My main man Ryan Loco (from Triumph United) sent me a package. I ordered the fight shorts (to be used as swim trunks, not for fighting...im too old to be messing up my face for fun). He threw in a huge sticker and a few complimentary tshirts. Gotta respect that.

Also picked up a complimentary beer tshirt (the green one) at a work function last night, we were at the Issaquah Brewery drinking and acting like children.

And i finally did the responsible thing and bought another keyless entry remote for my car. i only had one, and i lost my keys once last year so i vowed to get an extra set. So I finally did.



(Theres a subliminal shot of the progress on that painting too, almost done)


Heres the other shirt he sent, i put it on before i thought about taking pics, so you folks get a nice pic of half my face. Congrats.


(i also got 2 cases of Budweiser 40oz-ers (hey, they were free) and a case of Stella Artois, from work today. But i dont feel like going out to take a pic of my trunk)

Have a safe weekend folks.

Right now I am watching the Cav's get beat by the Rockets on TV, while me neice is in the bathtub jamming the fuck out to Luther Vandross, and my room mate is nailing a hooker on the other side of a set of glass doors. She came over to buy some weed.

Your life is Not Like My Life...

Next, I am hoping someone stops by the blog tonight, if they don't I will not be able to sleep because he visit counter is currently showing the mark of the beast. Please someone come by so I can sleep.

Lastly, Azteca will get you shitfaced for under 20 bucks. Niiiiiiiiice.

Thought you guys might get a kick out of this dive report I wrote yesterday for another site. If you have any questions by all means ask........The HB is a wreck called the Honeybear that was once a sailboat testing a new hull design for the Americas Coup regatta that got away from it's home in a storm and ended up wrecked in what is now a popular dive site near Seattle's Alki beach....

Ok, so many of you know my story. I got excited about diving, worked through some issues during OW training(ear issues, a broken hand, and then things got tough) a few dives at Cove 3 then one dive in at Cove 2 on October 7th where I saw a HUGE Octopus before a foot surgery that has kept me out of the water since. UNTIL TODAY....

My buddy Sean and I made the plan, I did the SCUBA math, we knew our turn pressure, we knew our rock bottom and we knew the plan. Entry, surface swim out to the can buoy, drop down to approx 50fsw and let the compass take us to the Honeybear. We had a plan to get back, we discussed what to do in case we were separated, we clarified some hand signals, we did gear checks and all, we discussed some skills we would like to spend a bit of time on even.....the one thing we did not do was read the signs. Sometimes there are signs that tell you you shouldn't be doing what you are doing, omens that warn us that we are headed down the wrong path (for some I imagine they tell them they are headed down the right path, but I wouldn't know anything about that).  First sign: As I am laying out gear and trying to get sort of organized on the tailgate of my buddies Tundra, an evil Seagull flies by and drops a bomb that is a direct hit. Marcoux's HP130, my fin, and my leg are all casualties to the high tech smart poo. Second sign: I dive wet, and this is my 6th dive so none of it feels natural yet, and I am not even talking about trim and buoyancy skills I am talking about how many times today I panicked that I had forgotten something. Hell even as I am gearing up I am having mini-hissy fits. By the time we are all geared up and about ready I realize that my hood is nowhere to be found. Obviously, I am not diving without it BUT I am not all too happy about putting on a wetsuit, weight harness, bp/w and the whole deal only to have to "thumb" the dive before we even make it to the stares down to cove 2. We look everywhere, through ever gear bin, bucket, backpack, etc. We look at the bulkhead and it's not there, just fins and such, not in the truck cab, not on the ground, and right as we are about to start doffing dry gear, I see that my hood has somehow become velcro'ed to the weight pockets on Seans belt and is hanging off his tush like a neoprene beavertail. I thought he was playing a joke on me it was so perfect. We waddle on, get in the water and it's cold, I almost cried as the cold water made it's way down my spine but I was determined..... Sign three (Three strikes and you are out right??): I dunk my head under water and my backup reg starts freeflowing. No biggie, I know to turn it over, only that doesn't solve it, I play with the venturi dealy bobber and no go. I am losing gas fast so we shut down the bottle, and try it again. Freeflow. Shut down the bottle and try again. You guessed it, freeflow.  I am not coming this far to thumb it without getting my face wet. Seems like a great time for an Out Of Air dril. So as Sean is circling me in 5 feet of water I drop down without a reg in my mouth and start blowing bubbles at him while slashing at my throat to let him know I have no gas, he shoves his backup reg in my mouth and I  breath off his octo for a while  just so when I have to leave I can at least have been under water. As we start packing it in, we decide to give it one last try and this time my reg cooperates. I am down 1000psi and so clearly the dive plan has changed, we are not going to attempt the HB and with a secondary that is clearly not behaving we decide to keep it shallow and simple. We stay in near touch contact and are super alert to our gas reserve. I try some frog kicking, which I kind of pulled off, I am bouncing off the floor like a Spaulding in an NBA game so it is clear that one can do all the cyber diving in the world but it's going to take real diving to get good. We tried really hard to be aware of silting and to do our best not to make a mess of the cove but we failed miserably of course. In the end we spent 19 minutes in (according to my BT) and had a lot of fun, we were safe and are already planning the next dive. Sincethis is the Report section I should share some info, vis was better than I expected it to be, I would guess about 10 feet or so, saw the normal stuff.....crabs, starfish, Giant Plumose Anemone's and such which I know are old hat for many of you but this is all very new and very exciting for me and I can't stop grinning like a kid on Christmas morning. Even saw a couple nudi's which was very cool. Aside from that it was cold, REALLY cold, like my hands barely worked when I was trying to get out of my wetsuit cold.  Sean was on air, I was breathing Nitrox so we had to spend more time on the surface for him to offgas excess nitrogen than I would have had to, and since it is so cold in Seattle right now that we woke up to 3 inches of snow we decided to skip a second dive and go have some hot clam chowder and beer. 

...while we here at The Warfare certainly appreciate you stopping by, and of course I am always appreciative of those who leave comments on the blog I thought I would take a second to correct you.

First, I like that you are such a bitch as to feel the need to leave an anonymous comment, YET be willing to call people you don't even know names. I promise you tough guy that stuff stays on the Internet, because I don't take at all kindly to punks who play tough and come out of pocket in real life. In the real world, where we have to back up our statements this shit doesn't go so smoothly, and bitches like yourself are less likely to feel so bold.

That said, and since I did mention "backing up" our statements, I am going to link you to two past posts about this poster specifically.

http://www.thewarfarecollective.com/2008_11_01_archive.html

http://www.thewarfarecollective.com/2008/11/i-changed-up-colors.html

Do please note both credit given, and Frank's name on it.


I want to think that you are intelligent enough (although lets face it I have my doubts) to understand that the belief that it is a "pathetic attempt" is purely opinion, and we all get one. You think it is a rip off, I know Chris did it as a nod. Six of one, half dozen of the other. Now crawl back into your cardboard box and hit that Thunderbird and Kool-Aid and see if you can't get your shit together.

EDIT: To those of you (Nick) that dont know what this post is about. Peep the comments from the post below. There was an "idiot" who felt the need to jump to conclusions about my intent on the poster by Frank Chimero. THIS post, is Jake addressing that person.

...not really. But our loyal reader Adam posted this poster i designed a while back, on his blog. His blog is hosted at Tumblr.com. I dont really know how it works over there, but they randomly choose things off people's blogs to highlight on the front page. (or something like this, maybe ADam can leave a comment and clear that part up.)

Regardless, they put my poster, from his blog, on that page. Heres a screen-cap.



Heres the original, in case you forgot.



Big shout out to Adam for posting it in the first place.

Maybe it'll drive some traffic to this here blog, and help a dude out with some freelance work in the future.

Well, I don't believe it. Not for one second. A guy at my work told me that Firefly was the best series ever. I am willing to watch it, but better then The Wire? The Sopranos? Seinfeld? Hell even Mash?

I got to be honest the number one way to turn me off to a movie or a series is to put it in outer space. Now the only reason I am willing to give this one a try is it is like cowboys in outer space according to Stabwound Joe who watched Firefly and said it was pretty good. Now the number one way to get me to give your movie or series a shot is to make it about cowboys, or knights (Okay that's two ways, but hell it's my god damn blog go get your own if you are going to pick me apart).

So first of all have any of you watched it? Liked it?


Secondly, and a totally different note. I am sitting here writing this on my bullshit old laptop (anyone out there want to sponsor the TWC with new laptops?) casually watching the Oscars, and it dawns on me that what irritates me about it is it is like watching other people throw a party, where they have invited all their friends and are talking about how great they are, and you are outside the window watching the party through the glass, having to wipe away the steam your breath leaves just to get a good view.

I mean the best score from some movie I have never even heard of? Then some jackass I have never ever heard of gets up and thanks 25 mofo's I have never heard of all so I can find out who won Best Picture and Best Actor. Well I can figure that out tomorrow.



Plus, Hugh Jackman is a wanker.

So I am too tired to be funny right now. I am too tired to even pull off boring right now. In fact I am too tired to be awake. I think I need to go buy a Lotto ticket today, because I am really good at sleeping. Like I think I have a real knack for it. Might be the only thing I have ever just been naturally good at. I think the only thing that is keeping me from really starting to approach greatness is that I don’t get enough practice. I was up at 5am today to get ready for work etc. I have no idea how chicks can pull it off, I mean Christ they have to shave things and put on make-up, and do more than just make sure their hair is dry. Long story short myself and a few of the regular rock stars went out for some drinking last night.

Last night I was at Piatti, I love that place. This was only the second time I had been there but I am going to have to go much more often. It is close to home, and the Happy Hour couldn’t be better unless the pretty bartender with the cute front teeth wanted to rub my shoulders while I ordered Wildcats and Calimari. I ate like a king and had 3 or 4 beers before Happy Hour was done and my bill was………well I have no idea (I would guess 19 plus tax though) I didn’t have to pay. Yes I am tht cool, people buy me stuff for my time. I feel a little like Madonna from the Material Girl video, only I am a boy and it’s booze not diamonds with me.

So look out for my new video “Booze Boy” coming soon, and if you want to get an idea of what the video might look like please go to Youtube and search “Robotronic Salmon” but be warned the music is catchy and it will change the way you look at Salmon.

So I have been MIA for a while I know and I kind of went into it recently, but things have gotten more exciting. Yesterday we were told that all of us are being cut back to 35 hours a week, and I am going to Thursdays and Fridays off in preparation for my triumphant return from this 5 month lay off for this foot injury. In the mean time I have been all over Scuba training and pretty much bought all my gear. So if you see a 300pound guy in a wetsuit in Puget Sound by all means throw something at me to see if I move, if I do then I am alive and things haven’t gotten worse……..yet.

So since I am back on the block, tell me what have you jokers been up to?

...sort of.

I have a couple of freelance gigs goin on right now, and a painting to finish. Plus an IOU for a piece for my lovely mother's birthday gift. So if i dont update the blog as often, dont be mad at me.

Maybe Jake will pick up the slack.

Also, i just picked this up. And anyone who knows about this show (and if you dont, you SHOULD), knows ill be hibernating worse than jake in December, watching this thing non-stop.

This is not going to be any kind of a great post. I just wanted to check in.  I have been stressed out, and a bit overwhelmed by life of late.

Among other things, the economic issues are getting far closer to home than is comfortable. My roomie is now unemployed and they have shut down more than half of my works locations in the area, and laid off 4 of my co-workers at my shop. They have announced 4000 lay-offs company wide by the end of the 1st quarter of the year. They have asked us (told us to?) take one day of unpaid leave per month in an attempt to save the company (I am on my furlow day today as a matter of fact). So not only have I been cut back from 50+ hours a week to 40, I can only get 32 one week a month on top of that. At a certain point we all must make sacrifices and while I am sure I am just being a whiney baby, it scares me. I am sure others reading this are being effected as much and in some cases more than I am. My place to live is secure, cars paid off, life is fairly secure BUT I am not someone who deals well with uneasy footing. My sleep is effected, and when I get worried or nervous I disappear, family doesn't hear from me, chicks start thinking something is up, and my friend (many of you are in that group) don't see me either. Ask Chris that poor guy has dealt with it for years now. So I am sorry for my hiatus, I am not promising anything but that I will try to check in more often, and contribute more than I have been (which of course has been nil).

Okay, these are likely reeeeeeally old but they are new to me so save the "Welcome to the Clinton presidencey" comments to yourselves or go teepee creeping....

...if this doesnt make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, i dont know what to say.

...just an update. End of the month is still the goal. I think im on track to finish it, lazy non-productive streak not withstanding.




... and like i said in the comments, i kept goin on this sketch and he ended up lookin like a Dude Zombie. Go figure.

...drew this in my moleskine while watching The Big Lebowski. I feel like i should sketch something every day, even if its something small and simple like this, but i rarely do.

The Dude...

Yes, those are bacon cupcakes.

...if i ever design anything this sexy, im just gonna go ahead and retire immediately.









And im gonna need to draw a few more bison, fish, and zombie roosters, to be able to afford one of these.

...ive always been a fan of this dude. Most people know him for his world famous tattooing skills, but the guy is an overall artist.

Heres a couple shots i stole off his blog that show the progress on a hand lettered shop sign.







To view more of his recent work, aside from his professional site, go here.