Blog du Wren

License To Roof

What do you do with your old license plates? Perhaps you have a stack of them in the garage, waiting for a clever project to come along that could use them? Wait no longer!! I've got an idea!

In the same vein as the winedow, I want to do a roof out of license plates. Chances are I won't do my cabin because 1) I would need a butt load* and 2) It is an untested roofing material and I don't want leaks. But I'm thinking I will need a wood/generator shed and these are the perfect solution!

So with St. Presents Day right around the corner, I humbly suggest if you want to donate to the cause, send 'em my way. (I promise not to use them for robberies, getaway cars, or parking ticket evasion.) Viva la recycling!

Wednesday November 14 2012

File under: misc

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And the Money Rolls In

Well, after over 5 years from implementing google adsense on both this here blog and over at People's Guide to Anacortes, I've finally reach the payout threshold!! I thought it would never happen, and I'm overjoyed. On the one hand, it is like winning an unexpected $100. On the other, it works out to about $.0002 per hour from the time I've spent maintaining, posting, etc.

What's almost as fun as the fat check I will be receiving is the data. Watching ad revenues from month to month (and often day to day), is one of my go to time wasters on the internet. Now that it's reached a kind of completion, I ran a few numbers. While there isn't much of a super clearly defined trend, seems to indicate that I might expect another check in a bit less than 5 years.

Over two thirds of the clicks have come via People's Guide to Anacortes which has a clicks per visit ratio over 15 times higher than that the of the blog. It makes sense because all you blog readers* just come to check in on what's up with me while visitors to the People's Guide are actively looking for lodging or other commercial activities.

Anyway, here's hoping that the money keeps rolling in.

Friday November 9 2012

File under: blog

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FC 172 - Your Vote Counts (But Your Intelligence Doesnt)

Election season is heavily upon us, as if you didn't notice. And that mean my evening of Jeopardy! is punctuated by heavy spells of stupid stupid stupid commercials touting this candidate or that one, this issue or that one. Anyway, as I walked away in disgust this evening*, I muttered to myself, "Sorry Rob, I don't approve this message". Then I chuckled, and not just because I was talking to the t.v. again.

But that's as far as I will take it. I was planning a big post on why you should vote 3rd party* or some other election frenzied thing. But I will leave it at this comic and say no more.

(Ha! I just looked 4 years back in the archives and saw the comic I posted just before the last presidential election. At least I'm consistent.)

Thursday November 1 2012

File under: comic

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FC 171 - Puns Rock!

*GROAN* Go ahead, get it out. You know you want to. I figure if a pun doesn't induce a groan, it wasn't a good pun. So I hope you're groaning, maybe combined with a chuckle or two.

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm working, doing a little stone masoning/landscaping (to maintain my professional status in the eyes of the Heavy Lifters Guild for another year). We've been doing a lot of rock work (wall and patio building) so I've got rocks on the brain. And while hauling those rocks, there's plenty of time to kill thinking of extremely lame rock puns.

Making this comic reminded me of how much I enjoy it (and of how many more I've gotta pump out before the 2nd collection comes out in December). So hopefully I'll get a few more comics (less groan inducing than this one, I hope) out soon. In the meantime, feel free to browse the comic archives or check out this other mason inspired comic from a few years ago.

Thursday October 25 2012

File under: comic

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Two For Tuesday on the Whale

Anacortes has only one radio station, which happens to be on the AM dial*. It isn't often that I feel the need to switch over to AM but the work* truck's radio is a relic of the past and only gets AM. Because of this, however, we invented a wonderful game that causes us to look forward to every Tuesday. Two for Tuesday!!!

Every Tuesday, the Whale (1340 AM) plays two songs in a row by the same artist. The game is to correctly predict the second song after hearing only the first one. There's more to it than you might think. You've gotta first be able to identify the artist as quickly as possible in the first song, then determine another song or songs by that artist, and finally decide which one is most popular/likely given a range of circumstances (i.e. they probably wouldn't have two slow ones by Green Day).

I'll concede that there is a lot of luck involved. And it is a pretty slow game, usually with only a couple points scored in an 8-hour day. And their strictness of playing 2 songs in a row by the same artist isn't isn't exactly German*. But it is actually a really really fun game. And it can't hurt my ever failing music round at trivia nights. So as long as I'm working, bring on Two for Tuesday!

Tuesday October 23 2012

File under: Anacortes, games

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Anacortes Pub Trivia Review

Pub trivia has really become a popular thing, and I can't be more happy about it. I've been to 4 different trivia nights...in the past 4 nights*! Three of those were right here in (or near-ish) my home town. Not bad for a sleepy little burg. Anyway, in hopes of sharing my affinity (and local knowledge), I put together a list of the wheres, whens, and whys. If I'm missing one, let me know. Or if your town has an exceptional pub quiz, I might just have to plan a visit.

Place	Time/Day	Pros	Cons
	~~Mondays~~ Thursdays 8:00pm	$85 in gift certificates for prizes(!), great food, chill atmosphere, really nice host	Poorly attended, sometimes formulaic/blah questions
	Tuesdays 9:00pm	Competitive while staying fun, great atmosphere*, reserved table for previous week's winner, good questions	Crowded, crappy prizes*, annoyingly hard music round, late hour for us party poopers
	Wednesdays 7:00pm	Super fun(!), super well written questions, respectable prizes, great group of folks who play, great funny host, timing/food makes for great combo with dinner	20-minute drive from just about anywhere, occasional dance-off tie breaker*

Thursday October 11 2012

File under: Anacortes

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Cabin Progress - Season 2 Wrap Up

Another building season at the quarry has come to an end, at least for me*. And it is really amazing to see how far I've come on the cabin this year from its meager beginnings last year. All the stonework is complete and I've got the frame of walls and a roof in place. Next year (or whenever I can find time and proper weather to dive back in) it's going to be all gravy, putting in windows, doors, walls, a floor, and all the touches that make a place a home.

Until then, I wanted to share where it is now. Below are some schematics I put together (long after they probably should have been done.) It looks so professional on graph paper! And below that are some pictures!*

Grid
Stone walls
Wood walls
Windows
Roof
Captions

Uncheck checkboxes to peel back the layers. It's fun!

Note: While the drawings are attempted to be to scale, they are probably off by an inch or two here and there.

Friday October 5 2012

File under: quarry

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The Non-Performer Strikes Again

We all know I claim I'm not a performer, right? Well, I stand by that (despite the fact that I've been on stage over a dozen times this summer.) It takes a lot to get me out on stage, esp. for a solo act. Just such an occasion occured this past weekend. A friend had his 90th birthday party. Way back in the day, he performed a bit of vaudeville himself. Ever since I started juggling, he's been patiently watching my latest tricks and dishing out stories of the good old days of vaudeville. Anyway, for entertainment at his party, Della, Justin Credible, and I put together a little show. It was a lot of fun and people seemed to enjoy it. Here are a few pics.

Tuesday October 2 2012

File under: juggling, circus

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Minor Media Mention - Soup Swimming Edition

It looks like I can now add "professional model" to my ever growing resume*. I suppose, to be technically correct, "professional" doesn't really apply here, because I haven't seen a dime in royalties. But I did help set up the photo shoot and strike a pose for the ad that runs in the Fall 2012 issue of the Chuckanut Reader (which you can read here...*)

A slightly better version of the ad can be seen . It is advertising the wealth of great homemade soups at the Colophon Cafe. And while their clam chowder is really top notch, I don't advise bathing in it.

(File this under news clipping scrapbook, just like this, this, this, and this)

Thursday September 27 2012

File under: misc

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FC 170 - Hard Cider

Nearly two years later, I've finally coaxed Della into doing another guest appearance on Friday Comics. Well, to be slightly more honest, just like last time, it took no coaxing at all. She thought it up, drew it up, offered it up, just like that. All I did was add a little color, and voila!, the perfect comic to start off Autumn.

(One of my favorite comic artists, Dan Piraro of Bizarro has the habit of explaining the gag in his comic on his blog, no matter how obvious. I've grown to like the practice so I thought I might do the same. Apples, you see, have a good deal of pectin*. And chest muscles are called "pecs". Bada bing bada boom.)

Yay for guest contributors!! Yay for Friday Comics!

Thursday September 20 2012

File under: comic

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