(10th anniversary of heaven's gate)

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Ahhh…the year-end wrap-up. Where to start? To be honest, most of the shit that happened to me I didn't post about. Why have I been maintaining radio silence? Who knows?

I finally joined the rest of the web-using world and started utilizing digg. I even dugg a post I posted here. Oh…I'm such a whore.

Today I'm bemoaning the fact that we're not a more regularly updated, noticed "blog." I mean…they could have sent us a couple of these, for fucksake.

I've spent an inordinate amount of time listening to Neil Young, lately. Mostly Crazy Horse material. It's speaking to the parts of the brain Brooksie and I have started activating for the new band. Speaking of the new band, it's tentatively titled "Birth Machine." We expect to rattle the foundation of a local venue this spring.

I guess the biggest news of the season is that i had to have Clyde put to sleep (the Thursday before Christmas; it made the holiday even more fun). Some of you long-time readers (if there's any left) will remember Clyde as my beloved cat of the past decade. She had a tumor on her chest that spread to her lungs. Toward the end she was having trouble breathing and would only eat fresh turkey and "catmilk" (speaking of which, I have two things of that stuff left, if anyone needs/wants it), which made us think it was all just some elaborate scam on her part. Regardless, we couldn't take it anymore and took her back to the vet. He gave us the dire news and we all endured a bit of pre-holiday heartbreak.
Needless to say, she's incredibly missed.

Clyde - 1996-2006

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So I caught a commercial for pillsbury grands earlier, and they showed them making little pizzas on the biscuits. I took the time to look around the internet for recipes, but none of them sounded like they were exactly what I thought I saw.

So I was forced to go to Kroger and get some supplies and see if I could make my own version. Here's what I came up with:

Old Man Hall's Pizza Grands

1 can Pillsbury Grands biscuits (Flaky, any flavor,)
1 jar Kroger Pizza Zip (I went with Traditional)
1 bag pizza cheese
x amount, whatever other toppings you want

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Split the individual biscuits in half (thinner, flakier crust) and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet (I'd like to try making these on one of those pizza stones) about an inch apart. Then spread one spoonful of sauce on top of each one (I went all the way to the edge). Cheese 'em up to your liking, add any other toppings, then bake for 12-14 minutes. You definitely want to check them after about 10-12 minutes, because the bottoms can burn fast, if you're not careful.

Needless to say, these motherfuckers are delicious. I may want to opt for the half-size package of biscuits, next time. Something tells me I'm never gonna eat 16 of these little bastards, delicious as they are.

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while i sit here at work, waiting on a simple answer to a possibly not-so-simple questions from someone higher up the ladder, i figure i'll write up a post for ol' bipolar.

this weekend was chock full of shows. too many shows, as fate would have it. i saw shellac and uzeda friday night. the sound was glorious, the venue was unbearably hot. it all ended up being worth it, though. shellac really kicked out the jams. i noticed that it doesn't really matter what albini does on the guitar, as the rhythm section just locks in and keeps burning along. i think i'd kill for a bass player of bob weston's caliber.
friday night ended up with all kinds of drunken chicanery that i can't be bothered to try and remember clearly.

saturday was another hot one in st. john's for shipping news and wolverine brass. for some reason, that night the sound was fucking terrible. you take the good with the bad, i guess. after that show, i headed over to za's to see arch and buffalo bill. buffalo bill covered motley crue's "wild side." i was most pleased. after that…more drunkeness.

sunday my allergies put the hurt on me. probably the multiple days of drowning myself in second hand smoke. who knows? either way, i ended up having to skip the young widows show. i took some allergy medicine and actually passed out during the car chase scene in ronin. i really didn't know that was humanly possible.

but sunday night, i got my sea legs back under me and was able to hit up the crack of doom reunion show, which was a total blast. i think it even caused more permanent hearing damage to my right ear. always a sign of a great show.

well…i got that simple answer i was waiting on.

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wow. what a weekend. probably the most solidly fun couple of days I've had in a while. friday night i ended up at a party in some friends' practice space. lots of booze, lots of other stuff. lots of fun with lots of friends. i was up until about 4am.

and then i was back awake at 9am to go shooting at the knob creek gun range. before saturday, i hadn't shot a gun for a good 10-15 years. i guess it just doesn't come up in daily life in the city. well…at least not the parts of the city i've lived in. despite my long lapse, i think i did decently well. i hit within the circle 11 out of 18 shots (one of them on the right side got ripped off when we removed the target from the box it was taped and stapled to) I fired 20 rounds, but I wasted two shots blowing up a dr. pepper bottle that was on top of my target. here's a gratuitous shot of me glockin' it up.
after that, we went to ernesto's for some mexican and a couple pitchers of dos equis. i ended up getting home a little buzzed and alot tired, so i took a nap.

i woke up from my nap at around 8:30. from there it was out the door to pick up some equipment and then head out to the dead child show. i will go ahead and say that this show had the best line-up of bands that this city has seen in years. pusher, lords, blade of the ripper, dead child…wall-to-wall metal mayhem. i recorded the whole thing. expect the sets to start showing up on transmission3000 soon. after the show, i ended up staying up until 6:30am, generally getting up to no good.

fittingly, i didn't do jack shit, yesterday.

today…back to work. i have to take my car back into the fucking shop when i get off work, as the door handle stopped working about 4 hours after i picked the car up, last thursday. i think i got about 5 opens out of it before it died again. splendid.

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man…i fucking hate it when my car is in the shop. i feel so stuck. so…helpless. bumming rides just to do the mundane shit, like picking up dinner. lame. i made plans to go hang out with a friend, last night, then realized i didn't have wheels to get over there. luckily brooksie was home and let me use his.

and the calls from the technicians working on my car, asking me stupid questions they should have already answered for themselves…ugh. just fix the fucking thing, already.

they're laying down some shitty tile at work. the fumes from the glue are insane, so they sent everybody home. i better get paid for that time, though.

i forgot to mention a couple of new shows up at transmission3000: wolverine brass and lords. both rockin', both badass. enjoy.

i'm gonna go sit on the couch and watch last night's daily show…

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So…life's a real bitch, ain't it? Today, when I got off work, I went out to my car and hit the unlock button on the ol' keychain, just like I do every time I get into my car. Mark was riding with me, and he was a little slow opening the door, so he got it right when the car was relocking itself. Well, the alarm started going off. No problem. You just shut the door and hit the disarm/unlock button and the shit goes off, right? No harm, no foul, right?

Nope.

The fucking thing kept blaring. We both get in the car and I'm maniacally hitting the unlock button, trying to get the motherfucker to turn off. No such luck. Finally, it just…stops. Strange. So I go to start the car, and the fucking thing starts going off again. It won't even let me start the car. The ignition is locked the fuck out. Awesome. So I climb out, still pushing that button like a madman, and nothing is happening. So I do what any other sane person in my position would do.

I kicked a dent in the side of my car.

Oddly enough, this had no effect on the blaring car alarm. It would go off for about 30 seconds to a minute, then stop. As soon as you tried to open one of the doors again, it would start right the fuck back up. I walked to a pharmacy down the street and they miraculously had the right battery for the remote. So I bought the battery, replaced it, went back to my car…nothing.

I called St. Matthews Imports and they referred me to Swope. Swope then tells me it's real easy to fix.

"Just insert the key into the ignition and push and hold the security button on your stereo…"

This is when I interrupt him to let him know that I no longer have the factory stereo installed.

"Oh. Well. You'll have to get it here so we can have a technician take a look at it."

Brooksie came and picked me up, thank the fuck christ. We came home, I found my spare remote, made sure to put the new battery in it, then went down to try again. Still nothing. Fuck.

So…the car has gas, a charged battery, nothing wrong with it…and I have to get the motherfucker towed all the way out to Hurstbourne and then pay some dickhead to fix this shit for me.

I swear…I want to find the middle-management asshole that thought up this safety "feature" and smack him upside his damn head.

Irony? The car is officially paid off, as of today.

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ahhh…the best laid plans , and all that. i had intended on posting on monday, once i got back form chicago, but work buried me and burnout reared its ugly head, so here we are at the other end of the week.
my weekend went really well. on friday, we drove up to chicago for the big nerd prom (the chicago comic con 2006). when we got up there (which is skipping the unheard of 7 1/2 hours it actually took us to get there), we stopped in at lollapalooza to see hometown boys my morning jacket rock a few thousand people in the middle of downtown chicago. it was a really nice day for it, too. probably one of the best shows i've seen in a while.

the next two days were all nerd shit. wandering around the aisles of retailers and artists, trying to secure sketches for the ever-growing hellboy sketchbook. an artist i'm a bit of a fan of (dustin nguyen) was there, doing sketches and selling original, published pages for $20. to those that have no clue, that's an insane deal. they usually go for a bare minimum of $75, and on up into the thousands.

saturday night, my travelling companion decided to pass out early in the hotel, so i headed down to the convention hotel's bar, to drink my night away with nerds and comic pros, alike. i ended up meeting some hardcore/punk dudes that had the same general plan (they were from ann arbor). drinks were downed, metal was discussed, jack sparrow was brutally cockblocked (bonus!), hot girls disappeared with the one semi-attractive comic pro, and we ended up out in the parking lot with some older metal dude (who claims he used to smoke crack with al jourgensen), blasting the newest celtic frost. a five man heavy metal parking lot at 4am. not bad.

i haven't really done shit since getting home, really. mostly sitting around, though it feels like i've been really busy. busy doing nothing, i guess.

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today just isn't my day, it seems. connor and i just got back from lunch. we said "hey, let's try cafe kilamanjaro, today. that sounds tasty." so we mosey over there and jump in line. i ordered what sounded (and smelled) like a real winner: jerk chicken wings. i mean…seriously. that sounds amazing. well…not so much. first off, the wings were cold. barely room temperature. secondly, the things had no "jerk" flavor, at all. they just tasted like grilled chicken wings that had been sitting out on a plate in the kitchen for a few hours. yeah…the rice was cold, too.

so we get back to work and i decide to get a coke. i wander over to the breakroom, plunk my change into the machine and…out pops a coke. standard procedure, right? well…this is where it deviates: the coke was warm. warmer than warm…moderately hot. what the fuck is up with the temperature gods today? are they punishing for something i did that i shouldn't have? jesus fuck christ…

oh…hey. sorry i've been missing for a while. i have a new office job that involves me sitting around, doing a whole lotta work for a little while, then just staring at the walls for a good chunk of time. so hopefully i'll be more regular, 'round these parts.

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wow. wordpress. i think i remember sending matt a retarded email like "have you seen this shit yet?" so long ago. of course, he had, and he had his own reasons for not wanting to use it, but those reasons have disappeared and here we are.

i've had an incredibly eventful past few days. i spent all of sunday being a production assistant on the shoot for the my morning jacket dvd. that was a lot of fun and i have a ton of photos. i'll actually post a whole diary type thing about that in a few days. i've also spent the past couple of nights hanging out with our friends from japan. they're here for vacation. we've been having a blast, drinking beers and speaking in broken english to each other. i've been snapping photos of the fun and you can find them here.

i'll do a real post soon, i promise.

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i hate to admit it, but… i agree with george w. bush.

now, before you all go into a swoon or tizzy, bear in mind that, in 3 years of policy making, there so far is only 1 (ONE–more than "none", but less than "a couple", and way less than even "some") of his policies that i agree with–the new space policy. i should also admit that i haven't read the complete policy, or read or listened to all of the speech announcing the policy, however, what i have heard and read about the policy coincides almost exactly with what i–for the last 10 years–have considered to be our best path to continued space exploration. i personally think we could establish a permanent base on the moon much sooner than 2020, perhaps even by 2010 if we really pushed it. i also think a lunar base is an imperative next step in our space program, as it will provide a (relatively) near-earth proving ground for developing technologies to get us to mars.

i know that some (Paul, if i remember correctly, being one) think that we should turn that money towards earth, towards fixing all those things that georgie boy wants to break or give to the corporate interests (our environment being one example, our "lower class" being another, and our "economy" being the third, but not final). i can certainly see the point of this argument, the extended version of which would be that most technologies that would be developed for space with applications here at home could just as easily be developed either in the private sector, or with the right government in power. i have always been a proponent of a strong space program, frankly because i have the dream that someday i might get to visit the moon or another planet, or maybe even meet an extraterrestrial being. but i also think that the space program, if handled correctly, and, as we've seen with the spirit rover, successfully, can be a great source of inspiration and motivation and promise to the populace and the entire world. successful space programs are proven morale boosters, and on top of that, they reinforce a whole-world perspective, perhaps lessening petty moral conflicts and territorial disagreements. in fact, in a recent speech Al Gore gave to moveon.org members about the environment and the bush administration's egregious environmental policies, he used, as major components of his presentation, several images that only exist because of a successful space program. he specifically called out and mentioned the power of these types of images to influence public perception and awareness of their place in the world, and in the rest of the universe. so, i see a vibrant and aggressive space program as a necessity in helping to shape the planet-wide consciousness, so that, with any luck, we'll realize how "we're all in this together," and we'll hopefully stop killing each other.

well, there's my little pro-NASA spiel. oh yeah, i suppose i should mention that i think NASA's grown fat and lazy (to put it in succinct, human terms) and that they're going to have to seriously get their asses in gear if any of this is going to come to fruition. they've been learning to be lean and mean, again as the mars rover attests, but they're going to have to maintain that zeal and versatility once they're flush with new funds… which leads me to my next point.

i'm going to make a little prediction here, if anyone remembers around Feb. or Mar. of next year, remind us about this, ok? here goes: if, by some freak chance all the people with a real conscience in this nation get the croup and die before election day this year, and georgie boy gets re-elected; and bearing in mind the administration's record on pronouncing policies, passing legislation, and then pulling funding, i think i can safely predict that, when the budget proposal is put on the table next year, NASA will not get the promised funding increase, and will, in fact, see a major funding decrease. there's my prediction. dubya will underfund NASA and his proposed space program just like he's underfunded Homeland Insecurity and the No School Left Unpunished act.

now, to my next major point, and the little bit of news that made me write this post at 6 freakin o'clock in the morning, instead of waiting 'til tomorrow: yet another controversial bush political move is made and announced on a Friday. You see, the NASA thing was announced on Wednesday, and was rumored for several weeks beforehand, so he waited 'til Friday to announce this whammy.

judge charles w. pickering gets his seat on the appeals court handed to him by King George II, who sidesteps (admittedly, legally) the regular process which has kept pickering from getting confirmed for the last two damn years. pickering is an obvious racist, who deserves more to be shit-canned than promoted. If anyone can look at this and still not understand why i fucking hate georgie porgie, then… well, i don't know what. it's completely incomprehensible to me that this president can make these kinds of moves with no repercussions. well, hopefully, the repercussion will be that he gets his ass handed to him in November.

other news: massive behind the scenes changes to the gallery scripts which will effect no-one but me & brian 'cause i just made it easier for us to add images without having to go through some huge ordeal. if anyone notices breakage, let me know. by the way, for those of you who don't pay attention, or who forget easily, remember that that dropdown list up at the top there (assuming you're on the main theme–hey, remember those?) will take you not only to other blogs or sites we like, but other bipolar-related items or sub-projects like, gasp, the galleries! yay, obtuse navigational schemes!

finally, everybody wish the puffin a happy three-oh, which'll happen Real Soon Now™

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- 06:33 am:: im
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