Justin Wright » Events

The Honda Grand Prix

Justin Wright — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:16:15 +0000

One of the coolest events I’ve attended so far here in Florida was the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg. I’m not a huge fan of racing but since the main race was rained out on Sunday, they decided to make general admission free since it was pushed back to yesterday morning.

The other reason I wanted to check it out was because the race literally took place a few blocks from my house. The track was set up so close to my house that I heard the cars all last week while they were practicing and doing time trials (they’re louder than you think).

I must say, it’s pretty awesome to see cars racing through downtown. It sure beats watching them go around in a circle. The 1.8 mile track was setup right along the bay downtown and was the perfect place for a race.

As far as the race goes, Will Power in the Verizon #12 car won it. Seems like he was the favorite coming in to the race, but I can’t say I know much about the Indy series.

Photos From the Race

It was tough to get pictures since the cars were moving so fast but I ended up getting a few good ones. Here’s a few I took near the track:

For more photos of the race, check out the Honda Grand Prix photo gallery.

Videos From the Race

Since the still shots do not do the cars justice, I recorded some videos while standing near the track. Here’s a few of my favorites:

You can see a few more videos from the race over on my YouTube channel.

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After seeing the Honda Grand Prix in person, I must say I was really impressed. It’s so much different seeing the cars in person as opposed to watching the race on television, especially when they race a few blocks from where you live.

The Tampa Twilight Criterium

Justin Wright — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:59:08 +0000

The Tampa Twilight Criterium took place this past Saturday and my girlfriend and I accidentally attended it. We were in downtown Tampa looking for the ECO.lution festival and ran right into it.

I wasn’t sure what it was but it turns out the event is a fast-paced bicycle race that features a ton of cyclists racing on a short urban course through downtown Tampa. Besides having a variety of different races, there were also a bunch of different vendors with products relating to cycling.

The Races Were Intense

I was pretty impressed by the bike races, especially since it was the first time I had ever seen a bike race in person. It’s pretty crazy how fast people can go on a bicycle. I stood there in awe as the cyclists came flying by us doing lap after lap at high speeds.

Here’s a video of one of the bike races:

Pretty crazy huh? What’s really impressive is the fact they keep those speeds up for 40 minute straight. I was exhausted just watching them do a few laps.

If you’re in to cycling, I highly recommend checking out the event next year. It’s free to spectators and you can watch it from various places in downtown Tampa.

Cigar City Brewing & Whole Foods Market Cask Ale Tasting Event

Justin Wright — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:41:42 +0000

This past weekend was the first annual Cigar City Brewing and Whole Foods Market Cask Ale Tasting event. The event featured twelve different beers from a handful of different breweries including Cigar City Brewing, Tampa Bay Brewing Company, Peg’s Cantina, and Dunedin Brewery.

I personally tried the Cigar City Brewing Cubano Espresso, which was pretty damn good. I’m a coffee fanatic and drinking a beer with a hint of coffee flavor was the perfect combination for me.

Besides beer tasting, the event also had live music provided by World Wide Zoo. They also had a outdoor grill that served up some food from Whole Foods, though I didn’t try any of it myself.

The great thing about the event was that 100% of the proceeds were donated to the Whole Planet foundation. It always feels nice to give back and help others.

The only downside to the event was the fact that it took place inside. It was super crowded and getting around was pretty much impossible. Then again this is pretty typical for events, especially ones that feature beer.

Photos From the Event

The ale tasting event was a great place to try some different beers and give back to others. Hopefully they will have it again next year (though I hope they move it outdoors).

ECO.lution Tampa 2010

Justin Wright — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:31:26 +0000

This is a quick announcement about a cool event that kicks off today. ECO.lution is an annual event that takes place here in Tampa to encourage everyone to make green and sustainable choices.

This year marks the third annual ECO.lution event and it consists of three difference events:

ECO.expo

The ECO.expo will feature displays from a wide variety of green product manufacturers, local businesses, design firms, local schools and government organizations. The main goal is sharing information about the products and programs to help the general public and design professionals be more sustainable.

The ECO.expo event is open to the public and will offer complimentary food, beer, and wine (awesome). There will also be live music by Kevin Mongelli. It sounds like a blast, especially if you like learning about new products and getting free samples (I do).

When: Thursday, March 25th, 2010 / 5PM – 9PM
Where: The Ritz Ybor / 1503 7th Ave. Tampa, FL

ECO.festival

The ECO.festival takes place this Saturday and promises an afternoon of fun, enlightenment, and entertainment. The festival will take place outdoors and will feature food, wine, green products, educational seminars, children’s activities, and live music.

The festival is also combined with the 2nd Annual Tampa Twilight Criterium urban bike race. Participants of the race are invited to join the festival and learn more about helping Tampa become a sustainable city.

When: Saturday, March 27th, 2010 / 11AM – 9PM
Where: Lykes Gaslight Park and the Streets of Downtown Tampa

Paint the Town Green

Paint the Town Green is a restaurant/bar hop utilizing Tampa’s public transit system. Hundreds of people and dozens of venues have participated in the event over the past three years and this year looks to be just as much fun.

Each participant gets a passport to record their journey visiting various venues along the HART Green Line and the TECO Line Street Car. Each location will offer various food and drink specials the night of the event.

When: Friday April 2, 2010 / 6PM – 10PM
Where: Restaurants/Bars around Downtown Tampa, the Channel District and Ybor City

More Details To Come

I plan on attending each of the events myself so stay tuned for more updates. I’ll be sure to write-up a few posts about the various events once I attend them. Hope to see some of you there!

For more information, head on over to the ECO.lution Tampa website.

It’s 2010 Already?

Justin Wright — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:21:49 +0000

Can you believe it’s already 2010? I sure can’t. I can’t believe it’s been a decade since we said goodbye to the awesome 90′s.

Anyways, I just wanted to say cheers to the new year, I hope everyone had an awesome New Year’s celebration. I had an awesome time celebrating in downtown St. Petersburg with some of my friends from high school (@kcmiller85 and @eg53).

A Look Back At 2009

One of the nice things about celebrating a new year is looking back at what you did the year before. 2009 was an eventful year for me and I managed to do a lot of things. Here’s a few of my highlights from last year:

Moving To Austin – Austin was an awesome city and I had a lot of fun living there for 6 months.

Meet Happy – We managed to get the coolest puppy ever in Austin.

The Haircut - Normally haircuts aren’t that great, but this one resulted in me cutting off ALL of my hair. It was a good move, though I’m not sure what will happen to my hair this year.

1 Year Of Self-Employment - Celebrating my first full year of self-employment was a big step for me.

Moving To Florida – Although I’ve only been here a few weeks, I’m really enjoying the weather and the beaches here in the Sunshine State.

Set Your Goals For 2010

If you haven’t set some goals for the year, now is a good time to do it. I have a feeling this is going to be a great year for everyone and a lot of great things are going to happen.

I’ll be blogging about some of my goals in the upcoming week, since I always seem to accomplish more when I put them in writing. Also, stay tuned for some pictures from around Florida.

Photo Credit: Optical Illusion | CC 2.0

A Look At The 2010 Ford Taurus

Justin Wright — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:05:05 +0000

If you missed by post a few days ago, I talked about a Ford Tweetup that I co-hosted last night. Ford had a few people from their social media team there as well as the 2010 Ford Taurus.

I must say, it’s one heck of an improvement over the Ford Taurus I remember. I remember the one that looked like a turtle on the outside. Here’s my review of the new 2010 Ford Taurus:

The Exterior

The first thing I noticed was the look of the Ford Taurus. It’s so much different than I was anticipating. It sort of looks like a cross between a Lexus and an Infiniti. Here’s a few shots I took of the exterior:

As you can see, it’s a pretty sweet looking car. Especially since it’s a full-size car instead of a sport compact. If I were looking to get a full-size car, I’d actually consider the Taurus (the SHO model that is).

The Interior

The other thing that really surprised me was the interior of the Taurus. I’ve always considered American made cars to be rather plain and boring on the inside. Which is the main reason why I’ve always liked import cars. I remember riding in a mid 90′s Mustang and the interior reminded me of a Ford Ranger.

Luckily, Ford has done a complete overhaul on the Taurus. This car was equipped with everything from leather seats to a Sony sound system. Plus it has a ton of new features like key-less entry and start, Microsoft sync, and a bunch of other stuff I didn’t have time to fool around with. It even has hand shifters on the steering wheel if you like shifting the car.

Here’s a few pictures of the interior:

As you can see, the interior is pretty slick for a full-size American made car. It looks more like a Corvette than a Taurus.

Test Drive

Besides looking at it, I also had the opportunity to take the Taurus for a spin and see how it felt on the road. It took a while to get used to it since I’m not used to driving, especially a full-size vehicle. But once I got going I loved how it felt and I couldn’t believe how quiet it was on the inside.

It has some cool features such as a radar system, which automatically adjusts your cruise control speed if it detects a vehicle nearby. It also has lights on the mirrors that let you know when it’s safe to merge lanes. Very cool.

The model I drove was the SEL, so it wasn’t super quick. But I’d love to drive the SHO model (Twin-Turbo) sometime to see how that thing goes. It looks pretty quick in the videos I watched.

Awesome Event

Overall, it was a great event and I had a lot of fun checking out the new car and learning more about how Ford is using social media. It’s really interesting to see how different companies are using social media to target their potential customers.

For more pictures from the event, check out the 2010 Ford Taurus gallery.

Ford Taurus Tweetup This Sunday

Justin Wright — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:36:18 +0000

Hey everyone, I just wanted make a quick note about an event I am co-hosting this Sunday. Ford is bringing the new 2010 Ford Taurus to Austin to let us check it out.

Here’s a quick summary of the event from the Facebook Page:

Join Mike Crowley, Ford’s marketing manager for cars and crossovers, and the 2010 Ford Taurus at Opal Divine’s for a fun meet up.

Mike will be joined by our blogger co-hosts and the 2010 Taurus and will be available to answer questions about the 2010 Taurus and Ford and take you for a test drive.

There was also a Beer and Blog Austin meetup scheduled for this Sunday, so I decided it would work best to merge them together.

Here’s the details for the event:

When: Sunday, August 2nd at 5:30 PM

Where: Opal Divines on 6th Street

RSVP: Click Here

Opal’s will be having some food and drink specials and they also have free wifi.

So if you love Twitter or blogging, I highly recommend checking it out! It’s going to be a great time.

Update: The hashtag for the event will be #fordtaurus.

Me Eating A Grasshopper

Justin Wright — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:32:44 +0000

Last night I went to an awesome party that had all sorts of things going on. I’m still working on getting my photos up so I thought I’d share a quick clip of me eating a grasshopper:

Stay tuned for a detailed post about the party later today!

Back From #wcdfw09

Justin Wright — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:50:04 +0000

I Made the drive back from Dallas last night and managed to make it in one piece. Overall, WordCamp Dallas/Fort Worth (#wcdfw09) turned out to be an awesome event where I learned some awesome things about WordPress.

I met some awesome people (including @sivori, @claygriffiths, @grantgriffiths and @plagiarismtoday) and learned about the future of WordPress from @photomatt.

If anything, it gave me a big boost in motivation to keep on going and try as hard as I can at blogging. Plus I managed to hand out a huge stack of Zoopmedia business cards which is always a good thing.

The only downside to the whole trip was me not winning the MacBook Pro they gave away. I did get an iPhone case though so I’m not complaining.

Happening This Week

I thought I would also use this post to focus on some upcoming events here in Austin. I’ll be attending both events so come check them out and look for me.

WordPress Wednesday

When: July 1st at 9 AM
Where: Central Market Cafe (Second Floor)
RSVP: Go Here

The Social Media Rockstars meetup group will be meeting once again to talk about blogging and WordPress. It’s an awesome group and a great place to meet fellow bloggers and learn some new things about blogging.

Beer and Blog Austin

When: July 5th at 6 PM
Where: Opal Divine’s Freehouse
RSVP: Go Here or send a tweet to @beernblogaustin

The Beer and Blog Austin Chapter will be meeting again to drink some beer and chat about blogging, WordPress, and anything else on our mind. It’s only our second meetup so the more people the better. We still need help marketing as well so feel free to spread the word.

Recap Of WordCamp

Over the next week, I will be posting about the things I learned and summaries of presentations from the WordCamp event. The majority of them will be over at the ZoopMedia blog but I’ll probably squeeze a few in here as well.

The first post, Using WordPress As A CMS, is already live so go check it out. It’s got some great information about plugins.

Austin Kickball League Is Underway

Justin Wright — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:44:32 +0000

(Photo by calmenda)

Last night was the season opener for our Austin kickball league, which is being put on by the Parks and Recreation crew. It’s a great time and a fun way to meet new people. Best part of all is that a lot of the players drink beer, wine, or booze during the games (myself included). It’s the perfect combination of two very unique sports…

The only downside is beer doesn’t taste as good when it starts coming up as you round third base. I guess it’s the price to pay the game.

1-0 So Far

We started off with a big win beating Project Mayhem 10-2. My team did an awesome job and worked perfectly as a team. My girlfriend had a good hit that brought me home and I managed to squeeze in a triple and bring a few runs home. I had a blast and can’t wait for the next week to roll around so we can play again. I have a lot of confidence in our team and think we can compete with all of the teams.

When & Where

If you want to check out a game or two, feel free to stop on by. If you come wearing TBD apparel (read the teams below) I might even hook you up with a free beer.

The games are played every Wednesday night from 6:30 Pm until 9:50 PM at Gillis Park. If you are not sure where that is, it is located at 2504 Durwood Avenue. For more information about the park, check out the Park Profile page.

The Teams

Here is a breakdown of all the teams in our Wednesday night league:

Bust-N-Balls
Juevos De Miercoles
Grass Kickers
Project Mayhem
TBD
Clam Club
Pilsnerds
Triple Star Kickers
Where My Pitches At

The bold team above is the team my girlfriend and I are on. If you didn’t get the joke, it basically stands for “To Be Determined.” It’s pretty funny, especially since I overheard the team we played talking about how they weren’t sure who they had to play. They actually thought it was TBD.

Personally, I think Where My Pitches at is also a brilliant name. However, word on the street is that they are really good so that’s a matchup I’m looking forward to.

Each week, I’ll post a recap of our games so you can follow us on our road to the perfect kickball season. Wish us luck!