With all due apologies to Ray Troll, I created the montage below to honor my new truck. Isn’t she a beauty? If you click on the picture, it will come up slightly larger in a new window. This won’t work as a desktop background because of the dimensions, but I doubt you’ll want this on your desktop, anyway. If you want to buy a framed wall print of my truck, I can probably get one for you at a reasonable price. 🙂
Enjoy,
Andrew
Last night Lisa and I went with my Seminar in New Ventures class to Art Hop. Art Hop happens the first Thursday evening of every month in Fresno. It’s an opening of many different kinds of art studios in Downtown Fresno. We started our Art Hop tour at the city’s historic Bus Barn, which has been turned into the Art Barn after a group of artists took it off the city’s hands for a $1 purchase price and $250,000 in maintenance. It was really cool to walk around and see artists of all different types and calibers, ranging from the part-time after-hours school teacher to the man who sells his paintings at galleries nationwide. I enjoyed being able to stand in front of each piece of art and ask the artist about it. That really enriched the entire experience for me. If any Shinnfans happen to be in Fresno on the first Thursday of every month (after this semester, of course), I’d be happy to join you and hop over to Art Hop!
Happy Friday,
Andrew
Alright, Shinnfans, we all know Google’s a great search tool. But did you know that it also works as a calculator? All you have to do is enter your terms (6*9, for example) and it will calculate for you. It will even calculate the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Go ahead; try it. Go to google and search for “the answer to life, the universe, and everything“. It’ll spit out the right answer. I didn’t believe it until I tried it, either. Then go to the Wikipedia and find out why it does this. You’ll be fascinated.
Happy Googling,
Andrew
Check this out, Shinnfans. Yesterday God once again renewed his promise to never again flood the earth. This time he made sure the folks in Reedley were watching. I was there. It was cool. As indicated by the title, NW4Y (New Wallpaper 4 You), if you click on this image it’ll pop up in a larger screen and you can set it as your desktop background. God’s gift to us, encapsulated in my gift to you.
Enjoy!
– AJS
Yes, those Shinnfans with IQ’s higher than 109 just realized that the title of this blogpost is, in fact, the word Google backward. There’s a very good (and very clever) reason for this. It’s a reason so brilliant that I only wish I could come up with something so wacky. You can read the article for yourself by clicking on the link in the title, and I hope you do. Such a parody is more evidence of the Google-soaked culture that I’m working hard to perpetuate. Incidentally, the Wikipedia article on elgooG elucidated an interesting side-benefit of the backward search engine: while Google was banned by China’s communist government, Chinese people started using elgooG and typing in their searches backward in their efforts to seek out information. “Parody assists parity,” said Andrew Shinn, founder of the fictitious Googlewatch Redux cultural commentary firm. Those Shinnfans with enormous amounts of discretionary time (such as those who are starting businesses or who are temporarily unemployed) will also get a kick out of Googlewhacking.
Enjoy,
Andrew
Ok, Shinnfans. I know you’re tried of pondering my hair, so I thought I’d give you something more interesting to think about: oil. You may all know about this, but the existence of the strategic petroleum reserve is news to me. And shocking news at that. To think that our government keeps almost a billion barrels of oil in gigantic salt-lined natural caves along the gulf coast is really fascinating to me. It conjures images of that movie from the 1980’s with the cave beneath Mount Rushmore where the President and lots of important-looking generals would scurry around and decide whether or not we should launch nukes at the Russians. These strategic reserves are apparently no big secret, judging from the amount of information about them that’s readily available. But I’d never heard of them until this morning (thank you, Google Desktop Bar). It really makes me wonder what else our government does that I haven’t yet caught wind of. Do you know of (or suspect) something interesting that you’d care to share with the rest of us? Do it in the comments below.
Conspiratorially,
Andrew
Shinnfans, Friends, Family, members of the ASAC (Andrew Shinn Advisory Council), people who care, people who don’t care but are reading this anyway, and everyone else (except Max):
Help!!! I have a dilemma of gravest consequence. I have decided (drumroll please…) ………………. (you may want to sit down for this)…………………(no, really, sit down!)…………………(what were you doing standing reading my blog, anyway?!)…………………….. to grow out my hair. I know, some of you may be shocked and others appalled (except those who don’t care but are reading this anyway). But I feel it’s something I have to do. Alright, maybe I don’t feel that strongly about it, but at least I figure I’ll give it a whirl. But this is where the dilemma comes in. I’ve never gone through the transition phase from short hair to long hair. I don’t really know how to manage that. Do I comb my hair? How? Do I use gel? Do I try to fall asleep through the next 5 presidential terms in hopes of waking with Fabio-like locks? You’ve got to remember, I’ve been my own butcher…..er, barber for the last three haircuts.
In my quest for advice, I went first to the person in my household with the longest hair. In proportion to body size, that would be Max. I explained the nature, scope, and details of my woes to him. He patiently waited for me to finish. Then it was my turn to patiently wait. He just looked at me with a dumb look on his face that said, “What, were you hoping for something more?” I was, in fact, but that was my mistake. It was then that I realized three imporant truths: 1) He’s only grown his hair out twice, once when he was born and once after I shaved him. He probably doesn’t remember either time. 2) Max doesn’t talk. 3) Even if he did talk, he’s not that good at managing his hair (that’s why I had to shave him).
I thought about turning next to the internet, but my question’s so random and specific. I guess if anyone has the answers, it would be my precious Wikipedia or howtogrowyourhairout.com or something. But instead I’m turning to you. What’s your take? What advice can I solicit from you? How on earth do I grow out my hair? And who really shot JFK? Please leave your comments below.
Desperate (and disparate),
Andrew
Alright, Shinnfans. I bought Google shares when they were $190 each, about 8 months ago. 20 minutes ago their stock price hovered at $309.40. I know this because I have stock ticker in my Google Desktop Bar that’s always giving me current quotes. Well, I just read a Reuters article (also via my GDB) that announced Google’s next round of stock offerings will be tomorrow. So, for those of you who said to me, “Wow. Those are amazing returns. How can I invest like that?”, you now have the chance to own a little slice of one of the most innovative companies on the web today. Here’s my analysis:
What does all this mean for you? It means that if you’re looking for my investment advice, you’re got it: buy Google tomorrow. Lots of it. And if you make astronomical gains, thank me. If Google spreads too thin and enters markets that don’t work for them or cause them to lose their edge in the compeition, don’t blame me. It IS the stock market, after all.
Cheers,
Andrew
In the past two weeks, I’ve found myself mired in no less than three conversations about truck parts. I don’t know anything about truck parts. All I do is shake my head and mutter about carbeurators. I’ve been complaining about it (to those who wouldn’t be offended), but today I accepted it. I realized that it’s a fact of rural life as much as riding the T is a fact of life in Boston. So I went about redneck-ifying myself (sorry Gwen) in a rather net-gen way: reading up on Ford truck engines on the wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org). I now know the difference between a Windsor V-8 and a Cleveland V-8 with a 2-barrel or 4-barrel carb. It’s not much, but it’s a start. It just goes to show that anything can be learned (and most things faked). It also shows that no matter what your interest, the internet CAN BE a shortcut to expert status.
Cheers,
Andrew (or Buck if you prefer)
Shinn Photography
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