Mot's blog

2012-01-11T09:35:00.000-08:00

Holidays in Syracuse.

It was again time in December for our annual holiday get together. I always use it as reason to get house projects started and completed. And they get completed..just maybe not in a timely fashion. This year I tuned up the living room. Repaired the walls, new paint, lighting and some furniture.

Unfortunately the lighting gave me trouble almost down to the last day - which in turn put me WAY behind with getting ready for the actual party. hence my grand visions of 6 Fondue pots never materialized ( we got 1 going) Butwhattodo? Thankfully my sisters and father were on hand along with several friends to lend a hand. Folks let us know they had a great time - so it makes you wonder what(?) makes a good party? Must be the people...... :O)

2011-11-26T05:30:00.000-08:00

Thankful for much

The family joined Eric and I in Syracuse this year for the annual turkey burn. I used the opportunity to test run an fondue recipe for the upcoming Holiday party at our house.

While dinner was cooking, Many of the gang watched the Thanksgiving sporting event on the television. I think it was the "Brown ball " sport.

I also was initiated into the celebration rite for when one obtains a turkey at no cost due to shopping receipts. It is entitled "FreeBird!" And there was much rejoicing.

2011-11-10T17:04:00.000-08:00

A Fabulous 50th

A beautiful weekend here in upstate New York as we celebrated my sister Cathy's 50th birthday. The day's adventure started with a tour of some fun wineries on the east side of Seneca lake as we headed towards Geneva for the evening. The various wineries and settings proved much fodder for our goofy ways AND we actually tasted some wines as well.

After the tour and some hotel checking in, we arrived at Belhurst castle. First time I had actually been there. A fantastic ( and haunted! ) mansion located at the top of Seneca lake. Dinner was quite Yum Yum and then there was cake!!

A friend remarked on Facebook that Mom must be smiling and I am sure she is.

2011-10-26T17:18:00.001-07:00

Aunt Catherine's 88th and Lucy's debut

Cousin Danielle and Pete organized a trip back east for everyone to meet our newest cousin Lucy Clare this past weekend. We made an double occasion out of the visit and all met in Scranton to help celebrate Aunt Catherine's 88th birthday at Marywood.

Lucy Clare made the rounds with all the cousins and there was much cake to be had.

Saturday night we all went out for Irish food and afterwards Kristin hosted a mini celebration for my sister Cathy's 50th birthday. The family will be getting together later for the big party, but we sampled some truffles in the hotel lobby as a warm up for the party in 2 weeks.

A great weekend!

2011-10-20T04:00:00.001-07:00

Vintage

Las Vegas 1962 from Jeff Altman on Vimeo.

Love all the vintage neon footage. Hopefully I will get to use it for an upcoming project.

2011-09-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

Updates from a busy summer.

Well, Labor day just sped by. I cannot say it's been the most productive summer. Work has been unreal since June this summer. Of course, I have been telling people work has been nutty since last fall - but it just kept piling on since then. With lots of testing and my main project heating WAY up... I have been a little of a zombie as of late. This summer was supposed to be vacation catch up for Eric and I. Last summer i short circuited our vacations to get ready for Burning Man - with the idea that THIS summer - was catch up. But it did not happen. Our trip to Cape Cod in July was nixed due to late efforts to get a reservation - so we planned to do a walk about in the camper. But that fell through due to my work schedule...so Mr. Eric spent a vacation week hanging out at the house by himself. By the time I thought I could get away from work - ( immediately after labor day) I got a surprise finding out that Cedar Point basically shuts down for the weekdays after the holiday :O( So our summer consisted of a little bit of camping with friends and a minor amount of house work. Still, managed to catch up with old friends while camping and make some new ones along the way...

New disha-washa installed

Salt City VW show

Late night frog visitor at camp

2011-08-19T18:29:00.000-07:00

Burning Man season

Its that time of year again. I am watching all the notes and emails start flying as VW folks prep for the trek to Burning Man.

2011-08-16T09:09:00.001-07:00

Like I need another hobby......

So Cool!

2011-07-29T09:20:00.000-07:00

KISS

NO blogging lately! Too much work lately - makes me grumpy. Whattodo? I am happy I have a job but this is starting to get on my nerves. 9 months of this and its just getting more Nutty McNutville. Eric took me to the KISS concert last night at Turning Stone. For a fan - ( which I am not...) it was a really great show. Eric's brother john and his son Noah also went and had a great time. Eric has some great footage of Noah jamming along with the band.

Eric managed to get us Second row seats. Which - for a fan..is a great thing. For a non-fan -
it presents a problem..... As opposed to sitting way in back and not feeling the need to hide your disinterest... sitting that close to the stage and the band ( 8 ft?) errr.. you are exchanging direct looks. I was trying my best to maintain a look of fun and interest.... but apparently was not doing a great job.

I know this because...well... Mr. Gene Simons himself let me know ( from on stage...) that I was not enjoying his show enough......

Mr. Simons ( I can confirm..) has "look" that I only thought was skill of my late mother...... And he gave it and I got it. The look basically translated as:

"What the #%$@# are you doing in the front row of my show if you think you have better places to be..?."

I was... embarrassed. and from then on tried to do a much better job showing how much of a KISS fan I wish I was. :O)

2011-06-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Defriend
The outing of the supposedly slick maneuver #34

It is interesting that now with Facebook becoming a near universal place for folks to connect ( at least here in the states..) - how former minor actions seem to become so much more socially significant. Just google "defriend" and it seems that this former insignificant act now justifies
major articles and public consideration

The emotions of a facebook defriending

I yanked the plug on an old friend 2 weeks back after a trip to the West Coast. I had a pretty full trip planned and had a little time flexibility - so I started thinking who I could look up while I was in town. Burning Man friends? Facebook friends that I has yet to meet in person? I chose to look up an old friend from High School who been in a tough spot due to illness in his family. So here's how it went on Facebook:

If the above graphic is a mystery - it's an old maneuver - basically you do not respond until you know the person is out of range - there by saving you the trouble of honesty or tedium of doing something you don't want to do.

Sadly it is completely transparent and I have a hot button for being taken for stupid.

I mentioned on the phone to my sister mid weekend that I had not gotten a reply but "I am sure I'll hear back tomorrow after I have left town.." And sure enough - the reply note came Sunday afternoon precisely when I mentioned leaving San Fransisco.

So this post...while a bit of a rant - is also to maybe put to an end maneuver #34

2011-06-19T05:08:00.001-07:00

Birthday boys

Eric's brother John and his family were up for memorial day last weekend. Also time to celebrate John and Noah's birthday with a BBQ at our house. Cookie cake and Cobbler. Yum Yum

2011-06-07T18:23:00.000-07:00

Quick Camping weekend

Headed down to camp this weekend to help clean up our site. Not a big event - but sunday the weather was quite nice. I hope we have good weather for the 4th. Our friend Doug who owns the campground with his partner Steve showed us his birthday present! I think it is their 5th(?) trailer. Very neat.

2011-05-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

Weekend Check in

( an overdue blog post that compensates in length and blah blah...)

I had received an invitation to a BBQ at NIMBY in Oakland for Sunday (more on that in a moment..) , so it seemed a perfect excuse to spend the weekend with my friend Lynn in San Francisco. I ended up taking an evening flight on Thursday with Lynn "collecting" me at her local BART station around 12:00am and putting me to bed for the night.
Friday morning we set off to see non tourist parts of San Francisco Lynn wanted to show me. Aside from the BBQ - I had no specific agenda for the weekend - but I did mention "Food Trucks" and Lynn knows that Junk Shopping always makes me happy.

We set off Friday morning for Crepes and walking some very very neat neighborhoods of Glen Park while we caught up on life. A nice sunny day ( yet not warm....) while Mr Eric reported that it was 85(?) degrees back home. We ended up heading for "16th avenue Steps Project"

An incredible art installation ( and a bit tiring..) From there - Lynn took me to the Rain Forest Exhibit with the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park. An awesome living exhibit of rain forest habitat and its inhabitants. Highly recommended. We wandered from there to the Haight Ashbury neighborhood to grab some late lunch. Lynn and I parted ways as she headed to a Roller Disco Bachelorette party. From there and I walked myself over to the Castro neighborhood. I did not end up poking around much - my jet lag was catching up - so I grabbed a MUNI train back to Lynn's place and crashed for the evening.

Saturday morning - Lynn and I headed off on bike to the Framers market near(?) her apartment. I had some reservations about biking. It is Lynn's primary mode of transport in the city and enabled her to traverse the city fairly nimbly..but I am from the "strolling" old school of biking. The whole move-the-pedals-and-watch-the-scenery skool. ( insert bird song here) The idea of the Crank-the-bike-and compete-with-city-traffic mode ( insert heavy metal music here) I am not skilled in. It requires a mental trigonometry I find stressful. Did I mention I have not been on a bike in a year?? Lynn did a good job getting me safely through the city. After we left the farmers market - we headed to Lynns office space in an old warehouse in Bayview. A GREAT space for her freelance work and a neat facility.

Afterwards we headed to a House-parts-recycling place "Building Resources" to look for any interesting project starters. It was there that I told Lynn of my workshop FULL of interesting-yet-not-started project starters. The Room of Failure I like to call it. It going to get me on one of those Hording shows on TV soon I am sure.... We headed on bike all the way down to Valencia street to do some shopping after we tracked down some Food Trucks. These were on my ToSee list. Between numerious online articles, Friends blog posts and folks on Face book gushing... I wanted to experience Food Truck. So we found a bunch on Valencia street and we skipped the Filipino and headed right for the GARLIC NOODLES. yum yum.

From there - we started hitting up the retro antique stores. One place - Stuff - had lots of good stuff and I was trying very hard to stick to the script and not add to The Room of Failure. It helped that the store "does not ship" - bit I did find a great lamp for our house that Lynn is now going to act as shipper for me.

We then met up with Lynns boyfriend and headed out for Soul Food for dinner. After all the red meat - I called it a night.

Sunday - I returned to Valencia street to look at more stores and search for lost sunglasses. NO luck finding them but I got a chance to stroll over by Dolores Park and take pics of some great houses that...I would find acceptable to buy...... :O)

Lynn, Kenneth and I headed over to Oakland to tour Crucible. An amazing facility that is the number one reason I would contemplate a move to the Bay Area. Lynn's friend Steve gave us a great tour and Lynn kept telling me that if I lived in SF - I could make this place my second home. So Tempting!! Pics of the Crucible facilities...

We then headed over to NIMBY for a BBQ thrown for the fundraisers. NIMBY is another cooperative art facility. Very different from Education focused Crucible. Crucible - much more of an organized education facility and NIMBY - a more punk-based performance space.

The party was an interesting lesson in itself. I have noted the vibe before at Burning Man events. Whereas a group of folks advertize an event to the public or wider circle - but then remain in the smaller private circle mode. It ends up making you feel like you are crashing or intruding. No one in the original circle makes a formal effort to engage anyone outside the original group. I think it is fair to expect that if you advertize to a wider group than your own - that you sign up to engage the newcomers you invited. Otherwise everyone is just gravitates to talking to their friends and you are just standing around. My notion probably stems from previous experience with COAP in Rochester where new folks were always stopping in and we thought it was important to take the effort to make the people you invited actually feel welcome. I was not put out by the vibe at the party... I was happy to hang out with Lynn and Kenneth. But the party did crystalize a nagging impression from various Burning Man events. I think the new insight will be helpful in the future.

After a stop at another house parts place - Lynn and Kenneth drove me back to pick up my stuff, exchange farewells and it was off to the airport for the RedEye. A great weekend.

2011-03-20T16:53:00.000-07:00

She blinded me with Science

The Felice Clan came to visit us in Syracuse for the weekend. My Niece Carolyn was competing in a Central New York Science fair here in town on Sunday. So after she set up Saturday afternoon for the Sunday competition - we headed to dinner. Afterwards, Mr. Eric gave the family a little spin in our basement disco.

Sunday afternoon - the family headed over to the local community college to support our brilliant 7th grader and see her science presentation on plant growth.

Way to go Carolyn!

2011-03-20T16:33:00.000-07:00

TalksWithHands

Forget DanceWithWolves. Kevin Costner's got nothin' on me.

2011-03-03T11:36:00.001-08:00

Van movie

"The Bus" Trailer from Damon Ristau on Vimeo.

I have not even watched this trailer yet .... but I wanted to post it so I did not lose it.

2011-02-28T16:34:00.001-08:00

Escape from SyberiaCuse'

We headed out for our annual winter escape with our friends Greg and Joe this past week. We decided to try Ft. Lauderdale this year and skip the West coast. So on Thursday, we all trekked down on separate flights to Ft. Lauderdale to stay at The Cabannas Guest house for a long weekend. We had beautiful weather - which was sorely needed. The long cloudy weekends tend to put me personally in a funk by the end of February. Combined with a rather extended nutty streak at work - I was really really ready to get out of dodge ( or the frozen gulag..) Our friends Gerry, Matt and Tom C also joined us for a nice calm weekend with no particular schedule - other than maximize use of the 3 pools at the resort. The weekend went a little too quickly, But Eric and i did manage to catch up with our friends Tom B and Eli as well as poke around some antique stores to look for "things" to use with the house.

2011-02-14T09:17:00.001-08:00

Random pic for house ideas

2011-01-23T07:24:00.001-08:00

Holidays in Syracuse.

Our first party in the new house this past December. Lots of friends and family helped us celebrate with the famous gift exchange and only one broken glass! My sister Cathy came this year to help me with the hors d'oeuvre production and our friends Allan and Ken arrived early to get caught in the pre-party whirlwind. ( Thank you!) Our friend Gerry was the evening photographer and did a great job capturing the night with both our party veterans and new friends!

( Click on any image to enlarge)

Thanks to everyone for coming out on such a cold night!

All the party photos on Flicker here

2010-12-27T17:36:00.001-08:00

Burning Man Trip Reflection.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the trip since my return. Heck - I was thinking about it the whole way home! I think as a whole - the trip was unsuccessful. And I plan to dissect it fully before I contemplate a return. So the following blah blah is more of a recording for myself to READ CAREFULLY before another trip. It is interesting how the memory fades and all that is left are cool pics..

Good things:

I met many nice new folks at Buscamp.
The van ( engine wise ) ran perfectly with the OLD engine.
The route was staged better because I was on my own schedule.
Wyoming was actually a nice drive!
I took some great pics with the new recoh camera. I wish I knew how to use it better.

Bad things.... well .. I think several minor snafus snowballed to put a tarnish on the whole trip.

Blew the [ insert here ] budget

- 2 hours after I left home, Eric called to let me know the basement was flooding from the rain.
From there - I started doing a mental tally of effort, energy, time and $ i spent to make this trip happen and it became clear I really really blew the budget. I had not even crossed into Ohio and was thinking "WOW..what have i done...."

- I started working on the engine replacement in MAY and work went really slowly reflecting my learning curve. So 3 weeks before I left - it became clear that the engine replacement was not going to happen in time for the trip. SO the engine sits in the garage, along with a BOAT LOAD of new parts AND a rebuilt 5 speed transmission. A big investment in Time and $.

When it was clear that the swap was not going to happen - I quickly came up with a triage plan for the old engine and was working on it right until the day before I left ( which did not help the stress level...) So for all the efforts and money on the new engine... i managed to get the old engine running quite happy(!) after 2 years of grumpy grumpy and dicking around with VW garages taking money and not really fixing things..

Since the trip was going to be a long one - I short circuited most 2010 vacation planning with patient Eric for the whole year.

Multitasking failure

Work was quite busy when I left - so I decided to work "on the road" - thinking it would be easy
to drive 7-10 hours and day..and then pop open the lap top and pull another 7-8 hours of work out every day of the drive out and back. That was a cute idea - but it was really tough to concentrate after long drives. I DID manage to get some good sketches finished on the road that I was quite happy with but... very tiring and left little time to poke around.

This was ALL being processed before I even arrived in Nevada.

Hence -

Small snafus snowball...

My NEW Optima gel cell was dead the SECOND DAY of the trip. I think that my leaky subwoofer killed it. So even after a 2 day charge in Salt Lake with a brand new battery charger -
NADA. This snowballed further when arriving at the Playa - my new solar panel and charge control decided not to talk to said battery or anything wired to it. - thereby negating the solar panel investment and leaving me with no running water in the van. grrrrr

I had the propane topped up in Nebraska at a KOA. It was only 1/2 full from my 2007 trip and I wanted to be all set at Burning Man. Seemed OK later in Cheyenne when I cooked Chinese ( Yum!) But then the first night I went to cook at BusCamp - NO gas. Zero. Empty.
I do not know if the guy did not fill it right or whether I left the stove on(?) but there was no cooking half the food I brought..... :O( Nor running the fridge.

Driving alone had some advantages but also tiring draw backs. The cross country trip is something to share as an adventure, otherwise it becomes a fairly quiet transportation process.

Lack of Posse

I had spoken to several friends and Eric ( of course) about attending with me and had been VERY upfront about the harsh environment....and the interest level...always dropped off.
And to be honest ... if I did not have the VW angle to this adventure... it would have much less appeal to me as well.... Yet over the week I kept spotting events and things I knew Eric and friends would love. Especially the Disco roller rink....

But on arriving at Burning Man - I met a lot of nice Bus Camp veterans from the west coast who have all gotten to know each other from previous Burning Mans and other regional events. Very welcoming folks but sometimes it felt I was really on the outside looking in. This was definitely a reflection on me. I think that would be different next time around, but it made an impact. I am never that comfortable inserting myself into groups and had to fight the instinct just to solo the whole week. ( was not really successful with that one...) That also runs cross grain to the Burning Man experience of just plunking down with people you have/have not just met and having a good time. ( Not something I do easily...)

This was all magnified mid week when I managed to get all ready for a BusCamp event and then was literally left off the bus... no one to really blame - but definitely a funk starter.

From there it seemed like the daily event or component that I would be looking forward to always seemed to deflate right in front of me. And while there was amazing things going on right around me I should add...

Playa Factor

All of the above would be entirely manageable except for the Playa Factor. This component seems to fade from memory the fastest unfortunately. Camping on the playa is not easy...
Hot HOT HOT and very dusty. A tough camping environment that no one makes a secret of...
Literally from 12 - 3 everyday I was under my sunshade. The sun was too bright and i was risking sun poisoning. Other hours I was constantly spraying more sunscreen on top of whatever playa dust i was already coated with.. yucky.

The dust part drives me crazy. Which will make any BM veteran laugh. It is a part of BurningMan and it is futile to fight it. But I do. I really never thought of myself as a high maintenance person - but spending a week with a fine coating of dust on you and everything around you drives me NUTS. It is directly hitting an idiosyncrasy button of mine.

Apparently it is noticeable - as my friend Pavel at BusCamp made comment that it was entertaining to watch me in 2007 try to keep ahead of the dust... and all I could remember was wondering how anybody could be happy sleeping and rolling in Playa filth for a week. The daily dust storms happily defeat any efforts to fight the dust. Getting in a 2 hour dust storm after dark.... is a whole 'nother world. Especially when the only goggles you have are the darkest ones you could find for use in the daytime. I nearly walked face first into the Burning Man himself because i could not see 12 inches in front of me.

I kept myself together in 2007 despite the environment. But 2010 - with all the other stuff on my mind - I really let it get to me. Despite an actual shower at BusCamp and 3 boxes of Body wipes - by Saturday I really was mentally done with the whole event. I was not relishing the idea of trying to get out of the event Sunday along with 20,000 other people - so I left early. I knew in hindsight it would seem to have been not a big deal just to stay - but at the time - I told myself I really wanted to leave. So I did.

Rush rush rush

The trips out and back always seem rushed. Driving by so many neat things - always in a rush to get to Nevada and then after BM - just wanting to get HOME. And another memory lapse became apparent on the way home. In 2007 - I had just reluctantly sold my home due to unemployment. NO complaints - as I saw a fairly nice equity gain and the bank account was full for the trip. So I never did an accounting of the costs for the trip. Mistake.

All day driving in the van requires 3-4 tanks of gas. KOA camping comes in at $30 a night
and then there is food. Multiply that by 10 driving days and a couple of hotel stays and
that is a serious chunk of money in a short period of time. Paying for it Solo really can empty out a bank account fast! And normal bills do not cease because you are out of town. So my return to new york had a couple of $$ meters running on empty. Did I mention I maxed out my credit card on Van parts before I left NY......?

Participant vs Observer

I tend to run well in a participant mode at new adventures and settings. And for BurningMan there are LOTs of opportunities to do so. But the Cross country part of the adventure really makes that difficult... No opportunity to "Do" something for BurningMan because I am stressing out to make sure I actually get there... and my daydreams of cool art projects are not compatible with dragging across the country.... ( at least not yet... :O)

Now - after all this crabbing - if you look at my pics - you can see that I was surrounded by Amazing things..... hence the need to fix and analyze, fix and try again! :O)

Pics => Glowstick fun with Joel, Ramona and Matt

Pics => Fire Spinning at BusCamp

Pics = > BurningMan Art and trip

So! I am already trying to figure out a plan for 2013. Some could easily say to drop the whole idea - but that is difficult when it is clear the trek CAN BE an amazing adventure. and I just did not get it right. Further thoughts or directives for 2013

- The van must be squared away and not require the whole summer to prep.
- I need to bring Eric for a part of the trip and friends to share the experience
- I need to be a participant in this creative outlet ( already sketching that one out... :O)
- I need to actually budget for this trip
- I need to slow the trip down to smell the flowers

I am sure I will figure out more as the next 2 years unfold......

All of this recorded to contemplate before a possible return in 2013. I will need to plan around this experience or risk a repeat.

2010-12-27T17:27:00.000-08:00

iPad = Blog Killer?

Curious change of habits since September. Mr. Eric bought me an iPad for our anniversary!

I totally scored on THAT one! :O) and I drag it all over the house now.... so a I rarely get down to my office to sit in front of the actual computer to photo edit and blog. So I will try and do some catching up.

2010-12-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

Return Home

I made a point to stop back in Cheyenne on the way home from Burning Man. I caught a glimpse of the town on the previous trip and thought it would be nice to poke around on my return. Downtown has a nice Rt 66 feel to it. Lots of retro details and interesting architecture. The development phases of the town are quite evident. The central core on the main street is old Route 30 and you can see how the town developed and the turn of the century architecture gives way to the retro 50's features as you move away from downtown.

And typical of American discard culture - both the turn of the century and the 1950's architecture are in disrepair/ state of abandon and it all gives way on the outskirts of town to generic big box retail. It appears like the downtown is pretty much ignored. Very sad for a cute town.

2010-10-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hello Mauritius!

The readers map on the blog seemed to indicate i have readers in the middle of the open sea. But thanks to Google maps and a little zooming - tada! Mauritius ! Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! Invite me for dinner!

2010-10-10T07:22:00.000-07:00

Life @ VW BusCamp

BusCamp is made up lotsa folk including many veteran Burners who can make the trip every year. I soon met up with Bill and Merileu - a couple from Oregon that I met on my 2007 BurningMan Trip. They went out of their way both this year and 2007 to welcome me and it was very nice to see them again. I also caught up with Gary - who is the Bus Camp commissioner and always leads the yearly organization of the camp. BusCamp was already pretty well laid out by the first day and included a central area with a small bar lounge and a place to host BusZilla - a VW art car that was constructed by Bus Camper Heather and a dedicated crew of folks.

Heather's mechanical automotive knowledge and car hobby scope eclipsed mine... ( she has 7 cars!!!! )

I was impressed and my sexual orientation flickered momentarily.......

Along the beginning of the week - I got to meet more of the Buscamp folk as they arrived as well as more veterans that I managed to miss in 2007. A buscamp couple Paige and Kurt were married on Tuesday evening at BurningMan and the wedding party all rode in Walter - the world's largest VW bus. Walter was HOT !

It was a beautiful night for a wedding and there was a fantastic sunset i tried to catch.

During the week I brought out the Dutch oven a couple of mornings to share with campmates. It was always interesting to get up in the morning to make cobbler and see BusCamp quietly asleep.

Several ( many?) folk at VW BusCamp have involved with "Hooping" - which as it implies - involves Hula Hoops. I really did not know much about Hooping - but I have a new respect for it now and what a great work out and dexterity activity it can be.

Of course - an evening of watching folks use Hula Hoops that were on fire - certainly added to visual fascination.

I managed to catch a lot of great pics with the new Ricoh on long exposure.

More Fire Spinning images on Flicker here

Later that week - Joel, Ramona, Matt and I had some more fun with the camera and some glow sticks

More glowstick images on Flicker here

Other activities at BusCamp during the week included a Tye-Dye workshop hosted by Annie and Silkscreening with Joel and Heather. All fun and really brought out the folks at camp and beyond. Later in the week - the camp hosted a Red party potluck as well.

A great camp and group of folks to hang with at Burning Man and the constant VW tech talk is all FREE!

More information on Walter the Worlds largest VW bus here

More information on VW Bus Camp here

More information on Buszilla here

2010-09-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

Fire Spinning at BusCamp

Took some great long exposure pics at BusCamp one evening. They looked really cool as a fast slideshow - so i strung them together in iMovie. Fun fun.

The originals can be found here on Flicker

2010-09-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

A very Burning Man evening

A early week snafu ended up cancelling some evening plans for me and left me in a funk for the evening. ( And let me tell ya - I know how to Stew..) But in a odd twist - my funk was crashed by strangers who managed to pull me out for a very fun - very Burning Man / very not Tom evening.

It began basically out on Center Playa while I took sunset pics from a great temple. I was trying to put the brakes on my SNIT FLYWHEEL** ( which was hitting about 14,000 rpm) by distracting myself.

**- You may find that phrase strange unless you are genetically related to me - **

After a couple of conversations with very nice folks and a stop back at camp - I headed back towards the playa for some evening pictures and an attempt to walk off my funk.

But it was not meant to be!

2 strangers promptly stopped their 4 person bike and asked me to get on and then evening promptly took another direction. A wonderful Burning Man kind of experience to suddenly team up with people you have just met to share the evening touring the night sights of the playa.

We stopped by a neat camp called Big Pink Heart and had our pic taken. The photographer Aaron Dressin had a neat set up that reflected in the eyes of the subject if you look carefully. I ended up at a camp all the way across the playa drinking rum(?) and hanging with some very funny people. It was a fun end to the night.

I still contemplate the evening for some reason.

I note how I can shut myself off when in such a bad mood - yet a random act can so quickly pull me out

I think i also focus on how startled I get to have 2 straight guys just want to be buds. The whole straight guy " you're gay??" awkwardness thing is too ingrained on my experience. I expect it always and on the rare occasion it does not happen... I just get spooked. I think you can almost see it in the picture. ( Which I love BTW) I have spent a lot of time since then thinking how/if this jades my daily life or whether BurningMan was the exception.

How to keep the windows open despite the rain?

2010-09-16T09:03:00.000-07:00

The Big Trip West Part 1 Syracuse > Reno

I returned home this past Friday evening - and really have been fighting off the urge to take a 3 day nap. I still feel very tired and the attention span is at Zero for just about anything. I think veteran burners call this decompression?? ( Or maybe I need a decompression...) Dunno but a nap is on the list. You think for this whole wind down - I could brag i was a wild man at Burning Man - but that would not be the case. In fact - I could be accused of not being engaged enough. Butwhattodo? In a nutshell - I think the trip was good in some ways and bad in others - and unfortunately some of the bad stuff got in the way of my Burning Man experience. The long solo driving in itself did not help. A run down for the trip -

As we last joined our hero - he was madly working away on his Subaru engine conversion - only to realize(!) time had run out~! And the remaining time before the trip was spent getting the old Grumpy engine to work right and prepping the van in general for the trip. (..And mentally mapping where the really really worst place in the country was to break down in the van.....)

Got fridge working well after disassembly and cleaning.
Installed new solar controller and solar panel
Added extra 12 volt outlet.
Added iPhone mount up by dashboard.
Installed New optima gel cell battery.
Added new additional grounds in engine compartment
Cleaned AirFlowMeter and added capacitors.
Wrestled and cursed with a 2(!) new oxygen sensors and put new catalytic converter on van....And Viola! Van was HAPPY!

Took off from Syracuse Sunday morning in the rain. As I got to Erie PA - eric gave me a ring to let me know our basement was flooding. It was a harbinger of small zingers that awaited me along the trip..... First night was in Toledo OH and trip was uneventful.

The next morning I took off West - making a stop in Chicago at Alcala's to get a hat. A mistake. If you need a simple $30 hat - an expensive city store is where you buy said hat for $80.

The day ended up at the Peru Illinois KOA.

I managed to get the time off for the drive with the idea I would be drawing for work along the way - which for the most part worked - I spent a good chunk of time on the laptop once I arrived at the destination of the day. The long driving helped in one - way - I spent ALOT of time thinking of the problems I needed to be drawing solutions for and once I opened up the laptop - things were sketched up fairly quickly. The drive however - was tiring and often all i could do after arrival was contemplate a nap...

This is the exit for the town we were chased out of in 2007!

KOA stops along the way included Toledo Oh, LaSalle Ill, Newton Ia, Grand Island, Ne and Cheyenne Wy.

By the time I reached Cheyenne - the KOAs were all starting to blend together - but I did get the time to make some PF Chang Orange Chicken the night before my Wyoming Crossing.

Our 2007 trek across Wyoming was hot, slow and maddening. And I have been complaining about it ever since. So this time around - I was not looking forward to the drive - but I figured an early start would possibly help - so I shoved off from Cheyenne around 5 am. As it turns out - it was a great drive. I guess we really just picked the wrong time ( hot afternoon) to cross the state. The drive into Utah was beautiful and I arrived in Salt Lake right after lunch.

I set out from my Salt Lake hotel in search of Greek food when i found the entire street in front of me wrapped in police tape. Half the Utah police force was on hand and my greek food destination was closed due to the street closure. A passerby mentioned a shooting.... as I contemplated my personal inconvenience from the whole situation......

- Sadly the next morning i found out details regarding the incident. A veteran recently back from Afghanistan had reached the end of his rope and committed "Suicide by Cop.." whereas he suited up weapons and all and sought a confrontation with police - which ended his life. I felt/still feel pretty stupid about my thoughts the night before. The next morning - it was like nothing happened - just the police tape in the garbage can.

Rest in Peace Brandon Barrett.

After two days in Salt lake getting last minute things for Burning Man and trying in vain to bring my NEW Optima Gel cell battery back to life -I headed out of Salt Lake on Sunday afternoon. The drive was long but not eventful.

I ended up at the Fernley exit on Route 80 around 11:30 and though I was being pretty clever with my timing. The festival is 80 miles up a back road from Fernley with the gates opening at midnight. People arriving early get punished by getting rerouted to a holding lot - so I thought I was being clever with my arrival. At first it went well and the drive up to Gerlach was fairly straightforward. But outside of Nixon - the traffic jams started and I found myself sitting in a line of cars with the engine off for over 30 minutes at a time..... SO I really ended up getting into the festival right at Sun up - just like last time.

I found VW Buscamp in the empty Black Rock city - parked and promptly put myself to bed after meeting my bus camp neighbors Ramona, Cameron and Joel. ZZZzzzzz!!!

2010-08-17T18:50:00.001-07:00

7 Years!

Eric and I just quietly celebrated our 7th year anniversary. Not sure where the time went - but it's all been great. :O)

2010-08-08T17:37:00.001-07:00

Ghosts

Eric and I moved into our house six months ago. You would never know it by how much stuff is still in boxes... ( Hey.... no hurry right? ) :O) We often talk about all the plans we have in the coming years for remodeling and neat things we'd like to do to make the house our home. It is sometimes easy to forget that it used to be someone else's home. But there are still reminders around the house that there was another whole life here that preceded us by a long shot. The previous owner and her husband built this house themselves in 1950 (?) and raised a whole family in it. The owners are gone now..on to the next life, yet the house remains. And here we are - the second life for the house to shelter. And certainly not the last. We often joke about Helen haunting us if we make a wrong move in the remodeling... ( By judging by some of her design choices that i plan to correct... that lady will back for sure.... )

Still sometimes - I get a glimpse of the previous life and begin to wonder what I'll leave behind.

2010-08-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

More engine work

Time is running short and so much to do! It has been become a pattern of assembling some part of the engine - only to take it apart again. And so it went with the intake manifold. I wanted to install extra oil temperature and pressure sensors - so I started thinking about only after I installed the water manifold and the intake manifold on top of it. Only then do I realize that the ports I have to access are underneath all of the above. (grumble) So all of it comes off again and then Eric helped me remove some very stubborn port caps. Everything went together again fairly quickly - including a new sensor harness I soldered up.

2010-07-13T18:03:00.000-07:00

Graduation

My brother is right...scary how time flies. One day you're swinging a niece around with one arm and the next is graduation day.

I feel like a big sad sigh.

A beautiful day for the party just the same. The family was in full Mode and there was much rejoicing.

2010-07-05T18:35:00.000-07:00

July 4th fun

Headed down to our campsite for the holiday weekend. New camera, Great friends and lots to eat. And there was much rejoicing. More on Flickr ====>

2010-06-20T08:29:00.000-07:00

And we haaaave separation Folks!

Working on and off on the Subaru these days. I run into a problem - spend a day thinking about it..and then back to work again. Finally removed the engine today. ( About a week behind schedule..but whattodo?) Spent a couple of days trying to get the transmission to separate from the transmission. Once that finally happened - the front end damage on the car body was blocking the engine removal - so I spend a day psyching myself up to SawZAll the front end off the car. I was not looking forward to that. I hate that particular tool - loud, violent and a favorite of the DarwinAwards. But.. I pulled out the new SawZAll Jim gave me 2 years ago with a new metal blade - and WHOOSH - "like Butta " says Mr. Eric After I send the Subaru off to the junk yard - the fun part begins while I get to tinker with the subaru on the engine stand. AND ORDER MORE PARTS! yay!

2010-06-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Olde Good Things

I visited Olde Good Things in Manhattan a year a ago. The store features recycled architectural pieces from buildings and monuments. I have always loved these types of stores and frequently visited the few that are local to me. The smaller shops however - tend to focus on salvage from houses - hence the selection is a little less spectacular.
( But still cool! )

Olde Good Things is much more like a store from my past - Irreplaceable Artifacts. Based in NYC - these places featured much more interesting, one of a kind pieces from torn down buildings. Giant roman columns and gigantic doors. LOVE IT!

While at Olde Good Things last year - I saw mention of their Scranton PA warehouse.
"All our big stuff" as they informed me. So a visit was put on the list.

It was not a disappointment. An A M A Z I N G PLACE. I always had dreams of restoring a warehouse / loft - which would have been a great home for this type of "art" - but alas - it was not meant to be at this time. No complaints however. Eric and i have found a fun house to restore that is a much more realistic scale. So maybe someday..

See the rest of the pics on My Flickr

2010-05-21T17:10:00.000-07:00

Neat!

Another piece of software I would love to learn if there were 49 hours in a day

ENVISION : Step into the sensory box from SUPERBIEN on Vimeo.

2010-05-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

BUSY BUSY!

No real blog posts since we moved. Of course - the fact that my Mac is still in its box tells you how much how i have working on unpacking my office. I have moved on to more pressing projects. I finally located a wrecked subaru as a donor car for the vanagon engine transplant. I want to take the van out to BurningMan this summer and the Vw has been pretty grumpy the past 2 years despite my best efforts. So time to an upgrade. The wiring harness had to be removed first - as it must be sent out for modification ( which takes a month) It took me a while to get it out - all 43 lbs of it! But now it is in Tacoma getting a Nip and Tuck while I move on. The coolant manifold also needed to be sent out - so I had to remove the whole intake system for the car first. So now while I wait - the rest of the engine will need to be pulled and put on an engine stand while I work on the modifications. Of course - i am still mulling getting the vanagon transmission rebuilt as well. Which would mean putting all of this aside while I get rid of the donor car and get the vanagon home to remove its engine and tranny as well. The schedule will be tight. :O)

2010-05-10T07:05:00.000-07:00

Kitchen of the Future!

Eric and I were already working on some similar ideas for our pending kitchen remodel.
I hope our solutions are a bit more on the integration/elegant side.

2010-03-23T09:03:00.000-07:00

iWant mE An iMiEV!

I have been watching this car in development for a while now. If it looks a little familiar - it should be. There once was a time when Daimler-Chrysler and Mitsubishi were best buddies. During which - Mitsubishi got a good look ( or copy of..) the blueprints of the Smart car. I used to love the Smart car - but it has never been the prettiest thing to look at. And once the US version arrived and boasted! a! stunning! 44mpg!(?) - the car lost its wonder to me. Now the Diesel version - that coulda' been a contentda' i tell ya.

Anyways - Mitsubishi reworked ( alot?) of what they were given ( or took...) and the outcome was the "i" car. Much more refined ( in my opinion) than the Smart and ALOT
more practical with a second set of doors.... it all played well with my small car fixation. Of course - the fact that the engine is in the rear - reminiscent of an old Volkswagen brings a flutter to my heart. It did not take long for the company to look at the platform for electric potential and
last year - an electric version wen on sale in Japan. Hence the iMiEV.

It looks like the car only has an 80 mile range - but that would easily get me back and forth to work each day. It will be interesting to see what it costs. With a commute of 25 miles one way-
a Chevrolet Volt could almost function for me as a pure electric car with none of the iMiEV;s shortcomings. Of course - the ( nessesary) design evolution of the Volt has resulted in a car that resembles a puffy Dodge Status.

Some links to test drives and write ups -

Edmunds write up

Top Gear write up

Some of the write ups include estimates to how much the car will cost - which
at this point I am inserting my fingers into my ears.

LALALALALALALALALALALALALA

2010-03-02T09:32:00.000-08:00

Today's Chillout

2010-02-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

Seeing how we are moving IN THREE DAYS - one would think I should be PACKING MY CRAP - but instead I am putting together some snaps shots of our holiday party from this past December. The party was great. My sister and I traded party help with each other - where I helped at her party and she came up with her friend Chris and helped with mine. A GODSEND! A wonderful time with friends and family all rolled up with lots of lights and cookies. Life is grand.

(Click on the pics to expand)

We did not get to capture everyone in the photos as some headed out before our great photographer Gerry started to work his wonder - but i think everyone had a good time.

More photos on my Flicker site here ==>

2010-01-09T07:14:00.001-08:00

DesignGeekHumor

Hot Design Otters singing about Fonts. Designers are just FUNNY. In an inside joke-you're-not-worthy way.

2009-12-29T19:20:00.000-08:00

The many faces of Christmas

Eric and i headed down to Owego on Saturday morning to continue the festivities with the Myers clan. Kristin hosted everyone for dinner and the stomach bug alert level kicked down to yellow thankfully after anna started feeling better.

The afternoon consisted of exhausted sport - inclined nephews, the first try of an experimental Hor' duerve "Grandma's Garlic Yum Yum" and much sugar-enhanced goofyness. Presents were unwrapped, beverages consumed and mash potatoes thoroughly ketchupped. Nephews cracked smiles and there was much rejoicing.

To finish the evening, the ladies did their best Isadora Duncan imitation.

2009-12-27T18:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

Eric and I both were awake pretty early. So much for a holiday and sleeping in. We entertained each other fairly well with our stocking contents.

The circus peanuts were not universally received.

2009-12-24T04:38:00.000-08:00

Its got to be the morning after...

Well, the annual holiday party was a bash. Despite the last minute stress bombs.

Eric and I were up early to start getting the house ready and we were moving at a fairly good clip until 9:30 am when eric turned on the vacuum cleaner. Half the house promptly lost electricity
and the breaker was not the problem.....

!!

SO - a phone call later and the landlord and his electrician were ovder around 11 and were here for 4.5 hours trying the find the problem. Eric and I told the landlord this was the same circuit we have been having problems with and since half the circuit was still on... there was a bad junction box somewhere. Hopefully not burning in a wall....
Meanwhile - they have tools all over the kitchen and I am tapping my foot to start cooking for the party........ My sister Kristin and her friend Chris arrive to help out and they finally clean up around 3:30 or 4:00 YIKES.
So at 3:30(?) the landlord locates the problem...... turns out it is a... junction box..... in the back stairwell.....

Annnnd off we go.....

The party was great. Especially with electricity. The extra help really was awesome. I got to spend actual minutes with all our guests. Our resident photographer was on hand to document the party. But here is the morning after...

2009-12-24T04:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays part 2

This years holiday card.

St. Eric - patron saint of abandoned disco balls

St. Tom - patron saint of old grumpy volkswagens

2009-12-24T04:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

This month has been a blur. Work strangely became nutty busy [ with a sprinkle of unreality thrown in ] and rather than just focus on getting ready for our party, I have been making messes around the house rather than cleaning them up. We have managed EVEN MORE Leds for the holidays - more pics later.. All fun.

2009-12-08T18:36:00.000-08:00

Success!

Now to find a suitable project box!

2009-12-07T14:34:00.000-08:00

Flux capacitor!

The holidays are coming and there is a zillion things to do - but instead I have made a mess of the dining room table with this. IT is a home electronics kit for a color organ. THose old 70's disco-y things that made light to the music? Eric and I have several off E bay and I bought this kit last year. So i finally dragged this back out to try and put together. Not finished yet - but it is fun to try and decipher the assembly diagram and put it together. Hopefully I will not burn down the house. Some examples on YouTube:

Hopefully Eric and I will make it up to this

2009-11-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

Pimpin' the Scion

Eric was looking for a new stereo for his car. His requirements did not intially seem that complex. - USB on front. iPod Support and color changing. The color changing part really put a spin on the search. Ended up finding a Pioneer AVH p3100 DVD. It looked really neat and also boasted a touch screen, video playback capability and lots of options to install later. The worst part of the install was realizing that I had been sent the wrong wiring harness [ only after I did an *Artisan* soldering job ] but the second time to anything always goes quickly.

Annnd the finished product - featuring our favorite - the Venture Brothers

2009-10-28T16:18:00.000-07:00

My sister dressed me as a butterfly

How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son

Strangely enough -I started hiding behind costumes by my own accord. Did the light up robot and then a ghost several years....

2009-10-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

The Nightmare comes to Life - an extended entry

I share a recurring nightmare with my siblings [ and others? ] It follows basically the same script everytime. I am in school. It is the end of the semester/quarter. I have not attended the important class. I do not have the book. I have not studied. I have not finished the paper. I will fail the final test. My entire life will be ruined.

Sometime the school changes - UB, RIT somewhere else. It is always a Math or English class.

I always wake up in terror and typically take 30 seconds to remind myself - School is over. You are done. You have a job now.

I believe The Dream remained with me for years after RIT due to my laggardly thesis progress.
Anyone nearby me from 1995 - 2006 knew how OnAgain Off Again I was with the thesis. My need for completion was even mentioned in my mother's Eulogy. It was like pulling teeth as I wrote it. It was so completely LeftBrained. My RightBrain screeched everytime I worked on it.

[ I believe it was a very good thesis however..]

But I took too long to complete it. RIT had some vague guideline about 7 years for completion and I ran through that in a blink of an eye. The last 4-5 years of work on it were painful. Mentally and financially. I was registering every quarter for a graduate credit ( $780!) and I figured that little fee in itself was created to act as a spur in my quarters. My thesis advisor and department chairman were very helpful and were still speaking to me. So I figured that my deadline flaunting was on the up and up. [ Though I still had much anxiety over it. ] $80000 for a graduate education and no paper to show for it - sorta rings like "You're a loser"

Hence the recurring nightmare...

I wanted to quit my job at Xerox at many points. However - I told myself I could not quit until thesis was done. Hence I ground my teeth at work at many points and watched friends hop between new jobs, seemly up a rung every time. So as the fall of 2006 wore on and the wiff of layoff was in the air, I raced to get my final chapters finished and reviewed.

And very proudly handed in my final copy on Monday December 12th at 5:30pm

And on Tuesday December 13th at 8:30am - I was layed off. Bastards!

Final signatures were given in 2007 and I was told I was "all set" as I walked off into the sunset.
Done. Done. Done.

Fast forward to last month. I have been contract at WelchAllyn for a year now and the company was starting the process of making me a full time employee. WelchAllyn is a smaller company and I have been told directly that it is rare for them create new positions and new job descriptions. The fact that within 1 year, I, along with my fellow Ux contractors has managed to
introduce the company to the value of User Experience and now the company was creating new positions for the field - this was considered extrodinary

The Human resources person calls me in on a Monday [?] last month to let me know -

there's a problem.....

Don't you love that? That little phrase can strike terror in anyone. SO - I am told that my graduate school has reported that I am not on record as graduating.

And the Nightmare comes to life as a 80ft mental Tsunami sitting in a chair in the HR office.

Four phone calls later - and it is revealed that I never obtained a formal extension of thesis

Eh...what? So in 2007 a note was placed in my file and sent to my department chair regarding the missing extension and.......there it sat. Meanwhile my thesis was bound and sat happily in the library. And did I mention that the department chair in question had now left RIT and was in Utah not returning my email....

NO degree and a job offer hanging in the balance... talk about a need to vomit.

Four weeks worth of stress spinning in my head of someone new at RIT looking at my extended timeframe and Freaking out and what to do if they won't give me my degree....

The staff at RIT has been very helpful and I have been informed that the dean of graduate studies has signed off my extension and that my application for graduation has been approved and is being sent to the Registrar this week. Of course - I will never believe it until that stupid piece of paper is on my wall.. With a spot light on it.

Maybe this is last of that nightmare?

2009-10-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

Chillin' in NYC

Headed to NYC this weekend. Eric landed tickets for the big KISS concert at Madison Square garden. So we spend some time poking around the city with our friend Eli. Eric loved the concert and has several interesting videos from the concert. The band and the music were not my style - but it was still fun going to the concert and the city for the weekend. We headed out early sunday and managed to catch my cousin finishing the Steamtown marthon in Scranton PA. We met up with my sisters and then headed over to see our Aunt Catherine. Definitely a triple word score weekend.

2009-10-12T17:12:00.000-07:00

Lackawanna Railroad station

Of course! More poking around old railroad stations. Our friend Eli took us down the Christopher street piers in NYC on Saturday. While there - I spotted across the river the words L A C K A W A N N A. Recalling conversations with dad about his memories of the train from Scranton to NYC - I was intrigued. So ELi mentioned it was a PATH station now - so we hopped the train and took it one stop across the river and TA DA. Eric and Eli indulged me with poking around the old station. Some of it restored, some of it - not. Always makes me sad.

More information about the terminal:

Wikipedia

American Rails

2009-10-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

Das is Cobbler

The Prato family came down in mid September for the Jones Pond Friends and Family weekend. Aside from some chilly weather, there was much golf cart driving lessons and the saturday night potluck. We made our annual cooking show video to show our popular BlueCherry Cobbler in the making.

2009-08-28T07:36:00.001-07:00

Out for a ride

Thursday morning, the Felice's headed out to do some sneaker shopping while Pop and Cathy headed to the local airport to pickup the brother in law pilot. We had spotted some rather nifty looking pedal bikes earlier down at the beach, so Thomas, Elizabeth and I were dropped off at the bike shop to give one a spin after lunch.

While the bike did LOOK fun, after actually getting on one, you realize that they are made of cast iron and the entertainment of pedaling one wears out in about...hmmm.. 30 yards. So the entertainment factor was short. But we did catch it on camera.

2009-08-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Rehoboth continued

Wednesday night included a stop at the local Tiki inspired mini golf. And there were straws hats for the borrowing. And there was much rejoicing.

2009-08-26T18:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Rehoboth

We arrived Monday evening after our fun ferry trek. We have rented a house from my friend Nicholas - who has been a great host for us. Joe will be arriving tomorrow morning sometime and Eric is driving down late thursday evening after work.
Aside from Michigan poker, Arthur has been taking some spins at the Lego aircraft assembly line alongside the nephews. As for me - well...
As always, the workload at the job has hit a pinch just in time for vacation - so i am actually working while we are down there. I have had several phone meetings so far that involve me walking down a street with phone in one hand and waving the other arm wildly - all in a very public way. At least people seem to be getting out of my way.

2009-08-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

On to Rehoboth

Leaving Owego early on Monday - the Prato's, Pop & I headed down to New Jersey to meet up with the Felice's and pay a visit to the New Jersey Myers clan and our Aunt Esther. Route 81 was under lots of construction, so we took some back roads down to Clark Summit and proceeded down to New Jersey.

Our cousin's Cindy and Joe met us at our Aunt's hospice along with Cindy's kids Shavonne and Cj. Our cousin Steven also stopped in later as well. A very nice visit, it was good to see our Aunt Esther ( my godmother btw!) Heading out of Howell, we booked down the Garden state parkway, we headed to Cape May to make our 6:oo Ferry. The ferry was a good source of amusement, before and during.

The sea became a bit choppy - but we fixed that with additional beer.

2009-08-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

Pimp My Golf Cart

I am starting a new sitcom! Did you know? It is gonna be great. I am trying to think of names right now...

That Gay Golf cart...

Homo Over-Haulin'

Queer eye for the ... eh never mind.... you get the point. This all started this summer at our site at Jones Pond campground. The place is rather big and hilly - and many campers have picked up golf carts to bop around. GayEvolution naturally kicks in and the carts have gotten much more upscale this season, with some campers laying out some very large bucks ($6000+ ?) for the most fabulous of rides. Eric, Jeff and I talked about picking up an old one and I considered it another creative target. All of this was on the back burner until 2 events.. Jeff found a cart for $400 and in the most egregious of events...

A bigger than life drag Queen /friend pulled up to our site July 4th to pay her due respects for the progress on our site - only to wind up taunting me with her fabulous $$$$ golf cart complete with many color changing light options. In the most evil of Drag Queen laughs - she said we could never hope to compete with her....

Oh - that Bitch pushed a button alright. And she knew it.

So what she did with $ - we will do with ~Spiteful Creativity~.

Phase one was completed this weekend. The fabulous Sassy Green Pearl paint did not come out so fabulous - but still very striking. Additional lighting, roof assembly and more dash lighting are all coming in the next month. Stay tuned....for now - some before and after pics....

Masking and primer

The first problem was the metallic paint. It really needs to be put on with a air gun. The spray cans really could not do the job. The other problem was that I really never checked what color primer I should use. So naturally - I picked white to help with the brightness.

OH IT HELPED ALRIGHT.

The paint came out practically neon bright ... but we still liked it.

Eric and I spotted this fake diamond plate at the store and thought it would make for some great trimming.

Lights and trim

Phase One finished

2009-08-04T18:54:00.001-07:00

Cedar Point

Eric and I trekked out to Cedar Point this past weekend for Eric's birthday.

Cedar Point also had a light show this summer over by Frontierland. At first, i dismissed it as just a lot of LED Christmas lights, but it was actually pretty neat underneath them all.

A very nice weekend. We managed to hop on the Maverick, Gemini, Millennium Force and Magnum [ my favorite ]

For me - the scariest part of these rides is the ride up. Once i get slowly up several hundred feet - I start looking off to the sides and begin the math on this Skinny tOtTeRy 7 foot wide structure and Metal fatigue. From there - the descent is a relief. Check out the Magnum Video below at the :52 second mark. YIKES.

Other videos on YouTube of our rides

Millenium Force

Maverick

Magnum

Gemini

And of course -

The Blue Streak

The oldest at Cedar Point. And yet- an interesting lesson - when we rode this "old slow" coaster - i left my camera in my shirt pocket without much thought. Yet on the first drop - the camera floated right out of my pocket and I spent the entire ride with one hand keeping it in the pocket. It made me wonder about people bringing cameras on all these other coasters. Yikes.

In years past, we have always managed to time our trip with when the park is NOT full - but this year - it was a typical[?] summer weekend - and the lines were long for a lot of rides. We did manage to hit the Hibachi restaurant in our hotel YUM

2009-07-29T20:00:00.001-07:00

Post Office Treat

Had to drop off a package at the Post Office today [ Yes Brian! I actually mailed your sandals back...] There are certain places visited on occasion that I always can be assured of a wondrous pageant of humanity and the post office is in the top 10 (?)

Others I can think of of the top of my head....

Department of Motor Vehicles!

Any Scratch Off or Lotto vendor with a roof, doors and chips.

Any Fast food within City limits

Dollar Store or Tree

and Walmart of course.

So - today - as I am in line at the Post Office - ahead of me is a woman casually dressed mailing a package. She is also wearing a full industrial respirator. ( Not around her neck either....) She was in full Darth Vader mode.

At first it was puzzling watching her try to talk to the clerk...

" You want that priority mail mam?'

" Mmmhgn mghdd mm meh muh "

I do not speak Respirator myself - but luckily the postal employee was Bilingual and the transaction was fairly seamless. My first thought was the lady was some kind of Germophobe nut job. But then my next thought is ... maybe this lady is Ms. Turbiculosis 2009?

I made a beeline for the other clerk - so I am sure that will keep me safe from the Ebola or whatever...

So upon exit, I walk past a man in the building leaning over in a telephone call. I did a shocked double take and noticed the mans pants were obviously functioning as a hammock for his ass. This was no Plumber's crack folks. This was hairy nutsville.

The guy was pushing 6"3 - so I resisted the temptation to toss in a quarter and make a wish.

He probably would not have noticed anyhow....

I am thinking I should start some kind of YouTube group. Then everyone could enjoy the show from the comfort and safety of their suburban home.

Time for bed

2009-07-23T19:05:00.001-07:00

Thank God!

FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

2009-07-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Tornado 1 Train 0

Saw this on Gizmodo. Yikes

Of course - then i spend 2 hours watching tornado videos on YouTube. So much for doing any laundry. It is a wonder I manage to feed myself.**

**Mr. Eric would chime in here than if he did not do the grocery shopping, I would probably starve.

I remember as kid - they told us in school that upstate NY could not have Tornados because it was too hilly. Another one of those precious nuggets of baloney.

2009-06-04T17:39:00.000-07:00

GayStreams!

My Friend Cristian had told me he was interested in coming up to visit the our campground after hearing about all the construction follies from last summer. Right after getting back from NYC, I found out the campground was hosting an Airstream Rally at the end of the month so it seemed like a perfect time for a campout. Cristian pulled in on Friday afternoon and as it so happened - there was a single spot in the Airstream row left for him to pull up his 1970 Airstream and join the fun. The Gay Airstream clan quickly too a ~shine~ to my straight friend on a novel visit to the campground and welcomed us to happy hour! Saturday was a trailer open house for everyone to check out the Silver wonders and Cristian stepped up to the plate in style with his camper dutifully decked out in Tiki and vintage memorabilia.

The owners of the campground Steve and Doug also happen to collect Vintage Trailers among their many other pursuits and had all three on tour including a vintage Argessy and a Beautiful sister trailer to Lucy and Desi's in the famous movie "The Long Long Trailer"

Besides the tours, the weekend included more deck construction, a BBQ with the new Grill and a nighttime Bocce game! More pictures, including the trailer tours at my Flickr Site ==>

2009-06-03T18:28:00.000-07:00

We are Jones Cousins

.. I really cannot recall the last time we all traveled together. Always seems like somebody's got somethin' else goin' as some would say.

The Jones tribe made most excellent hosts as always as we took the time to tour around Phoenix before our cousin's Mary's wedding. Besides the Botanical Garden, we hit up IKEA and a Bead store along with the standard set of Jones parties and all the requisite merriment. Our Arizona and California cousins are fully equiped for silliness and revelry.. so when we are all together...it is critical mass time.

We finally had an opportunity for a family portrait. I love the picture - yet find it a bittersweet reminder we are supposed to be a tribe of six.

Wherever Mom is now - I know we gave her a couple of good laughs over the weekend. - Tom

2009-06-01T17:12:00.000-07:00

Time for a little Chihuly

We stopped by the Phoenix Botanical Garden while we were in town to check out the desert flora and the Dale Chihuly Exhibit. Simply stunning. My brother Jim correctly noted how the artist was capturing within the glass the intensity and contrast of the desert flowers against the rather bleak desert landscape. More pics on my Flickr Site -->

2009-05-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Daytrip to Prescott

While in Phoenix visiting my friend Alex and his boyfriend Steve, We took a day trip up to Prescott to walk around. Very nice little town. Many good antique junk stores.

2009-05-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

NYC2009

Another fun weekend in New York with friends for the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. I drove in Saturday morning and went on a hunt to find a flea market i had previously visited but struck out. Apparently the 25th street flea market is not the one i remember. I also struck out finding Irreplaceable Artifacts in the Bowery as well - but I did manage to find Olde Good Things on 24th. A great place and they have a bigger place in Scranton PA! This year we stayed at the Hotel Chelsea. An interesting place - part funky Art hotel, part gritty youth hostel. We hit up Trailer Park on Saturday right next to our hotel before heading downtown. We hit a few good parties at BlueDot and Design Within Reach before grabbing dinner at the NotsoSpectacular Chinese Restaurant.

Sunday we headed to ICFF. A good show this year - lots of good fireplaces. Sunday night was the closing party at the 414 gallery in the Meatpacking District. Our friend Matthew Weatherly has several pieces at the show. A fun party and they even served SnowCones! Yummy! After the show we walked to a nearby restaurant and met up with my friend Colleen and her husband. A very fun night.

p.s. - i was lazy with my camera - so i borrowed many of the pics from my friend Cristian. When Cristian is not playing photographer - he is a busy and soon to be Famous Furniture Designer.

2009-04-24T19:22:00.001-07:00

Happy Holidays!

Just finished uploading all[?] of the photos from our party last December. Our friend Gerry Szymanski, proprietor of Cyanotype Photograpy took all the great photos. You can see the batch on my Christmas Photoset on Flickr. But here are a few collages to click on. A very fun night.

2009-04-23T15:46:00.001-07:00

Family Communion

Jim and Grace had everyone over today to celebrate Grace's first communion. Jim was snapping away with his Nikon - so i am sure he will have much better pics.

This was **supposed** to be our "Arthur between the Doubting Thomas's" - however one Thomas was not so doubting....

2009-04-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

Time for Brunch

Eric and I got together with friends this morning for some fabulous brunch downtown. Zahra and Jennie took us to Simply Crepes at the Downtown Rochester Public Library. Brunch was not just simply crepes, but it was definitely Yum Yum. We arrived right as they opened and enjoyed a nice quiet brunch in the new section of the library. I ended my brunch with a dandy Creme Brulee Oatmeal cup. So good i almost forgot to use a utensil.

2009-04-13T18:04:00.000-07:00

Easter Glass Work

We took some time during the easter weekend to work on a window. I told Kristin it is not a good project unless you bleed, so Kristin happily obliged.

2009-03-25T09:48:00.001-07:00

(Notso) Best Toy I never got

Ok - Saw this on line today. sCaRy! What was it last year with the Chinese toy Aqua Dots that had elements of the Date Rape drug in the plastic? Geeesh.... beginners.

Contents below!

The set came with four types of uranium ore, a beta-alpha source (Pb-210), a pure beta source (Ru-106), a gamma source (Zn-65?), a spinthariscope, a cloud chamber with its own short-lived alpha source (Po-210), an electroscope, a geiger counter, a manual, a comic book (Dagwood Splits the Atom) and a government manual "Prospecting for Uranium."

2009-03-21T05:57:00.000-07:00

Time for a little reflection

Eric and i stopped over to see Jimmy and Grace last night. To commemorate his new kitchen - some new IKEA Medjal Cookpots were just the trick

2009-03-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

People you meet on the train/ plane.

As I mentioned in an earlier post - Eric and I made fast friends with our neighbor on our flight from Chicago. Cindy and I spent alot of time looking at her photos of Mexico. Very neat. Eric
made friends with the plane staff and managed to extract $60 worth of wine from the airline and was in a good and loud mood. He entertained Cindy quite a bit [ along with people around us]
The subject of Facebook came up and we discussed with Cindy about exchanging emails. After our plane landed, we walked with Cindy and helped with her camera bag until we found her family in baggage claim. Our friend Lynn soon found us and soon we were all talking with each other. After some hugs, we wished Cindy and her family off and we headed to Venice.

I had to laugh Friday after our return. The New York Times had a traveling article about riding on the long distance Amtrak trains. The author's experience completely mirrored our own. I will be the first to admit that in certain settings - I go into antisocial mode and really do not care to speak with anyone. i expected the train trip to be one of these times, where it would really be just Eric and I and the rest of the train could for all means, be empty so far as I was concerned. BUT IT WAS NOT MEANT TO BE.

Amtrak (1) Tom (0)

Amtrak touts the train trips as a social experience and they are right. “There Are No Strangers on a Train.” One way the train facilitates this with group dining. You are seated in groups of 4 - so naturally Eric and I were eating meals with new people 3 times a day.

I was not looking forward to this actually.

My experience has been one of initial greetings and then people across the table start doing the math on Eric and I and then get all rigid and stiff lipped. Not that i really care what anyone thinks, but it gets really tiring.

Our first dinner sorta followed the script. We sat with a couple from Fullerton who were very nice. They were on the way to Colorado Springs. The gentleman's father had just passed away and they were going to the funeral. The man spoke about how much he liked train travel but I really did not feel like they had much to say to us and I kept my best to keep the conversation going. The whole .. ask nice questions and do not expect any reciprocal interest in return game. Which was basically most of the dinner. Finally I inquired about the man's line of work and he replied he was a traveling salesman for a musical instrument distributor. From there the conversation picked up a bit and Eric and he discussed types of drums and symbols. The man was clearly impressed with Eric's knowledge and started to loosen up a bit. So the dinner ended up on a slight upshot.

[insert whimpy rant here ]

It would good to reflect on the dinner as a positive [ which it was ] but again - I do not have the energy any longer to help strangers with their Gay comfort level. I realize it is good to alter people's impressions and stereotypes - but it is like a tax burden straight people never have to deal with.

I should not complain. At my last job over the course of my first five years, barriers were knocked down and even the most conservative of my coworkers managed to set most of their bias aside and admit that they respected my work and actually liked me. But all that extra barrier breaking charm routine - takes a lot of energy and effort.

Things are much better these days I freely volunteer. But still.... 3 weeks ago in a lunch meeting at my new job, my inquisitive boss managed to ask out loud in front of everyone "so you are going with your girlfriend?" [on the trip] and I promptly put him off his track telling him that I was going with my partner Eric.

[ the whole rest of the room already knew ] but somehow the room got quiet as i replied.

So you can understand the antisocial mode sometimes. Which made the rest of our trip on the train a bit of a surprise. Our next morning breakfast we sat with a couple told us all about their anniversary trip and as it turns out - they lived in a town next to my hometown. and they knew my brother-in-law's nephew. Small world. It was really interesting.

After lunch, I spent 35 minutes in the lounge talking to 2 Amish famers about green technology and politics. [ seriously] The next day[?] in the lounge while I Photoshopped, an Amish group started singing for 35 minutes[?]. Eric did not quite care for it. I thought it was interesting. Though Eric's recording of it on his cellphone - does sound rather creepy.

Of course our dinner that night took the cake. We sat with an older couple on their way back from Albuquerque. They went for a visit and during the visit - they decided to move to the area and managed to buy a house! They were on their way back home to pack their stuff. These folks were definitely on their own reality plane, but it was a really good one. They also kept asking Eric and I if we were actors. And told us we looked liked actors. We tried to pop that bubble - but that did not happen. Mrs. went on to tell us later she would look for us in the movies but she figured we might change our names because movie stars do that.

I really want whatever cough syrup this lady was drinking. OF course - during the dinner conversation, we asked about their line of work and [ ta da] does the man tell us he is

an Elvis impersonator.

....and after spending 30 minutes with them, Eric and i did not even skip a beat. He even said he did Roy Orbson. Which I could totally believe. He even pulled out pictures for us.

You cannot for pay for this kinda of alter reality. Their sense of optimism was wonderful. It must have been through the train. Earlier that day Eric and I were in the lounge listening to a man tell the steward that he was moving his family to Phoenix and he just got a new job as a forklift operator at $16 a hour. He was very enthusiastic.

Then he mentioned that he has 11 children.

It must have been in the train tap water or something. I shoulda drank more of it.

At the end of our trip, we spotted our friends at the platform and exchanged hugs and wished them the best in New Mexico. Mrs. by now was referring to me as Tommy and told us that they would be looking for us [ in the movies?]

So despite my ranting, i think the train shaved off a layer or two of my antisocial jade. And still makes me smile.

2009-03-08T10:47:00.000-07:00

Left turn at Albuquerque

Our train had a 2 hour stop in Albuquerque along the way. So Eric and I hopped off the train and took a walk downtown to take a look around.

2009-03-08T10:38:00.001-07:00

All Aboard!

The Southwest Chief pulled out of LA at sunset and Eric and I settled in to our room before dinner. The first class rooms are very nice and probably the only way either of us could manage to spend 41[?] hours on a train. The room has a large picture window to watch the scenery change along with 2 bunks and a private bathroom. If the room gets boring, the observation car and lounge are open pretty much the whole time. Sleeping car passengers get a attendant service - so we were allowed to pick all our meal times.

2009-03-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the Train

Eric and I got the station early before our departure and I took some time to snap a few pics of the station and one of the trains. Beautiful place. Reminds me that there was a time when train travel was much more prominent transportation and hopefully will be again someday.

This is the old main concourse inside the station. Current people traffic in the station apparently does not merit its use, so it is blocked off. Hopefully one day that will change.

2009-03-08T09:28:00.000-07:00

Last of LA

Some snips of Venice and some shopping outside of Union Station before our departure from Los Angeles.

Before we left Venice, Lynn and Robert took us to a local design furnishings showroom to check out a store I liked called Twenty Gauge. They refinish old steel furniture with a modern twist. Love their stuff. I hope to take an old steel tanker desk and make it a bathroom vanity at some point. The showroom had some other cool idea as well - including this old scoreboard as a wall hanging. COOL!

We also stopped at a street vendor outside the trains station to pick up a blanket for the train trip. I had many naps planned.

2009-03-08T09:03:00.000-07:00

Bleu the Wonder dog

We met Bleu on our last day in Palm Springs. I think he is an ambassador for the Orbit Inn where we were staying. A beautiful dog, very attentive in his duties at the inn. He gave everyone an initial nice greeting and welcome and then quickly resumed his focus on his ball or orange. His owner reported that Bleu likes swimming in the pool but is not really allowed to do so at the Inn. It was clear that Blue was looking for an excuse to swim but mindful that he was told not to. So... to our surprise... when Bleu was invited to take a step out on a floaty, he did so with remarkable skill. What appeared to be a momentary exercise before the dog took the plunge..turned into a 12[?] minute long display of canine dexterity and focus on retrieval of the toy of the moment - an orange. Bleu never did take a swim...but impressed us all with a great walk on the water.

2009-03-08T08:24:00.000-07:00

A Trip to the Salton Sea

I read last year a bit about the Salton Sea in California. A strange story of a large lake created by a dike failure in 1905. ... with a 356 sq mile lake as a result.. It became a tourist destination and development area at one point. [ 1940's?] The lake itself is slowly dying now and much of the development is abandoned[?] leaving strange apocalyptic sites to explore. We headed down Sunday morning to look around and came across this former public beach/playground and a former beach side resort. Strange eerie place. I felt like i was in a scene from planet of the apes.

2009-03-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

Palm Springs 2009

We took off to Palm springs around 11:30 and arrived at the Orbit Inn
before any other guests. A GREAT PLACE. It took Eric and I maybe four minutes to decide we loved the place and want to go back. A modernist 50's style place, all restored and furnished in jet set 50's furnishings by famous designers. I can see why our friends Cristian and Patricia love the place so much.

The party was a surprise, so after several other of the guests arrived early, we started plotting the best way to surprise our friend Cristian. I have an iMovie to work on for that. Palm Springs was a great place all around. i always have heard much about it, but this was our first visit. Eric and I started thinking about our future telecommuting jobs and retirement plans along with looking at real estate listings. [ This is a great time to invest......]

More shots of Palm Springs

Of course.... i think housing in Syracuse should probably be our priority.

We were in Palm Springs for Cristian's 40th birthday party along with a group of his friends and family that I had always heard about but never met. It was alot of fun to meet everyone and doing another round of "What were they thinking?"

2009-03-05T16:37:00.001-08:00

Welcome to LA 2009

Eric and arrived in LA Thursday around 5 after a long flight. US Airways managed to make the first part of our trip somewhat interesting. I initially choose seats when i made the reservations a couple of months back. I picked the seats behind a bulkhead to give us some extra leg room but the airline had other ideas. The day before our departure, i logged on to find that USAirways had strangely forgotten about my seat selections and instead had Eric and i seated at opposite ends of the plane. BUT ALL WAS NOT LOST - the airline had a new feature! Whereas I could chose from the remaining seats and pay an extra charge for what was free months before. So I bought the Schnooker - and plucked down $30 bucks extra. On our departure from Chicago - it turns out the airline sold us a seat already occupied...... SO after a couple of dirty looks at the steward, we were offered free drinks for the flight and we moved over to make room for our new friend Cindy. We actually had a very fun time on the flight discussing Photoshop and looking at Cindy's photo collections from Mexico. Eric entertained the immediate vicinity of the airplane after 5 wines and took to using his outdoor voice quite a bit. Meeting Cindy proved to be a foreshadow of the new people we met along our trip.

Lynn and her boyfriend Robert took us to a 50's style cafe the next morning before our departure to Palm Springs. We started the "what were they thinking" photo game.

2009-02-21T11:02:00.000-08:00

Reunited.

Last week I blogged regarding a lost song from childhood, convinced that due to obscurity - it was lost forever. BUT NOT TRUE. I often forget that this blog can, and is read on occasion by a unknown visitors from cyberspace. Apparently, while doing a lyric search, my new dear friend Jo - stumbled across my blog and the small snippet of lyrics i had typed from my distant memory...

And what-do-you-know - JO correctly identified this missing song and provided a link for me to purchase it on iTunes! It now happily sits in my collection and I have forwarded it to family members to share in the reunion joy. Eric quickly found a rather colorful gentleman from Ontario - who is also a fan of the song and decided to prove it on YouTube.

Enjoy! I am and so is this guy.

2009-02-05T15:26:00.001-08:00

Best toy I never got

OK - I REALLY wanted one of these baby's! Some may think that my yearn for a girl's toy at such an early age was some kind of sign. They would be wrong.

My keen interest in this toy was centered squarely on the concept of Food Production.

I was a hungry kid - and just the idea of making cake in my bedroom without the need [ or permission] of a parental unit was an Amazing concept.

Never got the Easy-Bake. But by 7th grade i had moved into the REAL KITCHEN. Mom did not seem to mind me pulling out her old Betty Crocker cookbook and making ALOT of cake.
I just had to have it all cleaned up before dinner time. I did not waste my time with anything savory. Just cake. and cookies. and pasteries. And alot of red food dye.

The Cake Baking phase died out thankfully - but I still have an embedded love for Kitchens.

2009-02-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

Best toy ever

I had a Close and Play just about the time this commercial came out. I am not sure if I asked for it or not - but it was love all the same. If you see in the video - the white knob on the front - that's a volume knob. If you wanted extra volume - i think turning the knob drove the needle down harder on the record. Cleaver idea. A couple of plays with extra volume and voila! - you get a box full of black shavings! cool!

I had a very special source for records. The Dry cleaning man. Yes - back in 1972[?] the Dry cleaning man [ along with the milk man..] delivered right to your house. And the dry cleaning man also brought old promo records from the AM radio station in town. WEBO! So I had a special psychedelic colored record box full of records of songs nobody wanted to hear.

I had one favorite record. "You keep me hangin' on" - you've heard it before?

No you haven't.

Despite the title similar to a Supreme's[?] song - this one was completely different.

"You keep me hangin' on...

You keep my love so strong..

You keep me

hangin'

hangin'

hangin'

You keep my love SO strong......"

The record got some major airplay in the house over the years. It became even MORE entertaining when Kristin and I figured out that if you put my electric record player on the Neutral setting - you could play the record at whatever speed your finger could spin the record. If you swung around the play arm - you could play it backwards.

That's right! Al Gore may have invented the InterWeb,

but I invented record Scatchin'!

It always turned into one of those events where an 8 and 7 year old are laughing so hard - their tummies hurt big time. And Mom would yell from the kitchen to STOP WHATEVER WE ARE DOING because it is sure to be BAD if we are laughing that hard.

I have searched for the record - but alas - it was a promo.

A promo that never saw a dime -0

So I think all 43 copies of the record are resting in landfills now. Sigh.

UPDATE!!

While I have never been on to rely on the kindness of [ internet] strangers, a visotr to my blog this week - Jo - correctly identified my long lost song!

2009-02-03T07:53:00.000-08:00

Snuggy!

I knew this was coming. Eric and I mock this every time we see it. Eric is threatening to buy a couple as Xmas gifts next year. I have an even better idea for next year - but I am keeping it under my hat.... for now. Sorry for the off color language - but it's funny and true.

2009-02-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

Ooops.

Everyone has "moments of brilliance" I have them weekly. Like the time I nearly tipped my Volkswagen Rabbit over on myself. Luckily there were no video cameras around.

2009-01-26T16:48:00.000-08:00

Detroit Auto Show 2009

We were speculating exactly what to expect out for the auto show this year. With the credit woes and the domestic auto makers on life support. No bling, no goodies, etc. As we thought - the show was quite pared down. Nissan and several other companies backed out and the last moment as well, opening up alot of space on the main floor.

Several Chinese manufacturers moved up to the big time with the vacancy, showing off their Chinese market models. BYD ( Build Your Dreams) and Brilliance Auto stepped up to the plate somewhat hastily and showed off several of their domestic models. Brilliance Auto bought defunct Rover a while back and basically carted the entire factories and machines back to China from their English homeland. A quick restart and rebadge and Viola! Brilliance Auto has a whole model line up. Both companies will need to do ALOT more homework before they are US bound.

BYD showed off a Electric Gas hybrid that supposedly will beat the Chevy Volt to the punch. I do not think anyone was taking the car seriously. It would not be the first time an automaker has overstated a claim at the autoshow. [ More later...] BYD took the effort to produce a flashy video playing on large Screens. A bizarre little number. All narrated in perfect English..... yet complete jibberish. I could not understand how anyone who could speak English that well could speak complete nonsense.

A friend pointed out that they probably used a slick computer translator - then the EngGrish all made sense. "Powerful standing, technology so high, your way this car!" It was funny actually. Somebody should have done them a favor and yanked the plug on the TV.

There were some good cars to see however. Last year I fell in love with the Cadillac CTS coupe, GM followed up this year with the Converj Concept. The idea was to take the rather expensive Chey volt chassis and put it on something GM can actually sell fo some $$. A nice concept with the passing look of an exotic. Hopefully they will make it.

Audi definitely took the show this year with their sportback concept. I think you are looking at their next A7 or A8. Beautifully done. The rear end of the car is HOT! Sorta like an old Opel manta?

VW debuted their BlueSport, A mid-engine 2 seater featuring a high output diesel in the back. The concept has the hottest dash buttons I have seen. I did not get pics, but the buttons make me want the car.. totally.

Some other concepts including one from Lincoln, Volvo and Huyndai

Biggest Bull of the year

I think Chrysler takes the cake this year for portraying fiction as fact. Last year I complained that their electric concepts were completely not serious and strictly plastic, foam and lip service. But what a whole year can do! Now that the company is on death row and seriously in risk of implosion, NOW they think EV's are the real deal. So while Gm is spending a few Bizillion making a special platform for their 40 mile electric-only hybrid and in danger of tripping over the challenges posed by the task... Chysler this year announced that they are also coming out with some hybrids and they are really really serious about Electric vehicles. So apparently all it takes is a bit of paint and slapping an electric motor in a couple of your existing vehicles and there you have it! Easy! They are claiming the same performance numbers as GM as well. I read somewhere this whole newfound EV nuttiness is all for the consumption of potential buyers for the company. All crap.

More pics on Flickr

2009-01-09T06:51:00.000-08:00

Yu go HOME Yu too FAT

how to say "You ate WAY too much for the holidays and your ass is hu-UUUGE" in Japanese. Fun!

2009-01-05T07:12:00.001-08:00

I need this

Just sending a note to friends at Whirlpool now.

2008-12-31T07:47:00.000-08:00

I Like Candy

Our friends Kara and Mitch lefts us a goodie duffle after our party. Who knew they made such big bags of Swedish fish? The problem with me [ most Americans??] is I consider the quantity presented to be a single serving....... Like the Pringle cans that contain 10[?] servings.

Yeah right....

5 oz or 5lbs - a half finished bag of candy anything represents a rip in the very fabric of Space Time and it seems like it is always my job to fix it.

Thankfully for my pancreas, i shipped off the Swedish fish bag with my sister and father for their trip to Florida. That left just the gummy starburst bag to take care of. And i did.

Reality as we know it is safe again.

2008-12-21T11:36:00.000-08:00

Tis the season

Got the tree up last week -but did not get to post pics.

2008-12-21T06:49:00.000-08:00

Morning After

Well..... it's 9:30 in the morning. Our last guest left last night around 1:00am. I put out all the glassware before the party last night [ which exceeded the # of guests by 50%] and yet somehow- every piece is in need of a wash.....

It's looking pretty crappy outside ... so Eric and I contemplating going back to bed. Maybe the magic party pixies will show up and clean the whole house. [ it could happen..... ]

Fun night however. Got the chance to talk [ briefly] with lots of our friends. Hopefully more pics soon....