Joker

Yeah, I get it, but I still don't see him spending a single day behind bars.

Trump will never see a day in jail, ever. Everyone around might, but he never will. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see his ignorant-ass locked up but there has been lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit and he walks away from all of them. So I have zero faith in him getting jail time, ever.

LOVE that belt drive - congrats on the cool, new bike! About eight years ago Raleigh had a single-speed CX bike that I really wanted for racing but I never bought it and I've been kicking myself ever since.

@T4M* - The first thing I would do is decide what your hourly rate is. From there I would think about how long you think this is going to take you. I've no idea how long it takes to build a website as it's not the level of design I do, but I would assume it's a long process with at least a handful of revisions. Let's say your hourly rate is $75 (fairly typical design rate unless you're really good and in demand). And let's say you know for sure it'll take you no more than 80 hours of design/development time. I would pad that design time by 10%-20% to cover your ass should the client go sideways with an extra revision, or a last minute ask. A few things you can up front is set the number of revisions. In your bid you can say what your fee is to design the website, how many rounds of design changes that fee covers, and what they'll get in the end for that fee. Make a note that anything outside the original agreed upon scope of work will require an adjustment in your fee. Last thing you want is to agree to a fee for the work you'll be doing and then end up doing a bunch of work you didn't agree on because you weren't clear up front. If you can lay out a roadmap/calendar that outlines the scope of work you're being asked to do and shows the target dates you'll hit for that work - that will set you up with targets/deadlines and lets them know when they can expect a round 1, round 2, round 3, final design, live launch of their website, etc. I typically like to know from the client what it is they're looking for as far as style of design. In your case, I would ask them to share a few websites they like or think fits their brand style which will give you a style of design to chase. I don't know much about events & promo costs but I would assume it's fairly expensive. Is this more about a social media presence for the brand? And always, always get 50% down to start the work.

@Aristo- Looking at your sketches, and reading that you're working on making smoother connections between letters, I decided to play around with the E to N connection on one of your sketches. One thing I noticed is that, at least in your Amen sketches, the end of the E curls down and the end of your N curls up, which lead me to think you could connect them at those curling points. I also gave slightly more definition to the E inside the right bar of the M - one of those classic Graffiti notches. For your consideration:

The only good thing on SNL (since the Adam Samberg days) is SNL news. Even then, the little extras they typically add on (like the person shared in the link) are often awful. I just want to see Colin and Michael make jokes about current news as well as joke with each other. The rest of the show is relying on the skit architecture of previous SNL generations.

@Elena Delle Donne- sorry about the bent frame but glad you're okay. Sometimes the slow to the ground falls can be the worst. @metronome- post them pics!! I want a new bike so badly but I'm going to have to drool over your purchase instead.

I don't know what to make of this thread. Is it for blackbook sketches? Videos? Photos of girls? All of the above? Some of the details in the sketches is very nice, though. Out of curiosity - what is "Kingism" referencing?

Yep, those are two pages from one of my blackbooks, early 90s. That letter "I" study in the upper left was obviously very much inspired by HR Giger, whom I was a big fan of at the time (still enjoy his work but in the late 80s early 90s I was a bit obsessed). The "Cohc" piece was painted at the Franklin Wall in San Francisco. I think it ended up in IGHT as I was sending Phase2 a lot of photos during those years. While the headline notes my "...stylish characters" - they have always been inspired by my mentor ETCH, from Washington DC. That guy single-handedly inspired an entire city with his characters and letters. Thanks for sharing!!

Yeah, they're very much not affordable. I just did a full build for that bike (granted, I used ENVE & SRAM for everything, and Ceramic Speed rear derailleur) and it ended up at $12,500 USD. That's not affordable. The new Cannondale SuperSix EVO is $15k. Canyon Aeroad CFR is $10k. Trek Emonda SLR 9 is $13k. I think $10k+ for a race steed is just the new normal. It doesn't seem like it was that long ago that $8k was incredibly high for the same quality of bike, but now that price is a low-to-mid range bike. I'm kind of in the market for a new road bike (even though I no longer race road) but what I want and what I can afford are two different things. I thought with the bike market being flooded with supply, and now a low demand, there would be some amazing sales happening but I haven't seen anything worth considering. I'm thinking I may have to buy frame and fork and then build it up on my own with deals found online for components, wheels, and accessories. Try to get a $13k bike for half that... or less.

True, kinda. Modern day Amish do work in the real world... though mostly carpentry jobs (like building house and such) and selling farm equipment. Therefore they pay taxes (like income tax, property tax, etc). I'm not Amish, I've not spent any amount of time with them, but I'd imagine living their life has it's fair share of "mud" to deal with, just like non-Amish folk do.

That Rodeo Labs frame is wicked...

True. I mean, if some "kid" walked up to my door and offered me a ridiculous amount of money for my land I would sell it, too. From talking to those fellas it sounds like everyone in the small town isn't too happy with how the influx of growers has changed their quiet, sleepy town. Unfortunately... that's growth in any town.

Probably not the same, but in rural Oregon, especially near Bend, the amount of land being bought by weed growers has been wild. I admit I haven't read a lot about it but a few years back I stayed in a small town called Tumalo, just outside of Bend, and I was hanging out at a bar drowning my feelings after a 30 mile mountain bike race I crashed twice in (therefore finished poorly in after months of training) and I got to talking to a couple locals who've lived in the area since they were kids. They were telling me how people are driving onto folks land, knocking on their doors and offering millions in cash for their acreage because the region is perfect for growing. So of course these tired, old timers are selling their lands for double or triple their value and weed production in the area has skyrocketed. This has led to issues with traffic, odor from cultivation (which seems silly considering any rural farm is going to have odor), issues with grow lighting, etc.. After the chat I did a little research but there wasn't a ton of information out there at the time. Since then there's been a lot of legislation happening and folks never interested in politics now running for seats who are either pro or anti marijuana growing. I've no idea if any of the folks buying up land are corporations or just all small businesses trying to grow (pun intended) their business. Either way, it's kind of interesting.

All the gear, all the time. The only way to ride...

False. I work with some damn amazing folks. TPBM did not watch the super bowl.

Those DEBS throwies are very nice...

False. I'm a chronic "I'm not doing anything unless I know what it is, how long we'll be gone, and who's joining us" kind of person. Call it old age, call it playing it safe, I don't care... I am who I am. TPBM does not drink coffee

Silly self-promotion. Late last year I did the label artwork for a new HAB Sauce flavor. Super-tasty, minimal heat.

One of DC’s finest, and a genuinely nice human.

@Aristo- The first thing that jumps out at me is there are some connections to be made to clean up the overall configuration. For example, the right leg of your M is almost the exact same curve and shape as the back bar to your E, so I would merge the two together to clean up that connection. Same with the end of your E... you could connect that directly to the left bar of your N to clean that connection up as well. As for adding serifs... to help with this exercise I chose a slab serif font as my example to work from. Basically I got the letters where I wanted them and then went back and added the serifs. Doing this helped me connect my letters even more creating a nice, fluid form to the word. I tried my best to keep your letters so it feels familiar but let me know if this is hitting the mark on what you're trying to achieve.

Yeah, I think the seat tube is carbon. Definitely the fork. That Cerakote paint & anodize finish is so beautiful. I wish I could find a good photo of the bike they showed at the Chris King show. It's very similar to the green one above but the the details are so good.

Not too long ago I went to the Chris King handmade bike show where about twenty bike builders were given new, limited edition Chris King components to build a bike around. There were some really cool bikes on display but by far the coolest was from a company called No.22. Being a fan of titanium bikes I was really drawn to it but I think I was equally drawn to the attention to detail not only in the frame design/build but also the paint and anodize they do on all their bikes. Really nice stuff.

I always wear padded bib shorts and jerseys when riding. My saddles are all narrow and completely unridable without padded shorts for any extended period of time, so yeah... always wearing bib shorts. It completely makes sense when you've been digging deep for 3 hours in a group ride, sitting on the 'rivet' of your saddle just to hang on to the group, or put the group under pressure (depending on how you're feeling that day). I also use chamois cream for every ride over an hour, too. It's the best thing, ever, for longer rides. Took some getting used to at first but now I wouldn't do a long ride without wearing any. Pretty sure there's MTB padded shorts that look just like normal shorts but with a padded liner. I know some men refuse to wear bib shorts because they feel it makes them look like a a gay dude freakin' in da club... which is, I don't know... weird? It's not like they're shimmery gold with flashing lights and music booming out of them.

I am using an iPad Pro with Apple pencil and the app is Procreate. I've found Procreate to be the best drawing/painting app out there. I had used Morpholio Trace for a while but it's more suited for architecture/drafting and design than painting and drawing.