Almost forgot...

I uploaded some Tanzania shots over at Visual Davis. Click this link or hit the Visual Davis button in the sidebar.

SYS

Busy weekend/More Firsts

I saw my first drag racers!!! Not my first ones ever, just the first time since being in Lincoln. Well at least one of them was trying to drag race. LOL



As I approached these two vehicles at the intersection of Warlick and Old Cheney (not too busy but not too open an intersection either, really) the driver of the Chevy truck was lurching his vehicle forward a foot at the time while revving his engine apparently trying to get the Dodge Magnum driver to drag race. I immediately began to laugh and luckily I had my camera laying on the passenger seat to pop the shot. Come to think of it I should have taken a video but was afraid my batteries would have run out.

The driver of the Magnum looked like a business suit-type content with yacking on his cell phone and wasn't interested in racing at all. But the shit kicker driving the Chevy really wanted to race! Judging from the look of his truck he was probably kicking some shit all through the live long day and rightfully bored as hell. When I pulled up next to him in the turning lane to see what the dude looked like, the guy looked like Grizzly Adams or something, pushing sixty years old, making him nearly twice the age of the Magnum driver. I couldn't stop laughing (couldn't look away either) even when the shit kicker looked over at me. Behind his doo rag and sunglasses I could see his perplexed look wondering what I could be finding so hilarious. I imagined for a moment:

Shit Kicker: "Whadd'ya looking at, boy?"

Moi: "Just anuddah knob behind da wheel, sir." (out here I've got an accent too!)

Shit Kicker: "Whadd'ya mean by knob, man?"

Moi: "You know, like 'daw knob.' Daw knobs aren't too sharp!"

Shit Kicker: "I'm sorry, I don't follow ya!"

Moi: *chuckle* "Yeah, I figgered as much!"

But instead, I looked back at the turning signal to see it was green and I made my left. You gotta have fun sometimes, even if it is at someone else's expense. ;)

SYS

HNT

So this is my first time playing HNT also known as Half-Nekkid Thursday. So here's my submission:



This came out more blurry than I had anticpated but it was a difficult shot for me to do myself. Can you guess what part of my body this is located? :) And those of you who know me in the flesh don't go being a Mr. Bungle and spill the beans now. *shaking finger* LOL

Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday!

SYS

The Tale of the Ragu!

First off, I hope everyone likes the new Walking Wounded "concept" as I like to refer to it! I wanted something less flash, less busy, more laid back and would allow the content to draw the eye. Definitely a breath of fresh air for me as I love it. Thanks again, Cricket. U da bomb, yo!

So the story behind the Ragu shot is this. I am a frequent visitor to FlickrLicio.us. I go there more for the photos (what's shot and the quality) and less to oggle the girls. This guy posted a response to one of the photo entries with a link to the accident victim. The guy was a college student and was surfing the web at the library. On the computer screen he had a picture of a girl in a swim suit (cannot recall the exact pic) and the picture of the accident victim. Apparently, the librarian asked him to remove the picture of girl claiming it was offensive to other students in the library. The librarian mentioned nothing about the more graphic picture of the poor victim's guts all over the asphault, mind you! The guy (and I would have to agree with his reaction) was pretty surprised and pissed by the whole thing. I thought it was pretty pathetic that a picture of a girl similar to this one:



would be deemed offensive by anyone. Even if it was a shot of a fully naked chick, how could the human body be offensive? I don't know. Perhaps I'm biased because because I tend to look at things in a more clinical sense at times.

You wanna know something funny? I don't normally dig blondes but this shag looks just too yummy. Thank heaven for loose bra straps, eh? ;)

SYS

Just to let y'all know.

Walking Wounded will be receiving a facelift!

Tonight on or about about 12pm EST (11pm CST) Walking Wounded will be receiving a facelift thanks to the multi-talented, the vivacious and I might add the wonderfully ample bosom'd Cricket!

Walking Wounded has been an institution for over a year now and I think the time has come to experiment more with the look and feel. Why not, really? Not to worry. You'll still see more of the opinions, observations, complaints, tech talk, music talk, movie talk, nonsensical (?) talk, weird photos, beautiful photos, weird people, beautiful people, weird things, beautiful things you've all come to expect quite surprisingly from a mind as twisted and cunning as mine!

For example, check out this dude who ate too much Ragu:



There is a story behind this picture which I will include in an upcoming post after the facelift. Check out the new look when the clock strikes twelve and the witching hour begins... LOL

SYS

More adventures in corn country...

Hi kids! Do you like violence? Wanna see me stab a railroad spike through my freekin' mellon! Do ya?!? Well, my day today wasn't all that bad, really. Although, it began with a couple of real cluster f*cks.

A brief side note: To whomever introduced me to Sudoku (and I forget who at the moment) THANK YOU VERY F*CKING MUCH! Now I am certifiably addicted to these damn number puzzles. I purchased not one but two mini travel sized books of puzzles by "the original inventors of the puzzle." At least that is what Barnes & Noble are marketing them as. I actually did a fast inquiry as to where "Su Doku" originated from and I believe it was invented by a Swedish mathematician. Maybe if someone knows further details they can pass them along to me as I am now totally engrossed in Su Doku. I seem to be ripping through about 5-8 puzzles a night, which is only taking me about an hour to do. After that though I am ready for snoozing as I am drained. But what do I end up dreaming about? SU DOKU! Shit!!!

As I woke today I was alerted to an unwanted visitor in my crib. A damn fly! Double shit!!! This has been the third one I had to hunt down and kill in three days. Those that know me personally know that I am a bt anal retentive when it comes to cleanliness in my place. So the presence of a fly urks me to no end. To be honest, I had enough of flies when I was in Tanzania but since NE is getting frost heavy each night, the little s.o.b.s are trying to come indoors for the winter. Not in my crib they aren't. I think I did locate the possible place where they are entering and I will fix this later this week or call the management office and complain if the job is too big for me to do. I still have to get used to being a renter. Strike one.

After the kill I felt good about myself and decided to shower up and get going on today's first mission: locate a barber shop. Now this is not as easy as it is in NY. NY has barbers all over the place. Men get their haircut at a barber while women, homosexual men and most metrosexual men go to a salons. But in Lincoln this is not the case. I flipped open the yellow pages and looked up "barbers" and the city had a decent amount of listings. So I immediately started calling to get directions and prices. Well it turns out the old bait and switch was on and this City Slicker was on the case. Most of the so-called barber shops I called required an appointment. WTF? An appointment at a barber shop?? Hate to inform you guy or gal (yeah, what a surprise I got when I called a barber and a woman answered the phone) but if you take appointments you are NOT a barber shop - you're a salon! Strike two.

Out of the dozen salon-I mean barber shops I called, I was able to weed out the fakers just by who answered the phone (a receptionist being the dead giveaway). But I didn't just hang-up on the person. I asked a few other questions just to make sure I wasn't leaving any stones unturned. The biggest question I asked was whether or not they used buzzers (or clippers as they may be called, like the Oster). No buzzers!? No buzzers mean only one thing - you're a salon! Strike three. One out. No man on. Bottom of the ninth.

The next question of the utmost importance was price. Now on Long Island we all know how expensive things are. But you can get a haircut at a barber shop for between 8-10 bucks not including additional services like steam facials and hot shaves. For arguments sake, if I wanted to get a cut plus a hot shave I would be covered with just 20 bucks and I might even have change after the tip. Some of these salon-I mean barbers in Lincoln were quoting me nearly 20 bucks for just the cut. They must be figuring in the tip with the price, otherwise no sensible person would break another large bill just for the tip. Double-digit prices for men's hair cuts means only one thing - you're a salon! Strike one.

I get to this one place called "Head's Up" -something or another, so I figured what the hell and dialed. A jovial whatshisname answers the phone and I ask my questions. I found out he does do appointments but takes walk-ins. Cool. He also told me no one was in his shop yet. Even cooler. He also provided direction and I could be there in like ten minutes. The coolest! So off I go. Here's the pitch... batter swings. Line drive to right-center. Man on first. One out. Bottom of the ninth. Looks like the starting of a Yankees rally.

I head down to Head's Up and I was delighted to see that it looked like a barber shop. They even had the barber's pole out in front of the place for all driversby to see. I felt good as I entered the shop. Inside I found whatshisname introduced myself and found that he was the soul owner and operator of the Head's Up Barber Shop. Not bad I think to myself. I re-confirmed that he could take a walk-in and said he had time to "neaten my up." So I must have been in the chair a total of fifteen minutes (seemed even shorter because the dude got right to business and was able to cut AND talk at the same time). He even had a little vaccuum attachment thingy he used to vaccuum all the little hairs off of my forehead, face, ears and neck and shoulders. Give myself a good stare in the mirrors and found he did a great job at neating me up. Next time I get a cut I will be re-styling a bit more and more clipper work will be needed for that. So with everything wrapped up I ask him how much. He replies, "That will only be $16." Come again? "$16 that'll do ya, sir." Here's the pitch... batter swings. Batter hits into a 4-3 double play. Three outs. That ends the ball game. The Yankee loses.

No trim up top, no shave, just the sides and back get clipped. Well, I hand over a c-note feeling as though my pants are being let down to my ankles as I am slowly leaned over. When I hear the money drawer slam shut, I realize whatshisname just achieved penetration. Shite! So as he hands me the four bucks in change back, I imagine it was my tip for a service rendered and quickly make my exit with a polite but stern, "good day." This doesn't make me feel any better but I could deal with it easier. Otherwise, I could have chastized him for ten minutes hopefully to have some sense sink in. But whatshisname was a bit older and all I need to do is be caught up in a barber having a heartache in his shop from an irate customer who happens to be from NY. Nah, not today anyway...

SYS

I actually did dye my hair "sunset" blonde once...

...but who the hell were they kidding it was orangy NOT blonde!

Thanks to Cricket for the motivation to get back to the roots - on my scalp. Just call me Orange Glow, yo! LOL

I don't have any roots, seriously. I very rarely dye my hair but Maxim's Sunset was pretty cool looking. :)

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind. You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

SYS

I love making my own MP3s...

But sadly this doesn't leave me with any motivation to go out and seek some MP3s like many of you do. First, being an audiophile of sorts, I find that many cool mp3s I come across were not created too well. This annoys me. When listening to a really cool find that sounds horrible just leaves me sick and frustrated. Second, I hate that people screw around and change the name of songs when creating the mp3 file names. Sometimes a song I know well is either a) totally mislabeled or worse, b) the track is totally not what the file name suggests it is. Could be somebody's crappy Cakewalk version of a mix. It's all monkey balls I tell ya!

Speaking of monkeys, I was cleaning out my mp3 folder and decided to try and track down some of the albums the songs appear on. Not having a whole lot of time to dig in the crates at an indie shop here in Lincoln, I decided to take the lazy way out and head to Best Buy. I didn't really feel like a punk because I was out for CDs - not vinyl. I found FOUR surprisingly good finds amidst the usual horde of popular trash.

1. Space Monkeys vs. Gorillaz: Laika Come Home

2. Dreddy Kruger presents... Think Differently Music: Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture

3. Depeche Mode... Playing The Angel

4. The Kings of Funk: Compiled by RZA and Keb Darge

I highly recommend these to anyone with musical taste. They are tops!

On a side note, is anybody else feeling Skateboard Pharrell's "Can I Have It Like That" as hard as I am? Can't wait to start hearing it at the dance clubs over here.

Oh yeah, and this is a call to anyone in the know. I am desperately looking for either the track or a mix CD/album that contains the mash-up of Michael Jackson's Billy Jean and Kelis's Milk Shake. Help a brother out, yo! LOL

SYS

So I've Been in Lincoln For a Week...

...and already I've revisited a few whimsical nuances I had previously forgotten about the Midwest and Lincoln. They have provided me the opportunity to scratch my head all over again and laugh to myself but outloud many times. Here's what few things I have observed since my arrival a week ago.

1. People drive slow. Not as slow as in West Palm Beach, but slow. This is not a big deal at all, really. My first couple of days driving around (familiarizing myself with the necessities) I wasn't looking to do any Mario Andretti impersonations behind the wheel believe me. But on one particular morning I headed out early. I did notice a bunch of Mario Andrettis. I thought for a moment, "Am I back on Long Island?" But then I saw that all the Marios' cars had sorority decals on their rear windows and it all began to make sense. Young girls drive the same in Lincoln, on Long Island and all points in between.

2. There are no delicatessens in Lincoln! I mean real delicatessens, the kind that open at 5am, make a kick ass egg sandwich in the morning and loads of heros all afternoon. There are two so-called delicatessens I have found so far near my crib but they all open up at 11am (wtf?) and none of them make egg sandwiches. Shite. I bet you if I opened up a deli, I would rake up the dough - especially if it were located near the UNL campus. Hey, that's an idea. I will look for delicatessens near the campus next time I am over that way. They must have heard of egg sandwiches out here, right?

3. Hyvee has Snapple Iced Tea!!! It's made from the best stuff on earth. Upon my arrival here I was dying for a cold one - a Snapple iced Tea. I went all over to try and get one. Every Quik-Mart I stopped at to get gas, Russ's Food Market, Super Saver even the book stores. Nothing. Until I was driving back from the Capitol building the other night (can't wait to take night photographs of the building - it truly is the city's monolith) I noticed a Hyvee Food Store. I decided to stop in seeing as it was on the way to my crib and I was still trying to find the best grocery store around where I could find the stuff I usually keep in the house. I was so happy to see cases of Snapple Iced Tea. Now if I could only find decent cold cuts and egg whites. It seems grocery store butcher departments don't carry cold cuts like they do back east. But no doubt I am on the case. They must have Boar's Head around here somewhere. LOL

SYS

First installment of Africa Trip up.

For all those interested I have begun my Africa Series posts of my trip over at Mobile Davis. Either click the link or hit the Mobile Davis button on the right column. More updates to come as I weed through photos and journal content. Hope you enjoy!

SYS

Back From The Dark Continent!!!

Well I am back from the dark continent in one piece and with many a tale to tell. Actually, the last 36 hours have been spent on planes or in cities not my own so I am a bit spent. I must still be on Africa time since I fell asleep last night at about 1:00am and woke up today at 5:00am bright-eyed and ready to go. Funny thing is I really have nothing planned so I will be slowly blogging, catching up with emails and phone calls and getting back to the swing of things.

To all those who sent me trippy travel vibes and best wishes while I was away they were just what the doctor ordered. Thank you all so much!

SYS