But tattoos are permanent

In June, my wife and I will celebrate our 18th wedding anniversary. Holy crap, that’s a long ass time!

We’ve had this long running joke, which isn’t so much a joke as it is common sense. It usually starts off with somebody asking me if I have my wife’s name tattooed on my body. The response is always the same, “What, are you crazy? Tattoos are permanent.”

So, it’s sorta been a mutual agreement that no matter how long we were together, we wouldn’t cross that line and tattoo one-another’s names on our bodies. Well, this past Monday, I broke that agreement.

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Chris didn’t seem upset when I surprised her with it Monday night. Actually, I think she was just short of giddy.

To answer your obvious questions:
- No, it wasn’t the most painful tattoo I’ve ever received (actually, it was barely even uncomfortable)
- It healed in about 3 days
- No, my lip did not swell up like a balloon
- Yes, I am crazy to be getting the inside of my lip tattooed

My tattoo artist put a photo of the tattoo up on his blog taken minutes after it was done. You can check it out here if you’d like.

Total product satisfaction

Rarely do you find a product that, after the pre-sale hype and after you’ve plunked down your money and got the new product home and some time goes by and you find yourself 100% totally happy with a product. Well, it’s happened to me with my Samsung Blackjack phone.

Here’s a list of some features & benefits I’m enjoying:

- For starters, it’s thin enough to carry in the pocket of any pair of jeans, shorts or even slacks without feeling like I’m carrying a brick. This was a big issue for me as I recently had a pocket PC phone that was just too bulky to carry around on a daily basis. I found myself leaving it at my desk whenever I walked away. Not with the blackjack. I take it with me everywhere.

- Internet speed. On my old pocket PC phone, the internet access was so slow, I basically stopped using it. I don’t know if it’s just Cingular boosting things up and it’s all just nice timing, but I don’t really care. My access is quick and that’s good enough for me.

- Superior photo and video capabilities. I love being able to shoot a quick video whenever we are out. My last phone had a camera built in but it didn’t shoot video and the photos were terrible. Now that I’ve gotten used to taking photos with it, the quality is really starting to show through.

- I’m able to check my pop3 geeeek.com AND my gmail account. This is so great. My previous phone allowed for one connection. Who the hell has only one email address these days? sheesh!

- Bluetooth. I realize this feature is basically standard on nearly all blackberrys, etc… but I really love it. I have a bluetooth connection in my car so it’s quite simple to have a conversation and keep both hands on the wheel.

- It’s durable. I’ve already dropped it about 5 times and there isn’t a scratch on it and nothing internally wasdamaged.

I could go on and on, but I won’t. I’ll just leave you with this… if you are in the market for a new phone, I strongly suggest you check it ou.

Addictive personality? Who, me?

I had a very funny conversation today with my buddy Scott. He was telling me how he had sold part of a collection of items related to a hobby he had purchased a while back but doesn’t use any more. The thing that made me laugh is that he’s exactly the same as I am when it comes to hobbies. If I’m in to it, I am WAY in to it. There isn’t such a thing as “testing it out.” If the idea strikes me, I go buy it all. And, I’m also real quick to pick up new hobbies. If it looks like fun, I want to try it.� After buying all the accessories first, of course…

So, what’s the hobby of the week, John? Guitar Hero 2, thanks for asking.

I had seen the game a while back and it looked like fun. I wanted to try it out, but didn’t. Then, last Saturday we were at a party and just as we were leaving, Hargrove was showing up with his PS2 and Guitar Hero. On Monday I found out that Justin played until about 4:30 am. This, to me, was an indication the game is worth trying. So this means, of course, buying it right away.

After my dental appointment on Wednesday, I slept on the couch for about two and a half hours before eating a small dinner, watching Lost and then heading up stairs to bed. Then, on Thursday, after my dental appointment, I didn’t take a nap, but instead tried to get some work done. With the amount of novicane still in my body and perhaps the fact that I had taken some Tylenol with Codine prior to the dentist, my head was just not clear enough to get any work done. So, I told Chris, “I want to go to Toys R Us and buy Guitar Hero.” 10 minutes later we are in the car and on our way.

After getting back, I sat down and tried to work for a while… That, of course, went nowhere and I ended up playing Guitar Hero until about 12:30. Then, today I won an auction on eBay for a new Guitar Hero controller. It’s a wireless flying V guitar. Freakin’ cool! Can’t wait for it to show up.

Last night while playing on the easy level, I was able to hack my way through the songs. I didn’t do great on any of them, but I did OK on most of them. I then moved up to the medium level and my results weren’t as good. It’s going to take some practice, that’s for sure. Then, for a completely humbling experience, I put it on Expert and lasted approximately 16 seconds before they booed me off stage. Then, to top it off, I found a video on you tube of an 8 year old kid playing a song on the expert level and just shredding. At one point, he turns around isn’t even looking at the screen and is STILL shredding! I hate that little brat!

But, I did get a bit of a reprieve, though. I was sent a link to a video of Scott Ian of Anthrax playing an Anthrax song on Guitar Hero on the easy level and getting booed off stage. Sweet!

Well, gotta go. Rock super stardom� awaits.

Fun at the dentist

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“You can swallow a pint of blood before you get sick.”
– The Narrator, Fight Club

I went to the dentist for a deep cleaning. After getting 6 shots of novicane, she went to work with a pick-axe and a sledgehammer. Immediatly my mouth was filled with a metallic taste as a warm stream of blood rushed over my tounge.

Wow, what an unfun way to spend the afternoon. The best part is, I get to go back again tommorow. Today we only did the left side. Oh, and for added fun, I am having 3 fillings dealt with during my appointment, to. Jason, you better not have forgotten the Lortab!

Made with real Girl Scouts

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All year I sit around waiting for those cute little girls in their green dresses to show up outside every grocery store in the Western Hemisphere hawking those boxes of cookies. The wife will pick up a few boxes of Thin Mint or the peanut butter patties for me. But, the season just wouldn’t be complete without the annual hunt for Girl Scout Thin Mint ice cream. Holy hell that is some good stuff.
This year’s journey was completed today. After visiting no less than a dozen stores in search of the frozen minty goodness, I was told that Smiths carried it. When I arrived there was but one gallon remaining. I was ready to knock out the group of elderly ladies in the ice cream aisle if the showed any signs of reaching for it. Luckily (for them), they moved on and headed for the Depends.

Hockey, dentists & nipple tattoos

How’s that for a title, huh?

It’s been a while since I’ve written so I have a few things to cover…

I spent the weekend playing in a hockey tournament with my buddies from California. That was a lot of fun. We managed to go undefeated in the round robin portion but ended up losing in the finals. We still had a great time hanging out with friends, drinking and gambling. I hadn’t played hockey in about 6 months so I was seriously feeling drained. Then, I ended up with a major head cold starting Saturday morning, so that didn’t help much, either. We got together for a poker tourney at my place on Saturday afternoon and the guys were nice enough to put a bounty on my head. Somebody said it was a sign of respect. I just thought it was a way for Dom to draw all attention away from himself so he could go on to the victory (he split first place with my wife, who knocked me out). I’m on to you, Dom. Next year, I’m personally putting up a bounty on your head. Oh, and as per usual, Dar and I shaved mohawks for the tourney. A tradition that goes back a few years. This year, Pat decided to join in the fun. You can check out a photo of it here.

On Monday night I went and had a tattoo session with Austin. We pretty much finished the work on my chest. I thought for sure I was going to wimp out and only be able to do an hour or so. But, somehow I sat through the entire 3 hour session without once begging for a break. Hot damn! I’m just stoked that it’s finished. You can check out some of the tattoo project photos here. The most fun part, of course, was the area around the nipple. Yikes that is a painful spot. You can check that video out here:

Then, to finish things off, tonight I had a dentist appointment to replace the temporary teeth they had put in place while making my crowns. Sucky part #1, no anesthetic. Just walk in, sit down and they start yankin’, scrapin’ and pullin’. No fun at all. Sucky part #2, while the crown on the bottom feels perfect, the two on top feel odd. I can’t describe exactly how it feels, but it doesn’t feel right. If things don’t get better by mid day tomorrow, I’m gonna have to head back. I certainly don’t want to be going the whole weekend with my teeth feeling less than great.

UPDATE: After waking up in the morning, my teeth no longer hurt or feel odd. Woo hoo! All seems right in the world, again.

Wha is that smell?

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About a week ago, i entered the elevator after a group of ladies exited. As I took the short trip up, I recall thinking that one of the ladies wears too much of some crappy perfume. Yesterday I noticed a similar smell. Odd, I thought. But, perhaps the same lady had used the elevator recently. Whatever…
So today I got in to the empty elevator and immediatly noticed the same smell. Damn, that is a lot of perfume for one lady to go through… Then, out of the corner of my eye, I found the source. A new air freshener that spits some wildly pungent air destroyer. Gross, man. Gross.

Out with the old, in with the new

Projects, that is…

As I mentioned a while back, I tossed out all my old projects and have been laying low for a month or so giving my mind a bit of a vacation. I forgot how much I actually enjoyed working on projects when my inner voice wasn’t screaming at me to take care of 500 projects. Give me 2 or 3 projects and I’m a happy camper. Well, that’s where I’m at right now. Here are some projects I’m working on:

AustinsInk.com - This is a project I’m working on with my tattoo artist, Austin Spencer from Studio 21 Tattoo. The site is set up so that he can snap a quick photo with the camera on his phone and send it via email to his site where it gets picked picked up every 15 minutes and any new emails turn in to posts on the site. We are still doing a bit of design touch ups, but he’s already started posting some project pieces. Can’t wait til next week when I’m in his chair. I expect my photo to be on the site before I get home.

Texas-Holdem-Poker.com - I’m pretty stoked about this one. The company I work for had owned this domain for several years. It was decided that we were going to let it expire. Before that happened I asked if I could take it over. I transfered it over to my GoDaddy account and went to work building the new site. For now I have put up some poker articles that talk about different strategies for tournament play. Over time I plan on writing my own strategy articles. I’m hoping it becomes a way for me to improve my own game through the research process for the articles. Digging deep in to each situation I’m describing. If nothing else, I find writing to be therapeutic so I’ve got that going for me…

CaptainKidds.com -  My favorite place on Earth to eat. This site was built for my Uncle’s fish market restaurant in Redondo Beach, California. The place I worked for about 10 years before making the plunge in to a technology based career. The front end of the site is fairly basic. The web-based administration section that manages the menu (prices, categories, etc…) is where the real fun came in to play. If you are making a trip to So Cal, be sure and stop in.

I’ve got a 4th project that I’m working on called the Bodywork Concierge. This one isn’t done yet. It’s coming along nicely, but is still a few weeks away from being launched. They have an existing site that we are porting over and I’m building them an admin tool that will allow them update news articles, upcoming events, etc. All database driven and easy like. If you are looking for an in-home massage, these are the guys to contact! They are awesome. See ya Tuesday, Dave!

That about covers it for now. Trying to keep it low key. We’ll see how long that plan works…

Chuck Palahniuk: Rant - An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster CaseyAs it turns out, Chuck Palahniuk’s new book ‘Rant‘ will be released on May 1st. It’s available for pre-order now. Stop reading and go, damn it!

Here’s a little bit about the book:

A high-school rebel who always wins (and a childhood murderer?), Rant Casey escapes from his small hometown of Middleton for the big city. He becomes the leader of an urban demolition derby called Party Crashing. On appointed nights participants recognize each other by such designated car markings as “Just Married” toothpaste graffiti and then stalk and crash into each other. Rant Casey will die a spectacular highway death after which his friends gather testimony needed to build an oral history of his short, violent life. Their collected anecdotes explore the possibility that his saliva caused a silent urban plague of rabies and that he found a way to escape the prison house of linear time…

Oh, and for those of you with a bottomless wallet, you may want to check out the limited edition version of the book also available for pre-order.

Rant - Limited Edition: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey

Monthly poker tourney - big turnout!

This weekend was the monthly home game at our place. Last month we had 15 players and I thought that was pretty good. This month was crazy, though. We had 22 players which didn’t include 3 regulars who couldn’t make it plus a couple others who I thought were going to make it. Way back when we had a tourney that had about 28 players attend. Since then, we have been lucky to break in to 2 tables… But, the past 2 months have been a welcome up-swing in the turn out. I hope it keeps up and we can fill up 3 full tables at one of these events. I’m gonna need some more chips. Yikes.

Unfortunately, I had been battling a VERY painful headache for the entire day (and the previous day) so I pretty much played like crap. My “middle of the pack” finish was to be expected, I guess. Thankfully the wife saved the day and made it in to the top 3 finishers where the final 3 decided on an even chop of the prize money. Way to go, baby!

During the pre-game game, Chris and I were heads up and she was dealing. She made a pre-flop raise and I called with 8/6 suited. The flop came out 9/9/7 rainbow. I’m pretty happy with this flop since I’ve got an open ended straight draw and there are no high cards, so if Chris has something like A/K or A/Q, I’ve got a LOT of ways to win this pot. I checked the flop and so did she. The turn was a 5. Woo Hoo! I’ve made my straight. She bets out $3. I raise to $9. She moves all-in for about $13. I’ve put too much in to fold at this point, I just have to hope my hand is good. I ask if she has 9/7 for a full house and she says “No” and turns over 9/9 for quads. Nothing like getting all your money in drawing stone-cold dead.

On a related note, my buddy Scott had called and was telling me about a poker tournament he played yesterday where he was dealing the 2nd hand of the tournament. Somebody made a raise from middle position and he called from the button with 9/9. The flop came out 9/9/x. Two people I know flopping quad nines within about 3 hours of each other… Crazyness.

I’ve had a couple people tell me they aren’t getting the emails regarding the monthly poker tourney. If you are one of them, send me an email and I’ll double-check to make sure your email address is on the list.