Nico’s

I’ve had three cups of coffee.

After crawling out of bed at 6am, I rode to the Reno Bike Project, to eat some fresh pancakes while I waited for my eyes to stop watering:

There were a lot of people there, including Channel 2 news. (They were interviewing Wolfy as I rode in, so I expect a YouTube to be out at some point). I had me some pancakes, chatted with a few hipsters, hippies and random bike commuters, and then got back on my bike.
I was going to hit up Walden’s Coffee shop, but I didn’t feel like going to the other side of town and then come back, so I instead headed out to Bibo’s. I showed them my helmet, and then recognized the barista as one of the people I’d seen eating pancakes at the Bike Project, so he hooked me up with some coffee. I also bought a bagel, because I was hungry. (Important details in this post, I know). It was an “everything bagel”.
I chatted with another bike commuter also enjoying some free coffee. His commute was from Verdi to South Reno, and we chatted about bike things like the Procrastinating Pedalers and Critical Mass.
The last stop was Java Jungle, where I consumed my third cup of coffee. I was already wide awake by then, but I had to follow through with my plan, or what was left of it.
The temperature was rising, and not only internally. 61 degrees at 7:30am felt warm enough to ditch my windbreaker, and I rode on to work. It’s supposed to be in the 90s by the time I get out of here, so I’m prepared to change into my shorts for the ride back home.

With a title so serious, you’d think that I’m about to tell you how I can take pictures that are being published in National Geographic… Not so much! I just wanted to share a couple of resources that have been helping me enjoy this hobby more and more. First of all, there are 2 threads at the Something Awful forums that I read daily. In one of them, people just post their pictures, and other people give feedback in them. This is the Photo-A-Day for December. Then, there’s the General Photography Questions Megathread, where people just ask and answer all sorts of questions. These resources are the most "interactive", because I can ask questions myself and get answers, and also because it has such a large participation that there is a lot to learn from many different people.

A few months ago, I responded to an ad on Craigslist about a photography club starting up in Reno. I was invited to join, and just last Saturday was the second meeting of F-Stop Reno, the photo club. We got together at Mike’s place, chat for an hour or two. Then, since it had just snowed, we decided to go out to Boca/Stampede to take pictures. I had a great time hiking around in the snow, learning from people who have been doing this thing for a little bit longer than me.

Lastly, I try to read online guides such as Unshutter.com, and looking at cool pictures to learn what looks nice and what doesn’t, for example Flickr’s interesting pictures. Some day, I’ll be taking nice pictures.

If you’re on the internet nowadays, you have to have checked youtube out at some point. If you haven’t, go make some pop-corn and get to watching. I have a list of favorite videos, that you can easily access by clicking on some of the videos over on the right menu, or here. I prefer things that make me laugh, as you’ll be able to tell after checking out just a few of the videos there.

I check out a few sites to stumble into awesome videos, such as BestOfYouTube.com and some threads in the SomethingAwful forums. Of course, my friends who also share geeky interests are a very fresh and reliable source of links.

I now leave you with the top rated video on YouTube, the "evolution of dance". Just click play!

Ever since I joined this local photography club, f-stop Reno, I’ve been trying to learn a bit more about photography. I’m having a good time, but progress is being slowed down by my lack of artistic training, and a limited budget.

However, I just got a new lens, a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, which should help me learn more about composition instead of distracting me zooming and all that fun stuff. From what I’ve read, with this lens I should be able to take better pictures in low light enviroments, and will also be much better at freezing fast moving objects, so that it can be used for some basic sports photography.
I’m not too afraid to confess that I’m excited about owning a new piece of equipment for my little camera. It’s sort of techy, geeky and artsy, so no one can complain too much.

As a side note, I bought my lens through Amazon, and when I paid it said it’d take about 12 days to get here. It was here 4 days later, with super saver shipping. Awesome!

This weekend I played and finished the game Portal. Man was it awesome. For those of you that are not too much into gaming, I’ll first point you to a video clip:

Now, what I liked best about this game, a single player, first person action/puzzle hybrid, is that it was short but very interesting. It took me about 5 hours of total gameplay to get to the finish, but it only took about 2 to figure out how the game works. This alone makes this my new game to show to people who don’t know about gaming but want to. A "intro to gaming" game, if you will. The humor, simplicity and escalating difficulty make Portal one of the best games I’ve played.

I haven’t tried the challenge maps yet, but I’m sure they’ll suck a few more hours out of me.

PS: Oh yeah, you have to listen to the review by this guy, Zero Punctuation. Here it is:

One of my hobbies is juggling. It’s fun, keeps my eye-hand coordination going, and it’s an excellent way of entertaining children.
But juggling with just balls is a thing of the past, and that is why I’m posting about my 2 preferred methods of this “art”: Devil Sticks and Diabolos.

My first diabolo was purchased by me at a bus station in Mendoza, Argentina, and I learned a lot of tricks from watching juggling troupes in my high school back then. I still have this diabolo, it’s quite beat up, but it works great.
Since this guy is almost 10 years old, I’m going to retire it at Burning Man, a honorable farewell for such a device. I will paint to glow in the dark, and hope to be able to amaze people with my amazing tricks.
After that, I’ll be getting a new one, probably from the Higgins Brothers. Heck, I might even get two!

The other toys I have are known as Devil Sticks, and I’m not too good at them yet. I bought my first set a few years ago, in a store in Boulder(Colorado) called “Into The Wind“. I had seen them in action before, and I decided to invest in them, and I still have the bad boys. They are quite hard to master, but I’m getting there.
The version of Devil Sticks that I have are called LunaStix, but that’s just a brand. The name of the game is the same, and that name is fun, just in case you are having a hard time keeping up.

One of these days, when I’m feeling saucy, I shall make some videos of these hobbies of mine. In the meantime, you should trust me when I say that they’re great toys, for children of all ages (I’m almost 25!), and you should definitely look into them if you’re into developing these kind of skills.

Yesterday I was browsing good ole Craigslist, and I found this backpack. I immediately emailed the guy, and 3 emails later, we had agreed on a place and time to meet.
Later in the evening, we met, and after trying the backpack on, I decided I’d take it. It fits great, and it’s just what I was looking for, at a third the price I was about to pay for a new one.

Once again, Craigslist comes through. Besides this, it’s helped me find:

• A great job ( my job here at RDC started by replying to a post in Craigslist! ).
• Mountain-bike.
• Helmet for when I was riding the Vespa.
• A buyer for the Vespa (Yes, we sold it last week).
• A 2nd snowboard, with bindings and all.

What’s not to love about it?

I came across a great deal for a camera I’d been wanting for a while: a Canon Rebel XT, with a much better price than any retail store, be it brick and mortar or online, so I decided to go for it, and get the camera that I’d wanted for a while now. I also caught onto a great deal at CircuitCity for a 2Gb CompactFlash card for $30, when everywhere else they wanted at leat $70 for one. Last thing I needed was a nice bag to carry it all around, and I found a great one at Gordon’s Photo Service, that fits like a glove and was a great deal.

Since then (last week), I’ve been reading and playing a little bit with the camera, but it has so many options and settings that I still have a lot to learn. In the meantime, however, I’ve posted a few of the pictures I’ve taken so far, and they can be found in the Photos section of the website. Tell me what you think!