I’m in the market for a new truck. Mostly because trucks are awesome. I’m currently trying to decide between these three trucks; each more awesome than the last:

• http://thefuntimesguide.com/2005/07/ford_f650_truck.php
• http://www.dailytech.com/SUV+Not+Big+Enough+for+You+Try+an+XUV/article10626.htm
• http://thefuntimesguide.com/2005/10/cxt_super_truck.php

Perhaps I’ll just get all three…

I’ve finally found an image that shows me how high the water got in the Suchy Building in New Bohemia, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. My apartment is on the 2nd floor, above the HD Youth Center.

I spent a bit of time helping with the cleanup of the HD Youth Center today. It reminded me of a past summer I spent working for the Des Moines Wastewater Treatment Plant.

My cats were rescued on Thursday (June 19, 2008). I’ve been displaced for 10 days now, and I’ll be moving back to the apartment complex I left before moving downtown (but not the same unit) on a month-to-month lease until I can (hopefully) go back to my downtown digs.

Here are photos of my 3 cats in my hotel room just after I picked them up from the animal rescue center at Kirkwood Community College:

Turk

Oscar

Winga

Thanks to Angie T of Violet Island fame for the photos!

Since I’ve just moved to the outskirts of downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I was evacuated from my apartment early Wednesday morning (June 11, 2008) because of record-level flooding. I’m currently staying in a hotel on higher ground.

I hope to rescue my 3 cats tomorrow and bring them to the hotel with me.

If I cannot go back to live in my apartment by this Thursday (June 19, 2008), my cats may go to Iowa City, and I will hopefully be staying at a coworker’s house, mm-hmmm.

I’m still trying to break 150 (update: I rolled a 179!), but thanks to my youngest sister I’ve got a wicked ball!

Here are some mostly-completed paintings.

There are some cat paws on the lower right. They belong to Oscar.

Quote on a friend’s email signature:

"We’re on this Earth to fart around, and don’t you let anyone tell you different."
—Kurt Vonnegut, jr.

Wise, wise words.

I’m thinking about moving to San Francisco. I figure it will be a good New York substitute without it being New York. I want to go back to a big city with a good public transportation system. Also, I’ve wanted to live in a place with palm trees for a long time, and I’d like to live in a similar area as all-time artists Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud. I think they both lived somewhere in California, if not actually San Francisco. Also, I’m interested in suddenly accidentally becoming gay.

I have a plan, but no plan B or plan C. Once step 1 in plan A is complete and I have a plan B and C, I may actually be on my way to San Francisco!

Plan A

1. Save $3,000
   OR
   secure a $30,000/yr web design job in the Bay Area
2. Rent a truck and drive myself and my computer to San Francisco
3. Put computer and stuff in storage
4. Get a room at the YMCA
5. Find shared housing
6. Find crap job if I don’t have web job
7. Try to scrape up enough rent money to stay (repeat monthly)

And I’ll see how far that plan goes. Plan B and C should cover some of the worst case scenarios, like running out of money too damn soon or not being able to find any housing or work anywhere.

I was just reading some journal entries from people on the livejournal, and it inspired me to write another entry. Usually, I think of good things to write whenever my computer is off. Then I forget about them.

So here’s today’s entry of importance:

I’m trying to get some of my paintings back from a local tax business/art gallery here in Iowa City, and I have found that is difficult to do when operating on this damned night-work sleeping schedule, which I will hopefully not be talking about much longer. I overslept about a half hour on my day off and missed the (kind of) appointment I had with the owner dude, so I will see him on a weekday, I imagine.

Furthermore, my good friend from the Kansas City Art Institute sent me a good CD of mp3s for Christmas, and I would be listening to those. Iron Maiden, Kraftwerk, David Bowie, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, and Grob are always good for a quality listen.

The other day I was having trouble falling asleep, so I thought of all the shitty short-term manual labor jobs I’ve had in the past and present. It was a good technique to get me tired, and I do recommend it.

I see it has been a while since I’d have writtened in here. And I guess now the while is over for a while.

Since the holiday season has just gone by, I suppose I could mention Christmas- and New Year’s-related topics. The clever would write "holidaze" and that is alright with me. I will write a list in a businesslike manner:

Christmas:

• 7 days in Topeka, KS
• Completely flipped my sleeping schedule to be awake during the day
• "Lucky," the family cat, put to sleep
• Some grieving
• Many card games
• Met my mom’s boyfriend
• Got some good Boogie Down Productions CDs
• Turned 25 years old
• Got the digital camera I’d been saving for
• Sat around
• Nightly walks with the dog

New Year’s:

• Midnight, New Year’s Eve passed without incident
• Because I was stocking ice cream toppings at the grocery store
• Wrote ‘2003′ for first time on my rent check
• Long lost friends visit unexpectedly on New Year’s
• We go to a nearly empty bar
• Drink a beer
• Go to work

And that was my holiday season, boring or not. The 7 days off work did much good, though.