come on in, it's time to party

why lasagna, i wonder ...

i've noticed that lately garfield, of all things, has been getting alot of attention lately. from the (almost passe now) lasagna cat , to the randomizer, lest we not forget garfield minus garfield and it's many imitations, it seems that the orange comic cat is the in thing to poke fun of. it's kinda of like american apparel in a strange way. "look!," adherents can say, "i am being ironic in my love of this past pop culture (or am i?!?!)." of course, being ironic about how much one loves garfield or how cool the fashion of the 1980s was, is a bit like when a kid is proud of taking a shit in the john - we clap, but they weren't really all that clever, were they? that having been said, i do quite enjoy garfield without garfield. i also own a t-shirt from american apparel, whatever that says about me. 

the important things to note when it comes to garfield are these: 

1.) it was and is a terrible comic strip.

2.) it was a slightly less bad tv show featuring lorenzo music as the voice of the titular cat called "garfield & friends." it also, to the best of my knowledge, introduced the idea that garfield wanted to ship nermal to abu dhabi - a fact that, in hindsight, is hysterical. also, featured a cartoon based off of creator davis' other strip, U.S.Acres. egg with legs = brilliant. the most important thing to come out of the garfield & friends show were two spin-offs: 

3.) garfield & friends: christmas special; and most importantly:

4.)garfield's nine lives.

garfield's nine lives was, simple put, amazing. for a child it was at times magical and entertaining and other times almost disturbing - i say disturbing because it took a character i knew and loved from the aforementioned cartoon series and warped him, bent him and in some of the stories even killed him. the whole experience was incredible. i still recall the sequence where he is mozart''s (or it beethoven's?) cat. just awesome as hell, really. 

in fact, i'm gonna stop typing and you're gonna stop reading and we should both hop over to youtube and watch it. let's do. 

so long, bill

strange timing. 

yesterday i had this sudden yen to read a whole bunch about william f. buckley, jr., one of my personal heroes. now, before i go any further, let me say this: whatever your views on his political philosophy (or any other philosophy for that matter), you have to admire the man's ability to courageously change his mind, value ideas and intelligence above all else and regularly engage his total willpower to world-shifting results. the guy is a badass. 

i read a bunch of articles and stuff. i even made this screen-print with the intention of making a william f. buckley, jr. t-shirt to show my appreciation for such a totally awesome dude:

then this morning on the radio i learned that william f. buckley, jr. had (in fact just this morning!) died. i'm no so much saddened by the whole thing - he had a good run and accomplished much more in his lifetime than most people ever dream of. his obituary mentioned among other things "television host," "philosopher", "editor in chief" of national review (the political magazine with the highest US circulation), and "trans-oceanic sailor." 

what a man. 

eww.

is juicy campus the grossest thing ever?

why, yes. yes, it is.

interesting v. boring

zondo action team is a go. 

well, more accurately, we're still doing the countdown. we're at t-minus several years but at least we're checking to see if the ship is fueled and stuff. and that none of the astronauts are drunk.  the website should be live and kicking soon too, what with the second round of mock-ups about to hit the team in time for it's weekly meeting. 

in other - perhaps more boring? - news, this weekend is the joint tony-and-drew birthday extravaganza. in a - perhaps more interesting? - upshoot of this being a leap year, the 29th falls directly between tony and my birthdays. the haps seems to be that we are going to the point break live show here in l.a. but who knows what will happen. my inclination is to buy a bottle of scotch and watch conan the barbarian and to hell with planning anything beyond that. if people - however boring or interesting - want to show up, well, that's their beef. 

alright. i'm out. later, cyber-boners. 

  

agnostically employed

killing time. 

today i was trying to figure out the best way to fill my time here at work. see, most people work at work. i "work." i'm in this strange position where i show up to work, immediately boot up my miniMac and my MacBook and draw on photoshop for 8 hours. somewhere in there i go get lunch and i usually break for a coffee about 4 or so. but otherwise it's me and photoshop. now, this is a great arrangement. afterall, i'm not actually doing anything. and i do get paid, so that's nice. but i really can't fathom why my boss keeps me around. 

he spends most of his day in his office working. i spend my day outside his office learning how to paint on photoshop. occasionally, the phone rings - it didn't at all today, incidentally. he doesn't need me to work here. in fact, he would be saving alot of money by firing me. which brings me to my main question: 

why did he hire me and why doesn't he fire me? 

i've begun to think of this alot like how an agnostic thinks of god. "who is this god fellow?" they'd say. "why did he make me? what is the point? is he even real? can he hear me?" in the end, they decide to cut their losses and coast through life doing the best they can until either: 

a.) they are confronted by a profound religious experience that clears the whole mess up for them. or: 

b.) they die. 

in this light, i move courageously forward with the following outlook: either

a.) eventually my purpose here will be made clear and i will learn and grow as a human being. 

b.) my boss will realize his mistake and fire me. 

so today i spent some time doing google searches of the best way to waste time at work. i found an article that estimated that $5,000 per employee per year is waisted on non-work-related internet surfing. and this during a non-work-related internet surfing activity! 

oh esky, you're incorrigible!

now people, i love esquire magazine. 

don't get me wrong here: i know it is at times nothing more than a base fashion magazine ("how to wear a white polo shirt with khakis, v.III" or whatever). but, like a good friend with bad habits, i love it still. it was a staple posting spot for capote and hemingway (yes, that hemingway) back in the day and it continues to be a source of useful knowledge, clever tid-bits and not-too-many full page glossy adds of emaciated dudes in tailored suits. now, all that aside:

at the end of an issue, they usually post little obituaries which are, at times, very funny indeed. i thought i would share this one with you because it made me laugh out loud:

"A Pleasant Conversation, 2 Minutes, Dies:

A pleasant conversation with a guy on line at the deli died Thursday.  It was two minutes old. Until its demise, the conversation centered on the day's unusually moderate temperatures. "It's the sort of day that makes you want to call in sick to work," the first guy pointed out. To which the second guy said, "Yeah, like how hundreds of Jews who worked in the Twin Towers called in sick on 9/11." It is survived by a tense silence." 

maybe it's because i watched so much mell brooks as a kid, but i love a good quip at how stupid anti-semites are. what a bunch of f***ing retards (anti-semites that is, not those making the quips.)

(to clarify: jews good.)

(to further clarify: nazis bad.)

working class dog

tonight i'm crawling out from in it. 

you ever listen to rick springfield? i mean you have, you just ... wait. who is "you?" what am i doing, assuming i have an audience or something? ha! ha! i kill me. let's try this again. 

so i listen to rick springfield from time to time - you might know him as the guy who did "jesse's girl." if you're really savvy, you may remember his song "love is alright" from wet hot american summer. and if you remember him as the dreamy dr. noah drake, you watched too much general hospital. at any rate, "love is alright," the aforementioned track of wet hot american summer fame, has become my working anthem. 

"i'm taking out my baby tonight,

daddy's little girl, it'll be alright; 

i'm working hard, i don't know why - 

i'm like a working class dog and i just get by;

tonight i'm crawling out from in it, 

tonight we're living on a dream, 

second by second by minute by minute;

love is alright tonight

we're gonna be alright."

maximum radical threshold reached. well ... andrew wk covering it would be m.r.t.r. as such it's somewhere below "awesome to the max" but slightly above "totally bodacious." you do the math. now that my diatribe about rick springfield is over (for now) let's move on to an actual blog. 

zondo action team is going live with a website in the next few weeks. eliot and i have been having meetings almost every night of the week to discuss our business venture. often times these meetings last two hours or more - we talk about finance, business strategy, allocation of resources, growth plan, market stability, target clientele ... in short, i have finally become old. i now care deeply about my finances, my investment strategies and, in general, being a good little capitalist. you can see my previous entry for more on this. regardless, it's a big scary world out there, and if you don't challenge it, try to make your own way and be the boss of your life, what the hell are you doing? 

this dog don't roll over. no sir. 

oh winston, you're incorrigible!

capitalism!

i've been a good little fiscal conservative lately. we're launching the website / business this week, i've been reading lots about investing, i've got funds that need to be transferred to various accounts and it's time to start investing!  additionally, i've spent the week talking about how much i hate the government taking my money. seriously. i mean, don't get me wrong - i get it, i do. public streets and schools and stuff. i just don't like the federal government taking my dough. which is why i'm going to start my own company and use that as a tax shelter for some of my expenses, set up investment accounts to protect some more of it and then the government can have what's left. i'll pay myself first, and the government second. you know what churchill said: 

"if you're under 30 and a conservative, you have no heart. if you're over 30 and a liberal, you have no brain."