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tomdo98@aol.com |
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Archives
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August 2007 Archives |
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08/31/2007 I Fear the Reaper
I listen to 80's music all the time. On my way to work today I was listening to a compilation of 80's power ballads that I downloaded a while back. The makers of this compilation were a little too loose in their use of the word "power ballads" because the compilation had songs like "Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong" by Jennifer Warren and Joe Cocker but it still had good songs like John Waitt's, "I Ain't Missing You."
Last week, my buddy Bobby opened for Blue Oyster Cult in Houston so Mandy and I decided to show our support and headed down towards H-town.
Now I've always heard of Blue Oyster Cult but until recently, I couldn't tell you what songs they sang. Their three biggest hits are "(Don't Fear) the Reaper", "Burnin' For You", and "Godzilla." The first two songs are familiar to me, I've never heard of Godzilla.
The crowd at the 500 person capacity club was a weird mix. Half of the people there were pretty old and very nerdy. The other half was a normal mix of people you might find in a bar. One of the nerdy guys came up to us and said, "So have y'all seen the BOC before? Oh it's great man, it's great. They're gonna blow your hair back." He had an old LP underneath his arm all ready for the BOC to sign.
I came to realize that I don't like the BOC. The Reaper song and Burnin' is entertaining but of course I didn't know or like any of their other songs. Another problem I had is they started jamming (no singing) like crazy for long periods of time. That third big hit that I hadn't heard of, Godzilla, was really stupid. It would have lyrics like, "Oh No! There goes Tokyo! Godzilla!"
Check out the pictorial narration below:
Resting Up Before The Show
Waiting With Baited Breath For Bobby's Band and the BOC
Bobby Working It Out
Bobby relaxing with his wife after the set
Group Picture for Future Christmas Gifts
One Eyed Willie Strikes
Boxing out Lisa as she does her look away bit
It sure is smokey in here. Mandy's eyes are starting to burn.
Let's try that group pic again.
Lisa doing a face in the crowd bit.
I'm feeling a little froggy
Hey BOC is playing!
Ok. That's not bad. We've heard of that song.
This shit is getting too loud. Mandy plugs up her ears.
Damn, they're still on.
God dang it. This is a jam band.
Still fun to rock 80's style.
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08/30/2007 Robot Party
I've co-hosted exactly two parties in my life. A white trash karaoke party and an 80's karaoke party (you can see the pictures from the links on the left.) Around January of this year, my co-hosts and I were planning to throw a third party.
The first thing we had to do was agree on was a new theme. We kicked around a bunch of ideas including a frat sorority party with a kind of Revenge of the Nerds theme. People could either wear some frat outfit like stuffy sweaters with Greek letters on them or they could wear glasses and pocket protectors. I thought it'd be interesting what people would pick. I wasn't getting much love on that idea but there were other ideas on the table like Head bangers Ball, Psychedelic 60's, and Prom. I think those are all fun themes although I don't much about the 60s.
We could never quite agree on the theme nor the venue so that party never materialized. That was 8 months ago. There was only a 3 months span between the WT party and the 80s party.
Why do 30 somethings even need to dress up and drink? Cause it's fun. I've been to a billion sit around and chit chat parties and I have to say the dress up parties or at least parties with some sort of activity are way more memorable.
Even a stupid theme is fun. Check out my friend Ward's robot themed party picture. When he first told me he went to a "Robot Disco Party," I thought it was the dumbest, gayest theme I had ever heard of. But then I thought, creating a robot costume could be really fun. You can add anything to your robot costume from a box to a vcr to flashing lights. The sky's the limit! I wish I was in on that party.
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08/29/2007 Luby's v Furr's: The Fight For Supremacy
I don't think I've ever been to Furr's before. I've been to Luby's hundreds of times and still go there pretty regularly. I imagined Furr's was just like Luby's except maybe that it had a different selection. For some reason, I even thought that Furr's might even be more expensive and be of higher quality than Luby's. I don't know why I thought that.
These places are alike in that they are both cafeterias and they're both sort of set up in the same way. You start off by getting a tray and silverware wrapped in a napkin. It's the same in that both places have cafeteria servers. You know, they ask you what you want and then they put it on a dish and hand it to you. They even have a lot of the same types of food like fried fish, turkey and stuffing, liver and onions, and fried chicken. Now here are some key differences, Furr's is all you can eat and Luby's is not. Luby's has a larger selection than Furr's. It is very clear that Luby's food is of much higher quality than Furr's.
Another key difference is that Furr's is all you can eat so at first, you get kind of excited about that. I got some egg salad, turkey and stuffing, fried fish, mashed potatoes, cabbage, a piece of toast, some jello, a taste of peach cobbler, and a drink for about $9.25. At Luby's I might get roasted chicken, stuffing, a roll, mashed potatoes, cabbage, and a drink for about $11.00.
Now you might say, well Furr's is the clear winner then because you get all that food for less money. I didn't need all that food and a lot of it was kind of gross. The mashed potatoes were fake, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself, but it was whipped up to a toffee like consistency. The fake turkey tasted ok, it was very similar to the fake turkey at Luby's. The baked fish at Furr's didn't taste bad either but it was a lot less delicate than the one at Luby's. I liked the Jello at Furr's fine but the cpeach obbler there was disgusting. I tasted my friend's cherry cobbler and it tasted just like a cough drop. Although Furr's was all you can eat, I didn't feel the need to get back in line.
In conclusion, I feel Luby's is the better place to go. I get plenty full just by eating the Luann platter at Luby's. I don't need to get the all you can eat at Furr's because I don't want to eat that much there.
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08/28/2007 Throwing Back the Fish
I think I generally like fishing. I like the peacefulness of the ocean, kicking back a few beers, shooting the shit with your friends, and the high of pulling a fish out of the water.
Last weekend, I went to Galveston for a day and we ended up doing some fishing on the Sea Wall that night. We rented some poles for $9 a piece and bought some squid to use as bait. At first, I didn't catch a thing and it reminded of the one time I went to Corpus Christie and got blanked out. Fishing can go from fun to very frustrating and boring in a heart beat if you get no action. There is a calm associated with just casting a line and waiting for fish but it feels retarded if you don't get a bite. It's about as retarded as tying a hot dog to a string and casting it in your bathtub.
It took a while for me to get a correct strategy going Saturday. When do I tug? How often do I check my line? How do I avoid that dang old seaweed? How do I wrap the squid bait on my hook for maximum efficacy. I finally got a good rhythm going and pretty much jerked the line hard anytime I felt a nibble. I was tired of checking my line and finding my hook empty.
I was quit pleased when I pulled up my first fish. It was kind of small, about 8 inches, but I was just happy to catch anything. Of course we had no plans to keep any fish whether it was big or small. We were three hours from home so it wasn't like we were going to go home and cook it up. This means that anything we catch we were going to throw back. When you're not trying to keep the fish, the only thing you're going for is hooking a fish as big as possible. You're not going for volume.
I caught four more fish and they almost all looked alike. I finally got to the realization that I wasn't going to catch anything bigger with this bait, on this spot, with this pole, with this casting method. It instantly became a yawner when I figured that out. For me catching the big fish to get me on the pier's top 5 list would have been like winning the lottery.
So back you go little fella. We're headed for Joe's Crab shack to eat fish creatures a lot larger than you.
Ok that's 5. I'm outta here.
Number 4. Yawn!
Bobby was the first to strike fish gold
Way too happy!
Act like you've been there before, Mandy.
Everyone's catching fish that looks suspiciously familiar
Still excited after catching my third one.
I had to learn how to pull it off the hook.
Professional angler. Showing off number 2.
Number 1! Fishing is fun!
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08/27/2007 Late Night Television and SUBTEXT.COM
I often sleep pretty late at night and there's usually not much on television from around 1am - 3 am. The other night, I come across a late night show called subtext. I loosely use the word "show" to describe this very odd programming. It's more like some weird public access program than anything you'd find on the CW.
Here's the premise. The show has a host that reads text messages that people submit. The one female host I saw was real perky and acted like everything she read was the funniest shit she had ever come across. Like "Hi, My name is big daddy nuts what's yours?" or "Yep! Yep! Yep! Lady A" or "I'm a hard core rocker. Look at my pic." The user will then log on and say "Yes. I can see that you're a real rocker. Look at you!"
As stupid as it is, I wanted to text the show really badly and stay up all night until the host read my text and made a comment.
I resisted the urge but I still ended up watching the show for a good 20 minutes just to see what text messages people would submit and how the host would read it and react.
Check out the montage I found on YouTube to see what I mean.
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08/27/2007 Why Not Stephen?
That can't possibly be this guy's real name can it?
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08/24/2007 Results to the Hot Dog Eating Competition
Click play to see it all go down. Set to the music of "You're the Best!" . Only works on internet explorer unless you have the correct windows media plug ins for firefox..
If the embedded player doesn't work click here: http://www.tommybear.com/hotdog4.wmv
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08/21/2007 Let's Be Fair To Jeep And Daimler Chrysler
So I've been going on and on about how crappy Jeep and Chrysler is and how I've had about 5 repairs in 12 months. But to be fair, I was in a major wreck almost three years ago on a Super Bowl Sunday that might have something to do with at least two of the problems I've had. The wreck caused about $8,000 worth of damage so it was pretty major. The cost to repair the vehicle was borderline the cost to total the entire car. The passenger side of the car was t-boned badly at about 50 mph. Although the exterior of the car looked like it imploded, amazingly, the passenger compartment barely changed. If I had to say something good about my Jeep Grand Cherokee, it would be that it appears to be very safe for side impact.
So this is what happened at my wreck. I've animated it below so that it's easy to follow along.
I think the other guy really did run the red light but apparently it doesn't matter.
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08/20/2007 Going For the Car Repair World Record
Here's an update to my car repair woes. It's actually gotten worse. Where I left off last is my car has been having massive electrical problems. Radio cuts out, windows won't roll down, ac won't blow cold, and the smart dashboard thingy keeps telling me signal light is on. The dealership tells me the problem is with the BCM (body control module.) The BCM apparently controls many of the electronic functions of the car. When the BCM went out, it went to each electronic item that I was having a problem with and burnt it out. If I had let it go any further, my starter would have eventually burnt out as well. So how much does all that cost? A cool $800 and $200 more for the rental car.
Now after I got an estimate for my water pump earlier this year from the dealer for $850 and then went to Pep Boys where they did it for $500, I thought I was all done with repairs with the dealership. But the problem with all the electronics sounded so complicated in my mind that I thought I needed a crew of people who only worked on Jeeps to fix. It actually took the dealership almost a week to diagnose, order the parts, and fix the car.
So with that $850 repair I'm good on repairs for a while right? Wrong! Just a mere 1.5 weeks later, as I'm driving home from bowling, the window rolls down about a quarter of the way on its own. I didn't touch a thing. That's odd I thought. Let's get you back up big boy. I try to roll the window up. Nothing. I then have the bright idea of rolling it down a little and then maybe back up. It goes down further but doesn't go back up a centimeter. I have a new bright idea of rolling the window down all the way and then perhaps it'll reset or something then go up. It goes all the way down and then it's done doing any more up and down at that point.
I figure this has to do something with my BCM repairs. I know that it took quite a bit of investigating before they found out what was wrong with my jeep and perhaps they knocked something loose on my driver's side mirror. The jeep dealership tells me it's not related, just a coincidence. I need the motor replaced on that window for another $490.
First of all, you might wonder why I'm even back at the dealership. Haven't I learned my lesson? By some longshot, I thought perhaps they'd fix it for free if they admitted to breaking it when they fixed my BCM. Snake Eyes. A completely different repair. The problem with that gamble is the dealership charges a diagnosis fee of $108 if you don't do the repair with them. They don't want to be in the business of diagnosing problems for free and then you taking it somewhere else to repair it. On the internet, I read the cheapest window repair (other than doing it yourself by buying a kit from Ebay) is about $350. With the $108 diagnosis, that's about the same price as they're charging me so I'm stuck.
Now the real question is, where do I go from here with my car? My car history has been cursed a long long time ago. It is a path filled with naivety and disappointment.
The first car I bought with my own money was a 96 or 97 Maroon Rodeo. It's just a hideous car that looks something like the picture below (without the cool bug guard on the front.) I'll continue the story about how I get royally screwed on that car later.
I found this forum about people who have had problems with 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokees. It reads like a diary for me. I added my own sob story to the mix. http://www.carsurvey.org/viewmorecomments_review_31599_3.html
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08/15/2007 World Speed Cup Stacking
I was eating at Joe's bar and grill today and all the tv's were tuned in to ESPN HD. Playing on ESPN was a sport I have never seen or heard before in my entire life. I'm not even sure what it's called but I think it's called speed stacking. This is where people stack and unstack a bunch of plastic cups.
Now that might not seem cool at all but check out this world record holding kid. I kind of want to buy some professional cups just to see if I can learn it. I think my HEB plastic cups at home wouldn't work. They'd stick too much.
I don't believe this is sped up at all
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08/15/2007 Random 80's Memory: Rick Moranis Used To Be As Big As Tom Cruise
In the past few years, Hollywood has really been pumping out the musicals. Off the top of my head let's see how many I can name. Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Rent, Evita, Dreamgirls, Phantom of the Opera, and Hairspray. Hairspray was really good by the way if you're wondering if you should go see it. As I was thinking about these musicals I also, randomly, felt a little 80's nostalgia coming on. What do you come up with when you combine musicals and 80's nostalgia? You get the movie: Little Shop of Horrors.
This movie came out in 1986 and stars Steve Martin and the then ubiquitous Rick Moranis. Remember this guy? The first movie I ever saw with Rick Moranis was Strange Brew. All I can remember is he was Canadian and liked to make a noise that went like, "cu koo koo koo koo koo koo koo!" Oh yeah, he and his buddy in that movie were also crazy about beer.
After Strange Brew, Rick Moranis had a major role in a major motion picture every year up to 1990 except for 1988. But in 1989, he made up for it by starring in three separate movies.
Here are some notable movies he was in during that time: Strange Brew (1983) Ghostbusters (1984) Brewster's Millions (1985) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Spaceballs (1987) Honey I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Parenthood (1989) Ghostbusters II (1989) My Blue Heaven (1990) The Flintstones (1994) Big Bully (1996)
How Rick Moranis ever became a marquee giant for so long is amazing to me. What exactly was his appeal? Is he a great character actor? Well not really. He really just liked to play variations on the nerd over and over. Can you see Tarantino tap him like he did with Travolta and have Moranis become some intimidating gun man in today's movies? Moranis never had that range brewing in him just waiting to get out. He wasn't good looking. He also isn't really very funny. I thought he was funny in Ghostbusters doing his nerd shtick but I thought My Blue Heaven (in which he played the straight man) and Big Bully were just horrible. The biggest stretch he may have ever had was playing Barney Rubble in the Flintstones.
With all that said about Moranis, Ghostbusters is one of my all time favorite comedies and I like Little Shop of Horrors so much I ordered the dvd from Amazon and have the soundtrack on my ipod. Steve Martin singing about how he loves to be a sadistic dentist is hilarious and Moranis shows he has some singing chops as he belts out, "Suddenly, Seymour." This movie has catchy 50's type music similar to Hairspray.
Moranis's last five credits since "Honey We Shrunk Ourselves" in 1997 were all cartoon voice credits. Has anyone replaced Moranis as today's king of the nerds? |
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08/14/2007 Car Rental Companies Have An RHO for the Extra Insurance and Where Did I Get That DENT
I used to be a consultant who traveled 100% of the time for 7 years which means I drove a rental car 5 out of every 7 days a week, every single week of the year. My consulting company said always decline all the extra insurance because the company credit card will cover any accidents. The 10 or so times I rented a car when I wasn't a consultant, the guy or girl at the counter always gives me incredible pressure to get the extra damage insurance. Maybe they get a bonus for every insurance premium they sell.
I had to rent a car just this week for a few days while my car was in the shop. The price on a Dodge Caliber from Enterprise was 39.99 a day. I think that's pretty expensive but that's all they had. There were not any cheap compact cars available.
As I'm deciding on my car and the contract, I tell the guy I want to decline insurance. Now get this, there are three different additional insurances and the basic one that covers all damages is an EXTRA 14.99 a day. This means if you get in a wreck, you don't have to pay for a thing. They'll take care of everything. 14.99 would increase my per day rental on my car about 50%. And that wasn't the only insurance. There are two others that are an additional 6.99 a day.
I tell the guy my regular insurance will cover any damages and I don't want your stinking insurance. He tells me this is only $14.99 which is way cheaper than the $500 dollar deductible I'd have to pay my insurance to get something fixed. Now I think, that is completely bogus logic. He's trying to tell me that I'd save $485.01 by getting this insurance. Of course I'd only save this amount if I get in some awful wreck or someone vandalizes my rental. The way I look at it, I'm saving $14.99 by not getting it and not getting in a wreck. I've been in one car accident my entire life.
I remember last year, when I was getting a rental car for my California trip, the stupid lady at the rental car company told me no less than 5 times that I needed to be responsible and get the damn rental insurance. I stood my ground against that old bitty. In fact, my gf found that off brand rental car company because the rates were so cheap. If we bought the insurance it'd be like renting a nicer car at a car rental chain.
Anyways, I think it's dumb. In the 7 years that I've rented cars during my consulting years, I never had one rental car company put a claim against me (although I knew plenty of other people who got in accidents.)
So last night, I sort of notice a dimple on the car. I wonder if it's a door ding or something but I don't get a good look. I figure it's no big deal. Today, I return the car and guy who checks the gas and mileage says there's some kind of dent on the rear door, driver's side. We both go out there and sure enough, there's a few tiny dents back there. The rental car guy says, "Was that there before?" I'm like, "I don't know! I didn't get in a wreck." He says, "Maybe parking lot?" I'm like, "Foo, I have no idea."
We go inside and he's checking on something. I'm thinking, I'm fucked. Somebody gave me door dent in some parking lot and now I'm going to have to pay a few hundred bucks out of pocket. I'm sort of freaking out. Thinking what outraged, mad expression I was going to spring on these Enterprise people. And how they were going to ask me if I got the extra insurance knowing full well that I didn't.
Fortunately, he types something on his computer and says there's a history of that dent that hasn't been paid yet. CHRIST! Guy gave me a heart attack. I already have an $803.00 car repair bill waiting for me at the dealership and this guy wants to bust me up for some baby dent.
So fine, it's not my dent, let's pay for this thing and hurry up and get out of here before they think I caused the dent. Next thing I know, the guy's about to utter, "Do you have another card? This one's not working!"
WTF! He quickly catches himself and says, oh, the phone line is down. I wasn't sure if he was trying to save me from embarrassment or if he really saw that the phone line was down. I guess it was down because the card goes right through and I get on my way.
Before I leave, the guy gives me some weird spiel about on a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your experience. At that second in time, I was probably just giddy to get out of there without being charged for some mystery dent. I say 8. He says, "How would I make it a 10?" I give him some stupid line like, I like to save the 10's for perfection. But now that I think about it, here's how you make it a 10. Quit trying to sell me overpriced insurance with faulty logic and then denting my car when I'm not looking to teach me a lesson. On top of that, don't decline my credit card like I'm some common bum. That card is good!
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08/13/2007 Pictures From Trina's Housewarming Party
To see more pictures click here
To see more pictures click here
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08/09/2007 My Stupid Broken Down Old Car
Several years ago, when my 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee was relatively new, a friend of a friend said, "So you have a Grand Cherokee too? Do you have any problems with it?" Their Grand Cherokee was old. It was probably a 97 or something and it had that boxy exterior. At that point in time, my Jeep was only a couple of years old and I didn't have any real problems. It was also on warranty so the few repairs I did on it were free. I remember I had to do one repair where the Jeep kept lunging forward when I held the brakes down. When I got back the work order I saw they did a ton of other stuff to it to fix warranty defects but like I said, the repair was free so I hardly noticed. The friend of friend told me their Cherokee was in the shop all the time. I figured it was just a failing comment to that model and whatever problems Chrysler had back then were all taken care of.
Fast forward to 2007 where my Jeep is now 6 years old and off of warranty. This year alone, I've had two major repairs to my brake system (something about the Master Cylinders, Rotors, and axles) and a replacement to my water pump totaling over $2000. To me, getting car repair work done is like buying furniture. Every time I put money in my car I think, ok it's an investment. I spend the 1k now and I'm good to go for a while just like when I buy a couch. I say, get the nice couch because you're going to have it for a long time.
Proud owner of a Jeep Grand Cherokee back in 2003. The Jeep was only 2 years old then. The smile is from the warm blanket of protection called "under warranty."
That philosophy isn't quite working out for my car because for the fourth time in 12 months, my car is in the repair shop. For the past several months, I've been having strange electrical problems. My car has a "your signal light has been on too long" warning that will go off randomly even when I haven't signaled for miles. The radio will cut on and off when I hit the breaks. The car window sometimes rolls down and sometimes it doesn't. As annoying as those problems are, I could still deal with them and somewhat ignore them.
Well last week, my car declared to me that it will not ignored. On Tuesday, I head to my pool league and my car is behaving like I expect. When I get in my car to go home that night, I notice some new electrical problems. The console that tells me what the temperature is outside has two empty lines. The seat belt warning light that normally turns off won't turn off when I put on my seat belt. The windows won't roll down at all now. But what's far worse than any of that, the AC does not blow cool air.
So there I am driving home with the "AC" blowing warm air and the windows tightly rolled up. I try to decide whether or not it's bearable because I'm really lazy and I don't want to take my car to the shop anymore. It's actually not very bearable at all, it's quite suffocating.
I go home and go to sleep and I almost forget any of that happening. I wake up thinking, I feel kind of worried or frustrated about something but I can't quite put my finger on it. Right before I leave for work, I remember, but by that time, I can't catch a ride from anyone. I decide to try to go to work for one day and then take my car in the morning. I get all of two miles towards work when I realize the heat and lack of ventilation is completely stifling. I can't even imagine what it would be like in an hour of commute going home in 95 degree weather. Grudgingly, I take the car into the shop.
The only reason I have this POS car is because Lexus wouldn't let me in their "golden key" club (their financing arm). My co-worker had a Lexus for 10 years that didn't require a single major repair. Updates later on exactly how much it's going to cost to fix my electric problems.
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08/07/2007 I'm Intimidated By Celebrities
Austin, Texas isn't crawling with celebrities. We have Matthew McConaughey, Lance Armstrong, Robert Rodriguez, and the Dixie Chicks to name a few. Once in a while, I'll see a celebrity and want to talk to them or get a picture with them really bad but I'm scared how they'll react.
In his lyrics, Eminem says:
To leave me alone, when you freaks see
me out
Based on this, I don't know if celebrities actually like people approaching them asking for a picture or wanting to talk to them. I guess if you're not a mega star who gets hounded all the time or a mega dick like Eminen, it shouldn't be a big deal. They might even like it. I'm always so awestruck or surprised when I see a celebrity that I don't have anything prepared.
Just the other month, my friends and I saw Quentin Tarantino at Guerro's, a Mexican restaurant. I've seen him from afar before at a Fiona Apple concert, but I could reach out and touch him at this restaurant. I actually don't want to just talk to celebrities and kiss their ass or something. What I really want is a picture. To get a picture of Quentin, I would have had to squeeze in his booth and sit next to him and then ask someone else to take the picture. I guess that wasn't going to happen but it's not like I had my camera anyways.
Today, I pick up lunch at Whole Foods downtown. As I'm riding the escalator up, I notice somebody celebrity like in front me. There's a big guy with a shaved head and sunglasses in front of me. I wouldn't say he had an entourage but two other guys were following him and wear Krav Maga shirts. I immediately know who he is. It's Bas Rutten. 90% of the people in the world aren't going to know who Bas Rutten is. Only people who follow a lot of MMA would. He does commentary for Pride Fighting and is involved in the newly formed IFL. It also completely clicks with me that it's him because just this past weekend, there was a big MMA expo at the local convention center.
A bunch of thoughts ran through my mind. First I think, I want to just acknowledge him and let him know I'm a super fan. Nah. That's gay. He's a fighter so maybe he's surly and doesn't have time for awkward conversation. Then I think, damn, half the time I carry my good camera but today I decided against it. If I had my camera I would have asked him to pose with me. The third thing I thought of was getting a picture with him using my camera phone then I remembered a story Cyndi told me.
Cyndi was at a golf tournament once when she saw some guy from the show 24. She took a picture of him with her camera phone and that guy remarked, "Real high tech, huh?"
So no way I'm going to take a camera phone picture and have him laugh at my low techedness.
So the whole time I'm coming back to my desk I imagined what I should have said. Maybe, "Mr. Bas Rutten. Hello! I'm a big fan of Pride and the IFL." It still all sounded really gay.
I think I'm a little obsessed about finally getting a celebrity picture. Just around last Christmas, my GF and I saw Joe Rogan at Cap City comedy club. It was a pretty sold out show and right after the act, the lobby area waiting for Rogan looked a little crowded. It was also during the The Great Austin Ice Storm of 2006 so we thought we had better just get out of there. At the show, I noticed one of my fellow Jujitsu students was there.
I didn't get to talk to him until Jujitsu class again a few weeks later. I asked him about the show and then he tells me how he met Joe Rogan after the show.
I said, "Wasn't there a long wait?" And he says, "Not at all." He then proceeds to tell me this whole story of how he told Rogan he was a big MMA fan (Rogan does commentary for the UFC) and how he messes around with it and is a purple belt. My student buddy then asks Joe for a photo and then Joe suggests that they do karate poses for the camera. So my student buddy has multiple pictures of him and Joe are doing karate poses!
I was literally green with envy. Just kidding! I didn't turn the color of green but I was very jealous. I just know that I can carry my camera around for the next 365 days and not see another damn celebrity.
He's in Austin doing some seminars: http://www.fitandfearless.com/
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08/06/2007 The Wasp
I don't really have that many long running streaks. On Seinfeld, Jerry went a decade without puking. I on the other hand have puked this year. I used to have a "never been in a car accident" streak but that got broken on Superbowl 2002. The only other streak that I can currently think of is "never been stung by a bee or wasp" streak. I've had that streak my entire life.
Last Friday, my GF had to come by my place when I wasn't there in the afternoon to pick something up. She calls me before she leaves and tells me she saw a wasp in my place. She said it's behind the blinds and she couldn't really get to it to shoo it away or anything. I made a mental note to check for the wasp when I get home. There was a lot going on that Friday. We went bowling for several hours after work and then out to a bar for some more drinks and a burger. By the time I get home late that night, the last thing I think of is, check for that wasp.
So there I am at my place chillin' away on the couch when I decide I want to get something out of the fridge. As I head towards the fridge, I feel an intense pain like a spike right through the second toe of my left foot. I figured I stepped on a tack or something so I fall on my butt to prevent my foot from getting punctured any further. There's no tack sticking out of my foot. Instead, there's a disabled wasp wiggling on the ground. I immediately take action and strike the wasp with a magazine before he can recover and strike again. I even take a little piece of cardboard and cut him in half to make sure he doesn't come flying out of the garbage can later and because I'm so damn mad my foot hurts so much. What the hell was that wasp doing hanging out on the ground? At least if it were flying around it might have left me alone long enough for me to kill it or shoo it out the back door.
Since I've never been stung before I didn't really know what to expect. I inspect my toe looking for a dangling stinger but there isn't any. Just a tiny dark red spot but it doesn't even look like my skin is broken. Upon Googling the subject later, I find that out only bees leave their stingers. I was all ready to scrape the stinger out with my fingernail or a butterknife and to be careful not to pull it out with my fingers. Pulling it out with your fingers will just squeeze more venom in your body. But, there's no stinger so it's a moot point.
You know, it never occurred to me that a wasp or a bee had venom that it would pump in your body. What experience do I have with venom? I know snakes have venom. I guess I imagined a wasp sting as being somewhat painful and then just having a lasting effect like maybe a mosquito. I was way off. First of all, the sting hurts like a MF. It's not like a getting pricked with a needle from a doctor where the prick hurts and then it's fine. This continues to hurt because of the venom. It hurts so much you have to put ice on it to numb out the pain and maybe even take some ibuprofen. It also doesn't just hurt at the point of attack. I guess since the venom is spreading in the area, my whole foot was in a lot of pain and swelled up. I had to walk on my heels for a while. More Googling on the subject of wasp stings came up with a lot of weird home remedies like putting tobacco or vinegar on the sting. Since I quit smoking, I didn't have any tobacco but I was able to get some vinegar to dab on the area. I don't think it did anything but make it stink a little.
So my streak is broken. I have now been officially stung by a wasp and it's really unpleasant. I'm sure I'm going to be a little jittery about wasps for at least a few months.
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08/02/2007 One of the Most Embarrassing Things I've Ever Seen
The only thing I can think of that would be more embarrassing is peeing in your pants in public. Many of you may have seen this before but I didn't until last night.
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08/02/2007 Painting a Crappy Asian Themed Picture
So I'm still struggling with oil painting. I can't find my "voice", my expression, or my style. JFF (just for fun), I decided to paint something with an Asian flair to try to connect to my roots a little. I don't think it turned out very well.
You see in my youth, I was used to doing very detailed work like my drawing of Abraham Lincoln below. Now why in the world would I draw a picture of good ole Abe? Because he has an honest face of course. Technically it's pretty good, if I do say so myself, but as a composition, it's nothing. It's just a portrait of a picture I got from Life magazine.
I feel to grow as an artist. I need to make more interesting, complicated compositions. Something unique that speaks to people. It doesn't have to be super detailed and realistic like honest Abe. Who cares if you can paint or draw something that looks like a photograph? Although you can appreciate someone with those types of skills, it'll never be great art. Besides, the old artists of the past like Rembrandt and Caravaggio already perfected painting realism. Apparently Pablo Picasso could paint realistically very well but it wasn't until he did his abstract stuff that he got famous.
This painting is baby stuff!!!
I'm not going to give up. I just need to create interesting compositions and find a suitable style. To see a few more paintings that I've done click here.
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