Archives - August 2004

Monday, August 2nd, 2004

I had a great weekend with Miss Lisa, The Wynns, and Gregg! Saturday Lisa, Tom, Jane, and I painted pottery!

The pretty bug guarded the porch while we were gone.

The head from the cat treat would have made a GREAT Octopussycat.

I painted an homage to the Robot Gods... more on that later, after I see it fired. Thursday-ish, I guess.

Tom painted the octopus! Cute!

Jane painted her and Tom's 8th anniversary! Hooray!!

Lisa painted a pretty pomegranate! Wheeee.

We then went to Hunan, where we got our customary "Special" fortune cookies... they are incredibly stale, but FUN!

Today Gregg came down from Towson and we had a great afternoon! It was excellent to catch up, and I hope to see more of him soon - and hello to Renée, and Cymin, Pru, Nathan Jr, Miss Mia!

While watching must see HBO, I almost finished the X-Wing for Steve.

Almost there. Stay on what-nots.

This is what I wish I could work on... my 1/18th Me262. I need a house!!

So until I get the proper work space, I just like to dust it off and think about how awesome it will one day be...

Hearts, Jason

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004

Today was long for some reason, but really amazing for music.

Those that know me know of my deep love for music. I believe music has the ability to move, to heal, to make us think, and I associate memories with music on a subconcious level, much like how a smell will trigger a long-forgotten memory. That's why I'm so in love with the iPods I have owned. That magical device can hold so much amazing material.Mix tapes and cds used to be such an important extension of my musical experiences. I would make elaborate hand made covers... eventually making them on the computer, like this one from 2002:

I can even tie musical memories to old photographs. This one from eight years ago had a cliff reminded me of Beachy Head from the Just Like Heaven video, so I made sure it was in the frame:

A more literal photographic showing my bedroom circa 1989. I'm probably the only guy in America who dated girls and had a Shellyan Orphan album flat on his wall:

The first thing I woudl do after a move would be to set up the stereo. As I gradually converted thousands of cds and vinyl to mp3 and AAC, the priority was setting up iTunes... This picture was taken during the week I kicked my ex out of the house for adultery... I was living off a Powerbook. Goddamn I miss that green sweater so much. Funny that I miss the sweater more than the relationship, eh? Hehe. The sweater gave me much more love (wink!).

Anyway, I heartily recommend some new music, and wated to share.

The Delays - I swear to god they are love child of the Cocteau Twins and Jane's Addiction. It's heady.

Metric - I get the pleasurable feeling from this delicious band that I got from the Rentals back in 1995. This is what robots have sex to.

Modest Mouse - I have been a Mousebooster™ since 1995 when Tom hung with Isaac, and played me Talking Shit on vinyl. I'm so glad they are enjoying their successful high profileness.

The Dresden Dolls - I adore them. Oh my god, if they toured with Raspy, I'd die. Dallas! Ask Melora to call the Dresden Dolls people - and be sure to tell her Annapolis Maryland is delightful.

Death Cab for Cutie - They have a new ep on iTunes that has a gorgeous version of Bend To Squares that sounds straight out of 4AD. How's that for crossover amazingness?

Tanya Donelly - Her new cd is so pretty and sedate. Not wonderfully unhinged like her cousins cds, but I don't expect Sunny Border Blue from Tanya. I want another acoustic Sweet Ride and this cd is perfect.

So that's the skinny. Check these bands out.

Monday, August 9th, 2004

Hi kids! I am getting a major hankering to redesign my site - or at least make the archives a bit more accessible/logical/something. It's such a gigantor undertaking though, and I'm so busy lately... we shall see.

Last Thursday, Crystal and I drove to Richmond to film the Governor of Virginia for the dvd project... I was wearing shorts! Scandalamatous!

The Edgar Allen Poe museum was fantastic. Statuary I wanted to take home and a garden that made me just positively shiver for wanting a house so much... Lisa and I are saving and paying debt... methodically, and with the hopes of a realistic buyers market next year. Hah.

We returned to Annapolis that evening. Friday it was back to Eastport.

I've been enjoying the weather tremendously... We have had a gorgeous week or so of cool evenings and clear skies. Everything I own smells better when I've had the windows open. I just cannot describe how awesome it is to sleep under a mountain of heavy covers with a cold breeze curling through the room. Simon sits on the sill and his whiskers flutter. It is adorable. This weather makes me so insane for Fall. Lisa and I will have so much fun, and with Crissy's impending baby, we will go nuts. I'm already dying for a baby of my own, and Baby Eaton will either pacify me or send me over the edge. Heheh.

So, on Friday, Marie made gang signs at me at work, from the parking lot.

Saturday Donna and Don got married! Crystal was asked to pass out cigars... poor girl said yes. "Crystal?!! Noooooo"

I had dinner with Tom and Jane, and we all missed Lisa, who was doing her 2 day Bellydance workshop in Baltimore. Jane got her pottery fired! That's her and Tom, as bunnies, commemorating their 8 years of marriage.

I finished an X-Wing for "Ghosthost" too - yeah! I have to finish Jeff's next.

Full on lights! This is the 4th one I've made for someone... wooof.

Listening to the new Rilo Kiley non-stop as well. I'm stressed about getting the Jetta inspected to be turned back to the leasing people. It's pretty flawless, but still makes me nervous. I cannot wait to finance the Mazda3.

Song on iPod? "Under the Ivy" by Kate Bush. LOVE!

Tuesday, August 10th, 2004

In sad news, we had to put down our 17 year old Sheba last night, as she was starting to yowl and weave a bit... It's been a steady decline, over the last year, with her getting skinnier and skinnier and eating more and more frantically, nd her eyes started sinking in - most likely cancer. It was time, poor girl. Apparently less than 20% of housecats die of natural causes. Tenacious 'lil beasties.

I like to think she's hanging with Sheba I, Cleo, and Tabitha, enjoying honey turkey snatched from someone's unattended plate. Hehe.

Hug your kitties extra tight tonight. They won't like it, but you will.

Wednesday, August 11th, 2004

A rainy Wednesday evening, and I'm bone tired...

Off to bed! Antiquehighheelreddollshoes!

Love, Jason

Saturday, August 14th, 2004

Hello my lovely Lindy Lous! (Listening to the 6ths, yum!).. I'll build Paris wherever you arrrre...

Me at work, Friday morning... yesterday was hectic.. so no update!

But here were my feet. My $20 Target bowling shoes that I am wearing the shit out of... better to let the vinyl cheapies get stanky this summer, and save the $200 Bacco Bucci "Bowling boots" I adore so much for dressier days. Goddamn, I have a bowling shoe fetish. I have SEVEN PAIRS. It must be the frumpy black socks controlling my brain. In other news:

Lisa and I spent the morning in DC!

We saw how you can communicate "Monkey" in 11 interesting ways! I do so believe my favorite is Hindi. It looks sexy and deadly.

We also saw a lot of ornamental ideas for our future home. I have an idea involving columns supporting a "drop cieling" of exposed beams, like a gazebo of sorts, in our bedroom. It will be the mishmash of all the aesthetics we love. The most exciting thing is that this is all stuff I can totally do pretty inexpensively, but with very clever use of materials... and time time time.

These corbels made me all tingly inside. Must incorporate into home.

Plan b - steal the Smithsonian's castle, brick by brick.

Next, we visited old friends and new obsessions, like my newfound appreciation for "lifting bodies", like the spiffy M2-F3... I made a model of the M2-F2 - look for it on Roboterkampf.com.

I said hello to my favorite plane, the Me-262... siiigh. It's totally love.

Even dove bravely into the basement of the gift shop at NASM to see the 11' Enterprise filming miniature from the 1960s. This pic was taken of the model and it's original builders back then...

Here it is restored... I'm still pissed about the grid that was so darkly sprayed on the saucer. Fuck that. It was white on screen, dammit.

We then popped by the Natural History museum where they have all those fake people huddling in their cooresponding geographical squalors... it used to bore the crap out of me as a kid, but it was better this time around. I still get the heebies when I see the giant squids - uuugh. Must be my seafood allergies, triggering a subconcious defense mechanism. The pic above looks like a painting, but it's a lifesize mannequin. I swear to god this guy looks like KC at work, making his kung-fu face. I will take a comparison shoton Monday. EERIE!

This 'lil fellow is a "goatsucker"... haha, rad name.

Some sort of Tim Burton version of Toucan Sam.

Lisa and I became enchanted with the skeletons... I took the bird pics for Lady Wynn™.

"Hi Jane! Play games with us!"

"Can we be in your shrines? Pleeease?"

"We're ever-so delightful!"

"And we don't mess our cages!"

A PARROT! Adorable. (well, maybe an "Ex-parrot" eh, wut, guv'nuh?).

We then Metro'ed home.

Song on iTunes? "Winter in July" by the 6ths.

Love, Jason

Sunday, August 15th, 2004

Worked on stuff for people ;)

TIME FOR BED RARRGH.

Monday, August 16th, 2004

Jane, Tom, and Steve joined Lisa and I (who then met up with Jonathan, Amy, and my mom) went to see Alien vs Predator last night. Ugh, it was terrible. Jane showed off Tom's real CHiPs helmet!

Tuesday, August 17th, 2004

SO THIS THING JUMPS OUT AT ME!

I sucessfully threw it off of me, and then it tried to crawl away, but I killed it! Haha!

The underside wasn't nearly as pornographic as I thought it "could" be...

It looked pretty weird.

So then I dissected it.

Haha!

Friday, August 20th, 2004

Heya kids! Bizzee week, here's the catch-up:

My comparison shot between KC and the mannequin in the Natural History Museum. Badass!

At work we sometimes (all the time) draw on the dry wipe board back in Production. This is an inside joke. Ask me how!

Sometimes I need something delicious in the afternoon.

Sorry for the weak entry, but I am in full-on amillionthingsonmyplate mode. I think my schedule should clear in about a week... I need naps!

Rock, Jason

Monday, August 23rd, 2004

Spent a lovely weekend with Miss Lisa, and ended it with our watching the Exorcist prequel - spoookalicious.

Put in an ungodly amount of time at the model bench, making things. This weekend was also all about cars. I put in my order for a new Mazda3, which (with any luck) should be here tomorrow night! Jonathan and his friend Clara painted his Scirocco black:

And I paid someone to super-detail the Jetta so that when it gets inspected tomorrow, it looks as good as it possibly can.

Busy busy!

Song on iPod? "Billy Liar" by The Decemberists.

Tuesday, August 24th, 2004

Well, probably won't get the car until later in the week - damn!

But check out Jonathan's car!

Makes me wistful for the time in my life when I could get away with painting my car in an artistic way, and not have any real world repercussions. I'm glad I did everything I did, when I did it. Spares the ones I love in the here and now, hehe.

I love The Decemberists.

OMG - Futurama Season 4 and Night of the Demons on DVD today!!!!!

Wednesday, August 25th, 2004

I am exhausted... but I have my new car!

It's not even 9 pm and I am ready for bed!!!

Jonathan and Clara, triumphant.

Badass.

Teamwork!

Jubilance!

Thursday, August 26th, 2004

I didn't think it was possible, but I'm even more exhausted than I was last night. Took the day off of work to be there with Lisa, while she got her gall bladder removed. Looooong day at the hospital, but it was good to spend time with her mom and sister, stealing magazines and talking smack about people.

Here's my lady giving the thumbs up!

Here's the before shot.

Ready to roll! Sassy hat.

Bathroom photo for Jane! They have lockers in there.

We ate lunch at Panera. Lisa ate a saline drip.

After! Laproscopic-tastic.

Here is a re-enactment of her barfing episode, post anesthesia.

Andrea doesn't deal with throwing up very well.

Here's the end - safe and sound, at home, ready for percocet dreams.

:)

Monday, August 30th, 2004

Hello gentle peoples. I had a great weekend. Got off of work Friday, and did the final iPod install in the Mazda. I got a fancy interface that allows the iPod to charge and be controlled by the head unit, as if it were a 2nd cd changer. The only hacking i did was to the ashtray cubby, drilling a hole for th cable. If you reinsert the tray itself, the hole is completely covered... woooo.

Hole.

Magic plug.

The center console, all disassembled.

Hello! Ipod sneaks into ashtray cubby and can be controlled from the steering wheel - Welcome to the FUTURE!

Its... its.... GONE!

The display reads the iPod as "external"... well, duh.

There is even plenty of slack in the cable, so the co-pilot can select their favorite music. Or, if I want to jump playlists, it can just hang out.

So, shortly after that, The Wynns came over and we went to Chevys!

Fajita-tastic, eh Tom?

Afterwards, we hit Starbucks (shock, horror!) and then back to my lair. Jane got sleepy around midnight, so they went home - yay friends!

We missed Lisa though, who is mending at home. I spent the day with her yesterday, trying not to poke her wounds (She spent Saturday sleeping, and I finished up a major project). We watched a lot of DVDs and I ate Panera TWICE, which was like the most decadent thing I could think of. Lisa is off the pain meds, and just pushing through with Ibuprof-whatever. I kept making her laugh, which hurts, apparently. Sorry!