TwoJeez

Well, I fractured my patella (knee cap) last night on the way home. Oddly enough I was going up the hill on the way to my house when this occured. It had just started to rain so the roads were a bit slick. Additionally, gravel likes to wash down 18th street and collect on the side of the road. This delightful cocktail of ingredients led to an over torqued hill climb that ended with me going over the bars and landing on my left knee and elbow. I have some bruising on my right ribs so I must have hit my bars on the way  down as well. Fortunately, Pittsburgh is a great place to live for sports related injuries. I know a few people that are well connected in the orthopedic community so I should be able to get an appointment with a great doctor for my follow up.

The doctor at the ER said that I’d be out of commission for about 4 weeks. This is probably going to drive me insane. But, I’m going to try and utilize the down time on some projects that have been on hold due to my schedule. So hopefully it won’t be a total loss. I’ll be using my twitter feed to keep folks updated, so if you’re interested follow me @justinflagg.

::UPDATE::
I have an appointment tomorrow with a Dr. Tarkin. Apparently he is the guy to talk to when it comes to ortho-trauma. He had a chance to look at my x-rays and said that it doesn’t look too bad. Might be as simple as 3 weeks in a brace followed by 3 weeks of therapy. Lets hope thats all it takes.

Irony: Writing a post about being to busy to write a post.

For the last few weeks I’ve been unbelievably busy. Not in the sense that I’ve had an impossibly packed daily schedule, but in the sense that I’ve had something scheduled to occupy my free time for what seems like forever. If you’re reading this you might be wondering what could possibly be keeping me so busy lately. The truth is that there isn’t a brief way to describe it because it’s been such a variety of things.

The last time I posted I mentioned that i was heading down to Maryland for my little sister’s graduation. This was to be the first time in six years that the entire family has been in one location for any extended period of time. And I mean everybody: my Mom, Dad, Step-Mom, Step-Dad, my Grandparents, my Uncle Greg, my Step-Brother and Sister (Greg and Jackie), my Sister Nicki, her boyfriend Stephan and my other Step-Sister Sarah. We all managed to cram into Kelsey’s apartment for post graduation partying and I’m happy to say that everyone had a pretty good time. Although I think the booze consumption helped to lubricate the atmosphere, it was nice that there weren’t any arguments or awkward moments. I have pictures from the festivities posted here.

Fortunately, Sarah and I were able to get all of her stuff moved into my apartment prior to the graduation party trip because the following weekend we headed down to Richmond for a triathalon. This was her second year participating in this particular tri and we had a similar busy routine to fit into the short weekend. In case you’re wondering, I didn’t participate in the tri due to my apprehension towards running and my lack of interest in swimming anywhere quickly. It was a fun weekend, but I was glad to get back to Pittsburgh. Between the two back-to-back weekend trips we had spent a ton of time in the car.

Also adding to the chaos lately is the Penguins run for the Stanley Cup. You really can’t live in Pittsburgh and not be engulfed by the excitement that leads up to the finals. And, since hockey is generally played every other day during the playoffs, you end up with 2-3 post-work obligations a week. We managed to beat Detroit last night to tie the series 3-3, but we head back to the D on Friday to try and win it all. Honestly, I don’t care what happens but it will be nice when it’s finally over so I can have a few hockey free evenings. 

Of course, amongst all of this stuff, I’ve also been trying to train and race my bike. I had started off the year on a pretty good training/workout regimen but due to work and generally shitty weather I wasn’t able to continue my routine throughout the spring. This set me back a little bit but I’m finally getting into the racing season and finding the time to dedicate to riding. While I haven’t been doing particularly well in any of the races I’ve entered, I am having fun racing and I’ve noticed some improvements in my ability. As the year goes on maybe I’ll see some better results.

Well, as I said, there really wasn’t a brief way to sum up all of the things that have been keeping me so busy. And I can assure you that I’ve left plenty of other things out of this list. But since my lunch break is running short I’ll wrap this one up. I’ll be trying to post some updates about some new poster work I’ve done as well as some photos of the ICB team racing in our new kits. LETS GO PENS!!!

When I woke up this morning, I realized how quickly the weekend had disappeared. Friday afternoon was filled with a trip to Fat Heads for a firkin of Oskar Blues Dales Pale Ale. A few guys were there from the brewery to help us start the weekend off right. After the firkin kicked, Sarah and I headed to dinner with the rest of the beer camp crew. After dinner we met up with a some of my colleagues at Jekyl and Hyde’s to finish off the evening with a few more beers.

I realized Saturday morning that I had a full days worth of stuff to do to get ready for the bike team fundraiser that evening. We held the final Black & Gold Sprints that evening at Over The Bar Cafe in the southside. As a part of our sponsorship deal with Urban Velo, the team helped to organize a three race series to raise money for various expenses. Honestly, it was a lot of work to set-up so it was nice to get the final event finished. We had a less than excellent turn out of 21 racers, but considering the rainy conditions of the evening, I wasn’t particularly surprised.

On Sunday I finished moving the rest of Sarah’s furniture out of her old apartment in Bloomfield. Mark and Gus voluteered to help me out and Mark had even gotten a giant truck from his work. Sarah and I had already taken everything that we could fit in her car to the new house, so all that was left was furniture. There were only about 10 pieces to move, so we finished in about an hour. Of course, we went to Fat Head’s afterward to have a few beers and watch the first game of the Red Wings/Black Hawks series. 

I have a few things to wrap up at work this week before I head down to Maryland for my sister’s college graduation. Sarah and I will be driving down to my mom’s house on Tuesday evening, then we’ll all drive down to Salisbury on Wednesday morning. We’re all heading to a wine festival on Saturday, then heading back on Sunday afternoon. This will be the first time that the ENTIRE family has been together in about 6 years, so I’m sure I’ll have some tales to tell on Monday! In the meantime, check out my new “Schwat I did in ‘08″ set on Flickr.

As I promised myself, I’ve been trying to keep up on this whole blog thing. So far I think I’ve held up my end of the bargain, three new posts already! I’ve been thinking about what to write lately more than I’ve been doing any actual writing, but I guess it’s the thought that counts, right? As I evolve this space I’m trying to figure out how I can better utilize my web presence. I’ve even dedicated myself to learning HTML and CSS. And not just the lame limp-along-in-Dreamweaver HTML, but actually figuring out the proper grammar and knowing how to create and cust0mize functional websites.

I discovered a pretty good tutorial site at www.w3schools.com that I’ve found to be easy to follow. The best part about the tutorials is that they include a lot of try-it-yourself sections that, as I’ve learned more attributes and style references, have been really helpful in testing out my skills. The end goal is that I’ll be able to use my main url as a portfolio site, instead of relying on space on the blog to get my work out there. Of course, I will also be using those skills to spruce up the blog too. I’ve recently added some new stuff to the headers, as well as adding some work and a little back story to the design section. See my work. You’ll notice that I don’t have any web work in my portfolio. I’m currently working on a few web projects, but the truth is that I love designing for print, and I don’t think that will ever change.

I also recently logged back into my flickr account. My account had been dormant since sometime in 2005, and the lack of photos definitely shows it. I have well over 4,000 photos in my library so maybe i’ll get around to posting some of the archives in the near future. I’ve also realized that it’s a great place to host images for the blog posts that won’t take up space on my web server. For those of you who might actually read this blog, I hope you enjoy the current and upcoming updates.

GO PENS!!!!

Beer Camp: On Tour

The long awaited opening of the satellite home for Beer Camp, Fat Heads Brewery Cleveland, had its grand opening on Tuesday, April, 7th. As you might expect, a group of representatives was sent up to make sure that the new location was up to spec.

Sarah and I picked up Garrett bright and early on Tuesday morning. The weather was less than ideal: 30° and snowing… but that wasn’t going to stop us, we had craft beer to drink. We headed out to Cranberry to meet up with Mark (The Czar), who was driving the rest of the way to Cleveland. Once we got on the road towards our angry neighbor to the west the snow was off-and-on but the roads weren’t too icy. We saw a few wrecks along the way, but with Mark at the helm of the Crown Vic we didn’t have any problems. Hula Girl played a decided role in our safe passage. Continue Reading »

My new Hackintosh with bag and iPhone

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently got a Dell Mini9. I wasn’t really in the market for a new computer, but once i found out that it’s the only netbook (9″ screen, 2.2 lbs) that will flawlessly run OS X, for around $350, I was sold. The reality is that most of the time that i drag around my 5.5 lb, 15″ macbook pro, all i was using it for was email/web surfing. That’s exactly what netbooks are for!If you’re interested in getting one of these sweet macbook minis for yourself, check out dell.com for the machine and more importantly, www.mydellmini.com to learn how to make it a Hackintosh. The dell mini forum members are an invaluable source of talent and knowledge that have allowed many people to enjoy their own hacked mini9s. So far, things have been running very well. All the hardware works flawlessly, and the OS runs quite snappy. I also found an ebay seller, MoApples, that makes custom cut vinyl stickers so my white mini lid now has a silver Apple sticker on it. Needless to say, it draws a bit of mystique. I also got a custom made carrying case from another forum member, psyopper. That should arrive tomorrow, then my mini set up will be complete. I’ll post pictures once my case arrives so stay tuned.

[View with PicLens]

The weekly criterium series started at the Washington Blvd. Oval last Tuesday. Due to crappy weather/work, I didn’t make it. This Tuesday, the weather wasn’t much better, but i decided that I need to get my first race of the season over with.Normally, I would ride to the oval, but my new computer arrived on Tuesday, a Dell Mini 9 (which i’m typing on now.) I spent most of the day hacking it to run OS X, needless to say I didn’t get much work done. Turned out to be a pretty cool fully functioning mini mac! For anyone who is interested, check out www.mydellmini.com for a TON of information on how to get OS X up and running.

Anyways, due to my new toy, i had quite a bit of extra baggage with me, so i called Jon, who had his work van to see if he was going to the race. I convinced him that he should go, despite the weather and i met up with him in the Strip district to get a ride out to the oval. For whatever reason, Im never very enthusiastic about going to race on Tuesdays. That usually changes by the time i get to the track, and definitely changes by the time the race is over. I guess it’s just nerves. Continue Reading »

I was just doing some research regarding the number of blogs in the universe and the frequency in which they are updated—and in this case, temporily abandoned—and I decided that I didn’t want to add to the dissapointing data. There are an estimated 5-10 million blogs in existence on teh interwebs. With that kind of volume, its obviously hard to stand out. I however have no intention of being the next engadget, bikesnob, or whatever, I just wanted to have a place to post about the things that are relevant in my life.

That being said, I feel like I should begin writing more regularly and utilizing the webspace that I pay for in a more efficient way. While it might take some self-encouragment to get the mojo flowing again, I think that I’m at a point in my life now where there may actually be interesting things to talk about, and dare I say, things that other people might acutally read.For this revival post, i’ll keep things short.

A lot of good things have happened in my life since my last post:
1. I have a beautiful, awesome, fun, loving girlfriend, Sarah. We’re moving in together in a month, which should be wonderful.
2. I’m still gainfully employeed at on of the biggest advertising agencies in Pittsburgh
3. I have been managing a bike racing team, including designing our team jersies, acting as treasurer, event coordinator, and pretty much any other thing thats needed to be done. And yet, I’ve only gone on two decent road rides since January…
4. I’m thinking very seriously about moving to the west coast in a years time.

I guess a lot of the writing that I’ll be doing over the next 12 months will be geared towards that last point. There is a lot of stuff I need to figure out, but I think it will be an adventure. If you have ever followed my blog, thanks, and if you stumble upon it in the future, I hope you find it entertaining.

My first waking thought on this Sunday morning was “Wait, the Moose doesn’t open till 4:00, I wonder if Dave knows that?” I got out of bed and went to the trusty interweb where discovered that Dave had indeed realized this reality and had moved the starting location to Thick Bikes. Since registration was at 12, and the race started at 1, this was a much more suitable starting location. It was what some would consider a perfect afternoon for a mountain bike alleycat. Mid-20’s, light snow and just enough puddles to make things messy. As always, Dave devised an excellent race course that traversed the local trail systems through both Schenley and Frick parks. Continue Reading »

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Hot Metal Bridge bike/pedestrian crossing opening ceremony was today at noon. The new crossing, which utilizes the original refurbished Hot Metal Bridge, links the Eliza Furnace Trail (or, “The Jail Trail”) on the downtown side of the river to the Southside Trail via a bridge over 2nd Ave. Mayor Luke Ravenstal was on hand to do the ribbon cutting, as well as close to 200 cyclist, pedestrians, and rollerbladers. Bridge Entrance
Continue Reading »