after much too long i return to this virtual world.

first story, back in march i went to DC and New York City (for some strange reason can't stand abbreviating it to NYC, not sure why) it was a grand adventure, met up with my best friend Ben in DC (he goes to GW) then traveled on by long silly bus to the city with Ben to meet up with a friend from forever ago who is living there and curating photo shows as she waits to go to school for a masters in photography. Here is a profile of me shot by her and a her shot by me . Had a great time, it was too short and bought a beautiful suit from top shop as a birthday gift to myself, but sadly no pictures of it and me. Went back home in the bay area for 4 days, had normal awkward experience with the rents and then flew back down to horrible SoCal for school drama to continue.

Through Uni I had an awesome exhibit at coachella then realized i was way behind on thesis, tried to freak out about it but have been having a hard time, so progress is slow.

My brain is a little mushy so i will leave you with some pictures i took from some art openings and bid you adieu.

time for another strange update from your writer in chief, also know as the kid who is always way to lazy to read through what he wrote (therefore i cannot be editor in chief). For something a little different from usual i think i am going to post a series of random pictures and tell stories if i can come up with them to go with.





A silly a girl, a silly neor and a story that started a year and a few weeks ago that goes a little like this; boy (neor) meets girl, girl meets boy, boy goes home with girl, boy and girl spend time together over christmas break. Girl goes back to Oregon, boy goes back to southern california. Boy is way too attached to girl, girl claims same but gets back together with other boyfriend from oregon. boy in southern california is somewhat crushed, girl breaks up with boyfriend in oregon for her own sake and because she still likes boy but it is to little to late for boy to become obsessed with her again. Strangeness continues and mostly peters out.

pictures taken by boy of girl in june.




The fourth of july in all i can guess is a strangely festive mood of mine. Picture taken while i ran away from my sister and her husband who i was there with so i could smoke a cigarette. At this point i have admitted to my parents that i smoke and told them i quit and unless they are completely oblivious they have noticed i smell like smoke again, but i think we have an unsaid agreement that i don't do it around them and pretend not to and they wont tell me not to.
Back to the subject of the fourth though, also one day before I ran the TT into objects mentioned in earlier photographs in earlier blog, breaking from 140mph with out a seatbelt on. Yes i should be in jail for it for up to 10 days, but some how luck has treated me well and no charges have been pressed and if they do it will count as lesser and no jail time will be necessary, i just hope i finally fucking learn something from it the second time around.





A picture of yours truly and friend from for ever ago (first serious girlfriend) and then of her and her little brother from later in july. As you can see my eye is still healing from car crash. To make things more complicated she is also living in oregon. It was great to see her again and especially since she is doing much better than times in the past when i have seen her.



A moment stolen from someone else's life. I talked to the photographer that is in this photo and apparently she was taking "glamour" shots of some friends (family friends?) for attempted acting careers. I just happened to be carrying a telephoto lense couldn't resist being semi creepy, well mostly i just like no candid photos so you take what you can take.





No summer is complete without a spontaneous trip to reno when your friends (pictured) find you walking the streets on a sunday night, you decided to call in sick to work and go for a night. To add to the excitement one of my friends had to bring a long a 17 year old girl (not pictured) and some how the next morning they figure out what she is up to, my friends phone number and so much more....regardless hell of an adventure.



because suburbia is so much better with an ironic powder pink mailbox flag especially when my perfect suburban neighbor hood regularly has helicopters with spot lights flying over.

well that was enough for the night

take care kids and cats

-oren

I meant to write a blog complaining to the world to night but instead i distracted my self and felt guilty sneaking out side to smoke a cigarette. Expect more from me soon, or maybe i just expect more from me, regardless good night.

love and self hatred

-neor

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hold your breath while reading this blog because i am the lucky winner of one case of swine flu. Went to the doctors on friday, thats what he thought it was then ran a culture and confirmed its a type a influenza which is what swine flu is and that's his diagnosis. Las time i checked i am not going to die, but recently i have learned way too well that as fun as it sounds on paper spending days on end in bed is HORRIBLE, or at least by yourself when your hurt or I'll. I'm going on four days straight now, at least it is at home though, because earlier this month i spent 4 days straight in a hospital bed with a dead phone so i couldn't even contact anyone and only being allowed to stand up next to my bed and pee in a cup. I wasn't even allowed to walk 20 feet to the bathroom.

where they decided to stick a tube 8 inches into my chest in between my ribs and my lunge.

your truly with two black eyes, sutures recently removed from chin (semi hidden by stubble) tube removed from chest and a series of sutures in my knee. The picture was taken a day or two after release, but before i was allowed to start showering again. Didn't bother counting the number of sutures in my knee before cutting them out with a scalpel, but the cut half moons around most of my knee cap.
I should probably be happy that i am still alive though since in the process of getting these injuries i took a little two seater car through two parked motorcycles, a parked van and the front of a hotel. I was passed out so i have no recollection of this but they had "extract" me from the car, an by that i mean cut me out with jaws of life. The car got smashed so well the instrument cluster was broken, front right wheel was bent around to almost be facing backwards and the glove box (no passenger to hit it) was broken from a front impact.
hope the news flash was exciting!

-oren

OMN NOM NOM, my last blog annoyed me so much i even had to change it. A week and a half more to suffer through and i am free for the summer, woooooooo! Plans entail probably going to burning man for the first time, potential for going to All Points West i Jersey for free with an architecture exhibit, hanging around SF a whole lot, and probably going to DC to visit and friend and making him take me to NYC for a few days for the first time. Though i may not make it out of the country it still sounds like a pretty god adventure if you ask me! Just have to make it there.

take care all.

-oren

It has been view that people, especially men in this culture are unwilling to share enough of there feelings and emotions and that this is not a stable habit. In this age of social networking sites though i can't help but feel that true expressions of emotion have been lost when people feel obliged to tell the general public there every emotion. It seem it is no longer is a healthy outlet but a way of asking for attention and becoming dependent to it so you can not function in everyday life with out 500 of your closest strangers knowing your every emotion and telling you that you will be okay. This seem to increase the rate of insecurity and self-deprecation instead of helping those in need.
To this note are my posts on here just as bad? Am i helping getting things of of my mind or am i just begging for approval? I love hating people but i also love to be wanted; quite a difficult dichotomy if you ask me (or rather if i ask me, but that makes me sound more psychotic than usual). In a way that makes this semi-new form of media the perfect tool for me. I can whine and bitch when i feel like it, and get some sort of consolation from people that i am not friends with on a day to day basis. Would it be better for me in the long run to befriend the people that bore the living shit out of me here in Pomona so i can a more "personal" relationship with the people i am using as my ad hoc psychologist? I like to justify it being an acceptable outlet for my thoughts because unlike a twitter or status update i am not forcing it down everyone's throat, you can choose to click on my blog and read it if you wish and if you don't want to here me moan you can just move on. I realize that the last two paragraphs have been full of rather rhetorical questions, but feel free to answer and or give input to any of them if you so wish.
Well now it is rime for the embarrassing and then more embarrassing thing i have been up to. I blame a combination of the Hallmark holiday known as valentines and my own ineptitude for it, but a few months ago i decided to set up a free account on eharmony (insert incredibly embarrassed bright red face here) of course once they sucker you in the door it is only a matter of time before they give you an offer for three months at a cheaper price and about a month later i was a member. Crap i feel awkward just writing this, maybe i should have listened to my own advice above and not written about my feelings. Until very recently i was kind of dating someone in Oregon, and there is kind of someone in San Francisco, but i assume i felt that if i did this i might be able to find someone in LA. Some of it is probably that i haven't had a full on "girl friend" in years. I have dated people and for short periods of time when we were in the same locations had monogamist relationships but nothing that serious. I find that the attempt of finding someone at a club/concert etc. really isn't the most practical approach and usually just ends in something that doesn't last more than a week. Back to the part about that dreaded website i was talking about. So to add insult to energy once on it i haven't actually gotten a single response from anyone. I have tried there strange little or deal of asking the first question or waiting for someone else to ask me. Haven't gotten a single response. Though i still love me it starts to bring into some question of what the fuck is wrong with me as a person? Though it is rather narcissistic of me i make the general assumption that i am not ugly and can even go on to stay i am at least some what attractive. This leads me to the next logical conclusion that there must be a problem with my personality and how i put myself forward into the world. Maybe i shouldn't care because i have managed to date some people recently and not everyone is opposed to me, but even still it is a bit disheartening. This leads me back to last weekend when i was at The Standard Hollywood at a party in the Purple Lounge. Given clubs probably not the best places to meet people but i have done it before to some success and i generally go for either finding a quieter are where i can talk to someone with out screaming in their ear or going outside and smoking where you can talk. Regardless the point of the story is the only people that showed any interest was a girl who it turned out was more trolling for her gay friend then anything else. Well that and here gay friend. Don't get me wrong i have nothing against gay guys, but it starts getting annoying as hell when you are straight and the gay guys think you are gay. What the hell am i doing wrong? I can take it as one thing when straight people think i am gay, whatever, they don't understand how i dress and i am not all about watching sports games, big deal. I on the other hand know i am not what so ever interested in men. I didn't grow up in a conservative family that would make me want to convince myself that i am straight when i am not. Plain and simple i am only sexually attracted to girls. to continue with my tangents it goes so far as i actually don't feel comfortable around most guys i am meeting. In summation BLAHHHHHHH BLAHHHHHHHHHH BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

-oren

I return to this world after long stagnation and distraction. I don't mean to sound particularly self deprecating, but i interact so little on this site that my blogs are more a form of distraction and self help than anything else. If i don't go out and comment on all the people's blogs that i have become friends with for reasons that are fading from me i doubt i would get any comments at all. This is not a complainant but merely an excuse for way i do not need to keep it regularly updated because no one will feel particularly neglected or left out if i i go four months with out writing a single thing.
First for the fun parts about how i have hired a lawyer and 2 more have been hired on my behalf since last time i posted. Back in January i was walking my bicycle out of a bar (take not, not even riding and not going to drive home) when i was arrested for being drunk. I have problems with an establishment that is made for people to drink in that then precedes to have a posse of officers outside waiting to arrest people for drinking in that facility. I got to spend a lovely night in the county sheriff's jail, hired a lawyer, he will go to court a total of 3 times on my behalf and my night out will end up costing $2000, i will be charged with Disturbing the Peace instead of Public Intoxication and will loose my 4th amendment rights to needing a search warrant to search me for a year.
The story about the second two lawyers is much more amusing in my mind though. Over year ago i re-ended two women when they slammed on their brakes in front of me for no apparent reason. The damage to there beast of an 80ies 5 series was minimal, mostly do to the fact that i was only traveling at 10 mph. Neither my father or I who were both in the car sustained any injuries what so ever. on the other hand the couple that i ran into started screaming at me that "YOU BETTER HOPE YOU HAVE INSURANCE!" neither of them appeared injured but they waited until the ambulance arrived and got carried into it to leave. Now a year later they are suing me for emotional damages (for seeing each other injured) and loss of consortium (apparently this event led to their marriage failing). Did i mention one of them is claiming to be a man? I have a few hypotheses about the true story, most of them involving them intentionally cause the accident and either one of the people claiming damage wasn't in the car or the end of the marriage had a whole lot more to do with gender identities than anything else, but hey, i am y get to go to court for that one to! Who else can claim they are being sued for ending a marriage and emotional damage!

cigarette intermission, back shortly to continue writing, i suggest you the reader take one too!

In semi recent fun and jolly news I went to coachelle for a week (I know, its only supposed to be a three day music festival, but we had an exhibit in it that took for ever to set up so we showed up on Tuesday and didn’t leave until Monday). If you want to see pictures of strange glowing bots, sun burned people and other such mayhem known as our project http://www.flickr.com/groups/flockwall/.
Last summer I worked in an architecture firm in London and arguably had the time of my life. When summer was over I came back here and returned to slaving away at school. I had all intentions to going back there this summer, but then the shit really hit the fan in terms of the economy. They are still having to lay off staff as we speak so they really can’t justify hiring an intern. I was telling this recent series of events to a friend from London and she was asking me what I was going to do about it. I two thirds jokingly told her she had to find a job for me, next thing I now we are talking about how she wants a change of scenery, and I am joking around that we should get married and exchange citizenships, we talked about it enough that now I am not sure if it is a joke anymore. I real am going to laugh if it happens, but I think I have written enough for now.

Hope all of you are doing well, and a hug to you all regardless.

-oren

I keep a strange love hate relationship with the internet. I hate that it's what i go to when i am bored, or when i don't want to do assignment or, well, really sometimes for no discernible reason at all. I will spend countless hours trolling through mundane things like peoples file index's of thousands of random pictures that are referenced somewhere else into there sites. When it comes to sitting down and actually writing a blog, or leaving comments I some how feel guilty about it because it acts as proof that i really am out there on the internet and not doing something "better" with my life. Some how i feel completely safe if there is no paper trail. Its not out of embarrassment from others; I love getting comments and reading others works, I just personally feel that i am letting my self down. Part of it i suppose is where i am in my life right now. I'm not actually depressed, which is a rare thing for me, but i guess therapy and meds do work. I have though in someway become completely detached and bored with life. I am no longer sure of what i truly enjoy doing. In some manner this has lead me to to feel that every moment i am not doing something i like i should be attempting to learn what i appreciate. Some how even though this and other matters have lead to the lack of posting on here since the beginning of the academic year.
This entire quarter has blown by with out me caring about any of my classes or doing anything for them. I wish i had actually failed some or all of them, because then i at least would have to come to the conclusion that i can't just skate and something needs to change. By being completely mediocre and succeeding i feel that i am only encouraging this habit of mine. I felt that i cared about life and was having a jolly time in London this summer, but i am not sure how much of that is true or looking back on it it just seems better? There was also that small matter that i was drinking like a fish over there. I am not saying that is a good or a bad thing, just maybe not reality. It never really interfered with my job, and it seems like more or less the norm.
As i stit here writing this i also wonder who cares? Yes it is probably therapeutic to crank this out and forces some of these thoughts to pass more actively through my head, but should i really bother clicking the "add blog" button?
In other unrelated news, i am desperately trying to avoid someone who as she called it from the beginning was always going to be "just cusal sex", and then i got bored of it and she started caring, and i should really learn my lesson and not sleep with friends older sisters because that just makes way too much annoyance. She has semi legitimate reason's to come around were i am, some of the friends i am sharing a house with like her too so she has that excuse to be around also, gahhhhh. Why did i have to make this stupid move to start this crap one night when i was drunk, oh wait, i just said the fetal part right there.
I am back "home" (in the house that i grew up in) its quite a strange feeling. I haven't spent this much time (now a week) here in over a year and even though my parents are great and all, i really just don't want to be here anymore. I cant imagine how my sister and her now husband moved back in here after college. I can go out and not say where i am going and come back the next day and they mostly wont ask questions, but it is still somehow a strange big brother feeling.
To end on a better note, one of my closest friends recently went on meds. I don't care what others may think abut it being a cop out or whatever, god damn its good to see him functional again. Even if my definition of functional is a little bit skewed, he's definitely in a better place and back to being his good fun crazy semi alcoholic German self, and him not planning out his own death.

well that's all for now.

neor

p.s. i don't ever read over what i write in blogs so enjoy the idiosyncrasies

I have been lamenting in my return to southern California, so i will use that as my scapegoat as to why i have not written on here in so long. It was a hard transition from going to a place where i truly enjoyed my job, and had some of my closer friends around me to returning to an area where i am going to school that i am somewhat burnt out on and uninterested in. I will concede that i was living in a semi imaginary world while in London since i was spending more money than i was bringing in, but since that is all i do while in school it didn't seem all that foreign.
I have discovered that my age seems to be my own down fall. I have gotten into a bit of a habit of socializing with people who are older than me, this goes along fine and well and jolly and i enjoy the conversations, but unfortunately one of the questions that most people enjoy asking of people they don't know particularly well is there age. case in point; not this, but the previous Sunday i was over at my friend Matt's house for dinner. While over there i met a friend of his from grad school who was also over there. We eat drank and were marry and his friend (natalie) and i seemed to get along rather well. I ended up giving her a ride home and we exchanged numbers before she left. The following Saturday I called here because she was planning on going out to Hollywood with friends and had suggested i should come along. She seemed glad to have me call and one of her friends later after some consumption of alcohol made a comment along the lines about how excited she was to see me. I met her sister and old friends etc. We hang out all not, all things went well, kissed here good night and she told me to not wait to call her back. The following day (Sunday again) I went over to Matt's for dinner again and of course she was there we were glad to see eachother etc. Then the unfortanite conversation of how old someone else in group was (he acted around 17 but turned out to be 20) it cotinued around the circle and not being one to lie it came out that i was only 21. We continued to hang out for the rest of the night, went over to her house with friends, watched TV etc. Agreed that we were going to try and hang out that wednesday, she walks me out to my car etc. Wednseday (yesterday) roles around I call her, she doesn't pick up and she doesn't call back. Okey, so i figure she probably didn't get her work done, it would be nice if she had called back or texted, but what ever. Today i text her in the evening, an hour later get a text back about how busy she is with midterms etc. she is booked for the next two weeks, but maybe after that we can catch up. My conclusions, previously she seemed very interested in me the only thing that i can see that changed is here discovering that i am 3-5 years younger than her and her weighing the consequences of this. Did i also mention i like over analyzing everything? Well obviously i do. Maybe i am just being silly and should just take things slowly and everything will work out, and if it doesn't maybe i am better off. Damn she is intelligent, attractive, has similar political and lack of religious views as me, and she likes to go out and have a good time, when do I ever get that combination?
Enough of my girl drama, I am living off campus in a house with 4 other guys. Living off campus is wonderful, i've known all the people since my freshman year, but sharing a bathroom with two other guys and a kitchen with 4 others is a little bit rough. A fine compromise i would say though to getting to come home to people who actually care about how you are, but not in an annoying motherly way.
Damn this class i am sitting in isn't interesting. Oh well, i am getting boerd with my own writing so i will end now.

hope all is well!

why yes i do look wonderful mugging the camera in this picture. It was from one of the days out with my sister being a tourist. It was lovely, she hopped over the pound and visited me for a week. I finally had an excuse to go to see the touristy sights. The lovely gargoyles even made me appreciate the architecture, which if it had been in Rome or anywhere else i would have despised, but how can you say no to someone like this?



Well, at least i couldn't. I would have to say thought that the best part of going out and seeing the sites with her was going to the tate modern, it truly does have some amazing collections in it, or at least I think so. I am sad to say that as of today I only have three weeks left in europe. My current employer has said though that as long as i can get a visa again that i can have a job here next summer!

In other exciting for me news, I am going to Paris for the 11th-16th, I have the eurostart ticket and everything. I've never been before but i am sure it will be a blast and i can't wait to go. I feel bad being so blatantly American and not currently being able to say more than 4 words in French. I will pick up a French fraise book and probable torture my poor friend Elza in to trying to teach me a few things in French. I can't imagine that part ending well though since the only time i ever tried to make someone teach me any French it ended in them laugh at me and being frustrated at the same time.

When I go back to LA for Uni I have an interview with the same architecture firm i am working for now only there office in Colver City, so hopefully i will have a fun part time job to keep me busy and in nice clothes/ being able to afford flying back here next year.

Well thats all for now kids and cats.