sadness

Last night I got the call that my grandmother passed away so I will not be around here for a while.

OMG

Just OMG. Anyone seen the 40 year old virgin? I guess it was a true story. LINK

-Somebody give me $40K. I need to buy one of these. Why do I need it? Dunno. But it is just that cool.

what I like about...

-WTF? Activision secured rights to do a cover of the song What I Like About You by the Ronantics for Guitar Hero. But now the Romantics are taking them to court because the cover sounds too good. STORY HERE

While Tim Allen's Vette is a pretty good deal at $60K, the Pacer from MTV's Pimp my Ride was a real deal at $6k. That is if you don't mind driving a fugly-ass POS. Probably had $6k worth of stereo in it though.

-One of the hot gifts for Christmas this year is Guitar Hero III. While it is a fun game, you have to ask yourself: Will it blend? Here is the answer. I love the look on Tom's face as he is doing it.

Sat.

So they found the identity of another suspect in the killing of the British student. STORY HERE. Today I saw a video that this same waste of skin posted of himself on youtube. Naw. He is normal. VIDEO HERE

Steve mentioned "the pringles guy" in a reply to the story about the tank car. I could not think of Dennis Gage's name so I googled him and wound up reading up on him. I knew about his connection to Pringles, but damn this guy has done some stuff. Here is a short bio. And here is a short story about how he got the gig as the car guy.

-I remember Hardcastle and McCormick, but I don't remember the car being this fugly.

-I would much rather have this one-of-a-kind Pontiac Banshee but I suspect it will go for more.

Back to work.

Thought I was off for four days. Got a call tonight. Stuff happened at work and I have to go back tomorrow and work the weekend. That just really sucks.
I cranked out this shelf for above the fireplace Wed.
-HERE is a story for Stove. Leno took a tank engine and built a hot rod around it.

Monday

Day off! So I started it out by taking stuff back to Menard's. Went through more then 80 receipts from the store and matched them up with boxes of screws, joist hangers, etc.. that I did not need. It was really foggy as I was headed out there. The guy ran out of bills when he was giving me back $100 for a humidifier that won't work on my furnace and so he gave me $5's. I had to get a small thing of paint and so when I was at the register I saw she had a stack of $20's in there. I told her that the guy over there just gave me $100 worth of fives and asked if I could buy some 20's from her. She said, "no". I was like.. if I give you four fives, you can't hand me a 20? She said she can't do that. WTF? I saw the store manager walking by and thought about yelling to him but decided to let it go. His name is Terry. He likes people who frequent his store. He loves me.
So I decided to stop at Wally-world on the way home. Without thinking I turned into the old Menard's store one block too soon. Partly because of the fog, and partly because my truck just thinks that is where it should go. So I got into the lot and turned the corner to come back around to the highway. I eased into the throttle and the back of the truck just spun out from underneath me. I let off and corrected and made a really nice save. It really surprised me so I did not have time to yell, "YEEEE HAWWWW". Otherwise it would have been perfect. I guess the fog on the blacktop and not having traffic on it because the store is closed brought up the oil.
Now... I must get something done.

SUNDAY

Here is a link to an article on some really odd kid's toys.

stuff

I had to work late this weekend, so I did not get much done.
But here is some stuff I came across tonight when I was surfing.
You may have figured out by now that I think Fox "News" is a big joke and Bill O' is the fat punchline. This video is kind of good. It shows how Bill preaches against sex on tv and exploiting women but the whole time he is showing the videos on tv. Best of both worlds. Take the high road, AND show some T&A. Nice work Bill.
-Here is a story of a p-38 Lightning that was ditched in 1942. The sand shifted recently and there it was.
-Here is the gun you need for you next pheasant hunt.
-Some fool paid almost 10K to buy some other guy's character in World of Warcraft. This kind of thing happens a lot, but usually not on this scale. Well Blizzard frowns upon it and three days after he got the character Blizzard locked it out.

Thursday

Here is the coolest steampunked iPod skin ever.

Fark

A couple of things on Fark.com caught my attention just now. One was the story of a guy who was sucking gas out of a car with a vacuum and got blowed up real good. The amazing part of it is that I remember somebody doing that same thing within the last year.
The other was a story about a pancake that somebody sold on eBay for $300 because it had Jesus and Mary on it. Sheez.
This morning when I was going to work the news said that Australia is asking the Santa Clauses down there not to use the phrase "HO HO HO" anymore because it might offend. I just stood there with my mouth open.
In our school they raised the minimum GPA necessary to play football because it was discriminating against black kids. If I were an intelligent black person I would be standing up and saying, "NOW WAIT JUST A SECOND!" But I am neither so I won't.
I went to Best Buy yesterday. I saw the new iMac's. Man those look nice with the aluminum and glass. The BFB dork came over and I asked him what was new in leopard and he showed me how you can turn on this program and when he hit random keys on the piano next to it, they were recorded. I said yea, that is Garage Band and I have that on my Mac, but what is new. That went nowhere so I just ignored him. He came over and I mentioned that it was just a really nice looking machine. He told me that the best part is that the hard drive and the CPU are all inside the monitor. MY GOD! THIS WILL REVOLUTIONIZE THE INDUSTRY! Oh, wait. It already did that in 1998. When he was in 2nd grade.
I am off to patch some drywall above the new door on the second floor. There used to be a window there and I have to piece in some sheetrock so I can put trim around it. It would not be so bad but there is that damn texture stuff and now I have to try to match it. I hate that stuff. Lazy contractors.

Tuesday

My friend Mary brought her dog Buster over today. She has no pictures of him, and it was a nice day so I said bring him over and we will let the dogs run and I will take photos. Buster was not up for new friends and went after Bentley. I was very proud of him because when Buster struck at him, he jumped back and just stood his ground. He did not run away, and he did not attack him. Good boy. The photos tell the story. Unfortunately they loaded in reverse order. Click on the second one to see a larger version of the photo and look at the expression on Bentley's face.






The whole "let's see what we can do with a spare USB port" craze really amuses me to start with. Now the same people that brought you the USB humping dog offer a USB chameleon. So stupid and impractical that I have to chuckle.

DONE!

The deck is finally done. I went to Menard's to take some of the stuff back that I don't need. 1.5 hours later I was done. But when she was ringing up a couple of the items she said that she would have to give me in-store credit since they were more then 90 days old. I said, "god". She apologized. I said that the credit was fine, but I could not believe I have been doing this for 3 months. Next summer I will add the flower boxes in front of the lowest deck and a walkway from the stairs coming from the second deck to the door to the lowest deck. The lowest deck will get screened in and that will be that. But for now. DONE! Sweet.
So now I can move inside. I have a lot of cabinets and things to build there. I got the shop .. well not done, but to where it will function. It will be fun.




Well this is just creepy. Gibson made a guitar that tunes itself. Yea, that is cool indded. But wait. You want to use an alternative tuning? just fiddle with the master volume knob and it will change to an open G or whatever it is you want. Pretty damn cool.

HERE is the company that makes the tuning part of it.

40 years ago today

The Edmund Fitzgerald went down. Somebody put together a really well done video as a tribute. Nice work. EDIT: It was removed.

Thursday

-HERE is the coolest lawnmower you are going to see today.

I guess that is about it.

well that confirms it..

I am truly an idiot. I have been working on making the last set of rails for a few days. That is a lot of work and it is tricky to get 20 spindles, which are jammed into holes on the bottom set of rails at a 35 degree angle, to go into the 20 holes in the top set of rails. I got it all done last night. I came home from work and lugged the thing outside. When I hung it up on the deck, I realized that it was 3.5 inches too short. CRAP. I had marked on the back side of the 4x4 post it attaches to and forgot about it. When I took the wood to the basement I used that mark instead of the correct one.
I made it all the way through this project and did not screw up any cuts. It is only $10 worth of wood (I know because I went to Menard's to replace them already) but it is a lot of work to replace them. Damn I make myself mad sometimes.

-I don't know if you have seen the guy's website that is tying to find the girl he saw on a train, but it was kind of cute. Well, the good news is he found her and the better news is that he is just thanked everyone and said he will not post anymore about it.

-Here is an article telling you why it is actually cheaper to own a Mac then a PC. The usual argument is that PCs are cheaper up front but by the time you buy Norton to try to keep it running and buy apps' to do the things that come shipped in osX (but not as well) you spend more. Here is a different spin: He compares the resale value of the 2 platforms and if you use each for a year or 2 and sell them, you come out way ahead with the Mac even before you buy the software. And as an added bonus you don't have to piss with Norton and get a much better OS. Or as COMPUTERWORLD put it: Leopard spanks Vista, continues OS X's reign of excellence

-Google: coming to a gas pump near you.

Tuesday.

I had the day off and thought I would get done with the deck for the season. As per usual, things took longer then they should have, and I did not. I am getting close though and really want to move on to something else.
-Here is a map you can click on and it will tell you what music is popular in that area.

-HERE is a map that shows percentage of fat people as a function of time. Wonder if you can cross reference to two and find out what kind of music fat people like?

Monday

what the hell is this guy thinking?
Dont Juggle Bowling Balls - Watch more free videos

I saw a link to Rosie's blog and just had to check out what she had to say. There was this poem on there.

brothers and sisters
fantastic
i am all caught up
triple loving it

sally rob calista
all perfect
great tv is exciting
inspiring

walking in manhattan
alone tonight
i herad my name and turned
2 find
a young asian woman
in a columbia sweatshirt
do u remember me? she asks

i did not

i was on ur show
i was the last super kid
yes
i remembered

kelloggs paid for 50 kids
to go thru college
she went to yale
and was now at columbia

she asked for a hug
said thank u

what r the chances
really

spingle deluxe

focus
relax
breathe
pray

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? How lame can it be? And just because she is fat and stupid does not mean she can't spell out the words. Or did she do this on her cel-phone? Oh, she is just so "hip" that she can talk a 14 year old. Gawd. Sorry I made you read that. NOTE TO ROSIE: U R LAMERZ.

Well this is funny. The Social has been canceled. Microsoft canned the ad agency that came out with those STUPID AS HELL ads for the Zune and dropped the whole "welcome to the social" tag line. Now it is "Make it you" In other words, it is hard to have a social when you are the only one. And in case you have not heard, the one Zune fanboy on earth that got a zune logo on his arm, and then later 2 others, now legally changed his name to "Microsoft Zune"

Saturday.

1986 Nissan 300ZX Turbo --Custom Show Car

HERE is the best costume I saw on the internet this year.

HERE is the worst product name I saw all day. If you are going to make something that is an iPod clock why would you name it the iH8 iPod alarm. I HATE iPod Alarm? Sheez. Not as bad as the i.beat Blaxx that I posted before. But again. Say the name out loud before you release the product.

-HERE is the Fugly car of the day. WTF are they thinking?

Friday

Gotta work this weekend. So here is a quick one. The mustang in the photo was done by some dumb ass. That is one thing. But the one in the link was at the SEMA show and was made by a team of (very stupid) professionals. Sheez.
LINK TO UGLIEST MUSTANG EVER

day off

Got a lot done. I got the rest of the carsiding on the middle deck. There is a hole in it where the Bentley the dog can go under. His old house is under there now, but eventually I will build a new one under there.
-Here is an interesting article. This guy takes cars and trucks and converts them to bio-diesel. He gets some pretty amazing mileage and screaming horsepower. It is a long read, but I found it interesting. He has some good ideas about how to get away from gasoline. Much better then the KNOT-HEADS in charge that are leading us down the path of Ethanol.