laying the shit down.

Well, howdy ya'll. I figured since I have all this luxurious time on my hands, I'd spout and banter on about my exsistence over the last few months. It has been rather crazy. I quit Reply, joined a company that cloned pets and made rather ludicrous web sites about the "backwards south" and the supposevly positive and hence morally correct counter culture that exsists in the rest of the metropolitan world. They didnt know what they were doing, and as a result, a lot of us got laid off. It's been pretty sweet for the last month or so. I got a swell severence package and unemployment. I actually took a trip with my girlfriend to Death valley and las Vegas. Screw Vegas. I could fill up reams about Death Valley. It's probably the most amazing place I've ever been to. Absolutely stunning with enormous sand dunes and weird formations of salt. We camped in the back of my truck and were glad we did so. At night the wind kicked up to close to 60MPH and tore tents from their stakes and rocked my truck back and forth. We went off roading to a bunch of abandoned towns, many 20-30 miles away on desolate dirt and sand roads. We got stuck a few times, but made it out ok. If you havent been, go!
I am securing work from one of three companies. One is an education firm out or Ireland, and they need some prototypes of characters and so forth. Another is a cell phone reseller that wants online advertisement in the exact same places I used to place ads on yahoo and MSn, so it'd be a good fit, and still another would make me a traveling agent to do projects for companies across the west coast. Not sure If Im crazy about that.
I moved a few months back into a real house with a yard, garden work shop, and carpet. I got tired of the shitty apartment style of living where there's 20 coats of cheap paint on everything. I now live in Alameda right on the water, where surprisingly it is very easy to get to any of the surrounding cities, is cheaper, and in my humble opinion, better than putting up with the dirt and confusion of SF. Even the food is great here. I founf a german Resturaunt that sells this beer called Weltenburger Pils Dunkel, which just means "dark". It's a sort of amber, molasses thick kind of beer that makes you wish you have a gallon of it. It also makes you drunk like silly, so you have to be prepared to be there for hours and hours. They have Polka and German music too, thus I can see how Polka is instrumnetal in helping beer drinkers spend more money. what sounds like crappy music in the begining sounds better and better as you drink more. everyone else gets happy too, and lo and behold, a singing bar full of happy people and clinking beer steins. I also discovered a place called Tucker's Ice Cream, another weird Alameda joint with a fireplace, Prusian style furniture, and Ice Cream that's astoundingly good.
Lets see... I joined a car club along with my housemate who bought a 63' Chevy Corvair, the kind of car Nader wrote Unsafe at any speed about. It's pretty unsafe in general by dying in the middle of the freeway unexpectedly. When he picked it up, it died in the webster Tube and I was driving his shitty Ford Taurus. I actually pushed him the rest of the way home. I'd never done it before and I accidentally ruined the bumper in the process.We go out on the abandoned Naval base here and there's about 1000 people. The most infamous is the Billet-Proof gang. They're sort of snotty and have that whole " Jessee james" BBQ paint look going on for their cars, plus their girlfriends all mock themselves up in Betty paige look-a-like styling. I coul care less. I'm just there for the cars and cheap beer. By the way, if you want to see my car, it's here: http://www.nomadtoons.com.monterey2.html
I've been doing a lot of reading in my hiatus from work. One is called China Inc. I'd highly reccomend it. It opened my eyes as to what the very near future may look like. In essence, China will eclipse the US in every aspect in about 5-10 years and therfore have the prestige of being the top super power. The scary part is that they are already at a position that makes the US economy start to look less than sterling, and they're using mostly unskilled farmers working in sheds to do it! a good read.Musically, I still listen to old country, but in the last 2 years, Ive gotten into Americana and Alt-country, which isnt a genre yet, since it's never in music stores. I recently picked up the Hacienda Brothers and another band called Billy bacon and the forebidden pigs. Good stuff. The Gourds are probably still my favorite. I listen to 2 online stations, one in CA and one in TN. they are kpig.com and wdvx.com. They constitue in my opinion what radio aught to be, which is good music and DJs who like it. They also give airplay to musicians who otherwise would be unheard of.

Anyhow, thats about it fer now. I reckon I had some serious catching up to do. see you fellers later!-S