Drawn Along

Skullptures

2009-06-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple sculpture doodles I did this week:

Mushrooms to the Rescue

2009-03-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

A Wall... of MOSS

2009-03-04T14:36:00.000-08:00

The Moss Room, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, is a restaurant with a 28-foot tall wall of moss. I am down with all of this.

Miniature Midtown Manhattan

2008-10-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

This is badass.

2000 hours is a full-time job for a year, and he did it in 6 months.

National Geographic - Soil

2008-09-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

National Geographic's Featured Article for September on Soil: Our Good Earth, by Charles C. Mann,

Journalists sometimes describe unsexy subjects as MEGO: My eyes glaze over. Alas, soil degradation is the essence of MEGO. Nonetheless, the stakes—and the opportunities—could hardly be higher, says Rattan Lal, a prominent soil scientist at Ohio State University. Researchers and ordinary farmers around the world are finding that even devastated soils can be restored. The payoff, Lal says, is the chance not only to fight hunger but also to attack problems like water scarcity and even global warming. Indeed, some researchers believe that global warming can be slowed significantly by using vast stores of carbon to reengineer the world's bad soils. "Political stability, environmental quality, hunger, and poverty all have the same root," Lal says. "In the long run, the solution to each is restoring the most basic of all resources, the soil."

More New Ink

2008-08-26T08:21:00.000-07:00

Some abstract hatched drawings.

Documentaries I Wouldn't Pay To See*

2008-08-26T08:04:00.001-07:00

The Capital Group Sierra Club is presenting a series of films on Transit. I don't know why either.

Their next film is called Taken For A Ride, and is a 1996 documentary about how the streetcar industry was dismantled by sinister and greedy automobile and petroleum companies.

From what I've gathered, the film's theory is that a very young General Motors figured people would give up on public transportation and buy more of these new things called automobiles if the heaven-on-earth that was the electric streetcar was replaced by smelly, bouncy, slow-moving buses (made by GM.)

Perhaps the next film in the series will deal with how the evil streetcar megacorporations plotted with the Big Coal power industry to railroad majestic horse transportation out of existence...

Or how greedy equine ranching monopolies jockeyed for the top spot at the expense of pure and honest pedestrian mobility...

We should all be flagellated. Locomotion indeed. Ok I'll stop.

Anyway, here's the Great American Streetcar Scandal wikipedia page.

(*because they're free. Also, I'll be out of town, going on a trip, in a car.)

Robert Pogue Harrison

2008-07-25T05:31:00.000-07:00

From Artforum:

Gardening, like art, can counter the frenzy of our age, which is characterized by an aggravated consumerism that entails as its necessary correlate endless production and endless productivity. The daily turbulence that today’s capitalist economy requires militates against the sanctuaries of repose that I discuss throughout the book, of which gardens are typically a figure. My last chapter is titled “The Paradox of the Age.” The paradox is that, while the system is in a complete frenzy, what seems to be driving it is a desire to re-create a passive Edenic condition in which all the fruits of the earth will be provided for without care, labor, or pain—as if we could be consumer enjoyers of endless bounty. But the stories and myths that have come down to us through the ages, and which I treat in my book, tell us that the true source of human happiness is not consumption but cultivation, is not passive gratification but the assumption of active responsibility.

Duty-free Prices

2008-06-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Fascinating article about interactions between economic and ethical motivators. [via]

To explore the interaction of moral sentiments and self-interest, Bowles begins with a case where six day care centers in Haifa, Israel imposed a fine on parents who picked their kids up late. The fine aimed to encourage parents to be more prompt. Instead, parents reacted to the fine by coming even later. Why? According to Bowles: "The fine seems to have undermined the parents' sense of ethical obligation to avoid inconveniencing the teachers and led them to think of lateness as just another commodity they could purchase."

New Ink

2008-06-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

Sup?

2008-05-31T13:37:00.000-07:00

I'm at the NCAA Regional Baseball Tournament at NCSU. Where are you?

DBTs & Dexateens

2008-05-15T08:24:00.001-07:00

Great show, even though they only played 3 songs off of my Super-Bulletproof-Mega-Epic DBT mix cd.

The Dexateens were pretty awesome. There's like a Brazillion times more energy in their live show than on their studio recordings. A++ Would rock again.

The only misstep of the evening happened when the Cat's Cradle's CO2 system cratered and I had to stop drinking Oatmeal Porter. Oh well. The secret to a happy ending is knowing when to roll the credits. Better role them now before something else goes wrong.

I Got Tickets to the Show

2008-05-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Drive-By Truckers. Cat's Cradle. Who else is in?

2008-05-01T13:21:00.000-07:00

RIP
Kitty
2007-2008

April Graphite Drawings

2008-04-30T22:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, these should be scanned, not photographed with a digital camera under crapozoid work lights, blah blah blah.

First Spring Hike

2008-04-29T08:17:00.001-07:00

Shining Rock Wilderness Area, Pisgah National Forest, April 26-28, 2008:

From Big East Fork parking area on Saturday afternoon, we hiked Old Butt Knob trail up to Shining Rock. This is a 3400 foot elevation climb, and it feels like it. The weather was pretty nice: partly sunny and breezy. We could hear thunder to the northeast, but we stayed dry that day. We camped near Shining Rock Saturday night, and got to hear the coyotes howl. Fish and rice tacos for dinner.

Sunday morning brought rain. We broke camp a little late and headed south on Art Loeb trail toward Big East Fork trail. There were gaps where the rain let up, but we stayed wet all day. We camped near where Greasy Cove Prong merges with the Big East Fork of the Pigeon River. It was a very scenic place to stay, and the rain let up for the evening not long after we arrived there. Chicken and pasta for dinner.

It began to sprinkle just after we turned in, and not much later it began to pour. It rained hard all night, and didn't let up until near 10am Monday morning. We waited it out, not having far to hike. We crossed the water and proceeded down Big East Fork Trail back to the parking area. There were some very nice campsites along this section of trail, all within 2 hours of the parking area. It's probably very crowded along here during the warmer months. I'd still like to come back this summer and check it out.

Truckers Strike This Spring to Break High Fuel Prices

2008-04-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Hundreds of thousands of independent truck drivers silenced their rumbling diesel engines this week in protest of high fuel prices. Drivers from across the country descended on some of the most popular party destinations for a few days of fun in the sun, angry over the rising costs of delivering goods over the road.

Many drivers are stopping mid-shipment, risking their reputation and livelihood to make a unified statement to the fuel industry. Bob Harrigan, a driver 13 years from Missouri, parked his load of Budweiser beer near South Padre Island, Texas on Tuesday. He and others will spend the next 6 days lounging in protest in a picket line of beach chairs along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

Spencer Edmunds, an Idaho native with 8 years experience, stopped with his load of products from Bacardi & Company in Henderson, Nevada. "It's not quite Vegas, but it's cheaper, and the girls are just as crazy as these high diesel prices," he said.

Down the blacktop in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, rookie driver Martin Bailey from Michigan parked his Peterbilt tractor without a load. He plans on meeting up with some colleagues bringing shipments of "vodka, inner tubes, and super-soakers" that they hope will help them reinforce their stance that fuel costs must go down, or compensation must go up.

Eddie Fuller, from San Diego, California has been hauling freight for over a decade. "It's a shame that the situation has forced us to do this, but a week in Glamis is gonna be killer. I'm stoked." When asked what his plans for the week would include, he replied, "We're only boycotting diesel so my truck is parked, but my sand rail runs on gasoline and attitude, bro."

The impact of the truckers strike will not be fully clear until well after it is over, but one thing is certain: it will be a week parts of which many of these drivers won't soon forget.

New Ink

2008-03-20T09:25:00.000-07:00

Morning Panorama

2008-03-15T15:03:00.001-07:00

Whatever, it's just basketball. Pull for Clemson, enjoy the thunder and lightning, hope there are no twisters, and enjoy this view from my hotel room balcony in Myrtle Beach a week ago:

That thing floating out there in the water to the right of center is a sea monster, I swear.

Weather You Need to Know

2008-03-15T14:45:00.001-07:00

The ACC Basketball Tournament Semi-finals are on right now and WRAL keeps sidelining their broadcast of the Duke-Clemson game because it's raining somewhere. Apparently a weather update crawl across the HD broadcast would be insufficient for WRAL to inform its viewers that there may be golf ball-sized hail somewhere in the viewing area, and they've got to take over the whole screen and put the game in a tiny box you can't even see on the HD feed because they kick the whole feed down to SD resolution. This despite every HD television being capable of handling any of WRALs digital subchannels, including their 24/7 weather channel. So weird...

Training is Everything

2008-02-27T00:46:00.000-08:00

Wow:

Mock gunman terrifies students

An armed man who burst into a classroom at Elizabeth City State University was role-playing in an emergency response drill, but neither the students nor assistant professor Jingbin Wang knew that.

"I was prepared to die at that moment," Wang said Tuesday.
...
After about 10 minutes, the class heard people talking outside the door, and campus police rushed in and subdued the man. "Even after this was over, nobody explained it," Wang said.

Good thing the simulated gunman waited ten minutes to be "apprehended" before he ever started fake killing anybody.

Of course, now we know how long any crazed lunatic has to do his thing before the campus police show up.

At least we got to see how the no-weapons policy at Elizabeth City State works. It kept this idiot from getting shot by the law-abiding students and teacher, who feared for their lives. Even fake rampaging gunmen are as safe.

My Weekend in Virginia

2008-02-18T21:41:00.001-08:00

Lessons in Refreshment

2008-02-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

Twist all you want, that Harp cap is a pry-off.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

2008-01-26T15:30:00.000-08:00

I've started growing sugar crystals for the purpose of photographing them (so not just because they're delicious).

I started off in the classic skewered rock candy fashion.

I'm interested in these crystalline forms partly due to their combination of pattern and disorder. Repeating structures arise chaotically, determined by variations in temperature and concentration, vibrations, surface imperfections and impurities.

I'm also interested in how these miniature forms evoke natural rugged landscapes. Fractal patterns repeat at different orders of scale. More on that to come.

Person County, 1939

2008-01-17T02:09:00.000-08:00

Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof.

Like there's any other way?

You Tell Me

2007-12-23T07:25:00.000-08:00

That Jet Set Crowd

2007-12-15T00:39:00.000-08:00

My flight home consisted of a short hop from Portland to Salt Lake City, listening to a couple hydroelectric plant foremen and a Norlift logistic engineer chat about all sorts of things. They talked about rain in Oregon two weeks ago (there was a lot), a guy in the news who almost died when he guzzled the vodka his airline wouldn't let him on the plane with (it was a lot), economic growth in Oregon (there is a lot), the total cost of their kids' Christmas lists (it will always be a lot), and how much elbow room we had on that plane (not much at all, really).

That leg may have been a little cramped, but otherwise pleasant and uneventful. It was the last leg, from SLC to RDU, where things started getting goofy. My 3+ hour layover consisted entirely of people-watching since here it is almost 2008 and the Salt Lake City International Airport still does not offer free wi-fi. We boarded the plane on time, around 4:45pm, and a couple minutes after I'd settled into my seat I noticed that the soothing music coming through the speakers was Sade's "The Sweetest Taboo"... which is unobtrusive enough, until you hear it over... and over... and over. And then they closed the door and pulled back from the gate, and it kept playing. It kept playing while we taxied around to the de-icing station, while we waited in line to de-ice, while we de-iced, and while we taxied to our runway. It was only interrupted when the captain came on the PA to tell us that we were 8th in line to take off and were going to get into Raleigh late and so it was cool if we wanted to use our cell phones for a while longer since we wouldn't be getting off the ground anytime soon - then back to Sade.

Finally, after a last-minute runway change that led to a few more minutes of sweet, sweet taboo, we got airborne and put all that behind us.

Then for in-flight entertainment we were shown Arctic Tale, which The Hollywood Reporter described as, "a new documentary which hopes to combine the appeal of March of the Penguins and An Inconvenient Truth" - which is pretty much all you need to know about that, except also it's narrated by Queen Latifah. I didn't get to enjoy that last part, since I didn't spring for the $2 airline headphones, nor bring my own.

What followed Arctic Tale was one of the weirdest muted-television-watching experiences I've ever had, and something that I will never forget this week. I missed the opening credits and was hopeless guessing what this show was, but I did recognized Matt Frewer (Max Headroom) and Joe Morton (dude that played Miles Dyson in Terminator 2). So after a quick search it turns out this was an episode of a Sci-Fi Channel show called Eureka. This series might be good with sound. It might be great with sound. For all I know, when you can actually hear the dialogue and follow the plot it might be the best show ever made... but I saw it without sound and it was surreally bad. In this episode, a meteorite punches a hole through the sheriff's jeep. The sheriff is played by Colin Ferguson, whose acting technique appears to consist entirely of furrowing his brow and looking like a really worried grown up Timmy Martin - like "Lassie has been in a well for 30 years" worried. Anyway his jeep is perforated so the sheriff has to ride around in this golf cart/Smart car thing that talks and drives itself. And then there are geese that aren't flying right (??) and Max Headroom is concerned about them and trying to catch or fix the geese, or something. And then there's some kind of science fair and one project goes awry and creates a magnetized whirlwind of metallic objects, and then there's some goodlooking woman dressed in black fatigues and wrapped up in 60lbs of SWAT gear and pouches and ballistic nylon web belt garbage. Then a meteorite storm threatens the town, and lame computer-generated meteorites hurtle from all directions. Then Miles Dyson or somebody fires an ion cannon into outer space and deflects something and the world is saved. I mean that's pretty much it. This is the Sci-Fi channel's most watched original series, and is greenlit for a third season. You figure it out.

Then we landed at RDU, and it was "You give me, you give me the Sweeeeeetest Taboooo" all the way to the gate...

Update: Arctic Sea Ice Re-Freezing at Record Pace, Al Gore is reportedly sending the polar bears a monster truck full of North Face PB Cayenne SOD Triclimate Jackets, by air. That dude loves him some environment. No word yet on what the polar bears are fighting now that the T-Rex population has fled south for warmer Canadians to eat.

I'm Back

2007-12-14T21:58:00.000-08:00

In North Carolina.

Versus - Behind the Glory

2007-12-10T14:06:00.000-08:00

Training is everything. Push the envelope.

Versus 3 - Jerusalem Cricket vs Stick Bug

2007-11-30T20:05:00.000-08:00

Know thy enemy. Things aren't always as they seem.

Sometimes a stick is just a stick.

Sometimes a twig sipping a cerveza wants you DEAD.

Versus 2 - Elephant Vs Giant Sea Scorpion

2007-11-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

I'm changing the name from To the Death to Versus, because plenty of legit battles end in the loser choosing to withdraw. This one's still up for grabs:

This is in honor of a fossilized claw recently discovered in Germany.

The fossil, found in a 390-million-year-old rock, suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought, the researchers said.

That is particularly good news for the Versus series.

Cyd nominated these competitors. Nominations for future Versus battles are always welcome. Toss them in the comments, unless you know the number to my bat phone.

To The Death: 1

2007-11-08T10:21:00.000-08:00

T-Rex vs. Polar Bear: Who would win?

Didn't even see it coming.

Classic Lonnie Donegan

2007-10-17T04:33:00.000-07:00

China Freight

2007-09-19T22:07:00.000-07:00

I bought a $6 set of x-acto type razor knives at Harbor Freight that came with a sharpening stone that is coarse. The little box the stone came in says "Fast Cutting." It feels kind of like a sidewalk. Thanks, China. What were you thinking?

Whatever. It came with 8 knife handles and 30+ blades. Yes, they're all kind of shoddy but come on, $6! And I can sharpen axes with this stone (with or without oil!)

I'm not even going to get into the miniature miter/cut-off saw.

Still Here

2007-09-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, posts have been sparse. Look for more after the first week of October. For now, go look at a painting:

Pubbed and Quizzed, at the Same Time

2007-08-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

Went to pub quiz last night. Full team of 6 for the first time ever. Theme of the week was Disney. We killed.

No wait we GOT killed.

May I Suggest

2007-08-09T13:36:00.000-07:00

Just watched Zach Galifianakis - Live at the Purple Onion

I'm not going to say buy it, unless you're the kind of person who has a lot of people over and then can't think of anything to talk about and panics and needs a DVD to put on. If you're that kind of person, then I'll not only say buy it, but I'll also say buy a second DVD player just for this disc, so that it's always ready to go. And if you think that's kind of an odd thing to do, to buy a DVD player just for one disc, then let me remind you that DVD players cost $28 dollars, and otherwise you're just going to spend that money on throw pillows and antidepressants.

Everybody else, though... netflix it or whatever.

[3 out of 4 beards]

Mari-ju-whiners

2007-08-09T13:19:00.000-07:00

Saw this on digg today. "Marijuana is far less addictive than alcohol [bar graph]"

Well, yeah. They repealed Prohibition. According to that graph, weed is less addictive than caffeine. How did you little stoners ever get so excited over such a harmless, weak-ass drug? Looks like that stuff is about as dangerous as chicken noodle soup. Where's the glamour? Where's the risk? It's all in the marketing, bros.

Lake Tahoe

2007-07-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

July 4th:

The Jerusalem Cricket

2007-07-18T11:47:00.000-07:00

I discovered this critter in my uncle's driveway in Nevada last week. It's called a Jerusalem Cricket, even though it isn't really a cricket. It's also called a Potato Bug, even though it isn't a true bug and doesn't eat potatoes. I found him at 5:15 in the morning, and at a little over an inch and a half long, I could see him coming at me in the dim pre-dawn light.

Into the Wild

2007-07-18T11:15:00.000-07:00

So Paramount Pictures and Sean Penn have made a movie of Jon Krakauer's book Into the Wild. Swell. What an adventurous, inspiring trailer. What the trailer doesn't tell you is that the protagonist, Christopher McCandless, starved to death in the Alaskan summer because he didn't have a clue about what he was doing. I'll be the first to tell you that the outdoor equipment industry thrives on selling unnecessary equipment to people who don't need it and probably won't ever use it, and you can get by just fine in the wilderness with very little equipment if you know what you're doing, but you've got to know what you're doing. Judith Kleinfeld, in the Anchorage Daily News, wrote: "[McCandless] walked into the wilderness with no map, no ax, no mosquito repellent and no first aid equipment. . . . Many Alaskans react with rage to his stupidity. You'd have to be a complete idiot, they say, to die of starvation in summer 20 miles off the Parks Highway." I'm hoping the film doesn't just tell the story from Chris's perspective, but also deals with how his decisions affected those who cared about him, and how his legacy continues to inspire and misguide people today.

Fake Macro - Tilt Shift Photography

2007-07-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

City Shrinker: Ben Thomas miniaturizes Melbourne. He uses tilt-shift lenses to achieve the scale-model effect in camera, but those lenses aren't cheap. You can fake-fake it using gradient masks and blur filters in Photoshop or the Gimp or what-have-you.

10-8-08 Update: some pretty cool examples of tilt-shift video are making their way around the net, like Keith Loutit's time-lapse videos here.

11-17-08 Update: Ok get over it.

Latest Shirt Design

2007-07-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

I made this Octopus t-shirt over the weekend, but some friends that have seen it didn't see the octopus, and thought it was just some tribal thing I expectorated. Please. But so I may have to work on it a bit. Thoughts (either of you)?

Tim Blair

2007-07-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

Elders to Fix World, Nap, THE SIGNS! CAN'T YOU SEE THE SIGNS?

Fourth of July

2007-07-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

Incline Village puts on a pretty good fireworks show. Happy Birthday, America.

Topsail Beach

2007-06-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Shutterbuggin' Me

2007-06-27T18:04:00.000-07:00

You know, Christmas is right around the corner... A Canon Digital Rebel XT could really come in handy. Of course, I only want it because of [daily dose of imagery], so really I need Toronto and lots of art museums and show openings and activity. But Portland could be a Toronto stand-in, yeah? Something to think about...

Update: The Nikon D40 is only 6.1 megapixels, but the LCD is bigger and it comes with a lens... Options, options.

North Carolina Gets Fred Thompson

2007-06-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

Fred Thompson Grabs Lead in N.C. Primary Poll - and he hasn't officially declared he's running yet.

UPDATE: Now Fred Thompson is tied nationally with Giuliani among likely Republican primary voters, according to the latest Rasmussen poll.

Republican Debate

2007-06-05T18:46:00.001-07:00

The Republican Debate on CNN tonight was pretty good. I can't see anyone besides Rudy McRomney winning the nomination. Ron Paul's libertarianism is precious as long as it's ineffectual. The rest of the crowd is all "hi, i'm a republican." Tancredo wants to close the borders, which I thought was a little much.

Fred Thompson spent a half hour on Fox News with Sean Hannity after the debate. That was pretty fantastic. Ann Coulter is pissed he didn't personally set Bill Clinton on fire or something, but that's all she's got.

A Seven Has Two Ends

2007-05-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Timberlake on the 2nd, Roanoke on the 23rd, Donner Ski Ranch on the 30th. June's looking busy, but I see two weekends not yet nailed down. What to do, what to do? Signs point to one in the mountains and one on the coast, but the suggestions box is open.

As Happy a Region as on This Side of Heaven

2007-05-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

I'm back in North Carolina for a month. Plenty of things to do and people to see. More later.

An Apology

2007-05-10T23:56:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take a moment to apologize to the turnip-american community. From their refreshing taproot, peeled and eaten raw right out of the ground; to their delicious greens, boiled with a ham hock and served with vinegar; turnips are delicious and they deserve better. I'm sorry.

Bushel of Dur

2007-05-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

No wonder they're called a "crop of candidates" and a "field of contenders." Some of these guys belong in a cardboard box at a farmers' market.

On May 5, Stormin' Mormon Mitt Romney tried to bolster his street cred with the Pat Robertson crowd by criticizing France for instituting 7-year dissolving marriage contracts that do not exist outside of fellow Mormon Orson Scott Card's science fiction novels. On April 29th, Romney said (admitted? confessed?) his favorite novel is Battlefield Earth, by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of another great religion that believes in aliens.

Then, on May 7, Barack Obama said in a speech at a Richmond fundraiser, "In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died—an entire town destroyed," when in reality only 12 people died. Who's he been talking to, the Lancet?

I heard just yesterday that John Edwards gave his word to investigate the collapse of World Trade Center 7. At first, I thought, "what is his skull full of, Prell?" but after watching the video it looks to me like Edwards isn't aware of the crazy conspiracy theory he's promising to investigate, so I'll give him a pass. He's too busy paying his utility bills to be briefed on everything. However, the excited nutballs in the audience who applaud his answer and clearly do know the Trutherism behind the collapse of WTC7? They belong on the turnip truck. Climb aboard, people. Fill it up - bumper and all.

I'm not even going to say anything about woodland creature Dennis Kucinich.

Conversations with Cold Mouse Hand: 1

2007-05-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

Me: What's up?
CMH: Chillin'...
Me: No kidding. What is the deal?
CMH: Dude, it's 52°F and I have a high surface area to volume ratio. If elephants were much bigger their body heat would cook their innards. I'm like the opposite of that.
Me: ?!

What Grinding Noise?

2007-05-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Either Berne's dishwasher is cutting splines in some new axles and forgot to warn us, or we're due for a return to the caveman days of washing dishes by hand.

If I can figure out a way to eat Ramen off of a paper towel, everything will be fine.

Rubicon Panoramas

2007-05-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some panoramas from my trip to the Rubicon trail last September:

They're all 500 pixels wide here. The originals are much larger. That first one is 9700 pixels wide.

Do you Twitter

2007-05-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

So yeah as you can see in the little side column badge thingie, I've registered at Twitter. Clearly it's usefulness is largely determined by the network effect, so I guess I've just got to try it out for a while, and the four of you who read this blog who aren't losers could consider doing the same. I'm *this* close to registering on MySpace, which I'm not at all happy about. This covering-all-your-bases ubiquitous online presence stuff is nauseating. Can't one of you social networking sites hurry up and gobble up the rest?

The Hammers

2007-05-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

We had a blast. On the drive down it rained the entire time, except when it snowed. We spent Saturday night in Redding at our friends Laura and Jeff's place. Sunday morning we took it easy. Laura gave the guys mohawks. My head was already buzzed. We'd planned on waiting for the rest of the group coming down from Washington, but they were running a little behind, and it seemed like a better idea to go ahead and get on the road.

We got away a little before lunchtime Sunday and drove all day and night to arrive at Means Dry Lake around 3:30am Monday morning. It was freezing and the wind was fierce. We parked the tow rigs to block some of the wind and built a campfire. It burned hot and fast but didn't do much good, so we called it quits and got some sleep.

The Washington/BC group stopped in Barstow Sunday night and didn't arrive at camp until late Monday morning. After a bit of meet'n'greet we went on the first trail run, up Sledgehammer. When we got back to camp most of the remainder of our group had arrived, so we decided to go run the same trail again.

Most of Tuesday was spent fixing breakages from Monday and setting up the camo net to try to stay out of the beating-down sun. We ran Back Door late in the day and Crash got a little vertical in his Toyota. He rolled it backwards while pirouetting 270 degrees, but luckily a fender was the only casualty.

That night Jake mixed up some grapefruit juice and vodka, which earned the name "The Pink Death."

That night I walked out into the scrub to answer the call of nature, and managed to pick a bush with a Mojave Desert Sidewinder rattlesnake in it. He made a lot of noise but nothing worse.

Wednesday Berne, Jake and I went into town for 80 pounds of ice and a bag of sour cream and onion potato chips. We got back to camp and everybody ran Wrecking Ball.

Thursday, the heat started messing with our heads, so Berne wired a spare electric radiator fan to a 12v emergency battery charger and Hugh stabbed holes in a water bottle and hung it in behind the fan to make a mister. It worked relatively well, too.

Later, we ran Claw Hammer and had a hell of a good time singing Paint it Black and White Rabbit at the tops of our lungs after giving up on the skipping dusty cd player.

Friday we ran Outer Limits, which is a good 45 minute drive from camp through the desert. We ran into a lot of traffic on the trail. Between breakages and tough obstacles, our group got mixed up with a couple others and it took forever to get everyone up the trail. It was slow going but we met some cool people and got everybody repaired and out of there eventually.

Team Fat Shit decided to leave Saturday and make the drive home a little easier. We also took a route home through Nevada instead of the way we came down through California. So we headed through Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms, into Nevada and up through Las Vegas, and made it to Hawthorne around dark. We spent the night there goofing off in a casino (right across the street from Ed's Bait and Tackle and 24 hour bail bonds). Eating a real meal and sleeping in a real bed was pretty nice.

Sunday we continued up through Nevada and into southeastern Oregon. Holy crap there ain't nobody in southeastern Oregon. I look forward to spending time out there, checking out places like Hole-in-the-Ground, Malheur Cave, and the Steens Mountain area.

We got home around 11pm Sunday night.

The Hammers are pretty impressive. The trails are pretty gnarly and not too long, and there are some dunes in the area and lots of potential for desert racing. I shot a ton of pictures and a couple hours of video. I need a video capture device so I can get all that video onto the computer and start editing. The trip gave us some great ideas for future Team Fat Shit excursions. Moab in October is going to be rad.

California

2007-04-21T08:26:00.000-07:00

We're packing it up and loading it in for a week of sun, sand, beer and breakage. An excuse for no new posts, ha. T-shirts for Team Fat Shit are done. They look good, too. I think we're ready to rock. Let's get it.

Oh, and last night I heard we're going desert racing in two weeks. Score.

Live Free or Die Hard

2007-04-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

Holy Crap!

The Cos'

2007-04-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

$53?!

Blitz Bar

2007-04-14T11:08:00.000-07:00

Bucket of High Life, $12.

Chili Cheese Fries, $4

Getting schooled on how it's done by this blue-faded Stone Pimp, Priceless.

Preparations for California

2007-04-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

I'm going with Berne, Hugh, Jake and maybe a few others to the big Portland swap meet on Saturday. It's the largest automotive swap meet on the west coast, according to its website. We'll be looking for antigravity drive components, a second hand flux capacitor, and spare parts for our upcoming trip to California.

We're leaving next Saturday for Johnson Valley in the desert near Barstow and Twentynine Palms. We're going to be wheeling and camping the whole week leading up to the 2007 Tin Benders Jamboree on the 28th. I have T-shirts to make. Team Fat Shit needs a flag. We'll need lots of mp3 cds. Oh, and we have to get the rig ready. Piece of cake.

Declare the pennies on your eyes

2007-04-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

Did my taxes today, finally. That means I can stop doing nothing instead of things I'd be doing if I didn't need to do my taxes. Yeah.

Who spilled the radioactive ooze?

2007-04-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Initially the ~~Nokia~~* was just for scale, but then this wriggly bugger started making long distance phone calls. I had to threaten him with the shovel to keep him from using up all my anytime minutes.

* (That's totally a Motorola. The ooze is affecting my brain. It does say "Nextel" on the back, though, which is an N-word, like Nokia, so you can all see how that would happen.)

Yesterday Morning

2007-04-06T06:10:00.000-07:00

This is from yesterday morning, in the back yard. It's cropped from a composite of a couple photos.

Alter Egos

2007-04-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

This past weekend a girl got skeptical when I introduced myself. "That's not your real name," etc. Then I introduced "Berne" and she was sure she had a Fred & Barney Vegas Alias duo on her hands. Next time we get the third degree, when some perfect stranger starts asking to see our papers, I say we just give in and reveal our true identities: I'm Detective Rickets. This is my partner, Agent Scurvy. We're Rickets & Scurvy.

Where we've been and where we're going.

2007-03-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, the crew got to talking about the UN's list of World Heritage Sites. Our who's-been-where scores weren't so good (suspicious how many of those sites are on the other side of an ocean), but I noticed that most countries have even more sites on their Tentative List.

I suggested we get a big wall map and some push-pins to keep track of interesting places we've each been, and places we want to visit some day. Once you get it up on the wall, then anytime you're just sitting at home doing nothing, the map is looking down at you, disappointed.

Well, finally, last night I was reminded of the Rasterbator and realized what a nice, cheap solution it was to our huge wall map needs. It lets you create large murals with a desktop printer and regular 8.5"x11" paper.

A few minutes later, I had a PDF file ready to print. Printing took a while because I went overkill on the dot size, resulting in an 18 page print job that weighed in at 1.15GB. The printer didn't like that, but eventually I got it done. On to trimming the margins (by hand, with scissors. If I was an elementary school teacher I'd have a paper cutter and be done already. They get all the good equipment.)

Well, after 2 cups of coffee, 3 reprinted pages due to operator error, and a short break to google Johnny Cash's German recordings - focus, people - here's what we have:

Now to mount it on the wall, and get to pinning.

We'll have to add a Baja California supplement and better Alaska maps later, of course.

Who needs headlights?

2007-03-14T12:44:00.000-07:00

Ever driven a Suzuki Swift with a dying battery home in the dark by the glow of flashlights? Me neither. Somebody had to hold the flashlights.

Salutations

2007-03-09T16:55:00.000-08:00

And away we go...