AndrePope.com

Besides having to work all weekend I did get the chance to party down. On Friday nite Heidi's friend Jess came down from Greenville and we all went out for a bit. I retired around 12:30 while Heidi didn't call it quits till around three. However the party continued on without us till about 7 in the mourning. Good times all around.

On Saturday nite Paul and I went to Dave Slushers 40th birthday party. It was good to be around a whole new group of people and swap stories of interesting nature. Check out more details here.

Posted by Andre at 10:20 PM | Permalink

Check out our mugs if we were a Simpson's character!


The new movies website has a pretty cool character building program that is similar to that of the Wii's Mii charactor builder.

Posted by Andre at 06:44 PM | Permalink

Paul and I went on a great little road trip last weekend to pick up the new VW bus. It has been a while since I got to go on a road trip with someone other than myself. Heidi normally has to work and when we do have off together we are always in such a hurry to get somewhere that we don't get to enjoy the trip as well. On Saturday, Paul and I were able to get off the beaten path and onto some some road to enjoy the country side and see a whole bunch of cool stuff. Here is a quick recap.

Paul has a smaller bladder than I so we got to stop more that I normally would. With stopping we were able to discover some things we normally would not have. The first of such instances were finding "BBQ Chicken Cracklins" from Wallace Pork Skins in Florence, SC. Thy were so interesting I wanted to stop by there plant and take a tour, but we will have to wait till another road trip to do so. I wouldn't say go out and buy some, but if you get a chance to try them out do so. The Chicken Cracklins are a bit different and worth the experience.

The second thing we found was this pretty frickin cool hat. Paul saw it and told me I need to go check it out. When I did I was sold. I just had to have it. So have it I did and look forward to sporting it in the near future.

Up the road we went for a little more excitement when we saw a tractor trailer jack knifed in the middle of the road. This caused to go off for a little detour where we saw where all of the South's VW have gone to rest. You can read more about that here.

Next stop on the list was a little old country gas station. At the little country gas station stood an old Dodge roadster with what looked to be a 16 year old kid and his dad out for a ride. It was only fitting for the update of SC with the mountains in the background. Pretty sweet to hear the sweet roar of the engine as it rolled away. This is also where we meet up with the guy to pick up Heidi's new 1970 VW Bus. The guys selling it was a man that seems to find deals on them, buys them in bulk, fixes them up a little and sells them off. Pretty cool guy, plus he used to work for Slush Puppy!

After getting it all tied down and ready to roll Paul and I were off again but it was before too long that we decide to stop by this really cool Antique store in Westminster, SC. The little shop had everything from old coke signs, to oil cans, to furniture, to tractor parts. A pretty nice find on a Saturday afternoon.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful with a few missed turns and an unimpressive dinner at a BBQ restaurant. It was a fun trip and I look forward to taking more soon. Maybe Paul would want to do it again sometime?

Posted by Andre at 05:22 PM | Permalink

Its been a while since I have updated all you out there on the happening of the 71 VW project. To be honest there hasn't been that much going on with it until recent. It the last two weeks I have put some effort back into it and have regained interest in the little project.

New Engine Acquired:
From a sand rail for $50.00 (doesn't run)

New Seats Acquired:
Bought these cool tractor seats for the front seats of the VW. Still working on the rideabilty factor though. By the way if you are ever looking these up on the internet they are referred to as "Pan Seats"

Front End Assembly.
Paul and I mocked up the front end of the VW only to find out that I have to buy another expensive part. I do belive I will however have it powder coated.

Welder Acquired:
I bought Paul's old 135 Mig welder. This will let me do everything I need to be done to the VW. I now need to buy the bottle so I don't have to do Flux Core welding all the time.

Joined the Volksrod collation and got a nifty T'shirt.

Went on a road trip with Paul Reynolds. Got to check out this really cool VW graveyard in Donalds, SC.

Tafta Inc. is a machine shop in Donald's SC that has a bunch of old VW in the back. Paul and I stopped by to check it out and was given a little tour by one of the brothers. He let us look through all the old torn apart VW's and then took us into the shop where we saw the Original "Christine" , an airplane, a homemade car, and a slew of VW drag race trophies. It was a really cool experience on a old backwoods country road. Here is a little slide show for you.

The reason for the little road trip was because I bought A VW Bus for Heidi and had to go pick it up. It has a 4 inch chop to the top that needs some help. Its lowered in the front end. The body is pretty solid with little rust. All for $100.00. Its for a future project so not much will be done to this until I finish the 71 project. Should be fun though.

My dad went to a VW show in Knoxville and took some picts for me. It was good for him to see what it is I am trying to do so he can stay on me to finish it all up. I can't wait to meet up with him to see all of the stuff he got from the show.

Fun times all around and a renewed interest in the 71 :)

Posted by Andre at 05:53 PM | Permalink

Work has been really hard as of late. A lot is going on and everybody's nose is to the grindstone. My days are long and I have been a little moody. With that being said I have been doing some really good work as of late. I have been working on various website designs, rack cards, greeting cards, banners, posters and even a little programing.

I am now trying to figure out how to this good design and be less stressful.

Here goes a few little samples.

1) I wrote a little automator script that will potential save our production department about 15min a day. It converts enbeded color profile modes to the necessary profile mode that we need to print photographs. It does this in the background and lets you continue to work uninterrupted. Before we had to open every file and convert it. There are other scripts out there that strips the color profile, but we needed one that converted so we would not lose any color information. It's not that impressive but it works. I even made it into a little program with an icon and everything :)

2) I did a quick little poster for a surf contest. I got a lot of good feedback from this and look forward in helping out with the contest.

3) River Room Rack Cards - Keith and Scott some great new pictures of the River Room. We decieded to put those into affect with the newly design website and tie it in with a new rackcard. This is what we came up with.

4) A long time ago I posted my friends demo reel. Well I finally got to design his site.

There has been a slew of other web sites and banners and things that I am actually proud of (like booth graphics for a mist booth at the Flamingo hotel in Vegas.) I guess its the difference of just churning stuff out and actually designing.

Posted by Andre at 04:41 PM | Permalink

Moonshine represents a true American spirit, interwoven into the fabric of the heartland of the south. While it seems to be a staple among fellow Kentuckians, I have no direct story, tale or reference from ancestral past. I am looking too rectify that.

As of recent I have had this idea to eventually become a farmer. While at its current state I am looking at it from more of a comical manner, but still entertaining the idea as a possibility. I have talked about becoming a farmer deep down South, past the United States borders. Looking at pineapple or coffee or similar products in some remote tropical location is my general idea. I just think that it would be fun to do and real rewarding at the same time.

So what do these two thing have in common? Well not much to be honest. However, the term "green" is tossed around a lot lately. With that is another word, "ethanol ." What is ethanol exactly? If you want to be really simple about it, it's no more than moonshine. Something that has been around for over a hundred years is now seen as a possible source of fuel.

Really!? Now correct me if I am wrong, but didn't moonshine runners use some of the shine to fuel their rides? Isn't it funny how something that used to be illegal could possibly be seen as the wave of the future?

This then lends into me both having my own story of moonshine and becoming a farmer. But to be successful I need to get crackin on it now. Maybe I can talk my Dad into retiring a little early, buying 800 acres in Idaho, and planting some corn. While he gets that going, I'll stick around here build some moonshine runners with Paul and look into ethanol production in Nicaragua.

HaHaHa...The ideas that pop into my head.

PS: Here is a good story to catch up on Moonshine Runners.

Posted by Andre at 11:10 PM | Permalink

"...but won't go pop." As the forth rolled around I thought of how Keith was in India and would not get to partake in the festive nature of the fourth. So Keith this video is for you.

I didn't edit it so the good stuff starts around the 3.5 min. mark. Really good stuff at the 6.5 min mark. (yes that is me with a firecracker in my lap). Good times all around.

By the way this was shot with my Sony Ericsson Walkman Cell Phone!

Posted by Andre at 09:48 AM | Permalink

For various reasons I had to collect some photos of the look and feel of Apple stores around the country. It was an interesting little research project so I thought I would share. Enjoi !!!

Posted by Andre at 03:33 PM | Permalink