Very close

For the past few weeks I have been working on a new product to sell. This was hampered quite a bit by the inconveniently placed Holiday. But now that it is over I am in high gear and as soon as Thursday I may have everything I need to start putting it all together. It has been a real learning experience and I never regret learning new things.

I showed Rossana the item it it's half-finished state and she thought it looked great. A few parts are coming from out of state but I should be able to show off at least a demo model this weekend in Columbus at DeConpression.

I am geeked.

Finally!

The whole X-mas thing is finally over! Now I can get back to work on several projects that have been left just hanging there. Hopefully there will be movement this week.

Also, the cars have become such a source of anger that I am willing to firebomb them both and get new ones. NEW ONES. I NEVER buy new cars but if it means that I NEVER see the "Check Engine" light again no price is too high. In fact, when I order this overprices piece of crap from the dealership I will specifically demand that they break the little bulb that lights up when I have to pay my mechanic another $275. No light, no repair bill. I know it doesn't make sense, we're on an emotional level here.

Both brilliant...and funny.

A great guide for getting your camera back if you loose it.

I bet you didn't know this...

Created by Oatmeal

Something in my eye...

There are times that I am truly cynical. That I loose much of my faith in mankind. War, disease, hatred. It seems that there is a never ending supply of misery dispensed by my fellow howling monkeys.

Then I see something like this and I smile. And laugh. I remember that we sometimes aren't complete assholes. Sometimes we do nice things for people we don't even know.

Trying to do right

I am not what one would call a greener or an environmentalist. But I have a healthy respect for the planet. I do what small things I can. But when we moved to Wellington we learned that although recycling was available everywhere around us, WE did not have it.

If we wanted to recycle, we could take our aluminum cans and paper to the local recycling center on Thursday between 6-8pm and Saturday from 12 - 3 pm. That's it. We couldn't even drop it off after hours as the collection bins were locked up.

Awesome. Despite this severe annoyance we did start recycling. We flattened cans and stored up large garbage bags of them for infrequent drop offs. We also started collecting paper which we would drop off at collection points when we went to visit Rossanas father. No plastic or glass collection at all.

But yesterday Waste Management dropped off a shiny new green can and announced they are joining a program called recyclebank. Apparently they will now take paper, glass, plastic, and aluminium in the same can without any sorting. SWEET!

Even better, we get points for the amount we recycle which can be used for goods and/or services. The program looks legit and I am excited we can actually recycle more now without jumping through a bunch of ridiculous hoops.

Pioneers...

If you have a television you may have seen this Levi's commercial:

While I am not what one could call a devotee of poetry I knew this wasn't written by some agency hack. It's Walt Whitman and you can find it here. It's good stuff. Apparently Levi-Strauss has a kind of scavenger hunt associated with this add campaign. It led to $100,000. It would have been nice if they had told someone about this contest. Just throwing a website at us means little in this age of constant advertising bombardment.

But I'm okay with having gotten a great poem out of it.

Bonus- The other commercial in this series features the voice Walt Whitman reading his poem "America"from a wax cylinder. It's both sweet and haunting.

Catching up...

This short video gives an accurate (if oversimplified) history of what's been going on in Afghanistan since 2001. It's worth a watch. While the long term stability of Iraq is anyones guess they do have the advantage of having something to sell and some national infrastructure. Afghanistan on the other hand is simply brimming with misery, religious nuts on all sides and bumper crops of dope and opium.

Our military, while doing a fine job under very difficult circumstances, isn't the total answer. This place needs schools, moderate clerics and a secure border with Pakistan where the Taliban like to vacation before coming home and shooting shit up.

Tatoos

For the longest time I was a firm believer in the "Modifications may void the manufacturers warranty" school of thought. Piercings and tattoos were out for me. Time has certainly mellowed this view. I know some people with ink and they are pretty cool. I don't let it color my impressions of them. Piercing still make me flinch a little. But then again, I have seen a lot of piercings that are waaaaay past the earlobes or eyebrow. Then there's this guy:

The Enigma

Looks kinda....strange? But I met him a few years ago at a show and he was extremely well spoken, pleasant and polite. A bit of a nerd. Married too. Nice guy.

While ink has gained pretty widespread acceptance big piercings still get stares. So drilling a hole through my nose or shoving a spike through my ear isn't likely in my future.

But what about a tattoo? I sometimes wonder what I would get permanently inked onto my skin if I weren't descended from Yetti's. Picture? Text? Alchemical formula? The options are limitless. Because I wear no jewelry I once gave serious thought to getting a tattoo of my wedding ring on my ring finger. But in the end it really wasn't needed was it? I know I'm married and committed to my wife and I don't need a piece of jewelry to remind me of that.

I guess its unlikely I'll ever get any ink. Unless maybe... pirate map on my skull?? Hmmmm...

Simple pleasures

I was a sign maker for years, which is why watching protesters these days both amuses and horrifies me. Here is a fine collection. Enjoy.

I'm gonna a write me a letter...

Inspired by this story of a young and unknown David Bowie writing a personal letter to a fan.

Have you ever written a letter to a famous person and gotten a response?

God saves the day!

Or not..

A woman lets gets kids starve for 11 days, making no effort to get help because "God would help them".

God was apparently busy doing something else. Luckily none of the kids died. Look, if you you're going to believe in an invisible sky wizard (and you have every right to) Understand that he/she/it gave you a BRAIN. If you look at all recorded history God shows up in person very very infrequently. His creations are perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. He supposedly made us that way. So stop sponging off of God(tm)!

You learn something new every day..

Today I learned that the Roman vomitorium isn't what what I thought it was. Go check out wikipedia and then read this.

Pure Awesome...

I don't know who was responsible for this. But they are my hero. This isn't the product of some one being lazy. This took work and a lot of love. If you don't know the inspiration for this, you are likely under 30. And that's a shame.

What the hell???

Why the !@#$ have I just learned about this NOW???

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/synthful/post-apocalyptic-party-road-wa/index.php

http://www.laweekly.com/slideshow/view/28836900

I could have RULED Bartertown.

Goddammit.