Leaving

Why is it that in the month after I go to the MTC, Against Me!, Mountain Goats, Yelle, Dr. Dog, Fleet Foxes, Lagwagon have shows in Salt Lake City?


...and the Deron Williams Gold Medal party at Harry O's. Oh man!! That one is on the 20th. I can go after all, phew. I'll be content with just that one.

Two weeks to go

I hope missionary work doesn't turn out to be this hard...

Vina Del Mar

I stumbled upon these pictures of the city where at least my mission home will be.









Hopefully I'll have time to enjoy it and/or take pictures of my own.

New Favorite Favorite Favorite Video

Hitchhiker's Guide to Ogden Canyon

I did a ride yesterday from Kaysville up to Pineview Resevoir and Huntsville. Pretty fun, fairly hilly, and a bit of wind near some of the canyons. However, it was on the way home that got a tad hairy. Flat tire right at the top of Odgen Canyon, close to the turnoff to head to Eden and Liberty.

I waited about five minutes with my thumb out, and got a ride with an excavation guy who rode mountain bikes near there every weekend. He dropped me off at the nearest gas station and, not knowing I had a patch kit in my pack, I filled my tire temporarily in order to get to Bingham's. It being 9 o'clock at this point, the shop wasn't open for another hour or so. So! I patched my tube, walked a few blocks, bummed money off two other bums and filled my tire.

Proceeding to the Ogden train station, I boarded the train and shortly thereafter was cited for not having my transit pass on my person. Got off the train in Clearfield and rode the rest of the way home.

Those 55 miles only took my 6 hours! Hooray!

Sparton

Apparently, Chile boasts a custom track frame company, Sparton. Maybe that will be the drain of my $100US emergency fund and most likely quite a bit more. Only 200,000 Chilean pesos!

Dear Elder Millar

60.2

Finally posting the ride from Saturday. My longest yet and I am a little proud about it!

From south Kaysville up north and west to Antelope Island, the 60.2 mile loop took 3:24'20. Fixed gear, no brakes, no glasses, no jersey, boy scout shorts, and one drink of water. Hooray for bicycles!!

Hanging it up

As Logan Clifford so greatly expressed last night, there are several types of people who ride bikes. They include wide varieties of commuters, road racers and trainers, "young guns", fixed gear grown-ups with graphic design jobs, those who have to, and so on. Now, though I whole-heartedly agree with the iffy-ness of some riders, but I really do believe that more people are out on bikes of all kinds because it's fun, it's cheap, it's quiet, and it's very empowering. Now, this may sound like just another bike blog or a cycling-related post (which it is), but I hope to express that I love seeing three and four times more people on their bikes now than I did a year ago. I hope the trend is not. I hope it stays. I really do.


I found this comic from Jim Borgman on UrbanVelo.org and I thought I'd share.

One Theory on Why Nishiki Went Out of Business

I just couldn't pass up passing this along. The following is a post by Jeff at Urban Velo.


Perhaps magazine ads like the one pictured to the left were in part responsible for the Japanese bike brand’s untimely demise…

Alleycat and Film Festival

These are a bit late, but included below are photos from the Alley Kitten alleycat and the 5th Annual Bicycle Film Festival at the Depot that followed. Enjoy!

P.S. Davey won this alleycat, too, which puts him 2-0 for the "season". Congrats.

Frenzy!

A blog frenzy in the last 24 hours, I swear! Phew! Oh well. If only someone read this regularly, then they could be as bored as I am!!!

On this day (21 May) in history...


Happy Birthday, Notorious B.I.G. This is just how I always remember him. And Mr. Combs. And Mase. Ahhh, Mase.

Happy Independence Day, Montenegro! You're home to the Casino Royale (at least in the film)!

Happy Birthday, Al Franken! Rush Limbaugh and Bill O. still don't like you. Tough luck.

Happy Anniversary, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. I'm sorry the wedding gift is 63 years late.


Does anyone wish to see this continue as a regular thing, or should I mix it up everyday? I mean, look at this last week's posts: photography, bicycles, little bicycles, history lessons! Next week could hold untold amounts of surprise. Such as real, embedded photographs (one of these days I'll have the patience), movie trivia, and celebrity gossip news. The latter, of course, will be included. I mean, do you know me at all?

Cynicism aside, I'm going to bed. Good night!

Electronical

I have had very little to do for the last 36 hours, so most of my time has either been spent playing soccer, relaxing with Elizabeth, or riding Gwenevire (pictures later). But I did come across this trailer for the new Odyssey BMX Co.'s film Electronical. So, here's the film. To those more informed than me, I know the film was released months ago, but being away from the BMX scene for two years doesn't yield me much up-to-the-minute action. So! Enjoy the soundtrack and amazing cinematography of the trailer!


ODYSSEY Electronical HD trailer from BMX Avenue on Vimeo.

I'm running late!!

This video's awesomeness is only amplified by the dubbing. Wouldn't a Jackie Chan-themed race be fun though? Enjoy:



"Why don't you use your brakes?"
"Hey, I am using 'dem."

classic.

Photography

I got a roll from my Canon TX back last week, and thought I'd share it here as well as on flickr.com. If you'd like to check it out, the link is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/longskull/

Thanks for everything! I hope you enjoy them.

Short blog

Being without a personal computer, and relying completely on the library's 60 minute time limit, most of the blogs from here on out will be shorter than most. Hopefully I can being to use my Mother's computer again for photo and video embedding and other fancy things like that.

So, as a recap of the weeks since my previous post, I finished school, made some money, rode the new train, and began my mission papers!!

Hopefully they'll be done soon and I'll be abroad within a matter of months, so check back often and look for a post entitled something like "Mission Call" or "Dublin Ireland!" (Hopefully.) As for now, I'm off to stuff entry bags for the Salt Lake Century taking place this Saturday.

Have a good day and thank you for reading.

P.S. The fact that Elizabeth is riding her bike more often now makes me very happen. Just an FYI.

a year.

it's been almost a year since my last post and a lot has changed. i'm thinking of keeping this up as much as i can before i leave on my mission in a few months, and maybe periodically while abroad as well. if no one reads this, then it's just a place to write things down, lest i forget. secondly, if people do read it, but don't leave comments, then i hope it somehow helps them, or keeps them from boredom, or teaches them something about me or about life. lastly, if people do comment and take something from it, then i'll consider it a bi-partisan success!!! i sure hope for the latter.

so. since spring/summer of 2007 i have:

1. become committed and extremely vested in a relationship with a wonderful woman.
2. made a lot of mistakes, some of which still need working out.
3. started school at the university of utah.
4. completely two semesters, and so far 50 credits, at the university of utah.
5. visited california four times.
6. been to a funeral.
7. listened to a lot more music and bought a new turntable.
8. ridden my bike 5000+ miles.
9. become heavily involved in the salt lake city bicycle scene.
10. joined and participated on bicycle advisory, transportation, and community service boards and organizations.
11. lived without a phone for a month or so.
12. lived without a car for 9 months.
13. grown a lot.
14. lived alone.
15. made wonderful friends with tremendous amounts or humor and wit.
16. hopefully helped at least one person with one thing.
17. attended a student ward.
18. become a bicycle messenger (and subsequently put on standby)
19. had 3 jobs: albertsons grocery, salt city couriers, jason's deli.
20. seen my sister graduate from BYU in nursing and international development.

it has been a very productive year and one that i will mark as my most successful, fun, interesting, difficult, learned years. i hope this next year brings many more opportunities to help people and become more involved in my community, as well as more chances to write frequently here and elsewhere.

thank you.

www.saltcycle.com
www.ubike.org
www.slcbikecollective.com
www.superradcliff.blogspot.com
www.flickr.com/photos/longskull

-Tom