Halloween

Hey, enjoy Halloween.

It is your big chance to dress up as a slutty version of something.
Slutty socialist.
Naughty nun.
Vampish vampire.
Trampy tiger.
Trashy terrorist.
So on and so forth.
Any idea you can think of, but the whore version of it.


Get yourself tarted up and go ask for candy or booze from strangers, alright.



Ghost Town, by The Specials should help get you in the mood...

King Kenny

Head Down

Sideways

Christmas is coming...

...and if you are not quite sure what to get me - well, head on over to that auction site and throw some cash at this.






















I need a Corvette drag-car project like nobody's business.
Of course I do, you know it.
You also know how much it would mean to me, if you got it for me as a present.















These sort of things don't just grow on trees. Especially the real deal thing, with actual racing history.






If it doesn't seem like enough, we'll sort out some special order from Keith Black, to complete the package.
But really, just this little Corvette would be enough.




I know you love me...



Hurry, only four days left.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/The-Halfbreed-62-Corvette-Gasser_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trkparmsZ72Q3a1417Q7c66Q3a2Q7c65Q3a12Q7c39Q3a1Q7c240Q3a1318QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem160294895342QQitemZ160294895342

Foot Down

Competition

There is nothing like some competition to keep you motivated.


I recently attended a conference for folks who aspire to take over the world.
Boy, let me tell you, there are some crazy people out there - who want to take over the world.
I am talking bat-shit loons, here.
Really crazy.

But, as with any conference of this type, there are some interesting forums and you get to do some networking. It's a chance to talk with people who have similar interests, such as taking over the world.


I won't bore you with any of the real conference stuff. It was a lot of Powerpoint presentations and what not.

I thought I would post up a pic, sent by one of the fellows I met at the conference - General X.
Yeah, I know, General X is a pretty silly name. Like I said, there are some crazy people who want to take over the world.

General X is building an army of these fire spitting robot spiders. This is a half-scale mock up, but you can see the potential.
He is using Twitter as a targeting and cotrol interface, which I found pretty clever.


Anyway, it is a great motivator to get on with my plans.

These baboonbots aren't gonna make themselves, you know.

I did contract the folks who made that neat robotic snake I posted a few months back. And I am trying to get in touch with those German doctors who did the double arm transplant, for some consultation. Those folks together with my clear-headed vision of tissue+mechanized baboon based warriors will start coming together.

The Framis Reactor is still in it's shake down phase and only running at about one quarter capacity. Plenty of power for the lab to operate on.
We'll get some stuff going, don't worry.


I don't want the planet to be ruled by some nutter psuedo-general with a flaming spiderbots...

Hot Shoe Week!

A trip around the dirt circle this week...

Baconnaise

How could it not be great?

It's bacon flavored mayonaise...

If there are two things this nation needs, I would say it would be more bacon and more mayo.
Applied to nearly every dining situation.
More bacon.
More mayo.


Thank Christ somebody has finally taken the time to develop a bacon/mayo product for me to smear on crackers, add to sandwiches and just straight chug.

It is about f'ing time.



Now if we can just develop a healthcare plan for all of the folks who will actually ingest this shit, I will be happy.

Coolest Moped Ever?

Hey! What a cool moped!



Yeah, I never imagined I would say that either...


Cool and moped go together potato chips and peanut butter.

I have developed a distaste for mopeds due to the contingent of SF hipsters who have taken to "modifying" their mopeds, to make them racy and cool.
They fail miserably, the hipsters.


Yet, here is a cool moped.

Perhaps I should hate the hipsters and not the moped.
Perhaps they should make more mopeds that look like this.

Back to Me

The Dutchess and the Duke


They have an album out, you should give it a listen.

Desert Sled

It seems like there should be old dirt bikes leaned against garage walls, all over California.

I rarely see any.

Once and a while I'll hear about one somebody saw, somewhere. Usually at the other end of the state.

So, if you've got one that you have got to get out of the way - I'll take it.

I feel

kind of like this, today.

Phil Collins

Yesterday, a Phil Collins song sent me rambling about how I could really get into Phil Collins if I was wearing a white suit and driving around in a convertible Ferrari.
Nobody was really listening to me babble on about Phil Collins, Tom Wolfe costumes or expensive Italian automobiles, but that never stops me from talking.
Most of my conversational energy is solely for my own enjoyment.
I amuse myself.
Audience participation is not required.


I had a pretty specific vision going in my head, which involved a Ferrari Daytona.
Kind of a Miami Vice thing, only classy, if you know what I mean...

Then today I notice pictures of the new California model.
It could make a pretty decent alternate, in my vision.
It is not exactly svelte, it seems a bit bulky even.

Still, if one was offered up, along with the white suit and Phil Collins CD - I would race around with dramatic purpose and flair, at extreme speeds, at the edge of control.


Note, if you should decide to actualize this vision for me, the car also should be white.
Silver might be acceptable, as well.
White is preferred.
Your choice on the Phil Collins album.

Rodney Mullen

RJD2 meets Rodney Mullen.


If you have ever called yourself a skateboarder, here is some footage to remind you that you were really just some dude standing on a plank with wheels.
This guy bends the rules of physics, links together three or four tricks you could never land and has been doing it for more than twenty years.

We Know Money

I am still a bit stuck on the recent AIG retreat.

I guess it was all planned, prior to the whole bail out package, but it is hard to swallow a $450,000 get-away for AIG staffers after kicking down huge cash to keep them in business.
Really, $24,000 in spa treatments?

Shouldn't somebody have said "Listen, we're plundering taxpayer savings accounts to be here, so skip the massage and sea salt wrap...it will read poorly in tomorrow's paper..."

Didn't the Fed just tell us about how salary caps will scare talent away from the management of this company?
What the hell kind of PR genius is it that I am floating right now?

I am sure they did a risk assessment of how this would all play out. Probably with some really fantastic Powerpoint presentation on how this will reap tremendous rewards with the pampered associates. Perhaps there was a deep analysis of the attrition costs the hotel would bill for a cancellation.


Still, at least fake a frowning face.
Especially if you pop for the rare earth mask.



I'd be more in favor of maintaining peoples salaries, if they did a better job of covering up their indiscretions.

AIG, take a note from your new ownership.
You can lie to the public, just don't let the truth slip out.
We have gotten used to that with our elected representation.
Learn from Congress.

On Any Sunday

So, I am pretty sure that On Any Sunday tops the list of movies I have seen too many times.

I think I have watched this more than I have seen Star Wars. I know the story, the scenes and the nuances.

Bruce Brown did the movie, the surfer movie dude, with the backing of Steve McQueen. It paints a glorious picture of motorcycling which captures the individual nature of the sport at it's hey-day. A synaptic view, which faded almost at the moment it was filmed.


On Any Sunday is a snapshot of time and space.

A simpler time, when a guy might be a national champion through his own efforts. A glimpse of gladiators fighting for their own freedom, their own triumph and individual success.

I presume that the romance comes from the nostalgic goggles with which the content is viewed through, but the strength of personal struggle and triumph shines through all of that. The character of the folks featured cannot be contained in those rose tinted lenses.

Men like Mert Lawill, Dick Mann and even Steve McQueen carry the film, by simply being themselves. By simply expressing their passions, while being filmed.

I am sure I will watch On Any Sunday again, and again...

Only because I hope to attain that air of expression, that moment of purity, in the things that keep me going...

Safety Net

The commission in charge of the management and preservation of the Golden Gate bridge have voted to move forward on the installation of a safety net.

It seems that the number of jumpers, folks who hop the handrail to end it all, weigh too heavily on the administrators hearts - along with a hundred or so mental health professionals, social workers and grief stricken family members who showed up to sway the vote.


So, an architectural icon - a wonder of modern design - will get a safety net installed.
It will attach to the side of the bridge, about 20' below the road surface.
Projected costs are around $40-50 million dollars.



I, rather gloomily, predict that one person will die in the installation of the safety net. The net will be named after that brave construction worker, a memorial to their great effort to keep people from also meeting his/her terrifying fate.

I also forecast that there will be particularly insistent jumpers who will hop down to the safety net - and use it as their jumping off point to the next chapter.



Is a $50 million dollar net really much of an obstacle for a person ready to take action on ending their own life?
Should we only allow placebo sleeping pills be sold?
Perhaps we should only have near-beer and bumper cars?

It could be that I am somewhat callous.
I could be the type of person, who when ready to off myself, would find a safety net a great humorous slap in the face when reviewing the long list of great ways to end it all.

Twin Triple Trike

My compulsion with trikes continues.

How about a trike with twin Kawi 750 two-strokes as a power source?
I mean if you are gonna build something dumb, you might as well go full retard, huh?



This is one of those that I like to puzzle out, in my head.
Some sort of split throttle control, no probably not, but maybe.
Some kind of jack-shaft connecting things, could be.
Something that was pushed off of and on to a trailer, best guess.

Still, stereo triple two strokes has to make a great brain rattling sound.

Don't Tread on Me

Cro-Mags, also from a long time ago...

McCain Swings Wildly

McCain is going all in, with the release of his most recent ads which attempt to tie Obama to Bill Ayers, former member of the Weather Underground.

I am not going to bother posting the commercial here, because if you care to see it - it is easy to find.


It seems a slow witted, desparate move on the part of John, his shiny object sidekick and the RNC.

Emphasize Barack's association with a 60's radical.
An association based on involvement in a public committee.
A committe partially funded by the RNC.


I am not here defending Ayers or the actions of the Weather Underground, today. I am not even going to attempt to mitigate Obama's association with him. Nearly anybody active in education, in Chicago, could suffer from similar criticism.



It does open the door to some review of McCain's more maverick pals.

G. Gordon Liddy?
Liddy is a close friend to McCain, and also has some history of less than legal activities.

Sarah and her husband were actually active in a group seeking to separate Alaska from the Union.
I am guessing there are some pretty radical folks at those meetings, huh?
I am just pointing out that they were sitting around the "kitchen table" talking about declaring their independence from the United States.



Our current political system makes it pretty easy to draw associations between any candidate and some unsavory people or activity.

And remember, should you decide to run for some office - your past can be tied to me.
Who knows what kind of crazy shit I might have done.
You might have even been there...

Yakety Sax

Here is evidence that all of the video being loaded on to YouTube will only make the world better.

Naughty

High score with all holes filled...

There are some great pictures of vintage pinball machines over at D&R.
There is a link over in the list.

Increased Productivity?

I had some interesting clients here, at work, yesterday.

I get to deal with a pretty broad spectrum of folks, from day to day. I get to hear all sorts of things about investing, global energy, medical advances, corporate direction, blah blah blah...

People talk a lot.

Rarely do I here things that really give me pause.
Yesterday, a VP from Google was talking about youtube.

He mentioned that every minute - thirteen hours of video is uploaded to youtube.
Every minute...

That is the equivalent of 57,000 feature length movies, uploaded every month.
That is a lot of video...

flashback

Debate Value - Debatable

I haven't had any posts on the subjects of debates.

I missed the first presidential debate due to some other, more important obligations. I only watched a moment of the post-debate head flappery, as it seemed to be as scripted as debates tend to be.


I did catch the last hour of Palin and Biden "debating". I employ the quotation marks because it seemed that only one person involved was actually speaking to the questions asked, while the other would repeat the question - say something colloquial-read what was on the note card - mention the word maverick and smile broadly.

This would typically be a post in which I rant and froth with contempt.
Maybe I have paused, because I have been given pause.
The whole deal left me feeling squeamish and depressed.


Recent travels put me right in the heartland, the middle south, the fly-over states. I am pretty conscious of my insulation in the land of fruit and nuts. Political momentum here is sharply contrasted there.

And contrasted for reasons that are, well, whatever.
I don't exactly care what the reasons are, as I am fairly fucking convinced that the reasoning is self-serving and wrong.
But I am diverting myself here...


As much I loathed content and pitch of Sarah Palin's non-answers, I understand that nearly half of this nation's population is ready to support her.
There are a whopping number of Americans ready to place that vapid, cocker spaniel of a human being second in command.
The proverbial heartbeat away...


And that depresses the shit out of me.


But more debates are coming.
The varsity players take the court on Tuesday.

I predict we will gain less insight to the candidates than we would if they were forced into a episode of The Family Feud.
Which is not a bad idea, now that I think about it.

Benchrace

How about some great pics of cars, along with clever stories?

http://www.benchrace.com/



I sorta know something about some of these guys and their work.
Not really, but kinda.

Real neat-o stuff.

Instatutionalized

You know, this song goes way back in my history, in history in general now that I think about it.

I am not sure if there is a song that I identify with, in the same way...
And, I had a pretty chill upbringing - all things considered.

Yet, here it is, to this day a song that I can still relate to.

A song from my days as a youth, not quite cut from the cloth of my surroundings.


An era, where even as a kid, I could see that Reagan might be the spawn of the devil.

That people were suspect in their motives.

A time when Chuck Taylor's made their first resurgence.

A moment when teachers tried to put me in some other place. A place they lived in and understood.
Guys, in their pseudo-intellectual, ineffectual existences, like Mr. Barnett, Mr. Kline and their peers said things to me which still make me want to kick their ribs in, even if they are rolling in wheelchairs...


Note: If you get on the prettynotgood B-List, you are on it for life.


What are you saying that I'm crazy?
Just leave me alone, I'll figure things out.
No, I don't want to talk about it.



Suicidal Tendencies, Instatutionalized.

SF, old print...

This morning I just happened to walk past a print, showing the same view as the picture I shared yesterday.

SF AM

Morning, just getting to work, looks something like this...

Butter Cow Minion

I am want to believe that Michelle Allen, pictured here, is under the control of the Butter Cow.

I have mentioned in previous posts that the Butter Cow communicates with me through some milk-fat mental connection.












Could it be that my beloved Butter Cow has gone a bit rancid? Delivering mad bovine visions unto Ms. Michelle Allen?
I somehow doubt it, the Butter Cow is benevolence.


I am sure Ms. Allen's cow-costumed public unruliness and urination was part of some grander Butter Cow scheme.

As with the flapping of a butterfly's wings - these actions cause unseen reactions.

(Butterfly Effect/Butter Cow Chaos Theory deserves some consideration.)



The Butter Cow works in strange, creamy ways.