Scott Speaks

Friday night I’m off for my first true vacation since I started this job. Granted, I’m not counting the holiday break, but we close that week…or the occasional 3 day weekend that I take a day off to do. No I’m talkin about 5 full days off work. 8 days in Hilton Head Island, SC (the website’s actually pretty nice, check it out). It’s Grammy’s 90th birthday, so a lot of the family is coming along for the ride. The only crappy part is we fly there and back in the middle of the night, so my sleep schedule will be all kinds of fucked up. But oh well…I’ll be on the beach sippin beer and you won’t be! Added bonus: I’m gonna miss the company move to our new location. Darn! I love moving!

Lots of pics when I get back, I’m sure. Have a great week, interwebs. Seeya in July.

The back-breaking, sun-burning, dehydrating, fishbowl-like event of creating art that gets washed away the next day is back. And, of course, I couldn’t wait to do it again.

The biggest improvement from last year was moving the date up. Instead of late June it was early June, and the temperature difference was night and day. Instead of 95º both days, it was a nice 75º, and cloudy the second day. MUCH better.

The worst new thing was moving the date up. Could there BE more going on in Denver this weekend that I could miss? People’s Fair, my friend’s band playing, a couple other things I forget…but trust me there was lots. Not to mention it was my girlfriend’s birthday weekend. I had to avoid getting a Saturday hangover like I avoid answering the phone at work…which for the record, I try not to do ever.

Anyway…

It started off as any La Piazza. First day I had a few visitors, but not many. Most people want to come Sunday to see the finished piece (and kudos to those who came both days). I chose a subject and style that are a little more ‘me’ this year. Since I’ll never be a painter and can’t reproduce the master works like some talented assholes (you know who you are), I did more of an illustration in pastel. Started out pretty easy, and I had filled in all the major areas of color on the first day with no assistance.

Then the rain came that night.

The rain completely destroyed some people’s pieces, while others it kinda helped in a weird way (rain can set the color and increase blending a little). When I got there, there were big puddles on mine, but luckily they dried pretty quickly once the sun hit. I recruited Jami to help me go back in and re-blend all my colors. I had it a lot easier than most, so I can’t complain. My prime location helped too…being right on the Larimer Street plaza and not being on a slope helped tremendously.

Once I got all the color in, I threw in a little style. A little pizzazz. A little black-as-my-coffee linework. And man, did that add a whole new dimension to everything or what.

Overall I was very happy with the piece. I got a lot of good complements, a lot more people stopping to take photos (the amount of kids posing like they were hitting a baseball was cute), and a quick search on Flickr yielded a couple people who took pics and liked mine. I’m obviously learning and heading in the right direction, and I think I’m really gonna push the 3-D envelope next year. For now, the Spin Creative baseball player will do…and do nicely at that.

The entire set of photos is on Flickr. Click any photo or click here. Thanks to Jami for being ever aware with my camera!

Jami’s birthday extravaganza over the next two days, La Piazza del Arte all weekend, and work’s pretty busy in between. I’ll be back next week with lots of pictures from the chalky art, and hopefully pictures compromising any prominent political future Jami was considering.

Have a safe, colorful weekend, interwebs. And come visit this weekend, dammit.

That’s what I learned today.

I met a friend for dinner tonight at Wazee Supper Club, so I biked straight there from work. Then rode home while it was getting dark. And rainy. And I was very full. And really had to pee.

While that sucked, I’m proud to report that this was my 5th straight day of bike commuting. My new goal is to go for the entire month of June, rain or shine. Yes, nimble-minded reader, you’re right…I am gonna be gone on vacation for a week in June and obviously can’t bike to work. Well don’t worry, I’ll bike at least the same distance on the beach, just for you. Regardless, I am fully showing my support for Colorado Bike Month. Take that, 20 years of flab!

*Scotty 2K8 Update*
Weight loss since owning WiiFit/bike commuting (2 weeks) – 7 pounds.

That magical time when I willingly spend 2 days on my hands and knees in the middle of the street on a 90° weekend. That time when people walk by and stare at me like I’m a monkey at the zoo (note to self: throw poo?). That time when there’s no amount of sunscreen in Denver to keep my arms and neck from burning.

And all this is called having a good time.

Yes, it’s La Piazza del Arte. Year 6 for them, Year 2 for me. While the conditions are certainly torture, it’s a lot of frickin fun. One of my favorite things to do in Denver was to go see it…and now I’m a part of it. An continual part of it. Getting in the second time around is a lot easier. Basically I say “yes” and I’m in. I’m doing a more crowd-friendly/family-friendly piece this year, hopefully to get a little more attention. I know what sells now, and hopefully learned a little about what can get an award (high-detail, lots of colors, whimsical).

They picked a dumb weekend to do it this year, I think in an attempt to combat the heat a little. But it’s the same weekend as the People’s Fair and a certain someone’s birthday, which isn’t super convenient for me. But we’ll make it work.

So everybody come out this Saturday and Sunday to Larimer Square. Lots of good art, lots of beer, lots of Scott-watching. What more could you ask out of a weekend? Sounds like a pretty nice little Saturday to me.

For a nice read, check out the writeup from last year’s event.

What started as the monkey I ordered off Woot, then became a stand-in model in my portfolio photoshoot, then had his own photoshoot and a little Photoshop love, became a desktop phenomenon where I work. I also use it as my avatar on pretty much everything now.

And now, Pixelgirl Presents, where I get all my desktop wallpaper as it has the best collection on the internet, has added Monkey: A Portrait to their list of downloadable wallpapers. I’ve submitted several things to them before and heard nothing. I go to the site today, and poof…Monkey. Pretty effin cool.

So if you want your own Monkey wallpaper, you should check out Pixelgirl Presents and download it.

And if you REALLY want, look at the other ones as well. I guess.

I had heard about the “core,” but never really grasped what it was. I thought it was some metaphysical thing that only yoga-type people were aware of. Maybe it had to do with my “chi” or “aura” or “karma.” Maybe my “inner light.” Maybe the inside parts of the apple that you’re not supposed to eat cause the seeds will grow apples in your stomach.

It turns out it’s not something you look for, it’s something that looks for you. And then crushes the soul of your abdomen.

This is something only yoga can do.

And yoga is something I would only do if it was a part of a video game.

Ladies and Gentlemen: WiiFit.

It’s everything you’ve heard. It’s the only time I have said I actually enjoyed exercising. And it feels good…it feels really good.

There’s the yoga, which if you’ve never pictured me doing a tree pose before, ladies…you should see me now. The strength training is pretty easy at first, but adding reps hurts. I also learned I can’t do 10 push-ups with sideplank lifts in between to save my life. There’s aerobics, like hula-hooping and rhythm-boxing…which 15 minutes of that about does my asthma in for the day. And then there’s the games, which I’m a natural at…naturally.

The funny thing about the “games” section, is really they’re all games, as the balance board tests how well you do yoga poses and lunge reps and etc., and gives you a star rating and a score. So apparently, all I really needed to get motivated to work out was to keep score. Now that exercise is like a video game (well…IS a video game), I wanna keep doing it. Repeating exercises until I get the best score, getting frustrated when I didn’t do as well as the day before. It really makes it fun for me.

And it’s working. It tracks weight and BMI daily and tracks it over time, and since I bought it a week ago, I’ve lost 5.5 pounds. Not only that, but I got my motivation to bike to work more often back, and even rode with Jami to see a movie the other day.

Here’s hoping it’s not just a fad. Oh and don’t worry, WiiFit only takes an hour, so don’t think I’m getting rusty at Mario Kart or anything…I’ll take ANYONE on!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve had a few technical difficulties with the site this past week. My web host sold out to the man and now my site is being hosted by another company, and in the transition, I lost a few posts and old posts kept getting blasted out by e-mail, so for that I apologize. But it all got sorted out yesterday and we’re back up (if you’re on an e-mail subscription, you probably got one more this morning with the posts I got back up, sorry about that).

So anyway, I haven’t been able to post for the last week and a half or so because of all this. Not much is going on to report though. I will tell you that Mario Kart Wii is awesome and I can’t stop playing, much like the Smash Bros. phenomenon, only worse. The online features are MUCH better on this one, including being able to play anyone in the world at full speed with no lag, being able to download ghost racers of some of the fastest times in the world so you can race them and improve on yours, and online tournaments, which last night I spent a good 2 hours playing and improving my time by milliseconds until it was admirable. I started the evening around 2:07 and ended with 1:49, so decided to quit for the evening. And while the last two senteces probably made little sense to most people, trust me…it’s fun.

Rode my bike to work a few times the last 2 weeks, and in doing so discovered a bike path that follows the Platte River from where I work to Jami’s house, making it a super-quick, traffic-free ride. The ride to my house is…again…all uphill, but still pretty quick. What with the snow and a couple hangovers this week, I haven’t ridden since Monday, but hopefully this will be the norm soon. I’m gonna be a bike commuter. Take that, Big Oil! Damn the man!

Otherwise, getting super busy at work, and heading up to Cheyenne this weekend for my stepdad’s retirement party, who, by the way, is the one who alerted me to blog problems, as being retired he has nothing better to do all day now (ha!).

Have a good weekend. Enjoy drinking margaritas on the 5th to celebrate a culture and holiday you probably know nothing about.

As I ceremoniously put my snowboard and helmet away in my storage closet, I took out another “instrument of speedy death” and helmet. For ‘tis cycling season.

My bike was in bad shape. SUPER dusty, brake cables weren’t in prime form, tires were flat, and my bike computer that tells me MPH and the like is broken. Once I got it cleaned off and the tires pumped up though, it was ready to go. Today would be the day I ride my bike to work.

And I did.

It was a Sunday, but still, I rode it to work.

Jami and I went from my house to work, taking 16th street to the McDonald’s to return our Redbox DVD, then Penn down to 12th street, and 12th to the Cherry Creek Bike Path, which practically runs into the front door of work. And you know what, it was pretty easy. And fun. Kept a good pace the whole time, got some fresh air and exercise, listened to some good tunes on the way…and lovely bike ride indeed. And it only took 20 minutes. It can take me 15 minutes to drive to work sometimes if there’s traffic. Which yet again begs the question: “Why the hell don’t you just ride your bike to work then, you lazy, fat bastard?!?” Touché, self. Touché.

But just when I thought everything was all roses and puppies and downhill, we rode back.

Uphill. In the wind. The whole way. While there were varying degrees of uphill-ness…it was still uphill the whole freakin’ time. I work in Lower Downtown and live on Capitol Hill. Never really put 2 and 2 together on that one before now, seems flat in a car.

I thought I was gonna die on the way back, I’m so horribly out of shape. I took a few rest stops, hit the inhaler a couple extra times, drank my supply of water…and still had a hard time with it. It definitely took longer on the way back, and was a more difficult ride. I’m sure daily commuters would laugh at me, but I had a damn hard time the way back.

We did make it home, and in the end it felt good. I haven’t had that much straight cardiovascular exercise in a while. But I really did feel good. The shower felt cleaner and the beer tasted colder that night. It was awesome. I’m totally going to do this. I’m going to bike commute to work.

I was going to start today since it’s Earth day, but as it’s 2 days after the first day in a long time I rode my bike, my quads feels like they’re going to break off. And my buttbone where my bike seat is hurts like a muthafucka (note to self, find non-gay, padded bike shorts).

So I’m gonna do it Wednesday, and instead for Earth day I bought some energy-saving bulbs, so at least I’m decreasing my carbon footprint a little bit. Here’s to getting in shape folks. With any luck I’ll lose some more weight before my Hilton Head Island trip in late June, and maybe for the first time since I was a kid, Grammy won’t tell me I need to lose weight.