see story run

Dirtbike Fun

chris — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:24:57 +0000

Here are a couple of videos of my riding buddies and I. The first video was done by my good friend Oliver and includes a lot of me on my new bike. The 2nd video is a real short clip showing some funny oops moments.

New Dirtbike!

chris — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:28:59 +0000

I splurged a little and went out and bought a new 2012 KTM 500 xc-w. Its more powerful and lighter than my previous bikes, which were all “dual sport” kinds of things. This is a real dirtbike that’s had the minimum done to make it street legal. I took it off roading this weekend and it was amazing.

The video below is probably boring for most, it was mainly done for the benefit of anyone interested in this particular bike. I know while I was waiting for mine to come in at the dealer I couldn’t get enough video of the thing, so hopefully someone will enjoy it.

Arkansas Adventure Ride 2010

chris — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 07:40:01 +0000

A quick 3 day October weekend trip with my buddy Oliver on motorcycles. We decided to do a little exploring in the national forests of Arkansas on this particular weekend. Great weather, great roads, and lots of fun, naturally. Again, I’ve focused on action shots here, I’m not sure if I am getting better at these, but I am learning.

You can read our ride report over at Adventure Rider here. It includes the full details of our trip, including maps and GPS files. It also has all of Oliver’s pictures as well. My name on the forum is “child”, Oliver is “enderthex”.

Colorado Adventure Ride 2010

chris — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 03:48:25 +0000

Vacation on two wheels in the mountains of Colorado. My good friend Oliver and I decide a week of camping and mountain passes would be just what the doctor ordered. We stick mainly to mountain jeep roads in the San Juan Mountains near Silverton. I tried to carry my motorsports photo experience over to taking pictures while on the trail. I tried to focus on panning and action pictures more so than landscapes.

You can read our ride report over at Adventure Rider here. It includes the full details of our trip, including maps and GPS files. It also has all of Oliver’s pictures as well. My name on the forum is “child”, Oliver is “enderthex”.

2010 UTA FSAE TX Autocross Weekend

chris — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:12:08 +0000

Autocross is driving around cones against the clock. Every year the UTA FSAE team invites other FSAE teams down to Texas to take part in a 2 day autocross extravaganza. I haven’t been on the team in a few years, but had been invited to drive after doing a few repairs. In between driving I snapped a few pictures.

If you’re in one of these pictures let me know if you want a bigger version. If you’re not in any of the pictures above and you drove that weekend, let me know. There are many more pictures that aren’t posted.

Old Queen

chris — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:39:24 +0000

Looking around this old house I’ve got there are lots of little interesting details. I decided to not watch TV for a night and take a few pictures. Nothing special, just some old bits with some character. It helps that I’m not one for the cold and it’s been pretty cold here the last few days.

Space Shuttle Endeavour – last night launch

chris — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:14:35 +0000

2010 marks the end of the space shuttle program. I had never seen a launch and it is one of those things I told myself I’d see. So a buddy of mine and I, along with the help of his wife conspired to converge in Florida for the February 7th launch, which would also happen to be the last night launch. Oh joy!

-1200 miles from Texas to Orlando Florida, check.
-4 hours in line to get to the causeway, check.
-3 more hours of waiting, check.
-no go due to low cloud cover, check.

Wait whaaaat? The first night was insane. There were SO many people there to see this thing go, I could not believe it. We estimated there were at least 5000 people on the causeway via bus alone, not to mention the thousands of folks watching from further away public locations. It was PACKED. No technical issues were being worked on all night, only issue was the threat of low cloud cover which would make an emergency landing back at Kennedy Space Center dangerous. Weather went from 80% go one hour before launch, down to 30% go at the 9 minute hold. Feb. 7th launch was scrubbed.

Should we do it again? We drove 1200 miles and waited in line and in the cold for no reason? I think not! So we foolishly sign up again for the next night. Rinse repeat, except NO crowds. Between the superbowl and it being a Monday morning thing instead of a weekend launch, the crowds were gone. We got to relax and actually visit Kennedy Space Center, it was a much more peaceful night. Once out to the causeway, the weather looked worse, however it was less dynamic. Weather remained 60% go all night until the 9 minute hold. Clouds thinned out, polling took place, everyone is go for launch! This thing is going! 1200 miles, 2 nights of waiting for a few minutes of glory, it was worth it, the sights and sounds are amazing. There is still time to see a shuttle launch, if you can make it to Florida for one of the 4 remaining, I highly recommend going.

I’ll shut up now and show you the pictures. These pictures were taken from the NASA Causeway viewing area, roughly 7 miles from the shuttle. I’m using my sigma 500mm lens zoomed all the way in, all settings were on manual. The atmosphere didn’t allow for any stellar pictures, but I didn’t care really. I had it setup on my tripod with remote shutter in hand, I wasn’t going to watch this through the camera. I just waited for sparks to fly and clicked away until it was out of the camera’s view. If you were to look at 100% crops of these you would see there are NO strait lines. Even with your bare eyes you could see the shuttle flickering in the distance. I believe it was worse than normal due to air temps in the low 40′s and water temps in the 70′s. So I’m shooting across 7 miles of heat waves basically. Anyhow, pictures:

UPDATE!
The fellow I went with just uploaded the video he took using a few of his camera’s to the youtubes! Enjoy:

Toilets are Deadly!

chris — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:42:37 +0000

So the girlfriend and I are babysitting her 11 year old nephew (one radical dude) Bryson, who is in to making videos for the youtubes. We’re sitting around after some tasty lunch and decide to make a short little film. Bryson calls his friend Mason over and we scheme a little story together and are on our way to youtubedom. Exclusive video inside!

Bryson is one talented dude, he’s into all sorts of geeky things like videos, html, visual basic, and much more all on his own. He’s self taught in almost everything he does, which is pretty amazing to me. He’s got his grubby fingers in photoshop, vegas, after effects… its crazy and this kid is going places.

If you like what you see and want more, Bryson (bbabybry) and Mason (mrtshirt21) have youtube accounts, they post silly videos often and will be posting more I am sure.

My involvement in this video was pretty minor, I had the initial idea for the plot and Bry and Mason took off from there. Anyways, enough babbling, ON WITH THE SHOW!

Justice is Done!

chris — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:39:49 +0000

Jump in the fire! We found a house, made an offer, and closed! Ups and downs abound, a few weeks late- but done! Supposedly it went smoothly, it was still emotionally exhausting. I’ll spare you the details of the buying process; lets cut to the meat of this hush puppy-

Built 1945 – added onto in the 50′s & 60′s

~1800 square feet

3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living areas

large garage

large corner lot with big, old trees

pool

character-a-plenty

This is part of a work log documenting the victories and failures of the queen’s empire.
Read more about the house here »

I introduce to you- THE HOUSE!

The house isn’t perfect, but that’s part of the appeal. There is a lot of room for updating, the lady we bought it from had lived there since she and her husband had it built in the 40′s, which is nice. There are some problem areas with some minor/major wood rot that need to get addressed pretty quick, but its been kept up well over all. The electrical is another area that is a little scary. I think her husband was a bit of an electrical hobbyist, as there are signs of an old rather Rube Goldberg alarm system and possibly an old DIY 1960′s style sprinkler system, though we’re not sure exactly. Lots of extension cords plugged into extension cords plugged into 6 port expanders plugged into light sockets. One room’s wall outlets were actually powered by an extension cord that ran into the room next to it.

Anyhow, be sure to keep checking back, as I will be adding posts on interesting items found in the house and projects we take on.

Circles, Running in

chris — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:36:26 +0000

Quick update on the lack of updates. In the last few months I have been trying to buy a house which has been pretty interesting and emotionally crazy, both the ups and downs. It has also sucked up a lot of free time, an amazing amount of time/energy actually. I’ve put an offer in on a place in Fort Worth, if the loan goes through I should close on the 25th of Sept. I have also moved out of the house I was renting, so until there is closure on the new house front I am “homeless”, or squatting with my parents and friends. I did get a chance to goto the MotoGP race in Indianapolis at the end of August, it was great. Lots and lots of motorcycles there, good racing and photos galore. I have a lot of photos to go through and upload here from MotoGP and other trips. Anyhow, still alive over here, just busy. Look for images from recent trips soon.