assessment...

As we breach the beginning of August I'm suddenly reminded that the year is more than half over. Holy schnikes batman! So, it is with great personal reflection to look back on the past seven months and see how I'm doing on my New Years to-do lists.

1- find a dentist and go

(check... now, I just have to work on the whole flossing everyday thing.)
2- find a personal dr. and go

(check... several times, it doesn't hurt that she's cute)
3- put money into a travel fund for chile/argentina

(check...but actually going there seems very very far away)

4- eat more meals at home

(negative) :(
5- spend more quality time with anna, my dog

(working on it) :|
6- call my mom more often

(working on it) :|
7- hug more

(check :)
8- let some things go

(check :)
9- have a good first season in bike racing

(no complaints here :)
10- be a good and safe bike commuter

(sorry about the cussing thing) :|
11- be more focused at work

(where do you think I wrote this? Just kidding!)
12- don't be late for spin class

(doing soo much better)
13- read more

(negative) :(
14- knock off Mt. Hood (or some other glaciated peak) this year

(South Sister wahooo!!!)
15- floss more, always always floss more

(see goal number one)
16- use less single use plastics

(check :)
17-sketch and doodle more

(working on it) :|

In other news....

Sorry folks for not having more environmental posts as of recent. I've got a huge long list of things to write about and due to being so busy with work and things (like bike racing) I haven't had the chunks of time on the computer to write as i'd like about all the massive cool things I've seen and neat products that are making an impact for good. But I promise, soon - they are in the works. Cause I know that we all want to be more informed about more brands of eco friendly undies.

Speaking of cool things, one thing that is not that cool right now is the weather. Meaning, here in Oregon it has been hot and it's only going to get worse. As someone who pretty much flee'd the south because they couldn't stand the heat coming out of the kitchen, I really hate this weather. However, as a self described self depravationsist, I like going without things. In the winter, this happens to be heat... and it the summer, it happens to be air conditioning. (I also go without a dishwasher, but that is another story.) Anyways, as temps in my apartment reached a balmy 93 this week, i found a certain amount of joy in knowing that I am not alone in my suffering. In fact, the NY Times ran a great article this past week about many other people all over the country that are doing the exact same thing.

Oh, so a few weeks ago I wrote about beards and then a day later I went up to Seattle for the No Depression Music Festival where there happened to be an abundance of beards. And - it turns out I'm not the only one who thought so. In fact, one writer for the Seattle Stranger saw so many beards, he decided to document them. Take a look at these beard beauties here. This guy also did a nice write review of the festival that featured two of my videos that I shot from the evening.

Speaking of videos, a video I shot two some years ago at a tiny little concert at Portland's Mississippi Studios finally hit over one million views this week.

Also, speaking of videos, this week my little home town of Hillsboro Ohio made headlines on theNBC Nightly News as one of Tom Brokaw's stops of his Tour of Route 50.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As well, if you've been reading here and have heard me mention bike racing a PIR, local news folks came out this week and filmed some of the action.

And, If you as if you need to be inspired to get out and do some bike riding of your own this weekend, just watch this awesome video from the downhill section of Stage 7 of this year's Tour De France.