I finally decided that this blog just wasn’t going where I wanted and I wasn’t interested in talking about myself as much as I originally intended. Well, I don’t mind talking about myself, but since I didn’t really have a clear direction, and anything regarding my artwork was better received in places like Twitter and Facebook, I really didn’t see the point of having a blog here anymore. Also, one of the biggest reasons of not being more attentive here is because I was preoccupied with the thought of becoming a dad. If you hadn’t heard, my wife and I are just over the halfway mark through our pregnancy. We’re having a boy and he’s due in early July.

Once we got the word that all things were working normally and the baby was healthy as far as we could tell, I really starting pouring myself into the idea of being a dad. That’s when I started my new project, called Artsipop, a blog about parenting from the perspective of a right brainer like me. So, if you really want to know what’s going on with me these days, you should check out that site because I’m finding a lot more stuff to write about.

So, what will happen to this site? It’s going to eventually become more of a portfolio site from here on out. There will still be some “blogging”, but more in the way of news instead of the diatribes and rants you’re so fond (or not) of. So, don’t go away, but please do check out Artsipop.com for more on me and the family. It’s good times, I promise. You can also follow the corresponding Twitter account: @artsipop.

Thanks, as always, for your continuing support.

I’ve been using my iPhone to shoot these videos, but I don’t have the hands off capability like other cameras offer, so I look into tripod options. What I end up with is the Joby Gorillapod with a Versihold clamp made for camera phones of all types.

Gorillapod
Versihold Gripper – Contact JeffS on Twitter

In honor of the woman who made me who I am today; my inspiration, my creative center, my independent spirit. Thanks for everything you’ve given me, Mom. I love you.

You can check out Michele’s work on Etsy.

Over the next few days, I’m going to attempt to migrate this site over to a new web host. There’s some obstacles to get around, but hopefully it will be a fairly smooth transition. If for some reason you come by and this site is missing or not working correctly, please bear with it for a little while. I promise I’ll be back bigger and stronger than ever.

Thanks for your patience.

I just found out that the best radio station in Los Angeles, Indie 103.1 is shutting down. Instead of bowing to corporate radio culture and playing crap music, they are stepping down with their head up. Here’s something from their site.

Indie 103.1 will cease broadcasting over this frequency effective immediately. Because of changes in the radio industry and the way radio audiences are measured, stations in this market are being forced to play too much Britney, Puffy and alternative music that is neither new nor cutting edge. Due to these challenges, Indie 103.1 was recently faced with only one option — to play the corporate radio game.

We have decided not to play that game any longer. Rather than changing the sound, spirit, and soul of what has made Indie 103.1 great Indie 103.1 will bid farewell to the terrestrial airwaves and take an alternative course.

This could only be done on the Internet, a place where rules do not apply and where new music thrives; be it grunge, punk, or alternative � simply put, only the best music.

For those of you with a computer at home or at work, log on to www.indie1031.com and listen to the new Indie 103.1 – which is really the old Indie 103.1, not the version of Indie 103.1 we are removing from the broadcast airwaves.

We thank our listeners and advertisers for their support of the greatest radio station ever conceived, and look forward to continuing to deliver the famed Indie 103.1 music and spirit over the Internet to passionate music listeners around the world.

I got the feeling a few months back that things were changing at that station. When they starting playing Coldplay, I knew things were shifting a little. When their morning DJ, Joe Escalante, decided to move on, it was another sign. Then some of the radio segments, like Watusi Radio, were being replaced with more standard airplay, I knew for sure. Their standard airplay was getting to be a bit on the lame side, playing the same songs over and over but still interspersing it with some cool stuff (emphasis on some).

At least their is still KCRW.

Knocked out another piece this weekend. As with most of my abstracts, this one went way left of my original intent, but I dig it anyway. One of these days I’m going to learn to embrace the randomness. Check this one and the rest of my pieces out on Flickr.

To be completely transparent, I scraped this entire content from Westlord.com’s Bruce Lee Dedication site. It was just too damn cool to not show everyone. Please check out their site for more cool Bruce Lee stuff.

Circumstances hell! I make circumstances!

Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.

Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as reality in your own mind!

I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.

If you always put limit on everything you do, physical or anything else. It will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.

Man, the living creature, the creating individual, is always more important than any established style or system.

Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

Simplicity is the last step of art.

A teacher is never a giver of truth – he is a guide, a pointer to the truth that each student must find for himself. A good teacher is merely a catalyst.

When an opportunity in a fight presents itself, “I” don’t hit, “it” hits all by itself.

Empty your mind. Become formless and shapeless like water. When water is poured into a cup, it becomes the cup. When water is poured into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Be water, my friend.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action with another person. If you want to understand the truth in martial arts, to see any opponent clearly, you must throw away the notion of styles or schools, prejudices, likes and dislikes, and so forth. Then, your mind will cease all conflict and come to rest. In this silence, you will see totally and freshly.

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering.

Don’t think, feel! It is like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don’t concentrate on the finger or you will miss all that heavenly glory.

A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.

I don’t believe in different ways of fighting now, I mean, unless human beings have 3 arms and 3 legs – then we will have a different way of fighting. But basically we all have two arms and two legs so that is why I believe there should be only one way of fighting and that is no way.

If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread over into your work, into your mortality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you.

Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind.

Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.

The future looks extremely bright indeed, with lots of possibilities ahead – big possibilities. Like the song says, “We’ve just begun.”

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

Absorb what is useful, Discard what is not, Add what is uniquely your own

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.

Whilst teaching a young student in Enter The Dragon, and after telling him “hit me” twice, (both were feeble kicks) he then grabs the student, tells him you must learn to concentrate, points to the sky (whilst twisting his head skywards) and quotes “It is like a finger pointing away to the moon” (at which point he pauses and slaps the student on the forehead) and continues… “DON’T concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all the heavenly glory”

There is no fixed teaching. All I can provide is an appropriate medicine for a particular ailment.

Jeet Kune Do – It is having no limitation as limitation

Jeet Kune Do uses no way as way The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.

The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world.

You just wait. I’m going to be the biggest Chinese Star in the world.

There is no fixed teaching. All I can provide is an appropriate medicine for a particular ailment.

Jeet Kune Do – It is having no limitation as limitation

Jeet Kune Do uses no way as way The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.

The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world.

I hope martial artists are more interested in the root of martial arts and not the different decorative branches, flowers or leaves.

I haven’t been very active here lately, but I’ve got a really great reason. Lately I just haven’t had much passion to write because I didn’t really have a focus. Without focus, I’m pretty much useless, so I just never felt I was writing about anything worthy of posting. Then something happened while reading Dwell magazine.

I love Dwell. It’s by far my favorite home/design magazine right now and a constant source of inspiration and desire. One thing I’ve been noticing lately is their dedication to more sustainably architecture and design. Green design is no longer something reserved for treehugging hippies, it’s accessible to the rest of us and I got bit by the bug, but that wasn’t the event that set me off.

This past July gas was reaching ridiculous levels and I was almost forced to find ways to stretch my gas mileage just to save a few bucks. So I went online to research and next thing I know, I’m obsessed with getting better MPG. The byproduct of all that researching is I learned a little more about living more sustainably and how I could save money around the home, so I figured if I could make an effort to improve my gas mileage, I could do the same for things around the home, like a lower electricity bill. Again, it became a challenge and I sank myself into the task.

I started devouring information at a ravenous pace and realized that I had found the passion I’d been missing for a very long time. I needed to document what I was learning and I started to write a posts here decided it would be better to create an entirely new site dedicated to my green education with hopes of encouraging others to do the same. So I’ve been spending the majority of my time at The Greeniest, my new site about being a green newb.

I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen to this blog just yet. I have considered turning this site into more of a portfolio site for my design work, but I just may keep the blog just in case. For those loyal readers that have stuck with me, I love you and I hope you stay forever, but I’m also encouraging you to visit The Greeniest and joining the conversation. If you dig what’s going on over there, please tell your friends and send them my way.

As always, you’re welcome to drop me a line anytime. If there is anything I can do for you, just ask: dc[at]daveconrey[dot]com. Best of luck to you and I hope to hear from you all soon.

Ok, this is probably the most appropriate post I’ve sent up in awhile. I just stumbled across The Lazy Bloggers Post Generator and it was too much fun to pass up. Basically, you pick a bunch of responses to questions and it churns out a simple post. I decided to make it more fun that I would go about it in Mad Libs style and not read the questions, just pick stuff at random. Here is the result:

Holy crap! I just found out I have not updated this since the long
board was invented… You would not believe the fairy dust I have to
clean up. Dudes!.

I am so busy with a weight-lifting regime,
rock crushing, just generally being an embarrassment to my friends, my
day pisses me off from sun up to whenever. I am beyond drunk most of
the time. my kids think I don’t make sense any more.

I swear on
the bones of my ancestors that when the weather turns bad, I will blog
more often. Until I need your shoulder to cry on. Cats if you don’t.

Indeed! Cats if you dont.

I’m not sure what’s going on, but lately I’ve been using Scribefire for my updates here, but something seems to go awry about every other time I post. I’m pretty sure I wrote something recently about Jay Conrad Levinson’s magnum opus, Guerrilla Marketing and how I decided to read it again, but damned if that post went completely AWOL.

I love Scribefire’s functionality, and it makes posting a whole lot easier than having to login to my WP admin every time, but having things disappear is a bit frustrating, as you can imagine.

Anyway, I wrote this really great piece about Levinson’s book. It was irreverent and insightful and you’re missing out for not being in whatever dimension the post went, but none the less, the book is awesome even after a 2nd time reading it. Go check it out.