Stormageddon! Big snow, in Tidewater, Virginia.

We rarely get any real snow here in Tidewater, Virginia.
Here it is Jan 30, 2010 and I have about 7-8 inches of snow in my yard.
Crazy. Everyone seemed pretty sure that we would have some accumulation of snow.
I had doubts, usually I'm disappointed with our snow forecasts.
Our usual would be around 0-2 inches. 3 inches we shut everything down..
Which was exactly what happened. It's been kind of nice.
My dog got to play in real snow. We took a drive and I haven't forgotten my snow driving skills.
I used to travel, so snow was something I would encounter periodically.
We filmed some of the past two days..Here's a little video-
(YouTube quality is no good..)

Fortune Cookies

Here's some Fortune Cookies..
Theses are from real fortune cookies, that came with real Chinese food, that was eaten by real people at work.

Inappropriate Facebook Ads. WTF?

This caught my eye the other day.
This AD is crazy.
The people they chose for the ad, is what really caught my eye.

First off, I'm not learning shit from these guys!

I know all that "you don't judge a book by it's cover," but damn.

You have to follow your instinct.

My instinct tells me to stay away and not approach these guys.

Worse case scenario, they will kill you dead.

Best case scenario, probably filthy hippies looking for some loving or a hand out.

OR, I actually may learn more about refinancing or eliminating debt.

OR, is this ad targeted to homeless bums, needing to refinance their homes..

Which wouldn't make sense

These guys could be the best people in the world, I'll never know though.

I'm staying the hell away from them. Could be mugshot pictures for all I know.

I mean what? If I don't click on the ad, will I turn into them? Will they come get me?

Well, I'm not clicking to find out...

Junk Store Find 2

At the same the Junk shop the satelite radio came from- was this little gem.

It's a very old Avon bottle filled with cologne in the shape of a VW Bug.

If it was a VW Bus, I would have had a stroke. I collect VW stuff when I find it.

I didn't find this by the way, my girlfriend did.

Very damn cool. They sell this kind of swag on Ebay.

Last check, the average was around $20.00 for the best, to about $9.99 for the not so good.

This was $4.99 but marked down to $2.30. I dig it. Very Nice..

The fact that this thing is about 30 years old and still has cologne in it, is fantastical.

I haven't smelled the cologne in it. Avon back in the day, was known for horrible smelling

cologne. Cologne that burned for about 30 minutes after you applied to your face.

Provided your face is still there.. Shit burned..

This stuff probably follows suit, burns and is made out of real panther bits..

Junk Store find..

So, I've started collecting stuff for our upcoming adventure(s)

The plan is take a 1976 HiTop VW Bus and travel in it.
Make small or short trips at first, then jump into a cross country trip of excitement and wonder.
I've done a cross country trip in a VW Bus in the past.
In a 1967 restored VW Bus. We took Route 66 and stopped at different places including the Grand Canyon.
Film was costly back in the day, so we didn't take many pictures to begin with, and the camera ended up eating the film.
So, some ten years later- I thought it would be good to recreate that trip with digital cameras, camcorders and all the electro-wizardry that was not available to me when I took the trip originally.
Which was in 1999 by the way.
As there's a recession on, the gathering of materials can take a back seat to other endeavors.
Like eating and keeping the lights on. We check the junk shops periodically  for camping stuff and anything that can useful for the trips.
Today I found something useful, a Sirius Satellite Radio.
A Starmate Replay ST2. The radio came out in 2005. If it works- great, if not...
I plugged in the radio turned it on and after the satellite synced, the channels updated and Boom- done... satellite radio with programming.
 I suppose the previous owner still has a subscription.
When the subscription dies, I'll renew it.
 This is one of the things on my list of electro-wizardry and I paid 3 dollars for it. 3 Clams.
Very nice. This will be good on the long trips.
Here's some pictures of the working unit-

3 Dollars.. not bad. Just need to figure out how to mount with the other stuff..
CNET reviewed it about 5 years ago.
Here's the link. CNET review

CoCo

         (Artist: Mike Mitchell)

Conan got a raw deal in my opinion.

Bumping the Tonight Show to a later time slot, so Jay Leno could have a chance at better ratings (his current ratings are bad) was an assholey move on NBC's part.

 Hmmn, lets Move a 50 plus year institution like the Tonight Show, instead of shit canning the problem. (Leno)

 Conan's  new deal is a little sweeter with a 45 million dollar severance package, which includes severance for his staff of over 200.

Conan is going to walk away with around 33 million.

Conan appears to be a stand-up guy. He's including his own money in his staff's severance packages.

I hope he pops up somewhere on late night television, with a better show, on a better network, in a better time slot, with better hair.

Carl's House

Carl, the most interesting fish in the world.

Got a new house. It kind of has an Indiana Jones theme.

I think he likes it.
It's a Tetra Water Wonders Aquarium Ensemble. It's as Snazzy as Carl is.

Carl should enjoy the upgrade.
He went from a 1/2 gallon tank, to a 3 gallon tank.
Nice Cube shape, in tank filter, new gravel and plants.
The tank also has a Mayan Calender statue.
The statue was found on an archeological dig, at the thrift store.
The tank normally runs from 38.00 to 58 dollars online and at pet stores.
Carl's tank was a customer return to Petco and was sold to me for 12 dollars.
Saved about 25-30 dollars, not bad. Dirt Cheap, tank looks good too..

Here's Carl-

-
Here's his box-

Here's a new tank picture-

Here's a link to the video I made earlier about Carl's tank.

The video worked yesterday, today not so much. Thanks Blogger...

http://www.blogger.com/video-play.mp4?contentId=1661400c577bfbfb&type=video%2Fmp4

End of test! 942pm

Testing, showing lauryn, here we go.

Cheap-Geek Old Memory Cards

Most of us have them, older smaller capacity memory cards.

Digital camera and video cameras have become as essential as microwave ovens or even televisions these days.

Everyone has them. I'm no different.

Over time I have amassed quite a few memory cards.

Small in capacity, and been replaced, these cards are currently being store in a shaving cup on my desk.

 Seems almost a waste to be Not using these cards. It's not the card's fault, they served me well. I have become more important, I need to carry ridiculous amounts of electronic data. Aren't we all that important? The Library of Congress or the Lunar Space Program in the sixties does not have as much data as I carry on a daily basis. About 95% of it is not important. This year, I decided to simplify my life..slightly.Now- I only carry 4gb of storage in my Android G1 phone, a Kodak Zi8 camcorder with 4gb, and a 2 gb flash drive.

What to do with the discarded?

I have a use for the older memory cards.

I store data on them. Yep.

Here's what I do / did. Take your really important files- files you would need if you had an emergency.

Files you would need if the house was on fire, a hurricane was coming. Emergency!

Birth certifcate, insurance papers, life insurance policy, driver license, wills, power of attorney, social security card, current photos all the really important stuff.

Scan the items that like the social security card, drivers licenses, things that aren't really text or has an electronic copy. Use a USB memory card reader, and store those items on the memory card.

Take the text or electronic items and store them on the card too.

I carry one when I travel, I update it periodically and if I need it, I have it. I also have an updated emergency contact list on it too. Before you say,"Why don't you just carry a flash drive," I do it's just busy with other important stuff, like YouTube clips or mp3's or pictures, or resumes or...........  

I keep one in a safe place, like my parents house.

I swap it out periodically with a more updated version...

Raw Food Network..

I joined it.
Nice welcome, I might add.
Looks to be chock full of information.
A healthier diet is what I'm looking for.
Ideas and recipes, tip and tricks, and other stuff.
I can spend some time there, and I will.
Check it out http://rawfoodrehab.ning.com/

Bragg's Liquid Amino's

I've used Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar off and on for a while now.
It's the best natural ACV out there I think. It contains the "mother," which
is the sediment or the ACV pulp if you will. Good taste.
The Bragg's Amino's was something I wanted to try for a while.
Picked some up from Kroger of all places. Usually you have to go
to a Hippy Healthy store to find it. Health stores can be hit or miss- you
have an eclectic blend of people that shop in the hippy health stores. They're all
giving each other the stink-eye. As if to say, "what are you doing in here."
Hipsters are especially quick with the stink-eye. After all they invented "it."
Not the Stink-eye, I invented that. I mean- "It" is everything.....
Back to the Amino's- very tasty. Reminds me of Soy sauce.
It's different, has kind of a woody-nutty flavor. Slightly salty.
Good stuff according to the label. Good Price at Krogers.

It's delicious so far.
Evidently it has lots of amino acids that helps with a healthy diet.
Tastes good on salad greens.
I'm going to test it for awhile...

Bounce magical, automatic, dryer bar, thingy.

Check it-
Bounce has made a dryer bar that sticks to the inside of your dryer.
It lasts for about 2 months, helps control static and acts as a fabric softener.
This may not be new, or a big deal to you- but to me it is.
Maybe this thing will help control the raging static that dwells within my clothes and everything I touch.
Living in fear of everything metallic is no way to live.

 It's bad this time of year. I went to pet my dog Ben and shocked him in the face.
He hauled ass. Sorry Ben.
This things attaches to the dryer drum, with some double sided sticky tape.
 I hope this thing is worth the 4 bucks.
You can get get quite a bit of laundry sheets for about the same price.
There's also different uses for dryer sheets too.
I have some in a previous post. Here.
I hope this dryer bar works out, it's a nifty idea.

Cheap-Geek Netbook Sleeve

Check out my ultra cool, reduce, reuse, recycle, hipster Netbook sleeve.

It has that found art style- the way the white plays off the black text. Snappy!

Feel the quality; it has a fold over flap to protect the Netbook, or small footprint notebook.

It has bubble wrap stuff in the inside for thermal protection and cushion for impacts.

Also liquid resistant- protects against Starbucks or Barnes and Noble coffees and other drinks.

The best thing is- you're not being cheap. You are a socially conscience individual.

Reducing and Reusing and Recycling or multipurpose use of materials, just shows how much you care.

Feel the quality! .. you Cheap-Geek Bastard……