Model Girlfriend

This is Kiki. She models for me. Not very frequently, but on the occasion.
Ok... she has never really modeled for me persay--more or less she just laughs at me.

This picture is very dark, and b/c you may not get to meet her, you will have to take my word that Kiki has a contrastingly very bright and warm personality and attitude toward everything. I think I must have tricked her into dating me (shush, don't let her know).

Probably a better picture is the one below. But I'm sorry to say I kinda dirty up the photo with my goofy face and Curious George t-shirt (do you see why I'm lucky?).

Well, I'm sure that mainly my friends from back home will glance at my Blog and then glance again to make sure I haaven't tricked them as well. Check away! It's a real picture. No, I didn't take a photo out of a magizine or pay a cute girl to sit with me. Although I will admit I have considered that in the past.

BTW, Kiki is not available. And she does not model, although I believe she would do well in the business. She is very happy to just be herself and I think that is awesome.

A Little Helper Over Here

You should all look forward to a new Blog on the nutrition and taste reveiw of various Hamburger Helper box dinners made by the Betty Crocker corporation. I take great satisfaction in devouring these tasty meals, but have found that the description on the label lacks the luster that some deserve. Conversely, other packages should contain a warning to disuade consumption.

Until then, cheers!

This Gas is Really Uncomfortable

I frequent the PDQ (for non-Midwesterners, that's a gas station). And I like to chat it up with my buddy Ed, who is the manager. He for-warned me that prices would sky-rocket... duh. But the better part of his knowledge was that he knew how high the prices would go.


"This morning it was $2.39, tonight it'll be $2.93, and tomorrow $3.20."
"$3.20!!! That's outrageous..."
"What?! It won't stop there... in a couple days it'll be almost $4.00."

Right on the money Ed. When will the prices go back down? Ed predicts that they won't. His theory is that the tragedy of hurricane Katrina gave the US oil companies a reason to finally raise the price to where they wanted us to be. Now..... some of his theories didn't exactly pan out, we're still waiting for those martians to bring his dog back, and it turns out pubic hair does grow back thicker after shaving it off. But I still wince at the thought that he may be right.

My friend Gavin from MD (check out his band The Making and Three Track Mind) has a great online photo album recording the rising price, it's called "Price per Gallon" its sad and hurtful to see, but interesting to watch such an abrupt climb.

Does anyone have a suggestion?

Fat Frank update

Frank is fat. Not phat, but obese. He will eat crickets as long as they are there. No will power. Frank has definately begun to follow in my footsteps.

Fat Frank Foto update. As per request of several individuals. Enjoy!

A twista, a twista!

It's not Kansas... its Wisconsin.

Last night tornado touchdowns peppered southern WI from about 6pm through 7:30pm. I personally am an east coast guy and typically think of hurricanes as something to fear, but these tornadoes really did a number in my neighborhood.

The stats so far indicate one person killed, and as many as eight were hospitalized. Fifteen homes were demolished and thirty-five others had moderate to severe damage. More cars than could be counted had been wrecked by flying debree and fallen trees. From the Fox47 News station, David Murray says, "The sky just exploded. It was debris everywhere."

Stoughton is a small town that really got the wrong end of the stick this time. I included a couple pictures from news report and just wanted to say I now have a better appreciation for tornadoes. Dorothy was much braver than I gave her credit for.



PS, I found and really enjoyed this basic tutorial website on tornadoes called the Why Files.

My Mood

WHY WON'T YOU WORK DAMN IT!?!?
Science is stressful.

myTUNES

OK. Who likes iTunes... raise your hand.
OK. Now put your hand down, you're probably at work and look pretty stupid right about now.

I know I like iTunes, but I keep running into certain "that pisses me off" kind of situations. Categorizing my music. That's my job not iTunes job. Defining the style and audio settings of individual albums and/or songs. Just leave that one to me. I know, I can change settings and work around defaults, but there's two reasons I get irratated.
(1) I have to make the mistake first and then search to resolve it.
(2) Like any good comglomerate company, the software is designed to do everything for you as long as you always buy/trade/use their equipment. We all know how Metallica fought... and we see how well that paid off.



Example--did you know that if you buy a song from iTunes, it is automatically downloaded in an encrypted format (*.mp4 layered encryption of some type, I'm a science nerd, not computer nerd)? What this means is that if you try to play the music on software other than what Apple has created, you can't. You can, however, burn the music to disc and then rip the music off the CD back onto your computer in another format (such as .AAC or .mp3). What a bi&%h that can be!

Luckily, software has been made to work around this (Haha apple nerds). The best software I have seen is JHymn.

Oh well!

I must say thought that they have brought many small town people to the forfront of the music industry. Check out my old roommates band , Three Track Mind, Gavin's music is incredible and I hope his album "Throws Like a Girl" becomes a collectible. I also enjoy their free weekly downloads, which have actually paid off for me at least a couple times. The latest... Candy by Riton (sample at Amazon if you don't have iTunes).

The songs are cheap and iTunes allows the wanna-be people to pick out just the songs that are popular, but I almost don't like that. Freedom of choice and don't buy what you don't like and yadda yadda... still I'd like to think I have a deeper appreciation for the music I listen to. Even if it isn't the most popular or best track of an album, it was produced by an artist I enjoy and I still would like to know what the artist can and cannot accomplish. I can't agrue in a world of popularity and soundtracks, people telling you what goes well together.

In all, iTunes beat most of the industry to the punch and I can't blame them for how the system is set. Still, at the end, I love my music and still buy CDs and like it that way. Because, they are myTunes... not yours.