My New Townhouse

I'm going camping this weekend and so I set my tent up to air it out. I think I might sleep outside tonight. It's kinda' hot out: 85 degrees. But, I think that'll make tonight very pleasant. The tent is a "Greatland" from Target (I love Target). This tent is so cool. Not because it's mine (though that helps '_'), but because it's designed well. You enter the front which is a screened in porch. From there you can take your shoes off and step into the sleeping quarters. This setup is great because by taking your shoes off outside you don't get all sorts of dirt and crap on the floor. So, now I'm living the highlife! When I camp I camp in style! :)

Okay, this isn't actually my new Townhouse. I'll post some pictures of my house once my furniture arrives.

This is kind of random. I bought a Dyson vacuum a couple weeks ago for my new place and I love it so much. I don't particularly love vacuuming, but aside from that, this machine is friggin' awesome. The suction power is great, which I need because my carpet is really plush, and the extending hose and attachments are so convenient and well designed. Plus, this thing looks SO COOL! I get babes to come to my house just by telling them I have a Dyson. I usually can get them to vacuum a level for me under the guise of a "test run," its beautiful (both the strategy and the machine, the ladies aren't bad, either).

Ladies, shoot me an email if you'd like to give the beast a test drive.

Chauvinistic? Hey, At least I vacuum (sometimes). :)

Truth be told, I don't vacuum a ton, cause I also have a Roomba (robot vacuum) - which I also love (look for comments on that machine soon).

Okay, now I'm bordering on having a cleaning OCD, huh?

Here's my brother riding a bike my dad just bought. It's a Honda NSR-50. It's a scaled down crotch-rocket. It's super fun. Color wise it's nothing too beautiful, but that's because these are meant to be racing bikes and I guess Honda figures that the racers will want to give their machine custom graphic. This little baby will reach speeds of around 40 (I think), has 6 gears, and will reach 11,000 RPM's. It sounds great. For me, it's a fun little toy to tide me over until I get a full-sized motorcycle. Which I hope will be within the next couple weeks.

An Update

Well, things have been really good for me over these last few weeks.

1) I closed on my townhouse and moved in. I've been organizing and buying crap to make it look more like a home. I'll try to post pictures as soon as I get my furniture moved in and looking nice.

2) Next on my list of good things: I bought out the car I was leasing. I've been leasing it for the past ~2 years and I liked it so much that I figure that I'll keep it longer. I might post picture eventually.

3) I completed my first triathlon for the year. This has been the third year that I've been competing in organized events. I've been doing "homemade" triathlons for the past 4-5 years. Anyway, I didn't do as well this year (compared to last year), but considering that I didn't really train at all this year, I didn't do too badly. Lengths: 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike, 3 mile run. Time: 1:35:15.

Oh, he will kill me if he finds out I'm posting this picture. My uncle was riding a little mini-dirt bike and he must have cornered too hard. He heard everybody laughing and played it up a little, so the vertical legs are extra. Nevertheless, he fell off - and that's something you don't see everyday with my Uncle. (Just don't tell him you saw this, he'd have my head for breakfast.)

This was really funny. I was up visiting my cousins and little "Tank" was playing in the dirt. His uncle Dan was ridding a four-wheeler with mud flaps which would really kick the dirt up. Anyway, Uncle Dan drives up and kicks up some dirt to show everybody how cool the four-wheeler was. Then he tells little "Tank" to go stand behind him. Everybody watching says, "Oh no, Dan. Don't have him do that." To which Uncle Dan replies, "Hey, Tank go stand behind me." Little "Tank" listens to his Uncle and this is the picture I get. Just so you don't worry, he didn�t get hurt (which is probably why they call him "Tank").

My cousins wanted me to do their family pictures. I ended up taking about 200 pictures total. It was hard to get them all to smile and not blink. I was kind of nervous to take the pictures because I've never done family portraits before and with such a big group to start with...… But, they either trusted me enough, or were just feeling cheap. I think they ended up looking pretty good. This is one of my favorites before any editing - there are a couple faces that I think I'll need to photoshop (by request).

Gizmodo: I'm loving this site. Has info on the newest tech gadgets.

We found a little rabbit nest out at my parents property. There were tons of these little guys. This wasn't the best picture, composition wise, but the others were either too blurry (because I had my camera set to auto-focus and the grass kept messing things up) or they were just sleeping. This one shows them sniffing around - since their eyes haven't opened yet.

Poem: You can...

Okay, so I suppose this isn't really a poem. I mean it doesn't rhyme or anything, and there's really no rhythm, either. I suppose it's more of a "Famous Quote" kind of thing - minus the famous part (at least, at the moment). Oh, yeah, I'll be famous some day. But, it probably won't be from my writing skills. :)

You can be a runner but be too tired to walk.
You can pray and feel like you aren't being heard.
You can be educated and realize you don't know a thing.
You can be beautiful but think you are uglier than everyone else.
You can be where you want but think you should be somewhere else.
You can be rich but not have enough to buy what's important to you.
You can have the perfect family and think they don’t care.
You can believe in God but wonder if He's really there.
You can be surrounded by friends but feel all alone.

I was over at my cousin's house today and took this picture. I thought he looked nice so I figure I'd post 'em. I really liked the band of white around his neck and near the tip of his nose - it seems to pull the picture together. The lighting outside was difficult because it was so direct, but this picture seemed to benefit from the light since it highlights his throat, ear, and jaw muscles.

Trapt: My currently favorite band. I just love "Echo" & "These Walls". Crank it up!

Central Park, in NYC, has this great castle, named the Belvedere Castle, which has this fantastic view. I never knew that Central Park had a castle so I thought it would be nice to give it some "props" (I'm lazy, so this picture will be the only "prop").

Here's a night vision shot out of our hotel in Boston. I'm blogging this cause it reminds me of the game "Splinter Cell" (if you know the game than you know what I'm talking about).

Here's a monument to the Holocaust in Boston. You can't tell from this photo, but there are thousands of numbers etched onto each glass pane.

I'm not sure why, but I'm fascinated by deep sea creates. I don't know much about them, but they scare me into being interested. This is a model of one of the ugliest little guys in the Boston aquarium. I'm using the night vision option on my Sony F828 camera (which really comes in handy).

Here's a shot from the Empire State building in NYC. It was a little hazy out. NYC is so huge. It was my first time there and I couldn't believe just how big it was.

Took a little field trip to the MIT museum in Boston. What the heck is the name of this robot? Gizmot, Kismit? I can't remember. I wonder if computers think she's hot? 

White flower.