Green and Gold
Red and Gold
After a couple of years on a scooter, it seems strange, but uneventful is a good thing. Two weeks of rides with nothing in the way of 'events' is a very good two weeks. No close calls, no knucklehead driver situations. Unfortunately, two weeks is as far as I got without any knuckleheads. Saturday evening, I had to deal with a knucklehead, of the 70mph right side passing variety. You know the ones, when your 55mph in a 45 isn't fast enough and they whip past you (illegally) on the right. Unfortunately, I was looking to get into the lane he decided to pass me in. Fortunately, I saw him coming and didn't get into trouble, but it is just the kind of situation that scares me, because these drivers present such an enormous risk to riders, both new and old. A little fatigue, or a mild distraction and even an experienced riders could miss the hints that you have a knucklehead incoming.
Add to that the case situation in Atlanta (I won't go into details, just think Mad Max the Movie and you aren't far from the reality of gas in Atlanta right now), and you have an increasing volatile situation between efficient scooters and fuel sucking SUV's.
I wish I had a way to communicate how much risk is involved in that sort of behavior to the driver.
Oh well, nothing I can do there but keep my eyes peeled and help other riders learn to watch for the risk.
On a totally different subject, I'm going to head off in a different direction for the rest of the post :-). Though I have little talent, I love art, in particular, digital art is something that really appeals to me. Generally speaking, there is a bias against digital art, but for me, it is just another medium like water colors on canvas. This is especially relevant since I spend all day in front of my computer, I really like having a collection of digital art rotating as my wallpaper. This way I always have something pretty to look at when I am working. Over the years, I've found a couple of artists that I enjoy more than others, artists whose work I follow regularly.
One of those is a guy named Ryan Bliss. Ryan's website, Digital Blasphemy, has long been a staple in much of the digital art community, and he is one of the few trying to make a living at it. In the last couple of years, his art has really matured, and his most recent release is probably my favorite piece of art. About 3 weeks ago, he released the first image above, called Green and Gold. At the time I found it to be a nice piece of work, but it didn't grab me. However, last week, he did a re-colored version called Red and Gold, and it absolutely grabbed my attention. The blend of color and the tones speak so of the season, it just works. It works so well that I wanted to share. This morning, he released a version that he rendered for three screens, and I am finding myself wishing I could easily get the image broken down into the three images and transfered to a 3 part canvas wall hanging. Too bad the cost makes it prohibitive.
Guess I'll have to just stick to enjoying the art on my computer, or maybe my wife will pick this up for my birthday :-).