We Tried! BP MS150 2009 Day One Cancelled

Here are some photos from our attempted BP MS150 2009 Saint Arnold Team volunteer set-up day, April 17, 2009.

The eight of us got together late in the morning, loaded up the food, supplies, and the riders' luggage for both La Grange and Austin. We ended up with five vehicles, three of them pulling trailers. The Saint Arnold MS150 team has over 350 riders, so we need a lot of stuff to take care of them properly! While we were loading and getting everything together, we watched the weather forecast. It hadn't started raining in Houston yet, but we knew a bad storm was on the way. The clouds were threatening and we heard a bit of thunder.

We stopped in Sealy for a quick lunch. The rain started coming down pretty hard while we were eating.

We drove through on and off rain and moderate traffic along I-10 to Columbus, where we turned north onto Hwy 71.

Then the rain really started coming down. We think we saw hail for a moment, but then it just settled into heavy rain and strong easterly winds. We drove through the severe weather, with occasionally awesome lightning until about Ellinger.

As we drove to La Grange, the major rivers, the Brazos and Colorado, were very full - up to and over some of the trees on its banks. I've seen the rivers that high before, usually once or twice per year when we have lots of rain. Even though I'm used to it, the power and size of the rushing water is still humbling to me.

What was surprising is the amount of flooding along Hwy 71. All of the fields and pastures had several inches of water on them, and they were draining into creeks and streams that are dry most of the time. In fact, I didn't know there were that many stream beds viewable from the highway because I had never seen water in them. All of these creeks had flood-stage rushing water, flowing into the drainage ditches along the highway.

At one point, we saw the most amazing thing. A huge flooded pasture was draining towards a highway ditch. Everything was covered in water, so it looked like a small lake. Close to the highway, there must be a large drain hole because we saw a huge mass of dried rushes/cattails/cornstalks, at least 6 feet across, just spinning around and around in a powerful whirlpool. The vortex wasn't pulling the stalks down, just spinning them in a very cool, and kinda scary way. We drove by too fast and I was too surprised to take a picture, but everyone else we talked to who saw it was amazed also. One guy did say he took a picture of it and I hope to see it.

We arrived at the Fayette County fairgrounds in La Grange at 4pm. Right before we arrived, we had gotten a call from one of the team riders, saying he had been told the MS150 ride had been canceled. We pulled up and saw a lot of water in the fairground ditches, and some vehicles being turned away from the fairground entrance. The team captain, Ann, talked to the MS150 officials to find out the verdict.



For the first time ever, the MS150 organizers had to cancel the first day of this two-day ride. From what we saw at the fairgrounds (flooded tents, very soft ground, reports of fallen tents) and what we saw along the way, I agree that was the right call.

The ride is along some back highways and state roads, some of which have low spots that had to be flooded. It would be too dangerous to ask not only 13,000 bicyclists, but also the thousands of volunteers to travel on these roads.

Also, the ground was so soft at the fairgrounds, the large trucks and volunteer vehicles would get stuck. There are dozens or maybe hundreds of large circus-size tents in the fairgrounds, and if the stakes cut loose from the ground, large heavy poles would fall, causing another hazard. Finally, all of the generators for lights and sound systems presented a major electrical shock hazard.

As I sit in my warm office in Houston and listen to the rain pour down from the dark sky, I wish I was pouring beer in the rain for tired, wet, and thankful cyclists in La Grange. All of us volunteers were ready to suffer through a bit of rain to support these wonderful people, willing to raise money and ride 180 miles in two days for such a good cause. But we understand that safety has to come first.

Day Two of the BP MS150 is being held tomorrow (Sunday, April 19). It starts in La Grange and goes 80 miles to Austin, where team and ride volunteers will cheer and support the riders able to make the second day. I wish everyone a safe and fun ride!

Don't Buy this Copyright Myth - or You'll Pay!

If you need any kind of artwork for your business, from a logo to a brochure to a theme song to a promotional video, don't hire a graphic designer who says, "I can take someone else's already created artwork and change ten (or twenty or thirty) percent, and then it's OK for you to use."

In fact, run far, far away from this "professional!"

Whether he or she is just ignorant or a blatant liar, the designer is putting your business in jeopardy of being sued by the original copyright owner.

From the US Copyright Office website:

How much of someone else's work can I use without getting permission?
Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports. There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentage of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See FL 102, Fair Use, and Circular 21, Reproductions of Copyrighted Works by Educators and Librarians.

How much do I have to change in order to claim copyright in someone else's work?
Only the owner of copyright in a work has the right to prepare, or to authorize someone else to create, a new version of that work. Accordingly, you cannot claim copyright to another's work, no matter how much you change it, unless you have the owner's consent. See Circular 14, Copyright Registration for Derivative Works.

You cannot take someone else's work, change part of it, and claim it as your own.

What does this mean for your business if you really want something kinda sorta like it was inspired by and captures the feeling of your favorite photo, painting, or song? By hiring a design consultant that knows and follows the law, you can have your art and keep your business too!

Here's a real case example of how to be inspired by, but not rip off, a logo.

The cousin of a graphic designer I worked with wanted a Native American company logo inspired by the Orange County Choppers logo.












As you can see, I could change ten percent (one square), twenty percent (two squares), or even thirty percent (three squares), and the integrity of the original design is still maintained.






If you hired someone to take an existing logo, "make a couple of changes," and then try to claim it as your own, you and the designer would be guilty of copyright infringement.







The graphic designer never came up with the requested design (she didn't feel "inspired" or whatever), but the idea stuck in my head.

Zoom forward four years to the recent Christmas holidays. I had some free time, so grabbed a paper and pen and looked at the OCC logo.

I noticed the flowing, abstracted style and how the initials are incorporated into the chopper. I decided to use a flowing, very abstracted style for my image, but did not use any letters. I also looked at photos of choppers. I didn't trace or copy/paste anything from the images I was using as reference material.

I wanted to have a rider in my image, one that could indicate a Native American. I thought about the beautiful flowing straight black hair of many Native American people, and decided to use that in the design.

What I created could have several meanings - I see a motorcyclist, a chopper rider, a Native American, a recumbent bicycle rider, and a bicyclist wearing a racing helmet.

What do you see?

For more information about US copyright law, visit Step Inside Design magazine and copyright pages on About.com

Raine to Talk at BikeHouston Annual Meeting January 27

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Dan Raine, City of Houston Bicyclist-Pedestrian Coordinator, will talk about the Houston Bikeway Program Tuesday, January 27, 2009 at the Annual Meeting of BikeHouston, Houston’s organization that advocates making the city safe and accessible for cyclists.

The meeting will begin with a reception at 6:30 p.m. followed by the program at 7 p.m. in the first floor conference room at the Houston Environmental Center, 3015 Richmond. Food and refreshments will be provided by El Meson Restaurant.

In addition to the Bikeway program, Raine will talk about efforts by the city government to improve the on- and off-street bikeway network. Raine is a Transportation Planner with 15 years experience, a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), and a League Certified Instructor (LCI) with the League of American Bicyclists (LAB). Raine was the former Pedestrian-Bicyclist Coordinator with the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC).

In addition to Raine’s talk, Robin Stallings, Executive Director of Bike Texas/ Texas Bicycle Coalition from Austin will provide a legislative update on bicycling initiatives pending before the Texas Legislature this year.

BikeHouston is a local Houston organization promoting bike access, safe bicycling, education, and public awareness of the personal and community benefits of cycling. The meeting is open to all cyclists and anyone interested in learning about cycling in Houston. See www.bikehouston.org for more details.

For more information, contact Paul SoRelle at psorelle@sorelle.info or 281-687-5666.

I Rode for a Cure!

I'm baaaaack! Had a great time bicycling this weekend from Houston to Austin in the BP MS150.

Max & I got up at 4:30am. We had packed the night before, so we only needed to put on our cycling clothes, pack the bikes, and drive 30 miles to Rhodes Stadium in Katy, TX. The other two start locations were Tully Stadium on I-10/Dairy Ashford, and some location in Waller, TX.

It was a cool morning - colder in Katy than our house. We knew the day would be nice - in the low 70's, so we didn't wear cycling pants, just long-sleeved shirts over our bright St. Arnold jerseys.

Our attitudes were good. We had ridden the MS150 two years before, and felt confident that we would do well on this ride. We got in line about 6:30am and crossed the starting line about 7:00am.

The variety of riders on a large, organized ride is interesting. It's a mix of everyone from very skilled riders on amateur bike teams to first-timers who probably bought a bike last week. (Max & I are somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.)

More coming soon...

Training for Riding

Bicycled 23.25 miles yesterday. Great ride - the weather couldn't have been more perfect - 70's and partly cloudy. Just rode around town - down to Hermann Park, then over to Montrose and back to SW Houston. The park was packed with cars, so I'm glad we rode our bikes. Even though we rode safely and with the traffic flow, it was much quicker for us.

Spent some time on Houston's roads, which were surprisingly not very busy. We'd like to personally thank every driver who shared the road with us and gave us extra space. It is the safe and polite thing to do, and we really appreciate it.