Toxic Shock Syndrome

The Year of the Dragon

2012-01-26T10:54:00.000-05:00

Enduring a lengthy unemployment stint and the subsequent job search last year got me thinking long term about my career. I had become burned out working in information technology as a web developer but make a good living doing it. You hear lots of people saying they don't like their jobs for one reason or another. But you also hear about dream jobs and "doing what you love". Jennifer was got a degree in a field that she loves - art education. It doesn't mean she's automatically going to find a job , but it got me thinking "what do I love and can I make a career out of it?" Back when I first started college I thought I wanted a job in broadcasting, but found out it's only fun as a hobby, not as a career. I jumped on the IT bandwagon and never looked back-until now. The reality is most hobbies don't translate well into careers. Having a family, being the sole income earner for the next few years, having a mortgage and facing the reality of paying Jennifer's student loan debt for at least the next decade presents a massive roadblock to a career change. But that doesn't mean I can't prepare for it. I read the free daily news publication Express on the subway on my commute. Most of the ads are for higher education institutions touting their graduate degree and certification programs. The majority are MBA or international relations programs that don't interest me. But one caught my eye - the University of Virginia's Certificate in Certified Financial Planning. It's a classroom instruction program taught during the week in the evening at their satellite campus in Falls Church, VA which is just a few subway stops away from my house. Personal finance is one of my two main hobbies (the other being poker) and the only one of the two that I could legitimately turn into a career. One of my close friends did it. The program is a pay-as-you-go program and reasonably affordable so I can pay for it out of my pocket and not have to get financial aid. The program consists of seven classes that can be completed in 18 months. I applied to the program and registered for my first course, the intro fundamentals class. I had my first class last night.

To become a CFP one must:

Complete the education requirement - complete a CFP Board registered education program and have a bachelors degree from an accredited university. The UVA CFP program is registered with CFP Board. I have a bachelors degree from Georgia State.
Pass the CFP Certification Exam - that's what I'm taking the courses for!
Meet the experience requirement - At least three years of qualifying full-time work experience are required for certification. Qualifying experience includes work that can be categorized into one of the six primary elements of the personal financial planning process. I don't have any work experience in any of the six primary elements, but I hope to start gaining that experience later this year.
Pass a background check - It shouldn't be a problem for me as I've held multiple government security clearances over my career.
Pay the certification fee - of course!

I'm looking forward to my new career in financial planning. However, I'm not letting my IT career fall by the wayside while I'm still in the industry. My company has a great education and training program. Every employee gets $3000 per year towards work related training. I signed up for two ColdFusion courses last year but both were cancelled due to low enrollment. Turns out I was the only one enrolled in both! This year I've signed up for a Java programming class. Hopefully that won't be cancelled. I'm going to be busy learning this year. I haven't been busy learning in a long time. I'm up for the challenge.

Don't Call It a Comeback

2011-10-16T21:44:00.000-04:00

As I've detailed in previous posts, I was having a very challenging 2011. I say "was" because the second half of the year is turning out to be great. Three things have shaped the rebound.

The first thing is I won a charity poker tournament. The charity proceeds went to a relative of a poker league player that needed a kidney transplant. The top four players, me included, "chopped" the pot. "Chopping" is a poker term for splitting the pot. I made over three times my money. There were 40 players in the tournament. I then went on to win in my league nine days later. I also won a league game a month earlier. I hope my hot streak continues as I'm playing in two more charity tournaments in October and November.

The second thing is that I got a new job. I know what your thinking, "didn't you just get a new job in June after being unemployed for a few months?" Yes. Back in June, I got a job with a defense contractor working on a contract with the Postal Service (USPS). If you watch the news, you know that the USPS is having major financial trouble. Their fiscal year ends September 30th and the contract was up for renewal. I was doubtful since every financial transaction was being scrutinized. The wife and I were concerned if I would be out of a job just a few months after being unemployed for 4+ months earlier in the year. I had other concerns as well. I was using outdated software and there wasn't much work to do. This job was not good for my career. At most it was a stop gap. At the same time, a company I interviewed with back in March contacted me about the same position. I never heard back from them after the March interview. It seems that they were having a hard time finding a senior ColdFusion developer. They went back to review all the resumes they had obtained and contacted me in September to see if I was still interested. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. The position offered me an opportunity to get into object-oriented programming using current technology and software that was new to me. It would be a positive challenge that would be good for my career. I was offered the position and happily accepted. And it turned out to be in the same general area of DC as the USPS job, so my commute would be the same. It was lucrative as well.

The third thing is the most exciting-Jennifer is pregnant! Shock Jr. number two is on the way. She is due May 18. We go from double coverage to man-to-man. Keep up with the family and the coming attraction at the Shock Family Circus blog.

Shock Family Circus: Coming Attraction at the Shock Circus

2011-09-29T14:28:00.000-04:00

Shock Family Circus: Coming Attraction at the Shock Circus: Oops! We did it again :) Another Shock baby is on the way! Our bundle-to-be will be arriving some time around May 18th, 2012. Fletch is ver...

Chris Neild has memorable debut, big beard

2011-09-13T16:00:00.000-04:00

just had to share this. It involves my favorite football team and one of my favorite hobbies. Chris Neild has memorable debut, big beard - DC Sports Bog - The Washington Post. My favorite quote "It’s like Bam Bam Bigelow, that’s the look he goes for”. Here's an earlier article about Neild shaving off the beard.

Shout Out

2011-09-02T10:45:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a member of the athletic aesthetics cult. Although I've been a long time reader of the Uni Watch blog, I've never contributed until now. That's right, I got a shot out in the UW ticker. I sent in three Redskins items to Uni Watch founder and writer, meat aficionado, and Mets fan Paul Lukas. He posted what I thought was the dullest of the three items I sent in. I guess the other two will get posted in future tickers or they will be part of the upcoming annual ESPN NFL uniform article, which is also written by Lukas, or maybe they will be ignored. Regardless, I'm happy.

I noticed after re-reading my Monochrome post from November 2008 that I foretold of things to come for the Redskins, at least in the uniform department- "Or bring back the yellow gold pants, like they wore in the '70s." The Redskins did that very thing last season. Thanks to the Gridiron Uniform Database blog (another of my favorites) for the image. Hopefully they'll be wearing them again this season.

A Very "Moving" Post

2011-08-26T10:20:00.000-04:00

Check out the latest post on the Shock Family Circus blog!

Rage Against the Green Machine

2011-08-15T11:35:00.003-04:00

In my ongoing series Rage Against the Machine, I explore my love/hate relationship with technology. Earlier this year I detailed our string of technology mishaps. Two of those dead devices are headed for the recycle bin-the HTPC and my XP laptop. Since going to computer heaven, their carcasses have been taking up much needed space in the closet. I didn't want to just throw them away. That's not the proper method of disposal. Having finally stripped them of their vital parts-hard drive, optical drive, RAM, peripheral cards-I took them to Best Buy to have them recycled. Good riddance to the HTPC, it was more trouble than it was worth. Hopefully it's second life will serve a greater purpose. My "bachelor laptop", so named since it was the computer I bought for myself after I lost custody of my previous computer in my divorce to my first wife, will be missed. It was the first laptop I ever owned. Maybe both machines will be recycled into playground equipment or for us in prosthetic limbs.

The Dudeist Bible: Just Take It Easy, Man

2011-08-03T19:18:00.001-04:00

This is about as religious as it gets for me: Cathleen Falsani: The Dudeist Bible: Just Take It Easy, Man.

If you didn't know, I'm an ordained Dudeist priest. I'm available for weddings and other official ceremonies.

In The Right Place At The Right Time

2011-07-17T00:38:00.004-04:00

I've recently been fortunate to take pictures of things that made me chuckle. The first thing is a car with a unique moniker- "Chode". It's actually a Ford Focus. It was parked in a residential neighborhood that I walk through on my way to the bus in the mornings. I'd like to ask the owner why they put that on their car. If the Urban Dictionary definition of chode is any indication of what the owner thinks of his or her car, they should get a different one. Maybe it's an inside joke?

The second thing is the name of this children's novelty train ride. It's called the "Du-Du Express". That's what they came up with? Seriously? It's hilarious but I'd like to find out the origin of the name. The Du-Du Train's website doesn't have any explanation.

Lastly, I ran across this very unique mailbox today while out canvassing for a friend who is running for office. That's a manatee and her pup. It's made of concrete and stands about five feet tall. The neighborhood is not close to any large body of water but it's a bizarre mailbox to have regardless. I didn't get a chance to ask the owner about it.

Adventures in Unemployment

2011-07-05T12:11:00.000-04:00

PROLOGUE
2011 has been a challenging year for me. Challenging = being laid off from my job and all the things that come with it. My job search has also been tough. Before I get into the details let me give you the disclaimer- "Names have been changed to protect me from being accused of defamatory statements, to protect the innocent where applicable and to spice up this post with some humor". January 10 of this year was my eleventh anniversary of being in the IT industry. Two days later, I was laid off from my job at CrapCo after four and a half years. I knew it was bound to happen eventually because there were a lot of signs- two acquisitions, offshoring, new technology, lots of big changes, and budget cuts- but instead it happened suddenly without warning. I was planning on leaving CrapCo this year anyway after two acquisitions, low team moral and reaching my burnout point. I wanted to go out on my own timetable and on my own terms, but it was not meant to be. The new year was a great line of demarcation. I could start my exit strategy. I had discussed the idea with my supervisor so he wouldn't be blindsided. He knew I wasn't happy and neither was he. The first step was my resume. I thought one of the best things I could do to improve my chances of getting a job in this economy was to have a rock solid resume, so I had it professionally drafted. Ironically, I finalized my resume the night before I was laid off. Good timing!

CHAPTER 1
The lay off went like this - around 1:30pm on January 12, the new CTO sent me an instant message asking if I would call into his conference line. I had never talked to the guy, so I didn't know what to expect. When I called in, HR was also on the call. That's not a good sign. He told me my "position had been eliminated". The first and only conversation I had with him and he lays me off. Pretty shitty right? I pinged my supervisor and he told me he was told the night before that there would be lay offs, but he didn't know who. He gave me the rest of the day off. My new full time job became finding a new job. Dejected, I unwillingly entered the world of the unemployed.

CHAPTER 2
Due to my paid grade and tenure at CrapCo, I was entitled to 12 weeks of severance pay and three months of subsidized COBRA medical insurance. I thought three months would be more than enough time to find a new job. I started my job search immediately. A fellow laid off co-worker, Turtle, and I registered for a job fair sponsored by the Washington Post. It was mainly focused on those with a security clearance, which neither of us had had for a long time. The fair was smaller than we imagined, so it was slim pickings. Not a good start to my job search. Ironically, we ran into an ex-coworker of ours at one of the booths. Small world. His company, Cup of Joe, provided 6 weeks of free training in the Java programming language, then found you a job. Here's the catch-you had to sign a two year contract! The ex-coworker had left our company on bad terms and he wasn't a very good developer. So we didn't think much of a company that would hire him. Although learning an in demand programming language was appealing, I didn't want a contract job. They are finite and don't come with benefits which doesn't work for someone who has a family to provide for. Turtle and I made small talk with him, put our names on the Cup of Joe contact list to be nice, then quickly moved onto another booth. I talked to all the companies that had web development opportunities. I thought one or two of them had potential. I just had to wait to see if they felt the same way and would contact me for an interview.

CHAPTER 3
The first website I posted my resume was the Washington Post Jobs website. A recruiter from a small government contractor, White Rock, saw my resume and contacted me regarding a web developer opportunity in DC. I was brought in for a face-to-face interview. It went well and for all intents and purposes I had the job except for one major detail - White Rock was the subcontractor and the prime contractor had to approve it. Meanwhile, it only took Turtle around two weeks to find a new job. He got a job with a different small government contractor in downtown DC. Turns out that company was the prime contractor to the White Rock position and instead of allowing White Rock to fill the slot with me, the prime went ahead and filled the spot with one of the candidates for Turtle's position. There was nothing White Rock could do. I got screwed by my friend's company! What a small world. I would have been working with Turtle but instead the prime contractor pulled the rug out from under me.

CHAPTER 4
After losing out on the White Rock job I posted my resume on Dice.com because things were moving slow including networking with my friends in IT. I should have posted my resume immediately after getting laid off, not a month later. But once it was posted, the calls from recruiters started pouring in. I got a few phone interviews but mostly I sent my resume out to never be contacted again. But I know the game, that's how it works. Meanwhile Cup of Joe sent me an email inviting me to their next orientation. I had a couple of good job opportunities in progress but decided since I didn't have anything definite, there was no harm in going to the orientation. The least I could do was listen to their dog and pony show and get a free lunch. About a dozen people attended the orientation. Ironically I was the only developer in the group. Everybody else had IT related jobs but knew nothing about object-oriented programming. But that wasn't really a deterrent to getting accepted into the training program. I just had an advantage coming from a programming/web development background. Later that afternoon I had a face-to-face interview for a consulting job with one of the Big 3 accounting firm's government services division. I was really excited about this opportunity because the company had exceptional benefits, paid well, had good training and development, and it would be a good move for my career. It also started with a group orientation and included 3 separate one-on-one interviews with people from different components of the business. I felt I did well in those interviews.

CHAPTER 5
A few days after the Cup of Joe orientation I was contacted and told I was accepted in the training program. I hadn't heard back yet from Big 3 and didn't want to pass up the training opportunity, so I accepted. I negotiated terms of the contract, increasing my hourly rate and reducing the duration to a year and half. I also figured if it wasn't for me I would keep myself on the job market. During the first week of training I had a phone interview during my lunch break with a telecommunications company that started dabbling in government contracting. I went down to the vacant basement of the building to get some privacy. The job was six month contract-to-hire and paid lower than my salary requirements but the recruiter said the job was in Fairfax just a few minutes from my house so I decided to pursue the opportunity to have a very short commute in exchange for less pay. During the interview I learned the job was not in Fairfax but in Bailey's Crossroads which is not accessible by public transportation. I'd have to buy a car which I didn't want to do. The recruiter called me the next morning and said the TelCo company liked me and wanted me in for a face-to-face interview. I told him I didn't want to pursue the opportunity because it didn't provide me the work/life balance I was seeking. I figured one or both of my other opportunities would pan out.

CHAPTER 6
On Wednesday the president of Cup of Joe called me into his office. He told me someone from his staff had overheard me on the phone interview. I don't know how that happened since I was in the empty basement of the building. I guess they had spies or something. I vaguely remember someone getting off the basement elevator during my interview. I guess that was one of the spies. He told me that he didn't want me looking for other jobs while I was in the training. He wants all students/employees to be dedicated to his program. He didn't want people taking the training then not working for them since the training is free and the company invests a lot of time and money into it. There was a financial penalty if a student left the training after the first week. I was still in the first week of training. I was pissed about them eavesdropping on my personal call and being all up in my business, but I didn't say anything about it. I told him I always have a contingency plan. I have a family to provide for and they couldn't guarantee me a job after the training, even though they say they have a 100% placement rate. That's just my typical paranoia. He gave me an ultimatum - stop looking for other jobs and stick with the training or leave the program. He wanted an answer tomorrow. Later that day, Big 3 called and said they lined up a final interview on Monday. That's just what I needed to hear! It made the ultimatum decision easy. The next day I told Cup of Joe that I was leaving the program.

CHAPTER 7
On Friday I was back at home having quit the training program. I went out to lunch with the other members of my training class to update them on my situation and say goodbye. They wished me well and asked to keep in touch. Later that afternoon the Big 3 recruiter called to tell me that the final interview was canceled because the job they were going to assign me to didn't have any open spots. If that was the case, then why did they even schedule me for a final interview? The recruiter could have found that out prior to scheduling the final interview. This royally screwed things up. That was it for the opportunity at Big 3, I had quit the Cup of Joe program for the Big 3 job and I discontinued my pursuit of the TelCo opportunity. First thing I did was contact Cup of Joe and asked if I could come back into the program. I assured them I would be focused and dedicated solely on their program, but they declined. They didn't give a reason. I figure they felt scorned. I had hurt their feelings. I had to move onto Plan C. Despite my misgivings I swallowed my pride and called the TelCo recruiter back and told him I would like to be reconsidered for the job. I was desperate. I'd been job hunting for a month and a half and had suffered three major setbacks in my job search so I went back to what I felt was a sure thing. I was only a few days out from the TelCo phone interview, which went well, so the recruiter was happy to put me back in consideration.

CHAPTER 8
I had a face-to-face interview with the TelCo company on Friday March 11, almost two months to the day when I was laid off. I asked one of the interviewers who lived in Fairfax how long it took him to get to work. He said about 45 minutes in the morning and around 1.5 hours in the evening. I worked for a large government contractor for 5 plus years to start my career, so I knew the environment well. I knew I wouldn't be working over 40 hours every week, so the commute would be during rush hour. DC metro traffic sucks so I know that most days it would be a terrible commute especially since I would have to drive it. I was right about the opportunity being a sure thing. A couple days after the interview the recruiter called and offered me the position. I accepted-despite my concerns-knowing that it would take three to six weeks to get my security clearance; time in which I could continue looking for a job that would provide me a better work/life balance and meet my salary requirements. I ended up buying a car and mentally preparing to work a government contracting job again meanwhile continuing my job search.

CHAPTER 9
It took almost six weeks for my security clearance to be processed. I was scheduled to start the TelCo job on Monday, May 2. During that six week period I had a few more interviews. Most notably was an interview with a large defense contractor (I'll refer to as DefenseCon). The timing came down to the wire as the interview was scheduled on the Friday before the Monday I was start at TelCo. DefenseCon offered me the job later that day. This job paid much better, the job location was accessible by public transportation, it was a three month contract-to-hire, and the benefits were better. So I had to accept it right? It had been almost four months since I was laid off and my severance was about to run out. Unemployment is chump change and we wouldn't be able to live off of it. I had started doing field inspections part time, but it was time consuming and not very lucrative. I used part of my emergency fund to buy the car, so we only had enough savings to last at most a month and a half. I would have to wait for another security clearance but there was nothing I do about that. That's just the cost of working for a government contractor. I accepted the job. Now I just had to break the bad news to TelCo. I didn't want to have that conversation over the phone so I drafted a simple email.

CHAPTER 10
I sent the email around 3 pm on Friday. I had gotten the job offer only a hour or so earlier and it took some time to figure out what I wanted to say and how to say it. I got a call from the recruiter very shortly after sending it. He was cool about it. He asked what happened and I told him that my original concerns about the job didn't go away just because I wanted to be reconsidered for and ultimately accept the job. But I made the choice that was best for my family. I felt it was better to quit before I started then go in on Monday and quit on my first day. It was just weird timing that the DefenseCon job offer came when it did. A few minutes after talking with the recruiter his boss, the client representative, who I had only spoken to once previously, called me up and chewed me out. He told me how unprofessional I was. He told me he the DC job market is "small" and that he held a lot of weight in the local recruiting community and that I would never find a job in the area again. He asked me what he was supposed to tell the client. I answered "that's not up to me." He told me how much the client spent on the security clearance process. My retort was that I spent the same amount buying a car to commute to that job. I told him I had to do what was best for my family. I think then he hung up on me or we conveniently got disconnected. He called right back but I didn't answer. That was the end of that.

EPILOGUE
Although I had the job I wanted, I still had to wait. It took three weeks to process the DefenseCon security clearance. It was processed on my birthday, which was a great present. However it took another three weeks for the client, Snail Mail, to determine my start date! I didn't start working until June 15. We were on the brink of running out of money. Everyday I waited I got more depressed. I didn't want my family to see me like that, so I did my best to disguise my grief. I cried when I finally got the call from the recruiter telling me my start date. I've had other tough situations in my adult life, like being physically assaulted in a bar in 2001 and getting divorced in 2005, but neither affected my family directly. The missteps I took and mishaps I suffered during my job search can all be chalked up to bad timing.

I made constructive use of my down time. I digitized our entire CD collection and uploaded it to the cloud. I tried my hand at the field services industry but found that it wasn't for me. I took an investment class. I planned on reading a few books but that never came to fruition. :(

After all is said and done, it feels great to be a working class stiff again.

Blog Facelift

2011-07-01T11:23:00.002-04:00

It was time for another blog facelift. I've changed the layout. The new look is simple and easy. The old design was too dark. I hope you like the refresh. Enjoy!

Google Music vs Amazon Cloud Drive [UPDATED]

2011-06-02T16:07:00.004-04:00

UPDATE 6/6/11 @ 11:30am EDT - Google Music is limited to 20,000 songs.

I received my Google Music invitation this morning and immediately signed up. Google Music is a cloud based music service. Once you upload your music files they are accessible from any internet connected computer. There is also a Android app for smartphones and tablets. Amazon also has a cloud music service called Cloud Player. The files are kept in the Cloud Drive. It also has an Android app. I signed up for it when it first became available a couple of months ago. Although the overall concept is awesome - the ability to access your music 24/7 from any web-enabled device without having to access a hard drive and making the storage of music on your iPod or smartphone obsolete - the two services are a bit different.

Amazon Cloud Drive allows for storing all types of files. You get 5GB of free storage, and if you buy an album from the Amazon digital music store, you get an upgrade to 20GB free for one year from date of purchase. You can purchase additional storage at $1 a GB up to 1k. The cloud drive is separate from the cloud player. However, they are linked-your music files stored in your cloud drive are accessible in the cloud player. Amazon wants you to purchase from their digital music store and the incentive is music purchased from it doesn't count against your storage space, which is nice. The cloud player allows for all digital music store purchases to automatically be saved to your cloud drive so you can listen immediately after purchase. One disadvantage is that new music not purchased from the mp3 store is not automatically added to the cloud drive. You have to upload it manually. In order to upload music to the cloud, the free "Amazon MP3 Uploader" app has to be installed on your computer. The cloud drive and player are free. All you need is an Amazon account.

Google Music is currently in beta and invite only, but should be available to all Google users in a few months. It's very similar to the Amazon service but with three key differences. First, Google has free but limited storage of music files. The limit is 20,000 songs. Although there is a limit, it is substantial. I doubt there are many people with a digital music collection containing greater than 20k songs. Second, Google doesn't have a digital music store. Third, Google's service is platform independent and allows for automatic upload of music files from Windows Media Player or iTunes, so whenever you buy new music, it's automatically added to Google Music. It's part of the Google suite of cloud apps so if you have a Google account, you're good to go.

The Winner: Google Music by a narrow margin.

P.S. Apple has a cloud based music service coming out on June 6 called iCloud.

Car Free Once Again

2011-05-31T14:03:00.001-04:00

Cross posted at the Shock Family Circus blog.

As quickly as it arrived, it was gone. I no longer own my 2000 orange Miata I named "Orangina". The job I bought it to commute for I quit before I even started for a job that is Metro accessible. Despite how much I liked the car, I didn't want to keep it if I'm not going to drive it on a regular basis. We lived with one car for three years before I bought Orangina, so I wouldn't be blazing uncharted territory. But we went a step further. We traded in the Miata and our beloved Xterra, a.k.a. "Ruby" for a "family" car. We bought a 2012 Mazda5 wagon. Known to car enthusiasts as the "minivan for those who hate minivans". And we hate minivans. We're back to being a one car family but with a 6 passenger family car. We've already broken in the car Shock family style by hauling our hairy dog in the back on our holiday weekend roadtrip. He definitely left his mark.

DIY project - car audio

2011-04-22T00:41:00.021-04:00

This really isn't a "DIY" project so much as a creative solution to a problem. The Miata's antenna is broken and the car still has the OEM Bose stereo (complete with cassette player) so it doesn't play mp3s or have a hard drive or SD slot. So with no radio all I could do to have tunes in the car is CDs (I don't have a portable cassette carrier). I didn't want to have a large cache of CDs in the car. We've had a satellite radio in the Xterra for years so I've gotten used to commercial free music. Although the previous owner wired for satellite radio I didn't want to buy satellite radio hardware because that limits me to only being able to listen in the car. I also want to be able to listen to it at my new job. So I added the inexpensive online subscription to our existing account which allows for listening online and through a phone app. I bought a FM transmitter/charger for my Google Nexus S Android smartphone. This enables me to listen to satellite radio in my car using my phone. And if I get tired of listening to satellite radio I can listen to my entire music collection via the Amazon cloud player app which enables me to listen to my digital music collection stored in Amazon cloud storage. Now I have access to endless music wherever and whenever I want. See the pics for my car setup. I've found a few drawbacks- 1. there is a digital hiss coming through the speakers that can be heard when the music is soft. It's probably due to no clear FM tuning because the antenna is missing. 2. The low placement of the phone on the center console makes me have to look down if or when I have to make adjustments or using the navigation. I need a dashboard mount like the ones used for GPS units. 3. The location of the plug and the size of the FM transmitter makes shifting into fifth gear a little challenging. I found orienting the transmitter vertically solves the problem (see pics). It also makes seeing the transmitter's display easier for the driver. A clever trick inside the creative solution! Maybe I should rock out old school and bust out my tapes to see how the cassette player sounds.

Beard Team USA News

2011-04-14T16:32:00.001-04:00

World Beard and Moustache Championships

Beard Team USA leaves for the World Beard and Moustache Championships in Norway in just one month. We have a very strong squad hoping for a successful defense to America's title as the leading power in international bearding.

You can view BTUSA's starting line-up for the worlds attached to this email. For my category-by-category analysis of the competition, check out http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/news/category-by-category-analysis-of-2011-wbmc /. Go USA!

Whisker Wars

BTUSA is about to get even more famous. Whisker Wars, a docu-series about Beard Team USA by the producers of the Deadliest Catch and other popular shows, is set to premiere on August 5 at 10 pm on IFC. Set your Tivos and fasten your seat belts.

DIY project - ashtray lid part 2

2011-04-14T16:27:00.000-04:00

The second part of my ashtray lid DIY project involved the painting of the lid. I went to Home Depot for spray paint. I brought the ashtray into the store with me. There wasn't any really close color matches. One of the associates suggested I get the lid color matched with regular interior house paint and use a small spray gun. See the supplies in the pic to the right. Another great idea not thought of by me! So I bought the spray gun and a Behr paint color sampler that can be customized. Total cost about $8.30. A small investment for a large return.

I had a hard time getting the spray gun to work. It wouldn't spray paint. I had to thin the paint enough to get it to go through the feeder tube. I finally got the gun to spray paint. The color match is dead on but the finish is not. I should have bought a semi-gloss instead of a satin finish paint. The crack is still visible, but I can live with that. Check out the after and before pics below.

after

before

DIY project - ashtray lid

2011-04-13T00:09:00.000-04:00

repaired ashtray lid

repaired ashtray lid open

The first thing I noticed when I got into Orangina, the orange 2000 Mazda Miata I just bought, for a test drive was that the center console ashtray lid was cracked down the middle. The right side of the lid was gone, seemingly forever. I figured if I bought the car I'd just remove the ashtray all together which would leave a tiny storage bin. Luckily I found the broken lid piece in the glove box. Thank you previous owner! The two pieces fight together perfectly, with no chips or gaps. I just had to figure out a way to fix it. I figured some strong glue would do the trick. I'm not an adhesive expert, so I went to my local home improvement store. I showed one of the clerks what I wanted to do and he suggested plastic epoxy. The stuff worked worked great. Check out the pics. I used mineral spirits to remove the excess glue. Now all I've got to do is bust out the spray paint to make it look like new. Another successful DIY project.

DIY project - wheel center caps

2011-04-09T16:23:00.002-04:00

In my post about my new car, Orangina, I listed some items that needed to be fixed or replaced. The tires were the most critical, since that's the only part of the car that actually touches the road. The tires that were on the car when I bought it were old, cracked and worn out. They had been on the car for way too long. Apparently the 2000 Miata has an odd tire size, 195/50/R15, because none of the four tire shops close to my house carried them or could even get them. Michelin makes an all season Exalto in that size, but they were out of stock. The Costco tire clerk suggested TireVan, a local mobile tire store. They come to you. It's a great business model and I couldn't be happier with the service I received. You order the tires and schedule installation from the website. It couldn't be easier. TireVan carried the Michelin's, which were pricey, but also had a off brand, Maxxis, in the Miata's size which were much cheaper and actually rated better overall than the Michelins. After doing some internet research on Maxxis tires, I found that they are makers of bicycle and ATV tires and are apparently big in the drifting community. Everyone who owned them seemed happy with them. So I went with the cheap no-name brand tires. I can't tell the difference when I'm driving. Tires are tires.

The TireVan installation is a two man job. I was talking to one of them about the ugly, faded tan center caps. I told him I wanted to replace them so that they match the wheels like they did when the car was new. I had priced them on the internet, and they ran about $25-$35 each. He suggested spray painting the caps rather than buying new ones. What a brilliant idea! I wish I had thought of that. I went to Home Depot and bought a can of silver matte finish spray paint for $6. They turned out pretty good if you ask me. Damn near perfect match. See the "after" pic on the right. I forgot to take a "before" picture. If you look closely at this pic of the car taken a few days ago, you'll see the center caps are tan. So for very little money and time, I upgraded the aesthetics of the car. Now that's DIY!

My next DIY project is another item on the car that needs replacing - the antenna. A buddy of mine who is restoring a BMW wagon suggested I go to a junkyard for the antenna instead of buying new. Another great idea. Junkyards can be hit or miss. And there aren't "pull your own part" yards close to me, but there is one in Maryland. It's worth a shot.

Car Free No Longer

2011-04-05T16:19:00.001-04:00

Today should have been my three year anniversary of living car free. I say "should have been" because 2011 has been a challenging year for me so far and has brought about a lot of change outside of my control, especially when it comes to my career. I was laid off in January and after a two month search, finally found a new job. I'll get into the details of my lay off, job search, and what I did during my time off in a separate post. This post will focus on my car situation. The new job is not easily accessible by public transportation. When I say "not easily" I mean walking to the bus stop, taking bus #1 to the subway, taking the subway for a number of stops, then taking bus #2 to the job site. All told the commute is three hours round trip. That just won't cut it for me. I need to spend time with my family. So I sucked it up and bought a used car last week. I can drive to the new job in approximately 45 minutes; a little longer in the evenings on my way home. Driving to and from work will shave at least an hour off my commute and I can come and go on my schedule, not public transportation's (always late) schedule.

I bought a car I've wanted since it was new, a 2000 orange Mazda Miata. I named her "Orangina". It's in keeping with the spirit and tradition of having orange roadsters and if I must drive, I want something fun to do it in. It has a manual transmission, which I haven't had in a long time and missed. It's in great shape, has below average miles for an 11 year old car, doesn't leak anything, is fun to drive and the original Bose stereo sounds awesome! All it needs is a new set of tires, a new radio antenna (original one is broken off) and some floor mats. Oh, and new center caps. For some reason the original silver grey OEM caps that matched the wheels have been replaced with ugly tan caps.

meet Orangina - my new ride to work

While I'm saddened to no longer be car free, at the same time I'm excited to have a car I've had my eye on. In the short term I've shortened my commute to my new job and we'll be back to being a two car family. Long term, we plan on having another kid and moving to Austin, TX in 2012. I don't know if that will necessitate the need to have two cars, but only time will tell.

meet Tawny, my original orange roadster

"To infinity and beyond!"

2011-03-15T16:15:00.000-04:00

"To infinity and beyond"

My newest Lego build - Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear.

The Day of the Dude holiday

2011-03-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

March 6th is 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).

Hey Dudes!
Would you like a free copy of Adam Bertocci’s far out Shakespearean reworking of Two Gentlemen of Lebowski? Enter our giveaway and you could win one! We’re doing this to help celebrate our annual high holiday, The Day of the Dude. It’s coming up soon – Sunday, March 6^th. Just take it easy, mankind!
Some other news you might want to become privy to:

Our new Dudeist self-help book The Abide Guide will be published in the spring by Ulysses Press and is already available for pre-order. It’s a team effort from Dudely Lama Oliver Benjamin and Arch Dudeship Dwayne Eutsey, and it’s going to be far out indeed.
Our highly-commended holy book, The Dude De Ching is now available as a downloadable Kindle ebook. Don’t have an Amazon Kindle? You can still read it on your phone, Blackberry, iPad, Mac, PC and more with the free Kindle application. All profits still go to our Dudeism Kiva Lending Fund. Or get a printed copy instead.
UK residents take note: There’s going to be a Dudeist music festival in York on June 18. It’s called Dudestock, and it’ll be raising money for charity. They’re also running a campaign to get Dudeism recognized as an official religion in the UK (or at least, on the annual census). Find out more from this BBC broadcast.
If you’re planning to celebrate The Day of the Dude on March 6^th, please send us photos of you and your compeers takin’ er easy, or going bowling, or what-have-you, so we can post it afterwards at The Dudespaper.
New shirts have come to light! And now some posters too. Why not quickly pick up a Day of the Dude 2011 tee shirt for this year’s festivities? It will help us feed the monkey. Thankee.
Bloggers and journalists--do you want to draw a flood of attention to your writing, or give a great pitch to your editor? Why not write about Dudeism? Whenever someone writes about us it draws massive traffic. For instance: this awesome article at CNN received 6000 Facebook likes, hundreds of times more than any other article in the same section. Small blogs who write about us also receive a ton of attention and a flood of Facebook likes. Thanks for helping spread the Dude word.
If you want to interact with other Dudeists, please visit the Dudeism Facebook Page, the forum, and our official publication, The Dudespaper. We plan to have a Dudeist social network (like Facebook, but more mellow) set up soon as well.
We now have over 100,000 ordained Dudeist Priests worldwide. Far out.

Well that’s it for now. But a lot of cool new stuff is coming up soon after all this!
Have a happy Day of the Dude, dudes. We know that you will.

Take er Easy,
Reverend Shock

Rage Against the Machine, pt. 6 "Mishaps"

2011-01-20T23:43:00.001-05:00

In my RATM series, I've chronicled my love/hate relationship with technology. In this latest installment, I'll recount our season of technology mishaps. It all started when I cracked Jennifer's Mac screen. Fletch grabbed for the plug and as I quickly yanked it away, it fell from my small girl hands and onto the computer screen. Fletch was involved in the next mishap as well. Jennifer had her purse teetering on the edge of the kitchen counter. His extremely curious nature made him reach for it, pulling the purse off the counter and her phone and iPod touch into the dog's water bowl. It gets worse.

As I walked through the door after attending a Redskins game (which they lost - no big surprise!), Jennifer had the look of dread on her face. "I've got some bad news. The TV blew up!" I looked at the blank black screen and hung my head. After five years (a short lifespan for a TV) my first generation plasma went dark-permanently. Show's over.

A few days later my trusty Windows XP laptop started acting funny. It wouldn't boot up. While it lived much longer than expected, the end was very sudden. There were no signs of problems. It went from working to not in a matter of a few hours. It must have caught a virus! Ha, pun intended.

To add insult to injury, the home theater computer, the one that started the rage, died again. I say again because the replacement motherboard crashed and burned. That computer was jinxed. I wasn't going to spend another $300 to fix it. Our reason for buying the HTPC was to save money by getting rid of cable TV. Turns out we've spent nearly the amount we would have spent on cable TV fixing and maintaining the computer. Stupid technology.

Everything worked out in the end. We got the Mac screen repaired. Jennifer successfully dried out her phone using rice. However she wasn't as successful with the iPod Touch. The screen was permanently damaged so we replaced it for half price. We bought a bigger and better TV. We had a 50" Vizio plasma and upgraded to a 55" Samsung LCD. I replaced my laptop with a sweet Gateway netbook. And we sucked it up and subscribed to cable television (no premium channels though). Hello high def on every channel!

Here's hoping the tech mishaps are behind us. They have to be since we've replaced everything. :)

Free Money

2010-12-11T15:15:00.000-05:00

Image via WikipediaI know what your thinking - "money ain't free". I not talking about a handout. What I mean by "free money" is unearned money; obtained through means other than my paycheck. I guess you could call it random passive income. I always seem to get some free money here and there, whether it be a rebate, a class action settlement, or selling something on Craigslist. I wanted to know how much free money I received, so I started tracking it in 2010. I created a Google Docs spreadsheet to do so. The total free money amount for this year is a whopping $1337! About half of that came from a contest I won which had an approximate retail value of $598. I won the Redskins "AAA Ultimate Fan Zone Sweepstakes" for the Sunday night game against the Colts back on October 17. The prize included: 2 suite tickets to the game, 2 passes to the AAA Ultimate Fan Zone pre-game hospitality area & 1 FedEx Field purple parking permit. Although technically not cash, I didn't pay for it out of pocket and is in essence free money so I'm counting it. The second biggest amount was $200 in Southwest Airlines credit we got for a long delay coming home from Louisville, KY for Lebowski Fest a couple years back that I used to purchase my flight to the National Beard and Moustache Championships in June. Rounding out the top three is $101.65 in oil royalties. My wife's family owns a small stake in land leased for obtaining oil in Texas. The smallest amount is $.59 which was another oil royalty. We actually cashed a $.59 check. It probably cost more to drive to the ATM. But every little bit counts.

Debt Free

2010-12-11T01:55:00.001-05:00

Image via Wikipedia(Cross-posted on the Shock Family Circus blog.)

My family is debt free! That's the best holiday present money can buy. We paid off our car two years early in August and I paid off my student loan a few days ago. We pay our credit card each month in full, so we don't have any credit card debt. As one of my friends so eloquently posted on Facebook "Congrats! not owing shit to anyone is a great feeling." It is.

We celebrated by spending money! We are going to an exclusive New Year's Eve party in New York City with my sister Lisa (a.k.a. Aunt Lili) and bro-in-law Steven. My company has an office on the 31st floor of a building in Times Square, eye level with the ball drop! We're going to be all dressed up with an awesome place to go. We also booked a weekend getaway to a quaint riverside inn at historic Smithfield Station for just the two of us. Thank you Living Social Escapes.

Forget Frugality

2010-11-10T22:30:00.005-05:00

We've been living on one income since we decided to start a family. It's hard to do living in one of the most affluent metropolitan areas of the country, but we're making it paycheck by paycheck. We cut our expenses to the extreme by selling one of our cars, eliminating cable TV and by me working from home full time. We recently paid off the car we still own two years early. I have a work issued Blackberry that I also use as a my personal phone so we pay for only one mobile phone contract. We started budgeting by using the best budgeting software for the money-YNAB, which stands for You Need A Budget. I found out about YNAB from my favorite personal finance blog, Bargaineering. We don't go out to eat or buy anything without a coupon or discount. We subscribe to Groupon and all it's copycat competitors. But you can only do so much cutting back before there's nothing else to cut.
2011 will be the year to "Forget Frugality". I've been looking into ways to make additional income, both passive and active. Passive income requires money but not time. Active income requires time and money, but less of the latter. We don't have a heck of a lot of money to invest in dividend stocks to generate passive income, and I'm not going to dip into our savings to do so. It takes a lot of money to make a lot of passive income, but anything is better than nothing. I don't have the time for a part-time job and they usually aren't worth the trouble for the amount (or lack of) money you make or the time investment.
I stumbled upon the internet marketing website Prosperly.com while researching YNAB's founder and online entrepreneur Jesse Mechem (He and I have something in common. See if you can figure it out by reading his profile ;)). Prosperly is a website flipping blog. The founder, Adam White, is supposedly a successful online entrepreneur and will teach you the 'Prosperly Way'. He offers personal coaching to help you buy and flip your first website. I'm intrigued but nonetheless skeptical.
The YNAB community also introduced to me Ramit Sethi of blog and book I Will Teach You To Be Rich and the "Earn 1K on the Side" course. I participated in a two part webinar hosted by him. He's an in your face/personal guerilla marketing kind of guy that really talks up his Earn 1K course. His hard sell worked. He only opens the course for very short internals at a time so we talked about it and we decided to sign up. It's an expensive course, so I didn't take the decision lightly. I was again intrigued but skeptical. He offers a 3 month money back guarantee, so what did I have to lose? When I went to sign up and pay for the course the website crashed. How's that for a sign? I contacted customer service and they gave me another link to sign up, but I saw the writing on the wall. I Googled both Prosperly and Earn 1K to see if they were scams, but nothing negative came up in the search results. That doesn't mean they aren't scams, it just means that no one has posted anything negative about either program or that both guys are very good at suppressing the negative feedback or they are legitimate. Has anyone ever used either course? I'd love to hear feedback from people I know.

Get Unlisted

2010-09-22T21:30:00.000-04:00

I've been a privacy advocate for a long time. Admittedly that sounds hypocritical since Google has enough of my personal information to clone me, but I digress. If you want to take control of your personal information, Catalog Choice has a new service for you. On September 27th, they will be unveiling their Unlisting Service. Get all the details at their blog post Get Unlisted. For a $20 donation, their staff will act as your Agent to contact Third Party Marketing companies and Personal Search services and go through the process to opt you out of their systems. Most of these companies have made the opt-out process complicated so you won’t do it. But Catalog Choice knows you want to suppress your name from their systems, so like a valet, they do the work for you. I think $20 is not a lot to ask to stop getting junk mail and to go "unlisted".

"Convenience" Fees?

2010-08-21T15:41:00.001-04:00

Buying event tickets from anyone other than private buyers is a complete ripoff. But everyone knows this. I bought a ticket to the Redskins first game of the season, a Sunday night game against their hated division rival the Cowboys on September 12, for my brother Chris. He's coming into town to go to the game with the wife and me. It's an annual ritual. Long story short, I was able to purchase a ticket at face value through the teams official Ticketmaster website. But the final transaction price was not the ticket's face value. You saw this coming. Let me break it down for you. The ticket's face value was $70.40. The team tacked on a whopping $25 FedEx shipping charge! It was the only shipping option. Presumably FedEx's partnership with the Redskins (FedEx owns the stadium's naming rights) is clearly being abused. It's not like the game is tomorrow and I need overnight delivery, the game is three weeks away. They could drop the ticket in the mail and it would get here in plenty of time and for the price of a postage stamp. To add insult to injury, Ticketmaster charged me a $3 "convenience" fee. What the hell is that? On Ticketmaster's FAQ page it states:

[The convenience] fee covers costs that allow Ticketmaster to provide the widest range of available tickets while giving you multiple ways to purchase. Tickets are available in many neighborhoods via local ticket outlet locations, our telephone reservation system and Ticketmaster.com. Tickets can be purchased through at least one distribution channel virtually 24 hours a day. The convenience charge varies by event and is determined by negotiations with arena operators, promoters and others, based on costs for each event.

What a line of crap. In the case of the Redskin's ticket, there was only one venue to purchase the ticket, online. They can shove the convenience fee up their ass. Here's the final breakdown:

Ticket face value = $70.40

FedEx shipping = $25

TM convenience charge = $3

Total Price for 1 Redskins upper level sideline ticket = $98.40

Getting ripped off buying event tickets = EXPECTED!

After all was said and done, I actually got the ticket for a good price. Going rate on StubHub "The Redskin's Official Ticket Reseller" is $200 per ticket. (Don't get me started on StubHub. They are an even bigger ripoff). Trying to buy a Redskins ticket on Craigslist is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It was worth it. We always have a good time going to football games.

Merging Interests

2010-08-09T23:14:00.002-04:00

I've merged my now retired beard blog Hirsute Pogonologist with this blog. The imported posts are merged with the existing posts, sorted by date. I'm still into bearding, but it has run its course as a hobby. Let it grow my bearded brethren!

The Big Surprise

2010-07-01T23:40:00.000-04:00

Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I promised a big surprise when I got back from the Nats. Well, if you take a gander at the pic, the surprise is obvious. I shaved off the beard. It's bittersweet. I loved the beard and the wife doesn't. Nuff said.

Beard bingo!

2010-06-16T20:52:00.000-04:00

While in Bend, OR for the Nats, I picked up the local paper and saw a new game, Beard bingo!

From Reno to Bend and back again - June 3-6, 2010

2010-06-13T22:12:00.003-04:00

Crater Lake National Park
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I bookended my trip to the National Beard and Moustache Championships with a scenic roadtrip from Reno to Bend and back again. My tour guide of the Pacific NW was two-time world sideburns champion Toot Joslin. His grandson Carver came along for the ride. See the pics here. CIMG0936 is the last to route pic. CIMG1031 is the first ot the from route pics. On the way back we stopped at Crater Lake National Park and Lava Beds National Monument. All the mountains in this area are volcanic formations. I made a pit stop in Lake Tahoe on my way home from Oregon to see my bro and his girlfriend.

Here's the corresponding route map.

A Hair Raising Experience

2010-06-10T23:06:00.000-04:00

in costume
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

Wow. Where do I start? The first ever National Beard and Moustache Championships in Bend, OR was awesome. I had a blast. I meet many new bearded brethren with whom I partied my ass off. We all felt like rock stars for a weekend. There was so many people taking pictures and lots of press coverage. OregonLive.com was there, Demotix was there, even the Los Angeles Times was there. There are of course YouTube videos. I'm quoted and featured in a video called Bearded In Bend from the local ABC affiliate station KOHD. I even got my picture in the LA Times. My pics of the event are on Flickr and Facebook. Visit the BTUSA website and Facebook for lots more pics and videos of the event. We even went for a Guinness Book of World Records record for the most bearded people in one place. My traveling companion, two time world sideburns champion and one of the coolest dudes I know, Toot Joslin, won the partial beard category. He also held a grooming clinic. Here's the competitions full results. Bearded badass Jack Passion emceed.

The day before the competition was activity day. I choose the Central Oregon Microbrew Pub Tour. Our tour guide, Amanda Gow from Specialized Meetings and Events wrote in an email "I wanted to extend a huge THANK YOU to all of the tour participants for making today's tour the best one I have ever been on." We were a rowdy bunch. We visited McMenamins Old St. Francis School, Cascade Lakes Brewery and Deschutes Brewery.

The weekend was bookended by my whirlwind tour of the Pacific Northwest, from Reno to Bend and back again!

The Nats are here!

2010-06-02T21:56:00.000-04:00

Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I'm heading out to the Nats tomorrow. Fifteen months of not shaving culminates into the biggest bearding event of the year. I'm giddy with anticipation. I'm tingling in my nether regions. I'm competing in the full beard category. Check me out in all my curly, fuzzy glory. I'll post all the pics and videos of the event and my misadventures in Bend, OR here on the beard blog. I'm also making a pit stop on my way home to visit my kid bro in Lake Tahoe. When I get back home, I've got a big surprise for everyone!

Shuffle Up and Deal

2010-05-15T01:44:00.001-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

I started really getting into poker and specifically the Texas hold'em variety of the card game back in 2004. I read some books on how to play and improve my game. I hosted a few games at my house, but quickly learned none of my friends knew how to play. I played a couple cash games in casinos in Reno and Atlantic City. I learned very quickly that cash games are very different from tournament style. I didn't play online because I liked the action of a live game and being able to study my opponents. The World Series of Poker tour was all over the TV, but if I wasn't playing I wasn't watching. I guess I could have learned something by watching the pros, but that didn't dawn on me at the time. I joined a poker club that met Sunday nights at a local bar. A poker club is for those who live where gambling is illegal, which is pretty much everywhere in this country. I had fun in the beginning, but being a stickler for the etiquette of the game, I learned very fast that people play very differently when it's free compared to when money is on the line. Playing in a smoky bar with drunk idiots or with people who didn't know how to play or both wore me down pretty fast. What really did it for me was the fight where the word "divorce" was first uttered by my first wife started at a poker club game because some crusty old douchebag was hitting on her. Seriously-no joke. You play the hand you are dealt (pun intended).

I moved on with my life without poker. I still loved poker, I just didn't go out seeking to play. The passion died. Fast forward a few years. I got remarried and started a family. We joined a great Episcopal church. The Young Family Ministries dad's group has a monthly poker game that I got invited to. I won my first two games. That's all it took to get the fire burning again. I was back baby. I was so motivated that I got my own monthly poker game together with a new group of friends who love to play poker as much as I do. Two games a month didn't satiate my hunger. Like a sign from the heavens, I turned on the boob tube one night and what was on? You guessed it-poker. This time i watched intently, hoping to learn a trick or two from the pros. What I did learn is that as skilled as these poker pros are, you still need lots of luck. With lots of playing, studying and luck, I can do what they do. So I took the plunge and started playing online for free. Online poker is a very different beast which is good because it adds another facet to my game.

Last week I played in my first high stakes ($100 buy-in) game. It was a charity game dubbed "Hold'em for the Cure". Half the buy-in was a donation to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the other half went to the prize pool. I was excited. So excited in fact that I was the first one knocked out. On about my fifth or sixth hand I went all in with a full house deuces full of aces. It's hard to beat a boat. But I was beat by a full house sevens full of aces. He sank my battleship! I then played the role of sore loser as there was no re-buy and you still had to be in the game to purchase the add-on. I stayed for the pizza dinner. After eating and throwing a hissy fit, I quietly left.

So here I am playing and losing lots of poker. I have dreams of becoming a professional poker player. It's my only hobby that if I'm good enough could pay the bills. Like the saying goes "you can't truly know success without failure." Well, I've failed a lot. Hopefully thats a catalyst for my success. Shuffle up and deal.

Less Than a Month Until the Nats!

2010-05-13T09:36:00.000-04:00

Here's the latest BTUSA news:

Magnificent Specimens

Saturday was the opening of "Magnificent Specimens," Dave Mead's exhibit of photos from the WBMC last year in Alaska. The exhibit is at the Chelsea Market in New York City. It will run there through June. There was a strong BTUSA presence at the opening, including a film crew from LA. Details on the exhibit here: http://davemead.com/ magnificent/ Check it out if you can!

Springfield Beard and Moustache Contest

Memorial Day Weekend will see the final, final warm-up event for the Nationals -- the Springfield Beard and Moustache Contest. It's at the Patton Alley Pub on Saturday night, May 29. Organizer Christy Claybaker has promised a great time for anyone with or without a beard. Brighton- and Anchorage-vet Devin Cara and Christy's husband Clay, both of whom will be competing in Bend, will serve as judges. Proceeds go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. See http://www.facebook.com/#!/ event.php?eid=115300261835815& ref=mf Which Springfield? Not the Simpsons' one. This one is in Missouri, Missouruh to some.

Burke Kenny to Judge

And now, announcing another celebrity judge! FBSM former world champ (many say he should be the current world champ) Burke Kenny will be on the judges' panel in Bend. "Beards should judge beards," says Burke. Also it looks like Burke's band, As the Devil Dances, will have their gig in Bend on Friday night, not Thursday as previously planned. This will be at the big welcoming party at the Old Stone Church to which everyone is of course invited.

Judge Applicants

We have several applications for others who want to judge. Go to beardteamusa.org, check them out, and let your opinions be known!

Posters

If you'd like to print out some of the posters for yourself, the full resolution images are available http://beardteamusa.org/nationals/posters-and-logos.

Nametags

Finally, a reminder: If you want a super-cool Beard Team USA name tag to show off in Bend, you need to Paypal me $5 by this Saturday, May 15 at the latest. Let me know how you want your name and hometown to read

Twitter and Facebook

Beard Team USA now has a much more active presence on both Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to become a fan/follower to keep up on last minute preparations for Bend. Also be sure to keep the rest of us posted on your own plans. Twitter.com/beardteamusa and facebook.com/beardteamusa.

See you soon,

Phil Olsen
Founder and self-appointed Captain
Beard Team USA

==============================

I'll be in NYC in June visiting my sister and bro-in-law. We're going to see the "Magnificent Specimens" exhibit. With Burke Kenny judging and Jack Passion MCing, two championship beards are not competing in the Nats, opening the floor for some new blood to be crowned champion. -Shock

Carstache™ | Glorious mustaches for cars and trucks

2010-04-30T18:39:00.000-04:00

I randomly came across the Carstache™ Car Mustaches website in an email. Here's the Carstache story:

Carstache™ is the global leader in automotive facial hair, delivering the industry’s most luxurious in car mustaches.

We made Carstache™ purely because we think it’s funny and it makes people smile. No other reason. When people see a Carstache™ on the streets they laugh, wave, thumbs-up, fist pump, gun flex, wink wink, kiss kiss, you name it.

Some of you will rock Carstaches on a day to day basis, and for that you are awesome. For most, though, the Carstache™ is a sensational flare piece for events and special occasions like tailgates, birthdays, bachelor parties, Bar Mitzvah’s, Father’s Day, weddings, Halloween, Cinco-de-Mustache, etc… When you drive into a tailgate with a Carstache™ you get free beer, hot dogs, and high fives.

From the Hills of Hollywood to the Plains of Panama to the Alps of Awesometown, let it be known that the Carstache™ has arrived. Your car grille has been naked until now. It’s time to ‘stache up and feel the power!

Carstache™ car mustaches became available for retail purchase on April 12th, 2010. Carstache LLC is located in San Francisco, CA, and each Carstache™ is made right here in the USA.

Awesome is as awesome does…

~ Ethan at Carstache™

They come in classic black, firestache orange, legendary blond, so hot pink and wisdom gray. Check out the pictures that illustrates how cool these things are. If I had a car, I'd definitely get a Carstache.

The Trustworthiness of Beards

2010-04-23T22:38:00.000-04:00

My friend Euro Rob shared this Trustworthiness of Beards chart:

It's hard to classify me. I have a full beard, which would make me trustworthy. My beard could be considered unkempt a.k.a. "homeless" which puts me in the threatening category. I'm quite hairy and could be considered a werewolf, which is dangerous. I like it that I can't be classified.

Here Comes the Judge

2010-04-21T23:23:00.000-04:00

BTUSA is soliciting online video applications from beard fans to serve as potential judges at the Nationals. Of course, judges must be unbiased, demonstrate outstanding moral character, and love facial hair. Anyone who wants to be a judge can submit a video. See http://beardteamusa.org/ events/want-to-be-a-judge/ Any nudity should be tasteful.

Who You Calling a Hipster?

2010-04-20T23:24:00.000-04:00

This article from The Daily Texan makes a case for facial hair's comeback and growth (pun intended) into prominence.

Two More Nats Judges Announced

2010-04-16T23:30:00.000-04:00

I bet she waxes her mustache

First it was announced that the man with the world's longest beard would be a judge at the upcoming Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships. Now two more celebrity judges have been named - CC Barber, Miss Oregon 2009 and Captain Hairy Lewis from Deadliest Catch. I'm not sure what qualifies Miss Barber to be a judge, but when your hot and are awarded for it, who cares? This is turning out to be one hell of an event.

look @ that sweet fu manchu

BTUSA News - World's Longest Beard

2010-04-06T21:29:00.000-04:00

There are two months to go until the $5000 Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships in Bend, Oregon!

I have HUGE news.

Have you ever wondered who has the world's longest beard? According to Guinness, it's Sarwan Singh of Surrey, B.C., Canada. Now, here is the HUGE news. Mr. Singh will be a judge at the Nats! Yes, as if the chance to win serious cash were not enough, you now have another reason to come to the Nats. For all the info you need and to register for this event, please go to beardteamusa.org right now. Don't forget to sign up for one of the activities on Friday, since they are first-come-first-serve and you don't want to be left out.

Mark your calendar for May 8. An exhibit of Dave Mead's photographs from the WBMC in Anchorage will be on display at the Chelsea Market in New York City from May 9 to June 30. The opening is at 9 pm on May 8. The exhibit features photos of 54 WBMC contestants including a large number from BTUSA. Learn more here.

If you have any questions, comments, ideas, etc. please reply to me atphil@worldbeardchampionships.com Also stop by beardteamusa.org and leave some comments. I want to hear from you!

See you in Bend!

Phil Olsen
Founder and self-apppointed Captain
Beard Team USA

P.O. Box 800, Tahoe City, CA 96145 USA

Two Years of Car Free Living

2010-04-05T18:30:00.002-04:00

Today marks two years of living car free. The addition of our son Fletch truly makes us a "one car family". It's working out great for us. We run our errands together on the weekends. We haven't yet had a situation where we both needed the car. I guess we are just excellent schedulers. With Jennifer now a SAHM we've reduced our need to have even a single car. No commute for her. Her only need is going to school twice a week. Over the past year my office changed locations and was no longer easily accessible by public transit. I started commuting with a co-worker three days a week and working from home on Wednesdays and Fridays. That lasted about eight months until she surprised me with the "it's just not working for me anymore" excuse. After talking with my boss, as of April 1 I'm officially working from home full time. None of my team is even in my office, so there is no reason for me to be there. Now my round trip commute is walking up and down the stairs to my home office. A 20 second commute. You can't beat that!

Do I miss my car? Not anymore. I don't even have a picture of her on my desk. Do I still think about what my next car is going to be? Yes, but I'm not chomping at the bit to go buy one. I'm happy knowing that I'm winning the psychological battle of me verses society's "need" to have one car per adult. Bring it on.

My profile on the Beard Team USA Blog

2010-03-27T00:28:00.000-04:00

My profile was just posted on the Beard Team USA blog.

Beard Team USA Nationals News and Updates

2010-03-25T00:52:00.000-04:00

BTUSA 2010 Nationals Logo

To All Members and Fans of Beard Team USA,

Plans for the $5000 BTUSA National Beard and Moustache Championships in Bend, Oregon on June 5 are well underway.

Huge Announcement

Online registration for the Nationals is now available! Just go to http://beardteamusa.org/nationals for everything you need to know. Registration for competitors is $40, which gets you into the competition, two chances to win $1000 (one for winning your category and another in the drawing), and free beer during the event.

Before you register, be sure to check out the options available for activities on Friday, June 4. When you register, you can sign up for a choice of mountain biking, brewery hopping, canoeing, cave exploring, or rafting. All of the activities have limited availability so be sure to sign up soon. Click here for more information about the activities.

Also, note that there are three choices for lodging. The upscale Mt. Bachelor Village Resort offer rooms and condos for a range for prices. Most people will stay at the mid-range Phoenix Inn, which is offering suites to our group for a rate of $109 per night. The budget option is at the Super 8 Motel with rooms for about $70.

If you stay at the Mt. Bachelor Village or at the Super 8, you will probably want to have a car. If you are at the Phoenix Inn, you won't need one, since the Phoenix Inn is right downtown.

Another Huge Announcement

Two-time World Beard Champion (Full Beard Natural) and noted beard book author Jack Passion will not be competing. Jack is going to step aside and give others with full beards a shot at the $1000. Instead, he will be the onstage host of the competition.

Be sure to check beardteamusa.org for the latest information.

See you in Bend!

Phil Olsen
Founder and Self-Appointed Captain
Beard Team USA

========================

I'll be traveling with two time sideburns winner Toot Joslin. I chose the Central Oregon Microbrew Pub Tour as my Friday activity. Bend is home to some of the finest award winning microbreweries in the Pacific Northwest. Guests on this excursion will sample some of the finest brews in Oregon. Stops on the tour will include a tour and a tasting at McMenamins Old St. Francis School, followed by appetizers and pints at Cascade Lakes Brewery and a final tasting at Deschutes Brewery. The tour includes transportation, tour guide, commemorative glass, entrance fees, beer tasting and appetizers. With Jack Passion not competing in the full beard category, I've now got a chance.

Happy Birthday beard

2010-03-13T13:25:00.000-05:00

DSC_1365.JPG
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

My beard is a year old. One whole year of growth. When I set out to grow a beard, I didn't have any expectations of length or shape. I just let it grow. There are traces of red and grey amongst the dark brown curly hirsuted landscape. The wife and I give everything a name, yet I've never named my beard. If you've got any ideas let me know. The mustache became unruly and was impairing my eating, so I trimmed it a month or so ago. I get lots of compliments, mostly from men, but a couple women have praised the facial follicles. I'm continuing to grow the face rug for the National Beard and Mustache Championships which is being held June 5 in Bend, OR. After that, who knows? This is a pic of me and Fletch at a Texas winery. I believe he is reacting to finding wildlife living in my beard.

Another Contest - Win an Apple iPad!

2010-02-23T21:20:00.002-05:00

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

2010-02-22T23:20:00.018-05:00

DSC_0837.JPG
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

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

US Air Guitar 2010 Dates

2010-02-19T22:14:00.000-05:00

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 Chapter 5 - Wireless Printing [UPDATED]

2010-02-19T21:35:00.001-05:00

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

2010-02-18T21:08:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-15T21:45:00.005-05:00

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

2010-02-14T22:16:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-05T17:59:00.000-05:00

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

2010-02-05T17:29:00.001-05:00

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. :)

Another Awesome Blog Giveaway

2010-01-26T22:32:00.000-05:00

This one is from Dream Routine, another personal finance blog I follow. They are a part of the Money Crasher's 2010 Giveaway, which I blogged about. They have a $1000 valued bonus prize. Here is the link to enter http://bit.ly/7Wonsy.

Dream Routine is the top sponsor with a $600 cash prize for Money Crasher’s 2010 Giveaway which ends Sunday, January 31, 2010
Get 15 entries towards Money Crasher’s 2010 Giveaway by signing up for the Dream Routine Insider’s Newsletter. Sign up here: http://www.dreamroutine.com/beta/
Get 5 entries towards Money Crasher’s 2010 Giveaway by following @DreamRoutine on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/DreamRoutine/

Don't miss out!

LEGOLAND Florida scheduled to open in 2011

2010-01-25T22:10:00.000-05:00

LEGOLAND Florida will be the second LEGOLAND park in North America. It will be located at the historical Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven Florida and will open at the end of 2011. LEGOLAND Florida will be the biggest LEGOLAND Park ever opened and will offer a unique mix of more than 50 rides, shows and attractions, including spectacular LEGO models and other interactive elements for the whole family to enjoy together. It will provide a full-day, year round, theme park experience geared towards families with children between the ages of two and 12. Its design will mirror the successful concept of the four existing LEGOLAND Parks in Denmark, Germany, UK and California. However, as with the other four, it will also have its own unique “twist” reflecting its stunning location and adding a Florida flavor.

all I can say is Merlin is a genius for buying the site and placing a LEGOLAND theme park that close to Disney World. Right in Disney’s backyard, but far enough away to avoid the fallout. Legoland California is set up almost the same in relationship to Disney Land.

Redskins tell fans "The Future is Now"

2010-01-22T23:23:00.003-05:00

Not only have the Redskins made significant changes to the front office with the firing of Vinny Cerrato and the hiring of Bruce Allen as GM before season end and to the coaching staff by hiring Mike Shanahan to be head coach, but the team is working to improve the game day experience at the stadium which was rated 28th out of 32 teams in 2007 by Sports Illustrated. The most significant upgrade is 'Punter-Proof' HD Video Boards Coming For the 2010 Season. The old Jumbotrons were so 20th century. They were in bad need of an upgrade. There is a package of information and brochures that the Redskins are mailing out to season ticket holders this week. The "exciting season ticket membership enhancements" include

New HD Video Scoreboards: State-of-the-art HD picture perfect videoboards, 100 feet wide (three times wider than current screens), showing more and faster replays, out of town scores and fantasy stats. See enclosed brochure for details.

New Auto Seat Upgrade Technology: The Redskins implemented a major technology ticket system upgrade this past season including "Wireless Access Control" which helps fans get into FedEx Field faster than ever. Part of the technology platform also provides for a significantly streamlined seat upgrade process for season ticket holders. This system will ensure that more season ticket holders will automatically receive seat upgrades each and every year.

New Automated Parking and Traffic Management System: Designed to expedite travel time to and from the stadium.

College Football Games: FedEx Field is pleased to announce that it is hosting not one, but two major college football games in 2010: Virginia Tech vs. Boise State on October 2nd, and Penn State vs. Indiana on November 20th. You will have special priority, before tickets go on sale to the public, to secure some of the best seats for these games.

I'm curious how the new automated parking and traffic management system and the auto seat upgrade technology works. At least they are making an effort.

'Punter-Proof' HD Video Boards Coming For 2010 Season - Redskins.com

Redskins to Install HD Video Screens at FedEx Field - Washingtonpost.com

More details about the Redskins' new video boards - Washingtonpost.com

reBlog from my beard blog

2010-01-22T00:18:00.004-05:00

reBlog from my beard blog: http://tinyurl.com/beardwine

Brand Shock Beard Wine

2010-01-22T00:10:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine sent me this picture with the note "didn't know you had done bearding modeling! ;)". I was young and needed the money. This sweet elixir made from fermented grapes is sold at Trader Joes. He replied "BTW - it was pretty good wine. Good job maintaining "Brand Shock" as a premium brand." To which I replied "When Joe called and asked if he could market "brand Shock" elixirs in his supermarkets, I said my wine is drank by the same demographic as Cristal. He ordered 10000 cases immediately." My friend, who started his career in marketing, then replied "Thats the plan - D&D - Dismiss & Distinguish Dismiss the competition and Distinguish your brand as the top. That is Marketing 101 and that is Brand Shock!" If you're interested, here's the details of "Dr. Jebediah Drinkwell's Meritage".

The Whole Family Is Getting In On the Act

2010-01-20T17:19:00.000-05:00

Our son's photographer, Photography By Marirosa, has a fun project this year. She's calling it the "Mustache Chronicles". She bought some ‘mustaches’ on a stick’ and all her 2010 clients will get to do a personal photo of themselves with one of them. She says "I want silliness, fun time and a bit of goofiness…at the end of 2010 I’m putting together a book about it!" I think the blonde mustache is a great contrast to my dark brown and red (and some grey) beard. My son looks good with a heavy 'stache. It suits him. I hope he grows up to be a great hirsute pogonologist.

Even Celebrities Are Getting Into the Act

2010-01-14T20:35:00.000-05:00

From People.com (the wife sent it to me -Editor): From Goatees to Full Facial Hair: Are Beards the New Leading Man�Must-Have? – Style News - StyleWatch - People.com

Your Soul Patch Ain’t Got Soul

2010-01-14T15:47:00.000-05:00

Before becoming a member of Beard Team USA, I wore a soul patch exclusively. It was facial calling card. Here's a repost of The Beard Coach's research into why it's called a 'soul patch'. I'm going with his recommendation and going to call it a 'jazz patch' from now on.

Your Soul Patch Ain’t Got Soul: "

Seriously… why is that little dab of hair called a soul patch anyway? I’ve just finished trying to research this and I can’t find any satifactory etymology of the phrase anywhere. Here’s what I have been able to gather:

“Soul Patch” was first included in the Miriam Webster dictionary in 1991
According to a source on the Wikipedia entry, jazz trumpeters of the 1950s and 1960s grew them for increased mouthpiece comfort.
Also according to Wikipedia, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, called the first soul patch he saw a “poor, frustrated beard.”

So my theory on the history of the soul patch goes like this. It was the height of the 1950s jazz movement. African-American jazz musicians were getting freaky and white counterculture ate it up. They felt so cool and progressive hanging out at the club and grooving on the new sounds that were being made up on the spot. In the midst of that jazz-induced euphoria, these kids noticed their idols wearing this little patch of hair under their bottom lip, not knowing what reason it served. In an effort to be as cool as the cats on the stage, the guys that were caught up in the scene grew out a little patch to match… and the soul patch was introduced to the non-musicians of America.

That still doesn’t explain why it’s called a “soul” patch. Soul music isn’t really an offspring of jazz. Instead, it grew from African-American gospel crossed with rhythm-and-blues (R&B). And while R&B and jazz can both claim the blues as a parent, it’s hard to detect any resemblance between the siblings. An audible connection is even less present between soul music and its uncle jazz. So, there’s just no soul in a soul patch. I’m going to start calling it a “jazz patch.” You should too.

Real soul music was made by guys with real beards. Evidence:

Marvin Gaye?

Barry White?

Isaac Hayes?

There you have it. There is simply no denying the soulfulness of the full beard. You may think that little spot of hair under your lip gives you soul, but I’m pretty sure that the ladies aren’t feeling it. You want to see a woman feel the effects of a full soul beard? Play “Let’s Get It On” at your next house party. I guarantee that at least one of the girls in attendance will swoon and start turning her mind toward certain things…

You want to look like you’re a lovin’ man? Fill in the rest of your beard around that “poor, frustrated” jazz patch.
"

The Beatles Moustache Index

2010-01-14T15:25:00.000-05:00

Reposted from Beard-Revue:

The Beatles Moustache Index: "

It’s not uncommon for me to look at photo of myself and instantly recognize when it was taken because of my facial hair. So too is it true that I see Beatles photos and know what year or recording session it was. The moustachery and bearding of a fellow is as much a clue as their surroundings or the suit they wear.

Thankfully, for folks out there with little bearing on the long-faced Beatles, there is at least this guide.

---

Beard posters make awesome gifts!"

Two Awesome Blog Giveaways

2010-01-13T17:12:00.002-05:00

One of my hobbies is personal finance. I read lots of blogs on the topic. Two of those blogs have awesome giveaways. The first is from The Centsible Life – they're giving away $600 of stuff as part of the site’s one year anniversary. You can win all sorts of gift cards, tax preparation software, and any one of about a half dozen books. The giveaway ends January 24th.

The second giveaway is even larger and it’s at Money Crashers. The prize package there is over $7,500 including gift cards, books, software, and even cold hard cash. This giveaway is part of their redesign and relaunch for the new year. This giveaway ends January 31st with winners selected February 3rd.

Good luck!

2009 RIP

2010-01-01T23:51:00.000-05:00

Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

This picture says it all. Fletch made 2009 the best year of my life. My family is what I'm thankful for. Despite the recession, I hope all my family and friends also had a great 2009. Happy New Year everyone!

Rage Against the Machine, pt. 4.5

2009-12-30T17:15:00.001-05:00

This post is long overdue, but with the holidays and travel, I'm finally getting around to posting it. After a week of running the computer "Hot Rod" style, we got around to playing a DVD. After about 30 seconds, the playback froze. I then tried another movie and the same thing happened. Before the motherboard replacement movies played back without issues. I thought it was the video playback software, so I attempted to upgrade the OEM software. Due to the fact that motherboard was a replacement and each board has it's own unique ID, the OEM software didn't recognize my computer as the computer it was originally installed on. Frustrated, I downloaded a 3rd party video player, ArcSoft's TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum figuring that would solve the problem. But it didn't. Playback froze using it as well. I took the computer back to Micro Center for rework. After some thorough troubleshooting, it was found that the port on the motherboard which the optical drive was connected to was bad. The replacement motherboard was a lemon! The replacement motherboard was again replaced this time at no cost, just the time without the computer. Third boards a charm I hope. Disc playback now works without error. We are back to enjoying some sweet Blu-ray movies. The HTPC is now fully functional again. Keep your fingers crossed!

Influential Beards Throughout History

2009-12-16T23:22:00.000-05:00

Influential Beards Throughout History
Originally uploaded by Inkspills & Bloodsprains

News from Dudeism.com for all our Ordained Dudeist Priests

2009-12-14T22:31:00.000-05:00

Howdy Dudes,

This is just another friendly hello to tell you about new stuff that's going on over at Dudeism.

1) First off, the Tao Dude Ching (http://dudeism.com/tao) has been renamed "The Dude De Ching" and is now available in print format for a low price. We renamed it to avoid confusing it with our upcoming book "The Tao of the Dude".
You can order The Dude De Ching here: http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-dude-de-ching/8059795

Note that the entire $2 royalty we earn will go into a fund that will be charitably donated via the website www.kiva.org. The print version is illustrated by award-winning mystery novelist and cartoonist Colin Cotterill (www.colincotterill.com).

2) We've engineered a free software program that helps you take it easy! The Dudeism Pop-Up Relaxation Reminder reminds you to take regular breaks while at the computer in order to keep your mind limber. You can download that here:
http://download.cnet.com/Pop-Up-Relaxation-Reminder/3000-2350_4-10977387.html

3) We've also come up with some cool new tee-shirt and sweatshirt designs. If you hurry you can still get some in time for Christmas. Give a Dudeist gift to someone you dig:
http://dudeism.spreadshirt.com/shop/designs

Note that there's other groovy Xmas ideas at our Prinfection and Cafepress stores - visit our store (http://dudeism.com/store.html) and scroll down for the links. The beer mugs at Printfection are especially nice.

4) A friendly bunch of Brits are going to be headed around the States starting in December putting together a documentary on Dudeism. If you'd like to be featured in the film or just know more about it, please visit them at their website: http://www.adudesodyssey.com

5) Lots of people have been asking us about the Ordained Minister ID cards shown in the famous Dudeism VW commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYUD6vs0pg4). We plan to have those ready for order next month, along with some other cool new stuff. We'll let you know soon when it's all up and running.

Also, if you haven't checked out the Dudespaper (http://dudespaper.com) in a while, please do. There have been a lot of great contributions from die-hard Dudeists all over the world.

Take er easy,
Rev. Oliver Benjamin
The Dudely Lama of the Church of the Latter-Day Dude

The Redskins Are Such A Tease

2009-12-04T21:51:00.002-05:00

Check out this email the Redskins sent me. The subject is "Redskins Recruit New Powerhouse". At first glance I'm thinking "Holy shit, they fired Vinny and hired a real GM!" Then I click on the video. It's a promotion for Audi. What a cock tease. Assholes.

Today the Washington Redskins appointed a new leader that will strengthen the team with speed, control, spirit and drive.

As a passionate fan, we invite you to experience firsthand what this means for the future of the Washington Redskins.

Click on the video or personalized link below to view this special message:

The Washington Redskins
21300 Redskins Park Drive
Ashburn, Virginia 20147

Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships

2009-12-01T22:02:00.000-05:00

To all members, fans, and friends of Beard Team USA:

The first ever Beard Team USA National Beard and Moustache Championships will take place on Saturday, May 36, 2010, in Bend, Oregon [I got the state right :0) -ed].

Bend was selected from over 25 communities, resorts, and hotels -- ranging from Las Vegas to Peoria -- submitting bids to host the championships. Bend has pledged full community support for this extraordinary event.

Located on the Deschutes River in Central Oregon, Bend offers fly-fishing, rafting, golf, canoeing, mountain biking, hiking, and possibly even late season skiing and snowboarding at nearby Mount Bachelor. Did I mention beer? Bend is the home of seven microbreweries including the famous Deschutes Brewery practically next door to the Les Schwab Amphitheater where the competiton will take place.

There will be competition in four separate categories designed to include everyone. The winner in each category will walk away with a cool $1000. So that everyone gets a shot at the cash, the fifth $1000 prize will go to a contestant selected at random.

Here are the categories:

1. Best moustache. Beards are allowed in this category but the contestants will be judged on their moustaches only;
2. Best partial beard. Includes goatees, van dykes, sideburns, musketeers, etc.;
3. Best full beard. Styling aids are permitted;
4. Freestyle. Anything goes. Anything. Be creative.

The date?? It's May 36. Purists will insist that it is actually June 5, but since I have been promising for months that the Nats will be in May, I am sticking with May 36 for now.

The championships will take place in conjunction with the 8th Annual Balloons over Bend hot air balloon festival.

Stay tuned for information on registration, lodging options, transportation from the airport in Portland, and everything else you will need to know.

For now all members of Beard Team USA are asked to:

1. Make plans to be in Bend on May 36;
2. Tell everyone they know about the BTUSA Nationals;
3. Keep growing their beards and moustaches for America.

Cheers,
Phil Olsen
Founder and self-appointed captain
Beard Team USA

Beard Team USA News

2009-11-27T16:55:00.000-05:00

Here's the Thanksgiving message from BTUSA's Founder and self-appointed Captain, Phil Olsen:

Hi Everyone,

Here is the latest from Beard Team USA.

Beard Team USA Nationals:

I am still waiting for confirmation of a few important details before I can announce the firm date and location of the first ever Beard Team USA Nationals. I should have confirmation in the next few days.

Meanwhile here is a hint. BEer. The community that has been selected has one brewery for every 11,500 residents. This may be the highest brewery-to-resident ratio in the known universe. I am hoping to hold the Official Beard Team USA Somewhat Annual General Meeting as a progressive meeting, starting at one brewery and then progressing through each brewery in town. Stay tuned.[Spoiler alert: the city with the most breweries is Portland, OR - editor]

Wanna be in the movies?

This summer Epic New Era Productions will be filming a film about beards. Epic needs beards to be in the pic. For more info, contact the Producer -- Joshua Trujillo, josh@eneflix.com, 218-839-9242.

BTUSA nationwide discount at Red Roof Inns:

All members of Beard Team USA are entitled to a 15% discount at any Red Roof Inn in the country! Just click here to book:

http://www.redroof.com/partners/beard-team-usa

Thanks to John Murray, National Account Executive for this generous offer!

Coming events:

Organizational meeting of the New England Chapter of Beard Team USA.
December 10, 2009, 8:00 p.m., Flat Top Johnny's, 1 Kendall Sq., Cambridge, Massachusetts. Everyone is invited. Just show up. For further info, please contact Matt Quierey (btusanewengland@gmail.com) or Kevin Smith (madeofmedal7727@gmail.com).

St. Croix Chapter Beard and Moustache Contest, Christiansted, Virgin Islands.
January 16, 2010 -- See http://www.bigbeards.com/scrapbook.htm#Events

Southeast Regionals, Charleston, South Carolina.
Valentine's Weekend, 2010, hosted by the Holy City Beard and Moustache Society. http://www.myspace.com/holycitybeardsociety

All-American City Beard and Moustache Contest, Somerville, Massachusetts.
February 13, 2010. For more info, contact Todd Easton (todd.easton.gmail.com).

Third Annual Misprint Beard Contest, Austin, Texas.
February 20, 2010 -- Hosted by the Austin Facial Hair Club. Special three-month and six-month sprint categories.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Phil Olsen
Founder and self-appointed Captain
Beard Team USA

Rage Against the Machine, pt. 4 - "Hotrod Style"

2009-11-27T13:28:00.002-05:00

From Toxic Shock Syndrome

Part 4 of my love/hate relationship with technology series "Rage Against The Machine" is about the motherboard of my home theatre computer, a.k.a. HTPC. The computer started acting funny. It would lock up and not start up. I even got a few BSoDs and a WSoD, which I didn't know existed. I did some research and determined it was a hardware issue. I've successfully diagnosed and fixed software issues, but this was my first foray into hardware errors. I know it's hard to believe but I've never had a computer crash on me before. Knock on wood. I probably could have fixed it myself, but this is our entertainment system and I didn't want to screw it up permanently. I took it to my local computer repair shop and got the motherboard replaced. Total repair cost was $360. I'm embarrassed by that price. I could have saved myself some money by doing it myself. There's always next time.

The computer repair dude said that he's seen a lot of the small profile computers have heat related issues. The motherboard just burned out. I decided to run the computer without a case a.k.a. "hotrod style". Only time will tell how that works out. The HTPC is almost year and a half old and I've had more problems with it than I've had with any other computer. The build quality is just poor. But because consumers demand cheaper computers then we get what we get. You just buy the product, take care of it and hope for the best.

Ten Things That Make Me Mad

2009-11-26T10:44:00.001-05:00

1. People who point at their wrist while asking for the time. I know where my watch is, fool: where the hell is yours? Do I point at my crotch when I ask where the bathroom is?

2. The Pillsbury doughboy is way too happy considering he has no dick.

3. People who are willing to get off their ass to search the entire room for the TV remote because they refuse to walk to the TV and change the channel manually.

4. When people say "Oh you just want to have your cake and eat it too". That's stupid! What good is a cake you can't eat? What, should I eat someone else's cake instead?

5. When people say "It's always in the last place you look". Of course it is. Why the hell would you keep looking after you've found it? Do people do this? Who and where are they?

6. When people say, while watching a movie, "Did you see that?" No, asshole: I paid $7.50 to come to the theatre and stare at the ceiling up there. What did you come here for?

7. The now old radio ad, "Hi, I'm Jeff Healey from the Jeff Healey Band. Don't drink and drive. I don't". Well, I hope you don't drive sober either, Mr. Healey. You're blind [and dead RIP] for God's sake.

8. People who ask "Can I ask you a question?" Didn't really give me a choice when you asked that?

9. When something is "new and improved", which is it? If it's new, then there has never been anything before it. If it's an improvement, then there must have been something before it.

10. When a cop pulls you over and then asks if you know how fast you were going. You should know, asshole: you pulled me over.

Four Eyes

2009-11-25T16:37:00.001-05:00

I now officially wear glasses. I'm afflicted with "computer related eye fatigue" and wear what they call "computer glasses" which are like reading glasses, but for when I'm on the computer which is always. Stupid weak eye muscles.

Misery Has Company

2009-11-01T21:24:00.001-05:00

I'm not the only Redskins' fan who is distraught about the team. Fewer and fewer among the Redskins' faithful seem to believe the team's problems will be fixed. This Washington Post article by Tracee Hamilton perfectly articulates my feelings this season. Misery has company.

Vanity Plate Penetration

2009-10-24T13:08:00.000-04:00

DIDJUNO?: "

Random vanity plate facts of the day (and I have a question: Which other countries permit vanity plates? I can’t recall seeing them in Europe, for example, but I may be wrong):

That’s how we know 1 in 26.15 registered motor vehicles have vanity plates, which translates into nearly 9.3 million or 3.8% of the nearly 243 million registered motor vehicles in the US. And that’s where we get the term, “vanity plate penetration,” and are able to use it in this sentence: Virginia has the highest vanity plate penetration with 1 in 6.18 registered cars (or 16%) being vanitized.

After Virginia, the next five states with the highest vanity plate penetration are New Hampshire (1 in 7.14); Illinois (1 in 7.45); Nevada (1 in 7.8); Montana (1 in 10.2); and Maine (1 in 10.21). The state with the lowest percentage of vanity plates is Texas, with only .56%, or 1 in 178.3 registered cars.

Via the wonderfully obsessive, if imperfect, Book of Odds.

I live in Virginia but hate vanity plates. But yet I had one, SHOCKZ, on my 350Z. It was clever and cheap. If you can't beat'em, join'em. The wife is from Texas and we want to move to Austin in a few years, so we'll go from the most vanity plate penetrated state to the least. Makes me feel a little better about about living in Texas.

AC/DC Concert at the Verizon Center in Washington DC on Friday, Oct 16, 2009

2009-10-21T12:23:00.003-04:00

AC/DC Concert
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I finally got to see one of my favorite bands, AC/DC. We got a babysitter and made it a date night. The concert rocked. It was a raucous show. The band has a lot of energy. It was loud and crazy. They played around two hours. The set list included their hits and three songs off their new album, Black Ice.
Here's all the pics.

Rock on! \m/

The Onion Sports: Redskins Hold Press Conference To Announce They Are Still Sort Of A Football Team

2009-10-21T10:03:00.000-04:00

From The Onion: Sports: Redskins Hold Press Conference To Announce They Are Still Sort Of A Football Team: "WASHINGTON—Washington Redskins head coach Jim Zorn held a press conference Sunday to reassure fans that, despite an inability to effectively..."

Money Tips I Learned from Poker

2009-10-19T13:11:00.001-04:00

A repost from my favorite personal finance blog, Bargaineering. It combines two of my hobbies - personal finance and poker. I'm going to print out the article and take it to my monthly poker game to see what the guys think.

Money Tips I Learned from Poker: "

This was a guest post written by my friend John H. about the some money tips he took from the felt and put into his wallet.

When you think of your bankroll, you probably think about how much cash you have in your wallet or how much money you have access to via your debit card that’s not already spoken for by bills. It’s your extra money that you’ll use to put gas in your car this week, go out to eat one night, or for some random purchase like buying a box of Do-Si-Dos® from the Girl Scouts outside your local grocery store.

Lesson 1: Bankroll Management

These things, while individually are minute, eventually add up to “I’m broke.” Instead of looking at your bankroll as your own personal petty cash fund, think of it like poker players do their bankrolls. The average professional poker player will typically only play in cash games for which his bankroll is 300 X the big blind, sometimes up to 500. If you don’t play poker, then this means nothing to you, but a blind is the maximum bet that the game will start out at. You don’t really need to understand this though to apply the strategy to your own life. Think of it as only making purchases that are equal to or less than a certain percentage of your bankroll.

Example 1:

For the sake of not being ridiculous, let’s lessen the number to 30 X your bankroll. Inflation has pushed the price of Girl Scout Cookies up to about $4 per box in most regions of the US. Do you have $120 in your bankroll to cushion the loss of the $4? You want two boxes? You should have at least $240 of extra money in your pocket if you plan on splurging. Only buy the Girl Scout Cookies when your bankroll can afford the blow. When you are running low on cash, you won’t be able to afford 30 X the purchase, and if you’re disciplined, you won’t buy it; thus, not running out of money before your next paycheck.

Example 2:

Another scenario: You have a date. Going out to dinner at a really expensive restaurant like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, for two people, would run you at least $100 (more if you plan on ordering martinis). If your bankroll has at least $3,000 (30 X $100) to cushion the loss, then by all means, you can afford it and your wallet won’t suffer too harshly. If you’ve got more like $200 in your pocket, Applebee’s is running a special that includes an appetizer and two entrees for $20 and $2 20 oz. beers—now that’s a date you can afford.

There’s another term for this, it’s “living within your means,” which some people don’t do, especially when they get mixed up with credit cards, but that’s an entirely different story, and it’s been addressed on this blog already. Of course the number “30” is not the exact number for everyone, as there’s no perfect formula that fits every single person when it comes to finances. However, in such tough economic times as these, using restraint and moderation with your money is more than mildly important. Find a number that works for you, but just stick to it. Try it for one month and see how much money you have leftover in your bankroll.

Lesson 2: Saving/Investing

After you’ve practiced bankroll management as described above, you hopefully actually have some money left over above your monthly expenses. Now you can take a percentage of that amount and put it away in your “savings.” In keeping with the poker theme, poker players don’t take all their money with them to the casino (the responsible ones don’t anyway). They put away what their original investment was, plus some, and then continue to build on to their adjusted bankroll.

Example 1:

You’ve managed to pay all of your monthly bills and budget yourself to only spend 30 X your bankroll for an entire month. At the end of the month, you have $250 left over. Take 50% of that and put it away. So you now have a savings of $125, plus another $125 to throw into the pot for the next month’s bankroll. That following month, you’ll essentially have more money to cushion your spending. Stay disciplined, though; this does not mean that you should blow your extra cash on iTunes. Stick to your bankroll management, but you’ll have a little more free reign with what you can spend in relation to your bankroll (i.e., perhaps this week, you can afford Long Horne Steakhouse).

Example 2:

This one is for those who have credit card debt. Take the same example above. Instead of “saving” your extra $125, throw it towards the balance on one of your cards (that is if you have the will power to not use that card, which hopefully if you’ve come this far, you do). Continue whittling it down each month in this way, until it’s gone. Then your extra cash can go to another credit card or to that desperately neglected savings account.

Lesson 3: Expect Pitfalls

As in poker, life throws some things at you sometimes from left field. If you’ve heard of a bad beat in poker, you know that it means that a player, who otherwise had a killer poker hand, got beat by a better hand. Bad beats happen in life too. For instance, if you are a homeowner, you know that things happen to your house that need fixing. If you have kids, they need stuff. If you own a car, no matter how new, reliable, or gas efficient it is, it will eventually need work done to it. These things happen. Such is life. However, with the bankroll management tools explained here, you’ll be prepared for a bad beat.

If a poker player loses his entire bankroll on one bad call, then he’s out. He’s out of chances to risk anything whatsoever. If he is smart, though, he hasn’t lost it all on one hand. He’s been preparing for something like this since he first decided he’d sit down at a poker table and play a session. He may have to move down to smaller limits in order to build his bankroll up (instead of playing at the $25 blind table, he’ll move to the $5 blind table—something closer to his bankroll divided by 300).

Example 1:

You need new tires on your car. This is an expense that is not part of your monthly bills. You must dip into your bankroll and/or savings in order to afford this repair. No problem. If you’ve been following the rules suggested in this article, you have some fluff to your bankroll, especially after a few months like this have gone by. You may be able to take half of the expense from your cushiony savings account and half from your pocket, or 60%-40%, etc. But the key here is that once the expense is taken care of, you must be prepared to “move down to a lower limit table.” Tighten up on your spending again to cushion the blow to your wallet/savings that the tires cost you. Move down to only purchase at the 25 X level for a couple of weeks. You’ll be able to move back up, but you don’t want your quality of life to suffer severely down the road, when you have another unexpected expense come up.

Bankroll management in poker is applicable to personal budgeting tactics. Everything must be considered in terms of the bigger picture. If you don’t have a mental grasp of your spending to earnings ratio, you’ll never be able to establish savings or make investments, or worse yet, survive those inevitable pitfalls of life.

(Photo: jamadams)

Money Tips I Learned from Poker from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

Beard Interview: Michael from Beard Revue

2009-10-16T09:52:00.000-04:00

Most of the content of my beard blog comes from other beard blogs and Beard Team USA news, save for my beard progress photos. I'd like to welcome the newest member of the beard blog community, The Beard Coach. The Beard Coach recently interviewed the founder of my favorite beard blog, Beard Revue. I actually discovered The Beard Coach through Beard Revue. I like Beard Revue's perspective on all things beard. The interview is reposted below.

Beard Interview: Michael from Beard Revue: "

The next installment in my series of interviews with other Internet-using beard-loving people is with Michael from the popular site Beard Revue. His site is just bristling with beard goodness. First Thursday Beard Art is a highlight as well as some quite indisputable beard ratings.

The Beard Coach: What was your inspiration for diving into the world of beard blogging?

Michael: Beard Revue is the result of a convergence of three main interests: my unflagging admiration for beards, snobby indie hipster music and social media. My unflagging admiration for beards is self-explanatory.

The hipster music bit comes from my love of the assumed authority with which Pitchfork approaches its reporting and album reviews. Pitchfork is often divisive—a lot of folks hate their reviews. But I think they’re witty, and often way to serious about themselves for me not to laugh. (They recently rated every Beatle album on their arbitrary 0.0–10.0 scale. Was that necessary? No. Was it informative, amusing and incredibly pretentious? Yes.) And my interests in social media stems from my friend Joshua’s challenge to maintain a blog longer than three months. I did, and now it’s popular.

TBC: From what I can tell, Beard Revue is a pretty darn popular beard site. What kind of traffic are you getting?

Michael: Find out for yourself at alexa.com. (Editor’s note: Beard Revue has an Alexa rank of 735,874 as of today.)

TBC: Has Beard Revue panned out the way you had planned it? Or has the road taken some unforeseen twists?

Michael: No. It’s become more popular than I initially thought and the format has changed as my interests and goals have changed. In fact, I’ve recently partnered with a crack team of developers to see how Beard Revue can accommodate more user generated content. I can’t really say more than that, though.

TBC: Your beard poster is fantastic! Any other handcrafted beard art lying around the house?

Michael: Thanks! Probably the most rewarding thing from Beard Revue is the community of artists to whom I’ve been exposed. I love all the little things that beards and moustaches inspire (thus, First Thursday Beard Art). I love that tattoo trend—the one where you get a ’stache tat on the side of your index finger and hold it up over your lip. Sometimes it’s just some one with a Sharpie and not a tattoo. It’s benign and it makes me smile every time I see a photo of one.

And so then there’s everything else. I’m a print designer by trade. So I have beard posters, prints and even Jack Passion’s first book in my collection of all things beardy. And the library affords me the opportunity to bone up on some beardage from time to time. Who knew there was so much beardstuff out there?

TBC: What is your take on the state of the beard today?

Michael: Save for the Victorian era, same as it’s always been. The beard is for the fringes of society. The artists, intellectuals, vagrants and anyone who’s willing to wear the badge of being different. Recession and playoff beards are fleeting moments of solidarity, but don’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things.

TBC: Name your 3 favorite bearded people.

Michael: Abbey Road and All Things Must Pass era George Harrison takes the cake. I just saw Kyp Malone last week, so I’ll say him. And my father, of course.

TBC: Name the top 3 people you wish had a beard.

Michael: James Beard (that guy totally wasted his name). I’d love to see Barack Obama don a beard like Malone’s. And anyone I’ve ever met who said they would grow a beard but just weren’t capable of growing one.

TBC: Why do you think people enjoy beards?

Michael: They serve such a wide range of functions for the wearer and the viewer, it’d be difficult to pinpoint one thing. That little bit of rugged panache can go a long way. I like that they’re natural. Since they’re both manifestations of our mature states, this might be an apt analogy:

Beard : Naked Face :: Natural Breasts : Implants

TBC: Please briefly tell your favorite beard-related story.

Michael: People do some funny things for facial hair. I had a wicked awesome handlebar moustache for Moustache May which garnered a lot of attention. Some one photographed me for their scavenger hunt, a gentleman almost got hit by a car crossing the street just to say “hi, nice moustache” and BT Livermore gave me a complementary tin of Man’s Face Stuff moustache wax. My favorite compliment was when a sweet young lass called me a walking sex toy.

TBC: Much of my site is devoted to beard-growing motivation. What is your best advice for guys who are currently growing a beard?

Michael: Have fun with it.

Jack Passion redux: The Facial Hair Handbook

2009-10-05T11:42:00.000-04:00

Below is Beard Revue's review of the Facial Hair Handbook by Jack Passion. This is the book I left on a jumbo jet airliner to Albany, NY in early September. I hope Santa brings me another.

Jack Passion redux: The Facial Hair Handbook: "
Jack Passion is no stranger to Beard Revue. In fact, he lies somewhere between mascot and honorable diplomat of the world beard community, which is why it’s only too appropriate that he would one day serve as a docent into all things beardy.

The Facial Hair Handbook: Every Man’s Guide to Growing & Grooming Great Facial Hair, Passion’s first book, was released earlier this year.

The book is not about the history of facial hair nor its place in culture. Instead, Passion focuses on the context in which and how to wear facial hair. Simply stated in the introduction, “this book is for the man who is ready to look like one.”

The Facial Hair Handbook includes musings on the stumbling blocks of the metrosexual movement, instructions on how to get through the early stages of a baby beard and tips on which shampoos and conditioners to use. “In the throes of Passion, your hard work will pay off,” Passion advises.

Humorous gems are generously sprinkled throughout, like “sex is the rain dance of facial hair” and “every one of my beard hairs is an antenn to the bearded world.” A few Franklinesque aphorisms like “healthy man, healthy beard” and “if you’re going to wear it long, wear it strong” are also offered up from time to time, lending to the book’s incredibly endearing quality.

The Facial Hair Handbook is a perfect companion for both expert and novice pogonolgists. Whether you read it on a sunny afternoon in Walnut Creek or on a brisk day in Berlin, it is sure to make you smile. This book makes for a great, affordable gift for your favorite beardy.

So pick up a copy of The Facial Hair Handbook and then write to Jack Passion and tell him his book changed your life.

Take THAT Jack Passion! from sarah sporik

---
If you enjoy Beard Revue, please visit the site, post your comments and tell your friends. Thanks!

Larry David on the "Seinfeld" reunion and shaking hands -- latimes.com

2009-10-02T23:35:00.000-04:00

I'm a huge fan of Curb Your Enthusiam and Seinfeld. But I don't have HBO anymore, so I'm going to have to catch the new season of Curb on DVD. All the Seinfeld cast members will be on this weeks episode of Curb.

Larry David on the 'Seinfeld' reunion and shaking hands -- latimes.com.

Posted using ShareThis

Fail To the Redskins

2009-09-28T21:04:00.000-04:00

The Redskins have finally gone and done it. They've become the worst team in the NFL. They allowed the lowly Detroit Lions to end their 19 game losing streak. When the worst team in the league beats you, then you become the worst team in the league. It's shameful. I saw this coming. I can no longer be a Redskins fan. I've already promised Fletch that I won't force him to be a Redskins fan. I'm giving serious consideration to canceling my season tickets next year. The SD Chargers need fans and I'm looking for a new team to root for.

Articles from the Washington Post:
A Debacle From Top to Bottom - Mike Wise
In Big Picture, Focus Disappeared Long Ago - Thomas Boswell
Worst D.C. Sports Moment of 2009 - D.C. Sports Bog by Dan Steinberg

LEGO Eiffel Tower Part 3 of 3

2009-09-27T13:00:00.003-04:00

Completed LEGO Eiffel Tower
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I finished part 3 of the set yesterday. Build time for part 3 was approximately 2.5 hrs. Total build time of the entire set was 10 hrs. The tower stands 3.5 ft. Fletch is half the size of the tower. This was the largest and most challenge set I've ever built. Now I've got to find a place to display it!

Sesame Street does ‘Moustache’ with Jonah Hill

2009-09-27T00:07:00.000-04:00

Sesame Street does ‘Moustache’ with Jonah Hill:

Elmo and Jonah Hill team up to briefly explain the wonders of the awesomely sweet moustache. Oh my gosh!

Sesame Street does ‘Beard’ with Edward Lear

2009-09-27T00:02:00.000-04:00

Sesame Street does ‘Beard’ with Edward Lear:

Here, we have an old-school Sesame Street animation for b-for-beard featuring a limerick by Edward Lear.

There Was an Old Man with a Beard

There was an old man with a beard,
who said, ‘Alas, it is just as I feared! —
Four larks and a wren, two owls and a hen,
Have all built their nests in my beard!

—Edward Lear

A Message from The Dudely Lama of Dudeism to all Dudeist Priests

2009-09-26T10:05:00.000-04:00

Hi Dudes,
This is just a note to let all our ordained Dudeist Priests know about some recent developments at Dudeism (The Church of the Latter-Day Dude).

First off, Dudeism was featured prominently in a funny Volkswagen ad campaign. You can read about it and watch the video here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/12/volkswagen-dudeism-the-big-lebowski

We've also launched our first holy book: The Tao Dude Ching. It's a reworked version of the Tao Te Ching (the holy book of Taoism) using dialogue and story elements from The Big Lebowski.
You can read it here for free: http://www.dudeism.com/tao

If any of you are interested in appearing as a Dudeist Priest on TV, in a magazine article, or in an upcoming documentary, check out this article at the Dudespaper:
http://dudespaper.com/your-fifteen-marmots-of-fame.html/

That's it for now! But a there's a lot more new developments coming up soon.

Take er easy,
Oliver Benjamin
The Dudely Lama of Dudeism

Fletch and Furry Daddy

2009-09-24T22:57:00.000-04:00

64/365: Fletch and Daddy
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I thought this would be a great beard progress pic. It's just me and my son chillin' on the couch. Check out how huge my face fur is. Damn! Seeing my beard in a different medium rather than the regular looks in the mirror really puts it in perspective. I might have competition worthy facial hair. A couple months back I bought The Facial Hair Handbook by fellow BTUSA member and world champion Jack Passion in preparation for my next beard competition. I didn't get very far into reading it before leaving it in the seat pocket on a plane during a flight to Albany, NY a few weeks back. I've asked Santa for another copy.

Life-Size Lego House Built...and Demolished

2009-09-24T19:39:00.002-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Damn shame nobody wanted this one of a kind masterpiece (pun intended).

Life-Size Lego House Built...and Demolished - ShelterPop
Shared via AddThis

James May's Lego House is Demolished - Daily Telegraph

James May and his full-size Lego house nobody wants - Daily Mail

A Clockwork Orange - 50th Anniversary AFL Referee Uniforms

2009-09-14T22:46:00.000-04:00

NFL Refs Make MNF a Tangerine Dream. Orange on orange AFL referee jerseys. My favorite color combination.

Shared via AddThis

Hail to the Redskins

2009-09-13T21:54:00.000-04:00

With the NFL season starting this week, I thought I'd give a "shout out" to my favorite team, The Washington Redskins. I've been a fan my whole life, and I lived a majority of my life in Atlanta! The Redskins were once a proud franchise. They've been to five Super Bowls, and have won three of them during the tenure of Joe Gibbs 1.0. I'm a proud season ticket holder. But since Gibbs retired the first time, the team has gone downhill. And since Danny boy bought the team, the decline has been swift and the team is a laughingstock. Right before the season started the Washington Post did an expose on the Redskins. Here is a list of the articles and interactive graphic (the graphic is especially fun):

Redskins Fans Waited While Brokers Got Tickets
For Redskins Fans, Hard Luck Runs Into Team's Hard Line
Once Again, Redskins' Public Trust In Jeopardy
A Decade of Snyder The Decider [interactive graphic]

Good luck this season. Hail to the Redskins!

12 Outdated Technology Terms That You Shouldn't Use During An Interview

2009-09-13T21:26:00.000-04:00

I ran across this article that I found interesting. If you know any of these words, then you need a refresher course in technology "buzzwords". Don't put any of these words on your resume. I used to commute with my neighbor before my office moved in July. He and I would sit on the subway and make a game of trying to use outdated tech words in our conversations. My favorite is "information superhighway". See #12 in the article. :0) We found it hard to use "searching" instead of "Googling".

BYU WTF?

2009-09-12T16:21:00.000-04:00

If you know me, you know I grew up a Mormon (a.k.a. LDS). Why am I bringing this up on my beard blog? Well, because I found an interesting post on Beard Revue-you can't have a beard at BYU! Under the Dress and Grooming Standards section, the Bringham Young University honor code clearly states: “Men are expected to be clean shaven; beards are not acceptable.” That's totally bogus. Beard Revue suspects this code is in reaction to rise of the counter culture movement in the US and the rise of popularity of long hair and beards in the 1960s.

Still, if you’re a Cougar, there is the option of a beard waiver. You must “visit a BYU Student Health Center doctor by appointment. The doctor will fax his recommendation. The student then needs to come to the Honor Code Office to fill out some paperwork and receive the letter allowing the growth of the beard, if approved. If a yearly beard waiver is granted, a new Student ID will be issued after the beard has been fully grown, and must be renewed every year by repeating the process.”

Ironically, many of the early LDS leaders had beards. Even the man the school is named after was adored with facial folicles. See the links below for pics of the hirsuted Mormon brethren.

Brigham Young: http://tinyurl.com/qgt9rc
John Taylor: http://tinyurl.com/r6nx3s
Lorenzo Snow: http://tinyurl.com/qtqztn

I'm Available for Weddings

2009-09-07T17:07:00.007-04:00

One thing that got lost in the shuffle of my son's birth was that I was ordained as a Dudeist Priest on July 19. Dudeism is an official religion based on the "The Dude" character from The Big Lebowski. As an ordained Dudeist Priest, I can perform my priestly duties and minister over religious ceremonies in most U.S. States (laws vary), and assorted other countries. So I can preside over a wedding, funeral, or any kind of celebration with pride and authority. My schedule is currently wide open. My fee is quite reasonable, it's FREE!

LEGO BrickFair 2009

2009-08-24T11:28:00.002-04:00

psychadelic fish by brick chick
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

I headed out to the 2009 LEGO BrickFair show on Saturday. This time the family accompanied me. We had a good time. It was held at it's usual location, the Tyson Sheraton Hotel. It was really crowded and hot. BrickFair has outgrown this location, so next year the show is moving to the Dulles Expo Center which is bigger and should improve the flow of people. Our favorite MOC was this psychadelic fish by The Brick Chick. This was her very first MOC. Killer job for a first time! We are impressed. Check out all our BrickFair pics.

Fantasy Football and Relationships

2009-08-24T10:54:00.003-04:00

Fantasy and Relationships: "You know fantasy football is no longer a niche hobby when it's a major topic of discussion in Carolyn Hax's online chat, which by the way was the most viewed article on the Web site by late Friday. For those who missed it, a woman from Reston [VA] wrote that her husband e-mailed to ask if the couple could switch the appointment they currently have to induce labor to accommodate his fantasy football draft. For emphasis, accommodate was in all capital letters. Then she wrote she's not in jail at the moment and very proud of herself for it.

Carolyn's witty retort: "Hey, isn't that the beauty of inducing? You can schedule it?"

One commenter had this to say on the matter: "From today's chat I've learned that: (a) women don't understand why you would congratulate a friend for dating a hot chick; and (b) the importance of fantasy football. Is there any better metaphor for understanding the sexes?

Sounds about right to me."

LEGO Eiffel Tower Part 2 of 3

2009-08-16T20:39:00.003-04:00

LEGO Eiffel Tower Part II
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

This is part 2 of the Lego Eiffel Tower set I'm building. Part 2 took 2.5 hours to build. Below is parts 1 and 2 together. It's coming along nicely.

LEGO Eiffel Tower Part I & Part II
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

British TV Host to Build and Live in Lego House

2009-08-07T11:28:00.004-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

Top Gear presenter James May is planning to build and live in a new house in Surrey, made completely out of Lego bricks. This story combines two of my loves-cars and Lego. Top Gear is my favorite car show, but we no longer have cable TV and you have to live in the UK to watch the show online. May is going to have working electricity and plumbing in his Lego house. I can't wait to see the completed project.

LEGO Eiffel Tower Part 1 of 3

2009-08-02T21:02:00.004-04:00

LEGO Eiffel Tower Part 1 of 3
Originally uploaded by chronic-shock

My lazy Sunday activity was starting the build of my LEGO Eiffel Tower set. The LEGO Eiffel Tower is a stunning model for construction and display, built to 1:300 scale from the real tower's original blueprints. From the flag at the top to the elevators and other realistic details, this is as authentic as it gets. Eiffel Tower stands 42.5" (108 cm) high and base measures 20" x 20" (50 cm x 50 cm)! Can be disassembled in 3 sections for easy transport and storage.

This was my baby-daddy gift from the wife. It's a small way of saying "thanks for my sperm" :) Part 1 took about 5 hours to build. I sorted the pieces while we were in the hospital for Fletch's jaundice. That took me a while. The sorting really helped though. It made finding the correct dark gray piece out of 3428 pieces much easier.

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