Backing Halloween

Halloween is tonight and i'm 3 parties down. The best by far being the Yo Gabba Gabba wrap party last night. Here are some shots from that one and the Peterson party. I found that some of the best costumes didn't require you to see the front of them....

TNTucan

Beatbox Sensei

Codeweavers? more like Dreamkillers

Left 4 Dead is the most popular video game of 2008. Hands down, this game is the tits. So successful that is got its own sequel just a year later. The release for L4D2 is April 7th, but the Demo was available today for everyone who pre-ordered the game ie. ME. How lucky for me right? Nope sorry.

When attempting to boot up my new $35 game, which i might add, to someone with no money is the equivalent to leasing a new car, i dont get very far. I see the Valve logo, i see the Sierra logo, i even get to watch the awesome pre game movie. Right after the movie ends the game then decides to quit and tell me there was an error. The nerve! The little error window says it was a problem with "Wine" which is what runs my Crossover program (Crossover enables windows games on Apple computers....pretty rad).

The thing is, Codeweavers (who made Crossover) saw how popular L4D was. They saw the hype of L4D2, I mean computer nerds were jizzing their pants for 6 months about this game. I dont see why they couldn't be a little more prepared for the release of this game. Luckily this is just the demo right now and hopefully they will get this damn bug fixed before the 17th, or else i see a revolt by all Crossover wielding dorks. But luckily the ones that pre-ordered the game can revolt with a baseball bat (wink).

Jazzy Boosh

One of my favorite clips from The Mighty Boosh

Go Team Venture!

I must say, after watching The Venture Bros. from day one, there is no other show as original as this. One character specifically stands out as a genius idea, which can sum up how creative the show is in it's character writing.

Master Billy Quizboy is by far the smartest character ever created.... literally. The premise of this large cranium is a boy genius who....well....grew up. He is no longer a boy but his only claim to fame is being a "boy" genius several decades ago, as well as the fact that he won a quiz show and gave himself the title "Quizboy"

The entire show revolves around a world where classic heroes and villians have all grown up and now live their lives as best they can. The antagonist Dr. Venture, once a boy of adventure (a Johnny Quest type persona), now has a family of his own and plenty of problems that seem to only get fixed by his body guard Brock Sampson. Dr. Ventures neighbor, a seemingly retired Necromancer, takes the comic book style life to another extreme while in turn taking care of his own family consisting of one apathetic, and a bit gothic, daughter. A former member of The Order of the Triad, he occasionally relives adventures with his now old partners(a monk and a blackula whose job is to kill other blackulas). Which, by the way, have the sweetest logo ever.

I must say, out of all the crazy shows for stoners on AdultSwim, Venture Bros. has to be the most original and most creative. There are tens of characters i could keep speaking of, but this is just a short list of my favorites.

How awesome

YES! YES!

If only Yo Gabba Gabba was around when i was a kid, or better yet, i hope it's still around when i'm an adult so this could be MY family.

brobee.blogspot.com brings joy, it's sad that filming is done for this season :(

More photos here

Obsession of the day

Found a website where you can make your own police sketch! No sketching skills required.

http://flashface.ctapt.de/

My attempt at Jared

And originality dies....

It's no secret that young girls like to dress up sexy for Halloween. It happened when i was in high school and it is happening now. I just think that it would be a little more original to just take the word "sexy" out of these lame costumes and add a bit more fabric. Hey, i love seeing skin as much as the next guy, but when it comes to being clever i'd like it to have more thought, and Halloween is in autumn for gods sake, not summer, get some clothes on dumbasses. When someone thinks of a clever costume it makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Last week i was quickly duped in a long car ride. In the car, among others, was my buddies sister Allie....

Allie: I still dont know what i am going to be for halloween. My friend is gonna be a tree!


Mikes Brain: (Oh awesome, finally these high school kids have branched off from the "sexy" theme and are making original costumes)


Allie: Yea, she is gonna wear brown booty shorts and glue leaves to her bra!

Followed by me losing all hope for todays youth

Yawn.....

Do they know "Free Bird?"

Who said Halloween is only one day?

I have gotten into the habit of having multiple costumes each year due to multiple celebrations of this wonderful holiday, and the need to not be repetitive in front of my friends. I've been growing my hair out for my costume in order to buzz it all off and make the full transformation into the life of Artie the Strongest Man in the World. But with a quick glimpse at my sisters tutu for her ballerina costume, i knew exactly what i had to do. Behold, my last minute costume idea for the costume party taking place one week before Halloween.

I must say, it was a hit at the party. I personally thought that the Billy Mayes costume was quite clever as well

Song Bird

[Two very calm men, James and Robert, walk through a forest wearing hunting attire]
*sound of a bird chirping
[James pauses and looks into a nearby tree]


James: Hey Rob

Robert: Yea?

James: What kind of bird do you think that is?

Robert: Oh jeez, i dont know. Bluejay?

James: Really? In these woods?

Robert: I suppose. Why not?

[James aims his gun into the tree and fires]
[A small dead blue bird falls in front of them]


James: Hey what do ya know, it was a bluejay

[Men start to walk away taking a step over the dead bird]

Robert: Beautiful bird

James: Oh yea, just gorgeous



[fade to black]

Where The Wild Things Were

[Open to shot of a forest]
[cut to title over black]
[cut back to forest]
[two men walk into the shot facing away from the camera]

Man 1: So... they used to be here?

Man 2: Yup

[silence]

Man 1: Awesome



[Fade to black]

My hero

Glad others can appreciate this clip as much as i do.



Groovy

One piece at a time

Well it only took me a day to get over the sadness of getting my sprocket in the mail that was the wrong size. A quick call to Tyler the welder extraordinaire and i was on my way to a custom sprocket. The original problem with my old one was that my new engine's front sprocket was about an inch more forward than my previous one and thus i needed either a smaller sprocket or a new chain. The financially set thing to do was to get a new sprocket. Well 1 week later it came in the mail and it didnt fit my bike. My options were to return it and buy a $60 custom aluminum sprocket or......thats was all i could think of. Then the next day i called Tyler to see if he could fix me up somehow. He could. Here is my day.

Here is the original 45 tooth sprocket on top, and the new 40 tooth on the bottom

The center of the new sprocket was too small for my back tire so we had to cut out a small ring from the center to make it larger.

Then Tyler measured out the new wholes for the bolts and drilled those out

I asked Tyler to fix a whole i had in the back of my exhaust since we were hanging out by the welder anyways. He fixed up a piece of scrap steel and began to weld......

What we didn't realize till after was that the exhaust metal was so thin, that welding it actually just melted it away with little to no bonding. See the new hole?

So Tyler grabbed his trusty JB Weld to adhere the metal piece to the exhaust

Finally, after realizing the exhaust was as thin as a soda can, we fixed up the last hole in it......with a soda can. Along with lots and lots of JB Weld.

Once the JB dries and all the remaining Pepsi leaks are sealed the exhaust will be as good as new. Maybe a sponsorship is in order?

Turns out i could have done with a 42 tooth sprocket instead of a 40, my chain went on a little bit loosely but i figure it'll be easier to take a chain link out than it would be to find a single link to add onto the previous sprocket. Next up is the electrical....then it's done!......i hope

Left 4 Evil Dead

It has come to my attention that there has been a great fault in the world of video games tonight. Not that the fault has been done tonight, but the fault has been realized...... by me...... tonight....

During the middle of the wonderful film Evil Dead II, i saw a small group of people that could potentially be used to fight hordes of zombies ie. the evil dead. To my knowledge, with partial help from coworkers and DVD previews, Evil Dead came out with 4 video games a few years back. One where you play as Ash and have a little midget friend and kill zombies and whatever, bottom line is that from what i hear it sucked big time. Along with that fact that no one spoke of it during or after its release made one think as well.

On to my next subject....

A big huge popular awesome fun video game out now is....of course.....Left 4 Dead. The only game that will have it's successful sequel after only 1 year. If you haven't seen or played it it is a lovely story about 4 survivors of a zombie apocalypse trying to get across the city in search for more survivors while saving their own skins simultaneously. What i am wondering, is why these two wonderful plots of Evil Dead and 4 survivors weren't put together before to make the ultimate video game. I know as of now it is way to late to make this switch because the world has already fallen in love with Zoey, Francis, Luis and Bill....but if Sam Raimi knew what could have been done with his characters im sure he would have taken that route. The unique characters are all there, the game aspects of the movie are there too. I mean, you've got your redneck tow truck driver, your redneck tow truck drivers wife, the cute book of the dead expert and then the macho chainsaw wielding Ash. It's a sure thing everyone would want to play as Ash, i mean he's got a friggin chainsaw for a hand! but im sure if every character had their own special skills it would be awesome. And then there is the book of the dead.....maybe have a "find the lost pages of the book" portion of the level. I mean your bosses and "special infected" are all there.....fruit cellar grandma, dead ex girlfriend, dead ex boyfriend, evil trees. It would be PERFECT. I'd love to have THOSE zombies and demons chase me through Riverside. If only i knew a necronomic spell that could open a rift in time and space and send me back to a time where i could influence Sam Raimi and Valve to colab on a video game (cue book of the dead).

L4D

ED2

Artie Update

The final step for my outfit has begun. I have taped off my red turtleneck of death to ready it for its paint job. I know what you're thinking, "Mike, those look like the right colors, why not just keep the tape on and make that your costume?" I'll tell you why! Because then i would have tape on my shirt all night, and i would have a half assed costume. Plus i found some old blue paint that i dont mind using all of to paint the open area of the shirt. My next step is going through with the painting.....and then finally cutting my luscious locks in a fashion to suit Artie's inner jarhead.

Reason number 2 not to just use tape for the blue section of my shirt:
So i dont look like this jagov

All dogs go to heaven

So apparently, when you have a dog, it is polite to put it in a kennel while you are away on vacation. And apparently it is polite to get him a kennel that will have toys and play time with other dogs. And apparently it is polite to get the room with a TV that plays animal themed movies and tv so the animal doesn't feel alone.......what? I guess being a dog isn't considered being a dog anymore. Yes the kennel and play time is fine, but when my roommate Mom gets the deluxe TV package it makes me question her sanity. I guess it gives her time to relax while we vacation in Tahoe for the weekend. Here are 4 photos i stuck together so you dont think im making it up. Go to Petsmart to see it for yourself.

Will the dog really appreciate Madagascar 2?

One step at a time

I can smell the carb mixing air and fuel like it's right under my nose.

My scooter is slowly becoming more of a scooter now and less of pile of metal.....with tires. My new engine is in place, my cables are all hooked up to my throttle and new clutch, my hands are stained gray. I had a very productive day today, apparently all honda CT exhausts fit on modern engines.... except my exhaust. So thanks to an old ct70 exhaust online i was able to get my friend to weld the parts i need onto my current exhaust.....it looked kinda like this.....

The rest of my night consisted of me staring at the wiring of my bike and turning my head 45 degrees and saying "huh?" Apparently honda thinks it's funny to change the wire colors between models of bikes so manuals don't match up and michael go crazy. So when i have time to do some detective work i will spend the time to find where the wires go.

Now is time to pack for a quick trip to Tahoe this weekend for my Uncle's 90th birthday! See you on Monday night.

PS: Regina Spektor on SNL this Saturday?!.......pass