Aug 18, 2008

Home Improvement/Fire Update

Just wanted to post some pics of the house's progress. We've been working on all the rooms except the bathroom and kitchen. The bathroom is good enough for now and the kitchen is a whole other project.

I also wanted to give an update on the fire situation I mentioned last week. We got all our stuff out and it more-or-less survived. we were pretty lucky. More on that and some photos down below.

this is the first piece of furniture so far. porch chairs and an old table.

this is what's going in the kitchen. It's on order and should be here next week.

both bedrooms have new carpet and paint!

the miter saw. I used this to cut the crown molding.


before crown..

and after!

I did the living room and both bedrooms. all by myself*.
*Special thanks to Meg, Kathy, Celeste, Steve, Gordon, Dave and Dustin. Who helped make this all possible.



this is the skylight in the dining room


there's that... Now about the fire.


Friday afternoon I talked to a dude that we share our room with he said:

"We called the studio owner. He says our room was one of the better ones and appears to have survived. There was water damage but nothing burned. We're heading over as soon as he gets the room opened. Right now its either arson or an electrical fire."

So after some phone tag we got into the room Friday evening. The studio owner was being really evasive and didn't want anyone in the studio till Monday, despite an apparent OK from the fire dept. Worried that any salvageable equipment could be completely ruined by Monday friends of ours called around and got a hold of the owner of the building the studio is in and he came down to let us in.

We did get pretty lucky. The whole studio was trashed. the room next to ours had a new skylight.. 2nd floor was non existent.


our gear was wet but not soaked. Tons of sheetrock stuff was all over our stuff. But overall I think we're gonna be ok. Some amps and other electrical stuff might be damaged but the important things like guitars and drums I think, for now, are still ok.

After we got all our equipment out into the parking lot I went to get a truck to haul our gear and when I got back there was 4 cop cars there. Jesse got his last piece of gear out and the cop said "no one goes back in there" and they boarded up the entrance.

if the building owner wasn't with us, we might have all been arrested.

here's some pics. the quality sucks because the power was shut off.







So things are still up in the air about where we're all going to practice now. Also theres been murmers of litigation depending on what the fire deptartment finds. I know we didnt have insurance but we're also hoping theres some kind of insurance on the actual studio but we doubt it.

That whole place was a mess to begin with. I guess all in all, its good no one was hurt. There are benefit shows in the works now to help out bands that lost everything. We dont really have a full set of songs finished but we'll do what we can to help.

here's an update to the news article.
"does not come as a surprise to many of its tenants, who said they had long dealt with issues like overloaded circuit breakers, and a lack of adequate sprinklers and smoke detectors.

But the reason they tolerated these conditions, they said, was because there is no other local venue for small bands to rehearse and record."
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10217513

Aug 15, 2008

Awesome Friday!

I was woken up by a text message at 5am from the guitarist in my band this morning. it said


"Did our shit get burnt up in a fire?"


There was a fire last night at my bands rehearsal studios. All of our shit is basically destroyed. SUPER! If it isnt burnt up, its smashed by the floor above, it its not smashed its definitely waterlogged and possibly melted. They wouldnt let me in this morning, so after work I get to asses the actual damages.

it made the news
http://www.contracostatimes.com/concordtranscript/ci_10208981

Fucking sucks. here's your damn pictures.














nice photoshop, NOT


panda cat



fucking ass shit fuck piss! oh yea we're getting carpet installed today.

have a summer.

Aug 13, 2008

Kids these days. part 2

I witnessed this yesterday.

I'm one car back from the light in the left hand turn lane on San Pablo Ave. in Oakland on my way home from work. San Pablo is a main road with 4-5 lanes of traffic. This particular intersection has working crosswalk signs as well. Since my left turn light is red the opposite lane has a green light and traffic is passing by at full speed in both lanes.

I see two 5th or 6th grade girls approach the corner. Instead of stopping and waiting for the 'walk' sign they just step off the curb right into traffic. They play Frogger through the cars till they get to the island in the middle of the street. Right after they get to the island, my left turn light turns green. They still try to cross as the car in front of me starts to go but they cant get by. Then as I pass the girls, one of them gives me a rude look and says "Damn stupid ass cars"

WHAT?! So you're impatient, unsafe, rude, self entitled and you have a mouth like a sailor?

You mean to tell me that 5 lanes of traffic is supposed to stop so your fat, ghetto, Cheetos eating, ass can get across? EXCUSE ME!! Everyone, stop your commute to we can wait for the Earth to revolve around these two little bitches.

Fuck man. what the hell is happening to kids these days? It just baffles me. No respect.

related - Adventures in McBreakfast (the "mcflurry for-here" girls)

-dedicated to the late Bernie Mac.

Aug 8, 2008

PHo ThO frY daY TIME

What a long week. every day we've been out to the house working on stuff till like 10:00. I'm a tired little chicken.

here's some of this.


Sir Linus Willaby

some of the awesome craftsmanship we've been uncovering.

tools of the trade (miller lite not included)
for the record I opted for a case of diet grape Shasta.
i don't recommend it

closed? but i wanted to watch it wash


Down the street from our new place we discovered the glory that is WinCo!
holy shit (in a good way)


this is the passive aggressive way to say "please stop stealing soda and candy"




cheesy beefy .. thanks cow!



fun!

ok thats all bizneeches. be sure to check the new doodle suicide boy.

oh speaking of suicide and the internet. Have you heard about the mom who made a fake myspace page and then bullied a teen so bad she ended up killing herself? yea, well, sincethere was no real law in her state against "cyber bullying" they've come up with a more sneaky and potentially precedent setting way to bust her.

The Justice Department has blundered terribly in this case. By reaching for the same statute used to prosecute computer hackers, this indictment has turned the law into a blunt legal instrument that turns every violation of a site's terms of service into a federal crime. ...more from ABC News
Basically, this would make what she did, using a fake name to create an on line account, a Federal pound-you-in-the-ass Crime. I call that reaching. So, while it sucks someone died, this is not the way to procecute this one.

Watch your asses cyberpunks.

Aug 7, 2008

Notalwaysright.com


So my latest obsession on the interneters is this site (the customer is) notalwaysright.com.

If you have ever worked retail, or customer service you've learned one thing about people. they are fucking stupid. There never was a day that I wasn't surprised at how dumb a functioning adult could be.

Not Always Right is a blog where people send in thier stories about dealing with the door knobs of society, the customer.

here's one from yesterday:

America’s Debt Crisis, Explained

Credit Card Customer Service | Tampa, FL, USA

Me: “Thank you for calling cardholder service, how may I help you?”

Customer: “You sent me a bill. Why?”

Me: “May I please have your card number?”

Customer: “I threw it away when the balance was gone.”

Me: “Um… can I have your social security number?”

Customer: *gives number*

Me: “I show your current balance is $10,027.31, due on 07/25/2008. Would you like to make a payment today so you do not get a late fee?”

Customer: “What do you mean? Why did you send me a bill?”

Me: “Sir, because you purchased those items you are required to repay the account.”

Customer: “No. You gave me the money, so I spent it.”

Me: “A credit card is a short term loan. You are required to pay it back.”

Customer: “No, I’m not!” *click*

(This is the third call like this in the past month.)


www.notalwaysright.com
- bask in all of its glory. be amazed at how can people be so stupid...not just stupid but like, rude, stubborn and stupid!

Aug 5, 2008

Sarah & Vinnie?

So, judging by the stats, it looks like we got some Alice listeners reading the noggins. Just thought I'd share my thoughts on what the big news for the morning show was now that No Name is gone.

Vinnie.

Vinnie got fired like 6 years ago because he was a drunk. In what I think was a lack of anything better, they brought him back. He's clean and sober now with his demons in a full nelson, and back on 97.3 along side Sarah.

ok, so at first I was like WTF? Vinnie? ok, so much for NEW.. but I'm warming up to him again. And what I've realised is that its not the lack of No Name that makes me feel like something is missing still. Its MATTY. I'm not 100% but if he was the one responsible for the little sound bites and who's human contestant clips that were played ever so perfectly to go with whatever conversation was happening, then I miss Matty.

There was a moment today during a conversation that I had to play "GAY /ball" in my head.

And as for Jan. I know she's trying. and she might be a genius off the air, but on-air she seriously lacks something. Half the time she forgets to turn on her mic and today she read an email and it sounded worse than the interns reading Word of the Day.

Vinnie rocks. bring back funny sounders. And every time Sara says "no one wants to hear this, its boring" I'm usually cracking up or on the edge of my seat.

I'm cool with the Vinnie and Sarah show. But it will never be the same as the good ol' days.


PS: Alice still sucks once the morning show ends.

Aug 1, 2008

I'm a Homo-

-wner.. That's right, we got the keys to our new house yesterday. It's been a crazy couple of months learning and dealing with all the shit it takes to get a house, and figuring out all the shit that's going down in the real estate market right now.

The house needs some love but heres a couple pics of the place.





here's some pics of other things. sorry. My life is so routine now that I'm running out of shit to take photos of that you havent seen all ready.

tree's in line for the "kirk's penis look alike contest"


Spectator at the "kirk's penis look-alike contest".

Thanks for the heads up Jack!



The new rules at the skate park SUCK. "No turns?" really cramping my style.


see you guys over there ----->


Worst. Horse. Trail .Ever.

alright chicklets, thats all I got. Make sure to check doodle suicide boy for this weeks new cartoon!