Welcome Old Man Winter!

I am so excited that it snowed today! It has been too long since we've had any snow, so it was about time. The resorts need it, the valley needed it to blow out the inversion, we all needed it! I got so excited I just had to snap some pics on the way home today. So enjoy...

What I should and shouldn't do...

I know I should be working on my essays for medical school, but I couldn't help myself when I watched this video.

How cool is that?! And yes, it's a bike ala cargobike

Thanks to The Bakfeits Cargobike blog for the video. So go over there and poke around a bit, it's a great blog.

Hmm, I wonder which one rides?

I just love shots like this. Anybody care to make a wager at which one might be the cyclist?

Bloggers I want to know

I just posted about bloggers that I know, now here are the bloggers that I'd like to meet!

1001 Albums
Clever Cycles
Bakfiets Cargobike
Bakfiets en Meer
Copenhagen Cycle Chic
Energy Rush
Engadget
Fields of Fuel
Hug the Trees
Inhabitat
Kate Benson Photography
Land Living
MassTransit Mag
Moco Loco
Modular Cabin
Need a Carectomy?

Again, if you would like me to remove your link from my blog, let me know.

Bloggers I Know

****UPDATE****
Some of my friends that used to be listed here have since become worried about who sees their blogs. This is a valid concern, and I want to help them as much as possible to maintain their privacy. So I have removed all the links to my friends' blogs unless they want their blog to appear here (please comment if you want your blog linked in this post). The main reason that I have removed them is that when I created my blog, I wanted it to be a public place to show off my photography and my other interests. I still want my blog to be public and I love when people that I don't know make relevant, respectful comments on my blog. I hope anyone who visits will comment on at least one post. That being said, if any of my friends (you know who you are) want your blog linked here on my blog, just let me know because the more the merrier! I have edited the rest of the post below to reflect this.

****Original Post (adjusted accordingly to reflect the update above)****
You will now see one link on the side of my blog referencing the "Bloggers I know." That link will take you to this post and I will update this post as more of my friends enter the blogosphere in the future. First off, if you got to this blog (Brad's) and thought you were going to Gina's blog, please go here.

Now here's the (drastically shortened) list of "Bloggers I know":

in the eternal words of Michael Scott, "drum roll... rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

Christmas!!
Cyclesmith
NetDocuments
Wifey

Panorama-bama

Since I got back from Chicago, I've been swamped with tests. Tonight I could finally breathe for a bit so I decided to do some Photoshop stitching. Here are two panoramas from the sun deck at the Thomas' condo building in Chicago. As has been posted by Gina and Alex, me and Andy were a bit camera happy while we were there. It was great having Andy there because he actually understands the whole bit. So on to the panoramas. Click on the thumbnails for the full effect.

Day Time

Night Time

More pics to come as I get more time to look them over and blog about them.

Fine Print: Remember, these photos are copyrighted and can not be reproduced without my permission.

Emily and Kameron

I usually don't take many "people photos" but when Emily approached me and asked if I would take their engagement pictures I jumped at the chance for a bit of practice. They were awesome to work with and it seemed like they felt comfortable, so that added a lot to the way the pictures turned out. Some slight photoshop techniques were used, but the majority of each photo is as I took them. Check them out here

And, here's a teaser to get you to actually click on the link above

Subscribe now!

While that may sound like a sales pitch for a magazine subscription, it is actually referring to subscribing for email updates to my blog. It's a new subscription option on the blog and makes it easier to know about new posts without needing to check the blog until I post something. See the link in the top-left corner to subscribe, or just click here > Blog Email Updates

That is all.

Reincarnation

My late 60's model Bottecchia steel-framed bike has been through a number of incarnations. I'm sure that since the late 60's until the latest few incarnations, there are even some that I don't know about. Judging from the way I found the bike, I'm sure it has quite the history. It is named after Ottavio Bottecchia, the first Italian winner of the Tour de France clear back in 1924. His death is still mysterious and his legendary status was preserved into the last half of the 20th Century by the bicycle company bearing his name. The model that I have is the model that was ridden by the 1966 "Campione del Mondo" (World Champion). So, back in the heyday, it was quite the bike... Nice polished chrome lugs, lightweight steel frame tubes, and classic geometry. Regarding the time between the year it was built and 2005 (when I found it), who knows the stories that it could tell. Even Greg Lemond won one of his Tours de France on a Bottecchia bike in 1989. What more can I say, it's got heritage!

Despite it's proud heritage and not unlike many other 60's-70's era bikes, I found the bike in my Uncle Stu's garage one day when we were over there for a family get-together. Another bike, a Gitane, also caught my eye, but it was too small for me. The Bottecchia was dust covered with faded paint and some of the chrome was pitted and had a rust sheen to it. Most of that cleaned right up with a little TLC and some elbow grease. When I found the bike, it didn't have anything exept the frame, fork, handlebar/stem, and a crank. I figured it would be the perfect bike to reincarnate as a fixed gear. (see here for the bike in "fixte form")

The fixie worked great and was a blast to ride, but I ran into some problems. The main one is that I live 1,000 feet above the valley floor and there are some brutally steep hills that I have to ride to get home. Sometime I would need to ride it a couple of times a day. With a geared bike this is no problem, but with a fixie, it gets a bit tiresome. Not to mention going back down you have to keep pedaling the whole way because you can't coast on a fixie. I did gain a love for fixed gear bikes and really wish there was a velodrome around here to race on. If we ever live somewhere flat, I'll definitely be riding a fixie around again.

Velodrome

Continuing on, I decided the life of the Bottecchia as a fixie was over. I needed some gears and a freewheel (to coast). I didn't like the look of a deraileur and all the clutter that comes along with it, and I didn't want a single speed because that would still only leave me with one gear going up and the same gear coming down. So, for me, I fell in love with the planetary gears of an internally geared hub. This allowed me to keep the clean chainline of a fixed gear or single speed but still have 7 speeds to choose from. I decided on the Shimano Nexus 7-speed and Cyclesmith happened to have one. I picked it up and started the task of reincarnation. This included adding brakes, re-lacing the rear wheel, and installing the shifter mechanism. Today was the re-inaugural ride and she rode and handled like a champ! Now enjoy some pics of her in the current state.

PHOTOSHOP!!

Since my birthday is coming up, I was trying to figure out what I wanted. That is always a tough call for me because I want too much stuff. (Gina says I have too many hobbies) The problem with my hobbies are that they're expensive ones. Bikes (of all kinds), photography, computers, skiing, cars, Land Rovers, etc. You just can't get away with having one of those hobbies for very cheap. Maybe I should re-start my bug collection...

At any rate, since my birthday is in October and it's not as fun to bike in the winter, (and winter is coming soon!) photography was the next best hobby to feed. So, since the new Photoshop CS3 Extended is like $1000 new and it's only $192 for students, I decided on that!

And boy is this software amazing! I know it's just work for you graphic artists, but for me it's a lot of fun.