MANGLERMIXER

i find myself working at lots of random places.  its kind of funny to look back and see where all i’ve been setup to get whats been needed to get done, done.

recent eastern bikes trip, super 8 hotel. this room was an absolute wreck after about an hour of arrival. pizza needed to be consumed, footage needed to be ingested and my room mates had beers to download.

this is my 9-5 spot at the News & Record.  I’m in a small office/dungeon far from windows.

The TL88, my sweet ride.  many times has the mbp been whipped out for quick clip viewing, downloading p2 cards and whipping up quick edits in the field.  she’s complete with a sweet stereo, roomy interior and a power inverter. not to mention able to transport 5 bikes and 5 d00ds complete with gear(as seen below).

home.  this is my most comfy setup.  my nice big monitor, keyboard and mouse. plenty of hard drive space, plenty of plugins, not to mention access to food just a few steps away.  home is where the heart is…

my buddy bobby neil has made a nifty hand held ring flash out of steel.

neil is a smart dude, hit up his blog to see some cool pics and supplies needed to pull of such skilled mastery.

seamus and i showed up in the land of 10,000 lakes thursday afternoon to embark on tons of fun.  and tons of fun its been. hanna has been dumping rain back home and its super sunny here today.  its prolly gonna drop some rain tomorrow tho, kinda suuuxxorz.  here are some grabs.

downtown Minneapolis.

a sweet spot, we had a crowd watching us the whole time.  and who wouldn’t stop and watch if some dude was wrecking and doing hand springs out?

and some of our crew chillin while the po po creep in for the background shot.

also, leigh is doing “daily” updates on easternbikes.com

a few months ago april and i decided to get the estate car, aka THE TL88, paid off.  $300 a month would be nice to not have to worry about.  so i dropped it in low gear and got to work.  as of two days ago i owed a sweet $6400 and as of yesterday i owe $2900 and hopefully by 10-1 i’ll owe a big fat $0. its been a lot of work thats for sure.  i don’t go to bed till late most nights and then get up bright and early to go widdle vids for n&r. i haven’t had a free weekend in months.  i’ve def been whoring myself and gear out.  camera rentals for too cheap, day rates for less, and post for almost nothing.  but there’s one project that i’m definitely proud of. and thats the levi’s video. my good buddy will stroud(nine to five films) is the main man behind the camera and 30” cinema display doing the editing(and its on point for sure). i’ve taken on the role as additional camera and art direction/motion graphics.  i spent a week in st louis sweeting off the fat i don’t have filming with zack warden.  he’s an awesome duder. and then the past couple of weeks have been filled with eye rubs and key frame adjustments.  but its going to be worth it in the end, atleast i hope. its definitely taken its toll on me and april thats for sure. but those things just make us stronger. the video will be dropping in october and you’ll have a copy. hopefully everyone will.

a few weeks ago, well maybe longer, i was chillen at recycles as i do quite often on my lunch breaks and a dapper young fellow came stridin in askin for some directions for riding a bike to the other side of winston.  ”jeez..” as i thought… i had never really thought of maneuvering past winston, only to and fro. so the young man and myself scoured google maps and i sent him on his way.  before leaving he said, check out my website, deanroyal.com. and lo and behold if ol boy dean is on his way to the left coast.  i’ve been following his adventures ever since.  he started in norfolk, va and at this time is in wyoming.  damn thats a looong bike ride.  dean, i applaud your badd assness.  

so around the interwebz camera geeks are drooling and arguing of the new nikon D90.

what is so damn magical about the numerical’d digi slr from nikon? well for one, its got some sensor and ISO improvements. two, has a higher number than the D80. and three, shoots 720p HD video.  

yup, i said video.

so now you’ve got all the photojournalists thinking, “hey, i don’t have to mess with that damn video camera anymore!” and video guys screaming, “wtf!? rolling shutter, cmos, mono audio with no audio inputs!”. but some video guy in the back mumbles, “least i aint gota buy that damn letus 35 adapter now..”

as far as i’m concerned, i like it.  i’ve been using a loaner d1x from work with no working functions other than a shutter.  it will be cool to have a video option, but its not my main concern, i’ll use my hvx/future letus for that stuff. but of course i’ll play with it.

if you know me, you know i like snacks.  its no secret. a couple of months i got my ass handed to me tho.  a visit to the dentist.  homegirl was not stoked on my toofs.  so i cut back on the sugary snacks a bit and started focusing on more healthier snacks(still can’t turn down laffy taffy tho). while i was in st louis a couple of weeks ago i found an awesome gas station snack attacker at the QT(the midwest’s version of sheets).  it was packaged like a lunchable but was not an oscar meyer product.  it was full of cheese cubes, grapes, apple wedges and some fuckin caramel dip!  omega nom noms! and not too bad for you either, mother nature’s snacks from the earth(minus the processed cheese and caramel, at least i’m on my way to better..).

and since i’ve returned back to the less humid NC i’ve been searching for a similar like product to fulfill my nom nom snack needs.  thus far i’ve found walmart selling an apple wedge with caramel dip packet from reichel foods. they’ve got a couple of other different dippers as well, good stuff all around.  but its still no QT omega snack attacker.

i should prolly start snappin pics of these things i find interesting.  it would probably make a much better blog entry.  atleast i did some linking.

one thing i hate

pdf files on the interweb.  its fine and dandy when the link tells you its a pdf so you can just go ahead and download it.  but when its a blind link to a pdf, or even worse, a link out of a flash object to a pdf when you don’t have an option to download it.  

drives me fucking nuts.