Bigfoot is ALIVE!

Got this off of the Wired RSS feed... hilarious! (you'll have to click on it to read it).

man and pigeon have staring contest

The man scooting by on his Razor looks away from a most dangerous contest between man and nature. Lalita Distinctive Thai Restaurant serves delicious food.

dork!

Yep. When I'm busy I get a little stir crazy punchy. I've been this way for a while now. At least I hope it's mildly entertaining for those around me :)

another day, another lunch

So I've discovered that not only does iTunes have a stream for Live 105 (which is FAR less kludgey than the stream from the Live 105 site), they also stream NPR (among lots of other crap that I don't want to listen to - power ballads of the 80's anyone?). So instead of getting the occasional brain building hour or so of NPR on the drive to or fro, I got a mega dose of NPR today for about 3 hours whilst I mucked around in illustrator.

I now know way more than I've ever wanted to know about how nominations are handled, what super delegates are (kind of), and how Obama could possibly win the popular vote for being nominated but still might lose out to Hillary (the super delegate thing).

Beyond politics, they had a very interesting guest come on and talk about her article in the Atlantic.com called Marry Him! It's about "settling" (definitions vary for what's considered "settling") for someone to marry once a woman reaches 40 or so. I heard a couple of really sad callers tell their stories, but also a few people calling in to tell the world to wait for passion plus connection. I haven't read the entire article yet, but I'm sure it's meant more to show a particular point of view and perhaps offer hope or at least discourse a day before the manufactured day of love.

I say, life is hard and often lonely. Even if you're already married, I think having a good group of friends and/or a good connection with family is just as important. No one makes it alone. No one. And if by some miracle they do, they probably wished they had company along the way.

Probably I don't know.

Okay, so it's been a while since I've blogged. I've been mostly adjusting to a full time position and its accompanying 45-80 minute commute to and from work. I find that my ability to blog, answer emails and even phone calls has been pretty severely curtailed. I know lots of people do everything I listed and more (kids, TV, clubs, skeet shooting, etc.), so it's probably just a matter of scheduling. I hope to figure it out soon. I started this blog entry on Jan 13 at 3:02AM (blogger logged it), and I will finish it tonight!

I uploaded a bunch of pics that I thought the blogosphere might enjoy and there will be a random narrative. These images aren't in any particular order.

A foggy night on our block. I leaned on the door frame and held still for this long exposure. Be sure to click on this image, as I uploaded a really big version.

Our brand new fake pre-lit Xmas tree. It's tall and slender like a super model, but with less vomiting and more personality. I picked this up the day before all trees at Target went on clearance for 30% off. The next week, I found that some of the exact same trees were still in stock, so I bought one at reduced price and then returned it with my original receipt for a do it yourself price adjustment. Not my most honorable moment, but the exchange netted a cool 30 something buckaroos. So we got a great tree at a great price. Thanks Target!

I bought my sister a Sunshine Buddy for Xmas off of eBay and the seller included these really fun rubber bands. When you stretch them, they're round like a normal rubber band, but relaxed they take the shape of small rubbery figures. Fun!


The bottom of a delicious ice cold Pepsi. I think this was an especially good batch of cans. We never did get around to writing down the lot number.

Me circa 1980 with a 5 pound bar of Hershey's. Because we operated a liquor store at the time, it was easy to get the 50, 100, or whatever amount of Hershey's wrappers you needed to collect in order to cash in a very special chocolately offer. If you ever want your kids to not like chocolate, let them ravage a 1/3 of a 5 pound chocolate bar in less than a week, and then because it's a giant freaking bar of chocolate and takes up a lot of room in the fridge, force them to finish the rest of it over the following 4 weeks even though they can't stand the sight of chocolate any more.

My first meal at the Apple cafeteria was apple stuffed pork loin with seasoned potato wedges and steamed vegetables. I've since discovered other yummy dishes there like wood fired pizzas, curly fries, bacon cheese burgers, burritos, and got healthier fare at the double salad bar, and make your own sandwich bar. The food is very reasonably priced and quite tasty :P

Stairs in the men's room?

The above three shots were taken at the newly renovated Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. It's quite beautiful and I hope many people keep going there so it stays in business. We were there to watch the re-release of Blade Runner. The theater operator came down before the show to tell us about the quality of the print, where to sit for the best sound, and a bit about the theater. It was really neat to actually feel like we were supporting a business instead of being just another butt in the theater bringing in money. The whole experience was really good. I love Blade Runner and to see it on the big screen so clearly was a visual feast. By comparison, the DVD is muddy (though I'm sure the remastered versions are of the same quality that we saw that night). As a bonus, there's delicious sushi nearby.

I can't remember exactly what we were eating this night, but I do remember that the gravy we made from powdered gravy mix looked like this by the end of the meal. Even looking at it now I feel the urge to fling it on someone.

I'll do it after later.

Sometimes when I have change in my pockets, the metal jingles with each step and I imagine I'm a cowboy with spurs on my boots.

cool sampling

If you're on the business end of this pose, you're probably about to get a HUGE can of whoop-ass opened up on you.

One of my favorite bands, Thievery Corporation, has a song (The Foundation) with this awesome sample in it. Lo and behold, it's a quote from Enter the Dragon.

[Han, referring to his collection of weapons...] It is difficult to associate these horrors with the proud civilizations that created them. Sparta, Rome, The Knights of Europe, the Samurai. They worship strength, because it is strength that makes all other values possible.

I don't know why, but that quote makes me think about the deeper meanings of truth, valor, honor and the like. And of course, it was a great lead off to some really fucking awesome kung fu ass kicking action.

I got nuts. Salty nuts. Care to put them in your mouth?

While waiting in the long ass line on Black Friday at Fry's, I worked up a powerful hunger and thirst. The thirst was quenched by Glaceau Vitamin Water Defense Raspberry-Apple and my hunger sated by a bag of Corn Nuts Ranch with a BBQ bag for back up. Ah Corn Nuts, how I fondly remember your crunchy, salty goodness from my high school days when each bag cost a paltry 15¢, and my gastrointestinal system had a youthful fortitude that only the intestines possessed by the young could have.

Now they cost a dollar thirty and make me feel ill after eating them. Kind of like I ate large brick of margarine or something. Same happened with the BBQ bag a day later. I guess I'll just have to settle for my fond memories from long ago of greedily shoveling bag after bag of delicious nuts into my mouth.

awesome Bender background

After finding a cool Bender desktop background based on the Apple iPod ads, I just had to create my own. Enjoy!

gas station ghost

More fun video from YouTube. Personally, I think it's just a really amazing fart by the station owner and he's covering it up. Either that or it's something on the lens. No matter what, I think it's good for business.

david blaine parody

This is only really funny if you know who David Blaine is. These guys do a great job of of monkeying his best tricks :) I have no idea how the guy playing David Blaine kept a straight face through this whole bit.

our continuing adventures at Target

Last night while shopping at Target, I ran into a bunch of stuff that the sisters Rha would just love! Tons of penguin schwag and even an animatronic pony for a mere $249. The pony is pretty much creepy, but I'm sure some little girl (or little boy as it were) who have parents with deep pockets is sure to enjoy the cockles of robotic affection in place of real parental love. Manure not included.

As usual, S Adams is spot on!

Tee hee :)

(you might need to click on the comic to read it).

mind the gap...

The other day a coworker of mine told me that her cell phone dropped down an elevator shaft. My first thought was, "Oh my god!!! Are you okay??? What were you doing in an elevator shaft???" But then it gets funny, because cell phones are so thin these days, as improbable as it is, her phone fell right into that gap between the elevator and the floor. Who woulda thunk it? Ha!

Sweet and sentimental, or a cry for help?

Personally, it feels nice and sweet. But that's only because I live in Schmoopytown.

photobooth fun

Here's the Warhol filter. It's ART, baby!

Hmmm... when I first took this, I thought, "Ooooo, headless!! Scary!"
Now it just looks like the back of a chair.

random crap from my phone, enjoy!

vacancy

Almost as suddenly as they appeared, the nesting birds are gone! No more cheep cheep cheep cheep cheep. Although it drove me insane, I kind of miss it in a way. There was new life right outside my window! They left behind a nest made of mud and twigs and a pile of bird crap. Lousy tenants...

random tips

Internet Faster
If you use Firefox, go to preferences/advanced/network and change "how Firefox connects to the internet" to 'Auto-detect proxies from this network'. I used to know why this is faster, but that information got pushed out of my brain and was replaced with other things. I suggest you check it out for yourself and see if it makes a difference :)

Tivo Faster
Okay, this is everywhere on the internet, but in case you're a Tivo n00b like myself, you can change your Tivo skip button into a 30-second commercial blaster. Turn on your tv, then press 'select-play-select-3-0-select'. If you did it right, you should hear a few happy chimes. Once you do, your skip button (the one below your banana shaped fast forward button) will advance whatever you're watching 30 seconds instead of going to the next marker on the green bar. If your Tivo loses power or is reset, the button will revert to its default function and you'll have to do the trick again.

Read slower
Put on a blindfold and try to read a book. It's really hard! You have to read by smell, and since that takes a long time, you can really savor a good story.

Japanese game shows are SO much better!