So today, along with washing the dishes, vacuuming and other housework I also did some housework on my site. First off, I’ve decided to move all the IT & geek related stuff off of the personal blog, and will slowing be finishing my setup of DotNetNuke over at Pavleck.Net.

Secondly, I updated Wordpress to it’s newest version, got all the little extras working and you may now notice my little phoenix up by the URL - yes, I finally added a FavIcon.ico. After looking around for various way I found the absolute easiest way to do it - check it out. Couldn’t be simpler.

I’ve also installed an OpenID plugin, so from now on when you click to make a comment, you can throw your OpenID URL in the website section and bam, that’s all there is to it.

Don’t happen to have an OpenID? You might be surprised - if you have an account with Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, or one of these other guys you might actually have one¹. Still don’t have on? I use MyOpenID.com, and it’s worked great - highly recommended.²

And lastly on the website update - I’ve been toying with removing my TwitterFeed for my website from my normal twitter feed, and as such I’ve created a new one - Pavleckcom - where all my website updates go to. Feel free to subscribe - if enough people switch over to it, I’ll go ahead and get rid of the updates from the primary feed.

I never thought of myself as being “well-read”. I doubt I’ve read 3% of the titles listed in “1001 Books to Read before you die“. I read what interests me. In my youth, that was a lot of Orwell, Asimov and London³. These days it’s a wide variety of authors and topics, as I noticed when I was cleaning up the bedroom a bit - see for yourself.

As you can see, at the top there is a bunch of Bukowski - my newest favorite author and the fault of Mishka’s father⁴. He gave me “Run with the Hunted” for Christmas and it stoked the literary fire within me. I’ve already read Post Office, am currently reading Women (Not pictured, cause I’m carrying it around with me) and Factotum is next.
After that, you see one of Chomsky’s newest books, “Failed States” - so there’s some politics.
Continuing onward, there is Man Ray’s Montparnasse. Man Ray is my favorite photographer, and his book Montparnasse explores his life with stories and anecdotes about his friends and lovers in Pre-WW2 Montparnasse, France - just when the Dada & Surrealism movements were taking hold. Excellent book, if you can find it pick it up.
And then there’s another pseudo-political book, Stephen Colbert’s “I am America (And So Can You)”. Not much to say about it. It’s a very interesting read, but isn’t meant to be a heavy hitter. I don’t think I’ve actually finished it yet, even.
And finally there’s “Naked Economics“. It’s subtitle is “Undressing the Dismal Science” and it does it well. It lays out the principles of economics in an entertaining and easy to follow way. After reading it I’ve got a much better understanding of why we pay what we pay and how the world in general works. If you have to read one econ book, then this is the one for you!
Not pictured, because they’re on the floor: Spook Country by William Gibson, My 230th copy of Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and several electronic and microcontroller books)

And awesome news that I just learned about less then 2 hours ago - one of my photographs sold!
I knew some would sell, but had no idea that this one was going to sell. It was my experimental photograph, “On” seen below. It was printed up at MPIX.com, and since I was there I let them do the matting and framing too. The frame is nothing special, just a basic kit frame with tensioners holding the photo in - there isn’t even any glass to speak of. This was an experiment, not expected to sell. Yet it was the first one. I’m sort of stoked about it, and sort of curious - I always wonder where my photographs go, and how they end up being shown. It’s like a part of me is now with someone else.

And that’s it for today’s update!

1. You really should think about getting one, especially if you use FireFox - FireFox 3 brings strong support for OpenID [↩]
2. If you don’t even know what OpenID is - Wikipedia can help you there [↩]
3. Jack London, that is [↩]
4. Her father taught a class about Bukowski and the other beat poets. [↩]

There’s a lot of neat things going down in the TC this weekend, and here are some choice ones to check out!

The Bent Festival - Happening yesterday until Saturday, the 5th annual Bent Festival makes it’s last leg stop here in Minneapolis. Check them out at Intermedia Arts, on 28th and Lyndale. You’ll meet & greet and listen to some of the most interesting music in the world of DIY circuit bending. From soft soothing melodies to a brash jarring cacophony of sounds - you can find it there. At $10 per concert, it’s your best choice for 6 solid hours of music, and on Saturday there is a wealth of workshops to show you how to do it yourself and a barbecue to help you keep going! Please Note: They don’t like credit cards, so bring cash. And some of the workshops have a fee, so keep that in mind.

Studio Bricolage’s First Friday - A lot of people know about Leonardo’s Basement, an organization that helps boys and girls from 6 - 16 expand their minds with the help of music, art, robotics and more. But did you also know they hold an event every First Friday of the month at Studio Bricolage? Studio Bricolage is the adult oriented version of Leonardo’s Basement. For only $10, this month’s session will teach you how to melt plastic toys into bowls, crochet plastic bags together, create your own inflatables and a whole lot more. We’ve been here a few times, and it’s always a great time¹

Black Dog Exhibit Opener - If you’re not doing anything at all tonight and you’re in the St. Paul area, check out the Black Dog Coffee & Wine Bar for the opening night of their “Limitless Energy” exhibit - showing the energy that resides within the artist. Cost is free, and you can see some of my stuff! And maybe, even, buy it!² And remember, my art comes JACC approved, for that extra goodness!

And now for a few shots from last night’s Bent concert

1. Really looking forward to their Arduino workshops in June! [↩]
2. Yes, I’m a shameless whore. I’m learning that’s just the artist’s way [↩]

Well we certainly had a busy weekend! We went to La Crosse to celebrate the 3rd birthday of Mishka’s nephew. The house was full of people and food and screaming kids. It was truly an adventure.

Sunday, though, was awesome. We ate some food at a place called Buzzard Billy’s, then Mishka and her Dad both got new tattoos. We went to Mind Altering Tattoos and the artist we had was named Chad, he has his own shops in East Grand Forks, MN and soon in Duluth. His work was absolutely amazing - especially for the price. Mishka’s dad paid just over $200 for his, a huge Dharmacakra¹ on his right shoulder. The detail is amazing and they shading looks gorgeous.

Afterwords it was Mishka’s turn. She chose a Tiger Lily on her right thigh. He drew it on her freehand, then proceeded to color it in - another absolutely beautiful one.

I don’t have a shot of the completed tat, once it heals up a bit I’ll see if I can’t snap a few. It looks great though, and at only $150, it was at the ’stupidly low’ price.

Needless to say, we have a new tattoo guy. We have a thing we need to next month, the soon-to-be sister-in-law’s graduation from college. We’ll be in contact with the tat guy before then and hopefully he’ll be at his shop there, otherwise we will end up going to East Grand Forks. The main reason we’re sticking with this guy is Mishka’s mom will be getting a tattoo as well (Which is a big thing!) and he’s the guy I think that can best design a Fenghuang for me on my right forearm. The Fenghuang is the Chinese Phoenix. It doesn’t stand for rebirth, this one stands for loyalty and honesty. Essentially, the Fenghuang only stays there when the owner is without darkness and corruption.

And, because we always need some drama - Mishka learned the importance of looking while you backup.

1. Her father is a Buddhist [↩]

Hello kiddies, here’s some links I’ve come across this week and thought you might like:

How Porn Ruined Sex (Semi NSFW) - The second half of the title is “How about you don’t ask to come on my face on the first date”. It’s a little diatribe on how the younger guys these days (25 and under I’m assuming) were raised on internet porn, watching it since they were 9. And as such, they don’t think of regular sex as being ‘fun’ sex. Suckers.

Scrabble Tile Coasters - Now this is definitely cool! Take the letter tiles from scrabble, arrange them to coaster size, apply a cork backing and BAM, your tables are safe once more! Then I started looking around, and Hasbro will be more then happy to sell you spare parts - 100 letter tiles, 4 racks and a tile bag will set you back $6.50, shipping and handling included. I’m fighting the very very strong urge to buy 12 sets.¹ What would I do with 1200 scrabble letter tiles? I don’t know, and that’s the greatest thing about it.

A new position - Didn’t get the chance to get your rocks off yesterday? Wanna give it a go tonight? Bring your laptop to bed with you and let Style.Com’s Hotlist of sexual positions teach you something new. Complete with reader ratings²³ and wooden doll examples, it’s SFW!

Extreme Plastic Surgeries - In the 21st century, we have the luxury of making many of our dreams come true - at least ones that involve plastic surgery. Whether your dream is to be a cat, a lizard, Barbie, Ken, Klingon or have super large tits, it’s all possible.

Got Cats? FURminator is for you - Cool Tools reviews a cat brush that has a tag line of “Intense Feline Grooming”, so you know it has to be good.  Available from Amazon⁴ for $28, Debbie says “The FURminator is the only really functional cat-grooming tool I’ve ever found.” and “It does a tremendous job of removing loose fur.”. I’m sold.

How We Spend Our Money - The New York Times shows us how we spend our money, in all it’s charted goodness. I <3 charts. Spoiler: Upper class spend more then middle class, middle class spends more then lower class. Lower class does better then homeless - but only marginally.

Cheap Ways To Say I Love You⁵ -  Get Rich Slowly has an article on more frugal ways to show your love. Although written for Valentine’s Day, these tips work the rest of the year as well - with the bonus of not being expected, it will be even more meaningful. Trent over at The Simple Dollar has 9 more ways for love on the cheap, while the folks at Zen Habits raise the bar and show you 50 ways to be romantic.

My Kind of Savior -  Ajinbayo Akinsiku writes manga novels. He’s also a Christian and aspires to become an Anglican priest. He also wrote “The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation”. Mr. Akinsiku says his Son of God is “a samurai stranger who’s come to town, in silhouette,” here to shake things up in a new, much-abridged version of the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels. Like how that sounds? You can buy it from Amazon for a shade over $10. Now that’s a good price for salvation!

That’s it for this week, my friends. There’s plenty more I’d love to share, but there’s only so much commentary I can make about it. If you’d like, feel free to bookmark my public Google Reader page, or even subscribe to the RSS feed.

Tonight I’ll be at Hennepin Stages to see the musical “Don’t Hug Me” with some friends, and this weekend is quite hectic as well. If I don’t see you all, have a great weekend and happy holiday⁶!

1. I’m seriously fighting the urge. But the wedding, she will be pricey, so I must conserve [↩]
2. The winner: Doggy style - and by a long shot.  Though cowgirl is second. [↩]
3. Reverse cowgirl is better imho [↩]
4. Amazon.Com link uses the referrer tag from CoolTools, I don’t want credit for someone else’s work [↩]
5. From the Better-late-then-never department [↩]
6. If you get President’s Day off, like I do. Yay for banker’s hours [↩]

This Saturday I had the… pleasure, I guess, of going to an armory in Cottage Grove to watch MCW. MCW stands for Minnesota Championship Wrestling.

Yes, it really is as bad as it sounds - and I haven’t even begun to describe it.

Think WWF circa 1988 with worse actors and a shoddy production value.

Think of ‘wrestlers’ with names like Johnny Riddlin, Tommy “Spiderbaby” Saturday, Little Tiger and Lover Kid.

My betrothed works with some people who go to this bi-monthly event religiously and as such, she was asked to go - and then I was asked. I went, of course, because I love her dearly and had nothing else to do.

We drove from her place of employment to the armory. It took about a half hour. We passed what I think was one of the largest liquor stores I’ve seen - inside of what was an old Byerlys¹. There was also a Family Dollar inside of said store - so you could pickup a case of “Old Grandad” and gifts for the kids and spend less then $20. Apparently the people of Cottage Grove like to drink. And buy items for a dollar or less. So it goes.

We slide on past there and hit the armory - upon walking in we’re immediately hit with the strong odor of testosterone, stale sweat and something close to nachos. We wait in line. Yes, there was a little line. After a few minutes, they open up and we pay for our ticket. Our $10 a piece netted us a stamp that lists us as “#1″. At least they had that right.

It started around 7, we got there at 6:30, and had more then enough time on our hands to watch what was going on as we waited for her friends. People mulled in in groups of 2 or 3. I had never seen so many mullets in one place. The parking lot was awash in IROC Z28s. It truly was an amazing starter.

Oh, and the girl who checks us out at our local Target was also the one who took our money. How did we know? The obnoxious pointless tattoo she has and the style of dress - she’s one of those “I’m not fat at all, look at all the skin tight clothes I’m wearing - I’m so hot” girls. Granted, we’re a chubby pair ourselves, but we don’t attempt to shove ourselves into items picked up in the ‘junior’ section of Target. To put it another way, she is impossible to not remember.²³.

Anyway, her friends show up, we go - there’s a table where they are selling DVDs, clothing and sloppy joes. We pick a row thats far enough back and wait for… well, I had no fucking clue what I was waiting for. So we wait and eventually a gentleman in a ’suit’⁴ comes out with a mic, hops into the ring, and starts talking.

Sadly, he’s talking into a camera that is inexplicably pointed away from the entire audience and so we don’t really hear anything but a 10 minute mumble. Then a match begins. I can’t quite describe, except to say it’s a lot like you used to see in the WWF, only it is even more comical then you could imagine. After the second match we left, even though there was another 2 hours left to go.

I do have to admit, I did like it a little bit. You got to talk shit to the ‘wrestlers’. And I love to talk shit. Though I was trying to be humorous in a high brow way with insults such as “Improperly file his taxes for him, prompting an audit - that will show him!” and “That move was as original as your tattoo”⁵

Anyway - I don’t think I’ll be back again.

This is a clip of video I took. Stupid camera phone, I forget I need to orient it in a weird way to have a normal looking video.

1. Which was a ‘top shelf’ grocery store [↩]
2. Not to you, checker girl: It’s called style, please find some. [↩]
3. Oh, and no matter how hard you try, a pushup bra is not an elastic miracle, and will not create boobs out of nothing, stop trying [↩]
4. Whatever passes for a $30 suit these days [↩]
5. Said tattoo being of Jesus on the cross. [↩]

This weekend in St. Paul will be cold. Bitterly cold. How cold is it? Look for yourself - Saturday’s high is expected to be -5 to 0. The high isn’t even going to hit one! Oi! Combine that with the fact my beloved Mishka will be away at some conference or another most of the time and I have a nice chunk of time to dedicate to myself.

So what to do? Play Team Fortress 2 the entire time while eating pizza from Pizza Luce? Only half right! The pizza I shall have, the video game though - I think I’ll be taking a break.

Most people know about the website/blog called PostSecret. Post Secret takes in postcards you send them with your secrets written down and publishes it to the world. It’s a way of getting things off your chest and being a bit of a voyeur into the deep dark secrets help by people. I check it out every Sunday to see the new ones.

But, I thought to myself, I’d love to see a site about breakups. A site that contains letters of anger, hurt, fear, regret and all that negativity that is contained within the human condition. And to that answer, I registered a website called LoatheLetters.Com. Loathe as in “To find repugnant“. Letters as in “Something one person left for another person with writing on it”. I bought the domains, and have been sitting on them for awhile, this weekend I’ll see if I can’t develop them into something.¹

I’ve been mulling over a few things design wise and have settled on something I think will be simplistic, but intuitive. And instead of taking a blog engine, I’ll see if I can’t write the entire system myself in something like ASP.Net. Why? Because it’s what I know - I’m sure Robert will be chastising me soon for not using RoR but hey, he’s the expert on that, not me. So that’s what I’ll be messing with this weekend - trying to get the backend written.

And, if I can find the proper number of layers required to stave off the arctic like cold hanging around I might head out to Medicine Lake to see this years Art Shantys.²I hope you can join me! Or, even better, go instead of me and film it and let me know what it’s like.

1. I also need to work on my DIY Electronic Engineer portal ShadeTreeEE.Com, too [↩]
2. On Sunday Shanty from Misfit Toys will be having a soup kitchen - woot! [↩]

This weekend Mishka and I went to see Stephen Sondheim’s version of Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton¹.  It was an excellent film, and I encourage you all to go and see it, but be forewarned - there is, at time, an extreme amount of blood.

Sweeney Todd is a barber, who was exiled from London from 15 years because the local judge fancied his extraordinarily beautiful wife and child. He returns, to learn that she poisoned herself and that the judge was rearing his child and vows revenge.

Even though I knew the story, I was still surprised by how extremely graphic Burton depicted the slitting of the throats of his victims. I had assumed it would be a tight shot of Johnny Depp’s face as the blade slices - but I was extremely wrong. Still, once I got over the initial shock, I quite enjoyed it.  So I do recommend you seeing it, just keep that in mind.

1. Damn it all, I will see I Am Legend next week now, guaranteed. [↩]

Ichiban, like every teppanyaki restaurant I’ve been to, was wonderful but expensive. Four people came to over $200 after it was all said and done. And I had to sit with a cute suburban family - dad and son in matching MN Wild jerseys. I had the Ichiban dinner, which came with shrimp, teriyaki chicken and filet mignon. Shrimp was great, very fresh. Teriyaki chicken was excellent. Filet mignon was good, but it wasn’t cut into small enough chunks nor was it trimmed properly - I came upon a very large chunk of gristle I couldn’t eat.

After words, we went to Macy’s to see the Nutcracker suite. It’s on the 8th floor, we fought our way onto the elevator and get up there. The line didn’t look to bad at all - maybe a 30 minute wait we had thought. So we wait. The line was apparently in a figure eight shape that wound into itself. Five minutes go past, we’re waved to go to the other side of the ‘figure eight’ - so off we go. We get to a new line…. Peek around a corner… We can’t see the end. And that’s just half the line - the top half of the eight.

We ditch it and look at furniture instead. I look at my watch and sadly we missed the Holidazzle parade too, since we were in Macy’s looking around. Furniture is on the 5th floor - the line to see the Nutcracker grew that long. People were booted off at the 5th floor and told to just wait. Line is easily over an hour and a half long. We ride the escalators down, grab a cup of coffee and walk the skyway - then stop at the bar inside the Hyatt where I had one of the best pulled Black and Tans of my life. Kudos to you, weird sports bar with the basketball lights.

It’s time for the Pavleck.Com Weekend edition. A lot is going on and I’ll make you privy to it all!

First up, it’s that time once again - the St. Paul Art Crawl kicks off tonight at 6pm. I’ll be walking around my building checking out (and buying) some of the art the incredibly talented people in Twin Town can put together - will I see you there? I’m really hoping to!
See if you can find me or my work called “All my exes live on canvas” (A play on an old country song). It may or may not be there. The fun is figuring it out!

Read the rest of this entry »

I literally had a perfect weekend. Saturday, Mishka worked most of the day so I just sat at home and lunged around, relaxing. Stopped at Michaels to price some frames for some screenprints I have laying around, then balked and came home. Then, we made steaks with a new cooking method which didn’t turn out like we had hoped.

Then I got to open up some presents for an early birthday!  Mishka gave me an absolutely beautiful watch from Fossil that I was drooling over several months ago and several books; Anansi Boys, Timbuktu and Comrades. I’m already halfway through Anansi Boys

Afterwards we went for dessert - Ice Cream at the famous Grand Ole Creamery, then a long walk down Grand Avenue and a long walk back - stopping at Cafe de Amore for some coffee then the Wild Onion for a night cap and appetizer. We had the Thai Chili Wings - awesome - highly recommend them! I love the Wild Onion, it always reminded me of the places I went to in Chicago. When researching links for this entry I happened upon the Wild Onion story - turns out that’s what they had in mind, a Chicago style bar & grill. I think we’ll be going there more often - great selection of beers and service that was absolutely amazing!

Sunday, we cleaned up the loft - made it sort of sparkle. In the evening, we went for another walk - stopping at Mickey’s for dinner, then the Wabasha7 market on the way back for some supplies.

I couldn’t have planned a better weekend myself - it was just a slow lazy weekend with the woman I love. Doesn’t get much better then that, really.