Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Cluth Pro-Rock Search Engine

How cool is this? You can have a banner with the Clutch logo in your browser. And you can get free stuff. Plus, it uses Google like we all do already.

http://searchwithclutch.prodege.com/?cmd=sb-register&rb=223919



Search & Win

Thursday, October 09, 2008

AFTER: THE FINISHED PRODUCT









Paige's Dad, George helped out again, cutting the molding. Jody came over and helped me with the suspended ceiling perimeter.

DURING






Paige and Jody helped out with the puddy.



Paige's Dad, George, was a tremendous help building this wall to separate our hot water heater and HVAC unit.

BEFORE





REMODELING PROJECT

To make room for Mattox, I finally got off my ass and remodeled our basement. Virtually on may own and at a cost of about $850, I completed the project in about 5 weeks. Photos of the three phases follow in the next posts.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

H.R. 1424 Final Vote

How the U.S. House from Georgia voted:
• Rep. John Barrow (D-12) N
• Rep. Sanford Bishop, Jr. (D-2) Y
• Rep. Paul Broun (R-10) N
• Rep. Nathan Deal (R-9) N
• Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-11) N
• Rep. Hank Johnson (D-4) N
• Rep. Jack Kingston (R-1) N
• Rep. John Lewis (D-5) Y
• Rep. John Linder (R-7) N
• Rep. Jim Marshall (D-8) Y
• Rep. Tom Price (R-6) N
• Rep. David Scott (D-13) Y
• Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-3) N

Both senators, Issackson and Chambliss voted in favor of the resolution.

Personally, I believe its passage to be a mistake. It will do nothing to address the culture of the market. The problems will persist, and we will still suffer a long recession. Unfortunately, we no longer have the funds to distribute any "economic stimulus packages". I love those things.

PALAHNIUK'S PACKAGE

In a previous post I showed Paige's signed copy of CHOKE. I speculated about the meaning of the inscription.

Actually, while talking to Chuck before the event, he inquired about the people he was signing to. I explained Paige couldn't make it because she was home looking after JJ. He said, "You want to do something fun and evil?"

"Yeah."

He grabbed an envelope from behind him and handed it to me. He told me to send her information to him in the addressed envelope, and in a couple months, he would send her a package. He implored me not to tell her, to let it be a surprise.


CONTENTS: Hand-beaded and personalized necklace, trick deck of cards, cigarette ink pen, SE Asian influenced temporary tattoos, joke pack of gum, 2 bouncy balls, bacon and eggs bandage assortment, laser pointer, two-headed nickel, soothing bells, chocolate sampler, plastic severed finger, jacknife comb, tobasco sauce, a seed assortment of forget-me-nots herbs and carrots, 2 personalized cds of stories he recorded in audio, and a moist towelette guaranteed to wash away your sins.



Above is the letter he wrote to her. I hope you can read it. The last lines are priceless: "Please never hesitate to surprise someone. Celebrate Christmas anytime as often as you want. Clean up this mess. I'll Shut Up Now, Chuck Palahniuk

CLEAN UP THIS MESS

Some Local Politics

Voodoo priestess says Cobb official bounced checks
Kesting’s attorney says she never met with ‘priestess, witch doctor, or anyone’


By KENT A. MILES, CHRISTIAN BOONE


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


Monday, October 06, 2008


The South Carolina “voodoo priestess” who has accused Cobb County Commissioner Annette Kesting of writing $3,000 in bad checks for her services said Tuesday she only wanted to be paid for her work.

George Ann Mills said Kesting approached her at home in Blythewood, S.C., in late August seeking otherworldly help against her political rival, Woody Thompson.

Kesting wasn’t available for comment today. Her lawyer has denied these events.
“She said, ‘Do you see cancer in him? I said he looks like a very healthy man’,” Mills said, noting that Kesting held up a photo of a man she said was Thompson. “She said, ‘Is there anything you can do about this … give him cancer, or make him have an accident or something?’ “

Mills said she refused, saying she didn’t want Thompson’s blood on her hands. She offered to “make trouble for him, to make people see who he really is.”
Mills said Kesting wrote two checks totaling $3,000, which were returned for insufficient funds. Kesting then sent two $1,000 money orders in payment. Mills produced a copy of a MoneyGram receipt, dated Aug. 28. The receipt, which she faxed to the AJC, listed Kesting’s husband, Christian, as the sender.

“I kept a paper trail of everything,” Mills said. “I don’t think this would have ever come out if I had been paid.”

Law enforcement authorities in Georgia and South Carolina are investigating the bad check allegations against Kesting.

Sims Gordon, Kesting’s attorney, said Kesting denies meeting Mills.
“She had not seen seen a priestess, witch doctor, or anyone in South Carolina,” Gordon said.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Synopsis: “Economic Stabilization Act,” H.R. 1424

The legislation authorizes the Treasury Secretary to immediately use up to $250 billion to purchase distressed assets from institutional investors. If needed, the secretary may then access an additional $100 billion to purchase these distressed assets but only with presidential approval.

An additional $350 billion may be accessed if the president transmits a written report to Congress requesting the funds. The Treasury Secretary may use this additional authority unless Congress passes a joint resolution of disapproval within 15 days.

The legislation includes a number of provisions to ensure oversight by Congress and accountability to the taxpayers, including prohibitions on executive compensation to ensure bad actors are not rewarded. Specifically, companies that receive more than $300 million from this plan will have limits placed on their top five executives. These limits include a ban from receiving a “golden parachute” as well as limits in the tax deductions they can take on compensation over $500,000.

RADIOHEAD - House of Cards



oracular?

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Where we are headed.



I found this a while back when goggling space images. It's only a matter of time.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

More Chuck



He asked who JJ was, and I told him my son. He asked how old he was; I said two. He winced.



Paige "accidentally" put gum between the pages of our first copy of CHOKE, so I purchased this one at the event for Chuck to sign for her. The inscription is a bit cryptic. I could be a reference to the plot, but I don't think so. Paige thinks it may be a reference to her pregnancy. I did tell him we were expecting. Could it have another meaning?





I saw a couple other inscriptions, and they were similar: Who smells like a real porn god; who has real porn star hair; who makes love look easy, sleazy. I prefer mine simply because I am a real man, and he poured a bit of Stetson cologne in the pages of the book.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Palahniuk Highlights

chuck and i 2

As #034 (Snuff reference) I was able to meet him before the event. I'm not sure who took this photo, but I found it and all others @ chuckpalahniuk.net. You can access this site by clicking "The Cult" in the links sidebar.

crowd

The auditorium was packed with over 500 people. I was sitting just out of view in the upper right of the frame, a couple rows back from the stage. The demographics were what you would expect: Primarily 20-30 year olds with tattoos and piercings abound. Much more hair was dyed black than blonde, and the bunch was lively.

dolls

He began the presentation by dispersing blow-up dolls for an inflation competition. He gave away autographed copies of KNOCKEMSTIFF by Donald Ray Pollock to the winners.

blow

I'm glad I didn't catch one of these. I got on the new fangled way: EBAY.



He then settled in to share some stories and anecdotes. I call the one above Petey. I shot it on my digital camera, and it's only jumpy at the beginning, so bear with it a few seconds. He also read a short story, LOSER, that was an exclusive for the book tour. In it, an acid filled frat pledge is on The Price is Right and makes it to the showcase showdown. These things happen in the story, but that is not what the story is about. Like many of his other works, it is caustic commentary of societal obsession with image and materialism. I'm not including it here because I want to keep it as an experience for only those in attendence (and Paige). If he ever publishes the story, I'll post it.

hound throw

Following a rather mundane Q & A, he closed by tossing signed autograph hounds to the audience. Unfortunately, I didn't get one of these.

hound

Along with the blow up doll, the autograph hound is a prominent item in SNUFF. The other item is a cyanide pill. He couldn't really give those away, much less sign them.

FREAK ANGELS...

...is s free weekly web comic written by Warren Ellis. I won't go into the details, but it's one of the best ways to kill ten minutes each week.



The graphic above will automatically show the new content each week.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

CHUCK PALAHNIUK...

...was in Atlanta on June 4. It was his first visit to the capital of the South since I've lived here: Over six years and seven books! He was promoting his new book, SNUFF, and spoke for about two hours.
Photobucket

It made sense, logistically, for me to arrive a couple (3) hours early for the event. It was a bit weird for me to be there that early, but I did get to meet Chuck.
Photobucket
He was quite approachable. He personalized 3 books: Snuff for me, Choke for Paige and Rant for J.J. I also asked him about his craft. I wanted to know if he wrote from notes, an outline, or pounded out his ideas freely as they occurred until the story was finished. He explained that he writes notes as things occur, stories are heard, and research is done. He then, on a rainy day, will type out these notes on his PC. Next he prints a hard copy of the notes and carries it around with him, so he doesn't have to be confined to his home. He further notes this copy, and once he feels he has a story together, he hammers out a draft. It was incredible to hear a talent like him explain this process. It really charged my batteries.

In the next two posts, I'll present some photos of the event I nabbed from chuckpalahkiuk.net and a video I shot of a story he told. I'll also post the personalized signings of his novels.