two sides of the coin laundry

a lot of people know the tough guy side of chad:



few people know the kinder, softer, pervy/creepy side:

don't tase me, bro!

paul's new web site is up! check out the community forums, guitar tabs and click on as many ads as you can, you'll be sending future generations of kims to college...

christianguitar.org

perqs of the job.

here is what it's like if you ever come over and have a piece of pizza.

ps. i realize that there is a theme in these pictures of me looking like i got dressed in the dark, picking clothes from my wardrobe that consists entirely of sporting gear and that i subsequently survived a sandstorm. i don't deny that this is what i look like most of the time.

olive oil task force

there's nothing that bradley likes better than doing things he doesn't understand. not really. it pretty much includes everything outside of eating, sleeping and stretching. i sometimes think that his own bark startles him. but it doesn't stop us from stretching his horizons, even if it is just to fabricate a reality that he really isn't as dull in mind and personality as a penny loafer.

here he is, dressed up for halloween, as superdog.

chad "don't call me larry" craig

here is a picture that marcy took of chadsicle and me, after his first bike ride ever.

dog the quilted, double ply paper towel hunter

what sort of place is this anyway? we blithely call our society "home", "america", "land of the free" and all the while, dog the bounty hunter has to tuck his tail between his legs for making a racial slur...i mean, the guy is a bounty hunter - it would seem to me that he's not a part of the fbi or any other conventional form of law enforcement because he's subterranean in that way. part of the reason we watch him is an attempt to preserve the unkempt, prosaic man in all of us. dog the bounty hunter isn't supposed to follow the rules. his name is dog! he's a bounty hunter!

(no i've never seen an episode but from what i know, he is an archetype redneck who happens to be a bounty hunter with a tv show documenting his adventures. i "hear" from "experts" that he has quite a following. dang it. i just watered down my opinion.)

smile, you're on candid cameroon island

i have been thinking, today, that we are become a less candid society. the mercury in the BS thermoometer is rising, folks. i attribute some of it to clouding transparency with which our government operates, with how we communicate (less person to person, more text, email, chat, etc), with the ever-increasing obsession of celebrity culture. but the factor that i feel like has most affected the "regular person" begins or is exacerbated by the advent of the digital camera.

the frequency at which we pose and take pictures has increased to such an exponential degree that even in our off-camera lives, we are more posed, more styled, more aware, more apt to conforming to the big brother theory that someone is always watching.

it used to be that only girls and guys who came out of the collegiate greek system really perfected their camera smiles and poses. after attending and being photographed in 147 crush events, 16 formals and countless smokers, tailgates and bid days, who wouldn't be? but now, in a peculiar and unfortunate fashion, everyone else is too. not only are we arranging our body parts in the most advantageous visual arrangement, we are experimenting with "candid" faces that are at their derivative, a variation and progression of the above mentioned smile.

in effect, the whole psychology behind picture taking is changing. it's strayed away from a more introspective, sentimental "let's make memories" mindset to a more extroverted, ephemeral "i can't wait to post this on facebook so people know how fun my life is" perspective.

i don't think it's necessarily bad, just different. most people who were adults before digital cameras became the norm (and didn't adhere to the collegiate greek delineation i mentioned earlier) still have awkward smiles no matter what, with no matter how much practice, in every kind of lighting situation.

my personal favorite that i like to practice is to make my eyes look bored/serious and my mouth happy/content looking. i like this face because it's ambiguous and i feel it is my quiet rage against the superficiality machine.

i'll admit, my fear in having a rehearsed smile or pose is the idea that maybe one day i will have perfected it and end up looking more attractive in pictures than i do in person to the point that my camera persona is an inaccurate representation of who i am. don't think i'm making any sorts of claims on either state. luckily, i don't think i have much to worry about, i fit into the awkward-smile-no-matter-what category.

on another note, i cannot stand mischa barton. i think she looks like a cocker spaniel and should absolutely not be considered a style icon.