Just another WordPress weblog

I came across this site, and felt I should share it. David has found a niche that has yet to be tapped in the urban art world. Combining urban photography, graffiti, and ballooning he has created a unique art form, and I really like it. If you check the website the first 3 starting from the top left are the ones I am talking about.

It’s late and I haven’t posted today so I am just taking this one straight from my head to the keyboard. No planning nor editing, just two quick thoughts on the current state of the internet.

First, I really don’t like that there exist websites whose only reason for existence is to link to photoshop tutorials on other sites. I don’t have a problem with a site posting a duplicate tutorial but at least host it on your own server and take your own damn screenshots. Just put a little work into it, that is all I am asking.

Second, and lastly, I read today that reddit is updating their site to include screenshots of article submissions and to allow you to play submitted videos without leaving their site. Nifty! and it comes at a time when I am tiring of Digg.

I posted my first thoughts on Barbara Ehrenreich’s socialogy expiriment / book in this blog post. Now I have finished the book and it has changed how I think socially and politically.

I now realize that people can work a full time job and still not earn enough money to go to sleep at night with a roof over their heads. For the lucky ones that are able to do that, saving is literally impossible. Any money not spent on housing is spent on food, and that is the end of their paycheck. For many people, there is no room in the budget for extras.

This newfound knowledge has made me a bit more liberal than I used to be. I think minimum wage needs to be increased for one. Secondly, I don’t think people should pay income tax on the first $12,000 of their income, because that is what I figure to be the absolute minimum people could spend on the bare necessities. Lastly, I think we need some kind of free health care. I don’t think all health care in america should be free, but there needs to be a system that provides health care (including birth control) to families who cannot afford it.

If you can’t guess what this is about by reading the title, then check out part 1 of this series.

Season 2 Episode 1 - The 18″ rims they put on the car were plated with 24 karat gold and worth more than the car itself.

Season 2 Episode 2 - They made a Ford Escort into a replica BMW M3. One word West Coast Customs; why?

Season 2 Episode 3 - I know this is a list of impractical modifications, but when I came across something they did that is actually cool I figured I had to post it. They started with a 1958 Volkswagen Bus, added a surf board rack, 40″ television in the back, and a school bus style fold out stop sign with the word “chill” written on it. This sets the bar for their work. They need to customize the car to it’s strengths, and the surf rack does just that on this car.

Season 2 Episode 4 - A working sink and large mirror in a car? Come on. It doesn’t matter that the owner wanted to be a make-up artist. She didn’t say she wanted to open up shop in her trunk.

Season 2 Episode 5 - As if the thousands of controlled explosions that occur under the hood of this Chevy Blazer weren’t enough of a fire hazard, West Coast Customs added a fireplace in the back. Was it because they didn’t know how to fix the heater?

A few weeks ago I posted this article about The Cool Kids’ new EP The Bake Sale. I still think that is an awesome EP so today when I had the opportunity to listen to their new official mixtape entitled “That’s Stupid” I jumped on it. I still haven’t listened to it very thoroughly, but I have heard enough to know I am very excited for their upcoming album “When Fish Ride Bicycles”.

I stopped in Borders book store today and saw in the “new nonfiction” section a book called “Stuff White People Like”. Of course I was intrigued, so I picked it up and read the whole thing right there in the store. The book covered everything I can think of, except one thing. White people love to make soap. This could probably fall under #23 Microbreweries, but it is not mentioned, so I would like to discuss it here.

White people don’t like things that are mainstream, and thus easy to acquire. The book discusses beer, but this same rule can be applied to soaps. White women love to make their own soap, and “corporate” white women with no free time between work and little bobby’s soccer practice like to buy the soap that looks homemade.

No, I don’t want to see a video titled “Obsessed with miley cyrus?”! Oh yeah, while we are on the subject, I also don’t want to watch a video called “Miley cyrus, I can’t wait to see you”.

Thanks

I haven’t setup my voice mail since I switched to tmobile 4 years ago, and I don’t miss it one bit. It is so much easier to just send a text message if you can’t get someone on the phone, and I want the whole world to know this. I sometimes feel bad when I hang up on people’s answering machines, but it is a waste of both of our time for me to leave a message. When you see on the caller id that I called, just call me back. If it is a cell phone, and the problem is urgent then I can send you a text message letting you know what is going on. A voice message would be slower and less precise than both of those methods. How many times do you get a voice mail that you have to play 3 or 4 times to get all the information down? With a text message that will never happen. So please don’t expect me to leave you a voice mail, and don’t try to leave one for me because it won’t work.

I know this is a weak post but I am so tired, and that kicks off the list of things I want. This list, by the way, is in no particular order. Also, I know when you see lists in a blog you expect a long explanation following each item. Well, that isn’t going to happen today. Some of these may be expanded into blog posts of their own in the future though so keep an eye out for that.

Five Dollars to the first person who comments when I make a follow-up blog post on any of these topics! Obviously that person needs to post using a valid email address so I can get in contact with them.

1) sleep
2) food
3) mini-mill
4) polos

Disclaimer: This list isn’t comprehensive. It is just a start, with the things most on my mind right now finding their way onto it.

I know I use a lot of bandwidth so if my isp started capping monthly bandwidth usage I would probably be hit with overage charges, but right now I think that is for the best. If bandwidth caps became common your isp would be earning a significant amount of money every month on overages, and they would like that, so they would make sure people could still download whatever large things they are downloading. Now sometimes people are downloading large things like linux distros or something similar, but a lot of large downloads are a little less legal. I think it is good for my isp to want me to continue to download or stream all kinds of content… their lawyers are better than mine.