startingfive

Short post. Must do hmwk.


This short was really well done. Pay attention to the transitions, they are what hold the story together within the 3 minutes. Props to the boys from
France. Also, the drawing style (especially the eyes! one's a circle, the other a dot) is simple and adorable.

"Tag team back again."

I need to get new rear tires apparently and at $80 a pop it's not going to be cheap coming home. Dang.

I am guessing as to what Kurt and the rest of the team has for me as my departure looms. I've narrowed it down to:
a) a blank post-it note
b) a dried up bottle of epoxy (withOUT the cap)
c) nothing

Yeah. Interns rule? I gotta go get the tires now. See ya.


CLAY-com tablet!

My boss suggested that I look at Fisher Price's "Little People" line of animals to adopt some characteristics for my project so I kidnapped a handful and brought them to my desk. I particularly liked this cute alligator -- so much so that I was wondering how funny it'd be if they said obscene things or placed in an unusual context. I'll post more as soon as I find more free time at work (or steal them from work).

So I've just spent the last three or four hours sitting on the porch of Dan's (John & Don's) place talking up a storm covering topics of politics, lifestyles, income, women (and men for Alisha's sake), the Sabres and among other things, woodchucks. It was fun and though I had planned on just stopping by for a minute, a beer or two later it became four hours of hanging out and yelling at passing cars. I say this, realizing that I will certainly miss this place if not for the job (cause right now it's been a huge headache), the ability to just dick around without much responsibility once 5 pm rolls around. I really will.

I come home soon. Happy June 1st! Coloringssssssss....

Life is good. I think. There are times where I feel completely lost and want to be a kid again. It didn't help watching a brother and sister, both toddlers, outside my office chase each other in the front lawn at work. It was too cute and innocent for words -- watching the scene made harder not to leave my desk and break into the vault antiquated toys of my past stored on display near the cafeteria and crash cars into each other; make sound effects that all sound like a vacuum or a jet engine; or deliver plastic mail.

Good thing there's good music to break the humdrum of adult life. Thanks Ramones and Of Montreal!

In other news, John made a sweet stove out of nothing but a beer can and denatured alcohol. In preparation for our overnight hike into the Adirondacks this weekend, John remembered that we cooked half of our dinner using the same guerilla-style stove that some dude we met at our campsite in the Alleghnies let us use (I didn't bring enough fuel for my stove. Whoops.) and decided to make a "penny" stove himself. Anywho. It's more than pouring a flammable liquid into a container, lighting it and watch it burn. It has six controlled jets of flame that shoot out of six wholes along the side. I mean, shit John was able to cook his dinner using the thing. It was rice. Made in his driveway.


I'm so tired.

PS. Toronto was sweet. I forgot to tell you I went. I drank too much chocolate milk and now I'm sleepy.



Cutting


Poking


Burning


Cooking


...Technologic. Technologic. (GOD WHAT AN AWFUL SONG)

Well last weekend was a doozy. The weekend deteriorated in the following manner:

Alisha wanted to go home for a previously arranged engagement --> Don decided he'd tag along for the ride --> Dan's girlfriend wasn't coming up for Memorial Day so he decided to go home as well --> John was going to visit Katie in Cleveland.

Which leaves little ol' me to sit on my ass for the weekend? Hellllllls no. In typical follower fashion, I joined the rest of the gang and while it was a pain in the ass to drive home, it was well worth it. I'd like to say I "planned the whole thing" to surprise everyone back home but truth be told it was simply a combination of sequenced events and me feeling a little homesick. I got home after visiting my relatives in Columbus, dropped by DAAP to catch up with the people in studio and then headed over to see Stefanie to which I was relieved to see she was happy to see me. She's probably already told the story but I found it humorous that when I told her to look out her window (in which she'd see me awkwardly standing outside two stories below), she ran downstairs without even putting on socks. And she didn't shower. She says she smelled too.

Anyways, it was a fun to catch up with Dave, Bri, Robert and Amalia. I was even happier to see that the new item are doing well (You know who I'm talking about). Enough's enough, it was a great weekend capped off with a trip to Woody's.

In other news. Got to see Ok Go in concert and they were terrific. They even played a few acoustic songs including "a million ways" in which they decided to leave the stage and play sitting on the bar. Best part? The dance as a part of the encore. Terrific, and I even got to hear a new band I kinda liked from MI called Tally Hall. Just imagine a bunch of nerdy guys with tucked-in collared shirts and ties. Well, I guess that's just like EVERY Weezer-wannabe band, but whatever. They were good.


DRRuuuummms



Tim is so cool, look at those chops! Alisha and I went to go see Ok Go not knowing it'd also be a great place to look at people's hair styles and get ideas to bring back to school in the summer.



Blaawwrrr...eating my microphone!






Ok Go with glockenspiel action!


Ready to dance. I'd post what I could get on video, but daapspace is being a bia and won't let me for some reason. It was great...

This will be quick. I had been blessed with a huge amount of productivity in the past 24 hours and I've been able to quickly get out a caricature of my good friend Clay (who at this moment is have a good time working for Fitch Designs in Columbus) as well as finish up the construction of my animal rockers at work. Anywho. Seeing how some enjoyed the sketches, I posted some more. Enjoy. I can't write any more, I'm tired from my run and I just had a ton of food. FOOD COMA!





Initial poses and sketches. These were all derived from a party in which Clay, for whatever reason, decided it would be cool to draw a fully rendered car on the wall. It took him like 15 minutes to do it, but no one noticed that he was working or defacing (call it what you will) someone's wall.



Selected the pose that I wanted, knowing that Clay would be looking over his shoulder and wearing his typical courderoy jacket with misfits pin (though you can't notice either characteristic in the final). It was here I worked out the proportion issues, namely that his head is huge and that his body was entirely too skinny, even for Clay.




First of many underlays. Touched up some things, added random Redbull cans on the ground cause he's as addicted as I am...


Here's the final. In general, it's not a great sketch, but I was surprised I was able to nail this within an hour.

Even though I find myself quite bored in the evening, my only weekday outlet being the endless supply of Netflix movies after work, I have actually been doing a lot. For one, Dan, John and I succesfully completed an two-day overnight stay in the Alleghenies. It was the first long hike I've been on since Red River Gorge in the late fall, and first mountain-range since the White Mountains the summer of my senior year of high school. This being my fourth over-night, I would have expected to have accumulated enough gear to be suited for the short trip. I ended up breaking roughly $250 on food, clothing and hardware -- my favorite being a Mountain Science Research 11-ounce white-gas stove...The thing is awesome. I wish I took a picture of it while I had it lit. Anyways, long story short we actually ran into a snag when the trail lead us to a road that we were not suppose to cross. Well, rather than backtracking the 2.5 miles that we had already covered and potentially get even more lost, we decided to hit the road back to the parking lot where we started and hit another trail head further along the map. I shoulda prefaced everything by saying that it is incredibly early in the hiking season and so the trails were in terrible condition. There was one point that, though we were on the correct course, we had to stop because we lost the next trail marker -- it had been on a tree that was knocked down and facing the ground and took us several minutes to find it. The views were only so-so, the climax being at the top of the hill looking into the Allegheny reservoir but the combination of trees that scoured the view and terrible trail conditions (branches everywhere) pooped it up. The camp was sweet tho. Oh! And we went to Letchworth State Park last weekend to see some more bodies of water. Dan posted photos in my facebook profile if you care to see. It's actually more rewarding than the overnight in the mountains.


In more recent fun, penguins and applesauce, I've finally completed two more caricatures of my friends. It's taken me a while, simply because I've been busy, but here they are. I've decided to show some of my process and for the most part, my initial sketches look pretty shitty. These were all over the course of like 3 or 4 weeks during lunch breaks, personal breaks, meetings and in between breaks. The following are just a handful of stupid sketches I drew when I happened to have a pencil in my hand and a lot of unfocused attention. They're mindless and rough as they're meant to be. They however, did come together real quickly at the end and I was satisfied (save one detail that I am going to have to correct) with the drawing. I hope to finish up sketches of the gang here at Fisher Price, Robert and sorta update the sketches of Dave and Steff so that they all fit some sort of family of form. The idea is that in the end I'll have a panoramic image of everyone and possibly colored too.


Anyways, blah:



Amalia's initial pose and look. I HATE FACES. THEY'RE SO HARD TO DO. Anyways, this was just a whimsical pose I had in my head at the time. Hair is my favorite part and so Amalia's was fun to do.


Brian and some figure I drew earlier that was so huge I decided to make him Batman. Sorry Brian, not the model for you. Your body-type was modeled after a Somalian refugee and/or Nigerian marathon runner, minus the greek nose.


Bri's face. None of them really look all that good, or even like Brian for that matter. I played around with facial features and expressions, not exactly sure how Brian'd be reacting to Amalia. I kinda ripped the basic face from some comic artist who did animated versions of Harry Potter. Brian was basically taken from Ron Weasley.

Now that you've seen my process and how utterly random/terrible it is, here's the much better final version.




Tada!

PS. The guy sitting next to me is a huge comic-book fan, so he brought in 3 reams (no joke) of sketches that he had collected over the years from comic artists from DC, Warner Brothers, Marvell and even Star Wars. They included different characters from Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, The Mummy and buncha others. Anyways, I was drawing pirates and found this guy to be humorous with its japanimation eyes and crap. This guy too. He's the Bucaneer. Don't mess.

Found some old random images and movies on my hard drive. I'll post more later.

This one made me laugh: Clay's going to kill me for this

The hit single for Yes' "Owner of a Lonley Heart" has many indications that it is a very sorrowful and deep song. Excluding the title, the Devo-esque guitar chords with not to mention the decent voice of its lead singer Jon Anderson has a wonderful intro. It unfortunately deteriorates into a high-pitched hum-drum of random techno sound effects (my favorite? the piano scaling that goes up and down an octave).

On another note, another Anderson, more popular and awesome in my eyes -- Wes Anderson just starred (and directed?) his own Amex ad.

You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spCknVcaSHg&feature=Views&page=1&t=t&f=b

THE. BEST. COMMERCIAL. EVER. I say that he directed this commercial simply because of the small tid-bits and trademarks he's incorporated in all of his movies. I shall list them below (correct me if I've missed any):

-Love for classical music and the retro (he starts his own music for the commercial by turning on a turn table as he gets out of the directors chair! how random is that)
-An eccentric wardrobe
-Long tracking shots, takes and overlapping storylines
-Repeat use of actors, ie. JASON SCHWARTZMAN (who I think is cool for showing up and doing this, even if it is just a commercial)
-Use of his own title in introducing main characters
-Dull, overcast lighting
-Dry and awkward humor ("Can I get my snack?" "You're eating it")
-Love for Asian culture ("Is that the Geisha?")
-Utter randomness: Imagine a movie with all the elements that he describes: birds, sports cars, helicopters, blackmail, horses, explosions, Geishas, 357 magnums. Hard huh?

The best summation all of these characteristics is put forth by Wes himself: "Can you do a 357 with a bayonet?"

Well, can you?

BOSTON II:

It's been over a week, so I forgot a lot of the details, so I'll spare you and get straight to the point. Having slept for a few hours I called my good friend Jerome and met up with him outside of Chestnut Hill.

We went to some burger joint having gotten thrown out of a bar when Jerome's fake failed him. Anyways, the coolest thing about the place is that they serve a burger called the "Godzilla." Needless to say, it was a large burger and anyone who can consume it got a polaroid of themselves taken in front of an authentic Godzilla movie poster and then hung in the restaurant. My favorite? Two Japanese guys of course running away from the poster.

That night, I surprised and met up with my other good buddy Chris at Harvard Square and he was kind enough to drop everything he had to take us around Cambridge and to a few parties. I was unaccustomed to the urban-urban style of partying. I say this cause it's different than at UC where you go over to ppl's appartments or houses, etc. but in Boston, the cost of living is so high that people usually stay all four years in the dorm. This poses a problem when there is no drinking permitted in the dorms. The student's solution? Formulate a faux "social club" and use the money granted by the school to buy beer and rent out a conference room -- convinently on the lobby floor of a dormitory. Man. The party was so blatant, I couldn't believe it and just chuckled to myself. Enough said, I took off early the next morning, but returned in the afternoon to meet up with Marc Luff (who I hadn't seen in a year) and Greg Van Lear (who I hadn't seen in 3 years) having been snuck into their dining room. I toured their school AGAIN, but was impressed nevertheless by the sheer history behind it. Their library is the second largest IN THE WORLD. Langsam's got nothing on that. Later, Greg and then Chris had to bail, leaving me and Marc to the nearby pub for a quick drink. Though it had been a long time having seen or heard from Marc, it only took a few minutes and a couple of beers to remind me why I was so fond of the guy: he's way too good a human being. We reminisced about school, talked about rowing and rediscovered how much we missed our high school days. Today it's all career and jobs and though a sobering experience (badum-sh!), fun.

SKIP to Boston Marathon. It was simply amazing and I saw so many people running I couldn't even cross the street cause there was simply no room. The race outside my Uncle's place was so large that the number of people running created a sound of feet hitting the pavement so loud that it could be heard from inside the house two blocks away. I was so impressed and astounded by the hell that these athletes and regular people put themselves through, I wondered if I too, could do it. I've just begun to enjoy running and though 4 mi 3 days a week is nothing in comparison to what some of these runners did, I am curious to see if I had what it takes to even finish it. It was great to see the anguish on a 70 year old's face as he was finishing mile 23 and yet minutes ahead of the rest of the main pack -- and the goofiness of a guy running juggling 3 balls or a guy dressed in a full chicken suit run 26.2 miles. The coolest thing? The entire street was PACKED with Bostonians cheering each runner on, even more so the foreigners who had traveled 1/2 way around the world. Oh yeah, another cool thing, two Korean runners posing with a drunk college guy dressed as Pippy-Long Stockings for a photo.

I wrote too much. I'll post more later.

Hibbijibbiadfl;asdf/....

It's only been seven days and yet a shit ton has happened. Granted, all good or atleast nothing disastrous but whatever, the weekend is almost here. Probably the biggest news of late is my recent trip to Boston that probably should have never happened. This is going to be a long story so I've decided to break it into two parts.

BOSTON: PART I
Needless to say I waited too long to get tickets and was expecting to either drive to Boston or head home with the rest of the FP gang. As luck were to have it, my relatives in Boston were nice enough to not only house me free of charge and feed me, they were even going to pay for my plane ticket. The catch was, I wouldn't know if I had a ticket until 7 hours before the plane flight I wanted to get on took off -- more than 14 hours AFTER everyone else from FP left for home. SO. Stay in East Aurora, take a gamble and see if I get a ticket OR play it safe and go home. I chose the former and all the interstellar moons must've aligned cause I got a ticket at 1 am and headed out only four hours later, and two hours of sleep.

I left that morning w/o remembering that my roommate had parked his car behind mine and feeling guilty of having to wake him up at 4 am to such a menial task, decided to take care of it myself. I basically reversed off-roaded into my front lawn and over the curb. Sounds easy but I had to dodge both the apple tree and my light post (which I nearly hit) -- all without being seen by the security guard who's post/shack/tower was only half a block from my house and in clear view. Regardless, started driving with only the knowledge provided by Mapquest on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 piece of paper having never been to the Buffalo Airport, in the dark even less. Well, as I was driving, expecting an easy 30 minute ride to the airport I found out my car was nearly empty and had remembered that she had been running on fumes for days -- again another victim to my laziness. Desperately trying to find a gas station, I was met with darkened station after darkened station until I luckily came across a Sonoco on some abandoned truck way. Guh. Crazy.

I get to the airport, park, do the security shuffle, plane it up -- one flight and hour inhaling the smelly to-be-running Boston Marathoner next to me, I arrived. Took the T for the first time all by myself to Washington Square along train C on the outbound Green Line. This probably means nothing to people who haven't lived with accessible public transit (a hUUGe mistake for society) including myself, but to make a point short -- I made it. My first move after conquering the urban jungle and making it to Brookline? Sleep of course. I only slept 2 hours cut me some slack. This is where I'll end cause I still stink from my run, fingers are sticky, haven't showered or ate, an insect just crawled into my keyboard and hasn't come out yet (i'll get him), and my parents are planning to call me which I hope to avoid by showering... Til then. Photos.


PHOTOS:


My relatives' cat Baby Sweetie. Don't be confused. She's old as shit. I couldn't resist shooting her on the back porch, the lighting (and the weather for that matter) was beautiful and she is, I'll admit, a beautiful cat. She got really really irritated though, as you could probably see if I posted the progression of photos I took of her. One of them she pawed at my camera cause I got too close and personal.


The supa sweet stairwell on the back porch. It's disorienting as hell, but I do love spiral staircases -- and fire poles.


My cousin Gia's products being released! She's a graphic/industrial designer for Cross Pens in Rhode Island and was kind enough to drop by and visit me. She took me on a short tour of Cambridge while she was there and wanted to take pictures of her new line (pens, leather cases, planners, journals, etc.) that she just finished. She ultimately is reponsible for helping me choose my career. She's too nice.


Her packaging that she designed. Me: "So packaging's hard?" Gia: [just stares...angrily stares...]


Gia.


Those are her pens!


This one is for Amalia. I met up with my two HS buddies and took me on a tour of their school. Some po-dunk lame community farm school named Haaa-vad or whatever they say in Boston. Anyways, this one, as a practical joke, is supposed to be designed after an old-school polaroid camera. This angle is as if the camera was seen from behind. Can you see the viewfinder?


Ok, case in point of Harvard's ridiculousness. This is their freshman lunch hall -- complete with busts, chandaliers and oh yeah, signed portraits of 15+ American presidents. Hogwarts has nothing on this, except maybe its transparent ceiling.


Chris and Marc took me to Harvard's prime make-out spot on the 13th floor of the Psych building. I said I would come here to appreciate the view, but I was cut off by the two shaking their heads and saying "No Ming. Just making out."


Marc Luff. I felt bad for him, hours earlier he had just lost a lightweight race against Dartmouth and so he was feeling pretty bummed as you can see. But it was ok, I bought him a few beers at a local pub and we both got insta-buzzed pretty quickly.


Ma feet. At the station. Waiting for the T.


Yeah. I punched a window cause the train took too long.


Mimes. Mines. Minh. ZOMBIES.


AHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHA [cough cough cough] AHAhhaahaa...


Ah. You Harvard kids you. Honestly I'd be more impressed if this was outside the med school or something, not outside their music conservatory. LAME.

Blah. I ate too many eggos too quickly and now I have a headache (they're medically related, my dad's a doctor so I'd know. duh.). Anyways, last night I had a good time with the FP gang hanging out. The past two weeks we had all been in our own respective shells, not really talking much, but reached a breakthrough this past weekend -- heading to Niagra Falls on Saturday and capping the end of the day with drinking and reminiscing on the past two quarters.

But yeah. I'll keep it short for today -- I pretty much summed up what we've done in comparison to last week. All I know is that I have grown to like a lot new artists that I've added to my iTunes library recently, namely: Talib Kweli, Spoon, Bedouin Soundclash and Tilly and the Wall. How could I have missed them? I downloaded John's entire collection of the Fruit Bats, so their debut will keep me busy in the office or atleast entertained.

I took something like 55 photos, but I can't post them all. Here ya go:



Dan's amazed by the sighting of a bulletin board w/Niagra facts -- more so because Canada's side had them litered every five feet when I visited it.


This one in particular (from the one above) shows a Christ like approach/discovery of the Falls. Ridiculous. Is there anything impressive from nature anymore that can't be Jesusfied?


Roar. Water.


A useful caution. I can't really think of any useless ones. Can you?


John's notorious pointing at something in the distance photo. I have to admit, we staged this one -- but refer to his Facebook picture if you don't know what I'm talking about.


The co-ops strike a pose sans Don (he had to go into work that day). In actuality we were all freezing -- I'm the only one showing any sign of being cold.

Yeah. Who said I wasn't tough? I spent a year in Wisconsin.


Falls pt 2. There were actually like 5 falls in all...but whatever. This one was larger.


GORGE. If I made this larger you could make out seagulls down there where all the white dots were. There were tons. I was surprised we got out of there w/o any poop on ourselves.


Ha. Yeah. Seagulls. Like this one. [Gob impression] Taddaaa....

First week of work is over!

And what can I say? I'm relieved it is and look forward to the weekend. Lucky for us, the reason we go in early at 8 rather than 9 is so that we get off from work at 1 on Fridays and in today's case I was glad. Why? Cause in the first bout of weather higher than 50 degrees in a LONG time was I able to go out for a run with just shorts and a t-shirt -- all before the rain hit. Awesome.

I'm hungry now, but Don and Dan and I are planning on finding a good place to eat. We've already hit a majority of the places around here, but who knows, we may go into Buffalo and see what's there to offer. John's gone already, he ditched town to go visit Katie in Cleveland for the weekend and as it turns out -- EVERYONE is definetely going back to Cincy and ditching me here in East Aurora during the four-day weekend on Easter break. So what am I to do? I really wanted to go to NYC if not Boston for the weekend and possibly even hike, but everyone's decided otherwise...Crap. My current options are: A) stay here B) go visit my buddy Jerome in Boston or C) go back to Cincy with the rest of the group. Opinions?

Guh. Anyways. Back to what I was saying. This past week has been nothing but sketching toy concepts for my boss -- who has to be one of the hardest people to get. The guy is nice enough I guess, but it sometimes seems like he doesn't really want to do much of anything with/for me. I dunna, my hope is it's really early and that he's been stuck in meetings all day so naturally it's been hard for him to get to know me. That aside, in the meantime he's had me sketch and I presented him with what I had.

It went terrific.

He liked my work and even more so, was excited about some of the stuff I had. It was particularly rewarding when he said he was impressed with what I had to offer, considering the first day of work he saw my portfolio and from what I could tell, was not that moved. I so desparetly want to improve in my drawing, I'm anxious to see how next week works out because, you guessed it, more sketching on the same toy and later on I'll be presenting it to the whole department. Craziness. Having gone through UC, I can see how the crits good or bad has helped me prepare and take criticism from other people I don't know. Though it was just one on one this crit was really really helpful, despite its brevity. Anyways, I gotta go. I'm STARVING.

I WISH I COULD SHOW YOU GUYS PICTURES OF THE COMPANY! IT'S SO FREAKIN' SWEET INSIDE. Just imagine yourself in the building in the movie Toys. See Robin Williams about it. In the meantime I'll do what I can from the outside and somehow try to get my internet cam up.


ps. more photos later.

can't talk. work tomorrow. picture. me w/a tall boy -- of AMP! (and for only 9 cents more than an 8 oz. what a steal).

SO LONG EVERYBODY! See you in 3 months and feel free to drop me a line whenever you want (...and it doesn't matter if it's after 9pm)



May the couch still sag and dishwasher still suck at cleaning dishes. I will miss these people the most (and Robert -- PUPPIES).

I gotta make this quick cause I gotta return my parking pass before getting fined...

Anywho, this is just a photo post! Dave and Amalia at the airport, Steff and JD in Columbus.

TUESDAY:

I will miss these people! At Sam's enjoying a brief minute to pose in front of the camera. Thanks sober Dan for the photo.


This is our woodshop supervisor completely fargone. He actually wanted to work in the shop but by this picture working with powertools is the last thing this man should do. His wooden pull toy/swing set was fantastic though. I usually do not condone drunkenedness but his effort needed to be rewarded. You can still see a Jimmy Johns sub still sitting in his hand.


Dan the man. I told this guy that I first saw him as an extremely shy guy. Normally I'd follow up that kind of a statement by saying the opposite -- that I learned that "he was a nice person and just took time to know." Nope. He's a shy guy, but we all love him for it and it helps that he has a hardcore West-side jawl...drawl? accent. whatever. Have fun at Bang Zoom you DEVUL Hwoomahn!


It doesn't take long for Tim to get along with people. A few drinks and hits makes it even easier.


THURSDAY:

Our first drop off was Amalia. I hope to see her this Spring Break for a roadtrip down to NC! I will miss having early morning orgy fests on our couch while eating chocolate icecream.


Dave ---> Texas. He normally sticks out his tongue IN EVERY PHOTO I HAVE WITH HIM and so it was pleasant to see me have a stupid-look on my face for once. I'm too boring in photos (or so Amalia says). BYYYE DAVE!



SUNDAY:

It's not that Steff and I haven't said goodbye to each other before a break. But this is how we typically do it in our awkward and silly fashion.


I had to finally subdue her in order to take me seriously. She of course is still laughing.


JD was crying! No he wasn't. But it looks like he was in this photo.


RANDOM:

This is what I look like when I'm busy working/playing video games. Though these are photos at different times, Robert noticed how I wasn't responding to anything or anyone so he took the opportunity to...


...wrap me in my scarf and take a picture. I will miss Robert.




But in reality, just for his big-screen TV.

Well, simply said, the Winter Quarter is finally over. I've just woken up from my bed only remembering bits and pieces from the night before. NO, I was not frat-tastically drunk, so don't get any ideas. I had instead fallen asleep in an uncomfortable position on the recliner with a pile of garbage that Robert (who is sitting half-naked in front of me eating a bowel of "Go Lean" and who just said "the thing I like about cereal is that's eating and drinking at the same time.") had drunkenly found at DAAP on his way home from whereever he was. So the point is...I got tired and could never get completely asleep -- all I remember is...Amalia telling me to go sleep in my bed to get a better rest, Clay puking in our bathroom, me leaping (somehow) completely over my gigantic bike rack in front of my bed without killing myself.

Hours before I had been sleeping soundly -- a byproduct of being up nearly five days with only roughly 10-15 hours of rest. Needless to say it was Hell Week and it started on the last Friday, so my weekend started off poorly. For my project I was to design a toy squid/monster that rotated its arms and moved its head up and down. Sadly, no matter how hard I tried to get head moving, my mechanics were quite limited by the material that my toy was made out of. Anyways I was satisified at the end, more so that I was done with school and co-op was starting only in a few weeks.

On a sad note, I had to say goodbye to some really great people that I got to know over the past six months in and out of studio. Even though I was disappointed to see Sam Moon, Brian Zivich, Tim Karoleff, Jen Hales, Claire Bottenhorn and Dave Niebert for the last time, I managed to have some fun with them. It's hard to say "I'll see you in 3 years," especially after beginning to know each person pretty well and appreciate them for who they are. It was even more poignant after each saying goodbye for the night that Jen gave me the longest hug. She's such an awesome person -- nice to everyone and too nice to such a bumbling idiot like me. All five of these people I deeply care about and have found myself relying on them constantly working the late nights in studio. It wasn't necessarily packed at the Yellow House but it was a fitting environment to reminisce about the last two quarters and so the more mellow atmosphere was appreciated. On the other hand, who am I to go grade parties? I never really imagined I'd like them, being the shy person that I am. I just use the opportunities at parties to catch up with friends and talk.

I just put on some Louis and Ella and I am instantly cheered up. Thanks you two. Anywho. I have co-op in just a few weeks! Money! Toys! Living out of state!...Buffalo, NY??? Um...err...

It's unfortunate that I probably will be relying on Toronto, a city not a part of my own country, to have the most fun while on co-op, but either way I'm anxious to get going. What will I be doing in the meantime? I plan on going to Columbus to help celebrate Steff's 21st and just today, considered thw possibility of going to NC to visit Amalia. Haven't spoken to her exactly about it, but I'll let you know if it develops into anything serious before we leave. Ah. FREEDOM! Pardon my ADD type rants, but I am so relieved it's over. Gah. I'm done. I wrote too much and this journal has turned sour and gone to ramble mode. Sorry. I'll write and post some more later.

...sigh.

I've just finished shooting the first part of a zombie movie written by Dave's professor Minh and have lost my breath running outside in the cold and throwing down bits of paper. I was only able to glance at the script and so I am a little lost as to what exactly is going on, but it was fun and that's all that matters.

This past weekend I celebrated my 21st and what else am I to do but celebrate it with my closest friends and family. Though my birthday was on a saturday, it was an all weekend event that didn't really stop until Monday. Just to recap:

-Friday: Wasn't really planning on doing much for that night cause my parents wanted to take me out for dinner -- they thought otherwise so I couldn't plan anything out beforehand. Anyways, Katie, John and the roommates came over and were joined by my good buddy Dave who drove all the way down from Ashland to visit. It was cool and he bought me my first drink at Uncle Woody's, a bar only a few blocks from my apartment. We reminisced about gradeschool like we always do after not having hung out with each other since the summer. After a few drinks past midnight we returned home and watched in a slightly drunken stupor The Toxic Avenger. Tim and Brian came over as well and helped out distributing the laughter that we all witnessed. It was a terrible movie but I guess I do have a soft spot in my normally critical heart for movies that replace content with intended horrible acting. This one was certainly one of them but we laughed our asses off especially having completed the virtual quiz on the DVD. After everyone left it was just me, amalia, bri and the cat (dave passed out on the couch and I think Robert was out making a BLD) rockin' out to some music late into the night. After late night snacking dancing and jumping on Robert's bed type action...we all passed out respectively.

-Saturday: Official birthday and...pretty much nothing happened until I called up with Mike Flynn, who I haven't seen since last year...Our reunion was slightly met with some depressing news that all my good friends from Dabney last year were not doing as well as I had remembered. All four of them, Berger, Flynn, Steve and Kevin were all in some sort of feud with one another -- one of the many unforeseen dangers of living with good friends. Well, correction. Apparently Steve and Flynn are the only ones who hang out. I've neither spoken or heard from Kevin and Berger's side of the story so I'm not sure what exactly is going on. I was saddened to hear it, but it was cool to meet up with them again. ANYWAYS. Went down to Main Street to hit up some bars -- happy to know that Flynn is still doing well and was happy to come drive us (he still doesn't drink) and just wanted to hang out with me on my birthday (how cool is that?). Unfortunately all the bars that night were 21 and up...DAMN for having younger friends or as Dave said, "basically how i felt last year during my 21st when no one came and NOTHING HAPPENED." We resorted to Jacobs and while I did have a good time -- was disappointed in the "all Madonna" theme night. I hate dancing in public areas for the most part but Julie was kind enough to drag me to the dance floor. I wouldn't consider what we did dancing, more like tackling/jumping/assaulting each other to a beat. Either way, it was fun.

-Sunday: HOMEWORK. OF MONTREAL CONCERT. HOMEWORK. Basically. I'm tired of typing cause i still have a lot of work to do. Anyways, the concert was phenomenal and though it took a TON of explaining to get everyone there (Southgate House's ticket system is f-ed up), I was glad I went over staying and doing work in the shop. Best part you ask? Definetely Of Montreal randomly breaking out Europe's "Final Countdown" before leading into one of my favorite songs. Overall it was fantastic and played virtually every song I enjoy of theirs on my iPod. Rockin'...

That's it. I'll figure out some stuff later...Here's some photos to enrich your lives.

Friday:

Amalia took this one. The lady was supposed to look anxious, surprised and shocked in this scene. This pretty much sums up the acting skill of every actor in Toxic Avenger...Over-exaggerated, over-emotional and poorly exectued. Awesome.


Tim and his wingman Brian. Or vice versa. Take your pick. The two of them were nice enough to drop by and also wish me a happy birthday at the stroke of midnight.


Tim looks ridiculous in John's hat. It doesn't help the fact that he was high or atleast drunk at the moment. Amalia is scared cause I think Dave was about to throw something at her.




Ok. I typically HATE stupid shots of people mechanically changing out who they're standing with. It's cliche and overdone...basically it's stupid and a staple of most Frat/Sorority bastards. But it was my birthday and I thought just this once would do.


This is Brian and one of the few that I will certainly miss after next co-op. The football player rapist is going to be on summer/winter co-op and I'll never get to see him 'til graduation.


I know she'd hate it if I told her, but Katie's my mom. Everytime I yell out some stress-related expletive in the studio she's always been there to calm me down. Usually never works, but I'm glad she does it.


My tall, Paul Bunyan-like roommate (minus the beard, axe, ox and real-life 10-story stature).


Dave. Crazy as hell. I stole his three-hole punch lately and haven't given it back.


CHEESE...bwaaaah. GIVE ME MORE HUGS. The drink. Duh.


If you can get this guy to laugh while drunk, it's awesome. He's so happy in this shot. More or less we're watching kids getting killed randomly during Troma's dvd quiz.


Saturday:







Julie and her milkshake. Word.


My (coffee) drinking partner and pigtails.


JUMP JUMP JUMP JUMP. PMUJ PMUJ PMUJ PMUJ PMUJ.


Tink! You are..[insert cute baby talk or if you're me, insert out of context death threat]



SUNDAY:

My only shot at the Of Montreal concert. I took photos but I can't find them anywhere on my computer...I'll post them later when I find them.

It's 9:43 am and I'm tired.

I don't exactly remember what happened last night, simply because I had planned on going to bed early and somehow fell asleep on Amalia's couch only to awake under Bri's authority. I think it was funny cause I remember mumbling absolute garbage to Bri and Amalia cause I was completely disoriented of where I was and who I was talking to.

Well, the past weekend was a fun one and I promised I'd post some pictures. Saturday everyone from UP and others went over to Sam's and saw Sweet Chin play some awesome songs from the 80s. It was really crowded in the basement but for the most part, everyone had a good time. Few things I remember:

-poorly executing that damn beer trick Steff showed me; dropped Clay's drink -- I blame him for holding it so loosely like a girl
-feeling bad for Amalia after she dropped and damaged her Polaroid camera (don't worry, she got a new one)
-everyone passing around my green hat; that whore


I had to thank Steff and Bri for again, stepping in and helping us drive all of us that night. It was only on the other side of campus, but it was near or below freezing so it was understandable.

Anyways, I feel sorta anxious about the weekend it being my 21st and the start of the final push towards my last project for this quarter. I'll see what goes down.

Sorry the images are so big. I resized them wrong -- I miss iPhoto.




Tim loves the hat


Clay loves the hat


Bri loves the hat


Dave loves the hat


Steff loves the hat





It was crowded.


Hair swishing

...or swooshing.


I think this is Sam's boss/rooommate. He's short! ...and dancing!