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Best Week Ever
Gizmodo
Brooklyn Vegan
You Ain't No Picasso
Music (For Robots)
videos.antville.org

unconfirmed, possibly the new matt good album cover art:


i wasn't sure from the seats and the view behind the window, but looking at the framed poster on his left and map on his right, that is definitely a new york city subway car.

in other news, as of the end of business hours today, my hard drive had left the FedEx sorting facility in Memphis, Tennessee, so it is well on its way.

i am filling in for Raina at the library tommorrow night. i'm trying to come up with good april fools pranks to pull at the library. so far, all i've got is sticking those spring snakes inside all of the DVD cases.

between projects, a quickie new song. a fun one, this time.
Organ Grinder (Monkey on the Drums) (easy, reliable, and better RSAD mp3 link)

if you can't be bothered to download it yet (you just want to hear it, especially at a lower bandwidth), you can hear it streaming on PureVolume

the whole world of comic book afficianados is getting ready for the release of Hellboy this weekend (early reviews i've heard are that it rivals X2 as far as kickass comicbook movies go, but with significantly less CGI, which is good)

moviepoopshoot.com ran this overview of Hellboy's cast and stroylines for people getting ready for the movie.
i'm happy because they scanned and included all of my favorite hellboy story ever, the two page "pancakes":





and while, having read the story, i know how serious it is, this selection of panels alone i find hilarious:



alright, that's all for now.

woohoo! sidenote: my first submission to threadless.com is finally up!

a little bit of good news. usps.com says my hard drive reached Hillsboro, OR yesterday at 12:43 pm, so all should be well with that.

everytime i approach the work for kendra's class i totally wig out and have a panic attack. i feel horrible while i work on it and i think i'll explode.

i think by friday i'll only have like two compositions to hand in and then walk away from all that. i canNOT do this right now.

you really do learn alot about life by going to college.
example, back home i always thought it was a common courtesy to turn off your music when you weren't in the room anymore. now that i'm at college and a bit wiser, i know that its perfectly alright to have godawful techno, metal, and rap spilling out of your room with the door wide open and the lights off for seven hours, maybe more.


i'm just happy knowing that in a little more than month i'll be back home where my sisters and father like to occasionally fill their sections of the house with music but it is not nearly as irritating as this...well...except sometimes coral's. and then next year we won't have this problem either. we mighthave problems making jesus jokes as brent is very much religious, but whatever, doesn't stop me from making gay jokes around steve or black jokes around jesse and melissa.

haha...wow...i joke a lot. cool, i'm funny. :D

songs of the weekend:
Minus the Bear: Monkey! Knife! Fight!
Unicorns: Inoculate the Innocuous
Against Me!: I Still Love You Julie
American Analogue Set: The Postman
Sigur Rós: Di Do

the news media has finally learned what people have been saying for years, digital photography is more popular that film
and with all that jazzamataz they're talking about to make digital camera's better, i don't care, what i need before i trade in my camera is optical zoom and shutter speed. i know some of the mid-range ones offer aperture settings and minimal optical zoom and that some digital cameras do minimal shutter speed stuff, i don't care, i need shutter speed and optical zoom. everything else i can do in photoshop. adjust the clarity with a blur as i would with aperture (though aperture settings are still a major plus), multiple exposure i can do by just layering multiple shots on the computer. i cannot simulate optical zoom and shutter speed which are two of my favorite things to use.
for the most part, i don't give much of a damn about megapixels. only if i were to do a huge poster or something of the sort would i need more megapixels than a standard model now. i don't need it to print the photos for me or be my organizer or mp3 jukebox or anything. though small is cool. i like candid shots which are hard to pull off when people know you've got a camera.

woah...read this...weird and cool and sad and...woah

for anyone interested, Tim Deforest, my boss at the library, recently wrote a book about comics and the like affecting american culture
it comes out in september, but there's the link to it on amazon.com

and here's the link to the book on the publisher's website

cover:

can you master the Donald Rumsfeld Fighting Technique???


things are stressy and i'm doing my best not to explode. this week i have two tests and two big projects due. madness. i sent out my hard drive on friday. all goes well, i should have it back by this upcoming weekend, not that that will help me with my current projects.
i started from scratch on those, doing all my work on a zip disk, which is like five-thousand times slower than my hard drive and has 1/1200th the capacity. when i pick classes next week, i think i'll pick by the teacher. number one pick is elam because we do interesting things and not at an erratic pace. number two is bleitz because we do fun things at a pace that isn't always deadly. number three is polschek because we do really interesting things but i can't keep up the way i'd like. number four is uttermolen because i've heard terrible things about him. anybody else will probably be somewhere around three, i don't know. i want to do great stuff, but i don't want to burn out.

five weeks of class left. this is insano. where did sophomore year go? i'm gonna blink and i'll be a graduate with my BFA and a ton of student loans and no idea what i'm doing and i'm going to beg craig yoe for a job in his studio and he's going to totally blow me off and everything will be sucky.


i desperately need lunch. away i go.

My email to kendra explaining my current situation

"After class on tuesday, my external hard drive stopped functioning with my computer. ?I tried
everything the tech support page on LaCie's webpage instructed to no avail. after calling tech
support a couple of times and trying the hard drive on as many other computers as i could, i
determined that there is some sort of problem with the hard drive's bridge and am sending it to
LaCie's tech support in Oregon. ?I should have it back and fully functional by the end of next week.
bad news here is that all of my files from this semester are on that drive and are inaccessable. ?i do
have a copy of my icon on my computer to work with, but all of the studies and images i've worked
on so far are temporarily unavailable to me. i'm basically going to have to start from scratch until i
get the repaired hard drive back.
I realize this sounds like an updated 'my dog ate my homework' but its true and i'm doing the best i
can think of to rectify the situation."

regarding my hard drive, i have news followed by both good and bad news.

i finally got down to the lab as there are no classes nor am i working at the library at this hour and none of the computers i tried recognized the hard drive either.

good news: this means the problem is most likely the drive and not my computer and i still have free tech support on the hard drive so i shouldn't have to pay much to have it fixed.

bad news: this means all my homework is completely inaccessable at least until next week...which is a very bad thing.




side note: i just replaced the toilet paper yesterday morning, how is it that i just did it again? and how is it that i picked up three empty toilet paper rolls off of the ground in the bathroom as i did that? what happens to all that paper???

i'm in an odd state of fluxuating between immensly angry-scared-worried to relaxed and easy-going
mode B is mostly coming because i'm forcing myself out of mode A and mode B is the only thing i can think of. i quickly and angrily popped America's Sweethearts (only $5 at walmart) into the DVD player and watched that while i had a bowl of asparagus filled totelloni and some cola. after a few minutes i was tremendously relaxed and having a great time all the way through the movie, but the moment i took the disc out i felt an overbearing ill-willed force over my shoulders and got very angry and sad at the same time.

part of me is mad because i paid alot of money (not really alot, but in comparison to the money i have its alot) to make sure i had stuff that worked and now it doesn't. part of me is scared of what will happen with my classes and teachers if i am unable to quickly rectify the situation and work on my classwork. and part of me is just anxious because i had sketched out all these ideas for stickers, t-shirts, patches and a bunch of other fun stuff to make when i have the time but all the digital files i was going to use are on there. additionally, all the work i had done on arden's webpage is in a folder on that hard drive and i can't upload it until i get a computer to read the drive.

if the drive still works on the lab computers i can pull some late lab hours and throw some work together for kendra's class (i'll be forced to BS my way through design with type tommorrow morning no matter what, i don't have the time to deal with that right now)

so yeah, america's sweethearts makes me happy. the salteens' "damn you" makes me happy. bright eyes' "haleigh haleigh, a lie, haleigh" seems to be keeping me upbeat tonight.
that and these sketches i have for stickers and t-shirts. i happen to think a couple of them are great and i would love to get them online just as a distraction from all this chaos. the work has been like nonstop. i'm getting more sleep right now than i did this time last semester, but i don't feel like it in the morning.

i am UNBEARABLY pissed off right now.
after following lacie.com's advice for a day and a half to no avail at making my hard drive work on my computer, i called technical support today. i was on hold for seven minutes and they have really annoying music. grrrr.
the woman on the other end decided that either my hard drive needs repair or my computer does. i will attach the hard drive to another computer to find out which. if it doesn't show up again, lacie tell me where to get my hard drive fixed. if it does, i need to find someone to fix my mac. either way, this REALLY FUCKING SUCKS!!!

all my files for my classes all semester are on there. i can't do any of my projects because i need my old files to make new ones.


this sucks sooooooooooooooooo much. i hate having stuff i paid lots of money for not work.

this, and the insulting postcard i got from my mom today. yes, i get the message, nice gesture, but i'm KIND OF FUCKING BUSY RIGHT NOW, so i'm sorry i don't write you guys letters, i've got ALOT ON MY MIND.

HEY, PARTY PEOPLE!!!

all the cool kids LOVE threadless.com's unique t-shirts. many a person has been caught admiring the two i've got so far (jesus and future)
i'm gonna submit some designs real soon using the icons i've made in graphic design classes this year, but there's a sale right now, select shirts only $10!!! a couple of ones i like in that batch, too.
but here's why i'm posting. if you haven't yet, i reccomend that all you cool folks click right here to check out threadless.com
i get credit (read: money and/or swag) for anyone who clicks that link and makes a purchase of any kind. i wouldn't do this if i didn't honestly believe that most of you would love these shirts and the prices weren't prefectly reasonable.

so yeah...cool. i'll post more when i've got designs up there.

i downloaded american analog set's Know By Heart last week andi'm really digging it. especially "the postman":

I watch the sun come up while you're sleeping it off
When you go out for your news and curse your smoker's cough
I bring you bills to pay
And letters from the state
Then you go inside and I walk away
I'm the postman

And I walk you street for hours like some kind of jerk
With my grey clip tie and my pressed blue shirt
And when you leave for work
I think you're turning to flirt
But you're turning away and it always hurts
I'm the Postman

I know why you stare East, it's where your man's run off
And I know why your trash bin is brimming with his art
'Cause when he was abroad
I read his last postcard
He met some brit named Cass and it broke your heart
I'm the postman


lots of graphic designing as of late. my computer likes to not recognize my firewire hard drive after i bring it to class with me, which sucks. it works again if i leave it unplugged on top of my computer for like four hours and then plug it in again, but that's time wasted.

i forgot to post this yesterday:



the internet dislikes me. people on macjams seem to generally hate me overall and the people on gingerbox seem sick of my presense...but i'm probably just projecting here.

back to homework. we pick our room for next year tomorrow after class, and on wednesday i get to pick the time i will pick my schedule for the fall. the year has just flown by.

the clash's classic hit "london calling" follows sloan's "losing california" on my mp3 playlist perfectly. when they transitioned i stopped working and went "damn, that was a good change..." they sound like they belong together.

when i sketch, i have to keep in mind that i am not a professional illustrator and that i do this to experiment and release ideas. the past week, whenever i've tried sketching anything, the proportions mess up somewhere and i erase the whole thing. today, at the library, i decided to just let go and sketch, so i did a quick out-of-whack sketch of just some dude and very quickly before i let myself correct it i went over it with marker. now i like it very much. further prooving my theory from the summer than brush pens make any drawing better.
i left my travel sketchbook at home since i couldn't find new pads of sketch paper for it. i forgot, however, that i had a couple of nice sketches in there i wanted to upload, in particular i remember one of brian and one of laurin kurtz. ah well.

aaron requested that i find some of my high school sketchbooks and scan a few of those pages and upload them as well, in particular the one of wolverine, spider-man, and leonardo i had been doodling when i met him. i remember finishing inking that while i was at dave's house one night. if memory serves, its pretty lousy, but whatever. i know i want to scan that monkeywrench monster i drew in 8th grade if i can find it. it should be terrible, but the last time i saw that sketch pad it made me laugh a little.

i swear, i do start happy upbeat energetic songs, i just never finish them.
so here's yet another slow sad one i came up with while doing graphic design work tonight:
The Disease.

yeah, i wasn't really sure which train station that was. i knew it wasn't rockville center or jamaica, though the stairs were similar to jamaica, but not really. that was montauk, though. it just made me happy seeing the trains the way they really are. like they didn't build a car just the way they wanted it for the movie and have them sit in that, they actually wanted the real LIRR cars, and it made me a little homesick which was beautiful.
but i'm trying to forget all the stuff about long island, because that's not what i loved about the movie, its just what made me smile on the inside. everything was wonderful.

i loved the last scene in barnes and noble (his second meeting with clementine) where all the books were backwards. that was really creative, along with earlier in the memory after the car hits the fire hydrant how the words on the signs started disappearing. i liked that because it nodded towards the fact that though these are memories being played, they still are existing in a dream state and since dreams are produced by the left side of the brain and text is comprehended on the right, text never comes out right in dreams. i've had dreams where i thought i read something but it turned out that it was just something i had remembered reading and transposed over the wrong symbols.
my favorite cinematic effect had to be him running out of barnes and noble the first time in the movie with all the lights turning out and running right into the living room. i heard the old women behind me get really confused when they saw that.

derrick: wow
laurie: mm?
derrick: that was a fan-fucking-tastic film
laurie: ooh really?
derrick: honestly, there was like nothing about it that i didn't love
laurie: i was thinking of seeing it alone tomorrow night
derrick: do it
derrick: see this film
derrick: i couldn't help smiling the first fifteen minutes because the movie is so totally long island
laurie: okie
derrick: they even shot on location
laurie: yum.
derrick: it takes place in rockville center
derrick: which is like fifteen minutes from my home
derrick: they show on actual long island railroad trains and everything
derrick: i love those trains
derrick: those scenes made me happy like i was home
derrick: and michel gondry is just plain brillian
derrick: t
laurie: aww. yes.
derrick: and charlie kaufman can write awkward neuroticism better than anybody ever
derrick: it feels like my life
derrick: only more picture-esque
laurie: major deja vu.
derrick: absolutely
laurie: someone said that about kaufman before..... was that you.....?
laurie: meh.
derrick: i don't know
derrick: can't remember
derrick: maybe
laurie: nor i
derrick: now i need to see human nature, just to see how bad it was



seriously, everyone go see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
i think i'm gonna try to wait a few days before declaring it my favorite movie ever.

Wow...that's a damn good doctor, but i think i'd prefer if he used adjectives other than "well."

tonight, we go see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (i *heart* michel gondry)
tommorrow is the neXtpedition conference where i learn what it's like to be a real graphic designer in new york city
the rest of the weekend is devoted to graphic design homework and slizzneep.

helvetica rules, but i actually prefer helvetica neue. helvetica neue is like the most versatile font in the world (quick fact from the graphic designer: of all the widely accepted fonts in the business world, helvetica has the heighest x-height! garamond has the smallest.)
last year i saw a really cute t-shirt (i think...maybe it was a book cover) that was all read, except for the light (not sure if it was pink or white) "helvetica" written in helvetica in the center, and i think a few sheep walking along near the bottom.
it was beautiful.

on the real world over the summer there was a girl with a powder blue shirt that said "times new roman" in times new roman and it was ugly as all freaking hell. no one should ever wear times new roman. no one on mtv should be allowed to wear serif-fonts.

and with that, i am away to graphic design class. my head will soon be exploding, but tonight we're seeing eternal sunshine so all will be well.

for real, my finished image matrix for the scotch tape icon:


the real one is printed on a manilla envelope.


aside from finishing this today and going to class, i also went to walgreens to get a new cheap watch. i got one of those super-gay tiny-ass lanyard watches designed for seven-year-old girls. it makes me smile. i'll take a picture sometime.

oh, hoh-ho, yes...

celebrities' favorite swear words
further proof why i love the cast of the west wing, four of the show's mainstays are in that video and they all give highly enjoyable performances.

you know its time to go to bed when you've been doing nothing but listening to mp3s and graphic designing for hours and you are physically ill.

i feel terrible right now physically. mentally i feel good, especially about this resolved matrix i'm half-done with...but that's what i said about my last three failed revisions.

i'm totally loving these Quentin songs, especially "Summer's Gone"

and i think i finally came up with a great name for when heather and i (and maybe anna and anyone else who wants to help) form our "band" assuming it becomes more than just guests on (sans)krit tracks.
we should be "hi!"
its great. its a positive, upbeat name with a clean friendly image. it suits our personalities well, and as an added bonus, we get to say thing's like "we're 'hi!'"

hello, everyone, thank you for soming our tonight. we are 'hi!' no, really, we're 'hi!'

very, very cool, mia. he sounds shway. (i don't really know how that's supposed to be spelt. i always assumed something like chwes but that looks too much like chews)

i was bored at work so i read every blog entry since september and realized that we haven't really complained about tom as much as i thought we had. its amusing to me how much we ramble and the fact that this blog has been a pretty accurate mish-mash of at least my mind so far this year. i dig it.


and now, the graphic designing and the sleeping followed by a lot more graphic designing.

we're going to see eternal sunshine of the spotless mind friday night. it will be spectacular.

well, despite the fact that i have clearly won the kissing chaos fanart draw-off with four votes against two votes (one of the votes for the other guy was from me, by the way), ADC decided that since it was so close he'll send each of us a sketch. whatever.

about a half-hour ago, the unicorns' "jellybones" was officially kicked out of my head by quentin's "far away by nine" and i realized that i only had two quentin songs because they were on mp3.com, which is now defunct.

however, i have now found Quentin's page on New Music Canada featuring nine streaming tracks, including the two i already have (the other being "big man")
i will be ripping those other seven songs with WireTap as soon as i get back to my apartment.

by the way, go to The Unicorns' web page
i think they have a few streaming tracks hiding around there. its pretty hard to navigate that site, but its still fun.

i swear my musical taste is insano right now.

yesterday i was totally into kanye west. last night i was all about belle and sebastian. this morning i couldn't get enough mirah, and right now i'm rocking to nothing more than the unicorns.

i almost fell asleep in both of my classes today. and i'm insanely stressed out about finishing my work for kendra by friday morning.

madness.

awwwww!

two days ago, Mal and Hope got married!

while i know they will never read this, congrats to them! i hope they are happy together forever and ever.

i want this. (second object down)
TMBG's new EP, Indestructable Object, along with a limited edition Indestructable Object t-shirt and the Gigantic DVD, all for 34 bucks.

additionally, the new full-length TMBG album is due out this summer, and you can check out this Strong Bad E-Mail with music by TMBG (at least, the MP3 you can download at the end does)

sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

additionally, rachel's deadjournal has been attacked for a few days by an "angry canadian"
today i straightened the score with him/her/it and they seem to like me, which amuses the hell out of rachel and stephanie.

and i'm sorry but i find it highly unlikely that canada could have better bagels or pizza than new york. i can't imagine a bagel or pizza being any better than the stuff i've got back home. while i'm a huge fan of Max Bialistock and Gino's Pizzaria back in long beach, its the stuff in Penn Station that really kills me.

as of right now, my angela drawing (see below) is tied for first place in the kissing chaos fanart dealie. i wouldn't really call it a competition, since it's just fun. the winner gets arthur dela cruz's sketch, though. it's a nice one. the head's a good bit out of proportion, but the rest of it is really quality.
i'm tied with the one i voted for, which looks like it was done in sumi-e. you can check his out here.


we're working in inDesign in my type class now, which is good as i will finally learn to use the program i was lost in last semester.

back in class. break's over. first day of the fourth quarter, crunch time.
it is raining and yucky outside. one of those days i really love to spend curled up on the couch with a warm beverage, but i'm at school so i'm at class.

i like it at home when i can curl up on the couch with a warm beverage.

i had a hard time falling asleep last night. i lay in bed for at least an hour perturbed by that chee-tos commercial. its been on at least a year now and it always bugs me and stays in my mind for a day or two each time i see it. its that one where the dude is sculpting a giant penguin out of ice and chester cheetah comes along, eats some flamin' hot chee-tos and melts the penguin and the ice under it by breathing fire.
i kind of dislike the kids who eat the chee-tos because they look at the giant penguin and go "that's art? that's not art. that's bogus." which is derogitory and closeminded and i hate them so much.
but i also dislike the artist guy because first off i don't see the appeal of a giant ice penguin. more than that, i don't see the point, i don't see the message, i don't see the aim, its just stupid. additionally, he's an asshole. when the newswoman calls him an ice sculptor, he interrupts her, cocks his head with the glowing of a thousand glowing rats, taps his fingertips to his chest and proclaims "excuse me, ice ARTIST."

yeah, i can see how its not art and it is in fact bogus, but the look on the kids faces when they say that and all...i hate them all. there's no one worthwhile in that commercial. its like a taco bell ad only more aggravating.

a couple of quick fixes. i added links to the actual mp3s of my stupid little ditties on the front page for those who missed them on purevolume. i also added one of my favorite drawings from the summer which had somehow gotten lost in the shuffle of the new illustration page.

i got this comment on MacJams.com on March of the 8-Bit Soldiers:

"this would be great sound track music for a documentary about how times have changed from the advent of widespread computer use to today when the youth of today are mired in a deeper techie-cyber world of simulated bloodless battles, edgy negativity, semi-mean spirited music, etc. And yet somehow it is all legitimized

as I tell my teen age kids when they turn up the car radio: 'your brains are wired to understand all that garbled white noise... it's what's in your head so it makes sense'

anyway... you did it and that is a good thing (good luck martha stewart!)-----You haven't lived til you been to Clarksdale"




um...what does that mean? i think i should be offended, but seriously, it doesn't make sense. its not that its over my head, its just that two plus two does not equal fish.

yet another new layout

rest assured, plenty will be added, but i wanted it to be simpler for just a little while. a few more pics on the illustration page, including the three sketches i picked up at MegaCon last week.

oh my god, how can this be? two songs in two days? yes! it's A Terrible Song

today was my father's birthday and i am an ass for forgetting. spring break hurts my head. i don't know what it is but you just completely forget everything and sleep alot.

Flee in terror!!!
March of the 8-Bit Soldiers


absolutely no samples, pre-recorded loops or anything like that. entirely my own original recording. booyah!

i'd prefer, though, if you'd listen to it via PureVolume as i am vain and like to see the hits total go up.

there are now four songs up. you can listen to the three most recent streaming, and you can download mp3s of the three i did by myself.
just a reminder, all the songs i've uploaded so far have had a number in the title.

because everyone who doesn't like the dears has a better chance of seeing them live than i do, they are also playing hoboken on the 24th, washington dc on the 25th, brooklyn on the 27th, and cambridge the 29th (i already mentioned NYC on the 28th)



i want to see the dears.

on the plus side, they're releasing No Cities Left in the U.S. soon, so maybe they'll tour more to promote it.

then again, matt good released Beautiful Midnight in the U.S. with absolute failure and has never performed south of the 49th parallel since.

best

cereal

ever

right now, i'm TOTALLY enjoying the hell out of "march of the 8-bit soldiers"
this is what i wanted. this was my plan for spring break. do stuff for myself that makes me happy and this is it. it may suck in the morning but right now i'm totally enjoying all of it sooooooooooooooo much.

oh yeah, my watchstrap broke for the fifth time today while i was at the library, so i'm just gonna get a new one.

well played, brian.

well, spring break's almost over and i don't feel like i've done...well...anything.

everyday i start like three songs and never finish them because i lose the feel of the initial recording. i've been sketching, and better than i have for a while, but still nothing noteworthy. any graphic design work i've tried has just become bogged down in internal turmoil (localized entirely inside my head...no fun)

worked at the library again today. manned the front desk entirely by myself for a few hours again, in addition to shelving two carts of books and one of dvds and answering the phone a lot.


i took a break from "explosions," the cool moody song i was working on a couple days ago because i just can't feel it right now.
today i've done a good bit of work on a new one which i hope to finish, temporarily called "march of the 8-bit soldiers". i think it'll be instrumental. vocals would ruin it.

april 2nd, Stars (my favorite band of the day) will be playing two shows at Joe's Pub in NYC. one at 7:30 and one at 9:30.
i love their album so much right now. they're good friends of the dears and they're opening for them on the current tour, but for some reason neither is playing together at either's new york shows.

whatever, go see either or both because they're both beautiful and neither is coming to florida ever.

by the way, Stars are playing iron horse in northampton, ma, on april first. thought that was worthy of note.

so i came into the library around 11:45 to do a little shelving. sean was getting ready to leave at noon when joyce was supposed to come in. about two minutes later i get a call from joyce saying that her doctors have her bed-ridden for a few days.
naturally, this complicates things.

so there are four carts full of books to be put away and i'm the sole person working circulation right now. occasionally someone working in the back offices might man the desk for twenty minutes so i can shelf a cart or two, but mostly its just me here occupying time.

and apparently there was a town hall function of some sort and all these old guys keep coming in to the library looking for information about next year's programming, which i know nothing about and the people in the back offices say won't have any information until the summer, which perturbs all of these old guys.


mawa.

self portrait, spring break 2004

i'm working on a couple of really stupid songs, but i kind of like them.

i need sleep more.

and i seem to be ingesting tums alot lately. not sure i feel well. oh well.

i love MoCCA so much. within a few hours of my sending ken and lawrence an email all about megacon, i received friendly emails from both of them thanking me.

i'm all too happy to whore myself out for MoCCA given the chance. i think its a wonderful cause and its just plain fun. plus, it gives me a reason to go up to people like david mack and phil noto who i think are just plain awesome and talk to them like a man. i go in there with the mission of promoting MoCCA (and being the trained salesman i am, i'm pretty good at it) and by the time i'm done with that, i'm comfortable talking and they're more comfortable with me.

all this...i just can't imagine being at all like this or doing any of the things i'm doing today if it weren't for my parents dragging me to the philly folk fest for all those years when i didn't really do it for any reason other than they dragged me. i learned work ethic, i learned social skills and professional humor, i learned how to deal with crowds, its just good fun. i've had some bad times there and there have been points where i didn't want to go back, but its a part of me i will never be able to deny.
and MoCCA really continued that. it was slightly more professional (in that, you know, we're indoors usually and polite) and specialized. it was different and challenging at first, but by the end of the summer i was interning with MoCCA i really got in the groove of it all and felt like i was really doing something, i was really making a difference, and i was really having a damn good time doing it. and i'm sorry i keep hyping MoCCA and PFF everywhere i go, but they're a part of me and they're where i learned everything i use in the real world. privately i use all the seemingly trivial knowledge that my friends and family like to wax philosophically with, but its the skills i picked up at MoCCA and the philly folk fest that will help me when it comes to important job interviews and business meetings in the future.

and i don't see myself stopping volunteering for either very soon...well, MoCCA at least...i don't feel like i'm actually doing anything at the folk fest anymore other than being in the way.


the reason i'm writing this is that the email i got from lawrence, president and founder of MoCCA, said "You are the man. I can't wait for you to come up and see the new digs."

i honestly feel special.

back from megacon. had a good time overall. we got lost on I4 a few times. the stress of that and the humidity of orlando combined to help my face break out a little bit...grrrr... and it took us over two hours to find our hotel because everyone gave us bad directions and the hotel was hiding behind a denny's.
conclusions, i hate florida and i really hate orlando and i really, really, really hate people who dress up stupid for conventions and stand in small groups in intersections to stop for photographs or just to gawk at each other.

still, not a bad time. met, shook hands, talked and exchanged information with the likes of phil noto, terry dodson, david mack, and angel medina, in addition to saying hi to friends of MoCCA like walt simonson, jimmy palmiotti, amanda conner, and the fine folks at top shelf.
i got some really nice sketches from andy runton at the top shelf table (who will be coming this year, hopefully with a brand-new Owly book, owly is so cute!), jimmy palmiotti, and angel medina.
didn't buy much. i got james kochalka superstar's "monkey versus robot" cd because i didn't have it yet and i love "hockey monkey", and i got Punchdrunk Love, Stand and Deliver, and Pump Up the Volume on DVD.
that's all.


and i've totally had Songs: Ohia's The Lioness stuck in my head all week. i love that song.

ok, that's all.

somehow i managed to completely revamp my icon matrix today and came up with a nice looking "final" with time to spare.

tommorrow, after class, we're heading out to MegaCon in orlando.
i'm feeling iffy on the whole thing.
the people i was most looking forward to seeing have all cancelled. there are still a good handful of artists i want to talk to, but i'm kind of going in cold here.

i've been out of the scene for a good while, lawrence and ken never replied to my email about what if anything they wanted me to discuss with people. granted, they've been busy, amazingly so, so i don't blame them at all.
i've got plenty of MoCCA brochures, but since the move to SoHo, they're out of date.
and this is a realy big convention with really geeky geeks. its like capitalism and cosplay having brightly colored intercourse, and indy intellectuals like myself get lost in the shuffle.
the orlando convention center looks huge and i'm worried about losing max and brian and never being able to leave. granted, last big con i was at was in madison square garden and i had little trouble finding people i had lost, but still, this is a very large space i'm completely unfamiliar with, and the thousands of geeks in brightly colored costumes frighten me.

i miss MoCCA where you've got average or even good-looking people wearing nice shirts which sometimes have clever messages and like to have discussions that don't relate to superheros.

now, you all know i can go on and on about superheros and have for long rambles before (i with matt read this, he and i have had some absurdly long and complicated superhero conversations) but a study last year actually showed that the art fest crowd has an average IQ something like ten points higher than any other comic book convention in the US, and has at least 30% more women.

i wonder if either of those has to do with the noticeable lack of stupid costumes.



i guess i'm just nervous and edgy. i don't know if its the critique in the morning that's got me on edge or the con. i'm refilling my sketchbook tonight and bringing it along with markers, a notebook, MoCCA brochures, my camera, and a couple of MoCCA t-shirts to wear.


ugh...this is such a bad idea.


i'll be back saturday evening. have a good couple days, everyone.

i kid you not, Fight Club: the Video Game



this is the biggest travesty i've seen all day.

first off, NO SHOES!!!
second, those graphics are weak considering the platforms its supposed to be on.
third, life bars? doesn't that defeat the point of a fight club? you should be able to keep fighting as long as you want until one person taps out. but as you get hit more and more you'll need to slam the buttons even more and harder in order to put in the effort to keep fighting. this is just another street fighter alternative right now.

plus it needs a homework mode and shatner and ghandi as unlockable characters.

by the way, the dears, one of my favorite bands, are playing the Mercury Lounge in NYC march 28th.
they're on at 9pm and its only 10 bucks.

this does not strike me as a woman's car so much as a wealthy pansy's car

seriously, i think i can adjust my own seat, thank you very much. and that one-piece bonnet is just going to make things more complicated and expensive when you do need to have the car looked at.

i edited a mia's triple post. not its content, just deleted two of it.

and illustration is fun. don't feel bad about it. i miss having illustration style classes.

right now i'm putting together the back cards for my ID tags because they require both lamination and a sticker on the back, two jobs i can do easily from the comfort of my room with my Xyron 510:


the rest of it will need to be done at the library where i have access to acetate, a color photocopier to abuse since i have to code to operate it, and a hole punch for easy allignment.

screw the lanyard, the lanyard looked stupid, i'm gonna hang it all on a piece of blue thread. it'll be badass when its done. it looks big when i work on it, but i hold it on my chest and look in the mirror and its actually a good size to see on someone's chest as they walk down the street. not much bigger than those ID tags they wear on the west wing.

i'm skipping geometry right now. its the first time i'm missing that class. i just really can't do it right now. in fact, i'm only on the internet because my hands are tired of holding an x-acto knife for the moment.

in order to post images, they must first be uploaded onto the internet, so get a free thing like geocities, tripod, angelfire, or, worst case, deviantart (i say that because they don't allow remote linking, so you could post a link to the page where the image is held, but you could post the actual image here if it were on deviantart)

view source on this page to see the html for images, as i don't think it will post it if i type any of it. basically you type in the left arrow symbol ( "<" ) then "img src=" then open quotes, the http address for the image, close quotes, and the right arrow symbol ( ">" )
it gets easier the more you use it.

its midterm week. by friday all of the teachers will have submitted our midterm grades. IQ web, the school service which allows us to oversee some of our grades, credits and courses online, is updating our grades as they come in. for midterms, they're only telling us if we're satisfactory (C or higher) or unsatisfactory (C- or lower)
so far, of my five classes, i've got a satisfactory grade in creating theater, design with type, and creative geometry and undecided grades in american creativity and graphic design.
i've got american creativity tommorrow, and i haven't missed a class yet and i did well on the test (better than most scores i saw)
i'm assuming kendra is waiting to see our matrixes on friday before she judges anything, but i can't imagine it bringing me lower than a C even if its terrible. i've only missed one class and she seems to think i'm vital to everything we do because i'm either top of the class or bottom rung and the only person to openly admit it and explain why.

MoCCA is having a one-night-only party/exhibition with Kyle Baker a week and a half after i come home. i look forward to that being the start of a great summer.

maria, if i don't bring my camera to the art fest, kick me.

sources tell cnn that john edwards is going to drop out of the race for president very soon.

i don't want a kerry white house. i just don't trust that man. now my vote is for dean or sharpton.

i'm having a bad day. i accepted that hours ago. kendra told us our final matrixes are due on friday, and no one in the class is anywhere near halfway done. she likes me because i'm harsher on myself during critiques than anyone else she's ever met has been harsh on whether it was their own work or someone elses, and she likes the reccomendations i make for other people. problem is, people only tell me what i'm doing wrong, which i already openly admit, and never give me suggestions or ideas to make it better, and i've spent two months working on this goddamn tape dispenser so i can't remember what were the good ideas and what were the bad ideas anymore. that's why its easy to come up with good ideas for the other icons. i just hate my class for not helping me the way i try to help them...whatever. i know what i'm going to do and it will be substantially better by friday.

i'm having a lot of trouble staying awake and there's nothing to drink in the apratment. i refill the brita four times a day as i subside off of disgusting florida water now. i also hit my head really hard on the ventiltion unit over the stove as i was washing some dishes. it hurt alot for a couple minutes.

max and brian decided to go to electronics boutique to pick up grand turismo 3 and i went along because i needed a distraction. i was pleased to see they had about a hundred SNES cartridges, but they were more expensive than the used playstation games and there were no SNES controllers.
i DID very surprisingly find the wilco movie, i am trying to break your heart, on dvd there for six bucks, so i got that. sweet deal.

now i desperately need a nap.

protests are funny...







i'm very out of it. my stomach is very mad at me, my entire body feels like just falling asleep, my nose feels like exploding with one painful unexplained pimple on the right nostril...its really quite annoying.
and i pretty much hated all four books we looked a thtis morning, but i seem to be the only one.

its funny, i've been thinking about getting a graphics tablet since i first got this computer, and lately i've been drawing almost exclusively on post-its notes.
well...here's an inexpensive tablet for the mac with 1024 levels of sensitivity (two times better than the graphire 3, and what mal told me is bare minimum for computer sketching) and about the size of a post-it pad.
it seems like a bad idea because its so small, its awfully confining, but i think it would actually be exciting.

anyway...just sharing, not buying anytime soon.

in a topic on gingerbox a couple weeks ago, we mentioned our fave SNES and genesis games. i said my fave SNES games were yoshi's island, earthbound, kirby super star, and the insanely addictive tetris attack. after that, the thread kind of died and we forgot.

as per usual, some jackass who just joined the board today revived the thread to say "CHRONO FRICKIN TRIGGER!!!!! ...all i have to say..."
mal (my hero, for those of you playing at home) replied back "TETRIS MOTHERFUCKING ATTACK! ...that's all i have to say"

woohoo! something else we have in common. if only i could draw like him or play guitar or write songs or stories like him...ah well...someday.

i desperately need sleep.

paul hutchinson can get cancer for all i care. i will not let this man defeat me. he is petty and disgusting.

i registered for the neXtpedition conference today. that should be good.
and i still don't have money in my bank account. the woman at suntrust said it would be processed on monday, but after the bank closed today, the ATM still said i had 24 dollars rather than 300-something. if its not in there by wednesday, i am going to the bank and busting some heads, because a man needs money.

popular consensus is that my ID tags are the best ones in class today. there are a couple of contenders, but i think i've got the best footing here

here's a quick mockup in photoshop of how it looks straight on when the four layers match up. i'll take photos when i've got a final.