Kenn Wislander

Where Did I go TypePad?

After migrating off of VOX I have kind of vanished.. but not really. In fact I have fully started using Wislander.com as the only place I am making post and blog entries. It is now up and running on Drupal 7 and is a lot easier to use and more full featured than my account over here.

Plus it is more customized and personalized than I have ever been able to accomplish on a blog site that I do not manage. So if you happened over here looking for me, then you may want to swing over to Wislander.com to see what I have been up to.

Times are a changing

It has only taken me a couple years to get around to it, but Wislander.com is finally a full featured web site powered by a CMS application. Including blogging, messaging, RSS feeds, news feeds. So I am probably going to be using that location a lot more then I will be using my VOX sites.

I may still keep stopping by here from time to time, but it is a lot easier to maintain my feeds to all of my other sites from a single location.

Jeff Vader Part 2

A couple of years ago, after watching Eddie Izzard's "Circle" stand-up routine, I created a t-shirt with the "Hello my name is Jeff Vader I Run the Death Star" design that you see above. If you have never seen the routine you can rent the video from Netflix, or watch it over on YouTube, or the Lego version over there too.

For a couple of years I only sold the design on various Zazzle products, that is until November of 2009 when after selling a couple hundred items there was a request to have them all removed. I assumed that maybe someone from Eddie Izzard's camp had contacted Zazzle and ask to have them taken down. To my surprise it was not. It was actually someone from the George Lucas camp. That's right; they had Zazzle remove the designs because they in some way or another decided that everything, even parody or satire, that in any way, shape, or form that relates to one of their movies is theirs. Part of the reason Zazzle complied of course was because there is a Star Wars store front on their site, and I am guessing it makes Zazzle a whole lot more money than my store does, so they were more than willing to do what they were asked to do. I can't really blame them for that.

Of course after the products were removed from there, I found there was still a demand for the design, and there were blog sites talking about the sudden disappearance of the items. So I decided since I have the original design, I would put it out on other sites and make the merchandise available once again.

Below you will find links to the various web sites that now offer the design. I tried to place the design on as many sites as possible to allow easiest choices for anyone looking to purchase one of the items. Some stores offer a larger selection of items than others, but that is something that I cannot control.

I'm Jeff Vader Store Fronts or Items

My other designs based on the comedy stylings of the one and only Eddie Izzard. All of the characters and designs were created by me, but all of the phrases and ideas are directly based upon Eddie's work.

Jeff Vader Tshirt

For reasons too confusing to understand the "Hello My Name is Jeff Vader" merchandise has been relocated to Printfection.com.

[Edited January 3, 2010] I have added several different store fronts now with the design and grouped them all into one location on my main site. Check out my Jeff Vader Page on Wislander.com.

The move added a few dozen more items and in some cases lowered the pricing.

Dr Williams?

Just happened: A guy walked in my office with a small box and says:
Guy: Can I leave this here for Dr Williams?
Me: I don't know Dr Williams.
Guy: For Doc-tor-Will-iams
Me: I don't know Dr Williams
Guy: He's a professor.
Me: I don't know him.
Guy: Dr Williams.
Me: No, I don't know him.
Guy: Are you sure?
Me: Never heard of him.
Guy: I thought this was his office?
Me: No, but it is my office.
Guy looks at the name on the door.
Guy: Do you know where Dr Williams office is?
Me: I don't know Dr Williams.
Guy: Where should I leave this package?
Me: In his office?
Guy: Do you know where that is?
Me: I've never heard of him.
Guy: Maybe I am on the wrong floor, isn't this 418?
Me looking at the number on door: No, it's 223
Guy walks out.
This building only has 3 floors.. *sigh*

Better outside photos of the new house

Just a quick post to add images of the new house. Started moving stuff in, changed all the locks on both doors and the garage, have prepared half of the walls for repainting already; and I will finish the rest of them today. Cleaned the kitchen, installed a dehumidifier and replaced several cracked switch plates. Seems to be a problem when people use a power screw driver or drill to tighten the screws on them.

David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

BANGKOK (AP) - Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room and is believed to have committed suicide.

Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.

In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby.

But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.

He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."

He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill."

Reposted from: iWon.com 

Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes...

Times they are a changing... for me at least. Just finalized my closing date on my new/future home. Seems like every time I speak to my Realtor, or the current owners of the home, my closing date or my property custody date keeps moving up. As it is right now I will be a home owner on June 12th, and over 2000 sqft of living space!

Anyway, this will be my new place:

I will post better bigger images once I have the keys (and garage door openers) in hand. I will have three bedrooms and plenty of room to actually have studio space, and MAYBE a home theater, because EVERYONE NEEDS one of those.

Let the packing begin.

Flush the Damn Toilet

Now I can only confirm this has become an issue in men’s rooms, but may also be a problem in ladies rooms too.  There is a growing trend of people not flushing the toilets and urinals in men’s bathrooms after they have used them. More often than not when I walk into a bathroom there is waste waiting there to greet me. Kind of a “Hello, you need to flush me before you use me” situation.  No I am not talking about someone blew their nose and threw the small wad in there and it is just floating around in the bowl.

No, I am talking about someone used, or overused the toilet, finished their business, got up and left it for the world to see. Or they have walked up to a urinal, relieved themselves and went “Look at the pretty yellow color; I am going to leave that for the next guy to enjoy as much as I did.”

 At first I thought it was because there has been an increase in automatic systems in many public restrooms and people are just assuming that it will flush on its own when they step away; and even with those you do have to occasionally press the little black button to manually flush. But it really does seem there is a conscious effort to just leave the toilet in a foul state.

The other day I mentioned this to one of my coworkers and he said. “Yeah I am guilty of that. I don’t want to touch the handle because it’s dirty.” Then I asked him if he washed his hands after he went and he said “Yes, every time.” I reminded him the same “dirt” that is on the handle of the toilet is also on the sink and the door to the bathroom too, and he protested that it was not the same.

Actually he is right, those knobs and handles usually have even more things on them than the toilet flipper, but I digress.

People… flush the damn toilet! Just because you are afraid to add a little dirt to the hands that you plan to wash in a few seconds anyway, does not give you the right to let your filth sit and fester in the toilet for the next person to have to deal with.

And if you really think it is so great to see it and you just want to share it with someone, take out your camera phone and snap a picture of it before you flush it. You can then e-mail it to everyone that you know. At least a picture does not smell like crap, or fermenting urine.

Sometimes...

Sometimes a cover band can play a song exactly the same as the original artist. And sometimes they can take a song to a new level that words just cannot explain. And sometimes it straddles that fine line between comedy and great music. This would be one of those cases. Enjoy....

Los Colorados Hot & cold

Too Shy - Kajagoogoo

How about a true 80s one hit wonder flashback.

Kajagoogoo - Retrofest 2007 - Too Shy