bombing tioga pass

was looking through some photos from this past summer and thought I post some craziness of Patrick and Ben bombing down Tioga Pass. Think the big wheels won, you are wrong. You would think with such larger wheels one would roll remarkably faster, but apparently I need to learn a little more about physics. Patrick is a National Champ long board racer and had no problems with speeds > 50 mph. Ben barely made 40 on his single speed, but then again skinny tires would've helped. you should see the faces on the people in the other lane!

snow in ARCATA!

Well with all the weather we've been getting I would have never guessed the white stuff would arrive. The temps were pretty mild during my morning bike ride, minus the winds, but soon after noon they dropped low enough to send some flurries down. Nothing stuck but it persisted for a good hour before moving on. I don't know the last time that has happened here in Arcata. Something to look up. Living right on the coast nearly at sea level it is quite rare in the immediate vicinity. However only a couple miles away an orographic effect occurs moving up the hills causing much more rain and snow to drop.

little bit of weather in the sierra

This is a webcam view from Tioga pass within Yosemite National Park. According to the radar and this picture, the Sierra are getting pounded right now. Looks like this winter is making up for the drought last year.

when it rains....

if you're going riding in humboldt county today wear rain clothes. if you haven't got a spare tube and you get a puncture, turn around and ride as fast as you can before the damn thing goes flat!

cycling masochism

..."The Lord God has given us this land. Go and possess it as he told us to. Don't be afraid! Don't even doubt"! (Deut. 1:21)
Ouch! Did this ride with a good buddy before school started. It took just over 5 hours and I suffered almost every minute of it. I haven't felt pain like that since Marquette. We ended it with a nice donut from Don's donuts, as every good ride should end.

Started my first botany class today. Going to be a bumpy yet aromatic road. I look through the text book and all I can think about is my buddy Tommy's scientific drawings. Absolutely amazing work. If you haven't gazed at his stuff you should stop what you're doing and do it right now. It's crazy to think about how much of the plant activity actually happens below ground where we can't even see it. Instead, we are surrounded by a sexual frenzy of color and scent; a desperate attempt by the plant to simply create more. And without even realizing it they supply us food for our stomachs, wood for our homes, fibers for our cloths, and rubber for our bicycle tires.

my world

A student receives his grade report from a local community college, but the GPA is smudged. He took the following classes: a 2 hour credit art, a 3 hour credit history, a 4 hour credit science course, a 3 hour credit mathematics course, and a 1 hour science lab. He received a “B” in the art class, an “A” in the history class, a “C” in the science class, a “B” in the mathematics class, and an “A” in the science lab. What was his GPA if the letter grades are based on a 4 point scale? (A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0)

when nature attacks

words of advice, be careful where you park your car.

To hasten growing add lights, lots of lights. To burn down your house don't ventilate.

Humboldt Bay

Sunset tonight over Humboldt bay only a few blocks from the house. Surrounded by thousands of birds who chasing the tide as if fills up the bay. I caught this couple just after a huge flock of Godwits removed themselves from my field of view. The bay is located right on the Arcata Marsh & Wildlife Sancutary doubling as one of the most innovative wastewater treatment facilities in the world. It's apparently one of the best places around for transients to crash, but as beautiful as the place is can one blame them?

Red Square

Alright you have to check out this Red-Square game. Put all those years of NES training to use and see how long you can last. At first you'll last less than a second. After that see if you can get past the 18 brilliant seconds.

Pedal

Going through my computer files trying to organize my digital data, I came across some old pics from projects of last semester. Thought I'd post this from a cartography project I did of a bike trip I took in 2002. Bird's eye view.

A soporific story

Reading a GRE elegy for my soul. Consuming every calorie enervating me to rubble. I have been castigated by the standardized american education system. So I can prove capable of their trickery? Or succumb and flag lowly at failure with $100 less in my tri-fold michael jackson wallet. Proving nothing of intelligence only proving capabilities of doing one thing, to pass the GRE. Learn the GRE to pass the GRE, end of story. Knowing this I lament choking on this mornings bean juice while staring at the grey humboldt skies. I guess the rain isn't so inviting so I'll again regale myself with this darn GRE.

Potter's Pics

This is a shot from a friend of mine by the name of Chris Potter. He is currently interning at The Grand Rapids Press in Grand Rapids, MI. I went to school with Chris at Northern Michigan University where I received my undergrad in Photography and he in Economics. He decided economics wasn't his gig and is now studying photojournalism where he is kicking butt. Click on the picture to check out his photo site displaying many nice shots he took for the paper.

Storm Watching

This was a storm that came through Arcata, CA on 12-03-07. I took a time lapse out my balcony window of the clouds while I was at class all day. The image above shows radar snapshots at one hour intervals from the storm. Wind gusts were > 40 mph.

Huggett Hill

Good ol' Huggett Hill as they call it. This is what happens when you finally get a real job, start paying a mortgage, and replacing the old with the new. Unfortunately time shut me down from seeing the completion of the new metal roof on 'La Finca,' but it was a grand time while it lasted.

This is how we roll, or I want to feed the puppets

Returning home for the holidays can always be packed full of monotonous days, or treasures found like this photo of "Phatdog" an old friends auto that included a little love on every inch of exposed surface. This crazy beast also had "switches," or hydraulics for the laymen, that would get this thing bumping like a small ship in a windstorm. For obvious reasons, I've never been in a vehicle that got more pictures taken of it while driving 70mph down the highway. Folks would do a triple take, climb in the back seat digging around for their Kodachrome, and slam the pedal to the metal to snap the rolling shot. I imagine this car in many scrapbooks nation wide. And the current situation of the car? Unfortunately I watched it burn. The hydraulics made a great scoop for pushing around autumn leaves as practical jokes, except the practical joke ended up against hot pipes causing the leaves to ignite. Good ol' Phatdog, sit, good boy.

Christmas bulbs and Chinese toys

Tis the season...

Alright I've created madness.

After spending some smiling time checking out a good friends BLOG I've decided to go for it. Here I can post recent (or not so recent) photos, and work in school that I spent way too much of my time on when I should've been out enjoying the beach wind or hitting the single track up in the woods. So feel free to let me know you've at least clicked on the link and spent your precious bandwidth on my BLOG.