Birthday Weekend Adventures

I went to Oaklawn with some friends. It was opening weekend and also my birthday. I was not lucky at all that day, but oh well it was a good time.
My birthday this year was one of the most fun I have had. I had all my close friends from Little Rock took me out to dinner after the races and then out to the bars after that. We pretty much just drank and played darts and shuffleboard.

When the main bars in the Rivermarket closed at 1 am we were at Willy D's / Deep. The bouncers there are typically assholes just kind of herding people out. This night, we got just outside the doors and my friend said he forgot his jacket so as he started to go back inside the owner or manager (whichever she is) grabbed him and pushed him back out and said he couldn't come back in. At that point, I politely went up to the bouncer and asked if I could go in and get the jacket and he said yes, as soon as everyone was out. So I waited and joked with the guy and when everyone was out he says, ok come on in and get it. I took one step inside and the bitch grabs me this time and starts yelling at me that no one is allowed back in. At that point I looked at the bouncer and he just shrugged his shoulders and said she does that all the time and there is nothing he can do about it. At that point another bouncer came over and asked us where it was and he went and got the jacket. That woman has anger management problems. This is not the first time something like this has happened. I have a friend, his girlfriend (she's about 5'3"), that lady grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against a wall. She had done nothing; she was walking through the bar just as two other guys started getting into it.

I'd like to talk to the Better Business Bureau, but there's probably nothing they can do or they probably wouldn't do anything because it’s a bar. Cops or city officials are pretty much always going to have the bouncers’ backs or manager/owners back (even if she is crazy).

Anyways, about the photo above. I love the ugliness of the colors at the Oaklawn race track. These seats are like puke green but they are fantastic for some reason. And they are great backgrounds for pictures, such as this one.

Prance On!

Scuderia Ferrari débuted their 2009 Formula 1 car the F60. It's getting me fired up for the new season starting in March. Ferrari won the Constructors title in 2008 and Filipe Massa missed the Drivers title by 1 point.

A couple of new changes in rules for this season: KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) are optional. This is energy lost during braking will now be able to be recovered, stored, and used as a "boost" in power. Slick tires are back, hopefully there are no broken necks when these guys turn into a corner. It's crazy how aggressive they go into corners. Also new bodywork changes such as wider front wing and narrower rear wing to help with overtaking (apparently those who prefer NASCAR don't like that you can't hit someone to over take them and they don't like that in 2008 the Championship came down to the last corner of the last lap of the last race, that’s not exciting, apparently).

Day 3 - It's a Family Tradition

This was one of my most favorite memories of when I was younger. I would go to Razorback football games with my Dad and Grandma and the occasional basketball game or Midnight Madness.

I wouldn't say that I'm one for traditions but this is a tradition in Arkansas and for Razorback fans. The horns rising up as the cheerleaders and flags do and the opening of the Arkansas flag and everyone goes wild. It is one thing that always puts a smile on my face.

btw...the Hogs beat North Texas Mean Green today, to continue a 9 game win streak. Next up #7 Texas Longhorns in Fayetteville. Lets break some horns Hogs.

Day 2 - Shadows and Fog

There have been a few days in the past couple of weeks that have been fairly foggy. Tonight was another night, so I borrowed my brothers tripod and went to the Big Dam Bridge. I was taking some shots at the base of the bridge and had no intention of going to the top. However, a couple walking mentioned a neat shadow of the American Flag on the fog, so I figured I'd check it out. It was very cool, the bridge and flag had awesome shadows in the fog. Foggy nights are so spooky but very cool at the same time.

Day 1 - New Years Diptych

New Years 2009 was probably one of my most fun New Year’s celebrations. My friend rented a suite at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas. All in all about 20 people were there ringing in the New Year.

We popped the corks on 6 bottles of Champagne, nearly emptied the tub pictured, swam in the outside heated pool and soaked in the hot tub (it was 30 degrees at midnight), and saw the sunrise while in the hot tub.

It was a great ending to a somewhat dismal year and a great beginning to hopefully a better one. Happy New Years everyone!

**I've wanted to do the 365 for a while now but unlike the 365 self-portrait one, which can be a bit egotistical, I'm going to just take photo of some things I find interesting and I'm going to try to make it a year. Enjoy**

Forever Sam Crow

If you know me, you know that I enjoy watching TV. Not that I'm a couch potato (though I'm sure some would say so). I am not into reading books like others, I'm more of a visual person, and this is why I am into TV so much. I like movies also, but movies are too short. And I like the anticipation from week to week. Now, the best of both worlds is something along the lines of HBO's Band of Brothers. What made that miniseries so good was it was filmed and written like a movie but stretched out into a series of episodes and it had great producers, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

Back to TV. There are tons of new shows that come out every year and most get canceled because no one watches them. People are to blinded by the stupidity of reality TV and don't know what great stuff is out there. Granted there are a lot of unoriginal shows out there, i.e. 4 Law & Orders, 3 CSI's, etc... HBO had some great original shows like Soprano's and Deadwood, then John from Cincinnati. When the last 2 got canceled I canceled HBO. Showtime has some great shows also, Weeds and Dexter particularly. Those networks though can push the boundaries, unlike the major networks.

One such network is FX. They have had some good shows like the Shield (I just never got into it though). A new show they have is probably my favorite on TV at the moment; Sons of Anarchy. This show is great. It's about an outlaw biker gang in a fictional town in Northern California. They do all the bad stuff; drugs, murder, steal, but the writers do a great job of making you feel for these people. They have families and are trying to keep them safe. They are trying to make a living as much as their uneducated deadbeat abilities allow them too. And hell Sex, Drugs, and Crime sell’s. That’s what most shows are about and well sometimes you want to see the bad guys get away with it. Root for the underdog right? I was actually sitting there tapping my foot nervously during the last 10 minutes of the last episode. It's been a while since a show has gotten to my emotions like this one does.

Another thing I very much love is music. I have no ability to make music but I love listening to it. The memories some songs give me of when I was younger is a great feeling. So it’s natural that I would like a TV show that has great music as well. Sons of Anarchy is that show. They have tons of great music in every episode and unlike most other shows; the website has a list of all the music in each episode and a short preview of that song. Most of the time it’s a bitch to try to figure out what music was playing during which episode.

So check it out. The first season's final episode is this Wednesday so I'm sure they will start showing the season in rerun soon. And they have ordered up another 13 episode season, so hopefully it will be going for another few seasons. You won't be disappointed.

Beer is Gods Gift to Man!!

I was watching a Food Network competition a few months ago and saw a contestant cook Beer in the Rear Chicken. It looked so good and I wanted to try it out. It looked really easy and it’s actually very cheap to do. So I searched online and found this recipe.

It is really easy. You buy a 3 - 5 lb whole chicken (about $4 or $5). Get a can of beer, pretty much anything but a light beer. I used Pabst Blue Ribbon because it was all I had. Open it, drink a third of it, cut the top off and set aside. Mix up the spice rub below. Put the rub on the inside of the chicken, outside of the chicken, and poor the rest into the beer can (an interesting thing happens when you do this, it fizzes up like science fair volcano, pretty cool). You then place the chicken upright around the beer can (hence beer in the rear) and place it into a pan. Cook for 20 minutes per pound at 350, about an hour and fifteen minutes. Thermo needs to say 180 degrees.

2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
Cayenne pepper, pinch

When it’s finished it pretty much just falls off the bone. It was so moist and juicy, it was awesome. Good luck.

I love Fall. College football on the weekends, great camping weather, leaves on the trees change colors, after a summer of shorts and t-shirts you change into jeans and sweaters, and the holidays. What time of the year is better? I'll probably think differently in the Spring but for right now Fall is going great.

I bring this because on my afternoon off last Friday, I drove to Mount Magazine to take some photographs of the towns on the up and also the sunset from the overlook. It is about a two hour drive there and I left kind of early so I had plenty of time to photograph some of the small towns’ rundown buildings. I seem to have remembered far more old buildings a couple of weeks ago when a group of friends and I went camping. Nevertheless I got a couple of good shots of an old tire dealer.

The main reason I went was for the sunset atop Mount Magazine. It was kind of an unsuccessful journey. Due to where the sun sets and the position of the overlook, the whole back side of the mountain and most the landscape was in shadow. In other words, not ideal for a good photograph. In hindsight, it will probably be better to go up for a sunrise so that the cliffs and valley are in the morning sun. Due to the wind up there my tripod would not stay steady either. Oh well, I did see a very pretty sunset and it was very cool seeing the progression of the leaves changing colors as they got farther down in the valley.

I doubt I will get to camp there another time this fall for a good sunrise, so I guess I will have to settle for next fall. The sunset however is great from the lodge side atop the mountain. Anyways, it was a good afternoon though not much success on photos.

For more from my drive check out my flickr site.

Mud Run 2008 - Little Rocks Dirtiest 5K

The Saturday morning after the AIA Convention, I woke up at 6:45 a.m. to drive back to Little Rock to compete in the 2008 Mud Run - Little Rock's Dirtiest 5K. My friends Mason Ellis and Katie Kummer were going to run with me (Katie unfortunately left her keys in Hot Springs with a friend so she couldn't get into her house and therefore did not run with us, slacker). So mason and I arrived at the race about 5 minutes to the start. Lucky for us though it’s a pretty laid back 5K, meaning they did not start on time. The point of the Mud Run is to dress in costume, run the 5K, and at the end jump into a 300' x 50' mud pit. Mason and I dressed in our Atomic Catsicle kickball uniforms (cough cough, the rest of our team was supposed to join us, cough cough).

There are prizes for the winner (though the same guy has won every year), muddiest, cleanest, best costume, best entry into the pit, 9th place, and some others that I can't remember at the moment. The runners have to get in the mud. On the side of the pits there are pit bosses which blow a whistle if you don't get in enough. If you try to go around it they will take you into the pit and make you get muddy.

It was a lot of fun doing this; seeing all the funny costumes and then people muddying them up. Also, surprisingly a 5K is not tough. I have not run like that since Junior High and I don't know what my time was (cause they don't keep that), but it was easy; though I had to keep Mason running. Anyways, we made it through the pit, after some pushing of each other into the mud, not that we needed to because it was not easy to walk shin deep in mud. We can't wait for next year and hopefully our whole team will make it out.

**the above picture is Mason in the pit.

Golf, Lectures, Free Food and Alcohol, oh my!!

A couple of weeks ago I attended the AIA Arkansas Convention in Hot Springs, AR. The AIA is the American Institute of Architects. Just like most conventions there were lectures about our profession. The convention started off on Wednesday with a golf tournament. This year it was held at Diamante Country Club in Hot Springs Village (just north of Hot Springs). Diamante is a really exclusive golf course and it was beautiful and a great course (not that I know a lot about or have played a lot of courses, but this one was really fun and had some great landscapes). It was a four man scramble; my teammates were Dalton Smith, Derek Owens, and Clint. Dalton got us into the Tournament through his company, Curtis H. Stout Inc. We had a great time and did pretty well, we shot 6 under par.

The next day was the start of the lectures or seminars. I went to a couple that day, none very interesting. That afternoon we had some free time so we walked down bathhouse row to check out some of the recently renovated bathhouses. We came upon one and asked if we could look inside. A nice lady, the manager, took us on a tour of the place and told us about it, its history, its renovations, etc. She took us down below to where the hot spring comes in. It was pretty cool (actually very hot a humid) but it was a small, ticket, stone cavern looking place. Very cool though. That night was the welcome reception which basically means we walked around the convention hall to all the booths and received information on new products and such. That night we went out to a bar and had a really good time.

Woke up at some point Friday and went to the Associates luncheon. This is for Associates (interns pretty much) to discuss how we can further our careers and get licensed. After this we had some free time so we headed back to the hotel to relax before the last lecture and the awards banquet. The last lecture was by Jonathan Segal. He is an Architect / Developer in San Diego, California. He is unique in that he cut out the contractor and client; he is the contractor and client. He designs and buildings multi-use and multi-family housing complexes. He then rents out the units so that he has a continuous income. These are fantastically designed buildings, they are not some shithole Jim Lindsey type apartment buildings. He makes great use of sustainable materials, natural light, energy systems, and functionality. That was a very inspirational lecture.

That night was a cocktail reception and awards banquet. Basically it was free drinks, food, and cigars. The food kind of sucked but the awards ceremony was pretty good. My firm did not win any design awards but one of our principals received an award, the Fay Jones Gold Medal, it’s the highest award for an Architect in Arkansas. Basically it’s a lifetime achievement award for Architects in the state.

After the awards ceremony a huge group of us headed out to a bar or two in Hot Springs. Long story short it was a long night and an early morning. Another post about the morning to come.