Hold Fast Pomade – Another Josh Highland Company

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling

In high school, my physics teacher/computer mentor told me something that stuck with me, “Josh, one day you are going to make a million dollars, or serve a million days in prison”. He of course was talking about my computer activities, but I think it still applies in this situation.

I have started another new business! Unlike my pervious envevors, this one has a business model, and tangible items for sale. I have developed and started to sell my own brand of pomade for men! “pomade, you mean hair grease?” That’s exactly what I mean!

Hold Fast Premium Water Based Pomade

So here is the story….

My good friend, Dylan Johnson is a classically trained barber (straight razor shaves and all that). I have been going to him for years to get my hair cut. Over all, I have been using pomade in my hair for almost 6 years now.

I’ve tried Murray’s and other petroleum based pomades. They gave me acne, got on my clothes and my pillow, and most of all they were very hard to wash out of my hair. Water based pomades are the alternative, they don’t give you acne and they wash out with just water.

Clubman made an awesome water based pomade that I loved, but they stopped making it. In response to that, other water based pomades came out, and I used them. I thought they were okay at best. I didn’t like the smell of most of them, or how they would dry out and become stiff like gel as the day went on.

Upset by the hair products and some other situations in my life, I grew my hair out for 2 years. Once I realized I looked stupid with long hair, I went to Dylan and had him make me look like a man again.

With short hair once again, I was back using pomade. I was really disappointed with my pomade options, so I started sampling various water based pomades again, to try to find the one I really liked. In every pomade I tired, there was something that I liked, and something that I hated.

Over time I became so frustrated by the lack of options, that I decided to take the best parts of the various pomades I had tried and create my own premium pomade.

I hired some scientists to create a pomade with the qualities and scent that I wanted (I wish I knew how to cook this stuff in my bathtub!)

After a year of research and tons of samples, I found what i believe to be the winning formula.

A few of the highlights:

  • It smells good (slight citrus scent)
  • Holds your hair all day
  • Stays soft and comb-able
  • Washes out with water
  • Contains proteins and vitamins (its good for your hair!)

The packaging art and design are original works by the legendary Dave Quiggle

It’s a gamble, but I’m very happy and proud of my product.

I really don’t care if I don’t sell a single jar of my pomade, I’m just happy that I have a hair product to use that has all the qualities that I want. Maybe some other people will will feel the same way about it and buy a few.

That’s the story of Hold Fast Pomade.  Pick some up, try it out.,,, I need a new computer, and a house 🙂

http://www.HoldFastHair.com
http://www.HoldFastHair.com
http://www.HoldFastHair.com
http://www.HoldFastHair.com
http://www.HoldFastHair.com
http://www.HoldFastHair.com

Spore fever

By Josh Highland in Josh's Rambling, software, video games

Yesterday spore was released. I have been waiting for this game for years, literally. Mostly because I wanted to see what the hype was about. I am a casual gamer. I got into computers through games, but I don’t have time to play them for days on end like I used to.

If you dont know what spore is:
Spore is a multi-genre massively single-player online game. It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has a massive scope, and is very open-ended. Basically no two people will ever have the same expience with this game, and its completely different frm any other game you have played before.

Riding on the hype of the game, I secured a copy and installed it. Before I could start playing spore, it made me update my nvidia graphics card drivers. Odd, but ok. After a quick reboot, I was up and playing. Instantly was blown away with the visual intensity of the game. It was very easy to figure out and learn to play right away with out any primers needed.

I selected to be an herbivore (I am a vegetarian you know!). I started off as this little swimming creature, hanging out and sucking up plant particles in the water. After I ate a few, I grew, well… actually the world got bigger. Everything that was around me in the water got smaller, and faded to the background. I was in a larger class of organisms now. This continued until I had acquired enough points to mate. This is where the game gets wild. I was able to design a new creature, selecting the body shape, orientation of the tale and mouth (In my case I had 2 mouths and 3 tales!). I also grew horns so I could ram other creatures trying to eat my veggies! Once the design was done, I got to play as that creature. Amazing.

After being in the water stage for a while, you grow legs and come onto land. I could go on and on about this game, but to sum up the land stage of the game, I grew taller, got gnarly claws and spikes. I had a sissy mouth (duck bill) for biting things because I was an herbivore (a decision i had made in the micro organism stage). I grew thick skin to protect me. I started to hunt in a pack, and I killed everything that was in my path. I could have made friends and built up relationships with the other creatures, I actually did that once, then I ripped them to shreds with my gnarly claws and duckbill.

Now I have the ability to start using tools and forming tribes with my duckbilled herbivore velociraptor rhinos

That’s how far I am in the game right now. I’m totally amped on it. From my understanding my tribe will become a society, and keep evolving and eventually be able to travel through space to other planets to set up trades and relationships with other cultures, or most likely in my case, freely handout beatdowns with my duckbill and raptor claws to anyone who wants some.

Catch Me Ridin Nerdy with my iPhone

By Josh Highland in iPhone, semi-legal, software

C-Low is one of the best dice based street gambling games there is. I have been know to play some mean C-Low in my time, in ghetto situations (random fact: I am in a gang)

Here is how you play:
Gather your homie in a circle, everyone places a set betting amount on the floor. Dollar bills work great.

Everyone rolls one die to determine the rolling order. The higest rolling player goes first, then second highest, etc.

The point of the game is to roll 3 dice until you get a matching pair of three of a kind, what ever happens first. You keep rolling until you get double or triples.

If you roll doubles, your score is value of the dice opposite the pair. Triples (“trips”) beat any doubles. The highest trips win.

Special dice combinations:
1-2-3: “crap out”. auto lose. You are out of the game, your money is gone.
4-5-6: known as “c-low“. Auto win. The game stops, you win all the money. Other players lose their turns.

Game Play Example (5 players)

Player one:
roll 1: 1-4-3 = no matches, roll again
roll 2: 3-5-2 = no matches, roll again
roll 3: 6-6-2 = MATCHING PAIR (6), FINAL SCORE = 2

Player two:
roll 1: 3-3-3 = TRIPPLE 3’s (“trip3”), final score = 333

player three:
roll 1: 5-6-1 = no match, roll again
roll 2: 1-2-3 = SPECIAL DICE COMBO! crap out. Out of the game, no more rolls

player four:
roll 1: 4-5-6 = SPECIAL DICE COMBO! C-LOW! AUTO WIN! no other player is allowed to roll, you take the $$$

player five:
does not get to roll, player four got a c-low.

its that easy!

Wait! What if 2 players recieve the same score? (4 and 4) or (222 and 222)

This condition is called a “push”. The players with matching high scores stay in the game, all other players must double their initial bet. If the buy in was $1 for the first round, the buy in for round 2 = $2 (the losing players now have $3 on the floor, the winners of the first round only have $1 on the floor). The game starts again, giving all players another chance to play.

Why am I posting rules on how to play street gambeling dice games on a mainly tech related blog? Simple, I no longer have to carry dice around to hustle suckas with! Say What? damn straight, with MotionX Dice, a free app for the iPhone, I have a sweet pair of dice to play c-low (or yahtzee) with when ever I want. All you have to do is change the setting to 3 dice, and shake the iPhone.

If playing illegal dice games on your iPhone doesn’t make you feel thug enough, you can always pour one out for the homies with another free iPhone app.

click here to see mor pictures from my 28th birthday party