Awesome!

A Christmas idea for those of you who have a special feline friend.

Here...

Asheville, NC

Maddux already posted a nice write-up of our trip to Asheville, so I won't go into too much detail here.

The main reason for this post is to provide a link to pictures from our trip.  Here...

We did have a great time, even though only five of us were able to attend this year.  Asheville definitely had more going for it than I expected.  I suppose I shouldn't have been too surprised, after all, it is a college town.

If everything goes as planned, I'll be taking a few exciting trips next year as well.  Here's a list of the possibilities...

• Bristol, U.K. (and other parts of Europe)
• Guyancourt, France (maybe, or in combination with the Bristol trip)
• Las Vegas, NV

It's the "formative years" that count!

July is the month that I get to renew my licenses plates in the great state of Indiana.  For the past few years, I've been sporting the environmental plate.  However, this year I decided to go with something different.  I wasn't sure what to get.  I had considered the arts plate, but then something caught my eye...

Is that a young Lincoln with an axe tossed casually over his shoulder?  It is!  And guess what?  You can get it on your licenses plate!  See, here.  How badass is that?  In you face Kentucky and Illinois!  We celebrate the formative years around these parts.

It's only a matter of days before I can fasten this baby to Protege!

It's a start, but there's a long road ahead.

At the beginning of this summer, I started growing my Johnny Depp facial hair again.  At some point, I decided it would be awesome to have a handlebar mustache.

I really have no idea what I'm doing, and there are surprisingly (or not) few resources on the interwebs that discuss this topic.  I realize that at some point I will need to regularly use mustache wax, and I need to comb it to get the hair going in the right direction.  Other than that, I'm just winging it.  Some guy online said that he had been growing his for a year and a half!  I'm not sure I have that dedication, but I'd say things are promising.  Tonight I tried using a little wax to form some points.  I was pleasantly surprised at the results.  I believe I'll fix it up for work tomorrow.

On a side note, I'd like to thank whoever took this beautiful picture with my camera.  A picture really can say a thousand words...

Three links. Hours of fun.

OK, so maybe not hours, but definitely tens of minutes worth of enjoyment.

Link #1:

Wizard World Chicago 2008

As promised to some of you, above is the link to the pictures we took at this years Wizard World Chicago.  They're spectacular!

 

Link #2:

MANJOHN!

I created a MySpace page for our band.  I figure it's the easiest way to get our five original songs to you guys and gals.  Feel free to download them, rate them, and/or share them with your friends and neighbors.

 

Link #3:

Those of you who are in the cool kids club, and have access to the GCPA web site, can download the five songs featured above, plus a remix version of each of those songs.

Belated Spring Cleaning

My apartment was a disaster.  I own entirely too much crap.  Anyway, I decided to start cleaning things up a bit.  The true motivation coming from the fact that I have some friends stopping over this weekend, and I was freaking out about how dirty everything was. 

Throughout this cleaning process (I've spread it over a few days), I've discovered something.  I feel better.  By simply picking up all the crap laying around on the floor, on other things, on top of things on other things, it has improved my mood considerably.  This is a nice little bonus.  Will it last?  I doubt it.  I have a tendency to let things pile up.  However, the hard part is almost over.  It shouldn't be too difficult to keep things tidy once the major clean up is complete.

So, moral of the story, a clean house is the path to a clear mind.  Or, whatever.  I'm sure there's some 10,000 year old saying that basically says the same thing.

Now, if I could just get my ass in shape, we might be getting somewhere...

If wishes were whiskers...

Let me preface this post with an apology.  The content of this post may not be centered on a particular topic, and it may not even "stay the course" with regard to subject matter.  For that, I am sorry.

You know a band I've never seen live?  The Decemberists.  Why hasn't this been an option?

So, I've been doing some math lately.  Some cost of living expenses, if you will.  Should I move?  If so, where?  Find a home to rent in Greensburg.  Get a place in Indy.  Can I afford to buy?  Do I want to buy?  If I did live in Indy, could I afford to drive to Greensburg everyday to go to work?  I suppose, technically speaking, the answer to all of these question is ultimately yes.  Does this mean that any of these options would be a wise decision?  I don't know.  This really doesn't help at all. 

Somehow, tonight, this all led me to the following question:  What's the true cost of living? Sure, it's a cheesy question.  I'm not even entirely sure what it is asking.  I don't think it has anything to do with money, that's for sure.  Can I even comprehend such a question?  I guess in a way, I'm asking, how does one put a price on happiness?  Have you ever thought about what truly makes you happy?  I don't think I have.  Is this weird?  How have I lived this long of my life without considering this basic question?  Why am I an engineer?  Why do I live in Greensburg?  Honestly, I don't have an answer, and I'm not sure I'm OK with this anymore.  Is what I'm doing now what I want to be doing for the rest of my life?

OK, so admittedly, some of this might have to do with the numerous beers I've ingested this evening.  But these things have been boiling under the surface for a while now.  A group of us went out for drinks after work today to celebrate the departure of one of our own.  Even though it was a sad occasion, we had a great time.  Matt is off to St. Louis.  And why not, he's got friends there.  And, as he put's it, "I'm young, and I'm single, so why not?"

It was great talking to the guys (and girls) that I haven't seen as much of lately.  It was easy to get back into the swing of things.  Of course, these relationships were built from the five, almost six, years I worked with these people.

Alright.  Just as I feared.  This post is a complete mess.  This post is long.  This post should not have been posted.  But I took the time to write it, so why not?

Why not?

Thursday, the day before Friday.

I came across a pretty cool gift idea the other day.  It's a USB flash drive that uses a facsimile of an old cassette tape for a case.  The idea is that you make a mix-tape with it.  You can check it out here.  It even includes a liner notes area for the track list and what-have-you. 

This web site linked to another one (here) that was just a collection of high resolution photographs of various old cassette tapes.  I spent a while looking through them finding the various ones I used when I was younger.  See the sweet example at the top of the post...

Here's a few interesting dates regarding various music formats.  All this information was collected through Wikipedia, so, whatever.

• Vinyl Records - 1888
• 8-track Tapes - 1963
• Cassette Tapes - 1964
• Compact Discs - 1982
• Mini-discs - 1992
• First Commercially Available MP3 Player - 1997
• Best Commercially Available MP3 Player (iPod) - 2001

My something is here!

Some of you may remember a post I made a little while ago about a mystery gift.  Well, it finally arrived. 

No, not the camera or the T-shirt.  It's the sunglasses!  They are too cool.  They even have padding around your eyes.  I suppose they're intended for motorcycle riding.  I don't have one thanks to the Sturgis incident.  I guess I'll just keep them in my car to be used by whomever.  My sunglasses are prescription.  I can't lose them. 

You can see these rad sunglasses in more detail here and here.

Let's brighten things up a little.

For some reason this morning (as I too enjoy some coffee), I decided that my blog's layout was too dark.  So for now, here's the new version.  I already like it better.  Could this be a sign of the return of positive Mike?  Only time will tell...

I ran across the picture below and thought it would be a great PR photo for Eric Clapton Explosion (or Stevie Ray John) [or Better Than Stillabower].  It features our drummer and vocalist/guitarist.  I am not featured.  I attempt to play bass.

Feel free to suggest your own band names in the comments.

Yesterday, I bought myself a gift...

I'd love to be able to tell you what it is, but I can't.

Click on the picture above to find out more.

Stay tuned!  In a week I'll let you know what I received.

Indy's Real Beer Festival?

 

     A few months ago, a few of you ventured out to the shitty less than desirable AleFest (here & here).  I was not able to attend this event, but it seems all is not lost. 

     On July 19, there is an Indiana Microbrewers Festival (click the picture above for more info) at Opti Park in Broad Ripple.  I think this one will be slightly a crap-load better than the one at the Murat.  I base this assumption on one item listed on the web page.  "Cask Conditioned table.  Up to 16 firkins served on gravity."  Most of you already know this, but I love cask beers.  They are the best. 

     Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to talk some of you into going to this.  I have a good feeling about this one.

Mike

Windows Live Writer

Hello everyone!

This post serves two purposes.  First, I'm trying out Windows Live Writer as a blogging tool.  Secondly, I wanted to post a picture of my certified earthquake-proof bike stand.

I've been occasionally riding the thing to work.  It's fun, and I need the exercise.  However, if I ever do move to Indy, there won't be much more of that.

I suppose this post is also an attempt to start back up on the blogging routine.  So stay tuned while I try and decide how often to distract you with mundane posts and whatnot.

Bop, out!

Anyone want to buy me a gift?

I ran across this today. I can't imagine how incredible it would be to own. So, if you have a few hundred thousand dollars laying around, think of me.