Halloween!

You better be listening to some Wednesday 13 today. I have well over twenty songs in the Streaming Music Library, so no excuses!

Wallpaper time!

Larger

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Enjoy and be safe today!

- David

Wall Papyrus

Behold!


There is also a Larger version.

I like the idea of someone, somewhere out there thinking one of these wallpapers is cute and putting it on their computer. I'd love to see screen shots.

Other fun pics!

Mm hmm.


This would make an awesome Christmas present. Pac Sun. Size small. The mask is the hoodie and it zips down the center for non-wrestling engagements.

- David

Oh Noes!

Another flat tire! Damn rain. Off to the shop I guess.

Stormcloud Bunny

My doggies are lovers, not fighters, just like their daddy. And Bunny seems comfortable all ready, perking his little ears up and exploring the apartment. Although she still won't go onto the tile, haha.

Today it's supposed to rain all day, but I'm still going to head out and play in traffic. Maybe peruse some records. I just watched another hardcore messenger video and I'm all pumped up. I even watched 300 before going to bed!

Time for some kind of breakfast, you folks have a good one.

- David

Webcam Madness!

I'm not sure if it stems from my love of technology and all three of the Internets (they just installed another one), or just because I'm an attention whore in my own little way, but I love webcams.

I wish everyone had one. I wish I could look into the lives and apartments of everyone I knew from the comfort of my snooty laptop. I wish I could put a webcam on my bike and broadcast the gore and the glory that is my daily commute. But alas, I can't.

However. Due to boredom and the need to learn my company's network, I have successfully setup a webcam to run from my desk. I taped one of the (extremely cheap) webcams my boss had me buy for a video conferencing project to the wall and it affords a fairly decent view into my work environs. Plus it's pseudo-hidden and the angle looks cool when my CD trays eject.

The program I "found" even has a scheduling feature, so every weekday from 9:15am to 6:00pm EST you can see this humble blogger knocking out the rent right Here. Or click the Workcam link to your right under the Stalk Me section.

Also, today and possibly other days because it's so damn cute, my webcam at home is running and fixed squarely on the habitat of our apartment's newest resident: Bunny! Kasey's mom has been taking care of it (we aren't sure on the sex) since she joined me in Arizona to help with the move, and last Sunday we picked her (or him) up and setup a little place to call her own.

BunBun (or Bunny Baby) doesn't do any tricks, but if you're having a bad day you might want to take a look and cheer yourself up. Click Here or the Webcam link on the right.

My boss just came in and gave me shit to do, so I better get on it. Maybe you'll be able to see the determination in my eyes and the sweat on my brow. Or more likely, the pudge in my pants as I sit and procrastinate.

Enjoy your friday!

- David

Fallow Me

If you disregard the temperatures, fall seems to have arrived. Leaves have changed and Halloween is nearly here. Now bring on the cold! As soon as I get some winter gear, of course.

- David

Boyscout Slipknot

Twitter (the free service that allows you to see what your friends are up to via the website, instant messaging, or your cell phone) has released a new feature called "tracking". Tracking allows you to see any update people make with any word or phrase you want.

So for instance, I'm currently tracking, "bike", "bicycle", "sex", "portsmouth", "ghent", "starbucks", "animal crossing", "opium", "cigar", "stogie", "fixie" (Don't ask. About any of it.) So if a Twitter-er makes an update like, "I'm studying anabolic steroids at Starbucks" I get a little notification, the same as if someone goes, "I just had sex on my bicycle with another girl named Fixie while having a cigar laced with opium in the back of a Starbucks in Portsmouth." It may sound dumb, but it's a lot of fun and very interesting to see what strangers all over the Internets are up to.

Anywho, yesterday some stranger Twittered how anyone not following the Midwest Teen Sex Show was missing out. I had never heard of it, but it had sex in the name so I checked it out. And holy crap, I wish I could kiss that guy. Right on the spot where your neck, jaw, and ear all meet. People like that.

Basically the show is centered around sexual education and contains copious amounts of wit. Put on by about five or six people with a lot of skill and humor, there are eight episodes so far and I've watched them all each at least thrice. Yesterday generic-o grape pop almost flew out of my nose and I'm sure my office mates thought I was having stifled seizures.

Here's my favorite:


Also hilarious are Beatin' It, Birth Control, and Gym Class.

I'm thinking about starting a video blog, and this show has inspired me. You may see your humble blogger in all his live-action glory in the very near future.

- David

My Future's So Bright

Just call me LOLita.

Might As Well Enjoy The Ride

Thursday I woke up a tiny bit earlier than normal and the dogs required a tiny bit less time than usual to make it home, so I felt comfortable getting a full shower in (something I've been saving for work after my ride) and drinking a bit more water.

Things were going well until one of the three elevators that service my building (there's a funny joke there about "elevator service" and "going down", but I'll leave it to you) was out of commission due to new resident move-ins, and as a result the one that finally did come to fetch me took forever and stopped at three floors on the way down.

I missed the ferry by literally two minutes. As I came down the stairs I saw it just leaving the dock. That means thirty minutes of waiting for it to come back.

Now, I got upset for a bit. But then I realized: Why?

Is it really a big deal? Is it even a "deal" at all? The only "bad" thing that has happened is all in my head. I'll roll into work thirty minutes later than normal. No one will die, civilizations will not crumble, the world will still turn. Is it even sane to make myself feel bad just because things weren't going to my tiny, hyper-personal plan and schedule?

I decided to be extra-leisurely on my way to work instead of a frenzied mess. It was a lot nicer and I was still only a little later than normal. Some would call it apathy, irresponsibility, or laziness but I call it a good spiritual teaching.

- David

U.S. of Fatt-Ay

Courtesy of Transportation Alternatives and No Impact Man
New Cyclic post! It's short and also contains the graph above. Just like your mom.

Coffee time! C'mere French Press...

- David

Random Is Sexy

New cyclic post! With pictures of my feet! Here's a crappy picture I took of myself when I had to dress warm for my ride, complete with long johns and goofy face.

Want to play a fun game? Do ya do ya? You heard of Portal? Here's a fun little flash version! Pr0tal. Forty levels of fun. I beat them all, I am the best. I have eaten the cake.

Wolf Parade is still rocking my iPod. I'm liking more and more songs as the day goes on. My favorite line today is, "God doesn't always have the best god-damned plans." You have to hear his delivery. The song is called "Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts". Listen to them. Close your eyes, and envision a parade of wolves going by. Friendly wolves. With smiles. It's adorable.

Aero is now one of my disciples. He is known as Student ChupaLatte and his skillz include sexual homicide and thwarting La Migra.

Want to join? Shave your head. Girls too. Then you'll get your instructions, which include still shampooing your tiny hairs of justice and not talking about being a disciple. Shhh.

In related news, all I've ingested today is black organic coffee. I forgot socks and a lunch. Which isn't as fun as when I forget my underpants.

- David

Sweep the leg!

Human Beings & Their Patterns

So today is Blog Action Day where bloggers and such get together and all post about the same thing. This year it's The Environment.

By now I figure most people are tired of, or at least underwhelmed with, hearing about the environment and how we're reaching a tipping point and we need to make changes and holy crap where are all these animal species going, etc, etc. So a day when people are supposed to unite and write about the environment may seem cliche and default.

I could sit here and type out all the ways in which we're screwing ourselves with our wasteful ways and harmful practices, but I'd be beating a dead horse.

It's just like smoking: People know it's bad for them. We know, we really do. We've had the facts about lung cancer since grade school. We are aware cigarettes contain harmful chemicals meant to keep us addicted, and we know it's making our bodies unhealthy and that over long periods of time it has a high probability of killing us. People see all those Truth commercials (which personally I hate, and I don't even smoke cigarettes) numbing informing us with the same facts over and over and over.

And yet, people keep smoking. People keep polluting their bodies despite the the knowledge of what it's doing to them, just like what we're doing to the environment.

What's the reason? Why do people do things they know will have negative and unhealthy consequences? I'm sure men and women smarter then me have complex theories with cascades of data supporting them, and that Wikipedia will describe them all to you. Personally, I don't think we can nail it down to one thing. One set of personality traits, one pattern of thinking or type of nurturing. There are as many reasons for people to do things as there are people.

I lean towards the belief that people are inherently lazy (even God had to have a lazy day after all that work) and this laziness has both positive and negative side-effects.

On the positive side we have inventions that make life easier: Machines capable of moving heavy objects and people quickly over vast distances on land, sea, or air. Devices allowing for long, safe storage of food and quick cooking. Medicines, instant electronic communication, farms that produce huge crops, safer childbirth. Basically any invention you can think of was meant to make some job easier.

The negative side is that we get set into certain patterns and don't really want to get out unless we have to. It's easier to continue driving my truck to work where my only physical exertion is the pressing of a pedal and the turning of a (hydraulically assisted) wheel than to pedal my ass, my change of clothes, and my lunch eight miles uphill both ways to work and back on a bike. The bicycle was invented to make travel easier than walking. The motor vehicle was invented to make it easier still. Why go back a step?

Unless it's cheaper, faster, funner (be quiet), and/or most importantly easier, people are not likely to make volitional changes in their lifestyles. No matter how many facts we have. No matter what the television in all it's infinite wisdom tells us. No matter how many protests and fliers dirty hippies and soy brigades create. They just won't. In most people's minds there is no reason to change unless there is a semi-instant benefit for them in doing so.

So what do we do then? Keep trying scare-tactics and hope we can eventually terrorize people into recycling, taking public transit or bicycles, buying hybrids, converting to solar energy and going organic? That isn't working now and I don't think it ever will. Plus, the more you try to force people to do something they don't want to, the more they fight it. They'll do a shitty version of the bare minimum just to get people off their backs.

In my admittedly inexperienced opinion, I think they key to getting people to change their habits is not to bash them over the heads with figures of rising temperatures or images of slash-and-burned rain forest plots or scary news specials about all the ways in which we're dicking ourselves and our children's children's children. That direction has been tried repeatedly and is making minimal headway at best. Definitely not the changes of quality and quantity we need to curb or repair the damage we've done.

The goal should be to make positive environmental choices cheaper and easier for Mr. & Ms. Ryan Q. Everybody.

If we can save money by easily buying a different light bulb, we'll do it without having to be told. If we can get that cute little Honda or VW everyone else has and spend a lot less on gas because it's a hybrid, we'll do it. If the trash man drops off and picks up recycling containers with the normal trash, we will most likely start recycling. If locally-grown food is just as easy to access as stuff flown in from all over the country, and is less expensive because it doesn't have to pay for trucks and airplanes, people will go with the local choice.

People will go to great lengths to save money. But not if it's a bigger pain in the ass then it's worth. This is the razor's edge that companies and groups have to walk in order to get us to change our ways. And it's only people and their personal, individual, daily choices that will start saving the environment.

Big events with celebrities and fanfare and TV spots are great and all, but it creates a tiny drop in a big bucket when compared with the choices we make every day. Sure, we get all hyped up about saving the planet and hopefully ride the momentum for a while, but unless it's a continual thing we're doing it won't make much of a difference.

I don't mean to say that until we are forced to be more responsible (seems like a contradictory concept to me) or technology comes along that makes hybrids 75% cheaper than internal combustion engines are we excused from doing our part.

Those of us with the ability and capacity to endure a small amount of inconvenience should, as human beings, do what we can. And as Colin Beavan (No Impact Man) recently wrote, ten months of no electricity, no motorized transportation, no buying anything new, and nothing but locally grown food feels, "Normal. Unremarkable. Life as usual."

It's really not that hard to do. Start small and stick with it. Do anything. Buy those little spiral light bulbs that last forever. Take a bike once in a while. Bring a big load to the recycling center at the end of the month. Try some organic coffee beans and fruit.

And for Christ's sake, don't let those people who are all high and mighty for not touching any paper for nine months and growing all their own food make you feel badly for doing your own little part. They do what they can, you do what you can, and they need to be helpful instead of elitist assholes.

One person alone can't save the world, but it takes all of us one persons to get it done.

- David

I'll Believe in Anything

Last night on the way to hang out with Kenny Caperton and his cats of doom Kasey unceremoniously picked an unassuming blue CD from her binder and went to the ninth track.

And not for the first time, I unexpectedly hear one of those songs that goes straight into your heart and your head and doesn't leave until you've listened to it for weeks, and even after you'll be in love with it. She's the only person who's ever introduced me to music like this.

I'm putting it up in my streaming music library now for your enjoyment. Click the Streaming Music Library link to your right and make an account to listen to it, and all the other bits and bites that make up my collection. The song is called "I'll Believe In Anything" by Wolf Parade. It reminds me of Grandaddy's "A.M. 180" which I also fell for. It's lovely.

Right now my tiny self is chillin' in a P-Town coffee shop enjoying free wireless and consuming a warm beverage and flaky croissant. Just a tip: Never get a croissant if you're not going to have a table to eat off of. The front of your shirt will look like the floor or a busy bakery.

There's about a dozen women in this tiny shop, all part of a knitting circle that apparently recruits over the Internet. They've camped out the best spots, hence my tablelessness. I got my headphones way up. I'm a loving, caring, soul but their gossip is noise pollution and it only gets worse with every passing minute, like they're each in a slow race to see who's conversation can be the loudest.

Kasey is my Sugah Mamma today, we stopped at an ATM this morning so she could give me a twenty for my upcoming adventures. I'm thinking after this I'll walk the pugs, maybe have some cereal (Fruity Pebbles rip-offs, mmm mmm) and then hop on Isabelle and get a cigar. Maybe plan a long, circuitous route out to Kasey's work so we can meet up for a late lunch. But that involves going to/through Virginia Beach which I have officially dubbed The Worst Fucking City To Ride Your Bike In. We'll see.

Take 'er easy, folks.

- David

Schooner or Later

Here's the kind of traffic I had to deal with today. Going to be a little late due to schooner race boats clogging the river and docks.

Today is the coldest yet (finally!) and in addition to my daily white undershirt and green shorts I'm also sporting some longjohns and a borrow track jacket. Cold Commute Experiment #1 begins!

- David

Rock n' Roll Haunted House

, originally uploaded by BodhiDave.

So I finally got all of the pics up I took at the recent Wednesday 13 show in this unlikely bar in Virgina Beach.

Most came out pretty good although the rockers, and Wednesday in particular, never stop moving so it was hard to get clear shots. He had even been in a car wreck recently and suffered a broken collarbone (which you could see the bruise) and he still rocked it out.

The show was awesome. I had a ringing in my ears for about two days afterwards from being toe-to-toe with the stage. More than once I felt the whiff of a guitar on my face as a rowdy musician got really into it. At least once every song I could have licked the guitar strings as the stripe-ed bassist or skinny guitarist came to the edge to give the small crowd some extra rockin'.

My helmet dons a new sticker and my iPod has been pumping out my favorites such as "Morgue Than Words", "My Home Sweet Homicide", "Too Much Blood (In My Alcohol System)", "Kill You Before You Kill Me", "I Walked With a Zombie", and "Bad Things".

With titles like these you know you're gonna have fun.

Watch the videos!

- David

Beanie Helmet!

Okay, this is probably the coolest thing I've seen in October and September. If you don't count the time I got an accidental peak at my dogs making tea for themselves.


So instead of wearing a helmet, I could appease my conscience by getting a cool looking beanie like this or this one and still be safe! Hopefully they start making zip-up hoodies with this crap in it too. Click the title of this post to see the full line of products with orange d3o magic inside.

I love how much enjoyment this guy gets whacking the other dude with a shovel.

Thanks be to R.Stevens for putting this video up on his LiveJournal.

- David

Mason Jar Ramens

I don't think my video editing software allows me to rotate the clips I take. A little peak/how-to into my lunch "break". Enjoy.


In other news, this is why my girlfriend is better than your girfriend:


Look at that. Way more baguette than you normally get with soup, and five motha-effin' packets of spicy brown mustard. She is the breast. <3

- David

Shitake Day

And "ake" left town.


I'll bang anyone who brings me two hot bagels and some mochas, stat.

- David

A Blast from the pASSt

Ever have one of those days where you're like, "I know there's a picture of my ass on the Internet somewhere, now where is it..."? That was me today. And I found it!


Drunken ass courtesy of your friends at AbsentMindfully.com. Enjoy.

- David