Lee the Sobe Lizard on Twitter

The other day on Twitter, I mentioned that I didn't understand that Sobe Football commercial. The next day, Lee the Lizard wants to "Follow" me on Twitter. Meaning, I guess, he's interested in following what I do and being updated with my status.

I mentioned I was eating Trader Joe's oatmeal and Trader Joe's wanted to "Follow" me. Same thing happened when I mentioned "Travel Channel" because I was watching their Anthony Bourdain show and told the world. I guess the corporations are searching out who's talking about them. I thought the Trader Joe follow was cool because I like their store. I don't even remember a notice that the Travel Channel was following me. I just saw their icon on my followers page one day. But the Sobe thing is weird cuz I really wasn't complimentary to them in my comment. Nothing against them but I did think their commercial was just a bunch of random craziness. Not sure what to really think about this corporate search on Twitter. I guess I can't mention anything without some company looking for me. Maybe a year from now, I'll have a ton of corporate logos on my followers page. You heard it here first.

Custom ADIDAS kicks. Finally!

Adidas has finally made it possible to design your own custom shoes with fabric and color combinations online. Their competitors Nike, Puma and Converse have already had a shoe customizing website for a while.

Shoe choices include the F50 TUNiTs ($220), Stan Smiths ($100), Superstar IIs ($120) and more. Prices range from $95 (BTB LT) - $240 (Predator Power Swerve). I wanna get a pair!!!

2 Cups and a Guy - Moxibustion

I had this done to me last week at the Acupuncture school. It is called Cupping & similar to Moxibustion Therapy. I'm not sure which or what was done to me since I was lying on my stomach. But basically a thin layer of baby oil was rubbed on my back. Two bulb looking glass shapes (the cups) were like lit with a lighter to the inside of the bulb which created a vacuum which made the "Cups" stick to my back. The intern doc just shifted the cups around my back leaving them in spots for a few seconds while still staying stuck to me. It didn't hurt nor was it hot. It was a weird feeling though and my skin felt pinched if the cup stayed in one place too long. I guess the purpose is to stimulate certain Acupressure points. I felt my back loosened up though.

Watchmen on Twitter

Well it looks like someone has taken the Rorschach persona on Twitter along with the rest of the Watchmen characters. He is using the status updates to recite dialog exactly from the graphic novel. Pretty clever. Rorschach is like the bad-ass / psycho / vigilante / detective of the book and above he lets Dr. Manhattan know what he thinks is going on. A pivotal point of the story actually.

I am a big fan of the graphic novel. The movie looks like it'll be good but the Watchmen is a vast, complicated story with character back stories, flashbacks and what made it for me was the storytelling technique in the book. I guess we'll just see how it translates to the movie.

BTW, I like how whoever is operating the Rorschach username on Twitter has like a dominatrix he's following. Haha.

Back from Lake Tahoe

So I got back from Lake Tahoe Tuesday. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, it is on the border of Nevada and California. The trip was pretty uneventful. The misery of the cold and the snow kept us indoors. But the resort we stayed at was cool. Had to be a part of a tortuous Time Share seminar type meeting in exchange for the stay. The saleswoman got straight on the pitch. Talk about making you feel guilty.

The city is small and nice, had great shops and restaurants and Nevada gambling was like 2 blocks away. I think the driving and getting around in the snow is the thing that you need to get used to being in Lake Tahoe. A lot of slippin and slidin and we nearly got stuck in the ice once. So in general, the world of ice and cold may not be for me. Hopefully next trip will have sun and beach.

Shanghai Flavor Shop

So I went to the Shanghai Flavor Shop this evening. Unusual name but it is a local soup restaurant. I ordered the Pork, Potato, Dry Bean Curd Noodle Soup. Was actually good. And I got their Pan Fried Pork Bun (see above). It's kinda what they are famous for. You get 6 buns for like $5.50. They are freshly made to order and take about 15 minutes to make. They are exactly what they are called. It is like a meatball of pork surrounded by a bread/bun then given like a pan fried browning on the bottom. There is a little soupy juice inside so be warned when you take a bite. I had it squirt on my white shirt.

Going to snowy Lake Tahoe (Next to Nevada) for the weekend

Yep, I'll be going to snowy Lake Tahoe (which is on the border to Nevada & California) for the weekend. Three nights at a resort kinda in trade to listen to a timeshare seminar thingie. Oh well. It's about a 4 hour drive. Halfway is Sacramento. If it's snowing, it will take longer of course. And by all counts, it looks like it'll snow. I have only seen real snow fall 3 or 4 times in my life: Tahoe and Michigan. Barely snow on the ground when I visited New York and Philly. We will be leaving early in the morning tomorrow. Hopefully it'll be an easy drive and not too freezing. BTW, I hate long drives. Ugh.

RhymeFest TwitFest on Twitter

It's fun following Grammy winning Rapper / Battle Rap Champ, RhymeFest on Twitter. He always has got real quotables, political talk and keeps it fun with his 6 'o clock surveys. Unedited and uncensored. Well, I censored him here.

Can you make a t-shirt of Jay-Z and sell it?

I just joined www.t-shirtforums.com - technical, business and marketing talk about the t-shirt making world. In a forum, someone asked the question: "Can you make a t-shirt of Jay-Z and sell it?" - pretty related to what I do. So I went to look for the answer, remembering about a court case with the "3 Stooges".

Thanks to Google research, I've found you can make t-shirts and sell portraits with your own artwork of famous people. But the rules are iffy and it depends how you do it. But know you can be sued for anything. The court case that defined the law is 2001's "Comedy III Productions v. Gary Saderup Inc". Gary Saderup sold "3 Stooges" charcoal portraits (he drew) on lithographs and t-shirts. But the family of the "3 Stooges" didn't like Saderup using the Stooges' likenesses. The artist lost the case:
Exercise Caution With Celebrity Images | Art Business News | Find Articles at BNET

In the case "Tiger Woods vs. Rick Rush". Rush, a famous sports artist, won the case.
Commentary: Legal ADvice - Tiger Woods sues artist for trademark | Daily Record and the Kansas City Daily News-Press | Find Articles at BNET

I think the differences in the two cases was how the products were marketed and how artistic/creative were they. Saderup's portraits bordered on realism so you could say he was selling the "3 Stooges" image. While Rush is a known sports artist, he's selling the "Rush" name, look & his artistic style and Tiger Woods was the subject matter.

The question may be "When is the artwork yours?" Shepard Fairey who did the famous Barack Obama (see image above) portrait is currently in litigation with the Associated Press for making his portrait based on an AP rights-owned photo. Ultimately I think a jury or judge has to decide if what you are doing is "artistic". Read both links above to get a better understanding of the issue. I believe you are artistic, Shep!

Create your own OBEY OBAMA Icon!

HEY! Create your own OBEY OBAMA Icon parody! Just like Shepard Fairey's famous portrait of President Obama without the controversy. I found the link off a girl's Wordpress blog which I found off her Youtube which I found off her Twitter. I guess that's how the Internets work! Hyperlinking in effect! BTW, I didn't make the above but it is funny.

ELECTRIC Acupuncture

What's scarier than Acupuncture needles? How bout Acupuncture needles with ELECTRICITY! Last night's session at the Acupuncture school included attaching electrodes to like 2 of the 40 or so needles I had on my body. Intern dude didn't tell me either. I guess it was better that way so I wouldn't have stressed out beforehand. Because I did plenty of stressing during it. It was mostly worry of electrocution, my heart going out, faulty outdated school equipment or some mishap. Plus Intern dude kept increasing the voltage, wanting me to feel something. I felt like a high school science experiment.

This is how I would describe the sensation.... my foot is on the examining table moving like a vibrating cell phone would do on the coffee table. Weird uncontrollable like tickling in the area of charging. There was no pain, it just was a weird feeling and knowing it was electricity charging through me is a scary thing. And let me tell you, if you think having a young Asian lady (the other intern) causing pain to your half naked body (she was new at inserting needles) is your fantasy fetish, it ain't all that. Yeah, I didn't think I'd make it outta there alive. Thank Goddess I'm alive!

Now I know I am a medical anomaly, the intern student dude working on me is gonna do a presentation/dissertation/term paper, etc to his class about me. See Ma, I knew I'd be famous somehow.

Likes#1 - Flight of the Conchords

This is my first in a series of blog entries spotlighting my likes & loves, that I think everyone should check out. Flight of the Conchords is an HBO comedy series that just started its second season. It's the story of Jermaine and Bret, 2 New Zealanders who are also roomates, bandmates, friends and losers who live and cope in New York. Supported by other great characters as their manager (Murray), their #1 fan (Mel) and their pawn shop friend (Dave), they all go through some oddball adventures and occasionally break into song. I just watched the 2nd episode of this season and the duo are still struggling for a clue. Hilarious!

Observations at McDonald's Part 1

Today I ate at McDonald's though I try to abstain from fast food and eating with poor people - just kidding, but you know what I mean. Well, anyways McDonald's fulfills my criteria of a restaurant being close-by, quick and cheap. And I got a Big Mac cuz it has lettuce and lettuce is sort of a green vegetable. So I felt it could be healthy. I mean that's what I'm thinking as I stare at this huge McDonald's poster in front of me. It has a fit senior citizen jogging like in a park on one side of the poster and shiny, fresh cut apples glistening with dew on the other. What do these things have to do with Mickey Deees? I don't know. I, like everyone else here, came for the burgers, fries and Cokes. And none of the fools I see eating here strike me as athletes (sarcasm). The senior citizen part I can see.

As I eat my meal, the TV monitors are playing CNN news because I guess people want to be depressed while they eat. After a brief segment on some world disaster, it's back to the current talk about Politics. And there is a homeless guy there commenting aloud along with the news reports. He'll say stuff like "Yeah, Bush would'na done that" - loud & like every 30 seconds. Then people would pause from their McNugget grubbing and look up. I didn't even know homeless people could vote. Yeah, there's a bunch a people just hanging around inside McDonald's not necessarily eating. People there are just talking, reading the newspaper, on their laptop, etc. Dang, lunch gone - gotta dust the fry crumbs off my pants and it's back to work for me! See you later McDonald's.

Mie Tek-Tek & Tahu Telur - Indonesian Food

Dang, once again I had to go that Thai/Indonesian restaurant down the street from me. Can't complain with quick, easy & close-by when you're hungry. I ordered the Bakmie Ayam Bakso chicken soup like I normally do but I think they gave me Mie Tek-Tek (see left side of pic) by mistake. I was really hoping for soup but I ain't mad at 'em because I got to try something new. It was a plate of all kinds of good stuff: noodles, chicken, egg, veggies, garlic, shrimp chips, etc. I also got Tahu Telur, which is like scrambled egg, tofu, sprouts and peanut sauce. If you're cringing in disbelief right now, that combination actually sounded good to me. How do they get the eggs so fluffy & irresistable? Well, I went Sunday and still had leftovers for Monday. Ahhh, thinking about their food, I may go again tonight. Yummers.

WHUT THE F*CK Acupuncture School!!!!

Dude. Seriously 5 hours later after I got back from the Acupuncturist... had dinner, changed clothes, watched TV, etc... I was cold, had my hoodie on for a bit. And I felt a little pain on my head. F********CK, the Acupuncture doc left a NEEDLE IN THE TOP OF MY HEAD!!!!!! DAAAAY-UMMM FUGGIN students. Look it's bent. My hoodie prolly pushed it down in my head a few inches too. FUGGGGERS!

RUN DMC x Marc Ecko

Seriously, I don't mean to rip on the artist dude. It just didn't fit a worthy tribute to RUN DMC for me. I'm on the fence about liking his art in general. I wonder if they will print this comment on the Ecko site. It is awaiting approval.

There are really 3 subtle messages I am bringing with this comment. 1) Ecko really needs to step their game up. They have really been into expanding and acquisitions of other businesses while their fashion game and styles have not progressed and now they are chasing all the smaller companies old trends. A tribute to RUN DMC just seems like a economic move rather than be a real tribute of any sort.

Which brings me to 2) Run and D need to make up. Now I heard in a Joe Budden track that they don't even talk anymore. I tried to look up facts on this but cannot find anything. Truth is I noticed Run and D have not appeared in the Sun City and H.E.A.L videos together since back in the days. Not that that is significant but to my knowledge DMC is never seen or mentioned on the Run's House show. And DMC was the only one on VH1's Hip Hop Honors show honoring RUN DMC. Now isn't that weird, they are never together. So Marc Ecko is tributing a group that ain't even talking to each other (Jay excluded). Whatever is going on, Run and D need to make up.

3) I truly respect RUN DMC as Kings. I am in Hip Hop because of them. There is no doubt. My location is Killah Hills in reference to Wu-Tang to show that I am down with the real and not a common commenter. Well hope people see the message and get what I'm saying. I'm talking to you, RUN, Russell and Marc.

ADDENDUM: Feb 7, 2009. Well, Ecko never approved my above comment to post. The tee is 50% off now ($12.99). And all the sizes are still available even though it is limited edition. When I looked at it again, I noticed there is no RUN DMC logo or wording anywhere on the shirt. Just Hollis Queens, which is like their neighborhood, so I guess Ecko had no licensing agreement to use the RUN DMC name. That's pretty weak. ECKO step your game up!

Spuma di Cioccolato for dizzzzzert

I drink a boost for breakfast, an ensure for dizzzzzert. Nah, really though - on Saturday night I had Spuma di Cioccolato - that's chocolate mousse with amarene cherries> I got it from Pasta Pomodoro, which is a small, west coast restaurant chain but has very good, traditional Italian quality. Sorry, Olive Garden. The Spuma is kinda like a whipped, thick, rich chocolate custard. And it had dark chocolate chips in it with what seemed like liquor preserved cherries and whipped cream. I thought the portion was small but when the richness hits you, it seems the portion is perfect. I think it only had 2 cherries, but I wish it had a few more. Oh, and a splash more of the liquor flavoring woulda been cool. If the pic above don't look so good, it's cuz I had it packed "to go". But I would definitely get it again.