the day my face fell off

isn't skin f'ing weird? my whole face is falling off, but not in a cool way. the cool way would be like the praying mantis skin that i found when i was a kid. did you know that they shed their skin like snakes? this specimen was complete, with clearly distinguishable eyes, and even arms in the common praying position replete with hands. it was amazing. i kept it in a glass scientific beaker with a cork stopper on my window sill. also in the bottle was a matching set of monarch butterfly wings i found in my yard, minus the thorax. i also had an identical bottle w/cork next the the first one. this one was filled with my 'baby teeth'. i lost all of them before my 10th birthday. my childhood was cut short in so many ways...

anyway, my face falling off is not nearly as cool looking as the praying mantis sluff that i found. in fact, i look more like a scary homeless man with skin problems and nice clothes. i decided that waiting for it to peel on it's own, and put up with the continued flakey looking skin just wasn't going to cut it for me. so i scrubbed my entire forehead pretty much clean off. my skin is so pink! our clean los angeles air even seems to burn it!

i treated it with some aloe and some sunscreen this morning before i went to work. putting that skit on my face was like jumping into sub-50 degree water [see personally memory entry "I'm a fucking idiot, Jan. '96]. The searing pain and shock my lower epidermis layers were thrown into by applying a natural soothing aloe took the breath out of my lungs and actually had me gripping the sides of the sink for support. it continued to hurt throughout the day, not surprisingly more and more in conjunction with the amount of lead-filled paint-dust the began to stick painfully to my sweating brow.

as it stands now, my face is mostly peeled, though with some clearly more brown areas still present around my hairline and temples. hopefully this won't last too much longer. i just can't stand the thought of being brought to my nears by a helpful bottle of aloe again. it's just to f'ing embarrassing.

boy in the bubble/baby with a baboon heart

so, it's totally a viral ad sort of thing for a video game, but i thought this(flash) was totally funny. my personal favorites are the episodes "class" and "swim meet", but they are all pretty funny. really nice physical comedy. you really should check it out. (via)

i would have posted it to the porch, but i didn't want to usurp the glory of andy and alan's upcoming bachelor party bash info. hope to see you there (NSFGirls)

birthday time

happy birthday to my wifey tomorrow! (tuesday)

not too much else to report. lots of paint scraping, but that's about it. looking forward to some bachelor beach time this weekend. should be good times. i'll post some more interesting things as time provides.

in the mean time, here's a couple of sites i check out everyday. i have them linked in the sidebar, but i find some much interesting stuff on them, there's just too much to share. so check em out.

we-make-money-not-art
metafilter
MAKE:blog

worst cover letter ever

so a little birdie that i live with received this from a prospective employee while searching to fill a position in one of the areas that she is in charge of. not only is it the worst cover letter i have ever seen, it was completely unecessary for this person to send it because the little birdie's company doesn't ask for them. anyway, nothing i can say will add to this. so check it out.

am a dependable worker. I don't take any time off. I do like my job with whom I'm with now but I need more work and right now there isn't any in my area. I work as of now all the Acmes in Delaware, Maryland and six stores in Pennsylvania.
I have two children, ages 12 and 15.
I do know how to run a scanner and most of my work now is email. Meaning I know what stores I have to go to and know how many orders to expect in each. If I run into a problem at the store, I notify the company by phone.
I live only 20 miles from the Dover area.
I have my own transportation and is very dependable.
I am 45 years old and my caucasian is white.
And I'm not very good with resumes.

mulberry street review

so our good friends, and sometimes house-guests, the Cold War Kids got a nice write up this week in the O.C. Weekly. Lots of big time name dropping comparisons by the columnist, and a really positive review overall.

Cowboy Nation was the best Velvet Underground rip-off I ever saw, 10-gallon hats and all, scraping out a New York subway sound for songs about big skies and long rides—the scenery sure didn’t fit, but somehow the music sounded just the same, with that raw guitar suddenly as much Hank Williams as Lou Reed. Fullerton’s Cold War Kids do this too, cultivating a proto-country-as-post-punk personality like Nick Cave or Tom Waits—or Long Beach’s Brett Cutts and Costa Mesa’s Matt Adams, who both messed around with a similar sound for a while; it’s a natural thing to think of when you’re holding a guitar at a certain time of night.

check out the whole write up here

my harry potter book club

my buddy tom lost his copy of the book, so i sent him mine since i was done with it. if you don't like things spoiled, don't check it out. it will mess with your mind man. i have made fire!!

today/tomorrow is the third anniversary since my mom passed away. there have been times since that day that i have sworn that i have seen her. it always turns out to be someone else, the height or weight just a bit off usually. i can always tell by their eyes though that it isn't her, she had the weirdest eyes. they were greyish-green with a bright cold ring around her pupil. seriously bright gold. i've got it too, just not as bright as her's were though. then there are the times when i feel like she is just about to walk around the corner from the kitchen, or come walking down the sidewalk when i am watering the grass outside the house. death is a strange thing to get used to, and i don't think that i ever really will be completely used to her not being here anymore. there's just something askew there, and taking into account our eternal nature it seems to make sense. my mom is my number one in the top three people that i want to most see in heaven when i get there (not counting Christ or biblical figures). i miss her more and more each day.

Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything

most of you guys around here have already heard me talking about this for the last week or so, so if you're sick of it, or don't have the time to read the post, just skip it. it's cool with me.

last weekend amanda & i decided that we really want to move to japan. we were driving in the car to darren's brithday party in LA, and it just sort of happened. japan as a topic was a total non-sequiter, but we kind of turned to each other and decided out of the blue that it would be a good idea.

me: 'hey, i think we should move somewhere'
amanda: 'yeah, we really should'
me: 'something in my gut is telling me "japan"'
amanda: 'yeah, i know what you mean. lets do it.'

so we're going to move to japan, hopefully, in one years time if everything falls into place. amanda is going to apply to be a part in the JET program for the '06-'07 school year. her application is due in september, and we would know for sure if she is accepted by this coming march. i have a couple of classes to finish up so i can complete my degree. i need four or five units of foreign language, and since i haven't ever taken any foreign language before, i can chose any one that i want. i am going to chose japanese. that way i can have a little bit of knowledge of the language before we arrive.

our good friend M. Sakal is going back to Satte, Japan next week for her second year with the JET program. we're having a really nice dialouge with her in regards to all the things you can't learn from a travel book or the glossing over the program guide gives potential applicants.

all of that aside, amanda and i really feel like this is where our hearts are leading us. (obviously maybe a little nudging from the Man upstairs too) we're both really excited. we will have a ton of stuff to figure out during the next year, assuming that she is accepted. i really think that she will be though. i could go into detail, but i might bore you. anyway, if you want to check out more about the JET program, and how it works, just drop by the virtual home of the japanese consulate here in LA, at this link. click on the line that says 'JET Program' there towards the right side of your screen.

anyway, that's all the news that's fit to print from here on greenleaf. i miss seeing you guys around here in whittier, but there's always time to chat at work, or with telekinesis... that's mind-bullets kyle!

japanese dream machines

so i have a couple of new dream machines. i have always been a fan of the venerable FJ40 land cruiser from toyota, but i had completely overlooked (as many do) a wonderful model number that was available at the same time as the dime a dozen FJ40's. i give you dream machine number one;

this is the FJ45 pickup. they came in a short bed (super rare) a long bed, and a wagon model (i've only ever seen one wagon, and it was the only one i could find on google). the one pictured above and below is a short bed, and was restored by THE land cruiser experts at TLC 4x4 in Van Nuys. seriously check out their site and you will know what i mean when i say they are the shit. they are who I will buy a cruiser from when the time comes. if we can find one to restore, i can pick up one of these babies out the door starting at $45k in better condition that it was in when it rolled out of the factory. did i mention that TLC restores the cruisers that toyota itself has in it's museums? 'nuff said. if i got one i would totally get the canvas top for the bed, that thing kicks some serious ass. also these models have a removeable top over the cab. awesome.

so if i can't get ahold of an FJ45 pickup, i might try for one of these:

this is an FJ 55 wagon, and i think they look pretty amazing. there were a couple of these things running around cottage grove and i think they belonged to a commune or something, but they ran like a charm! how can you argue with that styling too, i mean how tough does it freakin look! just to give you an idea of what this thing looks like from the back, and what it looked like before they restored it, here are a couple of more pics. now i promiss i will end this post. i have bored your to tears. aren't you glad i have the internet again!

my three sons cats

so i have three cats. yeah, you thought i had two, but you were wrong. i have two inside cats, and one outside cat. you know my new outside cat. her name is sylvia, and no one loves her but me. and she loves me back. she gets to eat canned salmon everyday, and climb trees as much as she wants.

all glibness aside, amanda and i decided to take sylvia in. i couldn't stumach the thought of her being euthenized, so we brought her home with us. she freaked out quite a bit at first, but now she is pretty good. she disappeared all day today, and i was worried that she had just gone back to the bayou or something. but she came back tonight about dusk. whenever she is around i hang out with her outside and she follows me around. she doesn't really even let me out of her sight. it's nice to have a little friend to talk to while i am watering the plants, she evens talks back to me with her loud voice. really funny stuff. i'm making every effort to help her to adjust, and amanda and i would bring her inside if it wouldn't cause world war three between she and emma. emma has been super protective ever since she had her kittens, and with little corrina around, she don't take no shit.

this post entirely on cats brought to you by the fact that my life is pretty crazy and i don't want to talk about it at all. everyone just needs to hear a heart warming story about cats every once in a while.