Status updates

Starwars marathon on spike... currnetly watching attack of the clones

Not in Albany anymore, (thankgod) snowing a ton up in the Sryacuse area

Just watched Robin Williams new standup act "Weapons of Mass Destruction" VERYYYY good
best quote from it: "As an alcoholic, you violate your standards quicker than you can lower them"

Cars and tech


sports and drugs

Update

Scratch that goofy rubber tree crap, this is what i'm talking about.



Joe Pug"Hymn 101"

True poetry might catalyst through a word's definition, but pure translation of meaning comes through sound. The sounds of  words together create meaning, conventional definitions are footnotes.

Tuesday mix: vol. 8

Creed Bratton "Rubber Tree" ~ My friend sent this to me, i really dig the guy's voice.

Link round-up

Hello interspace! i am sorry but i have been out and about for the past week Although things may have gotten a lil boring here, the world has been thumbing pretty hard.

This site is going to take a new angle, where i won't be so tied down by deposit machines. To round this off, i've decided to take all my aluminum knowledge and funnel it into this single post.

1. Steel Reserve 40oz bottles are non-refundable.
2. Cans are more efficient than bottles; lighter weight.
3. The best conversations happen when your forget about "forming" to the norms and folkways of society.
4. Recycling is for yourself, the world ain't gonna be saved.
5. About # 4, Realizing the world is going down isn't an excuse to ignore it.

Tuesday mix: vol . 5

Immortal Technique ft Jean Grae, Pumpkinhead
The other guys are alright, 2:17 is where i'm talking about.

And if you like this hardcore rap, you may like my acoustic show this Friday at the St Rose art Gallery on Lark Street.

Rounding up some links

Jackson Browne hates water...out of bottles. The singer/songwriter explains his fight against the use plastic water bottles in this video interview. Jackson Browne is the man.

Getting run-down by the holiday money crunch? Welcome to pay-as-you-go trash services. Since recycling is free, the towns of Duxbury, Foxborough, Hingham, Mansfield, and Milton are currently recycling 50% of their waste. How does that save money? A dumptruck/trash service's sticker price for a trip to the landfill encircles the $100 mark. The residents of these towns decided to enforce recycling as a town bill, if your caught with recyclables in the trash three times, your trash removal privileges are suspended.

Apparently businesses have no stipulations to enforce recycling in the city of Minneapolis. Minnesota University students seek to change that.

Tulsa residents can sell their used cooking oil from Thanksgiving to make biodiesel, and bank a smooth 10 cents per gallon.

Out on the coast, one of the few states aside from New York with deposit machines, is chomping down. Multiple deposit centers are being closed, leaving people without jobs and without places to recycle. Really California?

Bob Dylan's Christmas album is not as corny as it seems, at least he's donating almost all the profits to charities for the homeless.Here are some audio samples, i couldn't help but crack up, sorry Robert.


The Xmas tunes start at 2:00, compare it to the silver bells audio sample.


The art work is great, haha. i'm surprised this guy can try and sell this with a straight face.


Sidenote: Bob Dylan i'm just kidding, you did a very nice job on your Christmas album, have a happy Hanukkah.

Hey, hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and recycled your cans. i just loaded this new twitter device called twitwoop to help feed the live show i will be airing via the web and the hospitality of Albany art galleries December 4. Dear friends from London, brainwaves will be optional for this performance.

Here's what my mind is brooding as i get ready to leave the computer lab and scout for cans on my walk home.

Monday theme continued: law enforcement and such

After the whole Captain Catfish mess, i've decided to report the incident and file a formal complaint. If the officer's mag light (aka "blade") was an inch to the left, he would have broken my wrist.

i'm going to to Albany City Hall Police Department around Noon.The event will be  live blogged via tweets (also found on the right-hand column of this page).

Publish Post

Tuesday mix: vol. 4

Lemon Jelly "Nice Weather for Ducks"

It seems like a good Thanksgiving song.

Excerpt from the Admiral Captain Catfish Cutie's log; Saturday, 21st of 2009.

This is from the Admiral Catfish Cutie's personal log. If anybody's ignorance incites questioning expressions towards the nature of me voice, then ye land-lover best become familiar with this wanderer and his trusted comrade, the devious cutthroat, Rakk. I am the sparrow Rakk and I be the author of these here chronicles of our brave captain's adventures.

 As surely as one maps the north-most star, the noble admiral doesn't have time for the folly of ink and scroll. Therefore, the infamous tales shall be retold through the eye of a sparrow, one above the action, but witness to all.

 Enough wasted preludes and introductions, so forth sails a particular incident, displaying our mighty captain’s humility and code.

 Excerpt from Admiral Captain Catfish Cutie's log; Saturday, 21st of 2009.

 That sun shines bright through the warm breeze. A lazy day it be for our fine crew and noble captain. Nothing but clear waters and a bit of fatigue. Our lord's brother in blood and soul has most recently returned from a most profitable business exchange and is celebrating his fortune this night. The day wanes slowly and the point of revelry is at hand.

 Our most audacious leader rallies our blood in anticipation for his brother's feast. The gleam promises of fine rum and women reflect through the crew's eyes. It is 22:00 and Admiral Catfish is away in his cabin, preparing his formal garments. In a whirlwind of dignity and suave, the captain chambers open and our company be ready to proceed yonder to such festivities.

 Lo and behold, the crew is not all present! Our good captain excuses the offense and allows us to wait for the return of the brethren. The jolly man joins his lowly crew and we chat; patiently anticipating follies upon our extrusion into the temptress of the night.

 We wait. We wait more and then we wait again. The captain in anxious now, I can see it in his green eyes. His mouth has the usual warm smile, yet a wise looker observes the strong aroma of anxiety. He is ready to go but waits for his crew. Noble and kind heartily he rouses his voice, crisp yet subtle: "Friends, the time grows late and I need merriment and drink. When will our friend (friend, we are not slaves to the good Captain) return?"

 "Soon," the crew resounds, "and then we will be off together!" The captain reseats himself in his chair.

 The missing crewmate appears with a hearty bounty of herbs to share with his fellow sea-farers. The company settles down to relax amongst the sofas and cushions of the living chamber.

 "How now, what pleasantries are these? We have been summoned as guests of honor to celebrate thine brother’s fortunate and how doest thou now sit paralyzed with greed of smoke and sloth?"

 "O lord, our bones be dead and our minds be sore. Allow us to stay in the comfort of our dwellings for the night."

 Oh, how the captain’s brow jittered, and his mighty paws shook for a moment with venom and rage. But only for a moment. The crew saw the offense, yet stayed lounged as beached whales amongst their disobedience.

 Our most merciful captain, saturated with humility and forgiveness, ventured into the brisk night-air without his sailors. Only I, Rakk, followed in his wake.

Link roundup: police and polar bears

Hey guys, i have a little bit of a theme to go with today. It has to do with an incident which unfolded Saturday night but before i get into a post about that, i would like to use this round up as a precursor.

Now if anyone questions what this theme has to do with cans, not to much. But actually, the motif has a lot to do with Albany, and i collect cans in Albany.

Theme: police enforcement.

Last week, a African-American woman went on trial for harassing police officers and making a scene at a Missouri Wal-Mart. The security cameras coincidentally didn't capture her outburst, yet her bloody wrists and bruises recorded the police officers response. UPDATE: she will admit to the misdemeanor charges...Weak, but how can you fight the people making the rules?

With all these military video games and TV shows, someone is conditioning us.

Mike Wiley is the ONLY candidate for the US Senate who is pro-2nd amendment. Shouldn't all candidates support the template of our nation?

And to rap all this police/military stuff up, Fox News reports the motion to instill a "war surtax" in order to pay of the high cost of troops in Afghanistan. If this stuff got passed, i'd pull a Thoreau.

Planet Stupid's surreal global warming ad.

Hey guys, i'm getting ready for my friend's Thanksgiving day deal. i'm making some wiki sweet potato chips kinda things. i'll post a picture of the finished product.

Currently listening to "Arm's like Boulders" by The War on Drugs, its worth a listen.

Live cans!!

Frank Catfish Cutie will be playing at the First Friday Art Show in Albany December 4. It will be live-blogged via audio and tweets, if you can't make the show you can hear the tunes.

More details to come once i have more info on the gig.

And here is what you can expect.

Table standing.

Shirtlessness and crazy light stuff.

Intense red-bandanna soloing and white linen jackets.

Confusion and white bandannas.

The Paris Canal.

Green Thanksgiving

We're coming up to Thanksgiving, which is a pretty wasteful time. Food everywhere, leftovers, paper plates, the excessive quality of this holiday leads to lots of black bags on the curb.

One way to be a little resourceful pertains to plates. Washing dishes and pre-washing before using the dishwasher wastes water. Solution: have the dogs lick wash the plates before throwing them in the washer.  It puts the leftovers to good use and conserves some water.

Cranberry sauce is also a good stain remover.

For more ideas, check out these sites.

*thanks to Tao of Change

Money for garbage: are we paying too much?

According to ABC, Toledo is paying too much to recycle.  How much? "Earlier this week the mayor's office announced next year's budget deficit is $30 million."

i agree, way too much. Why not REUSE?

Just a filthy bag of bones

Once again, the only moment i find time to sit in front of the computer is 4:21am. What could i talk about at 4 in the morning? Trash.

Last post i broke character developed character. There was garbage all over the streets and i was sick of it. But we might as well talk less about the placement and more abut the substance.

So we're humans and we create waste, as do lots of other things. Animals in the wild create waste, plants create waste; even space has its form of waste in cosmic dust, meteor showers and the aftermath of super novas (which makes black holes garbage men?). And as with all these bi-products, there is something out there living off it. Grass grows from cow manure, mushrooms decompose dead plants, etc. One organism finds life in another's death.

Where am i going? We're just someone else's shit too. Humans may not be squatted out of some deity, but who am to say otherwise?
We’re like paper plates or napkins; a mode of transport. Of course our souls rank a little higher than a slice of pizza, but bodies are luggage. i dig the whole spiritual-physical/mind-body relationship; the soul excretes the body. When our eternal embodiment bounces, the body is essentially left on Earth as a bi-product.

So every time you die, your littering the earth.

Seems we're fundamentally meant not to clean up after ourselves.
 

Comets and stars: reflections from above

 But I am constant as the northern star, of whose true-fix'd and resting quality there is no fellow in the firmament. - Cassius

i'm an essay. An intro, a plot, punchline, lesson, and conclusion. With every blink i start a new paragraph, every slumber a new death. My dreams are pregnant with being. The alarm clocks, or car horn molds my birth and i live. i am a post-moderate character, i see things in the 3rd person. We are embedded in multiplex consciousness, i see bilingually.

It is currently 3:22 am. i just got back from a mountain where i watched a meteor shower. i only saw a single shooting star, but it wasn't a fake one. Our minds’ were tricking all of us on that summit, a star was spotted every couple seconds. Forty minutes into the night, i thought to have seen two comets, until a true one zipped right through the bottom half of Orion's foot.

It was easy to make-up shooting stars before actually seeing one. Our perception of stars stretched like canvas across skin and bone. Whether it be from a concept, a hostile idea or criticism, it is hard to acknowledge beauty until it dances in front of you.

i like to think i have a certain knack for the ascetics of criticism and critiques. However, those are all outward perspectives, gazes from others' eyes. The criticism of myself epicenters through my contradictions.

There are a many thoughts drifting through my head. i bend my ideas continually and break axioms regularly. Strike that, i contradict axioms regularly.

Immersing myself in can collecting and a green mindset has incited a shift of my character on this certain stage.

Honestly, i get bored with the story. Not because i am disinterested in the individuals i meet during the labor, rather, i just don't believe it, and i never truly have.

Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.- Jack Sparrow

i'm a balanced person. i will argue for whatever side will invoke the most interesting situation. Yet we all have certain reluctancies when it comes to fully acting a particular character.

Insinuation can only be so subtle, so why prolong the obtuse?

One attempts to be mindful of trash, but our world beyond redemption. There is no cleaning the place, no way to save the earth, and no way to save the people on it. Its just a roller coaster now, a nice hunk of missing rail by the third summit and a bus of passengers convinced the track is still there.

Go, go, go said the bird: human kind cannot bear very much reality. - T.S.Eliot

i walked around Albany at 7:00 am Saturday morning, you know how it looked? Like dystopia, a wasteland. Trash scattered everywhere across Ontario Street, heaps of bottles and plastic are cluttered in front of doorways. This world isn't getting better. Maybe we haven't hit rock bottom, but everyone can see there's no safety-net above the stone.

i remember one homeless man in an electric wheelchair who circles round my block for cigarettes. i don't smoke, so i sympathetically apologize, wish him a good day, whatever. i've had exchanges with him about seven times. The other day, i'm in the middle of that war zone i mentioned earlier and he comes zipping down the street. i greet him:

"Hey buddy, how ya doing?"

The guy drives right by me. He didn't make eye contact, he didn't nod his heard, he didn't acknowledge any-freaking-aspect of my physical existence which was standing directly in front of him.

i'm like Cassius, i have conviction and i have resolve. When presenting myself from a thought context other than my own, i am rounded and optimistic. But as Cassius taken in context becomes a conspiring serpent, when my eyes see a meteor shower, i'll see 4 times the tails as anyone else.

The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks, they are all fire and every one doth shine. - Cassius

Tuesday mix: vol. 3

KC And The Sunshine Band-I'm Your Boogie Man (12" promo) from James Gangale on Vimeo.

Green ideals have hidden agendas: roundup

Hey guys, so i am back. Brenda, thank you so much for your excellent insight. You are welcome to post on this site whenever you want.

The Netherlands are trying to go green with a GPS system. With this, it'll cost a driver for every mile they drive. This system will reduce some taxes on car purchasing, but will cost a driver 3 cents for every kilometer driven. The GPS unit will be government sanctioned and placed in every car, tracking and recording the cars' location, movement and the works. wait...wait...wait......WHAT?!!??

Yes.Yes. And this GPS-eco-friendly plan will be put into effect 2012.

The liberal "green world" slogan seems to be a nice canopy-style camouflage for Big Brother. We have satellite-tracking computer chips in our passports, and now our cars. 

George Bush ascribes to having "free-market instincts," are we to expect a similar self-reflection from you Alan Greenspan anytime soon? 


NASA is blasting off to space today to repair some space station/shoot more shit at the moon.

Today is the12th annual America Recycles Day! Spread some awareness, recycle some cans, reuse some trash.

Sugar and corn

Last week i mentioned the sugar tariff on American sugar and the way in which it effects our soda and ultimately our cans.

It all started in 1816 when our government put high tariffs on sugar to incite farmers in the Louisiana territory to grow the crop.

"Protectionists warned that if sugar tariffs were lifted, then the value of slaves working on the sugar plantations would collapse — thus causing a general fall in slave values throughout the South"*

In 1934 the government instilled sugar import quotas.

"Like most arcane systems, the sugar program vested vast power in the few people who understood and controlled the system. As author Douglas Cater observed in 1964, "In reviewing the sugar quotas, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Cooley has had the habit of receiving the [foreign representatives interested in acquiring sugar quotas] one by one to make their presentations, then summoning each afterward to announce his verdict. By all accounts, he has a zest for this princely power and enjoys the frequent meetings with foreign ambassadors to confer on matters of sugar and state."*

These sugar prices are making the average American pay way more for a cheap commodity. The net worth of a pound of sugar in the global market is 3 cents a pound, Americans pay 21 cents .

"Each 1-cent increase in the price of sugar adds between $250 million and $300 million to consumers' food bills. A Commerce Department study estimated that the sugar program was costing American consumers more than $3 billion a year. "*

Sugar is difficult to grow in American, so the few farmers who undertake the task get great pay offs due to the sweet's legislation. 

How does this relate to soda? Because sugar cost is so high, Coke and Pepsi replace sugar with high fructose corn syrup. This syrup is unnatural, unhealthy and tastes way worse. In Europe, Coke is manufactured with real sugar...it tastes a thousand times better.


*thank you to James Bovard's article The Great Sugar Shaft from The Future of Freedom Foundation.

My last appearance

Sadly, this is my last post for the week.

I really enjoyed writing for Frank's blog, and I hope you enjoyed reading what I had to say for a change.

I hope Frank will let me come back sometime.

You can follow me at Deliverin' Data, and I hope you do!

-Brenda

My canned heat

Before I venture back to my own blog, I just wanted to deposit onto Frank's readers, some of my own heat that I have with bottle returning. My five complaints are listed in order of how much they bother me:

1) Why is it that if you buy a specific soda brand, for example, Hannaford Orange Soda, and then you proceed to return that Hannaford Orange soda to a return machine at Hannaford, it doesn't always accept it?

The machine sometimes goes hay wire! It beeps at you and displays something on the screen that sounds something like this, "sorry, store does not accept this brand." Now to me that makes no sense at all. I bought the damn Hannaford Soda at Hannaford, so why the heck does the machine always kick back some?

Seriously, what a piece of shit junk some of those machines are.

2) I hate dirty/lazy people. I've worked for several years in a grocery store at the customer service desk. Once in awhile, when our bottle clerk takes a break, I have to watch the bottle register for customers as well. Can I just tell you... that the one thing that bothers me the most, is when customers bring in dirty cans and bottles. I have seen bottles with cigarette butts still in them. I saw one with a used condom shoved inside the can, not to mention the cans that have sat in someone's garage for so long they actually have mold on them, and therefore smell disgusting.

Yuck.

3) People that spend all day in the grocery store, after returning cans.

OK- so I understand that times are tough, and if you have to return cans to get some money to make it through the week that is one thing. However, when it starts to get hardcore, I just can't help but shake my head in disarray.

For Example, we have a regular can and bottle returner where I work. When I say regular, I mean he is there on a daily basis. Collecting cans is his job apparently, and that is fine. Yet, once this man finishes returning all his cans, he comes up to the customer service desk to cash in his money for the day, and proceeds to inspect the rest of the store. He checks every candy machine, toy machine, and lottery machine to check for rejected coins. He wants to make sure that no one forgot even a penny. Then, he takes a broom, yes a broom, I don't know why he brings a broom into the store but he does. He uses this broom to stick underneath our coinstar machine to see if there is coins underneath it.

Then he'll hang out in the bottle area for hours and wait to see if anyone leaves any cans behind, or to see if he can possibly snag an extra can or two from other returners. He will continue to come up to the desk in intervals all day long, not that I am an angry customer service clerk... but man it is annoying.

4) When the power goes out in a grocery store.

I have had experience with this, and let me tell you it is not fun. When the power goes out where I work, we have backup generators. The crappy part is that the generators do not allow the bottle machines to run. Therefore, the people that continue to bring their fully loaded carts of bottles and cans into the store to return, still want their money.

That usually leaves someone like me to sit and count all the cans. This is a long process, especially if someone has 100 grimy and icky cans. Sani-Wipes...I have needed them now more than ever.

I don't get paid enough.

5) I fucking really hate bottle slips. I have to count all of them. Yes, all of them. On an average day, we are talking $500 to $700 worth of bottle slips. Now, if each slip has .05 on it, this is a time consuming process. One that takes too long and usually holds me up from getting out of work on time. Not to mention if you are in the middle of counting all the bottle slips on the calculator, and you somehow mess up, you have to start all over. What a pain. If you are a spaz like me, odds are you are going to have to count them numerous times.

I think I am done. I have had all that anger canned up inside me for so long. Feels good to get it off my chest. Sorry for my pretty vulgar rant...

Don't worry readers, Frank is coming back soon.

The life of a coke bottle

I thought this was a cool video. Even though I work in a grocery store, and I watch people put cans and bottles into the machines all day, and I return cans on my own...

I always wondered what the life of a bottle was like.

Not to mention, it brought a smile to my face.

Cans for charity

I've decided that collecting cans is pretty easy.

And for people like me, it is actually kind of fun.

I was thinking about what I was going to do with the 42 cans that I have collected so far this week, and I thought about donating the money to charity.

I know that every month Price Chopper has a box next to their bottle register for different non profit organizations. If you want, you can put your bottle slips in the box, and at the end of the month, that organization gets the total bottle slip money.

All you have to do is go to the customer service desk at any local Price Chopper, and ask to sign up for a certain month. It's that simple.

I think that is really nice of Price Chopper. Other places do it as well. Cans For Charity does this too. Their website also has cool facts about how much the charities get, and how much money they make in a year. Plus, they are also recycling, and making our world a better environment.

Often times, random shopping centers will have bins set outside their store where you can drop off your empty cans. They return the cans for you, and the money goes to charity. You can do something good for your community, and not have to do any work. There are tons of reasons to recycle.

You can also put your donation in a charity can, most chain stores have them.

I made $2.10 on my 42 cans that I returned. I put the $2.10 in the Salvation Army bucket outside of Price Chopper. I know it isn't much, but it is $2.10 more than they had before. Plus, the Salvation Army isn't doing so well with their collections this year, and have even started collecting earlier than they normally do.

I know that times are tough, and every penny counts.

However, it is almost Christmas time, so for once...give your cans to charity.

One time isn't going to kill you.

Happy can collecting for charity.

I can, can, can

 In an effort to support Frank, and see how much money I could make...

 In the last two days, I have been trying to collect as many cans/bottles as I can.

So far, I have about 42 cans.

And, I have been lazy. They are my own cans, and cans that I have stolen from around my house.

I have yet to hit the streets.

Look how happy I am can collecting.

I'm trying Frank, I'm trying.

Tuesday mix: vol. 2

Clem Snide - Moment in the Sun

Heard this one through my guestblog. 3:30 till the end  is great.

Depositing: helping to clean up the world

I started thinking about how people comb the streets and parties to grab cans and bottles...

Are they really collecting the cans to help keep the enviroment clean?  To reuse the materials?

Or are they just in it for the deposit money?

I am going to assume that most people are in it for the money. With today's economy, every nickel counts.

Well, what if we used this motivation of money...to put deposits on other things that would really help keep our environment clean?

As a smoker who has been struggling to quit for some time now, I started to think about all the cigarette butts I see on the ground in an average day.

The reality of the situation is that, they are everywhere. Just like cans.

There is usually specific spots with high volume too. People tend to smoke in the same areas, as smokers are creatures of habit, and all these cigarette butts end up in masses all over the ground.

Well, what if there was a deposit on cigarette butts?

They could be coated with some neat barcode, and have their own machine at stores!

Do you think smokers would be cleaner? Perhaps possibly pick up after themselves for the deposit money?

Or do you think they wouldn't care, and the regular can/bottle collectors would take over and start picking up cigarette butts too?

The possibilities for a cleaner world...starts with depositing.

Round up of plastic water bottles for deposit

With no deposit, plastic water bottles end up on the road.
Would it cut down on litter, if we added them to our returnable load?

I know I would carry them to the store,
because they would make my profits more.

Yet, would there be a machine available for easy return?
Or would I have to wait in line at the bottle counter for my turn?

I need my money, but lack patience for waiting in line.
Standing there for even minutes, hurts my spine.

Would businesses be able to accommodate a returnable water bottle appearance?
Or will the machines reject them and say, "sorry no clearance."

Would bottle areas be more crowded and have little room?
Is this just something that I should assume?

However, I think that this is in fact a great plan...
For all can returners, woman or man.

Let's help New York Extend their bottle bill,
returning water bottles helps the environment, trust me it will.

Some people may be divided about this conception,
I think what matters most, is Frank Cutie's perception.

My first appearance

Good Morning.

My name is Brenda. I am honored to be given the chance to guest blog for Canned Heat.

I am a blogger for Deliverin' Data. I usually try to deliver as much technological data to future teachers, or just anyone, who is as far behind in technology advances and uses as I am.

Hopefully I will be able to shed some light on the world of canning, and have some new perspectives on the topic.

I hope for a successful week, and hope you will follow my writing as much as you do Canned Heat's.

Grassroot recycling: deposits, soda and CRV

i just came across this cool video. It is an interview with the store owner of Galco’s. Galco's is a tiny soda retailer in LA, only marketing small time sodas. In other words, it's like an indie soda store. No Coke, no Pepsi.

Here is the video of the interview. While the whole thing is enjoyable to any soda enthusiast, 10:02 talks a little about  CRV recycling, which is similar to New York state depositing. The clerk also mentions corn syrup, which shall be discussed in GREAT detail on Monday. To give you a preview, our government has a ridiculous tariff on imported sugar. (i've had Coke with real sugar before...incomparable to the bullshit sold in the States.)

My cans in related proportions to me: element B

 

So yesterday, i had a very interesting experience.

i was hanging around on my front porch playing guitar, when a can collector approaches me.

He asked if i had any cans and i said of course, but you have to hang and smoke a cigarette with me. He was into it and i grabbed the cans and threw him a fag.

There's def a bit of smoking culture out there. Aside from being horrible for your lungs, it’s a great medium to talk to a person. i don't smoke regularly, but whenever there's an opportunity to have a conversation through the event of smoking; i'm always down.

The conversation got a little bit interesting and surprisingly Bill (his name is Bill) was a lot more curious about my life than Dave.  Here are some of the topics he brought up and asked me about and my responses.

   What do you think about global warming?

 i really don't care, this world's gonna end in a frecking shit show anyway. (he agreed with my reply)

What color is your personality?

Red, i'm bright and loud. Bill thought purple more represented himself (i'm assuming not for regal purposes though)

 

How often do you clean your car?

i told Bill i didn't have a car, neither did he. He followed it up by asking what kind of car i would want: "A Volkswagen van."  Bill: "I could've guessed." 

 

Do you write in pencil or pen?

Strictly pen, i hate pencils. Bill agreed with this too, he said pencils were for scientists.

Who is your least favorite relative?

Ha, i laughed when he brought this up. There's this one aunt who loves my brother Max and hates me. She gives me tie-tye socks for chrsitmas and never ackownledges my existence, but falls allll over Max. 

Coffe or tea?

Tea.

When did you know your true calling?

i looked at Bill when he asked this one. "i can't tell ya man, i've always known it"

"Then what is it?"

"Everyone has the same true calling and that is to be in the present. If your in the present all the time, your calling is always and infinitely immediate, because one's awareness of their present encompasses their presence and being. My true calling is music, and whenever you can silence your thoughts and anxieties, your calling unconsciously manifests." 

 

Would you go sky diving with me?

"Yes Bill," but we discovered that neither of us had the money, unsurprisingly.

  

What was your favorite moment 2 date?

I live in the present, the past and future entwine to create the now. So my favorite moment is the present, this exact moment, which always means every moment past and future because the rave happens infinitely in the now. 

Bill nodded at this response, (he pretty much had enough of my rambling at this point). The cigarettes were dead anyway. He told me to have a good day and walked off.

 

My cans in related proportions to me: Top 5 Tattooed Athletes

In this segment, a sport-minded fan asked about my favorite athletes. A regular "Top 5" of this would be boring i feel, so i altered the question to "Top 5 Tattooed Athletes."

Number 5: Birdman Andersen; tons of bird tattoos, horrible attitude and 5-6 rebounds a game...Hell ya

Number 4: Jeremy Shockey; yes, yes that is America in ink on his bicep.

Number 3: Zinedine Zidane; this French soccer player is not really noted for his own tattoos, but more-so the headbutt he imprinted on Marco Matterazzi.

Number 2: Kobe Bryant; i dig the Lakers, and aside from being royalty on the court, his tattoo is equally regal.

Number 1: Who else?

Tuesday mix: vol. 1

Back in elemtary school, Tuesday mornings meant music class.

My teacher was horrible and i hated the course, but the habit stuck.

The goal of this new series within a blog is to present a reader with some tunes that would go well with a Tuesday morning, while in the office, at home, or cleaning up cans.

Here is a funky one to start off the day.

My cans in related proportions to me: episode A

Recently, i've been getting a lot of mail regarding my personal atmosphere and attitude. In order to please the public, i've collected a bunch of my favorite fan questions from various readers and will be posting the questions, answers, and much more for the length of this week.

First randomly chosen question: "What are the top 6 ponies you have ridden on?"

Great question! i feel this question is an assessment of character rather than ponies. Whenever i try to get a feel for somebody, i ask them their top 5 favorite bands, so here we go top 6 favorite ponies i have never ridden on but would like to, starting at the top of course.

Number 6: This one was a little tiny for me, but look at them ears.

                                                                                                                source


Number 5: A Welsh Pony!

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Number 4: Hello Ariegeois Pony, this guy is a beast.

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Number 3: Kinda like a Pokemon. The other day, a bunch of my buddies wanted to go to Taco Bell but we didn't have a car to fit us all, enter pony. He's not very fast, but he's the mini-van of the pony world.

                                                                                                                          source

Number 2: If number 3 is a mini-van, this Shetland Pony is a Hummer.

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Number 1: What else?

source

"So i wake up" a link roundup

So i wake up, still asleep
and fasten my seat belt for the day.

My engine runs and i begin
a way through winding roads

i have some time to go,
the muffler groans

but senses are numb,
i travel slow.

Sometimes the words you chose have exactly the right meaning in themselves. So rather than an in-poem illustration, below is an alternative. The paragraphs correspond with the stanzas.

With Halloween over, the public has been conscious about recycling and reuse. Some towns even have rewards for such green-minded people.

Some new programs are growing across the ocean.


Not everythng progresses though. State Rep. Claytone Luckie (from Dayton, Ohio) recenlty preposed a new bill to plant microchip tracking devices on homeless sex offenders.

Safety is safety, but i don't want to see the government begin to actually embed tracking units into our skin, passports are enough. Once they're given the OK to do it to humans rather than documents, well its kinda like "if you give a mouse a cookie."

Dear audience, may i present...updated

We proudly introduce
this week of November  *this next week of November
Miss Mary Cathrine Owen Brenda Gorman
as our guest can collector.

Brenda is a part of the the
technological revolution via Deliverin' Data.
She will be observing, participating, and perspecting
in this world of can hunting and gathering.

i shall be guest observing and perspecting
on The Smiling Goat next week.

Recycled thoughts: supernovas and Taliban(s)

Its interesting how wrapped-up in our worlds we can get. Look at Albany: there must be over a million worlds and identities that people shroud themselves with (and are shrouded by).

i am wrapped up in about 90 worlds currently, but at the moment i find myself enthralled by a particular constellation.

i'm a space guy. i don't study it or research it but its a great way to illustrate something. Presently, the star cluster i'm observing is one that may be light years away from collecting cans, but supernovas send trans-galactic waves.

So while i'm comfortably out of harm for now, i can see the explosions and anticipate the repercussions once the blow starts shaking my world.

This is what i'm rapping about. CNN says Obama's gonna start paying Taliban members to switch sides. That's weird: last time i remember the US government paying an enemy to switch was when the OSS employed about 20-30 Nazi scientists and strategists, simultaneously renaming itself to the CIA. How did that turn out? Misinformation, completely illegal activity, and the Cold War.

We're in the desert now, i suppose we can expect a hot war. i better start getting my hippie bullshit protest songs in order...Ha.

i’m watching the Yankee game (the Yankees rock) and apparently there’s this Phillies player, Jimmy Rollins, who’s appeared on several MC Hammer music videos, a fun fact the network showed instead of the guy’s batting average. (i have to get back to the game, i’ll look up more videos after.)

During my baseball-web-browsing, i came across this site talking about how over half of the billion cans purchased last year ended up in a land fill rather than recycled.

Maybe Jimmy Rollins can use his connections to spread the message about recycling, but i’m sure he doesn’t know too much about budgeting and recycling if he was involved with MC anyways…

(Thanks to the weak Baltimore blog where the picture came from. People title the Yankees as the empire in an attempt to bash, the empire destroys planets man, planetsss.)

Halloween costume: update 2

The results are in, and the color red seems to be the fans' can-collecting costume choice.

Here's the cosutme i made.

i'm still working on the body part.

Canning that heat: trickling the effects of refundibles and house parties

How is the can budgeting? Well i have been collecting cans, i have a full closet of them (picture to come) but i just haven’t had the time to deposit the suckers. i am still contemplating how i’m going to give my deposit money back to the community as well.

Lately i've realized college houses parties that leave their cans scattered across the street is really a beautiful example of the trickle down effect.

Remember that from 8th grade? The money goes through the middle class parents (which their class is assumed by their child’s enrollment in an institution of higher education; yes i am making a generality about the economic class of students' families, deal with it), through the hands of the college student who, like all college kids, spend their money on beer. The bi-product is a trashed house party and a plethora of cans cluttering the street.

We’ve all seen the less fortunate collect these aluminums off the street the day after a house party. This is a visible example of the trickle down effect. i’m sure it’s not the most prosperous version of it, but it may very well be the most consistent: no one’s gonna stop buying refundable cans any time soon.

i was toying around with this concept in my head before i went off to New Hampshire for the weekend. Some of my buddies that i met in London were having a big get together, so i made the hike out there for the party.

These guys go to school at the University of New Hampshire. i had a great time, it was awesome seeing everyone but the day after the party, i looked at their trash bins outside and saw piles of cans. Just so you can envision the picture, all the student owned-off campus houses at UNH have parking lots, a nice back yard, the works, but ultimately: an inaccessible back yard for a can hunter. So i saw these cans and the first thing i thought was “how are street collectors supposed to collect cans that are hidden in the back of the house?”

While was i was a little taken back, i realized that there probably wasn’t any homeless to roam the streets of rural New Hampshire, so i did a little trash picking and took two trash bags full back to Albany.

i don’t want to be indecent, but i think i may try a little experiment and empty my piles of cans in front of my house. i don’t think this would be degrading in anyway, but more a testament of the trickle down effect; more an act of opportunity rather than charity. As i mentioned a couple posts ago, no one wants to be a charity case, and i think depositing the cans myself and handing someone a wad of bills might be charitable but it loses the atmosphere of ability. Even on the level of can hunting, there is skill, if nothing more than persistence.

i don’t have class on Wednesday, i think i will throw all my cans off my balcony, sit on my couch and observe who comes to collect. If nothing else, at least i might get into a good conversation with someone (whether it be a can collector, a weirded-out neighbor or a pissed off landlord).

UPDATE; 3:00 October 28th: As any albany readers are aware, the weather is horrible today so i decided to wait for a nicer day for this project, which i am contemplating live blogging. More to come.