my tumblr

lately i've been putting energy into my work blog/page. this blog isn't dead, but newer stuff is on the other one. check it out.

megknobel.tumblr.com

new

i work at an incredible new studio, i live in an amazing cabin, i live in a beautiful city that i'm getting to explore, i have great friends, i sold my car, i love my bikes, i'm learning to paint, and i have a wonderful new partner to share exciting new things with.

recent life

organized chaos

i love this. pretty much defines my life.

organized chaos from apartment therapy. .

ross and vanessa

so, these guys may not actually know who i am. i had the fortune to meet them very soon before they started their trip across the country by bicycle.....from san diego to NYC. it hasn't been too long, it seems, and they are already in alabama!

i just wanted to mark ross' blog on their updates, show my admiration, and get a little jealous of what is one of my life goals... touring on a very large scale.

i toured with morgan around spain, but not to this extent. we stayed in farm houses, we had a map and a plan and slept in beds...

but yeah. some photos of these guys- how amazing.

moving... again

so i'm moving in a few days to this beautiful 250sq foot studio cottage that overhangs a canyon. surrounded by gardens, palms, and other beautiful trees, this is where i'm starting my new life.

manivela

Sam at bikesd.org did an article on Trevor at Manivela Delivery. super article. reposted:

The other half of Manivela Bicycle Delivery: Trevor Fray

Posted By Sam Ollinger on February 8, 2010

Shortly after Bike San Diego was launched we did a profile of one of the co-founders of San Diego’s only bicycle delivery service. Since the profile was run when our site was still in its infancy, we thought we’d run an update on Manivela Food Delivery to introduce some of our newer readers to Manivela.

Trevor Fray. Photo by mattlingo.com

Trevor Fray is the other half of Manivela Food Delivery. A resident of San Diego for the past fifteen years he has grown to love this city by traversing it in the best possible way: a bicycle.

Fray belongs to one of those rare but growing breed of individuals who chose to live in San Diego without an automobile. He has learned how to get around San Diego solely by bicycle and has based all his employment around his bike.

In addition to overseeing the day to day operations of Manivela Food Delivery, Trevor also works as a bicycle courier in downtown San Diego and at Pedal Pushing Bike Shop

For the past seven years, Fray has been a bicycle commuter getting more familiar with his city in a manner a growing number of San Diegans are beginning to.

When Matthew Reate initially approached Fray with the idea of opening a bicycle powered business in San Diego, they jointly decided to create the business that would promote certain core values that were important to the both of them. They wanted to open San Diegan’s minds to the possibility of using a bicycle for transportation and raise awareness toward bicyclists. They wanted to stimulate local businesses by delivering for small family owned businesses. Most importantly, they wanted to contribute to the growing San Diego bicycle culture.

Trevor Fray. Photo by mattlingo.com

In addition to delivering restaurant prepared meals, Manivela also fulfills the occasional grocery order. However, Manivela wants to be more than just a bicycle powered delivery service for restaurants. To that end, part of Fray’s focus has been to cater to the disabled and low income population in San Diego. This focus ties into his desire where he envisions that Manivela will eventually operate as a non-profit that not only performs delivery services by bicycle, but also teaches people to reconnect with their community. Fray wants to be a source for delivering food , necessities and entertainment needs to the segment of our population that is often forgotten about or ignored.

When I asked why he wanted Manivela to operate as a non-profit, Fray responded that he didn’t want profit or finances to dictate the goals of Manivela. He instead wanted to focus on the service component and be a source of help in the local community.

Using knowledge gained from working at Pedal Pushing, Fray envisions using the bicycle to empower San Diegans so that the bicycle can be used effectively as a means of transport and grow as a community.

—

Both Fray and Reate are doing wonderful things for the San Diego bicycle community and we wish them much success in their future endeavours. They eventually hope to expand to the San Ysidro within the next year and show other parts of metro San Diego that a bicycle powered business is not only possible but also the way of the future.

Trevor Fray. Photo by mattlingo.com

barefoot art article

came across this old article on barefoot art guild.

need studio furniture

In the market for a skinny/tall bookshelf, and a table/chair set kinda like this. and some type of clothing storage.

love letters

300 love letters.
:)

Normal Heights Market

Normal Heights is getting a farmers market!! This coming April, 2010. exciting news.

It's gonna be 2 blocks from my house, every wednesday. While biking to Hillcrest to go to the market on sundays is fun, this will be very convenient to always have fresh produce available.

Bike Boulevards

watch this short video on bicycle boulevards. traffic calming should be a much greater focus in the US.

100 Abandoned houses

100 Abandoned houses, a project by Kevin Bauman... From his website:

The abandoned houses project began innocently enough roughly ten years ago. I actually began photographing abandonment in Detroit in the mid 90’s as a creative outlet, and as a way of satisfying my curiosity with the state of my home town. I had always found it to be amazing, depressing, and perplexing that a once great city could find itself in such great distress, all the while surrounded by such affluence.

Brush Park, on the outskirts of Detroit’s entertainment district was always an area of interest to me. For as long as I can remember the area, housing large houses and mansions, sat largely abandoned just a stones throw away from the Fox Theater, and not far from Wayne State University, the Masonic Theater, and even the central business district. How could an area that was obviously once a wealthy enclave in the city become an example of the downfall of American cities?

For years the area had signs advertising the redevelopment that was about to take place. It finally began to happen, with the construction of the new ballpark for the Tigers, and Ford Field for the Lions. New condos, and town homes began to appear amidst the rubble of burned out mansions turned apartments. Some of the houses were so large they became “loft condos”. As the entertainment district flourished, and Brush Park began to transform into something new, I realized the other approximately 135 square miles of Detroit was largely ignored. The excitement about Detroit’s “rebirth” took center stage, while much of the rest of the city was becoming largely abandoned. Even Brush Park itself was still largely abandoned, but with the remaining tenants of Brush Park buildings being pushed out, and many of the old houses torn down, I moved on to other areas, where Detroiters were attempting to make a life among abandoned and burned out houses. Often times, the neighborhoods were almost completely abandoned. In these neighborhoods I encountered concerned citizens, packs of wild dogs, 20 foot high piles of toilets, and houses with the facades torn off, filled with garbage.

As the number of images grew, and a documentary style emerged, I switched from mostly black and white, to color, and decided to name the series 100 Abandoned Houses. 100 seemed like a lot, although the number of abandoned houses in Detroit is more like 12,000. Encompassing an area of over 138 square miles, Detroit has enough room to hold the land mass of San Francisco, Boston, and Manhattan Island, yet the population has fallen from close to 2 million citizens, to most likely less than 800,000. With such a dramatic decline, the abandoned house problem is not likely to go away any time soon.

Vela Creations

This has got to be one of the most inspiring things i've seen in awhile. while there are smaller scale things you can do in large numbers as a renter to lessen your impacts on "the grid" (environmentally speaking), this couple has taken this to an "extreme" by going to a simple lifestyle "off the grid."

they built their own house, and are now building their 2nd, by hand from simple materials. gardens, of course, a roof that channels rainwater to save for months in tanks, chickens, and a an awesome method of potty training their baby to minimize diaper and water waste.

they've also blogged most of their progress in their life projects, thanks to today's technology, so you can see their photos on flickr and read about their creations on their website.

in my near future, of "owning" or building a house of my own, i am dying to incorporate projects such as these (wind turbine, solar power, rainwater collecting for garden use, etc). these people are an example of how simple life could be.

we're here!

we made it to san diego!

i've got a few photos of our trip from texas to cali and our new place. check them out:

living in San Diego!

we're moving!

IT'S OFFICIAL!

we're moving to san diego. finally. after years of planning, it came down to this last 2 weeks of madness and house searching.

we're working out a deal with this lady....... we might get an AMAZING huge house in downtown for half of what it should be (rent). it was a long ordeal, but it just might work out. 2 story, big deck, 2000sf, yard, amid beautiful huge houses, a few blocks from balboa park. who would've thought.

now he just has to get a job.... i've got one, and our savings should last us a few months, but where is that amazing job he's supposed to have? what is wrong with the world today? oh well. we've been told he won't even be considered til he actually lives there, so here goes!

oh, and babu says he's moving with us... hmm.

open air shower

I GOT A JOB! in San Diego! at a custom tattoo shop!!!

now hopefully lucas will get a job soon so we can actually move.

while in reality, ANYTHING we move into is likely to be amazing compared to the shit hole i live in now, but i've been thinking of all the little upgrades that will make us happy.... cabinets that close, ceilings that aren't falling apart, not having neighbors from bangladesh that scream all day, not having AC vents ducts that are connected to the bangladeshi neighbors' so your whole house smells like curry 24/7, and maybe a sink disposal. maybe lights that work too.

but yeah, anyway. i'd like an outdoor shower too. like clontsy's. pics of that later.

oh, and here's a DIY tutorial to make your own outdoor shower. gonna do it! in SD!

tattoo portfolio

so, I've been trying to get a job tattooing in San Diego. I made a portfolio separate from the PYT website portfolio, for the future... If anyone has connections to a reputable, clean, safe, talented, friendly shop in San Diego, please feel free to pass the link on to the shop and let me know!

TattooMeg Porftolio samples.

Portfolio Samples

enjoy!