COWPIE #4 - T-shirt bleach stenciling contest!

Howdy folks, and welcome to another quality installment in our COWPIE series! This week's challenge:

Make our own t-shirt designs using bleach stenciling.

This particular prompt gave me a unique opportunity to blend the worlds of philosophy and fashion in a way that only a person with such little respect as myself for either world could possibly even imagine. As such, I make quite the many-layered statement (alas, if only I'd worn layers to deepen the metaphor), as you will soon see below. Not only that, but my particular approach to sticking it to the people who stick it to the man is particularly clever, if I do say so myself.

That self-said, I present you with my latest "piece":


Before I leave you to ponder the depths you've just been awakened to, let me show you Kathryn's next...


So there you have it. Enjoy, and be sure to vote for your favorite! Tune in next week for our challenge of making a 15 second television commercial for something you’d use on a daily basis (can be real or made up). Later!

JoeZone is back!

Greetings, all of you, on this fine Earth Day. Not only is today significant in terms of saving the planet, but it also happens to be a Wednesday, a.k.a. Hump Day. Put those together and you get Hump Earth Day.

While that revelation is certainly worth a gratuitous blog post in and of itself, I wanted to bring glad tidings of renaming my blog (the whole "make-the-title-so-long-that-you-fall-asleep-reading-it" bit had run its course) and adding a cool photo header! (I feel so 21st century!) Kathryn and I snapped some cool pictures in Corpus Christi last weekend, ultimately inspiring the makeover. (Our new digital camera is so cool!) So "JoeZone" is back and as cool as ever, just like these guys.

Anyways, you've got things to do, and I've got a t-shirt to bleach before 12:01 am tomorrow morning, so I'll blog atcha later.

COWPIE #3: Worldwide Issue Song

It's here! COWPIE #3 and my song. I'm so pumped - music writing is fun!

The prompt: Create a song, no longer than one minute, addressing an important global issue of your choosing.

I chose global warming! Or sustainability. Though, to be perfectly honest, I really thought we didn't want to sustain the warming of the planet. Whatev.

(Note: There is now a video inserted, though originally I just did the song for the contest. This is me coming back later and adding the video that Kathryn later put together since a widget I'd used to play the song in the first place no longer works.) After you listen, check out Kathryn's entry and listen to her song, and then vote (once) in the comments on one of our blogs to select the winner!

I'm posting the words here in case any parts of the song are hard to understand. You might try just listening first so you don't spoil fun surprises! Don't worry, you'll want to play this song several times anyways (at least), so there will be plenty of opportunity later to make sure you understood me correctly (which is important, of course, so that we all do our part). Also, this or this might help you understand the reference at the end...

Lyrics
Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?
There's nasty greenhouse gases and rising seas
If something doesn't change we'll all be cooked alive
Don't know 'bout you but that ain't how I wanna die

We've got to take action before it's too late
There's polar ice caps melting while you hesitate
Let's change the policies that are too lenient
Move it or lose it - the truth is inconvenient

(So now let's...)
Go green, save forests, use better bulbs
Check tire pressure on those vehicles
Reduce, reuse, recycle, but what is more
You've got to believe the power is yours

(Earth, fire, wind, water, HEART!)

You've got to believe the power is yours!

COWPIE #3 Teaser

Yes, I know that COWPIE #2 hasn't officially closed voting yet, and no, this isn't some lame attempt on my part to get more votes because I'm afraid I'm not nerdy enough. (I'm actually quite secure in my nerdiness, thank you very much.)

I wanted to give y'all a heads up of what to expect for next week's COWPIE challenge. Since we got our first additional participant in the challenge this week, we want to be sure to give y'all enough time in case anyone else wants to get in on the fun, especially because next week's prompt is a little more demanding:

Create a song, no longer than one minute, addressing an important global issue of your choosing.

There you have it - you have been officially teased! Remember to vote for your favorite "Number Two" COWPIE entry!

COWPIE #2: Nerd-off!

Boy howdy, it's time for another COWPIE! This week's prompt is to write a Top 10 “Why I’m the most nerdy” list. Once you've read my post and Kathryn's post, then please cast a vote!

(edit) THIS JUST IN: Cory has also submitted an entry! Check it out here. You can vote for his on either blog by specifying that you're voting for Cory.

But first, a quick note about a change in voting procedure: to vote, simply post a comment on the blog you think should win. You only need to vote once, and votes can be anonymous. This way we don't have to keep switching back and forth between each of our blogs and wondering if we voted for ourselves on both. (Look, I'm not implying anything about Kathryn's last-minute come-from-behind tie on the first COWPIE - I'm just sayin'.)

That said, enjoy, and... Nerd On!

Top 10 Reasons Why Joe Is the Metanerd of the Peebles Family

10. Nerdy sound bites. Remember that commercial where the hard-luck kid walks home from school in the rain and then goes to Chuck E. Cheese to redeem his pitiful day? When they get to the arcade, he says to his older brother, "You're on my turf now!" Apparently, I thought this was the thing to say one time when I was playing YMCA soccer and was facing off against kids I knew from school. Turns out it's really just the thing to say if you want to give the cool kids another reason to laugh at you.
9. Just an old-fashioned nerd-song, coming down in four-part nerdery. In college I was part of a barbershop-gospel quartet called AcaFellas. Yeah, you can go ahead and just cast your vote now, and then continue reading the rest of the top-ten list.
8. Front-row Joe. While we're on the subject of music, I should mention that I love singing along with any bass line during movies (especially when in the theater). No, that's not Dolby, that's Joe the human soundtrack, pimpin' it with some groovy Movie Booster Aca-Bass.
7. Average times per week that I visit Wikipedia for longer than a couple of minutes: more than 7. You do the math. Or let me, ‘cause you know, math + anyone = nerd…
6. Preach it, brother. Speaking of math, in high school algebra class one day I got the inspiration for a sermon at church (our church would let young guys preach from time to time): an algebraic equation about a + b being greater than c or something like that, comparing it to Jesus saying “the greatest among you will be your servant”. (And yes, I absolutely worked the whole thing out into a sermon.)
5. Fashion sense, or lack thereof. Other than my honest ignorance that black and orange don't go well together (no, it wasn't Halloween, but it was 8th grade), there was my personal policy of staying at least six months behind any trend of any kind. The first major cave-in to trend-pressure was ankle socks. To my surprise, ankle socks were actually AWESOME.
4.Typical Friday night in high school: TGIF (Urkel, anyone?), maybe study a little, go to sleep.
3. Favorite sport: Disc golf. Yes, I love to frolf. Let me know if you need to borrow my bag or get some instruction on proper driving technique sometime. Anytime. Seriously- I'm usually not that busy.
2. Video games. Not only did I own and play video games obsessively, but I also had favorite books, TV shows, and movies that were all video game-based or -themed. (Did I mention the bed sheets that were video game character-themed?)
1. How do you spell N-E-R-D? I got my high school letter jacket my sophomore year. For UIL Spelling. Yes, before I ever lettered in choir, I lettered in spelling. Now that's layers. L-A-Y-E-R-S, layers. Wonderful, nerdular layers.

COWPIE #1: Funny childhood story

Welcome to the COWPIE! Be sure to read this post and Kathryn's post and then vote on both sites! My voting gadget is on the upper right side of your screen. Enjoy...

COWPIE#1: Tell a Funny Childhood Story

When we were younger my parents would leave my sister, Emily, in charge if they ever both had to leave to run errands. She only got the job because she's 5 years older, which is actually age discrimination and should have been prohibited by equal opportunity laws. At any rate, I was some number of years away from any kind of familial-organizational restructuring (via college or marriage), so I swallowed my misgivings against my parents' business sense and channeled them towards my sister the way that only a little brother can.

One such occasion occurred shortly after my dad had just recently finished a homemade paddle, intended solely for me (I remember vividly watching through the glass patio door as he sawed the wood, whistling while he worked). Now, it wasn't long after Mom and Dad left that Emily imagined me to have done something wrong. (Creativity runs in the family.) She insisted I should get swats for it. From her. I respectfully declined, or something like that.

Nevertheless, she went and found the newly made, yet-to-be-broken-in paddle and began to yell at me to come get swats. Nope, I said. Yes, she said. Nope, nope, nope. Then the next part happened in slow motion: frustrated at her attempts to administer discipline in her newly acquired role as interim dictator, she raised the paddle to the sky and then smashed it to the ground. It broke, of course.

Emily and I looked at each other and instantaneously put aside our differences, because now there was a situation. We both knew a broken paddle would raise too many questions, so we raced to find the glue. Found it. Then we painstakingly applied it to the paddle and made sure it didn't leave marks. We did a pretty decent patch job and breathed a sigh of relief because we were able to finish all this before the 'rents returned.

Fast forward a few weeks. I was just going about business as usual, having a good time being myself when my Dad suddenly imagined me to have done something wrong. This time, there's no avoiding the paddle. (This was a conclusion I had gradually come to over time, through trial and error.) Dad gets the paddle. I assume the position. Here's the wind up, now the pitch (you know what's coming, right?)... the paddle splintered! Right down the fault line we had so carefully worked to conceal. Our cover blown, I braced for the moment when Dad's realization would become my annihilation. But the moment never came. Instead, Dad was laughing hysterically and my hindquarters were silently rejoicing at their multiple-swat reprieve.

It was months or years later, of course, when Dad was finally imparted a fuller understanding of why these events transpired as they did. But until that time, all that friends and family heard was the tale of Strong Arm and Solid Bottom.

Ready, Set, COWPIE!

Hello, patient ones! Sorry I've been so long in lobbing some near-awesomeness up into the blogosphere, but all your waiting is totally about to pay off. Kathryn's already posted this on her blog, but I'm posting it on here to doubly pump up the hype. (If you've already read this on hers, make sure you read the end of this, because I'm writing some stuff after what she wrote, and Google Analytics is watching!) Without further a-doo...

Get Those Noses Ready...
Introducing the first installment in another quality creative endeavor: our brand-new Contest Of Weekly Peebles’ Internet Exchanges! Yes, COWPIE! What’s more, you get to be a part of the magic and fun!

Every week, the Peebleses are challenging each other to a duel. One of us (this first week is Kathryn) will choose a topic for both of us to blog about, and then we will commence preparing our blog entries. Have a challenge suggestion? Leave it as a comment!

The Rules

-Written contests have a 500-word limit.
-Blog entries must post to websites at 12:01 AM every Thursday.
-Votes (this is where you come in!) must be cast by 11:59 PM every Sunday night. Go vote on both of our blogs, but vote the same on each!

The First Challenge

Write about a funny story from childhood.

Not an April Fools Joke. Seriously.

You may be looking at your calendar and noticing that today is April Fools'. Rest assured, that has nothing to do with this. I'm about as serious as I usually am in saying that. But really folks, COWPIE is a real thing that we're going to be doing. If it were an April Fools' joke, then I wouldn't go to such great lengths to convince you that it's not. Even I know that's not funny.

But, in the spirit of April Fools', here's a real April Fools' joke.

I recently won a Nobel Prize! After I saw that all it took was a cool Power Point slide-show, I was inspired to make a video about the dangers. You know, all those really dangerous ones that are totally making the planet a sucky place to live. So yep, I met the President and the UN and scientists and stuff like that, had all the vegetable and fruit trays a guy could possibly want, and what's more, got this really cool plaque that I'm totally going to buy a shadow box or something for. And...

Psych! APRIL FOOLS'! Y'all, I totally was making all that up! Seriously! I bet I totally had you going. Next year, I bet you'll be on your guard. Won't matter, though, on account of I'm such a crazy character.

Anyways...

I guess I should make one final push for COWPIE. I hope you're as excited as we think you should be! Butter up some popcorn, wash the dog, and get ready, because COWPIE debuts in less than 24 hours! Kathryn, you best check yourself, because it's ON.