Christmas Parts On My Bike Finally

Here is my bike with new stuff on it.

New Bike

Hey I just got my Surly Steamroller and heres a pic. (totally stock, totally boring)

Painting My Bike

Finished Result

Finished Mock-up

Original

-9/25/07-

So here is my bike after the paint stripper and sanding. There is still a lot of paint remnants, but they are all smooth, and shouldn't cause any flaws in the new paint.

Leigh was kind enough to take a picture of me spraying some primer on the frame. I left my cranks on because I was too lazy to have the local bike shop do it, and too broke to buy the tool to do it myself. Same goes for the chain.

After a little while I had a pretty decent coat on the frame.

-9/26/07-

Today I decided to spray primer on the forks. I did a way better job here than I did on the frame. I was scared to put too much primer on the frame because I thought it would drip but I ended up putting too little.

There are still a few rough spots that you can see in this pic. I think a little wet sanding can fix that right up though.

Here you can tell that I under painted the frame just a little bit.
More updates tomorrow!

-9/27/07-

Today I put on a few more coats of primer and I think that it is starting to look really good. I took a picture of a same part of the frame as yesterday so that you can make a good comparison.

Here is a good shot of one of the harder spots to paint on the bike. This has been even harder due to my laziness with leaving the cranks on.


I have run out of primer, so the next thing I am going to do is wet sand the primer with some really fine grit paper. Once that is done and my glow in the dark paint shows up I will start spraying coats of that.

-10/01/07-

So I have completed the paint job and I am kinda stoked and kinda disappointed. I ordered 2 cans of glow paint thinking it would be enough for the whole bike, but each can was half the size of the primer and clear. So I ended up not being able to put on multiple coats of the glow paint and it looks really splotchy. However, in person its hard to tell that it is splotchy. I am stoked at the fact that it actually glows pretty well. My camera couldn't get any good pictures of the paint glowing, but I did get this awesome video of me "painting" my bike with light. Enjoy.

-10/12/07-

Since I was not too happy with the splotchy-ness of the first paint job I decided to try again. This time I am much more satisfied with the results.



I also sprayed a few smaller parts (seat post collar, bottle cage bolts, etc.) the same green color to match everything. I can't wait to get it all put together.

-10/14/07-

Finally, I have finished my bike! The paint really does look good and I am super excited about the results. Heres the pictures:
As an added bonus I got this bike over the weekend for just $40!

Duck Tape Prom Dresses and Tuxedos [PICS]

Duck brand duct tape puts on a contest every year for prom goers to strut their duct tape skills. It is truly incredible how much time these people have on their hands. Oh and the outfits are pretty incredible too.

read more | digg story

How well is Ron Paul REALLY Doing in the Opinion Polls?

After browsing Digg anytime I have a free minute, I started to think that Ron Paul might really have a chance at becoming president. However, after I took a look at the Republican Party Opinion Poll results I started to lose faith extremely fast.

read more | digg story

In the News!

A little while ago, in May, I made a post about some easy and cheap college cooking ideas here on my blog. I never thought it would gain any interest except as a quick cookbook for my own needs. However, a writer for the Associated Press named Tanya Leach was writing a similar article as I had, and was gathering input from college students for meal ideas. After an anxious wait her article with me in it was published and sent out to newspapers all over the country. Here is a little excerpt from the article.

Neil Monday, a senior computer science major at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va., who posted cheap college meal ideas on his blog in May, says simple hamburgers or hot dogs take almost no time to prepare on the Foreman grill. "Then I throw them on sandwich bread," says Monday, 21, because it's cheaper than buying buns.

- The Tyler Paper

I've already found five papers that have used this article, and will continue digging for more. Maybe this will persuade me to write more often than I have been recently. Thanks for reading!

Alternative to Digg Picture Section

I have just signed up for a del.icio.us account and spent a little time learning the ropes, when I realized one way that digg could really improve as far as the way it handles pictures. The thing that inspired me was the way that del.icio.us uses tags, and I wanted to be able to use a uniform tag for all pictures on digg. It seems as though the people at digg do not want a picture section for one reason or another, so I opened up gimp to make a little example of what I think would be a cool way to handle pictures in digg. Sorry I have absolutely no skill at gimp or photoshop. Feel free to let me know what you think, and leave any suggestions in the comments section.


I thought purple was a good color for it, but really you could use any color, just mess with the Hue/saturation settings. I should state that the stories I have labeled with "PIC" are not actual picture stories, but ones I just labeled as a proof of concept.

Digg it

Leaving Windows for Ubuntu

This is the first install of what will be a periodic, ongoing series on how migrate from Microsoft's Windows to other Operating systems. This first article provides insight in the much discussed Ubuntu Linux.

read more | digg story

Techies pull apart Apple iPhone; shares of parts-makers rise

It seems as though there is something to be gained financially by pulling apart an iPhone and seeing who manufactures components of this ever so popular device.

read more | digg story

Updates and Sailboat

Well I guess my blog is more interesting than I had previously thought. Yesterday, a food writer from the Associated Press named Tanya Leach interviewed me about my cooking style as a college student. AWESOME! Apparently, the article is going to show up in many local newspapers in the food section sometime in the next month or so. I'll keep you posted on the details.

In other news I have secured a job with Alcoa Howmet which I mentioned in an earlier blog post. I am a computer programmer, and I write programs that deal with the tons and tons of data that Howmet records. This job is definitely the best job I have ever had, and I really look forward to staying here as long as I can.

Lastly, by tomorrow afternoon I should be the proud owner of a new used Hobie Cat Turbo 14 foot sailboat. It is going to be a long drive down there, but it will be well worth it. Once I get some pictures I'll post them. Take it easy.