March 30, 2012

"Art is what you can get away with."  At least that is my excuse and I am sticking by it.  This Pollockesque piece was half heartedly made by me when I discovered that my wife had some extra paint leftover from a project.  I found a canvas and then painted it, splattered it, and stuck a bottle cap from my favorite beer on it.  I then titled it, "Black Beauty Screams Welcome," for no reason other than it sounded like something that I am supposed to name it.

I am not a fan of some works of contemporary art, especially the ones that have esoteric names or meaning; the ones that seem to be created for the sole purpose to get one to "think," about what is art.  Those ones usually piss me off.  There is a "sculpture," at the Art Institute of Chicago made by Carl Andre titled, "Steel-Aluminum Plain." It takes up a good portion of an exhibition hall and just sits on the floor in alternating squares similar to a checkerboard.  The artist encourages viewers to walk on the tiles and hear the sound resonate from each step.  OK, what?  Listen, I like it, or I don't.  That's it nothing more.

Art is what you can get away with and what you take from it.  Which is why I enjoy art so much.  At least it gives us all something to talk about and the fact that Andre creates his random discussion pieces gives me a reason to fill up a nice chunk of a post.

March 29, 2012

Look, guitars are nice to look at.  It is like observing the physical form of what could have been or can be.  I wish I could play even halfway decent.  Sometimes I wake up from a dream and have a unique song stuck in my head.  Yet, I have no way to express it and let it out.  Instead, I am stuck strumming the same two chords on my guitar.  The guitar then sits for another year untouched.  Then I say to myself, "maybe later…maybe."

March 28, 2012

I can grow something!  Well, indirectly of course.  I had nothing to do with this plant deciding to grow up the wall.  When we first moved into the house it was just a sorry dead looking branch with no motivation to act plant like.  I think the little guy heard that I am a Chicago Cub's fan and wanted to replicate the outfield walls of Wrigley Field in tribute.

Another two for one deal.  But, my reasoning for two photos is that I have been wanting to get this out of the way.  I have been playing Skyrim for awhile...and a lot.  I mean, A LOT.  So much, my wife even gets the jokes that are attributed to Skyrim.  It is an awesome game, not for everyone though.  I have gotten to the point where I play it for an hour or so on my days off and I am good.  This photo is of the quest marker that is in the game.  It is used to point the way to certain quests.  This particular marker is on my refrigerator door in the form of a sticker.  I am sure my wife put it there to ensure I eat something and not starve in front of the television.

March 27, 2012

Need a little spice?  I take warning if an establishment already puts a tabasco bottle on their tables.  To me it is like saying, "my food is bland and sucks, sorry."  I get it from my Army time.  Tiny Tabasco bottles were stuffed in the MREs to help enhance the flavor of a product that was made to last many years...so the food was bland by "nature."  I do like spicy things though and I appreciate the gesture of allowing me to accentuate my food.

A few years ago I decided to challenge myself and eat ten chicken wings made with the hottest pepper known to man at the time.  The sauce was made with the Bhut Jolokia chili pepper also known as the Ghost pepper.  Ghost is right!  All I could say while eating the wings was, "oooooh, oooooh, ooooooooh," which was usually followed by a variety of curse words.

I was able to successfully finish all of the wings, not without sacrificing my stomach lining though.  It was so bad that my server "accidentally" poured a 32oz beer that he gave me for free.  The next few days after that I could not taste anything and my ass burned at the mere thought of anything spicy.  I think I still feel a twinge of regret.

March 26, 2012

OK?  Then get out of my way!  I believe Las Vegas is sitting over a vortex similar to those found in Sedona, Arizona.  However, these vortices somehow magnetize human flesh to meet with metal;  particularly when said metal is moving at a high velocity.  I imagine there is an increase in the magnetic pull when alcohol is infused with the human flesh.

I am curious if other cities contain a similar vortex?

March 25, 2012

This is a bracelet my wife made.  I have seen other blogs and I notice that a good majority of them devote their content to crafting.  Some devote their time to their relationships and family. So, I figured I might as well hit both of those demographics with one post.

My wife loves to craft things.  Eventually she wants to sell the product of her crafting on etsy. My wife also loves buttons and just like what was done with Alice, she got a tattoo to show this love of buttons.

There is a room in the house that is her craft room.  On the shelves, thousands of buttons sit in jars waiting to be made into something; yarn rests haphazardly rolled up, halfway in the process of being made into "something awesome."  The crafting sometimes consumes her to the point of maniacal reasoning.  When she was going to nail school she would tell people that she, "painted shit on shit."  I think that sometimes her crafting takes wild turns where she, "sticks shit on shit."

I love my wife.  However, she calls me, "a shit" often.  So, I have to only assume that I may be painted on and or sticked with something during one of those maniacal fits of crafting.

March 24, 2012

Another tree.  This one specifically in my backyard.  I believe it to be a form of bottle tree, at least according to my book.  I wish I could say I was casually lounging about under the tree.  Unfortunately, ants used to plague the majority of the tree.  As a result, ant poison now consumes the majority of the tree.  Ant poison is an annoyance.

Rather than enjoy my backyard in my normal state of mind, I instead roam around high and lost.  That is not my normal state of mind regardless of what my wife thinks.  The bug folks say that it is safe.  I am still trying to determine what their "safe" means.  So, no lounging in the backyard for a few days.  Just a quick photo of a tree and a run back in the house.

March 23, 2012

There are going to be a lot of food photos taken during this endeavor.  Here we have a caprese salad from Settebello, an awesome pizza spot.  I can handle their pizza everyday if I was told to.  Metro Pizza on the other hand can be taken in every now and then.
The wife and I did something that we rarely do and went to see a movie in an actual theater.  She decided that we were going to see The Hunger Games. I have not read the books but I read the wiki.  My wife is a fan and wanted to see the movie as soon as possible so that, I can only assume, she could immediately start discussing it with her friends.  I liked it.  I am a big fan of dystopian films/novels.  Blade Runner, Brazil, Dark City, and I can go on.  I thought there could be more to the film though.  Again, I did not read the books.  My wife associates this with me being a pompous ass.  Which may be true.
The movie did get me thinking about another dystopian science fiction story where children are sent off to fight a war, Ender's Game.  I cannot wait for this movie, and hope that it is a faithful adaptation to the story.  This movie has been "in the making," since the early 80's!  I suppose if I put Ender into the same category as The Hunger Games, I can appreciate the fandom that is associated with it.

March 22, 2012

This is my "beer wall" in the garage.  My wife and I cut countless sides off of six-packs and stapled them to the wall to provide some...art.  The wall also serves as my own personal way to rate beer.  I can walk past it and see a certain beer and remember how tasty or disgusting it was.

March 21, 2012

How about you just go ask Alice when she's 10 feet tall?  This is one of my wife's proud purchases that watches over the backyard.  She has a strange fascination for all things Alice.  She even tattooed her body to show this love.

The day was filled with boredom.  I went to the father's house and watched an hour of cable TV...about enough to fill my quota for 6 months and lose a good share of brain cells.  I do not have cable television at my house.  I rarely turn on my TV to watch anything other than sports.  I enjoy my Netflix on occasion.  Especially when a good 'ol fashioned Battlestar Galactica marathon is in store.

March 20, 2012

The handle to the garage door.  I took this picture as a reminder to myself, that the door is in fact shut.  This worry usually goes in waves.  I see the door close down in front of me.  Yet when I drive off and around the corner I think, "did I shut the door?"  I know I did; while the door slowly moved down to its final act of closing, I said to myself, "It's shut."  I must look again though!  That is the conundrum that I am faced with.  If I drive off and the door is open, hoodlums and riffraff will steal my belongings.  If I drive back around to check, somehow the great author of my "Choose Your Own Adventure" life surprises me with an unkind day.

Crazy?  In my opinion, no.  I am sure a fair amount of people, in their lifetime, have felt some sort of "ping" to this crazy desire to: see if the door is shut, see if the iron is on, see...crap, the water is running, oh no the back door is unlocked, the candle is burning that was blown out 4 hours ago, and see that the freezer somehow in it's personified form decided to get up and piss all over the living room floor.

OCD? In my opinion, no.  I believe it to be a form of survival.  If said belongings are taken, then damn I am screwed.  As for being blessed with an unkind day; humanity as a whole still struggles for the desires of an omnipotent being.  Some believe that if they miss church, said being will be mad.  There are others that believe that if they do not kill another for the attention of the great one, said being will not let them sex it up rabbit style.  Then others like myself say, if my garage door ain't shut my day is going to be filled with hell and damnation.

I guess I could always purchase one of these to prevent the encroachment of the fires?

March 19, 2012

I have a deep fascination toward dendrology.  There are an untold amount of shirts with trees doing their tree things on them that I wear.  Pictures and artwork depicting trees hang in my office room.  Yet, with all this love that I put toward trees, I really cannot pick the family, genus, or even the species of the majority of trees.

Not to say that I do not try.  I have various books that at least give me some sort of assistance in identifying what the tree I am gandering at might be.  One such book illustrates just about every variety of tree that exists.  Weighing in at almost 7 pounds the book can stand as an anchor for the house just in case a really bad wind storm hits it.

Trees to...

It's a twofer!  These are tacos.  Or, the attempt at being after getting wrapped in foil and stuffed in a bag.  Regardless of the presentation, they are amazing.  I got them from a little joint on the Strip called, Tacos El Gordo.  They are the real deal.  I had the tacos de adobada and the asada.

March 18, 2012

Simply one a day.  That's all it takes.  This little project I am doing has to be a focus similar to what I put toward taking my daily vitamins.  I never miss taking my vitamins.  I've been taking a multi-vitamin daily since high school.  Of all those days, I have maybe missed a few and that was because of circumstances beyond my control.  But now, I carry a phone with me at all times.  I should be able to find something to put into a photo?  Either way, eerie how the bottle is floating like some advertisement.  It was just sitting on my black dresser.

March 17, 2012

This is going to be kinda difficult!  So today was my first day back at work.  It is hard trying to find something that is worth taking a picture of.  I went to metro pizza with my workmates and enjoyed some of this bread.  That was about it really.  I like metro pizza in spurts.  It is just too much pizza they serve, which really can be a bad thing.

March 16, 2012

I started a small fire while I was out in the backyard cooking up some chicken on the barbecue.  The weather was actually in the high 70's but I figured it would just give it a nice touch to have a fire.  I soaked the chicken in a marinade that I found on-line and cooked up some fingerling potatoes.  Never mind what I said about my cooking.

March 15, 2012

Beer, Basketball, Brackets, and...peas?  Alliteration fail.

Ahh, the NCAA tournament.  It is perhaps one of the few occasions that I watch basketball on TV.  Of course, sports and beer go together like, well, honestly I cannot think of anything that beer doesn't go good with.  Beer in the shower anyone?  Anyway, the players put heart into the game and it makes for some great sport watching.  It's nothing that has not already been said.  Plus, it is a good time to get a few people together and fill out an NCAA bracket.  Win or Lose, it's still a good time...better than fantasy football in my opinion.

So my wife enjoys the peas, figured I'd shoot a quick picture of me bagging up a bunch.  She was wanting to boil them up on their own...maybe with a tad pinch of salt.  I really do not know how that ties in to the whole NCAA basketball thing.  I guess I can add the fact that she actually sat down and watched a full game prior to cooking the peas, which she has never done.

On another note, I'm finally posting something on the date that it was intended for!  It won't happen all the time, I am certain of that.  But at least I can say I did it early in my adventure.

March 14, 2012

This is some artwork from someone who has a gallery in a place.  Sorry, I really don't know the artist's name.  I particularly like the hanging fire extinguisher in the lower left; it is perfectly placed for those burning eyeball inducing pieces that sometimes grace the gallery.  I like this one though...

Today we went to the Bar + Bistro in downtown's art district.  The bistro is situated amongst various galleries and studios.  It has a very hipster vibe to the whole place that kinda rubs me the wrong way.  I have been down there before for the First Friday Festivities, but never eaten at the place.  It was our culture outing for the week.

Speaking of culture.  On the drive there my sister in law spoke of a story that I thought was worth sharing.  Apparently, there is this woman that she works with whom she has been receiving e-mails from for some time.  The woman will always start her e-mails with, "Hola," since she is hispanic and she felt that it was appropriate to put a little Spanish flair in her e-mails.  Well, my sister in law read the e-mail as "Holla."  As in, "holla at your boy..."  It took her a few months to realize that the word the woman was using was actually "hola," and she was really not wanting to "holla," at her reference the work related issues.

March 13, 2012

I started yesterday, March 13.

I was hanging out with a good friend of mine at Miller's Ale House in Town Square.  In the glass is Big Sky Brewing Co.'s, Moose Drool.  It's one of my favorite go to beers when I just want to knock back a few and still have flavor in my beer.  UNLV is heading to the NCAA tournament which is why the glass is reppin' the hometown University.  I'm digging Hey Reb's chiseled chin too it looks kinda like mine.

With what you've got

I suppose a small explanation is in order.  What I am going to do is take a photo(s) a day with my iPhone.  I am not an Applephile by any means, it is just easier to use since I am carrying it everywhere I go…for the most part.  I am curious as to what can be found in a year.  When possible I hope to post a description of the photo.  I am going to try my best and not take photos of the cats sleeping...

A word on the title…Do What You Can.  I got it from a quote that is often attributed to Teddy Roosevelt, "Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are."  The quote actually came from Squire Bill Widener whom Roosevelt quoted in his Autobiography.  I am a fan of 'ol Teddy and in fact have a photo of him and John Muir hanging in my bedroom.

No particular reason for choosing it, I just feel that it best represents my undertaking.  Quick trivia: prior to Roosevelt quoting Widener, he wrote, "…the greatest happiness is the happiness that comes as a by-product of striving to do what must be done, even though sorrow is met in the doing."  Kinda like my cooking.