Friday, April 17, 2009

Lego Somali Pirates

As tweeted about last night, here's the Lego Somali pirates!!! I literally laughed hard for about a minute at the end!!!

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Barely Out of Tuesday



I woke up Tuesday morning
Staring at the ceiling
Hoping for deliverance
From the distances in you.


This room feels like an oven
Somewhere south of nowhere
And north of nothing



I'm barely out of Tuesday
Seen seven hours of Wednesday
I guess I've got regrets!
Maybe you could leave a light on (leave a light on) for me.


Can you see her,
Waiting there down by the sea?
With a hat on,
Over her eyes and looking for me
If you see me coming home,
Turn me away.
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday.


She kept me at a distance.
And fifty-two weeks later,
Were still the same.
I'm standing in my basement,
Making my arrangements
And waiting for the telphone
To ring to ring to ring.


So I left from Minnesota
Where the weather's getting colder,
And people are changing.
Maybe you could leave a light on (leave a light on) for me.
Oh can you see her waiting there down by the sea?
And have arrangements to meet there for awhile and baby
If you see me coming home,
Turn me away.
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday.

And if all this distance
Ain't gonna bring you to me
Then what's the point of all this patience?
It's not your nature
You just keep what you need.
And you got some pictures of me.


I woke up Wednesday morning,
Sometime Wednesday evening,
Hoping for a piece of something easy to believe.
When you live out on the border
Of everything and nothing
There's nothing but waking and dreaming.

I'm barely out of Tuesday.
There's no one to receive me,
And nothing is changing.
Maybe you could leave a light on (leave a light on) for me.


Can you see her
Waiting there down by the sea?
There's a light on,
But there's nobody waiting for me.
If you see me coming home
Turn me away,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere someday,
Everybody tries to go back somewhere...

Sunday, April 12, 2009

The Deadly Dinosaur

I haven't been very good about blogging recently. Yesterday my parents came up for Easter festivities (normally they would have it at their house, but the rainy season revealed leaks in their roof. They're front room is going to be getting a new ceiling and paint, so all the front room was going to be in the garage... but turns out it isn't yet) and I've got a camera full of some pictures from that. I bought myself a laptop at the end of last year, I think I've made mention of it here, but it could do with an in-depth post. Janice, I finally got running last week, but now begs a question: is it better to have a car that won't start, or one that won't turn off??? Always something. For the first time I used some software to do my taxes online. For the first time, I had my taxes rejected.

THEN, last night I went to the Once Upon A Win website, and here THIS is!!! Another idea I'd had for a series of posts!!! All the cars I've owned....


While this wasn't the first car I ever owned (that honor goes to Mav I), but was the first car I ever purchased. Mine was nowhere near as cherry as this fine specimen, it was missing the grille, and one of the front fenders and the bumper were bent up some. It was a rusty copper color, sprayed over the original quirky AMC purple color. I would have rather had the purple. It had no radio, and the ignition was popped out of it when I bought it. The previous owner won it in a bet. He had bet the other owner that he could get it running cheaply and easily. He did this by putting a toggle switch and push button in place of the ignition switch. I paid $160 for it, if I remember correctly. The 258" six cylinder engine ran rough, having a dead cylinder due to a burnt valve, but other than that it was fine!!!

Shortly after purchasing it, I gutted most of the interior. Carpet, back seat, dash and instrument panel, heater and air conditioner (hell, neither of those worked anyway!!!) all got yanked out and tossed. The front seats stayed, they were out of some other AMC, probably a Hornet and were in great condition, even if they matched nothing else in the car. Also, they folded into what is likely the closest to a bed of just about any car ever!!! I had heard Ramblers and later AMC's were renowned for that feature. Probably around 300 pounds or more of not so pretty fat was quickly removed. Something car makers today could learn from, just losing considerable weight does wonders for performance, handling and mileage!!!

I put in a slick little instrument panel from a Toyota pickup, bought a straight front bumper and pair of front fenders (I don't remember what was wrong with the other side's fender, but I do remember buying two of them... wouldn't have done that for no reason... both replacements were the original purple that mine had started as!!!) and held the pertinent paperwork to the firewall with a magnet!!! On one of the back pillars, I hand painted "The Deadly Dinosaur". Rebuilding the carburetor was the only thing required to get it to pass smog, amazingly, what with the dead cylinder.

I bought this car before I was married. Not long after getting married, my wife's Mustang died from lack of oil. She drove this for a few months while we saved up for another car. While driving home, she got her first speeding ticket doing 80 MPH on the freeway. She also had her first accident, some fool running a red light that she had been in the middle of an intersection to finish her left turn. Put a flat spot on one of the new fender replacements, and completely caved in the side of the little Toyota she'd hit. Probably would have gotten their car fixed up by our insurance, but then they started lying about three extra passengers in the car needing medical assistance (there was just one person in the car, the owner's brother) and I think our insurance company told 'em to pound sand or they'd file insurance fraud against them!!! Good times!!! One night, someone hit and run clipped Dinosaur while she was parked by the corner near our apartment. Made a tiny little dent in the rear bumper and knocked the back end over about a foot, but tore off a big piece of side trim and all kinds of dirt from the underside of the other car. I would have liked to gotten a look at the other guy!!!

After we got another car, my sister wrecked hers, and we loaned this to her. Her dipshit boyfriend managed to destroy the lifetime starter I'd put in it and kill the battery, and I had no place to store it. Ended up junking her, for $100 if I remember correctly. Seems like everyone has some car from their past that they wish they still had, and this is one that's on my list. She was never pretty, but FUN!!! A curb-jumper built like a tank, amazingly good mileage, easy to work on (I think I was able to do an oil change from the top of the engine, without even having to jack her up to fit a drain pan under) and a theft deterrent in itself!!!

*Edited in February 2019, RIP Once Upon a Win, link removed, pictures updated. SOMEWHERE I've got actual photos, but the first image is close to how it could have looked at one point, the second is close to how it looked when I got it. Never had a grille. Also, the rear window when I got it had no latch and just kinda flopped back there. I ran a screw and big washer through it and semi-permanently closed it!!!

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Quickly Random CupDate

Here's another, somewhat different thing I did on one of my cups. Once again, I was throwing totes, and there was a paint pen in the area, right color and everything. I was unsure how it would react with the foam of the cup, so I did it on the lid, instead. This was saved for a week to get a picture for the sharing!!!



No other great pictures on my cups recently, but I did one day write a snatch of lyrics from Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" on the side of one:

Well, I try my best To be just like I am,
But everybody wants you To be just like them...

My younger saw that on the side of my cup (he reads pretty well these days, for his age) and asked if that was true. I had to explain.

The other one I wrote was a quote from Comic Book Store Guy from The Simpsons:

A complete list of things I have seen or not seen is available on my blog. Your mother is on the not seen list.

Looked all over the interwebs for a sound or video clip of that part. Thus far, it is unfindable.

Speaking of things never found on the interwebs, Failblog has a video I searched for extensively a while back of an assault, I believe at a Carson city council meeting. Fail blog WIN!!!

There's a flier for a battle of the bands up at my work. One of my co-workers is in a band that will be featured. One of the other bands that will be there is called "Mean Mister Mustard". Several times now I'll get that song stuck in my head from seeing that!!!