Another Contest - Win an Apple iPad!

Money Crashers has launched a new contest today for some Apple iPads. Details here: File Taxes Online in 2010 and Win a Free Apple iPad. It's easy to enter and gain multiple entries.

LEGO VW Beetle Part 2 of 2

DSC_0837.JPG
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I finished the set on Sunday. See more pics here.

US Air Guitar 2010 Dates

US Air Guitar 2010 Dates: "

Guitars? The Time Has Come Yet Again To Set Aside Childish Things

US AIR GUITAR 2010 TOUR DATES
Regional Competitions Start April 6
Regionals To Be Hosted By Bjorn Turoque & Judged by 2008 World Champion Hot Lixx Hulahan

If history has taught us anything, it is this: the spirit of US Air Guitar is indomitable.

If in January Steve Jobs had unveiled Air Guitar, would it have been any less innovative? If one day the Supreme Court unexpectedly judges a case using the following criteria: technical ability, stage presence, and “airness,” would the rest of us be any worse off? If the last episode of X-Files revealed that Air Guitar was the answer, would you not believe?

With zealous pride we announce the 2010 US Air Guitar tour, now 30% awesomer. Scale back? Heck no. The road awaits, and this year we’re hittin’ it like Tiger Woods. After sell-out regional competitions across the United States last summer, including two nights at DC’s 9:30 Club and consecutive nights at San Francisco’s Independent, US Air Guitar has expanded its tour by two additional months, stretching coast to coast in April and then playing a couple of shows of biblical proportion in May and June. Inspired by mega-churches and God Himself, a month after the first tour, air guitarists will confess their sins at a colossal Vegas show. Then in June, US Air Guitar headlines the historic Fillmore Auditorium – made famous by The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and now, uh, us. Finally, after extracting the greatest professional air guitarists from 17 regional shows and sending them each to New York City for the National Championships, our US winner will book passage to Oulu, Finland, and represent the stars and stripes against 30 other countries at the Air Guitar World Championships. Last year the competition was tight, with two Americans tying for second and a Frenchman named Gunther Love taking the crown. But this year America has an imaginary axe to grind.

US AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIPS
2010 TOUR DATES
Tickets On Sale Now

To Sign Up To Compete, Enter HERE!

April 6 || Harper’s Ferry || Boston, MA
April 8 || Johnny Brenda’s || Philadelphia, PA
April 9 || Brooklyn Bowl || Brooklyn, NY
April 10 || 9:30 Club || Washington, DC
April 12 || House of Blues || Houston, TX
April 13 || Highball || Austin, TX
April 15 || Metro || Chicago, IL
April 16 || Cactus Club || Milwaukee, WI
April 17 || Varsity Theater || Minneapolis, MN
April 19 || Fox Theater || Boulder, CO
April 20 || Bluebird Theater || Denver, CO
April 22 || Dante’s || Portland, OR
April 23 || Casbah || San Diego, CA
April 24 || Troubadour || Los Angeles, CA

May 28 || Hard Rock Café || Las Vegas, NV

June 5 || The Fillmore || San Francisco, CA

"

Rage Against the Machine pt. 5 - Wireless Printing [UPDATED]

We bought a new wireless printer, an Epson Artisan 800. It replaces our Epson Stylus RX580. In our current setup, the printer is upstairs in the office and we use our laptops in the living room. Every time we wanted to print, we had to walk upstairs and plug the printer into the computer. Now we can print from anywhere in the house. A "green" feature is automatic double-sided printing. We use half as much paper. Epson's ultra hi-def photo printers print professional quality pictures on glossy photo paper. I was impressed with the quality of our first Epson printer so when I got a sweet deal on the the Artisan model, I knew I was getting a quality machine for the money.

Beard Team USA News

Hi Everyone,

 

Wow!  There is a lot of news! 

 

Most importantly,  Beard Team USA is undergoing major changes that affect all members.  We are switching to a new email system for team newsletters.  This means that, if you want to continue receiving BTUSA news by email, you must confirm your subscription.  You will receive an email in the next few days with instructions on how to do so.  If you do not confirm your subscription, this will be your last newsletter.

 

This change comes about because we have grown so big.  We now have 1677 members and 56 local chapters, some of which are more active than others.  With so many members, my computer just can't handle email blasts going out to all members.  Also, I am sure many people are not receiving newsletters because their computers treat them as spam.  The change should overcome these problems. 

 

If you know of any team members who have not been receiving emails about BTUSA, please let them know they should go to www.beardteamusa.org and simply click on "subscribe." 

 

Our websites (www.worldbeardchampionships.com and www.beardteamusa.org) are undergoing major changes as well.  Both are now much more interactive.  Everyone is encouraged to drop by and leave comments on any of the posts found on the site. 

 

Also if you have sent me a picture and asked me to put it on the BTUSA site, but your picture has not appeared, I apologize.  Until now the process of adding the pictures has been very tedious and I frankly have fallen way behind.  Here is the good news -- at the new site you can upload your own picture and biographical information which will automatically be added to the site.  BTUSA reserves the right to edit any content of course. Even if you pic is on the site, I would encourage you to put up a new pic and add or update you bio info.

 

Coming events:

 

With four months to go before the HUGE first ever $5000 Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships in Bend, Oregon, on June 5, there are several warm-up events you should know about. 

 

February 13 -- Southeastern Regionals, Charleston, South Carolina, hosted by the Holy City Beard and Moustache Society.  Welcoming party Friday night, Contestants and VIP Oyster Roast on Saturday, Competition Saturday night.  Further info here: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=152898107&blogId=527608553

 

February 13 -- All American City Beard and Moustache Contest, Somerville, Massachusetts, organized by BTUSA member Todd Easton and the Somerville Arts Council.  Time: 3 pm.  Place: Precint, 70 Union Square, Somerville.  For more info email Todd atgetyourbeardon@gmail.com.

 

February 19 -- Msiprint's Fourth Annual Beard and Moustache Competition, Austin, Texas. This is Misprint Magazine's gig, held with the cooperation of the Austin Facial Hair Society, a local chapter of Beard Team USA.  This year's contest includes a six-month sprint category.  In true Texas spirit, the AFHS is threatening to secede from BTUSA but for now they are still part of America's team.  For info on the competition, see http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=280534273809

 

March 20 -- First Annual Philadelphia Beard and Moustache Competition, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  A non-gendered, non-judgmental celebration of a love of all things bearded and moustachio'd! Competition will be in several categories, you can sign up at the door, with the judging by the audience, slam-style. Come share your facial hair, drink some local beard themed-homebrew, and meet the Philadelphia beard community!  Location: Studio 34, 4522 Baltimore Avenue.  Time: 8 pm.  Suggested donation: $5.  Contact Roo (werdnus@gmail.com; 540.588.4101) or Mica (mica.bt@gmail.com) with questions.

 

BEND, BEND, BEND!

 

Planning for Bend is well under way.  Registration, info on lodging, info on other activities, etc. will be online as soon as key decisions are made.  For now, here is the tentative plan and schedule.  Keep in mind it is tentative:

 

Thursday, June 3 -- As the Devil Dances (featuring former FBSM world champ Burke Kenny) concludes its tour of the Northwest with a gig in Bend. 

 

Friday, June 4 -- Mountain bike tour ending at the Deschutes Brewery for brewery tour, beer tasting, and the call to order of the Official Somewhat Annual Beard Team USA meeting.  Meeting progresses to other breweries for consideration of agenda items.

 

Saturday, June 5 -- The Nats take place at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.  $5000 on the line for America's best beards and moustaches. 

 

Getting there:

 

The airport nearest to Bend is Redmond/Bend (RDM), served by United, Horizon, Allegiant, and Delta.  For most people, it will be cheaper to fly into Portland.  We will try to organize a charter bus from Portland to Bend, but many people will want to simply rent a car and drive.  It's about 2.5 hours from Portland to Bend. 

 

Hint:  Allegiant Air offers non-stop flights between Las Vegas and Redmond for only $49.77 each way but only on Fridays and Sundays.  There are always lots of cheap deals from pretty much anywhere to Las Vegas, especially on Southwest.  The Friday flight to Redmond departs at 7 am.  So you will have to spend a night in V*E*G*A*S on the way to the Nats, but that's not a bad idea anyway.  If I were considering this option for myself, I would book right away atwww.allegiantair.com.  My guess is the flight will be full of people headed to the Nats.  You'll miss As the Devil Dances, unfortunately. 

 

See you in Bend,

 

Phil Olsen

 

Founder and self-appointed captain

Beard Team USA

LEGO VW Beetle Part 1 of 2

LEGO VW Beetle "Charlotte"
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

My next Lego project is another large scale model, the classic Volkswagen Beetle. Based on the iconic 1960 'Charlotte' model, the LEGO Volkswagen Beetle features realistic details and functions like opening doors, hood and trunk, a spare tire in the front and engine in the back, an accurate interior, and more. Includes display plate with detailed specifications of the original Volkswagen model! Measures 16" (41cm) long and 6'½" (16cm) high! Realistic details include a movable stick shift, opening glove compartment and seats that fold forward! Features an engine in the back trunk and spare tire under the hood! Beetle details also includes a Volkswagen logo decal, windshield wipers and rearview mirror! The set has 1626 pieces and contains rare dark blue and sky blue pieces.

This set was a Christmas present from Santa. Part 1 took a few hours to build. I really didn't keep track of my build time. Nor did I sort this set as well as I did the Eiffel Tower. Better sorting = easier build. Lesson learned.

Hirsuted Valentine's Day Present

For Valentine's Day, the wife got me a cool beard t-shirt from Chop Shop called "Dapper Men". It's everyman's guide to looking dapper on a t-shirt. 141 duds sporting a right gentlemanly combination of hair, beard or mustache with a good majority scoring with all three. The design is from HumanShapedRobot. Can you figure out all 141? Doubt it. If you want to see how well you did, here's the key.

The Day of the Dude

March 6th will be Dudeism's high holy day: The Day of the Dude. It commemorates the day The Big Lebowksi was first released, back in 1998 A.D. (Anno Dudeni - The Year of the Dude).

We welcome any and all suggestions for how people should observe this holiest Dudeist day of the year. And we hope that observant Dudes will post videos from their celebrations on You Tube. So stock up on festive supplies, get your bowling lanes reserved, and make a nice garden party of it for the whole world to see!

Please send any suggestions and ideas to the email address at the Dudeism contact page: http://dudeism.com/contact.
html.

Also, if you know anyone who works in the media, please tell them about Dudeism and the Day of the Dude. It'd be a great story to cover.

We considered several days but settled on March 6th. You can see the whole story in this forum thread: http://dudeism.com/smf/index.
php?topic=288.0
Take er easy,
Reverend Shock

It's Official

It's official. I've legally changed the spelling of my first name to Atom. Why? Well, I've gone by that nomenclature since high school and because the wife dared me. I always complained when someone would spell my name wrong but I'd have nothing to back it up. "Dude, 'Adam' is not the preferred nomenclature. It's 'Atom' please". One relative spelled it correctly but put my name in quotes, e.g. "Atom". That was the last straw. So my wife said "why don't you just get it legally changed. Then you'll have a legitimate argument." So that's what I did. Now I've got to go through the same process every women who gets married and takes her husband's surname has to go through. I feel your pain. But I'm glad I did it. I just made the "coolness" of name permanent, legal and official. Now I've just got to wait until I shave off my beard to get a new driver's license picture. :)