My Awesome Camera

Be My Pen-Pal - Call for Applications

2009-12-06T17:35:00.000-08:00

Call for Applications; Deadline December 31, 2009

Be My Pen-Pal.

There are five immediate openings for pen-pal positions. I recently read an article stating that the US Postal Service is in serious financial trouble and that postal workers are loosing their jobs and post offices in small towns are at risk of being shut-down. Help make a difference by becoming a pen-pal.

About the position:
Selected pen pals will be required to correspond with me, approximately, once a week. I will send you a correspondence (most likely a postcard) to which you will respond. Once I have received your response I will send you a reply and so on. All correspondence will be included on the web-log (blog) http://bemypen-pal.blogspot.com. (Your name and address will NOT be included in any of the posts). This position will last one year, at the end of one year we will discuss the possibility of extending the position.

Requirements:
Ability to communicate via postcard, letter, or other mailable format.
Ability to pay for your own postage.
Ability to respond to correspondence within 7 days.
One year commitment. At the end of one year we will discuss the possibility of extending the position.

To apply:
Please submit one paragraph on why you will be a good candidate for one of these highly desirable pen-pal positions.
In your application please give your name and a mailing address where you receive postal correspondence.
Please do NOT submit your resume. If you have relevant work experience please include that information in your application paragraph.

Please submit applications to: Gabriel Burian-Mohr at bemypenpal1@gmail.com.
(All of our communication, after the initial application process, will be done via postal mail.)

The deadline for applications is December 31st 2009.

The gift that keeps on giving (revised)

2009-07-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the revised version italics indicate new text. I believe that I have corrected the tenses at the appropriate points in the story. I hope I have cleared up any confusion.

This is scary red build-up on my car battery that I believe has something to do with an attempt I made at jump starting the Celebrity many, many months ago.

Here is the Celebrity on October 5, 2008.

Just so this makes some sense: I got a call from my old landlord, in October of 2008, because the Celebrity was still parked in the parking lot of my old apartment and he was not going to give me the security deposit unless I moved it. I went to move it and as we know from much earlier posts, the Celebrity/storage unit had not started for quite some time. I attempted to charge and jump start it and blah, blah, blah...the point is it did not start.

Megan and I tried to push it out of the space, but it was too heavy. Because it is a heavy car, not because it was filled with crap. I had moved most of the "crap" out of the car and into our new attic while Megan wasn't looking. However one of the items still left was an old sheet in the trunk so we tied the two cars together and attempted to tow it.

This also did not work. So we called Steve and Kat, who happened to be out on a date picking glasses, and asked them to help us move the car. They came over and helped us push the car out of it's parking space and into the street. From there we coasted down the hill in neutral and parked it on the street about a half a block away.

Later that week I looked into donating the car to various charities in the hopes of getting a sweet tax deduction. This was back when I still had a job so I was doing my research from work. I was in the process of giving my keys to a local charity so they could check out the car to see if they could use it for anything and Surprisingly, one of my co-workers overheard the conversation and mentioned that they (insert sob story)... Anyway I gave them the car and asked when they would give me some monney for it, they replied that they would when they had some (read never). Said co-worker was eventually fired and old landlord has yet to give me my security deposit.

California here I come (came)

2009-07-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

This is the hotel where we spent the night. It is located somewhere in California. I give it Two point Five stars as it was clean and not unpleasant, however our room did not have an alarm clock or a trash can.

Looks like I still have some sizing issues to work out.

With the pictures I mean.

Megan claims that I have slipped back into my "aggressive" driving style.

I prefer to think of it as active driving.

This is someplace north of San Francisco.

Here are some exciting pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Fog-tastic.

And how!

Here we are impersonating Asian tourists in San Fransisco.

Those are monks. We would have posed for a picture with them, however, they already had a line.

In China Town, we learned the "ancient Chinese secret" to making tea.

Megan had just had about eight cups of tea and was now ready to get in the car and continue our drive to Yosemite.

Not before pausing to reflect on our effects on the earth.

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

2009-06-29T14:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while.

Lets see how this goes.

This is the open road.

If you ignore the whole "no money" thing, there are some perks to unemployment.

This is the beginnings of the Redwoods National Park.

We were trying to take it in as quickly as possible.

We figured that we would probably remember the important parts.

I am very tall.

This is part of another series of photographs exploring alternative means of transportation for the old, the decrepit, and the lazy.

This was an aging bike gang we met along the coast.

They started talking about "fixies" so we left.

A nice touch.

The sea was not angry that day.

It was very cold though.

Welcome to the Trees of Mystery.

Although we had left late, and had much more driving to do...

We made time to stop and visit Paul Bunyan and Babe his blue ox.

He waved at small children.

I always thought that "Babe" was a girl.

Here is some nature.

Here is my "Old Lady".

Here I am being "one" with nature.

Something about feeling small and talking to god...

Here we are taunting nature.

We were actually just searching for "magic mushrooms" and the "dank ass spinach".

This is an intriguing public sculpture in Eureka California.

This is the best shot of it and the internet appears to be keeping me from showing it?!

Megan made a new friend named Shelby at local coffee shop/frogurt stand. Megan and Shelby have plans to be pen-pals.

If you know Shelby at the coffee shop/frogurt stand in Eureka California; you can remind her, if you want.

Ebay

2009-04-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

I have listed the Reflector Skull belt buckle on Ebay. I don't know what else to say...happy biding?

the link

Newest Latest

2009-04-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

In case you are reading this blog just waiting for me to post new belt buckles:

p.s. I have started a site just for Gheetro Fashion it is (surprisingly) gheetrofashion.com.

Crucifixion

2009-04-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter.

The gift that keeps on giving

2009-02-25T09:55:00.000-08:00

This is scary red build-up on my car battery.

Here is the Celebrity.

Just so this makes some sense: I got a call from my old landlord because the Celebrity was still parked in the parking lot of my old apartment and he was not going to give me the security deposit unless I moved it. I went to move it and as we know from much earlier posts, the Celebrity/storage unit has not started for quite some time. I attempted to charge and jump start it and blah, blah, blah...the point is it does not start.

Megan and I tried to push it out of the space, but it was too heavy. There was an old sheet in the trunk so we tied the two cars together and attempted to tow it.

This also did not work.

Surprisingly...

In a time long ago

2009-02-24T09:53:00.000-08:00

This was a long time ago.

When apes ruled the apartment.

Here is a kitchen implement that I set on fire.

Megan thought it was quite hilarious and reenacted the scene for me...repeatedly.

These are kind of like Oreos...but different and with sprinkles.

I don't see any blood, so it's probably not even worth mentioning.

Here is Steve (god rest his soul) with a very small copy of the little red book.

I suspect that someone has posed this picture.

Linking the clones

2009-02-24T09:32:00.000-08:00

for some reason the link doesn't via the blogger. Try this http://gheetrophonics.com/DXARTS/figures/Fig-05-Audio_Video.jpg

The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein

2009-02-19T13:28:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned before I have applied for doctor school. I would go into detail about the application process, however, I don't know if it would really be that interesting to you. I am, however, posting this diagram from my application. I could explain it, but I think it's more fun if I let you use your imagination.

p.s. if you click on the image you can view the larger version.

How it goes

2009-01-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

At some point I will add new pictures, maybe with regularity...maybe. And I keep meaning to post the series of pictures of the Glowing crucifix belt buckle...

Over the past week or so, my boss comes into my office each day and we have a conversation that goes something like this:

"Good morning Gabe."
"Good morning boss."
"How are you today?"
"oh, I'm fine"
"Really?"
"Well, I know that good things will come out of all of this. I am viewing this as a opportunity to explore new things."
"Really Gabe?"
"Yes."
"Come on Gabe you can tell me, I know this situation sucks."
"Well I know it sucks, things are bad all over. But really, I'm fine"
"But you should be upset."
"I suppose I could be, but I don't really see the point."
"You can be upset, it's ok if you are."
"I know."
"It's me Gabe. You can tell me..."
etc.

Really the main thing I'm upset about is how much I'm getting from unemployment, and most of that I blame on the Americorps VISTA program.

In other news, I have been working at my application for PhD school. I don't think that is the correct term, however, I'm pretty sure you don't call it "grad school" or "doctor school."

I hear there is a party involving funny hats going down this eve. I think I will try and make a hat with a glitter fountain on top so wherever you go there is a constant mist of glitter.

Ok, I think I need some more coffee now.

I think this happened already

2009-01-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

As a tribute to my TWO YEAR anniversary in Roseburg and also because of my lack of posting recently I am going to give you a tour of how I got to Roseburg and then some.

Yesterday morning, I picked up Laura in the Bronx, we headed to New Jersey to get a replacement temporary registration. Somehow, we ended up at the least helpful DMV in the universe. The woman working was so un-helpful and so un-friendly. We went back to New York, I tried to get a temporary registration but, in the end I got an actual registration. I had to give them my Brooklyn address, even though I no longer live in New York, or anywhere really, because one cannot register a car in New York unless one lives in New York. A woman, also in line at the NY DMV, said I could use her address.

Several hours later and $250 dollars lighter we started on our 15 hour drive toward Chicago. Driving through Pennsylvania, the "check oil" light went on, we took the next exit at the end of the off-ramp the car stopped and all of the emergency lights came on. Me and Laura sat there for a while with the idea that if we let the car "rest" then all would be ok. blah, blah, blah... Not much further in the future, a guy named Tony came by, it was suspected that our timing belt had broken. Tony had a chain in his truck and towed us over to the Snappy's parking lot. He had to go visit his mother in the hospital, he gave us the number for a mechanic and said he would stop by after his visit to the hospital. Tony kept remarking on how much the people in this town were jerks and how they won't help anyone. Tony said we could stay with him and his wife. The mechanic was closed. One of the women working at Snappy's, managed to get a hold of a mechanic named Sean. So, Sean from Shawns Auto Repair came with a tow truck that already had two recked cars on it and checked out the car. It was in fact the timing belt. While he talked to me he kept getting side tracked by other people passing through the parking lot. Sean made fun of the women working at Snappy's and the made fun of Laura, then he gave her a hug.

It was decided that we would call him in the morning.

Me and Laura walked to the four different hotels near by in search of the cheapest one. We made bet's as to the prices of the different hotels, I think I won once and Laura won twice. We ended up staying at the Super 8 Motel in Clearfield, PA, it was $52 for a double. We lied about not having any pets (Laura's cat is joining us on our trip).

I talked to my mom and said I was in Virginia or maybe Pennsylvania. We had dinner at the Taco Bell/Pizza Hut/KFC. I had KFC, Laura had some side orders and then some nachos.

This morning, we had some continental breakfast, I didn't notice a copy of USA Today, but, maybe I wasn't looking hard enough. After Sean came to get the info on the car, me, Laura and the cat walked up the hill to the truck-stop cafe. We had the all you can eat buffet. In the bathroom was this soap dispenser.
Awesome.

Sean came and towed the car to his garage. We re-checked into the Super 8. The same women from last night was working the counter, so Laura did not mention the cat.

We took naps. I woke up when Sean called. He told me that the broken timing belt was the least of my worries. Other parts had been put out of commission, either because of, or the result of the timing belt breaking. Long story short(er) it wouldn't be ready until Tuesday and it would cost $1000 (far exceeding my already dwindling emergency budget). The other option...he had a Buick for sale, the car belonged to an old women and only has 50,000 miles.

Me and Laura went through our options. I borrowed money from my parents. I wept a little. So, as of tomorrow, I will be the "proud" owner of a Buick (I don't know what year or model), I hope all of my stuff fits.

We had Burger King for dinner.

here is a post from when I got here:

Left Berkeley. Got fined $30 for not having $4.00 to cross some bridge, if they really think they are going to see that $30, they are sorely mistaken. I got my car referred to as "silver". The cats cried during most of today's drive. Every time I thought I was almost out of California, the state would extend another hundred miles. I made it to Oregon, eventually. About 30 miles from my final destination I was pulled over for not moving into the left lane while passing a emergency vehicle on the shoulder. The officer asked about the dry-wall sculpture on my dashboard. I stayed with Adam, who will be one of my co-workers at the art center. As it so happens, one of Adams roommate's has a pittbull who allegedly once ate a goat, the cats were thus quarantined to Adams room. I had Thai food for dinner, the food was good, the service was bad and I ran into two of the other Americorps VISTA's at the restaurant.

This is from our VISTA welcome party:

There was a slightly awkward and slightly strange party for the incoming and exiting VISTAs. Maybe party is the wrong thing to call it, maybe it was more of a mixer, it was definitely not an ice cream social. After said event we went to a bar/restaurant that didn't have enough room for us so we congregated in the "poker room", this was a room filled with various coin operated gambling machines and extra-bright florescent lighting. Later we went to the Sugar Pine, on, what is lovingly referred to as, the wrong side of the tracks. The Sugar Pine has karaoke four nights a week hosted by a very large woman who's name may or not be momma. It's awesome, all week I've been trying to think of more songs to sing.

I started work. This has mostly consisted of me rearranging my office. In the process of rearranging I have noticed that there seems to be hay on my floor.

Once I got acclimated:

It gets very dark here in Roseburg.

This, as you may have guessed, is my awesome car, soon to be the theme of a similarly tittled blog.

I ran into Maggie & David at the drug store. Luckily they got there shortly after the part when I was smelling all of the scented candles.

We all went for a hike in the woods.

It is still pretty cold in the woods. I wish I had brought my hat.

Although I have never thought of myself as an outdoorsy type, I do like to believe I have an appreciation for the out-of-doors. I believe this is what is referred to as flora.

We walked down to the water, sans trail. I think we destroyed several ecosystems.

This may be a place for me to fish at some point. There are allot of places where you can watch salmon "run" (I think that's what it's called). I figure if you can see the fishes, it probably makes them easier to catch.

Let us flash forward (possibly backwards) to the Roseburg anniversary of 2008

We/I had a welcome to Roseburg/MLK day party. I put up balloons.

This is VISTA Steve, not to be confused with Teacher Steve. Me and Megan thought it was hilarious.

Folks were slow to arrive, I guess everyone hates me.

I even plugged in the chirping birds, you know; for ambiance.

I guess many of the new folks are old and thus, have no interest in our shenanigans.

Here is Lindsey; I think this was one of the rare occasions that I did NOT manage to offend her.

There's always next time.

All types of alcohol were represented; here we have cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Here are bottles.

And finally we have tall boy cans.

So much has changed in that time... I might have felt bad about the fact that you have already read all of these posts, however, I'm pretty sure you haven't. Anyway, I doubt most people will even make it to the end of this post.

p.s. I am being laid off at the end of the month. This marks the beginning of the end of an era. I am going to try and go back to school (much like Rodney Dangerfield did in the film of the same name).

Scorched earth

2008-11-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

This is a lava forest.

Or, it WAS a forest, then lava came and made it not a forest.

I really could not say, as I do not know what constitutes a "forest".

And I can not explain how lava erupted from this volcano, poured down the mountain and wiped out all of the living things in it's wake.

And how; as the lava cooled it formed hills and valleys of hardened lava.

And how; nothing will ever grow here, because dry lava rocks aren't so good for the soil.

But, as I am not a scientist, and more specifically a scientist of lava, I can not explain any of those things.

I really can't even make claims that any of it is true.

It's pretty neat though.

Regardless of the science involved.

Contempt for man

2008-11-14T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here is some guy playing guitar outside my window (this is where I would have included commentary on how bad he was, however, I really don't remember if he was good or bad, just that he was irritating).

This is me after I had thrown all of my garbage at him.

An aside

2008-11-12T08:00:00.000-08:00

I will eat frozen quiche no more!

I didn't realize that there was a kazoo part in Yankee Doodle. (the marching kazoo-ist is to the far right (I also didn't realize that the kazoo was a percussion instrument)).

This is The Victorian in Bend Oregon. Why it is called the Victorian is unclear. I am mostly certain it was not named for the type of food they served, for the style of building in which the establishment was housed, or the period costumes the wait staff wore.

Here is some high speed, high desert scenery.

Cadavre exquis: candy-shark-Freemason

2008-11-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

This is a licorice peppermint candy.

It left a funny taste in my mouth.

This is my new green sweater.

I am a fan.

Obviously.

Here is the shark belt buckle with it's super hero belt.

Feel the power.

Here is the moose + Freemason belt buckle.

Or maybe it's an elk.

I can't really say, as I am not a scientist.

Evil raccoon

2008-11-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

This container melted in my car. It wasn't even that hot out. I blame the government.

This is an evil raccoon in a tree

This is right before he pounced on us.

Happy Hump day

2008-11-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

I had a post up today entitled "contempt for man", it just didn't seem appropriate today. Sorry if you already read it.

I do not post political commentary here, as it is not "my thing" and there are plenty of other places you can go for that stuff. I would think the blogisphere (sp?) is filled with commentary on the election and people saying hooray or whatever.So I will keep my feelings to myself.

Consumption log

2008-11-03T08:00:00.000-08:00

I am going to track everything that I consume over the course of a year. Here is my first day.

I will jump forward and tell you that it lasted a little over a week. One week is about the point when counting the number of peanuts you've eaten or squares of toilet paper you have used starts to be more work than it's worth.

Other things I can do

2008-10-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

In case you forgot that I did things besides making belt buckles and publishing pictures with asinine commentary; I have a new piece in the online music and poetry magazine textsound.

You can listen to my piece titled Pareidolia at www.textsound.org. the piece is 6 minutes and 16 seconds, it was written and produced in 2008 and is track number 22 in this issue of textsound.

Here is the direct link: http://www.textsound.org/index.php?VOL=1&ISSUE=2&TRACK=22nbspPareidolia.mp3

Please feel free to let me know what you think.

Love,

Gabriel Burian-Mohr

I'm with stupid

2008-10-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Megan tried to convince me that this flexible electric keyboard was basically the same thing as a player piano.

Then she tried to convince me that this wouldn't be good.

And instead I should get this.

According to the drug store; pimp-pirate is the official costume this Halloween season.

You can accessorize with a scary dead rat.

Yikes!

The following is a fight I participated in:

I wasn't going to complain

2008-10-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

Megan saw this picture and asked if I was going to complain about the weather.

For once the answer is no. I just thought the fog was neat looking.

Somehow I didn't realize that I owned this awesome Dolly Parton poster.

This is a spider that died inside one of the pictures at work.

Suck fest

2008-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

I injured myself with my own belt buckle.

Then I got mustard on this very small cactus.

I have been waiting for weeks to get this cable. Turns out it is still the wrong cable.

I got $20 for my birthday. I wish I could say that I am too grown up to accept cash presents from family members. But I'm not. I also wish that I could say that I spent it on something fun, like beer. But I didn't, I spent it on cat litter.

This town

2008-10-21T16:30:00.000-07:00

So many kinds of awesome.

I hear that they Are admissible in a court of law.

I think I am in the wrong line of work.

I think this one is better without the explanation.

This ice pop was enjoyable much longer than we had expected.

We are presently at the top-middle of this map.

Welcome to Antelope, Oregon.

Antelope was established in the late 1800s'.

Their post office was established in 1871.

This is the towns house of ill repute.

The internet doesn't really tell me what happened in Antelope between then and World War II.

Some stuff I presume.

"After World War II, the community languished until the 1980s"

At which point followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh moved in an claimed the town as their own.

I believe the town was renamed for a while to reflect it's dominant population.

I could tell you about the Rajneeshee and their bio-terror plots, however, I assume you have access to the internet and don't need me to misquote Wikipedia for you.

This is an Old Time fire hydrant.

Megan attempts to urinate on a piece of history.

Megan's contempt for history is duly noted.

This is an old time jail.

This is the room inside of an old time jail.

This is the inside of a cell, inside a room, inside an old time jail

This is me inside a cell, inside a room, inside an old time jail.

And the green grass grows all around.