So, as you may have noticed, Xanga is no longer the home of andycress.com. If you came here for that, just click the link and you'll be transported magically to its new home!
Thanks for stopping by, and I appreciate your reading!
Stay classy, and stay tuned to andycress.com for more updates!
While I was shopping at Old Navy the other day, I saw their newest item "Techno Hoodies" (Old Navy-branded, licensed from HoodieBuddie.com, caution: auto-plays stupid music). A novel idea (with cool color schemes), but poorly executed; the ends of the drawstrings on the hood are ear bud headphones that track through to an inside pocket for use with an iPod or 3.5mm-compatible MP3 player type thing.
I figured, screw that. You look like a crazy person if you're walking around with your sweatshirt strings in your ears. So I made my own:
Made from:
Old [coincidentally] Old Navy hoodie
New shoe strings, lime green
Earbuds (I had a pair of Skullcandy Ink'd headphones sitting around)
Electrical tape
Fabric glue (or the ability to sew)
Fabric the size of your portable device (I bought a cheap t-shirt and cut the sleeve to size)
Knife/scissors
This project started only first as "Hey, I've got a pair of sweet shoelaces I sitting around, and that hoodie is looking mighty drab. Why don't I switch out the gray drawstring for those laces?" and soon after escalated to "Oh man, I should totally make those new sweatshirts Old Navy was selling!"
Simple enough to do slash make:
Remove the original drawstring (unless you're incredibly attached to it, mine was the same color as the hoodie, so it was pretty ugly).
Separate the two ear buds (split the cord down the middle), and fish one headphone through the drawstring hole (video with tips on how to go about this, I used the safety pin trick), follow this up with the new shoelace (if you are doing that). If you're putting in shoelaces, don't forget to tie knots towards the end to prevent them from being easily pulled out.
Using your cutting device, cut through the hole where the headphones/drawstring are to the inner lining of the hoodie, making a hole just large enough to fit the 3.5mm jack through. This will allow the cord to remain unseen and inside your jacket. Don't forget to fish that end through now.
There will be excess cord from the closer headphone to the jack, I folded this up and used [way too much] electrical tape to hold it together. If you're comfortable with doing so, you could also just as easily shorten the cable using wire cutters, a soldering iron, and heat-shrink wrap.
Cut your fabric to about a half-inch larger (both length and height) than your device, sew (or glue) this to the inside of your jacket. Make sure that the cable from the headphones can reach just inside of the pocket to plug into your device or stay there when nothing is plugged in.
Sew or glue (if applicable) the lining closest to the zipper over the headphone cable to prevent it from whipping around.
Optional: I would suggest gluing the cable from the headphones coming out by the drawstrings to the inside of the hood to prevent them from slipping out of place.
I've been in a very DIY mood lately, so this definitely kept me busy. Have fun!
As per usual, stay classy and stay tuned to andycress.com for more updates.
So, here I'm sitting at my desk, now with my room rearranged so that I can actually use it. It's weird, how it's been over a month since I posted and so much is different, but so much the same. Well, the weekend following my previous post Jeb (my roommate) and I rearranged our enormous (14' x 14') room to make it feel like it's even bigger than it already is (with its three closets for two dudes). Previously, our beds were staggered on opposite walls, with our desks mirrored, his under his bed, mine lined up against the end of mine (beds both lofted), with a love-seat futon below my bed, and a couch-like futon between our two beds. Now the love-seat futon sits up against our radiator, our beds mirrored, my desk under mine (his lined up against the opposite end of it), and the couch futon below his bed, facing the TV (under my bed on a TV stand by my desk, no longer atop it). Much more functional and much more spacious, if you can believe it.
That was a long, boring, pointless, hard to visualize paragraph. My apologies. It was also brought to my attention in a recent (not time-wise, but from the standpoint of recent post) post's comment that my site is both a) a re-direct to my Xanga that I've had since eighth grade (no shit), and 2) in the hated font Comic Sans, but since I'm using such a stunted visual editor from Xanga, I don't have many other choices, and Impact just doesn't seem to work in my head.
This past month, was No-Shave November. My fifth year actively participating (as opposed to not having facial hair or just not shaving and not knowing of the splendid month-long activity), I grew a pretty wicked beard. And as proof of this, I decided that I would take a picture every day of the month. I posted these pictures on my dust-covered Flickr account. I figured it was less intrusive than Facebook, and required zero login for those who haven't embraced the social network (haven't seen the film yet, waiting for its arrival in the local dollar theater). Those of you who follow me on Tumblr have already seen the pictures, but whatever. (Don't worry, if you're not, don't join. It's a micro-blogging site that aggregates my tweets and Flickr feed.)
As you'll notice, I quickly ran out of faces to make and props to use. I'm not a very creative individual, my apologies. I'd also like to apologize for my distance between entries here. It's not easy for me to just sit down and kick out lengthy posts constantly. Especially now with last month adding my remarks to most of the pictures from my day-by-day, and with constant tweeting.
I'm running out of steam now, as it's nearly two in the morning. And if you'll take the time to check up on past tweets or the "descriptions" on the pictures of my growing beard (still going, by the way, awaiting Mustache Monday, for which I shall only have a mustache for the day, then clean shaven by Tuesday morning). Or if you've been keeping up, you haven't missed a thing.
You know the drill: stay classy, and stay tuned to andycress.com for more updates.
I'm not sure what a lot of them are. Mostly buzzes and whirs, and the occasional sound of water moving through pipes (but I clearly know what that one is). It's dark here, but only because I haven't turned on the lightswitch, and once I'm done with this, I'll probably end up taking a, if I do say so myself (because who else would say it here? You? I don't think so, bitch), well-deserved nap.
Well why on Earth do I deserve a nap? Hell, I probably deserve a high-five for romanticism too while you're at it. Last night I, with the help of two close friends, made the decision to drive down to Missouri to surprise my girlfriend for our one year anniversary. Regardless of this fact, I called her at midnight and serenaded her with my acoustic guitar (yes, I do live in a romantic comedy).
So while she's at swim practice, I sit here at her desk on my computer (never go anywhere without my MacBook), and listening to Brendan Benson on Pandora and eat this delightful snack I found at Truman's Student Union Bookstore (right): Nutella & GO!. For those of the uninitiated, Nutella is like peanut butter, only better. Because there's chocolate. (And instead of peanuts, it's hazelnuts, but still. It's delicious. And you should pick some up next time you're out grocery shopping, or just go now and screw the rest of the list.)
I can't quite think of anything else to type about, because right now I'm pretty focused on Beth and I today. And this Nutella. Because it's awesome. Also, for those of you in the Ames area, don't forget to check out the North Grand 5 dollar theatre movie listings. Last night a group of five of us went out and saw Toy Story 3, which is the best ending to a trilogy ever. In the severely unlikely event that you haven't seen the first two Toy Story films (not naming names, but you know who you are, roomie), you should definitely see those first (which normally goes without saying). Heck, you can have just seen the first one, the second one just adds like two characters, three if you count Barbie.
If you want to keep me writing (typing), then maybe undergo the painless procedure of joining the Xanga community and comment on my posts! Too lazy for that? Lucky for you these are still being pushed to Facebook, where 500 million people spend 700 billion minutes a month. [Vanity Fair.] That article from Vanity Fair is quite interesting, in fact a Facebook ad actually linked me to it the other day. Worth a read.
Until next time, stay classy, and stay tuned to andycress.com
Because if I hadn't worked at a gas station for the past year or so, I wouldn't. My mother, so kindly, forwarded me all the mail that has arrived since I changed my address for the school year and while flipping through the September issue of Wired and found this ad (left, click for full size). But there it was, so small by comparison of the huge warning on the ad. Right near the fold of the magazine's spine. Barely noticeable, but I found it. Like a Where's Waldo? of advertising (not something you necessarily want, unless of course you're advertising Where's Waldo?).
The product whose name that I know is pronounced "like moose" thanks to a promotional pamphlet that we had sitting on the counter for three months after it was launched last summer. An alternative to traditional "dip" or chew tobacco, Camel (the first on the scene in the US, much later followed by Marlboro's far less commercially successful version) Snus (generic Snus page on Wikipedia, I neither condone nor condemn tobacco usage).
Just thinking "out loud" here, but it's kind of funny seeing how much typing goes into how little actually shows up on the final page for readers (I'd like to think I have at least two, counting myself). I'll take a screenshot of what I see compared to what you see just so you might be able to appreciate all the "work" that goes into posting on here on a semi-regular basis (click for full size). There's so much more HTML that goes into every italicized, bold[ed?], underlined, linked piece of text. And it's not an easy task, especially when you live such a mundane (read: lazy) life, like I do.
Well, as I get greeted with yet another goodbye, I have just come to find out that I will be pretty much completely alone this weekend in my hall. My roommate and both of the guys that live next door are all going to their respective homes this weekend, while I'll be here on campus. I can't blame 'em, it's a three-day-weekend, so why not go home? Were I not already planning on heading back home next weekend for the Iowa vs. Iowa State football game, I'd be in Iowa City by now. But two weekends in a row seems like too much when I'm trying to get used to life here.
Oh and before I forget, lately it's been slightly bothering me as to why past Labor Day you're not supposed to wear white. It wouldn't normally bother me, because most of my wardrobe is pretty much blue (now mixing in quite a bit of cardinal red, for some reason...), but over the summer I stumbled into an Express after noticing a sale sign (bargain shopper that I am) and bought a sweet four-way belt. Black on one side, white the other, and the buckle flips to be silver or have a pattern. I'm quite attached to this belt (and actually a white jacket I got 20%-off from Express in February, too) so I wanna know how big of a fashion faux pas it would be should I continue to wear these articles. According to an old, circa 2002, (and yes I know how unreliable of a source this is) Ask Yahoo! page:
As with many customs and etiquette dictums, it's difficult to pin down the reason behind the prohibition against white after Labor Day. We searched on variations of "wear white after Labor Day" and sifted through the Etiquette and Fashion categories in the Yahoo! Directory. We managed to turn up a bit of information on the fashion dictate.
Originally, the rule was more along the lines of "Only wear white shoes between Memorial Day and Labor Day." Furthermore, it mainly applied to white pumps or dress shoes. White tennis shoes and off-white boots seem exempt, as are any shoes worn by a winter bride. "Winter white" clothing (e.g., cream-colored wool) is acceptable between Labor Day and Memorial Day too. [via Ask Yahoo!]
This has probably been the most visually-intensive post I've ever written. Big pat on the back for me, right? And before you ask, yes I do want a cookie (already have some in the fridge thanks to a friend).
Stay classy, and stay tuned to andycress.com for more updates. P.S. I totally learned how to play cricket yesterday. Fucking sweet.
The product whose name that I know is pronounced "like moose" thanks to a promotional pamphlet that we had sitting on the counter for three months after it was launched last summer. An alternative to traditional "dip" or chew tobacco, 