Tag Archives: kevin w

LIVE

lemon

1000 yard stare

The boy at the Apple Store was convinced that my troubles had to be from a botched install of Panther, so on his recommendation, I returned home and ported my work off to the old G4 and CDs and reformatted the hard drive and installed it fresh.

Within 5 minutes of having the PowerBook back up, it crashed again…. Within 10 minutes I was on the phone with Apple Care. Now with the software being ruled out, that means that this is the third hardware failure since I bought the damn thing last September.

They sent out a box for it and before sending it in I scribbled a hand-written note and taped it to the top of the unit in hopes to appeal to the emotions of the Apple Service Department. Probably wasted effort… Today’s business / customer service model doesn’t accommodate the human condition. Not even companies who tout a touchy-feely “we like people” image like Apple.

Hardware failures don’t just happen to nifty little portable computers. Kevin stepped off a curb and twisted funny over the weekend and wound up throwing his back out. He does this about once or twice a year… Back injuries are miserable because you can’t get comfortable.

I suck at playing nurse – and wind up feeling sick and helpless. I do my best to keep his cold-packs changed and fetch him a Darvocet every four hours… It’s all I can do.

My dad came by the house with some homeopathic stuff from his stores. (His back is permanently fucked).

I greeted dad with a big hug. The nightmare chrisglass is going through with his father has really been sticking in my head lately. Since mom left, Dad’s permanently sad and doesn’t like to leave the house much. I tempted him with a fresh pot of coffee to stick around a little bit and hang out. It was good to just sit around and spend some time with him.

Since the divorce, both of my parents have pretty much become damaged goods. I wish it was as easy as calling Parent-Careâ„¢ and having them send out a box so I could send them in for repairs as well. Unlike my PowerBook, I wouldn’t push for a replacement… Repairs only please.

Damage aside, Glass’ situation has reminded me of the significance, and impermanence of parents.

note to apple

They, (or anyone for that matter), do not have an expiration date printed clearly on their necks for you to check.

If I had a blog I’d probably attempt some dumb ass, limp-dicked correlation between my broken laptop, Kevin’s back, my dad’s soul and my friend dealing with his pop dying.

LIVE, PLAY

trippin with robi

pig sprinkles

Up and out to the office early today.

Lunch with mom at The Broadway Oyster Club, a little cajun joint in St. Louis’ equivalent to the French Quarter in New Orleans. Red beans and rice with grilled sausage. mmmmmmmmm. *did I take my cholesterol meds today?

Back to the office where a grumpy mojobear was trying to work on a software project but kept getting distracted by phone calls and random pop ins from needy friends.

Something’s not right. I first thought I was empathetically picking up on Kevin’s mood as I’m apt to do. (I’m a textbook Scorpio). But by the end of the day it seemed more than a contagious funk.

By 7pm I had the chills and my head felt like it was in a pressure cooker. It seems the weather snap has smacked me with a cold.

It’s now some ungodly hour and I’ve got that “speedy funky high” you get when you take over-the-counter cold medication. I’m groggy – but can’t sleep.

Thought I’d make myself a salad but got distracted with Baco-Bit’s new packaging design. Damn you chrisglass for creating this dialogue about the rampant, lame-ass, new re-branding efforts of companies.

But why stop at the package? I say rename those tasty little nitrate-filled-flecks!

I must be hallucinating from the Robitussin because I could swear I’m blogging.

photography, WORK

grip and grin

Diesel

Ah yes, the first day after a long weekend. Phone hasn’t rang once.

I got my first excuse to use the new camera for something “income generating” last week: Corporate-Style photos of one of my client’s employees.

Yes, I know I’m taking food off the table of the hard working men and women’s table who are part of the Sears Portrait Hack Legion – but I can justify my trespasses by remembering that photography was indeed my major in college.

Really what it boils down to was the company’s CEO, (a ruthlessly penny-pinching, bullying, corporate, power lesbian), figured she could save a few hundred dollars if they called in the designer with his fancy new digital camera.

I’ve been dubbed the company’s “pet art-fag” and have developed a wonderful, casual rapport with the employees. (Relax any of you thinking that they’re horrible for nick-naming me this – the company is gay owned and 80% of their employees are gay and lesbian).

I spent a couple of hours doing the necessary “grip-and-grin” shots for use on their website, but not without toying with each person and snapping off a few extra shots for myself. “Diesel” shown above is one of my favorite employees there.

I remembered how much I enjoy being behind the camera before I essentially abandoned the craft to pursue my career as a designer.

I promised myself that sad day when we hawked my Nikon F4 that I would revisit the craft when I felt that digital technology came of age. Thanks to chrisglass for introducing me to the Sony CyberShotâ„¢ line, as well as so many other things, which have not only enhanced my work, but my life too. (schmoopy gooopy sounds).

As it turns out – I’ve got the client interested in using these “outtakes” for some progressive ad spots in GLBT-specific, (and other bleeding edge), publications. …. Humph.. Who-da-thunk?

Calling it an early day to drop prints and proofs off and go check in on the depressed mojobear who’s at home babysitting the contractor who’s working on our den-to-be. Besides, on such a slow day, if I say at the office, I may be tempted to blog.

LIVE

Betty Crocker’s Bastards

Baked goods or performance art?

The Lack of circumstantial maintenance.
This is what I love most about mojobear.

Mojo (Kevin) was content to left alone to sleep in and awoke around 11am to freshly brewed coffee and his birthday presents: A Leaf Blower / Vac and Weird All Yankovic’s UHF on dvd.

The Black and Decker seemed appropriate since he’s always soliciting Chad and I with proposals which generally include the words: Suck and Blow. He also has a proclivity for yard-work which I try to encourage at every turn.

The Weird Al? Well… Mojobear is one of those gifted folks who can see the true genius in things like that, as well as MAD Magazine and Leslie Nielson.

Birthday boy’s requested lunch?
Take home from Sonic: 2 #1 Sonic burgers, Large Tots.
(See above comment about lack of circumstantial maintenance).

The afternoon was spent relaxing, watching UHF and the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
_____________________

SIDENOTE: Has anyone else experienced this?

I can appreciate the L.O.R. Films and can’t find any really solid reason to criticize them.
But for some reason, I can’t sit through either of the two films without nodding off!
I’ve dubbed this phenomena the “TOLKEN SUB-SONIC HYPNO-SLEEPY VIBE”.

I’ve tried, repeatedly, to watch both films and can’t make it past an hour per sitting without loosing consciousness.
______________________

Birthday Boy’s requested evening?
Going to see Freddy vs. Jason.
Not to much to say about that, the film was what it was.
(Thank god I have an updated version of Pong on my cell phone).

On the trip back from the mega-media-plex, Chad and I decided it’d be fun to bake a birthday cake.

Note: I’m no putz in the kitchen, but I must give props to the professional baker-folk out there – because BAKING is an art unto itself.

We carefully read the box, found the virgin BUNT cake pan my mother gave me five years ago and before we knew it – we, and the kitchen, had a light dusting of flour and our creation was cooking away in the oven.

Magic.

45 minutes later – we pulled our creation out, completely mangled it trying to release it from the pan and spent another 10 minutes trying to “sculpt” this mountain of steaming cake batter into something resembling a Buntesque shape.

We would have had better luck fashioning something resembling Devil’s Tower while doing really bad Richard Dreyfuss impersonations.

Nonetheless… It “IS” the thought that counts and Kevin was touched.

We laughed, we ate and we went to bed.. Not before promising not to blog the event.