With World Cup coming in just a few weeks I found that I wanted to have a quick way to know when all the games are and what channel. Well, I was inspired by Smashingmagazines june background post and decided to make my own background which had all the info I needed to get through Round 1 of the World Cup. I will be releasing a Round 2 background once we get a week or so into the games.

Here are links to all the images.

1920 x 1200
1920 x 1080
1680 x 1050
1600 x 1200
1440 x 900
1280 x 960
1024 x 768

Not sure or want all sizes? Get the Zip File.

To the point. Here are my photos from California.

I also made some cool HDR Photos from my travels. Check these out:

Upon arrival I really didn’t know anyone. I rented a room from my friend Denise who lived in East Vail. Getting my internet working and trying to finish projects was tricky with the unreliable internet.

I settled in finally and skied every other day or so. High altitude drinking was a problem because I wasn’t yet acclimated and I was having the worst hangovers of my life.

I was lacking friends. Denise was cool but we have quite different personalities. She had a volleyball team that played every wednesday so I joined in on that. We lost every game but the good thing was that I was able to recruit enough players to start a soccer team in Edwards.

The facility in Edwards at the WECMRD building is amazing. Probably the nicest facility I have ever played upon.

We were a rag-tag band of Lift operators at Beavercreek and some professionals here and there. Again, the Volleyball curse was still intact and we lost every game. It’s a building season I tell them.

Well, my time was coming up with my current roommate. I rented it for 1 month and she had another person coming in after me. So I had to move. Luckily scanning the Vail Daily I was able to find a cheap, simple apartment at the Vail Racquet Club. They have an amazing fitness facility. Heated lap pool, 2 hot tubs and a full fitness center. All inclusive. They also have tennis courts which I’ll check out in the summer.
So I signed a lease until May.

I also started a Meetup.com group called Vail Adventurers. We have 26 members now. As the temps get higher we’ll be doing some cool stuff.

So I had no furniture and an empty apartment. So… I had to start rebuilding. Internet and Cable installed. No TV yet but my laptop has Netflix so that’s solved. I bought a nice air mattress at Walmart and got some basic living necessities. I needed some furniture. I bought a nice sectional at American Furniture Warehouse (the Ikea of the Valley) and got a decent TV at Costco.

Amazon Prime is something everyone should have. I ordered so much stuff on Amazon with Free shipping that I must have cost them a fortune in shipping. 150lb bed frame, bar chairs, etc. I finally have a nice bachelor pad. Here are some photos.

Now it’s april. Beavercreek closed on the 11th and all my soccer team save 1 or 2 people are gone to whatever miserable state they live now.

Oh. Lindsey Vonn of Olympic fame calls Vail home too. Her homecoming was a big deal.

Soccer season over. I have wednesday Karaoke nights now that I go to which is a blast. Talking with a guy named Sandman who runs them about setting up a comedy night. He want’s to do Improv comedy. Not my bag but we’ll see how it goes.

Now that all of the friends that I have made are now gone I have to restart again. I am putting together a new team soon. I have a few friends that I have made at Karaoke. I guess it’s the nature of the transient seasonal nature of the place.

I am also training for a 10k soon which is marketed as the “Hardest 10k” in the country. This fact because it occurs mostly above 9000′. Running here is much much harder than sea-level. I can barely crank out a 5k without some suffering.

More updates coming soon. Here are some flickr photos to check out.

Madison Capitol at Night.

Ahhhh. I love Madison, WI. great people, great food and great friends. My friends from DC, who transplanted to WI a few years back, have been my hosts the past 2 nights. They don’t get a lot of guests being this far away from DC but we are enjoying our time here.

Saturday we drove to Isabella’s birthday party at Bounce U. Everyone had a great time. I refrained from joining in because I am paranoid I’ll find some way to injure myself before I get to Colorado.

Dennis taking aim at a 4 year old on the other side of the foxhole.

There is an artist who puts sculptures out on the ice on Lake Monona.

Heading out to where the ice fisherman are on Lake Monona.

There are people fishing on the ice every day. Some are fishing for restraunts and some are doing it to put food on the table. If I knew I’d be stuck here I would have hired an outfitter to take me out there. Costs around $150 or so.

Dennis and I went onto State Street where the college is and we bought some needed supplies and I present this photo collage for your amusement:

For all my smoking friends. Not to be confused with "Kitten Mittons"

Dennis of the North Country

Jesus is apparently a choking hazard for toddlers...

Braille on a baby changing station. The worst thing about being blind.

Ink Pen advertising from India. I'd buy anything this guy is hocking

Clive update:
Got Clive towed last night and I spoke with Ryan and Clint over at Fields Land Rover. Turns out the “Park-Neutral” switch is blown out. I also thought the starter was burned out and they have not determined that. With a Land Rover OEM Starter costing $940 I decided to buy an Aftermarket part from Atlantic British and ship it next day air just in case I need it. Worst case I return it and lose $88 shipping. It’s cost me a total of $298 with shipping.  We’ll see. I am 2 days behind schedule but being with good friends makes it bearable and I have internet and getting work done. No worries!

Clive in his weakened state. Still looks mean!

Replacing my Mass Air Flow Filter yesterday…fun!

Replacing my mass air flow sensor from Doug Clayton on Vimeo.

A Blue bird...duh...

I think if you have any interest in following my travels you would best follow my Twitter account which is http://twitter.com/Dugindc

It’s hard to post on the road and twitter can capture the banality in high tech precision. “Hey, that dog looks stupid…Tweet!”, “Hey, look a sign that has a funny thing on it…Tweet!”, “Look, my dignity just fell out…Tweet!”

Anyway, for what it’s worth enjoy…

I still think there is something wrong with the truck. I thought the Fuel pump was going bad but I don’t have classic fuel pump failure issues such as issues with cold starts, etc… The culprit may be that the Induction service was done after my new plugs were installed which would pretty much ruin the new plugs. I hope the mechanics are not that stupid but you never know.

I have some engine weakness when climing hills. Not a good thing when I am going to be driving through the rockies. Given that Clive has made this trip before in much worse shape I have confidence I’ll make it to Colorado where I can afford to have it sitting in the shop for a week or two getting fixed.

Wish this post had more “dreaming of the west” quality instead of the mechanical shop talk. More to come!

The vail bus system is large and removes the need for personal transportation.

I am at my friend Chris and Anjali’s home where they have kindly put me up for the night.

I remember reading Charles Bukowski when I was a kid around 16 years old. It shaped me when I was young. Perhaps it made me jaded too soon. I remember this poem in particular. It is even better when read by Bukowski.

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art

I was curious what the oldest photograph was. Not sure why but I looked it up. Nicephore Niepce was one of the pioneers in photography using a tool called a Heliograph.

In stark constrast we have one of the most advanced photographic techniques for producing Gigapixel quality photos. Sorta interesting how the old Heliograph shares a rusticness to it that the Gigapxl camera also exudes.

I always love these high-resolution sites. This one is of Yosemite at 17 gigapiscals which is acheived by using a photo-stitching software called Autopano. You can explore and see if you can find any sasquatches or day-trippers. Another timewaster. Check out Harlem while your at it.

I spotted some climbers.

Well, hardcore vegan’s and veggies will know this already but around a quarter of refined sugar in the US is made that way by using Bone Char; which is essentially charred animal bones that are ground into a fine powder and used in a similar way to carbon based compounds that you find in water filters and aquarium filters. <<Read the science on Wikipedia>> 

Of particular interest was that in the late 19th Century people were selling mass quantities of Buffalo bones to industry for this purpose. When they ran out of Buffalo bones some bone smugglers were digging up indian burial grounds, which I suppose now that I think about how Native American’s always prided themselves on using all the animal when they had to hunt makes an interesting moral conundrum. Either way it’s just another creepy thought to make you put down the donut and get to the gym.