Mountain Lion Defense

Well most of us have been in an environment where moutain lions exist, however, many of us have probably never seen one. Just in case a sighting occurs, this trusty sign just may be the ticket for a safe journey home.

New Photo Gallery Viewer

I've been tossing around the idea of putting photos into my own gallery viewer for awhile. It's been one of my many distractions from acadamia this past semester. Unfortunately I just haven't found any nice opensource viewers out there until now. I finally found one that works have way decent, has a good looking interface, and will store photos in a database. I must be picky or something though cause there are still many things about this viewer that I would also change. Franakly if I had the time, and the source code I just might do that. But for now I'm going to move forward with what I've got. I'm still now exactly sure how I want to organize them. I really should get my web page up and running, but I'd rather go pedal 50 miles than spend any more time behind this damn glowing screen. Click on the image above. To choose an album select choices in lower left-hand corner. Cheers.

Racing supports riding

It's been a couple months since I've really had time to clean my room. In an effort to maximize space I did a routine organizing which consists of grabbing things from the more central parts of the room and putting them as close to the walls as possible. This was mostly done so I could put my touring bike up on the trainer in hopes of getting to spin some miles soon. What I had realized at the time of my organizing tantrum was exactly what I titled this blog post. I had a rather large pile of swag, but even better than swag, useful things that actually enable me to get out and ride more. I've been running on a tight student budget for awhile now, been tromping with the same crankset on my mountain bike since 1999 (yup that's 10 years), a shamy that's three years old, and rims that are busting at the seams. Now I'm not one to rush out and get the lastest new hip bike gadgets, but I've definitely come to realize how upgrades can make my bike work a lot better, which only fuels my desire to go ride more. It's a sick cyclical cycle really. What I'm getting at is this, I have a pile of great stuff sitting here from a couple local bike races that I participated in which really helps an economically challenged dude like myself out. This is a BIG shout out to Vic at Team Bigfoot, Jennifer at Adventure's Edge, and all the folks up at Revolution for really making the cycling scene around here kick ass. Cheers.

Stomach Churn 2009

This weekend I got a break in from studying to participate in the 11th annual Stomach Churn bike race. The race has moved around throughout the years eventually landing at the current location for the last 8 or so. I have no idea what the previous race conditions were, but I do know what they are now. If the creators had foreseen into the future than they adequately named this event Stomach Churn. This was probably one of the hardest races I've ever done. Steep climbs nope. Crazy technical rock sections, nada. This race meandered through rolling cow pastures and cut through a small evergreen stand with pure intentions of making each rider work for each pedal stroke. In the end I finished pretty lousy from my norm, but probably had the most fun I've had at a race event. Typical with a lot of cyclocross races in the cross competition. Luckily for me my outfit more than made up for my inadequacies on the race track. I left with a couple sets of tires, a big bag of hammer gel, and some sore legs to remember it by. Thanks to all who participated and especially all those putting hard work into making the event a success! Click on the above pic for photos.

RESULTS

Paradise Royale Video

Section from Paradise Royale trail.