« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »
May 31, 2005
The store is now open!
Much to my surprise I've gotten some really good feedback on my new design. I decided to run with it and opened up a new online store over the weekend! You can visit by clicking here. (It will open a new window)
I was sort of in the "sticker biz" once before, selling mostly through Ebay. Well, that proved to be cumbersome and quite honestly, a pain-in-the-@ss. I went a different route this time by using CafePress.com. The really cool thing about them is they do almost everything for you with zero upfront cost and zero inventory investment! All I had to do was supply my artwork, do some setup work for the store itself, tweak each of the product designs and then WHAM... I have an online store! What makes it even better is this... they take over from here. To be more specific I've quoted the following from their website:
|
What CafePress.com does * Gives you a FREE online shop to promote your products |
Does it get any easier than that? No more Ebay auction listings to create or
the ever-increasing auction fees that eat up your profits. Plus, unlike Ebay, if no one likes my design and I never sell a thing, I don't lose a cent! I won't be stuck with boxes of t-shirts or stickers that I can't get rid of. I'm smacking myself for not doing this sooner!
It would have saved me many headaches... but then hindsight is always 20/20, right?
Anyway, I'd love to hear any comments or feedback, including any suggestions
anyone may have. In the meantime I'm also working on a sport bike (aka
crotch rocket) design to compliment my cruiser design. I hope to have that
done by the weekend. Wish me luck!
Posted by pixelbrat at 8:08 PM | Comments (1)
May 29, 2005
What's a girl to do when she can't find the sticker she wants...
Well, she breaks out the sketchbook and designs her own of course! Let's back up... To celebrate my new cycle ownership I decided to go shopping for some cute stickers and t-shirts for us "biker chick" types. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to choose from. I did find some cute stuff here and there but none of it was really what I had in mind. After a day and a half of sketching, tweaking, and fiddling, I think I got it the way I want it. What do ya think?
 |
Just for grins I think I may get a small batch of stickers made and put them up on Ebay just to see how they do. If they bomb, no harm done and I still have a design I can use for my own purposes. If they do well I may just expand and make some t-shirts or something... but then I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?
Posted by pixelbrat at 5:09 PM | Comments (3)
May 23, 2005
Just a quickie post today...
I got the hubby to take a photo of me on my bike this afternoon so I figured I'd post it. Yes, this is really just another excuse to talk about my bike. 
Have I mentioned how much I love this thing? I think I'll sleep in the garage tonight...
 |
Posted by pixelbrat at 8:05 PM
May 22, 2005
The second and third rides: Much better!
Rob and I took Saturday off from riding. When Sunday came we decided to start the day by watching the Ride Like a Pro DVD by Jerry "Motorman" Palladino. It's a pretty cool video with some really good tips. He suggests finding an empty parking lot and practicing several skills that he outlines in the video. Sounded like a great idea to us but we decided to do some laps around our neighborhood first.
This time around the neighborhood was a much better ride than Friday's. We felt much more confident and got a good bit of riding in. By the time we took a break we had about 16 total miles (since Friday) on the bikes. A few hours later we decided to try finding an empty school parking lot to try out the techniques from the video. Well, apparently it's graduation time in Buford because the high school lot was packed. We headed for the elementary school but the lot was too small to be useful to us. Bummer. Guess we'll have to wait until next weekend for that. 
We took the long way back, winding our way through some fairly deserted country roads. (some of the few still left in our area!) Hmmmm, the mental wheels began to turn... maybe we could try hitting these roads for some practice. We headed home for the bikes. We did some quick laps around the neighborhood just to get the feel for everything, stopped to quickly plan our route in case we got separated and then off we went. Wow, it was exhilarating! Admittedly it was a bit scary but the excitement of going 50 mph on an open road was awesome! Towards the end of our planned ride some jack@ss got on my butt and wouldn't back off. This got me a bit frazzled. Fortunately we came up on the church parking lot we had planned to turn around in and got off the main road. We took a few moments to chill for a bit then headed for home.
We made it home, safe and sound. We were a bit frazzled by the time we got in our driveway but I think this is normal after your first true ride on public roads. It's one thing to drive in the "comfort" of your own neighborhood with little to no traffic at all. It's a completely different animal to be out there among the "cagers". (Folks in cars)
All in all it was a great day! We had about 35 miles on the bikes (since Friday) when we got home, which probably isn't much in the grand scheme of things. That's OK with us though because we're taking this slowly and only doing what we're comfortable with. We're excited and feel pretty good about our riding, yet we know we still have much practicing ahead of us.
Posted by pixelbrat at 5:41 PM
May 20, 2005
The first ride and some reality checks...
Much to our surprise, the weather decided to cooperate Friday evening so Rob and I decided it was finally time to test out our new toys. Enter reality check number one... this bike is heavy! This was no Honda Nighthawk, the bike we learned to ride in our MSF class. Just to give you an idea of the weight difference..
Victory 8-Ball: (dry weight) 620 lbs.
Just trying to "duck walk" this bike down the driveway was a bit of a challenge for me. Thank goodness I got it lowered before bringing it home.
Enter reality check number two... this bike neither rides nor feels the same as the Nighthawk, which I should have realized shortly after reality check number one. Off we headed down our neighborhood street towards the cul-de-sac. Rob was in front of me going a bit slower than I was expecting. At this point I figured out (too late) that we needed to put more space between us. This is also where I make my first mistake of the day. As I began my turn going way too slow, down I went. Yes, as much as I hate to admit it, I dropped my beautiful and precious bike. What made it worse was the crowd of landscapers down there watching me do it. Can you say embarrassing? Actually, I think
mortifying better describes it. Nothing major was hurt but my pride. This really angered me because I was so determined not to drop it, especially since everyone just expects you to drop your first bike. Despite this frustrating and humbling experience I got back on and off I went.
About 7 miles of neighborhood riding later, and one more bike drop thrown in for good measure, we were done with our first day. We came away knowing that we have a lot more practicing to do before we even think about venturing out on public roads. We are even more determined to play this safe and ride smart.
Posted by pixelbrat at 5:37 PM
May 19, 2005
We brought home the bikes today!!!
Many, many thanks go out to our friend Tom, who agreed to ride the bikes home from the dealer for
us today. (we are definitely too new to try that ourselves!) It obviously took 2 trips but they are safely in our
garage now. Unfortunately, by the time both bikes arrived at the house, it was too
late/dark to try them out for ourselves.
Anyone want to take a guess at what the local forecast will be tomorrow... if
you guessed RAIN then you would be correct. Can you say TORTURE?
Here are the first photos of our bikes. The top one is mine and then Rob's below it. It was getting kinda dark by the time Rob's bike got home so the photo is borderline crappy. I'll post better shots when the weather permits.
 |
 |
Posted by pixelbrat at 8:08 PM | Comments (1)
May 18, 2005
We bought two new bikes tonight!!!
We bought 2 Victory
motorcycles tonight!! (For those of you who aren't familiar with the
Victory name, they are made by Polaris) Rob got a Vegas and I got an
8-Ball. We haven't brought them home yet because we are having a few
changes made to both. Mine is getting lowered and getting some extension
handlebars. Rob's is getting a "face-lift" of sorts.
Actually, the bike is bright yellow right now... It will be black before we
bring it home. Apparently, all they have to do is take all the yellow parts off and replace
them with black parts so no biggie. Rob just couldn't live with a bright
yellow bike and frankly I don't blame him. I think he might lose his
"guy card" for that. 
We got a helluva deal on the bikes and couldn't be happier!! Below you can see some photos from the Victory website. Hopefully I can post some real photos by the weekend. The top photo is the 8-Ball (mine) and the one below it is the Vegas. (Rob's)
 |
 |
Yes, I know they look nearly identical but there are some subtle
differences. Technically they are the exact same bike but Rob's has more
chrome on it. That's basically the only difference, besides the price. WE CAN'T WAIT
TO GET THEM HOME!!!! If all goes well we'll have them by the weekend.
Posted by pixelbrat at 8:10 PM
May 16, 2005
WOO HOO!!! Rob and I passed the MSF course!
Rob and I took the MSF (Motorcycle Safety Foundation) course over the weekend to get our motorcycle riding licenses and we passed!!!
My poor hand seems damn near unusable this morning! If I'd known it was
going to be this sore I might have grabbed one of those hand grip exerciser thingy's
long ago to prepare for it. I also understand now why people are willing to spends upwards
of $600 on new seats for their bikes. The ones we were sitting on were one
step away from vinyl covered concrete. I took a few photos of the facility where we took the course. It was held at the Honda Rider Education Center in Alpharetta, GA. It's a pretty cool place, offering not just courses for street bikes, but dirt bike and ATV courses as well. Below are some shots of the bikes we were riding. They were all the same model, 250cc Honda Nighthawks. Below is a shot of a little kid on a tiny little bike that I just thought was absolutely
adorable!! Lastly we have a shot of my hubby. Sorry, no shots of the photographer
(me), unfortunately. Now that the course is over I'm relieved and very excited that we
passed. I have wanted to ride a motorcycle as long as I can remember so
this is a true accomplishment for me. Being on the back of a bike is fun
but it is definitely time that I take the controls. Our licenses should
arrive in about 10 days... which is about 10 days too long for my liking.
We can't wait to get bikes of our own, which will hopefully be in the very near
future. We still have lots of practice to do before we hit the highways so
once we get bikes we'll be sticking to empty school parking lots and
neighborhood roads for a while until we get comfortable. The thought of
getting on the freeway with the typical soccer mom in her minivan, holding a
cell phone in one hand and applying her makeup with the other still scares the
beejezus out of me. Fortunately, the course taught us all sorts of skills
for defensive driving and staying alert for just such a thing so I think we are
fairly prepared. I'm sure with time and practice we'll be old pros.
We just can't wait to get out there and ride!!
Posted by pixelbrat at 7:27 AM
| Comments (1)
Take a gander at what I saw out my window this morning, flying over the Alpharetta/Roswell area. All I could think about was how much it would suck to crash that thing and have the added insult of getting run over by the city traffic. (Sorry for the crappy photo. I was shooting through a tinted office window and had to do major cropping.)
Posted by pixelbrat at 7:10 PM
We've had a small wooden bird feeder attached to our deck for several years now. Lately I've found it empty after work and was having to refill it on a daily basis. I decided to purchase an additional feeder to handle the crowd. What's very odd is I'm finding the birds won't eat out of the new one. As an experiment I've been leaving the old feeder empty to try to force the birds to eat from the new one... As you can see below, the stupid birds would rather peck at non-existent crumbs in the empty feeder than go over to the new feeder and pig out. Are they really that dim? This definitely has me stumped.
Posted by pixelbrat at 2:56 PM
Woo hoo! It's finally Friday! 
The class started Friday evening and went from 6 - 10 PM, and then on Saturday and Sunday from 8 AM - 6 PM. If I had to describe the experience in a nutshell, I'd say it was fun, frustrating,
wet, hot, painful, exhilarating, nerve racking, enlightening, exhausting, and somewhat expensive. Was it worth it? Hell yeah. And I highly recommend it, even for the experienced riders out there. Just be prepared as it was a lot of work.... at least for
a couch potato like myself.
Both Rob and myself are now nursing sore butt's and a painful condition that I have dubbed "clutch claw".
clutch claw
- (klŭch klô) Adj. A condition caused by the repeated
squeezing and/or gripping of a motorcycle clutch
by a new rider for extended periods of time, causing pain and discomfort to the left hand.
The class went on, rain or shine. Saturday was sunny and hot, with a temp of
about 82 degrees. (Ugg!) It rained almost all of Sunday but this was a
good thing! Boots, gloves, long pants and long sleeved shirts were required
so the rain was quite welcome.
Below is a shot of the dirt bike range. There were a bunch of kids riding out
there yesterday making me completely jealous. I would have loved to have been out there in the rain and
mud on those bikes! Now that I know how to ride I might just have to look
into a dirt bike later down the road... Hmmmm....
May 9, 2005
Here's something you don't see every day...
May 7, 2005
The birds here in Buford aren't too bright.
May 6, 2005
T.G.I.F and my adventures with Linux
I know I haven't been posting much lately but I have a decent excuse this time. I've been playing around with Linux on my laptop this week. With Windows being so insecure and so vulnerable to viruses (virii ?) and spyware I wanted to give it a try. I'm using Suse 9.2 and so far I'm pretty happy with it. It definitely takes a newbie like myself some getting used. I'm finding that I can do most everything in Linux that I can with Windows so it's encouraging me to learn more. Hopefully I'll absorb it quickly so I can get back to regular blog updates...
 |
Posted by pixelbrat at 6:07 AM
May 1, 2005
Cute title/caption needed...
I shot this photo of my kitty Mazy this afternoon and thought it was kinda cute. Unfortunately, I'm just not good with titles or funny captions. Anyone have any suggestions? Feel free to place them in the comments section.
 |
Posted by pixelbrat at 2:55 PM