Gnarler's Blog - December, 2002

Sunday, 12-29-02. Cool and partly cloudy
Christmas was good this year. Good company, good presents, good food... way too much food.

I've been packing like mad since yesterday for my trip up to Oregon. I'll be gone until the 11th, so if there are any addicts to my blog out there (insert hearty laugh here) you'll have to get your fix elsewhere.

As stated in the previous blog, I thought I'd use Cherz's idea to do a positives/negatives list to sum up the year... so, here it is.

Positives

Friends
Learning Flash
New bike part 1
New bike part 2
Getting new bike part 1 back
Fall semester shop class
Burning Man
Bike riding a lot more
New acoustic guitar
Redesigning this website
Truck starter problem solved

Negatives

August and September's cancelled work shifts
Summer semester and college in general
Truck's clutch wearing out
New bike part 1 stolen
The deeds of "President" Bush and the US government
Lots of famous people dead

The jury is still out on...

Moving
Hacking my hair off
The "Moving out in a year" plan

And, being that this is my last blog entry of 2002, I thought I'd conclude the year with my typical blog ending... a handful of links laced with my usual heavy-handed opinions. So, lets scrape off the bits of flesh and build a warship. Not quite internment camps, but close. "We don't kick the sh*t out of them.. oh wait, yeah we do." Everybody loves Barney, and everybody loves German porn? Wait, what?

See you all on the flip-side...
Tuesday, 12-24-02. Cool and mostly cloudy
Well, I finally got my woodshop project done. I can't remember if I mentioned in here exactly what it was before, but it's a custom-designed weight rack I made to hold my folks' handweights. I took photos of the entire building process... check 'em out if you so wish. A more recent project I've tackled is my folks' "good karma" table. It's a little half-circle Chinese wall table my folks have had for a long time. The stain on the top has worn away over the years, so I restained it and put on a couple coats of semi-gloss lacquer for protection against future wear and tear. I'll put up some pix in a day or two.

Holiday sales worst in decades! Hoo-rah.. holiday spirit 1, holiday mass-consumerism 0.

I saw Cherz's positives/negatives list and I was quite impressed. I have therefore decided to spread the glory of such a good idea (totally rip it off) and do one myself... look out for it (or be wary of it) later this week.

Joe Strummer died yesterday.. that sucks, we'll miss you Joe.
Saturday, 12-21-02. Cool and partly cloudy
Woah! Break out the lacquer! I've spent the last half of my day today inhaling horrendous lacquer fumes. I'm quite literally putting the finishing touches on my folks' surprise Christmas gift, and strangely enough, I don't have a headache just yet. However, it worried me a little bit that, when I was slapping on the first coat of lacquer, I suddenly realized that the fumes were very similar in odor to the taste of apple Jolly Ranchers. That can't be good for anybody.

My long search for a local supplier of Jones Soda is finally over. Coincidental to the written request I sent in months ago or not, our local Albertson's now sells it in 4-packs. Particularly, they sell Strawberry Lime Jones. In addition to this favorite flavor of mine, I also tried another flavor that is new to me, Berry Lemonade. It was good, although it tasted very similar to Fufu Berry. Because of all the Jones-related enthusiasm I had last night, I went to their website and eventually wound up taking their "what flavor are you?" test. Apparently I am flavorless.

A few days back I found this awesome article about how landmine casings in Ukraine are being turned into toys for children. Not exactly turning swords into plowshares, but I think the idea of turning landmines into pelican toys and sand buckets is considerably more entertaining... not to mention more reflective of the times.

I thought this was a good commentary on "president" Bush's missing.. err missile shield. This was also entertaining.
Monday, 12-16-02. Cool, rainy and windy like mad
Yeah baby... I found the soap.

I went back to Albertson's and found several bars of the good old non-odiferous Lever 2000 in 2-bar packs shoved to the side. No smelling like grandma's deodorant after all.

I had my art history final today... got soaked almost as bad as I did at Bay to Breakers last year just riding to class, but luckily it wasn't raining on the way back. The final went so-so, although I did kick thorough ass on the vocab.

I bought a nice new pair of boots today, black with steel toes. However, I probably shouldn't mention it here because they are my Christmas present from my grandmother. Woops, too late.
Sunday, 12-15-02. Cool, rainy and windy like mad
Apparently I was horribly mistaken, and this recent rash of bad days and bad events is still not at an end. The forces of the universe didn't hold up to their end of the bargain. That $20 I lost and recovered... well it's mysteriously disappeared again, and I am quite pissed.

In addition to the missing $20, for a long time now I have been under the impression that my nice GMC umbrella with the wooden handle, graciously donated by one of my parents (I think it might've been my mom), has been missing in action for a while. Today I finally went down to Raleys and got a new one. As soon as I got home and parked, I just happened to be putting my truck's kleenex box under the passenger seat (where it belongs) and what did I find? My missing umbrella, of course... so I took the other one back. My cell phone also went missing today, but it was recovered with only moderate stress.

The a*sholes at Lever 2000 changed their entire soap line, and now what used to be their regular unscented soap is perfumed beyond the scope of hell. I've used Lever 2000 for as long as I can remember because it worked well and didn't make you smell like your grandmother's deodorant, (no offense to any grandmas reading) but no more. Now the search for a new soap begins.. anybody have any suggestions? Lever 2000, you really f*cked up.

I thought this was really, really cool. I sent an e-mail suggesting they should set up international online donations.
Saturday, 12-14-02. Cool, rainy and windy like mad, with thunder and lightening
Earlier today I was going to just write "Today sucked" in the blog and leave it at that. The last half of the day wasn't too shabby, although I did almost lose $20 at Albertson's. The forces of the universe and I have come to a new understanding.

Is it just me or is it seeming more and more like our mr. freedom-loving, "president" Bush, is totally unaware of the Geneva Convention, the Constitution of the United States, and at the very least, the ten commandments?

I found another good article on the Kšnigsberg enclave. I thought this site was pretty cool too. After browsing through it a bit, I came across this picture of a castle in Georgenburg. At first it seemed like another photo, then I got hit by a major shot of deja-vous when realized it looks exactly like a building I had in a dream a week or two ago. No joke folks, right down to the bricked-up windows and the shrubbery. Psychic or psycho?
Friday, 12-13-02. Cool and raining like mad
Today wasn't the greatest, but it ended on a good note. I finally finished my term research paper for my art history class and got it turned in. Unfortunately, I slept in this morning so the final process was a bit rushed, and I wasn't able to get any big errands done before work like I'd hoped. Traffic was beyond absurd today because when it rains in California, everyone driving a vehicle suddenly shifts into what I like to call "Blind Old Lady Mode," where suddenly no one drives close to the speed limit or pays attention. To make it even worse, everyone's IQ seems to inexplicably drop about 50 points. Work was slightly horrid for the first half, but because of the huge storms going through only 14 of the original 27 people showed up, which made things easier. The last half was more or less positive, and I always like working with David. We make a lot of bad jokes and mess with the students.

My dog ate my garbage again.. for the 3rd time in the last week. Can someone explain to me what's so tasty about dirty kleenexes? My cold is winding down, be it very slowly. I have discovered that Sudafed 12-hour doesn't work at all unless you're only slightly congested and are near the end of your cold. Either that or it's a $6 placebo.

It looks like my shop project will actually be done in time for Christmas. I've taken a bunch of pics throughout the building process and I'll post those when it's all done next week. Oh yes, and I thought this was great, although he did seem to contradict himself a bit at times. This is pretty amusing, thanks JEss.
Sunday, 12-8-02. Cool and partly cloudy
Today my cold hit full-stride. I spent the majority of my time drinking water and tea, popping cough drops and vitamins like a depressed hollywood starlet, and working on my maps. Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to touch them for a few days, but man when that obsessive drive kicks in, forget everything else. As promised, here's a sample of the 1937 map at 50% scale.
Saturday, 12-7-02. Cool and partly cloudy
I've been getting random sore throats over the last several weeks, but today one finally decided to hold on... unfortunately. I've been way too unproductive with my free time lately and today I got hit with a heaping spoonful of "I'm sick of this". It didn't help that I felt woozy from whatever I'm coming down with, but c'est la vie. Tonight I finally ate that bag salad that's been sitting in the fridge forever. I picked out all the gross lettuce.

Nations I finished today:

Romania
Moldova
The Czech Republic (and the Sudetenland)
Slovakia
France (although I still need better guides for the Vichy line)

I've decided to take a break from map-making for a few days. When I close my eyes I see little bits of borders.. that can't be good.
Friday, 12-6-02. Cool and partly cloudy
I've sort of forgotten about my blog over the last few days, as I've been religiously preoccupied with a great many things. The activity that I've invested the majority of my energy into has been an all-out attempt to recreate every single border change in central/northern continental Europe since before the First World War. After considerable research, cross referencing, and guide map manipulation, I've succeeded in completing the border histories of the following nations:

Germany
Poland (Minor border adjustments following WW2 are still unconfirmed)
Denmark
Austria
Benelux nations
Switzerland
Former Yugoslavia
Slovenia
Belarus
The Free City of Danzig
The Baltic States
The Free State of Trieste
Hungary (Minus the Bukovina area of the former Austria-Hungary)

You might ask why I'm doing this. Well, for a while now I've wanted to re-do my Historical Atlas of Germany site and make it really nice. I couldn't do that unless I had much more accurate maps to work with, including references to Germany's historical neighbors... and I thought that while I was doing them, I'd do all their border changes as well to make the site that much more accurate. I'll post some samples of my preliminary work later on.

I've also been feverishly working on my parents' surprise Christmas gift. Unfortunately, I got started way to late and my chances for finishing it before Christmas seem about 50/50 right now, but I'm going to give it my best shot. I've been taking pictures of my progress, and I'll post them all when I'm finished. I spent some time this afteroon sanding smooth the viewable wood faces. However, since the wood I chose for this project is so rock hard, I had to vary the grit and change my sandpaper every 2 minutes.. no joke. If I didn't, the sandpaper would simply wear itself away in no time. Now that's some hard wood (insert Beavis laugh here).
Monday, 12-2-02. Cool and perpetually sunny
I got a ton of errands done today, and my paycheck for October is nice and fat. I bought my folks the first of several Christmas gifts, and it was the first one under the tree. My video camera is supposidly almost done (or at least that's what the lady at the repair shop said). I was told there is another camera exactly like mine being repaired there too, and there was talk of some part recall for that particular make and model.

I kickstarted my old upper-body workout regimen last night and man am I sore today. I'm going to wait until tomorrow for the next session, although I'm glad I started it again.
November blogs