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Life

Life
End of an Ear-a
10.22.11 | Permalink | Comment?

This blog is suffering and it makes me sad. I miss writing daily, sometimes hourly, but at least I’m working a real job and contributing more. I also don’t feel comfortable writing too much about work since I’m in a weird situation. By that I mean since I’m a Manpower employee I still have to go through all kinds of stuff to be hired by John Deere and who knows who could stumble on something I’ve written that could hinder my chances. Work obviously takes up the majority of my day so there isn’t much for me to write about.

I haven’t even hung out in my shed since I started working. No wood burning, no robot stacking dolls, nothing creative to post about. Instead I’m forced to bore you all with the unfortunate loss of one of my favourite accessories, like it’s in anyway newsworthy. As you can see above the bathroom floor won the battle against my favourite pair of tunnels. Luckily I have a spare set of plugs, but Holly hates them. So the next day she ordered me a pair of these.
Life
Deere Cobras
09.25.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Last Monday began a new era in Cobra careers. Thanks to Holly’s hard work I am now a full-time employee of John Deere Canada… sort of. I got hired via Man Power, which means I get paid less than a normal Deere employee, and have less vacation and freedom. Hopefully this is only temporary though. Either I will find something else entirely, or I’ll get hired as an actual Deere employee. So far I like everyone I’ve had to deal with, and it’s a place that absolutely has to work as a team so people have been very willing to help thus far. I am still bummed that I’m back working in a warehouse and not building anything cool, but at least I’ll have paycheques!

My first one will mostly go towards maintaining The Sword, which is overdue for tranny fluid and a serpentine belt. Now that The Sword is slashing up the QEW daily it’s important I get those things done sooner than later. The remainder will be going towards getting Holly a laptop for her birthday that passed a week ago today. Once I finally get money I can spend on “other things” I want to get my laptop some new parts. I need a new wireless card, and I have had a bunk hard drive in this thing since almost day one.

The thing I’m most looking forward to with the new job (aside from the pay) is learning to, and being allowed to operate the following on a daily basis – both because I dig things like these, and I look forward to not having to walk quite as much every day.

Taylor-Dunn

Crown

Drexel
Book stuff, Life, Sketchup, Timber framing, Wood Stuff
Cobra Concepts
09.18.11 | Permalink | Comment?

So here’s the just of what’s taken place recently…

The book is finally done! I finished it last week really, but was apprehensive to say anything about it for fear that this was yet another false finish line. For the record, the end was the most painful part, and I am greatly relieved it’s over. Because the book will be printing soon (apparently it takes a month or so to setup, then a month or so to print), and I will be credited for layout and illustrations, I needed to secure a domain I could list in case someone feels like recruiting me for more of this type of work in the future. Fortunately for me, my good friend Jon is fast acting and always willing to help me out. He secured cobraconcepts.ca for me, which will soon be directly linked to my CarbonMade.com portfolio you see in the screenshot above.

On top of finishing the book and setting up my portfolio, I’ve been attending multiple job interviews, doing orientation with ManPower and even working a few days at a shitty job. One would think I was a highly motivated go-getter, but that isn’t the case. In fact, Holly is the one to thank for all the opportunities that have come my way. She’s the one who found the jobs, wrote the cover letters and did her best to keep me positive through the whole process. Although I was incredibly stressed last week, I think things are about to change.

I start a new job on Monday, which in all honesty the only thing I’m looking forward to is the paycheque. I will still do my best, and I’m going to try to stay positive, but I really just want to be swinging a hammer all day. That being said, I need to make money so I’m taking what I can get.

If it wasn’t for Holly I’d only be starting my search this week, and still stressing about not knowing when my next paycheque will come. Now, thanks to her kindness and willingness to help others (especially me), I not only have my last cheque from James coming soon who knows when, I will also have regular weekly paycheques to look forward to.

Money? Lack of Sunday night phone calls?

Twilight Zone!
Life
Laundromat
08.23.11 | Permalink | Comment?

When I was a teenager, my mum quit her job where she felt overworked and under-appreciated (which is probably similar to how she felt at home), and my parents bought a laundromat. She ran it (mostly on her own) for the last 14 years, and for the most part I think she enjoyed it.

Unfortunately, the newest owner of the property they rent is a total douche. He attempted to raise the rent an insane amount, forcing my parents to close the doors for good. Although my mother was looking forward to not having to go to the laundromat one day, this wasn’t her idea of how it would happen. Instead of selling a profitable business (which it was) and making some decent money to retire on, they were forced to find buyers for everything as fast as possible.

Luckily they managed to sell everything, and didn’t end up having to store it somewhere while they found buyers. I’m sad to see the laundromat go even though I was never a big part of it. My brother on the other hand was always helping out and looking after the place when they were gone and I think he had a harder time dealing with it. I’m mostly sad because my mum isn’t happy about how things ended. She had different plans.

Hopefully things will all work out for all of us one day.
Animals, Gageisms, Life, Love, Roanisms
Fish punching posse
08.22.11 | Permalink | Comment?

Before ANYONE says anything like: “I thought you love animals… ” or, “I can’t believe you actually…”, please just fuck off. I didn’t eat the fish. I didn’t bait the hooks. I didn’t drive the boat. All I did was reel the big ones in that no one else wanted to fight with. That being said, I sure did have a blast punching the shit out of those stupid fish.

We all got to catch a bunch, taking turns based on the size of the fish. Roan took all the wee ones.

I got all the monsters.

And Holly and Gage shared the in-between-ers.

After about 4 hours on the water we hauled in almost a hundred pounds of fish. All of it salmon and trout. The charter guide filleted them all on the side of his boat once we were back at the dock, and we took home around sixty pounds of fillets. I had a ton of fun and would definitely do it again. None of these fish are going to waste so I don’t feel too bad.

And this has got to be my favourite fishing photo ever.
Gaming, Life, Photos
Cobra tattoos make Pew Pew Pews
05.26.11 | Permalink | Comment?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I bought a tattoo shop from a creepy old douche. A short time later I booted the douche, and had a fun time working in and owning the shop. During those years I got tattooed weekly. When I finally sold the shop about eight years ago, I decided to slow down the pace at which I was covering my body. I figured I had plenty already, and plenty of life left in which to finish the job, but mainly I wasn’t keen on the idea of having to pay full price (or at all) for the work. Slowing down the pace means, I’ve been tattooed once since I left the shop.

Last week, my good friend Tony Mike (who has become my other main zombie killing partner, whenever Holly isn’t available) got a tattoo we had been talking about. It’s a Raygun from Call of Duty Nazi Zombies, which is one of our favourites, and absolutely essential to survival. Tony works at a nice shop in Burlington, with his good friend and roommate, Franz. Franz tattoos, and often the four of us (Franz, Tony, Holly and I) team up to kill zombies together. Tony set us up with some appointments on Saturday, so Holly and I both got the beautiful blaster above.

I now know what I want for my next few tattoos, and who I want to do them. Now it’s just a matter of time and money.
Life, Photos
Shed 2.0 (beta)
05.26.11 | Permalink | Comment?

On Saturday morning, Holly and I decided to go get supplies for the shed. We got stuck waiting around Home Depot for almost two hours because we needed to rent their van so we could fit all the lumber. It was rented just moments before we got there and came back late. Once we finally got everything unloaded at home, I got on the phone and started rounding up helpers. My brother and The Dude came to lend a hand. While I waited for them I framed the subfloor and got it ready for sheeting. By four o’clock I had to wrap up and leave for a tattoo appointment, but we managed to get the three walls above erected and braced.

The next day went a little slower, since the roof framing is a time consuming process. The Dude and I managed to get the last wall up and sheeted, along with the roof. The following day was spent framing doors and hanging them, fixing imperfections, attaching exterior paneling, and securing the fascia boards to the rafter tails. By this point I was completely exhausted, and entirely covered in sunburn.

Yesterday we got the paneling up on all but the backside, and finished the trim on the front gable end. I still need to trim the rest, paper and shingle the roof, attach the latch, panel the rear gable end, and fix a few more minor imperfections. Overall I think it looks good (even though I’m a pretty harsh critic of myself), and the neighbour told me she loved it – although she could have just been saying something nice – so I’m happy. What matters though, is if Holly is happy.

It’s not my dream shed, but it’s a solid structure that will suitably house all 30 of the boys bikes, the snow blower, and both lawnmowers.
Gaming, Life, Photos
Foosball flashbacks
05.19.11 | Permalink | Comment?

A couple weeks ago Holly and I drove up to Toronto in her work van built for hauling bodies, to obtain the Foosball table pictured above. It was kindly donated to the Cobra game room (currently located in my parent’s basement) courtesy of Jon and Laura. Apparently Laura had it for years, but rarely (or maybe even never) used it. When she moved out she left it with her parents. Recently they decided to move, and wanted to get rid of it. I was more than happy to take it, and my parents were kind enough to allow me to add it to the pile of stuff I keep at their house.

When I was a kid I loved playing on the table at Rack and Roll with my friends. It wasn’t our favourite game to play, but it was the cheapest. It was also one of the few games where, if you were quick (or smart and sneaky), you could prevent the ball from ever falling into the goal, and a 50¢ game would last until we got busted or bored or a fight broke out.

Once, when I was about 14 (mum, you may want to stop reading around here), myself and a group of friends went to smoke a couple joints and kick a hacky sack around at an elementary school (after hours of course). A couple minutes after we finished our “session” a cop dressed in a Kevlar vest, army boots and aviators came walking around the corner with his German shepherd. I think everyone panicked at that moment, but some of us handled it better than others. After calling backup, searching us all, expressing disappointment, confiscating the first pipe I ever made, and giving us back all our pot the cops then informed us all that they’d be paying each of our parents a visit that evening. They told us we had better be there when they arrived, so to head home now and inform our parents that they were on their way to break the news – your kids suck and are evil.

Dallas and I may have only been 14, but we weren’t stupid. We decided the cops had just tried to get us to rat ourselves out. It took some convincing on our behalf, but we eventually got everyone to agree that the best thing to do was ignore the cops advice and go play Foosball. Now whenever I play Foosball, I think of the night we outsmarted the cops.

I took a video of the first game played on the new table (The Cobras Vs. The Cobra Mums), but I’m not having any luck getting it to embed on this post. I’ll post it later using Gage’s computer. My HTML functions are messed up when using Linux ever since WordPress updated.
Gaming, Life
Joe Rogan
05.02.11 | Permalink | Comment?

For my birthday, Holly got us tickets to see Joe Rogan at Massey Hall last Friday. I figured it would be a great show, I like every stand-up special he’s done and I enjoy his views on all kinds of things. I wasn’t really sure what to expect since I hadn’t ever been to a large comedy show like that before. I was surprised to see that there was an opener, and even more surprised to learn he didn’t suck. He was on stage when we walked in, and did about 20 minutes or so before introducing a special guest, Doug Benson. I was excited when they announced he was the special guest because I also really like his stand-up, and his movie Super High Me. He didn’t do as long of a set as I had hoped, but I think that’s because he had two shows the next two nights himself, and a lot of the people there would be seeing jokes twice if he did too much. Or maybe he was just ready to go get super high again.

It was a great show. I heard all new material from Joe Rogan, and discovered a new comedian I like. Thanks to Holly for taking me and being awesome as always, and thanks to Jon and Laura for getting the tickets, providing us with a place to crash, and all the other delicious treats. After the show we stopped at Gamestop and Jon picked up the new Mortal Kombat game. I grabbed a copy of World at War for Ryan-O to hopefully entice him to start killing zombies with Holly and I. We got back to Jon and Laura’s place and Holly got comfy, cracked a book and passed out before Jon and I got ourselves ready for 5 hours of intense Mortal Kombat – a perfect way to end the night!

I highly recommend checking out all three of the comedians above, as well as (if you’re a gamer), the new Mortal Kombat. All are very entertaining.
Life, Photos
Wind > Shed > Fence > Tree
04.29.11 | Permalink | Comment?

We’ve been having some interesting weather the last week or so. It’s gone from sunny and warm, to torrential downpours with thunder and lightning, then back to sunny again on a daily basis. Yesterday morning was beautiful. The temperature was perfect, the sun was shining, and there was a constant breeze. Shortly after placing the trash at the curb (Thursday is garbage day by the way) it became apparent the breeze was a little more than a breeze. I decided to place a small patio stone atop the recycling bins, to hopefully keep everything from spilling out all over the yard. It worked. Unfortunately, the recycling guys decided at some point t0 give up (I’m guessing this was around the 50th house they got to and saw that the bins had already been emptied by mother nature), so my mighty recycling fortress still stands unnoticed, unwanted, uncollected.

The shed however, is another story.

I have been worried about the shed’s ability to withstand the weather for some time now, and Holly and I had agreed to address it this summer hopefully. I didn’t really think about it yesterday though. Instead I went about my day as usual, playing a game of zombies with Tony Mike before we each start work. Our game was going great until Holly’s hydro flickered and I lost our connection. Although I was pissed about our game ending through an act of God, I was also relieved at the prospect of not being able to work for a little while due to hydro issues beyond my control. I logged in to facebook and saw that Holly had already witnessed the power of the wind on her way to work. At the top of the skyway (which advertised “vicious winds”) something hit her windshield and cracked it.

It was around this time that I looked out the bedroom window and noticed the neighbour, Ann, looking in the direction of our shed with a worried look on her face. I ran downstairs and saw the shed doors flapping around, along with a few pieces of the paneling. At this point the power went out for good. Concerned for the safety of The Sword, I grabbed my keys and backed it down the driveway, to what I felt was a safe distance, then pushed the trampoline up against the backside of the shed to try and keep the paneling from flying off. I yelled to Ann, told her I would figure out some way to deal with the shed, and not to worry. I called Holly and explained that I didn’t think the shed was going to survive the wind, and asked if she had any suggestions on how I should deal with it. Neither of us had any idea what we could do, and instead spoke more about how incredibly loud it all was. We hung up and I walked back towards the side door. I didn’t get outside before I realized the question of how to deal with the shed was answered. The loud noises was the sound of the shed smashing through the back fence.

A short time later, while I was cleaning up the mess above, I witnessed a pair of welcome mats go whizzing through the air then smack into Ann’s side fence just moments before the entire fence seemed to get sucked into a vortex in her neighbour’s yard. The sound of her fenceposts snapping was enough to make her run outside again and look in the shed’s direction. I pointed to her driveway and her jaw dropped. Her grandson and neighbour helped me collect all the debris and move it to her garage.

I kept on cleaning and at one point had to adjust the recycling fortress. I crossed paths with the mailman on the way to the bins, he told me there was a large tree branch blocking the street around the corner. I decided to take a break after moving all the shed stuff to the back patio, and dislodging the carcass from the fence since I was still waiting for The Shawnz to show up (I forgot to mention I called a few friends in a panic to try and quickly disassemble the shed before it was airborne, and Shawnzi was the only one able to respond, but once the power was out for good I couldn’t call him and tell him not to worry). I walked around the block to survey the damage and take the photo above. That’s the tree the mailman was talking about.

Apparently I was so busy worrying about the shed I failed to notice 5 trees falling over in the neighbours back yard. It wasn’t until I went for a walk around the block that I noticed a few had uprooted, and others snapped at the base. There was quite a lot of damage in the neighbourhood, but that post will come later (this one is just about the Cobra Crew). Shawn arrived soon after I returned from my walkabout, and we discussed whether or not there was anything else we could do. Smoking a blunt was how we decided to proceed.

Then I brought Shawn with me to further inspect the neighbourhood and check on Holly’s mom’s place. We saw a ton of power lines taken out by trees that were down or had dropped huge limbs as a result of the 90km/h winds, as well as lots of basketball nets laying on the ground. As we got further from Holly’s and closer to her mom’s, the damage seemed to be less severe. When I pulled in her driveway, I said to Shawn, “Well, everything looks just fine, but I’ll go take a peek around back.”. I wasn’t expecting anything other than her birdbath being knocked over, but I was wrong.

This is what I saw when I came around the back corner of her house. Normally there is a tall spruce tree standing in the yard, and a slightly larger pine standing in the neighbour’s. Apparently, shortly after the power went (out killing the phone) Holly’s sister, Dawn, tried to call me in a panic. When she couldn’t reach me she tried Holly, who informed her that I was dealing with our shed issue, and probably wasn’t near a phone (as she was unaware the phone was no longer working). I woke Dawn up by knocking on the door (a lot) and asked if she wanted me to take care of it with the chainsaw. She said there were insurance people coming to see it, so not to touch it. Then she asked me to fix the chainsaw while I was there, because Jeff (Holly’s brother) had used it to cut the tree off of where it was resting on the house and now the chain was off.

Shawn and I took the saw apart, cleaned it, and fixed the blade. I wasn’t able to run it after because I failed to find any chain oil, so instead I used my woodworking skills to make this sign (by woodworking skills I mean my ability to find two scrap pieces of wood and a Sharpie).

When Holly got home we went for a drive to see the damage done to the area around her house, and it was impressive. We even saw a boat on it’s side! Then we devised a plan to take care of all the junk, and move the snow blower and lawn mower to her mom’s garage. Unfortunately that plan got tossed out the window because it all revolved around us being able to use her work van, which decided not to start (even with the assistance of jumper cables) when we got to it. Angry and defeated, when drove home. We stopped and got some subs, then went home to find the power still off. By that time the wind had basically settled down, so we did some more tidying.

We’re still waiting to see if we’re going to put a claim through Holly’s insurance because it may not be worth it. In the meantime we need to find a way to protect our lawn equipment, and the boys 50 bikes.