oh, no!

It truly terrifies me that I find this picture so appealing.

Lost time

We had a heckuvah good weekend. Friday was our anniversary, and we drove to Cushing to see about an Italian restaurant we heard about. There are no other Italian joints here besides Joseppi's, which is sub-par, so we thought we'd give it a go. The salad and appetizers were awesome, but the entrees were kinda 'meh'. Not good enough to drive the 45 minutes again.


Saturday was the star of the show. We went to Enid, America to see our good buddy Cody.
He took us to see the farm he's renovating. He told us all about the history of the place and how it was homesteaded during the land run and built up by hand. And how a little girl watched helplessly from the porch of the house as the bank auctioned it off during the depression, and vowed to buy it back some day. It changed hands a few time over the years, sat dormant for years on end, was used as a crack house for a while, and was bought back by the little girl, now all grown up (and whose son was one of the founders of ebay), who is paying to have it renovated to period specifications before she donates it to the Oklahoma Historical Society, who will either make it a tourist destination, sell it, or let it sit for another 100 years or so, going back into disrepair.


The story of the history is as interesting as how they are going about the restoration. They started on the barn, and are re-pouring the foundation in little bits. This means that they had to raise the barn, then dig out the foundation, keeping it in place with this weird system of piers, and jacks and straps and things. So what you get is a floating foundation, and a few feet above that, a floating barn. It is really neat to see, and it is amazing that only Cody and his Dad are accomplishing all this on their own.

The barn was really awesome, but the interior the house was just plain creepy. Trent Reznor would love to shoot a video in there, or you could film the next Blair Witch there. It is riddled with bullet holes and is full of dirt and animal feces. Some stairs are missing where a cow fell through from the top floor. What amazed me was how the people who built the house were either really short or were hunchbacks, because it was really small and the ceilings were really low. The fact that it was a drug-haven at one point was what creeped us all out. I asked Cody if it was even more creepy at night, and he said he didn't know, because they've never tried it.
We tried to find a few ghost towns and only found ghost buildings, so we went back to Casa Del Cody, where he made us some kick-bottom baked ziti, we went for a walk where he told us all about the little emo girl who lives next door and hates her parents (aaah, memories...), and then we got ice cream. It was muy funtastico.

Sunday was a blow off day. We did some yardwork, We had Cody over, we grilled a pork loin, watched some movies and hit the sack. Monday was a Tulsey town day. Jack screamed the whole way down there, putting us all on edge. Though he hammed it up when we got to the mall to have his portrait made. He loves the camera. We ate some Olive Garden (shit, that's a lot of Italian food for one weekend!) and headed home. Cody went to feed his kitty, and we played with Jack till he passed out.

Then I got up and went to stupid work.

Sketchbook #10

This is some dude and another weird monster. I don't know why I am drawing so many these days. Perhaps I am channeling something. I'll bet its my co-workers. Many of them, were they turned into monsters, would look similar. I actually saw a guy yesterday that in addition to the giant gut, the tucked in polo shirt, jean shorts and newbalance sneakers, had a fanny pack, which is in itself not a rare occurrence 'round these parts. But, this guy had the strap threaded through his belt loops. WTF? Is he being economical buy using it as a belt, therefore saving money on said belt? Is he terrified that somebody is going to tear it off his waist and run off? If so, the pack-snatcher would most definitely get away, as the pack-owner is a tubby. Maybe it rides up. I'll bet that's it. Stay down there, fanny-pack! I don't need you up by my man-boobies!
In other news: This be our 4th anniversary weekend. That means we've been together for over 6 years. A record for the both of us, and I think that if we were going to get sick of each other , it would have happened by now. We have no real plans, except for going ghost town hunting with Cody Dopps, and a visit to Enid, USA. A place that I've been to before, and apart from Leonardo's Discovery Castle, it is a pit. But Cody makes things fun. He'll show us.

That is all.

Sketchbook #9

This is a Sea-Devil. Any Doctor Who fans out there? (Yes I know that this kicks up my nerd rating a few notches) I love the new series of Doctor Who. I loved the old one as well. They are bringing back the old enemies one by one, and we have had the Daleks and Cybermen so far, but I'm hoping they bring back these guys. They were so silly, and the actors in the outfits couldn't really walk correctly, so they moved really slow, allowing the companions extra time for close-ups of them screaming and looking generally angst-ridden, but not running away. I would also love to see The Master and the Sontarans, who may or my not have something in common with juggernaut from The X-Men.

That is all.

Is it 2008 yet?

In the grand scheme of things, I think that illegal wire-taps, phone data-mining, illegal wars, high gas prices, record deficits, shitting on New Orleans and shooting a guy in the face are a lot worse than lying about a blow-job. I can't for the life of me figure out why people back a political party like they back a sports team. "Win or loose, good or bad, that's my party and I'll support them to the ends of the Earth!" "You are either with us or against us!" "WOO HOO!" Both sides do it, and I've done it, everybody does it. Nobody looks objectively at an issue any more because it too damn hard. They might have to think about it for two seconds, and that is precious thought that is currently trying to figure out the map on Lost. People really need to figure out their priorities. The ISSUE is what is important, not the party.

Sketchbook #8

This is a toy robot.

So Jackson has decided that sleep just isn't for him. Doesn't like it. Last night he woke up once an hour until about 3am, when he decided he was up for good. We took turns rubbing his little back and letting him cry it out for small periods of time. He finally crashed out again around 5:30. I was up about an hour and a half after that. Couldn't find the shoes I wanted, all the big coffee mugs were in the still running dish-washer, and I had left my window down during a pretty severe storm, and a bunch of my CD's, most of which have paper covers these days, got all wet, as did my bum. I drank a massive amount of coffee, but forgot to take my heartburn pill, so I'm hella paying for that now.
But I'm in a pretty good mood anyway. We used our tax return to pay off the balance on a consolidation loan, and we set up a way to pay off our surprisingly low credit card debt. This means that after that gets paid off, the house will be our only actual debt (not counting regular bills). We have no student loans, no car payment, no stupid department store credit cards. Cash only, baby! This makes me very happy.
I'm starting to really enjoy Sia, the singer. I heard "Breathe Me" on KEXP a while ago, and as I did enjoy it, I thought she was a one-trick pony. Then I saw the vid for Taken for Granted, and some SXSW stuff, and changed my mind. She does a kick-bottom cover of Paranoid Android by Radiohead. I think I'll actually go buy that CD today.

That is all.

update- Sia used to be with Zero 7. I knew I recognized her voice. She's also the niece of former frontman for Men at Work Colin Hay.

Chaos Theory

Stilly is in chaos this lunch hour. Bushie is giving the commencement speech at OSU on Saturday, and three giant secret service helicopters just landed on the football field. I guess everyone wants a look, because traffic just got INSANE when I tried to come back from lunch. I assume they are here to stake out the "free speech zones" and find the best spots to place snipers and set up holding bins for hippies, and to wire tap the entire town.

I love a "free" society.

Pins and needles

I know, just know that you all look forward to the beginning of the month so you can see my calendar from the previous month.
Well fret no more, as it is here--->
Some one at work actually spotted the battle pod from Robotech, and knew what it was. I work with total nerds. But I drew it, so I one-up them on that. Everybody seems to enjoy the kool-aid man. I know I do. I can't drink that super sugary treat without my teeth hurting, but I do have fond memories of the fact that you can mix "Sharkleberry Punch" with almost any form of alcohol and have a yummy time. Usually the cheaper and more disgusting, comes-in-a-plastic-bottle hard liquor, the better. I wrote a comic years back about a fun time I had one night with just such a concoction. And by "fun time" I mean that I have little memory of what I did or why frozen veggies were in my bed when I awoke. I'll try to dig up that comic or re-do it for you all.

In other news, I need to pass this along:

"Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the Internet's First Amendment
-- a principle called Network Neutrality that prevents companies like AT&T,
Verizon and Comcast from deciding which Web sites work best for you -- based on
what site pays them the most. Your local library shouldn'tÂ’t have to outbid Barnes
& Noble for the right to have its Web site open quickly on your computer.
Net Neutrality allows everyone to compete on a level playing field and is
the reason that the Internet is a force for economic innovation, civic
participation and free speech. If the public doesn't speak up now, Congress will
cave to a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign by telephone and cable
companies that want to decide what you do, where you go, and what you watch
online."

"If Net Neutrality is gutted, Google, eBay, and YouTube either pay protection money to companies like AT&T or risk that their sites process slowly on your computer. Comcast could intentionally slow access to iTunes, steering Internet customers its own music service. And the little guy with the next big idea would be muscled out of the marketplace, relegated to the "slow lane" of the information superhighway. " -WWdN.

The big corporations with politicans in their pockets are looking to squash the blogosphere so it runs the was they want. I'm sure this has a lot to do with the grass roots political uprising from the last two presidential elections on the part of the Washington supporters, and a way to make fat cash on the part of the corporations. I don't want AT&T to decide that a site I want to go to will run at a snail's pace because they didn't receive some sort of payment from said site or the ISP they use. This is stupid and greedy and wrong on so many levels.
Go here for more info: http://www.savetheinternet.com/

off my soapbox now.

Aech Ee double hockey sticks

So Jackson got baptised this weekend. Now he won't wallow in pergatory. A lot of family and friends came out for it, and we had a great time. My Mom and my Dad hung out more in that 24 hours then they had in the last 28 years and both behaved themselves. I spent all day Saturday cleaning the house, trying to fix my lawn mower and smoking chinkens (in the smoker), which turned out wonderful. Very juicy and delish. People brought desserts and food and themselves. We had maybe 30 people, a lot of whom had driven a very long way. Actually they all did because we don't really have any friends here. Jack looked less faggy then I thought he would, given that he was in a romper and wearing a bonnet. I wasn't pushing for him to go up there wearing a construction worker's outfit of anything. I'm just sayin'. He looked cute.

Go here for the story that Jeff and I just finished.

You all rock!