Friday, December 24, 2010
Germany Part Three
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Portland Panda Preservation & Procreation Project
Dillies is a Bar about a block away from where I used to live. Hardly anyone goes there so it’s a nice place to drink without being disturbed. If you sit by the window facing New Seasons (a chain of well-kempt grocery stores in and around Portland), you can watch as hundreds of well-dressed, attractive people rummage for groceries with miniaturized, streamlined shopping carts. If you drink enough alcohol, it’s enough to make you throw up.
I sat by that window for an entire day once. When New Seasons closed, I just picked up my drink and migrated to the back room, where they keep the barely functional piano, extra tables, and stacked up analog televisions: This is where I met the guy who got me addicted and arrested, the guy who, probably, saved my life. I think his name was Bill. He was very Chinese. He was dressed as a Panda. We fell asleep. A garbage truck woke us up.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Moving Around
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Trey and his SP 404
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Print Club T-shirt Sale:
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Health Care
There will be no public option, no cost control, the health insurance companies will still make money by not providing health care to the people they are supposed to be covering.
Are Obama/jello-dems fighting for us or for the health insurance companies?
Sunday, March 7, 2010
2-28-10 through 3-6-10
Went to watch Trey and Gig play at the Mews on Thursday, hadn't heard either of them play music before; I was reeeeeealllllly impressed at how great they sounded.
Here: asteroidpinballmachine (Trey), musicmaidmarian (Gig). Go. Listen. Be impressed at how great it sounds.
Here's a sweded version of Harry Potter we did for KQ 2009:
Saturday, February 27, 2010
2-27-10
Friday, February 26, 2010
In Defense of Toyota
Firstly, I'd like you to watch this video (it might be part of why I am so upset, and yes, I realize there are probably lots of other incidents, equally as tragic, that don't involve Toyota malfunctions, but this could have been avoided--the deaths of 39 human beings, who probably went through the same horror, could have been avoided:
So here is an overview of the situation:
- Between 2000 and 2010, over 2,600 complaints"of sudden unintended acceleration" in Toyota vehicles were filed with the NHTSA (a government agency that is supposed to protect us from these kinds of things.)
- March 2004, the government conducts one investigation of the problem and closes it a month later.
- Between 2004 and 2009, four petitions are brought to the NHTSA by Toyota owners begging them to conduct more investigations; the requests are ignored.
- Before any action is taken, 243 people are injured and 16 die (numbers from a Safety Research & Strategies study).
- 2007, their solution is: recall floormats because they are bunching up under the accelerator. (Total bullshit that nearly everyone involved in the accidents denies. Internal memos reveal Toyota applauding their safety department for finding a way to "limit the recall" and "save the company 100 million or more".) (It's really, really disgusting.)
- 2007-2010, a lot more people die or come close to dying:
In Portland, Oregon, Marianna Eisner's Lexus crashed into a truck after it shot out of control on the freeway in September. Said Eisner, "I did have a fleeting thought that this may be the day that I die."She said that prior to the incident, she had already heard about the floor mat problem and made a point of checking hers. "The mat was nowhere near the accelerator," said Eisner.
The driver of a Toyota Camry whose wife was killed when their vehicle went over a cliff in California said that even with his foot on the brake he could not stop his car.
"All of a sudden," said Bulent Ezal, "the car surged with force and I was thrown back to the seat."
Elizabeth James said her Toyota Prius suddenly shot up to 90 miles an hour when her foot was not on the gas pedal. "I'm absolutely certain that in my situation, it was not the floor mats," said James.
"A fatal accident near San Diego this August that took the lives of California Highway patrol officer Mark Saylor, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law drew attention to the problem of 'runaway Toyotas.' The Lexus they were driving, borrowed from a dealer, raced out of control at 100 miles an hour before hitting another vehicle, crashing into an embankment and bursting into flames. Right before the crash, Saylor's brother-in-law called 911 from the backseat of the vehicle and said urgently, "Our accelerator is stuck. We're in trouble…There's no brakes." "
--ABC News (here's a video of the b.s. floor mat excuse.)
- 2009-2010, Toyota recalls 6.3 million cars, all recent models ( But over 70% of the malfunctions happened in car models they are not recalling; the reason they aren't recalling that 70%? Well, probably, because it would bankrupt them.)
The other day, Rush Limbaugh (defender of corporations here, there, and on the moon) asked, "Does anyone doubt, ladies and gentlemen, that Toyota does a good job making safe affordable cars?"
I can think of a few.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
2-23-10
Monday, February 22, 2010
2-22-10
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
excerpt and sketch from: t-rex in the sea
...It was kind of a hollow victory, because I failed at what I was actually trying to do, which was cheer up the girl taking my money and handing me baseballs. She didn't exactly look sad, just blank, like the part of her brain controlling emotions had short-circuited. I think I went through around forty bucks worth of smiling and one-sided conversation and failed attempts to make her laugh; she just sat there staring at me with empty, plastic-looking eyes, nodding occasionally. At a certain point, she just assumed I was trying to get her number, and all hope was lost. I told her she was beautiful, and she handed me one of the t-rex hats hanging from the ceiling. She told me the game was rigged and I should stop trying, then she told me to go away...
This is part of an illustrated story I'm working on. The sketch and text are both still rough, but here's some progress on what will, hopefully, eventually, turn into the final illustration: