We Will Never Be Grups!

For those in our world that refuse to grow up, there are two new hobby purchases (read: toys) that will make that regression worthwhile. These two micro R/C toys will turn a living room into your own yes flyzone.

Of the two, the Micro Mosquito remotecopter looks the coolest--kind of like the toy attack copter level in GTASA that I failed at over and over. And if either one gets boring, you can always use it to escalate your Beetle War to a whole new level.

Micro Mosquito
Carbon Butterfly

Thanks to SlashGear

I Like My Food Like I Like My Women: Deep Fried

Let me state my bias up front: I am all for deep fried things. I have tried Twinkies, Oreos, and pickles along with the usual oil crisped products. When I read the caption of this photo from the LA Times, I threw up a little in my mouth.

Let's brush aside the fact that the image is just awesome (looks like the sandwich is being eaten by the chicken) and analyze what is really going on here. This is a deep fried chicken sandwich. No shame there. Swiss cheese? DEE-licious! But it is being served on a Krispy Kreme doughnut. That pushes it over the edge for me. I've tried a Monte Cristo sandwich and was able to eat and enjoy a couple of bites, but this mixing of savory and super sweet is simply beyond me.

I leave it to you to form your own opinion on the matter, but your views may affect my opinion of you in the future. Choose your fried foods wisely.

Beetle Battle Bots

In my never ending search for the first nanotech flea circus I came across these feisty critters. The idea is awesome...bringing battle bots into your home, teaching robot aggression to your kids at an early age. But the execution of these R/C Beetle Battlers are more high concept than delivery. Too slow, not enough smackdown. But it's a start.

If you've got IE you can watch them in all their slo mo glory. (Even the buffering is painfully slow.)

Thanks to Boing Boing for the heads up.

Toilet Report #3: West Coast Rezpect

This may look like CBGBs lite, but it is actually from my favorite San Francisco haunt, the 500 Club. Why? Well, as I posted before (top photo), there are nice things to look at while you piss. Also, not many hipster beards per capita and drinks so strong that you drink more and visit this beautiful plumbing facility often. Oh, and I saw Zach Galifianakis with his hipster beard ignoring people and listening to his walkman. Could that have been more of a pretentious hipster moment? Reminds me of the time my friend went to a party and Nick Cave walked in, took a chair into the middle of the room and began to read his book. Absurd! I love it!

So thank you 500 Club. I miss you so.

There's a War on the Streets

The Mission is filled with all different kinds of graffiti. Sometime late in spring or early summer one stenciler started putting sappy, I can only imagine ironic, slogans on the sidewalks. At saturation point other rankled people--or maybe the same artist if they were cheeky enough--started responding to them. First, someone stenciled a pile of shit with the phrase "Shut Up Honky" next to a lot of them. Then others started crossing off letters to totally change the message. And finally the lowest end, illustrated above.

Much like hipster beards, I hate ironic slogans with a passion. I don't care if people think it's really cool to go to the Attic and listen to sappy Commodores songs, this endless stream of inside jokes was tired in 1996.

SF Purty

One of the amazing fringe benefits of living with my very generous friends Michael and Mary this summer was that I was able to spend time in their garden. This bloom surprised me one afternoon.

We Will Rawk You

Meeemories. This was from Halloween 2000 when we had our last over the top party at 164 Lexington. My roommates and I (with honorary house letch Jason Consoli a.k.a. Tommy Lee) dressed as Motley Crue for our '80s metal party. I think we single handedly drove out the poor family living above us with that party.

Weeping at my SF Departure

No, none of my friends was crying at my departure back to Tejas. Instead, we were pub crawling when we noticed this statue in a beauty salon on Mission or Valencia. I think Mission. What you can't see in the picture is that the saint has open sores all over his legs. It was actually very disturbing in person. It just makes it all the more classic that he's positioned next to a Coke machine.

God, I miss San Francisco.

Scary at the Bus Station

So, they've renovated the Houston bus station. No, it isn't any cleaner or nicer. There's security at the entrance to the waiting room (and I wait, I wait, I wait), which is slightly unnerving.

But more frightening is the fellow you can see between the two fellows in the foreground, wandering back to his seat. He was in full hospital gown--including wristband and cotton ball where he got his meds in his arm. No shoes, just the shoe covers that the docs wear in surgery. I didn't want to talk to him, but I wanted to know his story! His partner was also in full hospital gear. How the hell did they get past security and where are they off to?