cole scego design

big jazz

2010-02-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

people like big shit. they like a fat 32oz steak with factory made grill marks from applebees, err "neighborhood grill", they shove it down their fat self and wash it down with an oreo ice cream butter extra huge concrete fat shake while dipping their fried mystery items in a pot of bacon ranch dressing. There is no such thing as a size small. When I was a kid we had small, medium, and large. Small was small, large was not too exceptional. Today folks tote their 364 ounce in and out of gas stations and miserably shuffle over to the fountain while rubbing their tounge across their rotten teeth to gas up the fat machine. I don't even know of a place where you can get a "small" anything. Clever marketing folks like to disguise the huge portion under titles such as venti or largo, what the fuck is largo? Others bust it straight, supersize that mofo. Anyway, the wifey and I took a drive this weekend and we discovered some big stuff. (see gina above) We stumbled across the worlds biggest rocking chair. A chair that is way venti and about as exciting as a dead ladybug in your sink. On our way home I went into to an uncontrolable seizure as we passed this house and couldn't help slamming on the brakes and throwin the car in the driveway across the street to grab a snap.
I am assuming a hidden journal somewhere within this home has a post titled "my parents are whackjobs and I want to die". Either this is evidence of an actual biblical shipwreck or their father owns the local lumberyard. I can't imagine the conversation that led up to the placement of this bad boy. Should we put it in the back yard? Nah, I say we mount her at a solid 30 degrees to the highway and plant her right out front. What the fuck does a kid do in something like this, lay in the belly of the ship and eat hay with the zebras? Oh, eins and dreist scared this opossum up into a tree, that'll learn him, quit eatin out the compost pile.

the house of the moment

2009-12-23T04:50:00.000-08:00

on a near weekly basis my soul sinks in envy of a home i desire. this house really hits it good, the location, the design, the colors, the sustainability, and the maddening desirability. Planted near that outdoor fireplace with a good book and a bottle of wine would suit me fine. and via designmilk

man, dang

2009-12-01T08:00:00.000-08:00

The upholstery detail on these chairs makes me shiver like an excited puppy. Loves it.
designed by kranen/gille

don't piss off a cyclist

2009-11-06T05:14:00.000-08:00

i like this bicycle defense kit that luke iseman sells
carrying this kit allows a cyclist to:

• Issue "citizen citations" with official-ish tickets.
• Label offending vehicles with an "I was a jerk to a cyclist" sticker.
• Introduce the risk of paint damage with a Jolly Rancher.
• Create certain coating cremation via DOT3 brake fluid.
• Make cars stink worse than their exhaust with a carefully-placed stink bomb.
• Throw a trusty bolt to dent offending traffic as it passes.
• Lock out loony drivers by filling their keyholes with super glue.
• Cut through tire valve stems with a utility blade.

via the always wonderful boingboing

trash kills

2009-10-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

Sad story here. Albatross chicks on the midway atoll, dead due to our careless habits. Recycle, don't litter, don't be a damn fool. See the entire depressing set here. photos by chris jordan

m.i.a

2009-10-01T18:46:00.000-07:00

haven't blogged in a bit. I feel like i'm juggling 13 chainsaws, a glance to the east causing a gaping wound. I've got more things going on than a row of light switches at a wal mart grand opening. As the baitshop rehab nears fruition I see myself with a bit more free time and hopefully the return of an ounce of sanity. we have windows and doors now, check it

underpants with a cause

2009-09-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

you can choose your style and your cause, check it here

this is how you flash mob

2009-08-17T08:20:00.000-07:00

Kentucky...vote for Rand Paul

2009-08-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

If you live in the great state of kentucky get ready to vote for Rand Paul. Rand is the son of Ron Paul and has a straight head with a functioning brain just like his father. We really need to quit borrowing money and straighten out our deficit. Why are we borrowing money from china to give people cash for clunkers? Why are we borrowing money to give to people and say "go to the mall and spend it" how does that make us a richer country? Keep government small and let there be a free market approach to the economy.

i think i want an axe

2009-07-21T04:52:00.000-07:00

one of my neighbors tells me that chopping wood is a therapeutic activity. I'm fairly certain he's dead wrong on that one, though owning an axe from the best made company and hangin' that bad boy on your wall certainly sounds therapeutic to me. I'm guessing any home intruder would be a bit apprehensive to pass beyond my doorway when he gets a glimpse of this bearded mad wielding my custom axe. Any visitors to my home may also fret at the thought of talkin too much trash as they gaze over at my sexy axe mounted on the wall. Get on over to best made co and get yourself a hand forged axe.

we want schlafly in a can

2009-07-08T08:46:00.000-07:00

Schlafly is a craft brewery located in st. louis missouri whose beer I happen to be very fond of. Let it be known that I love beer, I love locally produced beer, and I love good beer that is locally produced. For those of us who drink copious amounts of beer and also recycle, the bottles tend to be a bit of a pain in the ass. My glass recyling bin tends to fill up faster than a firehose filling a dixie cup and the damn bin ends up weighing more than a bag of anvils. Those of us who enjoy the outdoors through hiking, canoeing, camping, et cetera will never bring along bottled libations. Bottles are outlawed on most waterways for good reasons, they are too damn heavy for your backpack and you sure as hell don't want to carry out the empties. Who wants their backpack full of a jingly, fragile, dripping, and burdensome mess? For those of you who suggest I drink less beer to solve this problem, well you're just plain wrong and quit making mediocre and depressing suggestions for a problem that is easily solved. CANS, cans will solve this problem. The ability to be smashed is a great attribute of aluminum cans and the smashing of said cans is actually fairly entertaining if you imagine that you are a giant indestructable landmine clearing machine. My aluminum recycling bin slowly eases its way to the top and never buldges beyond the lid or becomes insanely cumbersome between recyling runs. I know some people claim that canned beer tastes bad, those people are d-bags. Through a bit of research obtained by my own product testing and through information provided by can producers we know that canned beer is actually better insulated from air and light and that the metallic taste experienced with older cans is now absent due to a liner that does not allow contact between the aluminum and the beerski. I would assume that through the use of cans schlafly could use storage space more efficiently as the cans stack well and take up less space. The weight reduction gained through can packaging would also increase the per beer fuel mileage on the schlafly delivery trucks. So I think we need to start a local movement here, a movement that will persuade schlafly to put their beer in a can. Please send a message to derek@schlafly.com and let him know we want cans, and lets begin with the pale ale.

one recent wall hanging or art or trash, whatever you desire to call it by

2009-06-24T17:54:00.001-07:00

"she got roots in the business"

love me some stop motion

2009-06-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

"deadline" created by Bang-yao Liu for his senior project at savannah college of art and design. i also posted the making of video.

kindergarten

2009-06-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

Check out this new kindergarten near salzburg, austria designed by german firm Kadawittfeldarchitektur. My kinderdigs were not quite this rad. dezeen has a nice write up on the project here.

fab find in the junk shop

2009-06-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

our planner chair
designed by paul mccobb
manufactured by the winchendon furniture company

gina and I tend to stop at junk stores in rural areas when we happen upon them. Usually you find yourself surronded by a plethora of junk in a foul smelling shanty of a building full of well, undesireable junk. A few weekends ago gina and I were at the lake of the ozarks and decided to hit up a junk store. Amongst the mess I spotted a chair with an old lamp and a pile of clothes sitting on top of it. Upon closer inspection I discovered it was a planner chair designed by paul mccobb. I was forced to get it refinished as it had been abused a bit and someone had started to sand the coating off of the seat. I purchased it for $30 and payed a local chap $40 to get her fixed up. $70 investment and I have a beautiful chair. Through further investigation i realized this chair was originally part of the planner desk and chair set designed by mccobb and manufactured by the winchendon furniture company. The desk is quite a treat as well, too bad I didn't find one of those in the junk pile.

sounds sexy

2009-06-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

gina and I came across this sign last weekend. looks a bit interesting

beanzawave

2009-06-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

the heinz beanzawave, a usb powered mini microwave for your mini cup of shit beans. this thing is a waste of time, a waste of plastic, a waste of space, a waste of your time to even fucking look at. somewhere someone craves a tub of beans while they sit at their computer and this someone must be a lazy, worthless member of our wonderful society. i can't even think of what species these people must belong to. i wonder if it prints out a fancy little sticker to place on your chest to let everyone else know what a d-bag you truly are. Next comes the chicken ranch tex mex fajita syrup beans to cook in your little shit of an appliance.

mad love for arugula

2009-05-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

cut some arugula from the garden this afternoon. bbq tofu, grilled hearts of palm, arugula, evoo, balsamic, s&p, honey infused goat cheese. simple and splinded. mmmmmmmmmski

monsters, they come to feed on us, giant little animals

2009-05-08T05:33:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I live in a quite rural area of missouri with my closest neighbor about a 1/4 mile away. I was a bit surprised last night when I saw said neighbors horse running down the road and across my yard at a high rate of speed while making abnormal noises. She seemed to be a frustrated mess and also quite scared. Moments after she delved into the forest I witnessed a huge, fat, and gnarly black dog in the distance. I raced to put eins and dreist in the house to avoid some sort of disaster with a crazy rabid dog. As the beast of a dog moved closer I realized it wasn't a dog at all, but a damn feral hog.(I think) I have never seen a feral hog in my neck of the woods, nor do I ever desire to see another. I don't know anyone within miles who raises pigs, especially radically ugly ones with hair standing on their back like a perfectly manicured punked out mohawk. I tried to scare it off by yelling and throwing rocks in its vicinity to no avail. The beast was staring me down and pawing at the ground with its front leg, to be honest, I was quite scared. After a few camera flashes he turned and raced off into the woods. 15 minutes later, my neighbor came down to ask if I had seen her horse. Well yes mam, I have, It wailed through my yard and it was being chased by a feral hog and no mam, I am not on some sort of wild acid trip. Apparently she found the horse, fixed the fence that the horse raged through, and didn't believe my pig story. I would show her the pictures that I took, but I think I'll just let her be amused in thinking that I am some sort of crazy fellow.

jill foote-hutton

2009-05-08T05:06:00.000-07:00

Gina and I recently purchased a couple pieces from local artist jill foote-hutton to add to our collection. Jill, the director of the East Central art department, is based in the small river town of New Haven Missouri. This past weekend, we were walking through the coagulated mess of washington MO's downtown junk/gift/crap stores and her work, sitting in the window of the art center snagged my eye. I was pleasantly surprised to see something desireable amongst the mishmash of mediocre watercolors, overpriced elementary metal sculptures, and acrylic paintings that would be suffice for using as an umbrella that fill the rest of the place. Big ups to jill and remember to support your local artists. you can see more of jills work here

jamie wynne creates some cycling duds

2009-05-08T04:53:00.000-07:00

jamie wynne designed these cycling jerseys for the Springbike cycling club of Springfield MO. They will be going into production in the near future. The manufacturer is going to screenprint the design on jerseys fabricated with thousands of starling feathers to decrease drag and therefore increase speed 5 fold. ok, maybe not, but you must admit they are pretty rad.

mustard is green

2009-05-03T17:48:00.000-07:00

picked up some young mustard greens at the washington farmers market this morning. just stir fried 'em, stems and all with some pork match meat as the dazzle. those match meat chaps need a damn blue ribbon, that stuff is g-rate.

if you are bored

2009-04-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

if you are bored out of your mind and have some time to waste, don't waste it, read some kurt vonnegut quotes if you have more time, read one of his books

here are a few to entice you.....

I have wanted to give Iraq a lesson in democracy — because we’re experienced with it, you know. And, in democracy, after a hundred years, you have to let your slaves go. And, after a hundred and fifty years, you have to let your women vote. And, at the beginning of democracy, is that quite a bit of genocide and ethnic cleansing is quite okay. And that’s what’s going on now.

The most important message of a crucifix, to me anyway, was how unspeakably cruel supposedly sane human beings can be when under orders from a superior authority.

Even crazier than golf, though, is modern American politics, where, thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.

Doesn't anything socialistic make you want to throw up? Like great public schools, or health insurance for all?

If you actually are an educated, thinking person, you will not be welcome in Washington DC.

If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.

my sister wins and breaks previous record at st louis marathon

2009-04-23T09:25:00.000-07:00

My older sister, Megan Earney, won the st. louis marathon on sunday. She also set the new female course record 2hours 51minutes 20seconds. If I remember correctly, only 5 dudes crossed the finish line before she did. I used to challenge her to a race every once in a while as a child, though that stopped soon after I was defeated every single time. Anyway, big ups to my sister, winning a marathon is quite an accomplishment that takes extreme dedication and rigorous training. Possibly we will see her in the London Olympics. More importantly she is sponsored by saucony and gets some mad free gear....Megan get me my damn free shoes, stat.

danny macaskill is a badass

2009-04-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

This video is all the rage. He may not have karate skills or nunchuck skills or swordfighting skills but he's got mad bike riding skills and skill is even a component of his last name. As an added bonus, "the funeral" by one of my all time fave bands, the band of horses, is the background track. As a youth I thought I was a damn genious when I learned how to pull a wheelie for more than 3 seconds without cracking my skull.

mos def vs. christopher hitchens

2009-04-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

who knew mos def was so full of knowledge. geeez, throw in the towel buddy. Like mos def, I am sure a huge portion of americans have no idea what agenda the taliban and al queda are pushing. I am sure we will all know more about it in the near future as these murderous thugs are currently pushing their way through pakistan as the rest of the world sits back and watches. Earlier this week, they took over an area only 60 miles from islamabad. Soon they may have control over pakistans nuclear weapons, lets hope that doesn't come to fruition.

easter

2009-04-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

eins and dreist are all kinds of stoked about easter

i like this

2009-04-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

a bench by gelitin

shoe display

2009-04-03T06:31:00.000-07:00

here is a terrible photo of a shoe dispay we took to globalshop, a bit more aesthetically pleasing than scattering shoes on a table i believe, but who am I to say, I don't sell shoes

custom t's

2009-03-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

gina and i are trying to hawk some goods at globalshop in las vegas this week. Our store fixtures are being received quite well. Above are some custom t-shirts I made at the last minute for the show with fabric paint and various masking with tape and stencils.

wishing machine - the bait shop rehab

2009-03-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a freshly created blog that will be documenting the rehab of an old building located in downtown washington missouri. Upon completion, the building will be a the "greenest" little building in the small river town. After a small hold up on a demolition permit, the work begins today.

wishing machine baitshop blog

globalshop

2009-03-16T05:44:00.000-07:00

gina and I will be headed off to vegas later this week for globalshop. The show runs march 23-25 and we will be showing off some new store fixtures I have created.

the great garden expansion

2009-03-12T09:10:00.001-07:00

Gina and I experimented with our own garden last year and had fairly good results for a couple of rookies. The past weekend I more than doubled our gardening space by building 3 new 4'x12' beds. I am still planning on adding another smaller bed for our herb garden. Tonight we are headed off to a Missouri university extension course on canning and preserving. I'll keep you up to date as we get started. Not many blog posts here lately as we have been a bit busy preparing for globalshop and also getting started on the baitshop. I will be starting a blog about our trials and tribulations of this little building real soon. We started demo on monday and our contracter found some WWII era newspapers, which are a bit interesting. I myself am waiting for him to find a big wad of cash tucked in one of the walls.

22.5 minutes of someone who makes a bit of sense

2009-02-28T20:04:00.000-08:00

video of dr. ron paul at cpac,
"legalize the constitution, that would be a bold step" ron paul
that's the quote of the year
the intro music is a bit odd, just remeber cpac is not the greatest conference on earth, still a fair amount of douchebaggery taking place, just ignore it for a few seconds

at work

2009-02-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

check out THIS nice photoset of people at work around the world. I really dig this kind of stuff. I have some sort of odd fascination with manufacturing and machinery. A chap like me would rather tour a pencil making factory than spend a day at disneyland where I would probably spend a vast amount of time sitting on a bench and shooting myself in the face with a water pistol.

the stimulus package, watch these

2009-02-23T06:49:00.000-08:00

video 1 = ron paul on the stimulus package
video 2 = house minority leader john boehner

that damn amish irony

2009-02-17T11:13:00.000-08:00

the amish are building electric fireplaces and the company that subs out the manufacturing to the amish are selling them by the boat, er, buggyload. And by the way, they are pieces of shit unloaded upon you by some savvy marketing skills. Read this article via the ole treehugger.

black bird goes fishing

2009-02-09T05:37:00.000-08:00

blackbird goes fishing as his retarded cousins eat bread

2009-02-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

Jamie Wynne created a nice banner ad for me. He is a photographer hailing from springfield, mo and he has a beard and a surfeit of manpowered 2wheelers and a dog and a lovely wifey and a youngster that goes by "E" (they're street like that) you can check out his flickr stream here

probably gonna get my PhD

2009-02-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

I recently discovered academic earth, tons of lectures for FREE. I'm gonna tear it up and absorb a bit of knowledge. It's like ivy league without that annoying tuition thing.

something is born

2009-01-29T18:12:00.000-08:00

today marks the birth of WISHING MACHINE LLC, and the first project will be this fab building in downtown washington missouri.

cherishing the bourbeuse

2009-01-26T14:04:00.000-08:00

gina and I were bored yesterday and went down to the bourbeuse river access 5 miles from our home(Wenkel Ford Access). I gave her a lesson on rock skipping, a skill I aquired through the teachings of my grandfather before I was able to tie my own shoes, which I thought was an ability everyone possesed. Gina, well, she throws like a girl, but she did eventually get the hang of it and tossed a 5-skipper a few times. We had a great time romping up and down the banks and trying to save our digits from imminent frostbite. The bourbeuse is truly one of the last beautiful, untainted, and untamed rivers in missouri. Meandering through the countryside of franklin county weaving its way between monstrous rock bluffs, high ridges, expansive gravel bars, pristine wilderness and fertile, rolling farmland. Possibly next weekend we will take the ole photo machine along to grab some shots of the magnificent ice sculptures created by the slow runoffs from the bluffs. Just being near the river gave me a serious itch for some lonesome float trips as soon as the weather turns. Gina and I are gonna purchase a canoe this spring and wear the damn thing out. It will also be our goal to teach eins and dreist to sit still in the canoe this year and reduce the figeting a bit, as in past trips they have tended to rock us around as they run laps within the canoe, spilling beers, wetting the provisions and jumping out before coming to the realization it's impossible for them to get back in until we beach. Oh...the wifey, the dogs, the river, a canoe, some beer, a picnic, and a day...........I bet that makes you folks a bit jealous when you're walking on concrete and pavement while staring at buildings and avoiding automobiles. And to the motorcrazy, lazy hillbillys...keep your damn jet boats at home. Aluminum is selling quite well on the recycling market, might as well dismantle them and get out the paddles.

a flautist beatboxer, yes sir

2009-01-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

flute skills + beatbox skills + inspecter gadget

brilliant

wal mart

2009-01-21T05:58:00.000-08:00

Went to wal mart last night, ended up studying evolutional theory. I have deducted something went wrong, way wrong.

obama what

2009-01-20T05:22:00.001-08:00

This just in: Obama will be arriving to the inauguration site today upon the back of an unsaddled white unicorn. Upon arrival, he will remove his mask to reveal that he is indeed, jesus christ.

Update: Jeez... I have already received an email from some pathetic soul notifying me that I am a racist pig. Those who know me would testify that I have no place for racism and am quite honestly, the farthest removed from racism that a person can be. I never once said anything remotely racist or hateful towards obama. I think he is a great man, intelligent, eloquent, and quite respectful of this country and its people. I just don't agree with those who worship him as some sort of prophet. Possibly, instead of wasting your time pointing fingers and proclaiming false truths, you should yourself, go and assist this nation, nourish your community and applaud the good in the others around you.

best thing since sliced bread

2009-01-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

You hear many people throw around the hyperbolic phrase, "the best thing since sliced bread." I don't really know that sliced bread is all that great, as I prefer my bread to be unsliced and free of the preservatives that give it an outlandish shelf life. Though I won't deny I haven't released that trite hyperbole from my lips on many occassions, many of which probably didn't deserve it.
As many cyclists know, you can't just leave it up to the city to protect you while riding, that is unless you live in a bike friendly city such as boulder, eugene, portland, et cetera. The fine folks at Altitude, Inc have brought forward "the best thing since sliced bread", the LightLane, which projects a virtual light lane around the cyclist as they move amongst often careless and imprudent drivers.

ya????????????????

2009-01-13T17:49:00.000-08:00

I want a piece of action
or maybe 2
gonna be a protege like no one ever knew
the hardest part is when you're fallin' alone
I'll take a slice of life
or maybe even 2
hardest part
hardest part is when your fallin alone
i'll take a slice of life
or maybe 2
just to prove it all
to prove it all to you
its the hardest part
its the hardest part
when you're fallin alone

matt blunt's douchebaggery

2009-01-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

On monday, blunts last day in office as the governer of missouri, he signed a bill giving the Kansas City Chiefs 25 million dollars in tax credits. Yes, you read right, 25 million to the Kansas City Chiefs a professional football team. The chiefs that have consistently sold every seat at every game for many years.(1) The chiefs that reward their players with salaries comparable to greek shipping magnates. The chiefs that are owned by the mega oil rich Hunt family(2) which also owns 2 other professional sports teams. The same Chiefs that were given 50 million in tax breaks in 2006 for work on Arrowhead Stadium. Most of the 25 mil. will go once again to Arrowhead stadium, while 10 million will go towards a new practice facility in St. Joseph at Missouri Western U. The facility is estimated to cost 13.5mil, with the additional 3.5mil coming from money the city of st. joseph will hopefully raise and a STUDENT FEE. A student fee, wtf, once again we prove that atheletics are more important than education in the state of missouri. Why, in the dire times we are facing, are we handing out money to a fucking professional sports team? I would much rather see that money going into education which would have a much greater payoff for the state in the long run.

(1) The KC Chiefs have sold out 157 consecutive games, or 19 complete seasons.
(2) The heirs of the oil tycoon HL Hunt also own the MLS's FC Dallas and Columbus crew.

concrete photo frames

2009-01-05T05:49:00.000-08:00

nate maners, of maners concrete collection sent me over some photos of his new concrete photo frames. Nate also throws down some pretty rad furniture with his concrete skills.

impossible figures

2008-12-31T10:03:00.000-08:00

these impossible figures by a. aronsson make my brain fidget and cause my eyes to make odd and sporadic movements accompanied by brain numbing focusing problems. pretty rad. he even explains his techniques on his site

some stuff

2008-12-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

hook hands work exceptionally well for briefcases
and
persuasions in the forest

Slice of life

2008-12-30T07:42:00.000-08:00

Sunday night Gina, Barrett, Anthony and I went out to catch a miles of wire show in STL. I was a bit aprehensive about attending, as I knew I had an essential early rise and a lot to do on monday. Against my own advice, we strapped up the boots and took off to see some rock music. After about 316 beverages and a good show we jumped back in the ride for the trip home around 1:15am. Gina took the wheel and steered us home, arriving at about 2am. Knowing I had to rise again in less than 3 hours at 4:15am I pondered the option of just staying awake. Naw, I'll get a good couple hours of power sleep in, I thought to myself. So I hit the sack and what seemed like about 3 minutes later, the ole alarm is sending out its ear wrenching signal. Mmmmmm, nothing better than 4am post inebriation. It's mighty terrible to pray for the end of the day to arrive as soon as the day begins, but I most definitely was. All day I felt like two small woodland creatures were having intercourse inside my head, only taking breaks to scurry into my stomach somehow and tumble around like a drunk hamster on a wheel. I think Plato once said, "learning is merely recollection". Yes Plato, you are correct, this has indeed happened before, my lesson is learned though I do expect to learn it again in the near future. Sometimes you gotta take a bit of pain in exchange for pleasure. You just do a cost-benefit analysis when its over and if the benefit comes out on top you did just fine. Anyway, I'm back with full force today.

christmas, a wonderful holiday for self obsessed consumerists and of course, baby jesus

2008-12-16T06:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas, just the word brings on an ounce of depression. This time of year you just have to do everything you can to keep yourself from falling into a bottomless pit of anger and depression. The monthlong celebration of the birth of a prophet or a cynical, mediocre carpenter, who knows?
One day we are celebrating one of the few peaceful moments between the colonists and the native amercans, the next, boatloads of you are rising before the sun to head out to the nearest big box stores and malls to load up on gifts to hand out to your family and friends to celebrate the magical virgin birth of jesus. Anyone with a few brain cells rubbing together will stay far away from anything resembling a retail store on that dreadful day. What will you get your brothers and sisters, your parents, your cousins, your collegues? I suppose most of us go through some sort of analytical alogorithm to come up with the perfect gift for someone, for we must put a price upon our love. To most people it matters not what they have to spend, but what they feel they need to give and what they percieve they may receive. It matters not that you have 2 mortgages on your home and 2 brand new cars that you cannot theoretically afford. What really matters to most is the perception of themselves through the recipient of the gift or the perception of the recipient through the eyes of his friends and family knowing that you were the giver of this gift. You buy your children clothing and toys that you cannot afford knowing that their pals at school will think you are the greatest parents because your child was greeted with a plethora of material bullshit. You jump to the conclusion that your siblings may only spend 25 bucks for your gift, so you selfishly spend the time to look for a gift of equal or lesser value to give in return. What you give them a dvd player and they just get you a bag of chips? Then there are those families who have those crazy gift giving rules which limit the monetary value of the gift to a predifined maximum value, in turn, creating the after dinner whispers of who got screwed with the gift that nobody believes would have hit that maximum cost threshold. The best are the families who choose to create some sort of matrix of complicated rules that allow you to steal someones gift and give them the one you picked in return, you can only steal 2 times and never from the person on your left, uless they have brown hair. If the person on your right has a name ending in "E" you can steal from them only once, what the fuck? greed and discrimation at christmas, gotta love that.
What really gets me is the practice of sending christmas cards. There's no way to say, "I don't really give a fuck about you" any better. Here you go, I decided to write your name on this card I removed from a box of 24 identical others. And for those of you planning on forwarding a fancy christmas related email, well don't.
In the month leading up to christmas, many people feel the need to decorate their homes and yards with multi-colored energy sucking bulbs of light and figurines and giant plastic snow globes most of which are produced in china by workers who slave away in miserable conditions and who are probably at work while you are tearing the wrapping from you gifts and indulging in a feast. Most of those people not realizing that the energy required to run these brightly lit and animated decorations is in part creating the demand for and in return the high cost of oil, which they will incessantly bitch about in the months to come as they cannot afford to pay off their bulging christmas credit card bills and fill up the massive gas tank of their SUV. I assume that the oil company executives, the abusive saudi royalty, the crooked and tyranic iranian government, the massively depressive russian government, the oil propped hugo chavez, et cetera, et cetera, all sit back with a smirk on their faces as they admire our stupidity.
Christmas trees? There is no good reason. Let's go cut down a living thing, take it home, hang shit on it, vacuum the pine needles for a month as it slowly dies, and then throw it out after new years or buy a fake one from china that will create some sort of toxic environment in your home as it slowly leaks unknown chemicals into the air your family breathes.
Work related christmas parties. That sounds fun, go to work all day and then go directly to a party and hang out with the same people for 4 more hours. I don't have this luxury in my line of work, though every year gina insists I must participate in her work christmas party, i assume partly because she couldn't sit through the whole thing alone without stabbing herself with a breadknife. They always have to have some retarded and outlandish theme. This year, they played "deal or no deal" with the girls, the breifcase, a fake howie mandel?, everything. What was the outcome, you ask. They narrowed it down to the briefcase that contained a day off work. Give me a break, cut the two hours of childish nonsense, give the day off work and go home. I can't handle it.
I am really sick of all of this. If you want to give a gift, the best gift to give and the most admirable one to receive is one of love and compassion, enjoy the presence of your family and friends. If you want to decorate your home, do it in a sensible manner and do not chastise others because they do not participate. Do not instill consumeristic values in your children under the the false pretense that participating in gift giving at christmas will send them to some magical place after they pass on. Take the time to show your love and appreciate what you have.
As most know, the US economy is in the shit-can. Do what you can to create a job for someone. If we must purchase material gifts, we should purchase those gifts from US manufacturers with an emphasis on locally produced and handmade gifts. I find that ETSY is a wonderful source for such gifts, as everthing is handmade and you have the option to search for local suppliers. In my opinion, you should hold up your middle finger to wal-mart, best buy, target, bed bath and beyond, et cetera, and purchase gifts from small, locally owned stores and local craftsmen/women. MERRY CHRISTMAS

my last conversation with Gov. Rob Blagojevich

2008-12-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Me- yo, rod, how are the bangs hangin' man?
Rod- is this cole?
Me- ya, I think I finally got a deal
Rod- what did you come up with?
Me- Well, it's a sweet plan, basically, I get the senate seat, you get some cashflow
Rod- How does that work? It better be something F*&#ing great, this F$#*ing senate seat is a big F$%*ing deal
Me- Rob, chill out. I need a fake birth certificate stating I was born in Illinois. I need a current illinois address and a killer resume. you select me for the senate seat, if I get the job, you get hella benefits
Rod- What are the benefits and are you gonna hook my wife up with something too?
Me - Well for starters... You will be named the new spokesman for a series of new websites I started and your wife will be your manager. No money up front, but I'm sure you're gonna take in a boatload of cash once we get up and running.
Rod- What the F*&# are the sites gonna be, man this is F**&ing exciting.
Me - Well I have set up quite a few, kickasshairstyles.com, howtogetmadbabes.com, corruptionforidiots.com, howtocurseprofuselyonwiretapssothatyouseemlikeabadass.com, ifrodismarriedanyonecandoit.com, makingyourforeheaddissapearwithhair.com, fluffybangs.com, lifeinprisonbeggingforapardon.com, howtomakeyourupperlipdissapearwhenyousmile.com, myrealnameismilorad.com, howtomanagea4%approvalrating.com
Rod - hell yes brother, those all sound pretty rad except for the prison one, what the f*$% is that about? Hold on, someones at the door........ F$*# it's the F**@ing FBI

Update: Rod has hired R. Kelly's attorney, I wonder if he peed on someone as well?

my new business and its plan

2008-12-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

1. hire a bunch of my friends (okay I only have 3)
2. pay them a huge salary with crazy benefits for life
3. produce a product, what product, I don't know, just something, it doesn't really
matter if it works well or sells well
4. hire me up some lobbyists, supply them with golf vacations and pricey cigars to
hand out, maybe some memberships to the priciest strip clubs
5. create a broad network of dealers and salesmen
6. market this product like a raging fire, you know, billboards, prime time
tv commercials, internet ads, giveaways, t-shirts, sponsorships, a damn
skyscraper, smoke messages from trick airplanes
7. cut myself a monthly salary check of 3.5 million
8. purchase private jet for business trips and for transportation to the rad parties
in LA, Vegas, NYC, Beijing, wherever I wanna go
9. hit sales target......oh shit
10.call on the lobbyists to snatch us up another 75 billion bucks to prevent
bankruptcy, hell ya

man, this is gonna be all rage, all the time. I can't wait. taxpayers are awesome, you wrap the bait in a fancy package and they just keep shovelin' money your way.

birds nest lounge

2008-12-04T04:43:00.000-08:00

I think she's kinda sexy. I will be throwing up a bunch of new work on the ole web site sometime before the first of the year.

these bikes are FIRE

2008-12-02T06:45:00.001-08:00

there are some cats around the country makin some kick ass bikes. jamie pointed me in the direction of ahearne cycles and I found Naked while oozing over custom bikes through the googler. The orange one above is from ahearne and the one with those sweet wood grips is from Naked. If you are gonna go out lookin for some babes, The giuseppe randonneur bike from ahearne would be of great assistance. Check out the Ahearne site for some killer racks too.

wicked toshiba ad

2008-11-18T04:48:00.000-08:00

toshiba time sculpture ad

making of the ad below

a few things

2008-11-17T14:50:00.000-08:00

bluebird music fest. 2nite

2008-11-14T04:57:00.000-08:00

We are headed to the bluebird music festival tonight to rage on some ha ha tonka and big smith. If you're goin, let me know and we can meet up pre-show for some killer food at the main squeeze, the best veg restaurant in columbia.

brooke emerson No on H8 artwork

2008-11-13T03:52:00.000-08:00

brooke emerson, a designer friend of mine produced some nice art for the no on H8 movement. Nice work huh?

wasabi ranch, huh?

2008-11-11T09:19:00.000-08:00

I was carousing the over lit, eye-jumbling central aisles of the local grocery store last night and noticed a bag of chips. Not a classic flavored bag of chips, not salt and pepper, not salt and vinegar, not BBQ, not sour cream, no, they were WASABI RANCH. I wondered quietly, Is this the downfall of our civilization happening right in front of my eyes, will our youth build their brains with wasabi ranch chips and mystery meat and cheese filled bread pouches that cook in a foil lined cardboard package? Will they all walk around dead eyed and numb mouthed, eating whatever new jazzy packaged flavor overload shit the marketers shove in front of their faces? I have no idea what the fuck "ranch" even means. What is the flavor of something "ranch"? Does it taste like the air upon your tongue as you wander aimlessly and open-mouthed across a cattle ranch in the southwest? I remember trying ranch flavored dressing one time and it was one of the most repulsive, tongue-wrenching tastes I could imagine. Like eating fat injected slime with insane amounts of torturous unknown lab created morsels of flavor, dried spice, herb, and preservatives that would make it taste just as horrible 30years from now. Then to that wonder mixture of unknown, they choose to add wasabi. For me this is just some sort of mental mind-numbing conundrum that shuts down my brain while my nuerons just bounce erractically not knowing how to put this marriage of flavors together in a manner that makes any fucking sense at all. Whats next? Miso-Salsa twinkies? terryaki-strawberry peanut butter ketchup to dip your freedom fries in?

open letter to barack obama

2008-11-06T05:25:00.000-08:00

dear president-elect obama-
do not raise taxes on small business. are you trying to win the gold medal for douchebaggery?
from cole

how to make an ass out of yourself, and not care

2008-11-05T14:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a wonderful example of how to make an ass out of yourself... accept an invitation to an event 6 months in advance and wait until the night before to compose a slideshow and speaking notes. I have a bit of an anxiety problem when I speak in front of two people, 350 architects and designers staring me down sort of kicks that into a full blown heart attack weed schizophrenic anxiety. I told myself not to fidget, though I look like a late stage Parkinson's patient on stage here. I had about 6 pages of notes and I never made it past the middle of the second page. So here it is, it is completely acceptable to poke fun and amuse yourselves while watching, this is amazing horrible.

bunnyland

2008-11-04T12:10:00.000-08:00

so, i watch two things on tv, anthony bourdain, because he is all the rage and the doc channel. i watched an interesting documentary the other night called bunnyland by brett hanover. Here is the synopsis from the site: "In the mountain resort of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, 73 rabbits are found slaughtered at a miniature golf course. Nearby, a small rental cabin catches fire, killing its only occupant. Connecting these two events is amateur archaeologist Johnny Tesar, the self-proclaimed “last Indian on the Trail of Tears.”

Johnny claims to have discovered an ancient civilization, and has collected thousands of stone artifacts to support this assertion. His bizarre scientific theories have generated controversy for decades, and the relics themselves continue to attract skeptical curiosity seekers. But in Johnny’s microcosm of friends and enemies, it is even more difficult to discern all the facts of legal battles, spiritual alliances, and unexplained deaths."

If you thought to yourself, "that sounds a bit odd", you're right on the money. Johnny Tesar is one weird dude. It's definitely worth a watch. After bunnyland golf, he built a resort that was quite interesting and deadly, now Johhny thinks he has discovered an ancient civilization composed of rabbits and he now uses his "entreprenuerial genious" to hawk gun tees, you have to check out this site guntees. I like..."ironed on by my mom, she needs the money"

neat drawing technique

2008-11-03T10:06:00.000-08:00

check out this rad "water drawing" technique used by Emmanuel Guibert. I like neat shit and this is neat. watch it damnit, neat shit is good for you.
via boing boing

maple syrup

2008-11-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

who knew the beginnings of maple syrup were so damn clear straight from the tree? I didn't, but now I have a slight understanding of how it's made. Check it out here: maple syrup

garderning, wind, and solar for our youth

2008-10-28T07:01:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with henry rentz, the president of MOVRE(Missouri Valley Renewable Energy)yesterday about some of his recent projects. I got to know henry through a chance business relationship, we currently powder coat the poles for his wind systems, and he has become a good friend and is also a great man who is full of knowlege in the fields of renewable energy and sustainable living. He had just returned from kansas, where he had installed solar pv and wind turbines at 4 elementary schools. The small turbines and the solar will be used to power a greenhouse and waterpump at each school for a new diet study. These four schools will be devoting a small chunk of time each day to teach their kids about renewable energy as well as organic gardening and healthy diet. All of the produce that is produced at the schools will be used on site for school lunches. I think this is a grand idea, as most kids these days grow up on unhealthy, overprocessed foods. This is also an obesity study conducted by a university to see if this education and diet will produce a less obese population in the schools. Does there really need to be a study on this?? Do the kids at the other schools need to suffer through their overprocessed high fat foods while these children are eating organically grown produce and learning about renewable energy? I think the study should be scrapped and the money used for more programs in other schools. While speaking of henry and his company, MOVRE, I should also metion that he was a huge force in getting proposition C on the ballot this election cycle and creating the net metering laws that are currently in place. He also holds the ozark renewable energy and sustainable living expo at his farm near hermann missouri every year.

just in case you care

2008-10-20T10:43:00.000-07:00

I will be a presenter at pecha kucha night in kansas city on thursday, the 23 day of october. I am sure most of the other presenters will be far more interesting than I. It will be held at crosstown station in d-town kc. Lets rage at this japanese phenomenon. For more information hit this link. kcpechakucha

my sister, the racing queen

2008-10-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

Most boys are not afraid to challenge their sisters to a foot race and then bask in the glory of easy defeat. As a child, I never once challenged my older sister at racing, for I knew I would be shamefully defeated. Not because I was overly slow, or a poor runner, but because my older sister was just straight fast. And she still remains damn fast. Megan, my older sister, took second place in the Kansas City Marathon this weekend, losing only by a mere one second.
She also took 3rd place in the St. Louis marathon back in april. Some pretty astonishing feats I must say. When she is not running, she teaches instrumental music at shawnee mission south middle school. Two things I greatly respect her for, keeping physically fit and taking part in educating our youth in the arts. BIG UPS MEGAN

trippin colorado

2008-09-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

gina and i recently returned from our trip to colorado. We had a great time and checked out a ton of stuff. We hit colorado springs, denver, estes park, and fort collins. Here are a few pics of the trip, I will try to organize the rest and upload them to my flickr spot in the near future. cheers

dont bail out wall street, quit being retarded

2008-09-23T08:04:00.000-07:00

good ol hanky hank paulson is definitely going to encourage the bailout, as he was the former ceo of goldman sachs. Quit intervening in the economy, its just fuck up after fuck up and everyone says "go ahead" I don't get it, quite frustrating to me honestly. The five major investment banks on wall street were allowed to borrow $40 for every $1 dollar they had, thats real intelligent, If I had 100,000 would I be able to purchase a 4 million dollar home, no, would I want to, no, does it make sense, fuck no, when I couldn't afford the payment would someone buy the house for me?NO Let the economy work on its own, that is what it is supposed to do, repair itself.

Here is an opinion piece by Congressman Dr. Ron Paul that was published on CNN this morning. He does a good job explaining READ IT

Many Americans today are asking themselves how the economy got to be in such a bad spot.

For years they thought the economy was booming, growth was up, job numbers and productivity were increasing. Yet now we find ourselves in what is shaping up to be one of the most severe economic downturns since the Great Depression.

Unfortunately, the government's preferred solution to the crisis is the very thing that got us into this mess in the first place: government intervention.

Ever since the 1930s, the federal government has involved itself deeply in housing policy and developed numerous programs to encourage homebuilding and homeownership.

Government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were able to obtain a monopoly position in the mortgage market, especially the mortgage-backed securities market, because of the advantages bestowed upon them by the federal government.

Laws passed by Congress such as the Community Reinvestment Act required banks to make loans to previously underserved segments of their communities, thus forcing banks to lend to people who normally would be rejected as bad credit risks.

These governmental measures, combined with the Federal Reserve's loose monetary policy, led to an unsustainable housing boom. The key measure by which the Fed caused this boom was through the manipulation of interest rates, and the open market operations that accompany this lowering.

When interest rates are lowered to below what the market rate would normally be, as the Federal Reserve has done numerous times throughout this decade, it becomes much cheaper to borrow money. Longer-term and more capital-intensive projects, projects that would be unprofitable at a high interest rate, suddenly become profitable.

Because the boom comes about from an increase in the supply of money and not from demand from consumers, the result is malinvestment, a misallocation of resources into sectors in which there is insufficient demand.

In this case, this manifested itself in overbuilding in real estate. When builders realize they have overbuilt and have too many houses to sell, too many apartments to rent, or too much commercial real estate to lease, they seek to recoup as much of their money as possible, even if it means lowering prices drastically.

This lowering of prices brings the economy back into balance, equalizing supply and demand. This economic adjustment means, however that there are some winners -- in this case, those who can again find affordable housing without the need for creative mortgage products, and some losers -- builders and other sectors connected to real estate that suffer setbacks.

The government doesn't like this, however, and undertakes measures to keep prices artificially inflated. This was why the Great Depression was as long and drawn out in this country as it was.

I am afraid that policymakers today have not learned the lesson that prices must adjust to economic reality. The bailout of Fannie and Freddie, the purchase of AIG, and the latest multi-hundred billion dollar Treasury scheme all have one thing in common: They seek to prevent the liquidation of bad debt and worthless assets at market prices, and instead try to prop up those markets and keep those assets trading at prices far in excess of what any buyer would be willing to pay.

Additionally, the government's actions encourage moral hazard of the worst sort. Now that the precedent has been set, the likelihood of financial institutions to engage in riskier investment schemes is increased, because they now know that an investment position so overextended as to threaten the stability of the financial system will result in a government bailout and purchase of worthless, illiquid assets.

Using trillions of dollars of taxpayer money to purchase illusory short-term security, the government is actually ensuring even greater instability in the financial system in the long term.

The solution to the problem is to end government meddling in the market. Government intervention leads to distortions in the market, and government reacts to each distortion by enacting new laws and regulations, which create their own distortions, and so on ad infinitum.

It is time this process is put to an end. But the government cannot just sit back idly and let the bust occur. It must actively roll back stifling laws and regulations that allowed the boom to form in the first place.

The government must divorce itself of the albatross of Fannie and Freddie, balance and drastically decrease the size of the federal budget, and reduce onerous regulations on banks and credit unions that lead to structural rigidity in the financial sector.

Until the big-government apologists realize the error of their ways, and until vocal free-market advocates act in a manner which buttresses their rhetoric, I am afraid we are headed for a rough ride.

what happened to manners????

2008-09-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

What happened to basic manners? That is my question and I'm about to get fed up with you fatties at the order counter. The following are true examples of what I heard this weekend. While waiting for my coffee cup at st. louis bread and listening to people order their food this is what I heard. "GIMME a cherry danish and a caramel latte." and "I'll take a ...." There was not a please or a may I, just gimme this, I'll take that. Then while eating dinner saturday evening with my wife I over hear a conversation where the waitress asks, "can I get anything else for you?" and an oversized woman sitting with her husband and kids responds with,"how 'bout some bread" WTF? Why are people so rude and mannerless, I don't get it. Just sayin

image courtesy of my winter cap

remember DAVID FOSTER WALLACE

2008-09-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

david foster wallace was recently found dead in his home of apparent suicide. He was a great genius and author of one of my favorite books "infinite jest". I love his writing style and I always thought that I was on the same "page" as he was. By "page" I suppose I mean thought pattern and perception of life and the world around it. I wouldn't for one second claim to be close to his intelligence level, he was an insanely intelligent man. For a short sample of his work, here is a commencement address he gave in 2005 at kenyon college. Sometimes the "water" is very difficult to handle for me and it is the "water" which drives me to a far corner of wilderness to make my home. Thankfully I have a wonderful wife, a great family, a few good friends, and the companionship of my two dogs eins and dreist to keep me swimming.
ENJOY,
2005 COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS AND KENYON COLLEGE:
Greetings and congratulations to Kenyon’s graduating class of 2005. There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
This is a standard requirement of US commencement speeches, the deployment of didactic little parable-ish stories. The story [”thing”] turns out to be one of the better, less bullshitty conventions of the genre, but if you’re worried that I plan to present myself here as the wise, older fish explaining what water is to you younger fish, please don’t be. I am not the wise old fish. The point of the fish story is merely that the most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. Stated as an English sentence, of course, this is just a banal platitude, but the fact is that in the day to day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have a life or death importance, or so I wish to suggest to you on this dry and lovely morning.
Of course the main requirement of speeches like this is that I’m supposed to talk about your liberal arts education’s meaning, to try to explain why the degree you are about to receive has actual human value instead of just a material payoff. So let’s talk about the single most pervasive cliché in the commencement speech genre, which is that a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about quote teaching you how to think. If you’re like me as a student, you’ve never liked hearing this, and you tend to feel a bit insulted by the claim that you needed anybody to teach you how to think, since the fact that you even got admitted to a college this good seems like proof that you already know how to think. But I’m going to posit to you that the liberal arts cliché turns out not to be insulting at all, because the really significant education in thinking that we’re supposed to get in a place like this isn’t really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about.

…
Twenty years after my own graduation, I have come gradually to understand that the liberal arts cliché about teaching you how to think is actually shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. Because if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed. Think of the old cliché about quote the mind being an excellent servant but a terrible master.
This, like many clichés, so lame and unexciting on the surface, actually expresses a great and terrible truth. It is not the least bit coincidental that adults who commit suicide with firearms almost always shoot themselves in: the head. They shoot the terrible master. And the truth is that most of these suicides are actually dead long before they pull the trigger.
And I submit that this is what the real, no bullshit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: how to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone day in and day out. That may sound like hyperbole, or abstract nonsense. Let’s get concrete. The plain fact is that you graduating seniors do not yet have any clue what “day in day out” really means. There happen to be whole, large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. The parents and older folks here will know all too well what I’m talking about.
By way of example, let’s say it’s an average adult day, and you get up in the morning, go to your challenging, white-collar, college-graduate job, and you work hard for eight or ten hours, and at the end of the day you’re tired and somewhat stressed and all you want is to go home and have a good supper and maybe unwind for an hour, and then hit the sack early because, of course, you have to get up the next day and do it all again. But then you remember there’s no food at home. You haven’t had time to shop this week because of your challenging job, and so now after work you have to get in your car and drive to the supermarket. It’s the end of the work day and the traffic is apt to be: very bad. So getting to the store takes way longer than it should, and when you finally get there, the supermarket is very crowded, because of course it’s the time of day when all the other people with jobs also try to squeeze in some grocery shopping. And the store is hideously lit and infused with soul-killing muzak or corporate pop and it’s pretty much the last place you want to be but you can’t just get in and quickly out; you have to wander all over the huge, over-lit store’s confusing aisles to find the stuff you want and you have to maneuver your junky cart through all these other tired, hurried people with carts (et cetera, et cetera, cutting stuff out because this is a long ceremony) and eventually you get all your supper supplies, except now it turns out there aren’t enough check-out lanes open even though it’s the end-of-the-day rush. So the checkout line is incredibly long, which is stupid and infuriating. But you can’t take your frustration out on the frantic lady working the register, who is overworked at a job whose daily tedium and meaninglessness surpasses the imagination of any of us here at a prestigious college.
But anyway, you finally get to the checkout line’s front, and you pay for your food, and you get told to “Have a nice day” in a voice that is the absolute voice of death. Then you have to take your creepy, flimsy, plastic bags of groceries in your cart with the one crazy wheel that pulls maddeningly to the left, all the way out through the crowded, bumpy, littery parking lot, and then you have to drive all the way home through slow, heavy, SUV-intensive, rush-hour traffic, et cetera et cetera.
Everyone here has done this, of course. But it hasn’t yet been part of you graduates’ actual life routine, day after week after month after year.
But it will be. And many more dreary, annoying, seemingly meaningless routines besides. But that is not the point. The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing is gonna come in. Because the traffic jams and crowded aisles and long checkout lines give me time to think, and if I don’t make a conscious decision about how to think and what to pay attention to, I’m gonna be pissed and miserable every time I have to shop. Because my natural default setting is the certainty that situations like this are really all about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it’s going to seem for all the world like everybody else is just in my way. And who are all these people in my way? And look at how repulsive most of them are, and how stupid and cow-like and dead-eyed and nonhuman they seem in the checkout line, or at how annoying and rude it is that people are talking loudly on cell phones in the middle of the line. And look at how deeply and personally unfair this is.
Or, of course, if I’m in a more socially conscious liberal arts form of my default setting, I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV’s and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, forty-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest [responding here to loud applause] (this is an example of how NOT to think, though) most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers. And I can think about how our children’s children will despise us for wasting all the future’s fuel, and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and selfish and disgusting we all are, and how modern consumer society just sucks, and so forth and so on.
You get the idea.
If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway, fine. Lots of us do. Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and automatic that it doesn’t have to be a choice. It is my natural default setting. It’s the automatic way that I experience the boring, frustrating, crowded parts of adult life when I’m operating on the automatic, unconscious belief that I am the center of the world, and that my immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world’s priorities.
The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations. In this traffic, all these vehicles stopped and idling in my way, it’s not impossible that some of these people in SUV’s have been in horrible auto accidents in the past, and now find driving so terrifying that their therapist has all but ordered them to get a huge, heavy SUV so they can feel safe enough to drive. Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he’s trying to get this kid to the hospital, and he’s in a bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am: it is actually I who am in HIS way.
Or I can choose to force myself to consider the likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket’s checkout line is just as bored and frustrated as I am, and that some of these people probably have harder, more tedious and painful lives than I do.
Again, please don’t think that I’m giving you moral advice, or that I’m saying you are supposed to think this way, or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it. Because it’s hard. It takes will and effort, and if you are like me, some days you won’t be able to do it, or you just flat out won’t want to.
But most days, if you’re aware enough to give yourself a choice, you can choose to look differently at this fat, dead-eyed, over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in the checkout line. Maybe she’s not usually like this. Maybe she’s been up three straight nights holding the hand of a husband who is dying of bone cancer. Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the motor vehicle department, who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem through some small act of bureaucratic kindness. Of course, none of this is likely, but it’s also not impossible. It just depends what you what to consider. If you’re automatically sure that you know what reality is, and you are operating on your default setting, then you, like me, probably won’t consider possibilities that aren’t annoying and miserable. But if you really learn how to pay attention, then you will know there are other options. It will actually be within your power to experience a crowded, hot, slow, consumer-hell type situation as not only meaningful, but sacred, on fire with the same force that made the stars: love, fellowship, the mystical oneness of all things deep down.
Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true. The only thing that’s capital-T True is that you get to decide how you’re gonna try to see it.
It is about the real value of a real education, which has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:
“This is water.”
“This is water.”
It is unimaginably hard to do this, to stay conscious and alive in the adult world day in and day out. Which means yet another grand cliché turns out to be true: your education really IS the job of a lifetime. And it commences: now.
I wish you way more than luck.

campaign for liberty, sign up fool

2008-09-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

Please sign up for Dr. Ron Pauls campaign for liberty. Hit the site and learn a bit more about the mission, the initiatives and ideas. I get so pumped up by ron paul, he was my horse for this election and I must admit I am greatly dissapointed by both of the presidential candidate options set before me. I could go on and on about why both mccain and obama are terrible options for this country but I will forgo that rant due to the fact I really don't feel like getting all fired up at the moment and encourage you to do a bit of research on your own. My troubles with mccain are obvious, though to see a few of my issues with obama, read his tax policy and type "father pfleger" into a youtube search to start. And then you can dream about what it would be like for every aspect of your life to be under more government control and for the government to be expanded greatly under his eloqeuntly speaking rule. I suppose it doesn't matter greatly who you choose between the two, as they will both make a mockery of the position and be a puppet on a string.

quit, you're not doing it right, take a suicide pill

2008-09-02T06:05:00.000-07:00

I think being a barista at a coffee shop would be a fairly fun job. Though I am fairly sure I could only last about 5 minutes at starbucks. I met a friend there this weekend and we sat outside near the drivethrough ordering spot. I was amazed at what people order, for example:

"I'll have a venti white chocolate frappaccino whipped cream hurricane with 4 shots of expresso, low fat milk, extra whipped cream"

or

"I'll take a double mint chocalate chip, skim milk, whipped cream, extra shot of chocalate sauce, 2 extra shots of expresso, 1 packet of splenda, 2 stirrers, 3 napkins and could you also give me an extra cup, i'm sharing it with my dog"

Fuck...do you want them to draw a smiley face on top of it with chocolate sauce and caramel eyes too? How much can these people ask for and how crazy can they be? It makes no sense at all to get skim milk and then add whipped cream. What the shit is a vivanno? I don't know, but I heard someone ask for 2 extra shots of expresso in one. I thought they were protein smoothies. Banana peach mango coffee smoothie. wtf???? Does your 6 year old overweight chunk of a child really need to drink a venti strawberry whipped cream expresso double chocolate mint whip with a muffin on the side? Do you have to be a mathematical genius to work at starbucks? I can't even fathom the pricing structure for these drinks. Do they have a button on the register for all of these options? Would I be correct if this was the progression:

venti frappaccino 4.28
+ skim milk 0.00
+ 2 shots expresso 0.85
+ splenda 0.12
+ extra cup 0.40
+ whipped cream 0.25
+ labor charge 0.56
+ extra ice 0.25
+ smiley face 0.25

I would think they would be better off with a button that says "DOUCHEBAG" and just charge $6.00. What ever happened to drinking coffee? Possibly, double mint honey chip frappacino and iced sweet coffee whipped cream hurricane are the gateway drugs to coffee. I propose anyone who orders a drink like this should get a free suicide pill on the side.

ron paul, can't get enough

2008-08-26T05:45:00.000-07:00

why do i spend some of my free time watching ron paul vids on youtube? Well, it's nice to see someone make a bit of sense every once in a while. watch out, you're first ron paul video is like a gateway drug to craving to hear everything this man has to say. It's a wonderful addiction. "some day we might try the markets to determine the interest rates" love that

porn

2008-08-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

Justin Anthony of materialicious is now in the porn biz, the stair porn biz that is. Check out some of this porn at STAIRPORN . I wish Gina and I could have installed some rad stairs in our home, though unfortunately the county building codes stamp out any sort of coolness with specs for tred legth, rise, and railing. They wouldn't even let me have open treads, for some insane reason you must have a kick plate for each rise. I won't really get into it but the antiquated and ridiculous building codes in our county do everything they can to keep your home as cookie cutter as possible.

fireplace surround

2008-08-25T07:30:00.001-07:00

Here are a few lackluster photos of a fireplace surround I recently finished for design specialties of milwaukee, wisconsin.

artur hohl

2008-08-25T07:16:00.000-07:00

Gina and I took a brief trip to hermann missouri this weekend to grab up some good wine and cheese. While we were there we stopped by artur hohls new location. Artur is a potter whose work I greatly admire for its originality and color. Gina and I now own 3 pcs of arturs work which look wonderful in our home. Next time you hit hermann mo, be sure to stop by arturs new gallery and workshop inside the kunstlerhaus. He is such a nice man with great stories. He grew up in germany and left the corporate life to attend the university of california, san francisco in 1967. From there he lived in seattle for a bit before settling in hermann mo. He says of hermann, "the german culture is comforting but most importantly, the wine is good". Above is a picture of the 3 pcs gina and I have and a self portrait in ceramic by artur.

"The Decider"

2008-08-13T07:16:00.001-07:00

g.w. taking in some swimming events at the olympics. I was under the assumption that the flag was displayed in the opposite direction.

our children, eins and dreist

2008-08-05T09:10:00.000-07:00

eins (in back) and dreist (up front) coolin off a bit
dreist checkin the camera
dreist judging eins' cannonball skillz

jammin blackberries

2008-08-05T06:10:00.000-07:00

Gina and I went out to a local berry farm this weekend and picked a plethora of blackberries. We spent sunday afternoon cookin up some delicious blackberry jam with the seeds in it, just as I prefer it. We made 4 batches and ended up with about 18 pints. Thats a lot of jammin.

missouri menu

2008-08-05T06:02:00.000-07:00

Eating locally produced food makes me feel good and it is quite tantilizing upon the tastebuds. I went over to my grandparents house to pick some surplus green beans and dig up a few young potatoes. The faux chicken meat is from match meats, a local company in St. Louis. That match meat is some good stuff. Check out match meats for your next vegetarian meal. Check the freezer section of your local Whole Foods.

zucchini, it keeps on keepin on

2008-08-05T05:57:00.000-07:00

zucchini pickles

zucchini bread

zucchini for the freezer

Gina and I have had a bit of luck with our zucchini and we are running out of things to do. We have made zucchini pickles, zucchini bread, and have also froze quite a bit of it. I dig gardens and you should too.

diy t-shirt

2008-08-05T05:52:00.001-07:00

I whipped up a new t-shirt for gina the other day. Fun and cheap. Materials include: t-shirt, bleach, q-tips, sharpie, and a piece of cardboard so that you don't end up with the image on the back side as well. The bleaching takes a bit of practice, as it bleeds into the fabric quite profusely.

$1500.00 per second...CHOP EM DOWN, CHOP EM DOWN

2008-07-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

From CNN: "Exxon Mobil once again reported the largest quarterly profit in U.S. history Thursday, posting net income of $11.68 billion on revenue of $138 billion in the second quarter. That profit works out to $1,485.55 a second. That barely beat the previous corporate record of $11.66 billion, also set by Exxon in the fourth quarter of 2007."

Can you believe that exxon and many of the other oil companies are subsidized by the government using your hard earned tax money when they are raking in profits like this? This is the most ridiculous thing ever. Why does it happen? I don't know, but it also happens in many other industries and is the most ass backwards policy ever. Cotton farmers in Africa are starving and many have committed suicide. Why? Well, because huge cotton farmers in the US are subsidised by our tax dollars and they can actually sell cotton cheaper than an african farmer. Yes, all those t-shirts made in china, yep, they are made from US produced cotton that is shipped there. The US farmers are making millions. The odd thing is that the gov't only subsidizes large cotton producers who own thousands of acres. FUCK the small farmers and the small business owners, thats what our gov't says. Small farmers and small business owners pay much higher taxes, pay much more for insurance, and are ignored in favor of hugely profitable and massive companies. Don't you love to live in a country that trashes the entrepreneurial spirit. Wonderful

be a localvore

2008-07-16T09:41:00.000-07:00

Consuming locally produced food is something that is becoming more and more important to me. Not only is it environmentally friendly, it also impacts the social and economic benefits encouraged through building local relationships. Local farmers have been pushed to the brink of poverty by our current system of mass producers and mass retailers and family farms are being pushed out by large corporate farms. A food system should be built around the idea of sustainable production and distribution that enhances the economic, environmental and social health of a community. Locally produced food is of greater quality, as it is harvested at maturity and there is no need for chemical preservatives or irradiation to increase shelf life. Local food systems also encourage multicropping by farmers as opposed to the huge single crop farms in the commercial industry. Multicropping allows for a much more sustainable process through intercropping and crop rotation. Locally produced food also strengthens the local economy by protecting local farmers, local jobs, and local shops. The quality of your food should be determined not only by the product itself, but also by the methods of production. I don't really want my produce grown in loads of chemical heavy fertilizer and sprayed with unknown pesticides. I want to know where my foood is produced and who produced it and I want my money to stay in and be beneficial to the local economy. Some people think local food is just another crazy idea by wacko environmentalists, but you don't have to go to far back to realize that the system works. My grandparents grew up on a farm and had completely sustainable diets as children. They ate what they grew and raised, and sourced items not produced on their farm through other farmers at the local farmers market.

End your addiction to cheap and unhealthy food. Food is vital to your existence. It destroys me to see people who eat loads of cheap, highly processed food but spend $200 for pants. Your body runs on food, not ego and assumed wealth.

image courtesy of the food project

Don't get washed fool

2008-07-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

The marketplace is awash in "green" product advertisements and you need to call bullsh*t on some of them and unravel the spin on others. Obviously being "green" is the "it" thing to do these days in the marketplace so everyone is jumping on the wagon and some of them need to be kicked off. The #1 offender is BP(British Petroleum), they take in boatloads of income and they spend a very miniscule amount of it for sponsorships of environmental conscious events and organizations, and put an even smaller amount into alternative energy research. Yet, after pushing a few pennies into these markets they claim to be "beyond petroleum" and also claim to be an environmentally responsive company. Ford claims to be "ramping up its commitment to more environmentally friendly vehicles, yet in 2004 they joined other automakers in suing the state of california to prevent emission standards on gases linked to global warming. If Ford meets its goals on low emissions hybrids in 2010, they will be less than 4% of their entire fleet. There are a few ways to detect greenwash.

follow the money trail - it can be a bit difficult to obtain this information, but see where the profits of the company are going and at what percentage. What political candidates and causes are they pushing money to? What organizations are they donating money to? Are they spending income on becoming a more environmentally conscious company. What litigation are they pursuing or fighting against?

use common sense

follow the paper trail - most large companies send lots of letters to politicians and government agencies, these can all be accessed through freedom of information act searches

Read product labels- a whole host of products claim to consist of only "natural" ingredients. arsenic is natural. The word "natural" is not regulated by the FDA. Tyson claims their chicken is "all natural" even though it is pumped full of antibiotics.

Some interesting resources for greenwashing:
www.stopgreenwash.org
www.greenwashingindex.com
www.corpwatch.org
www.greenwashing.net
www.treehugger.com

image courtesy of greenpeace

garden update

2008-07-13T14:15:00.000-07:00

haven't quite figured out how to keep the bugs from eating the delicious swiss chard
kentucky beefsteak heirloom tomato

mr. stripey heirloom tomato
onions
plum tomatoes, waiting to make some killer sauce
purple cherokee heirloom tomato
squash

carrots
cauliflower
cherry tomatoes
cucumbers

jalepenos

sundays bounty, a few jalepenos and a couple cherry tomatoes

baby green peppers

The garden is doing well, considering that gina and I are rookies. We are growing organically and have had a bit of a tough time keeping some pests away. We are definitely learning a great deal from our small garden. Next year we are planning on increasing the size at least 10fold. The cabbage (not pictured) is also doing fairly well, despite the early attack from some sort of caterpillar. We are also harvesting quite a bit of basil, oregano and cilantro from the herb garden.

This is a "vicious cycle"

2008-07-10T11:14:00.000-07:00

At first glance, I would deem this bike virtually pointless and a superb waste of time, though it does conjure some interesting thoughts.

It would be a great starting concept for a next generation merry-go-round. Those husky youngsters at the primary school could use it along with a more healthy and and whole "school food" diet.

It kind of imitates my life in some sort of odd way. I start my days commute and peddle mindlessy through the daily agenda and end up exactly where I started. Someday I suppose I would like to escape this "vicious cycle" and just ride the straight and narrow off grid somewhere to escape the too often recurring depression.

The wifey and I and some of our friends could enjoy "campfire cycling".

Maybe you could rig up some sort of energy transfer and storage device to hack a bit off the monthly bill.

We could pretend to be the gov't and spin in circles while we throw money at our friends and useless entities, when we run out of money, we'll just print more and devalue everyone else's stockpile. great fun

gather, i've been waiting for this for years, oh joy

2008-07-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

The Gatherer Jacket from Merrell is here folks. I have been craving something like this for quite a while. As anyone who has ever hiked or climbed knows well, temperatures change, and they sometimes change drastically. Backpackers also know that every ounce of added weight is critical. If you need a lightweight jacket in the day and desire a bit of extra warmth in the evening or while you are ascending a mountain, just shove her full of leaves or other found materials for insulation. A while back I saw a design student present something like this for the homeless and it was filled with newspaper.

Technical details:

- 100% Nylon- Translucent, 30 Denier, high-tenacity fabric is lightweight, dry and comfortable

- Featuring Natulon environmentally friendly zippers made of 100% recycled material- DWR finish provides great water resistance

- Concept design allows for multi-material, on the fly insulation with found materials of your choice

- Full length sleeve and body zips allow for adaptive insulation to help create an adjustable internal climate based on conditions
Retailing for just $99.00

Jamie, over at Bill Hilly, will love this as he is an avid biker, hiker, and outdoorsman.

Snickarper Doors

2008-06-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

Snickarper, a swedish company, is producing doors that are hella cool. I especially like the one in the bottom right hand corner. These doors are great for city/suburbia life, giving a bit of privacy, though if you live out in the country as my wife and I do and don't have neighbors within sight, full glass is a much better option. We actually ordered a door from Crestview Doors, from austin texas, as our entry door, but returned it in favor of a anderson full glass door. It is nice to eliminate the visual barriers of nature when privacy is not an issue. city kids....snatch these up.

image via the always wonderful matericalicious

Put it in your earhole

2008-06-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

The beautiful sounds of fionn regan and band of horses have been escaping my speakers a great deal lately. mmmhuh its good stuff fool be good or be gone

Sad day my friends, hope for liberty is gone

2008-06-13T05:19:00.001-07:00

Ron Paul suspended his campaign for president today. I was hoping for a bit of liberty in the coming years. It's very difficult to become the leader of a crooked and corrupt organization when you are not crooked and corrupt yourself. If you know little about ron paul, please do yourself a favor and read a few of his books or check out a few of these links.

www.ronpaul2008.com (presidential campaign site)

www.house.gov/paul (official site for representative ron paul)

www.dailypaul.com (website created by Michael Nystrom, a ron paul supporter)

www.ronpaul.com (blog supporting paul)

www.ronpaul.org (personal website of Dr. Ron Paul)

drop it while it's hot (peak oil is upon us)

2008-06-13T04:51:00.000-07:00

What would you do if you owned a gas station right now? I would sell, sell, sell. Exxon Mobil is doing exactly that, trying to dump all of their company owned gas stations before people stop purchasing it. Alternative fuel and electric vehicles are coming once again (remember the ev1), and the oil companies cannot stop them this time.

From CNN :

"Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to sell its company-owned gas stations, saying they aren't profitable enough even with gasoline selling at $4 per gallon. The nation's largest oil company, which earned nearly $41 billion last year, says it will sell more than 2,000 stations over the next few years."

bush croonies, another day, another crooked contract

2008-06-06T08:41:00.001-07:00

Another Gdub pal gets a huge government contract (80mil). The great part.... he's also wanted by the FBI for bank fraud. WTF???? If I was a bush friend, I would request an 80mil$ contract to have "CORRUPT" tattooed on his forehead. What's next? a 300mil$ contract to search for oil on mars handed out to scooter libby?

ABC News reports on the humorous story of Gaith Pharaon, a Saudi financier who is wanted by the FBI for alleged bank fraud that cost US taxpayer $1.7 billion. The funny part is that the US military just awarded him an $80 million contract to supply jet fuel to US military bases in Afghanistan.

FROM THE ALWAYS WONDERFUL BOINGBOING : "The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion.
As a purely coincidental aside: "Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy." "

the BUSH CROONIES are at it again

2008-06-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

image - tommy thompson (a masked man)

What do you do after you complete a dismal track record as the health and human services secretary for the bush administration? Well, you start a company and win an $11,000,000 million dollar contract handed out by your ex-boss G-dubya. (see AP article text below) Our government promotes freedom and democracy, yet it is rife with corruption. I wonder how the contract award process went down.

tommy thompson: "hey guys, i started this healthcare company."
gdub: "really, you started a company?"
tommy thompson: " yeah, I need to get hooked up with some cash flow real quick"
gdub: "we got this here contract to treat 9/11 victims"
tommy thompson: "i am familiar with that, how about i'll do it for, lets say, 11 mil.
gdub: "well you did get a lot of criticism for the way you handled 9/11 victims while
you were part of my administration"
tommy thompson: "how about i'll take you to the golf course, and maybe throw in some
ridiculously expensive gifts for your daughters wedding.
gdub: "ok that sounds good, here's your 11mil."

From the associated press: "A company headed by former Bush administration Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has won an 11 million-dollar contract to treat some of the workers exposed to toxic debris from the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention contract was awarded to Logistics Health, where Thompson is president. It's aimed at tracking the health of 4,000 to 6,000 workers who live outside the New York City area.
New York Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney says it's ironic that Thompson's company won the contract -- given what she calls "the history of delay from the Bush administration when he was secretary and now."
When he was Bush's health chief, Thompson was accused of not doing enough to help those exposed to toxic debris.
The company will provide annual exams to the World Trade Center responders and diagnose and treat their 9/11-related conditions."

image courtesy of the AP via ksdk

The first prez to "bump fists"

2008-06-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

Not only will obama be the first african american president, he will be the first president who bumps fists with the wifey. I am a firm believer that handshaking is way overrated. Obama is definitely the best of our current choices, though I would love to see Ron Paul bumpin fists right about now. photo courtesy of reuters

cheap oil will never come again, NEVER

2008-05-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

Cheap oil is gone folks. It is a sinking ship being held together by duct tape an misguided optimism. You are not helpless, do something about it. Stop using it, don't beg for more cheap oil, for your wish will never come to fruition.