I am Austindude

Economic stimulus rebate check

kyle — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 06:25:10 +0000

So, what are you spending your $600 on?

For me, it’ll be:

and

Take a look at what this little device can do:

One, two, one, two, three…

kyle — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 05:42:13 +0000

An update! Yay.

Earlier today I came across an ad for the coolest cell phone I have ever seen. It even bests the iPhone, in it’s radicalness. Sure the iPhone has a multi-touch screen, built-in wi-fi and crazy sex appeal. Pull an iPhone out in the middle of a crowded room and you’re sure to get some glances and the obvious-and-over-used “oooohs” and “ahhhhs”. But pull this baby out and I can tell you 100% of the room will look your way. I bet even a blind person would look your way.

(click the pic for more info)

Yes, it’s a FUNCTIONAL cell phone, that you can insert a SIM card into. Uber-fantastic I tell you. Sure it would be just a little bit harder to tote around than a sleek and stylish iPhone, but it would totally be worth it. I need to buy one, get a camcorder and post some YouTube videos of my antics. Unfortunately, they’re priced at $499. Maybe I will be able to afford one in a few months, seeing as I have to pay a hefty car insurance deductible next week…

…you think I’m kidding huh? Well on my car-hating post on 08/05/07 I did ask, “what the hell else could wrong?” Promptly, carma answered. A couple of weeks ago, I ran over a muffler that somebody ghetto-rigged to the bottom of their car with hangers. I didn’t see it at all in the road. I only went about 100ft after running over it, but it tore up $5200 worth of shit under the car. My car is so low, it completely wrecked the underbody, including the oil pan and catalytic converter. Again, I told you I can’t make this shnizzle up. So I now have to pay a $1030 deductible, and hope I don’t get dropped from my insurance company. I need a bike. Or better yet, the city bus.

In other news, I heard about this company who rents books out Netflix style. Sounds pretty awesome!! Free shipping, both ways too. Peep it out

I’ll leave you with a video of another very skilled musician.

Vacazione

kyle — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:31:47 +0000

I’m starting a much-needed vacation tomorrow. Be back next week, suckers. Have fun at work, mu wah haha. Be sure to stick it to the man, all you can.

I hate cars with a passion

kyle — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 20:35:43 +0000

Do you believe that somebody can be cursed? No? Well after you read this, you certainly will. My carma stinks. I mean it really smells like decomposing animal bodies. I just got ANOTHER engine replaced on the RX-8 (the car is on it’s 3rd engine).

Since I got my license at 21, I have had nothing but bad luck with cars. My first car was a 1996 Acura Integra LS, which I purchased in late 2001. I owned the car for 2 years and had nothing but trouble that entire time.

When I bought it the passenger side of the windshield was shattered - it literally looked like an ex-girlfriend took a bat to the windshield and beat the shit out of it, for finding her b/f screwing around on her. I think that pain and anguish was somehow transferred to the car. (Anybody ever seen or read Christine?)

In the first 5 minutes of owning it, a guy backed into me. The guy who sold it to me came running outside and was laughing. I was still in the parking lot where I purchased it.
The car was broken into 3 times while parked in front of my buddy Joseph’s house. 3 stereos were removed, and one time I had the factory alarm enabled and somehow it didn’t go off.
I was in 3 accidents (none were my fault, and this doesn’t count the one where the dude backed into me after first purchasing it). One of them was a hit-and-run on MLK, that was pretty bad. I swear people aim right for me.
When I bought it the car had a dent in the rear driver-side door. I bought a door on Ebay that was the same color and looked awesome. Shipping cost more than the door itself. (hundreds) I got the door and brought it to Caliber Collision. The door looked great on the outside, but it was actually useless. Below some of the paint was a ton of putty. That was a complete waste of money, so I just had them repair the door I already had on there haha. So I paid basically double to get the door fixed.
When the car was in the shop after one of the wrecks, I had a rental. I decided not to get the extra insurance. Hail promptly commenced and damaged the rental badly, and State Farm subsequently dropped me.
I first sold the car to a random lady on a payment plan, who I trusted and should not have. I got royally screwed on that one. (It’s quite a lengthy and funny story, but I’ll save it for another time.) Basically I only got $1000 out of $4200 and she got to drive it for 9 months for that $1000. Karma caught up with her and magically I got the car back.
In late 2003 I buy a brand new 2004 RX-8 and am happy to rid myself of the cursed car. But OH the curse isn’t ready to stop. Oh not by a long-shot.
After dropping the car off at the dealership for it’s first oil change, I get a call from the service department. Apparently there was “a mishap with your vehicle.” Ok… a little oil spilled on one of the seats, I thought. HAHA no. Another RX-8 was backed into the front of mine and crushed the front right side, including the whole headlight casing and fender.
One morning I woke up to find somebody had side-swiped the rear passenger fender. There’s a dent/scrape on it.
One night, a friend up north told me a huge hail storm was coming my way. Joseph and I ran out to throw towels and blankets all over the top of the car to protect it. The next morning I survey the car and damnit there’s hail damage! What’s funny is that we had 3 more hail storms after that one, and I didn’t bother throwing towels or blankets on the car for those, and there was NO DAMAGE at all from those haha. I can’t make this stuff up.
I have had 2 speeding tickets and a ticket for running a red-light at 3am. I was waiting at the light for at least 5 minutes and thought it was just broken. While I was taking defensive driving for one of my speeding tickets, I got the other speeding ticket on the way to Houston.
I got out of class one morning at Texas State, and somebody had side-swiped the SAME rear fender that was side-swiped a couple of years ago. This was damaged much worse than before. The person left no note, or anything.
At 33,000miles I had to get the engine replaced on the RX-8. It was stalling, idling very rough, having bad loss of power.
Mazda called me to let me know the car was ready to be picked up. I hopped in the rental Dodge Caravan, turned the corner and BLAMMO some lady ran the stop sign and plowed into the side of the Caravan. She said she didn’t see me. HOW THE HELL CAN YOU MISS A DODGE CARAVAN?? Ever since the rental car hail-damage issue I have always gotten the extra insurance. But guess what? Since nothing had happened since then, I decided NOT to get the extra insurance while using the Caravan. The only two times I don’t get the extra insurance, bad things happen to the rental cars. JESUS.
At 48,500miles the RX-8 start acting exactly as it did at 33,000miles. I take it into Mazda and they say I need a new engine. So not even 50,000 miles into the car and I am on my 3rd engine. I am sure I shouldn’t ask this, but what the hell else could go wrong?

Props to the DIYers

kyle — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 02:17:56 +0000

People who try to figure things out and work on things themselves, deserve major props. Being in my own place for the first time, I am getting to figure out how to install things and work on stuff and it’s fun, man. My bathroom drawers and cabinets were pretty plain and I didn’t like scraping my knuckles on the counter every time I went to open the drawer, so I installed some drawer-pulls this weekend.

Before: After:

Close-up:

Weekend to-do list

kyle — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:09:27 +0000

Somewhere I read that if you post your to-do lists for all the world to see, you’ll actually be more motivated to get things done and cross them off your list. So here’s an experiment to see how well that really works, yo.

Weekend to-do list:

~~Bring the RX-8 into Mazda to have them look at it~~
~~Clean the house~~
~~Deposit check~~
~~Go through papers on dining room table~~
Grocery Shopping (ugh)
~~Install bathroom drawer and cabinet pulls~~
~~Pick up bulb for kitchen track lighting at Home Depot~~
~~Relax like a mofo~~
~~Setup weight set in garage~~ (I unboxed it, but need to get a pair of pliers and a wrench at Home Depot)
Work on group presentation for a few hours

Bastard scammers

kyle — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 03:26:46 +0000

There is just too much old junk in my closets and garage gathering dust, so I am trying to clear it all out via EBay. Well, I noticed on both auctions I had going that “new users” with 0 feedback had bid multiple times on my stuff. I also noticed I had 3 messages from different EBay members. I checked my messages and all 3 of them were from people who were thinking about bidding on the equipment, but did not because they said what I was doing was wrong and unethical! They thought I’d created a brand new account (hence the new user status icon and 0 feedback), to bid on my own auction to pump the price up. But I didn’t! It was somebody else who set up a new account to get my goods at a much cheaper price.

I figured out how this benefits the bidder with the new user status. The user with the new user status, causes other legitimate potential-buyers to not bid or stop bidding, thus winning the auction at a fire sale price and screwing the seller. I mean, it’s a fact that when I am looking for something and thinking about bidding on an auction, if I notice a bunch of bids from a new user with 0 feedback on the item, I won’t bid because I assume that it’s the seller with a dummy account pumping it up. BASTARDS. Luckily, there were a couple of people who still bid, despite seeing the new user/0 feedback guy as the current winner.

A bit of musical inspiration

kyle — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 07:17:29 +0000

Today, I parted with my drum set but my plan is to get an electronic drum pad and/or keyboard, or maybe even a set of turntables and mixer again to create musical bliss. Take a peek at this video. It’s pure sweetness.

When a vision becomes reality

kyle — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 18:12:18 +0000

A few years ago while reading the ads in the back of Popular Science magazine I came across this cool little thing called an Ecosphere, which is an all-enclosed, self-sustaining, ecosystem. There’s algae, little shrimp and bacteria that all eat off of each other. The system can last up to 10 years!! I knew I had to get one - I never pass up an opportunity to be a nerd.

Years went by, and I forgot about it. Late last year, as I was looking at various sites for cool stuff for the casa, I found this hand hook sculpture by Harry Allen, and WHAM my idea was born! Why not create an unbelievable way to show off the Ecosphere? That’s what I did. I bought an Ecosphere and ordered the hand sculpture, and low and behold this is what a manifested vision looks like:

In the beginning…

kyle — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 07:20:57 +0000

I seemed to have lost my focus, my way and my creativity. This blog is designed to help me nurture those traits back to their former glory. Are your fingers crossed? Mine sure are. Hey, see that photo at the top of the blog - yeah that’s MINE. I took it in Seaside, Oregon a few years ago. That was pre-Digital Rebel and I used Paint Shop Pro to digitally turn it black-and-white. I plan on taking more photos soon, and adding a link on the blog to my photography, which I’m certain you’ll enjoy.

Life is great! I have a bad ass domain, my own condo, good health, a great job, a couple of awesome gatos, am working toward finishing my degree with the light-at-the-end near, and have pretty much everything I need and want right now. But man, I do need to get out more often and hang with friends and get some face-to-face time with real people haha. My social contact is severly inhibited by my anti-social tendancies. It’s time I work on that, and I am not saying that just for the sake of saying it, to appease myself. I fucking mean it.

So stick around, and make a new friend. I’ve listed a bunch of categories with links I frequent pretty much on a daily-basis, to the right there. Check ‘em out and start filling up my comment boxes, yo.