This iconic photograph of James Dean was taken by Dennis Stock, who died this week at age 81.

About how my brain feels after 4 hours of CCNA studying. Ill get pics of the gear I am currently working on as well as photos from the last 4 months up. Wow, how I have neglected you…

My bad. The event was August 22nd, but I had sold my laptop and then we moved back to the Midwest two weeks later. I finally got these pictures recovered off of the extra laptop drive and processed. Working with these photos made me miss Portland even more. How long will I go before I ever see a random naked cyclist riding around the block on my way to the grocery store? Like everything else in Portland, this event was full of crazies expressing themselves constructively. No one died that I know of, but the ambulance did put on quite a few miles. Check out the gallery bellow.

Soapbox Derby,
August 2009

Huge thanks go out to our new insurance agent and good friend Mr. Jim Rodman for scrounging up tickets to the SCCA Runoffs at Road America. Laura and I drove on up there and scoped out the biggest club racing event of the year and I was able to get a few snaps. You can check them out by clicking on the Polaroid. Enjoy!

SCCA Runoffs,
September 2009

It should be no suprise that the items shipped are broken…

No wonder it got lost in the mail…

Detailed Results:

	Delivered, September 10, 2009, 2:31 pm, MADISON, WI 53705
	Processed through Sort Facility, September 08, 2009, 8:06 pm, FOREST PARK, IL 60130
	Processed through Sort Facility, September 07, 2009, 8:35 pm, FOREST PARK, IL 60130
	Processed through Sort Facility, September 02, 2009, 8:15 pm, FOREST PARK, IL 60130
	Processed through Sort Facility, September 01, 2009, 9:50 am, JERSEY CITY, NJ 07097
	Out for Delivery or Available at PO Box, August 31, 2009, 9:17 am, SOUTH RICHMOND HILL, NY 11419
	Sorting Complete, August 31, 2009, 8:47 am, SOUTH RICHMOND HILL, NY 11419
	Processed through Sort Facility, August 31, 2009, 7:52 am, SOUTH RICHMOND HILL, NY 11419
	Missent, August 31, 2009, 7:52 am
	Arrival at Post Office, August 31, 2009, 7:52 am, SOUTH RICHMOND HILL, NY 11419
	Processed through Sort Facility, August 27, 2009, 2:07 am, FOREST PARK, IL 60130
	Processed through Sort Facility, August 26, 2009, 4:59 am, JERSEY CITY, NJ 07097
	Acceptance, August 25, 2009, 9:05 am, CARLE PLACE, NY 11514

We made it to Deadwood tonight. This is Laura’s first time, and I am sure we will have a blast. Carl was quivering with excitement the whole way today. Weren’t you Carl?

We hope to hit the farm tomorrow and then Ill be back home in Madison by Saturday. Expect a recap of the last month then…

I think people are just bored off in their own little world and need to mess with sellers to feel fulfilled. It is also very apparent that smart phones are the death of e-mail. Here is a guy that I don’t think I am interested in selling one of my items to…

Hi do you still have the power monkey charger

{craigslist ad URL}

Sent from my iPhone

Yes. The individual that called ‘dibs’ earlier in the week seems to have fallen off the map. If he doesn’t get back to me in the next 6 hours, you are more than welcome to pick it up later on tonight.
{Second Email after verifying the other individual wouldn’t be able to pick it up}
confirmed that he backed out. Are you interested in the powermonkey?

yea are you firm with the price

I bought it for 100 + 10 for the attachment for treo smart phones. I think 30 dollars is fair.

i was wondering because rechargable batteries loose capacity to charge over time
how long have you had it

less than a year

did you use it every day

no

i will be using it for my iphone
do you have connector for that

If an ipod adapter will also charge the Iphone, then yes

how about $25

If you can come by tomorrow before 5, Ill give it to you for 25. {address info follows}

i get out of work around 6 would it work if i come after that

Sorry, I am busy after 5. If you are truly interested in the Charger you can pay me the original asking price and stop by later this week when I am available.
{Wonder how he will respond to that }

Above is 15 emails over three days. Good thing I have all this free time… Hell, I’ll probably just sell it to Mouse for 15 tonight at Az’s event.

Thanks Bill! I [angry boobs] you too!

I have finally gotten all of the PDXLAN14 and Bend pictures online. Head to the Photo Repository to check them out. As a bonus I have 5 HDRs from Bend.

Long time no update, and for that I am sorry. It has been a rough couple of weeks. First my computer explodes at PDXLAN14, then van explodes during what was supposed to be a trip to Crater Lake, and I maybe running a commando mission to retrieve the LeBaron from a delinquent buyer. I suppose I should address these in order…

After a barrage of back and forth exchanges with my ASUS C90s reseller we seem to have come to an agreement. It seems that when I ordered the machine two years and sixteen days ago, I had the foresight to purchase an extra year of warranty. Where it got fun was using my phone company’s online records and a few macro shots of my own phone’s internal call log to prove that I did call him on the 18th of July(not the 20th which he believed I had called him on), which was a DAY before I received the unit from him two years ago. The video card that he believes is the culprit is currently in his shop, and I am awaiting word from him… Let’s hope this fixes my expensive paperweight. In the meantime I am using a dell I picked up a few months ago from the dell outlet.

So Laura has been spending the last month attempting to sell her business, and pulling both her AND my hair out in the process. This last weekend was supposed to be a relaxing retreat to Crater Lake, but it seems that the van had something entirely different in mind. When we stopped in Eugene to get gas she was making an incredible amount of noise on start up. Taking a look we couldn’t see anything ‘wrong’, checked our fluids finding them to be normal, and then shrugged and continued onward. It felt better to continue on and see what happened instead of giving up and returning to the stress in Portland. The noise continued to get louder with each stop, and when we smelt burnt rubber through our vents we pulled over just south of Chemult to find that our Air Compressor was smoking. Sweet.

We Called Car Care in Wisconsin and Jeff told us it was only a matter of time before the AC unit would seize and snap the belt. That wouldn’t be so bad except we would then be without our alternator and water pump. In 100 degree weather. We confirmed the diagnosis with a ‘mechanic’ who’s sign we saw a mile back for five dollars and two beers and assessed our options. 60 miles from both Crater and Bend, we opted for proximity to a mechanic, and changed course.

Bend turned out to be a great little town and aside from some arguing with the AAA rep about what constitutes a forest road, everything worked out well. The car broke down on Saturday after we visited the Lava River Cave just south of Bend, which left us in town until it could be looked at on Monday. With the repairs mostly completed we limped back into town around 10 PM Monday night. So much for Crater Lake.

So the nice Jamaican fellow that bought our LeBaron… Turns out his name may not actually be Glen Taylor. Come to think of it, the only thing we know to be true about him is that he is currently residing in Lane County Jail on alleged drug and identity theft charges. Where it gets fun is that he was driving some other car WITH OUR PLATES ATTACHED! Lovely. I am waiting to hear from my insurance agent today, and will be giving the officer who handled the case a call later today. Since ‘Glen’ AKA Michael Long never paid the full amount I also wouldn’t mind finding the car… More on this as it develops…

I am hoping to go through all of the pictures taken from PDXLAN14 onward and make a few galleries, but I am not terribly optimistic I will get around to it today… There were some great pictures from Bend, but all of my HDR software is on the broken computer, so it could be a while.

Enjoy the Chipmunk, we did…

Chipmunk at the Lava Tubes

My laptop died… Anyone have like… A computer?

Seriously, I think I maybe a week out of warranty. Yay entire weekend LAN party with no computer…