pools and pools of leaves

Quickie

lj@screamingink.com — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:50:15 GMT

I got a short, 2 to 3 week, contract job at Studio3 doing digital retouch on product shots for a consumer item that’s launching soon. Although I can’t really talk about the specifics, the one item I’ve seen looks like it might be pretty successful. I’m doing clipping paths, dust/cleanup, and color correction for proofs. I guess in the last round of proofs there will be some critical color work done, but I’m not sure how involved in that I’ll be.

It’s funny, I interviewed and did a Photoshop test at Studio3 on Thursday of last week and then one of the owners called me on Friday night, leaving a message about needing someone unexpectedly for the coming week through the end of May. He called me again Saturday at 9:30 in the morning. He said that they had been interviewing and testing people for future projects that would require help and that it just happened that this project came up. He was very kind and said that he felt I was a good candidate and he even said I was over qualified and that he’d understand if I turned it down, but it worked out: I needed some freelance work to pad my portfolio (plus I love retouching) and Gwynn and I needed a legitimate excuse to motivate us to get our own baby sitter, finally.

In other news, Gela broke the world record in the “Hanging onto the Shower Curtain Rod, After a Bath” event, this evening. The standing record was 4.5 seconds and tonight she held on for 7.47 seconds, thus beating the previous record by over 1.4 seconds. That record was set back in 1987 by one Daniel M. Jabowski, from Ellington, CT. Danny was 1 year and 5 months at the time.

Good night.

Originally published at Screaming Ink. You can comment here or there.

New Old Records

lj@screamingink.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:49:20 GMT

We had some errands to run today and we ended up at one of my favorite spots to buy used records. It’s cool because it’s not really a record store and I don’t think a lot of people know that the place actually sells vinyl, since the store always seems to have some great and eclectic records, usually for around $2. I would imagine that their selection would be much more picked over if people knew about some of the things I’ve found there.

Here’s what I bought this afternoon:

I was disappointed by some of the things I saw today, though. They had a copy of Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, but when I looked at the album it had deep gouges going across both sides, like some literally took a knife to the surface of the record; it was obviously unplayable. They were asking $5 for the album, which tells me that someone saw the cover and slapped a price tag on the jacket without looking at the actual vinyl. It was pretty sad.

Originally published at Screaming Ink. You can comment here or there.

Rage Against The Machine

lj@screamingink.com — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:30:14 GMT

In 1992 I was one of the guitarists in our high school jazz band and we went to San Diego, along with the marching band, for a large regional or national competition. While there, we went to Sea World and did other touristy stuff around town. After one of the competitions, there were a few bands playing a free show at, I believe, SDU.

We had some free time, so we all went down and watched the show. I remember there was a really mellow Grateful Dead-esque band named Jambay, who’s CD I may still own. One of the other bands was Rage Against the Machine. All the members of the rhythm section of the school’s jazz band were metal heads (as shocking as that might seem) and we were all blown away by RATM as Zack de la Rocha screamed “You’ve got a fucking bullet in your head!” and Tom Morello made sounds with his guitar that were other worldly, using only pedals. Their performance was so raw and vibrant…they had the whole crowd getting into the music and the message it carried.

I was sold. I plopped down the last few bucks I had and bought the cassette they had for sell. Even the black and white cassette cover was crazy; xeroxed stock quotes littered the cover as a background, with “RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE” floating above the stock quotes in bold, all caps sans serif font and rotated at an angle . There was an unlit match, that had been hand taped to the cover, as a finishing touch.

According to the bio on the official Rage Against The Machine webpage, the band recorded, produced, and released the 12 track cassette in 1992. A very impressive 5,000 copies of the tape were sold at shows and through their fan club. Most of the tracks on the tape later became the rough sequence of songs for the band’s self-titled, major label release on Epic records. Three songs on the cassette have never been re-released.

I had an entire home’s worth of stuff sitting in storage for almost a decade. Last year I had all that stuff shipped to me from El Paso. A couple of night’s ago I was going through the boxes, looking for a bunch 4-track recordings I made back in my youth, and I stumbled across this:

The tape still played and sounded just like I remember it sounding on that long bus ride back to sunny El Paso. It’s funny to think that now anyone can slap together some drum and bass loops on their computer, sing a few lines, add some effects, and then burn a CD of their work, all with very little overall effort. Knowing that makes me appreciate this tape just a little bit more.

Originally published at Screaming Ink. You can comment here or there.

A Year

lj@screamingink.com — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:07:38 GMT

How time flies. This is my daughter 1 year ago, about 10 minutes after she was born:

Gela this past Sunday, at 1 year and 2 days old:

It blows me away. She went from barely moving and hardly able to keep her eyes open to walking and trying her best to talk. I once was able to hold most of her body in the palms of my hands, now I grunt when I try to lift her up.

She’s turned my world upside down and made me see everything in so many new ways. I could never imagine how significantly she’d change my life, specifically my outlook and my goals.

She’s the greatest thing I’ve ever been a part of.

Originally published at Screaming Ink. You can comment here or there.

Gangstas on the #7

lj@screamingink.com — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:40:31 GMT

I spent 30 minutes on a bus from downtown to south Seattle and for the entire ride I listened to two high school aged kids bragging to one another about how gangster they were, even though they both looked like choir boys.

One talked about the adrenaline he gets when he fights to which the other responded that he doesn’t even get adrenaline rushes when he fights anymore, he just laughs. The whole conversation seemed to weigh on upping the last sentence spoken by the other: you punched someone? I got shot at! You got shot at? I shot as some fools. You shot at someone? I know a dude that tried to blow up his school, so they expelled him from the state. (I’m not making the last one up…they didn’t arrest the guy, they expelled him from the state.)

Slowly the conversation got more and more inline with gangsta stereotypes: talk about being shot at, drive-bys, various gangs in the area, people they know outside of the city and state who are in or started gangs, how other local gangs are lame, random theories about the gunshots they heard last night and whether they were AK-47 shots or whether the shooting was done with a “MP,” since a real gangsta needs to know the differences…cause seriously, I know I don’t want to get hit with a blast from an AK-47, but getting shot with an MP, not so bad.

Anyhow, at one point one of the kids was talking about how he was totally going to kick some other dude’s ass, “just now,” but the bus showed up and he couldn’t pop the kid because he’d miss the bus. The bus we were riding comes every 10 mintues, which I seem to recall being plenty of time to talk trash and throw some punches before walking away shaking from the adrenaline referenced earlier.

My favorite part of the conversation, “So that dude you were going to fight, he’s goes to a public school, right?” I took this to imply that the well dressed and well spoken gangstas were private school kids.

Originally published at Screaming Ink. You can comment here or there.

It's Happened

lj@screamingink.com — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:14:09 GMT

I've created a blog.

http://www.screamingink.com

Hopefully I'll update there more than I do here. There's a bunch of posts already. Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

goodnight sweet princess

lj@screamingink.com — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 07:07:50 GMT

1994-2007

this man's best friend

warez

lj@screamingink.com — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 06:48:25 GMT

today i dropped dime on cs3 design premium (ouch!) and 4gbs of ram. tomorrow i may cave and buy a laptop, a good office chair, and another monitor.

since i'm freelancing again, it's all a WRITE OFF :)

it was 20 years ago to day...

lj@screamingink.com — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 05:54:06 GMT

recently gwynn's niece, danielle, made her yearly week long visit. on the last night of her of her stay, i introduced her to the film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band starring Peter Frampton and the BeeGees, in all its widescreen, high quality DVD transfer glory. she didn't seem too impressed, she had the typical 'kid in front of the TV' zombie look going. according to gwynn, the next morning danielle wouldn't stop talking about the songs and the plot (hahahaha...seriously).

i was just speaking to gwynn, whose cozied up on the couch with gela watching tv and i see a commercial for Across The Universe...i literally shushed gwynn from talking when i heard 'Come Together' and (i think) 'Hey Jude' playing back to back and, what looked like from my peripheral, actors singing.

holy shit it looks so ridiculous that it might actually be good.

once a fanboy, always a fanboy.

mowing me down

lj@screamingink.com — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 21:47:34 GMT

Life's rolling these days:

I got laid off on two weeks ago, but I ended up working through the middle of last week helping out on a project that needed finishing. This is the second time I've been laid off by a company that's outsourcing work to India. I'm taking this week off to spend with Gela and Gwynn and then I'm on the hunt for new work.

My daughter is almost 3 months old! Everything about her amazes and inspires me. Even when things are at their absolute worst, everything is still better than it would have been before she was around.

I realized last week that its been 10 years, an entire decade, since my mom passed away. The actual day zipped right by me and I didn't even notice. That made me more sad than anything.

I made a comment to Gwynn about my wanting to buy an elliptical machine. Well we both, momentarily, lost our minds and spending sensibilities and she bought us an elliptical machine and I bought us a punching bag stand and one speed bag; I'll buy the heavy bag and gloves once the stand gets delivered. It'll be nice having exercise and stress relief equipment in the house...let's hope we use it!!

I think that's it. I hope you all are well :)

PDA

lj@screamingink.com — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:45:43 GMT

it's hard to imagine life without her and if that doesn't sum it up, i don't know what does.

happy anniversary, baby :)

vinyl junkie

lj@screamingink.com — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:53:34 GMT

i waited 10 years to finally get all my crap from texas. when it finally showed up, the 3 things i was most interested in were the pictures, my dad's albums, and the kenwood turntable i grew up with. apparently, i gave away the turntable before moving...although i swear i kept it (i did keep the speakers...go figure). either way i ended up buying this a couple months ago:

i found it on craigslist...i had a strange habit of checking the listings for turntables daily, for some reason and this popped up one day. i recognized this turntable, the Micro Seiki BL-91, because it's an audiophile classic. this thing is built like a tank...22"x16.5", solid rosewood base, 2" stainless steel platter that weighs about 10lbs, and an isolated motor.

these tables go for over $1800 on ebay. the Technics tonearm is worth about $400. the cartridge (needle) was made by the same company (Micro Acoustics) that used to make the cutting stylii that were used to actually carve the signal into the plates used to make albums.

i snagged it all for $200...FUCKYEAHCRAIGSLIST

the only problem i'm having now is my desire to continue to upgrade my entire stereo system. there's a vintage amp i've had my eye on and i'm leaning toward buying a kit to build my on tube amp.

anyhow, i've been listening to and buying tons of vinyl since i got turntable. i bought the 180gram pressing of Dylan's "Bringing It All Back Home," Elliott Smith's "New Moon" which sounds and feels like 180. I've got a 200 gram pressing of Bob Marley's "Burnin'" on pre-order -- which I'm psyched about. Sometime next week I should have new albums by Do Make Say Think and Wilco.

baby picture time!!

lj@screamingink.com — Sat, 26 May 2007 07:21:45 GMT

I found out yesterday that my Aunt Delores passed away. I honestly didn't think I'd be that affected by her death, since there had been some choices she made in her life recently that made me sad and made me realize she didn't have much time left. Gwynn called me at work to tell me that my brother Terry had called, followed by the obligatory "There's something bad I need to tell you" pause, I instantly thought something terrible had happened to my brother Tommy.

She told me that Delores was dead and that she didn't know how. I said something like, "That too bad" and "Damn, that sucks." When I hung up it hit me. I almost cried at work, I had to go outside for a walk. The more I thought about her, the more I smiled, which I think says volumes about the woman.

Delores was an amazing person. She was completely crazy, insanely artistic, and more generous than someone with her personality should probably be. She was the kind of woman that would say things just to make people uncomfortable, but she could do it in such subtle ways that people laughed at being laughed at.

My mom used to tell me the story that when the two of them were younger and poor, Delores would put on a gag breast plate and go to the bars, where Delores would offer to let men touch her fake boobs for drinks. Apparently they rarely had to pay for drinks.

When I was little and just learning to talk, she'd point out old ladies at the store and tell me to go tell them that they were a "fucking bitch." Not knowing any better I'd walk over tug on the old lady's skirt and say, in an innocent voice, "You're a fucker bitch!" They'd smile and tell Delores how cute I was and without missing a beat, Delores would smile and thank them and start a casual conversation about how terrible kids are today.

_{Delores holding me after she used eyeliner to make my dad's mustache and sideburns.}

We'd get care packages from Delores as we moved from place to place. She never really bought me things, she made me things. This was back in the 70s and 80s, before DIY projects were a google search or television channel away. I still have a little piggy shaped cutting board she made my mom. She built me a wooden, brown carpet covered, horse on caster wheels that I used to ride around on. That thing lasted for years.

_{My mom and I on the horse that Delores made me}

One of the last times we spoke was shortly after my mom passed away, she was the only aunt that tried to keep in touch with me. She asked how I was doing and told me that if I ever needed anything to call, even though we both knew I was too proud to ask for help. Two weeks later I got a card from her telling me that I was always welcome to stay with her, inside the card there was a check for $100. In typical Delores fashion the delicately written 'For:' memo read: "Penis enlargement surgery."

I could go on and on about the memories, but I'll spare you all and just say that she was my favorite aunt and I'm going to miss her, even though it's been over a decade since I last saw her.

pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name

lj@screamingink.com — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 06:38:54 GMT

(Boxing Annoucer Voice)

Weighing in at 5 pounds and 5 ounces, measuring 18" long, born at 12:26pm on April 11th, 2007, ladies and gentlemen...Gela...Marie...Raimondi!

Ray...Mon...Dee

(bell rings a couple of times)

she was 5 weeks early, she kept us up for about 48 hours straight and for a couple of minutes there it looked like she might not make it. but there she is, the second snowflake to land in my life...

thanks to all that replied the other day and, yes, i hadn't really posted and/or really talked about the pregnancy since there were a lot of issues from the beginning and gwynn and i didn't know what the end result would be. i'm just glad it ended on a happy note...C#

nice

lj@screamingink.com — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 02:16:00 GMT

i stand by my affirmation that all women are crazy, even if they happen to be astronauts (who take plastic baggies, a knife, a BB-gun, and some rubber tubing to a possible kidnapping):

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/space/orl-bk-nasaastronaut0507feb05,0,6104316.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

as an aside, fun things to do with plastic baggies, a BB-gun, a knife and some rubber tubing:

Make BB strings- cut the rubber tubing into bite size pieces. place some BBs in the tubing and let the fun begin.

Shoot plastic bags with a BB gun and then CUT! CUT! CUT!- point gun at plastic bag and pull trigger. Grab the knife and let the fun begin, again.

now you think of some fun things to do with our supplies. remember: SAFETY FIRST!

post script

lj@screamingink.com — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:19:03 GMT

the best customer service EVER award goes to:

http://lpgear.com/

i ordered some replacement parts for a Dual turntable i'm restoring. anyway, i sent the order and expected to get an automated response and my order info e-mailed back. instead i get this:

Hello Nick,

If you intend to use the P-mount cartridge on the Dual Cartridge Carrier, it will not fit. The Dual Cartridge will only accept standard mount. So if this is your intent you need the Grado regular mount.

Please advise so we can revise your order as needed.

Thanks,
LP Gear

what?? 1st of all how fucking awesome of them to catch my mistake and how fucking awesome of them to know so much about their inventory and how fucking awesome of them to be aware of the interactions of the gear and accessories they sell (considering they sell so many brands). anyway, the fact that they actually READ their orders, is about as neat as things get.

it's the little things.

ALSO, i've always said no to cell phones. of course Apple (as most of you already know) has ruined that. those bitches.

it's mine when it goes on sell.

it snowed

lj@screamingink.com — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 01:03:43 GMT

earlier this week i kept hearing and reading that there was a winter storm coming and that, come tuesday, seattle would be faced with a snow storm of EPIC proportions. the sun itself, would be blocked out by winds of white and blocks of ice would replace condos and apartments all across the land.

i didn't sleep well tuesday and every time i looked out the window, my visions of a monster snow shower were shattered by clear night skies and twinkles provided by the local power company.

wednesday morning the lovely wife made it point to let me know we had gotten the slightest trace of snow sometime in the early morning tuesday -- apparently my insomnia had failed me somewhere along the line.

"it snowed a little honey..." i wasn't impressed with what i saw from the window. i complained through breakfast, the trip to work, and to myself at work about there being no snow.

all day wednesday at work, everyone seemed a little let down by all the hype about the snow. there was still a "chance" and there were sarcastic quips like "i better leave early so i don't get stuck in the snow storm."

around 4:45pm i noticed that the office seemed darker than it had through the day, which is pretty dark to begin with. i looked through the blinds high above me and noticed an unusual shimmer to the street lights beaming in from outside.

i ran to my viewing spot and sure enough there they were: thousands of tiny beads of snow. yes, beads. they weren't flakes and it wasn't hail. i frowned knowing that it would just stop and we'd be left with a little trace of snow that would probably melt over night.

fast forward to thursday morning:

sweet.

we haven't been able to leave the house because the street has turned to ice. so i've missed 2 days of work, good-bye vacation time.

that's all.

Post Script

lj@screamingink.com — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 11:21:17 GMT

i just looked over my journal, since i'm a narcissistic fuck, and i noted that i've only had 9 posts since January 1st of this year, not including this one.

pretty exciting, huh?

ninjas do not fight cows

lj@screamingink.com — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 11:11:40 GMT

i thought a lot about family, old and new, this evening. actually, these thoughts have been surfacing all week. they seemed to come to a head tonight, for whatever reasons. i still find myself in awe of how time can change so much around it, yet it never changes itself. a second is always a second, is always a second, and so on. the luster is always there.

i guess that this is about that time of year most people reflect on their past and it seems i'm in the depths of that right now. it seems little pieces of my past keep sneaking up and frightening me. without the past there'd be no future and the future has me little frightened, mostly the fear of the unknown. i'm excited to see what happens when the two finally meet.

anyhow, i wanted to wish you all a wonderful "Holiday Season™" and i hope the coming year brings you lots of good stuff.

everything is free :)

they told me there was more

lj@screamingink.com — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 06:32:05 GMT

i lit a trash can on fire with a hose, today. the arch was high and very, very bright. i thought about a tuna can i once saw, but decided against it. off to my right there were three civil war enthusiasts. i smiled at their costumes. the blood was real, though. kind of strange.

i walked away from the trash can and headed up the street. there was a nickel laying on the sidewalk, it was the size of a quarter. what nonsense! i went ahead and picked it up.

behind me a group of street kids mumbled something. they told me there was more. from what i could see in the reflections around my shoes, they didn't look me in the eye.

just bored

holy christ

lj@screamingink.com — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 05:05:18 GMT

life's been crazy lately. it's weird waking up one day and realizing you're old. i am seriously in awe of my life and how, when i was younger, i felt i was in control of my destiny and that i could make or create anything i wanted in my life. now it seems like life's just going with me along as a passenger.

in a few days i'm going to own a house. a home. christ fuck, for crying out loud...i've become my parents.

there are other things going on that make things seem a little surreal to me, but that's for another time.

i've pretty much stopped drinking, which makes the weekends seem longer and less painful.

good times.

live by the gator, die by the...stingray?

lj@screamingink.com — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 05:46:52 GMT

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20349888-2,00.html

crikey indeed.

scientists

lj@screamingink.com — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:57:26 GMT

wow, these scientists sound like a bunch of whiny little bitches (no offense to the dog owners out there).

SAVE THE INTERNET

lj@screamingink.com — Wed, 02 Aug 2006 03:35:04 GMT

SAVE THE INTERNET !!

LIKE A MAGIC MONKEY (that's just included for dramatic effect)

read the FAQ at this site:
http://savetheinternet.com

then sign the petition:
http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet

word, bitches.

where've you been?

lj@screamingink.com — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 00:28:51 GMT

i just realized that it's been half a year since my last post.

i've been drunk, married, to mexico, sleepy, tired, bored, hyper, excited, sad, happy, sweaty, showered, screamed at by strangers on the bus, kissed, and punched. i've fallen (while drunk), i've stood (while sober). i watched a cat being put down. i watched birds playing with garbage in the sky. i've met some new people. i've seen people i know leave and return. some just leave. some never do.

i quit smoking. i started exercising. i watched less tv and then more, now i'm back to a little less again. i stopped writing, but i was up to writing 4 to 6 pieces a night. it's been months since i've written anything. i recorded an album for gwynn (sample to come, maybe), but haven't seriously played or sang since. i haven't been very creative, although for the first few months at work i started a collection of post-it note art. i might make it into a book eventually. a co-worker got me interested in mail art and stamp art. i might start a series, if anyone's interested...let me know.

otherwise, banality rules my life lately :)

everything is still free.