The day has come

What a day..

Camping in Fort Bragg

This Wednesday our family and my girlfriend Ashley went camping at Fort Bragg!  It was (and has been) a great trip thus far.  We are leaving in about half an hour for home, which is about a four hour drive.

The trip was relaxing, the weather was refreshing and the sites were very nice!  I got two see two sunsets from the Pudding Creek bridge, as well as ride my bike leisurely with Ashley and the fam around the camgrounds, coastal roads and nearby State Parks.

All in all, a great time spent away from home.  Plus, we got to have FIRES at the campsite!  and S'mores!!
I'll insert pictures when I get home, however right now we've got to go!

Celebrating My 20th Birthday!

The day has finally come!!!!

My 20th Birthday!  I cannot even begin to express how stoked I am for my birthday.  Usually I'm not this pumped about it, but this year I am just extremely happy about everything.  The fact that I'm two decades old, no longer a teen.. who knows, the list goes on! I'm just plain stoked!!

I am so blessed, to have such a great family, such great friends, such great opportunities in my life.
I've been blessed with so many tools and opportunities to grow and flourish.  For real, over the past twenty years I've had the opportunity to travel to so many places thanks to my family.  I've also had the opportunity to participate in nearly every sport, as well as a great deal of other extra curricular activities.  Mom has introduced me to the musical side of life, which has then given me so many priceless qualities and skills.. THANKS MOM!

Thanks dad, hope I make you proud. 

Sports, it's such a huge part of my life.. and I am so thankful to be cycling, in full gear now.. being at a ripe young age of 20, on a legit team and in the P/1/2 Category.

Speaking of my team, Chico Corsa has been the best cycling experience ever.  I had been wanting to race ever since I started riding freshman year.. Then as a junior I began racing through Corsa.  I've been helped by the entire team, which has been the main reason I've made it this far moving up the categories.  Racing the the P/1/2 I've learned so much from two important team mates.  Jeff Galland and Dave Albrecht.  These two guys have taught me a whole lot, not only about cycling but just life in general.  I have been fortunate to race with them both and I can't express enough how thankful I am to have them as my mentors during races and in general. 

As for friends, I'd have to give a shout out to all my school friends, those in college and those who were my peeps back in high school.  A-Hen, Ben, Law Dawg, C-Dog, Daven, Juan, Tyler (heck, the wrestling days..) etc... the homies!
It's been pretty awesome having both Adam and Michael as neighbors, they've been also a great influence and opportunity to get out and enjoy bonding time, whether it's shooting stuff up or going on epic road trips..
As for my homies down at A-Hen's.. that place was legit and I am stoked that I got a chance to see life from that perspective..

So, back to the thoughts..
I am so thankful for my girlfriend Ashley, she has been so nice to me, very supportive, kind, encouraging and light hearted.  It's been awesome to spend a lot of my summer with her, plus we make an awesome duo if you ask  me!  Ashley rocks, enough said. (:

So right now I'm listening to some EPIC new music (found by a link provided by Tom Dowdin) on my new 32 GB 4th Gen. iPod touch!!  And literally every five seconds I hear the Facebook notification sound.. meaning people are showing the love on my wall!  Man, I've got a lot of Facebook friends! (:  Ones that stay up late too! haha ;)

Why am I so stoked about this birthday??
Well it's like that phase in my life where I'm transitioning from one big thing to another big thing.. that one big thing was Butte College.. the other big thing is Davis!
My room is immaculate, the boxes are boxed, bags packed, etc.  I am so pumped that I get to live with 2 awesome cyclists on the team, plus another awesome cyclist fan!! Not only that, but I was blessed with a great housing opportunity, great house/location..
Butte College was awesome, but I'm truly ready for Davis.. now that I'm all old and stuff, at 20, I'm finally moving out of the house.  The food was AMAZING here, mom and dad have been extremely supportive and helpful, and Christina has been great and it's nice to have the family atmosphere.  My brother's been very supportive and challenging all throughout my life.  It's been great to have the tight knit family environment that's allowed me to thrive and mature.  I don't think many families are like mine, it's hard to explain, but I'm just really glad to have it this way.

**PLUS VINCE**

Recently I've received items that I've been looking forward to purchasing for quite some time, so it's awesome that all the sudden everything's fallen into place.  I admit, I feel like spoiled all the sudden! But wait, I worked hard too, so that counts for something!

Lets see.. Now time for my semi annual update..

• I'm 20 years old
• Weigh 155 lbs
• 5'10''
• Interested in caring for my car, hanging out with friends and girlfriend, riding/racing my bike, taking photos
• Created "Ferretti Photography", with currently 445 FB "likes" on my page (https://www.facebook.com/FerrettiPhotography), with also 348,405 views on my Flickr site (http://www.flickr.com/photos/futureprocyclist/)
• Cat 2 Road racer (but desperately needing to train more)
• Competed in Mt. Hood, finishing "Lantern Rouge", Nevada City and also MERCO.. yea, basically getting demolished at some big time races!  Living the dream!!! 

• Got the bike up and running (carbon wheels, the works)

• Fixing the car up = awesome!
• Still living at home
• Love music.  Especially Trance music

Let's see... that's about it at the moment!


Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! now for some Birthday pics!! (I opened gifts today since I'm camping tomorrow!)

Thanks BRO for the new laptop battery!!!!!!!! It works!!!

I even gift wrapped my iTouch from Amazon!! 

SO STOKED!

Such a beauty!!

Ahh, big present from Ashley!

The best poster EVER!!

And I got my tint done today, wow what great timing!

All in all, I am having a GREAT birthday!  Thank God for blessing me with such a great life, and thank You for blessing me with 20 years of amazing memories! More to come! 

Window Tinting at Supertints!

It's been on my "to-do" list for quite some time! 

I finally got around to tinting my windows.  This week is my birthday, and I'm going camping to Fort Bragg.. I decided to get it done so the tint could cure while I'm gone.  

I called up Supertints (530 533-9846) and scheduled an appointment.  Sure enough, since I was going to bring the car in early due to leaving tomorrow, they ended up tinting my car right then and there!  I could pick it up today (same day I brought it in) and BAM, windows tinted and everything!  My car looks like a whole new car! It was the cheapest upgrade I could do for my car, I recommend it because it looks legit and has practical advantages!  

Enough with the praise, it's time for some before and after shots! 

As you can see, the old tint was very destroyed.. and ugly.. haha

Then.. an awesome car with tinted windows!

Ken cleaning up the windows

Ty finishing up the rear tint

Looking amazing!!

Front window!

The Supertints gang!! Micah, Ty and Ken

The price was incredibly good, service was insanely fast and the quality was excellent.  I am so stoked to have my car finally tinted!

Oh, and tomorrow's my birthday!! So STOKED!!!

Celebrating 7-Eleven's Birthday

Today, July 11th, is the "Birthday" of 7-Eleven..

Creative, right? haha.. 7-Eleven is 84 years old now.  Every year they have been serving free 7.11 oz slurpees on this date.  Today I got my fair share of free slurpees from the 7-Eleven down the street.

The free slurpees are small, (fairly obvious) but nonetheless they are awesome and FREE! 

Since Slurpees are so rad, I'll share some cool facts about them.. 

• 7-Eleven began selling them in 1967
• They made a deal with ICEE to change the name and only sell them at 7-Elevens
• The "Slurpee" is named after the sound made when drinking them, a term coined by Bob Stanford

They've got a bunch of good flavors, but my favorite was when they introduced the Sour Patch Kids flavor last year!  That was THE best in my opinion..  

Today I got brain freeze even off those 7 oz shots of slurpee. haha I've been told you can get rid of the brain freeze by sticking your tongue on the roof of your mouth.  I think it works too..

Cheers, and Happy Birthday 7-Eleven!

If you are still interested in a free slurpee, head on down to the nearest 7-Eleven and celebrate the occasion! 

Boating on Lake Oroville

Today my family went on the lake with our boat.  The only different thing was since dad wasn't feeling well, mom and I ended up doing the driving.  I hardly ever get to drive the boat, which is understandable.. but still, today I got to drive TO the lake then drive the boat ON the lake!  Quite exciting for me.  I didn't hit anyone on the road, nor did I ram anyone or anything on the lake.  Actually the whole process was quite pain free, aside from minor (and major) sunburns!  Sunscreen that "works in water" is overrated.. it "works" but then really it doesn't.  Not all sunscreen lasts in water, and no matter how much you apply you're bound to burn!  

All in all, I had a blast on the lake!  It was a great time spent with my family, girlfriend and sister's boyfriend.  

Here are some cool pictures from today's adventure. 

Ashley and I tubing!! 

Ashley and I hangin' out on the boat (:

 Here are us kids after lunch 

Mom too.

I got to drive the boat!!

Russell got the hang of skis pretty fast! I've got a few shots of him falling though! 

And he's about to hit the water!

And for my sister, she tried to water ski today.. It takes a lot of tries, and right here is the look of determination (: Hang on sis! haha

All in all, a great day on the lake.  The water felt amazing, sunburn not so amazing.
Food was great, family and friends was great too. 

Consistency or Variety?

I'll ask you, since I'm in a blogging mood.. (thus blogging here)

What do you prefer?
Consistency or Variety?  This question is aimed at things online.. such as websites, social networks or even blogs like this..
For example, one day I get on myspace and all the sudden the title is [My___ ] and the layout is (I kid you not) radically different.  Want to know how fast I left that site?.. within minutes..

And when Facebook makes changes, it's quite minor.. (A smart move), plus things like the Facebook logo are things that shouldn't be changed.. why?  Well because we make the mental association with the symbols, shapes and colors.. etc. yada yada..

I guess what I'm getting at is, should I keep my bog title eternally the same?  And the same for my "picture strip" beneath the title?  Is the "consitency" better so each time you go view a blog post, you can surely rely that you're looking at THE Anthony Ferretti's blog spot?  As for the picture, wouldn't some variety be nice, since all in all you keep coming back for more posts it would be nice to see something different than the same blasted picture!

As for variety, I like variety.. it's the "spice of life"..  Somewhere in here is the balance between the two, that's what I'll shoot for.  If you did in fact read this, feel free to add your input!  Comment on here or Facebook! (:

By the way, my latest title is from my most played song on iTunes.. fair enough right?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2lav8rqK4Y#t=00m30s Now enjoy.. (:

-Night for now!

Making money stretch... falsely..

I was trying to explain this to my girlfriend today, lets see if writing it makes more sense..

So, have you ever done this?  You make money, both in the past and future.. And of course you've got things you want to get.. The money justifies the spending, right?  "I can buy those $100 Nikes because this week I made $40 for mowing the neighbors lawn, and I made $10 from ..... " AND I'll make another $50 for mowing next week, etc.."
That sounds great so far, right? Make $100 for the $100 shoes that you'll buy.

Well here's the problem I'm getting at.. Next week you'll start the cycle of reasoning over again, saying for another 'wanted item', "I can buy that _____ because this week I made $40 for mowing the neighbors lawn, and I made $10 from ..... "

but WAIT one second!! That was the same $50 that was for "last week!", now you're stretching the $50 over two weeks!

End result?  A credit card bill twice as large as your bank account (:   Haha, I try to avoid this, however it's so easy to do when you're mentally trying to calculate how you're going to pay for what..

Posters, for ME!

The day has come, it's like Christmas!! Or better yet, my birthday!!  I went to Michael's and bought poster frames.  The nice kinds.. I got them for 70% off, but still five frames added up to be quite a lot.  The prints from Costco, I was quite pleased with their quality.  Also pleased with the quality of my photos!  It's very rewarding to see my hard work in print form, not to mention on my wall!

I'll take a picture or two to show what's up, but they don't nearly do a good enough job showing how amazing they look in their frames!

This is the 20x30 poster that I originally had in the room.  The sunset looks nice, the frame adding a lot to the completed look. 

Here is a 16x20 (a step down from the 20x30 poster), and I like it a lot for the portfolio layout.

The colors and detail are incredible with the 16x20, allowing me to see all the detail in the photo.  I feel like I'm there! (:

Another awesome picture, quite wall worthy in my opinion!

Bermuda Falls, Oroville's very own.

Another poster I cannot see yet, however I've heard the "oohs" and "ahhs" from my family, since I framed it (not looking at the finished print), and it's a gift from Ashley.  Quite a surprise because I have a feeling it's the BEST looking one out of them all.  I can't wait to have these on my wall, proudly showing off some of the work that I've created in the past year. 

Here it is!! 

Thanks Ashley!!

Avocados

Avocados are so delicious.
I could eat them all the time!  In moderation that is.. I had a chicken sandwich with avocado, bacon, cheese and tomato on it.  Talk about eating good, dang it was good!!  Since I love avocados so much, I think I'm going to do some research.. and I will get back and post what I found out.

Well well well, I found out that California produces 90% of the nation's avocado crop, and San Diego is the biggie where 60% of California's avocados are grown.  Now that we can be proud of our home state produce, lets move on to the nutritional facts.  Avocados have no cholesterol or sodium, with only five grams of fat.  Is that healthy?  Um, sounds like it. And I'm too lazy to tell you the nutritional facts, so i'll link a page if you're interested.. (http://www.avocado.org/nutrition/)

Man they taste good on burgers!  And in burritos, on EVERYTHING!!
That reminds me of that Subway commercial, Avocados on your this sandwich, that sandwich, etc.  Then the kid says "Avocados on my cookie?"  .......  SURE!! hahaha
Yep, Subway's jumping on the Avocado band wagon.. http://www.subwayfreshbuzz.com/menu/avocado/index.asp?rdr=PartnerSites:Subwaycom:Avocado:SecUnit:W5:2011

Well, I like avocados. I'd put them on a lot of things.  Kinda like Teriyaki sauce.. haha, that goes on anything too!