Surly Rider

Moving on up

2009-08-27T22:52:00.002-05:00

Hey, Not that anyone has looked at this thing at all, but if you do happen to end up here, I have moved on to surlyrider.wordpress.com

B and N

2007-02-16T21:10:00.000-05:00

Looks like one of the new top books from B and N features cycling. Looks like a good read. Maybe I will pick it up for my wife. She is always looking for a new book.

I came up to my parents house, and had no clue how much snow there was. Philly did not have too much snow at all, but up here in the mountains we have a good amount. I spent a good portion of the night so far using my dads new snowblower to make a parking spot in front of my parents house.

Tour De Waltrip?

2007-02-15T14:07:00.000-05:00

Holy Crap, Imagine another sport is cheating! I could only imagine the talk. Can I now go to a gas station and talk about NASCAR cheating as people did to us at the bike shop after Floydgate or Dr. Fuentezgate? When I see my family at a BBQ, can I ask them if all drivers cheat, just as they asked me about cyclists? I am on Floyd's side, but there was a ton of crap thrown at everyone in spandex and on skinny tires when that crap hit the fan.

At least with this issue, the drivers and their teams are caught more or less red handed,and there is almost no appeals process. The only thing that stinks about this is that the drivers will be right back, but the crew cheifs and mechanics got kicked out. I didn't see that go down since the Festina issuse back in the day.I guess by Phonak dropping out of cycling made all of those folks look for new jobs.

The drivers did get pushed back in the points standings, and it will hurt their chances of an overall win for the season, but not for individual days.

In a sport that was founded on outlaws and moonshine running, I am amazed that people are so upset about the cheating.

some bike bling

2007-02-14T22:56:00.000-05:00

Valentines day has about an hour left in it, and I am still not sure that we will have work tomorrow or not. It is going to feel like -1 with the windchill, and it is still pretty icy out there. Having students walk to school is a good idea when it is 60, but when it is -1, that comes to being a different story. I can not even imagine walking how far some of our kids do in that type of temps with the lack of resources they have. Many of my kids come in with no hats, no gloves, etc. It is hard to give them crap for doing something when you see how they come in and what they go through to get there. I really have a hard time sending a kid for a late pass when they are one minute late to my class after going through that kind of crap. We are supposed to have zero tolerance, but I also have professional judgement.

I wrote about my wife (then girlfriend) getting me a Brooks saddle for V-day a few years ago. I think I finally figured out what she can get me for v-day that is bike related and not a consumable thing like wheels, or something. All of my bikes have Chris King Headsets after a few years of that being the easy thing to get me. I really have found the bike bling that I want. It is a custom headtube badge! A local lady, Jen Green, makes these badges and some bike jewlery. Her real biz is making other jewlery like engagement rings and earings, but she makes some great headbages. Check her stuff out.
I think mine may be an old school Phillies P with Philly across the top of it. What do you think?

Sram and Cane Creek and the snow/ice

2007-02-14T09:56:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentines day. I guess I was a bit early this week with the picture that I posted a few days ago.
I got the day off from school due to the weather. I told everyone yesterday when we were leaving not to expect to be off, but I guess I was wrong. I have to admit that I sort of thought we would be off, but I didn't want to get excited, and then not have it off.

According to BRAIN. SRAM has recalled both the front and rear Force level brakes. There is a PDF on their site explaining how to get your new calipers. Apparently there was a metallurgical failure in the mounting bolt of the brakes.

Other news from BRAIN is some really great news out of Cane Creek. They are going to release a few new track wheelsets this fall. They notice the rise in track popularity and they are going after the market. If these new track wheels are like the rest of theirs, they will be super strong, nice and light, and pretty good looking. I am a huge cane creek fan. I have two diff wheelesets from the boys and girls in North Cackalaka. I beat them up, and they keep coming back for more. As a bigger rider on a light wheelset in the city, I can not ask for more from Cane Creek.

Hopefully we will have some more news on the Lower Providence indoor track facility from the folks over at PCT soon.

top 100 shops.

2007-02-13T23:06:00.000-05:00

The folks over at BRAIN sent out the top 100 shops of the year a few days ago and we made it again! Pretty cool! City Bikes, a shop I used to work at with Mike and the boys made it as well. I think it is pretty cool that I work/have worked for two of the top 100. I dont think it is to do with me, but I am proud of the time I have spent with both shops. It is great to work for a shop that you would shop at anyway.

Some "bad" news is that Guy's and D&Q also made the top list. They are direct competors with Keswick. It will just make us continue to work harder in the next year.

29er x 2 and squishy

2007-02-12T22:39:00.000-05:00

While looking around twentynineinches.com I came across this amazing 29er. . This thing must fly. It is made by Vicious Cycles.

Class

2007-02-12T21:23:00.000-05:00

I had to do an assignment for a class I am taking that is part of the grant I won last year. We had to look at site design and decide what was good, what was bad, and so forth. I decided to look at some bike companies and see if I could compare two of them. I will post my response so you can check it out. While looking around for more or less a bike site to trash, I came across many that are really well designed and some look pretty similar. I guess that is a good thing in todays game of the web selling bikes. I decided I was def going to use a brand that we sell as a good example, and use any brand that came up as a bad example weather we sold it or not.

My assignment is what follows:
I feel that to really compare sites, you have to keep them in the same general genre. I picked two sites that I am somewhat familiar with. They are both in the same vein of Bicycle Manufacturer.

My criteria that I selected, as these are both bike manufacturers are as follows:

1. Pleasing design. - The site is not assaulting when it pops on to your browser.

2. Load time. I do not want to wait to see these sites, or click too many times to get to the info I need to see.

3. Ease of use - I can go to the site and find exactly what I need from the homepage.

4. Presentation of information. - The site gives me the info that I need when I need it. I do not want to have to go too far to look for it.

To do this assignment, I decided to try to decide what road bike to buy. As I already have a very extensive background on the topic.

I used two sites. http://www.raleighusa.com/ and http://www.colnago.com/

At raleighusa.com As soon as I logged onto the site, I was presented with a horizontal list of bicycle types. When I clicked on the link for the type of bike I wanted, I was brought directly to a site of all of their road bike options. The site gave me a quick blurb about road bikes, and below was a thumbnail image of the bikes available. When I put my mouse near the thumbnail, it gave me a blurb about that particular bike. As many bike brands have all sorts of names for their bikes, this helps to give the user information so they do not look at a bike that is above or below their intended use. When I clicked on the bike I would like, it brought me to a site with all of the information I could need for the bike. It also gave me a slightly larger picture of the bike. When I put my mouse over that part of the site, it showed me a really amazing close-up of the bike that I could move all around and totally check out. I was able to compare bikes, send a link to a friend (or my wife), find a dealer, look at previous year’s bikes, etc. Everything was really laid out well, and all of the links worked quickly.

According to my scale.
1. Pleasing design. - The site looks good. Good choice of color, nice images, a bunch of useful links.

2. Load time. There is a bunch of images and animation going on, but it loads quickly.

3. Ease of use - Everything I need is at my fingertips and easy to find.

4. Presentation of information. - I was able to find exactly what I wanted, the size, the color, and approximate price, and a dealer in my area is no time.

When I went to www.colnago.com I was hit with a crazy close-up of part of a bicycle frame. I had to click to get into the English version of the site. When I did get to that part of the site, I was given a loading image frame. I waited for the image to load as it took up a good percentage of the page. Across the top I was not able to find the type of bike I wanted. I figured that the bike type would be under catalogue 2007. I clicked on that link and it brought me to a large picture of a bike with some links across the top. I had to scroll down (on a pretty large screen) to see what bike I was looking at. Here the print was a light gray type on a white background. Not the best way to look at type. There were links called characteristic and technical info. Under the characteristic link, there was a chart that as someone who has been around the bike industry for a long time had a hard time reading. The other link called technical info gave me some specs for the bike.

According to my scale
1. Pleasing design. - Not so much. I saw a big picture with some really poor looking graphics and a link to pick my language of choice.

2. Load time. I had to click around and scroll a bunch to get to what I wanted to see. When I clicked to change the color of the bikes, it did take a long time. Maybe because they are huge picture files.

3. Ease of use - The homepage is a bit more complicated, and it is hard to get directly to what I want.

4. Presentation of information. - The info that I needed to determine what size I would need was very hard to decipher. When I tried to find a dealer, I was sent to a site with Italian on it. When I did find what I needed to click, it only gave me one place to find their bikes state side (which is far from true), and the link for that company did not work.

Bad design will make someone leave your site, and often times leaves a really bad taste in their mouth as it relates to the brand or whatever you are trying to get across. Broken links, clicking around too much, deciphering information does not make for a very good customer experience. The site that I picked for the bad design also had no real innovation as far as design.
I learned to really look at a site with a keen eye for developing how you want your information to come across, and think of the end users interaction with your site. When you get into developing a site, the links and everything become like your local neighborhood, you are able to get around with no issues since you have been here for a while. It is hard to divorce yourself from the designer/programmer side to the end user side of the screen.

In this comparison, two bike manufacturers, one that is regarded as some of the finest bicycles on the planet, and another that is a "bargain brand" bike, the bargain brand site really came off well as the fine Italian cycles really fell face first.

umm...

2007-02-12T19:00:00.000-05:00

Happy valentines day a few days early. I saw this image online and I could not resist stealing it from Human Zoom Bike shop.
I do get some bike stuff for valentines day. I get bike stuff for every holiday. Last Christmas I got a gift certificate from the shop I work at. Gifts that I can buy at cost! Cool stuff. I remember a few years ago, she got me a Brooks saddle for valentines day. That is probably the coolest thing I ever got for valentines day. I have no idea what I am getting her or what she is getting me, but I guess we still have a few hours to work that out.

I am totally going to ride the "wet" bike tomorrow as it is supposed to get crappy out. I wish we would get more snow, but this storm that is coming is a hard one to predict. I still have a feeling I will not have school Wednesday.
My boy Fernando , himself a fellow bike shop whore posted this link to YouTube on Crucial Brutal(home of team brutaltron). It is of a girl riding a exercise bicycle. Check her out. TOTALLY NOT WORKSAFE

Some new goals.

2007-02-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

While checking out the posts of a few friends and some of their plans for the upcoming seasons, I decided that racing cyclocross and being competitive was a very good goal, but considering I will have grad school(every other Saturday all day), regular work school, and life going on during cross season, I decided to focus on something a bit different than cross. It is still bike related, but I think I want to do both the Shenandoah Mountain 100 and the Wilderness 101 . Can I do both in a year? That will be seen. With my former shop, City Bikes sponsoring it, and some friends doing it, this will be a bit more motivation to get down there and give it a shot. I am going to work on the time on the bike and of course my weight loss goals so I can participate in an event like this.

I took Friday off from the gym so I could take the Karate Monkey on a bit of an extended ride through the city. I kept to mostly roads, with a little bit of grass riding thrown in. I really like it for commuting so far. For what I give up in speed over my road or cross bike, I can add some time in the woods to my commutes home, this will definatly give me some chops for riding this summer. Time to really hit the trails hard from here on out if I want to accomplish my goals. If you have tried the 100 mile mountain bike rides, let me know how you prepped, and what you thought of them. I have a few friends who have done them, but they are already animals and can do pretty well on the bike.

If I didnt need another blog distraction to keep me from blogging here or working on my grad school stuff, I found the Pedro's pro mechanics blogs. If that is not enough to keep me from my daily work, I dont know what is.

Well I am off to watch an Inconvienent Truth (again) with the wife and mother in law.

One last note, there is a great story about an amazing trip over at the surly blog.

Bringing Sexy back

2007-02-08T06:06:00.000-05:00

So the NYT did a short blurb about the hipsters and their love for Justin Timberlake. I have to admit that a few years ago, I did take a shine to the former Syncer. I have always liked a few of his songs, but never enough to actually buy an albumn. I remember once at a bar in Philly I played a JT song on the jukebox after trying to convince a very musical friend of mine how amazing JT actually was. He was half way convinced that it was a fluke that JT had a good song, and half convinced that my time spent with teenagers has torn apart my former staus of "Music Snob". I kept my JT love to myslef unless the song came on and I started to shake the moneymaker, but then I get an email from a fellow music snob (and former bike courier),Tony Pointless,that he was interviewed in the NYT for a feature on JT.
Check it out. While you are at it, check out his band R.A.M.B.O. with songs like U-Lock justice,Chinese Resturant Mosh Pit, and Kids Who Mosh Like Assholes Must Make for Selfish Lovers how can you go wrong?

Fixed gear on NPR

2007-02-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

NPR did a story about fixed gear bikes today. Same typical no brakes, couriers, etc. It was cool that they interview AZ
link 1
Link 2 in the spot. Click here to get to the story.

Is it cold?

2007-02-06T17:44:00.000-05:00

Where I grew up, it was not always this cold, but I guess I was used to it, since we did have some cold winters. It seemed once October or so hit, it was just straight up cold till March or so. There was just no question about it. I have been spoiled living in Philly and NoVA, but damn it is cold. I saw a high of 24 today, but I think that was inflated. I had the day off since I had to go get my shoulder looked at, but more on that later. I spent most of the morning putting my home network in a closet. I had to run some wires and drill some holes, but it looks much better in there, than sitting on my nightstand in the bedroom.
I did some dishes, and other stuff I generally do not want to do after getting home from work. I was going to ride to the appointment, but I did not want to have to remove all of my cycling layers to have x-rays or whatever. I know...a cop out, but it was 9F when I was leaving for the Dr!
I got home from the Dr. and even though I had to go over to the hospital to have x-rays done, it was all over in less than two hours. Not too bad. I decided that I needed to go for a ride on the 29er, as I have hardly had time, and it has been too cold to do more of a ride than just around the block. I got all wrapped up, and got on the bike. The first two blocks were a bit rough on the small sections of skin that were exposed, but once I started moving it was great to be on the 9er. I think once I get used to it, the bike will be tons of fun to ride around town and on the dirt. Hopefully it will be warm enough soon so I can get a good day out on the bike.

The first picture was taken at a school in fishtown with great artwork on the outside.

The second shot is from a legal Graff wall around Cecil B. Moore and 2nd street.

Who said this is not the city of brotherly love?

I made an appointment to see the Dr. after a student was wondering what was wrong with me, when I was curling up in pain but not really doing anything. It is not hurting since I went riding last week, but I still have some pain. I had the x-ray and to my totally untrained eye it looks fine. I will see the specialist on Monday. I will keep us all updated.

Snow and Dark.

2007-02-01T23:29:00.000-05:00

I ended up going the ride with Ben I was talking about. I got a text from him early asking if I wanted to go. As I have most of my parts on the 29er, I asked for a demo bike to ride from the shop. He came back at me with...how about the Team Replica Rush? I could not turn down the opertunity to ride that thing, so I agreed. More on the bike later.
As we would love to have had a longer ride, we had some issues. We were going to meet at 6:30 at the Valley Green inn and get moving.
Ben had to close the shop, and I had to fight Philly traffic to get out there in time. Neither make for a very specific time. I took a crazy route through some of Phillys worst hoods to avoid the highway traffic. I got to Brian's house to grab his bike, and remembered that it was a Lefty fork...and it does not fit on the rack. Not intending to have many problems and knowing that Ben always has tools, I left mine at home instead of going back in to get them. So, at that minute I was caught without tools and a bike that does not fit in the car. I figured, I have made bigger bikes fit, let me get this guy in the back seat. As I was trying to get it in the car, i realized that Brian was rocking the fancy pants Time peddals. I ride with SPDs these days. Not a good mix. I called Ben to see if he had an extra set of peddals and a wrench. More or less a shot in the dark, unless we are talking about some hardcore shop guys.
Luckily he had the peddals, but no wrench. We tried to make it work with a park multi tool but all the peddals we had to change were all put on by gorillas(us or other shop guys). After some really worn out hands, and frustration, we decided to go back to ben's house to get some peddals.
We got to the house, switched them over and played with his dogs a bit and we were back on the way.
The bike was AMAZING! I am the worst Cannondale critic, but this was the bomb. The only problem was I could not get the sag exactly right and the tires were really skinny and did not have much for tread. Besides that, the rush takes just enough of the edge off, and the Lefty fork is great. I was just blowing through things that I normally have a hard time on my steel hardtail.
We had to cut it a bit short as he has a wife home starting contractions, and I have to teach in the morning. The full moon, the snow, the cool bike, and a good friend made it a great night.

She is here.

2007-01-31T22:36:00.000-05:00

So my 29er arrived a day early! Thanks QBP and the boys in brown!

I stopped by the shop, shot the bull, chased all the threads and then headed out.

We had dreams of going for a night ride tomorrow, to celebrate one of the guys and the upcoming birth of his second baby(his wife is due friday), but I dont think I will make it. It is supposed to snow a bunch, be butt cold tomorrow night, and my shoulder is effed right now.
I guess I will have to skip out on the ride. Hopefully we will have many oppertunities to celebreate Ben and his kids. Good luck buddy.

Ben Riding a stunt down at White Clay, Delaware over the summer.

I def am not going to make it to the ride tomorrow night, since I built up the 29er, and that means my IF is now a frame and a seatpost hanging from the rafters in my basement. If i had wheels and a front deraliurer, I would go, but it would be hard to keep up just carrying a frame in the woods.

Sort of sad for the IF, as she is my baby, but a new beginning for some of those parts. I am going to rebuild the IF. Will it be a single? will it be a geared 26inch bike? It all depends on how much I enjoy the 29er world.

I am waiting for my wheels, but they are not going to be in till friday. I will also need a bottom pull front der that fits the Surly. Hopefully one of the shops will have it.

I will be back on the stick tomorrow as far as exercise goes due to the fact that our contest started today at 3:30. I have been doing smaller workouts at the house and still really watching what I take in, so I don't go off the deep end trying to keep pounds on for the weigh in. I am SO going to win.

Coming along

2007-01-30T22:48:00.000-05:00

Last post I talked about how i wanted to drop some tons. So far I have dropped over 10 lbs. Being a bit sick last week I am sure helped on the road, but I have been busting my butt so far. I am doing spinning between 2 and 3 days a week, running 2-3 miles a day (except Friday) and I lift weights everyday but Wednesday and Friday. Days that I spin, go light on the lifting.

I am working with low weights and high reps. I do different body parts, but sometimes I will do the same body part two days in a row. I will post my true work out schedule when I get it totally down. I feel that it is working, and I am sure the eating right is dong well. I cut out the peanut butter and threw in the oatmeal instead. I am sure that helped. Turkey and Chicken are doing more for me than veggie burgers and cheese ever did. Not that I dont support the things I said before, but the lean protein is where it is at. Stay away from that fried chicken.

At work we are doing a biggest loser type challange. We start tomorrow at 3:30 and end the last wednesday in May. I am so winning this shit, it is going to be sad for the other folks in this program. I will keep you updated as the time goes on.

Jess (my wife) and I went to a friends wedding the other night. It was the first wedding we have been to since our own. It was pretty cool to be the "old pro" at the wedding instead of the guy who made a half ass attempt at catching some part of womans undergarmet.

The wedding was great and totally my style. The groom owns a real bikers motorcycle shop and the bride works at a tattoo shop and desings jewlery. Both artists in their own right, but very traditional. It was a good mix of the two. What I pictured of my wedding if we didnt go the direction we went with ours. Picture a girl with full sleave tattoos in a traditional gown with a train and all. Groom with neck work poking out of his tux. Good stuff.

I would never trade my wedding for the world, but Paul and Chrissy really know how to throw a party! They even used a picture from our wedding for their program.

Oh bikes...I ordered my 29er finally! I have made a bunch of extra $$ on ebay and finally got some money from my HP grant that I won, so I ordered the frame. I picked up some decent wheels, and I am going to tear down my IF to build the Karate Monkey as a geared bike so I can use it to commute to work, and hit the trails at Wiss on my way home. I will hopefully have it on the road by next Tuesday. I would imagine my wheels will come in on Monday. I am going to build it up mostly Thursday night when I get it, but wait for final adjustments until I have my own wheels. I will post pictures when it is done.

Say it out loud.

2007-01-11T20:30:00.000-05:00

As I talked about before, I have been working out like a dog. I am running a bunch and lifting three days a week. I am doing all sorts of different stuff. I really want to be fit enough to make a shot at racing cyclocross. I also want to gain some speed on the Mtn Bike. I feel that I am pretty much as fast I am going to get without losing some weight. I could tweek some specific technical skills, but the speed gain is going to come from dopping this extra tonage.

A real motivator was a customer who came into the shop and was asking about some rides, and some clothing. After talking with him for a while, he sort of made a up and down look at me and said...You actually ride? I wanted to rip his fucking throat out, I just said if he would like to join our Saturday group ride, I would be happy to show him how fast I was. After a few months of Satudays....he has not shown up.

Some other motivation comes from two (1 2)guys I have ridden with who dropped some weight and really shoot out of the gate now. Most of the guys I ride with are from the shop and they are just rockets. I have always been able to hold my own, but I want to be the person who is doing the waiting and not the person who people are waiting for.

So as Chris Carmichael says...If you really want it, say it out loud. I AM GOING TO LOSE 30LBS. by April 1st. My secondary goal is a total 60 by September 1st. Keep an eye here for my updates. This is not some New Years bullshit.

I have been on the bike off and on besides commuting. I built a new 1x9 cross check for riding around town. It is for the really cold days or when the trail is iced over when I will take the train both ways to work. It is also for crusing around town doing errands.

So far it is running pretty well. I am having a bit of a chain issue, but I think I just need to buy a new one when I stop by the shop.

I am on my self imposed time off from the shop. When it gets slow around there, I ask to be sent home for the rest of the season. For the years I have worked in the industry and taught, I have taken the winter off. It is nice to get a break from the shop, but I feel like I miss out on some of the bro deals and I don't keep up with my bikes as well as I should.

As CES and MacWorld are going on this week, there was a great announcment by Motorola that they have a bike that will charge cell phones. It is for emerging markets that do not have as much power available as the US

Jessica Simpson a courier?

2007-01-01T16:51:00.000-05:00

I saw this post on the philly bma site. Check http://jessandashlee.com/jessica-simpson-bike-messenger-on-blonde-ambition-set/

Big Snake with a helmet

2006-12-07T22:32:00.000-05:00

On CNN.com today there was a mention of a biker being stopped in their tracks by a giant snake. Well...if you get there in time, and check out the video. The cyclist is wearing a really bad looking backwards helmet. Just really really bad.

On another helmet note, and I guess a bit late, I had to get a "stand in" helmet when I was up visisting with my parents for the hoilday. I knew it was going to be nice after the storm we had here on the east coast, so I took my cross bike up there, and I knew i would hit the road on Friday. I was all geared up and ready to go, until I could not find my helmet anywhere. I am not one to ride without a helmet, but I am also one not to miss out on a ride. I put my campy cycling cap on, and headed out the door for my ride. I realized that I may have had a helmet in the basement, but it was an older bmx helmet, and I didnt want to rock that one. I knew that Sickler Cycles would be open for me to get a helmet. I rode the three or so miles over there, making sure that I didnt do anything dumb enough to end up eating applesause through a straw for the rest of my life.

I got to the shop, walked in and said give me the cheapest helmet you have asap. The lady looked at me, my bike, and my gear and asked what helmet I had now. I told her that I own two pneumos and an eclipse...but they were back in philly. SHe understood my plight, and got me set up.

I dropped the name of the shop I work at, and talked some shop, and got a trek helmet for cost.

I think it is more or less a cop helmet, but it protected my brain for the day and got me out for a ride. I took some shots while riding to Wilkes Barre .

I dont know why my mouth is looking for bugs in the picture, and I can tell you taht my Specialized glasses go much better with my Giro helmet, but I was surly safe in that cop helmet.

I found out that we have a great trail in the Wilkes Barre area. It is on top of the dike that is keeping the Susquahanna river from flooding all of Kingston, and a few other towns on the West side of the river.

It goes for a few miles, and I saw a few folks using it, which was great. At least I know it is there for the next time I get to go and ride there.

I got to check up on some of the damage from the week before when my hometown was hit pretty hard with flooding, when a dam/flood pipe exploded and let tons of water and debris come down. The very pretty and brand new library in town got hit pretty hard, as well as a doctors office, the phone system, and some otehr businesses.

Nite RIde.

2006-11-30T23:16:00.000-05:00

I have never actually gone on a night ride that was not part of a race or something similar. I went by myself last night. It was half in the dark, and half light. I know there are crazies living out in the woods I ride in, so I was sort of spooked riding in the woods in the dark alone, even though it was only 5:30. I think I would like it with more folks joining in. I am a big dude, but suprise can take down almost anything.

A quick shot on the bike with no flash on. I really think I want to get a headlamp. Two lights upfront provided a good amount of light, but I would really love to see where I pointed my head, as where I ride is mostly very twisty and tight.

Last night I also took my jump back into the world of eating animals. I have not really ate meat since sometime back in middle/high school. I had some shake and bake chicken from jess. Today I had tuna at lunch in school, so I guess I am jumpping in face first.

Why make the switch? I have been a vegetarian forever as it feels, and I dont think that my food options are leading my to the best choices there are. Through studying nutrition and what not, do not lead to vegetarianism as the best choice for what I am trying to do as far as fitness gains and what not.

I am sure "Vegan" Rob would disagree with me, but that dude is crazy minus the vegan fueled endurance mountainbiking.

Mens Health.

2006-11-22T10:49:00.000-05:00

I am a big fan of Mens Health. I think it is a great mag when I finally take time away from reading about bikes. Always good food, weightlifting, and other work out ideas in there.
The top 100 tech goodies were in the new mens health. I was amazed to see how many bike goodies were in there.
They were:
Crank brothers Power Pump Ultra
Camelback MULE SCIO
Orbea Orca Road Frame
Pearl Isumi MP3 shorts
Smith Optics V Ti Sunglasses
Shimano SH-M300 Mountain Shoes
Selle SMP Strike Composite Saddle
Scott Spark Limitied Mountain Bike
Sram Force Double Tap Shifters

I guess cycling is getting bigger and bigger now when we see this many good bike goodies in a mag like mens health.

Cyclcross.

2006-11-19T14:25:00.000-05:00

I found it funny when I went to New Hope, Pa for a Cyclocross race and ran into this plate after my entry from yesterday. The race was held on private land. It is nice to see that much uninterupted land in the area of New Hope! The homeowner was pumping a good mix of celtic/highland music, the wind was blowing, and the ground was wet! Good day for cyclocross. I did hear some people complain about the mud, but I dont understand why they would be at or in a cross race if they did not enjoy the mud.

I am def ready to train for next cross season, and will be looking forward to racing next season. I have alot of work to do, but I will make sure I am strong and fit enough to do this type of racing. It will be good for me to get fit, and this is a great reason to do it. Over the winter of riding to work, spring mountain biking and the whole summer of commuting and riding will leave me a great place to have a good cross season. I don't want this to be too picture heavy, but I think I the photos I have of the race speak for themselves. First barrier with the peloton coming.

Not the first mud, but the best mud. The course comes out of a false flat wheat field, back around, into some really technical stuff around a tree, and right into this mud pit. After this pit, you were in the clear for some good sprints, and some pretty flat racing and then back through the start finish. One of the racers near the front. There was a pit spot right here, where many riders dropped off their bike, and ran about 20 yrds, since they were going to hit this barrier shortly after coming out of the pit. These two barriers dropped you off to a sharp uphill turn, through some semi paved flats with switchbacks, back past another pit, and then through the field. Stella really enjoys cyclocross. She is outside, sees other dogs, and I am happy.

One thing I noticed about this race was there were not too many folks that were not racing or cheering on a specific racer there. It is right before a big holiday week, but I sort of expected to see a few more people there. At least those who were there were really into it and quite supportive.

Hardcore Plates

2006-11-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

While listing to the Fredcast, Dave mentioned that the folks in my second favorite state in the union are trying to get a cycling friendly license plate. If you are a resident of Colorado, sign the petition to get this thing going! Maybe when I finally move out there, I can get one as well.

Shortly after I left Virginia, one of the groups got together and was able to persuade the folks in Richmond to devlop a share the road plate. Virginia has to have the most personialized plates of any state or commonwealth. Mine said BIKEDRK (bike dork). It as a favorite past time of mine to read them while sitting in traffic in the greater DC area. Last night Jess and I went to see American Hardcore. I grew up in hardcore and punk rock of the early 90s, and some of the bands I looked up to looked up to the bands profiled in the movie. I can not say that I am a huge fan of Black Flag, or Bad Brains, but Minor Threat, The Cro-Mags and some others that were in the movie have helped shape who I am today.

The movie was good, and I enjoyed some of the footage and history. I found out how some of the real history went down, and I also learned where some folks were from, and their backstory. What I didnt like about the movie was how much they talked about Black Flag and Bad Brains. Dont get me wrong, I wasn't there, but Jesus, it seemed like that was all there was when you look at the amount of footage and time devoted to those two bands.

I would really like to see/make a movie about the next part of the Hardcore Movement...like post 86 to aprox 92-93. Bands like Sick Of It All, Cro-Mags, Project X, Slapshot, Inside Out, Judge, etc. That is more my time, and what I feel, really shaped what we have these days.

I think it was Vinny Stigma or John Joseph, one of the NYHC guys who went off at the end of the film about the current breed of "punk rock" and how it is nothing like their generation.

I the words of Mike Jude, You and your crew would never have made it through the days we hung out in 1982 - Judge, New York Crew

current TV

2006-11-16T20:56:00.000-05:00

no I am not going to rant about the shit that is on every night, but the great channel that is current.tv If you are like me and generally hate tv, check this out if you get it on your local boob tube, you will be addicted.

Bike Kitchen

2006-11-16T19:43:00.000-05:00

San Fran is a great city for bikes which goes along well with the vibe of the city. THere can not be a better match for San Fran than the bike kitchen. They have been working at this for a long time, and seem to have a great thing going on. They are in the mission district of San Fran. They have folks come in and work on their bikes, and learn new skills. They run a womans night and my favorite, since I am not invited to womans night, is build your own Pannier Construction Class. It costs the price of a good pair of bags, but you get to make your own, and you can make multiples. How cool is that. I would love to learn how to do that. Maybe I can convince Roland from RELoad to take me as an apprentence some day...when ever I have days of free time.

Bicycle Revolutions

2006-11-16T09:41:00.000-05:00

It has been a while coming, and I really wanted to do it for a while, but I finally got chance to see my friend Brian's new shop last night.

While I talked to him from the beginning about ideas, and everything and saw him working on cleaning out the old place, I never got chance to stop by since I moved out of that neighborhood. I moved out of that hood about a week before he opened the shop. After that I shortly started working for the shop I am with now, and as everyone in the bike industry knows, spring and summer is crazy time.

With some errands in that neighborhood, and the time to spare, I got to stop by and say hello. He is doing great work with a small space and a nich market. It is way different than the shop he used to work at . It is a nice small shop with a rotating amount of artowrk on the walls, some really cool different stuff you dont find in a typical shop, and a few custom rides on the wall.

As for bikes He carries Redline, Breezer, all of the QBP brands (Surly, Salsa, Etc.), and Uno bikes (sun) from J and B improters, and soon will carry SE bikes(who are doing some rad stuff these days). He also has a litespeed and an Eddy Merckx hanging up for good measure.

The shop at My Space Bicycle Revolutions, 712 S. Fourth St., 215-629-2453.

Just a quick picture of the front window. Looks really cool!

Lights.

2006-11-15T22:26:00.000-05:00

While looking around the blogosphere, I have come over a ton of people talking about lights recently, as it is that time of year again. I recently got new lights from work, and I wanted to really try them out tonight. They are really just lights to be seen with, not really for seeing too much. I have lights for seeing, but I think they are a bit blinding to folks. Since I live in the city, it is pretty much bright all over.

The lights I got are

cat eye lights that run on two watch batteries (no looking for crazy batteries for cameras or anything) and are turned on by using a magnet. That is on a laynard. It works by using the laynard and the actual light to fasten it the bike, helmet, etc. It is great so that you can attach it to whaever you want as long as it is going to fit.

The fit on the bike was pretty good, as it is tool free, and can go over anything at all. I had to put mine over some cables on the front of my bike. You can see in the front picture that is attached over the cable. The rear is just around the seatpost, but it can go anywhere.

The lights functioned well, and I think if I lived somewhere with less light, I would have seen how bright they actually get. I rode allover downtown, then went to a pretty dark park on my commute. Over all, I am very happy with them. I think I may get a few more pairs for other bikes. They are about $24 for a pair(they come as individuals and white is more expensive than red) from your LBS.

My wife made it big time

2006-11-15T15:22:00.000-05:00

While looking over the blogosphere last night, I checked out the Surly Bikes blog, and saw a rant about a bike that my wife helped buy for the company she works for. They are a high end clothing and homegood store, so bikes is not really their thing at all.

I think the bike is cool, and the reactions some folks have about it is down right amazing.

I finally started back to the gym last night. I will be there two days a week, so I can ride the other three. I may step it up to three nights as it gets colder, but we will see. I am a bit sore, but I am looking forward to getting out of work so I can get out and enjoy the warm weather we have been having. My goal is to race a bunch of Mountain and Cyclocross next year. I want to loose a bunch of weight and make it work. My boy Joe did it, and I think I can as well if I get something to look foraward and work for.

The picture above is my bike last year at the stables at valley green on a commute home. I love the fall. I think my bike looks great with that stable as a backdrop.

I have some new lights to check out tonight, and I will post some pictures later from a night ride around the city on my errands to the video store and the costume shop.

Election Day

2006-11-07T19:06:00.000-05:00

Election day, and I work in a school. So I get the day off! Cool stuff. I wanted to do a bunch of stuff, but it was so nice out, I decided I wanted to go for a ride. I went to Wiss. and decided to go a different way than I usually go. I rode this route over the summer at the poker run. I found some new trails that I have never been on before, and rode some stuff backwards from the way I was used to riding it. Over all a very good fall day on the bike. I felt strong climbing, and moving around in the woods, which is great since I am looking to get stronger in the woods on new terrain so I can race a bit next year, like I used to.

I love my bike, but I would like to ride a full suspension or a 29er off road. Working at the shop lets me "borrow" all sorts of bikes, but I think there is a Specialized Brain Equiped bike in my future. Hopefully by next spring I can get one!

The elections went my way as well. Everyone I voted for won, which I of course thinks is great.

This are some shots from the top of the valley.

Cyclocross

2006-10-23T19:55:00.000-05:00

I have been to two world championship races, at least five US national champ races, bunches of mountain, road, and courier races but I never made it to a cyclocross race in my life. I guess I always thought there were none around, until I came upon the MAC series. I went down to the far southeastern corner of PA to see some cross action. It was a bit wet, but pretty nice out. I took my dog with me to the race. She had a great time, as there were a few other dogs there, and we were outside!

We made it there for the mens elite race, and since i had a "date" to go mountain biking at the green later in the night, we were only able to stay for one full race and the start of the womans race.

The race had a great feel to it. There were wide open sections on the course, but then some really tight decents, and a "spiral of death" on the course as well. I didnt get down to the spiral, since the dog was a bit to handle while walking around the course. I did take some pictures of some racer bikes that I was drooling over. I really liked the amount of small builders like IF, Sachs, Vanilla, etc. I am into those kinds of bikes, so it is nice to see them in real life. I actually really like to see how people set their bikes up. I keep a mental note of how they set them up, and then I can let my customers know how certain things are done, or trends we are noticing. I dont know if everyone does it, but I am a true dork about it.

I did get chance to see some of the bikes the folks at Wissahickon Cyclerly are making. They had a road bike, a city bike, a 29er, and a cross bike there. Engin Cycles seem to be well made. They are made in Philly, so that is cool with me. The folks at Wiss really love blue.

If you are a record dork like me, Uglypictures.us is a great animation. The video is all over youtube.com. I don't think it is 100% work safe.

Back on the stick

2006-10-19T10:02:00.000-05:00

I have been off this thing for a while and I have been thinking about bringing it back. I read from Gwadz, and a few others everyday, and I really need to get my game back up. Look for more as we go along. A great aspen in Rocky Mountain National Park

hot damn

2006-07-18T21:24:00.000-05:00

God... I dont remember when I last posted. I guess that was when we had all that rain at the beginning of the month. Damn...I guess I will just start with today.

In philly today it was 100 degrees plus. Crazy shit. I know it is summer and all, but it is hot as hell. I had to work at the shop. We had a great day there. We got a good amount of work done, and also had a good number of customers. Enough customers to keep us busy. I think I got a bike out the door for a customer of mine. I feel like I have been attracting huge riders. In the last few days I have had three customers who were 6 foot 6 or more. I sold one a bike. I have another one coming in for a road bike tomorrow. I hope I can continue selling more bikes. I guess as we get busier and busier, we will sell more bikes. With all of the constuction, and the lack of all of our stock, it has been hard. We have been getting better though, and the sales are showing. I will have to bring my camera over and show you guys some pictures.

WET

2006-06-27T18:21:00.000-05:00

I know many people have it much worse, but this rain has to fucking stop. I am very lucky in that both sides of my commute today were "dry" one side was humid as hell, and the other end was filled with road spray, and almost a crash on some wet, turning tracks. I didnt go down though. I did get caught by some fencing that I didnt notice while leaving my class, and that sent me down. No real cuts or anything, just some bruised pride.

The trails can not be enjoying this weather at all. It is just no good for them at all. Hopefully people will stay off of them for a bit.

I have been taking a class for the last two days, and It is really wearing on my, as I have not really learned anything, and I fell it is a waste of time for me. I only have another day and a half left of it. I am looking forward to the rain ending, and opening up the shop for Saturday(the first day of Le Tour).
Looks like Vinokourov will not make it to the tour this year after his team (Astana-Wurth) was asked to not show up to the start line after some dopping concerns. I guess there are a few others involved as well. I really wish our sport was not so wrapped up in this stuff.

Tyler Hamilton can keep his medal after the "B" sample ws destroyed by the testing lab, allowing him to win his appeal. He is also implicated in the Dr. Fuentez problems.

Jan Ulrich continues to fight demons as he is also implicated in the Spanish and French Newspapers. I cheer for him just to have a good race someday, and to get his life on track.

Lance and Greg are going at eachother again. I wonder who would win in a fight. Greg is a bit more hefty, but I think lance is taller. Maybe we should get them in a battle in the ring. No cycling shoes though. They can be a disadvantage.

Thanks to VeloNews for some of the info.

work

2006-06-24T19:00:00.000-05:00

Today I was supposed to go to work with Brian and Jordie from Keswick at 8:30 or so. I ended up waiting for Bri till almost 11:30. We went over to the shop and got to cracking on all sorts of projects. but we mostly focused on finishing the mechanics area. We finally got home at around 6:30 or so. Jess and I watched the end of Rudy and then went out to eat at the Oregon Dinner, and picked up some stuff at Target.

If the electricians and the construction guys at the shop can get their act together we will open for the 1st. I just hope we could do it.
I promised some pictures of the new Keswick shop in Cherry Hill, NJ. It is no where near done, but here you go.
This is a view looking towards the back of the shop. There will be 2 dressing rooms on the right side as well as the mechanics area. The left side (where you see the platform) will be the Serotta fit area.
This is also a view towards the back. It shows the counter where there will be two registers. The area under the courigated steel is the upstairs mechanics area. There will be two mechanics in there most of the time.

This is a view towards the front of the shop. The road out front is Route 70E through NJ. Both sides of the yellow walls will be covered with bike racks two high and a few deep along the walls. The big boxes in the middle of the floor are all of the hard wood that is going on the floor. Some of it was laid while I was there today, and it looks really good.
This is a picture of part of the basement looking from the back towards the front. There are about a hundred built bikes already down there. There is tons of space down there. This will be storage for the shop, and a long term repair area. It is great to have so much room to move around.

where'd you go?

2006-06-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

I guess I have been too busy for this for a little bit. I am helping to build a new bike shop, as you may have read before. We are taking this from being a poorly thoughtout Motorcycle shop to a really slick bicycle shop. We are well on our way, but 10 hours of construction a day will drive you crazy. I think we will be ready to open on July 1st, at least for a soft opening. I think we are going to have to just kill ourselves to make sure we are reday to go. I envision a few very late nights this week. It is not going to be good as I have a class to attend to for four days as well. I am waiting at my house for brian the owner of the shop to come and pick me up, so we could get the couter area and mechanics bay finished today. We may even try to hang some of the huge bike racks. Maybe I will take my camera and get some pictures for all of you.

2006-06-19T19:13:00.000-05:00

The Monday after fathers day was going to be a day on the bike. This will be the official first day of summer for me, as I have had to work each of the days since school has ended. I brought my Single and decided to take it to the top of Bear Creek to see the windmills that were installed up on the mountain in the late winter. I knew there were trails up there, and I wanted to do some exploring. I also wanted to see these windmills up close.
I ride regular trail patterns, but I think I am a true all mountain rider at heart. I like to go on adventures and look for new trails once in a while. The area around my parents house is great for it.
On sunday I went with a drive with my dad because he loves drives in the woods, and I wanted to find a way to get onto the trails that would lead me to these windmills. I found the place, and even a place to park. The parking was a bit scetch since I dont feel comfortable parking my car out in the woods after having my car broken into in the woods a little less than a year ago. I made sure my car was as clean as it would be if I were parking in north Philly, and rode down to the trail head.
The climb up there was pretty brutal as it was on a grassy doubletrack that was filled with baby heads. There was just no way to get any momentum going on the single, so I decided to hoof it up to the top. When I got up there I was rewarded with mill #12 right at the end of the trail. Once I was up there I could feel the wind, and knew they picked the right place. Mill #11 and #12 were on one level pretty much even with eachother, while 10-1 were up on a higher part of the mountain, with an access road leading to each of them. This picture shows how steep the road from #11 and #12 was.

This picture shows a few of the other windmills as they go southwest on the Mountain Ridge. This should give you some scale to see how big the mills are. That is my single speed at the base of one of them. The trail back to the car is off to the right side of the picture.
This is #12 from the ground

I rode along all of them and then onto another powerline trail that continued southwest on the mountain. I decided to turn back and give it another day, as I was out there for over two hours looking around and riding, and I still had some other stuff to attend to in the day. The way back was a nice ride as much of it was downhill, and some of the uphills were a challange, but I got to do it with my single. It is my BMX mountain biking roots I guess.
On the way home on one of the rocky downhills, a rock got the best of my rear tire. Luckily it was only a few hundred yards back to the car. You may be able to see in the picture that it was about a 1" cut in the sidewall of the tire. It was even too close to the car to make a tire boot, so I walked the rest of the way. I was able to add a picture of "trail cars" to my collection.
After I got home and relaxed/showered, etc. I gave Carrie and Ed a call and went down to see them and their new daughter Nora Ann. I have known Carrie since Kindergarten (we even went to prom together) and Ed since I was in Middle School. It was strange to be in their wedding, but seeing their baby is even stranger. It is a great feeling, but still just strange. The world is grabbing me and making me grow up. I am ready for it, but it is a strange feeling.
The baby was asleep, but what do you expect from a 8 day old baby? She finally did wake up and I got to see her cute little smile and her wide open eyes. There will be many more years that I could see her."Grandma" came over and took care of her for a little bit while I got to talk to Carrie and Ed. This is a pic of mommy and baby.
After seeing Mommy, Daddy, and the little one I went home and joined up with my sister and headed down the the nursing home to see my grandmother who is recovering from a stroke. She is doing very well and I am proud of her for being so strong. We got to talk for a while and we talked for a while. I told her about visiting Carrie's baby, and about my trip to the windmills that she could see from her window. She seemed to like to hear from a different person, as I am sure she has talked to her sons and daugters about everything under the sun. One of the nurses came to take my grandmom to play bingo, and my sister and I went home.
I drove back to philly with stella and I later that night. It was a long drive, but I got to talk to my new boss Brian about the shop and I got to stop to buy an EZPass tag as I will travel over the Ben Franklin bridge often for work at the new Keswick shop.

FathersDay Buddies.

2006-06-18T20:13:00.000-05:00

I went home to Pittston late on Saturday night to be home in time to hang out with my dad on Fathers day. The day was spent by going to church, picking up a gift for my dad (good Notre Dame book), eating lunch with my family and my brother in law's family, taking a nap, and going for a ride on the backroads with my dad, sis, and bro-in law.
My dad and I have not always seen eye to eye, but I think we have both grown to understand eachother. We talk about sports and our days. We try not to fight anymore. I encourage him going to the gym and getting out, he makes sure that I am not working too hard or too much.
The drive we went on was exactly what my dad wanted. He loves drives in the woods, and I get to look for new road bike routes, or trails on the side of the road. We went and looked for trail head for my planned trip to see the windmills up close, headed back across the valley and got some soft serve, then went for a drive up to a pretty lake, and back over through the woods. We got to talk about my wedding, the future, global warming, traffic and everything. Just a good time spent with the family.
After we got home, I got a call from my friend Megan and she said that my best friend Kyle was around. I had thought that I missed my chance to see him, as I thought he would have gone home to vegas already, but I was wrong. I got to see him for a while . This was the first time we saw eachother since October. He came home for christmas, but eneded up with a stomach flu and I never got to see him. Next time I will see him will be for my wedding. Here are some pics of Kyle, his Girl Nicole and our friend Meg.

"I don't know too much about...Bling Bling" O. De LaHoya

2006-06-12T07:48:00.000-05:00

Another crazy weekend, but fun never the less. I witnessed the quote above very late Saturday night when Oscar De LaHoya was talking about the watch about to be presented to Bernard Hopkins. I, along with a few of my friends worked the Traver Vs. Hopkins fight in Atlantic City on saturday. It was an amazing fight. I am never really into boxing, but this was cool as shit. I think I may actually watch it once in a while. I did get to stand near many celebs including De LaHoya, Mike Jordan, Lavar Arrington, Hector Comacho, the "Lets Get Ready to Rumble" Guy, and a few others.
In the morning i went out for a nice single speed ride at the Belmont Plateau. Jess dropped me off up there and headed for her parents house with the dog. I had to work, so I was going to stay back, but did not want to just sit around the house.
The ride went well, and I felt pretty good out on the trail. SOme of the stuff I really wish I could clear, but it is huge log piles that are on uphills. NO FUN. I might try to ride that part of trail "backwards" someday. It is very technical, so testing my tech skills at high speed would be fun.
I left the trails and headed back to the house. I had to ride my single speed to one of the furthest points in the city from the trails, so I was not moving too quick, but it was nice knowing that I could not go too fast, so I could just sit back and watch the city go by me. After I got home, I did some work around the house while waiting for harry to pick me up.
Harry came for me around 3:45. We were off to AC, not to return till 3:45am Sunday morning.

I woke up late on Sunday, just in time to watch the start of the big Philly race on TV. I watched for a bit and waited for Jess to get home. We went for brunch with Pete and Colleen, and then Pete and I went to the race while the ladies went shopping. Pete and I got there just in time to run into some friends, and watch the end of the race on Lemon Hill. The shop I work for had a tent with a TV and couches showing the race all day. The end had a pretty good wreck. We watched it on TV with about 100 folks looking over eachothers shoulders trying to capture the finish.
The rest of the day was spent in a mixture of riding bikes, playing with our dogs, and eating some dinner with good friends.

New Bike New Year

2006-06-06T19:03:00.000-05:00

It is already tuesday night, and I dont think I have blogged in a few days due to some really busy days. I have been reading some blogs, as I seem to be addicted to them these days. I have also worked on finishing my new bike. I got this baby off of Ebay back in February for $100 . It was broken at the bottom bracket. It was ridden by a multiple time Mid-Atlantic Region state champ, and it cracked due to moisture in the BB. I brought it to Bilinky Cycles right here in Philly. He was able to weld it up and only charged me a shade over $100. He did a great job. Other projects, money and life in general got in the way of me getting this on the road till now. I wanted to have it finished in time for my birthday that was last Friday. Enough of me talking about it, here is the picture of it.
It is built up like this:
Frame: Indy Fab Planet X
Fork: Vicious Cycles road fork
Stem: 3t Mutant
Levers: Shimano
Front Brake: Old school 105 road brake
Rear Brake: XT v-brake
Shifters: Dura Ace Bar Cons
Front Der: Newer XTR
Rear Der: Black 105 Nine Speed
Crank: Black 105 triple
Saddle: Ti Flite
Seat Post: thomson
Bar Salsa Bell Lap
Wheels: Cane Creek Volos
Tires: Specialized Armadillos I didnt really do anything fancy to it besides add an incredibell and use spacers to make the 1 1/8 inch stem work with the 1" fork and frame.

She really flies so far. I have to muck with the fit of it, but for the two bike commutes since I finished it, I have done well.

On another topic...Last week a collegue of mine told me that her former neighbor is going to be the manager of a new bike shop in Cherry Hill, NJ. The shop is actually a new shop addition to Keswick Cycle of Glenside, Pa. I said that he should get me a job...half kidding, as I sort of already have a summer job, but I decided to look into it, since I would love to get back to working at a shop. I put out some feelers and found out the they were hiring. I called the shop and I talked to a manager for a bit before she asked me to send a resume off. After last weekend, I finally got chance to send one out very late on the evening of Memorial Day. The next morning I had an email from the owner of the shop asking me to give hime a ring. I called him up and chatted for a bit. To make a long story short, I went to meet with him at the new shop on saturday for an "interview". the interview consisted of some bikes dudes shooting the shit with some money talk thrown in. I got hired(as I thought I would), and I start on Wednesday at the Glenside shop. I will be working at the Cherry Hill shop once the lights are in, and we can start building some displays and what not.
The OG Keswick is an old Schwinn shop from the 30's that is now a very cutting edge shop that carries some of the major brands, and also specialises in Tri Bikes. The Cherry Hill shop is a former high end Motor Cycle shop that Keswick bought. The place is huge. It will be one of the biggest bike shops I have ever been in. We will have so much storage and work space, it will be amazing. Everything about this place reminds me of when City Bikes opened the Chevy Chase, MD shop. Looking at the city bikes site, I see that my picture is still up there.
This weekend was my birthday, and it was more subduded than other birthdays, but fun nevertheless. On Friday (my birthday) I had field day at school with my kids, which was very nice, as I dont like ot work on my birthday. After work, I took the train home, as I was a bit too lazy and the rain was really about to fall. It would have been nice to get a good ride in on my B-day. After I got home, Jess and I went to go pick up my wedding ring. We went to a shop in Philly called Halloween. It has to be the coolest place ever. It feels like it is straight out of a science fiction/Hobbit movie. Someone def had to go there to find a special key or get a link to a broken map or something. The ring is going to be really cool, and is custom made by the guy. It is also under $100 which is perfect! I would pay $100+ for a headset, but a wedding ring...you have to be crazy I could forget it somewhere. After wedding ring shopping we went to Cherry St for some great vegetarian chineese food from some of our favorite folks in the city. After dinner we headed off to see
an inconvenient truth .
As an Earth science teacher a sort of a greenie, I loved the movie. It is exactly what I have been teaching my students all year long. I can not wait till it is out on DVD, so the studnets can see how great the actual slide show is. Maybe I can get Al Gore to come speak to my students someday! How fucking cool would that be?
After the movie we walked out into a total downpour. The type where you just walk in the rain, because you are going to get as wet running. We were frozen and wet by the time we got home, but were able to change into dry clothes...for a while.
The dog was afraid of the storm and would not go outside to pee. We tried to send her to the basement to do so, but we were stopped by a fountain and flood in our basement. There is some sort of strange hole near the bottom of out steps that backed up and had water shooting up about 6 inches and flooding our basement. Luckily we were able to stop it, and clean up the water, but that was not how I wanted to end my birhtday.
Saturday was spent doing some housework, scoring the job at Keswick, and then the fun really started. Two of our best friends Pete and Colleen were cleaning out some trash they had from some demo work they did in their house. They tried to do the right thing and drop it off at the bulk drop off in Philly, but it was closed when they got there, which left these two with a 16 foot Uhall full of crap and no where legal to put it. This provided us with an impromptu trip out to Norristown to use the dumpster behind my school. Jess and I left the school to go return some things from her shower, while pete and col went back to the city with the UHall. We met up with them later for a Birthday dinner at Azure.
Sunday was another auction, but I didnt find shit I was interested in. Col and Jess did, while pete and I went to get my oil changed and made stupid faces at eachother while trying to stay awake. We went out to eat at Victory. Pete and I split for home, and I finished up my new IF. That gave me a good reason to finally get a bike ride in for the day.

Lance Didn't do it.

2006-05-31T09:17:00.000-05:00

According to si.com Lance has been cleared of all dopping charges.He is/was an animal and the entire time I just said I hope he is never discovered to be dirty because folks will never trust him ever again, esp after they devoted so much time and energy to him. I remember days at City bikes When people would come in all day just looking for a livestrong band. I could not help thinking how disapointed people would feel if it was all a lie.

Tuesday Already.

2006-05-30T08:24:00.000-05:00

No clue where the weekend went. I just know I am tiderd and not too thrilled about being alive right now.
Friday was a good day in school with a bit of a break inthe afternoon. As I left school I felt that my rear tire can use a little bit of air. I decided to forgo the air, and get on to my house. Well...as that usually goes, I ended up fixing a flat on the bke trail back towards the city. I had to use a patch kit, as my fresh tubes were gone after last week. I usually put fresh tubes in, then patch at home to save on tubes and trash. I got it done pretty quickly and I was on my way. A few riders pased by me while I was fixing it, and most asked if I was ok. It is nice that we often ask eache other when we are on the trail. I have even helped out fellow bikers even when I was walking down to the board walk. Anyway, I got back on the bike and figured I would get to town in no time as I was having a good ride. I got to a hill that normally kicks my ass, but I saw a guy up ahead that I know from some cycling circles and know that he is fast. I wanted to push myself to see exactly how fast he was. I ended up getting to the top of the two hills, back down the next and into the tight part of Umbria street in Phily. I ended up catching him just before a light. I re-introduced myself, and we established our connections to eachother at the light. We rode through the "nuk and talked about bikes and cyclocross season. He is getting a new
IF for the upcoming 'cross season.
I can't wait to get mine moving. I want to have it finished by Thursday night, so I can ride it on my birthday. if it does not rain too much. After talking with Dave for a little bit I saw that I needed some more air. I pumpped it up agian, but it didnt keep air really well. I ended up going up the street to the Bike Shop, talked to Fernando for a bit, changed my tire again and got on my way.
I had to pump up again later down the road twice to make it home. A normal 1.25 hour ride took about 2. Just a pain.
After I got home we went to see some friends to hang out on the block and let the dogs run around while we ate some pizza and just chilled for the night.

Saturday we had to finish cleaning and fixing our old apartment. We spent almost all day and night doing this. We threw out a ton of trash, and patched up some stuff as well. We put down a new floor since Stella ripped part of the old one up. Saturday was more or less cooked by the time we finished cleaning up and what not.

Sunday was a big day. I woke up very early and worked on my bikes and cleaned up the basement prepping for the boxes that we still had to move over to our new house. I devised a better way to hang them to take up less room and have all but the three English bikes hanging up. Those English bikes are just too damn heavy. After jess mades some great breakfast and we packed up the dogs stuff, we headed off to my parents house in Pittston. The two hour drive was fine, but I had to do much of it alone as jess and the dog fell asleep for almost the entire ride after we got on the North east extension of the Turnpike.
Pittston was nice as many members of my family came over for some Memorial day activities. hanging out in the back yard with the lady, the dog, and the rest of the family is the perfect way to spend the day. There was a definate cloud over the day as my grandmother is still in the hospital/rehab after her stroke, and was not doing too well on Friday and Saturday. After the family started to head out, Jess and I went to visit my grandmother.
She was in much better spirits than described from the last two days. Her bruises have healed up for the most part, and we were making sure that she had some great things to look forward to, like my wedding, and her great grandchildren growing up. I think she really just needs something to look forward to and past this problem right now. I really hope she pushes through this and gets back to what she was before.
We talked about all sorts of things with her. The future, the past, recent events,and she seemed just like her normal self, just a bit more tired.
One of the coolest things she talked about, and one of my favorite stories is about her time spent in DC. She lived there when she was 17-18 and worked for the Navy during WWII. She lived at 18th and Q and walked to her typing job everyday. I just love picturing WWII era DC, and the general feeling aroudn the area. I think it would be a much diff feeling there then than now.
After grandma time we picked up some money for tickets from some friends up in scranton and then headed for my parents house. We ended up staying at my parents house, as we were too tired to make the 2 hour ride home.

On Monday we woke up at 6 and started our ride back to Philly. We got to Uhaul at 8:30 and picked up the van. We worked on the apartment till 12 then dropped off some of our stuff at the house. We brouhgt the van back at 1, then went to the Oregon Diner. After the diner we finished everything we needed to do before 3. The rest of the night was spent chilling in the house and a nice trip to Target.

GB

2006-05-26T12:59:00.000-05:00

I have tickets for Baltimore and Richmond Gorilla Biscuits shows. if we get NYC, it will be a three day HxC tour for harry, jess and I

someday I will get to bed

2006-05-25T09:45:00.000-05:00

I am SO tired. When the end of school is so near, it is hard to stay focused and disiplined. The students want out, we want out, but it is not quite time for that yet. It seems like i have not been sleeping for days now. I def have not seen jess for any real quality time in awhile.

sucker

2006-05-24T10:42:00.000-05:00

I am a sucker for consumerisim sometimes. This new apple store looks amazing

another one

2006-05-24T09:32:00.000-05:00

I blogged about getting a flat tire yesterday, and on the way home I eneded up with another. Two days in a row...tons of fun. This one was my first ever puncture on a Specialized Armadillo. It was a two inch piece of steel. It looked like a spoke that was cut and slipped in there. I don't know where I picked it up. I did stop by the shop on my way home since my non drive crank arm was coming a bit loose and singing to me on the hills of my commute. When I got to the shop, one of my friends was standing there working the counter. He just started working there. We used to be couriers together, and he worked at a different shop downtown. We chatted about riding together and about some shows of his band El Toro De Oro that are coming up. I got on my way and made it home with out getting another flat.
Once I got home, I hung out with the pup and waited for Jess to get home. Once she got home, we headed up to the print shop to pick up some work and go over some other stuff we have in the works. Those guys are killing themselves with orders, but if you need shirts made, want eco-friendly shirts, and want them done well contact Jump Start Screenprinting. Enough plugging for now...
We went back to our place and just chilled the rest of the night. Jess informed me that the

summer tour has been announced. It looks like Blacklisted will open for GB on part of the tour.
I had to call my buddy Harry to make sure that we go to as many shows as we can. I think we will travel around for a few of the shows. On our list are Philly, Baltimore, NYC, NJ, Cleveland, and maybe more. Here are the dates to the GB summer tour if you want them. The ones I am thinking of going to are highlighted.
08/04/2006 – Asbury Park, NJ @ Stone Pony
08/05/2006 - Worcester, MA @ The Palladium Downstairs
08/06/2006 - Philadelphia, PA @ Starlite Ballroom
08/07/2006 – Auburn, NY @ Auburn Public Theatre
08/08/2006 - Montreal, QC @ Foufounes Electriques
08/09/2006 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
08/10/2006 – Cleveland, OH @ Peabodys Downunder
08/11/2006 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
08/12/2006 – West Dundee, IL @ Clearwater Theatre
08/13/2006 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club
08/15/2006 – Denver, CO @ Cervantes
08/16/2006 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
08/17/2006 - San Francisco, CA @ Pound SF
08/18/2006 - San Francisco, CA @ Pound SF
08/19/2006 – Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse
08/20/2006 – Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction
08/21/2006 - TBA
08/22/2006 - San Diego, CA @ Soma
08/23/2006 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Clubhouse
08/25/2006 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s
08/26/2006 - TBA
08/27/2006 – Houston, TX @ Meridian
08/29/2006 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl
08/30/2006 – Nashville, TN @ Rocket Town
08/31/2006 - Richmond, VA @ Alley Katz
09/01/2006 – Baltimore, MD @ Otto Bar
09/02/2006 – New York, NY @ BB King’s
If you want any more news check out Walter's Page or Punk News. I did get to go to the first reunion last year with Black Train Jack. I blogged about it when it was announced last june.
I crashed out a little earlier than usual. Hopefully I can kick this cold, and rest up this weekend.

a day after

2006-05-23T12:12:00.000-05:00

A day after I say we should not kill bears, they do this. It was not even a wild one. They have to learn how to keep better track of these guys.

hope I never lose my wallet.

2006-05-23T07:28:00.000-05:00

This really sucks. I could not imagine having my bike stolen, esp one that means so much to me. I also could not imagine having the life that would allow me to travel like that. I am close to my friends and family, which would make it hard to travel as much as he has.
Last night I had to stay at work pretty late, so I ended up taking the train home. It seems like the later I am on the train, the worse it is. Also last night someone was "lighting up" the train. Every few stops there was a green gas coming over the car I was riding in. Not much fun. I got off at TEMPLE and checked my tire. It was a little low, as this tire has had a slow leak for months, but it is usually still full by the time I get home from work. I have to pump it up every morning, but it lasts for the full day. I was getting home from work about 4 hours later than even my later nights, so the tire was very low. I figured I would make it home with no trouble, but that proved not to be the case. I ended up with a pinch flat after hitting a big rock that I didnt see. The flat was not the problem as I have a total kit in my bag to deal with just about anything. The place it happended was the problem. For those of you familiar with the city...this was at 9th and Germantown Ave. Not a place you want to flat at 9:30pm. Luckily I was close enough to a bright safe place and was able to change really quick. I got the tire done and was on my way.
The reason why I was at work so late was due to a ceremony infront of the school board where I was picked as rookie of the year for my school. I am not a rookie teacher, but as far as Pennsylvania and NASD is concerned, I am a rookie. I got some nice stuff, and a check for $50, but they spelled my name wrong on this crystal thing they gave me. I will try to get a picture of it.
My principal said nice things about me, and informed everyone that I won a grant from HP for $37,000 worth of equipment for my school. The audience let out a simultanious gasp. People seem excited about that sort of stuff. I did the work for it so long ago, that I dont really think I did anything. I will be excited when all of the stuff gets here. The "stuff" is this * an HP Tablet PC
* an HP multimedia projector
* an HP digital camera
* an HP PSC all-in-one printer/scanner/copier
* software and accessories
* a $500 stipend
* a professional development program.
for each of the 5 teachers on the team. A good deal I think.

could we stop

2006-05-22T11:49:00.000-05:00

Could we please stop killing these bears. Maybe they should have tasered a frat boy instead.

got it....

2006-05-21T21:00:00.000-05:00

Late last night, Jess and I decided to go the an auction today. We endeded up getting a whole bunch of stuff and paid like nothing for it. We got:
A quilt,
an english three speed bike,
a dehumidifyer,
a big ass antique mirror,
two folding chairs.
All together we payed 18.64 and that included a buyers premium and tax. INfuckingSANE. There were loads of other things that went pretty low as well.
Jess and I now have three lightweight English crusiers! One Raleigh, one Gibralter, and a Royce Union.

After a haircut, and a search for a resteraunt, we got back to the city. I got my bike ready and went for a ride. I took a few pictures. A few pictures of some abandoned and destroyed cars .

These are the trails I ride now. The black car was not there on Thursday when I was there last. I guess it is pretty active back there.
Here is a picture of the "single track"
This is my single on one of the docks. Notice the razor wire and graf work behind it. Fun place to be!

Besides the guys riding ATVs and dirtbikes, I felt a little more comfy on the trails today. It will be a good place to just get a good workout, and get on some dirt in the city. I look like I was having a good time.

After a good ride and getting cleaned up a little bit, jess and I finally got to come in contact with our inner white trash and we went to Red Lobster, since we got a gift card from her shower. The housewives are on the tube, the dog is on the couch, jess and I are on our computers and getting ready for bed. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

give it a rest

2006-05-20T15:02:00.000-05:00

Well today was supposed to be a day to sit around with Jess and enjoy eachotehrs company. Well her dad called and asked if I could work at Pharm Ops, his business. I could use the infusion of cash, but I can always use the time at home. If her dad did not need me so bad, I would have given up the cash to stay home for the day. I guess it is better off, since I would have been out (or tempted to) on some wet trails(the ones I talked about yesterday). Maybe I will get out there tomorrow.
Tonight we are going to see the Davinci code with some friends and go to a book release party. I am excited to see the movie to see if it lives up to all of the hype. Really I just want to see her
I will get out on the trails tomorrow. If I have to go really early, I will def get out there. My single speed legs need some work.

Go to redheadblog webring if you like redheads like me!

Start Packing?

2006-05-19T21:45:00.000-05:00

I wonder how many people "pack heat" when they ride. I have a good friend who used to camp, hike, and do epic rides with a sawed off shotgun. He said it comes in handy when you are going across some private land with an overzelous landowner in some remote parts of the country. He is an old Marine, and nothing against our armed forces, but...you know that loose some attachment down their at Paris Island.
I guess this came to mind as I was trying out my new single speed rig on some of the "trails" that are near my house. What these trails are is what is leftover from the shipping trade and the raliroad system that used to run my neighborhood. The trails are not some pretty epic ride, as they are wide, rutted, and never maintained. For what they lack in polish, they make up for in adventure. I am a total noobie to this neighborhood, but I know a scetchy place when I see one, and this is one for the ages. This is the kind of place that you go to when you want to see how far a score from the 2 o'clock scramble will go, score some drugs, live out a derilict life, or all three wrapped into one. Lots of grafitti, some broken glass, and shreads of some teenage one-night-stands clothes, and raliroad/dock leftovers. So far it is fun, but I just have a feeling that someone is watching me, but anyone hanging on this land, is fishing, up to no good, or freewheeling around on their ATV or mountain bike. As I explore more, I think I will have a good time back there. It is great, since I will have trails that are three blocks from my house! People move deep into the burbs and pay a whole bunch for that luxury.

I will take some pictures, and continue to blog on the trails back there.

Speaking of paying a whole bunch, this hood is rapidly increasing, and soon those trails will not be there anymore. The entire area I was riding on today will be condos in the next 5-6 years. With Donald Trump, casino owners, and other developers building on the old dock land, it will all be snatched up, "developed" and lost forever. The only good thing I guess I could say about gentrification is that it will make me a whole bunch of money when we sell our house.

I live in the Port Richmond/Fishtown neighborhood of Philadelphia. Anyone with a brain could discerne what used to go on in this neighborhood. It was a neighborhood of poor imigrants and their families who unloaded ships from the early 1800's till the early 1970's. What was left in their wake was a huge tract of land that is filled with lower to upper middle class families who live in two to three story houses that live and die in their house. In beteween birth and death, they go to a catholic school, have a few babies, and go "down the shore". Now many of these folks can sell their homestead off and go live wherever they want. This seems to be happening pretty quickly. It will be nice, but I don't want the "hood" to lose it's identitiy.

We went to see "Over the Hedge" tonight. It was great. My fiance thinks the personification of animals is the most amuzing thing ever. I am a greenie, without being a hippie, so it worked out for both of us. The animation is amazing, and the general story was great. I liked some of the social commentaries on SUVs, food, and the suburbs. Go see it if you have ever lost your trails to "development". It was a bit strange with all of those kids laughing about some of the problems the animals had.

fast...but that fast.

2006-05-19T12:47:00.000-05:00

I know some people who stop by here are hella fast, but how about a moving mountain? Would htat double your speed, or half it?

Bike to Work

2006-05-19T06:51:00.000-05:00

It is bike to work day. I understand why it is late in May, since it is so nice out and everything, but why can't I have "Snot is frozen to your face, and your fingers and toes are numb Bike to work day"?
Even though the folks I work with are amazed that I ride my bike almost every day, sometimes I need that extra push to make sure I get out there. It happens sometime around mid January through February. I dont mind riding up until christmas, becuase that chill in the air is just the holidays coming. It is the time when spring is still far off, and winter has you by the short and curlies that we need to have a bike to work day.

Someone at my job did give me chocolate covered pretzels for my bike to work efforts today though. They told me it was my responsibility to protect the environment, as she handed me a plastic bag that she took out of her minivan

Last night I finally finished my new single speed. I took it for a madien voyage, but the tire slipped and the chain was too short to bring it further back in the fork ends. I had to add a few links to the chain to get it just right. I might have just a little bit too much brake housing on it, but it will do for right now. The total cost for the bike was like $150 of new parts(frame from ebay and fork from craigslist). The rest of the stuff was from my tool box or taken off of bikes that were less than active.

Parts list for new single speed:
Jamis Dragon Hard Tail w/modified rear end.
Rock Shox Judy fork (dont know the age)
Generic seatpost and stem
Brooks B-17 Honey Saddle
Big S pedals
Avid Speed Dial Ti levers
Mavic Cross Max XL wheels
various tires
Big s bottom bracket
race face crank
Avid Disc brakes.

I thank the lady of the house for not wanting to kill me while i have finished this project. I will post some pictures later tonight.

Some pictures I took from a recent class trip are on the homepage of My School District.
On the road again

To keep your interest for the rest of the day how about water for sex. Maybe someday I can bring a gallon or two and trade it in at the LBS for some new disc brakes.

back in the saddle again

2006-05-18T07:37:00.000-05:00

It seems that when something comes to an end or I have accomplished something, I come back to this. I have Gawdz to thank for this I guess. A few things have been going on now. It seems that last thing I knew it was St. Patricks day, it was cold as hell, I was living in a small apartment, and everything was ok. Now after some family events, buying a house, and spring arriving it is mid-May afterall. Crazy!
A few things have gone on in the last few months since I worked on this some on the bike but alot off the bike. It seems like most of the riding I am doing is on my commute...not a slouch of a commute at 26 miles, but not as much fun as a day in the woods. Much better than sitting in the car, or paying for $3+ gas.
I guess I can work backwards of stuff that has been going on.
-Last night my first season as head coach of 7th and 8th grade girls lacrosse ended in a lopsided loss like most of the season. Our girls would hang tough till half time, and then just fall apart in the last 10 minutes. We finished the season 3-8. With a very inexperienced team playing in a hotbed of lacrosse, I think we did well. I wanted to beat one team from outside of the district and the other two middle school teams in our district. We did that, had a bunch of fun, learned the sport and hopefully deveolped some of the girls into players for next year and on after that. It was a huge sucess over last year when they only won one game on the entire season.
The picture with the clouds is my Goalie and Center leaving the field after a great game.

-Last weekend I went home (again) to see my family. This time it was a bit different. Besides the typical moms day stuff, I had to help with my mom who had shoulder surgury to repair a tear from many moons ago that is aggrivated by her job where she has to lift a very heavy bar over her head for hours at a time. God I wish she could get out of that job, but there is those pesky benifits. What good are benifits from your job when they are only going to pay for things that happen when you are on the job? It just really sucks, but it is motivation for me to make sure I never have to work in a factory, and to never really complain about my job, because on my worst day, it is still better than the best day at the jobs my parents have had.
While I was home I also had to visit my grandmother who had a stroke a week prior. She is 82yrs old and quick as a whip. You would think she was 10-20 years younger based on the way she acts. The day before the stroke she was out shopping and keeping pace with my aunt who is at least 30 years younger than her. My grandmother seems to be doing ok, and she has a great support system, so her recovery I feel is going to be as good as her mind is going to make it. I just hope she can stay positive. I dont know if I could in that state. I want her to be around and healthy to see me get married this summer, as I am the last of her grandchildren to do so.
This tough weekend was accented by some quality time with the family, some good walks with the dog, and a fun time at my friends Co-Ed baby shower. I have known my friend who is having the baby since I was in kindergarten. We went to the same church, as her family grew up in the same neighborhood as mine. We went through all of school together, and even went to prom together. It is just strange that we are growing up and having babies and weddings and what not. Pictures to come when she has her baby girl.
The previous few weekends have invovled weddings, traveling, other showers, and moving from our little old apartment.

ouch

2005-12-14T14:50:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-14T14:49:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-14T14:47:00.001-05:00

September 20, 1977-July 30, 2005

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

2005-12-14T14:47:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-14T14:41:00.000-05:00

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

2005-12-14T14:40:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-12-14T14:39:00.000-05:00

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?

2005-12-13T18:47:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-12-05T17:09:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-09T22:33:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-09T14:52:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-08T14:55:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-08T14:33:00.000-05:00

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

2005-08-07T19:43:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-08-06T19:42:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-08-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-08-03T19:40:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-08-02T19:39:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-30T22:58:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-27T19:35:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-26T19:34:00.000-05:00

"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.

2005-07-22T19:33:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-21T19:32:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-20T19:32:00.000-05:00

"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.

2005-07-19T19:31:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-17T19:30:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-16T19:30:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-15T19:29:00.000-05:00

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

2005-07-14T19:28:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-12T19:28:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-11T19:27:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-07T19:26:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-06T19:26:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-05T19:25:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-07-04T19:24:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-03T19:24:00.000-05:00

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!

2005-07-02T19:22:00.000-05:00

Today was the qualifing heats for the Cycle Messenger World Championships in Jersey City, NJ. The Courier championships were labeled as being in NYC, but they were held across the river in Jersey City due to permit issues and what not with the city of New York. It was a perfect sunny summer day. The temp was in the low 80s with low humidity.

We arrived at the race for the second heat of the day. Seemed like they were running late, but running well. The organizers and volunters were doing a great job. I was impressed by the fact that they were able to shut down so many blocks in such a big city. We got to the race and looked through some of the vendors. We got to see some of our friends, check out some bikes, and the general freak show a world wide courier race ends up as. I loved looking at all of the stuff that Roland and Elle and the rest of the gang of R E Load Bags had for sale. Saw Manhatten Portage, The NYCBMA and some other courier bag and gear companies there. The second heat started with a La Mans style start with a mad dash of couriers trying to get to their bike first.

After checking out the start, we decided to go and check out a few check points. We saw some people get their bikes "stolen" by less than honest volunteers at check points. My favorite check point was the tire change check point. Seemed like that one tool the most still, and made the race fair for the all around courier. Those who can not fix their flats, can not make any money.

Around the corner from the flat fix checkpoint were the skids and sprint races. The skids were more informal and the sprint races were to qualify for the main sprint later in the day. I got to see a lot of my DC friends and another Boston friend at this point. Those who visited this part of the course stayed for a long time, since there was something to watch, and more importantly there was a good amount of shade from the building.

We hung out and walked around the area that the race was in. If you could take your eys off of all the bikes, and the action, there was some neat stuff to see, and some great old buildings. We saw "ground zero" and a war memorial. The war memorial is one of the most intense ones I have ever seen. It is very Euro. Viewing ground zero is stil strange. I have been to NYC a few times, and the way I take in goes right past Jersey city, but it still pretty powerfull to think about. I never saw the girders from the WTC before. That is pretty nuts, to think of how they were twisted like that.
WHhen I go to these events, I try not to make it to obvious that I am checking out all the bikes I see. Sometimes, I just cant help myself, but when I sw three TI Indy Fabs locked together, I have to stop and check it out. It is great to see more and more IFs crop up. There were some amazing bikes there like the TI Eddy Merckx that I was drooling over so much that I didnt even think of taking a picture.

If you want to see pics of this event go to surlyrider.com/BLOG/080205.htm

2005-06-29T19:19:00.000-05:00

What do I say on a day like today? With the news I got tonight. I just have to smile really wide and restrain myslelf from jummping up and down over and over and over again. Tonight I was told that my freinds band is playing a reunion show in August. This band broken up over 10 years ago. The last time I saw them, i had to leave straight from my high school football game to get there in time to see them start playing. My arm was in a cast and I still danced the night away.
They are also playing with another band that broke up even before them. The two bands that are playing together are Black Train Jack and the Gorilla Biscuts. These two historic bands are getting back together for a benifit to try to keep CBGBs open. There are a bunch of shows going on over the next few months to help CBs. If you are in the area...you should go!
Up until that point in the night, it was more or less a normal day. Did nothing at work, then drove back to philly to see jess. The humidity made it too damn sticky last night. I wanted to sleep but I could not get comfy enough to do so. When I was in middle school, I had a sticker of the first the GB album cover in my locker. I wonder if it is still there!

2005-06-28T19:18:00.000-05:00

Today I had to do some work at Pharm Ops, Inc. I am really happy I get to work there again. Most of the time I do not do too much, but when I do have to do work, I am very busy there. The people at Pharm Ops Inc. (my girlfriends parents) have really helped me out in the last year. I have no idea what I would have done without them, since I would have been out of a job the whole year. I worked there from last Aug till the middle of April then came back about a week ago to work the whole summer. During that time there were a ton of boring days, but they were tempered with two trips to Colorado. Colorado was awsome!
I really miss getting to see jess as much as I did while I was teaching, but it is only for a short amount of time. Soon enough I will be living in our apartment all the time.
I got to go mountain biking after work. I love to ride my bike(s) if you have not noticed. I do not get enough saddle time in. I always feel like I am slacking when it comes to riding my bikes. I tend to make up reasons why I can't ride that day, or why I should not. I guess I feel guilty since I do it all the time and talk about it more.
I went riding near the Lackawana state forest. It was on a trail that is normally used for snowmobiling. It was pretty rough, and there were a ton of down trees. I had a hike a bike experience out there. I wish there were more land available to Mountain bikers, but I guess I have to work at that with land owners and governments. The land that I was riding on is VERY light use. It may get heavy use in the fall with hunting season, but besides that, you will hardly ever find anyone else out on those trails, but they are closed to Mtn. Bikes. There are tons of arguments for and against riding bikes on state land, but it is a simple case of using the trails when they are fit, fixing them when they are damaged by weather or users, and making proper trails with good sight lines that do not endanger hikers, equestrians, or other bikers.
Mountain bike companies spend oceans of money to make bikes go fast and to advertise that as well. This helps the Mountain bike commnity be drawing people in, but conversly, it scares people away. Some people are very afraid of the idea of going too fast on a bike. Some people also belive that you need to be blazing through the woods on your bike. I love to go fast as hell, but often times, I would rather look for wildlife, or just enjoy the day.
Enough of my shared use rant for the day.
The rest of my day I spent just kind of hanging out. I went to my parents house and talked to some of my friends online. Then went over to my friends apartment. Megan, Kyle, and Justin live above the bar that Justin co-owns. It is always a good time hanging out with them. Kyle has been one of my best friends since I was in 4th grade, and is probably the funniest person alive. I have known Megan since I was in Kindergarten (she is the little sister to one of my friends from back then), and she is always good for comic releif.
After I got home from their apartment, my mom cut my hair. We did it at like 12am! It was so damn hot that she ended up just shaving my head instead of giving me some style. I like to have my head shaved, since there is less work trying to keep up with it.
Enough for today.

2005-06-27T19:17:00.000-05:00

Back to work is never fun, but what are you going to do? This Monday was a little bit better than every other Monday I work in Jersey, since I didnt have to drive to work! I was already at jess's parents house, so I took a ride in with her mom. Saves on gas for me! All I did was go to work

2005-06-24T19:16:00.000-05:00

Had to work in jersey today. I stayed at jess's parents house last night. After work I stopped and got some softserve at a place along my commute. It surly makes the commute go by better when there is icecream involved! I def want to make a movie about ice cream stands. You know everyone you go to has the same girls working there. Each of them has a position or a characater she plays for the summer, or her time working there. There is always the jock, the slut, the fat one, the one who wants to be different, the boy who is really trying to get some, the really smart one, the rich one, and a few others thrown in for good measure. My movie would totally follow them through their year from the closing of the icecream stand in September to the opening of it in April or whatever. It would be so much fun. Next time you stop to pick up soft serve...check it out and you will see what I mean.

Friday night we went to see Batman Begins in the IMAX theater. Def go see it there! It is totally worth it. It is a great place to see a movie, esp one this good. I am not even really a fan of dark movies, but this one was amazing.