all hallows' eve

I figured this would be a good opportunity to get to know some of my coworkers.  Nice break from the drudgery of the typical work day also.









Me.

paint

I have a new idea.  Okay, it's not entirely a new idea. It's been done before. The idea is to take an old/bad/thrift store painting and paint over it to make it more interesting.

I have a friend who just took up painting and another friend who is getting rid of some old stuff.  Motive and opportunity.  Here's what we got.  An old print of "Golden Surf" by Robert Wood.

And here's a quick photoshop of what I want to do with it:

Not sure about the laser eyes at this point, it is still an idea in progress.  Plus, I don't know how to paint. Yes, this could turn out badly.  Stay tuned folks...

simpsons in la

Haha awesome. Woo Cerritos Auto Square!

i ask myself

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eye strain

Between work, looking through car listings, looking through job listings and editing music, my eyes have been pretty tired this last week. Half seriously applying to jobs overseas and on the other side of the Mississippi. Oh! You know what's weird? You know how on craigslist, they list 100 ads at a time in a given category? Well for the cars section, by the time you finish browsing one set and hit the "See next 100," you see half the set from before on the next page. That's how many ads are posted every few minutes. I guess there's a lot of cars in LA.

almost lost it

Barely avoided disaster yesterday.

I've been spending a good amount of hours lately working on the new recordings and it's been pretty productive the last few weeks. After a few hours editing last night, I went to delete some folders off a USB drive but hasty fingers deleted my main recording folder, skipping the Recycle Bin because of the size of it (almost 20 GB). When I realized what I did, I kinda freaked out for like 10 minutes because I knew my backups were more than a month old. That was like 30 hours of hard work . I called a friend to pray for me and got my head back on straight. Figured there might be a way to recover the files and some searching uncovered a handful of free programs. Turns out that when you delete files, they don't disappear off the drive, they just become invisible to Windows (or OSX). As long as you don't overwrite the data, it's pretty simple to recover it. I was able to save all of my deleted files. Soooo thankful. Gotta remember my priorities though, it's not the end of the world even if I did lose it all. Will remember to backup more frequently now.

If you are ever stuck in a similar situation, don't panic. Check backups and recycle bin. If it's still not there, download Recuva right away and scan for your deleted files. It's completely free and easy to use. I'm gonna send them a few dollars, cuz they deserve it.

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couple randoms

1. Two nights ago I was awoken in the middle of the night by a loud voice telling me to step out with my hands up. I was very confused for a minute until I got my wits about me and noticed the red and blue flashing lights outside. Turns out a police chase ended right outside my window and a standoff was going down. Dude didn't wanna get out of his truck. Cops had their guns drawn and their commands blaring through the PA. Standoff lasted about 15 minutes. I couldn't go back to sleep so I snapped some pics.


2. Yesterday, there was some traffic on the 405, so I took surface streets. Sitting next to a dumpster along a back alley shortcut, a familiar shape caught my eye. I slowed down for a closer look, and sure enough, it was a guitar amplifier, a head like the ones that sit on top of massive speaker cabinets you see at concerts, vacuum tubes in place and all. I thought it might be a good future project or at least an interesting piece of junk, so I grabbed it and too it home. Thing must weigh 50 pounds. Dusty and full of cobwebs, I fully expected this child of the 80s to blow up when plugged in. After some speaker pops and fiddling, darn thing powers up! Sounds bloody good too! Not sure what to do with it, it's definitely loud enough to get me in trouble...

It's a Laney AOR Pro Lead 100 if anyone cares

cutting it close

I received a response from my local recruiter:

August 11th is the dead last date that you need to be medically cleared and invited. So, it seems like this will be OK as long as the test can be complete in July, giving the medical office about two weeks to clear you. No need to stress at this point!

Yet stress we shall. I need to call the medical office in DC to see if I can get the dates pushed up. I am dreading having to talk to all the doctors again.

On a lighter note, this is wonderful:





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shenanigans

Posting from San Jose.
This is a fun weekend friends.
Pics to come when I get back.

rube goldberg

OK GO - This Too Shall Pass

Wow...these guys keep getting more awesome.

crap my bad

So I was cleaning out my closet a couple weeks ago and there were a couple of ancient looking wires running up the wall. I knew they weren't being used because I don't have cable TV or internet service. My compulsion for wire uncluttering made me cut those wires, and all was at peace once again. A few days later the manager called and asked if he could let the maintenance man into my apartment. I asked to reschedule because I didn't want him to see all of the junk I have attached to the walls. Also, I figured out that I probably shouldn't have cut that cable. So two weeks later when the timing finally worked out, the guy comes and looks in my closet, and I'm caught. Red handed. They need to rerun the cable from the garage for the two apartments above mine, and it will take 3 guys and 2 hours.

I feel terrible, and to make it worse, I just met the guy who's cable I cut. He's a mechanical engineering student at UCLA. He says without TV or internet in his apartment, he's totally bored all day. He will have to continue to be bored for 4 more days. So much trouble. This is pretty embarrassing. My bad.

pint sized talent

This one is just cute :)


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table top pong

Oh jeez this is awesome. I am totally nerding out.



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magic for monkeys

Okay, a lot of weird stuff comes out of Japan, but this is just awesome. And adorable.

a departure

I'm not sure where my head was at yesterday, but this is what fell out of it. I think I might have ripped off Flight of the Conchords.



Today I start my rap career
Traded my guitar for some iced out gear
Said bye to my ma and pa
A gangster don't need them at all
Got money dead presidents is all I need

I'll leave this world behind
To see what I can find
In the rap game

First thing's first gonna need some killer beats
Wonder what Timbaland's up to this week
Hey dude that's all played out
Gonna have to do this myself
I'd sell my soul for a number one

I'll leave this world behind
To see what I can find
In the rap game

Next come the things I'll rap about
What are those things they rap about?
Money and power, women and fame
Guess I'll have to watch Scarface again
That's just something us gangsters gotta do

[guitar solo]

What was that? It was the guitar solo
What do you mean rap songs don't have guitar solos?
I guess I have a lot to learn
I'll have to do it while earn
A couple of Grammys on my way to being a star

I'll leave this world behind
To see what I can find
In the rap game

(sorry for the terrible beat-boxing, it's my first day)

meeting harry potter

Haha this is great!



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internets

All you need to know about teh internets.
http://knowyourmeme.com

frivolous stuff i read

Jalopnik - auto industry news, funny
Autoblog - auto industry news, serious
Cardomain blog - random car stuff
Bring a Trailer - vintage and interesting cars for sale

Gizmodo - gadget stuff
Engadget - more serious gadget stuff
Lifehacker - helpful tips
Unclutterer - get simple

Harmony Central Forums - music and music gear
Bimmerforums E34 forum - trying to fix car
Digg - useless browsing
FML - more useless browsing

Sometimes I'm shallow.

Bonus:
For those who nod off in class/at work

existential

Question: What happens when you remove Garfield from Garfield?

Answer:

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/