I'm basically famous

You may (or probably don't) remember a post I did about creating time lapse with your GoPro camera.  I didn't talk about it, but I also did a little hack where I used a kitchen timer to create panning time lapse.  I didn't blog about it, but I did post my pictures in the Make Flickr pool.  This led a Make and Gizmodo to blog about it, and since then my humble little hack has become pretty popular.  Anyway, here is the original clip (and only panning time lapse I've done so far...doh):

This whole thing gets better though.  A few months ago I was contacted by a woman asking if she could use my video in an "upcoming feature film by Ridley Scott".  Naturally, I didn't believe she was working with Ridley Scott, but I told her she was free to use it however she likes (I usually license my stuff with Creative Commons licenses anyway).  Fast forward a few months, and I go to the home page of YouTube, and I see none other than Life in a Day featured with 400k views.  This was the name the lady mentioned to me, so I clicked through, and sure enough my clip is in the freaking intro!  Check it out:

I guess they are going to debut the feature at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011.  I'm thinking about trying to create another panning time lapse to submit to the feature.  We shall see....

-- Rob

Kim's First 14er

Those of you that live in Colorado, probably know what a 14er is, and know about the sport of bagging all of the states 14ers.  Short and simple, 14er just means a peak that has an elevation over 14k feet.  Colorado has the highest density of 14ers in the country and people are pretty obsessed with climbing all of them.  14ers are rated on a scale from 1 - 4, and even the lowest rating means at least 3 - 5 hours of hiking and 2 - 3 thousand feet of elevation gain.  In other words, it's no walk in the park no matter how you look at it.  Last year, I started climbing the 14ers, and to date, I've climbed about five of them:

View 14ers I've climbed in a larger map

Kim has expressed interest in coming along, but has always been nervous because she has asthma, and at 14k feet, breathing is pretty difficult, even when you're standing still. All that being said, she decided it was time, and we, along with a group of people, decided to do Grays Peak.

We jumped in a few cars, and headed up to hike the south side of the mountain.  This is not the standard route, but it's less crowded, and more difficult than the class 1 standard route.  Kim wasn't the only first timer with our group, so we new we might not summit this day.  The trip was set to be 7 miles round trip with ~3200 feet of elevation gain.  The drive up to the trail head can probably be negotiated without 4WD, but low cleareance vehicles may have trouble in a few spots and there were a few deeper puddles that have to be crossed in the spring. We got to the trail head about 7:45am and we were hiking by 8am.  From the parking area, you walk a few hundred yards to a gate, and from there, it's foot travel only.  You immediately see the ruins from an old mine to your left, and mineral deposits can be seen all around. 

You continue up the well used trail for a meaningful amount of time, and at this point, you have no problem finding your way, and the hike is pretty easy.  This doesn't last for long however, and you soon find yourself on steeper grades and the trail becomes less and less visible until you're scrambling over rock and to the summit.  Before you even get to the summit, you're treated with great views, and there is a break in the climbing as you reach a false summit that you walk along for a few hundred yards.  From here you can already see Breckendridge ski resort, Keystone ski resort, and Quandary Peak.  

The trail is still gradual hereSlowly but surely

This is where the climbing starts

This is where the climbing gets toughWe made it to the first ridge

A little more scrambling and...

We made it!

 All and all, it was a great day.  We were back to the car in 6 hours and we were hiking for about 4.5 hours of that.  We had a great group of people, great weather, and a good challenging hike.  I encourge anyone who lives in CO to get out and try a 14er.  It's tough work, but the sense of accomplishment you get when you make it to the top makes it all worth it.  If you are interested in getting started on your first trip, head over to 14ers.com.  You'll find all the info you need, including how to prepare, routes, forums, and just friendly people willing to answer all your questions.

- - Rob

Gang Ride number one

Holy cow has it been a busy last month and half.  You might have thought my blog had become a barren rocky wasteland where your seed could find no purchase.  You'd be wrong, however, as I've got tons to report!

In between a few of my work trips in June, I was able to get out on the first (monthly?) Gang Ride with a few people I work with: Brandon, Josh, and Patrick. I caught a ride with Brandon, and we headed up to Centennial Cone Park near Golden, CO.  Josh and Patrick both drove up and we met in the parking lot.

Brandon's single speed and my bike loaded on his carWe waited for Josh for a few minutes, called each other names for a bit, and then jumped on the bikes and headed down the first decent.  Admittedly, we probably started out a little fast, and Josh is pretty new to this whole mountain biking thing, which lead to him taking a digger about 300 yards from the parking lot.  Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but Josh is like 6'3" and > 200, and his horse broke its front leg.  Brandon and I couldn't help but laugh and make fun of him, while Patrick stood wondering how this had happened.  Josh's front wheel was taco'd and his day was most definitely over, so we sent him packing and continued on our way.  What?  You know you would have done the same, so shut your cake hole. 

Little did we know, the adventure for the day was just getting started.  Although we didn't have any more wrecks, I managed

Patrick in total disbelief that Josh had broken his front wheelto flat 2.5 times.  I know, I know, how the hell do you flat half a time?  Well I actually only had two flats, but like the slow kid I am, I left the thorn in my tire after the first flat and proceeded to pump up my new tube until it to punctured.  The second flat of the day was due to me running too low tire pressure in my rear tire allowing me to pinch flat over a rock.  Because I had already used my extra tube, and Brandon's spare tube, I had to patch one of the tubes.  Luckily Patrick had a patch kit, and we went to work on patching the tube.  The tube took not one, not two, not three, but four freaking patches!  We definitly picked the worse of the two tubes to patch, and after four patches, I thought I might be walking back to the car.  After a few minutes, however, I was pumping, and then back on the trail.  The thing I like most about this trail was that It was an up and down kind of ordeal.  Instead of just  a massive climb and then ludacris downhill, you were treated to quite a few up/down sections.  I think this helped me stay fresh, and I felt better than I usually do.

Fixing one of the three flats I had that day

After about an hour or riding, we ran into one of Brandon's Trek Store riding buddies, and we hung with him.  He was pretty cool, and even noticed I was running my rear tire low again, and suggested that I put some more air in it.  This probably saved me from having yet another flat.  

After riding to what we thought was the halfway point of the loop, Patrick and I decided to head back and Brandon and his buddy continued on.  On the way back, Patrick and I had the pleasure of partaking in the fastest, scarriest down hill I think I've ever done.  It was that type where you know you're probably going way too fast and you should just slow down, but you're having so much fun, you can't bring yourself to.  We were ripping through the woods and I knew I was going to die at any minute.  When we got to the bottom, we both had giant shit eatting grins from ear to ear.  

Cheers to a good rideWe talked about it for a minute, and then hit up the last few climbs back to the car.  Shortly after we started the last down/up section Brandon caught up to us, and we pulled into the parking lot together.  I was a seriously fun time, and the only way to end that day was to share a few brews and laugh at Josh.

Lack of Motovation

Not sure what's going on these days, but I just can't seem to get myself motivated.  I'm in a slump.  I don't want to do anything (work or otherwise).  I find myself putting off stuff as simple as booking a hotel for my upcoming trip to Germany, for no reason at all.  Anyone who knows me would probably tell you that this is completely unlike me.  I'm very prompt and on top of everything.  At work, I'm the go to guy.  I take on any task and usually hit it head on.

So what's going on?  I've been thinking about it recently, and I think it's a mixture of things:  stress over uncertainty of my job after they did a round a layoffs, the need for a vacation, and maybe the need to just change up my routine.  I've been pretty isolated at work, and this has caused me to get almost complacent.  I really feel the need to work with a good team again.  Being part of a team that had kick ass people on it got me used to bouncing ideas off people, working with others on problems, and just coming up with great software.  After they cut the other two tech people on my team, I became the lone ranger.

What are my plans to fix this?  Well things are starting to pick up again at work, and I'll be traveling most of June.  Meeting with customers, and solving problems is what I really like to do, so I'm banking on this to get me excited again.  In addition to this change up, I'm going to spending a week in Germany on vacation, as well as going to Dallas for my family reunion.  This break will hopefully be just what I need to clear my mind.  I know everyone gets into a rut sometimes, so I'm not too worried about it.  I know I just need to get my ass in gear again.

Do you ever find yourself burnt out?  What are some things you do to get back in the game?  I'd love to hear what other people do when they just can't get motivated.

new camera!!11!

Picture courtesy of Flickr user bartheq and used under a Creative Commons License

 A few years ago, I bought a Canon Rebel XSi because I wanted to experiment with photography, and have a nice camera to take with me when I was on one of my many adventures.  I also, thought I wanted the ability to change lenses, which is why I didn't buy a little more high end point and shoot instead.  Over the last few years, I've taken tons of pictures with my SLR, and even done some experimenting with HDR, Pano stitching, DOF shooting, and a number of other photograhy tricks.  Despite all the fun I had with my SLR, I often found myself leaving it behind when going out to do stuff just because it was so big, and I didn't want the hassle of carrying it around.  My girlfriend Kim was starting to get tired of us missing good photo ops because I just didn't feel like taking the camera.  So, after some thought, I decided to sell my camera, and get another point and shoot.  At one time, I had an Olympus 770SW that I took everywhere with me.  I loved this camera.  I never had to worry about breaking it or getting it wet, so I just stuffed it in my pocket/bag and forgot about it.  I had this camera for about 2 years, and I abused the hell out of it.   There were a few things I didn't like, like night shooting, but I didn't mind making these compromises for the flexibilty the camera gave me.  I even have a ton of great underwater pictures from my trip to the USVI.

So naturally, when the time came to go back to a point and shoot, I new I wanted a rugged water proof camera.  I looked around, and there are quite a few manufactures that make these types of cameras, but only a few that fit my criteria (in addition to being rugged and waterproof): had to use and SD card, had to have an optical zoom, and had to be under $300 bones.  Also, in my head, I kind of new the camera had to be a Canon (I'm a fanboy, what can I say?).  So here it is, the Canon D10.  It's a little bulkier than my Olympus, but it doesn't use xD cards, and it has an optical zoom.  Anyway, it's on it's way from Amazon, and when it gets here, I'll use the hell out of it and think about posting a real review.

- - Rob