Calling All Cars!!!

Alright, so, here’s the deal, Lancaster and I got 95% of my stuff moved yesterday… and he definitley lived up to his nickname. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, Bionic-J. (I’m now going to await my pending Oscar win for my role in Brokeback Mountain for that last part.)

Anyway, I’ve got that last 5% to get done not to mention cleaning the apartment. Now, I’m basically needing a couple of extra hands, but a vehicle would be even better. I’ve got a few bags of things for a goodwill/salvation army drop off, my kitchen and bathroom. Then the odds n’ ends left over.

If you are willing to help give me a call or drop me a message here. I’ll buy ya dinner or fill up your gas or whatever. I think with some help everything other than the cleaning can be finnished by 8-8:30.

Thanks in advance.

Busy man

I haven’t had a chance to post very much lately. I’ve been working on a number of things all at once and it’s not gonna end anytime soon.

I’ve been doing a lot of work on Arsonist Radio, getting the site moved to a new server, converting it to wordpress and working on rough ideas for a new look. Also, this past weekend I came across a program called SAM Broadcaster 3. It really seems to be what we are needing to do the broadcasts… updates pages, broadcasts artist and title, does playlists, etc. It’s a little steep ($200), but in the end I think it will be worth it. Also on the Arsonist front, I looked into music licensing and streaming hosts so we can play what we want to to many more folks without the risk of being sued. I’ll probably get the licensing stuff underway this week and see how our first few shows go once we go live with it in February.

So on top of that stuff, I’ve got to move… This weekend I’ll be renting a storage area and putting most of my belongings up for a while as I stay with Bionic-J and his family for a bit. Sooooo, if there is anyone out there that has a truck and would like to volunteer an afternoon or evening I could use it to move the big things… bed, tv, desk. Most of the other stuff I can get with my car.

In getting ready to move, I started transfering all of my DVDs to a hardshell case. That is a chore that will be continued tonight. In any case, I have a lot of decent amaray cases that are gonna be thrown away in the next few days, so if you want any get ahold of me thysay{at}gmail.com. Also, if you have any of my movies… let me know so I can make a space for it in the case.

Here are a few good links to check out…

Nice walkthrough for making a comic. via Drawn!
More Paintblogging from Coop.
Zombies, Man zombies
Anyone who listened to the Old DFH: Liquor Cabinet show will remember this. thanks Langley

Positivity!!!

This may be a bit premature, but here we go…

I think I see an end to my money rut and it’s coming up fast. This is partly due to my tax refund being more than expected and a big part to moving into the Bionic house for a little while. Not only does that last part help out with finances, it also helps with my living situation. That means I have a little while longer to find the “right” place to live and I get out of the pit I’m in now one month earlier. Staying with them will allow for me to get all of the things wrong set right and I’ve been worrying about that for a while now.

Thanks to everyone that offered places to stay, shower or hang out. I appreciate it more than you know.

Also on the positive side of things, Mom is getting better. She’s getting her strength and appetite back more and more each day. One more test to go and we’ll know if there is to be anymore.

Thanks to everyone for their kind words, prayers and thoughts for that.

Arsonist Radio is quickly approaching so I need to get on a new site design and some extra goodies for the interaction with the audience. This might have to take place after the start of the show with all of the moving and stuff that is taking place around the same time.

Check out Point Blank Thoughts and leave some kind and encouraging words for BenC who is going through a rough time right now.

There ya have it. Things seem to be on the upswing for me… finally!

UPDATE: The test is back for my Mom and they have determined that it’s not lung cancer and the person who diagnosed it at the other place is an insensitive prick that isn’t worth the money he makes.

My Ass Hurts

Nothing is more of a pain in my ass than having work done on my car. I know that it takes unleaded and that’s about it. Everytime I go somewhere to get work done on it I feel as though they are ripping me off. After I go somewhere a couple of times and get to know the person/people working on it I feel better. Today I had my brakes fixed. Every morning on the way to work I hear this commercial for Value Brakes and it’s jingle gets stuck in my head. It mentions 98 dollars for all four wheels. Sounds like a good deal, so I decided to take my car to one of the many here in Memphis. As soon as I got in there and mentioned the 98 dollar ad only to be cut off by the guy asking questions I knew right then I’d fucked up.

I left and waited for them to call with what they found. The guy gave me a call and said that it was going to be 465 dollars. What happened to the 98 dollars for all for wheels ad!? He explained that the recommended brakes for my car… blah, blah, fucking blah. I said I didn’t have 400 dollars He said they could put the brakes form the ad on, but the others were recommended. I asked him if they would stop the car and he said yeah. I told him that is all I want, I didn’t want some special brake that does the same thing that a non-special brake will do. 45 minutes later he calls to tell me it’s done.

Something about this whole thing makes me feel as though I’ve been thoroughly reamed. It could be the fact he didn’t go over the receipt with me like most places do and he fucked me anyway.

In any case, I won’t be going back to Value Brakes.

Quote of the… um, yesterday.

“I know the answer. The answer is duct tape, but I didn’t want to go there.” -Paul

Quickly, quickly…

Alright, so here's a quick catch up.

1. Last weekend I spent in a hospital in Monroe, LA visiting with my Mom. She has a severe case of pneumonia, but seems to be getting better. There are a few other things they aren't ruling out just yet, but I'm not gonna say until they say it's definite.
2. The same night I found out my Mom was super sick, I got a letter from the people I rent from saying they are going to sell the apartments I live in as condos. What!?! These are just slightly on this side of being classified as "Shitholes"! I pay way too much for it as it is and now they want to sell it to me? NO FUCKIN' THANKS! They say they are going to do major renovations, but anything short of bulldozing and rebuilding isn't gonna be worth it for whoever gets suckered into this "deal". Sooooo, Housing Hunt 2006 is off. I was planning on moving anyway, but I wanted to wait until March/April/May because that's when all of the college kids get out and move. We'll see what happens.
3. Bionic-J and the Bionic family is over on the Islands of Hawaii. Check out his site for what must be the most updates he's had in the last year. He's doing a journal about the trip and he had better get me some pictures of some of the beautiful island women… for research purposes only.
4. Movies, Movies, Movies. I've seen a few over the last week and a half and they are all listed under the Movies link under Tracking over there on the right. Last night, Ben and I took in a showing of Hostel. The new movie from Eli Roth. I liked it a lot, which surprised me because I didn't like Cabin Fever much at all. He did a really good job of keeping humor separated from the horror aspects of the movie… which is why I didn't like Cabin Fever.

So that's the skinny on the not skinny Gann. Work has been a lot of recreations so still no doodles.

Work Rant

I spent WAY too much time on the graphic for a shirt yesterday. The customer sends over this very specific half idea and wants me to design it. The idea isn’t a crudely drawn image on a napkin, because that would be way too much info for me to use. It’s two sentences. What follows is only a representation, the names, elements and scripture have been changed.

We would like for the word energy to look like real snow and the snow would be pouring out of the letters. In the snow underneath it would have Revelations 3:17.

Now the other sentence was…

This is to be printed on a white shirt.

Ummmm!?

So I call the lady back and ask her if she or the person who came up with the idea could send over a sketch to show me what is they see and explain that white “snow” on a white shirt is sorta hard to make look realistic. She laughs and says yeah it is. She then proceeds to tell me what she thinks the guy who came up with the idea wants… which is basically the same thing that she wrote in her email. I again asked if she could fax over a sketch so I could have a little more of an idea of where they want to go with this.

10 minutes later she calls back. I check the fax and it has nothing more than an idea for a font. It barely addresses the pouring out “snow” and the scripture in snow underneath it isn’t even there.

“Does that make sense?”, she asks.

“Uhhh, are you wanting a puddle of “snow” underneath it with the scripture?”

“OH YEAH, hee hee hee! He’s pretty open to whatever.”, she replies.

“Um, OK…”

So, I spend all this time doing something that DOES NOT work. I sent them the proof and they want to make changes. I called this morning to find out the changes and the girl isn’t there, nor is her boss so I leave a message with one of the other girls to have her call me. I waited an hour then called back only to find out they have a person there working on it with the boss!!! WHY OH WHY, did you waste my time?

I’m completely fine with that. The problem I have is the person who is making it will not be making it for shirts, soooooo I will now have to figure out a way to make that realistic “snow” show up on a white shirt which puts me back at square one. The last time they sent over art I spent an hour fixing it.
My point. If you can’t take the time to send over a rough sketch of everything then I can’t guarantee you are gonna like what I do for you.

The best part about this… They wanted it designed and printed to be picked up in a two day turnaround. Then they want to be picky about the art! Arrrrgh!

So if you suffered through this much I’ll give you some fun stuff.

Freaky Flowers (Video is fine, but site is NSFW): This actually creeps me out.

If I’m ever in Prague

Maybe I’ll alternate between this and the Erotic Aerobics… It was made right here in Memphis. Anyone recognize those pool tables?

Resolutions

The new year brings new resolutions. This year I’m going to recycle my only one from last year that I never did anything with AND add to it.

Lose weight and take better care of myself

Eat Better

Exercise

Take Vitamins

Actually do some art.

I’ve already started drinking more water and haven’t had a soda in a couple of days. I just need to get on with the rest of the program. If I actually start doing more art, then I should start having more doodles to post. It’s dead here at work right now.

As sala’amu alaikum, baybeeee!

You scored as Islam. Your beliefs are most similar to those of Islam. Do more research on Islam and possibly consider taking the shahadah and officially becoming a Muslim, if you aren’t already. Despite the actions of some – who go against the teachings of Islam – Islam is a religion of peace; the word “islam” means “peace through submission to God.” “Muslim” means “one who submits to God.” Islam is the third of the three Abrahamic faiths, and it shares much with Judaism in Christianity; its differences are the acceptance of Muhammad as the last and final prophet, and the oneness of God – in other words, that Jesus, though he was a revered prophet, was not in fact God, and only one God exists. Apparently the Taliban could not read (though their name means “students”), because the Qur’an states that men and women are equal as believers, and that all believers should be educated and seek knowledge. Modesty in dress and behavior is required in Islam for both men and women to preserve the values of society and move the emphasis from superificial appearance to intelligence, knowledge, and God. Islam 79% agnosticism 71% atheism 50% Buddhism 50% Judaism 46% Hinduism 42% Satanism 42% Christianity 33% Paganism 29% Which religion is the right one for you? (new version) created with QuizFarm.com

I’m just as surprised as you! The agnosticism I get… I’m always confused about something. I’m pretty sure I answered the opposite of whatever question was talking about believing in modest dress.

This is waaaayyy too modest for me.

I mean, I like ninjas, I like women. I’m not sure I like the idea of thousands of ninja women roaming the streets.

Then again… female ninjas…. hmmmmm?

Happy New Year!!!

Hope you all have a great year and great friends and family to share it all with.

I’m drunk.