So me and Gary went on out for our third adventure. For those of you wondering who Gary is, my bicycle is a Gary Fisher. So being that the brand is a name I refer to my bike as if it is a real person and just call it Gary. The first was already mentioned on my blog and the second was… well… none existence. To make a short story even shorter, we went out and my partners chain broke about one minute into the trail. So back to present day, I went out today because I happen to be in an area I knew was close to some trails, so I packed up the necessary goods for my ride and proceeded with my days plans. For those interested I met my Mom and Dad at the Renaissance Fair in Casa De Fruta. It was fun… short lived but fun nonetheless. So I left and headed of to go mountain biking when my parents had gotten their fill of all things rennaissance. After I had gotten things situated I started my ride. Just like when I run, I just kind of went and figured it all out as I went; no need to read trail maps and stuff. I ended up climbing a pretty good hill. It was somewhere between 1.5-2 miles of trail up and there was a little loop at the top for an additional .9 miles and then I took a different trail down that I saw intersected my upward route. In all I probably road 4-5 miles. Not that far but the terrain more then made up for it and it was late in the day. The story in all this is that me and Gary finally got to know each other and it was exciting. I think Gary need some new brakes though. Anywho… that is my story. It was a good day… I just wish I could have done a bit more thinking. My emotions feel unresolved. Well, thats it… I’ll be sure to start packing a camera for these adventures. The view of silicon valley was amazing.

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First, I would like to say this is my 98th blog post making me just two shy of the big 100. I don’t know what I will do for the achievement but stay tuned for details.

As some of you may know, I value my friendships vary highly. I often feel like few of my friends realize just how much they mean to me but it is to be expected I assume. I have not been blogging much as the mindset seems to have escaped me as of late. I don’t really have much to say to the world but to my friends… I love and miss you. That is all I have to say….

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So I took Gary to the bike shop and he is doing great now. I refer to my bike as Gary and as if it is a real person so bear with me. The bike is a Gary Fisher so its not that strange. So I decided me and Gary were going to go for a ride. So I looked up some parks and trails and such and I took off with Gary for a ride at 6:30pm or so knowing that it was going to get dark soon. The trip started well. I started on a paved trail and road on it for about a minute until it turned into a dirt trail which quickly became just some dirt next to some railroad tracks. I kept riding and it turned back into a dirt trail but that then turned into like a walking path (smaller then a trail type thing) but I kept going. Along the way there was trash and random homeless shanties set up. I had seen the maps, all the parks were part of a series of parks that were connected. So I kept going… and my path got smaller and smaller until I was riding real slow and dodging branches and such. I then came to a spot where the “trail” now not even really a path was unridable by bike. So I turned around and it was then that I realized that I was kind of in a homeless village. I thought for a second. I could hear someone moving a bit and could see his head hidden in the trees. I road back to a spot where I could see him and asked if he knew a way through to the other side but he didn’t answer. I asked twice before I decided the catatonic homeless man that was staring at me and the world around him as if it was something new he had never experience before wasn’t going to be helpful so I just back tracked a bit to the nearest street. From there I proceeded to my goal of trying to ride on some trails and such. So I headed south some more and worked my way back to the “parks” in hopes I would find the trail I had be kicked off of. I eventually got to the paved trail again that I had found online and headed down that with excitement. The trail dipped down by the near by creek and was under the canopy of the tree’s so it was much darker. I road on this for about all of one minute before I realized that this was no more of a trail then any other part of this ghetto ass trip so much as it was just a more official path to yet more homeless shanties. Not being in the mood for any more of the type of trip this had become I decided to take the fastest and most direct city streets home. My trip back brought me through ghetto ass neighborhood after ghetto ass neighborhood. At one point I could see some kids from a distance sitting on corner with their bikes and scooters and as I road by they fallowed me with there eyes. It was rather creepy. I passed a crazy women who was hacking at a bush in between the sidewalk and the street as if it was soon to be her dinner. I was nearly hit by more cars then I can count being that people could really give a shit if your on a bike. I finally got back 10 miles later and came to the conclusion that San Jose is one GHETTO ASS CITY and that future bike trips would not be planned the same way. Lesson learned. The end. True story.

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Below is a link to a high definition airsoft video shot at Fort Ord. The game was put on by Round House productions who is lucky enough to have someone film at their games. I happen to have a starring roll about twenty seconds in which is fallowed by a short clip of my roommate Mike. I suggest you watch it as I am now famous. Also, there is some footage of a guy with a mp5 that has an auto returning moving bolt cover. It looks wicked cool and if anybody has any information on it that would be great. As I mentioned the video is in high definition so the download may take a while (broadband required) but its worth your time.

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Operation Junkyard Dog

Over the summer and in the last month there have been a number of excellent new albums to hit the stores. In light of writing a detailed review of all of them I will simply give you a list of what is new, hot, and why.

As I Lay Dying - An Ocean Between Us
Its amazing, its better then the last album, and what else would you expect from what I feel is the best band in metalcore. They continue to blow me away and their new video is down right epic. It’s so good I posted it below for your pleasure.

Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
Indie rock band Stars released another LP and Dear God is it good! The first song is so melodic and catchy that it sucks you into the fallowing 12. From beginning to end it is top notch and worth of your listening time.

Minus The Bear - Planet Of Ice
Another indie favorite of mine, these guys have crafted another get addition to there music collective. If you are fans of there previous albums, nothing has changed just more great Minus The Bear.

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
If for no other reason this album would be worth every penny just for the single All My Friends. While the rest of the album sounds nothing like this amazing song it grows on you.

Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
This new Bright Eyes album is another great addition to his massive music collection. It has a bit of a southern twang not normally seen in his music but still very good.

That’s about it for that. I might add that a Every Time I Die album just came out today and I will be giving that a listen soon. To rap things up I want to give a bit of a through back say if you haven’t listened to The Album Leaf you need to. I just recently discovered this little gem from a friend and it really is some great stuff. If you like Sigur Rós you will like The Album Leaf. For posterities sake I have included a video below to show you just how good it is. A special thanks goes out to Symmie for the musical discovery.

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Well, I was going to wait to start blogging a little longer but quite frankly I just don’t think I can. So I will start off with Apple’s big news they threw at the world earlier today. I made sure to read Engadget’s live blog of the keynote in San Francisco in class as it was happening. The world knew what Steve Job’s planned on unveiling from the moment invitations where sent out to the press. I even warned a few friends of purchasing new Apple gear previous to today so as to avoid any impending disappointment. But enough with the hype here are the details:

iPod Shuffle: New Colors

iPod Nano: Redesigned to accomidate a 2″ screen for video. It’s much squatter and fatter but should still be pretty small. The battery will play up to 24 hours of video and 5 hours of audio and comes in 4 GB and 8 GB models priced at $149 and $199 respectively. Personally, I think its ugly but a step in the right direction nonetheless.

iPod Classic: Yeah you read that right what we have all come to know as an iPod is now an iPod “Classic”. Besides the name change, it now comes available in 160 GB and 80 GB mobels at a price range of $249 and $349 respectively.

iPod Touch: Basically an iPhone minus the phone. It has wifi, safari, and all the touch screen iPhone visuals. They seem to have fixed a few iPhone snafus with the operating system like typing in landscape mode (this is likely to carry over with the next iPhone update later this month). Battery life is said to be 22 hours of audio and 5 of video and it comes in 8 GB and 16 GB models at $299 and $399 respectively.

So that is all the big details. They anounced the ability to browse and buy from the iTunes music store from both the iPhone and the new iPod Touch (via wifi). They also announced a new Starbucks partnership that allows you to browse and buy music being played in Starbucks and use their wifi for free on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Most of those details are less then exciting. The last few exciting things to come out of all this is with the mention of an iPhone firmware upgrade coming later this month as well as an iPhone price drop from $599 to $399 on the 8GB model. This comes at no surprise being that they discontinued the 4 GB model and will likely release a 16 GB and 32 GB model in January (thats just my guess). For more details check out Engadget’s coverage.

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It would appear that I have fallen off the face of the earth and no longer blog. That my friends is untrue. I will leave out the details and just say that my life has had some major changing moments. These along with camp ending and school starting up have kept me rather busy and unable to blog. I will say, however, that my return to the blog-o-sphere will be soon and when it happens it will be big. I have new photos to post, new projects to debut, new albums to review, and new technologies to report on. So for right now I apologise but I’ll be back… soon…

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