I moved my blog!

I changed www.brettrush.com into a blog instead of a flash site that I never update with WAY old info on it! On my new site, I have Web2.0 info, Tampa news, the life of Brett Rush and fun stuff. Check it out and subscribe to my posts!

If you want to get to know more about Web2.0 stuff, my blog is a one-stop-shop of info that I collect from all over the world. I try to stay in tune with the latest and greatest in social media, eBay, other eCommerce, nerdy gadgets and other stuff I find awesome.

I am putting together a site called MeetTampa.com. On there, I am compiling all of the different things to do around Tampa - not movie times, concerts and sport events. It seems when I'm looking for things to do in Tampa, that's all I find out of other sites. I also have my own review on restaurants that I go to.

ToastyPrint.com is my first business where I am turning a profit. I am a print broker that works with different print companies in different regions to get you, the customer, the cheapest price, fastest turnaround and highest quality all while beating other prices if you were to go directly to a printing company. I also work with different aparrel companies too. So if you need shirts, bags, hats anything that can be inked, give ToastyPrint a shot!

Marlyse started two blogs herself (and I'm very proud of her for jumping into Web2.0!)
marlysie.wordpress.com is where she is doing a picture a day. Her and some friends are putting pictures on rollingwithmygnomies.wordpress.com also. These are your everyday photos, just with a gnome in it to spice up the image!

Keep in touch over at BrettRush.com! Later Blogger!

April update

Since I got back from snowboarding, I have been incredibly crazy with a lot of things. I am lead support for two eBay/Craigslist softwares and in the process of starting my on-the-side project. As if I'm not already doing enough to fill my plate, let's add some more!

The thing is, I know I have the potential to learn new things. Right now, I am working on a site called MeetTampa.com. It is going to be a way to find great things to do that you've never heard of and excellent restaurants you would have never given them a shot. I will be videoing every place I go and thing I do, then posting a review on MeetTampa.com. To do this page, I have to learn a Content Management System called Joomla. I also have to learn more .php in order to make it work right. Down the road when I have enough content for the site and visitors, I'll charge for coupons and advertisement. But for now, it's my fun project.

I've been mountain biking more lately. Of course, I try to do a little more than I'm capable of. Two weeks in a row, I've wrecked my bike and they were on camera!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3XCblAr68U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT4InpN9h7Y - fastforward to 8:30, I fly off the trail!

I am going to make brettrush.com more web 2.0 rather than the flash site that it is. It has all old stuff anyway. I made that site before twitter, flickr and before updates on facebook and myspace.

I'm leaving for Branson, MO tomorrow. Marlyse and I are going to see some shows, go to Silver City amusement park and then travel back to St. Louis. More to come soon! I promise!

Day 5 and 6 of snowboarding in Colorado

Day 5 is the last day of snowboarding. We went back to Breckenridge because it was beautiful and incredible snowboarding. We decided to go on the peak that we didn't have a chance to check out on the second day of boarding. When we got up there, we went off on this path that was about 6 feet wide and winded around tight curves and has steep drop offs. I didn't want to drop off the side so I was trying to take it easy and I kept falling down because I turn pretty wide.

We ended up going down this same trail 3 times. I was not having good luck on any of these runs, but I kept trying. On the third time, my legs were getting tired of the tight turns and I was trying to power up over an incline so I was going fast (for me in this tight spot!) and the lip of my board caught and slammed my face into the packed snow. I didn't realize till I got to the bottom that I busted my lip. Jimmie said, "Hey man, you have blood all over your teeth." My face was numb so I couldn't really feel it.

We were trying to film some of the runs on the main slope and some tree runs. After I busted my lip, I spent some time in the lodge warming up and trying to rest a bit. When the rest of the guys came to the lodge, Tim was holding his wrist. He hurt it while trying to film Jimmie. While he was filming, the lip of his board caught the snow and slammed him into the ground but he tried to catch himself. After going to the clinic and getting x-rays, Tim had fractured his wrist and had to get a splint.

After the lodge, I went down three more times. On the last run, my legs were tired but I was feeling more confident than when I was on the 6 foot wide trail. I was going pretty fast when the lip of my board caught the snow. I knew I was coming down hard! I ended up flipping 4 times and 3 of those times my head hit the ground. When my body finally stopped sliding down the slope, I realized that my hat and goggles had flown off pretty far back. Luckily, someone was nice enough to grab them and bring them to me. I laid in the snow a couple minutes longer!

Well, I was done for the day so I called Tim to see the progress. He needed his passport and wallet from the car. Took the bus out to the car, dropped off my board, came back to the clinic, got Tim from the clinic and then waited on the other guys.

Brian and Jimmie showed up and was telling us about the last tree run they did. Jimmie was in front and going pretty fast when a tree jumped out and caught his shoulder. This didn't stop him! After hitting this tree, it sent him into a spin into the next tree. He hit the second one, then a third one. The third one ejected him into the last tree that stopped him in his tracks. Brian's camera battery died so he didn't catch that on film. Brian and Jimmie also spent some time on the terrain park too.

Day 6, we woke up a couple hours later. The wind was blowing crazy and the thermometer read 0 degrees. We were packing all of our stuff and eating the rest of our food. We got on the road covered in snow and ice and we made it back to the airport. Flying through Dallas, we made it back to Tampa at midnight. I was at work at 8:30 the next morning. That's our trip!

Day 4 of snowboarding in Colorado

On Day 4, we went over to Vail. It snowed 6 inches overnight. Vail is the largest ski resort in the US. It was 5 times the size of Loveland, the place we went to the first day. This place was like going from a 7-11 to a Super Walmart. I can't remember how many mountain tops you could venture up. We started out peak hopping to get all the way to the west side starting from the east side. When we got over to the peak that we wanted to be at, we ended up splitting up to get to the same destination. Trying to keep up with Brian and Jimmie was impossible and I got to the edge of the mountain. Peering over the edge of this mountain, I realized I had to conquer it on my own. I got down what seemed to be about 200 yards at about a 50-60 degree angle the whole way.

After getting to the bottom of this section, I saw that I wasn't done yet. I got lost and had no choice but to go down a set of mogals to get to a different lift. I got to the top of the peak and went into the lodge up there. Because we all carried out cell phones, we were able to make a meeting point up top there.

After a big lunch that we shouldn't have eaten, we drop into the Dragon's Layer - a black diamond run with deep powder. It was this massive bowl of different runs that all filter to the same lift. It was insane! We went down that then came back up to go further around the mountain. We went past the yellow tape to get in some fresh powder and we were flying around the edge of a mountain at probably a 60 degree angle. It was pretty awesome because my board was totally covered in snow and so were my boots. You could tell that Vail was set up for skiers because there were "catwalks" that were completely flat where there was a major disadvantage to having a snowboard.

The amount of powder was cool but it was definitely more difficult than Breckenridge. I'll update you on day 5 tomorrow!

Day 3 of snowboarding in Colorado

We went to Breckenridge on Saturday. When we went to Loveland, yes it was like $48 but we found that you get what you pay for. Breck was $80 and everything was incredibly smooth. There were something like 9 mountain peaks and 32 lifts there!

So, I start out the morning not so hot. I'm headed down the mountain when I lose control and a little kid skier flies right into my board. Yes, I took out a little kid! His skis went flying off and he tumbled about 5 feet in front of me. He was alright, crying, but alright.

On the second run, Brian is showing me step by step how to carve toeside. I end up feeling pretty comfortable with it and just realized that I'm not bending my knees. Now it seems simple but it feels like I pulled my left quad from carving heelside the entire day at Loveland. I never carved toeside so I never gave my quads a break. Imagine sitting in the squatting position for about 10 straight minutes...add bumps, terrain changes, and vibrations like when you hit a rumble strip in your car - from the machines that move the snow around.

So far, every night when we get back we go and jump in a hot tub to relax our muscles. We did a load of laundry and someone asked, "So, what are you guys doing on a Saturday night besides laundry?" Our response was, "Well us 4 guys are gonna go jump in a hot tub for a while." Yea, that made us decide to go out and enjoy a Sat night in Colorado.

Stupid day light savings time. We had to get up an hour early so we can hit the lifts at Vail before the crowd gets there. Pictures to come. Not using my computer so I can't get the pics off my small camera that I've taken on the slopes.

Day 1 and 2 of snowboarding in Colorado

We decided to take a trip out to Colorado. The group that is here is Brian, Jimmie, Tim and I. We came in on Thursday, got settled in, then found an open mountain to practice snowboarding. Problem with that is it was nearly 4 feet of snow! If you fell, you sunk in and couldn't easily get back up.

Yesterday, we went to a smaller place than others out here called Loveland. I was able to get up on the board but I had a pretty difficult time during the day. Doesn't help that I was pushing myself to go further and do some difficult trails!

Brian and Jimmie went to the highest peak that the lifts would take them. They got to the top with the wind blowing probably around 50 mph. Where they were, they had to hike a bit to get to a good drop zone. Brian is getting ready to pull his camera out and take some video when Jimmie's board starts heading down the mountain!! He takes off running after it down a steep slope and in some parts was sliding on his butt because there was no way to run on that steep slope. The board makes it about 200 yards or so when it gets stuck on a bush. Jimmie has so much momentum going from running that when he tries to stop, he can't. Then he does 2 flips rolling in the snow to stop himself!

I have tender ankles, aching knees, hurting fingers and palms and a bruise on both butt cheeks from falling so much! I'm gonna stick with the beginner and advanced courses today. Somehow, I ended up on some steep slope with mogals and rough terrain.

Pictures and more updates will come soon!

Concert, Monster Trucks, Mountain Biking and new bike!

What a jam packed weekend! It went by so quick too! Friday night, I drove a car load out to New Port Richey to see a friends band play. We get out there and the soundboard blew right before they went on stage! The sound guys were at least able to make sound come out of the monitors. So, the band didn't have monitors at all and we were hearing a pretty low quality coming from the monitors. It was all good, we were able to hang out till like 1 or so.

Saturday, Marlyse and I worked on the house a bit. Then, we went to the Monster Jam where our company had a Luxury Suite around the 30 yard line! Lots of kids were in there but it was still fun. My boss is a great boss!

Sunday, went to church and a huge group of us went mountain biking. We get out there and Trek is promoting their bikes and asking people to ride them on the trails! Heck yes! I rode a 4 grand bike and tried to do some damage! Not really, I was just trying to get use to such a crazy awesome bike. Then, my friend let me ride his bike the rest of the way (I only had 30 minutes on the Trek). After leaving the trails, I contacted a guy through www.swampclub.org to buy his bike. $140 from ToastyPrint sales went straight to this bike! Finally, ToastyPrint is paying off to buy me something!!