Atlanta

  • Atlanta,  Cycling,  Photography

    Where the sidewalk didn’t end

    June 11, 2006 /


    Today, for no particular reason I decide to set a new cycling record. I decided to ride to the end of the paved area of the Silver Comet, which their website assured me existed. It gives the impression that the end is in the 37 mile area. My previous record was 60 miles.

    Much to my surprise, the paved area did not end at 37 miles, which is a little beyond Rockmart. It keeps on going in fine order, I assume to the Alabama border, which will be a ride for another day. I make it out to the 40 mile mark before I realize how late it’s getting.

    I prefer using the die in place method of setting distance records; it’s going out a long way in one direction and then back.

    I wound up going a little over 80 miles, averaging 15.2 miles an hour, with an average heart rate of 151, which is surprisingly high for a ride that lasted over five hours. I have the heart rate monitor set to mute, but if you go far enough over into your maximum, which I did when I came across a sharp hill at mile 38, it beeps at you.

    I spent the last 20 minutes or so in darkness as I underestimated the daylight. The forest canopy does a good job of eliminating ambient sunlight.

    On the whole, it was a pleasant and scenic ride. The one exception was when I ran out of water for a 20 mile period and that brought all of the symptoms of fatigue very quickly. Once I got some more (at around mile 11 on the way back) I felt much better.

    Below are some photos I took with the camera phone on the ride.

    A very large factory that seems to make concrete forms. It’s somewhere around mile 12.

    More of the above.

    I have no idea what road this is.

    A very long and chilly tunnel. I need to take some more fiddler photos here.

    This one wasn’t on the ride, but I did see it yesterday and found it funny.

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  • Ajax,  Atlanta,  Culture,  Links,  Police State

    Rapid fire and random thoughts

    June 1, 2006 /
    • Interesting thoughts on the use of mercenaries to settle third world conflicts (Darfour, the Congo, etc) at Instapundit and Marginal Revolution. I’m a bit queasy about the idea myself, though it’s probably worth trying.
    • Congress asserts amazing immunities for itself. No-knock raids and tear gas are good enough for you and me though.
    • Why do we believe anything sponsored by supposedly independent interest groups, in this case, an epidemic of girls going wild?
    • A nice AJAX primer from Brainjar.
    • Traffic Data in Windows Live Local.
    • The current media created craze is the fight club. I think this article misses out on reasons why it is appealing to techies though. If you’re a programmer, you’re spending all day in your virtual world, and stepping into the ring is about as far away from that as you can get.
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  • Atlanta,  Cycling,  Photography

    The long ride

    April 24, 2006 /

    Yesterday, for no particular reason, I decided to go on a long bike ride. I originally wanted to just see where Ponce de Leon Road ended, but the countryside was so pleasant and the roads to bikeable that I decided to set a personal record. I wound up going 25 miles out to Conyers on a very pleasant day. My total mileage was 50.5 miles, in about three and a half hours. Surprisingly I’m not that tired today.

    On the way to Conyers, I passed through Lithonia, which contains a store containing some form of Christian/Voodoo items (from what I could tell). The images below are of the front window of the store.

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  • Atlanta

    Garage Sale for a worthy cause

    April 13, 2006 /

    My friends Emily and Sam take in abandoned cats. Recently one of the cats came into some misfortune and racked up some massive vet bills. Sam and Emily decided to take in garage-sale type items from their friends (like me!) and sell them to cover the bills. There is a quite reasonably priced piano as well as an Olympus Camedia e-20 N Mega pixel (I believe it’s a 4 mega pixel SLR) that showcase video was kind enough to donate. It’s incredibly cheap as well.

    ___________The Details________________

    Where:
    1425 Miller Ave., 30307 (Google Map To This Location)
    When:
    Saturday, April 15th (Rain Date: Sunday, April 16th)
    What Time:
    9am 4pm
    EARLY BIRDS DO NOT COME BEFORE 9AM. WE WORK NIGHTS.
    Why:
    Winky, our indoor cat, was attacked by dogs. (Long story…)
    Her emergency vet bill is over $1,000.
    Whats There:
    Lots of people have donated cool items. Were talking furniture, art,
    clothes, etc… come check it out!
    The entire street is having a yard sale.

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  • Atlanta,  Photography

    New gallery

    April 5, 2006 /

    I just finished with the photos that the lovely and talented Debra and I took last night. We would up taking all of them in the daytime (it was too cold after dinner) and I’m quite happy with some of them. I was careless with some of the angles and I left way too much stuff in the backgrounds (how many times can you see my shadow!?) but the bright sunlight and blue sky provided for many interesting opportunities in Photoshop.

    While the last round of photos turned out to be quite dark and noirish, this one turned out to be more gothic and apocalyptic, nonetheless, some of them turned out quite interesting. I left some of the originals in so everyone can see the changes I made.

    The goal for this photo series it to have fiddler silhouettes, which this round is not. I do like it though. In case anyone is interested, the Auto Exposure Lock made no appreciable difference. The location was on Howell Mill Road.

    Thus I give you, Debra on the edge of forever.

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