Last week during one of my many bouts of Colorado nostalgia, I dug into a box of old negatives and scanned a few.



Will, urban camping.

My old Jetta. I have now owned two 1986 Volkswagens with rear driver's side damage.



Mexi, you are dearly missed.










Nate and Molly. This photo is one of my favorites. This was senior year when Clayton, Nate and I were roommates and Molly lived just down the way. We all stayed up late that night partying. But not crazy-like, just four friends on exactly the same page. I loved that night.

Holy Shit, I've been a real asshole lately!  Lack of movement, sunlight, and thrilling moments have really soured my perceptions of the world around me.  That was until today when I cleansed myself in the waters of tacky singletrack, Dale's Pale Ale, and felt the presence of Todd tha God.  Now I feel much, much better.  Simple, huh?  Yep.

La Espina Dorsal del Diablo con Todd "El Dios"

Ahora. Vaya con dos ruedas, mijo.
- Zeta

This is one of the most wonderful things I've ever seen created. I've probably watched it about 20 times now and it just keeps getting better.

Got to hang out with Stefan, Willy, Alex and T tonight. Classic SF dinner and drinks in the Mission. Rad.

I'm sure you've noticed that I added Slex's "Rain From The Sky" and Z's rant to the feedlist. It comes from my own desire to read their musings all in one place and the fact that they are Dead Deer through and through. So, buy them a beer if you see them and keep pedaling.

There's a little flooding around Kookville today.





In Philomoth, the next town over, Mary's river flooded it's banks.







Robert glassed the bottom of the board today. I'm sure that when they see it a lot of people will think board looks like a piece of shit, but I couldn't be any happier or more excited about how it's turning out.

Ahi steaks seared with sesame seeds and garlic over brown rice and steamed broccoli topped with fresh cabbage slaw plus a touch of soy sauce. So dank!

It was good while it lasted. I had my Canon S80 digital camera for more than three years, which is an exceptionally long lifespan for any electronic device in my unsympathetic hands. But it held in there for quite a while and took both some great photos and an absurd amount of abuse. When it finally stopped working over the summer, out of curiosity I completely disassembled it. The internals are fascinating, but what was particularly interesting was the front lens element. I discovered that it was exaggeratedly concave, and when held up in front of the New digital camera I bought, it acted just like a fisheye lens. So, when school started up last week I went down and used the lathe in the machine shop to make a small lens adapter that slides onto my camera. And now I have rough fisheye attachment..

















This is my friend Alex, who's also in the ME program with me. He's a Datsun 510 Fanatic and an incredibly generous source of help and information to anything car related. Talks are currently in progress for some possible van body work..

The re-shaping is finally finished and today I took the board into Pura Vida to fill in spots where the foam had been damaged. Tomorrow I'll give it one last go-over and it'll finally be ready to be glassed. Getting pretty damn psyched to see this thing finished, and can't wait to get it in the water!

I suddenly got interested in pinhole cameras and decided to try and make one myself. Since I don't have access to a darkroom and all that stuff, I couldn't make the normal film/photo paper kind and instead had to try and use polaroid film instead. I started by buying an old Polaroid Land Camera. They're not expensive, but aren't often sold at thrift stores because, as it was explained to me by a few thrift store employees "We don't see anyone wanting them, so we just throw them out or move them along to our bulk stores." Anyway, I got mine off Craigslist for 10 bucks. And yes, you can still get the film, it's made by Fuji and can easily be purchased here: BH PHOTO.
Also, here's a link to a whole website dedicated to the features of each of the Land Camera models: LAND LIST

Interested in making a shitty pinhole Polaroid camera too? Read on.

I got the el-cheapo model 210.
First step is to pull the front panel off the camera and to remove the lens. I didn't take any pictures of that, but it's just 4 screws on the back and the whole front pops off.


Then you'll need an aluminum can, scissors and some sand paper.


Cut out a small square..


I changed my mind, cut a circle instead. I think it's a little safer that way, but I don't know why.
Sand both sides. There's paint on the outside and some sort of gnarly thin plastic coating on the inside that keeps the can from corroding that you'll want to get off.


Open the back of the camera and remove the back half of the lens. It's held in place by a thin spiked washer. Just get a small flat-head screwdriver and the washer pops right out.


Take the lens and trace its outline on your aluminum for size. Then take the Smallest pin you can find and poke The Tiniest hole you can in the middle. (Smaller is better for some reason. Look it up if you're curious why. Then let me know.)
After poking the hole, go ahead and re-sand the aluminum a little to remove any burs. Then cut away the excess aluminum around the circle you made.


Now put the aluminum disc in where the lens used to be and secure it in place with the thin spiked washer you took out. Hopefully you didn't mangle it when taking it out cause then you'd be fucked.


Boingo! Done. Now all you need to do is figure out some sort of way to cover the hole. I just use a strip black electrical tape, but I'm sure they has got to be 1000 better ways than that.
Here's the first two pictures I took with it. Unbelievably, there's a discernible image, albeit a shitty one. Plan on wasting A Lot of film. The next four I tried did not come out at all. Since you don't know how big the hole is you can't use a light meter, so you've just got to guess how long to expose things for. It was bright and sunny and these were exposed for 30 and 45 seconds respectively. Good luck!