Beautiful Monsters

This month on A Blue Shelf And...

When I'm waiting for programs to do what I told them to do at work, sometimes I do Google searches to find neat pictures.  I believe I explained that in a previous post.  Anyway, being a child of the late 80s and 90s, there are some old tv shows that I remember vividly with very fond feelings.  When I find a great artist who re-imagines the characters of the show and makes me want to watch it all over again, I am very appreciative.  As I am not one such artist, I can't do such a thing myself, but I'm going to point out a couple of greats that I've found recently that just made my day.  My apologies in advance for the fact that they'll all be in a line from top to bottom.  I'm still working on how to do this better and since I don't do it often, I'm not getting much practice.

These Gargoyles pics can be found at immarart.deviantart.com, formerly digitaltofu.deviantart.com and I think they're just fantastic.

Following in the same vein, these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pics can be found at davidrapozaart.deviantart.com and they are likewise fantastic.

Both artists have a host of other work that is well worth a look.  I would definitely recommend them both.  I'm thinking we need to do some reboots of old shows and hire these guys to do their stuff.  Darker and even more awesome versions of already awesome concepts.  Enjoy!

October News

Looks like I skipped over September and most of October.  No matter.  I blog when I want!  Anyhoozle, I've been getting into this whole fantasy football thing and I have to say I am not very good at it.  Either that or I'm not paying close enough attention to stay on top of it.  Nevertheless, I'm ranked last in my league at the moment.  Granted that's the first time I've been in last by myself, but still, I don't like being last.  Not sure what I'm gonna do about it.  Probably nothing.

In other news, our gathering of the Church does these small groups called home teams.  I've wanted to get into one for a long time, but due to work (mostly) or other obligations I've never had the time to do it until recently.  I must say I'm loving it.  We're about to kick off our Trunk or Treat event we do at Halloween every year and I'm pretty pumped about what my home team is doing.  Given that several people in our team are in the praise band, we're naturally doing a music-themed "trunk".  I use that term loosely because I don't know that we have a trunk so much as a stage, band, and dining area, complete with tables and servers.  The characters I know will be in the band include Steven Tyler (myself), Han Solo (one of our guitar players/singers), and Billy Ray Cyrus (our drummer).  Oh, and did I mention the whole event will be taking place inside our new building?  That's right, we are driving cars inside our new building to do the event indoors (before we get it all refinished).  Could be a logistical nightmare, but it's gonna be awesome.  I'll try to get some pictures posted sometime.  They'll probably be all over facebook.

I've also been taking a systematic theology class taught by our lead pastor.  That's been a blast.  There's a lot of information to go over.  I didn't really need more homework, since I don't always get the stuff for school done, but at least this is meaningful.  And I've gotten to know several people at our campus quite a bit better, which is cool.

There, I posted in October.  I make no promises regarding frequency of posts in the near or distant future.  Here's my current desktop background at work:

 

Fan Service

I was determined not to have only one post in the month of August, so I just saved myself.  Basically while I'm waiting for a program to open at work I took the opportunity to drop my fans a line or two.  Just letting you know I'm thinking about you.  *cheezy smile and wink*

 

Do you feel the love?

Secretariat

I had a few thoughts I wanted to post about, but the only one coming to mind right now is the following:  what is the root word of the term "secretary?"  Is is secret?  Is it safe?  -lol-  Is it secrete?  Is it something else I haven't thought of yet?  If it's secret, that seems to be a bit of a dubious title, like secret-keeper.  That would lend credence to the thought that the boss is of an underhanded or double-dealing sort and the secretary is privy to all the inner machinations of his/her plans.  If it's secrete, that's just a disgusting way of saying that the person creates or discharges effort, paperwork, reports, emails, bodily fluids, what have you.  And in both cases the same can be said of the term "secretariat."

On an entirely unrelated note, I think I may add some gifs to my page to animate it a little.  That sounds like a fun time.  I don't know what, though.  I really don't want to trash up the place, which happens when you overdo it.  That doesn't sound like fun at all.  That sounds more like a bout of influenza gets hold of my blog and fires from two settings very undesirable solutions of matter all over it.  I'll say one thing; there won't be a bunch of glittery ponies or vampires or hot mamas.  It's gonna stay nice and nerdy, the way I want it.  Probably old video game sprites or something.  Maybe something else.  Maybe nothing.  It all depends on what I can find.  I need to get my computer and external hard drive back.  Might have something on there I could use.  Ok, lunch break's over.  Back to work.

Realizations

I just realized a few things about my blog.  One is that the last post is really long with the pictures in it.  Another is that I never posted whether or not I enjoyed The Watchmen...which I did.  It seems like there was something else, something other than the fact that some of the links on the side have changed since I was posting regularly, but as it often does, it escapes me.  It's not as though I was holding it captive, though, so I'm not sure why it felt the need to escape.  It's free to come and go as it pleases.  And just like that, I'm back in the groove of posting spontaneous thoughts.  Unfortunately, it is at this time that I have been given another task (finally).  So work before play, which according to the old proverb will make me (or at least Jack) a dull boy.  Such is life.  To war! -- I mean work!

Steampunk Abounds

Today's post is choc ful of pictures and let me preface the post with this statement:  I did not create any of the images or the contents therein.  I was just too lazy and forgetful to include where I found all the images.  You can find them if you do a Google search for steampunk, though.
Anyway, I was aware of a steampunk subculture, but I guess I never really thought about how widespread it was until recently.  I found all kinds of hits when I did my search (I frequently like to Google search random stuff) and thought I'd share some of the ones I found more interesting.

We've got Star Wars cosplay and art.

Here's a Portal piece.

I didn't recognize this one right away, but it's Ghostbusters.

 A different take on Alice in Wonderland.

This Scarecrow seems like steampunk with a little zombie thrown in.

I literally did a double take on this X-Men shot.

Apparently this Iron Man was the Marvel Costume Contest Winner at New York Comic Con 2010 and deservingly so, I say.

Some helmets made by individuals who certainly love steampunk.

 Then we get into the more "practical" applications.  From what I can tell from the sites, all these devices actually work.  The Game Boy appears to be just a standard paint and mod job, but really cool.  The flash drive is even for sale if you want it on Etsy, but the price I saw for the 8GB was $125.  While it's completely waterproof, that's still kinda pricy.

 This iPhone case is also for sale on Ebay with a starting price of $195.  Still neat.

Perhaps one of my favorite discoveries is this guy.  At sillof.com he has loads of reimagined characters in action figure form.  Most of them are Star Wars, but then he has comic book characters as well.  Personally, I love it, but I'm kindof an action figure nut.

Here we have the heroes,

the bounty hunters,

and the villains, all in steampunk form.

 Then there's the Justice League heroes

and villains.

And finally here's the Avengers.

And of course, there are lots of popular steampunk-influenced movies out there like Around the World in 80 Days, Hellboy, Van Helsing, Sherlock Holmes, Howle's Moving Castle, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Illusionist, and of course, possibly the poster child of steampunk movies, Wild Wild West, not to mention tv shows, to my knowledge, most prominently anime, and some video games.

So briefly, I know I'm not discovering anything new; that's not the point of the post or the blog in general.  I just thought the varied and widespread nature of the steampunk movement was rather interesting, especially since the genre itself is so neat, as well as the sister-genres of clockpunk and dieselpunk.  I was not as thrilled by biopunk.  It seems a little gross.

So that's my Google adventure for the day.  Neato torpedo!  Lol, and Trapjaw!

It's Highly Addictive!

I must say I'm enjoying getting up and running again.  I'm liking the layout changes since the last time I posted as well.  Hope you all are enjoying the results.

Spent the weekend in Indianapolis, visiting family for our post facto 4th of July celebration get-together.  That was an enjoyable experience.  Of course, I enjoy any excuse to consume an actual coney from up north.  A Sonic coney is not the real thing.  Coneys aren't just hot dogs.  And this trip I didn't have to play any Pokemon card games with a ten year old who makes up the rules as he goes.  But it was really nice to see everybody again.  Good times.

Today I rediscovered Mountain Dew Baja Blast, thanks to Taco Bell.  Still like it and I can continue to say that I am a fan of every flavor of Mountain Dew I've ever come across.  Before long they're going to have a cola and every other flavor of soda and become a new conglomerate altogether to rival Coke and Pepsi in earnest, which is not to say they don't already rival them.  I don't know of any other soft drink more addictively adhered-to than Mountain Dew.  I always thought Slurm would have tasted basically like Mountain Dew (probably mostly the color) and if you're a Futurama watcher, you know Slurm is highly addictive, especially the super-concentrated batch.

Not surprisingly, in acquiring that image, I encountered several identical opinions of the assumed flavor.  I wonder if that was the intention of the creators.

Gotta go.  I have things to do.  Until next time, blog fans.

Triumphant Return

Aaaaaand three years and change later, I have a new post.  New school, new job, new girlfriend, same old me.  Sorry about the hiatus everyone.  It was not intentional.  But look at the pretty new background!  Isn't that nice?  And I decided to do post titles, at least for now.  I'm mostly on here right now to have something to do and look busy, since I don't really have any tasks going at work at the moment.  Figured it would be a good time to revive the ol' blogaroo.  Nevermind, now I have a task.  Brb.

Ok, since the server connection from our office is so slow, I can probably work on this while my projects are saving or opening or attempting to do anything else.  The main office doesn't think it's that bad, but my office knows otherwise.  And that's mostly because the server is at the main office, so their connection is a LAN.  They just don't get it.

And while I work on my projects, I get to listen to the Halo books via iTunes, which is awesome.  Unfortunately, the one I've been listening to seems to have forgotten where I was, so I have to skip through to find the right spot.  Oh well.  Not a major problem.  Pretty great gig overall, I must say.

On an unrelated note, I got my motorcycle out of the shop recently and am loving riding again.  Thanks to Jesse for getting it up and running great.  If anyone needs a good mechanic, I can help you get in touch with him.

Ok, I think that's sufficient for the time being.  Hopefully I'll be able to post a little more often in the near future.

Later.

Wouldn't you know it? The mechanics couldn't find anything wrong with my car and just suggested a tune-up. Awesome. Well, here's hoping it works.

If you'll notice, I've added a couple of links. One is for The Journey, a weekly Bible study service I attend, and the other is for the pastor of that church and friend of mine, Jared Sparks. You may want to check them out. Good stuff. They're a lot more meaningful than my little corner of the virtual world seems to be, what with my random thoughts that sometimes make sense.

Should I add titles to my posts? I can't quite decide.

Oh, I almost forgot. To answer the eternal question, I'm watching the Watchmen. Tonight at midnight to be precise. *joy squeal*

Wow. Pre-class dook...classic. I also enjoyed Wall E and Hancock (see previous 2 posts). Anyway, I totally passed calc 3 on the first try. HA! Now differential equations is up to bat. Or it's pitching and I'm batting. Either way.

I had a thought last night but I didn't get on to post it because it was late and I was tired. Not that right now is any different, especially since I have to be up in less than 6.5 hours to go get my car looked at because it's a piece of crap. Plus last night I would have been posting in the buff because I had just gotten out of the shower (the thought occurred to me while I was in the shower). The point is that I can't remember what the thought was.

And just like that, it came to me. Have you ever heard someone refer to the "bowels of Hell"? I wonder...if Hell is a set of bowels, does that make Satan a big ol' turd? I'm not sure why that stood out in my mind last night, but I thought I'd share it with you. So now I'm gonna go eat dinner because I just realized I haven't yet and then I'll go to bed.

I hate mornings.

ओंस अगं, ... Okay, let's try that again. For some reason, it had the "type in Hindi" option turned on. Once again, a work blog. Actually this time I'm not on the clock. I'm just in the four hour break between work and class, so technically it's not a work blog. But I am using a work computer to type it, so maybe it's a working lunch blog.

Anyway, the semester has ended since my last post and a new one has taken it's place of contempt in my mind. Calculus 3 is not my friend. You hear that, calc 3? Your days are numbered! But enough of that. Having caught up a bit with my own blog by reading my last post, since I very rarely update, I realize that I did indeed enjoy Expelled, Iron Man, Dark Knight, and Get Smart. The others I have not seen yet, but I still believe I'll enjoy them. As for the Xbox 360 Elite situation, since nobody seems willing to help me out and complete an offer, I had to just break down and buy a regular 360. But it has not gone to waste. I have enjoyed it much with what little free time I've been able to spend with it. My best pal AfroRyan, whose blog you'll see to your right, labeled Afromegaly, has enabled me to acquire or borrow several games to get me started with achievements, which is greatly appreciated. What a guy. Did that sound a little gay? It sounded a little gay to me. No matter. Uh-oh. It's getting close to class time and I still need to take a pre-class dook. Guess I'll go do that. Until whenever.

Hmm...I seem to be getting into the habit of blogging at work. Not sure if that's a good thing, but seeing as how I have nothing to do anyway and the boss isn't in here at the moment, I'm going to choose not to care right now.

Know what I hate? Getting up early. Know what else I hate? Homework. Know what else I hate? School in general. Props to incomplete sentences. I was late getting up early for school this morning because I stayed up too late attempting to do my homework last night. I did almost a full problem. I am so ready for this semester to be over. Seriously. I'm burnt out.

I wish I had an Xbox 360 Elite right now *wink wink*. If you don't know what the winking is about, read a couple posts ago and all will be made known to you.

Everybody excited about Expelled the Movie? I am. I'm gonna like it. I can tell these things. I'm also really looking forward to Iron Man, Dark Knight, Wall E, Hancock, Get Smart, Speed Racer (kinda), and quite a few others that I can't think of now.

I probably better go finish my homework, since it's due in four hours.

Bye.

Well, I'm sitting here in the office at work again and a friend of mine is sitting in here playing a game on his computer. As he's playing, he keeps talking, half to himself and half to me, but I'm being quite entertained by his series of statements, so I'm gonna share a few with you as he says them.

I have a giant hammer!
I'm only level 1? That really sucks.
I just moved through a rock. That was odd.
Wow, that's the wierdest 3-eyed bird I've ever seen.
Hey, that wasn't very nice.

Okay, he's pretty much engrossed in the game now and isn't talking anymore. I missed a few at the beginning because I forgot them before I got here to type them. I knew you wouldn't mind. I'll be needing to go to class soon anyway, so ta ta.



Don't forget about the cheap xbox 360 elites available from my September 28 post! I command it!

I'm going to take this opportunity to do a little shameless promoting. I'm getting a new XBox 360 Elite for about $10 and rather than keep this little secret to myself, I've decided to pass on the goodness to you. If you don't want the console, you can just opt for the $480. So here's the link. Go sign up and complete one offer. You're welcome to do more than one, of course, but that would basically just be wasting money. You only have to do one. There are instructions throughout the process, so it shouldn't be too confusing.

Now that that's out of the way, how is everybody? I'm sitting here at work and posting a new blog. I have to go to class in a few minutes, so I should probably wrap this up. Hope you all enjoy your consoles or money.

It actually hasn't been as long as I thought it had since I posted last. I surprise myself yet again. Like that time I decided to take Calculus II. Yeah, I'm starting to think that was a bad idea, what with me not having taken a math class in over a year.

I guess I could mention that I am now also on facebook, for all you facebook users out there. It's been a while since I joined, but I never mentioned it here, so there you are. I'd post a link to it with the one to my myspace, but you have to be a friend of mine on facebook to even look at it, so there wouldn't be much point for most of you.

You know that Christian band I'm a sound guy for? Well, I think it's pretty much dissolved for now, due to conflicting schedules, priorities, that sort of thing. We might pick it up at a later date, but nothing for now, which makes me sad.

I suppose the final topic of discussion for this post will be that I'm back from my Florida vacation, which was AWESOME! I saw dolphins really far off, but didn't get nearly close enough to touch them. I swam with a huge ray of some kind. I think it was a stingray. That was super cool. I got stung by a bunch of jellyfish, which was slightly less than cool. Some of the people I went with saw a six foot shark while I wasn't around. I wish I had been there. I probly would have gone out to swim with it, or at least get a better look at it. I know, I know, sharks can bite and even kill you, but so can stingrays and I swam with one. A big one. I don't care about that stuff. If I die, I die. No biggy. That's not me giving my permission to order a hit on me or anything, because that's a different issue entirely. That would make me very angry. But me risking my own life ain't no thang.

Okay, that's not the final topic. This is. While on vacation I started the final Harry Potter book and I finished it earlier this week. Yes, I'm a slow reader. Don't care. It was a really good book. They all were. Now I'm sad because the adventure is over. I'm also irritated because now I have to find a new adventure to hold my attention for a while. Thanks to my uncle for some suggestions, even though he probably will never see this. Thanks anyway. I'm gonna look for some of them. I probly can't buy many of them, since I'm once again broke, due to college and vehicle stuff, but I'll search them out nevertheless. And now I bid you adieu and hope I spelled that right because I'm tired and a bit smelly, so I'm off to a shower and a bed with a pillow, but no blankets because it's so dang hot. Good night.

As you may or may not have noticed, I have added another link. It's to AfroRyan's new blog documenting the growth of hair. So instead of asking him how long it takes to grow an afro, just go read about it. Of course, you may have to wait a while. It's just getting started.

In an unrelated story, I left my car windows down a little today because it was quite hot inside the car. Once again, it poured...POURED down rain while my windows were down. The funny thing is that there was little to no moisture in my car. Isn't that wierd? Yes, yes it is. It's like there was a magic bubble around my car that kept rain from coming through my open windows. Not that I'm complaining, but it certainly seemed strange to me.

I remembered what the other thing was that I had included in the first try of the last post. I went to see 300 the day it came out. It was pretty awesome. I would definitely recommend it...except to the young'ns. They ought not to see it, what for the nipple action, man-butt, sex scenes, and large amounts of violence. Not really things da chillens needs to be seein'. But anyone else...have at it.

So I went to Hardee's for lunch today. Who is Hardee? Because the apostrophe in the restaurant's name implies that it belongs to this person, whoever he/she is. Same for Arby's. Who is Arby? Are the two related? I mean, we know who Ronald McDonald and Colonal Sanders are, not that KFC is called Sanders's or Colonal's, but you get my point. Wendy's even has the little girl on the sign. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be Dave Thomas's daughter, but that's not the point. Come to think of it, there are all kinds of restaurants that present this same quandry. I'm not going to try to name them all, but you know I'm right. I know you know. Know how I know you know? No, you probably don't, but that's truly, truly irrelevant to anything in my whole post...other than the question asking you whether you know...shut up. $33 y0u 1@73r.

Ladies all the time be askin' me "Coach Z, how come you don't dance no more?" But enough about that. Once again, my computer froze while I was trying to do a post. I had it close to done, too.

Why are the backs of shins called calves? Are we supposed to call the backs of thighs cows? I mean at least then calves would make sense, especially since when a calf is young and feeding it's under the cow. But then why would we call the backs of thighs cows? None of it makes sense.

I know there was something else I included the first time I tried to post this. I don't remember what it was, though.

Oh well. Here's something I was pondering. What is the origin of the term "spit'n image"? You know, like how babies are always the spit'n image of one of the parents? Is it supposed to be spitting image? Because I don't get that. Cause when you think about it that way, you take the image of the parent and then make it spit. That's what the kid is. On the other hand, if it's supposed to be the spit and image, that makes sense if you think about it. Cause what's in spit? DNA, that's what. The kid would kinda have their parent's DNA in them, so you could say (I guess...if your...I don't know...dumb) that they have their parents' spit. And of course the image part is obvious. They look like their parent.

I should probably be paying attention to the teacher. He's lecturing and I haven't really been listening. I tried for a minute, but it was boring...so I got on teh internets.

Seriously, does anyone read this? I mean other than AfroRyan? I know you do every now and then. But is anyone else getting any enjoyment whatsoever from this blog? If you happen to read this, don't hesitate to comment or let me know you read it. Right now I'm just rambling on, basically talking to a computer screen. Well, I'm talking in my head. Not really out loud to the screen. That would be interupting class. And I'd probly get sent out of the room.

Do you ever snake spit by accident? Like when you yawn or something? That gets annoying. Entertaining, but annoying. Cause it's usually when I'm reading something, so it gets all over the book and the pages get wet. Sometimes the ink runs. I wouldn't get quite so irritated if I could do it on purpose. I can't. But accidentally I'm a pro. I think I just did on my arm. I don't know where else all that moisture came from.

I'm so tired...and hungry. But I still have almost an hour of class left. Well, this is me...signing off.

I tried this once recently but then my computer froze and I got mad. Let's try it again.

So I finally got on mySpace. Yeah, that's pretty much why I haven't been here. I think I may have become an addict. I need an intervention. I'm stopping in to show the love, though. Here it is. A big, steaming pile of love. Dig in.