I think I've had it with old air-cooled VW's...

I recently drove my VW Bus back to Reno from Virginia.

Tonight... the engine developed a major oil leak...
...so bad, that all the oil was on the ground in minutes!

Luckily, I finished my journey a few days ago. I'm
not stranded out in the middle of nowhere. (but I do
have AAA for a situation like that)

Look... I like VW's, but one thing I noticed on my trip was...

PARTS AVAILABILITY outside Orange County, CA is very limited.

If I break down out in the middle of nowhere, I'm stuck.
It's not like I can buy my parts and have them mailed to me.
I need to be able to get my parts somewhere local, even
someplace remote like Hays, Kansas.

I almost had to pay $400 when my VW's brakes went out in West Virginia.
It's not like I can just go into any random "friendly local auto parts store"
and buy the parts I need... most places don't carry parts!

I need a vehicle that uses off the shelf parts that I can find
at almost any Autozone through out the country, but still
simple and easy for me to fix.

I need a vehicle that isn't really expensive to fix when parts fail.

I think I'm going to go for something American... like an old DODGE VAN.

I've heard lots of good stuff about those "slant-6" engines
that were made by Chrysler back in the 60s and 70s.
Maybe I'll buy an old Dodge Van with a 225cid slant-6 in it.

I think I might do some research first.

As for my VW Bus, I'm going to sell what's left of it, and go
pick up the '92 Ford Taurus down in Southern California that
my step-father wants to give me. I'll drive that while I'm trying
to get my life back together, and while I'm doing that,
I'll figure out what old car I'll buy next. But first, I need
to get my life back together. Kind of hard to do without
a working car. I could probably restore my van, but geez...
It's a 1977 VW Bus... not a 1959 VW Bus. Why blow all
my money restoring a car that isn't even the one I want?
On top of that, I can get a different VW that runs
for less than what it will cost to get my VW back on the road.
But right now, I can't afford any of that. I'm just going to
sell my VW Bus, and get whatever I can for it.


Maybe when I have a piece of land, and have my life figured
out, I'll buy all the VW's I want. But for now, owning
an old VW is not very practical.

I'm back in Reno now...

Here is a Silly Symphony cartoon directed by Walt Disney
himself in 1935. It was rare for Disney to actually direct
cartoons himself after 1930... and this is one of his
last attempts:



...reminds me of this industrial short:



Oh fine... if I'm going to post that film, I might as
well post this:

Some new doodles...

Well, if I want to start being creative again,
I need to start doodling more...

Here's some I drew... I drew all three of these
in the matter of about 5 minutes total, if even that:






This next one, I drew after breaking up with my girlfriend... :(



When I get to Reno, someone remind me to start doing this every day.
(draw stuff, and post new drawings or even doodles, every day)


Yeah, they are silly cute insipid AND immature drawings that look like something
a teenaged girl would have done... so what? I need to practice
and get my skills back up to par, so I started with something easy.

Well...

It looks like I'm coming back to Reno.

That's all I will say for now.

...cause round things are boring

Hi everybody!

I am making an update, for the sake of making an update.

My life has changed a lot in the past month. After moving to
the east coast, I now live in yet another city, and work at a
slightly different job. (same company, different location
and position)

I still have the same girlfriend, I just live 10 miles
away from her, instead of 60 miles away (like I did a month
ago) or 3000 miles away (like I did a year ago).

Creative wise... things have still been pretty dead, like
they have for a long while. But I still have this site up
for the sake of my plans of "starting to be creative again,
and actually having some success at it". Whatever that means.



The lesson of this story is... don't get into credit card debt. :P
(at least I'm down to my last $1500 or so) Oh yeah... and being
an adult with responsibilities and trying to live on ones own
is hard and draining sometimes. (although there are some perks
that completely make up for it)

Bicycle riding at night...

I just rode 20 miles... from 10PM to 1AM...

Here's a map of where I rode...


(click on map to see a larger version)

While I was on my ride, I rode down Broad St, hoping to
find a place that was open to get some soda, and then
stopped and checked my PO BOX. (which explains the weird
illogical detours)

Just for fun... here's my bike:


(click on picture for larger version)

Yep, magic sleigh...

Dang... Did the quadratic formula explode again?


Yes, I still exist. I'm still on the east coast.

Life is going ok... I'm just trudging along, from
one point in time to the next point in time on my
journey through life.

So many creative plans... but never enough motivation
to follow through these days. That's been my story for
way too long, but I'm trying to accomplish goals that
require me working more hours than I wish I had to,
so that later on, I'd have a lot more free time in life.
I've also hit a plateau in other aspects of my life,
and I can't really go to the next major steps until
the time is right. If anything, one major step in
my life won't take place until probably this June.
(but I have no idea which direction my life will
take once June comes)

At least my girlfriend is still pretty motivated,
creativity wise... she's working on a comic book.


Speaking of my girlfriend... she recently showed me
something on the internet that she likes now...
"Potter Puppet Pals". Of course, I know what that is... :P
I mean, after being slightly involved in the Animutation
flash cartoon scene back in 2005, and even contributing a few
non-animutational scenes to "The Fingertips Project",
of course I know who Neil Cicierega is.

But she isn't really into Animutations. Then again, I'm
not into them much anymore either. She loves Homestar
Runner though. (one of the many things I turned her on to)
I think she kinda likes that "Birthday" flash cartoon
I made, that's KINDA LIKE ANIMUTATION, but mostly because
it's a Beatles song... and she's CRAZY about the Beatles. :P
(as some of you may soon realize)



Anyways... not much else going on in my life.
I work in retail. That's all I will say about that.
I shouldn't complain about my job... it's not horrible.




If anyone wants to get a hold of me, feel free to e-mail me.
I answer all e-mails that seem worth my time.

VW Documentary

Here's a documentary on how VW Beetles were made...
(factory footage)

vw beetle documentary: the shape of quality (part 1)



vw beetle documentary: the shape of quality (part 2)



vw beetle documentary: the shape of quality (part 3)




I once disassembled my Beetle... well, part way.

...I miss my Bug. :(

Still alive

I'm still alive out on the east coast. Things are going
well between my girlfriend and I, and I've been working
steadily for three months now. The only thing I have
to worry about now is getting my VW Bus fixed before
the problems it has get worse.


Last night, I saw the Pink Panther cartoon "Pink Pajamas"
for the first time. It's his second cartoon ever, made and released
in 1964. It was actually directed by Friz Freleng himself. I never
saw it on TV before... it's pretty good.





Hmmmm... flop house eh? I've lived in places like that before... (except
the places I lived in were just one step above that)

If anyone wants to see where I post most of my more personal
updates, feel free to e-mail me, and I might let you know where
they can be found. You can also find me on Myspace, Facebook
and Twitter, if you are any good at finding people on those sites.

Stuff

Life is doing OK here in the South.
(well, I call it the East, but it's
really the South-East... I live in
a state that was once part of the
Confederacy)

I got my own cat today...



What else going on? Not much else.
People here LOVE my van... it seems like
I get comments all the time about it...
more so than ever. I'm actually replacing
my "HOMSAR" plates (especially since very
few people know who Homsar is) with a plate
that says "77 WESTY". (since I'm in a new
state) "77 WESTY" because it's a 1977
VW Campervan, with the Westfalia camper
package. Plus, it's great, because people keep
asking me how old it is anyways... :P



I will post some more stuff soon... maybe even
a redesign, AGAIN, focusing more on my own content
instead of just youtube clips.

Devin Flynn

Hello from the East Coast, where I now live.

I've been getting into Devin Flynn's animations lately.
He has a very unique style and sense of humour.
It's very strange, and most people won't find it
appealing... it's an acquired taste that's for sure.



A good source of his material is on Super Deluxe, with his "Y'all So Stupid" series...
http://www.superdeluxe.com/sd/series/yall_so_stupid

He also did the opening for the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie...



I first noticed his work while I was watching a lot of Wonder Showzen.
His animation shows up in most of the episodes. (but the only way
you can see it is to buy the DVD's of the show, which I would recommend
anyways... if you have a similar sense of humour)

One other thing he did, that I found out about tonight was this
rather tame short documentary he did... "How Do We Hear".
I dig the Casio VL-Tone music...



It seems to be something he did for some charter school, me thinks.

A bunch of random (?) videos...

GIVE ME A BOTTLE OF ANYTHING, AND A GLAZED DONUT... TO GO

OK... what is up with the first 100 seconds of this video???

My favorite episode of Dr Who:



wait wait wait... was he just singing the theme to this...?

ACLU

Here's a good 45 minute long documentary from the ACLU
on how to properly survive a police encounter:

I've been really busy lately.

There's been lots of big changes going on
in my life. I don't really have time to
add anything to this website. But I'll
be adding some stuff really soon... :)

R. A. G. G. M. O. P. P. ...RAGGMOPP!

Larry and Steve?

More like Peter and Brian... :P

How about some Nina Hagen...

Nina Hagen on Letterman in 1985:



Live version of "Herman Ist High" ...WOW!



And a live cover of "Ziggy Stardust" ...also good.



And to those who don't like Nina Hagen, I'd
post the Beavis and Butthead episode where they
make fun of one of her videos, but I can't find
the video clip online.

Instead, I'll post one more clip...
a live version of her song "TV Glotzer".



Hmmm... the music for this song sounds awfully
familiar... can anyone tell me the original
name of it? (before Nina Hagen wrote new
German lyrics for it?)

Need a hint? Watch this clip:

I'm selling my copy of Possum Living.

I'm selling my copy of Possum Living.

http://www.amazon.com/Possum-living-without-almost-money/dp/0876639872/

Apparently, this book is worth $45 on Amazon,
for an old soft cover book that originally sold
for $3.95 back in the early 1980s.

However, if you do not want to pay for this great book,
the complete text is online...

http://www.f4.ca/text/possumliving.htm


More info on the book:

"Possum Living: How to Live Well Without a Job and With
Almost No Money" was written in the mid-1970s by a teenaged
girl named Dolly Freed. She lived with her father on half an acre
outside Philadelphia. The book was originally published in 1978.

Possum Living contains information on

* Raising rabbits, chickens, pigs, and goats for meat
* Catching and cooking fish
* Gardening
* Preserving food
* Making moonshine
* Low-cost housing
* Utilities
* Clothing

This book does take cheap to extremes. (It reminds me of
Thoreau’s Walden.) Most of us don’t want to live like this.
But for those interested in frugality or homesteading,
there’s plenty to be gleaned from these pages.

In this book you will find much practical information
for saving money, but telling you how to do so isn’t my only
goal. Frankly, I hope to inspire you to do some independent
thinking about economics as it affects the course of your
individual life now and in the coming “age of shortages.”

(Ah, how I remember that “coming age of shortages”. When I
was a boy, my parents stockpiled flour and dried fruit and
sugar and powdered milk. We had a storage room filled with
the stuff.)

from http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2006/10/24/possum-living-how-to-live-well-without-a-job/

More info on this book can be picked up by reading the
comments about it on Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/Possum-living-without-almost-money/dp/0876639872/



I also have a few other books and CD's for sell on Amazon.
If anyone is interested, you can get the current list here...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/shops/index.html?ie=UTF8&sellerID=A2SE1Z2TR73RIR

(note to some people I used to work with: I wouldn't consider
myself competing with you guys, since the amount of books
I'm selling is very low, and I'm only selling stuff I already
have... not stuff I bought for the sole purpose of reselling on Amazon)