Knuckle Down

Go get your own.

Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

A-Waffling We Will Go

Which came first the chicken or the waffle?

On Sunday afternoon they arrived together... on my plate. But neither remained for long.

Jeff inquired through the miracle of cellular telegram whether I would be interested in getting Roscoe's for a late lunch. His question was most likely rhetorical, but I assured him nonetheless that I was indeed interested. For those unaware, Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles is an LA southern style eatery specializing in , you guessed it, chicken and waffles. They are, in a word, the best thing you'll ever eat.*

*In this case, we briefly suspend the principle of identity and let a word equal six.

I drove down to meet Jeff and Allison (sorry you missed it, Rita, but I'm told Paris ain't so bad) and carpool to Long Beach. Jeff and I had to discuss some nerd stuff first and figure out what street it was on, but soon enough we were off.

First (and Cooler) of the Two Bridges To Long Beach

Good thing we checked the address so we could make sure to miss the turn anyway. But in our defense there was a Z4 beside us with a tin superman emblem taped over his side air scoop. You can imagine how distracting that could be. As luck would have it, navigational error was our friend that day, bringing us past this amusing pizza place and, likely, geek magnet.

Considering Sunday was the 15th, I'm sure that corner was exponentially busier the day previous.

The wait at Roscoe's was a not unexpected 45-60 minutes, but well worth it. We did make up some time since none but a glance was needed towards the general direction of a menu. Scoe's Specials, dry, all around. Allie did get hers "dark" for reasons beyond my grasp. But perhaps I am mistaken in second guessing her since she was, in fact, the only one to finish her plate. Well done, Allie.

Clockwise from top left: Jeff confirms the obvious (Scoe's Special); Food+Allie=Happy; Jeff throws in the napkin, er, towel; Allie deliciously victorious; Scoe's Special "white"

Which leads to the story of a seemingly paradoxical exit of the premises. Jeff, strangely enough, was unable to fit - literally - back into the car as it was parked (Maybe more greens less waffle next time, Jeff?) so Allie had to pull forward from the space to give his inflated lower torso room to maneuver. (To be fair, there was no way I was making it into that side either.)

Utility boxes, downtown Long Beach

I'm guessing the lack of blood flow to the brain was the reason we took such a boneheaded way home, but it wasn't a total loss as we did get to see the blimp. What's the opposite of foreshadowing?


Watching - Watchmen. Matt is coming over after work on Tuesdays now to spend some quality guy time, and not in any way to avoid watching American Idol with the wife and company. Saw it last night. Matt liked it. I wasn't digging it. Nearly 3 hours long. And felt like it. And well, yeah, there's that other thing too. Who will watch the Watchmen? Me thinks not as many as the producers hope.

Reading - Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Listening - Dust Bowl Ballads, Woody Guthrie. Recorded in the early 40's, but surprisingly current.

Drinking - Avery Collaboration (Not Litigation) Ale, Batch #2.

Take a Long Walk On the Redondo Pier (a.k.a. Go Fly a Kite)

So we had this meeting at work Thursday concerning communication between generations and technology and blah, blah, blah, you don't care. The reason I mention it was near the end of the meeting, the presenter asked who amongst the audience was a "blogger". So in the interest of honesty - certainly not in the interest of pride and or non-embarrassment - I raised my hand. And I was the only one. Amongst hundreds of engineers.* So I'm either a) the coolest most with-it person in that room embracing technology and using it to further my social interaction with others or b) the hugest nerd among a room full of huge nerds. You decide.

*I'd like to point out here that using technology doesn't necessarily make one a huge dork. And conversely, not using technology does not prove that one is not Nerdy McNerder. For instance, I know someone who does not have the internet at home, but at the same time, is one of the nerdiest people I have ever met. You know who you are. Consider this a partial argument for option "a)".

The reason I even bring this up is that I haven't blogged in several days, and this raising of hands - or, hand, if you will - has spurred me to write another post lest I be accused of being a poser or guilty of poserism. Well that and I finally made it through some pictures.

Speaking of pictures, last weekend there was another photography group meeting at the Redondo Beach Kite Festival. It wasn't a large turnout as I only saw Peter (pictured here in the beginner's yo-yo contest - he won a yo-yo!), Jeff (new glasses here - Hugo Boss I'm told - ooooohhhhhh fancy), and Erik (not pictured here).

Nevertheless, it was a really fun time. There were, as the name might suggest, lots of kites,

a Hot Dog On a Stick (corndog for the non-Left Coasters) Eating Contest (this one is when Backwards Hat was holding back a digestive refusal which as you can see worried the other contestants),

but the highlight of the afternoon (at least for me) was the yo-yo exhibitions and contest. These kids - and, yeah, adults - did some amazing things with yo-yo's. And it was a huge turnout. Who knew there was this underground yo-yo brotherhood? (Wait til the hipsters get ahold of this.) Most amazing of all were the yo-yo's that could actually leave the string. LEAVE. THE. STRING. The yo-yo-er would be doing, you know, regular yo-yo stuff, - i.e. holding wound up yo-yo in hand, release it to unwind, do trick, retract back up to hand - then all of a sudden the yo-yo-er would somehow (magic?) release it from the string into the air and catch it holding both ends of the string. After the untethered yo-yo portion of the act was over, a shuffle of the hands would return the yo-yo to normal state prepared to walk-the-dog, around-the-world, rock-the-cradle or whatever. Here's No Face in mid trick:

Unbelievable. I'm still convinced this is some sort of witchcraft. All in all, a ton of fun. Full gallery of the day's pics here.

Watching - Buckaroo Bonzai. Incredibly goofy, enjoyable film. Too hard to explain in this limited space, but Buckaroo is a Scientist / Samurai / Rock N' Roll-er / Action Hero that ends up saving the world from an alien threat from the 8th dimension. Recommended. Also: Pinky Carruthers, one of Buckaroo's bandmate / sidekicks played by none other than Billy Vera.

Using - Boxee. Media browser. Can access local or networked digital content (stuff on your copmuters) as well as internet content (Netflix, Youtube). It's great for me as I can now control Netflix via remote.

Happy Birthday Peri Paul!

Bokehs, Books, & Boots

Saturday night was another photo trip for the South Bay Photography Google Group. (You'll recall the previous post on our trip to Redondo Beach Pier.) As I had a book club meeting in Westwood that evening as well, the other photographers were gracious enough to shoot in the neighborhood. Meeting up was a little difficult, so I was only able to shoot with the rest of the group for a few minutes before I was off to dinner and literary discussion. I did mange to get what I think is a pretty cool shot of the rest of the crew.

Justin, Peter, Jillian (J.R.), Sarah

Pretty cool shot, right? Yeah I thought so too. I think it really captures the youthful energy that my peeps have. They have a lot of enthusiasm for photography some real talent as well. It's fun for me to see. Thanks for letting this old guy hang around. I hope I didn't slow you down too much. Just for fun, here's one of me:

(Image credit: Jillian)

I think I'm just walking to meet up with everyone else, but Jillian claimed I was dancing. Upon further review, I have to admit it does look like I'm doing a little jig here. Then again, I'm so graceful nearly every move I make is on the cusp of artistry.

Sadly, I had to miss the remainder of the Westwood portion of the shoot discussing Catch-22. Truthfully it's not that sad as the discussion was an interesting and lively one. The vote was split 2-2 on Catch-22 (I was for it). I did meet back up with the gang on Hollywood Boulevard afterwards briefly, but they had to split. I stuck around a bit and took some pictures at the Kodak Theatre and nearby. (Full gallery of the trip here.)

For those of you wondering about my recovery from "kickball ankle", this was the first week I was able to wear my boots again, so things are looking up. When I got home that evening, I found I hadn't quite got my photo fix, so I started goofing around with some self-portraits around the apartment. I ended up using my computer to snap series of shots with my camera (a nice feature, but I'll still need Jeff to wire me up an intervalometer as I think the 30 lbs. at which my iMac weighs in is a little beyond the capacity of my bike's handlebar-mounted basket).

Full self-portrait gallery here.

Gettin' My Iron On

Fear not, loyal readers. This is not yet another laundry themed post. Though it is laundry related. Laundry adjacent - as are my dirty underwear. Hey Oooohhh! OK, that didn't really land, but you know what I mean.

Well it's only laundry related in the sense that the star of the post will at some point be laundry. It was Arts & Crafts Sunday here so I grabbed my iron and got to work on some projects I've had planned. The first was a requested "Eugene" shirt for J. R. (Justin's best gal). The "Eugene" is quickly becoming my most popular design. (I've made two of them now!) You'll notice that this incarnation has the trademarked Independent "e", as did the original. I went with an (appropriately) more feminine take this time around. J.R., congratulations, you've just had your wardrobe pimped. How do you feel?

From left: Eugene v2.0, Blogger, Eugene original

The second project marked a departure from the felt-based iron-ons I have worked with in the past, to the glamorous, fast-paced world of metallic iron-ons. There is considerable more risk with going metallic (designs are often more intricate and can be ruined without precise and careful peeling of the backer paper) and a bigger time investment (the iron must be left on the transfer for upwards of a minute - versus fifteen seconds with traditional felt transfers), but the money to be made in this market is lucrative. I've just got to remember to step back once in a while and take inventory of myself to make sure what I am doing is still in line with my craft ideals. The number of young iron-on artists who have spiralled to a steaming pit of artistic compromise chasing the fame and glory to be had in metallic iron-on transfers are too many to number.

Here's my first attempt. Critiques? Be gentle. (Alternate pic here. Close-up here.)


If you'd like any of the above designs, let me know. But don't expect me to get it done. I'm kind of busy. And feel free to visit your local Jo-Ann Fabric's and make your own "Jessie" or "Ingrid" (or the ironic "Iron On") design.

Are You Smarter Than An 8th Grader?

Well for most of you reading this the answer for that would be "Yes.", but what if you were up against a room full of kids like this:

Not so sure now, are you, Smarty Pants? Huh? Is that your inferior quantitative skills I hear shaking in the background? Thought so. This past Saturday, the brightest 12-14 year old minds in the South Bay gathered for MathCounts chapter competition. I was there to pass out pencils and scratch paper, and most certainly not answer questions about the test. It wa about as fun as math competition could be for a spectator, but it did take me back to my days as a Mathlete. I think Jason and Mike will agree that the stop at Yo-Nuts and video games in the Purdue union were the highlight of our trips to chapter competition.

I could actually feel these kids' brains working that morning. It was really warm in the cafeteria during the three testing rounds, but as soon as they were over and the kids relaxed over lunch, I swear the temperature dropped 7-10 degrees. I am not making this up. It happened.

For the nerds out there, you can access the MathCounts Problem of the Week here, and for super math studs, the Wabash Mathematics Problem of the Fortnight here. That is all.












UPDATE: One of the schools I was proctoring was Magruder, which had me playing the theme song from the SNL "MacGruber" skits all morning long. And in no way was that a bad thing.
[MacGruber archive @ hilarious.net]

(ANOTHER) UPDATE: Volunteers also got free Aerospace t-shirts. Suck it, Anne!

Reasons Number 3,286-3,289 Why I Love the Internet

Netflix. Recently I subscribed to Netflix and the insant streaming feature has me watching a lot of strange and strangely bad movies. (OK some of those were obviously going to be bad.) Tonight I was watching Streets of Fire which was, well, strange. A war veteran (Peter something) returns from overseas to find his ex-girlfriend and pop singer (Diane Lane) - now with her manager (Rick Moranis) - kidnapped by a leather, music, and anarchy-loving motorcycle gang led by Raven (Willem DaFoe). But what caught my eye was a minor character who tags along after the inevitable rescue who I recognie as the woman who played Dottie, bicycle mechanic and love interest, in Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Which leads me to...

Google search. Duh. It's awesome. And linked me to Elizabeth Daily's (Dottie) Wikipedia entry...

Wikipedia. Yeah laugh if you want, but it's a quick and oft reliable method of finding information on nearly any subject. (Just before to check your facts somewhere else before spouting them off as unquestinoable truths, and don't use it as a source - or the only source - for a research paper. At any level of education.) Dottie's Wikipedia entry is easily the most fascinating thing I've read this week. Some tidbits I gleaned in case you don't have time to read the whole page (which I strongly encourage):

• Voiced characters for the Rugrats and Powerpuff Girls
  
• Was married to Rick Salomon who also "starred" in a "movie" (yep, that one) with Paris Hilton
  
• Played Paris Hilton's mother in a movie
  
• Dated several other notables (go to the wiki, it will blow your mind)

Internet Movie Database. I don't like this to the level of Wikipedia, but again good information source, which blessed me with the following tidbits of interest related to Pee Wee's Big Adventure:

• Phil Hartman has a writer's credit
  
• Directed by Tim Burton, who...
  
• ...has a project underway for a full-length Frankenweenie film*

*The 29 minutes of video that are Frankweenie was included as a bonus on a tape (yep, VHS) of another full-length movie (can't remember what it was), and was one of the greatest entertainment moments of my childhood. If anyone could find this on DVD, well, you would rock. If you gave it to me. If you kept it for yourself, you would suck. Though I'd understand.

Thank you internets. Well done.