Log |
7/28/04 Wow. That's all I can say after Amsterdam. Okay, that's not all I can say. It was friggin' amazing. Possibly my best college memory. So what's the deal with Amsterdam? Well, this was the first time I had been out of the country to a Western nation. (I went to China when I was 17 and Canada when I was 5 doesn't count). So ifrst off, the city is beautiful. You can really feel the history in Europe and all of the architecture is really interesting. For instance, in the city all of the buildings have hooks attached to the front so that furniture or merchandise can be lifted from the street into a window above. This made me imagine the Amsterdam that was once the capitol of a vast global trade empire with merchants constantly moving things in and out of the buildings. This is also practical since apparently the stairs in Amsterdam are basically vertical...in fact, to get to our hotel room we had to climb up one really long stairway, then another stairway, open our room door, and then up ANOTHER flight of stairs. Who went on this trip, by the way? It was me, my roommate, his friend, and my girlfriend, just in case you were wondering. Our room was gorgeous. It wasn't very expensive and we had the top apartment
with a window overlooking the city above the street and another window
that accessed the roof in the back. Score. What other things are different there, you ask? Well, for starters, Sandy could drink (the drinking age is like 18 or 10 or something), so she took good advantage of that. Also, pot and mushrooms are legal there as well. Furthermore, everyone is Amsterdam is beautiful and all of the food is delicious (although it is hard to have a meal without some sort of ham and cheese variation showing up. They love the crap out of pork over there. And everyone smokes cigarettes everywhere. We were lucky because almost everyone over there spoke English and walking was the primary means of transportation (and pretty much the only one you'll survive) although they have bikes everywhere. Really amazing. However, as many of you know, the trip did not end there. When we tried to leave, my roommate was the only one able to get on the plane so the rest of us were pretty much abandoned in Europe with luggage (we all packed semi-light) and no place to go. It turned out that all the flights out of Amsterdam were oversold for like a month and that b/c we were stand-bys our chances of leaving didn't look good. We figured, hey, if they don't want us to leave Amsterdam, we won't argue. Well, there was some arguing. But all in all we took up residence in the airport (which was like the Taj Mahal of airports) and ran around during the day trying to get home, occupy our time, and eat. This made the trip even cooler in my opinion because as my roommate put it "You were backpacking through Europe except without wanting to." All the best trips have some element of tragedy and that's what made this trip an adventure instead of a vacation. After a few days in the airport, my roommate's parents got us flights to transfer to Manchester, England because we actually had a chance of getting out from there. What's the deal with Manchester, you ask? Well, everyone in Britain is not beautiful. They start out cute, then in their teens its about 50/50, and after 25 it is all down hill. The food was also not as tasty as in Amsterdam, although we were still supplied with plenty of ham and cheese. This airport was much worse than Schipol (Amsterdam's airport) but still 10 times better than American airports. At this point, things were much less fun, b/c we had an entire new country to figure out along with trying to get home but fortunately we were only there for a couple of days. Really the only truly negative thing that happened was losing my new digital camera, but I let it go b/c I didn't want it to ruin my trip. Ah well. After this, I can say confidently that I can backpack through Europe. It was an amazing trip with amazing people. So, after all that, what am I doing now? Scrambling to get the hell out of my apartment. I've only got a couple of days left to move and at this point I would rather go back to living out of a backpack. Oh well. Plus, school starts in like two weeks so I'm not exactly excited about that. I'll be leaving my job as a webdesigner then too because my student teaching is basically unpaid fulltime work. So much for eating...and maybe comic books. Well, I'm looking forward to a lot of amazing changes in the next couple of weeks and basically for this whole semester. I'm excited. One last thing, I finished another website today (yes, another one) and I'm really excited about it. Why don't you check it out and let me know what you think? It's for the NAEA National Student Chapter, which I will soon be President of. Hope you like it: NAEA National Student Chapter. ~ciao |
7/7/04 I received this e-mail from an associate of mine. It puts one aspect of our abysmal education system in perspective: TIRED OF THOSE HIGH PAID TEACHERS?! I, for one, am sick and tired of those high paid teachers. Their
hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work nine or ten
months a
year! It's time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they
do...baby-sit! We can get that for less than minimum wage. That's
right...I What about those special teachers or the ones with masters degrees?
Well, we could pay them minimum wage just to be fair. Let's round it |
6/29/04 If you tried to look at my Flash project over the weekend, there were still a few bugs to work out and some edits that needed to be made. I think at this point that it is finished so please go check it out by clicking here. I really want to hear what you think. Believe it or not, I actually used up just about all of my web space here at UF. They allot us 20 million bytes and I've got about 19million up there. Yeesh. Oh, and here is some exciting news...I'm going to Amsterdam (and Paris)! My roommate, his friend, me, and my girlfriend are all going to go for a week in mid-July. Yeah sex shows and drugs! Jealous? |
6/25/04 Check out my new Flash artwork! Click here. Let me know what you think. |
6/23/04 My roommate found the following excerpt on someone's livejournal. I laughed my ass off and I hope you will too.
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6/22/04 I had a fantastic weekend. I spent several days up in Virigina with my best friend's family wollowing in gluttonous indulgence. I probably ate more than in the prvious two weeks combined and between 4 or 5 of us we finished something like 25 bottles of wine in 3 1/2 days. I guess every once in a while you just have to take advantage of that whole capitalist system we have here. The flight home was crap though. My flight was out of Reagan airport in Washington (aptly named b/c nothing but crap happened the entire time I was under the airport's control). I was supposed to leave at 1, but then my flight was delayed until 1:30, then 2, then 3...we start boarding at 4...only to be trapped on the plane until 4:30...then 5, then 6...we take off at 6:30 and head to Atlanta. I miss my connection (which was at 4) and discover that contrary to the agent in washington who had told us we would automatically be booked on the next available flight if we missed our connection, I was not booked on the next flight. I managed to get a seat just as they they were supposed to board, only to be delayed another hour. I asked the agent in Atlanta if my luggage would be on the plane since I had not be rebooked and he assured me that it would be. We hop on a tiny perpelor plane and head off only to have the captain fly us directly into the middle of a lightning storm (ironically, the flight from Washington had been delayed due to weather only to have this action hero pilot fly right into electric death from above). We somehow manage to not get hit by lightening and touch down in Gainesville. Is my luggage there? Of course not. Yeesh. In any case, I'm excited to see my girlfriend again tonight. It was a short time but I missed the hell out of her. I also got two great pieces of news. First, I'm going to be interviewed by the local NPR regarding the Art Camps my my student organization does. Second, I'm going to Paris (and Amsterdam). My roommate can get cheap tickets to just about anywhere and when he mentioned he was interested in going I said what the hell and now my girlfriend and I will head to the motherland before I student teach in the fall. It's ok to be jealous... |
6/16/04 Far be it from me to say that the American news media does a bad of reporting the facts (aluminum tubing = Iraqi nuclear weapons program = WAR?? Thanks for nothing NY Times.). Below is another example of the shortcomings of journalism in this country because it is extremely ntriguing yet hugely undereported:
The official arrival of summer is still a few weeks away, but "pool weather" is already upon us, and that means it is perfectly acceptable to plop down and read whatever strikes your fancy. This is my justification for writing a UFO column. Some readers are probably aware of my longtime interest in the UFO topic. Although I no longer report on UFO matters for local TV, my fat face seems to pop up weekly on some cable network UFO special. (In just the past week, I received three more requests for interviews and/or assistance from international journalists working on separate UFO programs.) Mainstream science and the U.S. government have done all they can to discourage serious public interest and inquiries into the UFO subject, but the damned flying saucers just don't want to cooperate. They keep popping up at inopportune moments. Most are explainable, but a few are not. The UFO news out of Mexico in the past few weeks caused a minor stir on this side of the border for a day or so, then quickly faded into oblivion, overwhelmed by grim news in Iraq. But the Mexican incident is one of the most intriguing cases in recent memory--and one of the best documented. It deserves some attention. The source of the information is the Mexican Air Force, which was given the green light to release the data by Mexico's version of Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense. On March 5, a Mexican Air Force C26A, while on a drug interdiction and surveillance mission over the state of Campeche, encountered 11 unidentified flying objects. The UFOs were detected on both radar and a sophisticated thermal imaging sensor (known as FLIR) aboard the plane. The encounter occurred at 11,000 feet an hour before sunset and in clear weather. It lasted about 15 minutes and was recorded on the plane's cameras. At one point, eight of the objects formed a circle around the plane. Crew members were understandably shaken. Mexican defense officials ordered a hush-hush study of the incident. They spent five weeks trying to figure out what had happened but couldn't come up with any explanation for what had been seen by radar, FLIR, cameras and eyewitnesses. The best they could do was to conclude the UFOs were solid objects of unknown origin and that they had flown along with the C26A under what appeared to be intelligent control. That's when they decided to go public. They took the highly unusual step of contacting prominent Mexican TV journalist and UFO investigator Jaime Maussan and then simply handed over everything they had on the case. Astonishing, to say the least. Governments do not cooperate with UFO investigators, as a rule, at least not the U.S. government. Maussan, whom Knappster has known for nearly 10 years, broadcast the Air Force footage on his popular TV program. He and the Air Force held a news conference and made the footage and evidence available to other media outlets. That's when the debunking started. Mexican scientists seemed to take their cues from all the old excuses handed out by the U.S. Air Force in years gone by, dredging up a veritable hit parade of weak explanations. The first explanation was that this must have been ball lightning, a rare atmospheric phenomenon that has been used many times by American debunkers to try to explain away UFO cases. A nuclear scientist named Dr. Julio Herrera of National Autonomous University was contacted by the Associated Press. Herrera theorized that the UFOs were electrical flashes, and AP went with the story, ignoring the fact that this incident occurred in a cloudless sky and that it lasted for more than 15 minutes. Las Vegas physicist Dr. Eric Davis spent six years studying ball lightning and wrote a paper about it for Air Force Materiel Command at Edwards Air Force Base, where Dr. Davis worked for a time. Simply put, there is no way that ball lightning could be responsible, Davis says. Ball lightning occurs during storms, not in cloudless skies. It generally lasts only a few seconds, sometimes up to a minute, but NEVER for 15 minutes. Besides, the Mexican Air Force had already looked at this explanation and found it wanting. The inestimable Dr. Herrera wasn't deterred, though. A day or two later, he offered a new explanation that was dutifully reported by skeptical media. He theorized that the UFO flashes were caused by the ignition of natural gases in the atmosphere. (He didn't actually use the term "swamp gas," but damn that would have been ballsy if he had.) The Campeche coast is an oil-producing region, so there is natural gas in the area. But no one knows of natural gas pockets that rise to 11,000 feet. Besides, the sensors on the plane revealed the objects to be solid, with definable parameters.. Plus, the objects followed the plane for many miles and even formed a circle around it. Does gas do that? Another scientist speculated that the UFOs were "almost certainly" space junk, pieces of satellite debris that had burned up in the atmosphere. Again, this explanation doesn't fit the described behavior of the objects. Debris doesn't surround a plane and fly along with it. In addition, the Mexican Air Force certainly would have known if the Campeche coast was being dive-bombed by a vast field of space debris. Finally, another critic offered up the old chestnut that it must have been weather balloons that caused the sightings. As with the ball lightning explanation, this one would have been more credible had anyone bothered to contact Mexico's National Meteorological Service, which explained that there were no weather balloons anywhere near Campeche on that day. A spokesman also noted that no one had bothered to contact the NMS to find out if ball lightning would have been a possible explanation. It would not have been, the NMS concluded. A couple of UFO enthusiasts on this side of the border have taken the case to the other extreme, declaring that the Campeche UFOs were "alien motherships" and that the incident is a sign of more encounters to come. Simply put, we don't know what the objects were. They are, be definition, unidentified and will probably remain so. The most significant development to come out of this, in my opinion, is the willingness of the Mexican government to openly discuss a UFO encounter. It is a demonstrable fact that world governments have classified files on UFO incidents, files that have never seen the light of day. For the Mexican military to openly admit that it has no idea what was flying around in its airspace is an astounding departure from the party line toed by other governments. One other explanation needs to be considered. A colleague of mine with extensive experience in UFO investigations and with government agencies suggests that perhaps the Mexican Air Force assumed the UFOs were some sort of secret American craft being tested in Mexican airspace. It is conceivable they decided to go public with the incident because they wanted to put the American military on notice that this has got to stop. Of course, this scenario depends on the idea that the United States has developed some sort of invisible craft that mimics the characteristics of ball lightning and space debris. |
6/14/04 It is long overdue, but I thought that I should let all of you know that I have been seeing someone very special for the last couple of months. It's been amazing. Ironically, she is actually the girl from the story before (my roommate calls her "Gay Girl") but don't judge her based on that. She is very creative, brilliant, beautiful, and wants to make a difference in the world. Honestly, I have never been this happy with someone before and I wonder if I deserve to be. Regardless, I make her happy and that's all that matters. I don't want to disgust you all with my love monologue so I'll get going. Below is a picture of us together.
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6/7/04 Dramatization I think men feel overly triumphant these days. In the past, men would have to survive battles, protect their families, teach their children, produce food out of the ground, and various other activities that pay minimum wage today. Most men lack the opportunity to triumph over such dire circumstances. We have overcompensated for this loss by experiencing a ticker-tape parade in our heads as a result of overcoming the most mundane obstacles. Case in point. Today I returned home from frisbee after a stunning defeat to lurch upon the couch in front of the television on par with most Sundays. After a great deal of ‘meditation,’ I stepped outside to get some fresh air. As I was standing in the doorway of my quaint suburban townhouse I looked below me to behold my path being overrun by gigantic stalks of some unidentified weed or flower or something. This encroachment into my path had begun several months ago, however as nature moves extremely slow at times, my roommate and I had unknowingly endured an ever-decreasing amount of space for which to enter our home. I decided to take action. I leapt inside my house and sped over to a drawer in the kitchen. I muttled through the items within the drawer for a few moments until I extracted my pair of Cutco© Kitchen Scissors made with high carbon surgical steal, ridged teeth, and able to be separated into two dishwasher safe pieces. It could cut through a penny (why would you ever need to do that?) and hopefully fairy tale-esque beanstalks. I returned to the entranceway and gave the impending foliage a stern, decisive stare. Without sparing a moment, I delved deep into the stalks and bestowed their deaths upon them. In a frenzy I cut and slashed the fertile stalks of these green beasts with the Cutco© Kitchen Scissors. Occasionally I paused to survey the fruit of my efforts only to return to the task at hand with renewed vigor. My path became littered with the corpses of this fallen army. I inspected the re-established boundaries of their domain and agreed to an armistice. Entrance to my home was again clear and safe. I stood with my feet apart, back straight, and my head high. My sidewalk was liberated (at least the part immediately adjoining my door) and my masculinity had been assured. It was at that moment that I realized my embarrassment in the perceived progress of the Western heterosexual male and also that I needed to get out of my house more often. |
5/13/04 I still have a few minutes before I leave work so I thought I'd leave a quick entry. I was out of town last week in Boston and I had an awesome time. It was a nice balance between elitist activities (art museums, shows, galleries, plays, independent movie festivals), populist activites (beer, bars, beer-pong aka beruit, I saw the movie Mean Girls, etc.), and down time (Metroid Prime rocks and so does The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters). I'm glad I got to see my friend, see some old friends, make some new ones, etc. I've also decided that I'm going to be a patron of the arts. I bought like $70 worth of student artwork while I was up there and I'm trying to get some stuff from some students at UF. I just realized that 'Hey, I go to art school. There is a lot of art here. I should get some of it. Especially since it's is cheap student stuff.' Now I'm back home and things are slowly getting back to normal after being out of town and imploding at the end of the semester. I would say more but in another minute I'm finally free... |
4/13/04 - I'll be on 'the other side of town'... Hey, long time no see. So, I have two additions. First, my roommate and I went to see Kill Bill on Saturday, which was ridiculously awesome, and afterwards my roommate wanted to get some food. He decides to go to Hooters because he loves boobs (go figure) and after looking at the menu for a little while (pinnacle of culinery excellence that it is) the waitress comes over to take our order and put the women's movement back 20 years. I order some french fries and my roommate orders a grilled chicken ceasar salad. Observe: as the waitress is leaving the table, she asks what kind of dressing my roommate would like on his CEASAR salad. It took her a few seconds to realize what she had said and then replied "Oh my gawd, that was like the dumbest question ever." We agreed. Second, I working on the course for the Geriatric department online and the teacher finally sends us the syllabus. We had been waiting for the syllabus for about a month and a half. The people in charge of the course are horrible disorganized and hence all of the material is the educational equivelant of the floor of a gas station bathroom. So, I'm reading through the syllabus and I come to the section on "Cultural Competence and Ethical/Religious Issues." Here was the instructor's idea of promoting racial equality:
I'm not really sure which part is more offensive. The assumption that EVERYONE taking this online course is white or the patronizing use of quotations around across town. Wow. So now the issue is being taken up by the department, the head of which apparently proofread the syllabus before we received it. On the bright side, my coworker said "Well, you just know not to over to white people's houses." I hope everyone is doing well. I'm going out of town this weekend to go to the NAEA conference in Denver and I'm really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, I have every god forsaken project on earth to finish by next Wednesday and I have no idea how I can possibly do it. Oh well. |
3/3/04 DEAR GOD! Someone nominated Bush for the Nobel Peace Prize?? "The US president's war drive and invasion of Iraq makes him, and his close ally the British prime minister unlikely candidates." What the?! The government is also trying to ban online porn. Those mother-bitches! If that happens I'm just gonna run my own porn site out of here. You may take my life, but you will never take my porn!! Sorry, I was just checking out the news. So how have you been? That's good. Me? Eh, things are getting better. School isn't going at a break-neck pace now with break coming up next week. What am I doing, you ask? Guess........yep, that's right. Work! Wow, my life is so exciting. I am going 'home' for a couple of days to chill and kill brain cells but for the most part I'm just going to try and get as much crap done as possible. Man, if I can just make it through this semester... We got a fish at work the other day. One of those Beta fish that is obligatory to have if you are interested in having something like a pet but without any of the messy emotional attachment. It's name? Lawrence Fish-burne. Yeah, that's actually the one I voted for. Adonis, Redmond, Clifford, or Bobby Fish-er. Hey, I didn't come up with any. ............................ *stares off into space, distracted by shiney object in corner of eye, runs out of room in pursuit* |
2/23/04 The topic for my rant of the day: bathrooms. Why in God's name aren't all of our public bathrooms unisex? Our bathrooms at home are unisex. Historically, whether you are talking about outhouses or chamberpots or bushes, our bathrooms were unisex in a lot of instances. What is the big deal? Are we supposed to pretend that the opposite sex is somehow unaware of our bodily functions? Yeah, it's much more comfortable standing shoulder to shoulder with two other men peeing into a trough than to be on the opposite side of a stall from a woman. How about instead of two crappy bathrooms we just have one huge lavish egeletarian bathroom. I've been to more than a few concerts and other public gatherings and I always think its odd how tens of women will stand single-file waiting to enter the ladie's room while men go through the bathroom like its a drive-thru. Every once in a while you'll see an especially resourceful woman duck quickly into the men's room and make her way into a stall without any waiting. God bless 'em. |
2/16/04 Not too much has happened recently. As some of you know, it was my birthday a few days ago and I pretty much ignored it. I don't know what it is, but the last 3 years I have more or less pretended like it didn't exist. Part of it is certainly to escape disappointment and another part of it is the dislike of self-celebratory ego-boosting nonsense. Obviously though, if you don't want to be disappointed you have to go around announcing it since most people don't know/remember/care but the whole thing is just weird. A couple of people did call me and I was really happy to hear from them. My roommate actually found out about it the next day and surprised me with an ice cream cake and candles so that was great. (How did he know I always had an ice cream cake for my birthday when I was young?) I suppose that if I had someone special to share it with that maybe the day would be more meaningful but that hasn't been the case. I don't think I really need to go into Valentine's Day for you all. On the bright side, I was interviewed on the local news Saturday night becuase of the Saturday art classes NAEA has been having this semester. Also, I went to a speak-out (kind of like a rally, but less people) on Sunday to advocate making the "Morning After Pill" over-the-counter. It was pretty cool. Although I think it's a good cause, the main reason I went was so support my friend who was one of the people speaking out about the issue. She is actually the girl who called me gay and we've been becoming really close lately. She is extremely smart and very pretty with goals so all in all she's the person I've been looking for. She's not really like anyone I've known before and I don't feel like I'm repeating history like I have in the past. Unfortunately, as I said before she has a boyfriend sooooooo...that figures, but who knows what will happen... |
2/10/04 You know what's not cool? Not sleeping is not cool. Yeah, that's right, I did not get to sleep last night because I was grossly unprepared for a test and essentially a paper I had to turn in today. So this is not a happy Jim. Man, I will be so glad when college is over and I can sleep. Aside from that there isn't too much going on. How are things with you? Ok, well I actually do have one story that I might as well share from this weekend. I met a girl in my womens' studies class (the evil one that kept me up all night) and we agreed to get together last weekend to study. She called me up to reschedule and we had a great conversation so I was looking forward to hanging out at her place. Plus, she was going to bake cookies for me. To be honest, I thought she might have some interest. So in any case, I got to her place and we started talking for a while. At some point she mentioned how someone had mistaken her for a single-mother (neither of us were really sure how that could happen, seeing as she did not have a child in tow) and then she mentioned something about how she must just be like some person on TV fasciciously. Then she said, "I'm I'm sure you're just like Brian on 'Queer as Folk.' Gee, I thought, that's kind of a weird reference. I played a long jokingly and said, "Absolutely...who's Brian?" "He's the whore," she replied. Ok, so that's not so bad... "You don't watch that show?" she asked. "No, I have a friend or two who likes it but I'm not really into it." Cut to about half an hour later. We are sitting on the couch studying a part of our book about assumptions. I was telling her about some experience I have had and then she chimes in, "I know exactly what you mean. Like when I met you, I just knew you were GAY. It wasn't anything you did really, and you had said you were in the Gator Gay-Straight Alliance, so I thought, well, it's Gay-STRAIGHT, but I dunno, I could just knew." At this point I can't really imagine the look on my face, but it was so awkward that I just didn't say anything right then. I kept thinking about it and it was driving me crazy. Later on I compliment her couch and she says, "Thanks. Except it has this terrible palm frond pattern on it. It's like something from the Golden Girls. You must love that." (In case you don't know, gay people love the Golden Girls). I must have made a noise akin to chuckle. Later on we got to talking about sex (because every conversation's natural tangent is sex) and she was telling me some personal things and then she said, "Although I'm sure you don't want to hear about that at all." Now don't get me wrong, she was a very cool person. I also found out that she had a boyfriend within like 10 minutes of me getting there, so I knew that wasn't going anywhere. So I was still conflicted about what I should do in regard to her little misconception but then I decided I had to clear this up b/c I wasn't going to pretend to be gay. We were saying our good-byes and then I paused and said, "Alright, well now I have to give you the break-up talk." She looked at me confused. "I think you're cool and I like you, so I don't want things to change between us, but you got something terribly wrong." I could tell she was going to find it in her memory pretty soon. "I'm not gay." So it was all kind of worth it just for the look on her face at that point. It was great. She was apologizing profusely and I said that she really didn't have to and that I wan't offended. Then she says, "Well, I'm glad you're not." (???) "Ok," I said, "I'm going to go now before you say anything else." Alright, so it was fixed and we're friends. Later she writes me an email apologizing some more and telling me that her mistake wasn't a reflection of me, just how she related to me because we seemed to get along so well and because of something like she wanted the most convenient solution because she has a boyfriend (love of her life, she called him). In any case, it was an interesting night all in all and my roommate really enjoyed the story. Hope you did too. I'm going to go watch "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" now. |
2/6/04 Hello everyone. I got the following advertisement in my e-mail box: LAST CHANCE TO SIGN UP FOR SKI TRIP Free breakfast? Could someone explain to me how a breakfast is free AFTER you pay almost $1200 bucks?? Free my ass. That's like a hooker saying "For a $10 donation you'll receive a free blowjob!" THis would actually be a great strategy because they couldn't really be arrested for soliciting sex anymore. "But officer, I'm just fundraising!" Enough about that. Everything is going really well these days...well, sort of. I feel like for as much good as I'm experienceing these days there is just as much bad teetering on the brink of crushing me. I can't really explain it. FYI: I've added new pics to my gallery and some new pages littered around this website. Can you find them? I hope everything is going well for you and hopefully I'll get to talk to you soon. Take care. |
1/30/04 Ok, so I've been slacking lately, HOWEVER, I have some great stories that I've posted below and some updates for Bush-whacked. I'm also excited because Art Ed. if having an art show opening reception tonight titled "Those who can't do, teach?" That should be cool. Last week I had work in the Annual Juried Student Show and I won the Outstanding Student in Art Education Award. Not too shabby. Right now I'm just applying for a scholarship, to be President of the National Division of NAEA Student Chapter, a few art shows, aaaaaand to get a paper or two published. In any case, enjoy the stories. Drunken elephants die in accident Elephants have been raiding villages in search of beer Four wild elephants drunk on rice beer have been electrocuted in the north-east Indian state of Meghalaya, wildlife officials report. The elephants are known to have a taste for rice beer brewed by tribal communities across north-east India. But this is the first time some of them have died after consuming the drink. A herd of about 20 to 25 elephants went on the rampage in a remote area in the West Garo Hills district earlier this week after getting high on the beer. As panicky villagers fled for cover, leaving behind their freshly brewed beverage, the elephants drank to their heart's content. The inebriated elephants then struck an electric pole and brought it down. But their trunks took the brunt of the shock from the high-tension wire. Four of the elephants were killed instantly. Assam's elephant expert Kushal Konwar Sharma, a lecturer, said these elephants frequently consume rice beer and cause devastation when they become intoxicated. Wildlife officials say in the last two years elephants have killed at least 180 people in Assam and Meghalaya. And more than 200 elephants have been killed by angry villagers during the last six years in the two states, in what is developing into a fierce conflict between man and beast. |
1/27/04 Unfortunately, I've been crazy busy recently and haven't had time to update my log. However, just by adding this I am technically updating it and therefore keeping my word about updating it regularly. Lame. I know. |
1/13/04 Yay! I finally went out last night (to Martini Monday no less) and had an awesome time. Unfortunately, I got way too drunk and after 4 hours of sleep woke up this morning at the shinny hour of 7 AM to get my happy ass to class. I hope none of you ever have to know the pain of riding a bicycle to school when its 30 degrees outside suffering from a combination of prolonged drunkenness and a belligerent hangover. I was going to acting class though and it was awesome because we mainly did relaxing exercises the whole time (one of which I fell asleep during). At the end of class he asked how many credits we were getting for the class. “Three,” we replied. He then said that we should meet for 3 hours then (as opposed to the scheduled 4) and asked us if starting at 9:30 sounded alright. In unison everyone said yes (although I said no because I’m a smart ass). Holy crap, it was great. Later on I had my women’s studies class which was also cool (although you have to wonder how some people can love to hear themselves speak so much or why someone would begin a statement with “I was gonna say…” when: A). gonna is not a word; and B). NO, you ARE saying, right now, this second, you are saying what you were going to say and we know you’re saying something because we can hear you. Ah, it’s the little things in life. In any case, the teacher said we should find a few “study buddies” (I would say the same thing too, because it sounds stupid). My friend Barb is in the class so I’m good, but she had mentioned …um, how do I phrase this…how much ass I was going to get in that class. “There going to be like (in a girly voice) he’s so sensitive and sweet.” I replied, “Ha! Then they’ll find out the truth!” (Those of you who know me well enough can make your own judgments on the applicability of my joke). So the teacher told us to get some phone numbers from people in the class and I looked at Barb and said, “Time to get some digits!” Fun. Alright, then I got to work and my co-worker Priscilla (we have too much fun for work) told me she had lost 7 pounds. I told her that was awesome naturally. Then I thought back to this morning (to what I could remember anyway) and a girl in that class told me that she had lost 5 pounds and I congratulated her too. The weird thing is that she can’t be any more than like a buck 5 or 10. I said, “You know, congratulating someone on weight loss is just one of those things that is always celebrated in our society. Its almost never not* appropriate. It’s like saying, ‘Congratulations! You’re anorexic!’” Yeah, so today was a good day so far. *Editor’s note: I enjoy double negatives for their dramatic effect.
So shut up, clown!**
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1/9/04 GRRRRR! Explain to me how people can be so inconsiderate? I was sitting in a coffee shop on one of those stolls that they sometimes have lining a glass wall for the loner's and people with no friends (me). I'm just sitting there reading my text book and minding my own business (like most of the other people in the loner stools) when a girl sits down right next to me (not the only empty seat mind you) and decides that I want to listen to her insipid and obnoxiously loud cell phone conversation that she is having 10 inches away from my ear. Naturally I can't read anymore because my eyes are just motioning blankly across the page because I can't shut out the fact that this girl next to me "had class like SO early and the teacher is like a jerk he because he like takes attendance." OK, this happened TWICE in an hour! What a couple of bastards! |
1/8/04 A terrible thing happened to one of my really close friends. If you read this anytime soon, I love you and you have my deepest sympathy. If you need anything at all, its yours. (Please don't ask me about this b/c its not my place to discuss it). |
1/7/04
*this is not my cat, for those of you who thought I was depraved (more depraved than I am anyway)... |
1/6/04 I suck. I missed my first class this morning and its only the first day. On the bright side my "Interdisciplinary Perspectives of Women" course should be very interesting. There is a friend in class with me, the teacher seems very cool, and I am the ONLY guy in the class. Its definitely a role reversal. I mean, a good portion of the language is directed at women in the class ("our body" and the pronoun "she"), I suspect that (while you can't have women's studies without men's studies) that "or men" might be added to discussion with extra frequency since I'm around, and its a little intimidating/uncomfortable. But I like it. It refreshes your perspective on the world, especially since I have been the center of instruction for most of my life (being a white guy and all). I think it will be a cool experience. Also, it turns out that Jessica (my sorta ex) has class at the same time next door. I was surprised to see her standing outside and we talked for a little bit. Ironically, I was getting the feeling that she might have been giving me the cold shoulder, but I didn't get that from her at all in person. I don't know...maybe I just can't read people anymore. In any case, I'm glad fate intervened on my behalf and I'm going to keep at her for at least a little longer now. On a sidenote, I have decided to add a political component to my "learn" page. I receive a newsletter each day from the "Gainesville for Dean" group and there is always really good information in it that I want to share with you all (especially those of you who are Bush supporters). I don't want to preach about Dean so much as simply alert you all to the problems in our current government. With that being said, and my liberal bias outed, I announce my "Bush-whacked" page. Check back frequently for updates on the state of the union. |
1/5/04 For the love of Jesus how can school be starting tomorrow!?! DEAR GOD! Since I have class in like 7.5 hours I'm gonna cut this short. However, I am going to put down in stone (so to speak) that I will do my best to stop disappearing off the face of the earth during this semester. I will continue to update this log and I will stay connected to all of you. Wow, my first empty promise of the new year. I'm way ahead of schedule ;) Wish me luck! |
1/2/04 I'm back in Gainesville and it's good to be back. I missed my roommate, my cat, my DSL (sweet sweet technology) and many people. I've decided that I don't really like West Palm Beach. I used to love South Florida in high school, but I've outgrown it. Maybe it has changed or maybe I've changed. Don't get me wrong, I was really happy to see the friends that I did, but West Palm itself is not my home. I've lived in 4 different cities in as many years (3 states) and 7 different apartments. I've realized that I've never really felt at home in any of these places. I don't know what it is, but I just haven't ever felt like I was 'home.' I've felt more like a guest. A stranger. I like to imagine that there is a place where everyone belongs and I just haven't found that place yet. Although maybe that place isn't somewhere external but internal instead. My place now is beginning to feel like home but it's not really long until I'm done here and I have to decide where I'm going to go next and that is a scary proposition. New York? California? Florida? Japan? I don't know... |
12/23/03 I'm leaving tomorrow to go 'home' for a few days. Aside from that, there isn't that much going on. It's been awesome have these last few days to relax (although for some ungodly reason I still have things to do all the time). Nevertheless, I did finish a book yesterday that I was reading...get this...for PLEASURE! Wow. That was exciting. Those wacky Bearenstein Bears! j/k. I did rape the men's warehouse today though (actually mostly my dad, since he was springing for the new duds). Aaron is a bad influence on me, making me want to get nice clothes and crap. I'm also going to be putting a few more pictures of artwork online
soon so watch out for those...but remember, the pics are not really
representative of most of my work, they are just the ones I happen to
have photos of. One day when I get off my lazy ass I'll actually get
some slides done of the work I've done since I got to this school. (The
installations and more sexual stuff are from here though). You know,
some frat guys have t-shirts that read "College: Best Maybe I'll put a couple more short stories that I've written in my art journal on here too, if you guys want. I did create a nice 'holiday gift' for all of my friends though, so if you haven't checked it out yet, click here Oh, and a cool movie trailer is out too. Check it out here. Ok, I'm bored now. I'll talk to you all later. |
12/19/03 I rediscovered a little story I wrote about half a year ago in my art journal (titled "ellipsis," hence the inspiration for this website) and thought I would include it here. It just seemed to feel right today. Conversation with an Exit Sign I was outside to grab a cigarette, pacing the walkway that lines my apartment complex. Everything was still. Even the bugs that usually swarm my neighborhood seemed to be enjoying a moment of peace. I puffed on my guilty pleasure allowing the thick night air to consume my white puffs of smoke and to seep into me as I patroled the quietness. I gazed upon the structure around me feeling as though I was far removed, as if inspecting a model under glass. The flurescent lights that line the ceiling at intervals keep pace with me, seperating light from darkness. I journey through the paradoxical rythm taking secret pleasure in the unlit spaces. At the corner is a recessed area that houses the stairwell leading down to the parking lot. This area is free of light altogether and I resigned myself to mull around this hidden sanctuary. I had only just entered when I noticed another light eminating from the ceiling barring any further progress. I stood at an impasse with it and something forced me to contemplate the glow in a way Dan Flavin surely would've relished. Something devious seemed to be hovering above and then I knew what message the light was telling me. A red light glowed insidiuosly reminiscent of some peep show sign. The words 'EXIT' shined, free of its dark confines, with a small arrow pointing away from the complex. I panned out towards the parking lot and returned. I blew smoke at the letters above me. Peeked down the stairwell I considered the sign's proposition. I turned my glance back to my enclosure. The familiar uniform doors. Familiar grey walls. Familiar concrete. Familiar darkness. I puffed on my cigarette. What is out there? What is there to discover? My stare locked with the words once more. EXIT. My headache raged and I couldn't think clearly. I don't feel like leaving. Or do I? Where would I go? Does it matter? Just go. Go damnit! GO! The End |
12/17/03 Maybe I could even get one of that Mike Tyson tattoo around one of
my eyes. Yeah, then I'd be scary. Maybe not. If you want to find out more about this tattoo project, click here. |
12/16/03 Alright, LOR: Return of the King finally comes out tomorrow. This will
be the only movie I've seen in the theaters since...the Hulk? God I
have no life. Although I can't wait to see it (Thur.) now I'm distracted
by the Spider-man 2 teaser. If you haven't seen it, it is verrily awesome
and can be found here
. So let me impart a conversation between my roommate and I that happened
recently: |
12/12/03 I feel a little emberassed. Two days ago I'm telling all of you how wonderful Jessica is and then yesterday she dumps me. Basically, she needed time to get over her feelings for her ex-boyfriend and wanted to be alone. We had already talked about this before and I thought we were fine. I mean I could relate. I told her that everyone has those sorts of issues and that you just need to learn to live with them but she wanted to be alone. In any case, I'm pretty depressed because I really thought that this relationship...I don't know...could go somewhere. So this is just one more push towards my realization that I will never find anyone to share my life with. |
12/10/03 Yeah, so the whole life thing. The semester is coming to a close and no one is happier than me. I really don't know how it is possible that I get so busy but I manage. I like being busy so I guess I'll be a good teacher since I'll be busy changing the world and all that. Hmmmm, what did I do this semester anyway? Well, I headed a very ambitious project (Not-a-Cutout) for GGSA, helped produce an extremely productive semester for NAEA which resulted in an article in NAEA News, gave a presentation on comic books at the Florida Art Education Association conference, had work exhibited in a few art shows around town (nothing really that big though), produced a lot of great drawings in my art classes, worked 20 hours a week designing websites for faculty, went to a KMFDM concert with my friend Carina, got some good work out of my other classes, got this website up and running, got a cat, aaaaaaaaaaaaaand kept a 4.0. Crap. There's probably more stuff but I'm just going to curl up into a ball and pass out. All of that really doesn't compare though to the real highlight of this semester which would be meeting Jessica. We've been seeing each other recently and she is really special. She's beautiful, funny, and smart and she never leaves my thoughts. Ahhhhh. Alright, alright, so all that sums up this semester. Unfortunately, what all this pre-occupation says implicitly is that I haven't been able to keep as connected to my friends as I would like. I've always been lucky to have such amazing friends but cursed that they are spread around like fleas on a monkey...hmmm, that's not a pleasant thought...anyway, I don't know if they all feel the same as I do but they are always in my thoughts and even though we don't talk or see each other as often as I'd like I just want you all to know that: a.) I'm a bad friend and thanks for putting up with me and b.) I still feel close to you all and that if I ran into any one of you somewhere like the supermarket that (providing you were able to conceal the tube of fungicide you were going to purchase) it would feel the same if we had just seen each other yesterday. *sniffle* That is all. |
12/02/03 Ok, so its been a while since I was last on here. Obviously I suck because I have been too busy to do anything to the website...UNTIL NOW! Mwahahahaha! Yeah, so there is actually some content on here now which I'm hoping you'll all check out. An small art gallery, papers, and some other stuff are fresh with more on the way. Hopefully I'll start being a more responsible webmaster...or at least a more selfish webmaster and work more on my own site as opposed to others (work/NAEA). So I suppose you would like an update on my living situation? |
08/25/03 11:00AM Welcome to my inaugural post here on my very own website. Hopefully
you'll enjoy rummaging through the clutter of my life and you will continue
to check back from time to time as I add new material. At this point
I'm not really going to have much filling my other pages, since I don't
have pictures of a lot of my artwork yet to post on "love"
and it'll take a little bit for me to build up "learn" with
quotes, links, etc. Also, I don't have any web design software on my
computer at home so every time I want to add to my journal I'll have
to come into school at this point. Sure, I could have just used one
of them fancy-shmancy "live journals" but I wanted to make
this a little more personal. So be patient with me as this website grows. |
