Let's talk about how wonderful my apartment experience has been. Fuck Tallahassee housing. So, in case you don't know already, I'm moving to a new place with new people that will hopefully be better than el old Echang-o, and since this new place is unfurnished and my old place was furnished, I've been in a mad dash to acquire furniture. In addition, since Jenn and I are getting married and all and will be moving in together, we're thinking of getting things cheap now that we can use when we're together. Hence, the dresser.
  I saw an ad for this dresser on Craigslist for 50 bucks. Jenn and I were looking for something low with a mirror for when we're together, and this fit the bill perfectly. Also, since we like to do projects, we thought we'd do one of our first real Trading Spaces-ish project together with this.
  The original piece is particle board with white laminant, not a good formica laminant but glorified sticker paper that was clearly wearing through. My mouse sander tried to take off as much as it could but the age of the sticky crap just made it gum up all my sanding pads. We gambled if the paint we got would stick to a roughed up surface over a completely bare surface and did the best we can, leaving a lot of white laminant on the piece. The paint we used was a Kilz acrylic-latex paint from Wal-Mart, simply since it was the cheapest we could get ($7 a bucket custom mixed). We got one Black and one "Black Cherry" after seeing that the Fleur De Lis I got for my walls looked pink when it dried against the black on a sample piece. We didn't actually get to see how it would dry when we bought it and thought it would be too dark, and honestly almost bought a lighter one, but when you see the finished product I think you'll agree we chose the right color. We also bought some wood putty and a wood grainer (about $5 together, though I don't count them in the cost since I'll keep and reuse them). Jenn bought the 6 hardware pieces for $3 each, and we bought 2 2x4 pieces of 1/8 hardboard to replace literally the cardboard stapled to the back of this thing ($4 each). So far, we're at $90.
  The plan was to fill the old drawer pull holes, lay the black down first in a good coat, let it dry, then grain the wood over it. The wood graining tool works by laying paint in different patterns as you rock it as you drag it across your piece. Long story short, as soon as the rubber graining tool touched the latex paint it started scraping it off the leftover laminant of the original wood. After destroying the counter top and 3 drawers, we realized we'd have to go back and re-sand.
  We went to Home Depot and rented a belt sander and got 2 belts for about $30 for 4 hours and took it home, thinking I'd be done in about an hour. Not so much, as soon as it touched the dresser everything just became a gummy mess in about 1/2 a second. We almost decided to scrap the project, but I am to bull headed and determined to succeed so I used the gummy belts to literally friction all of the paint and laminant off. I was a mess, the outside of my apt was a mess, and the only thing that looked good was the dresser. I'm surprised the cops didn't get called, this belt sander was as loud as 4 shop vacs and I did it in front of my front door at my complex for 2 hours. OOPS! What helped was using a putty knife to peel off as much of the black paint as we could, and the good thing we noticed is that the rounded edges of the drawers (where all the laminant had originally been sanded off) were keeping the paint well.
  So we returned the sander and painted it black again. Once it dried, it finally took the overcoat! 1 night later and it was as good as wood. Jenn left for CA and I poly'd it 3 times before Rachel came home, drilled and installed the hardware, and put it back out of the way. After the belt sander, this project cost about $120, which I don't think is bad, I bet I could now sell it for that much on craigslist. For the low cost and the amount of fun, I'd say this was well worth the result.

The dresser in its original condition, note the mismatched hardware and corner damage. The base piece also sticks out the sides a lot, I sanded it flush.


The inside of a drawer, they're not huge but then again we don't have a lot of stuff, and Jenn has an upright dfresser as well.


More countertop and drawer.


Side view, notice the bottom board sticking out and the corner damage.


The mirror which attaches to the back, sorry you have to see my fat legs but you still need to see this piece.


After the belt sanding incident, we reblacked it and applied the paint. Here you can see an intermediate step, and you can see the color before the polyurethane goes on. Neat photos.


You can see through to where I hammered the hardboard to the back, much better than crappy cardboard like it came with if you ask me.


Like how that comes out like wood grain? Great technique, easy to do.

Poly on the drawers, what a huge mess in my apartment!

Finished dresser, with hardware on, if you notice it when you walk in it really, really looks like stained wood!

On March 9, 2006, on the steps of the Capitol of the United States in Washington DC, I asked a beautiful woman who I have spend the last 4 and a half years with to be my wife, and she accepted. To see the ring, go here.

In a much less exciting note, I'm working on a new version of the Surfrock66 Arcade. Check it out here or just click on the button "Games" above.

First off, none of you know this page exists. It must be kept that way.

When we walked into the Zales store in Destin, I confronted what had been the head of a long conflict. Jenn and other parties had been pressuring me for a long time to propose, and other people had been pressuring me to wait. Without naming names (because I honestly don't remember) it seemed like everyone I knew was on one side or another. To me, the decision stopped being about what I wanted for my life and the person I wanted to be with but about which group I wanted to appease, so I shut the topic down in a firey explosion. Now, finally, I've had time to contact my own emotions and decide things for myself, and this is the decision I have made. This is the woman I love and I am ready to commit to her for the rest of my life.

I didn't want Jenn to have seen the ring I had given her, which is why the Zales outlet was such a good choice. Small Tally jewelers would suck to get maintenance done if we move, and at mainstream chains she's seen all the online rings and it wouldn't be a surprise since she's already formed opinions on all of them. The outlet has old models with nothing wrong with them, they just aren't online and taking up valuable space in small mall stores. When we walked into the store, this ring immediately stuck out. It was close to the one she used to like, only without the wide band and with less contour to the wedding band (good thing). We asked to look at it, and I was instantly sold. On top of that, it was even her size, no maintenance needed! It was this point I had a mini panic attack and we decided to walk away. Not that I was second guessing my decision or anything, it's just that in about 2 minutes I had all of a sudden with little analysis I was about to committ to something larger than anything I've committed to in a long time. I'm not good with impulse decisions, and I couldn't believe that this had fallen into place so fast. If you know me, you know I like to mull over big decisions for months. We shopped for about an hour, and in that hour I realized that it wasn't an impulse decision at all, but the reason it happened so quickly was that it was the right decision. So I went back to the store, pointed to it and lo and behold, the price was more right than I ever imagined. It fit on my debit card, and it's all paid off with my savings, I didn't even need to dip into student loan money (which I was prepared to do). In less than 10 minutes total in the store, I became a wedding ring owner; the owner of the perfect ring with all the right perfect qualities at a more than perfect finalcial situation. Wow.

Here's all the stuff they gave me with it.

The ring, band, and box it came in.

Close up of the rings together in the box, with mints I'll have to use for my first engaged kiss in the background.

The ring. Wow, that's it, the ring. The one she'll wear forever.

The side of it. It's not flimsy like a lot of the ones I didn't like, it's solid and won't bend.

I know this can be interpreted as a past present future ring, but I don't see it as that. The one she liked before this had a central stone with three framing diamonds in a triangle on either side, these are just 2 framing medium diamonds. The other one pinched a lot more after the three, and this one is a more gradual taper, I like it.

I LOVE the etching on the edges, that's the detail I required and this had it. It's totally the difference between a nice ring and a ring that sparkles from every single angle you could possibly look at it. When you see this ring, it's as if the finger it's on is illuminated.

The wedding band, see the slight contour?

More contour with the interlocking on top, I love it since it's a half round of the same style, once again just grabs every eye in the room.

Where the rings lock together.

And that's it, wish me luck come this summer when I plan to propose!

Been cleaning up some behind the scenes code and working on details for the site. Some things you may have notices: Improved menu function at the top including scroller targeted links, dead link indicator icon, improved sub menu functioning, and little detailed graphics for the bullets. I'm using style sheets (css) to maintain consistency of style, and moved a bunch of updates to the archives to improve loading time for the site. More to come, I'm gonna add more projects to the home menu soon.

I had a problem. My motivation for everything I did was for the approval of others, no decision I made was without the counsel or approval of others. It got to the point where I realized that when I made friends, I took on their characteristics to be more like them to get their approval. For a time, I honestly could say I didn't know who I was because I was just a conglomeration of what the people around me were. And it's been killing me; I've considered suicide because I take so much of my time doing things I don't really want to do but feel I should do. So I needed to make a permanant personal change, and that's always been a big problem for me. I needed to do something permanant and irreversible to accompany any change, to make it more real. That's when I got the idea of getting a tattoo. All my life, my parents told me if I ever got one they'd disown me, and Jenn I know wouldn't be pleased with the idea. But if I could get something there to symbolize a committment to myself to do things for me, to act in my own interest and not always worry about what other people want but what I want, I would appreciate it and live by it for the rest of my life. If it could be in a symbolic place that I could always see, but could be hidden if I wanted it to, that would be great. Like on my wrist, right in the place I've thought about slicing across several times due to the same issues I'm approaching to resolve. If I could get something to go right under my watch, it would be absolutely perfect. Finally, the message, if it could be something to represent the whole thing, yet something simple. Something that is for me to understand, yet not so simple that it's laid out to everyone. In high school, we all learned Aurebesh to communicate covertly, which is a written language from Star Wars. Something written in that, not because it's Star Wars, but because few people can read it. It was decided then and there it's what I wanted, but to be sure, I committed myself to wear it drawn in sharpie for a few weeks (6) and each time I saw it, I realized it was the right thing to do. I wanted to keep it a secret from Jenn and my family, just because they would try to influence me. When I thought about why not to get a tattoo, I thought my parents would kill me, Jenn would be disappointed, Meg might think it's stupid, and Jenn's parents would be disappointed. I never even thought about what I thought. And honestly, as long as it's something meaningful and not decoratice or over the top, I have no problem with it. Jenn found out about it at about week 5 when I slipped, and I didn't intend that to happen, and she tried to talk me out of it, but I had already decided it by that point. And finally, I did it. At first I was terrified about it, I was so worried I had done something stupid, what would everyone think. But Keith was there with me the whole time, and he reminded me why I did it, and it was all ok. And it still is. I made this decision for me, and I'm absolutely proud of it. And slowly, the people whose approval I would usually require are warming up to it. They respect my decision, and for once I know I made a huge unpopular decision and people are respecting me for me. I am so proud of it, other people may not like it but I did it for me and only me, and it represents me perfectly. I feel like I have this huge boost in confidence in the decisions I make, I feel like I can be myself, and if people don't like something about me they don't have to like me. I'm not living for them, I am living for me. I have no desire to get another tattoo, although people tell me getting them is addictive. And for this one, it's a response to a problem I've had for 20 years and no matter what happens in the future, if I can look down at this and know I can change and be those things I want to be, or look and know it commemorated a problem I overcame, I'll never regret it. So if you know what it means, awesome, cool, it's a simple credo, a message for me, a command, a reminder, all sorts of things, but don't make the exact message a big deal, I like that it has some unique mystery to it.

This is my wrist before I got the tattoo. Say goodbye forever to my unblemished skin!

Here is the mystery design, it's not that tricky to figure out what it means. 3 inches by 1/2 inch.

To make sure this was what I wanted, I drew it on my wrist in sharpie every day for 6 weeks before I did it. This is what it looked like.




Here's the after pictures. Day 1.







Some crazy "Look I'm a metal head" pics for the family.

Day 5 of the healing process.




Almost Healed.