Saturday, December 24, 2005
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9:29 PM
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Christy and I collaborated on our Christmas card this year. She penciled in a fellow holding a little lamb, I colored it in. Some folks got the printed card - others got an 'iCard'. Some got both. I was toying with the idea of sending the Episode III Nativity around as my digital card....but I felt some folks may not 'get it'. Usually I don't care if I offend people, but in the spirit of the holidays I decided to try and stay on the nice list.
Enjoy.
If you want to get next years card, make sure you sign up to be on the mailing list :-)
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-B
Posted by
Ben
Labels:
christmas
Saturday, December 17, 2005
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2:52 AM
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It's that time of year again, and I feel like sharing a special photo just for all of you. It's a Star Wars Nativity scene! Specifically from Ep.3.....
Feel free to grab the big versions for your holiday drenched desktops....
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A 1024x768 version..
A 1280x720 version..
Have a nice holiday - whatever ideals you worship or entertain.
-B
Monday, December 12, 2005
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9:18 PM
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Sweeeeeet. Nuff said.
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-B
Monday, November 28, 2005
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12:04 AM
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Not really. But in the spirit of DIY I entered our fav lil monkey in an adult swim (cartoon network) contest. The prize is for a car, which would be neat-o groovy, but I took it as an opportunity to get off my ass and put an animation together. You'll see two links below, one is to view the submission that I sent to adult swim. It doesn't have any credits, or naughty words and had to be under 20 mb. The other link is an uncensored version, as I prefer to present Paint Monkeys, Inc. It's bigger, and better, and has naughty content that I removed for the sesitive Cartoon Network folks.
I doubt I'll win, as it's pretty offensive material. But, considering what I do see on the air - I'm on par. Either way it's done, and maybe someone will take interest and flip the bill for a full blown pilot episode.
Enjoy. Be patient, the files are big. Wear headphones. Update your QuickTime viewer as I use the H.264 (HD) compression scheme.
*Update* I moved the vids to my .mac site so the files would stream faster. You can also download them and share with all your lame friends that don't have high speed internet.
 
-B
Sunday, November 06, 2005
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7:05 PM
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Saturday, October 29, 2005
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10:14 PM
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To celebrate Halloween, I'm resurrecting a drink I created last year. I call it the Blood Clot. Perfect for a halloween dare. It looks and sounds disgusting, but it tastes sweet and fruity. Only the brave will ever truly know...
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In a standard shot glass add the following in this order;
3/4 Peach Schnapps
1/8 Amarula
1/8 Grenadine
-B
Posted by
Ben
Labels:
booze
So as I sat in the goddamn Doctor's office...for an HOUR, I had a few entertainment choices. One was watching the Family Guy movie on my brand spankin’ new video iPod. The other was staring at the oft corny info-posters in the office. the 'vPod' is always entertaining, but so are the posters - each in their own special way. I particularly enjoy the posters that are only in Spanish. I think one was about feet. It had a foot clip art image. Another I interpreted as being about birthing. It had, like...birthing stuff on it.
One poster I enjoyed was one titled "Slow Metabolic Syndrome" It featured this rather large man. It's done old-school. That means, for medical illustration, it was airbrushed. Some artists apparently still do that (and by golly, good for them). Fatty (who somewhat resembles me...only in pure fatness) has this retarded grin on his face. He suspiciously looks like he has down-syndrome. Maybe all us fatties look like that. No. I know I don't.
Clickable thumbnail;
-B
Thursday, September 22, 2005
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5:17 AM
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Christy and I just returned from visiting my parents in Mesquite Nevada. While we were there we visited a few monuments; Zion National Park, Byrce Canyon and the north rim of the Grand Canyon. If you're into hiking, then these places are perfect for you. My only regret was not having a higher calibur digital camera. But alas - regrets are for the dying. On the last day we visited Las Vegas. I'll have more commentary and other photos at the Camera Phone Gallery about Vegas, and other trip happenings.
While most of my photos are private, I do have a few compilations that I thought would be of interest.
"Freemont Street 2005"
On our last night, I roamed the old downtown, a.k.a. Freemont Street. It has a certain charm that the main strip lacks. I wanted to photograph the signage. Eventually I'll do more with these images, but for now I'll share what I have.
"North Rim, Grand Canyon 2005"
One of the highlights for me was to visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon. I've seen the west rim, and there is a stark contrast. While the west rim is dead and barren, and a spectacular display of scarred landscape, the north rim is full of life, very green and far more full of life. For this assembly I took about 20 or so photos and used Photoshop CS2's photomerge feature. It does a pretty good inital job, but I needed to touch it up. Doesn't beat a good panoramic camera, but it's what I had, and it's what I did.
-B
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
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3:25 PM
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Christy and I went to Nevada to visit my parents in September. They live in Mesquite Nevada, a little over a hour east of Las Vegas, right next to the Arizona border. It was great to see them, and I love the desert scenery. It always seems like alien landscape, as if we're on Mars, compared to lush are ever green (when we're not covered in snow) NY state. The hot days are wonderful without the humidity we're used to. Makes a 99 degree day very bearable.
One of the days my parents drove us to a shooting range that a friend of theirs, Mike, works at. It was an amazing sporting range, wide open on any side for miles, set into a canyon floor. While there I got a chance to shoot Skeet and Trap. Up till that moment I never shot a gun a moving target, so I was sure to do miserably. But I quickly got used to the action part of the sport, and before long I was nailing those quick buzzing clay pigeons. In my first round I hit 17 out of 20 targets. In my second go around I scored an 18 out 20. Not bad, but I was trained on Doom, Unreal, and Counterstrike - who says games rot your brain. I've been subtly trained over all these vast years to be a marksman.
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I'm envious of Mike's pistol collection, this is but a small sample;
Oh yeah, Vegas and the Grand Canyon were cool too. I made some pretty pictures from those trips.
-B
Sunday, September 11, 2005
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4:45 PM
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So we have a big house, some have said way too big for just two people. We don't care. Christy and I bust our asses and we enjoy coming home and having sanctuary. Even though the village of Holley apparently enjoys screwing home owners - we persist. But every bogus tax increase gnaws at us little by little every time.
Our house is 93% complete, and solid. The previous owners were contractors, and rebuilt the house after a major fire about 15 years ago. In fact portions on the attic still have exposed scorched wood, like scars.
If your following along, we haven't had to do much work on the house. I'm and lazy ass artist, computer freak, paint monkey and Christy is a graphic designer, homemaker kinda gal. We ain't carpenters. So, thankfully not much has needed repair.
But, and I say...BUT...
The porch roof sprung a leak. And as I explored the damage I realized the damage was more than just a freak happening. It's been building up over the course of a few years. The damage extends from the ceiling/roof of the porch, to the base of our tower, and up around the window directly above. The culprit, other than some half-assed flashing, was where the roof meets the tower. Water hits that corner from a super steep roof, slams the corner and pours down blasting the window frame. From there water gets backed up, and eventually pools and finds it's way into areas it shouldn't go.
Insurance co. says it's not covered. I say Insurance co. is full of shit. I also say that our lawyer needs to review our policy. But that's a gripe for another day.
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-B
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
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10:46 PM
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I've always been a big fan of fantasy films. Dragons, Knights, Wizards - it's all good. Excalibur is one of the earliest films I remember watching. It always stuck in my head. While digging through a Best Buy bargain bin, I found the DVD version, at $5 I couldn't resist. Watching it again after all these years was amusing. Funny how the world seemed bigger back then. I took screen captures of the movie as reference to create another love of mine - movie posters. Presented here is the sketch for the poster, as well as the beginning stages of Guinevere's paint. I'm not sure if I like it thus far...Time will tell. I'm doing this one out of pure nostalgia, so who knows when it'll get done.
Clickable thumbnails;
 
-B
Sunday, August 28, 2005
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11:21 PM
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Posted by
Ben
Labels:
comics,
geek
So I get the itch to get a new phone, and switch to a new carrier. I have Cingular now - and it's been satisfactory for me for the past few years. I loose signal inside of Wegmans and Wal-Mart. Aside from the occasional random dropped call, I really can't complain. So being cheap as I am, I decide to buy and port my number through a 3rd party company. Wirefly. I bought my current phone through them last year (and get a 1 year contract too). That went just fine. So I decide to go through them again for my upgrade.
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It's a Motorola E815. Bluetooth, supposedly all the bells and whistles. Quite and upgrade from my current V600. So I get the phone and my number gets ported, and I love Verizon, and get to sync all my data via Bluetooth.
Right?
No. Not even close. First off, I had the phone for 3 weeks waiting the whole time for my number to get ported. I call Wirefly's "customer support" over and over, each time (after 5 min of recorded CRAP) the customer support (BTW Indian) assured me that the problem would be solved within 48 hours. Well it never did. Before I finally cancelled the whole deal, I did a little research on Verizon, and this new phone I had sitting idle. I tried to link to my Mac via Bluetooth. They saw each other. Neat-o. So I took a snapshot and tried to send it to the Mac. No luck....Mac says the phone doesn't support that feature. Hmmmm. Tried to sync my address book. Mac says the phone doesn't support that feature. Hmmm.. Tried to send a (Mp3,Mpeg4, photo,etc...) Every time, Mac says, the phone does not support that feature. I need my custom rings. I need my custom screens. I need to take photos (where would this blog be?). I guess Verizon wants you to use their camera phone network. No free bluetooth transfers..
So I slueth. I find this handy dandy chart on Verizon's oh-so-easy to navigate site. Turns out Verizon like to lock out most of the useful Bluetooth features. Especially usful features, such as address book syncing, and media swaping. I mean, why would I want to actually use a feature, that I was built into the phone? I could unlock the phone, using special hacking tricks, and void out any warranty in the process.... Whatever. Verizon blows for crippling hardware features. Some of us use Bluetooth for more than linking to overpriced hands free units.
Screw off Verizon, screw off Wirefly.
Now I wait for my order refund. I wonder what crap I'll get nailed with now...
Bluetooth
-B
Saturday, August 27, 2005
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11:35 PM
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Clicky;
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
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2:12 AM
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Clicky;
Friday, August 05, 2005
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11:45 PM
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Saturday, July 30, 2005
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8:35 PM
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An actual gift, at a real wedding. Not even wrapped. In fact, it's a freebie for opening a checking account at a local bank. It's a lunch box thermos cozy. It's a wedding gift. Someone actually thought that this would be an appropriate gift to give a newlywed couple. And that it was so cool, that it shouldn't even be wrapped.
Did I mention I live in Orleans county?
-B
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
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6:12 PM
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My work PC is messing with my head. I seem to get this screen more and more lately...at random times, for no apparrent reason. Well, actually - it happens when I least need it too.
-B
Monday, July 18, 2005
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1:54 AM
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Clicky;
Sunday, July 17, 2005
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3:11 AM
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Clicky;
Introducing Green Face.
Friday, July 08, 2005
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11:31 PM
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Of the few Vietnam Veterens I know, not a one has fond thoughts of Jane Fonda. Hanoi Jane as most of them would mutter as their teeth grind under their breaths. I find it facinating because all I knew of her was Barbarella. The above precious moments were captured in the men's room at the Holley V.F.W. Post 202. You can take guesses on were those decals are sticking. But if you think to long, then you're just a dumbass. My father and I visited the V.F.W. as he's a Vietnam Era Vet, which means he was enlisted during the conflict, but never went to Vietnam. He visited us from Nevada, and as per tradition we walked across the street and got blasted with a bunch of really good people. Vets. They're good people. Go thank one today.
-B
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
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11:21 PM
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