Beer Bong!

 

My birthday is coming up. hint hint!

Not Jen...Layla

 

This Layla. And yes, she was named after the song which was playing on the radio on the way to the hospital.

Another Gen

 

This is Genevieve...just another Jen/Gen I know in San Antonio

The 5 Jen/Gen's

 

I have at least 5 friends named Jen or some variation of Jen. This is just one of them: a bartender at WiseGuys.

Silohouette

 

How to lose friends and alienate countries

Brooke

 
Some recent work I did with Brooke Banx...enjoy

Another Self Portrait 165lbs

 

What a Pussy!

I was testing some lighting setups last night and the cat wandered in and made herself comfortable. I couldn't resist adding the caption for all my Dallas friends.

 

Severe Weather

 

This Line Squall just passed thru the country, dropping golf ball sized hail in parts of San Antonio. It only took about 30 mins to pass over, but it was enough to make some people nervous. It extended all the way up Interstate 35 past Austin, Dallas, into OK, and a huge storm in Kansas, even stretching up to IOWA.

Cigar Smokers never die...

 

Self-portrait. I don't smoke cigars. Just happened to have this one laying around for a couple of years and thought I'd use it on this project.

Skittles - enjoying Boxing Day

 

Christmas if finally over...now she can relax.

Another Self Portrait

 

Self Portrait

 

Me

This is a photo my cousin took with my camera while at lunch downtown Halifax.

Brothers

I love this photo of me and my brother taken with his Holga at our sister's wedding!

Beauty sans Geek

The photos seem to turn out much better when I'm not in them! :)

Beauty and the Geek

This is my friend Briana and me after finishing a nice meal in one of our favorite restaurants this evening. Not exactly sure WHY she's my friend, but I ain't gonna to argue. Remind me NOT to take any more pictures of myself standing next to someone this gorgeous.

It's MY money and I'll do what I want with it!

As some of you already know, I've been hanging around Hooter's alot lately. But, I think I'll be there less frequently from now on. It's not really about the amount of money that I've been spending there. It's what happens to that money.

I've been hanging around there for about a year now and have a few regular waitresses. One in particular is a real gem. She will come over and sit at my table even if it's not in her section. She has spent hours at my table just chitchating every time I come in. Do I tip her well? I guess that's subjective, but yes, I try. She takes really good care of me, and when you break it down, I feel I can't tip her enough for the ego boost this pretty 20-year old gives me.....especially after the mind-fuck of a marriage I went through.

Everytime I walk through the doors of Hooters, my real world troubles are forgotten. When I sit at her table, and she comes over with those big, round brown eyes, and those pouty, full lips always coated in lip-gloss.....well, it just melts away all my stress. Not only is she beautiful, but she has a personality to go with it. And, that's the hook. For beauty will get attention, but personality will capture hearts. Unfortunately, she is like a drug. And, I'm addicted to her. Like any good drug, it starts off slowly, but the more you have, the more you want. Until eventually, you start using that drug to totally forget the things that are stressing you out: instead of dealing the those things head on. An easy out.

So, after a particularly wierd night of drinking, when my 'drug' wasn't around, I realized I was going through withdrawals. I had to sit back, take some time and re-examine what I was doing, and what was going on in my life that was stressing me out. My job, for one. I know, everyone has had a bad job. Mine is actually quite good. It's the company I work for....it's like being in a big dysfunctional family. Heck, I may as well stayed married if I wanted that type of mindfuck. Always throwing you off balance. If it's not one thing it's another. Reality just ceases to exist within this company's culture.

Anyways, that's not the point of this post....just the background. What really ticked me off was after chatting with ANOTHER girl there I found out a couple of surprising facts about how Hooter's operates, and where my TIP money goes.

First, Hooter's girls only get paid an hourly wage of $2.25. Most of them don't even know, because most of them recieve a ZERO $ paycheck. That's because, if you make over a certain amount of TIPS, Hooters doesn't pay the hourly wage....you've already made too much. In addition, this girl told me that Hooters also takes a cut of the tips.....maybe 2%....I'm not sure of the exact number...the night was a little foggy. But I figure.....wait a second....this is the money I have generously taken out of MY pocket to go directly to the girl as a TIP! I'm already paying HOOTERS too much for the crappy food and the beer!

So, not only if I TIP too much does Hooters save $2.25 an hour, but they start TAKING my money too! Sure, some of that tip the girl has to split up with the bartender and the food runner....that's acceptable: they do a job too. But HOOTERS, don't start taking money away from the waitress and ME off the backend when I've already paid you up front! The only way I can see to avoid this is to TIP in cash.....which I rarely carry.....as there is no electronic record of how much you tipped the girl.

So, there you have it. I'm tired of giving my money to a sneaky major corporation.

Cat Alley, Jamaica Beach, TX

This is a photo of Cat Alley: a beach house owned by a friend, just west of Galveston, TX. A icon of catamaran sailors along the Gulf Coast. It's about 20' from the water.