It's good to have you back, Wes.

Padding the Nest
3/01/04

My home moves more steadily into a zone where I feel I have control of my environment and am not at the mercy of my landlord. Things are good... and will get better. I've missed my life. It's time to get back to living it.

Anatomy of a Dork's Desk
9/13/03

On the far left, I have an "incoming" bin that I throw everything into and take nothing out of. Just to the right of it, is my Hedera Ivy that I've been trying to get to take off for almost 2 years. The picture on the identifier is so lush and branches out everywhere... mine won't take the bait. In the background, you can see my nifty-keen squirrel feeder that no squirrels eat from. I get to watch a few birds take a kernel or two, but none of them weigh enough to have the wheel turn and drop them on their heads... Where are the squirrels? Of the other plants I have, two feebly surviving cuts from Buddy, my unbrella plant, and the other is a coleus, I grew from seeds. On my desk is my game folder, where I write random info from games I'm playing. Topping it is a bag of "healthy" kettle chips I got from the local hippie grocery and a collection of empty coca-cola cups from counterbalancing the health of the chips. Behind the chips is a tiny ant-bait I put on my desk to get at those little beeches who keep crawling on me late at night. I'm starting an Olde Town Coffee Shop paper mug collection, and the tiny BigBoy figure that shashap gave me is guarding it. Under my desk is an old couch cushion to cover the air conditioning vent, and the flaked paint where the air vent has managed to peel away the paint from the 100 year old baseboards. There's my red footwarmer... someday I'll talk about my heater fetish.

My bathroom is slowly approaching completion. It's taken months, and my landlord is almost assuradley sick of it all. But it's almost working, and almost presentable. Viva La Revolution!

I wish I could say there were a lot of mitigating factors to lessen the blow, but for the most part, I got no respite. If I were to line up a series of crippling blows for my worst enemy, I don't think I could have done a better job. I would have kept repeating, "At least you have your health" if I hadn't been worried about that as well. Profanity doesn't do it all justice, so I'll just quit there. Here's hoping 2003 keeps getting better... We sure need it.

What's Wes up to lately? Well, I'm not going out as much, I'm trying to get back into playing some computer games, my yard has got flowers and herbs all over it, and my roommate is still a big gayfer. Fantasm came and went with much joy and laughs. My parents are selling their boat, and that makes me grumpy. Stephanie and I have been growing together quite well, and things look surprisingly bright and sunny for our future. My dog is still as crazy as always. I seem to be surrounded by a horde of people getting married and having babies. My house continues to fall down around me while my landlord runs around and plays the harp. I'm starting plans for this year's Monstrosity, and am excited about a possible collaboration. I have a ton of great friends who I never see since I'm not going out. And despite my poverty, I've made a few good trips out of town and have plans for quite a few more.

So things are good... OR bad... but they are certainly better than last year.

I know a few people who have noticed the current psychic blizzard... the chill in the heart...the deep emptiness that seems to fill the air...the horrible unfullfilled longing that cramps your stomach. Other people have seen the results of the storm...couples breaking up...tangible and dominant death...increased accidents, mayhem and conflict. I'm not quite sure what's going on, and I surely don't believe in any of that astrological mumbo-jumbo, but it seems like the planets are aligned against us right now, and we just get to huddle under the blankets looking for warmth.

But this time, we get to do it alone.

Stupid snake brain... always crawling when it should be walking.

Good Times on Zero Budget
2/10/02

There's a certain degree of guilt that comes from remaining unemployed as long as I have. I mean, it would be great to say that I'm using this downtime effectively and doing massive renovations on my house, but for the most part I've only solidified my status quo. Instead of spending 3 hours at the office each day sifting through the net, I spend 5 hours at home. Instead of waiting for the weekend in hopes of doing yard work, I'm... well... waiting for the weekend in hopes of doing yardwork. It's almost like I've made sitting on my ass into a job. Hell, it's not like I haven't developed enough internet distractions to keep me typing all day.

And with no money comes an extra amount of guilt. Sponging off people is only acceptable if you are doing your damnest to change your situation, and quite frankly, I'm not. I mean, I have managed to squeek out a few HTML gigs and am doing some graphic design on the side for a friend in Cali, but I'm mainly working on barter right now, so the big bucks aren't there. For the most part, I've just been living off my unemployment, my girlfriend's good will, and random collections of old debts that my friends offer up at weird times. It's kinda weird... I shouldn't be allowed to live this way.

Despite my poverty, my wonderful girlfriend did drag me around the country on a whirlwind spree of decadence. I haven't got ALL the pictures up, but I'm working on it, so gimme a break. I also finally posted my pictures from last fall's trip to DC. I owe Ali a drink or two for that horrendous delay.

OH! And Gabe has decided to move into my beloved home and put up with my sorry ass. What does this mean? Well, with every roommate comes a major influx of traffic to the homestead. This means the neighbors will start hating me again, and I'll be doing more dishes. But, Gabe is an old-school gamer-geek, so that means more games! I've already had some groups playing board games, and when Steve moves back into town from Chicago, I'm expecting some campaign role playing! Kaloo-Kalay! Plus... lower bills. I saved the best for last.

How fast can one man ruin his life?

I postulate that you can do it pretty darn fast without even really having to try. My recipe for disaster? Throw a HUGE halloween party where you insist on donations instead of charging at the door, put off your bills because you've given out over 800 invitations and asked for between $10-20/head, decide that if you're going to do this party right, no expense should be spared, lose over $1400 on the entire venture, get laid off from your job before you can catch back up on your bills, fail to make any money over the X-mas break because everything is so hectic and chaotic, flounder in your own poverty while your employer works out some issues that are plaguing her business life, and finally grow accustomed to the time off so that your ass is permanently fused your computer chair.

"Will GeekMan rescue his finances in time to save his home?"
"Will Geekman get enough motivation to keep his credit from being destroyed?"
"Will GeekMan's lovely girlfriend keep buying him dinner and drinks?"
Find out next month... same Geek Time... same Geek Website!

On a lighter note: I got The Monstrosity website up and running. I put up pictures from the party, and will eventually have a movie walkthrough of the Haunted House. I've also been a bit lazy (fancy that) and haven't posted pictures of the Haunt itself. There are tons of pictures in the Building section, so you can still get an idea. I'm going to work on the Haunt pics soon.

I guess I'll tell the story of my lay-off some other time.

My life can best be described as a battlefield littered with discarded corpses of brilliant ideas. Well, ok... brilliant might be a little strong. Perhaps I should just describe these remnants as "workable". Were I to actually WORK on some of them, I might actually end up with a paycheck independant of a 40 hour work week.

What do I have in my head right now? A boardgame, a major movie script, an independant movie script, 3 webpages, a webzine, a garden, a professional haunted house, an internet porn site, a syndicated cartoon strip, a weekly column, lyrics to 4 good songs, renovations to my house, the layout to a kick-ass club, a really good dungeons and dragons tournament, a giant monstermud sculpture for my backyard, and probably a dozen other significant designs that would be unique and innovative.

Why don't I work on them? Two reasons... The first is that I don't have the time or certainty to commit to any one project. Since there are a gazillion things I want to do, to pick one of them seems like a betrayal of the others. Additionally, that first step requires a degree of planning that I'm not quite comfortable with. I need someone who kickstarts my projects by putting the initial planning BEHIND me before I begin working on something. The second reason I don't work on them is because I keep getting distracted. I wanted to finish the fence in my yard, but Diablo II distracted me. I want to finish reading Battle Cry of Freedom, but Orson Scott Card books keep distracting me. There are so many tasty delights floating around me, and often the ones I partake of are the simplest to approach and the easiest to walk away from. I've taken the tests, I'm not ADD... but I sure as hell feel like it.

Maybe I can dig something out of this one day... but more likely, I'll just have a lot of good stories to tell my grandkids about "brilliant" ideas that never took off.

I'm being reminded almost daily of the mortality of myself and everything around me.

Since I'm about 8 months behind on my updating, all the pictures I've added this time are subtle reminders of good times long gone. Many of the people pictured have moved away, retired to a life at home, or changed their friendship habits to something foreign. Looking through these pictures is almost bittersweet, and I find myself going back in time. I get whistful, so I start thinking about the group of friends I had before this one, and the group I had before that, and the friends I had before that. Fate and social changes have actually acclerated my turnover rate... it's gone from a new crowd every three years, to a new crowd every year. There are lot of constants, don't get me wrong, but I sometimes wish that I could count on that foolish consistancy to nag this simple mind.

In hindsight, two jobs did a real number on my social life. I thought I was maintaining a few friendships over the counter of my bar, but all-in-all I'm finding myself terribly lacking in intimate friends. Perhaps this happens to everyone who ends up as an entertainer for a living. Maybe the social requirements for being a good host and bartender have ended up stigmatizing my traditional interactions. Regardless, I feel my time is scant, my energy lost, and my patience short... not a strong combination for being a good friend.

In addition to my social mortality, Stephanie and I have been dealing with issues that inspire thoughts on physical mortality. After dealing with my puppy's injuries last week, we found the cat, Felicia, hurt on the porch last night. She has been missing for a couple of days, so Steph was worried about her. But we really didn't think that she would be seriously hurt till she showed up last night with a badly broken leg. We rushed her to the animal hospital, and the X-rays showed a multiple fracture. It was really terrible seeing her move around on it, but even more terrible was the realization that she didn't have any understanding of what was going on, except that she was hurt. That lack of comprehension must have been particularly disturbing while we tried to get her in the basket, while the vet poked her with a morphine injection, and when we closed her up in the house for the night. To top it all off, my roommates have moved out at a time when I'm broke, and now I'm going to have between $400-600 dollars in vet bills depending on whether we have her leg amputated or pinned.

I swear that God must be using me for comedy relief. I promise I'll be less morbid next time I update!

It's hard to explain what motivates me to work on my site. Sometimes I can't stand for one week to go by without working on my site a bit, and then there are times like this where I let it rot for 6 months. I love the idea that my friends check my page periodically and see what I've done that is clever and sarcastic, but sometimes I'm too tired to be clever and too busy to be sarcastic. It takes me about 4 hours to do a "typical" update, and lately those four hours are hard to come by. Between two jobs, a girlfriend and a serious computer game fixation, I find I barely have time to go out and get a drink, much less coerce the people around me into wacky poses. I've pondered trying to force myself into some sort of schedule, but I consider the comments under the pictures to be more important than the pictures themselves, and my humor is no ceaseless fount.

So here I am, apologising for my delay. I'd promise to do better, but until I get paid well for this, you have to suffer through my apathy. I've been trying to talk Danny into paying me to do a One webpage that will truly be interactive and promote the club at the same time. But I seem to run into the same walls every time I find some way to make money with my own creativity. I need to find someone rich who thinks I'm brilliant. Heh, how many times have I said that before?

Has everyone dropped by 721?

So I was graced with a rain-free week before Halloween, but now it's been coming down for days and I can't take down my Monstrosity. The ceiling has fallen in, the walls are being ripped apart by the winds, and I haven't had the opportunity to transport my big props to the club for storage. Although it has given me a new idea for The Spark.

I found out someone spilt beer on DJ Yurm's mixing board, so thanks to whoever sucked that money out of my party fund. I also can't find the handle to my freezer. Would whoever pulled the handle off my freezer, PLEASE tell me what they've done with it?

Election day has been a fiasco. I'm so disgusted at the Nader negativity from Gore supporters. Weren't they paying attention to all the statistics? They are the same candidate with only slightly different chips on their shoulders. Nader supporters aren't responsible for Bush's victory, BUSH supporters are! In that vein, I am even more dissapointed in the people I know who voted for Bush.

The arguments I've heard:
I want lower taxes!
I want morality back in the goverment!
I identify with Bush, he's not a politician!

News Flash:
Gore has proposed tax cuts, too. Just not as savage as Bush's and not as blatantly unachievable. Remember that your personal portion of the national debt is several thousand dollars, and that 400 bucks he might return to you still won't pay off the loan Reagan took out in your name.

Bush is an insider trader. His record in Texas is abysmal and doesn't support the promises he's made in his campaign. He has been arrested THREE TIMES and served little to no punishment for anything he's ever done wrong. And that brings us to Number 3.

Bush is a rich fratboy who has skated his way through life. He got out of Vietnam by having his dad pull strings. He's never made a DIME of his own money that didn't involve insider trading or using other people's money to pad his own pocket at their expense. He's a man of priviledge who has gotten a political career of his dad's name and hasn't earned a bit of the clout he parades around. If you identify with this man, then I am seriously afraid of you. If you think he's not a politician, then you need to read some more.

I like the moderation of the Clinton Presidency. We got financial prosperity and increased our civil liberties. We started paying off the debt and we managed to shrink the goverment. I'm confused by fear of liberals. What's liberal about the things I've listed here?

But enough ranting. I've posted an essay on my experiences at the voting booth in my Writing section.

The Halloween Party went well. The Haunted House got finished to about 80% satisfaction on my part. I didn't get the motion sensing equipment up and working, nor did I get my expensive event control timers up and running. But I did get a really big and reasonably creepy haunted house constructed, and it's got plenty of potential for scaring the kids on Halloween.

Good points:
1) We didn't get busted till 4:30 AM
2)The Costumes were great and the spirits were high
3)Nothing got stolen but my bottle of Maker's Mark.
4)DJ Yurm kept the house dancing the whole time.

Bad Points:
1)Before I was even open, some little 'tard broke my ghost and wrote something about the 19th hole behind it
2)My Party got busted
3)My bottle of Maker's Mark got stolen
4)The little 'tard came back and tried to re-write what we covered up

Special thanks go out to Mike, Todd, Rob, Jennifer, Paul, Jeff, Pam, James, Brandon, Stephanie, Tim, Amanda, Ron, Lucy, Shelly, and a myriad of other people who chipped in and helped me build my monstrosity. There are so many things that went on behind the scenes that no one noticed but me. And their help was invaluable in making what some deemed as "The Party of the Year." It was a good time, and all these people made it happen.

BTW, I'm going to try and push my pictures over the next couple of weeks. I'm two months behind and perhaps it's time I quit trying to be clever and just got the damn pictures up. So the next few added pages might not have the typically dry humor that you are used to, but I figure I should do something about my backlog.

For those of you who don't know, I throw a mighty wicked Halloween Party! I build a Haunted House in my yard ever year out of 2x4's and black plastic. Then I fill it with decorations and lighting effects and sometimes even a warm body to jump out and spook people. I do it for three reasons.

1) There aren't enough good parties in this town.
2) Halloween lets me build things that no sane person should get to build.
3) I get to scare the kids with it on Halloween Night.

So this year, since I'm all rich and stuff, I have bought a bunch of specialty lighting, anatomical bones, chicken wire and PVC, and home automation equipment. This should be my best Haunted House EVER!

I am changing the rules, however. I am gonna have to be a bit more insistant about donations this year. Last year, I received back about 40% of what I spent. But since this year I'm spending about $1200 on it, I think that percentage needs to go up a bit. So if you decide to come to my house, PLEASE bring a donation of at least $5.

In response to my zeal, I have gotten financial funding to do a professional haunt for next year! I'm sick and tired of Huntsville not having any good Haunted Houses. It's time to change that!

I posted some of the pictures for this update.

They say there is a time for everything on this earth, and I do believe that now is my time to be rich. Working two jobs may give me no free time, but my take-home pay is mighty appetizing. So what if I don't have a social life? I can buy whatever I want, whenever I want. When I was a bartender, I had all the free time I wanted, but couldn't afford to do all that much. Now I get to eat in nice restaurants, buy all the computer games and comic books that I want, and blow cash on new audio-visual products for my household. I even got my satellite dish hooked back up.

I'm viewing this as a new kind of therapy... cash-therapy.

In other news, I went to Louisville this weekend and visted Stephanie's family and friends. We didn't get to see Dan <hey Dan!>, but I got to meet Adrien, Nikki, Ben, Jac, Jazmyn, Wanda, Kieth, Mark, and Lily <my dog away from dog>. I'll have the pictures up in a couple of weeks, along with some drag show MPGs that were filmed too far away from the stage... heh...

OH! and I finally got my DSL router up and working, so I can hook up a LAN at my house. Tim and I are about to get buried up to our necks in Starcraft!

And I spent all week seeing how fast I could use up all 32megs of memory on the memory stick. Happily, I was able to take a LOT of movies at the club, and not get anywhere near my memory limit. Life is good.

On a down note, Ron and Amanda are leaving for Texas on Thursday, and I feel like I am losing some of my best friends. Working two jobs is stressing me out. Out of Africa got me all weepy on Sunday. I have oodles of yard work to do, and no neighborhood kids I can draft into helping me. I have to get some wood and plastic out of my yard by Friday, or community planning is going to write me a citation. I'm gaining weight like I had ordered the entire menu in a bucket. My mornings feel the middle of the night and the evenings feel like bedtime. I've noticed that my cell phone emits enough radiation to seriously distort my monitor at work, and I'm worried what it's doing to my grey matter. And finally, I'm developing another caffeine dependancy.

But take a peek around, and check out some of the movies I've been taking with my new camera. Not that they are THAT exciting, but I'm excited that I can take them in the first place.

I celebrated my Birthday for a lot longer than I probably should have! And I think I may have permenantly altered my bloodstream by the incessant addition of alchohol. But I have some good reasons for celebrating. First off, a lot of my friends are moving away. Ron's about to head back to school, and Amanda has decided to move out there with him. Katie is leaving for school, and Brant and Celeste are moving to Savannah. Katye Martens only stayed for a couple of short weeks before heading back to Cali. All in All, It's been nice to spend time with some of my good friends before distance and time make our experiences into memories.

I seem to end up with a new batch of friends every couple of years, and this birthday was in part my wake for this era. I am going to miss what we had.

On a lighter note, my birthday presents kicked ass, and I posted a few pictures of them so you can take a peek at the love I got.

Well, my grey hair and growing lateral dimensions are giving me away. For the first time in my life, I think I'm actually starting to show my age. Se La Vie, but it's a damn shame that as dashing and versatile as I was when I was young and spry, I end up becomming slug-like and stagnant.

Someone call the paramedics.

My Mom got me some SWEET wingtips, and I figure a few other people might be tossing me some goodies tonight.

I like getting free stuff.

Yeah, Yeah, I know... I know... I should have updated sooner.

But hey, I've been doing this thing for a long time, and we all get bored with our babies, especially when they are as much work as this monster has been. If it makes you feel any better, I have a complete overhaul in the works. I'm going to change the look, the feel, and the structure of this page so that it doesn't seem so plebian compared with the other polished pages you come across.

Additionally, I have purchased a new camera. It's similar to my old camera, except it uses memory sticks (so that I can change film, like in the mavica), it takes MPEG movies (so I will be able to have movie clips on here, WITH SOUND), and it cost a helluva lot more. Hopefully, new hardware will reinspire me to catch all my friends in the act (whatever act that might be).

OH! And I got another real job. I work for a really nifty company that is paying me far more than I deserve to do some software engineering for them. Hopefully, I'll have all my bills payed off soon and I'll be a real person again... heh. But this does mean that I'm going to be exhausted when you see me working at the club on the weekends, so please have mercy and remember that I'm up past my bedtime.

This was the con to go to for those who want just a little bit of deviance in their diet without having to invest in a full jar of liquid latex. For those of you who have never been to a Sci-Fi / Fantasy Convention before, you have missed out. Weirdos throw some of the best parties and have some of the wildest times you can imagine. I've always had a theory that the weirdos in the world have nothing to hide, while the "normal" people keep all their dysfunction bottled up till they burst. So imagine a hotel, FULL of unrestrained oddities and near-naked women. Imagine events where the person who throws the best party wins cash, and the woman who can tantalize the audience the best receives a crown and a title. Imagine getting compliments for having the most outlandish clothing and the most original costumes. Imagine a party where people get strapped into immense metal constructions with leather restraints and suspended in mid-air...... wait... I should probably shut up, now.... My Mom might read this!

I have put up my Fantasm photos for those who are interested. For those of you who are waiting for my January, February, and March pictures, I apologize. Instead of working on my page, now that I have so much free time, I have instead returned to the womb. I sit at my computer at see how much food I can eat while I spit out caustic babble over ICQ. But I'm working on it! I'm working on it!

One has started playing Live Music on Wednesdays! 40 Cycle Hum is going to be playing on March 22, so EVERYONE needs to come and show some support!

Ok, so my old internet service provider decided to go belly up and sell out to HiWAAY, leaving me high and dry. My e-mail address has been wes@advicom.net for over 8 years, and I think it's completely unfair for me to end up with wes1@hiwaay.net just because I picked betamax over VHS. Hurumph! Well, in protest, I'm moving my entire website to my alternate net provider, and checking my mail there as well... so in a few weeks, I recommend bookmarking http://runstop.com/~wes on your browser if you don't already use http://come.to/wes, and putting wes@runstop.com in any address books you may have as my e-mail addy.

I've Updated Pictures all the way up to New Year's Eve!

Other Exciting News: Thursday Nights at One have been picking up and have solidified themselves as better money-making nights than Friday at my bar! It's always been my favorite night to go out in Huntsville, and I'm really glad that tradition isn't going the way of the Betamax. Thanks to everyone that is coming out, and please keep showing support... Oh, and the first Thursday of March is gonna be a pajama party in celebration of April's birthday... heh, I'm gonna get paid for hanging out in my bathrobe!

Life begins anew! Iniquities are forgotten! Bank accounts are overdrawn!
Except mine! heh... for the first time in quite a while, I think I'm solvent! I have enough money that I'm almost scared to pay my bills, because then it will be gone and I will be poor again. And this is AFTER I managed to buy all my relatives and friends the X-mas presents that I thought they might actually like! I find that is the most difficult part of the holidays, buying presents that don't suck. I got a few nifty things, myself... A set of mic/headphones from Jeff, Jeans and food from Phillip, slacks and dress clothes from the parental units, and a basketfull of aromatherapy lotions from Amanda. ("Wes, before I give you this present, I want you to understand that this doesn't make you a homosexual.")

My job at One is going really well. Last night, we pulled down an old barber chair, covered it in leopard fur, donned lab coats, and poured upside down margaritas down the gullets of dizzy Retro Bar customers. Thursday Nights are getting the crowd they deserve, and it looks like there might be an active alternative scene reviving in Huntspatch! And to top it all off, I've lost weight and look much better in my black spandex shirt... heh.

My new addiction is Unreal Tournament! You'll be sorry to miss this one! Although if I spend much more time playing it, I'll be sorry I ever found it...

I'm caught up to mid-December with my pictures, and hope to have a new batch posted sometime next week that will catch us up to New Year's Day. Thanks for bearing with me, as I am indeed a lazy bastard at times.

I will pay the person who finds me a good job $500 on reciept of my second paycheck, and that person will earn my undying love and friendship. Help a brother find a home in this madcap world. Help a man find where he belongs.

Ironically, I ran into some people the other day at work who lobby to change things like this! It seems that the goverment sets the rates that phone companies can charge competitors for using their hardware. So when a company sets up a hub in an area, there is a set fee that their competitors pay for using that hardware. That fee is currently set by the goverment and NOT by the market. These guys are trying to change that.

They haven't sent me their web page addy, but I'll post it when it comes available!

I've been working on a webpage for a good friend of mine.... the same friend that bought me this massive paperweight I've got sitting on my computer desk. Additionally, I'm designing the menus and helping out in the restaurant when things get tough for her. Additionally, I took an entire disk full of great pictures 2 sunday nights ago, and lost the disk among the crap in my home. So this update is going to be little more than an assurance that next time I'll have better material to look at.. <grin>

In the meantime, check out the covers I did for the menus at K Syrah!

Lunch Menu

Dinner Menu

Wine Menu

And Check out the Web Site I'm doing for them!