A Moving Billboard

I caught this today on the way to lunch.

Ugly Graffiti

Another typical image from my hometown of Buena Park. Yippy!

Nutball Alert: Dark Dungeons

I was in Las Vegas over the weekend when I ran into an old friend, Jack Chick's hate filled anti D&D tract Dark Dungeons. I hate to admit that I was an avid D&D player at one time, but I was. I loved it and played avidly for 15 years. Some time in the early 80s an old D&D mate of mine handed me Dark Dungeons and told me I was going to hell. Of course, by this time, I did not believe in hell any longer, but that did not matter to my fundie friend.

I was amazed at the outright lunacy of this little book. Dark Dungeons was my introduction to Jack Chick and his nutball beliefs. I collected a few tracts over the next few the following years. Without question, the tracts were bizarre, hate filled, and full of the most untenable fundie logic one could imagine. I would have kept them, but I did not want my young son to see them. I put them in the same class as pornography.

When I found the tract in Las Vegas, in a public restroom, I felt sad all over again. I could not believe that Chick had continued to build an audience for his crap. At it’s worst, Chick paints the Vatican and Catholics as evil and going to hell. Plenty of people have a problem with Chick because of his position of Catholics and other groups and issues. This site is the best anti-Chick website.

Chick tracts are not the kind of thing one would want around kids. Yet, I have a young cousin (11) who uses Chick material in his witness to the other children and adults in my family. His favorites are the anti-Catholic Comic books and toys, of course, most of my family is Catholic, so it tends to ruffles a few feathers.

Jack Chick qualifies for my nutball watch list. Only I don’t count him as a Christian Fundie, he’s more akin to Christian cult. Enter his website if you dare, my favorite nutball tracks are listed below.

• Last Rites
• In The Beginning
• Happy Halloween
• Are Roman Catholics Christians?
• Apes, Lies, and Ms. Henn

Lakers Suck

Yes, the Lakers sucked this year and as a result, Lakers bobbelheads are cheep instead of a eBay collectable. This year I did not watch a single Lakers game. It was the first time I missed more than a few games since the Magic era. Kobe ruined Lakers basketball for me. I cannot watch that spoiled brat play ball (no matter how good he is). Jerry Buss - Please trade Kobe.

On the other hand - the Lakers East and Shaq have the best record in basketball. I wonder who the real power was on the championship Lakers? (No, I really do not wonder, it is quite obviously Shaq.)

Shaq - please come home. We miss you.

Refuse

My shot for the day - freeway refuse. Tomorrow it will be gone, picked up by some poor bastard working off his community service.

Nutball Alert: What would Jesus smell like

Bob and Karen Tosterud have developed a candle that is supposed to smell like Jesus. The candle, His Essence, is being sold to Christians seeking a closer experience with Jesus through experiencing his fragrance. Bob & Karen say the formula is all spelled out in Psalm 45. "It's a Messianic Psalm referring to when Christ returns and his garments will have the scent of myrrh, aloe and cassia,"

Well ok then... Need I say more? Nutballs!

I found an article that is worth reading Couple Sells Candles That Smell Like Jesus. It has video and a slide show too! Apparently Bob and Karen did a little spot on the local TV news.

Ahem, I’m going to have to buy one to take a sniff for myself.

ExFundie - not quite a nutball

I found the blog of a former Christian fundamentalist, it is called ExFundie, and it is worth a read if you can get past the bias. I don't think I'll categorize this site as a Nutball, because it focuses on nutballs, fundie nutballs to be exact.

I find fundie nutballs fascinating because... they turn off their brains and expect others to do so too.

Big American Flag, Barstow

I have started a big American flag collection. This one is my first, it is not the biggest I have seen, but it is a least as big as the building it is flying over. I shot this one from the parking lot of Barstow Station in Barstow. It was one of six I could see flying on the same street. I think they were having a patriotism contest. I like big American flags because sometimes I forget I live in America and big flags help me remember. I hardly notice the small flags.

The Road to Las Vegas

I took about a week off from posting due to illness and a much needed weekend in Vegas with the guys. I had a very good time and will keep the "what happen's in Vegas, stays in Vegas" pledge, except for... Kenny snores like a friggen bear.

I shot this picture on the road to Las Vegas north of Baker on the 15. We wasted over an hour here - I don't know why. I did not shoot many pictures after arriving because I was too busy playing poker and having fun with the guys.

I'll starting posting again soon.

A face in a tree

From a 500 year old Inscence Cedar

Lake Henshaw with TV

Shot on the road from Mt. Palomar to Lake Henshaw (S7) on Sunday morning. We camped on Mt. Palomar State Park on Saturday night. I did not shoot many pictures, but instead enjoyed a great tree filled state park with decent campsites and good trout fishing. The steep road (S6) up to Mt. Palomar appear to be popular with the crotch rocket crowd. I passed a couple dozen laying it sideways while they were flying down the mountain.

Someone is missing their lion

A typical Buena Park Image, benign neglect.

I'm so scared

I am really, but I'm not going to tell this redneck.

Disc Golf at El Dorado

I played a respectable 7 over par 61 round of disc golf today at El Dorado park in Long Beach. More importantly – I birdied two holes, the 5th and the 18th, and had legitimate birdie shots at three more. I only had one double bogie for the day! I could have come in with a 3 or 4 if I had not missed a few easy puts.

I played with John and Pastor Brad. John did very well. I think he took ten strokes off his last game. Brad played good too. If he had played a full 18 I think me might have come in at a 22 for two under his average game.

My drive is finally up to 300 feet. I'm using a new JLS Millennium driver, I throw it well. I still need to work on it though; I should be getting 350 or 400. Give me a couple weeks, I’m sure it will grow some more. I tried throwing the Aerobie Epic driver - it flew like a submarine. I'll give it a formal review once I've thrown it a few more times.

I have a game with co-workers coming up next Thursday. It should be fun, none of them have played before, plus they are all IT geeks. I’ve picked up a bunch of Sharks so that everybody is on an equal footing, plus they are so damn easy to throw. I smell a bunch of 30 over par rounds coming.

Rest

My Photo Friday submission under rest. Uncle Chick reading (while the grandchildren swim)

My first witch sighting

Those who follow Wicca have fascinated me for years. It is the only recent pseudo religion that you can follow back to its roots in make believe. I need to do a couple of posts on nutball Wiccans, because there are a few!

I normally post these type of shot to my bumper stick blog, but since it was my first witch sighting I thought it appropriate to post it here under the nutball category. The funny thing is... well I thought she saw me take a picture because she followed me home, right up to my driveway in fact. I was thinking of a good excuse for photographing her on the sly when I noticed she had turned into the driveway to the house across the street. My neighbor is a witch – too cool.

7:00 AM car wash

These guys have way more energy than I do. I see them every day, early morning car washers. My truck gets washed once a month - by the guys at the car wash. I like the light highlighting the overspray from the wash water.

This picture has been cropped slightly and needed color correction (not my best work, but I still like the shot)

Camera: Nikon D70
Exposure: 0.002s (1/400)
Aperture: f/11.0
Focal Length: 210mm

Ghost on a porno shop door

I can remember a few years ago that Buena Park had one Porno shop for about every 15 legitimate businesses. They were ubiquities, Buena Park was known for the quantity of its porn outlets, we had every type of bookstore, video shop and Movie Theater imaginable. Our city government has slowly zoned each one out of business, now only the occasional strip club remains. Any self respecting porn addict must travel to the next town over, Stanton, to get his porn fix. Oh, wait a minute, I forgot about the internet.

I think this was once and an old porn shop, if not whoever picked the color had a screw loose. I saw it last Sunday while out with my family. I almost stopped to shoot it then, but no, I drove on and was hit crossing the next intersection by a woman who ran a red light. Next time I get the urge to shoot, I’m going to shoot.

Buena Park #2: Ghost on a porn shop door

Camera: Nikon D70
Exposure: 0.001s (1/1000)
Aperture: f/4.5
Focal Length: 145mm

Buena Park with Bottle

Normally, a desiccated man stands here with a sign that reads "Homeless Vet", or "Will Work for Food". It is typical for the city I have called home for these last 10 years or so, Buena Park – The Center of the Southland. On any given day the local homeless shelter pushes about a hundred lost souls out on the community to… well to do just about everything one can imagine. I’m not complaining really, in fact I was worried when I saw the Knott Ave beggar was missing. No worries – he was back when I drove by an hour later.

This post kicks off a new project for me – I’m going to shoot Buena Park. It should be a challenge. Buena Park is a big ugly bedroom. It's mile after mile of track homes, apartments, and trailer parks, sprinkled with a bad mall, big roads (I have a SIX-lane highway near my home!) and Knott’s Berry Farm. It’s not all ugly, so this series will be a mixture of the good, the bad, and the mediocre, which I call home.

Buena Park #1: Buena Park with Bottle

Camera: Nikon D70
Exposure: 0.002s (1/500)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300mm

Next Blog>> Nutballs: Bombs and Shields

I press the Next Blog >> button every now and then just for kicks. It’s like visiting the next town over. You know it’s there and you know it’s going to be different; sometimes it’s going to be very different, like today for example.

I like to say “We live in a special world which is filled with special people.” What I really mean is there are lots of crazy people out there. Sometimes these “special people” put up a blog. Take Bombs and Shields for instance. On the surface, it looks like any other blog, and hen you start to get the feeling that something does not smell quite right. Could it be that it only reports on anti-establishment demonstrations. Wait, what is this snippet about anarchism? Who’s “The man.” I love it! Next Blog>> took me to a Nutball’s anarchist blog. I have never been to an anarchist blog before. I have to say, it strikes me as a little too organized to be an anarchist anything. Maybe it’s an anarchist want-to-be blog?

I am going to start a Nutball’s blogroll soon; this blog will have the honor of being the first blog enrolled

edited 4.13.05 @ 5:00 PM

Parental Stupidity

I was thinking about the lunacy that took place at the Jackson trial yesterday. My mind turning over things like, how could anybody be so stupid, and why did'nt they prosecute June Chandler for selling her son into sexual slavery? Apparently other bloggers feel the same way A Certain Slant of light does. Am I the only one to say WTF over this? If somebody, hell anybody, showed up at my door, and asked to sleep with my son, I'd call the cops (if he were lucky). What she did is wrong under any circumstances. June Chandler should have known better.

I think she did know better. For the price of pretty bracelet, June Chandler sold her son to alleged pedophile. What else did she reap for her idiocy; trips to exotic places, celebrity attention, the chance at a million dollar payday? She is nothing more than a celebrity groupie with no moral grounding. She needs to spend time in jail, or at least have her parenting rights revoked.

It still looks bad for Jackson...

It's SoCal Dude - why the jacket?

It's like 75 degrees today.

Edison mermaid

I wish I had caught her when she was standing up. The tattoo is beautiful.

Palms reflected

Apparently skateboarders cannot read

Peta pics

Posted by: mojoey

Peta pics
My best guess is that I get one email every 2.5 hours requesting more of these Peta pictures. So, by popular demand, I have posted the complete series of Peta protests pictures on my Buzznet account. It still boggles my mind that people would make out on a public street to protest eating meat, but some people do weird things all the time so who am I to judge. I just make the pictures.

This series was shot last summer in San Francisco. It was cold and windy, but the young lovers did not mind. I think the drummer minded, they were stealing his crowd.

Graffiti Paparazzi

I found Graffiti Paparazzi through a link off Beautifull Atrocities. It's totally my kind of blog - I will never feel ashamed of snapping a pick in a public toilet stall again! Well maybe I will, but I'll hide it well.

The Stick Game

J.D. Crow passed the stick to me, I hope to pass it along to other book lovers like myelf.

You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?: The Grapes of Wrath

What are you currently reading?: The Craft of Research

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Nope, odd question.

Five books you would take to a deserted island:

• The Lord of the Rings (I’ve read it like 30 times)
• The Demon-Haunted World
• The Metamorphosis
• Finnegans Wake (I would love to finish it just once!)
• The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?

1. Pastor Brad: Because he reads very weird Christian stuff and talks about it incessantly.
2. Candy Girl: Because she reads about Salt and Chocolate.
3. sMyla: Because she’s witty and smart.

I had an accident today

I was stopped as a red light on the corner of Manchester and Stanton in Buena Park near the 5 freeway. I pulled away from the light traveling south on Stanton when I heard a car skidding, then felt an impact at the back of my truck, then heard a loud crash as another cars was hit.. My truck fishtailed slightly, but it was easy to control because I was only going 20 miles an hour. My wife and son were in the truck, both screamed when the accident happened (I think I did too, but not like a little girl or anything). The car that hit me (above) was pretty tweaked. It had went on to hit a Jeep that had been following me, but only slightly damaged the jeep. The girls inside were pretty shaken up, as was the old lady who had run the red light to hit us.


I was expecting a lot of damage when I got out of my truck, only I could not find where I had been hit at first. I finally found a glancing scrape on my steel bumper, it does not look like much compared to the damage on her car. My bumper is lifted slightly to the right side, enough to be noticeable if you stand back 15 feet and look very hard. I think I might get off with a bumper adjustment and a buff job. Her car looks bad.

I dodged a bullet, this could have been much worse. A couple of good things happened. We had a witness stop and prove the woman ran a red light, so no fault on my end. I had elected to not drink at lunch because I was driving, that saved me some embarrassment when the police started asking the “have you been drinking question”. And, most importantly, no one was hurt.

Playing with filters

Yellow Merigolds

Things I don't understand - Extremists

Why must they wear thier religion on their bumper? Do I really need to read "its a child... not a choice" on the way to work each day? Is it going to change my mind or influence my thinking in any way? Nutballs, they are all nutballs.

Plastic obsession - disc golf

I played with John and Pastor Brad after work today. I scored a 12 over par for a 66 in very windy conditions, Brad scored 25 over par for a 79, and John scored a ?? (maybe 35) over for a 89. It was good game of disc golf - I had fun. My drive is coming back, I hit a few dead on and put about 50 feet more on my drive. I even cleared the big tree on #9!

This shot is my submission for photo friday under plastic.

Pet Peeves List

I almost popped a cork after work today because of a driver who stopped at an intersection instead of pulling to the side when fire trucks needed right of way. I’ve decided to produce my top 10 pet peeves to help deal with my anger.

1. Drivers who stop in place instead of pulling over for emergency vehicles
2. Effeminate men
3. People who “drive by cell phone”
4. People who wear mullets
5. Stupid users (I’m in IT)
6. Workaholics
7. Bigots
8. Naturally skinny people
9. Strangers who talk on airplanes
10. SPAM (I will kill the bastards myself if I catch them!)

Now I must put them in order.

I am starting to develop the same thing for blogging. Spamming tops the list, followed closely by jagoff insensitive comments.

Michael Jackson suicide watch

If I were Michael Jackson and a fromer employee had just said Michael Jackson Had Oral Sex with Boy, I might not be in the right frame of mind to get up and smell the daisies tomorrow. After all, this freak show trial is painting a disturbing picture of Jackson's sexual proclivities for those few fans who still believe his innocence. Jackson might be better off if the court ordered 7/24 preventive monitoring in case he becomes suicidal. Jackson must stay healthy to fully appreciate the 10 years he will be incarcerated in Pelican Bay State Prison, which for the uninitiated, is considered hell on earth for those blessed with residency

I guess I've made up my mind.

Sandbags - Signal Hill

I pass this every other day on the way to work. It's a whole block of sandbags covering tarps. Like my mom used to tell me, ugly can be pretty sometimes.

little bit of sunshine, little bit of moonshine

This guy was so stoned. He was in this position before lunch and had not moved when I returned a hour later.

taking mom for a walk

Sling Blade takes his mom for a walk.

New Trashcans

Today is trash day in Carson - everybody puts out their pretty new trashcans. I guess is a weird kind of abstract way, it is pretty.

Five Ducks

I saw five ducks on the way to bank the other day. They were in the parking lot of a cheap Chinese restaurant I frequent. I thought, wow, bad place to stop for a break. It was early, nobody was around, I could help these duck. I jumped out of my truck to shoo the ducks away - they attacked me instead. I jumped back into my truck and then tried to run them over. The police officer thought I was nuts, I explained that ducks give me nightmares. The police officer thought I was nuts. I ate Chinese food for dinner.

(No ducks were hurt in the telling of this story)

Tough Guys Wear Pink

I am proud to say I do not own anything in pink, although I am pretty sure my buddy Richard does. No hold the presses I am sure, I’ve seen him in pink, I have a picture!

I collect bumper stickers - Love them yes I do! they tell us so much about society, and sometimes they tell us too much. I don't really care, I make a picture anyway.

Sometimes I don't know what the bumper stickers mean - so I ask. This time I'm pretty sure I get it.

Boredom at the Rib Factory

I stopped by the Rib Factory in Bellflower tonight for some beef ribs. I happened to captured the owner's daughter expressing her desire to be someplace more interesting.

You are not going to find the Rib Factory (used to be Norm Calvin's Rib Factory) in any food guide, but this little shop has been serving the best ribs in town since I was in High School, which is a long time ago.

I love Neon

I had dinner with two friends last night at Kings in Long Beach. I sat beneath this beautiful crab sign. It was good times.

Sublime on a Jag

I played a round of disc golf today with Pastor Brad at El Dorado Park. It was Brad's first time playing disc golf. He did quite well. I scored a 12 over 66; Brad scored a 23 over 77. On the way back to my truck, we passed this Jag with a Sublime sticker in the window. I though it a sign from the Disc golf and Music gods, so I captured a picture and have spend the rest of the day listening to my Sublime catalog. I'm on song number 67, "New Song", from 40 Oz to Freedom.

And just for the record, I think 40 Oz to Freedom is Sublime's best album.

Better luck next time Brad.

Pope John Paul II has died

It's 12:02 PM here in California, they have just announced the Pope's death on CNN. He passed about a half an hour ago. I am home alone listening to Sublime's “Pawn Shop” and doing my homework. I will remember this moment the rest of my life. The Pope was a good man, no, the Pope was a great man. He helped change the face of our planet and was perhaps one of the most influential public figures of the late 20th Century. I am saddened because I have the distinct feeling that a great force for good has died. He will be missed, rest in peace Pope John Paul II.

Dork Alert: Segway in Long Beach

What is the point? If I had one I'd weigh 500 pounds. It is easier to walk.

Faux dreads

Candy Girl said he has nice man boobies.

Yuk Yuk - want some slurpy?

Candace and Marsha

Candace always looks like she has something important to say. Marsha smiles all the time now that she's lost her braces. They are work buddies and becoming good friends.