Hey gang! Happy New Year! I said this two years ago and got so busy it didn’t happen. But this year, I’m redesigning my site to properly reflect ‘ME’.
Like a car mechanic, they never seem to get around to working on their own stuff.
-J
What a busy year… I haven’t done a proper update on my adventures in some time. Mostly, because I’ve been incredibly busy doing cool stuff. After Tour de Fat I officially joined If We Ran the World as the General Manager. Cindy Gallop who is the founder of the venture said to the world “I need a shit-hot technical project manager” and she got me! I have been working with Cindy since May of 2009 on getting If We Ran the World off the ground and running. In October, we did just that and we have for the last year.
Part of this required that I get my ass out to New York City, find a place to live, and get the project going in full swing. Then six months later I’m back to San Diego still working on If We Ran the World. Since my last update I’ve been to New Zealand, Whistler, Florida, NYC several times and a few other small adventures. I’ve improved my Ruby on Rails development skills and I’ve got my hands quite dirty with jQuery. (hey, I had not done real development in a while until I joined IWRTW) I’m hoping over the next few weeks to do updates on all that and more!
Tour de Fat came to San Diego and we were there!!!
For years I’ve been watching the Tour de Fat and wondering how far I was willing to go to attend, then it came to San Diego! For those of you who don’t know what the Tour de Fat is, briefly, “A Bicycle Festival with Beer!” New Belgium is a huge bicycling advocate as well as advocating renewable energy resources and keeping nature around for us to enjoy (not keep us from it).
Alison & I helped out a lot on getting things going and it was worth every moment spent on it. (Alison spent way more than I did). With help from some SDMBA people we pre-rode the parade route and then helped marshall it on the event day. Along with the San Diego Bicycling Coalition and the San Diego Mountain Bike Association the event was a huge success. New Belgium raised about $20,000 to support local bicycling in San Diego. We had record attendance for a first year event! Check out some of the event footage
I can’t wait for next year! You can find some more photos on my flickr.
While catching up on email today I came across an email from the Specialized Ridersclub and they are looking for active riders to become a part of their kick ass trail crew. I already ride a Demo 8 and owned my own FSR until about a year ago. What really told me this was up my alley is they want someone who can tell others about the adventure! This is totally me!
Why me?
So, today I’ll send them off a message on twitter and hope they come here to check me out. Specialized, if this is you. Take a look through my blog. I love to ride and love to write, video and photograph it.
I guess it is feast or famine when it comes to work. For five months I wasn’t working. Now, I’m working a lot. I was able to pick up a contract as a project manager while their regular project manager is out on maternity leave. Additionally I have four side projects going on. I’ve also incorporated myself in the hopes that I’ll be working for myself or another startup in the next year. Ultimately I want to be in a position where I can work from anywhere and not have an office I ‘have’ to work from. The last three weeks I have been pretty much working from 8 AM to 11 PM. I guess I’ll get to store some nuts away for the winter when it is all done.
One of my favorite current project is Chris Cantore’s site. We have a new look and feel up there and we’re adding new functionality. I’m slowly becoming a WordPress Pro! 
I recently visited New York City to join a small start up with some great ambitions. They have an interesting idea and I’ve joined them to help with the project management and development (where I can) I’ll post more on this later.
I was very stoked to see CL & Mona last week. I need to get out to Texas since some of my friends have decided they want to be cowboys. B & M!
Other than that I need to catch up on a few of my recent trips.
Upcoming we are heading up to Northstar at Lake Tahoe to do some park riding. Yippee!!!
And, I have a townie bike to commute on. Today was the first day riding the bike in and it took me 2 minutes longer to get here than to drive. Very happy
The last two weeks were a big weeks for me on the mountain biking front. Let’s see.
Tommy came to town last week. Very cool indeed! I mentioned in my last post how Tommy and I were riding buds 13 years ago. A few months ago he found me on Facebook and got in touch with me. Tommy was my wingman or I his when it came to mountain biking. We rode all over the damn place in Florida. I know, Florida doesn’t have mountains! But it does have some pretty cool trails. He shipped his downhill bike out and followed shortly on a plane. Very stoked to find him again and have my old riding buddy back.
Jumping!!!!This is something that I am OK at, but not very good. Especially when it comes to doubles. For those non riders, a double is a jump that has a gap between the take off and landing. 
The gap part is what freaks me out. If you come up short, it can be very very very very painful. Danny, being the great guy that he is rode with me at out an undisclosed riding location named after a former baseball star. I followed him a couple of times up to the approach to get the speed down. Then I went for it! And landed it! It wasn’t graceful by any means. But, I did it! And then I did it again! I’m pretty stoked about that. I was also able to stick a nice drop on the first try. Pretty awesome day and I totally appreciate Danny taking the time to show me how to do it right. And explain how it all works. I don’t have a problem with drops or table tops, just the ones with a gap. I still need to master getting the nose down so I land the transition smoothly.
A few weeks ago Alison and I attended the IMBA Trail Care Clinic put on by the San Diego Mountain Biking Association. We had met Inga and Jason the night before at a small dinner get together and then had the pleasure of their instruction on Saturday morning. Jinga (As they shall be known in this post) work for IMBA sponsored by Subaru as the IMBA Trail Care Crew. The first half of the day is a classroom session followed by going out to the field and practicing what they taught us. From what I understand, typically they do a few things, we learn, and then we come back and do the trailwork for real later. Well, SDMBA has a different idea on that apparently. We finished .5 miles of trail and cleaned up some additional trail that just needed to be cleaned up. Very informative and educational experience. (Not to mention dirty)
We got to learn a lot about Jinga and what they are doing. They are on a two year contract traveling North America teaching people how to build sustainable trails. The program only takes couples which is very interesting. Basically you are a team for two years so they want to make sure you can co-exist very well. I think it sounds like an awesome idea. I wish I could convince Alison to sign with me I hope to keep in touch with Jinga and ride/work with them again in the future. You can find out more about them at www.ihatebikes.net.
Santa Barbara – Tunnel and Knapps TrailI also got to ride some of my favorite trails up in Santa Barbara. After doing the Trail Care Clinic I went up the coast to see my parents as well ride with Jason from Jinga. Great riding! Great company.
Next installment. Trip to the Shipyard!!!
Last week a long lost friend Tommy came out to visit. I haven’t seen him in 13 years. When I left the Army I moved back to San Diego and we lost touch with each other. Tommy and I were mountain bike best buds. Since we lost contact he’s worked at bike shops, as a machinist, and most recently as a yacht engineer. A few weeks ago we were talking and I mentioned since both of us were unemployed he should fly out and we’ll go ride! He took me up on the offer.
So, last weekend we took him on some super fun rides. Tommy sent out a downhill bike to ride, so, obviously we had to go on some downhill rides! Saturday we took him to Anderson Truck Trail and did a couple of runs. He was super stoked. (The funny thing is, he owns a downhill bike and never downhilled it until last weekend). We were able to get in two runs. No major crashes so that was good. But somewhere along the way he smashed the chain guide with a rock and cracked the ISCG mounts on his brand new Intense M3. (More on that later)
Long lost buds
Sunday, we took him to ride Noble Canyon. Our local epic ride. Since it is more of a cross country ride I ran around trying to find a bike for him to ride. (Riding a downhill bike there would suck). Finally it occurred to me to go get my old cross country bike from Vaughn. I grabbed that Sunday morning and did a once over. Needed new tubes, brakes bleed, derailleurs aligned, chain cleaned and lubed and a good once over. I guess it had been sitting a while.
The plan was to meet Ryan and Michelle in Pine Valley around 12:30 and head out from there. We lagged a little bit. Alison, Tommy & I caught up to the on the highway so our laggery was of no consequence.
We loaded the bikes up in the truck and shuttled to the meadow off Sunrise Highway. (I know, we’re shuttle-monkeys) A bit chilly but sunny so it was all good. Pedaled up the old decomposed road and cruised on down Los Gatos Ravine to the Big Laguna trail. Went around the west side of the lake and over to Penny Pines. From there it was full steam ahead for Noble Canyon!
Tommy had never ridden this ride and the last time I rode it was over 10 years ago on a hard tail. What an incredible trail. I wish I had done it sooner and will definitely do it more often. Just beautiful!!! Everyone did great riding up and down including the chunky rock sections. I have helmet cam footage I’m editing currently to show off more of the ride. By the smile on Tommy’s face at the end we could tell that he truly loved this ride. We had only one mishap, Tommy smoked us all and got way ahead. And, instead of waiting at a fork in the trail he motored on. We had a little drama due to this, but, at the end we all reunited at the car and shared some delicious adult beverags, peanutbutter & jelly, and Nutter Butters!!!
Check out the rest of the photos. And, keep your eyes out for the video.
10. I can’t remember what day of the week it is
9. I only set my alarm to get up to go mountain biking
8. I spam people on Facebook and comment on every little thing
7. I’m covered in cat hair cause Karma can’t stay away from me
6. My house gets clean
5. I’m leveling alternate characters in my MMORPG (Warhammer currently)
4. Everything sitting around the house starts to have $$$ over it
3. I’m setting up Friendbay to sell stuff I don’t really need
2. I can’t remember what day of the week it is
1. I’m broke
Hey gang,
Some of you may not have heard of Friendbay(TM) but it’s where I give my friends dibs on stuff I’m gonna sell on Craigslist or Ebay. I typically price it on ebay then knock off 15%. If you see something you like/want. I’ve been out of work now for almost two months so its time to get creative.
You’re my friend so you should know how to reach me.
Geek Stuff
SOLD 2 Belkin 400 Watt UPS – $20 each A+++ Buyer. Would do business with again!!! 
On Ebay Palm Tungsten T5 (Pretty much new condition) – $100
SOLD Logitech MX-1000 Mouse – $40 (Amazon Link)
SOLD Nvidia 7800 GT 256mb DDR3 RAM, PCI-E- $50
Given to a friend ATT USB Connect 881 Laptop Wireless 3g card – $50 (I misplaced it, bought another one, then found it again)
Paintball Stuff
SOLD AKA Viking Feather Light paintball marker – $300 (Comes with airtank)
SOLD AKA Viking Crusader Milled Paintball marker – $350 (Comes with airtank)
Cool Stuff
ON Ebay Helmetcam (480 Line kit) + Video Camera (Sony TRV33) – $300
Motorcycle Stuff
PENDING Pitbull Rear motorcycle stand (For spools) – $50 (Product page)
PENDING Pitbull Front motorcycle stand – $50 (This is the one that goes into your headset) (Product page)
Condor Motorcycle Chock – $100 (Product page)
Random Stuff
Diamond Back Mountain Bike – $300 (Picture)
On Ebay ReplyTV 4000 DVR – $20
On Ebay ReplyTV 5000 DVR – $30
I have some more stuff I will be posting this week. Let me know if you want any of this stuff. I figure by Thursday/Friday I’ll start pushing it up to Ebay.
