It's a mad world.

[kenny]

Rarely do my lady and I eat fast food, I prefer to cook (and most people seem to like my cooking). If we do go out to eat it will be at someplace nice. But she had a craving, and some of you know what I am talking about. It's that evil fast food seed that plants itself in the back of your brain when you aren't really paying attention. Whether it's from a commercial on the radio or television or just a billboard that you randomly take in via your peripheral vision while heading home on the freeway, and once it's cataloged - it's there until you satisfy that urge. The only thing you can hope for is that you experience is so bad you never return, and this experience was just that - sort of.

The food was awful, the chicken tasted and had the texture like that of which you would find at a Flying J truck stop that had been sitting under a heat lamp since the early shift. The macaroni and cheese was gelatinous and could be molded into to any shape like clay, and the taste... well I have never had anything as rancid to compare it to. All in all the food was unbearable but the atmosphere was the only thing that was a redeeming factor.

As we entered the KFC on 2100 south and State Street we passed a guy scoring some dope, and made our way in to the doors of the twilight zone. We took our place in line in front of a large black male that was breathing heavy and his belly hung well over three inches below his belt and he was looking at me with an malevolent stare - sizing me up so that he could bash my skull in and run off with my lady, dragging her by her hair - caveman style. This should have, but did not discourage us from our dastardly chicken fetish. While in line to give our order we were watching a large crowd of people hovering around the counter, waiting for their food. They did not take a seat like the rest of the people, they just waited counter side. All of them seemed to have a mental illness of some sort and if you think I am just being callous then take specimen one. She was in a dress that looked like it had been cut every few inches around her waste, for a belt, but there was no belt, just her exposed skin. She was cute (in a puppy dog way), she had a large protruding bottom lip and a freckly complexion that was graced by random open wounds on her nose, like she had recently taken a spill or two. And to top it all off, atop her head she wore a helmet. Yes, a helmet. My only guess is that there is an adult home for the disabled nearby. After placing our order we sat, waiting for our small tortured birds to be fried and served to us in a greasy paper box, only to watch the scene become even more surreal than it already was.

In come the tweekers, a man and a woman. I pointed them out the second the walked in the door, both of them playing with their noses, like they had just snorted a fat rail. They had a horrible and matching bleach job on their domes. And as Katie and I watched them, they made a b-line straight for the bathroom. Both going in to the men's restroom, the door closed and shortly they reappeared, exiting and once again they were fidgeting with their nostrils. We were now watching them intensely, enjoying their every move. They first made their way to the soda machine, emptying out cups from another establishment and refilling them. They then made their way to the condiment bin and begun opening little containers of honey mustard and/or ranch and begun slurping the contents out. The girl had already finished her stolen beverage off and was ready for a refill, and instead of putting her cup under the beverage lever of choice, she tried to be sly and reach from the side. Now the drink she wanted was at the end of the fountain to the left and she was to the far right. So she managed to mash her arm against all of the drink levers while attempting to fill her cup, thus resulting in her soaking her arm with four or five different types of soft drink. This didn't seem to bother her much; she just flailed her arm, whisking the excess fluid off and took a place next to her man who was now at the counter. Our order was now called so I went up to get our food and I overheard the guy telling the cashier how their order was just screwed up when they came through the drive through. That's funny; they came in on foot from across the street. I just smiled, meth addicts have always been a source of entertainment for me. As I was heading back to my table I heard the lady comment in s sheer state of paranoia that I was taking their picture, but I wasn't, I just had my camera over my shoulder as I always do, in fact I had not even taken the lens cap off, but who am I to argue. I rather them be weary of me, it keeps me from having to deal with them. As I took my seat an explained that they were getting a free meal to Katie I glanced over and Courtney Love at the counter was standing behind her man, just staring at me, eating her condiment from its package, that was until she dropped it again. I then heard her say loudly to her man, "I am going to wait out in the car". And then she walked all around the front of the store, taking the longest possible route to the door and instead of going out to their imaginary car, she just sat in the doorway, waiting for her chicken thief in shiny armor (well greasy, shiny skin) to come out with their winged feast. He soon did, and after they were about a block down the street the cashier who had been duped had ran from behind the counter. She made her way to the door and saw them walking briskly with chicken in hand and muttered some sort of discontentment for the duo. I wondered if someone had clued her in, or if she had just figured the hustle out. Either way, while the food was dreadful and not fit to eat, the surroundings gave light to just how far humanity in the good ole US of A has slipped in the last few years. So if you are in dire need of a reality check I suggest you visit this KFC, not for the food but for the entertainment.

P.S. We went around 5:00 p.m. on a weeknight for those that are interested.


Restored Archives:
McFly's camera phone pictures. (NWS)
Mike's camera phone pictures.
Various camera phone pictures. (NWS)
A trip to Amsterdam (2004).
Bloodrose @ the Rainbow gathering, photos that he took prior to leaving hektik to become a devout mormon/republican.
Ibe goes to London, photos that Ibe (a.k.a. Jay) took prior to his death. R.I.P. my friend.
Do you remember the Visor, a palm oS device? Well back in the day they had an attachment called the EyeModule, well these are the photographs I took, and these are Acidprime's photos. (NWS)
And last but not least the Payphone project will be returning soon, until then here are the photos of girls on payphones. (NWS)

Also I have spent some time cleaning up the forums and getting rid of spam and spammers, so I would like to ask of your help to try to bring life back to them. I have also rearranged them a bit to make them easier to navigate and not quite the random mess that they were. For those of you that are forum members, and would like kill some time check out a new feature, our arcade. If there are any games that you would like to appear here, drop me a line. (Sidenote: I just added a resolution hack to the lower right arcade menu so that you can make the game bigger/smaller.)

[Teep]

Whenever I find myself in a situation that's just too weird to be comfortable, I try to switch modes, turn from participant to spectator, pretend it's some jerry springer show minus the studio lights and production staff... You can get away with a lot as long as you claim you're doing it in the interest of science... Though whenever you come up with something like that it's absolutely vital that you stick to your story...

It's weird in a good way to see some shots of Amsterdam in the Hektik galleries... Familiar places... As a contribution to this, I took some graffiti pics in Amsterdam and put them up here... more to follow, I'm sure...

And, damn, those flash games are addictive!