Stupid Hurts….trust me I know!

So I got selected to speak on a panel at Dragon*con next weekend, and my first thought honestly was, “that will make a great blog post!” Dragon*con is the largest science fiction, gaming, comics, art, and film in the US. And I was contacted to take part in a panel on “Freedom of Speech and Privacy Issues for Sex-Positive Bloggers and Pod-casters.” I am pretty excited about the entire thought. I am pretty much going to speak about people who work in the sex industry who have blogged about it who have had privacy issues and other negative repercussions.

Now I just have to figure out how to get to Atlanta.

I’m sitting in one of my favorite lunch spots that the bank execs and help desk guys go to during the day for milk shakes and chicken nuggets. It is the only fast food fast place I know of that they open the door for you and refills your soda at the table. I normally don’t eat there because of the crowd during the short time they are are open, but I had a meeting downtown today. This is one of the best places to eavesdrop during the day. You get to hear gems like; “I didn’t find out it was illegal till later, I have to worry about internal spooks now” and, “do you think she just does coke to fit into those dresses?”

I was also riding the high this morning from getting my name in the paper without breaking any laws or dying a horrible death. This picture was published in the “Seen“ section of the Birmingham Weekly.

	A Kickflip in front faith

And lastly I managed to bluff my way into a job as a poker dealer. Now if I only knew anything about poker.

There is a coffee shop I hang out at sometimes during the day to get work done because I love the scenery and the people are always interesting. Well last week someone basically batted their big brown eyes at me, and I ended up photographing and art show free. The kinda work that normally run $100-275 dollars, maybe more since I did the post production work to. And that took about 4 hours. I can’t really post any of the shots I took here on my site without the artist permission or giving them proper credit. But in the end the show was a success and I had an great time.

	An artist and her work

And honestly getting lucky shots like this made the entire night worth while.

	Busted selling cookies

I had a neurology appointment today. After the usual poking and prodding (I have lost ten pounds because of the drugs) I got to talk to my doctor and hear a phrase you never want to hear in medicine, ” uh-oh.” We were talking about the fact I am having seizures daily still after trying 4 medicines. Several of these medicines have been at the safest highest dose. And I am showing no real improvement at all, and in some areas I am actually getting worse.

He noted, that having tried this many drugs for little over a year now with basically no results, that it’s more likely than not I will continue to have seizures unless there is brain surgery. Truthfully there are two problems with that. The first is the fact no one actually knows whats wrongs with me, so I would rather them not melon balling my brain. It is the only one I have, plus I have put a lot of time into it. The second problem is the fact I don’t have insurance. Doctors don’t work for free typically, so even if they knew where to dig, I couldn’t pay them. So for now, they are trying a left field drug and anti-depressant.

After leaving the clinic I was heading to the coffee shop because I needed to see my friends. I kinda needed some reassurance at that point. Being alone probably wasn’t a good idea. Taking my usual route I woke up in the ditch with people standing over me which meant I’d had another seizure on my bike. One of these days I am going to break my laptop when I do that.

I was trying to explain the short term memory loss that accompanies seizures for someone and I couldn’t really put it into words for them effectively. Then last night I ended up with the perfect example.

I was out eat eating with friends and I stepped out for some air after I started to feel funny. After I stepped back into the restaurant and started back into my plate several Emt’s walked up to my table carrying turnout bags and asked if I was ok. I kinda looked up at them, and then look over to the people I was eating with, and asked “how long was I gone for?” Looking out the window I had to have been out for at least 5-6 minutes because there was a firetruck and an ambulance on the street. I didn’t remember passing out, but touching my cheek it was a little sore from hitting the ground.

I only recalled going outside, and coming back in. So having to explain the situation to Emt’s and convince them I was in my right mind was a bit of a challenge. I showed them my medic-alert bracelet which essentially says, “If I am not dead or bleeding I don’t need a ambulance,” and ad-libbed it from there

I can’t believe I forgot to write about this.

A big reason of the part of the real I returned the first bicycle was the customer service I received when I dealt with them. There was the first time I went in riding my Allez and I was asked if I was riding someone’s bike. That was deeply insulting. And most recently buying a bicycle that was assembled incorrectly from them.

I was out on my first ride on the bike when and, when I approached a stop the cog and lockring fell off, and so did I. Having just crashed at 30 mph a few days earlier you can imagine what this felt like.

So the next day after I shot a letter to corporate I took the back wheel down to the bike shop to have them repair it. I calmly explained to the guy what happened and that there were metal shavings on the hub indicating it was put together wrong, I wanted him to tighten the lockring, and I asked if they used assembly lube like most other shops. I waited 15 minutes in the front of the shop before the tech handed me my wheel and asked me if there was anything else, at which point I spun the lockring off with my fingers. So he took it back in the back again to try again, at that point I found out they don’t use assembly lube another strike against them. I returned home to find out in an email from the corporate office that it wasn’t their fault and they would leave it all in the dealers hands.

Even that adventure aside I have been inspired to shot a few pictures the past few days and those have left me in an amazing mood.

I got this one from the Jones Valley Urban farm this weekend. I had a great time walking down the rows and rows of plants.

	The Jones Valley Urban Farm

Click it for the larger version it is worth it.

There are a lot of new pictures in the gallery to.

A buddy of mine and myself where driving back into town and went from talking about our the days when I was his motorcycle mechanic to his dream bike. He kept bringing up the Confederate motorcycles Hellcat. So I brought up the fact I knew where their factory was. He decided we should go by there so he could see his dream bike up close. I figured it wouldn’t pan out so I went along it.

When we got there they asked us to come in and if we wanted take the tour. This is why I always carry a camera.

	The main office with a test bike

	The F131 Hellcat

	The b120 Wraith

We also got to see a bike named “The Fighter” but it is still in the prototype stage, and I was asked to turn my camera off first.

Confederate Bikes

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