Grilling at work. from Blaine Bowers on Vimeo.

Texas toast, two slices of cheese, bacon and aged cheddar angus patty grilled to deliciousness.

All shot on an iPhone 4.

My wife and I really like avocados. We decided, one day, to check out some recipes online. We ran across avocado smoothies. A delicious mix of avocados and mildly sweet stuff. It was healthy, it was simple and it was good!

You’ll need a blender and a knife.

The Ingredients

• 1 Ripe Avocado
• 1 Serving of Vanilla Yogurt
• 1 Cup of Milk
• 3 Tablespoons of Honey
• 6 to 8 Ice Cubes
• Chocolate Syrup (optional)
• Mint Leaves as Garnish (optional)

The Instructions

1. Peel, pit, and slice up the avocado.
2. Put all ingredient into a blender.
   I’ve found it easier to put in the avocado first. Then the ice, mixed with the yogurt and milk. This keeps the ice from getting stuck in the blades of the blender.
3. Pour, Garnish, and Enjoy!

It’s a smooth, mildly sweet taste. They make an awesome start to the day or a delicate desert after a nice meal.

We’d be happy to hear of any additions or variations. Throw us some feedback.

I had never made pizza sauce before. Never really knew what went into it. Turns out it’s not that tough. I found several recipes online to make the sauce, each one involved tomato paste or tomato sauce. I didn’t have any of these; I had tomatoes.

What I used:

• 1 large tomato (about 4″ diameter)
• Garlic Powder (wish it was fresh, I’ll use that next time)
• Oregano
• Paprika
• Onion Powder
• Salt

I chopped up the tomato with a slap chop like device and threw it in a sauce pan. I added about two pinches of oregano. One pinch of paprika and just sprinkled what I thought looked like a decent amount of everything else. Always put too little, you can always add more to taste.

I simmered the sauce for approximately 20 minutes. I think if it could simmer for an hour or so it would have broken down a little more. It ended up being somewhat of a salsa texture, but it was DELICIOUS!

The wife and I cooked some french bread made two little french bread pizzas each. They were awesome (other than being burnt (it was our fist time using the broiler)). Next time, peperoni or chicken!

My father-in-law got me an Academy gift card for christmas. I had no clue what to get. I looked several times and finally found this. The Tracker IV Metal Detector. I looked up some reviews on it and found it to be a pretty decent device for the price.

I had a metal detector when I was a kid. It was a piece of crap. I mean it detected metal, it was just tough to tell if it was worth digging up or not. Maybe I just didn’t know how to work it. This one is nice. The manual it came with pretty much tells you what settings to put it on to search for different types of loot. It’s really easy to use and it’s super light.

After playing around with it in the backyard I’ve discovered that our yard is full of metal crap. I’m also convinced that someone just threw change in the yard one day. With a searching time of around 45 minutes and quite a few holes in the yard, minus the junk, I’ve found one quarter, one dime, five pennies (one of which looks like it was chewed on by a lawnmower at some point), what may be the one end of a small pick-axe, some random metal pieces and a metal decal that says FIESTA.

I’m looking forward to searching some other places. I think my dad and I are going to try and find an old schoolyard to search in. Would be neat to find an old pocket watch, a small knife and/or some buffalo nickels or something. I’ll keep you updated.

Oh that sly mother fucker.
Drowning me in this river.
My red flows down stream.
Head covered with cold water.
My body never saw this day.
The day the devil lost his daughter.
The day I saw the world as water.

We swam and we sang.
Chanted some might say.
Drinking blood, and eating skin.
Tattooed our wrists with sixes.
We bathed in fucking sin.

Our faces red and violent.
We fought through ourselves perceived.
It was so beautiful.
We wanted more.
We neglected the words of wisdom’s seeds,
and began to boast and soar.
Standing next to flesh itself.
The blood begins to boil.
Sitting within this small package.
It’s easy to see outside.
Flipping through the pages of past, present, future.
To feel, to run, to hide.
We danced and sang.
We ate too much of this little thing.

Oh that sly mother fucker.
We eat, we dance, we sing.

it fades in
it fades out
there are so many fucking people
to many to count
I can see the particles floating
it’s nice to visualize philosophy
metaphysical after effects
ha…

it’s comforting to wander
wondering if and how
pausing only briefly
forming a place
a child like place
like a house in a tree
floating at sea

then we return
the clowns are coming
with their wide smiles
and their big blue teeth
Tim Burton would be proud
they carry their “nice” costumes
and are paid for their services
we are all paid for our services
we are all clowns
personified circus animals
pretending to “be”
pretending to “see”

sometimes I don’t exist
it’s pretty fuckin’ cool

J.F. (JAKE) REINHARDT JR.
Your Collectors Store
1015–9th Wichita Falls, Texas

I’m guessing it’s was where Bundy Young Sims & Potter is now.

View Larger Map

swimming stationary
and loving it,
little feet
little shoes
big influence,
it’s nice to be.

f’sho
and sho nuff
we all breathe together
it’s what we have to do,
no choice
always a choice.

justified mountain range
elevated consciousness
and sticking to it.

playful accordion attitude
tiny fingers on the keys.

we grow up way too fast.

slipping away from what makes us
dripping into “reality”,
I found an old frame
with a lovely picture.

inquisitive grunts
pressing play on past recordings
we see ourselves daily
invisible on occasion
but always here
always nowhere
always.

The truth is, filters are very useful when used at the right time and in moderation. Let me show you some of my most used filters. Also, when and why I use them.

Gaussian Blur

Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur

My number one most used filter. I’ve even created a keyboard short cut for this one. It’s got it’s own gang sign and everything. Control + Shift + Command + B Muthah Fuckah! Ha!

Most Common Uses:

1. Drop shadows
   (I normally set the opacity of my blurred layer to 30%)
2. Depth of field/Tilt shift photos
   (Cut out the object you want in focus, placing it in a layer above your background. Duplicate the background. Blur the top bg and create a mask to define which parts are blurry and which are clear.)

Displace

Filter > Distort > Displace

Displace takes a little bit of work to set up. It uses Photoshop maps. Most of my maps are just photos of textures I’ve taken converted to black and white and saved as a psd. Displace, in my experience, works best in grungy situations.

Most Common Uses:

1. Making objects appear to be on a textured background.
   (PhotoshopCafe.com has a very nice tutorial on the subject)
2. Creating a nice grungy edge.
   (I used 2 on the Horizontal and Vertical Scale, here is what the map I used looks like.)

Highpass

Filter > Other > Highpass

The only thing I ever use highpass for is touching up a photo. Highpass can add a little extra sharpness to a photo. Allow me to show you.

Here are the Steps:

1. Choose your photo and duplicate the layer.
2. With your newly created layer go to Filter > Other > Highpass
   (I normally try to keep the radius around 2.5, but play with it a little)
3. Set the blending mode of the “Highpassed” layer to Overlay. Enjoy!

Notice how it made the edges pop. Gives the photo just an extra bit of sharpness. It also adds somewhat of an HDR effect with the small glow it gives around the edges.