ouch

"Does that have to hurt so damn bad", I say to Scottie my good friend and tattoo artist. A tattoo "colector" has a relationship with their artist like a drunk has with their bartender. A good one knows what you like, and will listen to more or less andything you want to talk about. He has only been tattooing me for a few minutes now, and I am totally pussing out. I hate the first few minutes of tattooing. When your body is saying "Fuck no you are not doing this shit to me again". It is such an annoying pain. Once I am in the grove after probably the first 10-15 minutes, I can sit there all damn night. The only thing that usually stops me is the artist getting tired or we finish up what we wanted to work on. Very rarely will I puss out first.

The new piece I am working on is a japanese arm piece. I will post some pics later. As of tonight, I am done with my second sit of it. I think I still have 2-3 more sits before it is finished. I really want to finish it soon, but I want to be able to swim and have fun for the rest of the summer without having this silly pain.

Scott owns and works at Mercury Tattoo Check out his portfolio and Brian Donovan's who also works there.

HRC vs gamers

On the day that one of the World's largest cities has another terrorist attack, Hillary Rodham Clinton is more concerned with Grand Theft Auto San Andres a damn video game. She and other politicians are bowing dow to the knee jerk reaction of legions of soccer moms, who bought a game that is labeled "Mature" for their children. To buy this game you have to be at least 17. When these ratings are made, they are made so people do not buy them that will be affected by them. They are not saying that you can not buy it and give it to your kid without ever viewing what it is. This game is violent and sexual, and kids that are not prepared for this game should not be playing it, that is why the industry will not sell it to them! But, Hillary and others had to present the fact that you could download a modification to unlock some code to show nudity. By making them change the rating, they made the game unavailable to those under 18. They changed the age you could buy it by one full year! But by doing that, it effectivly took it off the market in many different stores like Best Buy, Blockbuster, Sprall-Mart, ec. These places choose not to sell "adult" material (but choose to sell guns!), which is going to kill Rock Star games until they could get a non-"adult" game out on the market.

The following is the ratings from the Entertainment Software Rating Board

Well another day that London is attacked by "suicide" bombers. Luckily this time they failed, or their materials expired or whatever, but regardless, most people were safe and uninjured. I just feer for how vulnerable we are all at when the country and city that should be the most alert gets hit twice in the same number of weeks. Is there something that needs to be done? Yes! Will the US, UK, or UN have the balls to do it? Nope! We need to investigate these people deeeper, and cut off all of their suppliers of goods, training, and money. Till we stop that or find out who is funding them, we could get used to living a life of disaster reports every week or two.

I feel that some of the reasons behind the fact that we do not go after these people harder is for the fear of what we will actually find. It is almost like when you see a termite coming out of the closet, you know the wall behind there is totally eaten away. I think that is what we would find if we started to pull away some of the layers of these organizations. We would find that they are being funded by wesstern politicians, corporations, and religious institutions. It may not be a direct route, but I feel that in these days we have to look at who we are giving our money to and what they are going to use it for or give it to. Even people in well meaing Mosques ended up funding terrorists in one way or another.

On another political note, I can not wait till this...

...Is true

That guy needs to go to jail. Our system is dirty, and has become worse under GW, but come on. This guy broke the law, and is going to end up getting away with it

September 20, 1977-July 30, 2005

Just one thing I was not looking forward to writing. A year ago today, my friend Hans Nothen passed away suddenly at a BANE show from an enlarged heart, which is fitting for a guy who loved everyone. It still hurts quite a bit, and I get tearey eyed everytime I think of him, then I just smile and laugh, because if he were here, that is what I would be doing with him. In the past year, I have tried to live a better life...one that is almost in his likeness. He was such a great friend, and would help anyone he saw ever. click here for proof. He had a huge "family" in the Hardcore Scene as well as the Tuner scene. Here is a link to a one of the many tributes to him.

Today I had to work at Randall's Island, NYC at a Dave Mathews Bandshow. It was as warm as fresh milk, and I was not 100% prepared to deal with the heat and dust.

A bunch of our friends were working this show so it was a good time. We more or less just hung around and looked at/talked to girls while getting paid for it. I had to guard the Warehouse Prefered Seating area. More or less an are where super fans got to sit, because they bought their tickets early on the warehouse website. This area was nothing more than a fenced off pin that they got to come into earlier than everyone else.

They had to have special tickets to get into this area. I had to stand at this spot all day with three other guys (oliver, Richie, and Matt). and make sure only the people with the right wrist bands got into the special area. Kid of annoying, but not all that bad.

We spent a great part of the day talking to a group of people that set up camp directly infront of us. We just bullshitted with them, and asked them to get stuff for us. We had a good time talking to them all day. Would I have talked to them if there was nothing else to do? Probably not.

Tons of people were trying to get into the area that we were watching. As the day got closer and closer to DMB, more and more people would come up to try to get in. One girl walked up who was a dead ringer for my friend/ex of 5 years. I could not believe how much she looked and acted like her. They have to be related. She kept me entertained for a little while for the day.

DMB finally went on and we had three hours of them. They were not too bad. Pretty impressive live show, plus it cooled down so much when it got dark.

There were a lot of dumb kids at this show. I had to throw a bunch out or talk to a bunch. Just for stupid things. I dont understand how you could pay so much money to go to a show, and end up getting kicked out. It blows my mind.

The night ended with us walking out of there exhausted and hungry. It was amazing to see how much trash was on the ground. I know there were 30,000+ people there, but there was a lot of crap left behind. I drove back to our hotel and of course got kind of lost on the way, but I found it, and my two roomates for the night, Ralph and Garrett, trying to get into the room. I tried to find some eats at the gas station down the street, then went to bed to the sweet sound of Ralph snoring.

Second day of DMB

Second day of the DMB. I woke up really early and decided to go and get some drinks and food for the day in the sun. After yesterday, I did not want to have to starve and be thirsty all damn day. I would have gone crazy. I woke up and had a shower without waking Ralph and Garett, then headed up the street to the grocery store. I picked up a bunch of cliff bars,a 8 pack of gatoraid, a jar of Peanut Butter, and a loaf of bread. I made breakfast for me and the boys, filled my camelback full of ice, and then headed out to the show.

I HATE driving in New York City. We had to go from Fort Lee over the George Washington Bridge, onto the Harlem Expressway then to the Tri-Borough bridge which will drop us on Randall's island. Do you think we made that? Of course not. We took the GWB and then ended up on some random street that dropped us off way up on Broadway. We asked for directions and it put us back on teh right road again. Then we got on the Tri Borough and thought that we were right there. Boy were we wrong! Ralph noticed that we were at a toll plaza that said No Access to Randall's island. We had to loop around and get back to the island. We got to the security meeting early and we wouldn't have missed anything anyway, since we were doing the same thing we did the day before.

We took our post and then just thought shit...we have to do this all damn day and night. We were really well prepared for the day by having a good amount of ice and water and sunblock, and a hat. All essential to the war effort.

they let the fools in and of course we had people asking us questions about the place they could go and not go. Unfortunatly, we had some people from Quebec sit infront of us. They were not all that bad, but they def were not as much fun as the people we had the day before. Really the highlight of the day was a girl paying me $20 to take her to the bathroom, and another guy offering me WWE tickets for letting him up front. I usually dont bend for anyone, but I was just so fried, I let all kinds of shit go down. The day went by really fast, and Black Eyed Peas were way better than the Bare Naked Ladies from the day before.

The day was over, and we wanted to hit the road. We got out of the city pretty quickly and were on the other side of the GWB. It was not too long after that when Ralph had to drop a deuce. He and Garett decided to make as much noise as they coudl in the bathroom and proceeded to freak out everyone in the bathroom at Midnight on the NJ TPK.

We were on the other side of the rest stop and my passangers were ass out. I was so damn tired and falling asleep at the wheel. I finally had to pull over and take a quick nap. After the nap, it was not all that bad, but without it, I would have killed us all. I finally got home at like 2:45 and not to sleep till 3:30am.

SUCKS!

stupid

I found out today that a school I would love to teach at is hiring for a position I am qualified for. I doubt I will get hired but it was worth a shot at trying.

I didn't do too much at work all day. I just sort of sat around and got paid for it. Seems like that is a pattern this summer! I am not complaining since I need the money, but I would much prefer to be out camping or riding my bike all day. Maybe next summer.

Today just from sitting around and surfing the web looking at recounts of what went down at posi numbers fest and how people reacted, I think I need to take a break from the "scene" I am sick of the bullshit that goes along with going to shows. I do not want to have to see who is who, and what new ink did they get, and how their hair looks, or how tight their black tee shirt fits their gut.

It seems that people, at least on boards, seem to think that the fight and other shit that went on at posi numbers is just normal. The amount of joking about the fight, and talking about merch and other babble just showed me why this fight was aloud to happen, and why this type of behavior will continue for a long ass time. If people are more concerned with merch and making jokes, they are not protecting and preserving their scene, and soon enough there will be no small promoters, and the shows will dwindle down, or you will pay huge sums to see a band you like. If you stand around and watch people ruin shows, you are making it easier and easier for the scene as we know it cease to exist.

When the cost of hiring more security, or the frustration of working for a full year and then seeing it all go away when some crew or certain individuals have beef with one guy and have to take it out on the whole place totally settle in, people like Bobb Mac and Sean Agnew and others end up dropping out of setting up shows. Which makes it easier for Clear Channel or someone else to begin sponsoring shows

People need to stand up to the bullshit. It is simple as that. How could a crowd of a few hundred people just stand around as someone hit a member of a band that just finished playing, and a mother of three who has supported the scene since it's infancy for trying to stop a fight from escalating? She was not defending one person, she was defending us all. She is like the rest of us who is trying to stop the bullshit at shows, and what does she get? Punched in the face by someone who gets off on terrorizing people. What does almost everyone else in the building besides her husband do? They just stood there and did nothing. A few did try to help the situation, but the hoards of "scene supporters" stood around and some ran for the door or the merch tables. It is fucking sick to think that this is where we have come to.

I remember the days of hardly any fights at shows. Everyone was having a good time, and if there was a fight, it was over quickly and settled. I also remember the days of people banding together to fight back against those who tried to ruin it. You have to fight back against this shit or it will never stop and the whole scene will be ruined (in my opinion we have reached this point, but for those of you who still believe this is for you). If you see this shit going on, don't just stand there, because someday it is going to end up being you. If you are attacked, file charges with the police. Enough people know each other that you could get names and addresses of people. I think show promoters should have adequate security for shows that they know there may be a problem with. I do not know of the security at Posi #s, but obviously it was not up to par with the amount of people that were there, and the types of kids they were going to encounter. I do have to say that Sean Agnew of R5
R5does a good job with that. He has consistently hired people that can get the job done, and make people feel safe at his shows, and the violence at his shows has dropped dramatically.

Another thing, don't talk shit for no reason to people on the Internet or behind their back. You do not know how many shows have been ruined by "talking shit" on the Internet or wherever. I wish it were just more positive and we had goals for ourselves and the scene, not just how cool our new "traditional" tattoo looks with our shitty black haircut.

Fuck It I Quit

I got to go to my apartment today! That is something new, since except for a few hours of sleeping Monday morning, I was away from my house since Monday the 25th.

It was great to see jess, and sleep in my own bed for the night. I have to start to get comfertable doing that all over again, since I will be there every night starting soon.

Earlier today my friend Robin, who I wrote about eariler in the week, sent me an email or bullitan that had the lyrics to a new BANE song that made refernce to our decieced friend Hans Nothin. The song really struck home with me, since we lost Hans about a year ago at a Bane show in Wilkes Barre. He was one of the best guys ever, and everyone loved him. His death still has quite an effect on me, as he was one member of the family of Wilkes Barre/Scranton hardcore kids that I grew up with. (The song is posted above if you want to hear it.)

I went out and got the record at Repo, just so I could have it to remember him by.

I finally got to bed at a normal time!

put my car in the shop today so I get get rid of this awful squeaking noise that I have coming from my routers. I needed new ones, but luckily I had the room on my firestone card so that I could get them fixed without laying out a bunch of cash. That card is SO worth having! $450 later, my car is fixed, and i do not have to deal with the noise anymore.
I got paid today. Thank god. I love pay day like everyone else, but shit I need this money. I looked at my paystub today and realized that I will make about 10 grand less in this job than I will in my next job. I am excited as shit to get into school and start getting some paychecks. Soon enough.
After work on this 100 degree day, I hung out for a little while at the Vadino's house while I was waiting for it to get a bit cooler. I just sat around more or less till about 7, when I went out to go mountain bike riding. I got to the trials, and my tire was more or less flat, so I pumpped it up again...flat again. What the hell? Can I ever have a good mountain bike ride? I decided to cut my losses and head back to their house to cool down and relax
Back at their house, I was able to remount the tube, and as I write this, it seems to be holding air pretty well. That is good, since I am going on a ride with Brian tomorrow after work. That is if it does not rain too much during the day. I really dont feel like getting struck by lightning!
After dealing with the tire, and spending sometime online, I made a great dip into their pool. It was so nice, and night swimming is the best!

Why complain when it is cold when you can just break your computer?

There is not really anything we can do about it, but put on the proper gear and head out in it. Sure it sucks, but we have months to save up to buy some good stuff so we dont have to cry for two months of the year when it is really cold. Every day that I freeze, I just think of how great it is going to be when the trails are coming back to life with quick sure footed squirls, new flowers, and wheezing lungs that did not work out enough over the winter.

Over the long weekend (gotta love being a school teacher and getting the day off!)i did a whole bunch of stuff. I tried to install a new harddrive on my computer, and messed it up so bad that the thing does not turn on anymore! I guess It is good that I have a new laptop coming this week! I have to bring it to Jess;s uncle and maybe he can fix it. After I did that to my computer I went to lunch with Pete at El Asteca for a while. When I got home from there Jess and I went shopping for christmas till like 8pm, and just really hung around the house the rest of the night.
On saturday I went to work with jess's dad at Pharm Ops Inc.. Saturday night was spent sitting around and sort of waiting for colleen to get home and just chilling out.
Sunday we hit up the Snyder dinner with pete and colleen (the Mc-Dudeks). This place rules, since you can watch a mob meeting, a football game, and a guy drinking martinis by himself in the corner. Just an amazing site.
We went to BJs aftewards and stocked up on tons of stuff. I think I have like a few month's worth of food. That place is just crazy. I think it will be well worth the split $30 fee for 15 months. The rest of the weekend was spent just relaxing and dealing with the dog.

It has been so long since I wrote for this thing, I guess I should up date you. No one REALLY reads this anyway! I guess I can give you a list of what has been going on with me.

1. I got engaged to my love
2. Got a dog (both pitured above)
3. Started teaching again
4. Been back to Colorado

I Guess that is really it.

almost 4 months.

Wow. I have not updated this thing in forever now. I need to get back on the ball with that. Looking at Joe Foley's page made me really want to work on this again. Here we go!

In the Deleware

I left my parents house late as usual. I got to work on time though. Sometimes I think I just hit another deminsion and I make it to work on time. Work was pretty boring. I went to the notary and had my proof of loss inventory stamped. I really want to get this ball rolling so I could get a laptop again, and buy a new bag. I just hope I get the full value for my stuff.

Mrs. Vadino left pretty early to go deal with the cable people, so I got to use her computer for a while. I can not stand the keyboard on that thing, but for what I need, I guess it works ok. After work I drove part of the way home, and I went for a swim in the Deleware river. It was SO nice. I don't know why I was not going all summer long so far! I just waded in and sat in the water and tried to fight the current. It was a pretty swift current, but not enough where you were being pushed all over the place. There were a few people who were tubing on the river, and the camp across the way was rocking out. I swam around for a while, but I mostly just sat there and tried to cool off. The water was so clear you could see the bottom of the river. That was good because I hate having too much seaweed or gross animals swimming around me. I got out of the water, dried off, and continued my journey back to the city.

I called jess and told her I would pick here up so we could go drive some golf balls. I guess it was my good hitting from the night before or the desire to be outside and not on south street that led me to go and drive golf balls two nights in a row. Whatever it is, we went to a place in Jersey where you could hit the balls into the water. It is a novel idea, since most people have ranges that are all grass. It is a great idea when you think of it. This land is really just sawmp land that this guy built a driving range on. Brilliant if you ask me.

After golfing, we hit up the Cherry Hill mall. We walked around for a while and looked at engagement rings and clothes and what not. I bought a cotton hat for the weekend, so I have something to wear so I don't get to sweaty.

We went home and just relaxed the rest of the night.

Driving hurts my balls

I really need to change the listining to section. I think I have had that biggie song up for a few days now. At least since I had my stuff stolen. If you like it, cool, but I am getting sick of the same song over and over. At least looking at it.

When I got up today the dog seemed to still be bummed about his punishment. It sucks, but hopefull he will learn that he can not pee everywhere. I am sure he will be happy to see me Thursday night.

Today I had work again. But all we had to go and pick up a balance near the NJ shore. Mr. Vadino drove, and I looked at some magazines and slept on the drive. We got down there and picked up the balance and looked around the warehouse. This place is full of used pharmacutical equipment. They had two full warehouses of the stuff.

Mr. Vadino got kind of lost on the way back. It was not too far out of the way, and I didn't care, because I was not sitting at work, but I was pretty damn hungry, because it was almost 3! Jersey highways drive me crazy! They do not make too much sense at all. Only a few more weeks of driving around on them.

We got back to work in time for me to check my mail, eat lunch, unload the balance and some other stuff we got, and turn around and leave. Not too bad for a day of work.

After work I picked up my car from STS. I still had the brake squeel going on so I dropped it off last night to be looked at. The guy took the calipers apart on the rear drivers side and fixed it all up for me. It is not queeling anymore, and I took it on a long drive up to my parents house tonight.

I didn't know how damn nice it was going to be at my parents house. If I knew the forcast for there I would have had one of my bikes with me. It is nice to get to spend time with my parents, and really riding is def secondary to that. At my parents house I talked to my mom for a bit, while I ate some great vegetarian hamburger helper type dish. It was a little cheesy, but you are supposed to eat fattening foods when you go home...RIGHT? I also go to plan our trip to a baseball game with my dad. We talked about directions and what not. We are going to see the Nationals and Phillies next Monday. I also helped my dad with the grass, and helped my mom do some stuff around the house, like take the rug to the car wash to power wash it (sort of white trash), and re hang a door for her.

After I helped them out, I went out with Kyle to go and Drive some golf balls and play video games. We are 25+ and this is still so much fun to me. I got a pretty big blister on my thumb from holding the club too tight, but i loosened up my grip and was able to blast the ball over 200 yards after that. Not too bad for a borrowed driver, and no technique. Now if I could only get them to fly straight.

in the dog house

Back to work again. Not a bad day at work. I was able to update my blog quite a bit over the day. I did not really do too much, but I did not just sit around eaither. I did have to take my car back to theshop, since it is making the same noise it was making just last week before I brought it in and spent $450 on it. I really like for my stuff to be fixed the right way the first time! Everytime I have my car fixed I feel like I am being ripped off. I am sure the legit, honest mechanics have to really fight for people to believe them because of all of the shady wrenches out there. I know what it is like on the bike end of things, I could not imagine having to deal with people and their cars all the time.

When I got back to the Vadino's for the night, I found that Barett, the dog, had leaked on the cable box...AGAIN! Mrs. Vadino was really pissed about that. Last time he did it, they got a new box for free, but probably not this time. She put the dog on punishment for the night. He had to stay in the kitchen all night. I felt bad for him, but I was not about to second guess her and end up in trouble.

because of the dog and the bad weather, I just stayed in all night and watched tv and updated my site. Nothing too great.

RIP Peter Jennings

last day for the week

Listining to Bill MonroeFire on the Mountain Click to hear it

Last day of work for the week. I also don't have to work this weekend, or really travel anywhere. I didn't do too much at work today. I really just thought about my afterwork ride with Brian over in Bethlehem, Pa.

I had to remount my tire, and get it to work before I went out with him. As I remounted the rear tire, and placed it in the dropouts, I heard an awful sound. It was the arm that holds my disk caliper together grinding against the disk itself. Not the best feeling or sound in the world. I fixed that quikcly by bending the piece back into shape, and I was on my way. It was not too far to meet up with Brian and his friend, and I found them riding around the parking lot outside of the building brian works in. He warned me that it was a pretty good climb until we hit the trail. I thought it was for a block or two, and I clipped in and was off.

After what feels like miles of vertical road climbing, and passing the Eagles training camp dorms, we arrive at the top of the LeHIGH campus and the start of the trails. We still have some more climbing to do, but it is nothing compared to what we just did.

The whole trail was pretty rock strewn, like any other part of PA, and a challange for me because I have never ridden it before, and I am out there with someone who knows every inch of the place. These factors coupled with my derilurer problems, and low tire pressure did not make for the best ride for me. I think if I went there with my bike perfectly tuned, it would have be great.

Like I said before we had a ton of climbing and the place has tons of "baby head" rocks, and some fun bridges over some rocky parts or stream crossings. We hit some parts that felt like we should not even ride them, but i just trusted my bike, and Brian and went for them. I did end up almost falling, which put me in a funny spot. I was about to go over my handle bars which would have sent me into a small tree. Instead of letting my dentist put me back together I took both hands off the bar, and I "caught" the tree I was heading for and it's neighbor and stopped myself. Sounds like a normal part of Mountain biking, and it is, but the next part is not so normal. I guess my bike, as it was trying to send me off and into an intamate meeting with a tree, pitched up the rear wheel. As the wheel was falling back to earth after I stopped us, the nose of the saddle somehow got caught on a loop on my Camel Back, and stayed there. Well, I tried to save some face and get the bike off of me, but the front wheel was married to a rock infront of me, which stopped it from moving, and the rear was up in my crotch and hung up on my hydration pack. Not the best situation to be in. Luckily I was not on my own, and one of our riding buddies was able to get me unhooked after everyone laughed at the sight of a rather large tattooed man being held hostage by two trees and a hydration pack.

We cut the ride a bit short, as the sun ws going down and I still had to drive from Bethlehem to Philly (a good 1.5 hours). Brian took us on a power line trail with a lung buster of a climb in order to get us out. At the bottom of the climb, was going to be the part that would let us out of the woods and onto the streets of Bethlehem. Well...somewhere either he screwed up or the brush was overgrown, but we had to ride through a cemetary. Not the everyday kind, but the really creepy kind, where you know these people are going to haunt you, or are already haunting someone. Most of the graves that were further up on the hill were from the 19teens and 20's. They all worked in the steel mill that was just bellow their enternment.

As we came around a corner at the cemetary I finally saw Bethleham steel. I have seen the place from the road, but looking up at it is a way diffeent perspective than looking down from this hill. It looked like a movie set with some strange belching factory as the center of the scene. It does not look like anything I ever saw before. In that brief moment of viewing the facotry all of these thoughts of industrualism, polution, and labor unions all poured into my head like someone cracked open a histroy book and showed me the light. I guess there is something to be said for primary sources.

After the ride, we went back to the parking lot and changed into street clothes so we could hit up a local burrito place. I can not remember the name, but this place made me feel like i was back in Colorado or in Marin County. Brian and I wheeled our bikes through the walkway and just deposited them in the backyard/patio of the joint, and no one seemed to notice at all. The food was good, and relaxing after a ride is aways great. After the post ride fuel, we packed up our cars, and Brian showed me the way towards Philly.

I talked to Pete for a while on the way down there. It was nice to hear from him. He is always so busy these days, it is hard to keep up with him. We talked about riding and trying to get together this weekend. Pete made my trip go by much faster, and before I knew it, I was back in Philly. Jess and I did not do too much for the night, but just sort of lounged.

Fine with me for a Friday night

Sunday oh sweet Sunday. This weekend was great, since we did not have to really drive anywhere, or stay in any other bed but our own. It is hard to relate what a good feeling that is when you have spent a good portion of the last year living on the road. In a few more weeks, I will be sleeping in my bed every night! That will be a change that I can not wait to make!

This morning, I got up real early and worked on my bike for a good deal of time. I wanted to make sure it worked, since I was going to go out for a ride with Pete. Pete and I used to be roommates, till I moved to Virginia and left him all on his lonesome...not really, his girlfriend moved in when I left. Well, Pete and I used to ride together all the time. I got him into mountain biking, and he made me better at it. We have not had much time to ride together with the mix of our schedules these days, but we put this Sunday morning aside for a great ride.

My rear deriluer was messing up on my Friday ride, and I did not want to screw this one up, so I figured I would fix it right. While fixing and lubing, I see that I need some new cables. Soon enough they are going to snap and I will have a single speed to ride home on. I got it working best I could, got dressed and ready to ride, walked outside and whoosh...here comes the rain. I figured screw it, once we are in the woods the canopy will keep us mostly dry anyway. I picked up Pete and we were on our way. The trails were not all that far from our houses, but considering he is riding a single speed, and one of us usually brakes something on a ride, we drove to the Belmont Plateau.

The plateau is part of the Fairmount Park System in Philly. It is part of the largest urban park in the world. Central Park in New York City and Hyde Park in London look like dog runs compared to Fairmount Park, and the whole thing is within city limits. This part of the park is known for softball games, Greek Picnic, cyclocross and mountain bike races, as well as some other unsavory pastimes of Philly residents. We stopped riding here a long time ago in favor of the Wishickon part of Fairmount, because the plateau was too easy. This all changed when I took a ride here in the springtime, and I found a whole new system of trails and connectors all through the woods. This made this place intriguing once again.

It was a good place for Pete to get back on the bike, and I love the tight technical riding that is out there now. There are not too many hills, but a bunch of little ones that you could just power up and over. I much prefer this type of riding versus some of the crazy climbs I usually end up doing. I am sure that if I were in better shape, I could clear them better, but they just aren’t fun, and I don't think they add much in the way of skill. I usually end up running out of gas, or slipping a chain going up most hills. I would rather practice my log jumping and rock and root riding than spinning up a never-ending hill.

We got to the plateau pretty quickly, and we were off onto the trails. Pete was not too happy with the pace, but like the trooper he is, he kept up well. It was nice for me to be kicking his ass, because it is usually the other way around, or we are doing it to each other. My bike was working great and we were having a great time. We took one trail that ended up having a few too many logs for our liking, but we made good work of it. On the way back to the car, I was flying out in front of Pete, and we were almost back when I had a blow out of my rear tire. The sidewall stretched too much I guess. I have had these tires for a long time, and I run them at high pressure, so it was only a matter of time before they went. I want new ones anyway, so this is a good excuse to pony up and get some new ones.

We walked out of the woods, and headed back downtown. We hung out a bit longer, and then I went and picked up jess from the Gallery mall. We went home then met up with some friends

Living on South St. is nice sometimes, because when friends come down there, they call us to hang out. We ended up meeting up with Missy and Skylar for some Taco Bell and shopping. At Taco Bell, the counter person gave us two extra parfait desserts. We ordered two and they gave them to us immediately, then when our other food was ready, they brought over two more. I bet they do things like that all the time.

After running for the boarder, we went to Time Zone then left to meet up with Jim and his new girl. We walked around with them for a little while, then headed off to the Atwater Kent Museum. There was some cool stuff in there, but for the $5 admission fee, I could have looked at the stuff online and it would have been just the same.

They did have some incredible stuff in there like tree trunks that were hollowed out to use as plumbing in Revolutionary times, a scale used by Joe Louis in a huge match in Philly, and a slave harness. The piece they had that struck me the most was a silver bowl. Why silver bowl? It was made with the sweat of relatives that are not too far off. The piece of silver was given to a politician in Philadelphia by Coal Barons as a token of thanks in trying to put down the unrest of the "Molly McGuires", a pro union group from the coal mining region where I hail from.

The rest of the day we spent in the house. I napped for a while, then jess made dinner while I cleaned up for a while. We had some DQ for dessert and watched some TV. What a great end to a great weekend.

Today we got up early started our day of errands and what not. We had brunch at The Royal. The Royal is a bar/reseraunt in South Philly that is frequented by "hipsters" and that sort of crowd. I like it quite a bit in there, since I usually like the people there, and I don't think the food is all that bad. Also, there is a great jukebox that almost always has a great Zepplin song coming out of it. This morning, we were the only non-employees in there for quite a while, till the rest of the breakfast crowd started to roll in. Part of the crowd had my friend Nicki and some others. She told us that Pete and Colleen were on the way as well, which was great since we hardly ever get to see them. Jess ordered the Tofu Scramble, which I thought was a bad idea for her, and I got an Omlet with three "toppings" (I realize they are not toppings, but what the fuck do you call things you put on omlets? (also, if following regular nomencalater where a small pig is called a piglet, if an omlet is a small om, what is an om? A huge amount of eggs with stuff in them?)). Jess did not like the Tofu Scramble too much. I thought it tasted like Indian food do to the high amount of cumin in it. My omlet was great, and the slices of watermellon on the side were great. Service was very good, and the jukebox played a good string of Brit bands like Led Zepplin, The Clash, and Queen. I thought it was funny that they were all Brits, but nobody else found it quite as funny. We sat with Colleen, Pete, Nikki, and the rest of their group for a while, then headed out on our journey for the morning.

First stop since we were already in South Philly was the Phillies stadium. I had to pick up tickets for a game that my dad, his bestfriend, and myself are going to next Monday against the Washington Nationals. We got some great seats right down the Third base line in direct line of where foul balls usually end up. Maybe I will bring my glove!

I needed to go to RELoad to get a receipt for my bag that was stolen two weeks ago from Roland. I also got the chance to look at the show that was going to open up there later in the evening.

Roland wrote up a great reciept for my bag and laptop case, so I could submit it to the insurance company, and order a new bag. I have wanted a new bag for a while, so maybe this is a blessing in desiguise.

After RELoad we headed out to West Philly to hit up Urban Outfitters,EMS, and Barnes and Nobel. After walking around those, we went to Pete and Colleen's house so I could work on his bike.

Somewhere along the way, pete ended up bending his rear disk, which caused him to have a lot of drag when the wheel went around. I tried to tune it best I could so we could ride on Sunday. I got it pretty close to perfect. We hung out for a little longer, then headed home

Later that night we went to see March of the Penguins at the Ritz 5. It was really good. A great documetary. I could have watched it on TLC or something and saved the 18 bucks, but I guess it is better than most other movies that are out these days.

I put my car in the shop today so I get get rid of this awful squeaking noise that I have coming from my routers. I needed new ones, but luckily I had the room on my firestone card so that I could get them fixed without laying out a bunch of cash. That card is SO worth having! $450 later, my car is fixed, and i do not have to deal with the noise anymore.

I got paid today. Thank god. I love pay day like everyone else, but shit I need this money. I looked at my paystub today and realized that I will make about 10 grand less in this job than I will in my next job. I am excited as shit to get into school and start getting some paychecks. Soon enough.

After work on this 100 degree day, I hung out for a little while at the Vadino's house while I was waiting for it to get a bit cooler. I just sat around more or less till about 7, when I went out to go mountain bike riding. I got to the trials, and my tire was more or less flat, so I pumpped it up again...flat again. What the hell? Can I ever have a good mountain bike ride? I decided to cut my losses and head back to their house to cool down and relax

Back at their house, I was able to remount the tube, and as I write this, it seems to be holding air pretty well. That is good, since I am going on a ride with Brian tomorrow after work. That is if it does not rain too much during the day. I really dont feel like getting struck by lightning!

After dealing with the tire, and spending sometime online, I made a great dip into their pool. It was so nice, and night swimming is the best!

I got to go to my apartment today! That is something new, since except for a few hours of sleeping Monday morning, I was away from my house since Monday the 25th.

It was great to see jess, and sleep in my own bed for the night. I have to start to get comfortable doing that all over again, since I will be there every night starting soon.

Earlier today my friend Robin, who I wrote about earlier in the week, sent me an email or bulletin that had the lyrics to a new BANE song (ends with an ellipsis)that made reference to our deceased friend Hans Nothin. The song really struck home with me, since we lost Hans about a year ago at a Bane show in Wilkes Barre. He was one of the best guys ever, and everyone loved him. His death still has quite an effect on me, as he was one member of the family of Wilkes Barre/Scranton hardcore kids that I grew up with.

I went out and got the record at Repo, just so I could have it to remember him by.

I finally got to bed at a normal time!

I found out today that a school I would love to teach at is hiring for a position I am qualified for. I doubt I will get hired but it was worth a shot at trying.

I didn't do too much at work all day. I just sort of sat around and got paid for it. Seems like that is a pattern this summer! I am not complaining since I need the money, but I would much prefer to be out camping or riding my bike all day. Maybe next summer.

Today just from sitting around and surfing the web looking at recounts of what went down at posi numbers fest and how people reacted, I think I need to take a break from the "scene" I am sick of the bullshit that goes along with going to shows. I do not want to have to see who is who, and what new ink did they get, and how their hair looks, or how tight their black tee shirt fits their gut.

It seems that people, at least on boards, seem to think that the fight and other shit that went on at posi numbers is just normal. The amount of joking about the fight, and talking about merch and other babble just showed me why this fight was aloud to happen, and why this type of behavior will continue for a long ass time. If people are more concerned with merch and making jokes, they are not protecting and preserving their scene, and soon enough there will be no small promoters, and the shows will dwindle down, or you will pay huge sums to see a band you like. If you stand around and watch people ruin shows, you are making it easier and easier for the scene as we know it cease to exist.

When the cost of hiring more security, or the frustration of working for a full year and then seeing it all go away when some crew or certain individuals have beef with one guy and have to take it out on the whole place totally settle in, people like Bobb Mac and Sean Agnew and others end up dropping out of setting up shows. Which makes it easier for Clear Channel or someone else to begin sponsoring shows

People need to stand up to the bullshit. It is simple as that. How could a crowd of a few hundred people just stand around as someone hit a member of a band that just finished playing, and a mother of three who has supported the scene since it's infancy for trying to stop a fight from escalating? She was not defending one person, she was defending us all. She is like the rest of us who is trying to stop the bullshit at shows, and what does she get? Punched in the face by someone who gets off on terrorizing people. What does almost everyone else in the building besides her husband do? They just stood there and did nothing. A few did try to help the situation, but the hoards of "scene supporters" stood around and some ran for the door or the merch tables. It is fucking sick to think that this is where we have come to.

I remember the days of hardly any fights at shows. Everyone was having a good time, and if there was a fight, it was over quickly and settled. I also remember the days of people banding together to fight back against those who tried to ruin it. You have to fight back against this shit or it will never stop and the whole scene will be ruined (in my opinion we have reached this point, but for those of you who still believe this is for you). If you see this shit going on, don't just stand there, because someday it is going to end up being you. If you are attacked, file charges with the police. Enough people know each other that you could get names and addresses of people. I think show promoters should have adequate security for shows that they know there may be a problem with. I do not know of the security at Posi #s, but obviously it was not up to par with the amount of people that were there, and the types of kids they were going to encounter. I do have to say that Sean Agnew of R5does a good job with that. He has consistently hired people that can get the job done, and make people feel safe at his shows, and the violence at his shows has dropped dramatically.

Another thing, don't talk shit for no reason to people on the Internet or behind their back. You do not know how many shows have been ruined by "talking shit" on the Internet or wherever. I wish it were just more positive and we had goals for ourselves and the scene, not just how cool our new "traditional" tattoo looks with our shitty black haircut.

Fuck It I Quit

Second day of DMB

Second day of the DMB. I woke up really early and decided to go and get some drinks and food for the day in the sun. After yesterday, I did not want to have to starve and be thirsty all damn day. I would have gone crazy. I woke up and had a shower without waking Ralph and Garett, then headed up the street to the grocery store. I picked up a bunch of cliff bars,a 8 pack of gatoraid, a jar of Peanut Butter, and a loaf of bread. I made breakfast for me and the boys, filled my camelback full of ice, and then headed out to the show.

I HATE driving in New York City. We had to go from Fort Lee over the George Washington Bridge, onto the Harlem Expressway then to the Tri-Borough bridge which will drop us on Randall's island. Do you think we made that? Of course not. We took the GWB and then ended up on some random street that dropped us off way up on Broadway. We asked for directions and it put us back on teh right road again. Then we got on the Tri Borough and thought that we were right there. Boy were we wrong! Ralph noticed that we were at a toll plaza that said No Access to Randall's island. We had to loop around and get back to the island. We got to the security meeting early and we wouldn't have missed anything anyway, since we were doing the same thing we did the day before.

We took our post and then just thought shit...we have to do this all damn day and night. We were really well prepared for the day by having a good amount of ice and water and sunblock, and a hat. All essential to the war effort.

they let the fools in and of course we had people asking us questions about the place they could go and not go. Unfortunatly, we had some people from Quebec sit infront of us. They were not all that bad, but they def were not as much fun as the people we had the day before. Really the highlight of the day was a girl paying me $20 to take her to the bathroom, and another guy offering me WWE tickets for letting him up front. I usually dont bend for anyone, but I was just so fried, I let all kinds of shit go down. The day went by really fast, and Black Eyed Peas were way better than the Bare Naked Ladies from the day before.

The day was over, and we wanted to hit the road. We got out of the city pretty quickly and were on the other side of the GWB. It was not too long after that when Ralph had to drop a deuce. He and Garett decided to make as much noise as they coudl in the bathroom and proceeded to freak out everyone in the bathroom at Midnight on the NJ TPK.

We were on the other side of the rest stop and my passangers were ass out. I was so damn tired and falling asleep at the wheel. I finally had to pull over and take a quick nap. After the nap, it was not all that bad, but without it, I would have killed us all. I finally got home at like 2:45 and not to sleep till 3:30am.

SUCKS!

Just one thing I was not looking forward to writing. A year ago today, my friend Hans Nothen passed away suddenly at a BANE show from an enlarged heart, which is fitting for a guy who loved everyone. It still hurts quite a bit, and I get tearey eyed everytime I think of him, then I just smile and laugh, because if he were here, that is what I would be doing with him. In the past year, I have tried to live a better life...one that is almost in his likeness. He was such a great friend, and would help anyone he saw ever. click here for proof. He had a huge "family" in the Hardcore Scene as well as the Tuner scene. Here is a link to a one of the many tributes to him.

Today I had to work at Randall's Island, NYC at a Dave Mathews Bandshow. It was as warm as fresh milk, and I was not 100% prepared to deal with the heat and dust.

A bunch of our friends were working this show so it was a good time. We more or less just hung around and looked at/talked to girls while getting paid for it. I had to guard the Warehouse Prefered Seating area. More or less an are where super fans got to sit, because they bought their tickets early on the warehouse website. This area was nothing more than a fenced off pin that they got to come into earlier than everyone else.

They had to have special tickets to get into this area. I had to stand at this spot all day with three other guys (oliver, Richie, and Matt). and make sure only the people with the right wrist bands got into the special area. Kid of annoying, but not all that bad.

We spent a great part of the day talking to a group of people that set up camp directly infront of us. We just bullshitted with them, and asked them to get stuff for us. We had a good time talking to them all day. Would I have talked to them if there was nothing else to do? Probably not.

Tons of people were trying to get into the area that we were watching. As the day got closer and closer to DMB, more and more people would come up to try to get in. One girl walked up who was a dead ringer for my friend/ex of 5 years. I could not believe how much she looked and acted like her. They have to be related. She kept me entertained for a little while for the day.

DMB finally went on and we had three hours of them. They were not too bad. Pretty impressive live show, plus it cooled down so much when it got dark.

There were a lot of dumb kids at this show. I had to throw a bunch out or talk to a bunch. Just for stupid things. I dont understand how you could pay so much money to go to a show, and end up getting kicked out. It blows my mind.

The night ended with us walking out of there exhausted and hungry. It was amazing to see how much trash was on the ground. I know there were 30,000+ people there, but there was a lot of crap left behind. I drove back to our hotel and of course got kind of lost on the way, but I found it, and my two roomates for the night, Ralph and Garrett, trying to get into the room. I tried to find some eats at the gas station down the street, then went to bed to the sweet sound of Ralph snoring.

I had to start my ordeal of dealing with the insurance company, and trying to get my stuff back. I could not sleep, and I had to get something started. Also, I didn't want to miss a day of work, so I wanted to get my stuff together as early as I could.

When I woke up, I sat right down at the computer to figure out how much a new computer was going to cost me. This is the thing that cost the most that was stolen from me, and I knew it would be pretty expensive to replace. The computer that was stolen, and what I did this website with was a Mac G3 iBook. it was good considering I only paid 400 for it! With that said, replacing it for $400 is not going to be all that easy.

I then decided that I had to get my window fixed and check out how long that was going to be and how much it was going to cost me. My dad's friend, who owns Pittston Auto Glass gave me an estimae of 150, and said it would be done tomorrow. Since it was early in the day, but a little too late to go to work, since it is a two hour drive. My dad and I decided to go up to the tubs to have a look around in hopes that they dumped my stuff in the woods on the way back to their quads.

I really wanted to recover some of my clothes from the woods, and maybe even my courier bag. I kissed the computer gone a long time ago. I walked through some of the great trails that are out there looking for my stuff. After a good look around, I did not find anything at all, but I did see a giant black snake and one New Balance sneaker...it was not mine, since they didn't steal that from me. Dejectedly, I walked back to the car.

At home I decided that it would be smart to take a shower since I still have not after mountain biking, and then hiking around the woods this morning. I spent a good portion of the day just relaxing at home and trying not to think about all of my lost stuff.

I went to the mall later in the day, since I needed some new clothes to actually change into something. Champs had a great deal on tee-shirts and I ended up picking up 5 for $20! Got some drawers, and off I went to have dinner with my parents.

My sister said that she had a vision that my stuff was still in the woods, and she had an idea of where it could be. Mind you, she is a bit nuts sometimes, but she usually has a pretty good feeling about this stuff. The place she described was exactly where I thought it was, and wanted to check out, but did not feel like walking to. If you read yesterdays blog entry, you will see a description of what I am talking about.

I decided to take my sisters vision, and head up there to take a trip back in the woods in hopes of finding my bag and clothes. My sister and her husband, Rob, decided to take me up there so I could trek back there to find this stuff.

I decided to go on foot, instead of by bike, since I did not want to have to watch the trail, and look for my stuff as I rode. I just figured that would be more of a pain than it was worth. I made the journey out to the spot, while constantly checking my back wondering if there was anyone or anything watching me. I finally got to the spot and I looked around. Once again, I felt a strange feeling all over the place. Like someone was watching me. Maybe there was. I climbed on the outcropping of rocks, thinking that maybe they had the stuff hidden back there. It wsa kind of strange in there, and I didn't know if I was going to get attached by something, so I did not hang out too long.

I started walking down the tracks again, and decided to cut through the woods so nobody could follow me. I picked up the blue trail and took it back towards the tubs. When I finally got back to the bottom, my sister and rob were not there.so I had to walk all the way back up to the top of this place. Which is a good hike on a nice cool fall day, but killer in the summer.

As I got to the top of the trail, I saw my brother in law's car, and was excited to just sit down after my super rushed 4 mile hike. Well I saw a really crappy, early 90s Subaru Legacy pull into the parking area on top, and just sit there for a minute and scope out their car, then they saw me, and took off like a bat out of hell.

I got in the car, and told my brother in law and my sistr that it had to have been the people that stole my stuff, and we should go after them.

Rob tore out of there and started after them, but we could not find them at all. We ended up giving up the chase and heading home, but I had an idea of where they could be based on some info that my friend Carrie gave me.

The rest of the night I hung out with the Litzi's crowd, and went to bed late as hell again.

"Fuck! How could I be shit on again this summer?"

I think was the only thought that came to my mind when I got back to my car to see that my clothes, and computer were stolen out of my car while I was out mountain biking.

My side window was smashed, and they stole my messenger bag and the contents (my clothes and shaving kit) as well as my laptop and some hardware that went along with that. Including my iPod.

This all went down as I was having a great ride in Wilkes Barre, Pa at the tubs. "The Tubs" are in a county park. These natural rock water slides and pools of water have attracted swimmers for centuries probably. They are seven pools of freezing cold water that have "slides" into them. There are only a few times a year that you could go there without it being too cold to swim, since the water comes from a cold spring.

I used to go swimming there when I was in High School, but I have not been back there for years. I knew that there were some great trails up there that I really wanted to ride. I saw some reviews on MTBR.com and I decided to go for a ride there since I knew where some of the trails went to and where I could add some of my own stuff in there.

After work, I pumped up my tires, changed to some riding clothes, threw my laptop, my courier bag full of clothes, and the other normal stuff I travel with each week, and off I went towards the tubs. I got there around 6:30 or so, and I wanted to get on the trails quickly since there is a ton to explore, and I usually end up doing a bit too much exploring while riding, or maybe I am just slow! Whatever, I decided to park on the outside of the gate, since they were going to close it before the sun went down, and I did not want to get locked in there, while I was exploring these trails. I pulled back down off the road and parked my car at the gate, got my bike ready, and took off on a ride. I took some nice trails that vary from ATV trails to hiking paths to rock outcroppings. I then crossed the train tracks to the other side of the woods and rode around there. I had my heart rate up pretty good since the trails were wide, and I heard some unleashed dogs that didn't seem to happy that I was skirting their land. I liked this part of the woods, since I could tell nobody rode back here. I could tell because all of the branches of the trees small trees were low. If you ever get to a section of trail, and the little "wispy" branches are hitting your face or helmet, you know nobody had been back there this season, since the branches have not been broken off.

I rode up to a really neat clearing in the woods. There were a few fire pits, some trash, and some stomped ground that looked like some folks used this area to camp in. At the back of the campsite there was a huge outcropping of rocks. They looked like they could be bear caves, or snake dens of some sort. The area seemed like it has been a hang out for a long time. It was probably used as a camp by the original railroaders that laid train track coming out of Pittston and Wilkes Barre. It was kind of creepy, since I could feel eyes on me, and thought it would be in my best interest to get out of there.

I left the woods, and crossed the tracks. I was going to take the tracks back to the initial trail that I came in on, as to not have to go back through the woods, and have to deal with the branches hitting me and the mad dogs barking. I started to walk my bike along the tracks, since there was really no good way to ride there, and I looked down the side of the tracks where the electrical wires were, and I noticed a big burnt stump. It looked like it had been struck by lightning sometime pretty recently, since it was still very dark. After walking a few more feet and looking at this stump, I realized that this stump had a big brown nose, and it was moving its head around! It was a black bear just chillen by the side of the tracks. He must have been looking for dinner (there are great blueberries and black berries back there), and I startled him. We stood and looked at each other for a good little bit. It is not often that I get to see a bear, and I just wanted to observe him for a little bit. We checked each other out, and since I realized he was not moving till I walked away, I turned around with my bike and started to walk the other way. When I looked back to see if he was coming after me, or still there, I happened to catch the back of him running away back into the woods. After he was gone, I started back on my path towards my car, and some more trails. I walked my bike so I could make sure that I didn't disturb any other bears, or this one didn't decide that he wanted me for dinner more than twigs and berries.

Back on the bike, I rode down the tracks, since the gaps between the ties were well filled in with rocks. I did find some neat railroad spikes and collected them. Walking/Riding the tracks and picking up spikes just reminds me of being a little kid and going for long walks with my dad. I used to pick up all sorts of railroad artifacts as we went on our walks, and bring them home with the thought that I would sand them and paint them.

After my collecting and riding, I found some single track that seemed to go back towards my car or at least towards the tubs. I jumped on and rode this tight twisty downhill that was filled with rocks and roots. My front tire was a little low on air, so I had to be a bit more cautious than normal, since I did not have the ability to cut or turn too quickly. This tire situation mixed with the fact that I had almost no idea of where the trail was going to take me, and random bears in the woods, this is compounded by the impending darkness, and threat of bad weather.

With minimal hike a bike over some scethy areas, I made it to the bottom of all seven tubs. I rode over the bridge that transverses the lowest pool of water. I stopped to watch some teenagers swimming. Just sort of reliving some of my past through them

I really wanted to jump in since it was so nice, but I had nobody to watch my bike, and no towel in the car.

I took off down the hill a little further onto one of the old mining bridges that we used to dive off of into the creak below. I found out that the bridge was destroyed by county engineers to stop people from riding ATV's and driving cars further down the road, after I asked the couple that was sitting on the other side of the bridge having a few after work beers. I took a quick ride on a trail down there, and I started my assent back to the car.

The only road in this place is a very steep 11/2 lane road that goes straight up to Route 115. I decided to really pump up this hill in a pretty high gear, and use a zigzag approach to getting to the top. I always found that zig zagging a really steep climb gets me there with less effort, and I am not cooked for the final crest of the hill. I made it up this incline pretty quickly considering the gear I was pushing, the method I chose, and the grade of the hill.

When I got to the top, I saw a few cars parked there with bike racks on them. I figured I would look to see if they left me a note on the car, hoping that I would have someone new to ride with up there. That is when I saw what was done to me car!

First I called jess, since I was so shocked, then I called 911 to see if they could get someone to me. Then I called and left a frantic message on my sister's answering machine. While I was waiting, some other Mountain Bikers came out of the woods. I told them what went down, and I asked if they saw anything. They didn't seem to know anything about it, so we just talked for a while till the ranger got there.

The ranger told me that they have a ton of break ins there and that they have caught a few of the people that did this stuff in the past few weeks. The cop arrived and he took my information down, and we talked for a while. He seemed like a good guy.

As we were talking, a really ratty car went up the hill and beeped at us. It seemed strange, but we kept doing the report and just talking about the incident.

I could not get in touch with my mom, so I went to her cousins house since I knew she would be there. As I arrived, my sister was calling her in a panic, since my message was so rushed, she thought I was hurt or something. I ended up talking to my mom, her cousin Anita, my sister and bro-in-law most of the rest of the night.

Before I went home, I had to go and talk to Kyle, so I went to Litsi's, where I met his new girlfriend and talked to him for a while. Around 1 or so, I finally got to bed.

Blam! What sound do you really hear when a bullet rips though your skull? Are you dead before you hear it? It is hard to tell, unless you lived through that kind experience. I guess I will just have to ask 50 cent. A person who went through this experience this morning will not be telling anyone about it any time soon.

From what I understand, the London police or M16 or whatever were staking this guy out, and when he went to the the tube the police wanted to ask him a few questions. He was looking like he fit the bill for what they were looking for, and he was wearing a heavy coat in the London Summer. He decided no to comply with the police, who have a shoot to kill directive aimed at any terrorist activity, and ran from them, so he ended up with a few holes in him.

In times as these, it is sad, but that is what it is going to come down to. If this guy was a terrorist, they did the right thing, if this was a random dude on his way to work, and he decided to run from plain clothes officres, which is what they were, and he got shot up, it is sad. The police will get the rap for shooting the wrong guy, but the people that perpetrate these crimes will be protected due to their civil liberties.

I am not for the government taking away a persons rights, but some may have to be sacrificed to preserve our way of life. Do I want my bag searched when I go to the airport? Nope, but I will comply. I do expect others to be searched as well, and those that fit the 'script of the bombers should be checked as well. It sounds unfair, but you have to deal with what members of your community have chosen to do. It is as simple as dress. It is not all about race. If you fit into a certain category, you should be searched, since there are catagories that are considered a higher risk than others. As an Irish Catholic Male during the troubles, I would have been searched and hasseled, but I fit the 'script of who was blowing up mailboxes, and buring down houses. If you fit the 'script, you have to deal with what comes along with it. If you do not like it, work to stop these attacks and the attackers.

On the day that one of the World's largest cities has another terrorist attack, Hillary Rodham Clinton is more concerned with Grand Theft Auto San Andres a damn video game. She and other politicians are bowing dow to the knee jerk reaction of legions of soccer moms, who bought a game that is labeled "Mature" for their children. To buy this game you have to be at least 17. When these ratings are made, they are made so people do not buy them that will be affected by them. They are not saying that you can not buy it and give it to your kid without ever viewing what it is. This game is violent and sexual, and kids that are not prepared for this game should not be playing it, that is why the industry will not sell it to them! But, Hillary and others had to present the fact that you could download a modification to unlock some code to show nudity. By making them change the rating, they made the game unavailable to those under 18. They changed the age you could buy it by one full year! But by doing that, it effectivly took it off the market in many different stores like Best Buy, Blockbuster, Sprall-Mart, ec. These places choose not to sell "adult" material (but choose to sell guns!), which is going to kill Rock Star games until they could get a non-"adult" game out on the market.



Well another day that London is attacked by "suicide" bombers. Luckily this time they failed, or their materials expired or whatever, but regardless, most people were safe and uninjured. I just feer for how vulnerable we are all at when the country and city that should be the most alert gets hit twice in the same number of weeks. Is there something that needs to be done? Yes! Will the US, UK, or UN have the balls to do it? Nope! We need to investigate these people deeeper, and cut off all of their suppliers of goods, training, and money. Till we stop that or find out who is funding them, we could get used to living a life of disaster reports every week or two.

I feel that some of the reasons behind the fact that we do not go after these people harder is for the fear of what we will actually find. It is almost like when you see a termite coming out of the closet, you know the wall behind there is totally eaten away. I think that is what we would find if we started to pull away some of the layers of these organizations. We would find that they are being funded by wesstern politicians, corporations, and religious institutions. It may not be a direct route, but I feel that in these days we have to look at who we are giving our money to and what they are going to use it for or give it to. Even people in well meaing Mosques ended up funding terrorists in one way or another.

"Does that have to hurt so damn bad", I say to Scottie my good friend and tattoo artist. A tattoo "colector" has a relationship with their artist like a drunk has with their bartender. A good one knows what you like, and will listen to more or less andything you want to talk about. He has only been tattooing me for a few minutes now, and I am totally pussing out. I hate the first few minutes of tattooing. When your body is saying "Fuck no you are not doing this shit to me again". It is such an annoying pain. Once I am in the grove after probably the first 10-15 minutes, I can sit there all damn night. The only thing that usually stops me is the artist getting tired or we finish up what we wanted to work on. Very rarely will I puss out first.

The new piece I am working on is a japanese arm piece. I will post some pics later. As of tonight, I am done with my second sit of it. I think I still have 2-3 more sits before it is finished. I really want to finish it soon, but I want to be able to swim and have fun for the rest of the summer without having this silly pain.

Scott owns and works at Mercury Tattoo www.mercurytattoo.com Check out his portfolio and Brian Donovan's who also works there.

Work was slow. I had to help in trying to figure out why some filters were working much slower than they should have been. Sounds fun, right?

Went for a really good ride after work. I did a few road miles before I thought it was going to pour. I am also a little freaked out since I do not have a pump on my rides since I bent the last one and threw it in the cannal. I am an idiot sometimes, but I get to buy a new pump! I want to get out for a good montain bike ride, but it rained really hard for like two days, and I try to do my best to stay eco friendly and not destroy the trails.

After a long day the day before, it was nice to get some relaxing time in, I woke up late, and patched some tubes and cleaned up a little bit. I wanted a slow start to the day. I was trying to figure out the weather. I wanted to go for a ride, but they kept talking about a ton of rain coming, so I was not too sure about going. I got my bike ready to go just in case I decided to go.

Jess had some stuff she wanted to get for our house and wanted me to go along to get it with her. I also wanted to scope out the start to the trial I was heding to yesterday before I got my flat. I found out how to get where I wasa going without having to hit the dirt path. I will give this same ride another attempt next weekend I think. After I found the trail, we ended up going to Best Buy, Monster Pets, Shop Rite, and Ikea. I am not the biggest fan of shopping, esp right now considering I don't have any money. So going shopping is boarderline depressing for me. I know that anything I buy has to be budgeted down the the penny. it kind of sucks, but that should change once I am back at school in September.

After shopping I was going to go out for a ride, but we got the rain that was coming all day. I took a nap instead and just lounged in the house and watched the storms come over.

Congrads to George Hincapie on his stage win. He is one of my favorite riders who gives all he can for the team and Lance Armstrong, and never gets a chance to win a stage of the TDF

Why would someone who has been riding for a long ass time and has worked in bike shops, not bring a spare tube or a patch kit when he goes out on a ride? He is in a rush and not well prepared is why. When you war not ready for it, you are bound to catch a flat. Kind of annoying. I went on a ride that was planned to go to Norristown and then return to the city. I wanted to check out how far it was to my school and back. I have to time it for my commute in the fall. I am really looking forward to riding to work everyday, but I need to know how much time it is going to take me each moring. I want to keep it below one and 1/2 hours. If that is the case, it will take me about the same amount of time to get there as it would if I drove. and I also would not have to pay for gas, or up keep of my car, also I will not have to spend as much time in the gym. That is at least the goal for now.

The ride I was on was from 4th and South to the Art Museum and Out MLK drive to the Schykill River Trail to Norristown. I knew there was a way to take that trail that was on the road 100% but I was not sure how to get there. I ended up jummping on the tow path, which is cinders and rocks. I started to travel just a bit too fast, since I was timing myself for the commute, and was thinking more or less the whole way that I was going to end up with a pinch flat, and sure enough I did. I came to this revelation after I crashed in the mud. I was trying to stop before hitting the "curb" of a bridge, and my back wheel slid out and I crashed. Not hard, but I still went down. I pumpped up the tire and tried to make it back. The tire was loosing too much air to really keep going. In a fit, I smashed the pump on the bar and ended up bending it. I tried to make it work, but ended up just throwing it away. It was old and I got it for free, but I really wish I could keep my anger under control. 90% of the time I do, but sometimes I just frustrate myself and then do something dumb and compound it for myself. It kind of sucks, but I try to work on it.

In Order to get home, I either had to walk to the bike shop, and fix it, or call my girlfriend and have her pick me up. Since we were under time constraints, I decided it was easier for her to pick me up. I walked a long distance to a point that is eaiser for her to pick me up at. It was a nice walk, and it afforded me the chance to check out some turtles that were hanging out in the cannal. There were some big guys in there just sunning themselves and looking for food. They are just such neat animals. I kind of want to get one, but I need to be around more to take care of it.

I did get to go to the bike shop, since I got there before she did. I like going into ohter bikeshops when I can. Sometimes they really frustrate me, since they are so dumb, but I like to see what they have in the shop and what they are charging for what they have. They had a bike that I really liked, but don't quite need right now. I would work in this shop, but I don't know if they are hiring these days. Next week I may head to my old shop in Maryland. I would like to see the last day of the Tour De France with some of my old cronies. We will see if I feel like driving down there or not.

The second part of the day we went to Jess's cousin's graduation party. They live in South Jersey, which has to be the worst place to drive in the world. We must have been lost for about 30 minutes till we got to their house, then Jess wanted to go to the bookstore to find a book for her cousin. This took another 30 minutes in the car almost totally lost. I hate driving in places where I have no clue where I am. We found something to eat at Chillis and then got the book at the bookstore. There were alot of people picking up the new Harry Potter book.

In the time we were lost, we were going around a traffic circle, and I noticed something fall off the roof of my car. It was my keys. My car key was on Jess's ring, but this other ring had my apartment keys and all of my bike lock keys. They ended up in the middle of this traffic cicrle. I must have left them on there when I took my bike off of the roof when I got back to my apartment. I am happy they stayed on for all that time. I seem to get really lucky sometimes.

We spent a good amount of time visiting with her family and what not before we went back to the city. We made good time getting back and didnt get too lost, but we did go a little bit out of the way to get there, but that is not a big deal. We went home and chilled for a little while then I called my old roomate Pete to see what he was up to.

Pete and I decided to try and go see Willy Wonka with our ladies. We wanted to see it in IMAX and were trying to get tickets. I went to the IMAX website to pick up tickets, and when I clicked it brought me to Fandango to get the tickets. It showed two show times, and I ordered tickets. We rushed up there and got to the theater really early. We were ready to see this movie in IMAX! Pete and I got seats while Colleen and Jess went to the ladies room, as soon as we sat down, I realized that this was not IMAX at all. This was a regular theater. I kind of felt like a cchump, but we got to see the movie anyway.

The movie was pretty good. I have to say that I am normally not one for remakes of movies, but any movie that gets closer to the book, is always great. I thought Johnny Depp did a great job. I loved the Umpalupas (sp). They were really funny. I am not too into spoilers so I wont tell you about the end, but I would say to go and check it out.

The end of another long day.

We finished all of our work for the week. It was a great relief to finish this batch and know that we did it on time.

Tonight there was a benifit for a friend of mine that was shot three times as he was working security at a club. This guy is one tough and lucky sucker. He is more or less fine after his ordeal, but like everything in life, going to the ER is very expensive, as is emergency surgury.

This benifit had a bunch of good bands, and a good number of people showed up. For me it was like a reunion, since the people who showed up were a lot of my friends from one of my old jobs. Mike worked with all of us as bouncers at The Trocadero in Philadelphia. A good friend of ours that moved away to Texas also came out to the show. It was a great time seeing everyone, and it was great that so many people showed up to help Mike out.

The night ended with some good egg white omlets at South Street Diner.

On a totally differnet note, today I read in the paper that Home Land Security is not going to be responsible for mass transit around the country. The reasoning acording to the director, "When a plane crashes 3,000 people die, when a subway car is attacked 30 people die". WTF? How could someone who is supposed to protect us, not care about our transit systems. If there were coordinated attacks on 10 subway cars or busses in 10 cities on anyday, are we not at 3,000 people according to his math? That is not impossiable to happen whatsoever. I feel that if they are going to protect one, they should protect all with the proper amount of funding/protection according to the threat against that area. Should South Dakota get Home Land Security funds? Yes. Should they get the same protection as Philly? HELL NO! The preceived threat is just totally different, but they still do get the same $$.

I feel that the money is being cut off to the transit systems because the fed wants to support the lagging airline industry and also the major Metro areas of the US just did not support GW in the last election. A way to teach constituents a lesson is to take funding away. I just think he is sneaky, and needs to be out office.

HELLO CIA, FBI, HOME LAND SECURITY, SS! and who ever else is snooping, it is only an opinion

This whole week has been mad busy with work stuff. Today I worked on two different batches. I was going almost non stop. We have to get this stuff done by this Friday in order to meet our deadline. I am not complaning about work, but when you are in a white room n white clothes with a constant sound going all day, it is enough to make your head spin.

I am a vegetarian. I do not eat anything with a mother. I have been this way for a really long time, and I have took tons of shit about it. The last time I remember intentionally harming an animal has to be at least 15 or so years ago, and even then I was just fishing. I have never been a big fan of hunting, even though I grew up in an area where there were tons of hunters. I just never wanted to take part in that "sport". I think the fact that I do not harm animals or choose to stems from being about 4 or 5 when my father took me to see the deer that some of our neighbors shot and guttend, then hung out on thir porch to dry out. My mother said that I ran home crying something about Bambie. I sort of remember it, but maybe that is what changed me. I never think that an animal has to suffer for "sport" I can see why (but don't always agree with)people eat them, but I think that if they had to kill the animal on their own and gut it, they would never even think of eating it. Well that little rant leads up to what I had to do tonight after dinner. A dinner that consisted of veggie burgers and corn!

Barrett, the Vadino's dog wanted to go and play frisbe with me after dinner. He was begging the whole time, so as soon as I finished my vegetarian dinner, I went out to play with him. As I was getting onto the deck, Anne, Jess's Mom yelled to me that Barett had a ground hog and I should go and grab him. Well by the time I got to the end of the yard, Barett had the ground hog up against the fence, and both were ready to attack. Barett was defending his turf and the ground hog was trying to get out of the yard with it's life. The dog bit the ground hog on the head and starting running around with it, and tossing it side to side to break it's neck. he let it down a few times and then they would just resume going at it. The whole time I was trying to find a time where I could reach in and get the dogs collar so I could stop the battle. He just seemed possessed, and I was not too interested in getting bit by him or the ground hog. I kept yelling his name while he was tossing this animal all over the yard. Finally the little sucker gave up or was paralized and the dog lost interest. Why would you fight something that was not moving. We checked the dog to see if any of the blood on him was his own, and then Mrs. Vadino asked me to get rid of the animal.

I had a shovel, so the plan was to slide the shovel under him, and then place his carcas in the woods for nature to take over. WELL...when I put the shovel under him, he moved a little bit. He was not quite gone yet. I moved him into the woods, and I could see his chest rising and falling. He was still alive, but could not be doing too well. All of his extremities were stiff and not moving at all. After some contemplating, I decided I had to do the humane thing and put him out. I swung the shovel and knocked him in the head with it. I probably just annoyed him, since I did not swing very hard. I saw that he was still breathing, so I took another swipe at him. At this point it was just too much to coninue to smack this thing in the head, so I pushed him further into the woods, and hoped that he died quickly, or another animal finished him off soon.

After a little while, I went in the house and decided to just chill out for a minute, since it was pretty gross what I just had to do. I wanted to go for a bike ride, but I decided to swim a few laps instead.

A good day for a country drive. I had to drive back to Pharm Ops, Inc. this morning. It is usually a good ride. I would like to do at least part of it on my bike someday. There are some killer hills, but maybe I will be in better shape someday to attempt that! On the drive in, I switched between listining to XM and the new iPod. XM is great, but it is nice to have an iPod to pick exactly what I want to listen to. The XM is great for listening to Opie and Anthony

At Pharm Ops, we had to work on a batch again today. I enjoy days that we actually have to work, but some days it can be taxing. I really didn't do too much besides go to work, go for a quick ride and take a swim.

Today was a long day of driving. I am more or less used to those. In the morning I had to load a bunch of books into my car to take to my school. I have been storing all of my old books from my old school, Manassas Park

in my apartment. When two people already have an ocean of crap in the house, a few copy boxes full of school books does not help.
Well i had to get those in my car, and get them to school. I only took four boxes, but it made a difference in the house. I got to school and noticed that the place was a mess. They have taken all of the desks out of the rooms. I do not know if they are painting or what, but there were desks everwhere in my hall. After i dropped my books off, I had to go and sign my contract for next year. I will be teaching 8th grade science at the Eisenhower Middle School in the Norristown Area SD. I was a Long term substitute there at the end of last year, but I got a full time job there for this upcoming year. I signed my contract, after someone explained to to me, and I made sure I understood it, so I didnt get effed over. After I did all of that, I still had to go to work!

I took the PA Turn Pike for the first time in a while, and it is no better than it used to be even though you have to pay more. If we used our state prisoners to take care of the roads, We would not be in such a deficit. When you have to pay a guy double time for coming out to work on the roads, that can not be doing a service to the tax payer, but if we were to use "volunteer" help, it would sure help the financial situation in our state.

At work, we had a bunch of stuff to do. I had to make the CAP 8 work. This is the machine that we will use all week to do the work we need to finish. The machine could have a mind of its own sometimes. It is hard to operate, but when it works well, it is a dream.

After work I decided to go to Pittston. I have not been there since hte 4th of July, and last night i thought that my mom was mad at me. I thought I knew why, and knowing her, she would appreciate a visit from me, so we could talk about this stuff.

The ride up to Pittston went perfect and I made great time. If it were not for the big mountains that eat up my gas, I would totally go there more often after work. I love being there in the summer it sort of reminds me of when I was a little kid. Many of my friends have left, or don't do fun stuff anymore, but just the weather and the way the grass smells reminds me of living there. I got to talk to my mom and we hashed out what was wrong. I think it was a misunderstanding. I am glad we figured it out, because life is too damn short to have grudges. I know I jsut have to communicate better, and change some other things. After hanging out with them for a while, I went and picked up my friend Carries's old iPodfor Jess. It is a good 10gig one that Carrie sold her for cheap! I got to hang out with Carrie and her Husband Ed for a little bit and play with the two dogs at their house.

After their house, I went to drop off the Organ I won at the Auction on the 4th to Kyle. I got to the bar that he sort of lives above, and he had already gone home, but Megan was there, so we hung out for a little while. We watched the Home Run Derby for the MLB All Star Game, the news, and then I went home.

Damn I really cram a lot of shit into 24 hours!

I hear a rap at my door that wakes me up. "Pat can I talk to you?" Ok...one sec. I say. I open the door and Mrs. Vadino is standing there and says "Diane is ok" I say "OK" not having a clue as to what is actually going on. I know Diane had a sore throat earlier in the week, but this was more than that. There was an urgancy in Mts. Vadinos voice. She then informed me about the London bombing that took place in teh Tube on on a bus. She told me that Dianes boyfriend usually rides that line, be he was home for the day. I had no idea of the extent of the bombing till I turned on the news channels. That more or less overshadowed the rest of the morning. More on that in a few.

Could we say fucking HOT! Work was over 83 inside with no air at all. I have no clue why we even went in. The drug we were waiting for finally came in. We have been more or less sitting on our hands waiting for this stuff to come in for like two weeks at this point. Well, it came in, and it was wrong. They didnt send us the right lot numbers,which in our business means we can not do any work. We ended up sitting in a 85 degree office all day and not really getting anything done.

I ended up just chulling at home, and going swimming for a bit. I watched the Tour de France for a while.

Went into work this morning to find that it was over 80 degrees in there at 9am! I was asked to go into a room and do a bunch of work. it was 84 degrees with 65% Relative Humidity inthe room. There was NO air at all. I got my work done, but I was just soaked with sweat by like 10am.

I ended up going to Foot Locker and was able to pick up 5 tee-shirts for 20 bucks. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

I got changed out of my gross clothes, and was very happy to feel dry. I spent the rest of the day trying to fend off the heat. We tried everything and realized that the AC was just NOT working. Everything we tried just did not make us cooler. We had the door open to let at least SOME air in. There are no windows in our office what so ever. We ended up leaving work around 2:30.

Went back to jess's parents house and called lynksis to try and fix the router. Talked to some dude in India or Cashmier or whatever. He tried his hardest, but I still had to fix it on my own. The IP address was messed up somehow.

After dealing with him for about an hour, I went for a mountain bike ride about 5 miles from her parents house. I found the place on MTBR. Some people gave it bad reviews, but I thought it was pretty nice, but could be a bit bigger. The place was good, but it was a little wet, and I did not want to do too much damage. I got my heart rate up for a little while, annd got some nice miles in the woods.

Came back here and took a swim, then cleaned my bike. Not a bad day after all!

So I have been looking for some great trails to ride for a while. Since I am in Central Jersey or the Lehigh Valley everyday, I have the chance to look for new stuff everywhere I go. Luckily, I have found a good guide in my new found riding buddy Brian. I found him on a board that we both post on and seem to agree on most things related to bikes. He offered to take me on a ride at some trails that the LV has to offer. He took me to Jacobsburg State Park.

The trails were nice, but I bet I would have liked them if the rocks were not "sweating" It was sort of drizzling when we got there, but def not enough to get through the canopy. I try to never ride on wet trails, esp ones that I don't work on or contribute to. The trails flow in some spots, and some they are tight technical rock and root gardens. On the path we took, there were three road crossings and at least two creek crossings. I had a great time and it was a great workout. I def reccommend it to anyone to go and ride there. Make sure you have some mud tires on, and you go slow around the blind corners.

That night I went to Best Buy and picked up a wireless router for Jess's parents house. I finally got them to pick up cable internet, which is SO much better than their old AOL dialup they were using. That shit is the WORST! Well they got cable a little while ago, and since I want to have wirelss at my work, apartment, and parents house, I had to convince them to get it for the house. That became much easier when Best Buy offered a rebate on a Linksys802.11B router that made it only $5. I don't care what kind of geek you are, $5 is good for a router, as long as I send the rebates in, and the thing works.

I do have to say that it did not set up as easy as other Linkyss router. For some reason it was giving me a bunch of problems. So I went to bed.

This morning we decided to go to an auction in Kingston, Pa. This is right near my house, and we wanted to check out what they may have. They had all sorts of stuff there, and stuff ended up going VERY cheap. It was sick what some of the stuff went for, but jess and I do not have enough room in our apartment or anyway to transport some of the stuff that was up for auction. I bid on some of the instruments and ended up winning an Organ for a total of $7! I plan on just giving it to Kyle so he can use it to make some cool music.

We went back to my parent's house to grab our stuff and head up to my uncles cabin. Most of my family was there. I love to see my family, and catch up. I live the furthest away of our immediate family, so everyone always wants to know what I am up to. Jess and went for a paddle boat ride and played with my "neice and nephew". They are not really my neice and nephew, but my cousin is an only child, and he sort fo asked me to be an Uncle to his kids. They are great, and I can't wait till my sister and brother in law give me a "real" neice or nephew.

We could't stay at the party too long, since the 4th was on a Monday and we both had to get back to work Tuesday morning. We drove back to Philly and met at friends Pete and Colleen's house to join a party with a few other friends. We took a walk over to the Art Museum to see the concert and fireworks there.

On the parkway we got to see Patti LaBelle and Elton John perform and then some fireworks over the art museum. Those two artists are probably two I will never see again, let alone together, so it was cool to see.

We finally got to go to bed at like 2am after a LONG weekend!

This day we went to Lambertville, NJ in the morning. There are tons of antiques here, and jess's family loves to look for antiques. We went there very early, but we had to get to my parents house for later in the day. We did see much at lambertville, but I did pick up an ET 12" Picture Disk of the sound track for $5! I think I am going to EBAY. We went back to jess's parents house and got our stuff together and took off for Pittston, Pa.

On our way to Pittston we saw a flea market and decided to stop. This place was a bit strange. It had a lot of junk, and then some really nice stuff thrown in. We randomly ran into a good friend of Jess and ended up walking around talking to him and his girlfriend. I picked up some fireworks, and off we were to Pittston.

On our way back to Pittston, we had to go up and over some mountains and threw some woods. My parents live a valley surrounded by the Pocono Mountains, and to get there, you have to go over them. On our way up we realised that I was running low on gas. Jess suggested that we stop, but I thought that we would have no problem getting home on what we had. You probably know where this goes. I drove fora while, and was starting to get nervous about it. This was of course after I scoffed at getting gas. We got a point where I was starting to freak, so i decided to turn around and go get gas. It must have been twenty minutes out of our way back to get it. At this point we are already running a few hours late to get to my parents house. My mom kind of freaks when we dont get there on time, so I was kind of stressed.

We finally got to Pittston and my mom was thrilled to see us. We hung out there for a while and then my mom had some work to do and was going out, so we went and played some Mini Golf, Drove some balls, went for a drive in the woods, and got some ice cream. We went back to my parents house and hung out with my dad and tried to figure out where to see some fireworks. After I set off some of the ones that I got that morning, we tried to get to the fireworks at the Lakawanna County Stadium. We were really late to that and ended up turning around and going back to Pittston to my friend Carrie and Eds party. We got there in time for carrie's fireworks display. We hung out with some friends there, and finally got home so I could set up the arrowbed that my mom got for my room. That shit rules!