today's

~t

seasonal

This morning Boulder awoke to a thin veneer of ice coating every leaf and blade exposed to the sky, looking like we had been attacked overnight by someone set on varnishing the earth. Actually this is quite a nice change from the 70 degree days we've been getting... not to say that 70 degree weather isn't nice, but it is currently November in Colorado. My chilly bike ride to work this morning, for which I swaddled myself in fleece and down whilst slurping my coffee with one hand, took me past the same cop who wrote me a citation yesterday. This morning he was writing another bike-commuter a citation... as I rode past and gave the other biker a knowing look, I raised my coffee cup to the officer and reiterated what he told me yesterday, "keep one hand on the bar!".

more importantly, I also rode past a blackberry stand that I stopped at and snapped this picture of. A nice image of what this season should really look like.

~t

Picture Rock

Be sure to watch the high-quality version on youtube (just click the video when it's playing)... this is shot over the last couple of days. Trail crews of volunteers built this trail with the guidance and support of BMA and IMBA, and Boulder OSMP.

~t

My living room...

This was my living room, as it appeared this afternoon. Ridiculous. The silver bike in the stand has a cracked frame (the downtube is cracked across the primary pivot mount) so all the parts are getting transferred to the SC Nomad in the background... it's about time anyway. My one roommate who doesn't really ride was sitting in the midst of this disarray this evening and said he thought it was 'pretty cool' when I apologized for the mess. For the rest of you riding fools, living in these conditions is so-so, but it's much better when you have a two-car garage for the 'fleet'.



~t

rattlesnake gulch

This is pretty shaky, but I uploaded a much higher quality version compared to the first one... sorry but shaky's what you get with a 54mm lens (the 170 degree wide-angle would solve that) but you can still get a sense of how loose and rocky this trail is. I am still searching for a really ideal trail to film from top to bottom... these clips are kind of test runs... hopefully by the spring I'll have a good plan for a trail shoot. BTW, notice the 8-point buck that was on the trail at the bottom!

~t

launch

This is just a small step-down from one of the parking lots on campus... there's a bit of a booter to the take-off but the tranny is pretty shallow so it's not really a good idea to hit it with too much speed... you'll huck to flat and wipe on the concrete that's right at the bottom of the hill. For those of you not fluent in bikebrolingo: this hill drops off after a parking lot. There is a bit of a lip at the edge, so if you hit it too fast you will overshoot the smooth landing and that would be bad.

~t

Eldorado Canyon

~t

too funny.

Whazzup!!! This was a Budweiser commercial in 2000... the redux is awesome...





~t

Amazing...

We, as young people, are hungry for this chance at choosing the direction we want for our country, and the chance to shape the face we show to the rest of the world. This generation, my generation, faces eagerly for the first time forward into the uncertain future, knowing that we will be tested but certain of our ability to meet any challenges ahead. Like Barack says, "there is nothing false about hope", and we have shown this already. We will try, in the coming years, to bring change and support progress as best we can, so that everyone's hopes have a chance to be realized. Now is a time for peace, for unity, and for strength. My own hope is for all the people who feel as I do to realize that what we have won in this historic election is not change... but a chance to be a part of change, to participate in our own future, and to nurse and grow this nation back into what we think it should be. Our home, and a home to all those who want what we want... not to be rich, or consume everything in sight, but to live together and work together to ensure for future generations the same opportunities and freedoms that have been provided for us.

~t

Yes, We Can.

If you're still bitter after listening to this, there's always four years from now. In the meantime however, deal with it. Congratulations President Obama. We HAVE chosen to change. Yes, We Can.

~t

Republicans and Voter Fraud

WHY is it, every time I hear about a voter fraud scandal, it's in the form of an attack against democratic voters perpetrated by (presumably) conservative "citizens".

Note: I've separated the word "citizens" here because in my view (and that of various philosophical thinkers) a true citizen is someone who contributes constructively to their society... in some political models citizenship is only earned through service. People who practice voter fraud are not citizens; these people do just as much damage to our democracy as any militant terrorist could.

The latest fraud-scandal comes in the form of bogus text-messages telling Obama supporters to wait until tomorrow (AFTER election day) to cast their votes to avoid long lines. Personally I think the FBI (and CIA) should extradite whichever abjectly loathsome (again, presumably) republican schmucks that sent the messages to Gitmo to be forcibly interrogated and indefinitely detained.

~t