I’ve never been a fan of the heat and humidity that summer brings to our area, but I recently remembered a reason to love summer.  After owning a motorcycle for 5 years, I can’t believe I spent the last 2 years without one.  Now I’m back on two wheels, and I can’t get over how much it feels like a part of me.  I hope that I can always own a motorcycle.

For those interested, it’s a 2005 Harley Sportster 1200 Custom.  It sounds quite nasty, in a really good way.

I remember when I first decided I wanted a motorcycle.  I was 20 years old and had just begun working at the Sears shoe department.  I remember riding in the car with my family in Branson and watching with awe and lust as motorcycles passed all around. I remember telling my dad that I wanted to buy one the next summer.  My new job turned out to be good enough that I bought one that fall.

My old bike, the one that started it all… the lowly but stylish Yamaha V-Star 650.

A few weeks ago, a blog I subscribe to ran an article detailing how to make your own biosphere.  I knew this was a project I would enjoy.  I’ve tried houseplants, and I invariably kill them.  This would work well, because I knew it would hold my attention for an entire afternoon, then once I sealed up the biosphere it would never require my attention again.  It should be totally self-sustaining.  I can enjoy it as I please and ignore it the rest of the time.

I needed a bottle, so I bought some vodka and drank it all in one night found this one somewhere.  I thought it would be kind of funny to use a liquor bottle.  I went to the pet store and got the critters — 3 snails and a ghost shrimp named Alfie — and went to the pond for some sludge, water, and (hopefully), some tiny creatures called amphipods, copepods, and ostracods.  I also bought a couple little plants to live inside.  When I got home I put it all together with some small rocks I got from Lake Superior.  It was fun.  I did it all last night.

So, do you know how much Alfie the ghost shrimp cost?  Thirty-three cents!  That’s how much his life is worth.  When I told Alfie this, he was very depressed.  I regret bringing it up with him.  I particularly regret it now, because it turns out that those were my last words to Alfie.  When I got home from work tonight, I found out that he died, only 24 hours after his new life in my biosphere began.  I don’t know if I killed him with my careless words or with my manufactured environment.  The snails seem to be fine.  The good news is, since he was only 33 cents I can afford to replace him.  I will be more careful about how I speak to the new guy.  I actually felt a little sad to find Alfie dead when I got home tonight.

I hope this biosphere makes it.  I changed several of the instructions to fit my irregular bottle, and I was supposed to use a particular kind of plant that I just couldn’t find.  Still, I have reasonably high hopes that it will work.  At least it’s fun to try.

The problem doesn’t really lie in the money.  The problem is in the principle.  No matter how much money I make, I believe that if I pay $720 for something, it had better be good.  So how good is internet everywhere I go?

Well, half of that money goes to buy internet at my home.  I think that is definitely worth it.  I use the internet to watch all of my TV and most of my movies.  Plus all the other crap like hockey scores, banking, paying bills, facebook, homework, etc, etc.  Internet in my home is indispensable.

I’m not so sure that it’s worth doubling the price of the internet just to have it on my phone everywhere I go.  Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love my iPhone.  But do I really use the data plan that much?  I use my iPhone a lot when I’m at home, but at those times I’m always on my wireless network.  Same thing at work.  The only times I really use the mobile data are in my car or when I’m shopping and want to do some quick last-second research before I buy something.

I decided to test how much I would miss having mobile data.  If you jailbreak your phone, you have access to an app that allows you to turn off mobile data.  I spent a week without mobile data access on my iPhone — wifi only — and, no big surprise, I found that I hardly missed it.  There were only a couple of times I wanted to use the internet and couldn’t, and those times just required me to wait a little bit.

My AT&T contract expires in June.  Until now, I’ve taken it for granted that I’ll buy the newest iPhone this summer and renew my two-year contract.  Now I have a new plan: keep my iPhone, disable data, and cancel my $30 data plan.  That way I still have my iPhone, it would just be limited to wifi networks for internet access.

As a bit of warning, don’t try this unless you jailbreak your iPhone.  The iPhone pulls data all the time, and the charges would add up quickly if you don’t have a data plan in place.  But if you have an iPhone, you should be jailbreaking it, anyway.

This was my canvas, my starting point

One of my winter resolutions was to let my hair grow until 2010.  It got so long that it gave me the opportunity to try something I’ve always wanted to do: cut my own hair with scissors.  I’ve cut it with clippers several times, but there’s no risk in buzzing your hair down to one length.  With scissors, I knew the stakes were high.  Plus, there was no way I was going to pay 7 or 8 dollars (or possibly even MORE) for a haircut.  That’s crazy talk.

That's what she said

My first obstacle was scissors.  I don’t have any regular scissors, so I had to use these, which I think are called cuticle scissors.  All I know is they are small.  They are probably a big reason that cutting my hair took so long, about 45 minutes.  All in all, though, I don’t think 45 minutes is that bad, considering I had never done it before.

Now comes the exciting part.

On New Year’s Eve I got home from work and started cutting my hair.  I didn’t really know what to do, so I just figured I’d start at the top.  I grabbed a chunk and cut it.  That gave me a good start, so I cut the top and sides.  After about 15 minutes I realized that without trying, I had created something beautiful — a sweet mullet.

The mullet was truly awesome.  I looked so cool that I knew I had to keep it for at least a day.  Friday, January 1st, I went to work with a mullet, expecting laughs, smiles, and hearty claps on the back.  Fanfare.  For the most part, that’s what I got.  But all was not well.  No fewer than three people made the worst comment I could imagine: “It actually kind of suits you.”  WHAT?  I knew then that the mullet could not last.

Making a mullet look good

That night I got home and resumed work on my hair.  All that was left was the back, but that was by far the hardest part.  I didn’t have a convenient extra mirror, so I was forced to pick up a door mirror to look at the back of my head, then put it down and go by memory and feel.  Then I would pick up the mirror again to inspect my work and make any corrections.  After about 30 minutes I was able to clean up the edges with a beard trimmer and I was done.  I think I did a good job!  At work on Saturday about half the people I told about it refused to believe that I did it myself, which was quite a compliment, but also frustrating.  I honestly don’t know how it turned out so well, considering my haphazard approach, but it’s a technically perfect haircut.  I also think it looks reasonably cool and will only get better as it grows out.

All done!

Cutting my own hair was a lot of fun, and I don’t see any reason not to do so again in several months when I decide I need another haircut.

Several more photos below.  These are all clickable for larger versions, if you’re so inclined.

I was pleasantly surprised

You're right, it does look just as good from the side

I honestly feel like it toed the line between ultra stupid and ultra cool

Much tamer, but I'm not complaining

I'm not wearing a shirt because I had literally JUST finished cutting it, I swear

]]> http://www.davidbarwick.com/cutting-my-own-hair/feed/ 4 http://www.davidbarwick.com/match-candle/ http://www.davidbarwick.com/match-candle/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:53:10 +0000 David Barwick http://www.davidbarwick.com/?p=554 Last night I was getting ready for bed and decided to light this candle.  I was having trouble because the wick was so short, and wound up dropping the first match inside.  I grabbed another match and it slipped from my fingers just after I lit it.  It fell down like you see in the picture and continued to burn.  Matches usually only burn for 10 or 15 seconds, but this one kept on burning.  I figured it was drawing up the wax and burning it, the way a wick does.  At that point I was pretty sleepy, but I wanted to see how long it would burn, so I wound up staying awake for another hour waiting for it to burn out until I finally gave up and went to sleep.  I didn’t have the heart to blow it out.  Today I was able to replicate the feat several times, but none lasted more than a few minutes.

There are fewer people born on December 21 than any other day (don’t get me started on leap year, which is a myth).  People born on the winter solstice have a special birthright; their candles burn briefly but brightly, giving the world a rare and unique glow.  They are the physical embodiment of a fleeting, magical moment in time.

Here’s a fact: I don’t know anyone else whose birthday is today.  That’s right!  And I know hundreds of people!  What are the odds of that?  I’d tell you, but math is irrelevant on the winter solstice.  Something to do with the cosmos.

The winter solstice is a great day for achievements.  You could be the only person in the Guinness Book of World Records to set a record on December 21.  It’s also a great day for mistakes, because a brand new day is just around the corner.  And if you’re going to live each day like it’s your last, today is a great day to start because it will soon be over, sooner than you can even imagine.

So live it up today.  It’s the shortest, most precious day of the year.

I started the reward system a few years ago, buying Naked® smoothies for myself to drink if I got up in time for class.  That usually worked, but when it came time for tests and papers, it just wasn’t enough.  The preward system saved the day.  Plus, it was a way for me to get a reward for my efforts despite the fact that by the time I finish my papers, there is usually just enough time to grab a couple hours of sleep before class.

Now that school is over for a while, I need to find something else to p/reward myself for, because I love snacks.

So you might have guessed that I would never own a pink shirt.  And you are right.  This shirt has not always been pink.  It used to be the color of dirt.  That is perfect for a guy, because we’re allowed — or even expected — to be dirty.  Sometimes, if I think I am overdressed, I will pick up a handful of dirt and crumble it into my clothes.  Just being a guy.

Luckily, on this day I was wearing a jacket, so I zipped it up to hide my shameful shirt.  After class, I hurried home and took it off.  I know some people saw me, though, so now I’ve been wearing lots of flannel to make up for it.  If that is not working, I’ll buy something with camo to wear.

In other news, my blog is finally the top result from a Google search for “David Barwick.”

New song on the Music page.  I like the song, but it didn’t turn out quite like I’d hoped.  I’ve worked on it for the past couple months, and now I’m tired and out of ideas.  The magic of production yet eludes me.  I think the main problem is that I wanted to do more with it, but it’s not that kind of song.  Maybe the next one will lend itself more to the style I was shooting for.

I think this guy looks like he is sleeping

Lately my sleep schedule has been out of control.  Staying up until 2 or 3 a.m.??  Sleeping in until 10 or 11 a.m.??!  That is ridiculous.  I’m supposed to be an adult.

To curb my indulgence, I set the alarm earlier, for 9 o’clock.  Naturally, I hit the snooze every 10 minutes for an hour and a half, defeating the purpose.  To overcome that habit, I put the alarm clock all the way across my bedroom, so I have to get out of bed to shut it off.  This sounds like a brilliant plan, because it is.  But I wasn’t counting on my body’s determination to sleep.  The first morning I did this, I got out of bed to turn off the alarm — and woke up two hours later, sprawled out on the floor next to the alarm.  I figured I would at least get back into bed.

After waking up before 8 a.m. the past two mornings, I think I’ve found the solution.  Each night when I go to bed I turn on the space heater in my bedroom.  By the time the sun comes up, my bedroom is hot.  I can’t sleep in heat.  Tossing off covers, hitting snooze, rationalizing an extra hour in bed — none of it works.  I have to get up.

I just hope that I get back in the swing of things naturally so that I don’t have to wake up on the brink of sweating every morning.  I think I’ll keep the heat treatment for a week, then see how I do without.

p.s. You may have noticed a preponderance of finger-drawn images accompanying my posts.  Back in August I used Google search a couple times to supply pictures for posts, but I don’t want to keep doing that.  If I don’t have an applicable photo in my reserves, I just have to draw one.  I don’t have a picture of myself sleeping, but I do have a picture of Brittany sleeping on vacation.

-click for larger version-

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