Ya. Have a look! The Trek 1000 SL

INTO THE WIND

Today was the first long ride (16mi) on the new TREK. I went with a friend Drew, he's a sophomore T-com major. His mom gave him her old Schwinn World Sport bike, real sweet retro (red). So we took a ride and he is really getting into it. It was a lot of fun riding easy, enjoying the beautiful weather, cows, landscape, and just talking. I know he's hooked and we'll ride a lot. Hopefully he'll join the club next time I ride with them, which will be soon.

Riding with no hands is had to keep it stable. The bike is much lighter, so each peddle sways it slightly to each side. I'm getting better handling it, it's very nice. SO MANY GEARS! 24 as opposed to 12. Double the gears, double the shifting. It's just such a jump changing my front derailleur, i feel like I have to click in 2-3 gears on my rear cogs just to compensate for a large adjustment.

It's fast, that's for sure. Coasting is a breeze. What a blessing, much more to come, STAY TUNED.

TREK 1000 SL: A Gift From The Heavens

Well people, I'm back...finally. After the Panasonic's shifter snapped while riding to class last fall semester..."Son of a B!" was the quote...Just B, not the entire word.

The thing was, I knew it had taken a heavy toll from riding wit the club team a lot so it really wasn't a surprise to me...just a frustration. After praying a lot and saving my money, thank you Idaho video opportunity, just the bicycle lined up. George, one of the gentlemen I ride with at Scott's had sent out an e-mail to the group about a Sunday ride (about 30 miles). I told him my situation and asked if he could pass on the message that i'm looking for a decently priced used bicycle.

Lets just say, George is on top of things. He sent an e-mail to everyone instantly...haahaha this is how it read...

"Guys. Rocco's bike finally exploded. Anyone have a good deal on a used bike?"


Hahahahahah! All the guys seemed to root for me for keeping up with the A group on the old Steel. It always feels good to be encouraged, especially from people you barely know...these guys are one of a kind; Really great people. Sooooo a gentlemen Tracy had bought a Trek for his wife, but she didn't ride it anymore. The TREK 1000 SL (super light) alloy with carbon fork won awards for it's solid design, affordability, and great performance. It runs for 700 new, and I got it for $300 (including all the extras he had put on).

Dave at Scott's bicycles fitted me for free, replaced my shifter cables, installed the new stem, and charged me $55 with labor included. A BLESSING for sure. He also gave me another bottle cage (now I have dual, for flowing water on the rides). What a guy, what a group of guys. I defnitely got what I prayed for way back when while climbing the hills of Hope/Blairstown on my trek to John Walsh's house and back (which i never thought I would be able to do). I quote Ryan while driving to work with Lenny in Mt. Olive, "Oh Come on!" hahahaha, i had his support from the start! Miss that kid...

Basically, I got a sick deal, on a great bike, from amazing people. Thank you Jesus, I don't deserve this. Also, this weekend me, Joel, and Mike put out our first podcast entitled "The Badger Hive" AND I finished my newest chiaraFILMS project. It's entitled "Heinrich." It will be released at the Lee University film festival this saturday, Feb 7th, 2009. What a weekend, and on top of that!!!!!........A snow day today (monday). Thank you Lord, I needed that time off (sick Wal mart run with the boys too).


JOEL'S BLESSING: A bed and frame for $10, hahaha!!!!!!

Thank you God, you are unbelieveable. I can't wait to get home and ride on the smooth, wide shouldered roads of Warren County, NJ.......

Maybe I'll ride to Carlo's place each day for editing. Sounds GREAT.

TEAM RED

Trip Dist: 22.26 mi
Trip Time: 1 hr 23 min 38 sec
Avg Speed: 15.97 mph
Max Speed: 33.45 mph

Total Odo: 838 mi
Total Time: 61 hrs 02 min

Weather: Mid 70s to start, then mid low 80s around 11:30. Beautiful weather, slightly hot towards the end.

Pre-Ride Food: PBJ

Team red jersey hit the road today around 11am. Weather was really nice and cool to start, but the sun busted out to ruin that of course. Still feeling quite weak and tired from being sick. Exercise is definitely helping "cleanse the system." Me, Mike, and Joel hit the rec center yesterday. I only rode the bike there for about 15 min on lvl 10, kicking it to 14 every once in a while to get out of the saddle.

Today was really good though, Mike is becoming a true cyclist, I am impressed at his skill early on. He has about 2 feet more of muscle, so I think that helps him....hahaah. Lance is short, remember that!

So we hit the golf course cart path route by The Link to start. We finished up there with the the "mini alps" and went on our way. Extremely hill route today, it was really good. I just wish I felt better, it was a sluggish ride at times for me.

Mike's been having chain problems so that's always annoying when it skips while cranking it up a hill.....oh bicycle frustrations. Someday we will have beautiful, flowing bikes that work flawlessly. For now, we shall train on PURE STEEL.

Directing Numero Du: CONVOCATION

Convocation in the Conn Center was great tonight. Fresh crew on the cams, and I was able to direct the whole night. It feels good to have Jeff's trust the entire time as opposed to him breathing down my neck the whole time. It's a great freedom, and forces you to perform.

Of course there were minor slips because some were first timers, but that's understood. All in all, they did great. They had some great wide and close up pans, and beautiful pulls.

What a blessing the entire night was. Great people to work with, and a great service to record. Thank God for the opportunity to direct so much and I'm only a junior! There is just no other way to get better at it, you need to just DO it.

Seems like my future career specifications have been changing as I learn more in video. It began with the old RCA VHS camcorder me and Carmello bought off of Ebay for about $50. Here is the time line of my involvement in video, as all of this has happened very recently thanks to Lee:

- Analog VHS / Hi8 camera work (early High School)
- Fascination with ULead video studio demo on PC
- Analog to Digital video converting for editing
- Windows Movie Maker
- Adobe Premier 1.5 then 2.0 (College Sophomore)
- Job from Transformers Lip Sync playing in Conn Center Chapel
- First time working with manual camera controlls (JVC HDV110)
- Lee Basketball floor cam (2nd semester)
- Editing for Inside Lee Basketball TV show
- Winterfest Stop Motion Promo (first project with the guys in HDV)
- Massive 65+ freelance VHS-DVD editing project (still pluggin away at it)
- N. Cleveland COG Camera crew for Chad Guyton
- Directing: Dixon center Presidential concert
- Directing: Night convocation 3-cam shoot

I don't know why God seems to throw me into things and FORCE me to be good at them. I give him all the glory for everything I do because it seems to be done fluidly and naturally. Thank God for Lee and the opportunities here. Ron said that in all four of his college years, he only got MINUTES of directing time...so directing entire services is a huge blessing.

Until next post people, hopefully i'll have some epic cycling news. I don't know how much faster I can go beyong 46mph without traveling to the alps.

The old panasonic may just explode.


....................Many new video promos/projects to come. Check facebook and youtube. Thanksssss.

Group Ride #4: LIGHTNING FAST

Trip Dist: 34.76 mi
Trip Time: 1 hr 49 min 21 sec
Avg Speed: 19.07 mph
Max Speed: 46.86 mph

Total Odo: 812 mi
Total Time: 59 hrs 18 min

Weather: Low 70s to start, mid 60s be the end. No wind, beautiful weather

Pre-Ride Food Blast: Mac & cheese, raisins, water

Wow. Look at those digits. My average speed would have been much faster but I slowed down for a guy having bike problems, (his bike started shaking uncontrollably as we were going down a hill. Thank God he was able to take control of the it and stop) , we stopped a few times to regroup, and also there were many stop signs. It was quite epic to say the least.

We rode out with 9 guys. As the ride went on, we lost a few guys. I had lost the better A group guys as we were about to scale a massive hill. Luckily, as we descended (that's where the 46 mph max speed came from) they stopped at a gas station to regroup. I linked up with those guys. We were flying at about 30-32 mph in a chain on the straightaways. SICK.

My legs felt less like rubber bands, and hill climbing affected me less. I felt improvement since last ride.

About the shoes and pedals, I'll be picking them up from Rich sometime this week. I'll have time to putz around and get comfortable in them. I saw some new looks from guys as they saw ole Panasonic screaming down the hill as they waited at the gas station. I'm sure "he" doesn't appreciate being stared down. I don't gaze at guy's Trek's and Specialized all day. LAY OFF the present FAX MACHINE says (DX2000).

So I finished the ride beating two guys behind me. I just had to push my hardest until the very end. It got really dark, really dark. I don't have a light on the rear of my bike so I was trying to get back as fast as I could. The ride lasted from 6-8pm. It was insane, INSANITY.

As I pulled in, I said Hi to one of the A group guys that I don't really know well. He just got in a bit before me. He said, "That's impressive man." I felt real good when he said that. I guess I won't realize how much heavier and less efficient the Panasonic is compared to the Treks of today until I get one. Until then, I will RIDE ON.

Thanks for enjoying the posts everyone. MORE TO COME!

Cycling and Directing

So recently i've been on the tuesday / thursday hard ride program. Today will be our first Lee U Cycling club ride (about 20-25 miles). We'll see how many people actually make it out. Thursday I'll be getting some sweet new pedals and shoes so that should be interesting to get used to clip ins. Me and mike have been doing some light riding between Tuesdays and Thursdays, just to turn the pedals a little bit. School and videos have consumed my life, so I wish I could be riding more. I guess God wants to use me for all kinds of video projects, so I'll DO WHAT HE WANTSSS.

Presidential concert was last night in Dixon center. I was on board just as backup in case they didn't have enough people helping out. Ron didn't know I hadn't directed before, so he gave me the reigns a few minutes after it started. The show was a string quartet, really good in fact. So I was using the standard Def. switcher for the whole show. Basically, it was EPIC. I had been praying about it since last semester when I was going to direct a few events. This was my first time, and it couldn't have gone any smoother. Jennifer was laying down heavy audio as the "top dogs" in the studio were grillin' and chillin,' sucking down Jazzmines coffee and cookies.

The camera ops were new, some newer than others, but they really did a great job. Initial explaining was thorough, and they really performed well. All around, a great multi-cam shoot to start on. Hopefully I'll be directing more as the semesters go on so I can get more comfortable in more intense settings. What an epic day, time to study, eat, video edit, film, go to class, ride, VIDEO VIDEO VIDEO.