Sunday 2.26.12
Kim! Always one of my most favorite people to shoot. Here is someone who has an idea along with the style, grace, moves and wardrobe to back it up. All business, mister… let’s shoot this thing! A few images from our Saturday shoot…
And… check out THESE shoes:
Saturday 2.25.12
Fiddle Summit.
Yep. Fiddle summit. Yeah, boy… I’m livin’ the high life let me tell ya. A man stopped in to the shop a week or so ago and mentioned that there would be some fiddle playing thing at the high school tonight. Since I have some interest in fiddling, I suggested we go. Jokingly, of course, as always… in case I needed an out or maybe as a way to see if there would be any interest. You know, kind of like “hey, what if we stuck tape on the cat’s feet and watched it walk around the house… that would probably be kind of funny” – knowing that the idea would probably not really go over very well but you can always say “I was just kidding, you should know me better that that.” Total mind intercourse.
Well, there was interest. In fact, little did I know that there’s a whole Facebook world working behind my back and all of the info was out… the date was set. I also had some knowledge of who would be there and thanks to the internet was able to listen to some of the performers in advance and find out a little about them. My initial impression was something like if you are headlining here, you must kind of suck. To my surprise, it did not suck like I thought. Yeah, I was critical. I had listened to a gazzillion versions of “Old Joe Clark” earlier in the day and would certainly want to pick apart any crap variation I would hear tonight. I didn’t. Things were actually pretty good.
There was a main fiddler guy booked who wound up bringing a couple Madison locals as well as another Cajun fiddler into the mix. Some other dude joined in at one point. There were fiddles, mandolins, a guitar and a banjo. The High School sound system was lacking at points but overall, they were ok. Some of the tunes seemed to just be quite repetitious. You wondered if and when they would ever end. Some made more sense in my head… like there seemed to be a beginning, an overall theme with various highlights and then a victorious ending. There were some which included lyrics that made me think that yes… I could compose a wonderful bluegrassy, old timey kind of song. The formula seemed simple. Come up with a catchy tune that would be simple and repeat. Have a simple beat. Then, throw in some words. Not a lot of words, just enough. Enough to make you wonder a couple of things. You wonder if there are more words and you forgot them or if the few words that you are using and the manner in which you are using them are some genius method of message, deep and thoughtful.
Ok, I’ll give it a try.
In a similar tune of Old Joe Clark perhaps… Intro… a few bars - do do do, do do do, do do do do dooooooooo, do do do, DO do do, do do, do do, dooooooooo…
Dead old cat
in the road
Dead old cat
layin’ in the road
do do do, do do do, do do do do dooooooooo, do do do, DO do do, do do, do do, dooooooooo…
Dead old cat
pissed on my coat
Dead old cat
Got my goat
do do do, do do do, do do do do dooooooooo, do do do, DO do do, do do, do do, dooooooooo…
Dead old cat
ain’t got a tail
cuz’ I cut it off
and put it in the mail
do do do, do do do, do do do do dooooooooo, do do do, DO do do, do do, do do, dooooooooo…
Dead old cat
barfed on the floor
Dead old cat
once I kicked it out the door
do do do, do do do, do do do do dooooooooo, do do do, DO do do, do do, do do, dooooooooo…
Dead old cat
But I don’t know how
Dead old cat
Who’s laughing now?
Dum do do dum dum, dum dum.
Fini.
Friday 2.24.12
Snow! The wet, heavy kind. It started last night and I was kind of surprised that we had as much as we did. I’m also pretty positive about the fact that next week is March already and this stuff won’t be around for long. For me, this has been a perfect winter… mildly cold temps, little precipitation and little snow removal. I also know that most of the guys I lettered snow plow trucks for this year had a miserable time. I’m sure we will have another chance at a killer winter but for now… I’m good with this one.
Monday 2.20.12
Nerd Studio… Sunday walkabout.
Random images from yesterday’s afternoon of walking around with a camera…
Friday 2.17.12
Technology.
I recently changed my phone and internet service over to cable. The difference in price (so far) makes it worth it. I have everything I had before minus caller ID and plus a faster internet service. I miss the caller ID… I think I’ll have to change the plan a little to include it. The decision was made at home to also change over to cable phone. Along with this came some kind of upgrade to our cable television.
I hardly ever watch the television. I watch a lot of things at home, but mostly on the PC. The TV sits in the other room. As our television watching (which I don’t usually do) has evolved, it has also become more complicated. We need a table in the room just to support all of these devices which operate our fantastic audio/video system…
But with this new cable upgrade… we received a new remote which will (I guess) operate everything. I’m guessing it will start my truck and make me a sandwich as well, I have not found those buttons yet. NOW, things are very simple:
It used to be this way:
Thursday 2.16.12… later that day
Last week I lettered a truck for a snow removal guy. He had another truck to do. Since there has not been a lot of snow this winter, he figured it would be a couple weeks or so until we got around to it. Surprise… they showed up yesterday to drop off the truck. Since I had not planned on them showing up this soon, I was short on material. No problemo… my sign supply place gets things here in one day.
Most of the time.
Today was the weirdo exception. I placed the order yesterday. The order was paid and good to go. They would ship the stuff with FedEx. Usually, they ship UPS. I get things form both places. The UPS man keeps an eye out for me… knows my routine and will come to my house if he does not find me here. I like the UPS man. I compliment him on his shorts in the summer months. FedEx… different situation. Usually it is a FedEx woman. She also knows my routine and although she has not tracked me down at home, she’s pretty good about getting my stuff to me. Anyone who knows me knows that usually, if my truck is here I am also here somewhere. I’m always pretty clear about what is going on. If people are coming and I may be out – I leave them a note. I’m installing a sign, I’m at the hardware store, I’m taking pictures…
Today, I had a dental appointment at 11:00. I left to go home and brush up around 10:40. I left a note:
I figured it was clear enough. I would be back at 1:00. I was. I was working up the material that I had for this truck job. I got to a point where I figured I had done about all I could do without the order being here. I cleaned up the truck and proceeded to apply as much as I had ready to go. All I had to do now was wait for the other stuff to arrive. I was working out back. My truck was along the building… an indication that I was here. The front door was unlocked and the lights were on. It would be obvious to most people that there was someone around.
There must be a new UPS person…
Of course, the minute I left for the dentist (well not exactly that minute) FedEx shows up. They leave a note saying they will be back. Great. I was out back lettering the truck and when I had run out of what I had ready, I came back in around 3:30. I noticed these other stickers on the door. Shit.
I called UPS thinking that maybe I could get a message to the driver. If they were still in the area, maybe I could get my stuff. Nope, they don’t have that. Shit again.
So… I scraped up whatever I could find to finish up the project and MAYBE I’ll see FedEx tomorrow.
That was my day.
________________
The follow-up:
I received a call from FedEx early Friday morning before I got to work. I returned the call to someone in some specialty customer service department to get a voice mail box. I left a message. I called again a couple hours later to leave another message. I tried again in a bit and did not leave a message. At some point in the afternoon, it dawned on me that maybe I should try to talk to someone else. Calling them… similar to calling the phone or cable or I suppose any number of other places now, you get some robot. Remember when you got the voice messages that asked you to press a button? Now you still get this choice but you also get coaching on what to ask and it can all be done by speech recognition. “OK, tell me a little about why you are calling today.” Like this robot has some personality or something and we are casually discussing things over a cup of coffee.
“You could tell me things like, I need to upgrade my service or, there are bees in my desk drawer.” “Hmm, ok, I did not quite understand what you just said, did you say there’s a tree on your dinosaur?”
The answer to everything is “operator.” “Ok… I can help you with that. Please stay on the line and I’ll get the next available person.” Musak or another message telling me how important I am. If I am really feeling down some days, I should just call this place so they can build me up. I suppose it would be much cheaper than some phone sex line.
Finally, I get some person. I explain my deal, give her my special numbers and tell her I’ve left messages for the guy who called earlier in the morning. “They only work at night. You won’t get them during the day and since this is Friday… not back until Monday.”
Shit. Ok… so where’s my stuff? You have a truck out today, yes? “The stuff is here. You received 3 notices and now it goes to this special super secret area.” She also claims this is odd as they usually take 3 days to try this… not do it all in one. Perhaps we can get it on our Saturday delivery truck. I gave her every possible number to reach me. The driver called me on Saturday morning and FINALLY… we have our order. Looks like I can go back to work now.
Thursday 2.16.12
Rope tricks. Who knew? That kid in that school picture (scroll down to previous post) who was asked to “sit out” a few scout meetings due to a minor white gasoline incident during a camp out in 1972 would continue on to practice knots and such. I don’t recall seeing any of this in the handbook though.
This is a Somerville Bowline. It is simply modified to add a quick release.
Someone asked me what could be done with the running end of that rope. Here’s a plan:
And… a variation for what can be done in the front…
Which would look something like this:
Wednesday 2.15.12
When I went to my Grand-daughter’s 5th birthday the other day, my brother presented me with a newspaper clipping which featured some of my personal history. A 43 year old picture…
Yep… one of those punks is yours truly. Eventually, that guy turned out like this:
Man. Life is a bitch, huh? In other questionable things this evening, I wondered out loud “If someone strikes you as non-violent, isn’t that a contradiction? ” A man I met on my trip to Greece suggests: “Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your lips are moving.” And… I think that if you take a close look at Ann Coulter you will see quite a resemblance to Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas. That’s all. Winter drags on.
Sunday 2.12.12
Two one two one two… Wow.
Superbowl over, no one to tie up, no GOP debates to cover. The only logical conclusion is, of course, to work on my evil deviled egg plan.
I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of weeks. I sort of had some preliminary experiments the other day which resulted in egg salad. Today I decided that I would go all out. I started with figuring out how to make better hard boiled eggs. Thanks to the internet, I researched the best hard boiled egg minds in the world. Here’s what I came up with…
Place your eggs in a pot. Fill the pot with cool to luke warm water and cover the eggs by about an inch or two. I added a teaspoon or more of vinegar. This is supposed to help if an egg cracks while cooking and is supposed to help seal off the egg so things don’t leak. I also added a bit of salt which is supposed to help later with peeling the shell. Turn your heat up to “not quite high” and let them go until you get a nice rolling boil. While that is going on, get some other stuff ready…
I wanted something different and perhaps with a little kick. When you are old like me and most of your taste buds are destroyed by years of abuse, you need a kick. I have been looking at some recipes that use Hummus instead of just egg yolk. Sounded interesting. Since I was thinking about interesting things, it also occurred to that I find other things interesting as well… like olives and bacon. Maybe some onion.
The Hummus is Athenos Spicy three pepper hummus. I chopped up my onions, olives and bacon. When the egg water had reached a rolling boil, I turned off the heat, covered the pot and let it stand for 18 minutes. When my 18 minutes was up, I used a slotted spoon to fish out the eggs and placed them in a bowl of ice water for 10 more minutes.
After that, I filled the pot with luke warm water, cracked and peeled the eggs in the water. This makes it much easier to remove the shell.
I peeled all of the eggs and placed them in a bowl. I took each egg and cut it in half and then removed the yolk.
Since certain people I sleep with have this weird aversion to olives, I split things up when I made the fill. I gave half of the yolks to Sparky and then replaced that half with Hummus, onion, and bacon. I added a little bit of light mayo – I could have added olive oil. I wanted the fill to be just a little creamy. Once this was mixed up, I split it and added the chopped olives to one half. I filled the empty egg whites and then sprinkled a little Paprika and parsley, just to make it look cool.
I sampled one. Not bad. I submitted one to someone I sleep with and was given a positive response. I did not know if this was good enough. My buds… are they any good? I would test this elsewhere. I packaged up the remaining D-eggs and headed for the door. I was laughed at slightly and accused of taking my D-eggs for a studio shot so I could post this on the blog. Oh, no… not quite. I would venture out to find other taste buds.
I drove across town to find my daughter… someone who used to be completely anti-onion. I thought maybe she would give me her opinion. After some skepticism on what these were and exactly where they came from, she courageously tried one. Not bad.
But was this a real test? She is also older now and may have a bud deficiency. Let’s bring in a real opinion… My “just turned 5″ granddaughter:
More skepticism and then…
So… there you go. Sunday Deviled Eggs. What an adventure. You can quit looking at my daughter’s cleavage now.
Friday 2.10.12 (actually early Saturday morning)
Notes and sketching.
Since there have been no recent GOP debates to entertain me lately, I was reminded that CPAC was going on. Looking into it I discovered that Scott Walker, Governor from the State of Wisconsin would be making a speech. I tuned in.
My timing was pretty good. Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee was speaking. He would introduce Scott Walker. I have not listened to Reince much but it kind of sounded as if he was just a little shitfaced as he was making his introduction of Walker. I could be completely wrong. Maybe this guy just sounds like a drunk all the time.
Walker made a great speech. He was spot on and very clear. He used a few notes but other than that it sounded as if he was speaking from the heart. That, or he gives this speech every day on his fund raising campaign around the country for the upcoming recall election. I’m guessing the latter.
He started off with some thank yous and acknowledgements of present family in the crowd. Then the speech took off. He mentioned the grief that his family is suffering at home. Someone complained to his mother in a grocery store. He said that for every “obnoxious” person the positive people are ten-fold. I think he must be talking about the people on his block and maybe two other guys from up north.
He mentioned that Reince was from Kenosha and that he grew up about 20 minutes down the road. He also said that Paul Ryan grew up 15 miles in the other direction and there must have been something in the water for all these people to come up together and get to where they are now. Fact checking this, Reince in Kenosha is really 43 miles away. Doing that in 20 minutes would be speeding. Paul Ryan would have been 20 miles to Janesville. SO… I notice a pattern of fact fudging going on. I wonder if it will continue?
Ronald Reagan comes into the speech. Ron has inspired Scott. Scott would like to be a little like Ron. A white American Male is about all you’ve got so far. Ok, you are also a Governor, for now. He suggested that Reagan was just the average ordinary guy who wound up doing extraordinary things. I was around during Reagan as well. I remember him as a kind of B actor who became involved in the actor’s union, changed parties, became Governor and then eventually became President. I don’t recall him being a misleading douchebag who seemed to think he could just get away with any damn thing that popped into his head or popped into his head after consulting with his contributors. Maybe I am remembering it all wrong. Maybe I was not paying attention. Maybe using Reagan in any sound bite NOW is the new black.
He mentioned that the unemployment rate is the lowest since 2008. Checking on that, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that the rate in December 2008 was 6.5%. December 2011 is at 7.1 %. I did not see the figure for January 2012. Seems to me that 6.5 is lower than 7.1 but maybe I’m not seeing it right. I was never a math guy.
He went on to completely bash Illinois. Since I’m from Illinois I feel I have the right to tell this guy to get fucked. I absolutely KNOW how things have been in Illinois. I was there for 40 years. I kind of feel a little “home teamy” about Illinois. I can say that there have been a lot of crooked politicians and questionable goings on and know that some of it was wrong as well as know some of it got shit done… but I get a little testy when this Wisconsin windbag starts bashing. I think that the root of that is the ongoing link to Obama. Obama is from Illinois. He was an Illinois Senator. Certainly this must mean that our country is now running on Chicago style politics with crooked politicians. Karl Rove suggested this the other day when he was criticizing the Clint Eastwood “It’s Halftime America” Superbowl commercial.
Walker promised 250,000 jobs when he was running and was still suggesting that shortly into his term. You don’t hear about this much anymore. One thing that occurs to me is that Chrysler has announced 1800 new jobs available at the Belvidere plant in Illinois. They’ll be building the new Dodge Dart. Belvidere is about 37 miles away from Janesville, WI, home of the former GM plant. I would guess, and this is only a guess, that some of these southern Wisconsin folks and former GM folks will be seeking some of those jobs. Jobs OUTSIDE of Wisconsin – IN Illinois. Just a guess. Now, if some of those people are off the unemployment chart, will Walker claim a victory for reducing the unemployment rate in Wisconsin? You bet he will.
He will claim that it is all part of his leadership and the “bold and courageous” decisions he has made. Most of those decisions must be made as he is traveling out of state to raise money for his Recall election. He ended his speech with this: The most powerful tool we have is the truth. He wants us to spread the truth. He wants us to share the truth. I feel that the Walker administration has or is manufacturing their own version of the truth – and that this “truth” is what he is spreading. I think it must work kind of like a rash of some kind.
I also wonder if Wisconsin will ever get this year back. IF we did not have to piss around with shady deals (he said nothing about removing collective bargaining when running)… the protests, the party of NO mentality and the ramming of things down everyone’s throat – plus the time and effort and planning to re-run for Governor – on both sides, what in Wisconsin could have been accomplished in this year? Anything positive?
Thursday 2.9.12
Another ad DENIED!
As you can see, this is full of inappropriate content and links you to all kinds of subversive places on the internet. Children… don’t look at this! Oh, you Craigslist crusaders, you! I apologize for being such a criminal.
_____________________________________________________
In other random topics: Sparky.
Sparky is our dog. We rescued him about 12 years ago. He is a Jack Russell with long legs. I can only guess that his brain is about the size of a pea. If not, it seems to be wired funny and I have a hard time figuring out what he’s thinking about at times. His life is not very exciting. He comes in to sleep in the winter. Other than that, he pretty much lives in the back yard. The back yard is his empire. Once in a while he will get a visit from some other random dog or the lady a couple doors down who likes to bring him snacks from time to time. He thinks he is the boss of those birds that occupy the pine tree. He gives utility workers, the mail man and the meter reader hell for getting too close to his empire. He is good with kids. He usually has two speeds: 100 miles an hour and sleeping.
Since he is older now, he is not as spry as he used to be. Jumping up onto the bed sometimes results in missing and banking off the side. He shakes it off and tries again. Once in a while I have to help. In his old age he must have to pee a lot. That or he just THINKS there’s something more exciting going on in the back yard and wants to get out. This is usually every 1.5 to 2 hours… all night long. Eventually, he just stays out.
He’s been here 12 years. He knows (or should by now) every square inch of that back yard. So why is it that every time this dog takes a crap, it is like the most miraculous and precious thing on earth? You know he has to take a crap… you can just tell. He has this body language thing going on. He prances around. He goes into “slight” hunch mode… then more prancing and spinning. He checks out this spot and that spot. More hunching. He’s going to shit. Nope… not so fast, this is not the perfect spot. This seems to go on for a while. Finally, he nails it. Horns go off and angels sing. He’s back to checking out the pine tree birds or maybe a nice nap under the porch.
What a dork.
Wednesday 2.8.12
February drags on.
I’ve been somewhat productive. Here was yesterday’s work out in the 28 or so degrees…
Prior to that, a little rally striping on a sled that had gone over a cliff a couple weeks ago…
And then, some paint mask work for one of our local “Barn Quilt” people…
Then… some racing dudes needed a label:
And THEN…
While I was minding my own business and just working away on things, someone decided that my Craigslist photography ad campaign was out of bounds. What? Yep. Emails telling me that a couple of my ads were flagged and removed. Flagged and removed! Really. Hey, this is not cool. I have generated tens of dollars from these ads and I need to eat. Well, I need to at least have a creative outlet from time to time. Flagged and removed!
The removed ads:
I must have offended some cat people. Suck it up you cat people. In response:
And for now, you can click it here with a couple of extra links. Maybe it was the GOP. I can’t see those guys as cat lovers though.
Thursday 2.2.12
I really should just take more pictures of skinny bald women in rope, but no…..
My ongoing “WTF, did you really say that Newt?” moment continues. A couple of points:
1. The “elite media” thing and his idea on debates. He suggested early on that if he becomes the nominee, he will challenge President Obama to seven three hour debates. “People completely misunderstand what’s going on. It’s not that I am a good debater; it is that I articulate the deepest-felt values of the American people,” Gingrich said.
Well, Newt, that just makes all kinds of sense. It makes all kinds of sense if it was 1858 and you were running for Senate in the state of Illinois. In 2012, things are different. You are running for President, not Senator from ONE state. The current US population is over 307,000,000. The population of Illinois at that time was just over 1 million. Seems like you need to step it up a little to cover the entire country. It seems like in this world of get it now, fast food, instant messaging and instant information, sitting on our ass for three hours while you recreate historical facts would be just a little too much to take. Times 7? It becomes comedy at this point. Not a happy comedy either. More like some sick, dark, twisted thing that ends badly and I want my 21 hours back. Good plan. You want the elite media. You want any media. If you can spend time bitching to and about the media when you could really be outlining a real plan for the future, you’ll do it. You’ll gladly divert our attention away from real issues and turn it into something it is not – like the media is picking on you. By the way, Lincoln lost to Douglas.
2. “I promise you that, if I become your president, I pledge to you my life, my fortune, my sacred honor.” Really? This was at the end of your “I’m #2!” speech in Florida. You are taking lines from the Declaration of Independence and making them your own. Your Sacred Honor. Just what is that?
Ok… time to back off. I’ve been told I’m talking about this stuff in my sleep now.
Wednesday 2.1.12
Two One One Two…
What a let down. No GOP debate before the Nevada Caucus. Beyond that, only 4 more scheduled GOP debates at this point. Looks like I’ll have to find another hobby to occupy my time. In the meantime, I decided to see what a Newt moon base might look like…
I listened to Newt’s “I’m number Two!” Speech after the Florida primary. This dude will have a big, big busy day on inauguration day. He plans to remove 40% or more of whatever Obama has done in his term… in just a few short hours between getting sworn in and going to the balls that evening. What a guy.
Earlier tonight I was watching some of the political news programs and noticed that most all of the commercials that were playing were from oil companies. All of the ads had a similar theme: producing more safe, clean energy in or for the USA. Oil like what they’ll get out of this Keystone XL Pipeline. Maybe there IS a way to get Oil out of shit ground if we just tap it hard enough and spend enough money on it.
But here’s another idea: You Oil Companies have like all the fucking money in the world anyway. If any other kind of energy product came along and you were not able to regulate it, put a price on it and reap the profits from it… you’d be done. Done. Since you have all of the fucking money in the world, why not spend some of it on the research that actually WILL produce energy that will not cripple our planet, that won’t make us sick or make us glow in the dark. Do this and give back what you’ve taken from everyone for so long. Do it as a thank you. Do it so you won’t feel guilty about your three headed Grandson. Do it now before I figure it out all by myself and infect the entire planet with free fucking energy.
Imagine… not giving a shit about whether or not there’s Oil in the world that we need or are willing to die for. Imagine just getting up and doing your thing everyday without any of those issues. Flip a switch, something turns on. Press your foot on the pedal, it goes. You don’t even care anymore if the light inside the fridge does or does not go off when you close the door.
Just a thought.
