alkaline

d40 suck! it's an overglorified point and shoot. pony up and get the d70 at the least.

this is more aimed at the photography thread folks. besides, who gives a shit where it is? it works here and in ch0, so whatever.

es1, your lady is a natural in front of the camera. as far as the nikon d80, it's a good camera. more megapixels than the d70 and much more user friendly. i'm up in the air right now between the d80 and the d200, which is quite a bit more expensive.

check to make sure that the shutter is working right. sounds like maybe the film is not getting exposed at all. this may also be stating the obvious, but make sure your lighting is good and all that. the first couple of rolls that i shot on an older med. format camera that i have came out blank because there was just not enough light coming into it.

what did the rest of the roll look like? blank (like see through), dark, or a mix of the two? how did the photos that actually come out look? underexposed/overexposed? were the pictures that came out all grouped together or in various places on the roll? holgamods is a good place to look for advice on you holga.

a little more time would have been nice. i don't post a lot, and i don't lurk a lot either. i had about a day to try and get my hunt done, and i had to work. whaaah whaaah whaaah. either way, keep the hunts going, because i am tatally down when i can find the time!

riding a bike in a leotard

i just found my calling in life.

AARRRRGGGG!!!! It's my first day back at work after the camping trip, and somebody stole our air compressors from the back of the store. My arms already hurt from changing flats.

AAAAAHHHHHH! I hurt my knee. I have no idea what's going on, but about 20 miles into last night's race I started hurtin'. I finished, but it hurt so bad at the end that I didn't even party it up. I was barely able to ride to work today. I'm still going on the camping trip, but the guy that broke his collar bone and I are going to drive out there instead of ride. Shit. As long as I'm better in a year when my dad and I ride to Mexico for Day of the Dead.

one of the guys that was supposed to go on this trip with us broke his collarbone on the way to work this morning. i've had to ride a lot more aggressive these days because of all the angry drivers. i think they're mad cause they have to pay more for gas. jesus, there's this guy standing in front of me just rambling about how he used to ride back in the day and he's thinking about getting back into it. Hey, buddy! i don't wanna hear your life story just so you can kill some time.

four

three

two

one

uh. sorry about the next few blanks ... i was having some network problems.

so not a whole lot happened on day 6 of the race. it was individual tt. i was a little bummed at the very end, because i had saved a little bit of my energy thinking that there would be some crazy hill right at the end. there wasn't. i DID NOT come in last. which was suprising, because i had taken a wrong turn at the beginning of the route. great race overall. everybody was really stoked, and we had a great turnout. halloween race tonight. costumes and booze. it's probably gonna rain, but i'll be there anyways. on the touring front, i'm taking a little four-day trip with some friends from work. riding about 120 miles round trip fully loaded. pictures of both to come soon.

sorry. i took off on a vacation to chicago. day 6 report will be up as soon as i get back to texas.

Day 5 The loooooong stage. Tonight was the longest of the stages. At 50 miles, there was a pretty strong feeling that the lead could change tonight. It was a really good route. There were hills to make you tired and the were hills to make you go really really fast. I spent the whole night riding with three other guys and having some fun. We basically turned it into a hard cruise. There was no real action to speak of though. The field was pretty spread out, so by the time we finished, most of the lead guys had gone home. Everyone is looking forward to tomorrows stage as it's a true messenger alleycat, complete with packages and all that. Should be fun, and no doubt there are some people that won't do as well as they would on a course-type ride.

Day 4 Rest. So in the points standings. I'm tied with like five other people, but because of my miserable showing on the first night, I'm offically last. I still hold the flag after three nights of racing, and the race organizer, Brian, asks me if I'm still having a good time. "When I'm not having a good time, I'll stop showing up," is the only thing I have to say. He knows I'm loving every minute of this race.

Day 3 The "mountains." The night starts out as usual. Everybody hangs out and has a couple of beers. The race will actually begin a couple of miles away, so we all cruise together to the start point. The race starts with no delay, and we were off. Tonights course takes us north on a local bike route that your average joe would never use. It's got some really tough hills, and it has almost no lighting. Then we head east, and then south on one of the more commonly used bike routes, through campus and into downtown, finishing up by riding up a parking garage. The race started fast. With so many people on fixies, I though, for sure, that I had a chance to catch a few people after they blew up. I worked my way through the hills and caught a couple of people, and we rode as a group for most of the rest of the way. As it turns out, the was a lot of action going on. We were one of several groups that took a wrong turn. We all ended up in the same place, but mostly by different routes. The lead group go pulled over by the cops after blowing through a light, but the cop just wanted to know why they were riding so fast that late at night. Going up the parking garage, I was neck and neck with the same guy from the crit. In the end I let him have it since he didn't get lost. We hung out on the top of the garage for a while (there are some pictures at http://www.onechick.com with the capitol building in the background) and had some fun. There is a high-rise apartment building a couple of blocks away from the garage, and everyone was treated to some naked vaccuming by one of its residents. Then it was up the street to take over a local bar. Thank god we get to rest tomorrow.

Here we go. Day 2 The crit stage. We organized at the old shop parking lot at about 9PM. There were a few more people than the first night, so everybody was pretty happy about the turnout. We hung around drinking a couple of beers and talking until it was time to cruise to the crit course. The course was pretty small this time around. Through a neighborhood around eight or nine blocks long. There was a slight uphill in the begining of the lap and some knarly potholes in the middle. There were also a couple of really good turns. Six laps was the call, first one done wins. Go! After the first turn there was a group of people sitting on the roof of a house cheering us on. I don't know if they knew any of us, or if they were just hanging out on their roof and noticed us riding by a bunch of times. I was all the way in the back (of course), but having a blast fighting it out for last with one other guy. On the last lap I sprinted to the finish and beat him by about half a wheel. "One more lap to go!" somebody says, so we keep going ... reluctantly. Another sprint finish, but this time I lose and get my shoe sucked under my pedal in the last turn (I wear Vans slip-ons and have flat pedals on that bike). Oh well. I'm still having a blast. The non-racing class and the grrls race their crit next. Two people throw up during that race, which narrows down the field real fast. On the way back to the old shop, all the fixie guys give us a show going down this huge hill. Some of it was good, but one guy couldn't stop and almost got nailed by the cross traffic at the bottom. We finished the night with more beer and lots of talk. Tomorrow is the long climbing stage, and it's gonna be hard.

I don't want to spoil it or anything, but of all the people that are actually racing the race, I'm in last (that's the "last place" flag that I'm holding ... which seems fitting for me since they all call me blackbeard anyways). Updates coming when I get home from work.

Me just before the Giro d'Ghetto on the "Slice of Miami" (my commuter) Giro d'Ghetto, Day 1 The Giro d'Ghetto is a six day stage alleycat race organized by my friend Brian. Tonight was day one. Flats, flats, flats. Todays stage started at the old shop at 8PM. Since this was the first day, everyone showed up and registered. Five dollars were put in, and numbers and spoke cards were given out. We were all told that today would be a "mountain time trial." we were to all ride as a group through town to the back side of Mount Bonnell. There was a flat before we even left the parking lot. Once we got under way, things went fairly smooth. I got a little bit of a late start from the group, so I spent the first ten minutes of the "cruise" at a full sprint (which on my bike is not exactly what you would call fast). Once I caught up, we continued to cruise north through town until we turned onto 2222 (which isn't a highway, but with the speed of traffic, it may as well be). Then it was an all out free for all through traffic and up the hills (keep in mind that it's dark while all this is going on). We got to the actual start point and rounded everybody up. There had been at least two flats on the way there, so we had to wait for a couple of people. After we had everyone all together we got started. One rider left every 30 seconds up a mile and a half hill. I took off and started well, but I got passed by three people on the last hill. The actual racing wasn't the fun part, so I'll skip all that. At the top, I waited with all the others to finish. My friend Kris came flying across the line on his Xtracycle and pulled a thirty foot skid that ended with his back tire blowing out. Then the party began. Brews and buds. We hung out for a while and made the nice cruise home. Tomorrow is the crit stage. Updates coming.

i got a ticket in my truck the other night. i quit (diving). the commuter is getting all decked out next week. i might order an xtra cycle.