I got a digital camera for Christmas (Canaon Rebel XSi) and I've been very busy.

Check it out:
http://flickr.com/photos/7609616@N03/

Includes: sledding, Sunn O))), the inauguration, pedal steel guitar, fine art looking stupid, metal, and more!

Graduation is fast approaching. Five projects still to complete, only one of which is bullshit. Graduation: May 3rd, followed by Advanced Photography Workshop in May. One month of taking pictures, drinking, drugs, tattoos, making/watching movies, and saying goodbye to my home-away-from-home for the last 3 years (and that one semester before).

The part I'm dreading most (besides not finishing all my work and therefore not graduating) is the fact that in order to make it home in time for my brother's high school graduation, I'll have to leave May term three days early. Being on campus with about 1/10th of the people there normally are already makes for a surreal experience. Having that be the note on which I leave this place (not exactly, but pretty much) forever doubles that surreality. Having to do it before everyone else just depresses me.

I've always hated the inevitability of the end of the school year, but it's always been made easier knowing that I'll just see everyone again in the Fall. But that's no longer the case and it's starting to fuck with me. And knowing that I'll be driving alone all day while everyone else is back at school having that last huge party makes it worse.

I just hope it doesn't rain. . .

But at the same time I'm really looking foraward to all the stuff (I hope) I'm going to be able to do. Getting a job and moving out will be priority #1, I think. I've been resigned to living cheaply and shittily for a while now, so that won't be an issue. And if my friends at home have luxury as low on their list as I do, we shouldn;t have a problem. As long as we keep things clean.

Work, apply to grad schools, go to concerts, put on concerts, play music with any all that want to (as long as they aren't dicks about it), take pictures, learn the horrible realities about lving the impoverished starving artist life I've romanticized for so long. You know, live 'n shit.

DC/PG in June. Hit me up.

new favorite phrase: mushroom-fueled orgy

that is all

Seemingly innocuous things that I keep seeing more in Portland than anywhere else:
-Little people/midgets
-Men with eye patches
-Juggalos
-Gutterpunks
-T-shirts for power metal bands
-Rolled cigarettes
-Hot women

-The classes are going real well. I know more now about 20th century Yugoslavia than I ever thought I would.
-My dad and my brother are coming to visit on Tuesday.
-We got a hookah and some delicious melon and vanilla flavored tobaccos.
-I saw a dude in a loinclothe with a spear light a fire in Pioneer Square using the stick and bow method. It seems like someone in authority would've tryed to stop him, if not for the fire then for the spear, which looked really sharp.
-Living in an area for only two months is not conducive to gaining steady employment. Not even 7-11 wants to train someone for less than a season. I've been living off savings and one-off dog-walking/manual labor gigs. If you need anything in SW, hit me up.

-out

Arrival in Portland.

The plane was horribly delayed. I should have arrived at 11:30PM, instead, didn't get in until 3:30. Had an appointment to look at apartments at 9:00AM. I've slept 3 hours, and badly. I want nothing more than a warm place to curl up for the night, but that's probably several days away. Urgh.

I also need a job, but the prospects are looking good.

I'm really looking forward to classes at PSU. They start Monday. Intro to Psychopathology and Psychology of Violence.

It's going to a hell of a summer and anyone who wants to join me and make it all the more fucked-up is welcome.

Big things happening, I guess. Breaking it down, past, present, future.

Past: We saw Tub Ring and Dog Fashion Disco last weekend in Bloomington, which fucking rocked. Dancing with Bethy to "I Could Never Fall In Love With You," the crazy hairless snake guy that probably didn't stop cumming in his pants once during the DFD set, hearing the sXe/Elton John/barstool story, and of course great sex afterward.

Present: Just sat throught the final 7 hours of Sex and the City we've had to watch for Psych and the Media. My brain is still throbbing. I just can't take that much bitch in one sitting without being a lot drunker.

Speaking of drunk, I need to get some booze in me before I can keep writing the script for my final porject. Basically it's a post-apocalyptic video diary. The main themes are the things I would miss most after years of living alone underground and the morality concerned with balancing one's own needs with those of others (ie. is it right to leave someone behind, essentially condemning them to death, to save your own life?) It's a really emotional 10 minutes and I need the words to be as painful as possible. However, everything I write ends up sounding like all the research papers I write, and that just won't work. But when I've been drinking I can just let the fear and anguish flow right through (this is why I don;t drink as much as I used to).

Future: Summer in Portland. Still trying to find a job. The only solid leads I have are a 'maybe' from a dog-washing service, which I'm hoping comes through, and a one day thing working backstage at the Warped Tour. Also need an apartment, but that's much less in my hands. I just need a room to go back to, not much else. There's a lot more tied up in this whole adventure, but more of an emotional variety, and I'll have to understand that better myself before I can try to write about it.

hmm, first entry in 9 months. I guess it's not so hard.

Well, back in college. Real college. It's taken a year and half but it'll be worth it as long as I don't get kicked the fuck out again.

Thanks to Jesse at Temple Tattoo in Portland, OR, the elephant tattoo (see last update) turned out even better than I expected. Pictures will come soon, as ones of the crop circle my friend got and the Hunter S. Thompson owl my oter friend got.

new tattoo tomorrow, hopefully. I have $100 to my name and unless I get the $3000 I'm owed within the next two days I might not have enough for tattoos and mc chris shows in Baltimore and/or Springfield, VA. We'll see how that works out.

whenever the tat does happen this is what it'll be:

with a bit of modification.

Nothing like a beer and a cigareete to round of a night of tequila and pot.

Mmmm, mmm, good.