Vacation, in wind terms, was terrible. Other then that, beautiful weather, relaxing, and an awesome break from the daily grind. I only got out kiteboarding one measly time (see parts 4 & 5)

Anyways, after getting back from Ocean City, I went right out again for the last hoorah with my friends before everyone packs up and heads off to school. What a fun night.

The next morning, I headed straight to the Philly Folk Fest, and what an experince. I was lucky enough to see Kimya Dawson play a kids show, while relaxing on a hammock in the woods. It was an amazing place, and I’m sad I didn’t get to see more of it…but next year, camping, maybe as part of the media, and I’ll have photos, interviews, recordings, the works, to entertain you all.

Anyways, now, I’m back at work, and its sad. Working, everyone leaving for college, and worst of all, school of my own starts in 2 weeks.

But, I’ve been working a bit more on Media Research Labs today. A post on Horror Labs, a post on Green Research, and a few posts on Media Research itself. Its starting to look offical.

I’ve experimented with eBay traffic before on HorrorLabs.com, and I wasn’t happy…but now that I take a look at its traffic results right now, I realize, its doing much better then my other sites, and I suspect that my eBay traffic may have helped. In an effort to be sure, I have bought another run for Green Research Labs. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

I got to check out Radiohead last night. We drove from Ocean City, to Camden, and along the way, we saw the classic red sports car from Outrun, and I realized,  I felt like I was playing Outrun…live.

Freaking awesome.

Screenshot for refrence.

Anyways, Radiohead was amazing…lighting effects were insane, and the live editing of the video feed needs to be commended. Someone was obviously editing the feed live, as Thom Yorks head would leave the frame, and as he came back into the picture, the colors went inverted.

Lights...lots of pretty lights.

Anyways, the winds are picking up, and the womens water polo game is heating up…more tomorrow.

Yesterday I got out kitesurfing a bit. Launched the new 13m, flew like a charm, and dove it, and POP, start riding no issues…ride for about 5 minutes before the kite luffs, and drops out of the air, and rolls when I attempted to relaunch. I cracked out my self rescue techniques, and was rather embarrased. As I got packed up, and un tangled my lines, winds shifted, and the day was done. Great time either way though. plywood kiteboard is rocking AWESOME. I felt much better on the ply board then on Brian’s Spleen Rip, I felt it planned much easier, much faster. The nose dove a bit, and I think some rocker would help, but it was great anyways.

Brian Lee was crusing on his brand spanking new 10m Pshycho 4. I watched him riding, the kite was amazingly fast…insanely fast. The 10m was turning as fast as my 5m Pansh Blaze. Only real issue I spotted was the whole ‘tip tucking’ thing seemed to make the wing tips flap pretty well. But, regardless, amazing kite, just going to take some time to learn more about it.

Today was a lazy day, but the winds are picking up, the beaches are clearing, so I might break out the old foils and paddle out on the surfboard for fun.

Wish I could supply photos, but my camera is completely missing…so I’m going to be looking for somehing new to take some snapshots with to entertain you.

Tonight I’m also headed out to see Pineapple Express..I’ll let everyone know how it is in tomorrows update

Anyways, today I did an experiment, simply taking a picture before I left for the 2 hour drive to the beach, and after. Here, are the sad results.

Before.

And 100 miles later…

Damn you and your SUVs.

Anyways, time for happy hour, and relaxing game of Mario Party 8 at the beach.

Last night I saw Rouge Wave and Jack Johnson, well meant to see Rouge Wave, but we managed to be an hour and a half late, and got there just in time for Jack Johnson. This was my first time going to the lawn section at the ‘Bank Center’ as it is now called. (Ex-Tweeter Center) It was a zoo. So many damn people, but fun none the less.

Driving home from Jack Johnson

Today I’m packing to go to Ocean City New Jersey with the family all week. I’m packing up all of my kites, the stack of 35 comics I need to read to get caught up with all the stories, and my laptop. Hopefully I’ll get some internet access, but if I don’t, I’ll find it. Worse comes to worse, I’ll be tweeting! Add me on Twitter: @ryanbarnes

I spent a good deal of time working with a new Media Research Labs design that is based off of Jason Schuller’s design. It is awesome with flash carousel, but I need to edit the design with a new color scheme and such to really make it my own.

Now that I’m working really hard on all of these blogs, I’m conflicted where I will post certain things. Sure, personal stuff, little projects go here, obviously, but if I review an album over at Media Research Labs, can I copy it here too? I think the plan is, anything I write that I like will be posted here as well. If you are reading this RSS, and my other sites RSS feeds, sorry..just ignore any repeats!

Tonight I’m going to check out the 080808 chip tune deal that Don Miller of No Carrier fame is putting on.

Tomorrow, winds are looking like 10-13mph, from the west. Pretty bad, but I might attempt to ride, probably good winds to use my new kite in. Hopefully I’ll have some pictures to share with you all.

So, its day number one…what have I accomplished? Not to much. I’m working all day, and headed out to see Jack Johnson…however, I did manage to fix my sidebar, adding my networks, my websites,  and just cleaning it up.

Yesterday, I wrote up a little guide for an idea I had to run a game of ‘Assassin‘ and managing it with Twitter, and cell phones. Haven’t actually tested it, but I’m going to get a few friends together to see how it works, and I’ll update it as I figure out more. (The game is called ‘Last Man Standing’ to keep the school happy, they don’t much like ‘Assassin’

So, lets stick with this…I’ll see you tomorrow..and hopefully with something more interesting I’ve accomplished!

I’ve had the pleasure of working on a custom theme for a friend for his Wordpress blog. I was given a design in html and CSS, and I’ve been working on turning it into one of the coolest themes I have seen. I even got to code some dynamic PHP to make header background colors change every post. It has inspired me to attempt to create new designs for all of my sites, but I just don’t have that kind of time. However, I think we can all agree, The Low Tech’s theme is a bit stale.

I’m becoming obsessed with journalism, just because of blogging. I look at every event as an opportunity for fresh content. While it might seem like I forget to enjoy said events to worry about writing, I feel I dissect the event, and take it in more then I would have other wise. I feel like if I don’t get home (or not) at night with out something worth while to blog about, I have wasted the day. Lame as that is, I think it helps me really carpe diem.

Needless to say, everything has been looking good. I have a good weekend coming up, and I can’t wait for the future.

Today I got to update HorrorLabs with a new short story I had read on Urbis. Using Wordpresses new system, I was able to post all 3 parts what will be posted weekly. Pretty cool stuff!

I really need to crack the whip and get working on Media Research Labs design, write some new posts for GRL, and get ChampionLabs up and running!

But now that I’m imobilized after getting my foot sliced open while kiteboarding, I’ve got the time, now I just need the drive. Its funny how I can realize my flaws, but still take no strides to change them…I think I need help!

Anyways, I’m realizing that I need to write more orginal content…my biggest flaw with past websites was me linking to other articles. While this is good when I’m stumped, I shouldn’t rely on it.  So lets get to it, and start re-writing some more new content…then I can worry about SEO…

I have began working as ‘The Director Of Web Marketing’, and have fallen hard for the internet world yet again. I’ve realized my past mistakes with blogging, and I’m ready to start over and begin again.

I am starting a new blog network known as ‘Media Research Labs’ that will contain a few more of the ‘Lab’ themed blogs. I am really excited about the project, but I’m already feeling in over my head. But, we will see how everything goes.

I can’t wait to see this project work, and turn out great!

Waking up in the morning, and peering out of the window, the wind turbines filled the otherwise empty skyline. Down the hall in the lobby, the kiters ran around, hurrying out the door.

Driving up to the base camp area, the air seemed to be void of kites, but the ground was not missing kiters. Waiting around for the 25+mph winds to drop to a managable level.

Inside the barn that the land owner so lovingly allowed us to use, a pot of Venisine stew, and snowkiting DVDs projected on the wall greeted us.

Not long after, kites were hitting the air, and the fun started happening. I was lucky enough to have my dad sitting around with nothing to do, so he was more then happy to take pictures.

You can find all of the pictures on my Flickr page. Feel free to let me know if you’d like full resolution of any of them.