Daily Rants

Segway time

I needed something to replace the golf cart that was a pain in the ass to maintain. It also took up too much space in the shop.

The answer is a Segway.

This thing is fun as fook. I had an e-bike seller travel from Tracy to sell his bike. The one stipulation was it needed to be able to go up my steep shop driveway.

The guy felt confident that he would be able to do this task. His first try wasn’t even close. He probably got about halfway and the bike gave up.

His 2nd and 3rd try had the same results even after changing setting for optimal hill climbing. The guy was prolly 5’ 6” and 140 pounds. There was no way this bike would be able to bring my chiseled rock hard body up the hill.

I declined the deal and passed him $20 for gas.

The shop driveway is intimidating for motorcycle riders too.

After a couple days and I’d say 12 attempts and successes going up the hill is a done deal. The trick is being able to ride down to the shop without smashing into the roll up doors.

I had to make adjustments to the lean bar height to better control a downward decent that is steep. Stopping on a flat surface is no problem at all.

I’ll keep updating my Segway skill level as time goes on. As of now, I’m happy with my decision to get one.

Daily Rants

First one of the year

Well… I didn’t start off the year posting like I normally would. Too much going on and I forgot to update this blog. We currently have no power due to these crazy storm systems that have been passing through.

Most of our county and surrounding areas have the same issue. I’m sure PG&E is having a heck of a time trying to restore everyone’s power.

Daily Rants

Long time

It’s been a super long time since I have been able to write anything on this blog.

Due to the side hustle I’ve been working on there has been a limited amount of time to post up.

Daily Rants

The streets

I need to find a Story and King Road signs. I used to live in East San Jose during the hay day of Lowrider cruising. Depending on the time and day you may cruise for 2 hours going just one direction.

I can’t recall the exact year but Story Road got shut down for the cruising scene.

1996 Impala SS Convertible

1966 Impala SS Convertible

It was bound to happen at some point. The 1964 Impala SS is gone, replaced with a convertible.

We’ve always enjoyed cruising around in a convertible. The question is running it with juice or air. We may even leave it stock suspension and enjoy the factory smoothness.

Still have the “COOL OG” plates.

I’m currently working on the mechanical updates and maintenance “opportunities”.

Videography

C100 MKII Tilta Carbon Fiber Mattebox

I’ve always liked the look of a mattebox on a film or video rig. As it turns out these are definitely you get what you pay for type of hardware. The models I like were way out there in pricing. Especially the ones that are built up with barn doors and different mounting hardware.

I found this setup from a local bay area cinematographer that was downsizing his gear. It’s a Tilta Carbon Fiber MB-T-03 model that is super nice.

Photo taken without the barn doors installed. Configured for “run and gun” even though this sucker is too heavy for me to be doing that style shooting.

Adding the barn doors completely changes the look, for me at least. This is the difference between walking into a paid gig with a DSLR and a cine camera.