Brant Gajda Web Development and Photography Blog

North Hills Sports Car Club AutoX 2010 #2

Brant — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:26:26 +0000

With the race season quickly winding down, I was able to attend my 4th autox event of the year. October 3rd is the North Hills Autumn Leaf Festival. With the threat of rain the entire time and cold weather I was about to get 13th out of 59. However with the PAX handicap, I was dropped to 25 out of 59. Not exactly great but considering I’m still on street tires, I felt it went pretty well. Plus a nice look at what happens when you push street tires past their limit.

North Hills Sports Car Club AutoX 2010 #1

Brant — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 13:37:54 +0000

Finally started my autox career (hopefully) about 2 events ago. Now with 3 events under my belt, I’m started to get used to the car in terms of performance and handling. Unfortunately due to the modifications of my car, I’m in the Street Modified (SM) class. Despite this handicap I did surprisingly well. Also note that in SM class you can run R-Comp tires, but I’m only running street tires which also puts me at a bit of a handicap. I was able to finish 9th fastest time out of 69 entries. After the PAX time adjustments I was 13 out of 69.

Start of My Racing Evolution

Brant — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:34:21 +0000

After picking up a 2006 Mitsubishi Evolution MR in July of 2009, the car has evolved from a mild performance car to a high performance vehicle. In the cars stock form, it produced 260whp on a Mustang Dyno. For a 2.0 4cyc turbo, it has quite a bit of power and performance for the price tag. Unfortunately being satisfied with a factory tuned car only lasted about 2 months.

For the past year, I’ve slowly upgraded the performance in terms of power and handling. I’ve teamed up with Buschur Racing, CBRD Speedfactory, and Baierl Mitsubishi to get the car to perform above and beyond the stock capabilities. Here is a list of what’s currently done to the car:

Forced Performance’s FP Black Turbo

Buschur Racing Air Intake System

Buschur Racing Mini Battery

Buschur Racing Upper and Lower Intercooler Piping
Buschur Racing Race Front Mount Intercooler (FMIC)

Buschur Racing Ported Intake Manifold /w 65mm Throttle Body
Buschur Racing Turbo Back Exhaust
1000cc Fuel Injectors
Walbro 255 Fuel Pump
EBC Yellow Brake Pads

Öhlins Road & Track Coilovers

Rota DPT 18×9.5 Wheels /w Dunlop Direzza Star Spec 255 35 18 Tires

Stay tuned for more updates and racing results!

Bullying Prevention Institute Website Redesigned

Brant — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:27:39 +0000

After many years of support from the Highmark Foundation, the Bullying Prevention Institute website has a new maker over. The website was built in the DotNetNuke (DNN) content management system. The site now features a more robust registration process which ties into event registration. New Members only section in which users must register with the site to view additional information and participate in the online forums. The website can be viewed at http://www.bullyingpreventioninstitute.org

Canon 5D Mark II High ISO Samples

Brant — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:35:07 +0000

With a fully charged batter, it was time to test out the high iso capabilities of the new Canon 5D Mark II.

See more Canon 5D Mark II high iso samples at DigitalDSLR.com

New Canon 5D Mark II In Hand

Brant — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:32:54 +0000

After much anticipation of an upgrade to the Canon 5D, I finally have it in hand. See more Canon 5D Mark II unboxing at DigitalDSLR.com.

GSPIA – Graduate School of Public and International Affairs

Brant — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 23:15:10 +0000

After a couple weeks of hardcore work, the University of Pittsburgh – Graduate School of Public & International Affairs, GSPIA, has a new website and look. GSPIA’s mission is to prepare leaders with the skills, vision and knowledge to build a better world. Founded on and committed to the values of public service, diversity and excellence, GSPIA provides preeminent research and educational programs in public and international affairs. With over 7,000 alumni worldwide, GSPIA’s collective mind makes a difference every day in careers spanning all sectors—public, private and nonprofit.

Needless to say I’m very happy with the website. GSPIA certainly has a nice looking website which will present their message on the internet.

ALCOSAN Website Redesigned

Brant — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:17:26 +0000

We recently redesigned the Allegheny County Sanitation Authority, ALCOSAN, website. Sporting a DotNetNuke content management system (CMS), ALCOSAN now has a more robust way to keep their website up to date. Their website features include a calendar system of upcoming events and recent news. ALCOSAN provides wastewater treatment to 83 communities and processes 225 million gallons of wastewater each day. To find out more about ALCOSAN please visite their website at www.alcosan.org.

Pittsburgh Northside Leadership Conference Website Redesigned

Brant — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:30:20 +0000

After many years with a bland and dated looking site, the time has come for a breath of fresh air. The Pittsburgh Northside Leadership Conference is a coalition of community groups and organizations designed to promote and enhance the quality of life. The new website was built on the DotNetNuke CMS platform and gives the folks at NSLC the ability to keep their site fresh. The website features a community calendar of events happening in the Northside. For those looking to move into the Northside can use the Residential Housing page to locate featured housing in the neighborhood. Please visit the Pittsburgh Northside Leadership Conference for more information.

Cleveland Zoo

Brant — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 14:47:05 +0000

With the forecast of 78 degrees and partly clouded, I made the 104 mile drive to the Cleveland Metro Zoo. Having been to the Pittsburgh Zoo numerous times, I certainly had something to gauge my expectations against. The Cleveland Zoo claims to have over 3000 animals representing 600 species. When comparing the size of the Cleveland Zoo to the Pittsburgh Zoo, I would say that the Cleveland Zoo is about twice as big if not larger in terms of land size.

I highly recommend you picking up a zoo map when you walk into the gate. While the zoo is much larger than that of Pittsburgh’s, I found that navigating the Cleveland Zoo was a much more difficult experience. When at Pittsburgh, you basically follow a direct path from start to end. Cleveland is not like this. They make it possible to get to the different zoo exhibits from multiple directions. This makes it a challenge to make sure you see everything. It’s quite easy to bypass a large portion of exhibits due to the navigational structure. This is the reason I recommended picking up a map at the gate. This helps you check off where you’ve been and what you still have to see.

Another striking difference between the two zoos is that the Cleveland Zoo lets you get a lot closer to the animals than at the Pittsburgh Zoo. This can be a good and bad things. For the visitor, it’s nice to get closer to the animals rather than viewing from a long distance. However this also means in some cases that the exhibits were rather small in comparison to Pittsburgh.

For photographers, the Cleveland Zoo offers some great shots of their outdoor animals. Most will benefit from the fact that the animals are rather close to you so there isn’t a need to lug around large telephoto lenses. I personally only took my Canon 1D Mark III camera, Canon 85mm 1.8, and Canon 100-400L. I did this not know what I might expect there. However after visiting the zoo, I would have brought my 70-200 2.8 IS with 1.4x Teleconverter for a more compact (not lighter) experience. So if you are visiting the Cleveland Zoo, I would recommend that if you only need a max of 300mm to get those far off shots. I would recommend bringing a flash with you as some of the animals were in some really shading environments which would have benefitted from some fill flash, though the 1D Mark III is quite a capable camera at higher ISO levels. I have no problems pushing out to 3200 if exposure is done properly.

So if you’ve been to the Pittsburgh Zoo and really enjoyed it, I highly recommend making that extra trip to the Cleveland Zoo. They have many more animals, closer exhibits, many more unique animals that Pittsburgh doesn’t offer, and larger area. Plan to spend most of the day there as there is a lot to see. Don’t forget to bring the camera!