Abode of Clarus

Maybe there is a reason that Ohio is late getting their votes in... I have seen more than one of these trucks around the capitol...

I'm really only posting this to upset Vadim. He has his bike outside for the winter. I have my own large garage complete with a wall to hang my plastics on. Ohh, right Vadim, it is heated too; and lighted.

I am accepting applications for roomates!

So, as I drove to Cincinatti this weekend to catch the Lehigh Lafayette game I passed a perfect example of Ohio. Ohio is in the bible belt, in case you missed it. There are churches on EVERY street corner, and of course, churches larger than you could possibly imagine with Jesus' the size of tall buildings. Ohio is so religous, our Jesus' are the size of your churches!

See Goldens, Ohio is a wonderful place. Even Elliot shoudl move here. Not only is there plenty of snow, but even the Riders of Rohahn have moved to Ohio!

Maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but when you've been on the highway everyday, it starts to seem really kewl.

This is mainly for Pete, becuase he is the main Lehigh grad that reads through my journal. I saw this bumpersticker on a car in DC and the first thought that popped into my head was, "Little boys and girls like Lafayette"... Seems like Lafayette really IS gay!

I know I'm flooding you with posts, but I took this picture a few days back while I was taking a new route to work. The skyline of Dayton just didn't look that bad on this day. Granted it's no Pyramid club of Philly, or even on par with the museam of art, but it is a rather pretty picture.

One thing is for certain, Ohio makes for some rather beautiful skys. There is rarely anything in the way but a few trees; that and the fact that there is no civilization or electric lights in the state.

Just to let you all know, I will be playing excessive amounts of video games this week through the rest of the weekend because it happens to be a nightmare of snowish hell. Expected 10-16 inches....

So I drove to Terra Haute Indiana this weekend to spend some time away from it all. You know what? It really is away from ALL!

They got some snow, and while traveling down I-70 I took this picture. It's no reason why they call it the plains... I don't think it could get much more barren and plain than this.

Yea.. you got it right.. Ben has aquired an iPod Shuffle. The coveted. It was a bitch to get.. lots of wait listed mumbo-jumbo, and I had to drive to Cincinnati to pick it up, but at long last.

1Gb of Flashy goodness.

Get jealous.

Yep, even though it was 60 degrees 2 days ago (no joke) today it is a torential blizzard of epic proportions.

What is wrong with the world...

I guess this is mostly for Scott, but about 2 blocks from the house I am looking at, there is an old church that went belly up. A bunch of local guys came in and gutted the place.

Turned the whole interior, bell towers and all, into a climbing wall.

Yes, I have uncovered the greateset wheeled contraption of all time.

I discovered it on a car trip yesterday up into the bowels of Ohio. It is a 74 wheeled behemoth. Yes you read that right SEVENTY FOUR wheeler.

I snapped as best a picture as I could, but at 75 mph, everything gets blurry.

One thing I can say about Ohio... It does have some of the prettiest wild flowers I have seen in a place where I have lived.

They also (no picture) have fields of dandylions that are absolutly qualified as "beds of flowers" that stretch on for yards.

Well, there is way too much to post to try and catch you up on the past week of my life. So instead I decided I would post a picture of Pete Matt, half neked, on Jing's couch playing with her vibrating massage piece at 4 in the morning.

(long story short.... Lehigh was a great weekend)

I didn't have rizrar.com up when I created the photo album of my new apartment. Just incase some of you didn't get the IM'd link of it.

I'm accepting invitations for parties too!

I had forgotten how awesome it was to have a sunroof. I was driving through downtown Philly last week to have lunch with dave, and realized what a wonderful view I had out the roof. It left me feeling rather warm and fuzzy.

Dear Pete,

I was never one to find humor in your "baby jokes". I found them strange and wierd. Random pictures of "can cause drowning" pictures of babies, jokes like, "how many babies can you fit into a phone booth". It never really caught on, but yesterday, it provided the cause to snap this picture.

Some things you come across in the Philadelphia area that you won't see in the midwest: exotic foreign cars.

(and for once, my car doesn't look too bad in the background.

Isn't it great to live with fellow fraternity brothers?

It's the simple things, like stocking the fridge with a case of beer, and then realizing that EVERYONE brought home one case of beer at the same time. It's like a gift that just keeps on giving!

Dearest Mother,

Eat your heart out! I am a legitimate person.

(it's my first real home cooked meal in Philly if you didn't reach that conclusion)

Again, in the theme of "you don't see those in Ohio" While I was driving down to Jersey this weekend I happened to come across one of these fine beauties driving.

Again, it's just a picture of a chinook. It's just kewl to look at I guess.

For some reason, perhaps global warming, my drive to work today was wonderfully beautiful. I tried my best to brace myself to take this picture this morning, but there was too little light. It was miraculous in the fact that the moon was so bright and the sky was so luminous and colorful. The clouds you see too were racing across the sky. It looked like a stop action show.

It caught me compleatly off guard, but in its own right, it was perhaps the greatest advertising scheme to date. You want to advertise that you have costumes and outfits for the Trick-or-Treating. So, you place three examples on the side of Rt. 1 to advertise your wares.

So of course, I nearly careened of the road trying to take this picture and holding in my laughter as I drove past.

btw, there is a Darth Vader behind that stormtrooper.

Just a little lightning storm over here. I've been trying to take a few more pictures now a days. It's a little artsy. That's another great story for another time. Art.

I spent some time at work last week using google maps to try and find other ways to go home. I found a winner. There's a swarm of little roads running 45mph that just wind and wind around between work and home. They take a little longer, so I only really take them on the way home, but especially during this fall time, it's breathtaking.

Who would have ever thought that Rush hour can look so pretty. I really hate the contrast on my digital camera, it's nearly impossible to get both color and brightness out of a photograph, but the sky during this drive was alive. Also, it was out of my sunroof, while merging, in a manual, at 40mph.

Again, another picture from my commute home. There's this beautiful Yellow Maple that I didn't get in the shot. It's just off to the left if you look for it. It is brighter than the sun in the morning, and it has a bed of yellow around it and on the street.

It is true:

Bob knows that "the box does bring you home."

Apparently I frightened Alice upon seeing this car, as I sprinted back to my car to grab the camera and take this picture. What, I had been in the car for almost 5 hours by then, I was hungry, and Zanesville, OH isn't a place where I have to "keep my cool."

It may be a warm day as far as the past week has been, almost 40 degrees at times, but still cold for t-shirts and sunshine. I was leaving the mall today, and looked up, and in a slightly meloncholy mood found fascination with the sunset (at 4:00 no less). But after getting the emotional aspect of yet another beautiful sunset out of the way, I was intreagued by how cold the sky looked. Don't you find it strange that temperature can be told by sight alone?

I found her today at the arborarium. I'll admit that I have / had alterior motives for her, but that is neither here nor there. I think it's beautiful, and when spring comes around, she'll sprout whitish/pink flowers.

Yes, yes, the site was down. It was actually in response to a hopping party that took place Friday night, and I was in Ohio all week, so i couldn't get rizrar up and running again (plugged back in). But we're back.

The picture you see is my christmas present (well part of it). I got a punch of prints made and some nice frames with mattes. I didn't have too much on the walls, and now this gives my room a much better feel to it. Now i just need to find something for my desk.

A christmas present of sorts for AOC:Rizrar.com. A new black finish Fuji Z1 camera. Some image stabilization and a bump up of resolution will make a great addition to the photographic journal side of AOC, don't you think?

Also, pete said a camera like that has got to "bring the ladies"

I created a new catagory "photography". It seems like the majority of posts deserve to be put into there. These were a cloud of birds on my street. I've gotten pretty good at snapping photos from the drivers seat.

I touched this one up a lot in iPhoto. The controls arn't that powerful, but very easy to use (Standard mac thing i guess). I think it came out pretty well.

Yea that's right, I'll be skiing all this weekend. Good times indeed.

Yep.. goggles make me look hot. Oohs and Aahs accepted as comments below.

I was just taking the trash out, and was greeted by this fella on the opening by my stairwell. It's hard to see, since it's backlit, but the bird was all white. Just sat there making that pidgeon sound to me for a while, gave me enough time to go inside get my camera and snap a few photos of it.

So I found this amazing coffee / smoothie / gelatto place in West Chester. This picture can hardly do it justice, but try and imagine with me...

Fresh Gelatto with warm espresso poured over it, add chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Delicious!

I highly suggest it if you're in the area, or see something of similarity.

I am planning a very belated update on my Superbowl experience with the great Stewart G. Vance, but as you might know, I just got back from AC and i'm on my way to the Poconos (what an exciting life I lead )... (in your face Ms. Mush).

However, to wet your whistle...

This is by request only... in all honesty!

This is the state of the color of my arm. The picture doesn't do it much justice since the flash washes my pasty white arm out a little bit, but I think you get the idea. (also, you can see where the swelling starts and stops.

I took this picture when I was in AC last weekend. They're new to me, but apparently there are wind turbines up in AC now.

It's been a while since I got to go to a Lehigh basketball game, but this Sunday I did get to go. Cheering, shouting, a little bit of drinking, and some great company. In the end we kicked Lafayette's ass, however our game against Bucknell today didn't go as well as I had hoped. Ohh well, so much for a bracket seed.

Nothing like some green to perk up your weekend. Debauchery insues!

I'm looking to grab some pictures of the Brother vs. Pledge football game afterward. I'll see what I can do.

One couldn't ask for a better response to yet another hard day at work. Brough a lot of parts home and fixed a lot of problems. Now there's nothing like coming home, kicking up your feet on the porch and running through as many cheap beers as you can before Pete gets home to prove that, yes, it is very possible to get obliterated in the difference of time between my arrival home and his.

I hope you all can enjoy spring.

It seemed like a sign until I realized the Phillies lost 13-5. It just looked pretty kewl over the sports arenas.

Who knows.. maybe there is still hope for our teams.

It's been a while since I uploaded a picture for it's sheer photographic sight. This is from a little town in the appalachian mountains called "St. Peters Village". There were plenty of rocks filling a little river. A enjoyable day to say the least.

One of my favorite race tracks that we go to is in the rolling hills of West Virginia. I snapped this picture from the back of Vadim's volvo going way too fast down Rt 9. The weather and sunlight was just perfect. A real pretty area.

Dear Ladies:

When you are on the garden state parkway driving your SUV, please take care.. don't flip the thing over, and if you happen to wreck, get AWAY from the car. Don't stand by the car waiting for something to happen.

For the first time ever, we will be having a Rizrar Poll!

Here it is:

Do these sunglasses make Laur-dawg look
a. fashionable
b. sophisticated
c. A compleate bug eyed laughable freak

Please Vote

It's hard to see in the picture, damn low ASA digital CCDs, but if you look you can see the dumpster down the hill from my apartment in a firey blaze.

It was rather neat as I was sitting here last night listening to come music wondering, "Gee, I wonder where that fire truck is going." "Ohh look, the dumpster is on fire."

Cool.

I have perfected the art of the $1.50 dinner. I present to you "Ben's Chicken Finger Rice!"

Side note... 6 cups of rice is a LOT!!!! of rice.

In case you were curious how the redcoats managed to invade Philadelphia, one if by land, two if by sea, three if by Saturn Sedan!

Well I just bought a bicycle. Isn't she pretty? Anyway, I think it's about time I started being healthy again. I'm feeling the lethargic "haven't been to the gym in a while" slump. I find that the more physically active you are, the better you feel, and sort of, the easier doing anything the rest of the day is. I sort of miss that feeling. The whole "floating up steps" and "springing out of your seat" feeling.

On a similar note, working in a cubicle is probably killing me. I don't know a single person that worked in a cubicle that won't die.

Every now and then you wake up in the morning and say... ohh dammit.. this is going to hurt.

Dear Professor:

I am sorry I was late for class. I am normally very punctual, but in the small time frame I had to travel from work to school, I happend to reach a small problem.

I agree that the V-22 Osprey is a harrowingly fast rotorcraft with cunning abilities, but in its current shrinkwrapped form while being towed by a fat union guy.... not too fast.

I never had a legal class before, but do you think there’s a good grounds of defense for this situation? Hey, it’s not like there’s photographic proof or anything.

Don't worry, it's really just Vadim looking for people around Summit this weekend. No animals/people/children were harmed in the taking of this picture.

How come no one ever told me this before! Granted it's no Lotus or Ferarri, but I'm happy enough with a crappy little four door Kia. So now you know, I'm famous!

I always wanted to fly. I'll admit I got pretty far toward my licence too. One of the few reasons I wanted my licence though was to get a chance to ride in something like this.

I can only imagine the feeling of flying in a sailplane, all the thrill of flight, but an almost silent 'free fall' journey.

I had a wonderful week vacation in the US for the 4th of July. I guess you never know how much you miss the simple life until you spend a few days walking around Philly with no place to go, and lying on the beach with nothing to worry about. It's always a shame to come back to work (and go back to the UK), but I can certainly say that my batteries are recharged and I'm ready to put my nose to the grindstone again.

I kept getting mocked because it's apparently Old City, not Old Town (like in Sin City). I think Old Town has a much better ring to it.

This is a little walkway outside The Dark Horse pub in Philly. It's a good place to take a group of people to hang out if you're in the area (the pub, not the walkway) and for the ladies they have StrongBow on tap. I haven't had the heart to try most of their food, but the fish and chips isn't too bad.

Although I'm not exactly a goody two shoes I was actually tempted to commit a crime today. I would like to interrupt our current run of Domo-kun's Adventure to let you look at what I ran across while walking around Gosport. Let me begin by saying that Gosport isn't exactly the cleanest town in England. When you say you live in Gosport, people start to look at you funny. So imagine my surprise when I was able to take this picture while walking around my old apartment and coming home from lunch.

For those of you who aren't up on your motorcycle knowledge, that is a race replica, limited production $72,000 motorcycle the Ducati Desmodici RR. It wouldn't have been too hard to pick that bike up all 377 carbon-fibre lightened lbs of that bike and stuff it into the back of my rental corolla.