Before second things can be second,

first things must be first.

Before we get into anything, I gotta mention that the clock is ticking on The Great AHTBM Model Building Nerd Off;
MBC
And so far, the eventual submissions I’ve seen have been insane.

Who knew we were in the presence of such greatness?

I put my very best into my effort, which in comparison to some of the previously linked examples looks like it was build by a blind toddler. Even still, and as Demonika pointed out, the end game was to have fun with the process which I did in spades and bucket-fulls. Besides, the judging will be on this here website, and will be open to the public. So that means once I have all of the images on the 15th, I will assemble a post with an open poll and you can call on your entire family to swing by and vote for yours, or maybe another one that they like better.

If you have yours done now, please, by all means get me a photo sooner than later. Having to organize piles of last minute submissions is more than I’m emotionally capable of handling. If your car is finished, shoot some photos, and get them off to me at stevil(at)allhailtheblackmarket(dot)com as soon as possible.

And may the best person win.

While we’re on the topic of winning, I would like to take a moment and celebrate one of my own personal achievements for a second and note that after nearly a year of injury and leg discombobulation, I finally got my frontside slappies back;

For those who perhaps don’t know but would maybe like to, the slappy is just about the best thing since sliced bread;

Just like real dancing, my skills are nothing to write home about but I love it so much just the same.

If you’d like to see a master and his craft, behold Dennis Busenitz;

Nerdtastic indeed.

And speaking of nerds, you wanna talk about coffee cups for a second?

As I get older, it occurs to me that my love of backpacks and tech bags in general, has now trickled into my love of a good coffee cup. You might recall this post when I went all bananas for a travel mug/thermos that was sent to me from Mototfish Coffee;
motofishmugexploded
Then, last summer I got even wordier on the topic here.

Well, it seems as though enough time has passed and I have a couple (cupple) of stories to share, and maybe even a final review.

Two items I find now have fully satisfied my craving for a solid caffeine vessel are the aforementioned Stanley Pack Mug. I bought one of them numbers faster than you can say “enter your credit card info“, and it’s been my go-to to-go mug ever since.

As a matter of fact, just two months ago this went down;


If that right there isn’t testament as to the Pack Mug’s quality/durability/overall awesomeness, then I don’t know what is.

But sometimes the cold steel that is the Pack Mug just doesn’t jive with lounging around the house in your beat-to-shit pajama bottoms, and smoking jacket. For those times I find that I’d like something a little more elegant, and that’s when I utilize a mason jar wrapped in a Blue Collar snuggly, and topped off with a Cuppow lid;
cuppow1
cuppow2
Just because an item works well is sometimes not enough to fully win me over however.

Upon scanning Cuppow’s Instagram feed I see that they have a penchant for pretty food, pretty bikes, pretty photos, and pretty people, just like me.

Not only that, but after offering them thanks publicly, they responded absolutely perfectly;
cuppowscool
So- It might all be old news to yinz, but on the chance you yourself is looking for something in which to enjoy your hot brown, might I declare that you need look no further than either of these two companies.

And lastly, because it’s what I do, I’m going to go ahead and give them both five out of five bloody pentagrams;
ratingsystem-1

In closing we’ll touch on a bit of bikecycle related news that’s making the rounds again, coming at us from Maximo Supremo residents Paul Component Engineering regarding a few items about their bike stopping parts;

Does the myriad of options make you confused like it makes me confused?

Luckily Paul and his Components make it real easy to understand.

Now with all of that being said, perhaps at some point, we should probably and eventually get onto some variation of the third things third.
newlittleskull

Spread this like it's sick

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7 Responses to “Before second things can be second,”

  1. George February 3, 2016 at 6:07 am #

    That boozeandtits clip of curb destruction is amazing. Thanks for something. G

  2. Largo February 3, 2016 at 6:36 am #

    If one has never been injured or sick for a lengthy period, you simply can’t appreciate how great it is to “get back on the horse”, even at the most basic level. And that right there is the nut of it all: appreciate the little things in life, because they are always much better than the alternative.

  3. Ghostship Matt February 3, 2016 at 8:33 am #

    Is there a more relaxing sound in the world than skateboard wheels & wood, clickity-clackating across concrete? If there is, I don’t wanna know.

    • Stevil February 3, 2016 at 9:53 am #

      Tires on dirt- classical music. Trucks on curbs and urethane on pavement- punk rock. Both so good.

  4. fatlip February 4, 2016 at 10:39 am #

    f r o n t s i d e… fuck yes!

  5. Tim in Batumi February 14, 2016 at 11:58 am #

    Awesome.

    Let me set the stage here…I’m living on the other side of the planet. Georgia, the one with the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea. Riding my bike when I’m not healing up a broken collarbone cause by a moron sideswiping me while riding that bike, or waiting for new parts after another jackass drives over my foot, destroying my CX bike’s rear wheel, or getting knocked over by apparently blind taxi drivers. Drinking coffee out of ridiculously small cups with way too much sugar and suffering through my neighbor’s newest musical obsession, Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you”. That, or they’ve had the fucking movie on repeat for a week.

    Anyways, while the collarbone was healing, the folks sent me a package from home. Package contains: one wool hat, four sew on patches in a cute gothic style for some of my friend’s daughters here (they didn’t know what the hell they were) and a coffee thermos / bunker made by Stanley. Talking to them on Skype and they say something like, “…oh, we sent you a coffee cup….”. I say, “…Cool, thanks….”. I open up my package and this monster pokes its head out into Eurasia air for the first time and I lose my freaking mind. I can now take my coffee with me everywhere and not have to drink it in one ounce, thimble sized servings.

    Compounding the awesome of this post is that the strange coincidence that last year, the folks sent me the Cuppow lid for mason jars. So I can drink stuff out of them. Minus the mason jar. Ball mason jars aren’t too common in small ex-Soviet republics. I’ll have to remember to get a mason jar next time I go home if I can remember anything through the carnitas fat plaque that will be saturating my brain.

    • Stevil February 14, 2016 at 5:52 pm #

      I believe they call this ‘synchronicity’.