Well I guess it's a good time to update the ole' journal. Right now I'm sitting on the porch of a rented house overlooking the Hawaiian coast with a rented Cannondale SuperSix sitting next to me. Things are pretty good right now.
Honestly though, as awesome as this trip is going to be, just got here yesterday and I'm leaving on the 29th, I'd rather not have to be here. My brother is getting married and his fiance decided that she wanted to have her wedding in Hawaii, sounds great in theory but this trip is going to probably use up whatever money I have saved that it hasn't used already, my girlfriend couldn't come, I'm missing two maybe three shows that my band is playing, and I'm missing two weeks of work. Oh, I'm also stuck with my family for 10 days...
But besides that I'm going to make the best of it, hence the rented bike(aka my escape) I am excited to spend some time here and it will be fun, I'm hoping to go snorkeling and whatnot, and obviously spend a lot of time on the beach to try to even out my horrible cycling jersey and glove tanlines.
Things back at the homefront a going good too, I have a full time job working as a mechanic at a bicycle shop, the pay is nice but I pretty much just pump it back to the shop. Things are going great with my girlfriend, we just moved in together to a sweet 2nd floor two bedroom apartment that is going to be quite cheaper and cleaner than the house I've been living in. I will miss living in a house with a bunch of my friends but I need a break from all of the mess and craziness. My band, Those Ghostfuckers, are starting to build up a head of steam in the local scene, we can easily pull 50 people to a small venue, we just headlined a show that Jeffery Lewis played, and he really dug our set and said we should play a show with him in NYC if we're ever down that way. Oh and there is a potential spot opening up for Bright Eyes at the end of the month. If anyone wants to check us out we're on facebook and just released an ep, that will soon be a full length album hopefully by the end of the summer, you can check out our stuff on soundcloud @ http://soundcloud.com/thoseghostfckrs
Honestly though, as awesome as this trip is going to be, just got here yesterday and I'm leaving on the 29th, I'd rather not have to be here. My brother is getting married and his fiance decided that she wanted to have her wedding in Hawaii, sounds great in theory but this trip is going to probably use up whatever money I have saved that it hasn't used already, my girlfriend couldn't come, I'm missing two maybe three shows that my band is playing, and I'm missing two weeks of work. Oh, I'm also stuck with my family for 10 days...
But besides that I'm going to make the best of it, hence the rented bike(aka my escape) I am excited to spend some time here and it will be fun, I'm hoping to go snorkeling and whatnot, and obviously spend a lot of time on the beach to try to even out my horrible cycling jersey and glove tanlines.
Things back at the homefront a going good too, I have a full time job working as a mechanic at a bicycle shop, the pay is nice but I pretty much just pump it back to the shop. Things are going great with my girlfriend, we just moved in together to a sweet 2nd floor two bedroom apartment that is going to be quite cheaper and cleaner than the house I've been living in. I will miss living in a house with a bunch of my friends but I need a break from all of the mess and craziness. My band, Those Ghostfuckers, are starting to build up a head of steam in the local scene, we can easily pull 50 people to a small venue, we just headlined a show that Jeffery Lewis played, and he really dug our set and said we should play a show with him in NYC if we're ever down that way. Oh and there is a potential spot opening up for Bright Eyes at the end of the month. If anyone wants to check us out we're on facebook and just released an ep, that will soon be a full length album hopefully by the end of the summer, you can check out our stuff on soundcloud @ http://soundcloud.com/thoseghostfckrs
Update, Update, Update!!!
Bikes, Bikes, Bikes, and well some art.
That's pretty much been my life since I last updated this thing, oh and a bunch of working thrown in. Basically I spent my whole summer either cycling, working, or drinking or some combination of the three, I'd say it's been a pretty good summer. Sadly I haven't been riding that sweet mountain bike in my last post much, got more hooked on road riding and in August did my first race. I placed 53rd out of 203 overall but got 4th in my age class which was pretty sweet, getting a medal for my first race and all. But now that fall has set in upon us I have switched from road cycling to CYCLOCROSS! If you don't know 'cross is the awesome fun come down from the road cycling season, it runs from mid September to early December and basically you ride beefed up road bikes on semi-XC mountain biking like courses but they are short timed and lapped races. So unlike road cycling where its about long term stamina, 'cross is more how much can you blast out in 45 minutes. Oh and the races are also full of heckling, cheering, crashing, mud, and heavy drinking it's quite awesome.
I just finished building up this bike for 'cross last week, have done a few tweaks since this photo and I'll post and updated one soon, still have a few things to do.
So besides that I've done some freelance printmaking stuff, working on a mural, picked up a freelance architectural gig, and am returning to my after school teaching job next week, pretty pumped about that last one.
Bikes, Bikes, Bikes, and well some art.
That's pretty much been my life since I last updated this thing, oh and a bunch of working thrown in. Basically I spent my whole summer either cycling, working, or drinking or some combination of the three, I'd say it's been a pretty good summer. Sadly I haven't been riding that sweet mountain bike in my last post much, got more hooked on road riding and in August did my first race. I placed 53rd out of 203 overall but got 4th in my age class which was pretty sweet, getting a medal for my first race and all. But now that fall has set in upon us I have switched from road cycling to CYCLOCROSS! If you don't know 'cross is the awesome fun come down from the road cycling season, it runs from mid September to early December and basically you ride beefed up road bikes on semi-XC mountain biking like courses but they are short timed and lapped races. So unlike road cycling where its about long term stamina, 'cross is more how much can you blast out in 45 minutes. Oh and the races are also full of heckling, cheering, crashing, mud, and heavy drinking it's quite awesome.
I just finished building up this bike for 'cross last week, have done a few tweaks since this photo and I'll post and updated one soon, still have a few things to do.
So besides that I've done some freelance printmaking stuff, working on a mural, picked up a freelance architectural gig, and am returning to my after school teaching job next week, pretty pumped about that last one.
Summer is finally here hooray! Although at the current time it feels more like early spring/fall. Stupid Syracuse being below 60* in early June, ugh!
Well since my last update I've gotten nice and settled into my new place, still need to do some things with my room but I'll have plenty of time for that since I'm gonna be renewing the lease for another year with my current room mate and two of my friends from undergrad, shout be a pretty fun house!
I also finally got a settlement from my busted clavicle and spent a good chunk of it on a sweet new mountain bike!
Salsa El Kaboing fit with a full Shimano XT group, 5 inches of full travel with Fox suspension. I've taken it out on a few trails so far and things bike just loves catching air, going downhill, and with the pro-pedal switched on climbs like a hard tail.
I've also been doing a bunch of road biking in hopes of being somewhat competitive by the end of the summer and played some Bike Polo for the first time this past Monday, talk about a ridiculously fun game!
Well since my last update I've gotten nice and settled into my new place, still need to do some things with my room but I'll have plenty of time for that since I'm gonna be renewing the lease for another year with my current room mate and two of my friends from undergrad, shout be a pretty fun house!
I also finally got a settlement from my busted clavicle and spent a good chunk of it on a sweet new mountain bike!
Salsa El Kaboing fit with a full Shimano XT group, 5 inches of full travel with Fox suspension. I've taken it out on a few trails so far and things bike just loves catching air, going downhill, and with the pro-pedal switched on climbs like a hard tail.
I've also been doing a bunch of road biking in hopes of being somewhat competitive by the end of the summer and played some Bike Polo for the first time this past Monday, talk about a ridiculously fun game!
NEW APARTMENT!!! NEW APARTMENT!!! NEW APARTMENT!!! NEW POST!!!
Once again I suck at the whole updating my blog thing, but I have an excuse! After I finished my thesis for my undergrad degree I had to move back in with my parents, needless to say it was not the most inspiring environment.
But yesterday I moved back up to near where I was living over the summer with some friends, super pumped about this because now I can actually go out and get drunk without worrying about finding a place to crash and then sleeping on someone's far to small couch for me.
What else is going on? Well I'm halfway through submitting my grad school applications, I have Madison and Austin all done, now to just do Athens and Syracuse. Grad school applications really suck compared to when I was applying for undergrad, then again I also only applied to two schools then, compared to four now. It's weird too, I totally forgot about the anxiety that comes with waiting to hear back from schools until I finished up my first application. Did I fill everything out right? Could my statements have been worded better? Should I have gave them better examples of my work? etc...
Oh well, here's hoping I get in somewhere good and that they give me enough financial aid that I can afford to go!
And now here are some stencil's I've done recently.
Once again I suck at the whole updating my blog thing, but I have an excuse! After I finished my thesis for my undergrad degree I had to move back in with my parents, needless to say it was not the most inspiring environment.
But yesterday I moved back up to near where I was living over the summer with some friends, super pumped about this because now I can actually go out and get drunk without worrying about finding a place to crash and then sleeping on someone's far to small couch for me.
What else is going on? Well I'm halfway through submitting my grad school applications, I have Madison and Austin all done, now to just do Athens and Syracuse. Grad school applications really suck compared to when I was applying for undergrad, then again I also only applied to two schools then, compared to four now. It's weird too, I totally forgot about the anxiety that comes with waiting to hear back from schools until I finished up my first application. Did I fill everything out right? Could my statements have been worded better? Should I have gave them better examples of my work? etc...
Oh well, here's hoping I get in somewhere good and that they give me enough financial aid that I can afford to go!
And now here are some stencil's I've done recently.
Sorry about the total lackage of journaling. The past few months have been crazy! I "graduated" in may but over the summer had to finished my thesis to get my degree in architecture on account of the busted clavicle back in October. Well a week and a half ago I finally finished my undergrad and got my degree, hells yeah!
So now I'm living back with my parents(reluctantly) until I can pick up full time at my current job and/or get a second job. Also the plan for the immediate future is the begin applying for grad schools in fall of 2010, to get my MFA in printmaking. If anyone has any good schools to recommend feel free to suggest them.
In other areas I've been biking a TON, both road and mountain, it's been great. Hopefully in the coming week or so I'm gonna buy my buddy's Hoffman BMX off of him, ride it around and get all nostalgic about when I had one in Florence... I also put a new exhaust system on the Jetta, 2 1/4" stainless stell cat-back with a Borla muffler, sounds totally suh-weeet!
Aaaand I was in a relationship for almost 2 months, it was pretty good but just wasn't working out anymore.
Now that I'm done with school and have more free time I'll try to update this more often and be more active here, I mean shit I'm paying or it and all
So now I'm living back with my parents(reluctantly) until I can pick up full time at my current job and/or get a second job. Also the plan for the immediate future is the begin applying for grad schools in fall of 2010, to get my MFA in printmaking. If anyone has any good schools to recommend feel free to suggest them.
In other areas I've been biking a TON, both road and mountain, it's been great. Hopefully in the coming week or so I'm gonna buy my buddy's Hoffman BMX off of him, ride it around and get all nostalgic about when I had one in Florence... I also put a new exhaust system on the Jetta, 2 1/4" stainless stell cat-back with a Borla muffler, sounds totally suh-weeet!
Aaaand I was in a relationship for almost 2 months, it was pretty good but just wasn't working out anymore.
Now that I'm done with school and have more free time I'll try to update this more often and be more active here, I mean shit I'm paying or it and all
Chicagoooooooo!
Why am I up at 5:45am you may be asking yourself. Well I'm about to head off to Chicago for the Southern Graphics Conference with a bunch of friends from school. Four of us are driving there today and between tonight and Sunday I plan on doing a lot of drinking, seeing a lot of art, meeting a lot of people, and learning crazy shit about printmaking! This is the first time I've ever gone to this event so I'm really looking forward to it, especially after hearing all the crazy stories from years past.
And then when I get back I have to kick it up to 3x as much work to hopefully finish off this semester with a respectable grade, wohoooo...
Why am I up at 5:45am you may be asking yourself. Well I'm about to head off to Chicago for the Southern Graphics Conference with a bunch of friends from school. Four of us are driving there today and between tonight and Sunday I plan on doing a lot of drinking, seeing a lot of art, meeting a lot of people, and learning crazy shit about printmaking! This is the first time I've ever gone to this event so I'm really looking forward to it, especially after hearing all the crazy stories from years past.
And then when I get back I have to kick it up to 3x as much work to hopefully finish off this semester with a respectable grade, wohoooo...
I am no longer part robot!
The surgery went well, no complications, and now after a weekend of almost constant sleep I'm getting back into the swing of my life and catching up on work that seems like I am forever behind on.
The best part about the surgery(besides getting all that crap out) was they let me keep all the pieces!
Needless to say I was surprised at how thick the plate is, almost 1/8th of an inch, and the longest screw is about an inch long. Still not sure why they used 3 different types of screws but, eh.
So yeah, Spring break is next week, and as usual I'm going to be in Syracuse, doing work, and hopefully drinking heavily to forget about the cold and not think of my friends having fun in warmer climates...
The surgery went well, no complications, and now after a weekend of almost constant sleep I'm getting back into the swing of my life and catching up on work that seems like I am forever behind on.
The best part about the surgery(besides getting all that crap out) was they let me keep all the pieces!
Needless to say I was surprised at how thick the plate is, almost 1/8th of an inch, and the longest screw is about an inch long. Still not sure why they used 3 different types of screws but, eh.
So yeah, Spring break is next week, and as usual I'm going to be in Syracuse, doing work, and hopefully drinking heavily to forget about the cold and not think of my friends having fun in warmer climates...
Toooomorrowwww!
More surgery, they're gonna take out my robot(metal) bits because I too skinny and if they don't do it soon they may just come out on their own. So all you people out there that wish you were skinny, well believe me when I say, there at downsides.
So this is what my clavicle currently looks like...
Tomorrow it's all coming out and I get to keep the screws and plate! I'm thinking about mounting it really cheesy like in a plexi glass box and make a plaque, maybe put it on my mantel...
Wish me luck, I'll follow this up with a picture of all the metal pieces at some point this weekend.
More surgery, they're gonna take out my robot(metal) bits because I too skinny and if they don't do it soon they may just come out on their own. So all you people out there that wish you were skinny, well believe me when I say, there at downsides.
So this is what my clavicle currently looks like...
Tomorrow it's all coming out and I get to keep the screws and plate! I'm thinking about mounting it really cheesy like in a plexi glass box and make a plaque, maybe put it on my mantel...
Wish me luck, I'll follow this up with a picture of all the metal pieces at some point this weekend.
Yeah I know, I suck at updating but this time I have a valid excuse!
I got hit by a car.
Long story short, on Oct 30th I was riding my bike on campus, went to pass a car that was slowing, they turned left with no signal and hit my rear wheel sending me flying through the air and when I hit the ground I broke my clavicle.
At my follow up dr. apt we decided to do surgery and put a plate in to pull the bone back together and it would also help me regain use of my right arm faster, which is good since I'm right handed.
The result from me being a skinny fucker is that you can see the screws and the plate under my skin, and I may have to have another surgery to take it out if it ends up irritating my skin, fun huh?
So other than all that the rest of my semester was pretty un-eventful, was able to catch up in all of my classes so I'm not behind. I've also fallen in love with Intaglio print making. I shot some photos for a campus magazine and got the cover, two stories, and the center spread which is fun. But because of my accident I haven't really shot any other photos since then, well any of interest.
I'll try to start updating more regularly again...
I got hit by a car.
Long story short, on Oct 30th I was riding my bike on campus, went to pass a car that was slowing, they turned left with no signal and hit my rear wheel sending me flying through the air and when I hit the ground I broke my clavicle.
At my follow up dr. apt we decided to do surgery and put a plate in to pull the bone back together and it would also help me regain use of my right arm faster, which is good since I'm right handed.
The result from me being a skinny fucker is that you can see the screws and the plate under my skin, and I may have to have another surgery to take it out if it ends up irritating my skin, fun huh?
So other than all that the rest of my semester was pretty un-eventful, was able to catch up in all of my classes so I'm not behind. I've also fallen in love with Intaglio print making. I shot some photos for a campus magazine and got the cover, two stories, and the center spread which is fun. But because of my accident I haven't really shot any other photos since then, well any of interest.
I'll try to start updating more regularly again...
UPDATE! Whoooaaa!!!
Hah yeah I know, I suck. Now that I'm getting into the swing of my last year in college(scary) I figured I'd give everyone the run down of what's going on in my life. The summer was great, camp was a lot better than it was last year, not as much drama, I was dating a girl from France, and I got to plan the end of the summer banquet it was good times.
Since being back at school I've already done one photo shoot for one of my friends for her music myspace(the pictures of the blond that I uploaded) and coming up on Sept. 7th I get to shoot the big fall concert here at school. I'm sooooo pumped this is the best lineup this school has had for a concert while I've been here, Ra Ra Riot, Talib Kweli, and Bloc Party! Along with that I'm going to shoot an interview with at least Talib before the concert and hopefully with the rest of the bands.
It's looking like it's going to be a good semester, only taking 12 credit hours, I'm enjoying my classes, and it hasn't started snowing yet(but with Syracuse weather you never know)!
Oh! and I just ordered a new laptop, Toshiba U400, can't wait for it to get here! Sadly now I'm back to broke status though...
Hah yeah I know, I suck. Now that I'm getting into the swing of my last year in college(scary) I figured I'd give everyone the run down of what's going on in my life. The summer was great, camp was a lot better than it was last year, not as much drama, I was dating a girl from France, and I got to plan the end of the summer banquet it was good times.
Since being back at school I've already done one photo shoot for one of my friends for her music myspace(the pictures of the blond that I uploaded) and coming up on Sept. 7th I get to shoot the big fall concert here at school. I'm sooooo pumped this is the best lineup this school has had for a concert while I've been here, Ra Ra Riot, Talib Kweli, and Bloc Party! Along with that I'm going to shoot an interview with at least Talib before the concert and hopefully with the rest of the bands.
It's looking like it's going to be a good semester, only taking 12 credit hours, I'm enjoying my classes, and it hasn't started snowing yet(but with Syracuse weather you never know)!
Oh! and I just ordered a new laptop, Toshiba U400, can't wait for it to get here! Sadly now I'm back to broke status though...
OCTOBER 2011
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SEPTEMBER 2011
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AUGUST 2011
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JULY 2011