Brother, can you spare a white belt?

The apocalypse is near, I just took delivery of a fixed gear road bike. Surly Steamroller to be exact, with sweeter than sweet Inglis fork. Andrew passed on the bike karma he received from a sweet purchase of and ANT bike by selling me his complete Surly and bag o' parts for a song. I have NO idea how I am going to do on this thing. Kinda mixed feelings of fear, unknown and excitement. My goal (as fleshed out in my head on my ride home from work last Friday---that's right, I am finally able to commute to work easily by bike...9 miles each way) is to learn to ride it, and use it as my commuter--thereby saving the IF from the bad roads and such....who am I kidding , save! I just wanted an excuse to buy a new bike (and to not focus on my problems for like 2.5 nanoseconds)! What the hell, I'll buy 2!! Down payment on Retrotec SS is finally shaping up. I almost feel like Stevo except my bikes are in a lower tax bracket!

Anyway, I guess I better get back to listening to this band you've never heard of, drinkin' my PBR and choosing the right bandana to wear around my neck...

Doin' the fixed gear proud.
Got my photo hints from BikeSnobNYC...let's see, washing machine? Check, Garage? Check. Bike propped up and snapped? Check...better pics to come sometime later.

Funny stuff along same lines , thanks to Steve at "How to Avoid the Bummer Life":

The Ocho

Time to catch up chuck, what's been happening since the new year? Well, unfortunately not a lot of picture taking, but I can tell some stories.

Here it is in a loose re-cap...

2008
by Ken P
(A synopsis so far)

New years was crazy, we launched the SSWC registration to the consternation of some and the elation of many. 12:00:04 found me watching gmail implode as over 400 entries came flying in seconds. The next day was a nice long road ride with Pizza crew up to Lake Hennessey and Chiles Valley. Fun fact, Curtis and I challenged each other to climb Pope Valley road to Chiles Valley no handed and I freakin' made it! Felt so good I got Rigo and Curtis to do Oakville grade from the valley , and the miracles continued as I finally made it up without stopping or dying.

Sidenote: one of my "goals" for 2008 is to ride more-especially now that I have a job in town. I am jumping at every chance (including riding trainer in garage at night to do so). Added bonus is hopefully losing a little gut and eating somewhat better... Other more important goals include more time with my son, trying to resurrect my marriage, to be a stronger person, to embrace my family and friends, and to calm down (spiritually and mentally)...

side-side note: I use this blog for everything, personal and impersonal. That means the good and the bad. The happy and sad. Kinda obvious, but I wanted to put it out there as much for myself as anyone else. It's a freaky online journal of me. I'm doing it because I feel better sharing this stuff, not to impress, not for anything more than pouring my head onto "paper" or blog in this case (trust me, I have journals too). Anyway, like it or don't, I don't really care.

Ummm, what else, I know I did some more riding and a ton of freelance work in the first week (I had it off)...Oh yeah, LEGOS! Jake and I have been getting our groove on building the myriad of Lego sets he received for Christmas. He's amazing and has an incredible imagination. Time is also spent re-reading (for me) "Choose Your Own Adventure" books with Jake. I can't find mine from when I was a kid, but we picked up a few at the library book sale and Jake loves them! He's also exploring his artistic side with some sweet pencil and crayon drawings (see bike pic previous post)...it's truly amazing to see him grow and draw.

January 7th was like the first day oif school all over. I started my new job here in town at Napa Printing and Graphics. That in itself is somewhat surreal and out of character. I left my previous job of almost 4 years at Tesser and joined a great new crew. Easy? Easier than I thought. You have to understand something about me though, jobs usually leave me, I don't leave them. In this case, I took a chance and replied to a friends' email and landed a great new gig. Leaving Tesser was incredibly hard, that was my family-I spent more time with my team there in the past 4 years than with Jake and Cari. Not totally good. 12+ hour days (thanks to 3 hour commute) don't lend themselves to quality time with family. Now I will admit, I wept openly as I walked to catch my last commuter bus out of SF. I literally love all of the people I worked with, but I know we'll keep in touch and this is genuinely for the better. It's all new working on the vendor side and cleaning up other designers files. I am learning a ton and look forward to getting into the groove and adding to this new environment. Did I mention it is 12 minutes from my house? I go home on lunch? I am home by.....drum roll...5:15PM, with NO guilt trips! Awe--some!

What else...more riding...oh yeah and finally got back to the snow! David invited me to join him and Rich up at Kirkwood 2 weekends ago. I can not believe it has been over 5 years since I last touch snow. My sweet new board, bindings (clickers) are outdated now, but brand new and I like 'em. We woke up at the butt-crack of dawn and headed up to Tahoe. Mickey D's mixed horribly with my innards, so it was a relief to all to get out of the truck and onto the snow. It was totally sunny and kinda ice-y, but a wonderful day. I was stiff as hell for most of my runs. A combination of out of practice, no health insurance (until March) and my usual fear of going too fast. By the end of the day though I was looser and turning better (David has a video of me to attest to stiffness and style). I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the company and look forward to doing it again (with Jake too).

So here I sit, freezing my fingers in my garage workshop and I can do nothing more than say I am glad to be alive and I look forward to what the ocho has in store...

What I do for a living

Thanks to my friend and former co-worker, I am able to share this funky little video for the "Shrimp Market". This was a project I worked on while at Tesser--we helped create the brand— everything from the name, logo, menu board to designing the actual store.

Even funnier? Vanessa was my direct client, I spoke to her sometimes as much as 2-3X a day...this video is the first time I actually saw what she looked like! BTW, I worked on this account for over a year!!

Snoop Bloggy Blog

Spent too many hours (hey I am no programmer or CSS writer...I design and hand off) first on Wordpress (couldn't figure it out fast enough) and then on Blogger's new drag and drop thingy.

Despite header issues, I think I am making it happen. It's not so much "designed" as manipulated...

the whole thing is kinda interesting though, using the internet to a much greater advantage (gmail, Paypal, Blogger, forums). No real marketing, no use of paper (other than kleenex for noses and tips), and the beauty of watching this little virus grow.

This here blog is early, there's more graphics to add and refine, but what the hell, might as well get it out there. We'll add links from the main site too shortly.

SSWC08 Bloggy Blog

It will have tons of info in the coming months...

Jake's First Bike Picture

The title says it all.

Jake's been rockin' the pencil lately, here's a picture of me on my bike...

I am one proud dad of the coolest 5 year old I know...

There's more to life...

an·ar·chy
[an-er-kee]
–noun

1.	a state of society without government or law.

2.	political and social disorder due to the absence of governmental control: The death of the king was followed by a year of anarchy.

3.	a theory that regards the absence of all direct or coercive government as a political ideal and that proposes the cooperative and voluntary association of individuals and groups as the principal mode of organized society.

4.	confusion; chaos; disorder: Intellectual and moral anarchy followed his loss of faith.

...gotta take the good with the bad.

The gooder wins...to much to do, trails to clean, rides to ride...

From now on the only Forum I'll be reading is in a certain men's magazine.