Posts from January 2008

I've been putting off writing this for a few days now.
Instead of writing a super-post I'm just going to break it up into a few nuggets. That will be easier for me to write and probably easier to read.

To recap: A group of Presbyterian Churches including @drew's took a trip last week to the New Orleans area to help in the recovery effort. I went along with them.

We stayed at a little village of "Pods" in the backyard of a church in Lulie, LA. The Pods were little corrugated plastic huts and there was a tent set up for a dining area.



FIG 1: a group of Pods. Drew & I stayed in Alligator 5.



FIG 2: a Pod from inside. Notice the heat hole. This was connected to a kerosene heater.


The group of 50+ was mostly Presbyterian but included Baptists, Catholics, Episcopalians, and then me. There were old timers on down to college kids.


The large group was split into smaller teams and each team worked separately on a house. Our house was in the Lower 9th.
It was a pretty far drive as we were staying so far west of the city.

An overhead view of the camp. They called it Fish Camp.

We got back last night. I'll write a proper post tonight

Dudes I'm goin to Nawlins tomorrow.
This should be pretty cool.

I think I'll bring my camera.

These are crazy, tasey times.

In terms of a yearly retrospective: The way I lived 2007 was, although technically competent, only about 2 alarms in the chili competition that is life.
Allow me to make a comparison to a burrito. I think the best way to eat one is to make it as hot as you can possibly stand for the entire duration of the burrito. You can't necessarily go for the hottest sauce/pepper, because if you overtemp you can't finish. You have to find the proper combination for heat and time.

And thats all that changes or moves anthing, heat and time.

Let 2008 be about the balance. Heat and Time.


can you tell I'm hungry? it's sandwich time

Four days this week and I just might make it.
I used to think I could do this job standing on my head but lately a lot of its been sitting on my ass.
We haven't had a solid busy week in our area in a while and I think its starting to wear on everyone.
Its probably only wearing on my and now I'm starting to climb the walls.


For a while I was on a big "Your Mom" trip and after a Hall-of-Fame career of impeccably timed material I feel I'm through with the art form. But lately I've had to reap what was sown (sowned, sowed, fuck) and everyone else at work is trying their hand at your mom.
(Goddamn, I can't stop.)

Anyways this was a forced journal, I'm not really feeling it as I sit here in soggy socks & pants from digging my truck out. I was out there for at least an hour and it would have been longer if it wasn't for the kindness of passersby.
The only thing I'm enthusiastic about is the prospect of busting balls at work and spreading some pseudo-misery.

Leetee beat me to posting the Hippopotamus song, but I got the Stooges version!


IWantAHippopotamusForChristmas:




plus!

the classic AllIWantForChristmasIsMyTwoFrontTeeth:


etc etc










Paul if this is too much mp3age I'll put it on gather instead.

I'm not really tired but I spent hours on Sunday playing with tempos on Beatles Albums.
I went through Abbey Road and like half the White Album.






In other news, whats up dudes?

rest in peace Pennsylvania Angler!

rest in peace Strip Mining Prevents Forest Fires!

rest in peache blue shirt that smelled like Florida mangroves even after I washed you 3 tiems!

Truly, you were all beefy-T;s in my heart

I think I got a lot of rocketry out of my system.
When I tell people about it their response is usually cool and reserved, like I'm some retarded boy-man who still eats Flintstones vitamins and has velcro shoes and launches model rockets to the detriment of his social standing.

Except for the dudes in my lab, they all think its awesome. We spent a long time looking/geeking-out at the Estes catalog.

We launched the camera rocket a bunch of times. I still haven't gotten the film developed, but I hope at least one picture comes out good.
It is super fun to launch, kind of like throwing rocks into a lake or river.
If you don't understand why its fun to throw(launch) rocks(rockets) in water(air) then maybe we shouldn't hang out.


I ending up buying another one to build, just so I could up my balsa wood & decal cred.


Three stages of raw Made In China power, this bastard goes half a mile - straight up your ASS

At some point in 2007 I decided I wanted to become a hobbyist.
Ships in a bottle and model making are way out of my patience/attention span. RC stuff is cool too, I even had a business idea based on RC helicopters once, but thats too much money and time.

So I settled on model rocketry.
Its so wholesome and evokes such a naive dorky wonderment that its like being a kid again.

The rocket kits are so sandlot. I remember putting them together as a kid: the balsa wood and glue and putting the body tube in a door frame to get a straight line to put the fins on.


So I walked into a hobby shop yesterday and asked for "the rocket with the camera." Now they have a digital version, but I opted for the film one just to keep the feeling authentic. (The film included had a 'process by' date of 2006)

After the guy got if off the shelf I realized it was a ready-to-fly rocket . On one had that kinda sucks because I wanted to glue it together and put the decals on and stuff, but on the other hand that baby is ready to fly right now. The launcher stand and dorky launcher battery pack were also included.


So basically what I'm saying is that on Monday at high noon, that fucker is flying high. The package says 250 ft high.
Theres a little old abandoned air strip across the street from our facility so I figure we can go over there.

This will be the theme song:

Its possible that none of the pictures come out but it should be fun anyways. I bought extra engines and I'm going to keep launching it until ite breaks.