World Cup 2014 - Free Poster

The week after the draw, I created a poster using the open-source photo editing software GIMP.  I put it together for my own personal use but thought that some soccer fans such as myself might also like to have it.  So here it is in JPG format and PNG format.  Only 29 days left before the action begins!

This was designed to be printed at 24" x 36".  It can be printed smaller, but some of the text can become difficult to read at smaller sizes, particularly the dates of the games.

I printed mine at Staples for $3 plus tax at 24" x 36".  If you would like to do the same, you can upload the PNG format to the Staples website and have it printed as a black and white engineering print like I did.

I'll also have the links available long term in my downloads drop-down lists at the top of my blog.

Enjoy!

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Home Renovators!

Almost everyone who knows us, also knows that we are DIY home renovators.  But, what is a DIY home renovator?  What does that mean?  Allow me to explain.

We are a rare breed of human.  We're superhuman.  We aren't natural.  We're supernatural.

We see into the future.  We don't gaze upon the work to be done, we visualize the finished result.  We peer into the possibility of a potential project and see what others cannot.  With our house, even our realtor tried to talk us out of it.  "Too much work", she said.  Scoff.  Quiet thy tongue, mortal.  This is our destiny.

We walk through walls.  Literally.  To our home, we've added 12 new doorways and closed off 10 old ones.  We changed the floor plan drastically to make more sense and to add 550 square feet of livable space.

We wear tool belts that shame Batman.  He may have a grapple gun for quick repelling and bat-shaped boomerangs to stun bad guys, but we have tools that shape steel, slice wood, shoot nails, and bond materials.  Batman may have items meant for destruction, but we sport the goods for mass construction.

We have immunity to the elements.  We breathe dust.  We shake off electrocutions.  We eat lead.

Our marriage (with God (the ultimate Renovator) intertwined as the third strand in our cord (Ecclesiastes 4:12) defeats the enemy on all fronts.  This article by a leading home renovation magazine states that a poll they took of their readers showed that over 12% of them have seriously considered a divorce while knee deep in a renovation project.  That's sad, of course.  But, rest assured, the most difficult project is no match for us.

All the joking aside, we really are different.  Major DIY home renovators are certainly the minority in this country.  I found this article online and really liked it.  It is a list of 9 things to do to keep your sanity during a home renovation.  It points out many of the difficulties that one will face when attempting even a small home improvement project, much less a large scale one.  Most people simply aren't cut out for it long term.

Proof that we are on the extreme end of DIY home renovators is the following list I also found online.  It listed 10 home improvement projects that you should NOT attempt to do yourself.  Yeah, we have already performed 8 of the 10.  Pshh.

• Tree Removal
• Cutting down trees, or even removing branches requires climbing and working with dangerous tools from a high distance off the ground. This is disaster waiting to happen, and definitely something better left to professionals who are trained and paid to do this.
• Home Additions Or Structural Changes
• Knocking down walls might seem like a simple task, but behind those walls could be electrical wiring, gas pipes and plumbing that can cause huge problems in your home. Rather than taking a chance, consult a contractor first!
• Paving Your Driveway
• Paving stones can turn a boring driveway into a focal point. And while they look relatively simple to install, the reality is that the measuring and positioning of paving stones can be tremendously time-consuming. (Think of it as a game of Tetris on steroids.) But a team of professionals can cut installation down to a day, depending on your driveway size.
• Electrical Work
• It's one thing to flip a fuse switch to the power in your home on or off, but another to attempt to repair faulty wiring or any other electrical issues without professional help. Working with electrical wires can be deadly and the proper precautions and knowledge are crucial.
• Plumbing Repair
• Unless it's something simple like unclogging a toilet or fixing a drain, messing with plumbing can cause major dilemmas (Just think about an overflowing toilet or unstoppable burst in a pipe...not fun). It's always better to ask a plumber before trying to tackle any plumbing issues on your own.
• Repairing An Above Ground Pool
• While we're sure most people wouldn't attempt to tackle a project like this on their own, we figure we should mention that it would be extremely dangerous to make these repairs. All it takes is one loose piece of siding, and the entire pool could collapse.
• Roof Repair
• Besides the fact that working on top of a roof is very risky because one could easily lose their footing and slip, it can also be detrimental to your home's structure if you don't know the proper way to install or repair roofing. If you are going to check the roof for damages or cleaning gutters, bring a friend and proceed with caution.
• Installing Siding
• If done properly, siding can last for years. But if siding is not securely installed, weather conditions can tear it off, or seep underneath, causing harm to the frame of your home. Rather than taking this chance, it's safer to have a professional install it properly.
• Adding Or Replacing Windows
• Specialized tools and methods are required to properly install new windows to make sure they are well insulated and secure. While it can be costly, a professional can ensure that you'll be comfortable in your home for years to come.
• Creating An Outdoor Kitchen
• We're the first to admit outdoor kitchens are fantastic, but attempting to put one in yourself could be disastrous. It might seem easy enough (a little flooring and a grill-station) but you could end up with a half-finished patio and plumbing gone awry. So while it might be tempting to build one in your backyard, ask yourself if you'll really use the kitchen year-round...and then, of course, call in a pro. 

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Repurposing Pianos

My wife and I are a real pair, I tell you.  Those of you that know us are nodding your heads in agreement right now, I'm sure.  And, those of you who don't know us would be nodding as well, I'm certain, if you did.

Our most recent undertaking is adopting old pianos that people are practically begging others to come take off of their hands.  People just don't want them anymore.  They're heavy.  They're huge.  Most are slightly out of tune or have keys that are stuck.  And who needs a piano these days anyway?  It's much easier to iToss the iPod in the iHome and iRock out to iMusic.

Despite our lack of appreciation for them, pianos are a really interesting instrument inside and out.  Most people haven't bothered to check out the insides of pianos, but it's shameful that their evident internal craftsmanship remains hidden behind its external shell.  I did some reading about the manufacturing process of pianos and found that they are incredibly more difficult to manufacture than I had even previously thought.

A piano is essentially an ornate cast iron harp that is mounted to a very thick quality-built hardwood soundboard.  This soundboard is designed to take the resonance of the strings transferred through the harp and through the bridge.  It doesn't absorb the vibration like virtually any other material would, but rather it continues to maintain the resonant pitch from whichever string is struck.  The strings are hit by a felt hammer.  Each string has its own hammer that is sized and weighted specifically for that string. The action, the intricate mechanism that translates the pressing of each key to its respective hammer, is a work of art all its own.  It's a beautiful piece of mechanical engineering that not only is delicately made with precision, but is surprisingly built with such quality that most of these have lasted well over a century in excellent working order.

Here comes the crazy part.  In the last few weeks, Jodi and I have quickly amassed a small collection of six upright pianos, all of which were free for the taking.  It'd be seven if we hadn't already found a home for one of them.  Well, I take that back.  One of them, we already had and another we got for free last fall.  So, really we just got five and gave one away immediately.  So, you're probably wondering what we're doing with them.  Well, many things actually.

I've decided that we'll be using all of them, not unlike how the Native Americans used every part of a buffalo.  I already have two desks in the works that will display the harp beautifully while creating a unique workspace that will inspire creativity.  Jodi made a cute pair of "kissing songbirds" from two of the hammers.  At least one of the actions will remain intact as a display piece.  We've already converted two of the keyboards into hanging art pieces.  The player section of one of the player pianos will become a unique wall shelf complete with a loaded music roll still mounted and "ready to be played".  We're making another wall shelf out of the player's bank of air diaphrams.  We have several other art ideas and and will no doubt come up with many more as we continue.  What I love about this more than anything is that it's yet another thing that Jodi and I are finding that we love to do together.  And, that's what truly matters.  Stay tuned.  Photos to come as projects are completed.

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59 Ford Love

I've promoted Google Sketchup several times on this blog yet I haven't used the program for some time.  Though, that may change in the near future as my interest in the program has just been rekindled.

In an Internet search yesterday, I found not one but three separate Sketchup projects where people have tediously reconstructed the 1959 Ford F100 Styleside Truck.  My Sketchup skills are a bit lacking to the extent of reconstructing an object such as an automobile.  I'm finding that I'm pretty decent at building homes.  But, they are built with considerable more straight lines and right angles than a curvy 50's model vehicle.  So, I'm excited and thankful that someone with more skills than I possess must have loved the '59 Ford enough to build one up for the rest of us.

I now can insert this truck into any other project that I'm working on.  For example, when I design our new dream home in Google Sketchup, guess what will need to be in the driveway of said dream home.  That's right.  You guessed it!

In case you'd like to see them in all their 3D splendor, you can download Sketchup for free in the Downloads drop-down menu found at the top of this blog.  And, here is a link to the file for each of the three trucks here, here, and here.

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Andy & Andy's

Just in case you haven't heard me say it in a while, my wife is the coolest!  Last Friday, she took me out on a surprise date.  She said it was kind of an early Father's Day gift. I didn't know anything about what we were doing until we were outside in the parking lot and she handed me two tickets to see Andy McKee at the Gillioz!  What a cool surprise!  I didn't even know he was in town.

The show was awesome.  He is every bit as good as his videos would suggest.  He's definitely a guitar master with an incredible talent to make his hands do what his mind hears.  That's what's so cool about watching him.  Every song he plays isn't a standard 4-measure-and-repeat but a myriad of different sounds for which he's all over the fret board in no repeatable fashion at all.  Yet, he knows right where he's going next.  No song sheets necessary.

Halfway through the show I was thinking about how God must also find joy in watching Andy use the talents that He gave him.  Then, I just thought how pleased God is to see each one of us use his/her talents.  Not all of our talents are good for entertainment purposes, but we're all talented in different ways nonetheless.  And, like a great dad, He's no doubt our biggest fan.  Just neat to think about.

After the show, I considered hanging around to get a chance to meet with Andy, but at least half of the audience was doing this already and, as cool as it would be to meet him and get our picture with him or something, I was too eager to continue my evening with my beautiful wife.  And, standing around in line didn't seem like the way to spend it.  So, in transition from listening to the smooth sounds of Andy McKee, we hopped over to Andy's Frozen Custard to enjoy some smooth treats aimed at another set of sensory receptors.

Thanks for an amazing date, my love!

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One Man Piano Ambulance

I got all the necessary tools from Harbor Freight last Thursday to be able to load pianos into the back of my truck by myself.  Yes, this sounds like an injury waiting to happen, but I assure you that I will be doing a whole lot less lifting doing it alone but with the right tools than what I would be doing if I were just muscle-ing it around with 3 other guys.  I've moved lots of pianos in my day, so I am well aware of the personal effort required.

I'm pretty excited about this on a number of levels:

• I like having new tools that are good for lots of things.
• Two furniture dollies.  Why haven't I ever bought any of these?!
• Set of 6' steel ramps.  Hmm.  Need to go to the next level?  I'm on it.
• 4000 lb. winch.  What's that, you say?  You need me to move 4000 lbs?  No problem.
• My wife had an idea a while back that if we ever when we have the space, we can start a "piano rescue" shop.  We would take donated pianos as well as pick up pianos for free, perhaps even purchase some cheaply priced ones.  We would then repair, tune, and beautify the ones that had life still in them (like the before/after photos seen here) and we would repurpose the ones that didn't stand a chance into all kinds of cool things.  Getting started on one of wife's many dreams makes her happy and thus makes me happy.
• I like getting things for free, but don't like not getting things for free because I can't find willing people to risk bodily injury to help move around 600-800 lb objects.
• I have a very specific art piece in mind that I'd like to do that requires me to find and retrieve a junk piano.

So here's a photo of my One Man Piano Ambulance in action last Friday with some GIMP'd in graphics just for fun.  What do you think?

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Audiophilistic Moment

I love music and I do thoroughly enjoy a good quality artistically-composed song.  At unexpected times this love stands out to me and I'm reminded of it all in a wave of rushing emotion and a super-heightened appreciation for every minute sound within a recording.  The ebb and flow of the melody carries with it my full attention for mere minutes, however my concept of time sort of melts away as my internal clock pauses it's relentless ticking to match the tempo of the song.  Then, the song ends.  A new one begins.  The atmosphere changes with it.  And, I find myself wondering why the composer only made the tune to last five minutes.  Though, I suppose our emotions are just as fleeting as the timeframe of the average modern song.  Thus, there's seldom a need to carry on longer than the 4-5 minute standard.

My sound set up at work includes a single computer speaker attached to my work computer on which I play my mp3 collection via Windows Media Player.  Since I only brought in the one speaker, as opposed to the pair, I'm only hearing the right channel.  Sound quality was obviously not my goal, but rather I wanted a simple and inconspicuous set up so as not to attract any potential new prohibition of music in the offices.

Today, I was caught off-guard.  I was listening to Ryan Adams' 'Night Birds' from his 2005 album entitled 29.  This isn't an album that I have given much play, but a certain song caught my ear and I wanted to hear it better.  So, I pulled out my headphones and plugged them into the stereo output of the single speaker.  The song truly came to life as I was able to hear both channels and a nice bass response while also having the opportunity to increase the volume to my eardrum's desire.

The next song on the album was 'Blue Sky Blues'.  It was this song that inspired me to write this blog.  It's mostly compiled of a piano and Ryan Adams' voice, but also adds some very subtle horns, a few almost imperceptible wind sound effects, and some gorgeous stringed accompaniment on the chorus.

It's songs like this that inspire people like me to become audiophiles.

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Deoin Bedell

Members of our church have maintained a long-standing tradition of organizing meals to be brought to couples in the church who have just had a baby. They did it for us when Lyric was born in 2007 and it was a huge blessing. For two weeks solid, we didn't have to worry with the daily task of deciding upon and preparing dinner. It was brought to us ready to serve by a new face every evening.

In 2006, we were still relatively new to our church and didn't know too many people yet. Jodi volunteered to make dinner for the Bedells who had just had their beautiful baby girl, Nia Rain. This was when I officially met Deoin Bedell. We showed up to their home with a big batch of Jodi's Italianized version of Rasta Pasta, a meal I discovered I loved on my first date with Jodi at the Rasta Grill in Downtown Springfield, MO. Jodi made it far better, though, substituting garlic, olives and other Italian spices for the Caribbean Jerk spice found in the Rasta dish.

We've been friends ever since and helped each other along the way with whatever creative projects we had going on. Between the four of us (our wives included), we've invested financially into joint business ventures, invested creatively into each other's art, and have taken turns being a catalyst to the others for progressing our desired goals.

Recently, Deoin had almost completed a song entitled This Is My Life. With his idea for a music video storyboarded out, it hardly took any time at all for us to see its conversion from an idea to a finished product. Deoin also sought the help of my wife, Jodi, to add a needed vocal layer to the chorus.

Both the song and the video turned out great and can be seen in full HD video on YouTube by either searching for Deoin Bedell or clicking this link.

Please support this local Christian music artist by purchasing the song from CD Baby for only 99 cents at this link. And, look forward to the full album This Is My Life coming soon.

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Civil War Weekend

Last weekend, I was transported back 150 years in the past to witness the first major battle of the Civil War at Wilson's Creek. From Thursday evening through Sunday afternoon, it was nothing but muskets and cannons for me.

The Battle of Wilson's Creek was an interesting one, to say the least. So many stories and keepsakes have been preserved from this battle and those who fought in it. Even the actual site of the battle has been kept virtually untouched. This August marked the 150th anniversary to that battle.

To commemorate the event and those involved in it, Wilson's Creek Publishing is working on the release of a 144-page coffee table book that will be full of the artistic photography of six local photographers. This book will be published and sold in various markets.

I was honored to be chosen to be one of the six photographers that has contributed to the book. I'm very excited about having my work published. How cool is that? I've had my photography used for some things, but never in a published book to be sold.

I also put the website together that it would be sold on for the reenactors. KY3, one of our local news stations, picked up on it and wrote a short article about the book. They even grabbed a photo I had made of the book for the website and used it in their online article, though they have recently taken that down probably due to someone realizing that you can't just grab someone's artwork. Though, of course, I didn't mind.

The other photographers were, in no particular order, Jeremy Russell, Jenn Russell, Gail Irwin, Shannon Alexander, and Gina Beamish. They all did great and were a lot of fun to work with. I hope book sales go well!

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$5 Lesson & Repurposed Technology

Last week, I was able to stop in for a few minutes at one of my favorite places to shop, STD Flea Market. Out of all the flea markets in town, STD is my favorite. It has a strange name, I admit, though an innocent one. The acronym stands for Springfield Tool & Die. The story goes that the owner of Springfield Tool & Die retired and turned the two buildings he still owned into flea markets since they weren't much good for anything else.

I love both stores. I've found some really good items over the years for myself and have even resold some items bought there for a quick and nice profit. Jodi had a booth in the downtown location for a brief stint, but it didn't do all that well. After the cost of booth rent, we showed that we were pretty much just breaking even which means we were going to an awful lot of trouble to just give stuff away.

Anyway, back to last week. I stopped in and was eventually drawn like a fly to a booth that was full of electronics. I mean full! There was everything from VCRs to DVD players to computers, to laptops, to digital TV converters, etc. It was cool. I spotted a stash of LCD monitors all of which were priced at $5. Of course, there was no way to test them immediately available, but after a search through the store I found a computer in another booth that had a power cord. I swiped it, grabbed the biggest monitor (a 22-inch), found an outlet, then a ladder to reach the outlet and was finally in business. The monitor powered on and showed a "no signal" message at which I took to be a good sign that the monitor worked fine. I knew, however, that chances were that it had issues that I wouldn't find out till later. I figured $5 was worth the gamble.

Upon fully testing it later, I found that it didn't work. It would come on for about 2 seconds and then the screen would go dark. I did some research online and found it to be a very common problem with LCD monitors. It's just a backlighting issue. I was able to confirm that the LCD part was still functioning from being barely visible when looking very closely. You just can't see it because the lights that light up the screen aren't on.

Usually this is the cause of the inverters going bad. It's so common, in fact, that there are several different companies that sell kits to fix this issue. I took the entire monitor apart and really became acquainted with how they work. I tossed around the idea of buying the replacement parts to fix the monitor at about a cost of $30, but decided that even a 22" LCD monitor wasn't worth $35 to me. And, I shouldn't spend $30 to justify the $5.

It was hardly a total loss, though. I now know how to repair the most common problem found in LCD monitors as well as LCD TVs. That lesson is definitely worth $5. So, I'll keep my eye out for people selling "broken" LCD televisions on Craigslist. I've seen them been given away for this reason. So, maybe I'll be able to find and repair such a score.

Also, rather than toss out the monitor, I had the idea to repurpose it. It's now a $5 picture frame in my office at work. Have you ever bought something that turned out to be junk? Have you ever repurposed junk into something useful or unique?

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West Plains Weekend

This last weekend, Jodi and I took Lyric and Ezra to West Plains to hang out with Jodi's family. Jacob was spending the week in Gulf Shores, Alabama. As always, it was a lot of fun and some good relaxation as well. I also really enjoyed the trip in our new car. We've had it for 6 weeks, but hadn't traveled in it yet. This was breaking it in for us.

There was a car show at the Civic Center on Saturday. And, since Jodi's parents live in town now, we decided just to walk there. Though, it turned out it was two and a half miles one way, Lyric managed to walk it without complaint. I was wondering if I was going to have to carry him. He's getting too big for me to carry more than a short distance.
The car show was great. We saw a lot of beautiful automobiles, and I was really excited to see the 1960 Plymouth Valiant. It's the first Valiant that I've ever seen in a show. My '62 Valiant is the same style as this with a few slight changes.
But, of course, mine looks like a pile of poo in comparison. Some day, it'll be pretty, hopefully.

We took another walk late Saturday night. I took little Ezra along with us, knowing that she would fall asleep fairly quickly. We walked to then around the square in Downtown West Plains. So, we managed to tack on another 5 miles to the day's exercise list.

Sunday was a chill out day. I sat around with Larry and looked up tree species on my phone. We identified several trees around their house. It may sound boring but, it was fun. I learned a lot about trees and even how to identify a few of them.

The bubble pictures below are from Sunday. The girls (ages 26 and 28) were blowing bubbles in the front yard with Lyric. I spotted a really cool effect that they had at a certain angle and tried to capture it with my camera. It's not at all easy to capture a bubble floating on the wind with a lens that has a very narrow depth of field. But, I got some good ones. They were gorgeous by themselves, but I boosted the color in them to really accentuate the array of colors they were refracting. As always, click on the photos to enlarge them.

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Jack O' Lanterns

Earlier this week I was on the News-Leader's online publication scanning the headlines and I saw a link that sparked my interest given the time of year. Halloween is only a couple weeks away and the family and I are going to a costume party. I won't reveal our costumes yet as I don't know if I'm allowed to make it public knowledge. But, this link was for political pumpkin carving. It was put together by the Associated Press and, of course, it only included pumpkin carving plans for the two Presidential nominees' faces, the two Vice Presidential nominees' faces, and various donkey and elephant logos. So, feeling left out, I made one for Ron Paul.

And as far as my search for Jack o' Lantern photos went on the internet, my favorite that I found was this one of Yoda. I'm not a fan of the Star Wars movies, but the skill that went into this pumpkin carving is amazing, fan or not. My second favorite was this one of Boo, the little animated girl in the movie Monsters, Inc. They really captured a toddler's personality in that movie. Anyone who watched that movie fell in love with Boo. And finally, my third favorite is this house. I don't have much to say about it, I just like it.

What are your favorites?

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Say Cheese!

I fear that If I talk about Studio Living Room or photography in general any more that people might get the impression that this is merely a company blog page designed for the purpose of promoting itself. However, recently I've been really busy with events and even busier with editing the photos from those events so I don't have much else to talk about. I'm not sure how many collective hours I have spent touching up photos this month, but I feel that my eyes have definitely been working overtime.

My most recent job was for Battlefield Lanes here in Springfield. They recently got a contract for ten billboards around town promoting their bowling alley, and they were looking for someone to take some action photos and some shots of their facility for use on these billboards. Well, it was a friend of mine who hooked them up with the billboard contract and he then recommended me when they asked if he knew any professional photographers. So, that was cool. I interviewed for the job and got it.

The photo shoot went well and it was neat to be involved in some commercial work. Another bonus was that one of the photos that the general manager really wanted was of a small child bowling. They had a plan already for this photo but the intended subject couldn't make it when we did the shoot. So, we just did without. I suggested that we could use my kids and they thought that that was a great idea. Jodi then thought it would be nice if we could do it before the billboard designs got finished so that they could use it as they had originally planned. So, I negotiated with them and in exchange for me returning with my family to take a few photos of them bowling we got to bowl that night completely for free. Lyric had never been bowling before and was a lot less interested in it than I thought he would be. Like most kids, he's always loved playing with balls (or "deesh" in his language) and so I thought for sure that he would get a big kick out of bowling. But he did just that. He kept trying to kick the ball rather than roll it. We did get some good shots of him even so.

Free bowling was good, but the real bonus will be if Jodi, Jacob, or Lyric or some combination of the three find their faces on a billboard somewhere. I thought that it would be cool just to have my work displayed on a billboard, so how much cooler is it to have my wife and kids on one. That would be something for the scrapbook. Anyway even if my blog page is the only place they're used they're still out there. Here are some of the pics from the shoot. Of course, most of the pictures I took for them weren't of us but I'm including mostly ones of us because I'm biased like that.

Also, stay tuned. I've been editing the Des Moines wedding and it is turning out beautiful. My best yet.

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Beauty Revisited

I wrote yesterday's blog and after proofreading it I watched the Dove commercial again even though it needed no proofwatching. I'm just amazed at the amount of work that went into making a beautiful model picture that didn't even resemble the woman that was an attractive woman already. Afterwards, I noticed the short list of related videos that YouTube attempts to entice the viewer with. Several were other examples of extreme makeovers using Photoshop. I chose one and watched it.

Impressed as I was, I ended the short video slightly upset because I noticed the author was using tools found in Photoshop that were awesome. See, I don't use Photoshop. I use GIMP. And, I'd never found those tools in GIMP. Which, if GIMP had these tools, my work of editing photos would be much simpler with a better finished product as well. But, then I had an epiphany. Despite my well-rounded experience with GIMP, I still don't use all the features. I thought maybe there is a GIMP equivalent to these Photoshop tools.

I Googled a description of what the tool was doing and after a few clicks found the name of the Photoshop tool. I then Googled the tool name with GIMP. First try was a charm. I found a forum of someone asking for the equivalent and receiving direction as to which tool will perform that same function in GIMP. YAY!

So then I had to try this method out for myself to see if I could do in GIMP what this guy had done in Photoshop. I saw that he got his photo from Stock Exchange which is a free stock photo website. I searched "girl face" and wound up finding the exact photo he used and decided to use it as well for easy comparison purposes for our finished products.

Below is the video that the guy did, the original photo from stock exchange, and my edited version completely performed in GIMP. So much for Photoshop being a little bit better than GIMP.






What I did: gave her a nose job, plucked her eyebrows, fixed her terrible eye make-up, gave her green eyes, changed her lipstick, gave her a tan, got rid of the mark on her face (whatever that was), smoothed out her skin, reshaped her face and skull, pinned her ears back a little, whitened her teeth, rounded out her shoulders, changed the background which got rid of all her stray frizzy hair, and added a little color to her cheeks to give the slight illusion of cheek bones. So, what do you think?

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One-Liner Lyrics

Movies are widely quoted in conversations throughout America. It's hard to get away from someone's imitated Arnold's voice saying, "I'll be back" when they leave the room or someone hollering "Run, Forest, Run!" at a baseball game. Movies are quoted all the time. Those little one-liners are hard to resist. Even if all you're doing is making fun of the movie character you still find yourself repeating their words.

Well, today while I was working, I was listening to some music and a line grabbed me. I've heard the line time and time again, but it never gets old. Everyone has at least one in a song somewhere. Those lyrics that are clever or funny or deep, etc. Well, here is a list of some of my favorite lyrics in songs. I can't help but remember them. See if you can figure out what artists and what songs they're from. Then comment with your guesses and your own favorites.

1 - "No time frame for what I need to do today"

2 - "That used to be a library, line up to the mind cemetery now"

3 - "Tell 'em that the house is not for sale. We're still living here. How come nobody can tell?"

4 - "Little gray men are coming our way, taste just like chicken, they say"

5 - "Do you hear Del Shannon's 'Runaway' playing on transistor radio waves"

6 - "Sleeping on the sidewalk with a Burger King crown"

7 - "With fingernails that shine like justice and a voice that is dark like tinted glass"

8 - "Like a game show contestant with a parting gift, I cannot believe my eyes"

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