OMG. Tomorrow is my last day at work before we go overseas! I am very excited. My Mom took us out to dinner the other night, and generously donated some extra funds for our vacation! Now we can actually eat while we're there! Yum. Food is good. We're having dinner tonight with Thea's parents and Granny. They are loaning us their international cell phone for us to take. There is a good chance, with all this running frantically around Europe, that I won't be updating this blog with any daily animations for a while. But as soon as I get back, there will be a whole slough of new pictures in my Photography section! There will also be a few new pages added to the Weenja website as well. Stay tuned!
Yesterday's News (5-4-2008)
Blammo. I asked my wife what she wanted to see on today's blog. She said something violent involving a shopping cart. Here you go.
I'm all packed for Europe. I've got 3 different language lessons on my iPod: French, German and Dutch. Last time I was in Europe, I spent a month practicing German in order to be comfortable in Holland. Turns out Dutch and Deutsch are not the same language. This time, I'll be able to mangle both languages! The German tutor CD is awesome. It has little songs to a polka beat that are supposed to be catchy. They sing and you repeat. I can't wait. I'
m going to be singing polka songs in German on the train ride from Paris. Thea is going to kill me.
Yesterday's News (5-2-2008)
Happy Friday! Things are a bit too hectic lately to post a new animation for today... but I'll at least give a text update. I have been coding a new blogging script for a very special friend. It is a useful bit of code, originally written by Federico Ramirez, aka: "fedekun", called: PPlog v1.1. It is well written, and easy to configure, and it is all in one handy Perl file! It can handle links and images, and I can configure it to handle categories and comments!
Thea has also been very busy working for our friend... getting up at 3 in the morning, and working all day long! In her (rare) spare time, she has finished the big mural downstairs, and has one started in the laundry room. Yes, she still has a waiting list of commissions to work on, but right now these other projects are taking precedence. I finished her site the other day, go check it out! There are also some new pictures of the Oswald Effect in my photography section. They totally rocked at Jules Maes Saloon on Wednesday... but we had to leave before seeing Akimbo. (Akimbo is a power-trio that will make your nuts numb. Keep your eyes open for when they play next!) Sorry Aaron. We'll stay up late for you next time, for sure! Until then, Nanoo, nanoo.
Yesterday's News (4-29-2008)
Real Estate tip of the day: Buy property in the North Pole. Scientists have another bold claim: That the snow in the North Pole will be completely melted by 2009. That's next year! Soon the North Pole will be a flourishing paradise of tropical gardens and fruit orchards. Meanwhile, the rest of the world will be an industiral oil-mining wasteland. Gas was $3.77 this morning, and I heard that Mr. Bush guy speaking this morning about opening up our protected national forests and wildlife preserves to oil drilling operations. Some hippies had a bill to protect the environment, but he vetoed that faster than he can roll a joint.
None of this really has to do with my animation-of-the-day. Just some boob-like squiggles for ya. Don't try and touch 'em, or you'll get fingerprints on your screen. Anyhow, I have nothing clever left to say, so I'm off to lunch!
Oh yeah, don't forget to check out the Oswald Effect this Wednesday in Georgetown at the Jules Maes Saloon. (sodo) These guys rock harder the more crowded the bar is, so show up and crowd the place!
Yesterday's News (4-28-2008)
Back at work after an awesome weekend! I unfortunately had to miss the Oswald Effect this Saturday at the Jet in Everett because I was too sick. I'm feeling better now, and feeling rather accomplished! While I was sick this weekend, I completely overhauled Thea's Website, and added her newest artwork. We also got confirmation that I will be allowed to bring my camera into all of the venues in Europe where we'll be seeing Ween.
Thea's mural in the art room is about done, and it is looking badass. She has started another one in the laundry room now, and this one is going to be badass as well. Now it is almost lunch time, and I have to go for a walk.
Yesterday's News (4-22-2008)
Run, little tin man, run!
Yeah, OK. I know this one is almost too dumb to even post... but I figure a dumb animation is better than none at all!
Yesterday's News (4-20-2008)
Today totally rocks. Thea and I are just drawing in the art room. Website updates, Ween art, generally good stuff.
Yesterday's News (4-18-2008)
This basically sums up how I'm feeling today. If you want to see another flash animation I recently completed, check out: www.clubblazer.com/wolfmovie.html.
Yesterday's News (4-17-2008)
Yeehah! Three weeks from today, my wife and I leave for Europe! It is all very exciting... we will see Ween in Paris, Koln (Cologne), Zurich and Amsterdam. 4 shows in 5 days. After acclimating to the time zone, we seen Ween at La Maroquinerie, which only holds 520 people. Then we take the Thalys high-speed train over to Koln, and see them at the Live Music Hall, which holds about 1500 people. Then we fly to Zurich, and have a day off before seeing Ween again at the Kaufleuten, holding about 1100 people. And finally, we fly up to Amsterdam to see them in the Paradiso, which holds about 1000 people and has been touted by many big bands as the 'best venue in the world.' Then we take the train back to Paris, and fly home. It's gonna be quite an adventure.
Something weird happened yesterday on the way home from work. I was on the Express Lanes of I-5, which has 3 lanes going North... right about the time that is normally 'rush hour', I was in the right lane, doing about 65. The left lane was completely open, and the few cars in it were going even faster than me. The center lane, however, was totally jammed, and cars were only going about 35 mph. It was like this from downtown all the way up to Northgate (about 7 miles)!! Weird, huh? Anyway, that's all the news for today. I'm too excited about Europe to write about anything else!
Yesterday's News (4-15-2008)
Blah. It's Tuesday and it's overcast again. The weather report claims we might go below freezing again this weekend. What a relief! It has been so blisteringly hot here, with our one day of sunshine and all. Speaking of sunshine, my beautiful wife is getting her hair cut today. It's been about a year, so it should be pretty exciting. And in other exciting news: She is going to paint a big fat mural on the largest wall in our art room! Her new art is really cool, and we should be ready to put some up on her website soon! We actually have some new plans for her website, and it is going to be pretty spectacular. More spectacular than this blog, even.
Yesterday's News (4-11-2008)
Friday. Hmm.. kind of a slow day so far. We have two birds at home who are on the war-path. One has been incessantly bombarding the window in Thea's art room for three days now. He'll come beat on the window, look really pissed off, then go sulk on the picnic table for a while. Then he gets back at it! And, as if to prove that it's no coincidence, another bird has been going bonkers on the metal topper to our chimney. He sits on top of the chimney, and bangs on it with his beak like a woodpecker. But he's not a woodpecker... just a pecker. The noise reverberates through the whole house, and sounds like someone is using a jack-hammer in our driveway. These two are totally supporting the stereotype of the "Bird-brain!"
Gee, it's been almost a day since I talked about Ween... Did I mention our European Honeymoon? Yep, Thea and I never officially went on a honeymoon, and a good vacation is long overdue! (Myrtle Beach and Honolulu don't count, because we were only there for a couple days each.) We just received a generous gift from Thea's Sweet Granny, and we're going to go blow it overseas! Yay! We haven't even finished ordering and sorting our wedding photos yet... not to mention New Years party photos! Now we're going to Europe, and this trip will warrant several photo albums of its own. Thanks to my lovely wife for organizing all of our photo albums. We will need a new shelf soon so we can display our many, many albums of our time together. It's my turn to pay for prints this time, so if you need any help with photos, design, etc... I am in need of some freelance work!
Thea's mom got tickets for her and Thea to go see the Dali Llama today. He spoke here the other day at Quest Field, and today's event is at Key Arena, which is much smaller. That all sounded well and good until we found out that it is actually a Dave Matthews/Dali Llama event. Dave wants to talk about how his music can save the world, etc.. Free Tibet! Being that Thea thinks Dave is a ball sack, she decided to let her mom go on her own. It reminds me of Seattle politics. We Seattlites are frequently presented with a bill to vote on in our state elections. The bills are always two-fold; like: We desperately need some new construction and repairs on the Viaduct, a main road into downtown. But on the same bill is some lame addition, like a new trolley terminal, or sin-taxes, or license plate tabs taxes. WTF? Why can't we just vote for the Viaduct?! Yes, I want a new road, but not if I also have to buy new art for the sculpture park! Politicians.. I hate 'em.
I re-coded my Photoshop page today, it should work a little smoother now. And now that I have updated today's blog, I better get back to work. I've got some major data entry to do today. Wheee.
Yesterday's News (4-10-2008)
Man, every day this week has felt like Thursday... and now it finally IS! Well, the new code on my site didn't look so good on some other browsers, so I have (yet again) revised the site a little. Pretty much the same as yesterday, but it shouldn't be all tiny on your big fancy monitor. That's the trouble with doing this kind of work on my PC at work, with a tiny LCD monitor.
Anyway, Thea just booked our tickets to Denver! We're going to see Ween on July 16th and 17th at the Fillmore Auditorium (back-to-back shows!) This is a 3,000 person venue, and Brownie Trooper Beth secured our tickets a while ago. Thanks Beth! The Ween tour is coming to an end, so break the piggy and get yourself some tickets!
If you have enjoyed seeing my Ween photos, and would like to know how you can help Thea and I afford to see even more of them, you could come buy some of her art at her next art show! This weekend I will be shooting pics of her new work, and updating her website. Check it out next week!
Speaking of art show... Casey Brookbush is having a show tomorrow night at the Sunset Tavern. Casey is an awesome designer and painter (as well as drummer for The Oswald Effect) and there will be some live music there too!
Yesterday's News (4-9-2008)
Awesome; I have 30 minutes until lunch, and this is the second revision of my website in two days! I really needed an update, but the one I sent up yesterday did not really float my boat. I apologize to those who had to suffer through it. This is a relatively 'no-frills' edition, that I hope will be easy to update and allow me to quickly add new content whenever I have spare time. I also recently updated my Weenja website! There is a link on the left side of this page. The old site was created from content I found on the internet... but now that I have enough of my own photos of Ween, I decided to redesign the site using entirely my own content. Obviously I had to use Ween's art for the album covers, and the lyrics and music are also not mine. If you have never heard of Ween, you should go buy some albums! Ween may not be everybody's flavor, but I suggest you buy three Ween albums of your choice, and most likely, you will like one of them. Personally, I love everything this band has done and I plan to see as much of them as I can.
If you are in the Seattle area and would like to hear some great music, you should also check out my best friends band; The Oswald Effect. Hands down, the best local act around. These guys are pure energy with tight precision. They just released their 2nd CD "Love and Sabotage", and there are a few photos of these guys in my Photography section.
Speaking of Photography... I recently purchased a new 50mm 1.8 EF lens for my Canon Rebel, and I love it! It is lightweight, inexpensive ($70), and takes great shots. Before I get into any more lenses, I should probably consider upgrading my camera body. I am really interested in the new Canon 450D, or the 5D. The 450D is 12.2 megapixel, while the 5D is 12.8. The difference is about $600. Unless somebody wants to get me a nice early christmas gift, I'll probably be saving for the 450D (Rebel XSi). If you DO want to get me a nice gift, (maybe because you really want to see my next batch of photos), you can check out my PayPal donation center here: www.GiveMeAllTheFuckinMoneyYouCocksucker.com.
Thanks!