Fun with Photoshop

I adjusted some of the levels and sharpened the front grill of the car. Overall a subtle but noticible difference from the original.

Stuck in my head

It's time to go home for the day, I've got christmas songs stuck in my head (just one single verse - over and over again).

"So be good for goodness sake, la la la na na na. So be good for... AHG!"

Xbox down Again!

Second time with in a few months. Probably wont be back till after the new year if the repair goes as quickly as the last time.

here's a picture with the penguin.



All i wanted to do today was play some video games on my 400 dollar flashing red light machine piece of crap - but no! now my mouse is broken, some asshat(s) choped all the heads off my snowmen over the weakend, and my image hosting site is down. If one more thing brakes tonight I sware to God......

The only thing that making my not angrey right now is this super crazy internet video and this picture:



Gawd, I miss driving my Corrado. Damn it now I'm upset again.


AND I'm SICK! Worst dAy ever!

Trespassing!

With winter right around the corner and several weather forecasts for snow, I posted no trespassing signs weeks ago. Well yesterday we had our first snow and tonight (never fails) my surveillance cameras spotted the first penguin.

Here is actual surveillance footage:

A close up reveals the face of the intruder - a known criminal, a penguin thought to go by the name "Perry."

Authorities wasted no time apprehending the intruder. The SWAT team was deployed and the suspect was quickly detained.

Police ask that any persons having information with regard to trespassing penguins or those able to further identify the suspect to please come forward.

Thank you - that is all.

First Snow

How to Charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion

Everything Custom

Sunday FD brought her car over to have me do an oil change. I had her do all the dirty work, such as unscrewing the drain plug and getting oil under her fingernails and after everything was done we started to clean up the engine bay a little bit. I went for the black plastic trim pieces first - spiffing them up with a little back to black.

Next thing I know we've got the valve cover cover off and I'm prepping it for paint. I remember saying, "We'll have to get some spray paint if you want to paint this thing." To which FD replied, "You've got paint, in your room - I'll go get it."

This wasn’t the first time FD has proven to know where the stuff in my house is put anyway better than me. One time I called her to ask where Jenga was. She knew.

Here's a picture of the trim piece baking in the oven. I put it in the oven between coats to get it to dry faster. Good stuff, and the gold on black matches really well on the dark blue car.


It was so much fun painting, I started looking around the house for other things that looked like they could use a nice coat of paint. I know what you're thinking, and you're right. Normally this is a horrible idea and what ends up happening is you've a got a bunch of stuff covered in paint that’s not supposed to be covered in paint and the house smells like a poorly ventilated paint booth (like the time in Las Cruces when my brother and I got carried away and stenciled a giraffe on our TV).

This time FD was around to act as the voice of painting reason. I started small – the DVD remote. It came out really cool and encouraged me to continue on to the xbox and what better than a good old fashioned wood grain.

If I had to pick one word to discribe my work it would be, AWESOME!




It looks pretty sweet reattached to the xbox case, I havent taken pictures of the finished product yet though because I'm having a little trouble gluing the hinged pieces back onto the face plate. If I cant get it to work after one more try I'll use some extra small wood screws - which I think'll contrast really well and go along great with the wood grain theam.

I just had this great idea!

So get this... money's been kinda tight lately so I've been considering some options - namely reducing billed secives that i dont use (I dont even watch TV - what am I doing with 147 digital chanels?). In addition I've been staying home/going to bars in my area vs Royal Oak, eating less, reverting to cheap beer/wine, and going easy on Corrado parts spending.

But here's the great idea I had: Get a second job doing something I like doing. So I sent out an email to this little ski hill around the corner form my house. Zing - keep your fingers crossed for me everyone.

I'm an Idiot

OK, no, not really - I'm totally awesome.. and intellectual.

My First Time

So Saturday was my first time ever buying women’s underwear. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought it would be – what’s more, it totally went smoother by my self versus with my new lady friend.

For the ladies, keep in mind, when I say it went smoother, I mean what took “us” two hours to find one thing only took me three minutes to pick out on my own. For the dudes reading this – I totally owned that shit – and I felt like a baller doing it. Fuck yeah!

What else is there to say really? I mean, I totally thought about what I wanted to get her, walked into the store, knew what size I needed (good thing I wrote it down though), took a quick look around, found something that looked sexy, selected the “size 2/small” as what was written on my small note of paper, and brought it to the register. Finally I took special care to use my Visa – as cash would have clearly delayed the check out process (read dumb blonde at the register/those fast food-visa commercials).

Everything said and done, my special lady friend was the hit of the party. Mad peoples were talking about how good she was looking.

The Beastie's

The Beastie Boys, lookin' finer than a new set of snow tires.

I had the opertunity to catch the B-Boys in concert on Monday in Detroit. The show was so money! I was down at ground zero, and got a little crushed up against the front railing.

I honestly never would have guessed that I would ever get to see these guys in concert. I was like whoa the whole time!

So Wha cha wa cha want!

Me sucky-sucky, 5 dolla make you ROFL!

This one's for Phil

Dear Phil,
The other day I went to Chicago. It was cool. I did some stuff while I was there - but nothing particularly note worthy. Then I came home.

Thanks for reading,
R

Windy City, What?

Even though the summer days of braiding daisies into your pigtails and dancing barefoot down Main Street are ending. Last (wait, week before last) weekend was beautiful in Chi-town. That’s the answer to the last installment of Dude Where Am I – fuckin Chicago bitches. See the Sears Tower in the back ground?

I’ve been trying to think of a good way to tell the story of my crazy and fun filled weekend in Chicago but I’ve been struggling with finding the time to do so (this is so going be a novel) while all my spare time in these proceeding weeks went to much needed recovery and rejuvenation.

The trip started as a first date dare that went something like this:

“Lets go to Finland.”
“What right now?” I said. “No way. What about Canada, I haven’t been to Toronto yet.”
“Oh I don’t have my birth certificate to get across the boarder.”
“Ha! Good luck with Finland!”
“Ok well then what about Chicago, let’s go to Chicago right now.”
“Now, now?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright.”

So we got in the car and drove to Chicago. At five in the morning. Still a little drunk after an all nighter of awesomely random conversation. Before even sharing a first kiss. Spontaneously, on our first date.

Some where around Grand Rapids, Michigan, half way there, First Date (FD) turned to me and asked, are we really going to Chicago right now? “I mean like, we can turn around if you want.” I thought about it for all of two seconds and replied, “We are soooo committed to Chicago right now. There’s no turning back” I wondered if she even liked me. At eight in the morning. Dead sober and getting sleepy. Before even sharing a first kiss. Spontaneously, on our first date.

We rolled into down town and got a room at the first hotel we saw. The Hilton of Chicago, as it turns out was the largest hotel in the world when built, and still remains in the top 10. Our room was on the sixth floor, the first set of keys we were issued mysteriously demagnetized them selves in the elevator so we had to go back down and get them recoded. Strangely, hommie at the front desk insisted it was our fault for putting the keys in FD’s purse – which had “millions of things that could have demagnetized these keys. Does it have a magnetic clasp? That’ll do it, yes. Your cell phone has like eight magnets in it, one for the earpiece, one fore the speaker phone, you know. You should also be careful keeping credit cards in that purse of yours. There, you’re all set.”

Too tired to argue the point, and frankly just blown away by the absurdity and non-comprehendible quickness of these statements, FD and I took the new keys and crashed almost immediately. We slept till late afternoon. Now well refreshed. In Chicago. Before even sharing a first kiss. Spontaneously, on our first date.

We decided to get some dinner and then take a walk along the water front. Which was super cool – saw all kinds of awesome stuff. We must have walked a good 3 miles before we took a brake on a bench over looking the pier. Then I totally kissed her. It was awesome. We finished off the night making our way back towards the hotel, stopping at several bars along the way.

One bar in particular stands out in my memory. This was funny. It was a champagne bar, they specialized in a world of champagnes and fine wines. I saw something on the list that looked really good – a dry, higly-oaked, Chardonnay. FD ordered a cosmo, which was too strong and was replaced by a champagne cocktail. The bar tender and I got to talking while FD was in the bathroom.

“I can not place your accent, where are you from?” he asks me.
“… New Mexico” I didn’t realize I had an accent, especially one a German bartender would notice.
“Ahh, ye! New Mexico.” Giving me the thumbs up. “Brute. Very nice.” Brute is made in New Mexico if you didn’t know.

We exchanged names, chatted it up a little more about new mex wines and then I got to telling him what I thought of the chardonnay I’d had. I told him it would make a really good eveyday wine – something non-intrusive that goes with anything and would never offend (basic wino bullshit). The German is nodding his head vigorously agreeing. “Yes. Yes. Exactly. The owner selected this wine for the list for that exact reason.” What ever. It’s two in the morning. We’re having a great time, back on the streets of Chicago. Two miles away from the hotel. We took a taxi back to the hotel.

I’ve left out a bunch. Stay tuned for Chi-Town Volume2: The Art Museum. Good times in Chicago, seriously good times.

Dude, Where Am I? (version 3.0)