Singlespeed road bike conversion project

Converting my 2008 Giant OCR3 road bike to single speed hipster dipster single-speed but not fixed gear because fixed gear is dumb and i actually want to have fun riding this bike project.  Click photos for larger resolution.

BEFORE

AFTER

Things I added and/or changed:

     -Drop bars changed to Misfit Psycles Nu-Bar flat bar (25.4mm)
     -Specialized grips
     -generic bell because that is now required by law in Calgary, AB  
     -used existing Tektro brake levers.  These came stock on the 2008 model; it was a sort of nod to cyclocross road bike brake setup.  You can see them on the top part of the drop bars in the BEFORE shot.
     -front triple chainrings removed and replaced with a Brev 44-tooth track chainring
     -rear cassette swapped out for single 18-tooth cog with Misfit Psycles spacers and lockring
     -Misfit Psycles singlespeed chain tensioner (see below)
     -SRAM 1/8" bmx chain.  I found out after purchasing a 3/32" chain that the track chainring is incompatible with the standard 3/32" chain size.  So bmx chain required.
     -generic Mountain Equipment Co-op platform pedals
     -Rubena 700x28 reflective sidewall tires

and because I figure I might as well make this an exhaustive parts list:

     -cheapo Canadian Tire brake cables
     -Shimano brake cable housing

Chain tensioner

 Cog and spacers

 Reflective sidewalls

Oh, that saddle is a WTB something or other.  I bought it from Jenson USA website a few years ago.

Nasa astronaut blogs from the space station

Astronaut Don Pettit has been keeping a blog of his adventures at the International Space Station.  Read his blog.  Read it. 

Really.  Click link and read all of it:

Don Pettit's Blog

Ms. Fortune smiles upon you

Over the past year I've been following the production progress of an indie 2D fighting game by the name of Skullgirls.  It looks to be awfully good, quite rad, in fact, and relevant to my interests for certain.  Yesterday someone on a fighting game forum requested a smiley head of one of the characters in said game for use on a forum.  I obliged.  I made two.  Here:

There ya go.  Please note that this not my character, nor am I responsible for the posing.  Just a retune and redo for usage as small forum sized smileys.  Ms. Fortune and Skullgirls are copyright Reverge Labs, LLC. 

Set for release 2012.  Yay! 

What happened?

Okay. So I burned out. Really bad. This past year was tough. I had been slowly losing motivation for about a year or two prior, then a moving related snafu and a bad apartment experience pushed me right off the rails. I stopped drawing for about 4 months. Now, I'm feeling a little better and am trying to get the mojo back again. Will do so in slow manageable steps. Fortunately this may actually translate into more frequent updates as I've decided on a change of pace away from the comic book for now.

I've started writing short stories. For those, I've made a brand new blog. It will feature bi monthly (that's the plan) story + one supplementary drawing for each. It's called Bitter Notes. here:

New Blog

and here's a rough sketchy for the new title banner of the new blog.



This old blog will be repurposed as a portfolio archive in the future. My Tyler's Drawings website will act as a hub for the two blogs and will no longer be used as a portfolio site.

snag

update. I'm sorry. Hit a snag. Things happened. Took a break. Nasty writer's block. Depression. I'm trying. here is some music:

Mclarty Party People

:(

Wooooo! (Super Meat Boy content)

I finally managed to beat this glorious SOB of a game last night. I'm totally counting this amongst my lifes greatest achievements. For realsies.

Also, you need to buy Super Meat Boy. You also need to buy the soundtrack on account of it being filled with wall to wall bangers. Bangers I say.

You buy this now. Go.

http://supermeatboy.com/
http://www.meatboymusic.com/

Listen. At first it's all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dta4f6Nj2KM

And then THIS happens:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hjyuQFhAsI

Project Rophelcopter pages 1-18

As promised.

images are very much work-in-progress subject to change. some background detail for a few pages is missing right now as well. Click on each image to see a larger version.

edit--- changed some stuff.

At least I'm not as bad as George R. R. Martin

Book 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dance With Dragons, is estimated to release December 2012. That's a potential seven years in the works.

My book is only going to take three years and change. So yeah. Take that, Martin. Tsk.


A big 18 page preview of Project: Rophelcopter will be up next week [edit: minor delay on that, maybe I *am* as bad as Martin]. The whole book will be finished early 2011, probably. Available for purchase: ???. Depends on publishing. Will shop it around to agents/publishers when it's finished. If no dice, will self publish.

--------------------------

Onwards with my sci-fi novel reading binge, I started this one yesterday

Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson, 1992

30 pages in so far. Early impression: Whoa. Holy crap. Seriously.

Now Playing - Super Meat Boy

Crazy game. Similar to N+ but, like, more, and better, and funnier too. Also excruciatingly difficult in parts. Game of the Year so far, easily. Check out this soundtrack:

World 2

World 1 (dark)



-Also playing Fallout: New Vegas. Obsidian, please patch your game. It is teh brokenz. :(

Reality Dysfunction

I just recently finished reading this one. It is part 1 of a trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. Large scale sci fi space opera w/some fantasy type elements to it. It's a good story approaching great in certain spots. I say good because, without giving away any spoilers here, Hamilton utilizes real world tie-ins in the story that I'm not particularly thrilled about. That's mostly because I think usage of real world historical figures in sci fi is kinda lazy, especially when your story takes place very far into the future (2600 CE). It is a little irksome that almost all of Hamilton's real world tie-ins are from ~1900 give or take 100 years. :/

Mini book review completed, on to the real reason for this post: Organic telepathic spaceships and why they make me giggle/smile in parts of the story where that is not at all an appropriate response to the goings on. In the story, there is a type of new technology called Bitek. Bitek is sort of genetically engineered life forms that function in place of standard metal and wires technology. So: a living, thinking, telepathic space station, for example. Or a spaceship. The funny part of all this is that these Bitek creations all have very cute personalities. So cute that I cannot help put picture them with smiley faces, flying around shouting, "Yay! :D" and making verbal "vroooo0mm! whoosh! pew pew pew!" noises when they are fighting other spaceships. It's hard to take the super grim life and death battles seriously when all I can picture is a bunch of these guys zipping around in the scene. Like this (sorta close to as described, flattish asymmetrical with a "crew toroid" for people to ride in):

Or better yet, ramp the cuteness up even further with my interpretation like this:


pew pew pew ratta tatta zoooooooommm! xD



------------- Next week:
Post E3 rundown: Specifically two-ish upcoming vidya games that I am all gosh darn golly gee omg yes excited about playing.

Whale

Scanning... scanning... scanning


Would you believe this sort of pencil work is about 3x faster to do than inking? Next book: no ink. Takes too damn long to do. Pencil straight to colours is the way to go.

Makoto in SSFIV, yes?

SSFIV - which is to say, Super Street Fighter IV. Makoto is a character from SF3: Third Strike. She is rumoured to be included in the roster of the upcoming SSFIV. If that is the case, i will be most pleased. Few months away from release and Capcom still hasn't announced the full roster, very irritating.