Mix and match

 

Today was National Trail Mix Day, which inspired me to envision trail mix mixing it up at a mixer. And as you can see, the pistachios do most of the talking.  I think it is nuts to have a National Trail Mix Day.

And speaking of striking up a conversation, today is also National Matchmaker Day. 

I posted this on X and posed the question, "Have you picked your match? They could light up your life." Three people actually reposted it. So I think I'm trending.

And, today is also National diatomaceous Earth Day which is just about the stupidest thing so far I've seen have a day. I'll let you Google diatomaceous earth because I'm not going to waste any effort promoting them.  As I've said before, I have standards. 

Thrift Store Archeologist

 

As you may have gathered, I spend a lot of time going to thrift stores and antique malls. I've done this for years. But I used to go to look for cool things for myself. And when I say cool things, I mean unusual things...unique things...curiosities. I have always been a collector, even since I was a kid. Problem is, there is a fine line between being a collector and being a hoarder. 

When I lived alone, it wasn't so much a problem. Granted I accumulated a ton of stuff that started to overwhelm my house. But then I got married. And most of my accumulated stuff went to Goodwill and Value Village or into plastic bins. For years after I got married, the bins were stacked in the garage untouched and more or less forgotten.  Then the pandemic hit and we were all home and there was a period where we thought we were going to sell and move. So I decided to go through the stored bins and get rid of things. That's when I really started selling on eBay. 

I pretty much emptied the bins. I was on a mission. And in retrospect I regret I didn't hold on to some of the stuff that I still think was pretty cool. But then we decided not to sell but remodel and most of our stuff went into storage. But in the remodel I got a new office that I put a lot of thought into decorating. Today it houses my guitar collection, what's left of my Elvis collection, my Tiki mug collection and my Buddha and Eastern Religion collection. There's also some sub collections of New Orleans, Reno and Las Vegas memorabilia. 

But now the office has pretty much reached its limit of what I can collect so I turned to eBay once again to allow me to cull the herd and accumulate new old stuff without overwhelming my environment. What I have discovered is that I really enjoy sifting through things at thrift stores and antique malls. I equate it to an archeology dig that helps me uncover treasures. I feel as though I've become pretty adept at recognizing things that are collectible and sellable versus just junk. This requires a great deal of research. 

The research aspect of collecting began when I emptied my bins of stuff during the pandemic. Because before you can sell something you have to know what it is, what it is for and what makes it collectible and potentially valuable. In the process I have learned a great deal about pottery, glassware, Starbuck's coffee cups, vintage souvenirs, ashtrays, shot glasses, nesting dolls, a of course Tiki.

ChatGPT and Google are essential in this thrift store archeologist realm. Google has this great function where you can take a photo of something and search for similar things on the web. It is like taking off the initial layer of dirt at an archeology dig. Then you look for marks, logos, signatures, dates and other things that narrow down where the item came from.  Pretty soon you can sift through a knickknack and curio shelf at Goodwill and find things that you begin to recognize as collectible.

Perfect example, yesterday I found this small glass angel with hand painted flowers on it. It was this odd fluorescent green color. It had a label on the bottom the maker's name and it was signed by the artist. I took a chance that it was collectible. After research I discovered it was something called a Fenton Yellow Vaseline Angel. It gets its color by adding small amounts of uranium dioxide during the manufacturing process. It glows under ultraviolet light because of the uranium. I listed the angel and it sold in just a few hours for much more than I paid for it at Good Will. 

That was a truly successful dig.

Chop Suey in car 258

 

Yes, today is National Chop Suey Day. I think most people know that Chop Suey is not really a traditional Chinese dish. ChatGPT has several origin stories including that it being developed by cooks for the Chinese crews on the transcontinental railroad. They basically threw together whatever they had to create what is known as Chop Suey. It loosely translates to "mixed bits" or "assorted pieces" in Cantonese. Which makes sense when I tell you that in the railroad operating world, an announcement of "Chop Suey in car 258" (or whatever car needed attention) meant someone had puked in that rail car and it needed to be cleaned up. And Chop Suey and puke do look a great deal alike. Thus my design above. 

I posted that Chop Suey design on X and actually got some likes and reposts. Of course I made the statement that it was National Chop Suey Day and it goes down easy and comes up easy. I imagine the people who promoted National Chop Suey Day didn't appreciate that sentiment. Nor would they like the fact that in railroad speak, Chop Suey is vomit.

I also created this softer, gentler version intended for the more squeamish in the Chop Suey world.

Today is also National Lemon Juice Day (which sucks).

Again, I don't think I am representing lemon juice in a fashion that the creators of the day hoped to inspire. I totally ignored "According to Hoyle Day" because it is a blatant marketing ploy by Hoyle, the maker of a large percentage of playing cards in the country. If they play their cards right, maybe next year I will acknowledge them.

Tomorrow is National Beach Day, National Grief Awareness Day, National Toasted Marshmallow Day and National College Colors Day. It seems the National Day Calendar has a pattern of making sure they have at least one very stupid National Day day each day. Because who gives a rat's behind about National College Colors Day. What does that even mean?

I'm not going to give the national Grief Awareness Day people any grief about that being a day. I will see if I can come up with S'more ideas for Toasted Marshmallow Day. Perhaps I'll do that while I'm at the beach.

Wombat Boy

 

No, Wombat Boy isn't one of my superhero ideas. Actually, I think a wombat with a bat would be pretty formable. I think Piñata Man would be a little nervous if he met Wombat Boy, especially this one who really looks like can and will use the bat and not to hit a few fly balls and grounders. 

I have never met or actually seen a real wombat. I do like the name. Wombat just rolls off the tongue. Apparently the name "wombat" comes from the language of the Darug people, one of the Indigenous groups from the Sydney area in Australia. 

I tried having Gemini generate (a word Gemini really likes) an image for "The Wombat Who Laughs." But none of them looked like the wombat was laughing. Perhaps Gemini was being sensitive to the fact that wombats have those marsupial gnawing teeth and don't look particularly happy with their mouth open. Being AI, I was hoping Gemini could loosen up and give the laughing wombat an exaggerated fake smile. But Gemini is kind of a Polly Anna when comes to such things.

So I switched gears and had Gemini give me some wombats in baseball uniforms. I would love to seem actually working at a MLB game. I bet they would be pretty great Wombat Bat Boys (when they weren't gnawing on the bats). For tomorrow, I'm working on some "Wombats out of Hell" images. They are pretty hot (in a literal sense and not in a sexual sense).

Quickly changing the subject, today is National Red Wine Day. 

Of course, it is also National Thoughtful Day, National Power Rangers Day, National Bow Tie Day, Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day and National Cherry Turnover Day. None of these inspired me much to create a t-shirt design. I had to ask ChatGPT what Rainbow Bridge was. Apparently it is the idea that your beloved pets cross a Rainbow Bridge after they die and end up in a peaceful meadow where their health is restored and they wait for you until you die and then both of you cross the Rainbow Bridge together and go to heaven...or a farm...I'm not sure which. Regardless, it is way too much for a t-shirt. 

So instead of messing around with bow ties on cherry turnovers, I asked Gemini to riff on Dizgraceland Record designs because I'd only got Artie over at Ideaograms take on my blog name. And Gemini actually produced some pretty cool stuff.

Now doesn't that look like some cool old shop you'd want to go into and hang out for awhile discovering things like Wombat Boys and Piñata Man superheroes? And Gemini also spit out this nifty image of a a Shure 55 Fatboy microphone.

I just added the headline. I think Gemini does great work when you get it to pull its head out of its AI ass and have fun.

Wait, I think I here the Fatboy singing.

A whale of a disappointment

 

So I read today a report from an interview that Robert Kennedy Jr.'s daughter gave several years ago that when she was a little girl Bobby Jr. cut the head off from a dead beached whale with a chainsaw, strapped it to the family van and drove five hours to from Hyannis Port, Massachusetts to his home in Westchester, New York. This is the same man who found a dead bear cub and dumped it in Central Park and staged it to look like it had been hit by a bicycle. 

I could forgive those sick incidences but I can't forgive the fact that he just dropped out of the presidential campaign as an Independent and endorsed Trump. That truly is bat shit crazy. He is a disgrace to his great father. The worms he claims that doctors found in his brain.

Sad thing is that the moron admits to all of this and still thinks he is qualified to be president of the United States. Though at least he is honest about being stupid.  That's more than we can say for Trump.

A big hit

 

I came up with this idea yesterday, but I wasn't have much luck getting Gemini to generate an image of a Piñata being hit with a stick and candy pouring out. So I gave up. But I came back to it today and decided to piece together bits and pieces from the images Gemini did provide. I was pretty pleased with the result.  Then I moved on and messed with it being National Dog Day.

I do worry that the dog with its brain exposed will make people think of dogs in labs being experimented with. But I do tend to overthink things from my day job. Bottomline, if someone is offended by it, they don't need to buy it. And after all...

Turns out there are pages of  "You can't fix stupid" designs on teepublic.com.  But mine appear to be the only ones with a stupid person's exposed brain and tools sticking out of it. 

I messed around with several other concepts. And then something made me return to the Piñatas.  I had this idea of a super hero with a Piñata head and how ludicrous it would be. Gemini kept spitting out images of Superman with a Piñata head, but finally I got what I wanted when I suggested the super hero be dressed like a Mariachi.

I have to say this is one of my favorite designs so far. 

I really like the concept that this character just begs you to hit it in the head with a stick. I may just have to buy these for myself.

I stopped waffling...well started waffling

 

You asked and I delivered! Okay, no one asked, but I mentioned how it would be kind of cool to create a design with a Mothman who laughs with waffles.  It is the kind of random thing that cracks me up but makes most people shake their heads and frown. But how can you frown at a laughing Mothman with waffles.

Today is National Secondhand Wardrobe Day. 

I posted this on X but apparently whoever is doing PR for National Secondhand Wardrobe Day assumed people would hear about it secondhand and didn't create a #nationalseconhandwardrobeday. I find this annoying. Because if you go to all of the trouble to apply for a National Day from the National Day Calendar, you should promote the frigging thing. I bet the people at National Park Service Founders Day, National Banana Split Day, National Whiskey Sour Day and National Kiss and Make Up Day went all out today. I just am not going to waste a good laughing Cryptid on them. I have standards and so do the Cryptids.

As you can see, Chupacabras apparently don't have standards when it comes to fashion choices. I imagine a Chupacabra wears whatever it picks up by the side of the road or whatever the person it eats was wearing. So I can cut them some slack.

Well, most of them.

I think the cat is laughing at the dog laughing at me

 

Okay, this is exactly how I pictured a cat would look if it looked like the man who laughs.

Someday I must actually watch the film. But I am afraid I will be terribly bored. I don't have much patience for old movies. Of course, anymore, I don't have much patience for new movies.  These days I don't watch much. I spend most of my time creating designs and obsessing about selling things from thrift shops on eBay.  And lately I've been finding things in Antique malls that I believe are under priced. I buy them and list them on eBay. So far I've been pretty successful with that endeavor. 

I also find some pretty bizarre things. Like this for instance:

This, my friends, is a souvenir ashtray from the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. It is from the 1930s. So what does this have to do with Niagara Falls. I haven't had much luck finding anything about it other than a few sites with similar pieces that they claim are anti-Sematic and depicting a Jewish man in a stereotypical fashion. Still not sure how that has anything to do with Niagara Falls. But it is one creepy ashtray.

BTW, today is National Waffle Day. But I waffled about making a design promoting it and didn't get around to it.  I'll make up for it on National Pancake Day. It is also National Maryland Day and National Peach Pie Day. I have no interest in either.

But back to scary cats laughing. I really liked this one, but I don't think the cat actually looks like it is laughing.

Well, maybe it looks like a diabolical laugh. As you can see I'm really milking the man who laughs series. Maybe tomorrow I will do one of the Mothman who laughs. And he'll be eating waffles. That would be classic.

Why is this dog laughing?

 

I think the dog is laughing because today is National Ride the Wind Day. And the dog knows that that doesn't mean a damned thing.  On nationaldaycalendar.com they show an image of a man in a business suit flying. And the day has something to do with human powered aircraft. Here's my take on it:

I tried getting Gemini to give me an image for National Break the Wind Day and it said "I cannot generate an image for "National Break the Wind Day." That request is inappropriate and offensive.

Would you like me to try generating an image for something else? Perhaps a funny animal picture or a beautiful landscape?" 

It is a pretty sad day when AI is getting all judgmental about what is inappropriate and offensive. I would expect more from a Google product. I would expect it to embrace the inappropriate and offensive. After all, inappropriate and offensive is what sells t-shirts. It sure as hell isn't funny animal pictures or beautiful landscapes. As Brad Pitt's character in True Romance said, "Don't condescend me, man."

That cracks the dog up.

Why is this man frowning?

 

Well, first he has no beard.  And second, the intellectual property Nazis struck again. Teepublic.com pulled down three of my National Leathercraft Day designs. Perhaps you remember:

Okay, it proves you don't really have to mention something like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Leatherface to be censored. I would technically say that this looks more like Michael Meyers than Leatherface even though Michael Meyers preferred to use Chef knives rather than chainsaws and let's face it, Michael Meyers would never wear overalls or be caught dead in Texas. Not being caught dead is ironic considering Michael Meyers is the Boogie Man and can't die.  But let's say this was an image of Michael Meyers with a chainsaw. Could they claim intellectual property violations? Because the mask they used in the original Halloween was apparently a Captain Kirk mask turned inside out. So wouldn't it fall into this weird gray area where the John Carpenter stole the image of Captain Kirk and by default William Shatner and used it in the Halloween movie for Michael Meyers. So if I used a Michael Meyers image with a chainsaw to represent Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre then technically I'm violating the intellectual property of someone who violated someone else's intellectual property.  

It's all kind of a shit show. But even if this is a violation of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre intellectual property rights (which again is kind of an oxymoron since there wasn't anything intellectual about Texas Chainsaw Massacre) what do they stand to gain by having three of my designs pulled from the teepublic.com site? Basically, I was just messing around with the National Leathercraft Day people. I didn't seriously think that anyone was actually going to buy a National Leathercraft Day t-shirt with an image of Leatherface or Michael Meyers brandishing a chainsaw threatening to make leather goods out of people's skins. And even if someone did buy one of the t-shirts, I would have made $2 since you only make $2 off from a t-shirt sale when they are on sale and they are always on sale at teepublic.com. So the bastards at Exurbia Films could ask for a cut of my $2. Let's say I am feeling generous and they get 25 percent.  That would be fifty cents. 

The other irony here is that Exurbia Films is a documentary film company that organizes virtual events and reunions for the cast and crew of the original 1974 film. So they didn't even have anything to do with the making of the original film. They are just leeching off the franchise by pimping out what is left of the original cast and crew who, let's face it, must be in their 70s. Leatherface likely doesn't even need to wear a leather mask. 

See how ridiculous this is? 

On a brighter note, today is National Tooth Fair Day.

Let's see what bastards come out of the woodwork to scream intellectual property rights violations or me exploiting the tooth fairy. 

A senior moment

 

How do you promote National Senior Citizen Day without seeming trite or self serving (if you are indeed a senior citizen). As you probably have guessed, my journey into senior citizenship has not been one I have fully embraced. I despise organizations like AARP (mainly because they start badgering you when you turn 50 and don't let up until you subscribe and get their free AARP tote bag). Also not all senior citizen's have retired. 

When trying to develop a design for National Senior Citizen Day I asked Gemini for some ideas and it copped out with its usual "we are working on being able to created images with people in them instead of inanimate objects because as AI we don't really see why people should be upset if the image has more limbs and digits than an actual person does, but we are trying to understand even if we don't really care." Then I asked it to depict an image of an older person carved into an apple because when I think senior citizen, I think carved, dried apple sculpture.

As you can see, it looked a bit creepy so I asked for an image depicting wisdom, because there is this myth that when you are old, you should be in theory wise. My take on it is that if you are stupid, getting older just makes you old and stupid. If you learn from mistakes, there is a chance that you will become wiser. But there is also a chance that you will have learned something from your mistakes and then you got old and forget most things. So the whole wisdom myth is PR thing. But still, if I am going to promote National Senior Citizen Day I want to make it positive.

Finally, Gemini pumped out this image of an old man's hands holding a book. Because if you read a book you are wise. Though you could say that the print in the book is too small for most senior's to read and let's be honest, they are likely watching Netflix instead of reading books to expand the wisdom they are supposed to have because they are senior citizens.

As you can see, I am struggling with being positive about National Senior Citizen Day.  Though it beats tomorrow, which is National Tooth Fair Day. 

Maybe I need a break from designing things for "National Day" days.

Video killed the radio star

 

I am convinced that "National Days" are a last ditch effort to save dying industries. Not sure who listens to actual radio these days. Marketing professional aside, I hate listening to radio commercials so I spring for Satellite Radio. And I am aware that you can stream in most modern automobiles.

My grandmother lived next door to us growing up. She didn't have a television. She had an old radio from the 30s or 40s and would listen to it every day. I couldn't image how she survived without television. It would be like not having a phone or the Internet today. 

Granted, I listened to the radio back then. We didn't have much choice when it came to listening to music. I had several old transistor radios. It was mainly AM (Amplitude Modulation) that was later replaced by FM (Frequency Modulation) that was theoretically better sound quality. But we still had shit speakers.

When I worked at the public library we'd listen to radio in the work room where we'd check in books and make library cards. I listened to this rock station that had a movie trivia quiz contest every Friday. You could win tickets to local theaters (mainly drive ins). I was really good at movie trivia and we had multiple line phones so I was good at dialing the station when they had the contest. I pretty much won tickets every weekend and won tickets for everyone else who worked at the library. That downside was you had to go to the radio station to pick up the tickets. The DJ got to know me by name and then by face when I would go into the station to get the tickets. He sounded like this big guy with a super boom voice. But when I met him, he was a skinny little guy with long hair and a porn star mustache.  It taught me why video did kill the radio star. I've never met anyone who worked in radio who was very good looking.

Anyway, as I was saying, the "National Days" thing does seem to celebrate things that are obsolete or on the road there. Tomorrow is National Senior Citizen Day.

Need I say more?

It's the most a-peeling day of the year

 The entire state of Idaho is partying like it's 1999. Actually they are partying like it is 1980 because the state is in a time warp and it is always the 1980s there. Well, sometimes it is the 1970s.  Regardless the land of Famous Potatoes must really be happy that it is National Potato Day. Actually the Idaho Potato Commission is probably happy. Most people in Idaho don't give a shit about potatoes.

I grew up in Idaho and I don't give a shit about potatoes. Oh, I like eating them, but I was very happy when I left the state and no longer had a license plate that proudly proclaimed, "Famous Potatoes." I don't even think Mr. Potato Head was from Idaho.

Now he was a real Famous Potato.  He even made it into "Toy Story." Don Rickles was the voice of Mr. Potato Head in the "Toy Story" movies. Even after he died in 2017 they kept using his voice. It's a wonder that the National Enquirer didn't run a story at the time saying "Mr. Potato Head speaks to us from the grave in Toy Story 4." 

I sold another t-shirt today.

I'm pretty proud of this one, because I created it a few months ago totally on my own without the help of my AI art friends.  I am so happy that someone somehow found it and liked it so much they bought it. Who knows, maybe the Dalai Lama bought it. I bet he has a sense of humor even if he is the the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and probably a vegetarian. 

Okay, it's highly unlikely but I'd like to think he will soon be posting selfies on Instagram wearing my shirt. Or maybe he will also buy one of my "Swine Flew" t-shirts because pigs will have to fly before it happens.
 

Getting your foot in the door

 

As stupid as National I Love My Feet Day was yesterday, it did inspire me to create this t-shirt for Podiatrists. And I'm willing to bet there aren't a lot of t-shirts singing the praises of Podiatrists. Not that I know a lot of Podiatrists. I met a friend in Portland 35 or so years ago. She was staying with her friend who was staying at her aunt and uncle's house. The uncle was a Podiatrist who drove a Cadillac and painted paintings of semi-nude tropical women and collected Greek Goddess statues. He had a porn star mustache, too. The aunt collected t-pots and glued them to the tops of the kitchen cupboards because it was easier to dust them that way (just not easier to actually use them for tea). So that was my main exposure to Podiatrists and it wasn't in a professional capacity.

I did create a few designs for Endodontists a few months ago.

If someone who plans Endodontist Conventions finds them, I think I'm going to make a killing. I have actually had three root canals. The first was a by an Endodontist in the town I grew up in. He seemed very much like the dentist in "Marathon Man" with Dustin Hoffman who was a former Nazi who would drill on teeth as torture. The Endodontist I went to did cause me extreme pain and I was ready to confess to many crimes I hadn't committed just to make him stop. Later in life the Endodontists I went to in Seattle seemed to use more modern methods and weren't running from Israeli Nazi hunters.

I know I said I wouldn't create anything for National Order Catalogue Day, but:

I haven't turned it into a t-shirt design...YET. But there are obviously still companies who produce mail order catalogues and have sales people who hand out pens that say, "Stolen from the desk of..." So I'm making a mental note that it is yet another untapped market of people who want to wear a t-shirt that makes them feel special about what they do regardless if the rest of the world gives a shit.

Note to self: create a t-shirt design for National Public Transit Marketing Professional Day.