2006-06-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

I finaly took my K2 mountain bike in to get serviced and returned to ridable condition. hopefully all it needs is air in the tires, some air in the shock and some adjustments. We also bought megan a bike this weekend.

I feel kinda lame, but i also put a burley bike trailer on layaway for ayden. it makes me feel so... plano... old... domesticated. i dunno, its wierd. ayden is going to love it though.

anyways, i'm really anxious to get out on the bike again. megan is pretty excited too. what makes it worse is seeing her brand new bike on the porch every day and mine is sittin in the shop. we're going to do white rock lake a few times so that megan can get a good feel for her bike, then i think we're going to try Rowlett. its too bad we can't ride this weekend. i'll have ayden, but my trailer won't be in for a couple more weeks. i also still have to pay it off before they'll give it to me anyways.

Back to School?

2006-06-08T10:35:00.001-07:00

I've always thought that I could have, and should have chosen a more challenging degree. I like design, and I'm not positive that I'll like something else better, but I can't help but think that I should do something more challenging. I don't know if its to prove something to myself, or to other people... I'm not sure why I have this desire, but its been there for a while. I even half ass started to go back before ayden came along. I took one class at a community college, then didn't go back.

I think I might do it. I think I might try to get my Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. I'd like to set the goal to have this accomplished before I turn 31 (thats 5 years) but I'm not sure thats possible. from the research I've done it looks like I'll have to start from scratch. not many, if any, of my credits from my associates are going to transfer. if not because of where I took them, then because of how long ago i took them.

that may not be as big a deal as I think though. it may add another year to retake the classes I've already taken, but I think it may be necessary. I'm not going to remember the algerbra, trig and calculus that I took in college or highschool. trying to take classes that are the next step up from those without some kind of refresher may kill my attempt to return to school.

I'm also wondering if I'm just crazy. not only am I looking at 5-6... maybe even 7 years of full time work, part time school and lots of loans, but I'm also thinking about trying to get one of the hardest bachelors degrees that is available. tons and tons of math. I'm good at math, but my math abilities and technical thinking only take me so far before its over my head. aside from that, engineers just don't make as much money as I thought. they make a good amount, but not the sizable jump that I was expecting from my current profession. thats not quite as encouraging as a promise of big bucks when I finish.

at the moment I'm thinking that the satisfaction of getting my degree, and the opportunities it will create to do something really rewarding are enough drive to get me started at least. I really want to be totally committed to finishing out the whole thing, but at the moment I don't know enough about what I'm getting into to be that commited.

One hurtle I have to over come is figuring out what school to go to. The only schools in the area that offer the degree are UTA and SMU. I'd love to go to SMU, but its obviously expensive. the teachers would all be top notch though, and having SMU on my resume would be great to land me a rad job. then theres UTA... a decent option, but its all the way in freaking arlington. I don't see how I can come to work in lewisville, go to class in arlington and live in lakewood. its not happening. maybe I can take classes at a community college and then move to a more convenient location when my current lease is up. One cool thing about them... they appear to have a freaking race team! how awesome is that? they would probably be cheaper than SMU as well, although i don't know how much. i'm also not sure if the savings would be worth it in the long run. funny how much i've made fun of the SMU meat heads that invade our bars for all these years, and now i want to be one.

I'm going to UTD to speak to a councilor tomorrow... kinda pointless because they don't offer the degree I want. I had already made the appointment before I realized that, but I'm sure that the meeting will still be helpfull.

hmm.... i may have just run into a slight problem. both schools only offer day classes. as if working and going to school wasn't going to be hard enough. i dunno what i'm going to do now.

Malibu

2006-05-21T11:12:00.002-07:00

as some of you may know.... i took a last minute trip to malibu almost 2 weeks ago for work. i got word that i'd be going on tuesday, had a ticket on my desk that afternoon, and flew out first thing the next morning. I was suppose to return on saturday night, but we werent' finished with our project yet, so we stayed until monday night. from monday to monday i worked over 90 hours. then i kept working another full week including one more 15 hour day after that. It was still kinda fun going to malibu i guess, but we didn't even leave the house except for once. we got to borrow a car to go out to dinner on sunday night. besides that it was up at 9am and back to bed somewhere between midnight and 5am everyday. One cool thing was that we had a maid that basically waited on us the whole time. we were working and sleeping in the same house, so we'd wake up and the maid would make us breakfast and we'd get to work.

here's picts of the house we were in. Its right on PCH about a mile from pepperdine.

The first pict is taken from about half way up the front yard. the second from the front entry. you can't tell in the picture, but you can see the ocean just over those trees.

this is our work area. note the pool table.... we played lots of pool while waiting for our computers to render video. we even got bruno to play me a game. he kicked my ass.

these are some more picts of the house...

Downstairs there was a movie theater with kick ass comfy sofas and chairs. we spent nights watching movies down there while we rendered movies too. there was also a recording studio/rehersal space down stairs that was pretty bad ass. we quickly found out that it wasn't as sound proof as we'd hoped since it was directly under our working space, but it wasn't too bad. burno's son is pretty good anyways and the guys from sugarcult were there helping him record.

my cell mate torey...

It wasn't a bad trip, although it was exhausting. bruno also made it worth our time and he's sending me back on monday to work on another project with Gerry. i'll be there until thursday, then i gotta come back and get my stuff together to go racing in houston next weekend. wierd how all this work comes all at once... i also had the opportunity to do a photo gig at a club friday and saturday night and i could have made some money shooting a hair show all day sunday. i couldn't make those because i have ayden, but its nice to feel wanted again.

Word.

Project Bike Finished

2006-05-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

The Project Bike is finally finished. we still have a few adjustments to make here and there, but overall its running well and we should start coming home with some good finishes soon. I made a web site about the project to help others wanting to make the conversion.... Yxr100 web site

heres the final result with ayden mounted on top:

This past race weekend was also the first time i've ever seen ayden play with other kids (besides his crazy cousin, hope).

Project YXR100

2006-04-04T10:43:00.000-07:00

my project is coming along nicely. got the pipe fabricated with the help of my friend tyler at North Texas Customs. he hooked it up. last night i fabricated the clutch cable bracket (my first fabrication job on my own! although it wasn't much). I also got the new throttle assembly together, mounted my new kill switch button, mounted up the carb and new air filter and took the carb apart to see what jets are in it. its way way rich. whoever had it before me must of had a bored out, ported head xr100. the main jet is a 135 and i think i need a 105. the needle off the throttle assembly i bought is bent too.

all i have to do now is get a shift lever, some new jets and a needle, take my cylinder to elmer tomorow to get bored, take it to cartwright thursday and pick up motor friday along with ayden. friday night i'll drop it in the bike and drive down to houston saturday morning to see if i can get it to run. i would try it out friday night, but it's going to be late, the motor will be loud and i don't know where to set the mixture screws on the carb.

CMRA weekend

2006-03-29T10:18:00.000-08:00

Dad and I spent the weekend at MSR in cresson this weekend (south west of ft. worth). we worked the track and made a couple hundred bucks to put towards the YSR - XR100 conversion.

it was pretty fun. thats the first time i've corner worked, and the first time i've stayed the entire weekend at a CMRA event, so i got to see all the mini and big bike sprints and endurance racing. long days of sitting out on the track, but you have a good view of the track and a nice rush of adrenaline when 50 big bikes come into your corner at 150mph. you never know when a bike will go off course and into your personal space. it's also pretty cool having the 2-way radios. we get to hear all the behind the scenes action and know the instant there is a crash. my mom would really enjoy that. we're thinking about working the next race, but i don't know if i'll make it or not. i did manage to get a decent sun burn on my ears and cheeks... something i haven't had in years. it was so windy that we couldn't put up our EasyUp. so we just sat in the sun. that wasn't a big deal though since it was kind of on the cold side all weekend.

everytime i go to the track i know more and more people. it use to be kind of intimidating, but now i know so many racers and workers that its really fun to get out there and shoot the shit with everyone. having dad there, and him knowing most of those people too, makes it that much better. it's good father son bonding i guess. its too bad my brother, dusty, is in pheonix or i'm sure he'd be out there too.

I'm also making some progress on the YXR100 project. I got my motor mounts from dennie today, so thats the first official piece of the project i've recieved. kinda sad since my race is next weekend. by the end of the day friday i should have my motor, carb, intake, exhaust, cdi, coil and throttle assembly. then its off to my buddies hot rod shop to cut up the exhaust and re-weld it together to work on the new frame. we also have to fabricate some brackets for the exhaust and clutch cable. after that i just need to get the cylinder bored and put in a new piston kit, clutch, timing chain and cam gear... then, hopefuly, the bike will be running and i can race it. wish me luck. i wanna get this new motor on the track so bad next weekend... i was dreaming about it all night last night. over and over. i can't wait. hopefully i can get it together and it runs decent. if i put all this time, money and work into this motor and it just shits out on my the first weekend i take it to the track i'm going to be pissed. seems like we've been blowing lots of motors at the track latley. thats part of the reason i'm switching to this 100cc 4 stroke.

tattoo work

2006-03-17T15:46:00.000-08:00

got some work on my tattoo from Mr. Dean on wednesday night. OH! i almost laid the bike down on the way to the shop too... coming out of downtown on pacific. the streets downtown are old, bumpy and slick. i was aproaching a stop light with a truck stoped in front of me and i started braking like normal and suddenly the front locked up and started to wash out to the right. my instincts were good though, i let of the brake enought to get the bike stood back up straight and back on the brakes i went. only problem is that i took both feet off the pegs in hopes to catch the bike if it started going over i guess (i was only going 10-20mph). since my feet were off the pegs i couldn't apply any rear brake to help in stopping so i didn't rear end the truck at the light. i made it ok though... looked back at the street and didnt' see any oil or anything.

anyways... dean worked on the tattoo. he only tattooed me for about 1.5 - 2 hours, but he covered a large area and i was ready to stop after that. usually i'm good for a 3 hour session or more. most of the work he did was filling in background color on the back and inside of my arm. we started it like 3 years ago (cheebus, i can't believe its been that long) and we're almost done. i think i have one more session to finish up a lot details.

getting tattooed wasn't so bad. once i got home and took the plastic wrap off and that air hit it... man that hurt like hell. it was relentless. i took a hydrocodine and waited for that to kick in before taking a hot bath. you're suppose to wash it in the hottest water you can stand within an hour or so of getting it done. i guess it's suppose to pull out all the white blood cells and stuff... thus keeping it from scabbing up. it took forever for the hydrocodine to kick in and it hurt so much. more than ever before. dean instructed me to take a bath this time. i didnt' think you were suppose to do that due to risk of infection, but i like it a lot better. washing your new tat in the shower with hot water is pretty painfull. the bath method was much better.

i don't understand why the inside of my arm swells up so much when i get tattooed. it's crazy. it feels like a huge bruise. kinda tender to the touch, but not too bad. feels heavy with blood... i can make my bicept jiggle. in the pict the arm on the right is the newly tatted one. the arm on the left is the "normal" arm. note the difference around the elbow.

katy, round 1

2006-03-14T08:42:00.000-08:00

we had a pretty good weekend at the track. i'm still coming down off my racing high and its now tuesday morning. nothing will correct a foul mood like a good weekend at the race track. i love it.

unfortunatley we did burn up the bottom end of the bike the first 20 minutes of practice on saturday and had to rebuild that motor saturday afternoon-night in order to do some sprints on it sunday. the first picture here is the bike when we got to the track, and the second is the bike about 30 minutes later.

we still had fun despite the bike breaking. i ran on kevins team on the bike pictured above (#27) and greg ran on brian's old team on their nsr50 for the endurance races. we got my bike put together for sprints on sunday and i ran away with first place in my class. my class just isn't competitive anymore. we're going to do our best to upgrade it before the next race in april so that we can move up to the next class. i'm going to put an xr100 motor in it (4 stroke dirt bike motor). hopefully after we get that all sorted out we'll have more opportunities to be competitive with people. dennie's and peter's YXR's were hauling ass all weekend, so it should be pretty fun.

180

2006-03-08T11:27:00.001-08:00

since yesterday my mood has done a 180.

Greg and i finished up the bike last night and got it running without any hangups that i can think of. the bike runs pretty strong and we're super hyped about the opening weekend in 2 days. i think greg is a little nervous... given his experiences in racing the big bikes a couple years ago it's perfectly understandable. i think as soon as he gets through the first practice he'll be right back in it. i wouldn't be surprised if he's running the same lap times as me once he gets the hang of the bike.

i told him to low side it durring practice to get that out of his head. i remember my first race of last season after i broke my collar bone i was riding somewhat slow and scared. then, finally (last race of the weekend i think), i lowsided in turn 4 (3rd gear left hander) and tumbled off the track. after doing that i felt much better about being back on the bike. it was one of my rougher get offs, but i didn't really get hurt. mentally it did a lot of good.

on another note...

ayden got in trouble at school yesterday. him and a little mexican kid kept saying "shit" over and over. haha... i can't help but be proud in some way, but at the same time i remember that feeling in my stomach when i got in trouble in school as a little kid. i didn't like it... i hope he doesn't either.

i miss him so much... i took him to school on monday morning and when i put him down in his class room he just stood there with his head slumped over. then the teacher hurried him over to a near by chair at a little table and got him some gold fish to snack on. he just sat there and stared at the tabel... i said "bye ayden!" as i was walking out the door and he just sat there and looked at me... he looked so sad that i was leaving him. i still can't get over the fact that i can't be there with him everyday. i can't make him eat his dinner, play airplane with him and have our daily goodnight routine. i know that having him the way i do also has it's advantages... the time we do spend together is that much more special and memorable, but i can't help but feel like i'm missing out on so much of his daily life. i also have virtually no input on disaplin or morals at this point in his life. i think as he gets older i can have more of a pull in this department due to better comunication skills on his part. i'm doing the best i can given the situation, but i'll never feel like its good enough.

i'll see it someday

2006-03-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

i was having an incredibly shitty day today (maybe i still am, not sure yet) until i found this on ronnies myspace page.

this clip brought me back from the dark place i woke up in this morning (hangovers + the dumbest cat ever + waking up... etc.).

i really want to see this movie. its called worlds fastest indian if you don't know. i fear there is no chance of me going to see it with megan, even though i think it may inlighten her a bit about the things i love to do. i might have to try to drag steve out to see it or even go alone some time.

Oak Hill race

2006-02-17T08:43:00.000-08:00

I cancelled today... feel bad cause i commited to race with Kevin, rain or shine. mid thirty degree temps plus sleet and rain is just too risky to race in. Plus driving to the track at 6am with ice on the roads isn't the best idea either.

as another racer put it "Only idiots (that'd be me) and the truly points serious will be at this one." since i'm not a total idiot (some might argue that point), and i'm not racing for points in the CMRA series (kevin is though), i just can't justify putting my own well being and race season in the TMGP series at risk.

sorry kevin.

long post: rough week so far....

2006-02-15T10:25:00.002-08:00

this has been a rough week.

not only did i get the bad and frustrating news about the job, but a fellow racer, Drew Lippolt, died at oak hill on sunday practicing for the race this weekend. i'll talk more about that in a second.

further aggrevating me is the weather outlook for the weekend. at the moment saturday looks like a low of 35º and a high of 45º with a 50% chance of rain. cold + rain + a bike i've never even sat on = nerves and fear of breaking bones. thats how i broke my collar bone a year and a half ago... racing in the rain. I'm still looking foward to it. my teamate for the weekend reminded me yesterday of the battle the two of us had racing against each other in the rain last year in denton and how fun it was. Looks like mom won't be coming up though due to weather and the dogs (no one to watch them and one is sick i guess). that means i can't bring ayden and i have to find someone to watch him for the day while i go race. taking away from my ayden time... depressing.

Back to Drew Lippolt:

I didn't know drew, but he's a fellow racer and we're all like family. theres a bond there that other people don't understand. it's also very nerve racking when something like this happens. Everytime somone i know gets injured or killed riding it makes you analize what you're doing again. you're afraid to tell people that it happend becuase you get the same look and speach that leads to you defending yourself. questioning these things that you love to do. the things that you think about all day while you're at work. fantasise about when driving home. analize your lines in your head for weeks before a race. can't sleep the night before a race from excitment.... it's worth it... right? sometimes it's hard to justify, sometimes it's not.

if people think i don't think about my son, my parents, my girlfriend everytime i get on the bike, or even think about racing big bikes... they're crazy. it goes through my mind all the time. i could die on the way to work today riding this machine. truth betold... my plan when i get a better paying job is to have track bikes only. i can't do it now becuase i can't afford a car payment or the gas to drive anything else besides my 55mpg bike. riding on the street is scary and i know my time will come. thats why i go by the statement "track bikes save lives".

for those that don't understand what we as amature and professional racers/riders think about... how we justify what we do, heres some quotes from the CMRA message boards about the situation. some of this hits the nail on the head, some of it i think won't quite come accross to the rest of the world like it was intended. but overall it helps us to get back into what we love, to quit second guessing ourselves, and to remember that if Drew could talk to us now, he'd tell us to race. not to quit.

Quote:
I heard of his passing on Monday morning, and was immediately struck by the fact that this could very easily have been me instead of Drew. I feel the need to express to you why we follow this sport with such passion. We all know that death or injury is a risk of our sport, and we continue because we find it so rewarding that the danger is acceptable. I race motorcycles because it makes me feel so intensely alive. The way I felt when I exchanged vows with my wife and knew I’d found my soul mate. The way I felt when my son arrived screaming into this world to beat the band, and I didn’t sleep for two days from sheer excitement. It is a celebration of being human, and while there are other things in life that provide this exhilaration, they are few and far between, just like races are few and far between.

Drew and I never met, but I knew of him though many of our fellow racers. I feel that this is my loss; he was very well-respected and had been a member of our club for many years. I’ve been a member for three short years myself. I still feel like a new arrival at times, but I also feel like a valued member of the family. I would not have hesitated to help Drew with anything, and I would have felt free to ask him for help if I had a need as well. Such is the family that Drew was a part of through our sport, and we all feel his loss. He was one of our own.

Quote:
Yup. When I ever get any stuff about how dangerous racing is, I ask them if they know how dangerous a bathroom at home is (injury/kill) or driving in a car to work every day.

We definately aren't the kind of people to sit at home hoping nothing bad would happen only to break a hip in the bathtub.

Those that just don't get it - never will.

Let them be boring honkies playing golf. Let them try not to do anything dangerous and then get in a horrible car wreck on the way to work. They take their lives for granted by NOT living life.

I never feel so much alive as when I'm on the track. I never feel the blood rushing through my veins as when I'm hunting down my next passing victim (or trying to keep up with someone who just passed me!).

Let them sit at home and waste their lives watching TV arteries clogging up with fat from potato chips and ice cream. Let them have heart attacks with sofa cushions grown into their buttocks.

Let us arrive to same place in death wishing they should have done more, and me regretting nothing.

And if my time comes doing something I love, so be it.

I've enjoyed so much more in life than the average American couch potato.

We racers live more in one weekend than most TV watching, golf playing, mall shopping Americans do in a life time.

Those that get it, do it. Those that don't get it watch the rest of us that do and say "I wish I could that."

Quote: (this ones long)
In Times of Qusestion…

After reading all of the posts concerning the loss of fellow racer Drew Lippolt, many thoughts were running through my mind. But there was one word in particular that lingered in my mind hours after logging off the mboard and continued to remain so loud that I couldn’t even sleep. The word was passion. Previously overlooked and under minded, upon further thought, this word was the answer to many questions I had about my own life. Here’s just some food for thought.

Passion…Passion is what drives you. Just to be able to partake in whatever you passion may be is your motivation to get out of bed and face the routine of everyday life. Your true passion is always on your mind, if not in full focus, then lingering in the back and providing you the willpower to get through the day. Passion will involve sacrifices in your everyday life, sacrifices that you wont even bat an eye at making because your passion (whatever it may be) means that much to you. I once heard someone ask John Haner how he could possibly crash in the infamous turn 8 during a sprint race at Texas World Speedway and then get back up and take a third place. His response, “ it’s the end of the month…I got rent.” That is passion. I’ve seen on countless occasions riders show up to the track without even enough money to make it back home. So much passion for the sport of road racing, it didn’t matter. Of course these riders won just enough money to make it home and back to the next race where they would show up in the same situation. That is passion.

All to often to an outsider looking in on someone who has discovered their passion, words like insane, crazy, and even stupid are brought up. I feel sorry for that person because they obviously haven’t felt what true passion for something is.

It is a known fact that the human body requires the will to succeed, the will to improve and excel. Your true passion should allow you to do this, whatever the cost. The human race requires a passion to drive them, and it amazes me that there are people who live life every day lacking it. As sad as it is, there are those who leave this world without ever knowing what having a passion even feels like.

Your passion should fire you up. It should make day-to-day life into stepping-stones to get you from where you have to be to where you want to be. In this case the stepping stones may be that 8-5 Mon.-Fri. job that allows you to get in your truck at 5:15 on Friday afternoon, hook up to your trailer, crank up Call Me the Breeze by Lynard Skynard, and head off only to spend you weekend fulfilling your passion and hanging out with, by far, the coolest, most caring, but yet diverse group of people in the world.

All motorcycle riders have been called insane, at one time or another, for competing in such a dangerous sport and we all know that were risking our lives every time we flip down our visors and barrel toward turn one. In your true passion, you overcome these fears in order to succeed and improve. Your true passion will allow you to come out of a corner completely slidewayz, spinning the rear, sliding the front, knee on the ground, when everything you have ever known is telling you to back out of it, but you don’t. As puckered as you are…there is still that unexplainable smile on you face. That is passion. Willing to sacrifice all you know, including you life, for the simple fact that what your doing makes you smile. That is passion.

Passions may change or evolve over the course of your life, and that is ok. Friendly faces around the club will come and go, some more long term that others, and that is ok too. What I challenge you to do is chase your passions, whatever they may be, no matter how extreme. Listen to the advice provided by others, but most importantly listen to your heart. The mind has been known to mislead, but I assure you that your heart will never fail you. Follow and listen to it, and it will lead you to your passion, whatever it may be, and I assure you it will make life worth living. And when the end does come, and your looking back over you life, that unexplainable smile will still be on your face. And that is passion.

In times of question, perhaps brought on by the death of a fellow racer, your mind does crazy things. As stated earlier follow your heart. Sure, the consequences are always in the back of you mind, but in my years with the CMRA the good times have considerably outnumbered the bad. Don’t take for granted the abilities you have been blessed with. And as Yogi Berra once said, “it ain’t over till it’s over,” so discover your true passion and make the most out of life.

~Jon

Quote:
Someone asked me the other day what roadracing meant to me...

I told them that RoadRacing is my life. It gives me purpose. I am a better person for knowing the people that make up the field I compete in. I would do anything for anyone of them.

Even that statement seems to cheapen it's true meaning to me...

Quote:
This has been a horrible week of reflection for me. We read of racers losing their lives all the time in RRW but when it comes home to your front porch things change. This event, combined with something I witnessed in Austin earlier in the week has shaken me to my core. I have asked myself time and time again if I should race. Am I doing the right thing? What about my family? My 4 year old daughter?

How can I justify this?

Then I read this post and now I know the answer. Passion. I race because of my passion for the sport and the people involved. I drive 1000 miles a week because of my passion for the students in this state. That passion is what drives me and makes my life complete. I could lose my life doing either one of these things. But because of that passion, it would be for a reason.

This is a message to the racers from Drews wife.
Quote:
I wanted to thank you, Marcus, and thank Chris Kutalek as well, for being there as the first responders and doing all that you could. I cannot even begin to imagine how difficult it must have been for you as fellow human beings, friends, and racers to perform the acts that you did. I do not even know racing well enough to know exactly what a high side is, but I am glad I don't really have the visual, and based on what I saw Tuesday when I finally got to spend time with Drew at the funeral home here in Austin ... I am glad he passed quickly. Had he survived this incident, it is clear to me - from the few visual clues that my own EMT training has taught me - that it would not at all have been the kind of life he would have wanted to lead. I am so grateful that he is truly in a better place.

Jason, you are Superman. This loss hurts you acutely, and yet you continue - and will continue - to spend time and effort to remember Drew, to assist me, and to help all of your fellow racers in the CMRA family grieve and eventually to move on. (Or, should I write, race on? [wink]) Drew loved each of his Relic Racing teammates for different reasons, and he shared those reasons and love with me. You all truly were like brothers, and again ... even as I bear my own pain, I do not forget that you are hurting as well and so your efforts on behalf of Drew and me are all that more astonishing. Thank you, thank you.

And Coyne, I do not know how you possibly had the strength to do what you did on Sunday, to drive to Drew's and my home, and tell me of his passing in person. You were so perfectly decent. I so very much wanted there to be more time for Drew to continue to get to know you, for you and he to continue to learn from each other regarding adventures both on and off the track. I was truly thankful that your efforts of the past year allowed my husband to reengage in a more committed racing schedule. If nothing else, it helped keep him out of the house. [wink]

Whether base jumping, motorcycle racing, or solo climbing ... it doesn't matter what I as an individual think of any particular passion that carries great risk with it, and therefore, great rewards ... the point is, as a wife, I loved the fact that my husband loved a particular passion. And there was no doubt that in Drew's case, it was two wheeled machines that could cover asphalt, dirt, or sand as fast as he could make them move. Whether it was the Armstrong in 1998 or the streamliner at Bonneville, Drew loved racing. He loved it just as he loved me: without limits and without fear.

I hope each of you continue to love hard and ride fast, just as Drew did. Cherish your loved ones, respect your fellow racers, and honor all of your passions. You never know when your time here on Earth will end to do so.

Are you Effing serious??

2006-02-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

so i email my buddy at the company that i've been trying to get a job at on friday to check up on the position that was suppose to be mine. last time i saw him in person he said he wanted to make me an offer right then, but he couldn't because he had to get the position and money approved. so i've been waiting for the positions to be approved for new hires (they were planing on hiring several people) for over a month. they keep saying they have to figure out the budgets for accounts and stuff like that.

well today i get the responce from my friend (the creative director and the one that would say "hire him").

Quote:
Honestly I can't see any hires in the near future. Please do stay in
touch as stuff may open later in the year.

are you serious? I've been waiting all this time for nothing? the thing that bothers me the most about that statement is that i have another friend that works under him. he's on contract and has been working 14 hour days... so has everybody there, and from the sounds of it they're getting fed up with it. to put that in perspective... a 14 hour day for him means he's taking home $1000 for that day. if they hired him on salary, and hired myself and another person, we could do more work in the regular 8 hour day for something like $600 a day total.... it doesn't make sense.

I'm right back where i started in october at this point. i have to do something different. it's hard to get your foot in the door without knowing someone. all the jobs posted give a generic email addy to send your stuff to and ask for no calls... well i'm going to start digging for someones name and calling. i've sent my stuff to probably 20-40 potential jobs... places that were hiring... positions that i have a good chance of getting... i've had 2 call backs. so, i guess i'll be redesigning my site again and trying a new approch at the job hunt. i'm so pissed.

looking foward to this

2006-02-08T10:51:00.000-08:00

Nacho Libre
this movie is going to be awesome... or at least i hope so. you can't go wrong with Jack Black. its directed by the dude from napolean dynomite and written by the guys from School of Rock. the preview looks good too. guess i got about 6 months to hype it up in my head to a point that it will never live up to. i hate it when i do that... ruins perfectly decent movies.

status: waiting.... still

2006-02-07T11:18:00.000-08:00

so, i'm still waiting. it sucks. everyone and everything tells me that i have a pretty decent new job lined up with good opportunities to follow, but i'm waiting for some executives in new york to go over budgets and decided how many and where they need people. it sucks ass. I've been looking since october. i can't believe i've been looking that long without an offer. this is the second company to have me waiting, but at least this one has shown me some promise that they really will hire me when they get the go ahead from NYC. anyways... i'm tired of searching, writing cover letters, waiting, calling, waiting, searching, waiting... blah blah blah. of course my money situation only makes it worse. i'm making it, but just barley. and i mean barley. as anybody knows, having a girlfriend makes it even harder to be scraping by every month.

hopefully i'll know something by next week and those troubles will be gone.

**
Aside from that... CMRA's race season starts next weekend at oak hill raceway (near tyler, tx). i am very very excited. i can't stop thinking about it. it's probably a good thing becuase it's distracting me from the whole job waiting thing. that track is a lot of fun and much bigger than the tracks i normally race on. i'll also be riding on a friends team on his aprilia rs50... a different style bike than my 50, so that should be cool too. I also have ayden that weekend, so he'll get to come to the race track for a day. my mom is coming up, and since i'll be racing on someone else's team instead of my own she'll get to give ayden her full attention. making him come to the track while i'm racing possible. normally my family comes to the races and has jobs to do becasue we run our own team. we could handle those jobs and ayden if there were more people, but only mom is coming up. dad is moving dusty to pheonix that weekend so he can start school at MMI. anywyas, it's a good thing we're not running my bike, or we couldn't bring him. he's going to love it and i'm super excited that he's going to be there. he's just as obsessed with motorcycles as i am.

**picture above: me (#8) racing my bike against the style of bike that i'll be racing in oakhill... note the taller style of the bike

Donny Miller

2006-01-25T16:00:00.000-08:00

I randomly ran accross Donny Miller's site today.

its freaking awesome. i love it. take a look around... he's got lots of off the wall things there.

like these...

for the record... i'm not racist, but this made me laugh my ass off...

the hunt

2006-01-24T14:53:00.000-08:00

i'm still sitting here at tigi. killing time.... i'm not even killing it... i'm flat out wasting it. even when i am working and being productive.

i had an interview with Rapp Collins last week though. it went well and i know a couple people who work there including the Group Creative Director who is doing the hiring. he says i'm in, and he's the one who gets to say those kinds of things, so i should be in. problem is that the hire ups or whoever has to approve the position before he can hire. he says it could be anywhere from a week to a month.

so, here i sit... wondering if i should keep sending out my stuff, or relax, or worry, or put in my 2 weeks. i dunno. and to top it off i can't buy a dirtbike until i get a new job, and i'm freaking obsessed with it. i dunno though, maybe i don't need a dirtbike. i'm only going to get to ride it about once a month. if i'm lucky. how the hell did i get so busy? what happend? i guess having a kid will do that to you.

racing

2006-01-24T14:46:00.000-08:00

the racing season is about to start. i'm getting hyped. a buddy of mine has asked me to race with him at the cmra oak hill race on his aprillia 50 on feb 18th. that kicks ass because i don't always get to race that track and it's a lot of fun. dad will be moving dusty to pheonix that weekend, so they will both miss it, but mom is coming up and i'll have ayden that weekend. he'll finally get to see me race. it's going to kick ass.

as for tmgp (the series i run), we don't have the date for our fist race yet. kinda sucks not having the schedule yet because megan and I want to plan a vacation, but i don't want to miss a race. I've got a lot of prep to do anyways. hopefully between my dad and i we can figure out how many race weekends we have on the top and bottom end. we probabaly wrote it down in the logs, but i think mom has those stashed away in her race box. I need to get moving on prepping the bike though. i have to rebuild the front forks, check the front brake pads and change the brake fluid, try to get my new set of pegs on, check/replace the wheel bearings, change the tranny oil, clean out the carb and replace the spark plug wire and cap. yeah, better get started.

Dirtbikes

2006-01-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

I finally got to go out on some dirtbikes on jan 15th. it was pretty fun, and really nerve racking. i've never really been on a dirtbike other than the 30 seconds worth i got in my jr. high years.

luckly, some of my sport bike friends were able to hook me up with a full set of gear (pants, jersey, boots, knee/elbow pads, helmet and goggles) and a bike to ride for the day.. albie's Suzuki DRZ400e. Huge thanks goes out to those guys. i wanted to get out there so bad and wouldnt' have been able to do it for at least another couple months on my own. not only that, but i would have been buying a bike and all the gear with absolutley no experience to go from. at least now i have a little better idea of what it's like and what to expect before i spend a bunch of money.

Before we head out the guys tell me to cruise around the base camp a bit to kinda get use to the bike a little. I ride it around a bit. i'm pretty nervous and there is lots and lots of sand, so it's not helping. but i motor around a bit and try to get use to the brakes and how things feel in general. finally it's time to take off. i follow the group (about 6 guys i think). its not so bad.. i'm just taking it easy on some nice wide trails. going up some hills and things... starting to jump off a couple things and trying to get use to the "steer with the rear" thing.

then i finally drop the bike... the sand got me in some tighter woods stuff and i fell over at low speed. no big deal but i gotta pick up the bike and get going before i hold up the guys too long or get left. this is my first time picking up the bike from laying dead horizontal on the ground. i'm a tall guy and sometimes its hard to pick up heavy stuff from off the ground without using your back a bit. well in my haste i strain my back, and down goes the bike. "ohh... I'm going to regret that" is the first thing through my head. i stand up for a bit, and try to figure out a better plan of attack to get this thing off the ground. after a few lame attemps, i finally just grab the bars and muscle it up. it wasn't so bad.

the problem is now my back hurts. i can still ride fine, but i'm paranoid about droping the bike again and having to further agravate my back. I quickly found out (after a couple more drops) that it wasnt the picking up part that hurt now. It's the jumps. everytime i went off a jump the rear of the bike sprang up and the seat/fender hit me in the ass and jarred my back. so i figure out quick enough that if i give the bike a little gas while hitting the jump it levels out nicely and that problem is no more.

my confidence is rising at this point. i'm following the guys through some fun, somewhat technical stuff and roosting out of berms with a big smile. the sand is still making me nervous, but other than that i'm having a blast. then i come around a corner, the front wheel hits sand, i target fixate on a tree and what do you know... i'm going down and hitting the tree. i go down hard and hit my hip and my head pretty good. my hip really hurt for a minute, but it was alright. a stranger came down the trail and stopped to help me pick up my bike and i continued on... confidence set back down at an appropriate level.

my riding ended when i slid face first down a little hill in front of everyone and the crash flipped the kill switch on the handlebars of the DRZ. no big deal, but Albie (the owner) wasn't with us because he broke the chain on the bike he was riding a little earlier and none of us even knew this bike had a kill switch. so we're all pushing the "magic button" (electric start) and can't figure out why it sounds like there is no spark. there are 3 of us standing over the bike trying to figure it out and cranking it until the battery dies. so i get to sit there with the bike for probably an hour while they go back to base camp to ask albie whats up. they come back, flip the stupid little swicth and it fires right up. they all laughed at the face i made because i just sat in the middle of no where for an hour because of a kill switch.

so while i was sitting on my ass i took a few pictures of the red river.

so, thats cool... lets ride! oh.. wait they're leading me back to camp and thats the end of my day. crap. thats cool though. i had fun. i got to ride. i could have gone out for the third session, but since albie broke the chain on his bike he took the DRZ out. he offered it to me, but i couldn't take his bike out while he sat at camp. besides, he already had to sit there while i was out on his bike earlier when he broke his chain.

so now its a week later. my hip is still bruised a bit, and my muscles are feeling normal again. only problem is my back. it hurt a lot the first couple of days, but this weekend it was bad. i could hardley even put my own shoes on sunday morning. i dunno wtf. hopefully it gets better soon cause this sucks. especially since i have a waiver on my back and can't go to the doctor about it.

Overall it's a lot harder than i thought to convert from street riding to dirt. it's a completley different way of doing things. but i think i'll pick it up quick. I'm looking at a couple bikes right now, but i can't get serious about picking one up until i get a solid job offer. I looks like i should get one from Rapp any day now, i'm just waiting...

moved

2005-12-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

Megan and I are all moved into our new place now. it's a kick ass place and i can't wait to get it all set up and have people over. i still have a lot of stuff to set-up, re-arange and put together. not to mention that most of my stuff is still in my old condo. anthony and skot are staying there now, so they're using it. i don't really need most of it right now anyways.

this place is so big... we have a large dining room with absolutley nothing in it. imagine that! i feel like i've been crammed into all these random small spaces latley, now i have more space than i have stuff to fill it. the biggest down side is that there isn't a garage here. just a carport. i can put my bike in there (although thats a bitch because it's sand and gravel and i have to back the bike in over uneaven ground), but i can't put my tools, race bike and all the other garage goodies in there. i'm keeping my garage at the condo for myself and renting out the condo only, so i still have a garage. that sucks though to have a garage at a different location. what if i go there and work on the bike... tear it down then need to go to the parts shop for something? i'll be screwed. basically any time i need to really do some work i'll have to load up the bike in the truck or something so i have a car incase i need it. it stresses me out. not only that... but do i keep my tools here, or there?? it sucks when you need a tool for some little project around the house but all your stuff is at the condo, or when i just want to stop at the condo on my way home from work and do some maintenence on the bike but can't because my tools are at the house. see my delima?

ok, besides that, this place is pretty rad. i'm about to put together the desk that megan got for the office for her laptop so i can use her old desk for my computers. thats 2 desks, a huge drafting tabel and 3 computers total in one office... with room to spare i think. heh heh.

next i have to finish sanding and painting my bedroom furniture. then i need to do my easy painting ideas on some ply wood and get them in the frames i bought at a garage sale a long time ago. that shouldn't be too hard... a good weekends worth of work to get 5 or 6 large paintings done and ready for the walls. we really need to put some stuff up soon.

oh... and i haven't done any christmas shopping. except for the new helmet and boots that dad made me put on his credit card, and the diamonds i got megan that everyone in the whole world has now seen. i take it she likes them?

saturday night

2005-12-08T14:52:00.000-08:00

saturday night was fun.

it started out a little stressfull. we were going to an art show at the texas theater (i think thats what its called) in oakliff. a friend of ours, Gina, was in it. we were running late, and we were tired. by the time we finally get there it is freaking packed. you can't even walk or find a place to stan, so that kinda sucks.

finally the place starts to thin out a little and i get a few beers in me, so i'm in a better mood now. a few more friends showed up too... maybe 10-15 total.

the show was cool. each artist that contributed got a piece of plywood about 2' x 2' to do what ever they wanted. some painted, some did a collage from magazines and things... there were even some that just used a sharpie. they were then auctioned off starting at 20 bucks for charity. there were hundreds and a few even went for 3-400 bucks! it was fun to watch them get auctioned off. there were a few that i thought about bidding on, but they went above my $40 budget pretty quick.

smoking out back, freezing our ass off...

we found this rad little secret room... the walls were cool. i took lots of pictures of the textures for later use in designs...

afterwards we went to camilles house for the after party. gina wanted to go to her house, but by that time there was so many of us that we wouldnt' fit at her place... so to camilles we went. more people showed up and it was good times... megan and i left a little early since we both had to get up earlythe next day. too bad cause sounds like there was lots of drunken good times later that night.

stas' and the always wonderful kim...

I thought i took a lot more pictures than what i did (click on one of the picts for the gallery). dunno what happend. there were a lot more people hangin out than what i got pictures of.

greg... if you're reading this (you're prolly the only one that is), you should come out with us sometime if you wanna meet a new crowd. might be a little different than you're use to, but we're fun... sometimes.

My saturday

2005-12-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

I have this old dresser (looks like it was stolen from a ranch or hotel) and old end tables that i've been talking about repainting for years.

well i'm finally doing it... or starting at least. we'll see if it gets done or not. all i did on saturday is sand the end tables down and put a coat of kills on it. i'll do the same to the dresser some day soon, then we gotta figure out what color to paint them.

heres a before pict... i sanded the one on the left already. .... and after the coat of kills.

exciting huh?

we went out to an art show and stuff later that night... i'll post some picts and stuff about that later.

Pandora

2005-12-02T09:22:00.000-08:00

a friend pointed me towards a site called pandora.com today. i'm using it for the first time right now.

basically, you enter the name of a song or artist that you like. it then creates a playlist for you of similar music for you to listen to. I put in a few obscure band names, and it didn't know them. after that i put in Gang Starr and i've been listening to nothing but kick ass east coast hip hop ever since... method man, da grassroots, the roots and akrobatik so far....

i think this may be my new favorite site.

Update

2005-11-30T15:08:00.000-08:00

I still haven't found a new job. I've been searching for something like 2 months now and i've only had 2 interviews. thats kind of depressing. I really don't get it. i know that there are probably lots of applications, but i think mine is pretty good. especially for some of the jobs i'm applying for. i deserve at least a call or something.

I still have a chance with TM though. i emailed them today trying to figure out whats going on. he said that they're in the middle of a busy period along with moving their office (same building). he's suppose to be interviewing more over the next 4 weeks and getting back to me at the start of the year. I really, really want that job. hopefully i still have a chance.

anyways, i think i need to redo my resume to make a better impression from the start. i'm kinda holding off on sending it out until the first of the year i guess. i don't have time right now to write cover letters and search the net for open positions. something good will come soon i hope.

at least i'll be at my current job long enough to get my xmas bonus!

The new house

2005-11-21T14:00:00.000-08:00

Megan and I move into a new house in mid december. it's a 1920's duplex in lakewood. cool place... new appliances, 1600 square ft. 2 bedroom. we're hyped. we have the entire second floor.

rest of the pictures are HERE. i put some descriptions on there so you kinda know what you're looking at.

the floor plan looks something like this (megan will make fun of this since she does nothing but CAD all day)... Floor Plan

of course along with that comes the nervousness of moving in with your girlfriend. we've been basically living together for a while now already, so it shouldn't be a big deal. It's also a huge roomy place where we can have a room for ayden/guests, a place to set up an office and a place for a dining room. no more turning the spare room or dining room into an office. now we just need to get some stuff for the walls. i've got ideas of things to do myself, but as always i gotta find the time and drive to do it. I also have to break megan of the habbit of leaving every light and TV on in the entire house all the time.

also, rumor has it, the people downstairs are an older (30-50?) pair of brothers. that could prove to be a problem with ayden running around on the hardwoods or when we have a party or any kind. we'll see.

this was fun....

2005-11-21T08:40:00.000-08:00

megan, ayden and I go to breakfast on sunday morning, and then to northpark mall for some return shopping. the mall doesn't open until noon on sunday's and we got there at about 11:50, so we sit in the car and listen to the radio for a bit while we wait. obviously since the mall isn't open yet, there is plenty of parking, but this guy in a white Lotus pulls into the spot right next to us and hits our car with his door!

we're like "did he just hit our car?" Then we hear 3 more thumps... as he is getting out and getting his stuff he hits the car some more. he's on the passenger side where megan is sitting, so she looks over at him, he makes eye contact, hits the car with his door again then runs off to the mall.

so, just to show that he can't hit our not so fancy explorer with his car just because it's better (heh heh)... we decide that it might be fun if ayden does some jumping on his pretty little white lotus.

we were laughing our ass off. he's lucky we didn't have a load in the diapers too... prick.

Pistons and Paint

2005-11-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

I went to the annual Pistons and Paint car show with my son on saturday. it was pretty cool. i love the old rusty rides. i'd prefer it over a new shiney car. i want a car that pisses people off as i drive by. my arm hanging out the window that i can barley see out because it's chopped so low. my son in the passenger seat hoping one of his friends from school see's him in his dad's hot rod. theres just something special about those cars. they have attitudes.... history.

i think that why i love the movie American Graffiti so much. the 50's are rad. i really want an old coupe, but i'm also looking foward to getting my hands on my dads old '56 Ford pickup thats in cailfornia some day.

here's a restored '56 from the show...

here is the current state of "my" '56 in SoCal...

and i would LOVE to build a ride like this... it makes my mouth water...

i love old race cars and bikes. the old daytona beach racers with the extra set of grips below the number plate for aerodynamics... or an old salt flat racer from the 50's.... mmmm..... if i could, i'd collect them.

I really wish i had some more knowledge about it all... building, fabricating, the history. i would have appreciated what i was seeing at the car show much more. someday i'll be able to play with it. for now i'll keep dreaming.

you can find the rest of the pictures from the show here

lights

2005-11-17T10:34:00.000-08:00

do you ever notice a light turning off as you walk/drive by?

i seem to notice this a lot. it kinda creeps me out. i dunno if it's just because it's something i pay attention to, and it happens to everybody, or if it's just my crazy bodily electrical impulses.

there is a street light out side of hailey's in denton... everytime i park inthe parkinglot accross the street and walk to the bar, the light turns off. Or, i'll be driving down some random street at night and a street light turns off. it's really wierd and i've noticed it fairly often over the past few years. maybe... once a week or so.

xmas list

2005-11-11T13:09:00.000-08:00

DVDs
dust to glory
faster 2
on any sunday

bike stuff
new backpack
helmet
gloves
boots
i really, really need an aerostich suit. i think a 40-long might do the trick. grey suit with orange ballistics would be cool. yellow or black ballistics would work too.

if you really want to get me in trouble buy me some dirtbike gear. i know, i don't have a dirtbike... thats where the trouble part comes in.

music
ipod (or a diff mp3 player that won't skip a lot on the bike)

i want this book too.

gift cards for target or something for stuff for the new house works.

more to come as i think of it....

sunday night

2005-11-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

sunday night was the annual TONI&GUY photographic awards and national fall conference here in dallas. If i had to pay i wouldn't go, but since i get in free it's pretty fun. lots of good people watching. imagine a couple thousand young rockstar hairdressers from all over noth america and europe coming to dallas to get drunk (among other things... *cough-coke-cough*) and watch a crazy hair show complete with a famous DJ dance party at the end.

at about 10 or 11 we headed over to billiard bar where we ran into almost the entire crew. we only got picts of chris though, 'cause he was completley trashed... overall it was a good night.

weekend with ayden

2005-11-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

wow... 2 year olds are a mess.

ayden is a good kid compared to most, and it's still a true test of endurance and skill to spend the weekend alone with him. it's filled with laughing, crying, kicking, hitting, throwing, kissing, running, spiting, yelling and pooping.... all in the span of an hour.... repeat.

i wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

he use to be a little afraid of my helmet. he liked it, but when i put it on or tried to put it on him it scared him a little. this weekend he finally put it on, and now i can't get it off. he makes me put the helmet on, then he puts the gloves on. once he's got the gloves situated he puts the visor down, finds the cats, pets, comes back to make me put the now fogged up visor back up, takes the gloves off, puts the gloves back on and repeat for about an hour.

i think one of the highlights of the weekend was eating pizza at Brothers Pizza on medow and 75. it's one of those NY style pizza joints that serve by the slice. i got a couple slices of peporoni and he got a cheese. we sat for about 45 minutes and peacefully ate our pizza... it was great. we were both in a good mood, the weather was good.... i loved it. it was one of those father-son, my first slice of pizza at a real pizza place moments.

these are the big pizza slices. it's about 7 or 8" wide. he would grab the edges of the crust with both hands and hold the pizza over his head trying to get the tip in his mouth for a bite. it was awesome... arms fully extended he could barley get the tip of the pizza in his mouth for a bite. eventually i had to steal about half his slice so he could eat it... of cours while he wasn't looking. you don't take anything from a 2 year old without a fit.

heres a vid of him rocking out... Click Here

monday's interview

2005-11-01T15:24:00.000-08:00

so yesterday i interviewed with Signal... a small ad agency in uptown.

it's a cool little place. everyone (including the associate creative director, or ACD if you're in the know) was wearing jeans, so thats a plus for me. the guy i interviewed with wasn't quite as personable as the guy i interviewed with at TM interactive. i had to work a little more to keep good conversation. I also could only show my physical print portfolio. this was dissapointing because it doesn't show well. its got student work in it and is a bitch to keep updated. i'm going to have to do something about that. when i interviewed at TM i didn't even get a chance to show them my print 'folio, just the web stuff on a computer they had in their meeting room... that was ideal. the interview wasn't bad though. it just wasn't as impressive as it could/should have been.

so, this was a studio manager position. basically i would make sure everyone has the equipment and programs needed, doing any necessary research and training. I'd also teach and guide all the designers in any thing prepress, including press checks. i'd even get to travel to jersey, LA and somewhere in south america for press checks... i think he said columbia, but i could be wrong. I believe there is also a lot of design work to be done in this position too if the time is available.

the main thing is that i'd have to go through their servers and everyones stuff and clean it all up, get it orginized and make sure it stays that way. everything should be organized enough that if a designer is out or quits someone else should be able to jump right in to his project and not search for things.... so i dunno how much i'm looking foward to all that, but i've done it before.

this job sounds a lot like my current one, but better. most of the duties i would do there i already do at my current job. the biggest, and best differance is that they are an agency and this is in house marketing. so i'll be working with people who (hopefully) know what they are talking about and think more like i do as a designer. i'd get to work on a wider range of work for different clients and build my portfolio up to get that Art Director job that i want. Right now i look back at the past 5 years i've been working for the same company and can only come up with a few small portfolio pieces. most of the good stuff i have is all from freelance.

anyways... wish me luck. things are so stagnated here that i'm about to go crazy.

i wrote a nice little thank you letter today and hand delivered it. i guess if they like me i'll hear from them next week.

Adventure

2005-10-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

i love adventure. i seriously want to ride a motorcycle from texas to california, washington, alaska... all of it... all on dirt roads.... or paved roads maybe, but thats too easy.

i want to carry my gear on my back. sit in the middle of no where with my best buddy, camp set for the night, drinking a bottle of rum... wondering what kind of crazy stuff we have to get our bikes and bodies through tomorow.

i want to be out of touch from everyone and everything for days at a time. no one knows if you're ok.. or where you're at really... it's up to you. seriously, when was the last time you were really disconected from the world by choice? it seems so hard to really get away, but it feels so good. having fun, relaxing, doing what you love... no phone ringing, no bosses yelling, none of lifes hardships floating in your head. it's pure, and it really makes you love the things you have. you get the chance to reflect with a clear head.

this is what i want to do... I've been everywhere

The Job

2005-10-28T14:26:00.000-07:00

I have to find a new job. this place is doing nothing for me... no creatvity, no challenges (except for dealing with some crazy people), no more growth... its time.
anyways....

So far i've interviewed with TM Interactive for an interactive production design job last week. they told me i was over qualified and to come back for the soon to be posted art director job. i called them back today to check up on it, but i'm still waiting to hear back.

I also have an interview scheduled with Signal... a small ad agency downtown. it's for a "studio manager" position. sounds interesting. not quite what i had in mind, but interesting. we'll see what happens.