The Obama O, made from gum wrappers

I strictly ration my gum, and always have some with me (Don’t ask for it though) so I soon amassed a pretty hefty collection. It totaled about 30 pieces of normal aluminum plus Five’s red, blue and green wrappers. I realized the potential of these wrappers. I could create…art.

First I had to figure out what to make. It would have to be a simple image with not too many colors. The Obama O-bingo. Wrigleys wrappers for white, Flare red, Cobalt blue and Rain green letters.

How I converted the Obama logo into a 3-color pixelated was pretty sophisticated. I’m pretty sure I applied some saturation layers, created a grid, then created three duplicate layers of one individual square to replace squares with the right color. One square equaled one half of a wrapper.

I spent about 45 minutes figuring out how to draw the gird but eventually got it on the two pieces of posterboard, along with the gum wrappers. I had to chew more Big Red, and finished it up with “2008” made with Rain green.

Eventually my art was finished. This was my masterpiece. You know the Obama poster that says “Hope” underneath? Mine was cool like that. What to do with it though?

Great idea-frame it and put it in the nearest Obama HQ. One opens in my county tomorrow morning.

Click for bigger images…

More Obama art:
Lincoln-Obama fusion

An essay on religion

As a Catholic I get flak about our traditions. But they’re actually pretty well-grounded. One example is at end of Mass-the pastor proclaims “The Mass has ended” and the congregation enthusiastically responds “Thanks be to God.”

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When you’re working, you do really dumb stuff to keep you amused during those slow times. Kinda like college, but safer.

The setting was my place of employment, Chick Fil A. Saturday nights are the slowest, and in my opinion, have the funnest people on the clock.

Our styrofoam cups come in long plastic bags that you poke open at one end. One employee was casually inflating one. Not only do we stock inflatable toys at Chick Fil A, we have helium for balloons.

Soon helium usage was spiraling out of control. We moved onto bigger and badder inflatable items, like gallon jugs.

Yes, you can inflate an empty gallon jug. Of course, the nozzle stays inserted for only about three seconds before the cap blows off. Have you ever heard a gun shot from fifty feet away? That’s what it sounded like.

Things quickly escalated to inflating garbage bags. We wrote our names on promotional materials for new menu items and taped them to the bag. It sounds dumb but you had no idea. This was momentous. We wrote the store’s number on one, then prepared to release the bag into space.

“Wouldn’t it be hilarious if we actually got a call from someone? ‘Yeah, I found a trash bag with this number on it.’”

We rushed out the trash door.

“Jake, get in the picture! Wait for Mandi Karen!”

We were making history.

“Hey guys, Mr. Johnson just pulled up.” He actually didn’t.

I took a picture on my horrible camera phone. It’s still my wallpaper.