Alfaj0r.com

Things are happenin’!

Earlier today, I called the USCIS (ex INS) to check up on the status of my Visa. I wanted to make sure that after my upcoming trip to Argentina with Kelly, I could re-enter without much trouble.
Turns out the answer was a big fat no.

And that I have to leave the United States within 30 days.

Unless…

This is where the “welp” part kicks in. You see, Kelly and I have been going pretty solid for the last 4 months. We’ve talked about raising a family, having a white picket fenced house, going on a Cruise in the Mediterranean and all that jazz…
And given the circumstances, we’re going to elope.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. It’s happening a little sooner than planned and/or expected, but it was going to happen sooner or later… and sooner it is!
Kelly is the woman of my dreams, and makes me feel like no one ever has. She’s been incredibly understanding about these shenanigans, and as soon as I kneeled to ask for her hand, I already knew she was going to say yes. I have no doubts that we’ll make it, and this might just be a blessing in disguise!

We’re looking for a place to make it all happen, soon. Probably nothing big, just friends and close family. It has to happen probably in less than 2 weeks, so that afterwards I still have time to clear all the paperwork and go through all the red tape.

You want to give the newlyweds a present? Just head on over to PayPal and help out with a few dollars!

It was a Friday morning. I woke up, and checked the weather forecast. 70 degrees. Nice!

Riding my bike to work sounded like a good idea, so I geared up and headed out the door. I forgot my helmet, so I turned around to get it, and I was 100% geared up after I strapped my brain armor on.

I was happily riding at a speed of 15 mph, or more, East-bound on 4th street. I was almost to work, but I didn’t know what was about to happen.

A silver Ford Escort suddenly is making a left turn into Record street, coming in from the other side of 4th street. In other words, he was driving West-bound, and made a left turn, thusly having to cross the lane upon which I travel.

Unfortunately for all, he “did not see me”, and I did not have enough time to come to a full stop, or to maneuver around him. Instead, here’s what I did as I noticed that our paths had suddenly crossed, and we were destined for a collision:
I reached for my breaks, and squeezed those puppies like they were my glutes and I was competing for Mr. Olympia.
As my back tire skidded, I realized that I was going to ram into the car anyway. So I did what any reasonable person would do: scream. A guttural and very loud “AAARRRRGGGGGHH” came out, and quickly transformed into a “UUGGHHH” as my front tire hit the front-right of the car, and I flew over my handlebar.
From here, my memories are blurred. It goes from the yelping, to my chin hitting the windshield and then I’m standing there, with my bike on the ground.

The driver of the car stopped his car, and stepped out. He seemed very upset that I would dare run into his vehicle. I reached for my phone, with the intent of making sure I at least got his license plate number… but hey, he didn’t have plates! Dialog ensued:

Me: Where are your plates?
Him: I ain’t got none. What you gonna do, call the police?
Me: Yup.
Him: You got in my way.
Me: I had the right of way. You made a left turn when you shouldn’t have.
Him: Right of way? Haha, get out!

I found it interesting that someone who doesn’t have plates, would be telling me about how the traffic laws go.

And so it was, I called 911. And within minutes, there was a firetruck, an ambulance and two police vehicles. I felt kind of bad that so much attention was being brought, all I wanted was some sweet justice.
The firefighters were the first ones to see me, since their station was a block away, they got there first. They looked at me, asked if I was ok, and kind of looked around. As the paramedics showed up, they left me to their care.
The EMT took a good look at me, and I then realized I had blood on my hands. Shit! My chin! They inspected, and it didn’t look like anything serious. I explained to them that I have some old stitches on my chin (from when I was learning to dive in volleyball… and I wasn’t really getting it, obviously), and that it feels like that’s where the blood was coming out from. They checked my eyes, and made sure I wasn’t about to pass out, and then asked me if it was ok for them to leave, to which I said yes.

Then, the police report. I explained what I was doing, and how everything happened, and the driver of the car was also questioned.
I’m pretty sure they had to explain to him that even though I’m a simple bike rider, I still have rights, and I did indeed have the right of way.
The fact that there was a huge skid mark on the right side of the lane I was ridding in, proved that I was in full compliance with the law.
The cop filing all the paperwork was very nice. He took a lot of pictures, and he also told me that he likes to ride his bike to work. I took that as a good sign, I knew I was in good hands and that the cop wasn’t going to tell me that I don’t belong on the roads or something outlandish like that.

An hour later, papers were served. Once again, I was the witness of someone else being served a citation, and all I got was a receipt of the report. I was sent on my way, and now here I am, finally at work.

My chin is alright, it’s not bleeding profusely, and I’m sure it’ll heal up quickly. Besides, my beard covers it pretty well. I’m sure my neck will be stiff tomorrow, but I feel just fine right now.
I could have walked off the scene without a problem, I stayed because I wanted a police report. I kind of wanted to throw my helmet into his windshield, and ride away. I’m glad I resisted the urge, because there were a lot of witnesses. 4th and Record street is an infamous homeless hangout, but at no moment did I feel unsafe around them.

My bike is also just fine. The hoods of my brakes were bent, but I easily bent them back to where they should go. My handlebar is a little bit off, and not exactly perpendicular to my front tire, but nothing that can’t be fixed with some tools and a good eye. The tire itself is not bent, and as soon as I was dismissed, I rode off, and everything felt and sounded normal.

I’m pretty sure I could go through my insurance to get something out of the poor bastard (he uses ACCURATE INSURANCE), but I won’t. There’s no need. The guy got a lesson on traffic, and a citation as well. Justice was served.

PS: I’m damn glad I look like a retard and wear a helmet. I’d rather look than become one.

I did it! Click on play in the window below to see some of the pictures.

At 5pm of Monday March 9, 2009, I entered Aces Tattoo with Kelly. She already has a couple of tattoos, so she came with me for moral support, photographic documentation (which she did great, as you can see above), and to find out if I was going to endure the pain.

After a little bit of waiting and hanging out, I was called to the table by Jared. My hands started sweating as soon as I sat down. The first poke of the needle wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined. A sharp, very localized pain, but nothing too great.
In less than a minute, the outline was done! I was excited, this wasn’t bad at all.

Then the coloring began, and the story changed. Kelly says my face went pale. And with reason. I was hurtin’. The worst part was at the top, over the eyes section. I also felt the most intense discomfort when he’d been doing a long streak, without stopping. Breaks were a welcome thing, although I didn’t say anything and tried to take it like a manly man. But I don’t think I fooled anyone.

Luckily, 40 minutes later, no tears had been shed, and the job was done! The owl was now in, on my left shoulder. It was wrapped up, and I was on my way out the door.

I’ve been babying the fresh tattoo with Aquaphor, and it’s healing up nicely. The colors are starting to come in, and I expect to have it fully healed and looking awesome in a couple of weeks. A picture will certainly come.

And another tattoo, sometime in the future, will definitely come as well.

Wow, that was fun!
There ended up being a lot more zombies than I -or anyone else- expected. Some people counted over a hundred at times! Most bars couldn’t handle the sheer amount of thirsty, loud, smelly zombies, so eventually the zombie mob disbanded into multiple smaller mobs.
As predicted, there were some awesome zombies, with very elaborate make up, and there were some that hadn’t put too much effort into it. As you can see, I probably fell somewhere in the middle, and almost looked like the Joker.
At any rate, on top of being a zombie, and enjoying all the drink specials at every bar that we went, I had a special assignment. I had magically landed my first freelance photography gig, and it was to get action shots of the Crawl!
Luckily, I was able to get about a dozen of decent shots, which fulfilled the request, and the pictures I took are on reno.metromix.com. It’s kind of cool to see my pictures on some sort of publication!
However, I doubt I’ll ever make a living out of this. It’s a small hobby, and if I get paid to do something I like, even better!

To sum up:
1) I got paid to take pictures for the first time ever.
2) Zombies are cool, and it was a great way to spend Halloween night.
3) Reno nightlife kicks ass.

Check out the brand new site for Reno’s Movember team: http://cityofremo.com/ . Isn’t it pretty?
Big props to @indigothirdeye and @elswkid, they did most of the work.

And speaking of Twitter, we also have a ReMo, NV account: @RemoNV! While Cory and Don spent time on making the website look pretty, I was busy clicking “Follow” on over 500 twitter accounts. If I missed you, make sure to follow us to get the latest news on ReMo!

Everyone knows that October is Cancer Awareness Month. More specifically, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Pink is everywhere, and there are a handful of events every weekend to raise awareness and funds. I even did the Race for the Cure, despite of my personal lack of breasts or the risk of having cancer in them.

What does this have to do with November? Well, November is all about gentlemen. And as gentlemen, “women first” is a motto that was followed even on occasions such as Cancer Awareness Months.
If you’re picking up what I’m putting down, November is the month to be aware of men’s health risks… specially those of Cancerous nature. And since women’s Cancer month is iconized by Breasts, men’s month is represented by Mustaches.

But wait a minute. Have I been saying November? I meant to say MOvember!
This is no joke, my friends!
Last year, a few friends and I grew Mo’s for fun, and it was a joke of sorts. (you can see my post here, and pictures here).
However, during this Movember (the month formerly known as November) I’m growing a Moustache again. That’s right! I’m bringing the Mo back because I’m passionate about tackling men’s health issues and being proactive in the fight against prostate cancer. And while hairs slowly (very slowly) grown above my lip, I hope to be able to raise some donations for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, which will use the funds for high-impact research to find better treatments and a cure for prostate cancer.
Wanna help? Here’s how!

1. Click here and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account. Please notice that this is a site run by someone that is not me, and it’s 100% secure and trustworthy.
2. Play it old school and write a check payable to the ‘Prostate Cancer Foundation’, referencing my Registration Number 1428001 and mailing it to:
   Prostate Cancer Foundation
   Attn: Movember
   1250 Fourth St
   Santa Monica, CA, 90401
3. Join the Remo team! We are planning an event for the last day of MOvember, where we’ll have contests and lots of fun. We even have a site up, and are working on spreading the word: http://cityofremo.com.

“But Nico, you can’t be serious. How would growing a MO help cure prostate cancer?” Allow me to spark a bit of belief in you, by making you click on this link.

Gentlemen, if you like your prostate, grow a Mo. Ladies, if you like your gentlemen, encourage him to grow a Mo!

If my argument is not good enough, maybe you didn’t know that…

• Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the US with one in six American men developing the disease and more than 28,000 men dying of the disease every year.
• African American men and those with a family history of prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop the disease and should have regular annual testing starting at 45. All other men should commence testing at 50.
• Prostate cancer is 90% curable if detected and treated early.

I will probably be taking part of Reno’s first Zombie Crawl. Are you?

Even though I’m not as big a fan of zombies as some people, it should be fun.
Starting at Amendment 21 is a great plan, as that place is always trying to run events that are not your typical bar scene. I have no idea where it’ll go from there, but I think that if there’s a mob of at least 10 people, it won’t matter where we go, it’ll be a good time had by all.
I also plan on bringing my camera and hopefully taking some cool pictures of people’s awesome and awful costumes. I’m sure there’ll be a little bit of both.

I have transcended the limits of my own blog, and have posted at the Reno Passport’s site.
TommyGuns asked me to post something about Critical Mass, so I gave it a shot, and here’s what came out.

That is all.

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.