the 24-70 is here...

24-70
Originally uploaded by tylernol

but will just be sitting around until the D700 arrives. It just shipped and is due in one week.

first lens is ...

probably going to be the 24-70 f/2.8 lens, it arrives today. Amazon dropped the ball on the 50 f/1.4 and it is now on backorder , so I cancelled it, perhaps Precision Camera has it in stock. And supposedly Amazon is shipping my D700 today. Excellent!

34x19 @ Walnut Creek in 103 degree weather

that was 18 miles of pain. I cant believe I have lost so much strength in my legs for singlespeeding -- too much riding geared road bikes has led to my downfall. I was super-fast a few years back, but that was when I was only riding essentially two bikes -- my singlespeed for mountain biking, and my cross bike for the urban assaults and road rides. I think I could get up halfway the Hill of Life in 34x18. Not going even try it right now.

Hellboy 2..

saw it at the 10:40 screening at Alamo Drafthouse S. Lamar. I was pretty excited to see it, having been a fan of the first Hellboy movie, Mike Mignola's comic, and Del Tora. I left very disappointed -- it still had great Del Tora/Mignola character designs, especially the tree elemental, but it was a bit too heavy on the trite melodramatic soap-opera cheese and did not work for me.

Dr. Horrible

great!

first lens en-route

The 50 mm lens is shipping before the camera body, hopefully the camera body will ship next week and I should be all set. I think I will probably stick with this as my single lens for a few months ,renting other lenses until I figure out what I want next. It is super-fast, and will be great for all sorts of subjects, and not weigh a ton like the zooms.

I was just climbing Lost Creek and *CRACK*

I was just climbing Lost Creek and *CRACK*
Originally uploaded by tylernol

climbing the super-steep (~ 45 degree? ) climb out of Lost Creek up to Bee Caves, I stood up and started cranking as hard as I could and then I heard a loud "CRACCKKK" and felt my left foot smash into the ground. It was amusing trying to ride back with only one foot clipped in. I think I am done with Time road pedals ...I still like the off-road XS pedals but I am going to give Shimano Ultegra pedals a shot -- they have a stainless steel platform, not fucking $150 carbon/plastic.

return of the tii?

lightweight, 2.0 liter 4-banger turbo, rear-wheel drive, manual gearbox? If BMW brings it, I'll buy it, and keep my Audi around several more years.

midlife

classic song.

nikon

good weather sealing, full-frame, 5 fps, high ISO sensitivity, 51 focus point autofocus. That Nikon restructuring is paying off.
I'll take it.

wall-e

I saw wall-e last night at drafthouse s. lamar. Overall I thought it was fantastic. Well-told story, beautiful animation and cinematography, very poignant anti-consumer message that could not come at a better time. I love that all the conservatives are pissed off by this movie. The influence of movies such as star wars, 2001, and tron, are very apparent in it, and most definitely so is Short Circuit. Johnny Five must be pissed. The blatant influence of Johnny Five on the design of Wall-E cannot be denied. It has to be deliberate, right? I kept on waiting for Wall-E to say "nice software", but it never happened.

buy low sell high

I am getting so used to these stock market min-crashes that it does not phase me that much anymore. At some point the economy will turn around, so I have to keep on viewing days like this as a buying opportunity. However, I really wish I had less money invested in the banks via my index funds. I would like to shift back towards individual stock picks and not get dragged down anymore by bankers who did not understand risk.

pavement ruins lollapalooza

classic.

pavement ruins dollopof loozas

superchunk back in the day

When I think about how long ago this came out, I feel really old. I think I saw them several times when I was in college in Philadelphia at the Trocadero. I think I only saw Fuguzi more live.

yet another reason to move to the West Coast

one of my favorite Austin restaurants is closing and being replaced by yet another Mexican restaurant. I am getting sick and tired of the downtown condo/Dallas types fucking up this city. Santa Cruz, Oakland, or Portland are all sounding more and more fantastic. Although it is nice living close to downtown, I am finding fewer and fewer reasons to go there. The very small list of favorite restaurants has gotten even smaller.

The Great Skua

nice instrumental song.

riding more and avoiding the heat

I think this is the third straight week of 100-degree plus weather down in Austin, so riding in the early morning and riding more mountain bike than road, are the best ways to avoid the heat this summer. I have gotten up twice this week for 6:30 AM greenbelt SS and mt. bonnel road rides -- it is still in the 80's, but there is a slight breeze and I dont feel beaten down by the sun after a few hours. I also went to Walnut Creek for an evening ride -- there is enough tree cover there to make it bearable -- the trails were great, I discovered a new-to-me section of singletrack. However, it took 45 minutes to drive the 12 miles up there, the traffic is fucking awful. I pray I never have to do a North -South Austin commute again.
My goal is to ride about 10 hours a week for the next few weeks and then try bumping it up to 12 through the end of October. So far I have gotten roughly 6 hours this week. A short ride tommorrow and a 2 1/2 to 3-hour ride Sunday should do the trick.

revelations

I just finished watching the semi-finale for Battlestar Galactica. Saul giving himself up as a Cylon to save the fleet was heart-wrenching. He has become the most developed and sympathetic character in the series, more human than human. The coordinates for earth suddenly popping up in the ghost Viper's nav computer was a bit too deus ex machina, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that someone is pulling the strings from afar. Finding earth as a post-apocalyptic wasteland came as no surprise to me. I still hold my theory stands that everyone is a Cylon -- the cycle of Cylon rebelling and destroying their creators/ becoming "human" and forgetting their Cylon origin/creating Cylon children. It is still unclear to me whether humans/Cylons began on Kobol or on Earth. I like the idea that humans initially created Cylons on earth before FTL drives were created as their expeditionary explorers to find and settle new worlds for mankind. Perhaps Kobol was the first colony founded by the Cylons, and they made a decision there to become human and forget their synthesized origins and begin the cycle there.

the slip

I downloaded the latest NIN release, The Slip, earlier this week and have finally gotten around to listening to it in detail. There are some great songs on it -- "Head Down" is my current favorite. Ghosts I-IV was a nice album, but for me it never amounted to more than fun background music. The Slip has real songs on it, more traditional structures and guitar/vocal parts, and what sounds like real drums. I am still a sucker for simple hard rock, so I imagine I will still be listening to this later in the year.