Along with conquering #70 on my 101 List, our recent visit to Pinks also marked the launch of a new pet project called Stick It In Your Mouth.
Basically George, myself, and anyone else we can wrangle will be recording ourselves eating at fun places and letting you know if you should stick it in your mouth!
Oh and Pinks was good, but not fantastic. I had the Spicy Polish Dog which was indeed spicy. It was quite tasty, but the chili just wasn’t up to par in my opinion. The fries and onion rings were average and the ranch was ridiculously thick. I would recommend to stick it in your mouth at least once if your in town.
Over the past month or so I spent several days scanning in old family photos (#84 on my 101 list), followed by cropping, color correcting, and restoring said photos. I ended up digitizing around 400 pictures spanning several generations of memories.
It was one of those goals that I had been putting off for years because it seemed so daunting. I realized, though, that every year those photos were fading a little more and accumulating a few more scratches so the sooner I did this, the better.
Like most things in life, getting started was the hardest part. It was wonderful reading the notes scribbled on the backs of photos and seeing the progression of my relatives lives before I was in the picture (pun intended). The best part, of course, is that now I have gems like these at my digital fingertips…
George and I just had the pleasure of spending a week in Anchorage, Alaska for the World Beard & Moustache Championships. The air was crisp, the scenery was breathtaking, and the beards were bountiful.
We have posted lots of pictures on Flickr and so has our friend Megan (who went with three other friends up to Denali for a few days while we partied in Anchorage, beard style). We’ll probably add a few more as we finish organizing the crazy amount of photos we took as well as update LittleGeorge.com with lots of new fans with facial hair.
Some of the highlights of the trip included the WBMC 2009 competition, the Southcentral Alaska Beard & Moustache Club contest & party, disc (frisbee) golf, Portage Glacier tour, panning for gold at Crow Creek Mine, 18 hours of daylight everyday, and making so many new friends!
Here is a quick recap of our trip…
Video of the parade around downtown Anchorage, AK…
The Beards from Australia performing at the opening WBMC party…
I can now officially cross off Alaska (#27) and the WBMC (#28) from my 101 list. I can also unexpectedly cross off getting new glasses (#47) because my previous pair broke in half the day before we left for Alaska. Luckily even Anchorage has Lenscrafters.
Posted in Film / TV on April 12, 2009 by spookyamd
I love Star Wars. I love Star Trek. I love Buffy. I love the Matrix. I love Cube. I love the X-Files. I love Firefly. I love Twilight Zone. I love Outer Limits. The list goes on and on. There is no question about it…I am a Sci-Fi fan.
I have many fond memories of the original Battlestar Galactica from the silliness of Muffit the Daggit to Dirk Benedict’s endearing smirk. Although I did not start watching the new Battlestar Galactica when it first aired, I have been very excited to check it out on dvd and have deftly avoided spoilers over the years. Two weeks ago I finally had some time to sit down and embark upon the long awaited BSG journey (#21 on my 101 list).
To say I was underwhelmed would be putting it mildly. The show seemed to drag on, making very little progress each episode. While I was open to a female Starbuck, I did not like Katee Sackhoff in the role at all. The Cylons were pretty cool, but nothing about them really captured my attention.
Perhaps I was expecting too much, but after watching five hours of the show, I started to marvel at the fact it lasted four seasons. People have assured me that it gets better, but if I’m not hooked by five hours in, I can’t justify putting any more time into it. There’s always a chance that I will pick it up again in the future, perhaps as something to watch in the background during a long project, but for now, I have to say I am not on board the BSG train.
George and I often watch Clean House on the Style Network. It’s one of those shows that makes us feel better about our comparatively minimal amount of clutter. We watch so much that we decided to go to one of the yard sales a couple of months ago.
The yard sale was pretty average except for the production trucks surrounding the residence and the camera men roaming the property. George flagged down Mark Brunetz for a picture with Little George and later got one with Matt Iseman, too. We found a couple antique tools we wanted to buy (one being a really cool wavy wrench) and when we tried to pay Mark Brunetz he talked us into buying one of the shows key items – a giant c-clamp. Of course this meant we would make it into the show, too.
We hadn’t really planned on being those people who bought something on camera, but Mark is a pretty convincing salesman. We actually had a much longer exchange than it looked like on the show, but I’m guessing it either wasn’t very interesting or I kept looking at the camera. I remember we were discussing uses for the c-clamp and medieval torture came up. Perhaps that was inappropriate :)
After that we each signed a release form and every crew member we passed asked if we bought the c-clamp on camera. Apparently they have a handful of “key items” that they follow throughout the show and that was one of them. We left feeling a little dazed, but sort of excited to see ourselves on a show we watch so much.
It was cool to finally see it air recently after idly wondering for months when it was going to be on. Several friends have already seen and commented on our appearance, too, which is awesome because we had no idea that they also watched Clean House! So in the end, the c-clamp has a new home at my parent’s house and I can now cross off item #100 on my 101 list which was to be on tv. To think, me on the Style Network!
I just realized that I did #65 on my 101 list – have another art show! Our custom MiniGwin show, Choking Hazard, debuted at the Winter Vinyl Toy Network back in December and has started traveling indefinitely. It’s currently at Kaiju-X3 in Phoenix, AZ and has almost one hundred custom MiniGwins! Pieces will be added as the show travels, so it will always be a new experience. In case anyone reading has a piece in the show, thank you so much!! If you don’t have a piece in the show, but you want to, check out the details at gwinarmy.com/chokinghazard.php
Last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting my brother-in-law in San Francisco and checking out his beautiful new home (#87 on my 101 list). It was so much fun! I’ve been to San Francisco several times throughout my life, but this was the best trip to the Bay Area so far. I was a little disappointed by the lack of cool, overcast weather, but I digress.
Some of the highlights included seeing Geoff and Scott (of course!), hanging out with my friend Roger, visiting a taping of Tekzilla at Revision 3, checking out Super7 and Rocketworld, the Alex Pardee show at Upper Playground, and showing George some of the touristy stuff like Lombard Street, the Painted Ladies, Ghirardelli, and Haight/Ashbury. We ate tons of great food including sandwiches at the number one San Francisco restaurant on Yelp – Ike’s Place. They deserve number one, it was delicious! Another night at Spork, I was equally surprised by tasty cauliflower apple soup and a server I went to high school with.
On the way home, we stopped by the Winchester Mystery House, which is #11 on my list. It just so happened that George and I were the only people at that exact time, so we basically had a private tour of the house…score! There was so much more than I remember. It’s a fascinating stop if you’re ever in the area.
So that was our trip and I am eagerly anticipating our next San Francisco adventure with more fun, food, and friends! You can check out this and future trip pictures over at my Flickr page, too.
These are a couple of customs that George created, but I was so excited that I wanted to share them here, too!
The first is a Capitan America from Hasbro’s Super Hero Squad transformed into zombie Colonel America from the original Marvel Zombies comic. I particularly like the birds in his head detail and the damaged shield. If only the production Marvel Zombie toys looked this good!
The second custom is a Kissaki by Erick Scarecrow repainted with repositioned swords. George took the two swords she originally had and created one sword slung over her back. I think the color choices here were outstanding and the smooth finish gives it a beautiful and overall professional feel.
Keep your eyes peeled on Toy Break for more of George’s custom work!
Posted in Random, Websites on January 16, 2009 by spookyamd
As something of a sock aficionado, I’m always on the lookout for new, interesting, and/or incredibly comfortable socks. So I was very intrigued when I stumbled across SockDreams.com a while ago.
It truly is a sock lovers dream with a wide variety of socks as well as accessories such as sock garters, arm warmers, leggings, petticoats, and more. I’ve placed several orders for socks, arm warmers, and gifts and have been pleasantly surprised with the quality and free first class shipping!
I have many fond memories of the original Battlestar Galactica from the silliness of Muffit the Daggit to Dirk Benedict’s endearing smirk. Although I did not start watching the new Battlestar Galactica when it first aired, I have been very excited to check it out on dvd and have deftly avoided spoilers over the years. Two weeks ago I finally had some time to sit down and embark upon the long awaited BSG journey (#21 on my 
We hadn’t really planned on being those people who bought something on camera, but Mark is a pretty convincing salesman. We actually had a much longer exchange than it looked like on the show, but I’m guessing it either wasn’t very interesting or I kept looking at the camera. I remember we were discussing uses for the c-clamp and medieval torture came up. Perhaps that was inappropriate :)
