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As part of our ongoing blog series Hi My Name Is, we bring you Tim Arits. Tim came to our attention after the HMNIM "wendy" chicken shirt. Tim is, besides being an entrepreneur, Google employee and drummer, a bit of a chicken expert, well, at least compared to us. He brought to our attention one of the rarest breeds, and one of the most bad ass looking chickens, which we know that statement is an oxymoron. Chicken? Bad ass? How can that be? Well, we will let Tim tell you all about himself and the chicken breed called Ayam Cemani.

I grew up in a very small village called 'Swartbroek', which is located in the South of the Netherlands. Although I grew up on a farm, we didn't cultivate any land or keep livestock for a living. When I turned 9, my grandfather gave me a hen with little chicks that hatched a week earlier. This is when I got my first chickens. Together with my dad, I started to search on the internet for more chickens and we found a chicken breeder nearby. This guy I met basically changed my entire life. He showed me what it is to have a clear passion for something. The way he looked at things still inspires me everyday.

I don't like the normal and I try to make a difference into the things I do. So after a while I decided to start searching for the rarest chicken breed that I could find. After spending hours on the Internet I found the Ayam Cemani breed. One of the coolest and rarest breeds I have ever seen! Because the Ayam Cemani breed is almost extinct, it took me years to find eggs from a pure breed couple. After I hatched the first eggs I started to breed more of them and I even won several prizes in the end. At that time, I already dedicated a large part of my time to save them from extinction and it turned out to be my first project which was driven by pure passion. 

Eventually, in 2012 I had to sell all the chickens because I accepted a job at Google as an account strategist. I had to move from the Netherlands to Ireland and sold the chickens to a Belgium guy who shipped them to America. The chickens I personally raised by hand are now sold in the US for $4,999 a pair (see: http://greenfirefarms.com/store/category/chickens/ayam-cemani/)!!! At Google, I now support small and medium businesses in their online presence and help them to further grow their business. Although breeding black chickens is completely different from helping companies with their online marketing, Google and its advertisers remind me of this incredible breed. It's the passion to reach a certain goal that remains the same!!! 

We know, we know the site has been all Filmage for weeks now. So consider this a week end wrap up of a super fun time. If you were there, then you know it was an awesome film, made by a great bunch of guys about one of the best bands around. 

There are plans to release Filmage on iTunes and Netflix but those are still far out. Until then, be sure to follow Filmage for the latest news on screenings, events and all things Filmage. Are they doing East Coast shows? Yes. Are they coming to the UK? Maybe. How do we know any of this? We follow them on Facebook and Twitter and so should you.

And now to the main event, the "meat and potatoes" of this post, and if you are vegetarian or vegan, then let's get to the "potatoes and potatoes" of this story. A little over 3 weeks ago, we joined forces with Vannen Watches to put on a Filmage event in San Diego. We asked Mark if he could do the Q&A, and we waited for his response, and he said...wait for it...."yes". We invited San Diego's hometown radio hero, Mike Halloran to join in on the fun. Mike knows more about music than iTunes. And there the stage was set. Filmage San Diego was a go.

These fine people circled around the block to catch one of the 3 screenings.

The guys behind the film but in front of the poster. Meet Deedle and Matt.

A packed San Diego Digiplex house.

Can you find Waldo in this picture?

In between screenings, Mark mingled with the crowd. Nice HMNIM octo hat photo bomb.

None of this would have been possible without all these great people and that box of popcorn.

By now you've seen the best collab involving an iconic punk band and an octopus. We can all now thank the legendary Bill Stevenson for giving the Descendents' blessing. But what you didn't get to see, was the sweat, the tears, and the heartache that went into that shirt, sleepless nights, the missed birthdays, all in the name of perfection. Countless renditions and sketches were sent back and forth, back and forth, until one emerged from the rest. It was a hail mary, all our hopes and dreams resided in this one design. And it was all up to Bill. We sent the design. tick tock, minutes turned into hours as we waited judgement. And then it came. "yeah that looks cool" -Bill

This shirt is available exclusively at this Saturday, the 21st, Filmage Screenings in San Diego. Limited Edition of only 300 shirts were printed. With a hand numbered hang tag authenticating the edition number. The shirts will be $30 and we will be accepting Cash and Credit Cards, unfortunately we will NOT be accepting bits of string.

To all of you that can not make it to San Diego, any stock left after Saturday will go online early next week. So don't despair there is still hope that you can own one of the best shirts to ever grace the naked body. Descendents X HMNIM.

If you know your punk rock history, then you already know that the Descendents were the pioneers that influenced the genre as you know it today. And like every band, it all started with a couple friends in their parents' garage learning to make mistakes and make music. 

We here at HMNIM are huge fans, and when the opportunity came along to be a part of this movie, we jumped at it. Now, Mark is already in the movie as they interview him about the influence that the Descendents had on him, but where could we fit in? Sure, we could re-edit the entire film and use the latest CGI technology to drop ourselves into the movie's key scenes (more thought went into that than you probably know). But in the end, we felt the best way to be a part of the film, was to host our own special screening of FILMAGE here in San Diego with our friends Vannen Watches. 

We'll be talking about this more as we get closer to the 21st. Don't wait until then to get your ticket as all 3 shows are expected to sell out. And did we mention that there will be an exclusive HMNIM X Descendents tee? Oh there will be, and you'll be super bummed if you don't get one.

We're expecting all three FILMAGE screenings to sell out quickly, so do not delay. Seating is extremely limited… and tickets are only $10 each! Tickets are available online HERE and at the Digiplex Mission Valley 7 box office.

For more information on these screenings, please visit HiMyNameisMark.com and VannenWatches.com for updates.

Nothing makes us happier than seeing someone follow their dream. Whether that dream is to learn to walk again, or converting your car into a 1980's TV replica. It is the latter that we are talking about today. Now we aren't going to tell you that Knight Rider was the best show ever, it was alright, it had its moments, and it had David Hasselhoff. But the real star was K.I.T.T. the talking car, the acronym KITT stood for something but who has time to find out that sort of information? Not us. Moving on, this post is about doing what you love and seeing it through. 

Chris Palmer is an inspiration to all of us that have a dream but might be a little scared of what others might say about it. Dreams by their very nature are silly and nonsensical, but making a dream a reality is the highest calling and greatest achievement one might do in their lifetime. We are being totally serious here people, you have to follow your dreams or what is the point? You get this one life, and you have to make the most of it, and you can't let your dreams get derailed by others who don't understand why you want what you want.  So get out there, write that movie script, build that rocket, start that band, life is so much better when you follow your dreams.