famous like Meadowlark Lemon

cotton

2009-11-17T16:44:33Z

Two yeas ago today, in the mountains of Tennessee, the lovely lady welfy consented to be my wife before a small gathering of family and friends. These past two years haven't been great for the world, and in my case it's been particularly bad. Hindsight being what it is, it wasn't a great time to embark on a marriage. The first year was HARD. This second one has been much better. Both have only been bearable because she's been there at my side: loving, working, supporting, believing. She has been the beacon in the storm, but she's also the wind in my sails.

you're talkin' jive woman when you say to me

2009-11-15T02:50:30Z

After the truck accident, I acquired my first Bluetooth capable phone when replacing the one that was destroyed in the crash. I bought a cheap headset for it. It was awful. People I talked to heard themselves echoing in their conversations and using it in a noisy truck environment was impossible due to the background noise. When I went to work for Hornaday, I began saving all of my loyalty points with Travel Centers of America for the purpose of getting a professional grade Bluetooth headset. About a week ago I finally hit the magic number; I had saved enough to give me a $100 in store credit. I settled on the BlueParrot B250-XT and it.is.awesome. It was $99.99 with "truckstop markup" so basically I got for about 7 bucks in tax. Now I'm gonna save them up and get a free GPS system.

You may recall me recently celebrating the one year anniversary of smoking cessation. I decided that since I've successfully kicked the habit to allow myself to occasionally enjoy tobacco. The problem is that cigarettes go stale and have become very expensive, so I had been tossing around a couple of ideas for using loose tobacco, like making my own cigarettes or possibly a pipe. Last week, I bought a carton of 200 filtered cigarette tubes, a 6oz. pouch of tobacco, and a simple machine for putting the latter into the former.

The three things cost me $14, $8 of which was the machine. The first cigarette I made was awful, I didn't put enough tobacco into it and it was all squishy and burned hot and nasty. The second I made I went overboard and it was a chore to drag on it. I finally got the hang of it, though. It's fun making them, but at the same time, it'd be a chore to make 20-25 of these a day for a habit smoker. The first week I had it, I smoked 4-5 cigarettes - because I had it in the truck with me. Now it's sitting safely at home. The plan is to maybe smoke one or two on the weekends when I'm home.

I'm stuck on the road for the second weekend in a row. I did get to stop in Frankfort twice this past week and spend the night, though, which makes this a little easier. I've already done the driving that needs to be done and have nothing to do tomorrow. I'll probably sleep in, treat myself to steak and eggs in the truckstop restaurant, then lounge in the truck all day.

smoke the day's last cigarette

2009-10-24T23:25:10Z

I began smoking cigarettes regularly when I was 16. After 22 years, and one year ago today, I quit that habit cold turkey. I have had 2-3 cigarettes in that time, the last being in April, but that's it. I'm sure in the future I'll allow myself the occasional cigarette or cigar, but I'll never allow myself the habit, short of contracting some terminal illness and not giving a shit any more. Having quit smoking and doing flatbed trucking all year long, I'm arguably in the best shape of my adult life.

One year later, I notice the smell of cigarette smoke much more acutely, especially on other people, but it doesn't bother me to be in the presence of other smokers. I'll never become one of those annoying non/ex smokers that gives everyone shit for their habit.

I still have cravings nearly every single day, especially after a meal. I suspect I always will.

please give me a million dollars and, oh yeah, huge pectoral muscles

2009-10-12T14:23:28Z

I've gained 10 pounds over the summer which presents me with a dilemma. I've always promised myself that 175 lbs. was my cutoff weight, since somewhere around 165-170 is the top end of most BMI charts for my height of 5'10". I've always vowed that if I ever reached 175, I would begin taking steps to maintain and/or reduce it. Yesterday when I stepped on the scales at home, it read 172.

The dilemma is that I don't think the recent weight gain is from fat, but from muscle. When making this promise to myself, I never imagined that I would gain weight in this manner. Since becoming a flat bed trucker, my body has grown thick and muscular. I'm barrel chested with defined pectorals. My thighs are firm and strong. My biceps bulge the hem of a short sleeve when flexed and my forearms are sinewy and well defined. The muscles in my shoulders rise above the bone. There's even this really interesting meaty thingy right at the base of my neck where it meets the shoulder. After being a 120 pound weakling most of my life, I could probably kick your ass now.

That's not to say I'm lean, though. I do have a considerable middle-aged man's paunch. But I've had that for some time and, while I think I could probably stand to lose 10 pounds from there, I don't think that's where I've gained the 10 pounds. With concern to my paunch, I've always accepted it as an inevitable consequence of aging, especially since it's the only sign of fat anywhere on me. Most BMI charts claim that for my height, 170-205 is the "overweight" range for me. Going over 205 would be obesity territory. However, the BMI chart admits that the index doesn't allow for various factors, including muscularity. One could make an argument that I'm carrying a little extra weight, but I don't think anyone would construe my body as being overweight.

In light of all this, I'm going to relax my cutoff weight vow as long as I have these muscles and move it up to 200 pounds. I figure that realistically, the most I can continue to put on in muscle is another 20 pounds, topping me out around 190. Personally, I think I'm going to naturally top-out at about 180 with the muscle, but I'll allow myself the 10 pounds of leeway. I'm basically giving myself 30lbs. of muscle on the BMI, but I can't imagine any scenario where 200 pounds would be an appropriate amount of weight on a 5'10" man.

i've been served

2009-10-01T15:20:23Z

Since I don't find it useful for writing about the present very much any more, I thought it might be fun to share some of my past with you. I may find this easier as my biggest problem with writing for LJ these days is that I never feel like I have adequate time to write about things in a timely fashion. Maybe if I approach it as a way to capture the past, thereby eliminating any self-imposed notions of timeliness, I can achieve a little return to form. This is the first of two stories from my college days, but I'm sure I'll think of more. I don't know how long this will last, so enjoy this possibly brief surge in soopageek output.

In preparation for my attendance at the University of Kentucky and eventual move to Lexington, I secured myself a job bussing tables at The Mansion restaurant at the Marriott resort hotel in the summer of 1988. At the tender age of 18, I already considered myself an open minded person despite having grown-up in the more conservative milieu of rural Kentucky. Working at the Mansion was my first exposure to openly homosexual people. Back home there had been gay men, but they were heavily closeted in the community. There was one lesbian couple, too, but it was usually talked about in hushed tones or with malicious sniggering. There's a keen difference between an ideological construct and actual experience, and I'll take the latter over the former any day of the week. Sharing the coed dressing room on the third floor of The Mansion with the diverse staff, as innocuous and trifling as it may have seemed at the time, proved to be valuable life experience in hindsight. Of course, seeing my female co-workers in a bra was just bonus.

A handful of you knew me then, but for most of you, can you imagine the even more testosterone-fueled me of 18? It boggles the mind. Every afternoon, after donning my ersatz tuxedo in the dressing room and making sure my serving credenzas were prepared, I would take my meal break in the employee cafeteria. The cafeteria was in the main hotel, which provided a nice stroll along the recreational areas of the property. While returning from my meal, I was walking beside the tennis courts just as a young woman was serving. She was outfitted in complete tennis regalia, right down to the skimpy white skirt. Her back was to me, as she lifted the ball into the air, extending her form onto the tips of her toes in one fluid motion. She swung, arching her body forward and the loud plucking sound of the ball striking the strings of her racket filled the court. This was all occurring to the left of me as I walked along the sidewalk. As I turned my head back to facing forward, the next sound to fill the court was the loud CLANG of my forehead meeting a lamp post. It cost me a night of work with a trip to the emergency room and 6 stitches.

shaking her hips like she's some kind of treat

2009-09-29T06:02:26Z

I'm one of the healthiest people there are. I usually boast to people that I never get sick, because the frequency with which I do is on the order of about 3-4 years. The last time I got really sick was in January of 2007 when I had the flu. So when Welf gets sick, I usually take no extra precautions to protect myself from the germs.

Sometime after I left the house last night, Welf started feeling sick: runny nose, sore throat, etc. By this morning, she was feeling even worse. I didn't think anything of it aside from feeling bad for her as she grew increasingly more pitiful as the day progressed. As it stands, she may not make it to work tomorrow.

Through this evening though, I began sneezing profusely. I started experiencing a nasal drip which naturally led to a sore throat. I laid down to go to bed about an hour and a half ago. After an hour of fitful sleep I woke up with an awful sore throat from the drainage in the back of my throat and an increasingly stuffy nose which was making it hard to breathe.

Great.

At least it doesn't seem to be the flu. Just seems to be the common cold. Usually I can fight these off rather quickly with the proper methods. I went into the truckstop a little while ago and bought two bottles of orange juice and a bottle of Nyquil. I took one dose and am waiting on it to kick-in. I'll take another half dose just before I lay down again, and that oughta knock me out and let me sleep rather comfortably through the night. Right now, I'm forcing myself through the OJ. I had hoped to find some zinc lozenges but alas, they didn't have any. I took some Cold-Eze a couple of winters ago at the onset of a cold and the symptoms were gone within 12 hours. If I'm still feeling lousy in the morning I may have to locate a Walmart or grocery store and see if I can find some.

Twitter holds no interest for me, but I have come across one Twitter page that I liked so much that I syndicated it on LJ so it would appear on my flist. It's called Shit My Dad Says. Some guy named Justin, who is an adult still living with his parents, records the foul-mouthed, smart-ass ramblings of his 73 year old father for your entertainment. Here's a sample of what you can expect:

It's not the gardener's job to pick up the dog shit. If you don't want to pick up the dog shit, then learn a skill like gardening.

You're gonna run into jerk offs. But remember, it's not the size of the asshole you worry about, it's how much shit comes out of it.

Sometimes life leaves a hundred dollar bill on your dresser, and you don't realize until later that it's because it fucked you.

The worst thing you can be is a liar....Okay fine, yes, the worst thing you can be is a Nazi, but THEN, number two is liar. Nazi 1, Liar 2.

Don't listen to the pussy side of you when you make a decision. People gravitate towards being a pussy. Remove the pussy, son.

I'm having a Makers Mark, you want one? What? 7up? I ain't mixing fucking makers with 7up. Might as well put a lil' fucking umbrella in it.

What are you listening to?...I know who Hall & Oates are god dammit. It's the mustache guy and the gay man.

You know, sometimes it's nice having you around. But now ain't one of those times. Now gimmie the remote we're not watching this bullshit.

Your mother made a batch of meatballs last night. Some are for you, some are for me, but more are for me. Remember that. More. Me.

The dog is not bored, it's a fucking dog. It's not like he's waiting for me to give him a fucking rubix cube. He's a god damned dog.

The dog is an outside dog. You want an inside dog, you go get your own inside.

The LJ syndication is shitmydadsays if you're interested.

old TV

2009-09-25T16:54:31Z

Lately, I've become addicted to watching old television shows, in their entirety. Here's what I've been watching over the past year and some thoughts.

Max Headroom

The short lived futuristic drama that attempted to bring cyberpunk to television. Matt Frewer was charming, Amanda Pays was smokin' hot, and Jeffrey Tambor still didn't have any hair, even back in 1987. It began as a BBC Channel 4 TV movie and was expanded to a U.S. series that ran for two, partial seasons with a total of 14 episodes. Even so, it still ranks as one of my all-time favorites.

Miami Vice

A favorite of mine when I was in high school, but I quit watching it at some point. I thought it'd be fun to go back and see the entire 5 season series, but I was wrong. Don't get me wrong, re-watching the first season was great. While the fashions and music are very dated, the first season is still gripping, fun, and highly stylish. Unfortunately, it grows stale really fast midway in season 2 and by season 3 I couldn't bring myself to watch any more of it and gave up. What's interested about watching some of these old shows is seeing actors who were nobodies in supporting roles who are now recognizable on hit TV shows today. A case in point on this show was Terry Quinn (aka John Locke from Lost) playing a weaselly lawyer.

WKRP In Cincinnati

I was really too young to appreciate this sitcom when it aired from 1978-82, but recall it being one of my dad's favorites. In my mind, three of these characters - Les Nesman, Herb Tarlek, and Dr. Johnny Fever - are three of the greatest sitcom characters ever. Gordon Jump had spectacular comedic timing as well. And Loni Anderson... wow. Watching her made me realize just how much notions of what constitutes female beauty has changed in the past 20 years. With notable exception (Mad Men's Chistina Hendricks comes to mind) you just don't see women built like that on TV any more.

Night Court

Another of my all-time favorite shows. Probably in my top 5. Thanks to the power of the internet I managed to watch all 8 seasons. John Larroquette as Dan Fielding is one of the great comedic performances for my money. The blend of writing with him as a lecherous womanizer combined with his knack for physical comedy carried the show the entire way. In the final season, there is a 3-show story arc which includes a young Cristine Rose (aka Angela Petrelli from Heroes) as a "sex surrogate" who employs Dan.

Frasier

Through the 90s and most of this decade, I began watching less and less television. Having been a fan of Cheers in the 80s, I had seen some of Frasier in the first couple of seasons and knew it to be high quality. In fact, it's safe to say that Frasier raised the bar for quality in sitcoms. The writing was impeccable and it has won more Emmys than any other show in history. That's no small feat. It's the show I'm currently working through, somewhere in the 8th of 11 seasons. I didn't realize all of the "guest callers" on his fictional radio program were actually "guest star" appearances. David Hyde Piece has the ability to send me into hysterical fits of laughter with his dry delivery and physical comedy.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. I'm of a mind to delve into The John Larroquette Show and follow it up with Boston Legal. I plan to start and catch-up on some currently airing shows like 30 Rock and Burn Notice. I've also got a couple of short-lived shows lined-up: Herman's Head and Freaks and Geeks. After watching Frasier and having been immersed in Monk for the past couple of years with Welf, I might revisit the sitcom Wings which I saw here and there through the 90s. I also plan to do Seinfeld from start to finish. One I'd really like to do from the 80s is Newhart if I can get my hands on the complete 8 seasons.

why waste time looking at the waist line?

2009-08-26T20:54:01Z

Whilst reading the following entry along with the rest of your f-list, please enjoy my latest 8tracks mix. The link will open a new window/tab for you so you can start the player and come back here to finish your LiveJournal browsing.

At the end of last week, I loaded in Huntingburg, IN with a load of particle board being shipped from the MasterBrand cabinet plant there, to another MasterBrand plant in Martinsville, VA on Monday morning, allowing me to stop in Frankfort for some home time along the way. It was kinda cool because, I used to haul for MasterBrand almost exclusively back when I worked for Werner as a company driver. I had been to both plants before, actually. I left mid-afternoon on Sunday and was in Martinsville a little after 1am. The next morning, I was empty by 10am and ready for a new load.

I sat for a while that morning, as is typical with this company. It's the thing that I dislike the most about my current line of work; their logistics sucks resulting in really long days. Sure, I don't do anything for those 3-4 hours I sit through the morning and early afternoon, but I've been up since 7-8am, and when I DO finally get a new load, I have to go get it, secure it, and tarp it. By then, it's usually 5-6 in the evening and I'm looking at a 7-8 hour drive still.

So anyway, this is what happened on Monday. I was ready to roll with my new load around 6pm; a load of plywood going from a Georgia-Pacific plant in Gladys, VA to an 84 Lumber yard in Columbia Station, OH - a little southwest of Cleveland. That's quite a haul, but I had until 4:30 the following afternoon to get there. I drove until maybe 3am and got some rest. I realized that, to make it there safely before the appointed time, I was going to have to fudge my logbook by about an hour. Not a big deal, I could catch up to it later, so off I went.

Uncharacteristically, they pre-assigned me my next trip; a load of roofing shingle going from Medina, OH to Louisville, KY. For the record I love roofing shingle loads; they're easier to secure and don't have to be tarped. Thing is, even with the time I was allowing myself, unless everything went perfectly, making it over to Medina before 5pm was going to be tight. So I told dispatch this, because I wanted to do the right thing and not have one of customers in a bind because I couldn't make the pickup appointment time. As a precaution they removed me from the load and I presume they began looking for another truck to go get it.

By 4pm, I was empty at 84 Lumber and Medina was only 25 miles away. I had 60 minutes to make a 40 minute trip, so I called dispatch to let them know. However, they had indeed found someone else to take the load so now here I was without a load and only an hour or two left in the day. Naturally, I got stuck in Columbia Station for the night. I parked in a nearby strip mall and spent the night eating pizza and writing my Heroes recap.

So this morning, I awake to a message on my Qualcomm. I'm to pick up some steel plates over in Youngstown and take them to Knoxille, TN by tomorrow afternoon. Away I go, stopping briefly at a service Plaza on the toll road for lunch. I get to Youngstown at 12:30 in the afternoon only to find that there's been some mistake and the load that I've been dispatched with has already been picked up by a different truck. In short, the load fell through. And with it being this late in the day. . .

. . .you guessed it. So I'm currently sitting at a truckstop outside Youngstown. Dispatch is on Central time, so they'll be in the office for another hour and a 20 minutes. However, I'm in Eastern time and most of the plants' offices are either already closed or they're going home in the next 20 minutes. Do you think that the next time I have a load assignment, especially one that is: a) easy and b) going near my house that I'm going to open my big fat mouth about maybe/possibly not making the appointment time? You bet your sweet bippy I won't.

So, I'll probably hang out in the truck for a little while longer to make sure I don't get assigned something, then I'm going to get a much needed shower and have dinner. There's a Quaker Steak and Lube just up the street which I may do. There's also Club 76 across the street: a strip club with a restaurant, or vice versa depending on how you look at it. As tempting as that is, honestly, I could go for a bucket of QS&L right about now.

save the cheerleader, save the world

2009-08-26T01:47:26Z

In anticipation of the new season of Heroes I re-watched Season 3 over the past couple of weeks. I missed the last half of the season in its original run, and apparently forgot a lot of what I did see. I know there are a few Heroes fans on my f-list, so I thought I'd offer a recap of last season to help refresh your memory of the plot points and where they stand. It's all beneath the cut because these are obviously spoilers. Discussion is welcome and ecouraged.

First of all, let's have a quick and dirty list of (semi) major characters who died (or is presumed dead) in Season 3. Feel free to holler if I miss anyone:

The Dead
Nathan Petrelli: The most shocking death of last season for sure. Killed by Sylar in the season finale. However, his memories reside in a shape-shifted Sylar that Matt Parkman has thought-pushed into believing he is Nathan.
Arthur Petrelli: Peter pulled the trigger with help from the Haitian, but Sylar sunk the bullet. Of course, he's been "dead" before and we know he has Adam Monroe's regeneration ability.
Knox: Killed by Tracy Strauss.
Flint Gordon: Died in the Pinehearst explosion.
Meredith Gordon: Died in the Primatech fire indirectly caused by Sylar from an adrenaline injection given to Meredith. However, Eric Doyle survived the fire, so who knows.
Adam Monroe: Killed by Arthur Petrelli.
Maury Parkman Killed by Arthur Petrelli.
Usutu: Killed by Arthur Petrelli, however he stills appears to Matt Parkman from time to time.
Bob Bishop: Killed by Sylar.
Elle Bishop: Killed by Sylar.
Daphne Millbrook: Shot by agents and later died.

Major Plot Lines & Power/Ability Developments
- As mentioned above, and the most important going into Season 4, Nathan Petrelli is dead, but his memories are housed in the body of Sylar who is shape-shifted to look like Nathan and been forced to believe he is Nathan by Matt Parkman. The only people privvy to this development are Parkman, Angela Petrelli, and Noah Bennet.
-Angela Petrelli, Charles Deveaux, Daniel Linderman, and Bob Bishop all met at a government relocation facility in 1961 called Coyote Sands. We find out that Deveaux was a telepath. Angela is now the only one still living. It was also revealed that Chandra Suresh worked at Coyote Sands, along with Dr. Zimmerman. We discover in an earlier episode that Angela has precog dreams and can even enter other people's dreams. Angela's sister Alice still lives at Coyote Sands in a bunker and can control the weather.
- We discover that Angela poisoned her husband upon learning that he had conspired with Linderman to kill Nathan, the automobile accident in which his wife was paralyzed and he ultimately learned he could fly.
- Ando gained a power, artificially from a formula injection, that can "supercharge" other people's abilities and that he can project as a beam from his hands.
- Matt Parkman, Jr. - Parkman's infant son - can activate and deactivate seemingly any sort of object, including people's abilities.
- Peter restored his ability to mimic powers with an injection of the formula. He can only borrow one at a time, though, and must touch the person with the power. He was last seen borrowing shape-shifting to impersonate the President and capture Sylar.
- We discover that Flint and Meredith are siblings, though it's unclear what implications, if any, there are of this other than mere coinicidence. It's also uncertain if Flint knows that Claire is his niece, especially since he's working with Knox for Arthur Petrelli to capture her.
- Micah Sanders is "Rebel" and helping people with powers to elude and escape government persecution. Tracy Strauss allowed herself to be bait to catch Rebel, but upon discovering it is Micah, her long-lost nephew, she helps him escape, in what appears at the time to be a supreme sacrifice.
- Tracy Strauss is still alive and out for revenge. Her ability to freeze things apparently extends to the ability to manipulate water and take its form. She is one of a set of triplets, her sisters being the deceased Nikki and the unknown Barbara. They were given their abilities artificially in DNA manipulation experiments conducted by Dr. Zimmerman. This would make her Micah Sander's aunt. She knows this, but Micah does not.
- Mohinder Suresh has the ability of super strength, initially given by an injection of his own making that nearly mutated him to death, but was corrected by an injection of the proper formula.
-The formula which can give people powers required a catalyst which was housed in Claire Bennet. Hiro and Claire travelled back in time to discover that the catalyst was originally housed in his mother. Hiro convinces his dying mother to give him the catalyst, which Arthur Petrelli subsequently steals along with Hiro's powers. It is presumed that the catalyst was lost with Arthur Petrelli when Sylar killed him.
- Hiro partially gained back his ability to stop time, when Matt Parkman's baby "activated" it. However it's apparently causing his brain to hemmorhage. Hiro discovers that, as with teleportation/time travel, whoever he is touching when he stops time is unaffected.
- Sylar's current list of abilties: healing, lie detection, shape shifting, psychometry, psychokinesis, electrical generation, vocal sonic waves, alchemy, the ability to vibrate objects until they disintegrate by snapping his fingers (a weird ability with no easy way to describe it). With his shape shifting ability, he has moved the "sweet spot" in his head that can kill him, to a new location. It's also discovered that he can acquire abilities without murdering his targets as he did with Elle's electrical ability, but he prefers to open their skulls the old fashioned way.
- Sylar discovers that his biological father murdered his mother and sold him to his uncle. He hunts down his father to discover he has powers and is dying of cancer.
- While holding one of Nathan's jackets, Sylar's psychometric ability reveals that Nathan has betrayed everyone, but he doesn't elaborate.
- The Petrellis and Bennets, with funding from the U.S. government, are reforming The Company.
- It's apparent that faux Nathan still has Sylar's qualities when he notices that a clock in his office is running a minutue and a half fast.

Thoughts/Questions:
1) Unless I've missed something, Sylar can't fly and he didn't steal Nathan's ability when killing him. I would think that that would be difficult to explain to faux Nathan when he discovers he can't fly. Plus all those other abilities of Sylar should manifest themselves, instantly, in fact: the tingling when someone lies, knowing the history of things when he touches them. I just don't see how Angela and Noah could think this was a good idea. I understand the need to obtain the funding from the government since Bob Bishop's endless gold supply was lost, but considering how powerful and evil Sylar is, it seems like an extraordinary risk.
2) In Volume 3 during the eclipse, when Mohinder thought he was cured (and powerless), he immediately escaped Pinehearst with the intention of seeing Maya. But when he was truly cured (and still with powers), he makes no effort to go see her at all.
3) With Sylar incapacitated as faux Nathan, Peter's mimicry limited, and Hiro handicapped - Parkman is arguably the most powerful character. His mastery of his powers is nearing that of his father's. He effortlessly pushes thoughts and is becoming adept at altering people's perspective of reality. We find out that he can compel people to relive past memories so that Parkman can view them as he did with Noah Bennett. And after his spirit walk with Usutu, he can produce precog visual art like Isaac Mendez.
4) I was surprised, and saddened, that they killed Daphne. It was a neat ability and a fun character. I didn't really buy the whole Parkman/Daphne love story, but she was great when she interacted with Ando/Hiro.
5) Will Danko be part of the new Company or will he be an outside force to contend with trying to undermine and expose it?

reason #23 why I'd never be a vegetarian

2009-08-17T01:41:27Z

I didn't to go home this weekend. Instead I was stuck taking a load from eastern Virginia to the Cleveland area. I decided to park at the TA in Canton, OH for the weekend. I got in on Saturday evening and did some laundry and had dinner, but otherwise goofed off on the internet the rest of the evening. I slept in late this morning then got a shower and cleaned the truck a little.

I decided to go for a walk, but it was a walk with a purpose. Less than a mile away was a Quaker Steak and Lube. I've never cared much for buffalo wings, but since being with welfy and regular trips to the original location in Sharon, PA, I've grown fond of their Golden Garlic wings.

Before I got out of the truck stop parking lot, I saw something you don't see every day.

Because traditional trailer seals are for sissies.

The truckstop as you might imagine is located in a commercial area of the city, so the walk was less than inspiring.

I went inside and ordered a Compact Bucket and topped it off with a massive slice of cheesecake with strawberry topping. I watched the end of the NASCAR race and some of the last round of the PGA Championship until it became apparent that Tiger was choking and Yang had it in the bag. Afterward, I went outside and looked at all the cars parked outside, for it was show car night, complete with a DJ from a local radio station doing a live remote.

If you've ever taken the time to read my LJ bio, you'll notice at one point I assert that I would like to have a Corvette. My favorite is actually the early 70s with the long, curvy bodies and before catalytic converters started to fuck up their performance. But, I guess this would do.

My brother was always a fan of old Nova's. Personally I always thought they were one of GMs uglier cars.

I always thought the Nova's cousin the Chevelle was much more appealing to look at.

This one's just for tpbrcombo. The Plymouth Barracuda was an awesome looking car, too.

When I was a kid, my mom had a '68 Mustang, so I've always had a bit of a soft spot for them.

August 3, 2009, A Monday In My Life

2009-08-09T22:15:14Z

I decided that it might be fun to do a post for the adayinmylife community on LiveJournal. I plan on posting it tomorrow in the community, but I thought I'd post it in my own journal tonight for you guys. It'll also be an easy way to make sure there's nothing buggy with any of the HTML and/or links.

August 3, 2009
Lin, 39
Frankfort, KY
first ADIML
70 photos total

I wander out of the bedroom bleary eyed and half asleep. I grab my camera from the dining room table and take the day's first picture.

Kitties wrestle in the floor at my feet.

The clock above the stove in my kitchen gives us our first time check.

I pull a bottled Coca Cola from the fridge and take my daily supplements. I take niacin, selenium, fish oil, and a multi-vitamin.

I get some clothes out of the dryer I need to finish folding and put them in a pile on the bed beside my still sleeping wife, welfy.

She doesn't stay asleep for long, though.

I have some errands to run this morning. The weekend before, I bought a pickup truck, and I need to complete the transfer and registration of it.

So I leave my house...

...and head out of my neighborhood.

I drive through downtown Frankfort...

...across the Kentucky river...

...up Capital Avenue...

...and past the capital building toward the west side of town. It's foggy this morning, making it hard to see the capital really well through the mist.

I'm heading to my insurance office. I still haven't received my proof of insurance in the mail so I want to get them to print me a copy so I can go to the courthouse and take care of the transfer. Unfortunately, they don't open until 9am.

So I go back home, and call work to let them know that I have to take care of this before I can start working.

So I decide to cook breakfast. I have some jowl bacon I bought over the weekend and wanted to try. I hadn't had jowl bacon since I was a kid.

I fried some eggs to go with it, naturally.

And of course, I made breakfast for the missus, too, before she headed-out for the day.

Now that it was almost 9, I headed back across town. The fog had burned off and I had a much better view of the capital as I drove by.

After obtaining my proof of insurance, I went to the County Clerk's office.

On my way back home, I stopped at a hardware store to have some spare keys made for the pickup.

I keep a keyring in my garage with a all the spare keys on it, so it was the first place I went when I got back to the house.

By now it was almost 10, so I called work to let them know I was ready when they were.

Then I showered and shaved.

I checked Facebook real quick, afterward.

Work finally calls me back and I head for the office.

I drive a flatbed 18 wheeler through the southeast and mid-west every week. Yes that's right, I squandered my English degree for a life on the road. I quickly pack the truck with my laundry and some food.

I check the Qualcomm for the particulars of my first trip of the week.

I start my logbook for the day, which offers a convenient time check. There's a time warp, though. While I live in the Eastern time zone, my logs are kept on Central time, since my "home terminal" is in Birmingham, Alabama.

I hit the road, taking U.S. 127 out of Frankfort.

I drive past fields bursting with tobacco.

The coming weekend will bring the world's largest yard sale to the area: The 127 yard sale stretches from Alabama to Michigan. All along the road, people are beginning to setup their stands.

I pass through the town of Owenton....

And later, Sparta....

...before arriving at the Ohio River Valley, and the steel mills of northern Kentucky.

I arrive at the mill and begin to setup in the staging area. I pull the things I need from the headache rack on the back of the cab.

I lay them out on the deck of the trailer: two beveled timbers laid inside 3 coil racks and overlaid with 3 rubber friction mats. I also lay out 4 chains, 4 chain binders, 6 steel edge protectors and 2 plastic edge protectors. Here they only load coils in a "suicide" orientation.

All setup, I radio the guard shack with my pickup number and they instruct me come inside. After weighing my truck and trailer on the scales, I drive through the coil yard.....

...to the loading area. Large lift vehicles lumber about, placing coils onto the trailer of waiting trucks.

Here, I have to wear my hard hat and eye protection.

Soon I'm loaded with my suicide coil. They call it that because, most shifting loads occur by moving forward due to sudden breaking or accidental impact. If this coil were to break free of its restraints, it would roll right over the truck. The coil weighs over 45,000 pounds and could flatten me like a pancake.

I quickly add a couple of chains then move the truck back to the staging area where put on the other two. I throw a strap over the top and pull out my cheater bar to tighten down the winch.

The finished product looked like this:

I receive my bill of lading and soon am on I-71 south.

By law, I had to stop within the first 50 miles and perform a load check, then every 150 miles after that. Just before I get to Louisville, I stop at a rest area and check my tie downs.

I go to the restroom and wash up. I'm covered in dirt and grease from handling the chains and binders.

My clothes are covered as well, so when I get back to the truck, I pull some clean clothes form the closet and change.

I make myself a couple of turkey and cheese sandwiches for lunch before getting back behind the wheel.

I hit the road and navigate through Louisville and get on I-65 south, which will carry me almost entirely to my destination in Alabama.

In a couple of hours, I enter Tennessee.

And not long after that, I enter Nashville.

I stop at a Pilot truck stop just north of downtown, on Trinity Road

I perform a load check and take a photo of the parking lot as seen from my trailer, looking backwards.

I need to use the restroom, so I go inside the truck stop.

I grab myself a snack.

Soon, I'm on the road again. It's after 6, so the evening rush hour has thinned by now and the trip through downtown is a breeze. Soon, the skyline of the city is in my rear view mirror.

Within an hour dusk begins to settle as I cross into Alabama.

A little before 9pm, I stop in Priceville, AL at a truck stop to do my final load check of the trip.

I take a couple of photos from the parking lot - one of the scales. . .

. . .and one of the fuel island.

I take another photo of myself while in the truck stop restroom.

In about another hour, I arrive at my destination in Fairfield, AL , just a few miles west of Birmingham. It's a steel manufacturer that uses the coils to produce whatever it is that they make.

Now that I'm empty, I head back into Birmingham. My company has a terminal there and my truck is due for service. As I drive through downtown, I try to capture the skyline, but because of the darkness it comes out all blurry.

I talk to my wife some on the phone while driving to the terminal.

I arrive at the terminal and end my phone call. I get out of the truck and walk around the lot a bit. Trucks are parked on the lot near the garage.

I go into the driver's lounge to use the restroom.

I return to the truck and check LiveJournal before going to bed.

I set my Screaming Meanie to wake me up the morning, which offers us our final time check of the day.

I lay down in the bunk and take a final picture of myself. Goodnight!

he's looking down on me as he passes

2009-07-28T18:24:29Z

Last night, I rode The Dragon.

Why is fruit punch red? Rather, why do we universally accept that fruit punch is supposed to be red?

If, like me, you use multiple computers, you may find the Firefox add-on Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks) useful. Utilizing their servers for storage (or a server of your choosing if you're paranoid about these sorts of things) it synchronizes your Firefox bookmarks on as many computers as you care to install it on. It also has the option for synchronizing your passwords; but that I am paranoid about, so I've never tried it. The bookmark syncing though, is a wonderful thing. It's become one of the three things I immediately add to Firefox on any computer I setup for myelf, along with Down Them All and Ad Block Plus.

Over the weekend, I bought a pickup truck.

It has 320k miles on it and set me back 400 bucks. I've been wanting to get a second vehicle for a while, preferably a truck for the occasional hauling capacity. As tight as finances have been, I wasn't sure I'd be able to swing it, but the guy I bought it from is a good friend of my brother's and was willing to take some of the money now and some of it later. He even told me to not worry about putting myself in a bind and to just give him the rest whenever I could.

The motor seems solid but the transmission is a little flaky. Bajillions of S-10s have been made over the years and my brother does auto salvage as side-work, so keeping it running shouldn't be too much of a chore. If the transmission goes, I can just drop another one in.

My other, youngest brother is relocating back to central Kentucky from eastern Kentucky. For the time being, he's going to crash in our basement until he decides where he's going to land. He's already secured employment in Frankfort and will be helping-out with some of the expenses when he can. I hope he decides to settle in Frankfort permanently. It'd be nice to have him in town. In the meantime, it's going to be a blast having him stay with us.

you've got to scrape the shit right off your shoes

2009-07-03T01:59:15Z

This morning, while being stupid and using the cheater bar in a way that is not intended, I banged the shit out of my shin. I put two big gashes in my skin. It hurt like hell, too. It feels better now, but there's a really gross mass of dried blood surrounding the wounds that I won't have an opportunity to clean-up until I get home tomorrow. I really should put together a small first aid kit to keep on the road with me.

I'm currently parked in Middlesboro, KY where I deliver in the morning, just a few miles from the Cumberland Gap. After I emtpy, I'm meeting a guy back in Corbin and taking his loaded trailer from him and heading home for the weekend. I'll start next week off in Asheville, NC on Monday.

Yesterday I saw a girl who looked exactly like Shay Laren.

Though she wasn't as chesty. To make matters worse, she was probably only 15 or 16, which officialy makes me a dirty old man.

if you want a doo doo rhyme then come see me

2009-06-18T17:21:50Z

I didn't know they were remaking The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3. I saw it on the marquee of the local theatre when I was home last weekend. If you don't know, the original was done in 1974 and starred Walter Matthau. The new movie has Denzel Washington in that role along with John Travolta, James Gandolfini, John Turturro, and Luis Guzman. Tony Scott is the director, who in the early 90s did a couple of my favorite action/crime movies, namely The Last Boyscout and True Romance. So this is promising, however, Scott hasn't made a watchable movie since '98's Enemy Of The State. So it'll probably suck.

Be sure to see the original, you won't be disappointed.

The other day I updated my master movie list with a bunch of new additions. I took those new additions and added some thoughts about some of them and have listed them below. If you feel like discussing any of them, fire away.

I Heart Huckabees

Usually I complain when the pacing of a movie is too slow. Here is a case where it is too fast.

Happiness

Ironically titled Todd Solondz movie about the pain of loneliness in modern culture and the ugly ways it can manifest itself. Some of the subject matter is disturbing yet handled in a way that is shockingly poignant at times.

Insomnia
State and Main

Typically bad Julia Stiles chick flick. She's so cute though and I'm a sucker.

Terms Of Endearment

I honestly don't know what the big deal is about this movie. It's one of those movies where people die dramatically and fall in love unexepctedly and everyone learns something about themselves.

Jazz Singer, The

I've never understood the appeal of Neil Diamond.

Five People You Meet In Heaven, The
Getaway, The

Steve McQueen driving cars really fast. Foxy Ali McGraw. Motherfuckin' Sam Peckinpah at the helm.

Gold Rush, The
Great Train Robbery, The
King Of Comedy, The

Scorcese flick with De Niro and Jerry Lewis. Yes, Jerry Lewis... and he's awesome and so is this movie.

Manchurian Candidate, The
All Quiet On The Western Front

I watched a 1979 TV version with Richard Thomas and Ernest Borgnine by accident as well as the Academy Award Best Picture winner from 1930. The latter is the grandaddy of all war movies made since then. It's a stunning achievement of early cinema.

House Of Sand And Fog

Don't believe the hype. It's watchable, but it ain't all that.

Glen Or Glenda
Harrison's Flowers
I Shot Andy Warhol
Igby Goes Down

On the one hand this movie had some very clever dialogue, but I have a hard time relating to movies about rich, privileged white kids who are morose malcontents and hate their lives.

Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World's End
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Robert Downy Jr and Val Kilmer star. Hilarious and clever. See this.

Kramer vs. Kramer
It Could Happen To You
Junebug

Funny and touching indie movie worth seeing.

Leaving Las Vegas

Ok I'm not a huge fan of Nicolas Cage or Julian Sands but I liked this movie. It's dark and bleak, but well done. If street hookers looked like Elisabeth Shue, there'd be a bunch of broke men in this world.

Tries too hard to be hip and edgy. It's one of those movies where Kevin Spacey just way over does it and chews up every scene he's in.

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

I love the Harold and Kumar movies. Funny stuff. More Neil Patrick Harris madness in this one, too.

Just My Luck
Linda, Linda, Linda

Fun Japanese import about a group of high school girls who form a punk band to cover Blue Hearts songs for a talent show.

My Left Foot

Daniel Day Lewis gives an awesome performance of Christy Brown, the artist with cerebral palsy who painted and wrote with his foot. Too bad the movie is otherwise boring as shit.

Mysterious Skin

Engrossing and sometimes disturbing film about two teenager boys and the courses of their lives after an abusive incident early in their childhood.

No Country For Old Men

The Coen brothers are best when they do crime drama. Javier Bardem's Oscar winning performance is one of the great screen villains of all time.

Election
Legends Of The Fall
Fast Food Nation
The Nutty Professor
Crash

This movie's good but I don't see what made it deserving of a Best Picture Oscar.

Ken Park

I don't like Harmony Korine. I think he's the cinematic equivalent of a freakshow carney, offering shock value as entertainment with little if any artistry or craftsmanship.

English Patient, The
Vantage Point
She's The Man
Diary Of The Dead
Slackers
Sliding Doors
Kung Fu Panda

A great cast featuring Jack Black, David Cross, Jackie Chan, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, and Seth Rogan. Funny and cute with lots of adult subtext for the grownups.

Everything Is Illuminated

Funny, quirky gem waiting to be discovered by more people.

Network

1976 masterpiece with Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Robert Duvall, and the incomparable Ned Beatty.

Pollock
Max Payne
Mickey Blue Eyes
Frantic
Push

I felt dirty because I kept thinking Dakota Fanning looked kinda hot as a punked-up street urchin in a mini skirt.

Lady Eve, The
House Of Flying Daggers

One of the most gorgeous martial arts movies you'll ever see

Baby Mama

Mmmmmmm Tina Fey. Amy Poehler cracks me up in just about anyhting she ever does.

Duck Soup
Squid And The Whale, The
Wimbledon
Step Brothers

With Will Farrell and me it's hit or miss, but John C. Reilly is always a hoot. How does he get away with making stuff like this and Talladega Nights but get great supporting roles in movies like Magnolia and Chicago as well?

Three Amigos
Dead Man On Campus
Volunteers

Tom Hanks sure made a lot of bad movies early in his career.

Meet Joe Black
Pineapple Express

I'll admit it, I'm on the Seth Rogan bandwagon. I watch just about everything he does

Sense And Sensibility

Emma Thompson wrote the screen play and starred in this film directed by Ang Lee. I'm a sucker for Victorian-era films.

Vanishing Point

The star of this movie is a white Dodge Challenger. I love these 70s car chase movies. This is one of the better ones. Go Kowalksi, go!

Lion In Winter, The

Katharine Hepburn, Peter O'Toole, and Anthony Hopkins star in this fantastic film from 1968 about King Henry II.

Transamerica

Touching film about a transgendered man who discovers one week before his sex change operation that he has a 16 year old son.

Slacker

Richard Linklater's stunning low-budget film about directionless Gen Xers in Austin, Texas. It's a series of vignettes tied loosely together by the proximity of the characters. Most films which do this, especially to the ponit of artistically denying any sort of plot, I find annoying and uncompelling, but this one works.

Mutiny On The Bounty

Charles Laughton is perfect as a snooty Captain Bligh. Clark Gable was horribly miscast IMHO, but whatchagonnado? The sea-faring scenes when the crew is climbing around in the rigging and setting the sails is some awesome cinema.

Toxic Avenger 4: Citizen Toxie

Recommended by my pal stormodacentury. I'm not sure I had ever seen a Toxic Avenger film. If I have, it was a long, long time ago. This movie was great. Low-budget blood'n gore gags, ample frontal nudity, offensive in every way imaginable and funny as hell. I'll be making it a point to watch the entire Toxic Avenger movies in the near future.

Fly, The
Slaughterhouse Five
Mr. Woodcock

Not bad, not great. More Amy Poehler wonderfulness.

Play It Again Sam

Woody Allen wrote and starred in this film but didn't direct. A lot of fun and very funny. There's a scene where Woody is meeting his blind date that is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen him do.

North Country
Lords Of Dogtown

Hmmm, Heath Ledger and Mitch Hedberg were both in this. Johnny Knoxville better look out. Tells the story of the first generation of skateboarders in southern California and the rise of skate culture

Lost In La Mancha

Documentary about Terry Gilliam's botched attempt to make a movie based on Don Quixote, his life-long dream.

Spartacus

Personally I find these old epics a little rigid and melodramatic, but that's not to say they aren't entertaining. Kirk Douglas stars... his chin co-stars. I'm coming to the realization that I don't much care for Tony Curtis. Charles Laughton has a pretty awesome role in this as a hedonistic senator.

Dead Man

Jim Jarmusch does a western. After liking Ghost Dog and now this movie, I guess Jarmusch ain't so bad. Johnny Depp stars and features a great ensemble cast with a haunting score by Neil Young.

Operation Petticoat

Recommended to me by gonadsandstrife. The title didn't ring any bells, but eventually the storyline did. It made me remember the short-lived TV series in the late 70s of the same name, that was based on this movie. Stars Cary Grant and Tony Curtis and is a light-hearted farce set in WWII.

Notting Hill

As if liking Victorian-era Merchant Ivory shit wasn't enough, I'm also a little embarassed to admit that I typically enjoy Hugh Grant romantic comedies.

Not Without My Daughter
Manhattan Murder Mystery

Play It Again Sam is how Woody paid homage to Casablanca. This one pays homage to the noir classic Double Indemnity.

Manufacturing Consent
Crimes And Misdemeanors

Woody Allen at his best.

Death Of A Salesman
Stooge, The
Mr. Death
Dracula
National Lampoon's Vacation
National Lampoon's European Vacation
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation 2, Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure
Zack and Miri Make A Porno

Seth Rogan starring in a Kevin Smith movie is a match made in heaven.

Naked Lunch
Chicago
Animal Farm
American Werewolf In London, An
Tropic Thunder

I love Robert Downey Jr, and his role in this is one of the greatest things he's ever done. Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Tom Cruise... awesome awesome all the way around. One of the funniest movies to come out of mainstream Hollywood in the past few years.

soopageek @ 2009-04-28T17:55:00

2009-04-28T21:57:07Z

I went back and added the names of the bands to my list of top 50 last.fm artists from the weekend, if you're interested.

last.fm top 50 artists... in photos.

2009-04-26T11:25:13Z

Here's my last.fm top 50 in pictures. I'm not sure why I did this. I like band photos. There's something mesmerizing about them. Feel free to make guesses in the comments. I'd advise that you make your guesses before looking at the comments. I suspect some won't be guessed. I probably wouldn't get half of them if someone had posted them in their journal. If you're curious, the file names of the photos in most cases will give it away. Even if you're not interested in trying to guess, it's still a fun collection of photos.

1. Ramones

2. Dripping, Sopping: A Saturation Celebration (aka lossfound)

3.Modest Mouse

4.Nashville Pussy

5. Adebisi Shank

6. The Sonics

7. The White Stripes

8. Beastie Boys

9. Nine Pound Hammer

10. Jucifer

11. Sonic Youth

12. Muddy Waters

13. Motorhead

14. Superchunk

15. Rolling Stones

16. Mudhoney

17. Dead Moon

18. Hermano

19. Kyuss

20. Spider Virus

21. Babes In Toyland

22. Gluecifer

23. Bratmobile

24. (International) Noise Conspiracy

25. Tricky Woo

26. From Monuments To Masses

27. James Brown, Soul Brother Number One

28. AC/DC

29. Karma To Burn

30. The Vines

31. Halo Of Flies

32.Cuby & The Blizzards

33. Slint

34. Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

35. Queens Of The Stone Age

36. Rockt From the Tombs

37. The Refused

38. Priestess

39. Meat Puppets

40. The Fucking Champs

41. Monster Magnet

42. Rose Tattoo

43. Ray Charles

44. Hasil Adkins

45. Kool Keith

46. Johnny "Guitar" Watson

47. The Exploders

48. Richard Hell & The Voidoids

49. The Distillers

50. Thee Headcoats

i was a teenage werewolf... braces on my fangs

2009-04-08T17:24:09Z

This week I have a guest onboard, livejournal.friend wendy_sue. She's from the Bay Area, but has recently been living in Santa Rosa while learning to become a casino dealer. How cool is that? For several years now she has flirted with the idea of becoming a truck driver, and now that she's in the midst of a career change, it's at the forefront of her consideration. She flew out here on Monday and she's riding with me this week to see what the life is like. Unfortunately, given the nature of my current type of truck driving work, we've travelled all of 250 miles, haven't left Ohio, and have been sitting all morning waiting on load info.

In the never-ending saga of how I am woefully ill-informed of current events: I didn't know Cramps frontman Lux Interior passed away. For that matter, I didn't realize he was two years older than my dad. Everyone has random memories they associate with music. For the Cramps, mine is a simple one from just a few years ago. I had gone to San Diego to visit an internet friend and fellow Beastie Boys afficionado, to see the Beastie Boys in concert. The next day, we got up and went for coffee, then she took me on a car-tour of her town. It was a typical brilliant and beautiful SoCal day and we rode around with the windows down listening to Songs The Lord Taught Us on the CD player. R.I.P. Lux. Thanks for the rock.

random bits

2009-03-25T17:41:55Z

Word is Bond

I've decided that, once I've finished watching all of Hitchcock's movies, I'm going to tackle the James Bond franchise and watch them chronologically, in order of release. As a kid, I saw many of them because my dad was such a fan, but I'm sure there's many I've missed along the way, and I haven't seen ANY of the new Bond movies with Pierce Brosnan or that other dude. The last Bond film I saw was The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton.

In preparation for this task I was surfing through various Bond-related websites and have come to the conclusion that, despite having arguably the best character name in any Bond film, if not all of cinema, that Honor Blackman was down-right mannish looking and not terribly attractive as Pussy Galore. By contrast, now in her early 80s, she has an elegance and beauty few women her age can muster.

Fun Windows App #1: Circle Dock

Ever since Mac introduced the Dock interface, numerous incarnations have made their way to the Windows platform. Vista even comes packaged with its own inferior knock-off, Windows Sidebar. I think docks are pretty but I've never found them terribly useful. The real problem with docks is that they either a) take up screen real estate if they are set to be on top of everything else or b) they're not useful because they're under your open windows. The classic tag-team of the Windows Start button and the Quick Launch bar always avoided these two things and Docks simply didn't improve upon this setup, for me. That is, until I recently discovered CircleDock.

The major advancement CircleDock has, is a combination of its functionality and its shape. Since it's circular, it offers an equidistant travel, from dead center, to the icon of your choice. Why is this important? Because you can set it to remain hidden and brought into view, over everything you have open, centered under your mouse with a pre-defined keystroke or, as I prefer it, with a click of the third mouse button. When you click the icon/shortcut/folder you want, it is executed and CircleDock goes back into hiding. It's like being able to bring the quick launch bar to your mouse, anywhere on the screen with a single click. Since this elimintates the need for the quick launch bar, it frees-up real estate on your task bar for those zillion windows you have open. Of course, I'm hoping that a future release will allow Window minimizations to go to CircleDock like it does in RocketDock. Imagine being able to bring the entire task bar to your mouse!

There are lots of other cool features, some cosmetic, others practical. Probably the most powerful feature is the Dock Folder. Basically, it allows you to nest other CircleDocks inside the main one, sort of like subfolders on the Start menu. For instance, I could create a dock folder and name it "Music". When I click it, it takes me to a new CircleDock which I can populate with shortcuts to all of my music applications Winamp, TagandRename, Audacity, EAC, Reaper, etc. Also, while I have that Dock Folder chosen, it becomes the default CircleDock when I click the third mouse button, until I back out to the main dock (or navigate to another Dock Folder).

Best of all, it's open source and totally free.

Fun Windows App #1a: Screensaver as Desktop

Some of you may have noticed that my Windows desktop looked suspiciously like a screensaver. That's because it is. It's a trick that can be achieved by manually changing some settings in Vista, but why do that when someone wrote a small app that'll do it for you and that you can configure to run at startup? Theoretically, you can render any screensaver onto your desktop as the background in Vista. In practice, it works better with some more than others. The only downside, and it's a fairly big one, is that you lose all functionality of your desktop: the animated background covers your "true" desktop, and therefore the icons. But since I use CircleDock, pffft... fuck desktop icons. With the Aero glass on the window frames and the transparent sidebar, the animated desktop looks cool as hell and the performance hit to system resources is negligible. I mean if you're running Aero and Sidebar, you're not suffering in the resources department anyway are you?

Excuse me. I don't mean to impose, but I am the ocean.

2009-03-19T22:04:14Z

Some of you expressed interest in seeing the Zia McCabe Suicide Girls photo shoot if I managed to get hold of them. I managed. She's nekkid and preggers. Don't be opening this shit at work if it's going to get you in trouble.

Microsoft has finally allowed POP access to thier Hotmail users, that is, those who didn't abandon them for Gmail 5 years ago. If, like me, you're still clinging to an old Hotmail address because you could've signed up for some porn website 12 years ago that you might need to retrieve your password to, you could be interested to know the details of how to set it up.

incoming: pop3.live.com (port 995, Security: SSL)
outgoing: smtp.live.com (require authentication, use TLS/SSL)

Have you by chance seen the ThruYou project done by Kutiman? He took YouTube videos of amateur musicians and mixed/mashed them into new, original songs. For presentation, who also chopped-up and cut the video to approximate what he did sonically. It's a mesmerizing music/video album from start to finish. It's probably the single coolest and most ambitious thing I've seen done on the internet in a long, long time. Here's the first in the series of 7 songs he did.

You can find all of the videos individually on YouTube, just run a search for Kutiman. In the description of each, he provides links to the source material for each song. You can also check out all the songs on the ThruYou website linked above.

let's share

2009-03-17T20:01:11Z

When I didn't get reloaded yesterday, I had a lot of time on my hands. I probably should've been more productive and accomplish some things, but instead favored the path of least resistance and goofed-off online all day. Here's the details of my surfing, submitted for your amusement, interest, and knowledge.

A New 8tracks - May The Four Be With You
I thought I'd kick this entry off with my newest set of 8tracks, which you can check out here. Feel free to open it up in a new tab or window and listen to it while you peruse the rest of the entry.

Rock Star Eye Candy
Based on repeated recommendations from lossfound, I finally got around to seeing the documentary DiG! a couple of days ago. I'll save you looking it up: it's about the friendship/rivalry between two mediocre late 90s bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Despite the subject matter, I have to agree with my compadre that it is a fascinating doco for rock music lovers, even if you don't care much for either band. I've had plenty of exposure to the Dandys but not so much BJM, so I spent a little time reading about them and locating some of their music. The film also reminded me how much I used to think Dandys keyboardist Zia McCabe was a complete and total babe. There's a snippet of performance footage in the film where she's on stage topless, which surprised me a little. I surfed around looking at photos of her and discovered that she did a SuicideGirls photo shoot a few years ago when she was pregnant. Unfortunately, I don't have an SG account nor am I willing to shell out the bucks for one. But if someone out there IS, please lend me access to your account for a few minutes.

As if watching footage of Zia McCabe wasn't enough, the film introduced me to the delicious and charming Joel Gion. Joel refers to himself as "a tombourine man" in the Brian Jonestown Massacre, which essentially is all he does. And maracas. He's sort of the band's Sid Vicious with lambchop sideburns: he doesn't contribute a great deal to the music but looks great on stage. In the band photo shown here, he's the guy in the foreground with the glasses pushed back on top of his head. Turns out that, in addition to continuing to tour with BJM, he's started his own band, The Dilettantes who released an album in 2007 called - are you ready? - 101 Tombourines. I have no idea what the album is like and I'm sure it will be probably be awful, but I've already taken steps to acquire it and will be giving it a listen in the near future. With a look like that and the ability to charm the pants off of anyone, he deserves a shot at being a bona fide front man.

Geeky Security Tip #1
If you do any torrenting, I highly recommend you surf over to Bluetack Internet Security Systems and check out their downloads area. There you will find a paintstakingly maintained "block list" of IP addresses. These addresses are a mixture of known government agencies, RIAA/MPAA, P2P anti-piracy activists, etc. Plug this list into the IP filtering component of your BitTorrent client and you wll be invisible to anyone who operates from these IP addresses. The list is updated regularly so be sure to refresh it every month or two. B.I.S.S. even has a Blocklist manager program you can install to automate the update for you.

Surveying For Amazon Bucks
I cashed in some survey rewards for $35 in Amazon gift certificates and went shopping. I managed to effectively halve my wish list buying used copies of various CDs I've been wanting. I took a couple of surveys as well. One survey in particular was about the exciting world of paper towels. They ask for responses to things like, "Brand X paper towel is the only paper towel my family can feel confident about" and then request you answer on a scale with how much you agree with this. I just can't imagine there are people that would agree with it at all, ever, for any brand of paper towel, much less have varying degrees of it. Are there really people out there who care as much about paper towels as this survey would have me to believe? What's worse are the open-response questions. Like, "What comes to mind when you think of Brawny?" and you're given a box to type in your response. I think I put "A lumberjack." That's the one with the lumberjack on the front right? "What comes to mind when you think of Mardi Gras?" New Orleans, ya twit. At any rate, I answer these inane questions and rack up their reward points. I scored 6 or 7 CDs that will hopefully be waiting for me when I return home again.

Geeky Security Tip #2
Tweak Guides has long been a great place for learning about the inner machinations of Windows and what you can do to achieve varying levels of performance and stability vs. your computing habits and needs. I stumbled upon a forum entry there from last year, which gives a detailed tweaking suggestion for AVG 8.0. In particular, it tells you how to completely disable/dismantle the annoying LinkScanner feature during installation, in addition to disabling email scanning and Resident Shield. Obviously, disabling these last two aren't for everyone - it provides a level of protection for people who don't want to think about these things. But for the computer savvy who are cautious and vigilant about email and the software they download ANYWAY, these features are bothersome and tax system resources unnecessarily.

Old News That Was News To Me
Did anyone else know that Mia Zapata's rapist/murderer was caught, tried and convicted four years ago? How did I miss that? I never cared for the Gits, but I was doing college radio back then when it all went down and it was a Big Deal. This CBS story about it does a great job of covering the high points of the saga.

Few Things In Life Get Any Cooler Than This
I consider myself fairly well-versed in 70s underground rock/punk. From the Ramones to the Electric Eels, from the Sex Pistosl to Crime: I've made it a point to consume anything I could get my hands on. Imagine my surprise to discover the band Death. No, not the Florida death-metal group from the 90s. This was a power trio of teenage kids from Detroit who recorded a handful of demos in 1974, releasing two of the songs as a 45 single. They had a sound that for all intents and purposes WAS punk rock, even though there wasn't a name for it yet. The first Ramones album wasn't released for another full two years. The best part about it? They were black kids who got turned-on to hard rock after going to an Alice Cooper show. Drag City Records got hold of the old demos and has given these tracks their first offical release. You kind find a couple of the songs floating around on YouTube if you're interested. A few days ago, The New York Times did a great article about the whole story.

it only took a year

2009-02-25T05:51:08Z

You may recall that in my wreck last year, that my trusty Durabook was smashed to bits and that I bought a gargantuan, behemoth known as the ASUS A7S. What you may not know is that it was a thorn in my side for a very long time. I was having some serious performance issues when playing video and audio media. I couldn't watch/listen to anything because the sound kept skipping and was jittery.

At first I thought that maybe all of the naysayers about Vista were right: that it was more than an OS, it was a POS. I decided at that point to wipe it clean and install XP. This proved daunting since this machine was not supported with any XP drivers by ASUS. Finally though, I managed to get all of the hardware working properly. And yet, I still had the same issues with audio/video. Even worse, I was getting some really weird problems with the system clock losing time, on the order of HOURS over the course of a day while running.

What you may not know is that, this past fall I bought a couple of cheapo, light-weight Dell laptops: one to replace Welf's aging HP and one to serve as a more portable alternative for me. While I love the 17-inch screen that the ASUS provides me while on the road, it's rather cumbersome as a true laptop. Taking it into a truckstop to sit in the diner was an ordeal and lounging about the house with it wasn't exactly convenient or comfortable. But I also had in mnid that, once I had the Dell in my hands, I would wipe the ASUS, reinstall the Vista Premium OEM and get with ASUS about checking out the hardware, as it still had over a year left on its two year warranty.

All the job changing and holidays got in the way of me doing anything with that until a week or so ago. In the meantime, I had been rather impressed by Vista's performance on the little Dell I was using. It came shipped with Service Pack 1, though. So, when I reinstalled Vista on the ASUS last week, I decided to take another run at trying to sort-out its woes with SP1 in place. My experience with ASUS hardware has always been good, and I was having a hard-time believing this was a hardware issue.

To cut to the chase, after updating Vista with SP1 AND after updating both the video and audio drivers I was still having the issues with playing media. I finally decided to look in the "Sound" category under Control Panel and immediately noticed that it was showing my speakers TWICE. I right clicked the first of these and chose "Test". It played its little tones with the annoying skipping and jittery-ness. When I tested the second one though, it was clear as can be. I removed the offensive set of speakers and rebooted and it's been fine so far.

Along the way in my little odyssey to get this laptop running properly, I spent a lot of time reading about Vista, especially about tweaking Vista. Despite the wee Dell's favorable performance in my eyes, there was something about Vista that irked the shit out of me: my hard drive seemed like it was constantly thrashing, especially after a bootup. This was also true on the ASUS. I know how to fix that now, so keep reading.

The biggest complaint that a lot of people have had about Vista is it doesn't feel as snappy and responsive as XP. I felt the same way, too with my first Vista epxerience. I even disabled the Sidebar and Aero hoping for performance boosts and was left feeling disgusted by the whole thing. Sure those are just pretty things, but right now I'm typing this on my ASUS with Aero & Sidebar running with a 2% CPU and under 40% 1 GB RAM being used. Maybe you already know these tips and tricks, maybe you haven't had to make the move to Vista yet. I do know that this quick and dirty tweaking job will make Vista scream if you have adequate hardware in the chassis. I've actually begun to prefer Vista over XP.

1. First of all, go to Control Panel & turn off Windows Defender. It's a useless piece of shit that does far more harm to the performance of your machine than any beneifts you may get from it. This is the number one reason why your hard disk thrashes in Vista (or XP for that matter).

2. But let's take it a step further. Either from the super-cool search bar in the Vista start menu, or using the "Run" option if you've reverted to a more classic look, type in "msconfig" and hit return. Alternately, it's located at C:\Windows\msconfig.exe (or whatever drive your Windows folder is on). A window which says System Configuration should open.

Click on the tab that says "Startup". Look through it, find Windows Defender and uncheck it. While you're here, look through and see if there are any other annoying programs listed here that are loading when you startup that you've never figured out how to keep from doing that. Now you know where to find them.

3. Next click the tab "Services". We're going to disable the following services. I'll also give a brief reason of why it's safe to do so and what you gain from it.

Computer Browser: This is a backward compatible service for pre-XP machines on a network. Unless you are operating some ancient box with Win98 on it on your home network, there's absolutely no reason to have this running and it's just wasting resources. Turn it off.

Superfetch: This is the main cuplrit on causing your HD to thash after bootup. What Superfetch essentially does is learns all of the programs and files that you open most often and pre-loads them into RAM after bootup. Depending on the amount of memory you have or how much 15-20 minutes of disk thrashing bothers you, you may consider turning this off. Once Superfetch has finished loading the programs into memory, your disk will stop thrashing and it won't be an issue anymore, however, you do have all those programs just sitting in memory all the time. You will get a performance boost from the programs you open most, but you might also see a performance gain in memory intensive applications if you have some extra memory to play with. For me personally, the jury still out. After having Superfetch off for a couple of days I've turned it back on to see if I notice a difference.

Windows Defender: Yes it's a service, too. Kill that shit.

Windows Search: No, this won't disable your ability to search the internet or your computer. All this does is disable the Windows Indexing Service. The Indexing service combs through all of the files on your computer and indexes their file names. Additionally it indexes all or portions of their contents (text, metadata, etc) and caches all of this information into a single place in memory. This way, when you search for something, it can first look to see if it is in the index in the memory cache, rather than searching your entire hard drive(s) for it. Only if it doesn't locate it in the cache, does it begin an actual search of your disk. Sounds like a neat idea right? It is to an extent, but it means that the indexing service is constantly making additonal reads from your hard disks everytime an indexed file name, or content, is changed, which means more thrashing. I recommend minimally changing the settings of WHAT is indexed if you're going to keep it. You can find Indexing Options in the Control panel. You certainly should not be indexing things like, oh I don't know, your Temporary Internet files directory. But what I really recommend is consider how often you realistically use the search function to find a file on your computer, and how important in those instances it is to you to have to have it instantaneously found. One final note: if you use Saved Searches or Virtual Folders in Vista, they both depend on this service to operate. Personally, I don't like the idea of depending on a "folder" which is generated from a cache. When I look in a folder, I want to see what's physically residing there. But that's for you to decide.

If you're a little wary of completely disabling these services, you can go to the Services Managment program and switch them all to "Manual" rather than "Automatic".

5. If you opted to disable Windows Search, let's take it one more step further. Open up Windows Explorer or My Computer and right-click on a hard disk. Choose properties. On the main properties window, all the way at the bottom, you'll see a checkbox for "Index this drive for faster searching". We've already disabled the service so it shouldn't matter, but, just to be safe... make sure it's unchecked and have it apply to all subfolders/files/etc. on the resulting screen. Do this for all the disk in your PC.

Now reboot and enjoy a much more tolerable life with Vista. While there are many, amny other way sot tweak Windows Vista, doing just those few things will make a world of difference in the performance, and may even change your opinon of it. I know it did me.

another 8tracks

2009-02-13T19:03:24Z

easy tempo vol. 3

because Kentucky is where the art is at

2009-02-12T18:23:54Z

Some of you may have heard of the Weird N.J. book that was a best-seller a couple of years ago. This was followed by Weird U.S. and some sequels. They began a series of websites and officially licensed books written by other folks in other states.

This morning, my pal aloneinky was telling me about Weird Kentucky which she purchased recently. I decided to check it out online and found a book website that contained information about it. It contains forewards by the original authors of Weird N.J., but the book itself was written by Jeffrey Scott Holland. This is interseting to me because I knew him. He was a DJ at WRFL back in the day and is a professional artist of some reknown today. Heck, there's even an "international association of owners of Jeffrey Scott Holland artwork" headquartered in Frankfort.

JSH used to do a rockabilly show at RFL. Through his show and record reviews, he had a profound impact on a my exposure to that entire sub-genre of rock and roll. The Reverend Horton Heat, Flat Duo Jets, The Cramps, and probably most significantly, my love for Billy Childish, are all inextricably linked in my mind to him.

In the past year, I imagine as a result of working on the book, he began keeping a Blogspot called Unusual Kentucky. If you're interested in this sort of thing, there are lots of entries in the archives to dig through. It's also a very active blog at the moment with near-daily updates of stories and information, though some of it is just regurgitated from other sources. It makes a nice, central location for Kentucky-centric stories and oddities. I took the liberty of creating a LiveJournal syndication for it: unusualkentucky. Go head and add it if you'd like to see his blog entries on your friends page.

How come I am just now learning about the band Hermano? Granted, I know that in the past few years I have became increasingly more lazy about searching-out and finding new music/bands. This is the sort of band that someone should've grabbed me by the head, looked directly into my eyes, and spoke clearly using small words and plain enunciation. John Garcia (ex-Kyuss) along with Lexington, KY native Dave Angstrom (Supafuzz/Black Cat Bone anyone?) making heavy/fuzzy/deafening stoner rock is something I can get behind.

the end of one era, the beginning of another

2009-02-02T00:59:48Z

With my somewhat recent foray into social networking sites, I've decided after much deliberation to make my Livejournal a more private affair. That's not to say that there still won't be any public content here, but my journal has become increasingly more private over the past year. There was a time when I got a kick out of having a large public audience here, but that novelty has worn-off. I wish to return my journal to a simpler time, a journal where I feel like I know the people I am interacting with. That can only happen if a) I know you in RL or b) I have the time and energy to keep-up at least marginally with your journal. The reality is, I don't and I'm sure that' no surprise to a great deal of you.

For this purpose, I have and will be conducting a massive cleaning-out of my f-list. I absolutely despise "cut posts" but at the same time, when I'm unexpectedly cut from an f-list, I know the first thing *I* do is go to the person's journal and see if they gave some sort of reason. If you find that you have been cut in this process, please know that it's nothing personal. You're welcome to keep me on your f-list if you enjoy reading my public content here. As big of a cut as this was, it's entirely possible I made a some mistakes due to a name change I didn't notice or a mis-click of the mouse. If for some reason you think I may have inadvertently removed you, don't hesitate to drop me a note. I did sift through 315+ names and whittle it down to 120, so making a mistake is entirely possible.

Also, you're more than welcome and cordially invited to add me over at Facebook if you'd like to keep in touch.

ETA: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1007765711&ref=profile

obscure curiosities

2009-01-21T20:24:37Z

On lossfound's lead, I've hastily thrown together an 8 song mix at 8tracks.com. It's a lot of noisy and heavy stuff, but there's a couple of fun things in it, too. Feel free to comment here or there about it. Also, if you decide to join in the fun and make a mix, be sure to link me.