Nico’s

That’s right! This Saturday, July 19th, the Atomiks are playing at Zephyr. It’s a fundraiser show for our Burning Man camp: Atomikamp, aka The Fallout Shelter. It’s only $5, and good times shall be had by all.
Tell your friends, and see you there!

With the permission of “Hans”, I re-post this:

Have you noticed an increase of bicycle riders in our streets? It is almost dramatic! Hot August Nights brings a lot of focus on fuel driven vehicles. This could be an excellent time and opportunity to the public aware of the wholesome, healthy alternative of bike riding. There finally seems to be a growing alertness and readiness to act by our authorities. If we could motivate a thousand folks to participate in the Hot August Bike Ride it could just make the statement to propel our authorities to make riding safer in our area with appropriate biking facilities.

While Critical Mass rides have their values, to transcend them we have requested Reno city government support and police escort.

How?
Join the Hot August Bike Ride on 8/8, 6 PM at the West Street Market (West St. between 1st and 2nd Streets) in downtown Reno.

Why?

• To help raise the consciousness for bike riding as a wholesome, ecological transportation alternative.
• To make a statement to our authorities for more and better biking lanes and paths, for biking education in schools and corresponding law enforcement.
• For greater health.
• For fun and camaraderie.

Who?
Anyone who can ride a bike is welcome to join!

I went ahead and re-posted it also on Facebook, as an event. Click here to check it out and RSVP if you’re cool like that. Or, you know, you can just show up.

I will.

The Great International Chicken Wing Society brought to Reno a cookoff, and I had to go check it out.

I was surprised to find that a few of the booths were closed (or even gone) for lunch time, but there was still plenty to be seen and tasted. All the chicken wing booths offered a $2 sampler of 4 pieces. Dani and I walked from one end to the other, making sure we tried every single one.
The sun was hitting, the temperature was rising… and not only outside, but inside! Some of the wings were super spicy. Wait, some? Most! The only one that wasn’t spicy was one with garlic and honey, which was delicious. Nevertheless, my favorite were the ones from “Havin’ an Affair“. After the sampler tour, I came back and ordered a dozen wings. Each individual wing wasn’t hot, but after a few, a dragon ball was starting to come together in my mouth.
Now, maybe you didn’t know this about me, but my head sweats a lot when I eat something spicy. This was no exception, and I ended up pretty soaked after my little lunch adventure.

Sadly, I missed the contest being held at 3pm: See how many wings you can stuff in your face in a few minutes. I doubt I would have been competition to hambeasts like Willie Davison though.

I’ve been back from Lake Powell for almost a week, and it’s taken me a while to write about it because I find it hard to explain.
On Sunday morning, the houseboat was loaded and we departed from Whaweap Marina. The weather was excellent, and so was the forecast: blue skies, temperatures in the 90s.
After a couple of hours of cruising through the lake, we picked out a “shore”, and anchored the houseboat. Shortly after, it was play time! People set out to go fishing, hiking, swimming, jet-skiing, wakeboarding and tubing. And of course, there was plenty of time for relaxing, playing card games and reading… but most of my time was spent in the 1st group of activities, doing things!
I wakeboarded for my 1st time. On the first go, the force of the boat pulling me ripped the handle out of my hands before I could get up. On the second one, I held on to it a little bit tighter and was able to get up. What a rush! Turn to the left: check. Turn to the right: eehh… sorta. “I can do this”, I thought to myself, and I was mentally ready to start jumping across the wake. Of course I fell, but I was eventually able to land a couple of small jumps, which was absolutely thrilling.
Tubing was also a lot of fun. Dani’s dad, Rick, made the experience very unique, making scary sounds as he skillfully maneuvered the boat as to make waves. He particularly enjoyed making a left turn when I was on the right side, and having me experience at least 3Gs of centrifugal force while trying to hold on to an inflatable object. Sometimes I’d let go, and I would roll above the water at least twice, before sinking in. I was laughing pretty heartily once I came out.

It turns out a houseboat trip is a monumental planning effort, and Dani’s family have had some practice at it. There was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes, but it never got in the way of the vacation spirit. We had incredibly complex meals for a boat, but they all made it look easy. The planning for this must have been overwhelming, but it all paid off, because I think it was a fantastic trip.
Lake Powell is beautiful. At times, the wind dies down and once the lake settles down, it reflects like a mirror. Dani took a lot of pictures of this, and she’s putting together some landscape composite shots that are pretty incredible. Maybe I’ll get her to put them on the internets, and I’ll post a link.
While we were there, the water level was rising at an average of 9 inches a day, so the water only got a bit warmer. It was cold at times, but it was never too cold to enjoy.

To sum it up: I loved Lake Powell! I look forward to another opportunity to visit this land of canyons, scenery and dinosaurs.
Now, here’s a picture of Dani and I, with the anchored houseboat behind us.


A slideshow of all the pictures Dani and I took can be seen if you click here.

In a few hours, I will be heading out to Lake Powell (In the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area).
Dani has a family tradition of going there every summer, and I’m joining in for this one. She’s been talking about this trip for months, and I’m really looking forward to it. Awesome lake? Check. Weather forecast? Check! (Sunny every day, highs in the low 90s) Water sports? Check! We’ll be jet-skiing, tubing, wakeboarding, swimming, and fishing (not a sport!). On top of that, I’m looking forward to hiking around the cool rocks, taking lots of pictures, and getting to chill out for a whole week.
That’s right. I’m leaving today, and I’ll be back on Saturday the 21st. I’ll be totally disconnected from the web, my phone, and work.

This great YouTube series of videos is my current favorite internet “thing”.
The premise is: back in 1968, Alrugo Entertainment filmed an italian action-adventure movie. It was deemed “un-viewable” by italian distributors and never released or shown.
The only 35mm print of the film was lost at sea, but it was recently recovered. Alrugo Entertainment now releases the film through YouTube, one bit a week.
The “production” does give the cheap, cheesy sense of it being an old movie. Or at least, it does for me, because I haven’t seen too many movies from that time. Regardless, it’s awesome. And that’s what matters right now.
Here is the trailer:

And if you go here, you can must see all the episodes.

Official results are in! We took 5th place in mixed and 13th overall. Not bad!
The team, Venetian Skunk, took off from Reno at 3pm. My turn to run came up for Leg #8 a little bit after 8pm. I was excited, and I was off on the road at dusk.
After about two miles into my section of the course, my legs started cramping. Thoughts of “oh shit” ran through my head, so I slowed down just a bit and tried to relax. I had a long ways to go, and not only on this section, but on the rest of the race!
Soon enough, both my legs felt like wires with ants crawling through them. My left one, particularly, was in pain. From my toes to my knee, it felt like it was all one piece: no joints, no muscle. Just one huge mass of pain.
I ran through Truckee, huffin’ and puffin’. I was almost there! At the roundabout, I almost went the wrong way, but I eventually got to the exchange point and ended my leg. I was in extreme pain, but I had this huge rush: I completed my first 4.8 miles in 42 minutes. A whopping 6.85 mph was my speed, which definitely put me as the slowest runner in my team. However, I never once walked, which was one of my goals (the other goals included not dying, being run over by a lifted truck or swallowed by a bear).
After Jason finished his leg at Homewood, the six runners that were in my van were done for at least 3 hours. It was midnight when we arrived at the exchange point in South Lake Tahoe, and we tried to get some rest. The temperature was 36 degrees, and most of the team slept on the ground of the Raley’s parking lot, in sleeping bags. I curled up inside the van’s passenger seat.
I wasn’t able to sleep much, but I was at least laying down and resting my legs. I didn’t want my legs to cramp up anymore, so I did something I hadn’t done in over ten years: I ate bananas. Two fresh, ripe and smelly bananas. My body was craving the potassium, so I put behind my self-imposed dislike of the fruit, and went to town.
At around 3am, Josh H. started from South Lake Tahoe, up Kingsbury Grade. He had to climb 1000 feet in 4.2 miles. Now, Josh is a hell of a runner, and he was done in about 34 minutes.
I was waiting at the top of the hill, ready to go down Kingsbury Grade. 4.3 miles of downhill, in the middle of the cool, starry night waited for me.
I had a headlamp on, and I’d never even heard or though of the goggle effect that it would have on me. The shadow of my eyebrows that was cast underneath my eyes made me feel like I was wearing some bizarre goggles, and messed with my eyesight for the whole stretch. At times, I would just close my eyes and run down the hill.
My legs weren’t cramping, this was a good feeling. I wasn’t going fast, but I wasn’t going slow either. Every single step I took reverberated through my body, ending up at the jaw. Thunk, thunk. A couple of guys ran past me, and I was wishing I was in better shape to be able to step it up.
I finished in 32 minutes. I was happy. My goal for this leg was to beat Josh’s time… I went just as far, but down the hill instead of up. He climbed 1000 feet, I dropped about 1300.
My body, however, was not happy. My shins ached, my shoulders were suddenly sore, and my stomach was making a number. I didn’t know if I wanted to throw up or go #2. I did the latter, twice in 10 minutes. All that bouncing from running down a hill sure shook up my dinner.
I felt pretty good when Nate, the runner that went after me, ran the second half of Kingsbury Grade at about the same pace as me. Our van’s legs finished south of Carson City, just a bit after sunrise.
We headed up to Virginia City, where we once again tried to get some sleep… and once again I wasn’t able to. I was too excited, and the cool breeze that blew on my face kept me wide awake.
After hydrating, some more Bowel movements, and the improvised application of Neosporin on some chafed parts, we were ready to go on the final stretch.
Leg 32 waited for me, it was sometime around 10 am. The sun was starting to be a factor, but I was ready.
I had a pretty big hill to climb (not as big as other runners’ climbs, but big enough to whine about!), and I was dreading every minute of it as I slowly made my way up it. I got my first and only “roadkill” of the whole race on this section, as I passed a guy that was walking up the hill. Yay! Another goal achieved.
At the top of the hill, I could hear the exchange point. My teammates were making noise, and I knew that after I got to the van, my part of the race was done. I ran as fast as my body was letting me, and finished in a mix of feelings of pain, accomplishment, fatigue and joy. My legs were throbbing, my shins hurting more than ever.
The team finished in less than 22 hours, which was one of the goals. I had a sandwich and a beer, and fell fast asleep on the grass of Idlewild Park.

This certainly was an Odyssey. At a few points during the race, I thought to myself “whoa, we’ve really gone a long way already“.
I was awake from 6am on Friday until 3pm on Saturday. I made new friendships, and by the end of the journey, I felt a strange, different and special connection with the 5 teammates I shared a van with.
I will certainly aim to do this again next year, and I plan on being in better running shape. I think all the bike riding I do helped me be ready cardio-wise, but my body was not ready for the impact of running on the road.
Today, Monday, I still ache, but I still feel what I felt when we finished: awesome!

I’d like to thank Jason, Josh, David, Nate and Bob for being awesomely supportive and fun to be with.

Pictures from the adventure can be found on my Flickr page, here.

Last week, browsing through Reno Baby! (a ning site), I found out about the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey. I read a bit about it, sounded like fun, and expressed my interest.
Yesterday, this guy Jason posted there to say that they were looking for a runner. I replied, excited, saying that I was up for it.
But then I was afraid someone would get a hold of him before I did, so I asked my friend and roomate Cory if he knew him. After all, Cory is a pretty networked guy. And it turns out that he does know him!
So, Cory “twittered” him, and a connection was made.
Hours ago, I got an email from “the team”, and I’m in!

And shit. I didn’t know the race started on Friday and doesn’t stop until you get to the finish line, a whole 178 miles later. Enter panic mode!
Just kidding. It’s sort of a relay race, and it’s divided in 36 legs. Each team has 12 members, so I only have to run 3 legs, so I should be able to survive without any internal bleeding.

I’m heading out to REI to arm myself with a headlamp and some sort of reflective vest… and maybe some bear spray. Holy shit.

A couple of months ago, I got myself a new computer. I ordered all the parts from NewEgg, and put it together myself. If you’re not interested on the size of my e-peen, move on down a couple of paragraphs. The parts of the new rig are as follows:

• Intel e8400 Core 2 Duo Processor.
• Gigabyte P35-DS3L motherboard.
• 2x G.Skill 1Gb PC2-6400 RAM.
• EVGA nVidia 9600GT Video card.
• All in a fancy and very slick Antec P182 case.

After a couple of months of not having used my old PC, and not having any use for it at all, I decided to hand it down to my AFS family. (These are the people that hosted me while I was an exchange student, for those of you who are just tuning in).
Well, here’s where the dilemma started. They already had a Windows PC, and it would have been a hassle to re-install every single program, and to re-create the accounts, permissions, and transfer all the logins, passwords and documents. What to do, what to do!
I couldn’t just slap their computer’s Hard Drive into my old PC, because Windows ties to the hardware in some black magic kind of way, and it would have thrown a fit if I’d done that. No, can’t do that… or can I?
Turns out, you can!
Once again, the benefits of ponying up $10 for SomethingAwful pay off, and I find this great article at one of the many goon projects: http://shsc.info/MovingWindowsToNewHardware.
Just what I needed! So I set off to sysprep the old system, and after that was done, I installed the HDD into the new one.
I booted it up, and… shit, wait. Wtf, blue screen? And then it reboots, without even letting me see what’s going on? Damn it, what do I do now!
I put the HDD back in to the old system, let it boot… At least it still works, and I haven’t entirely blown the Windows install.
I read the article again… and it says that if that happens, you can just do a windows install in repair mode, and you’ll be golden, so I take the HDD out again, and put it in the new one.
Great, I forgot to sysprep it. It goes back to the old hardware, I sysprep it, and once again it comes into the new hardware.
I run the repair install, and after the usual 20 or so minutes, it’s done.
Awesome, everything worked! The last thing that it needs now is to find the drivers for the new hardware, and it’s good to go.
It took me about one hour to find drivers for the motherboard, and I ended up just installing generic nVidia nforce3 drivers, which seem to work just fine.

I found it to be pretty cool that I could do this, and I didn’t have to re-install a whole lot of applications and re-do a lot of work that had already been done. I scored some major points with the fams, and now the kids can play some games from the 21st century (they were using a PIII at 700Mhz with 512MBs of RAM ). This is the feel-good post of the month.

I think the Grand Sierra should make this one of their new rides, shooting you over U.S. 395, so you can puke into traffic. That’s something I wouldn’t mind paying $50 to do once!

On a seemingly unrelated note, check out beambrosia.com.
Sounds like quite the scam (or maybe not! ), and the only reason why I’m posting about it is because their contact information is “502 East John Street, Carson City, Nevada, 89706″. If I end up being bored out of my mind, it is likely that I’ll drive down there to have a sample.
Josh aka Shazburg did a little of his e-detective work, and found that this is a set-up by a company that specializes in operations where they set up, scam and go before they get sued. Or something like that. Let’s just say that they have a colorful legal record.