A Bicycle Race at Paso Colon, Puerto la Cruz, VE

Last Sunday, Tania and I were in downtown PLC and came across a bicycle race. I took a few pics. These aren't in any order. I just posted the pics I liked the best. Not too bad for a tiny point-and-shoot (Canon SD1200 IS)

Merlin Titanium: Last of its Type

I took this pic on Sunday after my ride. I was just goofing around with the camera's settings.

I have several bicycles but this one is still my favorite. It is a 1996 Merlin titanium mountain bike. It was given to me as a warranty replacement after I cracked my 1993 Merlin, which was also a warranty replacement to the original 1990 Merlin. The original Merlin had a 3 digit serial number. This one has 5 digits. In 1997, Merlin was sold and Rob Vandermark started his own company, Seven which has taken titanium bicycles to another level.

This bike has been many places; a true adventure bike. I've really enjoyed it.

The Return of Monkey Boy

Got out for a ride today with Oscar. I was surprised when he had the initiative to get up and get ready on his own. It was a nice ride. The reason we haven't been riding together lately is because he had a weekend job that was taking all his time. He quit, wanting more time for himself but now is wanting a new job, but one that is not so demanding on his time (he's only 16 years old).
image copyright 2009 by Mimbres Man (B. H. Beard)
I decided I am going to play with B & W photography for a while.

Venezuelan Holiday

Unless you like crowds, which I don't, I don't recommend going anywhere popular during a Venezuelan holiday. Check out this crowd...and they kept coming.
Friend Daniel invited me to go sailing, and we went out with his wife, daughter and his wife's mother and 3 sisters. It made for a crowded boat, so I spent the entire time up on the bow. We "sailed" to Playa Punare (5 nautical miles) with the main sail up, but motored across the bay with the diesel.
Once at the island, we found a spot, I went for a short swim to try my hand at underwater photography...which I found very difficult and frustrating. I really need to learn how to take a good underwater photo.
The sail back was real sailing. We put up the main and unfurled the jib and took off! We made it across the bay in about an hour so we were averaging about 6 knots which isn't too bad considering our angle of attack (a broad reach in following winds). When we turned upwind to lower the sails, Daniel lost his Gila Cliff Dwellings horny toad hat in the sea. It must have sunk because we never saw it (plus it was a dusky olive color, so it blended with the sea pretty good). Will have to try to get him a new one.

My Thoughts Exactly

A beautiful little short film from the NYC Bicycle Film Festival.

I Like Riding Solo

Recovered from our Friday Caracas blitz trip, so I went out for a ride this morning.

I was riding alone today. Solo riding allows me focus. I think about all kinds of things. I think about how lucky and blessed I am. I think about new ideas. I think about the future. I love riding bikes...and its so fun to ride a bike that you love. I love my Merlin...Right now the elevators in the building are not working so I need to haul the bike down and up 5 stories. A 20 pound (9 kg) bike is easy to deal with!

Rode El Morro twice; up El Cerro, La Falla, then down the Fausto/The Rails, then to the base of Acuaro, then return to El Cerro and repeat...somewhere I picked up a thorn and my front tire started going soft, so I decided to call it a morning and rode home. I had to stop and add air a couple times...

When riding the back road, I came across some boys fishing with their dad. Their dad was swimming in the sea, using an old-school dive mask to see the fish, then using a large treble hook to snag the fish. They caught a pretty good sized fish using this method. Very cool!
Came across these guys riding up the rails while I was heading down. They had the right-of-way, so I paused and took some pics.

Commuting

Every Sunday, Daniel and I have to head back south to Tigre. Its a dangerous route. People drive too fast, take stupid chances, and sometimes end up in the ditch like this guy. We saw two roll-overs today. Nuts!

Tumba de Bello Today

Went for a ride today and took a few photos. This is probably the best one. Not too bad for a Canon point-and-shoot.

Hope to ride tomorrow, but need to fix my rear tire. Tumba de Bello should be called Caminos de Espinas (Trails of Thorns).

Back-In-The-Day...

My friend Andrew posted these on facebook...

Me exploring the White Mesa NW of Albuquerque circa 1989. I was skinny back then. Wool tights, heavy red polypropylene shirt, Mountain Smith fanny pack, Lycra-covered Avenir helmet (didn't like that helmet), and my first pair of Lake shoes (non-clipless). My bike then was a 1988 Fisher ProCaliber.
The Albuquerque mtn bikers circa 1994 or so on the John Dunn Memorial ride. John had been killed the week before when he was T-boned at an intersection while riding his Ciocc road bike. His family had given us about 1/4 of his ashes, so we had them with us. We spread them on the ride.
Note the bikes, all rigid forks. Looks like the guy on the far left has red Specialized with a Specialized suspension fork. I have my Merlin #1 due to the color of fork (black). I am on the right with the yellow jacket and the zebra striped Etto helmet (I liked that helmet). Check out the red bike on the far right and the 36 spoked front wheel.

Happy Equinox Experiment

Happy Equinox!

Note: If I would have done this experiment right, I would have done it right at high noon, instead I spaced it out did it about 12:15 local time, so the sun was already past its zenith a couple of degrees.

My experiment is simple, have a meter stick vertical and measure its shadow. The tangent of the angle should equal my degrees latitude north.
19 cm/100cm = 0.19
cotangent 19 = 10 degrees, 45 minutes N.

According to Google Earth, our location is actually 8 degrees, 53 minutes N. So the 2 degree error corresponds with the sun being across the zenith a couple of degrees. Also error could have creeped in anywhere, e.g., was the meter stick vertical, were my measures accurate, etc.?

Anyway...just goofing around.

A Generation Passes

Got word that my great aunt died yesterday. She was 96 years old when she passed and was my grandmother's little sister.

At her sister's (my grandmother) funeral in February 2009

She was a sweet woman. I last saw her in 2002 when I took my wife to New Mexico to meet my mom and grandmother. She happened to be there on a rare visit. She showed genuine love and affection for my wife, even though my wife is quite different from the rest of the family; in language, culture, and skin color. That did not matter to my aunt, she loved my wife for who she was.
Always kind.
Its the end of a generation in my family. Kind of sad.

Get the Message

I stole this from another blog. Anyway, get the message...

A Trip Through Barcelona, Venezuela

I am trying to get back into blogging on a semi-regular basis, and the whole point of the blog is to write about "my stuff". This is a trip through the city of Barcelona, Venezuela. Daniel and I make this commute every weekend when coming in from a week in El Tigre.
This city is gritty, dirty, and has too many cars for the narrow streets but still it is an interesting place for me.

Pardon my Spanish spelling...

Start: Redoma de Pajaros. (Traffic Circle of the Birds)
Landmark: Happy burra. This poor burra (female burro) has been repaired numerous times. Her ears are always broken off.
Corner: Building details.
Traffic: Narrow streets.
Street: Garage entrance.
Street: Sports complex.
Street: J.Lo. (I bet she doesn't get royalties on this)
Street: Mystery fist (its blue...does that mean something?)
Transport: Typical "micro" (small bus [privately owned public transport])
Transport: Armored truck
Today's journey took about 2 hours to go about 8 kilometers.

Experimenting with Macro on the Canon SD1200IS

Warning: This is a Geek post.

Lately I've been enjoying my new camera more and more. I am discovering new features and what it is capable of doing. Here's an experiment I did yesterday with a screw on a ping-pong table.

Photo 1: Normal macro mode.
Photo 2: 2.3x Digital zoom + macro mode.
Photo 3: Cropped from Photo 2. Not much pixelization.

Conclusion: Not bad quality out of a camera of its size.

Lights Out!

Been having electricity rationing or just electrical grid breakdown. Hard to say which is which, but I think it is both, which includes government meddling, incompetence, and arrogance.

Here's some pics about the problems we've been having.

No electricity at school. This really interrupts the flow of things. Most of our classrooms do not have windows, so it gets really dark. My room is one of the few with emergency lights.

One of my students has resorted to carrying a flashlight with him. always Other students have BlackBerry devices that have built in LED lights.

Finally people are starting to get mad and upset. Last night I heard pots and pan banging, a Latin American way of protesting, for the first time since 2003. The Assembly National (AN) passed a law banning such types of protests.

Another form of protest is the burning of tires. This was a couple of blocks from our apartment complex so we went over to take some pics. Crazy stuff!

The McDonald's in the background has its own power plant.

Yesterday lights were out from 10:30 AM to 1:00 PM, 5:00 PM to 6:10 PM, 6:49 PM to 2:15 AM.

Today lights went out at 10:15 AM to 3:15 PM. Today a parent is loaned us a 100 kW power plant and patched it into our electrical system. We were able to have class as usual (almost).

Favorite Photos (from this weekend)

This weekend went better than last. Tania got the A/C fixed, fired the old plumber and hired a new one who finally finished the job that the first one did not. I got out, (including riding my bike) and took a few pics.

Messing with the macro setting on the camera. I like how this turned out.
Storm coming. This was taken from my living room window. I like the fact that it was taken with the camera set on vivid color but it still came out basically in gray-scale.
Jacques at the top of Acuario. Neat pic!
Goofyness descending the pavement.
Rainbows and Motos.

09/09/09

My martian cutie...

A Visit to the Past: The Four Corners of my Old Classroom

Today I was at the old ELA building moving stuff. This is the school is where I have spent the longest period of time at one location, from 2001 to 2007. This is my old science room.

View 1: from the doorway. The dolphin mural was painted by some Norwegian students I had back in 2001.
View 2: from the dolphin back to the door. The new counter with sink is visible. This was a luxury. I only got to use this set-up one year or so. For many years I taught science in this room (good science) with nothing but creativity and innovation.

View 3: From the corner to the whiteboards. I spent most of my time in front of the whiteboards during my lecture periods.

View 4: From the whiteboards to the corner. Another look at the counter with underneath storage.

I had fun in that classroom.