And So It Begins

According to my book, winter officially started this weekend with the first snowfall of the season. I am happy to report my winter bike setup is so-far-so-good and totally ready to whip winters ass. I set up my single speed Cross Check with full fenders, front Continental Speed King and rear Kenda Small Block Eight tires, drop bars, and bright, bright green bar tape. The tape is the most important part of the build as it gives me something to look at when I get bored.

I've been sick for the better part of three weeks now, and I'm beginning to feel like I may just be mortal after all. It all started with flu symptoms, digressed into severe stomach problems, and now the sickness has morphed into a cough, overstaying it's welcome on the magnitude of Jar Jar Binks' presence in the Star Wars saga. Yesterday was the first day I truly started to feel better after three weeks of aches, pains, chills, and coughs.

Yesterday also marked the two week mark of my sobriety (A small part of my cure for the before mentioned stomach problem). Despite the small amount of Vodka I consumed last night (I consider the consumption as more of an experiment of digestive fortitude than a relaxing drink), I have not had a single drop of alcohol since before being diagnosed with acid reflux. No spicy food, no alcohol, no peppermint, no fatty food, one cup of coffee a day, no chocolate (make Aaron something something). Yup, pretty much everything I eat day to day will now make my stomach feel like it's bleeding to death from the inside out; so now I eat like a true white person. So after considering the severe changes to my diet I have, in most part maintained a very positive attitude about life. My body really isn't all that pissed at me for taking all it's cookies away from it, I think mainly because the sobriety feels like I've just broken through the surface of an immense body of water and I am can now catch my breath. I can now breath.

In other news, I am now a full time wheel builder. The process of building the vehicle that propels the masses has helped me to fully understand that most people know nothing about wheels, and that even after three weeks of nothing but truing, I still feel like I know nothing about the art. Before I became a wheel builder, I spent the most of my summer running around a warehouse filling orders and packing boxes. Not very difficult work, but extremely difficult for someone who doesn't know how to shut ones' brain off. I'm out of the warehouse and into production where I now sit and I build the things that make people smile that smile that can only be attained by riding a bike. This makes me smile.

Despite the enormous learning curve I do feel like I have just now started to figure out my own process, and have so take it upon myself to build this beauty for a little beauty.














So guys, that is small piece of the pumpkin pie that I call my life. Take from it what you will, sometimes you just need to reach the surface and gasp for air to realize that you have it pretty good compared to where you have been.

Keep on the up and up, I'll see you on the road.

Ourboros and the Bitch that is Cyclinicity

So in the event that I self destruct I bestow my cat, The Great Commander Dorokovsky, all my Earthly pleasures. Included in that is a gnarly bicycle stable that will suite him not so well considering he lack the opposable digits to to properly give bad drivers the finger .



Regardless, I have had some life events in the last couple of weeks that have all but turned this firestorm of a beings' life into a all out tail spin. A tail spin that in my head will hopefully play out like that ridiculous scene in True Lies where Arnold battles a jet fighter and wins. Democracy always wins motherfucker. So be the current situation as it is, I have been forced to see the humor in all this. The humor that is everyday life. The humor that gets us by when all else fails us in life, when all that is promised, proven, and right; turns out wrong. The only thing any of us can do is just make light of it and find a better way than the people before us.


There is a better way to do things, I am seeing it first hand. All it takes is a little perspective and a lot of patience. (Insert Axle Rose snake slither dance) Oh, yeah it also takes about a gallon of piss and vinegar to see something like this through. Luckily A.P. Domeier is having a two-for-ones on piss and vinegar this month so gets yours while it's luke warm. Don't count me out, look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.


On a completely different note, I've ordered parts for my first wheel build, my new career interest. Building wheels, that is. The Karate MOnkey needs a front wheel like Throwdown needs a more people picking shit up off the floor, and well hell, I'm going to build it. Hope Pro II hubs-red ano, laced with DT Swiss double butted spokes, DT Swiss black brass nipples, WTB Lazer disc trail 29'r rims. Gonna go get learned in the art that is wheel building.


Here are my three rad things for this post:
I've learned recently from a friend at work that I am a black shirt hardcore type of dude:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PVXlGxABic4

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2011/1/4/0aa2bae5-35f6-445e-b38a-f24498e5f5d2.jpg

http://www.sjscycles.co.uk/images/products/medium/hope-pro-ii-6-bolt-front-disc-hub-32-hole-red-IMG24435.jpg

Version 2.0

Ok, ok. so It's been a long time since I updated this thing, partially because of life conflictions, partly because I after I created this blog, I started to second guess if I really had all that much to say. Or if people would really care to hear what I have to say. (I'm sure there's a rendition of Cracker's "Teen Angst", but meant for bloggers)

For those of you that don't know me, I'm a mid twenties college graduate sent out into this world to conquer it. I was raised in a lower middle class blue collar family of German descent; proud of all. I now appreciate the value of a dollar, the ability to cook, and the nutritional value of sauerkraut. Only minutes out of the gate a little perspective was instilled in me, and I got to feel what it was like when you first learned that Santa Clause wasn't going to bring you that Playstation, or a GT LTS 3 for Christmas when you are 13. Instead, I got a pair of wool socks and a job; and learned how to ride year round as I delivered papers through the winter at 13 years old.

Speaking of which, I have a few obsessions, bikes, drums, beer, music, and coffee. I like my bikes solid, my beer in a can, music loud, and my coffee strong like my beef. I have been commuting in Minneapolis now for a couple of years, and this winter will mark my fourth winter commuting in the hell that is a Minnesota winter. While I ride, my brain goes into overdrive, I calculate mileage, balance my checkin account, and perform small acts in quantum physics as I thread the needle with the Guilded Yak:

Well, after almost a year of talking to myself like some three year old jacked a can of Four Loko, I can say that I do have some things to say.

I've decided to restructure this blog a little bit. It will be equal parts adventure blog, equal parts a view of my day to day doings and goings on. I have found that my life is not an average life, it's not even an un-average life, it's just my life and that's it. People give me weird looks when I tell them what I spend my free time on. I like what I do, I've worked my entire life for my lifestyle, and I hope to never slow down. I have met some really great people in my escapades, and I mean to start an archive of those things and people who compel me to step outside my comfort zone.

My friend Anna always does this thing on facebook where she gives thanks for three good things daily. I think I shall do that here, but instead of giving thanks, I'm giving praise to three things that are rad. Here the are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbW9JqM7vho

http://airhole.ca/airhole-masks/standards/killer/

and if you're not doing anything tonight:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171157106228408&index=1

So that's it for now, I will update this beast regularly. Welcome to Rusty Jetski, now you must face the Shredder.

Good bye Surly Cross Check, Hello pain in the leg.

So this Monday I got hit by a car while riding home from work. Now, people who get hit and live to tell about it always say it is completely different when it's you getting hit. I tell you this, when you see your feet above your head as you land on top of a 2009 Subaru Outback XT, things are different.

One difference is that you apparently forget all about the all the rage you have from years of being cut off by all the Nancy no-turn signal and Greg "get on-the-sidewalk" types you encounter as you commute in a major metropolitan area. By all rights I should have a given it to her with both barrels. I should punched her car, or her; I should have berated her right there in front of all those witnesses. Instead, I got off her car, dusted myself off, looked at my bike and yelled "FUCK". My leg was throbbing, I was shaking with adrenaline. SHAKING. I had t sit and take five.

Now I was very reserved. I didn't even mention the fact that she had just turned INTO a lane of travel and broadsided a pedestrian who had the right of way. Another difference as I am one to bestow a middle finger upon any vehicle who endangers my life. This lady was different. Oh, yeah, she wasn't even looking when she hit me. SHE WAS LOOKING THE OTHER WAY. With a cell phone in her hand. I failed to bring that to her attention. I also failed to call the police, mainly because she was in serious hurry to get me away from the scene of the accident.

All she gave me was her phone number. No insurance info, no address, nothing. She didn't count on the fact that I work in a auto insurance claims office. She doesn't know who she's fucking with. Within a half hour on Tuesday, I had her address, insurance provider, ALL her insurance policies, her date of birth, and her social security number. Time to settle my damages.

So after work I call this lady to give her a chance to explain herself as to why she didn't give me her information. I called the only number she gave me. It rang. It rang some more. It rang about a minute and a half. Hrmm. Kind of impressive for an alleged cell phone number. So I took that as yet another dent in the custom built wheel.

I called her insurance provider, filled a claim, and gave them all the info I had; except a police report.

I have filed the proper insurance claims for my injuries and for the damage to my bike. I brought my bike to B Rose at Shockspital, where he took one look at the frame and told me it's totalled. The top tube and the down tube have bulged, which means that the impact actually made the tubes bubble out. the Fork is also bent by about 20 degrees. All in all a huge loss. That bike meant a lot to me. This lady took advantage of me. She avoided a reckless driving ticket, I lost a very respectable bike, I get a huge pain in the leg.

So yeah I guess things are different now. I now know that people do stupid things all of the time. I know that with enough money, you shouldn't have to be held accountable for making bad decisions. I know that I am not going let this slide.

Sarah Palin, Alaska's Answer to America's Funniest Home Videos

Exept this shit's for real and there are actually people out there who believe in what this lunatic says. The remaining Alaskanites who still have half a brain left to free thought should rally and petition for Sarah Palin to shut the fuck up already. Sarah Palin and Michele Bachman represent a hate culture we as Americans need to stamp out. They've had their time to ruin our world, it's time to grow up. Her scare tactics and fear mongering kind-of-sort-of-not worked during the last election, while she proved to the entire world what they've all been thinking and saying for a long time, Americans can be real dmb. Her take on Obama's healthcare plan is laughable. It's the kind of approach I would expect to her from a prepubescent teenager. SAD. SMALL. PATHETIC.

Before we all jump on board Sarah's hater-wagon, let's listen to what the English across the pond feel about their health care system. Guardian UK News, straight from the Limey's biscuit hole:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2009/aug/11/nhs-criticism-obama-healthcare

Oh, and then there's this going with a crushing blow to Palin's everything. Well put Keith, well put.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32363493/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann

Introduction to my summer

Ok so I don't update this sucker as much as I should. This would be a problem but I don't have any followers yet. So I guess the three unlucky bastards who accidentally stumble upon this sinking ship are in for a sweet ride.

I am finally fully recovered from tour. It's only been a complete month, and I'm back into the every day grind that is my life of finding myself. Tour was great for me, it helped me remember why I started playing in bands. The shows we played were so intense, kids were practically head butting each other in the pit. The new material we've been working on went over really well, and it showed in merch sales.

The band I was lucky enough to tour with, In Defence played 15 shows in 12 days. All in all, I think it was at least 85 degrees every day, which to many would seem like typical summer weather, but when you factor in showering twice in two weeks, playing shows in damp, leaky, crusty punk infested basements, makes for one nasty dude stew. The shows were extremely intense, we toured with a band from Boston called, Disaster Strikes. These guys were really great to tour with. We all got along, drank beer together, and found swimming holes in god knows where Kansas. Here is a fine picture of the In Defence/Disaster Strikes/Cross Examination dude-a-mid.

This was taken in St. Luis at an abandoned school house/practice space/studio/venue. It was a great place to play as I fund out St. Luis has a great hardcore scene. We had a most excellent introduction by a guy named Blackstar who introduced as if we were the Blues Brothers, it was one of the coolest things to be apart of, ever. Plus we played with my favorite party thrash band, Cross Examination.

Tour was great a lot of things happened, Ben fell through a suspended ceiling that he was trying to climb in, the rest is a little hazy thanks to a guy in Des Moines named Nate Fetus.

FETUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our last night with Disaster Strikes. Party on Wayne.

Tony and I were on a mission from God. A mission to try the shittiest local beer in every city. We won....or did we lose?

This is Tony stylin' his gnarly beard and flirting with a tall cool drink of something, STAG!

Ok so don't tell anyone, we love tacos. But Loopy was drunk and thought it would be hilarious to pose with the dually-pizza box ghetto blaster. Everyone makes mistakes. Everybody.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5b172JK57g

We are special.

Very special .

Op Weg

Ok so I', back from tour. Let's just say....Hrmmm.....

It was  (expletive deleted)  totally amazing. The shows were all great despite two of them having very low turn out. We got paid well, I didn't but the band made some cash for their European tour, we played some great venues and houses, met some amazing people, saw some great sights, some not-so-great sights, and we watched the Twins lose their only game in the series to the friggin St. Luis Cardinals in +100 temperatures. (and yes we stayed for the entire game) 

I'm happy to be back, super happy to kiss the girlfriend, see familiar faces, and extremely happy to be sleeping my own bed, not a floor, not a van seat, not two chairs pushed together, but an actual bed. 

I will update maybe Sunday with a photo extravaganza of all the debauchery that is a Twin Cities Hardcore tour. 

Call more dudes.