Panel Van, originally uploaded by ASurroca.

This is the first HHR panel Van I’ve seen. I almost thought Chevy had decided not to make them. And now that I know they did, I almost want to get one, slam it, paint it flat black, and have pinstripe artwork added to it. Almost.

Filed under: Uncategorized on July 6th, 2008 | No Comments »

Trampoline, originally uploaded by ASurroca.

So, I inherited a trampoline from my brother today. With three people working, it took all of 10 minutes to install it!

I also put in a firepit to go with the barbecue I already have there. I guess my backyard is really shaping up into something pretty cool.

Sadly, I won’t be actually usingthe BBQ or anything this 4th. This is Florida: it’s about to storm right now.

Filed under: Uncategorized on July 4th, 2008 | No Comments »

Painting my Door, Part 1, originally uploaded by ASurroca.

I’ve got sliding door in the computer room that’s still filled with drawings left behind by the previous owners’ kids, and I’ve decided to paint over them…not with paint, but with my own artwork, of course.

First of, I’m testing to see whether or not the Sharpie fades out on that paint. Either way, I’ll probably paint the door in a flat white…it’s cream colored right now, which I’m not OK with.

Filed under: Uncategorized on July 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »

When I saw the cover for the new Death Cab for Cutie album, I thought to myself, “hey, I’ve seen this before.”

Les Savy Fav, The Microphones, and Lamb all had similar album covers for their respective albums around the turn of the century.

The Microphones, in 2000
I would say the Death Cab for Cutie album cover bears the closest resemblance to this one, made from a few apparently hand-cut photographs.

Les Savy Fav, in 2001
The artwork consists of several photos that were chopped up and then spliced into one, creating a colorful, line-filled collage. It’s especially apparent on the album’s backside, where all the band’s members show up in the same space.

Lamb, in 2001
Rather than cutting out the band’s members linearly, the artwork here uses squares, but does about the same thing as the Les Savy Fav cover. The album’s 2003 US release was much less interesting, showing only the band’s lamb “logo” on a blue background. Boring, and two years late. Thanks, amazon.co.uk.

Filed under: artwork, music, thoughts on July 2nd, 2008 | No Comments »

Yes, I know Garfield Minus Garfield, or G-G, isn’t new, and I may lose internets cred by posting an old meme. Whatever. At any rate, I’ve always felt sorry for Jon Arbuckle. When you get past the humor in Garfield, what you’re left with is depressing. As evidenced by G-G:

Sadly, I’m finding that I can relate to Jon more and more each day.

Filed under: humor on July 1st, 2008 | No Comments »

Determining whether or not I have “grown up” using a random blog post from some site I’ve never heard of which apparently caters to women sounds like a reasonable enough course of action, right? Especially when it amounts to an e-mail friendly list of 25 items in the “you might be a redneck if” format.

Out of the entire list, I was able to find a handful which (kind of) could apply to me:

18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at three in the morning would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.

I’m quite certain that eating a basket of chicken wings would be a terrible idea. This has nothing to do with the 3 AM time and everything to do with the fact that I’ve been a vegetarian for half my life and could probably digest chicken wings about as well as I could digest a tin can.

20. A four dollar bottle of wine is no longer “pretty good shit.”

Last time I had bum wine was about a year ago. I think it was about $2.50 and tasted like Kool-Aid. For a little over four dollars, you could buy a bottle of Manischewitz, which does not qualify as “pretty good shit”. This means I’m growing up? Seriously? It has nothing to do with having properly functioning taste buds?

24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.

There is no correlation between being cheap and being mature.

That’s it: three out of twenty-five, and I’m twenty-seven. I’m already in a career, working at a real job, own a home, paid my car off years ago, and never liked going out clubbing until dawn to begin with. I’m all about spending weekends working on my home, going to IKEA is like going to Disneyland for me, and I get my ass handed to me by twelve year-olds when playing online multiplayer video games. But, apparently, I haven’t grown up.

Filed under: humor, rants on June 29th, 2008 | No Comments »

Bill-O Offensive? Hmm.., originally uploaded by ASurroca.

Came across this while perusing podcasts. If the image offends me does that count?

Filed under: Uncategorized on June 25th, 2008 | No Comments »

Marquee for Jesus, originally uploaded by ASurroca.

So, this truck in front of me has a tiny LED marquee under its license plate with a mesage about being saved by Jesus. Oh Bible Belt, you always find new ways to amuse me.

Filed under: Uncategorized on June 24th, 2008 | No Comments »

This is a snippet of an IM conversation about expensive guacamole I just had a moment ago:

Kate: you should come over, im making kick ass guacamole
Alfonso: sweet, I’ll hop on a red eye and be there in three hours your time
Kate: awesome. sounds like a plan.
Alfonso: sweet, it’s gonna be the priciest guac ever!

Photo: hale_popoki

Filed under: humor on June 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »

Can you spot the real Albertsons?

There are two Albertsons supermarkets near my home. I know exactly where they are, but out of curiosity I decided to go to albertsons.com and search their locations. Instead of a list of stores, I was greeted with the notice below:

“The ZIP Code that you have entered is in an area serviced by the Albertsons LLC family of stores. To read more about Albertsons LLC, read the press release explaining the distinctions in more detail.”

Apparently, in 2006, Supervalu, CVS/pharmacy, and Cerberus Capital Management got together to purchase Albertsons, Inc. In the deal, Supervalu and Cerberus split the Albertsons roughly 50/50, with Supervalu’s batch being spun-off as New Albertsons Inc. and Cerberus’ as Albertsons LLC.

Confusing customers, one market at a time

At any rate, I was directed to albertsonsmarket.com, since my area is apparently serviced by Albertsons LLC and not New Albertsons Inc. Only one of the two Albertsons near my home showed up in this site’s search, leading me to assume that the other one belongs to Supervalu. Well, that, and the fact that it’s suspiciously close to a Supervalu-owned Sav-A-Lot.

So, I’ve got two Albertsons stores run by two different companies in my area, and they’re as different as night and day. I will say that the Albertsons LLC store is clean and inviting, where the New Albertsons Inc. store is depressingly dollar-store-esque. I haven’t paid any attention on the prices, but I think I might start.

Actually, I probably shouldn’t bother. Just last week, Publix and Albertsons LLC announced that Albertsons will be selling 30 Central Florida locations to Publix come September.

Filed under: business, thoughts on June 19th, 2008 | No Comments »