xdes

don’t know if you guys knew this, but…

scarlet begonias

luckily when i made mine, i had a little of the materials already in stock at my house...such as the pole and 2x4s..and drywall screws. it doesnt really take too much to do it, but here is what i did, and you will probably have to do some things differently:

1.) find a pole. i happened to have a pole already that used be a handrail to go to the basement. it was too long, and had an elbow joint that needed to be removed. and i had to weld the mount back on the bottom so it would be straight, rather than a 90 degree angle.

2.) mount the pole. for this, i bought some supplies from fastenal(my second job), so it wasnt too expensive, nor would it have been anyway. i drilled four 5/16 holes in the concrete, and then anchored the pole to the floor with 3/8 LDT’s(large diameter tapcons). and bolted the top of the pole to a ceiling joist with four 3/8 hex cap screws, and used washers so the nut wouldnt pull into the 2x8.

3.) i began building the platform and installed the can lights, aiming them to the center of the stage. i only used 2 can lights here, but four would probably be even better. i made the platform 5x5(sorta...its actually not square because i mis-measured something, but you can’t tell, so it’s ok)

4.) next, i layed the subflooring. i used advantech, because its strong and sturdy as hell..but a piece of 3/4” plywood would probably work too, and maybe even 1/2” would be sufficient if you had enough supports in your platform, which i didn’t. i screwed everything together because screws don’t back out as easily as nails..and in the long haul, won’t squeek.

5.) i bought a strand of 25 ft ropelight from lowes for around 12 bucks, and its easy to install. theres little brackets you screw in place, and then just pop the ropelight into the brackets, and then plug it in

6.) next i layed laminate flooring..its a cheap alternative to hardwood, and easy to install. unfortunately i had to put some nails in on the edges so it would be secured(normally you don’t nail it down, it all clicks together)

7.) done

8.) if you build it, they will come.

ok, not really, i had a really great time, and thanks to you guys that made it! it was a blast. the stripper pole turned out to be a lot of fun, we only had one injury, and that was brandon..ended up getting 5 stitches. you’re not a stripper unless you leave with stitches is what he said..heh

clean up wasnt bad at all either(however i still have some cleaning to do). all the beer bottles and cans were all we had to clean up..so it wasnt too bad. anyhow, thanks to everyone for making it fun

my dad just called me and wanted to say hi and to check in on me and tell me that he loves me. which they do that occasionally, as a lot of parents do. but then he asked if i had talked to my siblings today, and i said no..and started wondering what was about to be said..kind of worried. he then told me that him and my mom found a body over at our property(across the street from their house). theres a clearing going down the ridge where the powerlines run so dad can get down there, and apparently the body was laying somewhere in there, because mom and dad saw the body from the road. at first they werent sure if it was or not, but mom decided to go check, and sure enough it was. and as she came back up the hill, my parents neighbor was driving out his driveway and asked what was going on..and he went down there to the body, which turned out to be his son. i dont know why things like that bother us(or me) so much more when its right next door, versus 1000 miles away, because half the time you dont know them anyway...its just disturbing. they said the police or whatever finally took the body away around 9pm last night, and dad didnt know what the cause of death was from. bah

it rained. and it rainded a lot..which sucks..because when it rains a lot, water likes to creep into my basement and make a home out of the floor. thats right guys..there may not be a stripper pole :( i’m probably more disappointed then the rest of y ou, but i have an idea that might work. my shop vac has a built in water pump on it, so hopefully tomorrow i will get down there and start suckin that shit out, and maybe figure a way out to keep it dry till after the party. but for now, there may be no pole :(

Halloween_Party.doc

after reading geoff’s post about his project to have the turtles inside, i decided to post about my current project: the halloween party. i’m pretty sure the only ones who may read this have already been invited..if you havnt been invited, then..theres a reason. jk if i really did forget to mention it to someone that i would like to come. just email me if you’re interested. it will be on friday the 26th.

amy(my cousin), olivia(her cute friend), and i are the ones doing the planning. they seem to be paying for most of the decorations, and i would like to help out more, but alas, i’m poor. but i can look at it like this: i’m having over 30 people in, and around my house..a lot of them i don’t know. but i have my own decoration that i’m working on..if you havnt heard yet...its a stripper pole. yes, like those poles they have in strip clubs.

i will submit pictures when it is complete..but i already have everything i need to put the pole up.

what i am doing is this:

there used to be an old galvanized handrail going into the basement that i took down when i got the house...and its been sitting in the basement since. the perfect size for the stripper pole! it was a little long, so i had to cut it down, and bore out the holes on the plates that it was connected to.

last night i went down there and found the center of where it will be, measured and measured, and then marked. the platform will 5x5, and will be a little over 3.5 inches tall(the ceiling is low, so i cant build it up too high, so standard 2x4 height will be sufficient). i was originally going to have plexiglass as the floor, with lights shining up to illuminate the dancer, but after checking with hubbich glass, they said it wouldnt be strong enough. so instead of buying 3in thick worth of glass, i decided to get a cheap version of pergo(sp) to put down..so it will end up looking like hardwood..which will work out good for spinning around the pole and stuff. so today i’m going to start the construction process..since i have basically everything else set up for it. yay!

johnny cash nailed this song. filled it with emotion and heart and soul. i doubt anyone else can do it. but all in all, it’s a good song. i’m posting this for the ones of you who havn’t heard the original “hurt” by Nine Inch Nails. It’s still a good song..but it just can’t compare to what cash did. he did this song justice.

if i don’t go to the doctor and fix this shit. for the past few weeks my ring, and pinkie finger have been going numb at least 70 percent of the day...just the tips of them. which means poor circulation i guess. but thats also tied to diabetes.god lied to me, he said i was the perfect human being. ok, i’m kidding, he told me i was going to die at age 25, and he lied about that too. so whatever. as long as i keep my “fuck you” finger, i’ll be ok..once i lose that i’ll crash my bike into a wall of styrofoam cinder blocks. bitches.

today while waiting for 5 oclock to roll around at fastenal, i heard somebody yelling or whatever, which shouldnt be all that wierd to hear on rossville blvd, but it caught my attention, so i looked out and saw some lady standing there screaming her lungs out at a fat black kid(looked to be a teenager) who was walking away from her. she was in some sort of uniform, i couldnt tell exactly where she worked, but i went out of the store and watched to make sure he didnt do anything do her. the only thing i could actually understand in her yelling was: “NO! YOU COME BACK HERE AND PICK THAT UP AND HAND IT TO ME!!”. i had already figured he had stolen something, and that just made it more apparent.this kid actually had a soft face on him, as in...didnt really have a thug look. he picked up the package and handed it back to her and walked the the corner of our store(facing the blvd). i sat there and observed him, and was just disheartened that someone so young, and still so innocent to the world, would steal. this kid probably weighed about 350 or so, he was rather large. i was leaning up on the front counter when he decided to walk in.

i couldn’t help myself, “did ya get caught stealing something?”

“nah.” he said while trying to hide it. he actually looked somewhat dissapointed and embarrassed in himself.

“can i borrow your phone?” he asked. so i gave him the phone and watched him struggle to figure out how to use it. after a couple of minutes on the phone of him trying to tell his grandma where he was, he hung up.

“so how old are you?” i asked.

“15”

i looked at him with disappointment and said, “you know theres better ways to get the things you want. you can always get a job. i’m 25 and bust my ass working two jobs to be able to afford the things i want, just to have people come and steal them from me, and it just isn’t right, ya know?”

he nodded in agreement.

“man, you look like a good kid, and you’re too young to throw your life away for some stupid shit like that, and you dnot want to go down the wrong road. i’ve had to many friends thats done that and end up in jail, or shot, or whatever. you just have to think about what youre doing before you do it.”
again he nodded in agreement, still with that embarrassed look on his face, and he turned he walked out with his head down.

i didnt yell at him at all. i tried to give him some words of wisdom. but it really just broke my heart. i’m almost wondering if someoen put him up to it, or he was just trying to impress someone..which it had to be something like that, because this kid really seemed like a good kid. i know looks are deceiving and all, but damn. bah, that whole situation just made me feel shitty. it made me thankful for my family and whatnot, because they raised me right. i know i dont make the right decisions regularly, but i have good morals. and i try to act on those.

i’m tired of everything i have tearing up or breaking, or falling apart, or whatever. is there a reason why i tend to have shitty luck with anything? my trucks a piece of shit, my laptop is dying, my desktop is a piece of shit, plus the sound card or something else isnt working. i just want to hear my music! my laptops harddrive is going out i believe(i go through harddrives like candy, and its not from the porn i ‘download’ like some of you will say). i’m just sick and tired of not having anything that will last a decent amount of time. hell, the light in my living room and bedroom died, too. and i don’t know what caused it, i put new bulbs in, jiggled the wires and such, and no luck. thats just it..i have no luck. i know everyone goes through bullshit, but it seems like thats all i deal with. back when i rode bmx, i broke this and that(on my body and my bike), but no one else ever did. i used to think it was because i went “bigger” on the crazy stuff we did, but now i’m just thinking its because if its connected to me in any size, shape, or form: it’s going to break. well goddamnit! give ME a break. all this because i wanted to hear 1 certain fucking song. stupid bullshit

while most of you are familiar with h20(water), a lot of the population is not familiar with it in the form of precipitation(rain). it has a strange affect on people in this form. i’ve noticed that it makes them STUPID! or it may not even be the people..the rain could just have an affect on 50 % of the cars on the road when this dumbifying liquid falls from the heavens. and this also relates to the previous post, if you can’t drive in the rain worth a shit, move out of the fast lane, because some of us arent scared we’re going to melt if we drive normally. please. please! for the love of god, get the hell out of my way!

on another note:
i went to nashvegas this past weekend to visit john, and it was a lot of fun. neely is a great girl if you guys havnt met her yet. john, you did good w/ her, and marley is fuckin awesome too. i like it up in nashvegas, and would like to move up there if it were at all possible. theres so much to do up there. we went to a place and heard a couple of bands that neely is a groupie of(hehe) and they totally kicked ass. if you get a chance, buy their cds, The Running, and Paradise Daze. great bands, got some sublime stylie goin on. uNF. just great

you know what really grinds my gears? slow people in the fast lane. here’s a little lesson in driving folks: if there is a vehicle approaching you from behind at a faster pace than what you are moving, switch to the right lane. i like to call that the right lane. you see, they even have signs posted everynow and then stating: SLOWER TRAFFIC MOVE **RIGHT** .  i understand not everyone can read, and i’m sorry if i offend you. but jesus christ people, if a big truck is coming up from behind you and it looks like he’s not going to slow down(i’m talking about me), then get out of his way...please.  another situation that i see a lot is one car will be going slower than other traffic, and 10 cars will be pretty much as close as they can to one another...that also is an indication to move the fuck over! you have mirrors, use them. look in the reflection and see the pile of cars lined up behind you and MOVE OVER!

do you know what else really grinds my gears? making plans to do something with someone, and not following through with it. granted, i know shit comes up, and its fine if you notify the person you made plans with. but telling someone you’re going to do something an hour earlier than the time you get off from work, and then you give no word. especially if you’re the person who made the plans, at least have the decency to say something such as, “sorry, something came up i need to take care of”, and things will be ok. but if you just leave the other person lingering not knowing what the hell to do...because some people actually plan there days and whatnot. so, for instance i tell you we are going to hang out at 5pm, and then you hear nothing from me. i guess you could have been sitting around doing nothing, but chances are you might have been able to have other plans. but instead you sit around waiting for the planner of events to call. it really doesnt even matter in this issue tonight, because i found good stuff to do. i wired up an outlet for geoff’s HAMM radio stuff, and then watched “Shooter”, which is a good movie by the way.

this is wa42y signing out.

i was reading a post over atJAWC, and it made me think of something that happened at ups a couple of years ago.

ok, that sucked ass...i had typed it all in a comment box, because i didnt think it would be all that long, so then i copied it and posted a smaller comment, then came here to post what i had copied...and in doing so, i copied the link for geoff’s page(stupid), and then i went to paste the story, such as right here: http://www.justaweebitcloser.com/index.php/site/neglectfully_yours/

and thats what i got. damnit, that sucks ass! mainly because i had already tried to type it once, and was about half way done with it, and jason came back in the store, so i had to get off his computer so he could actually do work..

well, long story short(its only long because if you guys know my dad, he tells long stories..and it must be hereditary).
chris threw a next day air ENVELOPE at a driver that didn’t want to run it, and the driver freaked out and called the cops and pressed assault charges on chris. chris lost his job a couple of days, but thankfully got it back. because the guy was just ignorant. it was an ENVELOPE! less than 1 lb! its like getting hit with a paper ball. but anyway, thats the short version of the story, the other one was about 4 times longer. it just had a little more heart and soul to it.