Sasquatch!

You all know that classic Sasquatch film right? Where it's walking by some trees and turns to look at the camera for a second and then keeps walking. It's really blurry and grainy, and shaky. I think last June I spotted him again. This time he was in my parents' driveway, and he was riding a unicycle around me in circles. Yep, it was either the Sasquatch, or it was my brother caught on old, degraded film. One of the two.

Hold Still!

This is the first of two mini-posts I have coming. I’m working on posting all of my remaining pictures from 2010 and I always kind of liked the one of the cat, but never really enough to post it on Flickr; the eyes freaked me out a little. Last year I snapped a picture of my cousin Matthew, and wouldn’t you know, he turned his head precisely as I was pressing the shutter. I don’t have any other pictures like this, so a full post isn’t warranted, but I did want to post what I had. Why did Matthew turn his head? I have no idea. Why did Lucky turn her head? The shutter startled her (she’s kind of a spaz).

1722 MPG

That’s the miles per gallon equivalent my dad’s electric bike gets, based on the EPA’s conversion calculation. Of course, the battery won’t actually last long enough to go that far on a charge, but that’s what the numbers say.

My dad built this bike this spring, basically from nothing. He put together all the components based on his research and it runs like a dream. It’s a blast to ride too. He used a relatively small motor, so the speed will max out at 20 mph, which is plenty for a bicycle and right where he wanted it (although it would be sweet to have it faster). After you hold the throttle where you want it for a number of seconds the cruise control kicks in and you’re really rollin’. He mainly uses this bike for running errands and really loves it.

The only thing he’s not sure about is the frame it’s on. He’s not all that comfortable on the mountain bike frame so he’s thinking of swapping all the components over to a classic 3 speed which would give him an upright riding position. I think it’s a great idea and would look really cool on that kind of frame. Maybe someday I’ll build one of these, but I need to build a fixie first. This is a really cool bike.

Fu Manchu

Let me tell you a little something about myself. I listen to a lot of podcasts. Some are just funny and entertaining, like The Grapes of Rad, TBTL, and Jordan Jesse, GO!, but some are informational and provide a good learning opportunity. Lately I've been doing a lot of driving to Oklahoma for work, so I've had a lot of time to listen in the truck. One of the best informational podcasts is Radio Lab, produced by WNYC. It's entertaining and funny, while still being very informative. I listened to a particularly good one a couple days ago about a very sneaky orangutan. I don't want to give away the good stuff, but this episode was particularly entertaining; everything from the actual story, to Jerry, the head zoo keeper they interviewed. My favorite quotes from him were when he called Fu Manchu (the star of this story) an "ol' boy" and when he described one of Fu's female friends as "a big, heavyset girl." It's a good episode and it's a "short" which isn't a full episode. If you have 12 minutes to spare, give it a listen; it's a pretty good story.

Check out this episode here: Fu Manchu

And now for my orangutan! He didn't pull anything like Fu did, but he seems to have an attitude towards people. The guy was just laying there giving me the finger! How rude is that? Although we've got him locked up in this cage, so that's kind of rude too. I'd probably give people the finger too if they came by and stared at me all day and I couldn't go outside because it was cold. I've always liked great apes, chimps in particular. Orangutan's are pretty great too though. Especially Fu Manchu, and this guy. Just look at those eyes!

WSU Baseball

Last time I was in Wichita I had a little time to kill one afternoon, so I grabbed my camera and wandered down the block to Eck Stadium at Wichita State University.  I grew up just a block from this stadium and have watched countless games there.  In high school I even went to a few WSU baseball camps and played some games there.  They have a good baseball program historically, but I think their longtime coach has sort of lost it the last few years and the team is suffering as a consequence.

I wanted to try something a little different with this photograph.  Sometimes new perspectives don't work very well, but I like what I got with this one.  I figure the only way I can grow and improve my photography is by trying new things.

Summer!

Well it's finally warming up around here, after what seemed like an eternity of winter. Although I enjoy the winter, I mostly enjoy it in Colorado while skiing. I much prefer the summer, so I'm pretty happy it's warming up. I'm fairly certain that I need to just move to somewhere in Florida. Somewhere in Florida that is Sarasota or one of the keys right there. Now all I have to do is win the lottery. If I was going to live there I doubt I'd want to do any actual real work.

There isn't much to explain about this photo or about anything I did in post-processing this photo because it is basically straight from the camera. I did a very little bit of color and exposure adjustment in Photoshop and I cropped it a bit, but other than that it's just how I took it. To me this photo exemplifies summer. A bright blue sky, bright green grass, and of course, the clothes line.