Wait, why am I doing this again?

Wow it's been a year already

2011-09-12T17:26:00.001-04:00

Since planning the last festival, and boy did this one come with its challenges. The weather did not cooperate at all, between flying umbrellas and then almost being impaled by one (that was fun), it turned out OK. It most definitely could have been better but that is a discussion I don't want to get into. Now the moment of truth, I'm no longer going to be a foot soldier for the festival, I'll be taking it over. What am I getting myself into? Can I do it, do I have the time or patience for it? I have no idea, all I know is I will be asking my friends for help and support to get it done. Some of you have already come out and told me that you will support me and believe I can do it, well it's time to find out if I can.

In another story I'm slightly becoming more and more tired of the dead end and lack of advancement for my job, so much so as to submit resumes and talk to friends about other employment opportunities. And for the first time in my 27 year life, I've finally gotten a rejection letter, boy those are fun. Oh well I guess I'll keep looking, and asking around. Well I guess that's all for this mini update, until next time.

Just chugging along, barely

2011-05-26T21:33:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted on either of my blogs, but it's about time I change that. Ahhh, one word to describe my week: FAIL! The boat I go sailing on is nowhere near ready and nowhere near close to being finished. The city I love/work in flooded due to too much rain, but for a while I had a lake front library. Here's the video for you to see, this was the view out the front door into the street.

I have sadly turned down another exhibit to showcase my photos, I thought I was over my whole fear/uncertainty of my photos, turns out I was wrong. Then to make things better after I turned down the exhibit I went to go visit my friend's art on a one day exhibit. Good for him, good show too.

I'm just going to end this post here, before this just becomes one long complaint list, I'll post something more entertaining next time.

Started a new blog

2011-03-25T12:39:00.000-04:00

To keep work stuff off this blog, or only the occasional story, I have decided to start a new blog. Hopefully I can update it more frequently.

Check it out My adventures in accidental librarianship.

I'm really bad at this blogging thing...

2011-03-14T16:18:00.000-04:00

I cannot consistently blog and I apologize, life has been just a tad busy recently. So I was offered the biggest photo job of my career so far and ended up losing it. I was offered a gig to shoot the Cirque du Soleil rehearsal and show, but this came at a time when my mother's boiler broke in February, so I was apparently in a dead zone in her basement trying to fix her boiler so she could have heat. I ended up missing the phone call and they had to go to another photographer. Being disappointed is an understatement, but I wouldn't have changed what happened, my mom's house had heat by the end of the day, and I had no photo gig. I'm honored to know that I was thought of for such a prestigious job, and can hopefully be offered similar things in the future. In the meantime I have to get better at responding to people about photo sales that email me. I am being published by two different organizations for publications and am really excited about this. So things are looking up on that front.

About my day time job, well that is just "interesting." To say that I am getting burned out is an understatement, it feels as if I'm being punished for being a good worker and dependable. Being the "go to guy" is becoming really frustrating, I do not enjoy being responsible to make sure everyone does what they are supposed to, or if they don't having to be the one that fixes it. There was a conversation I had where I was told that I need to know how to do everything here, and that I can't rely on the other employees. I'm highly tempted to just pack up and disappear for a while, but alas this stupid mortgage is more of an anchor than I thought. I told a co-worker that I thought of going on an extended vacation to try and save my sanity, his response was: "tell me when, so I can quit, I don't want to be here to see what happens if you're gone." Hey at least some other people can see what I do at work, I guess that's good?

February and March are blending together and moving by too fast, between travelling and lack of sleep/rest I might honestly be going insane. I did have a wake up moment when I saw a friend with an eerily similar life habit as mine, end up in the emergency room with heart troubles. Seeing a friend in the hospital and seeing why he was there, and relating to yourself is quite a scary ordeal. To be able to picture yourself in the same position and not knowing if/when it will happen makes you question certain things. The only problem is neither of us can take our foot off the gas, so to speak, in our lives. We only have one speed and one way of doing things, now we get to think of us as young and dumb with one foot in the grave. Well here's to hoping we can make it for quite a few more years.

Back to Step 0

2011-02-05T11:07:00.000-05:00

Damn you Facebook, damn you to hell! Seriously who the hell knew I would need Facebook for work related items. One freaking day away is all I got from that place. So everyone who's my friend, just remember I don't take Facebook seriously, it's a way for me to vent and make bad jokes. Also thank you to my MC for keeping me mostly out of trouble on their.

Step 1 to becoming more productive

2011-02-03T10:44:00.000-05:00

Deactivated Facebook.

In a much needed step to increase my productivity I deactivated my account, I'll see how long I can go, or if I'll ultimately delete my account. Hmm back to the days where I missed learning about parties and other things, oh well life goes on.

The ultimate plan for a career change?

2011-01-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

Apparently this is my annual rant about whether or not I enjoy what I do for a living.

I am a librarian, and yes that does include all the glitz and glamor that you imagine. I am a keeper of information, I can find information more efficiently than most. I also hear many interesting questions and see many interesting things. And I do this all for a very very low price, FREE! If you are looking to go into librarianship it is a very rewarding profession, you actually can see yourself making a difference in your community and in others. (Personal opinion: do not become a librarian if you do not like reading, books, or helping others.) Also do not think you are doing this for huge amounts of money either, it is a job that is low pay and high rewards. I enjoy what I do, yet I want more.After working in a library for many years many tasks become mundane.

I have had a few talks with people about this, for some reason I'm looked upon as an heir apparent to the so-called throne where I work. People want me to take over and to leave a lasting legacy. I'm currently working on leaving a lasting legacy, but not so much to enjoy in my years of employment, but more so as a parting gift for my departure. It will be my swan song for librarianship, I have put it upon myself to finish a project that has been in the works for years, and yet not much of anything has been done with it. I truly enjoy what I do, don't mistake this as a talk about how my work sucks, but I need a change, I need to get away, and I think I've found my way to do just that.

Although if I ultimately decide to do what I want it will also be one of the most difficult decisions I'll have to make. I've become more involved in my community, and in other organizations, I've made lifelong friends, and people that I now consider family. How will I just be able to uproot and move every few years for a job? The job I'm looking at requires constant travel and moving, I won't be able to plant roots anywhere for long. Yet I somehow find this idea intriguing, I can see the world and still do good things, and as an added bonus with a much bigger increase in income. (I'm not doing this for the money, that's a bonus.) I have spoken to my director about this and this is the first time that even she thinks that I would enjoy that change and fully supports my decision if I make it. This is from the person who would not accept my resignation, at the time I found that odd, and now I thank her for that.

So now leads the time in life where I have to figure out what I really want to do; do I stay on the course I'm on, or do I decide that a drastic change in my life is necessary? I've brought this up to a few close friends and the reactions have varied, but ultimately it's my decision to make. Now I'm left in a state of limbo, and this limbo will last for at least another 2-3 years. How does one leave a job they love and people he cares for? Can I actually go through with it? With which choice will I have the most impact on others? Would I be considered a quitter on my community if I left for another opportunity? These are all the questions I'm struggling with already, I can't wait to see what it will be like if/when I actually try to change careers.

So I've made up my mind.

2011-01-18T19:29:00.000-05:00

I'm alright with finishing last, I don't want to pretend to be an asshole. I'm actually a nice guy, and that's what I'm going to be from now on. It's who I am, take it or leave it. Too many things to explain why I'm doing this right now, but I feel good about myself after this decision, and I've been tested once already and I've passed the first test. I'm not sure how long I can do this, but I'm pretty sure it's for good. I need to take a break from the crazies for a while and I need to just relax and be myself. If this changes anything how any of you feel about me, then that's for the better.

Goodbye 2010 it's been a crazy year

2011-01-03T16:17:00.000-05:00

Well last year was just awesomely crazy. January was rather dull, February saw me dealing with police search warrants and almost dying. And who could forget about Paczki Day in Hamtramck, that one crazy beautiful day in town where everyone just has a good time. Also the first winter beer fest I've ever attended, things happened.

March has the always fantastic Blowout which was held the first weekend and that's the way to start the month off right. One long weekend of music and memorable moments, most of which I remember, some I don't. Then there was a dull of work, and grant writing - which was successful! Somehow this year I got roped into helping to plan a city festival in the summer we had 8 weeks to save a 30 year old tradition, and come hell and high water we would. A small group of devoted people came together to not only save our town's festival but to also make it one of the best one's ever thrown. It sure was a lot of work and many sleepless nights, but in the end it was worth it. To see and hear the compliments of the people there, to see the city alive for that one weekend packed shoulder to shoulder down the street, you never even realized that the weekend flew bye and how tired you really were. It does all hit you the one day the adrenaline stops but for three days we were the kings and queens of the city. Driving golf carts instead of cars on the street, and just trying to make it a good time. Thank you for this. I never thought I would have enjoyed working so hard but dammit I did. Then we decided to try it again, this time on even shorter notice and in lederhosen, although not as successful still put together well and fun.

But the greatest part during this has got to be sailing in the summer, I will forever be in debt to my friend Shannon for introducing me to this wonderful pastime. It's a few hours of disconnecting from the world and all of your worries, just you water and the wind (and alcohol). I'm pretty sure it's the only thing that kept me sane this past summer.

I'd also like to thank all of my friends for putting up with me all year, you are truly the best and I am very thankful to know all of you. Our up north trips are always a blast and will only get better. The winter trip with the brothers was more than I could have imagined, nothing beats hiking MI trails in the winter, nothing! The trip to New Orleans would have been so much more fun if it wasn't for the food poisoning, but I met some cool people and got to know others a little better.

Well what does 2011 have in store for me? Well a little bit more community action on my part, we all need to chip in and make where we are better. So there's some more volunteerism in the future for me, and of course there's still photography. I made the resolution to take more photos, because for the past few months I have been slacking in photography. So here's to everyone's success this year and hope that 2011 is the best year yet for everyone.

Taking a moment to vent about Hipsters in Detroit

2011-01-03T12:43:00.002-05:00

Dear suburbanite transplant that has moved to Detroit recently, and by recently I mean the last few years:

You have absolutely no right to look down on me, or have the audacity to tell me that because I don't live in Corktown, or a completely run down part of town that I have nothing to speak of. I'm sorry that I don't dress as ironically as you, or that there is actually some room in my pants to you know move or sit, or not see every part of my lower torso. I have lived here my entire life, I have supported local businesses and supported many local organizations. You have lived in the suburbs and know nothing about real life, you moved down here when some of your friends did, or when you read about your now urban God known as Phil Cooley. I have nothing against Phil, he is a wonderful man who owns a great restaurant and truly wants to improve the city. His so called followers though are a different story, some of you I have no problems with, you came to this city to actually make it better. To the moronic assholes who came here to be cool, and not actually make a difference I despise you with a passion. You came here and complained, you still complain about the quality of life, yet try nothing to improve it, I see you at local bars and and at music shows and somehow because of you I feel like I'm the odd one out.

You hipsters who are not creative enough to come up with your own style, who rummaged around your parents closets to find shirts from the 70s and 80s to wear so you can be retro cool. You who drink your PBR or High life and listen to 7 bands that sound exactly alike that no one has ever heard of, and once this band reaches any form of success they are useless to you. This for some reason I believe is your idea of living in Detroit, you like it because it is desolate and run down, no one wants to bother you, and if you see it is changing, just like your musical tastes you will grow disinterested with this city. It will have become too mainstream for you to enjoy, too popular to be known as the unknown. You will flee yet again just as your parents had years ago, and you will look back down at this city. I will still remain, still endure, and try to make this place better.

This has been brought on by one stupid comment from one person who's been in the city for 3 years, and is the greatest authority on it apparently. More so than people who have worked here or lived here from a time before she was born. But no you are here to correct me and my friend on living in the city.

Can helping the city become as ironic as the clothes you wear, and you actually do something? Or will you remain in the ruins gladly listening to your unknown music, as you sit in the shambles of a once former great city?

I have not had a large impact on this city, yet I have tried. I will help when called upon, and hell I've joined a few organizations to try and improve this city, and dear hipsters I find it despicable that you live here and we rely so much on your parents to drive down from the houses you moved out of to come in and help us. The people who pay for your rent to stay in the city, because God forbid you get a real job, are the people who keep these organizations going. I'm sorry that I moved into a neighborhood that is still considerably safe, I'm sorry I've lived here my whole life, and I'm sorry that I dared disagree with you when we talked.

How dare I say that your thoughts on the city could be wrong, and that others have ideas on how to help this city. You are smarter than me, you look down upon me, my shirt was made recently and that can only mean I'm a corporate shell who has been brainwashed with corporate ideas. I have no idea what real music is because I only hear mainstream music or listen to Pandora. My ideas in no way can be original, may you resurrect this city with your creative originality and lack of passion.

I might go out too much, or I need a better memory

2010-11-10T12:25:00.000-05:00

So either my reputation precedes me or I have the worst memory of anyone I know. I see a nice looking lady that I have absolutely no recollection of whatsoever, so I go and try to start a conversation, apparently this is the awkward moment where she knows who I am, we've talked before, and I do not remember a single second of it. At a local drinking establishment a friend wants to introduce me to a blond lady, I say whatever, she comes over he introduces me and she knows me. How she knows me I'm not sure, but she knows my name, where I went to school and what I do for a living, all things that I do not know about her. Also I would like to take this opportunity to ask my friends to stop calling me a slut, hell my sister has referred to me as that before and this is just odd.

I'm not sure what I can do about this, when I thought I went out too much I put myself on self-imposed sanctions to stay in more, I broke my own sanctions the same night. But that was a fun night and well worth breaking my own rules. So I have decided to just keep rolling with the punches and embarrassment of not remembering people, it's what I'm good at. But at least I'm using my own name now.

Life is hectic, but some of that is my own doing.

2010-10-25T19:39:00.000-04:00

Ahh the eternal struggle of having fun vs. working, and I need to find the proper balance between the two. I've become friends with bar owners, which until you hang out with them you don't realize have no sense of time; to them the night starts at about 1-2 in the morning not winds down. You can't continuously keep doing that when you have a 9-5 job and it not take a toll on you. I have been able to finish everything at work and still do more than I'm asked or should, I help out in my community via festivals, parties, community gardens, help friends with various tasks and what nots, and I still have fun on my own. But what is this doing to me?

Can I really sleep 4 hours a night and keep going? Can I do this for 13 days in a row (my version of 13 days is so much less dramatic)? I had to take a break recently, not because my body was telling me to but my better sense was. I turned down a pass for free beer at a beer festival and for those that know me, know that is no small task. I have ignored calls texts and messages after a certain time of day, this is less effective when it is a friend calling. But what I was doing before really had no toll on my body and I did not suffer any job performance issues and no one even seemed to notice that I was lagging. So seriously how long can one person go before it all catches up to them.

There are things I want to do, I'm angry that I started sailing so late in the sailing season, but that's only one thing. I've been too busy to pursue a passion of mine in photography and have been to busy with one of the side projects where I screwed up being able to sell certain photos at a store, when I yelled at the owner, oops. But hopefully it all works out at the end, but right now I'm ending it because the guy in the coffee shop asking his ex why she dumped him is annoying me right now. So that's all for now.

The Social Network

2010-09-30T09:40:00.002-04:00

Just came back from a screening of The Social Network, and was pleasantly surprised that is was really good. The dialogue and acting was good, borderline great.

The film opens in a bar with Zuckerberg and what appears to be his girlfriend, but that ends quickly as soon as he starts talking more and becomes more of an ass to her, and we see them break up right there. Mark Zuckerberg is made to appear to be a ruthless ass, but in my opinion in this portrayal he is a rather sad character. He lacks many social skills, and has borderline asperger syndrome, he is a genius but he has absolutely no social skills. He is often seen as being defensive and abusive to his friends. The movie makes him seem like he would stab his mother in the back to get ahead, but it also shows just how lonely this man really is. Eisenberg does a wonderful job of the portrayal of the character, he delivers his lines perfectly and somehow fits the nerd stereotype perfectly (who would have guessed that).

The movie does a great job of showing just how important it is to be first to market, you can take an idea and make it better and everyone wants a piece of the pie. Justin Timberlake does a good job portraying Sean Parker, a character everyone can truly hate. Sean seems to be a waste of human space and is lucky to live off the coat tails of others. He is that loser that everyone knows, you feel sorry for, but still hate him. He did one good thing and he'll never let you forget it, and he leads a path of destruction without knowing it. He is paranoid, scared, wants to be the center of attention at all times, and is just truly pathetic.

And Finally the last main character Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield, is Mark's only real friend, and is truly screwed by Facebook. Eduardo gave the seed money to start the company, and tried to get capital but did not have enough connections. This is where Zuckerberg as it appears in the movie decides to go for money and screw his friendship. Eisenberg does seem upset by the fact he screwed over his friend and the movie almost makes it seem like he had no choice in the option. This came after facebook got a large investment from a company and the shares needed to be diluted. It was known from day one that Eduardo would be the one getting screwed, but he signed the papers thinking that he is working with his friend, and was he so ever wrong. He does now own about 5% of the company worth about $1.1 billion (I know so sad) but was betrayed by his friend in the process. The dialog in the movie during the various mediations from the two concurrent lawsuits is truly priceless and needs to be witnessed.

The film ends with Zuckerberg hearing he needs to settle the suits because no one can like him with a jury, and he does the one thing that all of us have done before, checking on his ex on facebook. This little mistake that we have all caught ourselves doing that is not good for anyone, but he takes it a step further and requests to be friends. We've all been there and just a piece of advice if something has truly messed you up, and you no longer talk, don't do it. Don't cause yourself more pain by opening up old wounds, learn from your past experiences and move on, try not looking back too much.

But I thought it was a great film that you should go see, I did see it for free, but I would have gladly paid to see the movie. Yes actually want to pay to see a movie means that it is good, and you should check it out.

Detroit 187

2010-09-22T09:41:00.001-04:00

As I sit here staring at my laptop screen hoping that something good will magically be written about the show, I'm left pondering just where the bullet train will take me in Detroit. The main problem with that is that I know what the bullet train is, and the loop it takes me in. (Chime cheesy music in the background to give that Detroit 187 feel)

I watched the show with low expectations, and yet I was somehow disappointed, it might just be after watching the Wire that no cop show can compare, but this just seemed worse than most. The actors did not look authentic. The Detroit area is one of the most racially diverse cities in the country, yet the cops just don't look like they belong here. Unfortunately, only the criminals passed the authentic-Detroiter litmus test. (I will admit I did laugh when I saw the criminal trying to run away with the metal slide, that I can somehow see happening in this fine city). But seriously if the producers tried to give this show an authentic feeling don't call it soda and never put ketchup on a coney dog.

The acting was bad.. the story line was uninviting. Am I really interested in seeing what happens to the characters next? Not really. This show unless it takes drastic changes will last a season at most, and if it stays the same maybe six episodes. All that said, I'm still going to watch it to support Detroit. (even though it really doesn't have much to do with supporting Detroit.)

Wow, blogs...are these things still around?

2010-09-20T09:35:00.000-04:00

Not going to lie, I have been terribly busy. The festival, photography, work, and my new hobby sailing. The festival was one of the most successful festivals in it's thirty year history, this makes all of us feel good. Even the city feels good about it, hell the city manager has given us a green light for anything we want to try to bring in people/money; so in October we're having a Fall Fest/Oktoberfest.

Photography has taken a backseat recently due to my hectic schedule, but I still have a chance to take some photos. I've met a new gallery owner and he's interested in my stuff.

Sailing, my one and only true get away from everything. My phone stays off, I take no electronics and I get to get away from it all. It's just the wind that carries you. I'm not going to lie, the first time I went out I was scared out of my mind. We went on a windy/gusty day where the boat was nearly sideways most of the time, but I loved it. I've been asked to join the race team, but the festival schedule prevented me from doing this, and there's no way in hell I'll be missing the team next year. It's just pure unadulterated fun on the boat. I only wish I could do it more.

Life is good and fun at the moment and I'm still flying high on the success of our festival, wait till next year though we plan on bigger and better. We put this together in 8 weeks, now we have a year to plan it. You think we did an awesome job this year??? You won't even believe what you'll see next time. So stay tuned for a good time.

ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

2010-08-16T16:53:00.000-04:00

Why can't days be 30 or even 36 hours long? I need more time to do more things and to get more sleep. Who do I write to about changing this? Oh well, I know it can't change, damn you science! And yes my rambling continues, but I swear to you I am sane, for now. Met up with an old friend recently it's fun to catch up, and met up with some good friends too. Poker run was a smashing success, thank you to everyone who attended. The festival fundraiser was fun, successful and a great time, again thanks to everyone, but you all totally got your money's worth on this one, and anyone who missed it, too bad but it was one hell of a party. Now I have to go back to work, one of the 3 that I have right now. But hey when you're in demand how can you complain?

Long time no update

2010-08-04T10:33:00.000-04:00

So I've been really busy lately, between work, traveling for work, photography and planning a festival, and you know trying to have a social life, I don't have much extra time on my hands. But I'm not going to complain I'm actually enjoying life. My life is one real big whirlwind right now and I'm not quite sure where it's taking me, but I'm hanging on for the ride. Not much to complain about other than the occasionally burn out days, I get hit every once in a while, from the lack of sleep, with a day that I'm completely tired and dead to the world. The only good thing is this allows me to take naps during the day, something I have been completely unable to do for years.

My incoherent babble on here is probably due to a lack of sleep, but I somehow restarted my workouts at 1am again, I know not the smartest thing, but I need to do it. I have enjoyed losing weight over the past year and a half, but the major downside is that my pants and belts are too big, and I don't want to go shopping for new stuff.

So the work travel took me to New Orleans for free, and they even put me up in an executive suite at the Hilton, fancy. New Orleans is fun, until you get food poisoning, but I needed a good reason to go back, and dammit I would have come up with a reason anyways. I'm thinking I might go back in January, maybe. Also to all the people I have met the past two months, I apologize in advance that I will not remember your name, please do not be offended but I don't really remember anyone's name, and if I do manage to remember your name, you must really be special. But just because you remember my name don't get mad that I have to ask for yours, I have an odd name that's easily remembered you don't, I meet a lot of people, apparently you don't...so stop whining! Alright enough with the incoherent babble, this was all the free time I had, my break's over, I'm out of coffee and I need to go back to work. Have fun everyone.

I'm just like all the other photographers...

2010-07-18T18:23:00.000-04:00

...when we get bored we all take photos of the same things around here. We call it urban exploration, that is just a nice way of saying we break into abandoned buildings. It's fun we have to look for cops make a few sweeps around the building to check security and find an entrance point, and then hide bums' weapons. Yes I did say hide the bums weapons, we only moved the knife under his mattress, we didn't steal it or throw it out, that would have been mean. Abandoned buildings have the most broken glass you've ever seen, also there's an old high school with the most amount of chemistry labs I have ever seen. Detroit should have been the capital for chemists the way the school was designed. But back to the broken glass, summers suck for urbex photography, and I normally wear jeans and boots, but wore shorts, and that explains the cut on my leg and arms. Hopefully all the chemicals from the old chemistry room where it happened have disappeared by now. I did learn to go with a friend and another photographer, and damn is photography a cut throat business, we don't share secrets or photo spots, and we hate it when others try and take the same photos we have, but the payoff of it is fantastic. I'm actually happy that I got into photography, now back to the other side of photography the selling portion, and the most important part I learned is to stop caring about trying to sell photos and just take pictures of stuff I like. Hell it's what got me to where people want photos, and dammit it is what I'm going to keep doing.

I'm still here and doing great!

2010-06-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

Not much really to say just updating for the sake of updating and letting the few of you that read this something new. So I've been having a fantastic time recently and you know what, that's not going to change anytime soon, maybe around sometime later (some of you know what that means). I've been working my ass off but it has been fun and rewarding, I've been taking some pretty cool shots, and I'm even volunteering to help run a festival. Damn I'm not going to have much time this summer, and I'm going to New Orleans for free in July, damn how cool is that?

Just to keep this idiotic thought train going, I totally cannot party like a rockstar for long anymore, 2 nights in a row staying out till 3AM is not much fun unless you keep it going, no rest for the wicked. If you decide to try and make it up you get screwed. Well that's all for now, and remember go out and have fun! Hit me up if you want to have a fun time out here, I can take you to a lot of places.

Photography=Fun, Selling Photos !=Fun

2010-05-25T19:57:00.000-04:00

So my photos are going up in a store in Royal Oak in about a week or so, and you know what I'm realizing I don't like selling the stuff. It's a pain in the ass with printing and framing and trying to make some money. So the store is on Washington Ave. by Lilli's seafood, and if they finish the upstairs, or if they open the upstairs they're thinking of having me exhibit my photos, but for now there's going to be 5-6 of my framed 8x10s available for sale, all for the low low price of $80. If you read this blog and like some of my photos email me for pricing. Now back to why it sucks, so there's like 8 different printing options that I can choose from I love the metallic printing I've tried but the store owner doesn't, no biggie right oh well. Framing is a pain in the ass and sucks trying to suit peoples needs, also custom framers are kind of dicks when it comes to pricing, but that's maybe for a different post. I'm backed up with photos that I still need to go through and not quite sure when, and unlike last year at this time I'm realizing how important sleep can be. Alright enough about updating about me, back to work on photos.

Come together right now

2010-05-11T17:36:00.000-04:00

About time things finally started to come together. So this whole photo thing is finally taking off, finally. Selling photos, working on an exhibit, and there's a store/gallery that wants to put my stuff up and sell them. Good for me, now comes my biggest headache: pricing. There are 3 different pricing schemes: friends, strangers, and galleries. The cheapest is for friends, I barely make anything from this, for strangers I make a decent profit, for galleries you get ripped off, but they take a decent cut out of every sale so photos need to cost more. I'm almost at 32,000 views on Flickr and I'm getting more and more complements for my photos, now who's got an upcoming event that isn't really important and wants photos taken? I need more work with objects that run away or move. But I'm feeling good about this. Now to keep trying to figure out pricing. Well enough of that time to go watch mindless explosions and go see Iron Man 2.

Everyone come and drink with me!

2010-05-06T19:24:00.000-04:00

I'm writing this on the Wi-fi I intalled at the bar (Go me!). It's been a while since I've posted and I've had a few shots and beers but WTF! I'm saying that to the what the hell is going on? I've ran into 4 previous (can't say exes) in a 4 day span. Is there some sort of I hate Konrad support group that I'm not aware of, and if there is can you give me a warning so I can avoid all of you. Seriously there was one where I was out taking photos for a paper and was like shit, but I'm still friends with your best friend and we talk. Well I handled that as well as anyone could I asked and I quote "would you like your photo taken?" your friend laughed you looked like you wanted to kill me. I remember this stare from the last time we talked, and damn you you've somehow improved it. Oh well please come visit me at Donovan's Pub.

To post or not to post that is the question these days...

2010-04-21T09:47:00.000-04:00

I've been having more fun and taking this photography thing slightly more seriously than before, now that has led to the problem of me having pictures that I'm not sure what to do with. I do enjoy going out as many of you know and most of these places serve alcohol, and seeing that I almost always have a camera around I do manage to get some interesting photos. Which leads me to the conundrum that the title of this posts asks, do I publish these photos or do I sit here laughing at them?

Ahh pre-social networking days you just showed these photos to your friends, or at parties and go look how stupid so and so was or how drunk he/she was, now within 5 minutes everyone can find out about your idiotic dance moves, or what new and inventive way you've come up to hurt yourself. Speaking with other photogs I've learned that almost everyone likes the camera guy and yes it does make it easier to approach certain ladies, albeit these ladies are usually attention whores who you would never bother to call back. But seriously what is one to do with such photos, do you go up to the people and go look hahaha we were so funny and stupid, now can I post these for the world to see? I shall sit here lamenting with my choices and at the same time be thankful that I am the one behind the camera and not in front of it.

I need to refocus my attention

2010-04-07T12:35:00.000-04:00

I now see why so many people don't do exhibits, or at least people with my attention span don't do them. I love taking pictures and I love seeing how they come out, and am beginning to like the post production parts of it too. My main problem is I want to keep going out to take more pictures of different things and not work on actually getting my photos ready for an exhibit. I've actually agreed to an exhibit at a library, but I haven't actually taken the time to sit down and go through my photos and decide what I want shown. I keep going out and taking more photos of new things, and this is complicating the process. I love taking photos of urban decay and of Detroit in general, but then there's my nature shots that are pretty good too and seem to go over real well.

Hmmm what to do, what to do? Do I keep postponing my exhibit, like I've been doing for months? Do I actually sit down and decide what the hell I have to do, or do I cop out and do a contrast of urban living in Detroit, and the serene peaceful nature of northern Michigan. The beauty of destruction vs. the beauty of nature. Well I'll figure something out and let everyone know, but most likely I'll cop out and do a split exhibit of my work, it's my show and I can do what I want!

Urban exploration is interesting

2010-04-05T20:02:00.000-04:00

I found out this weekend that from now on I should not do it alone. Walking around the abandoned Packard plant in Detroit, I got a nice little surprise turning the corner into a vacated office space and I that nice little surprise is a big homeless guy in a hoodie. And when I say surprise I mean I was scared shitless, said I'm sorry and got the f*ck out of that building, the only good thing was the guy was as scared as I was when he saw me. I really don't want to be another story on the local news so I just might find someone who will go exploring with me, hell a few people even offered to go and now I'll give them a call.

In other news a damn facebook note has gotten way too much recognition and been shared about 1000 times too many. I cannot take credit for writing the note but that still hasn't stopped me from getting friend requests and messages in my inbox. To the right wing nut jobs thanks for asking me if I have no balls because I follow government laws. Also because I went to a catholic school it does not mean that you and I should be friends or that I share the same values as you do, and if I support the health care reform legislation it does not mean that I believe in a lawless government as you suggested. Now to the left wingers, seriously stop telling me you are like me, stop telling me because we are in the same profession we should be friends, and stop sharing that damn note!

My banter about myself again

2010-03-22T11:51:00.001-04:00

St. Patty's Day weekend in Detroit is always fun, first it starts on Sunday for the St. Patty's Day Parade and absolute insanity in Corktown; and yes I do mean absolute insanity. It was a fun time with some fun people and I took a few good photos. The place was packed with people, maybe not so much along the parade route but definitely in the bars, at Nemo's you could not move unless of course you just pushed your way through and everyone else just started to follow you.

But here are some of the highlights of the parade:

and the one I call "Help me Obi-wan Kenobi you're our only...holy hell what happened to you?"

After the parade I ended up at a friends bar and late night we decided to go venturing out and see the abandoned beauty of Detroit, first to an old mechanic shop and then up the 14 stories of Michigan Central Station. That was an interesting trip I was told to do it without a flashlight at night, then to only use the flashlight when absolutely necessary. This might explain why someone needed stitches but never got them. I slipped on the roof over the grand hall and that explains the bruised knee in the morning and scraped elbow, it took a second to figure out where the blood on my jeans and coat came from but I was ok, so it was my friend's blood.

And then on Wed. St. Patrick's Day, had breakfast and then spent too much money at the Old Shillelagh in Detroit, then had lunch at the Detroit Beer Co. Some friends went to take a nap and I headed back to Donovan's Pub for a few more and to hang out with some interesting people. I learned that Howard's nickname is Mandingo...I will end the story there. Then up to meet up with some more friends for a night cap and TOTS!!!!

In other news I got published in the Metro Times for my photo "Before the North wall Fell." Here is a link to the article: Metro Times
and here's a link to the photo:

Well that's all I'm going to say for now, I do have other stories but some just aren't meant to be told on here.

Blowout was awesome

2010-03-10T09:48:00.002-05:00

I somehow survived this year's onslaught known as the blowout. Yes I did close out the bars every night, even though I worked 2 out of the 3 mornings of the blowout. It was an interesting series of events. The music was actually pretty good, hey I will blame the sound at the Gates for that one band, and then there was the unexpected, odd, holy hell am I doing drugs band known as Spaceband, imagine some 50-60 year olds who more than likely still live in their parents' basements wearing painters jumpsuits, beehive suits, a 1960s McDonald's uniform with werewolf mask, some sort of horned creature drummer and a wizard robe wearing triceratops mask lead singer, who also plays a mean fisher price saxophone. Best part of that band was that they actually sounded decent.

Then came work on Saturday morning, and holy hell I felt fine, to the annoyance of some and a surprise to others to see as they put it my "chipper mood." Story time had one of the funniest moments I've experienced in quite some time when the seven year old was asked what he wanted to wish for for his birthday and he said "I want to win the lottery," priceless!

Saturday after work I said I would take a nap, nope didn't happen and this was the last night of the blowout time to go full speed party mode on. Note to everyone if you challenge me in almost anything I will take the challenge no matter how stupid it may sound. If you challenge me to a beer drinking race I will finish my PBR in under 10 seconds (also this is a new challenge for the Olympics Bar Crawl, beer chugging) yes it will make my eyes water but I shall not lose a challenge. One problem I've noticed about knowing people at a bar before your friends show up is you can be 7-9 beers in before your group actually shows up, no more stopping by early for one drink for me. This also was the case on Monday when I stopped by for one drink at a Mexicantown bar and within 20 minutes had 2 people buy me another beer, it would have been three but this time I actually had the time to say no. Back to Blowout, apparently I also like to carry around and try to move signs.

But this is leading up to one of the best and most interesting parts of the Blowout, the unknown Detroit Marching band, which were awesome.

And yes she did play with the beer can on the drum.

Their next appearance is supposedly crashing the St. Patty's Day parade, I will be bringing my real camera to that one.

The night ended with some craziness at the Whiskey but not before some chair moving hi jinks to park at the Gates, thank you for driving Kasia. So who's up for next year?

The last post needs some explanation

2010-03-03T10:57:00.003-05:00

So the search warrant was at work not for me, some sheriff's deputies came to get some information on a patron and I said we can't and won't give anything without a search warrant. I told them they can make a request for information but it won't necessarily be honored, so two days later they came back with a court ordered search warrant. Lovely. I get to deal with two deputies about technology who have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about, so I have to dumb everything down and explain how things on computers work. The other tech was trying to do the same thing to them but alas if a person does not understand technology you cannot really explain it to them in a few minutes.

In other news I'm hopefully going to get published in the Metro Times. I sent some photos in and the Arts & Culture editor wants to use mine along with some other photographers photos in an upcoming issue. HELL YEAH! Now if only I could figure out a way of making some steady income from this photography thing it would be even better. I have a friend who's helping me meet and talk with different photographers so recently I have met a Free Press photographer, a really cool combat photographer who got back to the states not too long ago, and a bunch of local photographers. By the way Detroit has many interesting/weird things to photograph with our art crowd here, and once you get to know them you keep getting invited to weirder and weirder things. I love this city.

Also so much to look forward to the Blowout, the Muse Concert, St. Patty's Parade in Corktown, St. Patty's day all over metro Detroit and after all that hopefully some sleep, rest and relaxation...but who am I kidding, I won't get any of the latter.

This week has kinda sucked...

2010-02-21T18:08:00.002-05:00

Car accident, search warrant, almost broke my finger, ipod dies, phone dies, today I f*cked up my knee. Bring it on, I'm still here and kicking. Hopefully it can only get better.

Recap of the past few days.

2010-02-17T21:10:00.005-05:00

Paczki Day, horrible start great ending. I almost die in the morning in a nice accident on the highway to getting a few drinks and having fun in the afternoon into night. Unless you have experienced paczki day in Hamtramck you have nothing to talk about. So the almost dying part means spinning out on the highway and hitting the wall, thanks MI roads and your lack of salting!

So well that's not how the week started, on Monday it was a great day off from work to celebrating a friend's birthday at his bar. (how my liver is going to survive the rest of the week is beyond me) But his party was fun, and I can't remember a single time where I had an empty drink, great service from great staff having a great time with some truly fantastic people. So get home about 2:30, up by 6 to go start the paczki delivery system, after the second to last stop is where I had my adventure. But enough of that Paczki Day was fun as always and I swear I was sober the entire day ;-), I swear! The video of me dancing is of me sober, I dance like a drunk white guy when sober too so you have no basis in your argument.

I have to get up early the next day for an appointment with a doctor, but the joy is I get to sleep in on Thursday morning, and that's when the phone rang early. FML! I cannot blame my friend but today was not the day I wanted to go on a pre-dawn photo shoot, any other week I would love to go, but all it means is that I got an early start to the day and am completely running on fumes right now. But there is still a few days left in this week, and even though I almost broke my finger at work today, I really do want to see what else can happen this week.

Have fun everyone, remember life is short live without regrets.

Anger is my motivation

2010-02-03T12:01:00.003-05:00

To the guy who looked at my photos a few months ago and told me in not so many words they sucked F*CK You, and thank you. It was you who made me go out and hone my "skills," it was you who led me to go take pictures of anything and everything. It was your stupid little words that were in the back of my head every time I took a photo. I realized I needed to improve and your damn "talk" did it for me. Failure is not an option for me, and because of who I am I will make damn sure to prove you wrong if you tell me I can't do something. I will do everything humanly possible to prove you wrong if you tell me I will fail. There is no real reason for this post other than to vent and remember me going through my photos with a prick who told me I'll never get anywhere with my photography. Now I have two offers for exhibits an invitation to join an art collective and having a hell of a time doing what I'm doing. So to you good sir who said I would fail thank you for the motivation I needed to prove you wrong.

Numbers apparently don't lie

2010-02-02T14:58:00.004-05:00

So since I started to do more actual blogging and talking about myself the number of visitors has gone up...that's a little weird to me. I've said it before that I've lead a crazy few months up until now, and that's not only due to the opposite sex, but it is part of the reason. I'm taking a break from something else now, not only am I on hiatus from school, but from women right now too. One breaks my heart, one throws a plate at my head, some don't know my real name, and then there was the second to most recent one.

So I meet a cute, smart and hell even funny girl that I actually enjoy talking to, we hang out for almost 5 hours the first time and don't realize until we're getting kicked out because the establishment closes at 2AM. Wow, get her number and will talk to her tomorrow, we decide to go out again but this time close to her, so a small coffee shop on the east side of town (I'm beginning to hate the east side more and more) and after about 45 minutes there is a look of shock on her face, and lo and behold her current boyfriend walks through the door. Now I'm sitting there quite pissed off and the guy (who is smaller than me) walks up to me, and I calmy told him that I am too pissed off to be angry right now and if he does want to go outside I really don't care right now, but fair warning pent up anger is never a good thing. I walked out and he stayed behind, for what I don't know.

I then realized I can block a number from even coming through to my phone online and through the phone, so at least I don't have to care about that call. SO like I said, I'm on a break from women. Well since I did mention that that story was for the second to last one, the most recent one was one that a friend figured out on his own. When a friend is the one who can put two and two together it made me laugh, but girls who smoke are a turn off, I thought so before but now I know for sure. La di frickin da back to a boring existence.

New logo

2010-01-25T21:41:00.002-05:00

Gotta love it when Izzo is basically telling the alumni and students to STFU and stop their whining.

This blog has changed

2010-01-18T17:18:00.004-05:00

So this blog is completely different than when it first started, I mean I just used to post random useless crap about things I found online that made me laugh. Now I post random useless crap about myself that no one reads (not really since I started these random postings my site views have gone up and from different places, go figure).

So to keep the tradition of updating everyone of my so called interesting life, a girl threw a plate at my head and that was the last time I talked to and saw her, the sale of the Minido falls photo fell through because the woman wanted me to put a $200-250 frame on a photo she only wanted to pay $200 for (I'm beginning to think the world is running out of sane people), and I sort of kinda quit my local paper photographer gig. Do I have to write an official letter of resignation when you tell your so called boss to kiss your ass and find a different idiot photographer? I do have something else lined up to take photos of local bands at one of the biggest local band concerts in the world...hint hint figure out what that could be.

Also I'm taking the photography more seriously and my style has improved, I'm not sure if I like nature photography or urban/architecture photography more, it's a toss up. But I do enjoy the weekend getaways to take pictures around Michigan, it really is a beautiful state the entire year. Where else can you find everything you find in this state, I can go to the same place in different times of the year and get completely different shots. Now I just need to find more buyers for my photos, so I'm having my first faux-exhibit at the library in February. My boss wants me to use the photos from my last trip up north, I have to come up for a name of my exhibit and any help is greatly appreciated. Well that's it for now, I'm off to go drive around Detroit to figure out what to take photos of, but first I need SBC to finish fixing my damn internet.

Being a photographer is fun...

2010-01-01T23:54:00.003-05:00

sometimes, that is. I love taking the pics, and recently began to love selling them too! Haha, that's right selling them now too, so far I've sold 1 photo, with one photo in the process of being sold. I needed my friend's advice on pricing, he told me to start high and work down, so I did. She wanted a framed 16x20 I told her a price of $400, she said how about $350, I told her sold! Yay for me, hell I would have been happy for $100, so anything else is a bonus. But getting up at 4:30AM after getting home at 2:00AM is not that much fun, although the payoff is great. Today I went out to go get photos of the Dequindre cut, and realized I need a new pair of gloves that gives me access to the camera buttons and dials. Why do I need new gloves, because my fingers turned purple and started to tingle, you know that small sensation like small needles, yeah that's what it was. I take my gloves off to take the pictures, and I don't realize my fingers are freezing until after I get the photo I want.

Now I can't keep a cohesive thought together, so back to the other photo, It's a 30x20 photo of the Minido falls, I have said that I will only print 25 of these large photos, and I have one hanging on my wall. Fun thing is the 30x20 will probably be sold for less than the 16x20 photo,but like my friend also told me sell to your audience. The photos for the local papers is beginning to get annoying, annoying as in you're giving me crap pay to go to crappy venues to see empty bars and not get my photos published. Also I really have no intentions to keep being sent to see a band that plays at 1:00AM on a weekday, I might jokingly say I can sleep when I die, but it is starting to catch up to me. To make matters worse I need to watch my mouth at these bars, especially when I make fun of my so-called employer's magazine in front of one of their writers...oops!

Oh yeah Happy New Year everyone, may this be the best year ever!

I'm an Artist...

2009-11-29T00:27:00.002-05:00

...at least that's what other people are calling me. I donated some photos for a charity and they went over real well. A few people asked to meet the artist and the first time I was told someone wants to meet the artist and I looked around and realized that they wanted to meet me. Damn that felt good. I also found out that my photos were some of the most popular items in the raffle and people have already put them up in their house.

Top it off I showed some of my photos to an art collective and they asked if I was ready to have an exhibit, after I said no, they asked how soon I could be ready. So if you are reading this go through my photos and tell me which ones would be great for an exhibit, please. More news about the exhibit coming soon, maybe or you might just get an invite. Also I might be asking for help about pricing, because when someone asked me how much my 8X10 framed photos went for I said $50? and they were surprised by the price and said only? Is $50 too much for a framed 8X10, or are these weird suburbanites who would pay too much for a photo.

All I want to do is talk about me

2009-11-16T15:19:00.003-05:00

It was a fantastic weekend, A great weekend, a spectacular weekend. It was so good I can now check off one of the things I wanted to do before I die list. And if you do hear the story, my life is not a walking talking sitcom, although I do have similar characteristics with them.

So I spend a crap load of money in photography equipment the past week, and went out and took pics with the new camera. They came out great, and I'm inching more and more at trying to have my own exhibit. Crap, I actually started to think my photos are good...that is a weird feeling. So I'm taking the advice find what you love to do, and then try to figure out how to get paid for it. So I'm taking a break from school to follow my photography dream. Hell I tried to resign, but I was considered to important and my resignation was refused, I will pick up school again some time in the future, I'll give it a year or less or more, who knows. I've joined some Detroit photographer groups and I'll see how that goes, at least they can tell me where to get some cool shots, and they are liking some of my work already. Well that's all for now, stay tuned for more updates on my crazy/exciting/hectic/fun-filled/never a dull moment life.

A long overdue update

2009-11-04T15:14:00.003-05:00

So life has been freakishly complicated over the past few months and mostly because of my own doing...mostly. It's been fun and since August when I was writing about almost 9000 views on flickr since then I've been viewed an additional 6000 times and I'm at 15,000 views. I'm really digging this photo thing and am now constantly looking at life through a lens. It opens up a whole new world to me for some reason, I lose all my cares and fears when I pick up my camera now. The camera releases me from this crappy world and lets me do things I normally would not, like trespass, enter abandoned warehouses at midnight, take pictures of people downtown at 1am. I feel no fear with my camera which is not necessarily a good thing. Best part of the photo shoot last night was the bum who would not leave me alone, and by bum I mean big guy who might kick my ass for my money and camera, I was ignoring him, and he asked me if I was a soldier, I said not exactly and he would not leave me alone, so I told him I was an off-duty cop and he said sorry and left, did I mention I decided to walk into a dark corner of Masonic temple with no light to get a shot. But I'm liking my photos, except when I hurt myself to get the damn shot.

Lalalala, anyways I'm keeping myself busy in good and bad ways now, and some of the bad ways are thanks to friends, I love all of you guys. I love when a friend gets me in a invite only party, or gives me more beer tokens, and I especially love being able to get almost anything done around town with a few phone calls and a few favors. I'm also beginning to realize that at work I'm needed more for these connections than anything else now, because it's the let's just do it through him it will be quicker. Always remember it's not what you know, but who you know, or in my case it's both, because I'm special

He Puts it in the Wrong Hole

2009-09-23T23:07:00.000-04:00

EMBED-He Puts It in the Wrong Hole - Watch more free videos

Two completely different reactions

2009-08-19T20:31:00.003-04:00

So, today I was called a dick a douchebag and a trooper. The person who called me a dick and a douchebag was the same person, and it was actually funny. This was not a bad thing really, he just called me this because he finally saw my photos online and thought I was holding out on him. He wants me to teach him my tricks to photography, he went on the rant for quite some time, but all in fun. Apparently people do like my photography and that has been making me feel good, hell I'm over 9,000 views on Flickr already...WOO-HOO! Still kinda freaked out about having my photos on exhibit on a wall for people to see and critique.

Which then leads me to being called a trooper and sort of in awe of my quick rebound from long nights. So I've been going out a lot more recently and it's been fun meeting some interesting people, and then seeing them again. One person who expected me to be dead by night three and they asked my boss how I was doing, and lo and behold I'm doing just fine and they could not believe it. Some of you know I have a very short recovery period and I'm good on just a couple of hours of sleep, or if I have to not sleeping at all. I'm young I need to have fun, no regrets later, so I keep doing it. That's it.

...WOW

2009-08-18T17:09:00.003-04:00

So yeah, uhmmm not much to report on my side here, been having fun, hanging out everywhere and meeting new people. Nothing can cheer a guy up like being offered to be blown at a bar. How and why this happened is beyond me, but hey what the hell...right? Also great to know that employees at a certain bookstore thought I was cute but were not allowed by management to talk to me...Stupid management. But yay that's good to know too.

On a completely different topic I am beginning to hate the Salvation Army, partially because it's my fault but oh well. I learned my lesson never buy anything in advance, from here on out it's generic gifts and nothing else for almost everyone. I mean not spending too much money and special ordering stuff for anyone, especially when over $200 worth of stuff is valued at $5 by the Salvation Army. From here on out it's off the shelf anything.

And I'm really beginning to like work again, and am now being called the creative one. Working on an awesome grant proposal or a community wide art project, I feel so important driving around to meetings and talking to directors of stuff. I am doing this completely unprofessionally in shorts and a soccer jersey, but I semi-fill the artist look by doing this. Wish me luck, and now back to the phones to get more money and people involved...This is awesome!

The UN-Great Baraboo

2009-08-12T14:41:00.004-04:00

This place deserves a rant blog, so here goes.

You horrible, horrible brewery never again shall I set foot in your establishment. Let me tell you, you are not worth it; your beer is awful. Who the hell added the sugar to your beer? I was ahead of Mike in drinking last night and the holding back from puking after trying every beer was a great sign for him. If your beer was good I could deal with the horrible service. On the service note, YOU SUCK! Thank you for forgetting to place my order after you acknowledge it, thank you for ignoring me the rest of the night too. I was totally ok with you hitting on the two old married guys and then chumming it up with the Gay Carney sitting across from us. To the other waitress it took all of my strength not to jump over the bar and smack you for singing "Come on Barbie Let's Go Party" every fucking 3 minutes.

Also I know you'll never find this blog or even read it but you sure as hell were not pretty enough to be getting away with what you were doing last night. I don't care, I can deal with bad service under the following conditions: 1. You have good beer - you failed miserably at this 2. You have good food - I don't know if you did, because you chose to ignore us and forgot our order 3. you are hot - HAHAHAHA, not even close, although you did think you were. I'm not quite sure if you can tell but I pretty much hated the whole experience last night. I would not even send my enemies to this bar, but if you are looking for someplace with shitty beer, carny folk, ugly waitresses that are annoying as fuck, then this is definitely the place for you. Me, I'm totally fine with being on a first name basis at the Motor City Brewery, you know a brewery with great beer, great food, and a great staff.

I'm out of my funk

2009-08-11T11:38:00.002-04:00

YAY!!!

It takes a kind word, a good friend, a great beer, or that quick glance from someone to make you feel good again. Or in my case it's doing something you didn't think you had in you and actually being a good guy about it. I am not going into the details of what happened (some of you know) but I did something to surprise myself last Monday night, and I have no regrets about it. Right now I'm living life to have fun and to see what happens. I'm OK again, I'm back to normal. I am also on a photography kick and I'm loving every minute of it. My photos are coming out OK in my opinion, still need to work on my technique and skills.

I realized I'm out of my funk by being called a brat at work again by my co-workers and finally being able to joke around and goof off again. My favorite part of last week was hearing a co-worker say "we can tell them we know Konrad," hahahaha, I know a lot of people and apparently get preferential treatment. I am totally OK with this, it's not what you know but who you know, I am a people person I talk to random people, this is how I was invited to some dude's BBQ waiting in line at the Secretary of State, or how I am going to be hooked up at an Arabic restaurant near Mike and Joyce's place, we should look into this. I find silences awkward and will break them up, sometimes that works well and at other times it backfires, but that still doesn't stop me.

Just remember kids I'm back to my old self for now, and I'm loving every minute of it.

What an interesting weekend

2009-08-03T18:16:00.004-04:00

It started off with work ehh, then tennis and the bar (cougar central that night). It seriously became the weekend I needed, it wasn't what I should have done but I did. It became the weekend of talking to old friends and some that wouldn't be considered friends. Saturday included going to Kuhnehn's brewery to hang out with the normal gang, then afterwards it was a call to an old friend, a friend from the recently mentioned asshole phase. These friends were douchebags, but not the pop collared douchebags the HIMYM Barney douchebag the ones that did everything they could and would never call you again. It turned into an almost hour conversation with him, he told me that I'm not that guy anymore, and that it's a good thing I changed. At least he thought I changed, he went on to tell me that although we used to hang out a lot, and we did certain things similarly, he told me I was never really like them, I actually had feelings. Thank you, at least I feel a little better about that. He went on to tell me that I am in all honesty a good person that like other things I do, I have no idea how to take things slowly or how to do anything small. Mike also noted this during Tennis it's the true fight or flight mantra of my life, its go big or go home type.

This led me into calling a person I wouldn't call a friend anymore, but it was something I had to do. This was awkward to say the least because I had to go find my old phone to get the number, and lo and behold it's still the same number. Oddly enough she still had my number programmed into her phone. I ended up apologizing for how I treated her and how I strung her along for a few years during my asshole phase. I literally had a girl that was basically head over heels for me but I was too dumb to realize what it really was, she was always there if I needed to go out or talk, I took this for granted, I always did. She was the last resort girl, if I had nothing else to do, or no one to hang out with, I was the guy who was always busy or doing something when she would call to hang out. I did not know how to start the conversation, and it was obvious she didn't know what to say either. But after the Hello how are you, I just ended up saying I'm truly sorry for what I did, I finally got to tell her what I've wanted to say for a few years now. I've felt bad about it but have been too much of a coward to even say anything to her because I felt so bad, I've decided you can't live your life regretting everything and the things you do regret you have to make amends with. It actually turned into a good conversation, the weirdest question was when she asked why the sudden change, and in all honesty I told her I've finally been hurt emotionally and am reflecting on how I've acted, she said I'm finally growing up. The conversation went on for a while and ended ok, and I'm actually happy that she found someone and is going to get married in a few months.

And the last old friend was someone who contacted me on Sunday, and his advise to me was "cowboy the f*ck up" and get over it. Yes he did use a Bruce Willis movie quote, but it kinda helped. He went on to say that he knows that I'm a good guy and that whoever I chose must have been a good person, but I have to get over it. He went on to say it's not like you were in love or anything...silence....and the Oh shit moment was priceless. He still says that his advice holds, he went on to tell me to stop torturing myself about it and dammit this is what I've been hearing for quite some time. But these things all hit me this morning I'm not quite sure why or how it happened but it felt as if the weight of the world fell off my shoulders, and that a cloud was finally lifted that has been hanging over me. I still can't explain if it was a combination of everything, but the last person told me something else that was true, it's not what happened or the girl that's doing this to me but it's myself kicking my own ass. I need to stop that, I need to try to get better one way or another. But now I am beginning to think it will.

What is wrong with Me?

2009-07-29T12:13:00.003-04:00

So I'm on a path of self destruction and don't care enough to change it.

I've already had this conversation before, but what the hell I'm venting. I'm fighting the idea of whether or not I'm actually an asshole, bear with me for a moment as I explain my logic. There have been now two times in my life that I've been hurt by the opposite sex, the first time was not a great emotional attachment but she said something that completely f*cked me up. After that I went on a sort of douchebag/asshole trend that lasted some time. I ended up taking a break and returning to "normal." This is where I met most of my friends, and hear from everyone that Konrad is a nice guy, we all like him. I tend not to ever hang out with the people I met during douchebag days.

Well recently I've been back on the whole asshole road again, only this time I'm realizing it. The only thing that I don't know is am I an asshole or is it my defense mechanism to the world. I am doing things without thinking anymore, and stuff I would normally not do. The bar has become my sanctuary, and yesterday a friend told me we're only 25 we should have a substance abuse problem...NO WE SHOULDN'T, and why the hell would you tell me this? Now I'm not sure if I'm an asshole with periods of being nice, or a nice guy with a tendency to become an asshole.

Case in point last Wednesday, getting out of class a girl I went to undergrad with came up and talked to me (backstory I have turned her down at least a dozen times before), started talking to me and asked me if I want to go out. A reasonable response would have been, no I'm sorry I'm busy or something of the sort; My response during this whole asshole phase: Sorry 13 is not your lucky number, and I'm sorry I just don't find you attractive. Again I didn't realize what I said/did until after and it was too late. I've lost the filter in my head to stop me from saying/doing these types of things. The only saving grace I can think of is that I feel bad about these things later, not much of a saving grace though. So right now I'm trying to figure out who I really am, and maybe I should reinvent myself, because I don't know what the hell is wrong with me anymore.

In other news I'm back to eating once a day if at all, and still trying to work out at about 1 in the morning. Oh well.

Yay for Hamtramck Bars

2009-07-28T00:09:00.000-04:00

Good Gravy! I just returned from my daily swim on the beautiful Fijian beach and realized I have not updated this since Hammertime was in the charts... You would not believe the amount of people that are totally stalking me. Seriously!.

I am absolutely consumed with setting fire to people wearing Crocs, learning to speak Japanese, just generally being a biatch to anyone unfortunate to cross my path, my day seems to be packed from the second I am woken by murderous Teletubbies to I feel like going to bed. I am quite the socialite. I need a nap.

I declare solemnly won't blog until the next time booze prices go up and I have to get sober for a while. You have my word! Until my paycheck dawneth..

Recap of the Weekend

2009-07-20T09:21:00.003-04:00

So, it's been a fun/tiring weekend, here's a little recap of what the "Guy's" weekend was like.

Thursday:
Started off at around 7:20PM went to go pick up Sergiy, and then off to pick up Mike, I couldn't go the quickest way because someone decided to blow up an Oil Tanker the night before so 75 was still closed. On the way from picking up Mike, getting on the highway, I almost get us killed getting on the on-ramp (great way to start a trip). The joys of driving for hours on 75 are awesome, especially when they GPS keeps telling you to turn around and drive through Chicago. First unexpected stop at a rest area due to Mac and Cheese, and boy oh boy you know it's gonna be a great stop when you open the door and everything smells like cow manure. Back on the highway, need to find food about 10:30ish we stop in at Gaylord, why does everything close so early? Ended up eating at Big Boy, then back on the road for a long time.

Friday
Fast forward to maybe 3:30am or 4, I don't remember Mike and Sergiy asleep in the car, me running on adrenaline and red bull, misjudged how quickly one can wear off, so I maybe nodded off for a second somewhere west of Marquette, then the caffeine kicked in again, and I was fine. Roll into the Porcupine Mountains at about 6am, oh did I forget to mention it was foggy and raining all the way from Gaylord to the State park, made for some fun times on the road. So 6am still foggy, can see maybe 20 feet in front of you, I get 20 minutes of sleep in the car, I'm ecstatic about this. We decide to see the Lake of the Clouds, and boy did it earn its name that day, you can't see a damn thing other than the Guard wall, so back to the car, and head into town for breakfast, which is about 20 miles away, a great sign that my reaction time is lacking was when Mike kept yelling DEER and about 15 seconds later I reacted. There's a bar called Stubbs here, I will need to visit later. After breakfast we go to the "grocery" store, they have lawnmowers in front of the refrigerators here, I think this is hilarious and took a picture. Why did Sergiy and Mike decide that raman was a good idea? Back to the camp with a detour at some river along the way, now to walk some trails, because the fog is gone.
Beautiful waterfalls, and awesome trails, except that apparently I walk too fast for the two guys, and am told to slow down, absolutely not. We keep going, it is seriously just amazing up there. After the trails we go to set up camp, and yes we did have to read the instructions on how to put the tent up. We attempt Lake of the clouds again, this time we can see the lake and like everything else it is just amazing. Back to camp we go, and boy did we look like College kids with our Raman and Hot Dogs, oh and to top it off we had a hard time starting the fire. We decide to hit up the city one more time, make a few phone calls, and try to catch the Tigers score. We walk in and right out of Stubbs, holy crap is it the locals only bar. We then drive down to a bar called Porkys, and someone please explain to me why at both bars they watch the weather channel? Back to the park to get some sleep.

Saturday

Leaving the park, there are ravens on the road, at least I thought they were ravens, almost all of them get out of the way except for the hawk(?) which decides turning towards my car and windshield was a good idea. I am sorry little bird I had no intention of killing you, and of course bird man is sitting next to me and I feel horrible. Well enough of that back to driving to the Keweenaw. On the way there Houghton/Hancock has an awesome river view we decide to stop and take pictures. I end up rolling my ankle on a sidewalk, great and 2 more days of hiking. On the first hike nothing says Nature Conservancy trail like shit stained underwear on the side, pics to come later, awesome view of Lake Superior. Second hike according to the hiking book is a moderate hike, F*CK YOU STUPID BOOK. The hike involved rock climbing, six inch paths on the side of the bluffs, rock slides, and a lot of holy shit is that seriously where the trail goes? After a bit of climbing/hiking we ascend to the top of the bluffs, and yes like everything else it was just beautiful. Only problem was I rolled my ankle a few more times on this hike, good times there. I should have taken some pics of the trail, but I was more worried about not falling off the bluff, so I kept walking. After the trail we met a couple going to attempt the hike, we told them to go the old easy way, because she would have killed the guy if they did the real trail. We also found out that they met the trail designer, he told them this was the most difficult trail he's ever designed. A warning or a sign explaining this to people might have been helpful.

Down to Calumet to visit on old bar that sounds cool, but is now closed for business...off to Houghton. The Keweenaw Brewing Company has great beer, the Library brew pub has ok beer but great food, and yes I'm drinking again. I was buzzing by the time I left the library and decided to give up my keys at the restaurant. Holy Crap what did I do, I asked for help, NOOOOO!!!!! Ended up in Marquette and spent the night in a suite in a Hotel, good job Mike, only problem was there were only two beds, so I ended up bunking with Sergiy. Note to everyone Sergiy apparently searches for heat sources at night and tried to spoon with me, I almost ended up falling off the bed trying to get away, I thought this was nicer than just punching a sleeping guy. He turned away and I went back to sleep, I was over the covers he was under them.

Sunday
We wake up, and head to the beach take some more pics, and head east in the UP, another waterfall with a snapping turtle that Mike rescued. Off to Lunch at the Lake Superior Brewing Company, again great beer, and the Blueberry Wheat is awesome. More hiking, Sable falls and Log Slide travel, note to DNR when mentioning shipwrecks visible, please add only wooden board on shore left, and you can't really tell it was from a boat. And after this trail we call it a weekend and start the drive home. On the drive Mike tells me that he was secretly pleased that I rolled my ankle because I slowed down on the trails...thanks! We get home just after 1am, and I'm exhausted, I have to be at work by 9am Monday morning.

I make it in time to work, but feel like I might pass out any minute...where did I put those disgusting 5 hour energy shots again??? More pics to come sometime, not sure when.

Holy Crap did this just become fun

2009-07-14T13:18:00.004-04:00

First off whoever designed older apple computers needs to be shot, they are a pain in the ass to take apart, and even worse putting back together again. But some highlights of the dis-assembly: "Why is there grease here?", "This is disgusting," "Just give me one with a rubber." Ahhh tech support is fun sometimes, now to Macgyver it back together again, because hell if we remember where the 60 odd screws we had to take apart go.

And Re-Assembly had even better moments: Just put it in the hole, Dude I pulled out already, Is it in yet, Ok You go in through one hole I'll go through the other. There were others that I just can't remember now, and after all the crap the stupid thing no longer works, so back to work.

Feeling a Little Better

2009-07-13T12:04:00.003-04:00

So I wrote about a career change, and I put out my resume, and sort of applied to a couple of places just to see how it goes. So far two call backs, and an e-mail response, I'm still appreciated, and can actually change careers if I need to. I put this up last Thursday, so the response time is fairly good. I am encouraged by this but still I'm sticking it out with the library, for now.

I don't know really why I updated my resume and submitted them, but I did and it seemed to have worked to boost my spirit. Now to increase happiness where I am now, might be a little tougher but who knows.

Also if you've noticed I've been using the blog to vent/talk...a huge leap for me. I have trouble talking with people about myself, and uhhh these feelings things. I don't know why this is easier, I know who comes here and reads this, but its working. Now all I have to do is learn how to ask for help when I need it, or actually admit I need help sometimes. In the almost seven years of working at the library I've asked for help with something maybe once, everything else I try to do by myself even if I have no idea how to do it, learn on the fly nothing can go wrong right? This is something that I will have to learn how to change because the whole go it alone mentality is not working out too well, physically or mentally. Hell I've done stuff that I shouldn't have even thought of doing alone, but I had to prove to everyone I could do it. Screw that, seriously there is no need for me to prove some bull sh*t bravado crap just to prove someone wrong.

Still going

2009-07-12T19:06:00.003-04:00

Well I tested myself twice this past week with the whole no drinking thing. At the bar I had an espresso and two cokes, and and a birthday all I had was water. I can do this. I am feeling better as of late, but that could be because I try to keep myself busy and not leave myself much free time. In other news, I don't think I want to do anything for my birthday this year...well not thinking I'm not doing anything for my birthday other than homework. This way I am sure I will not have a drink and keep the promise to myself. I'll see how well this plan works at the Summer Beer fest, so either I'll have a few or you will be getting my extra tickets. (which was almost ruined when I heard there was a Detroit Beer fest)

Reactions I've heard to my decision have been mixed but mostly positive, the best was because I've realized that I've made some bad decisions because of alcohol recently that it's a good thing that I realized what I'm doing and stopping for a while. Others just don't understand and that's ok. That's all.

Yet another update

2009-07-09T13:00:00.002-04:00

So, after last week and early this week, I have decided to take a break from drinking. I kinda used it as an escape from reality last week, and it just doesn't work, living for the night kinda sucks. 4 hours of sleep and heading out to the bar after work is not the greatest plan, while only eating once a day and still trying to work out at 1-2 in the morning. So I'm going to take my friend Jide's advice and force myself to eat more, not much at a time, but to at least try to get my metabolism a little more back to normal. This time-out from drinking is something I probably need, I've done it before, but this time I will make an exception for the Summer Beer Fest, and see how long it goes (I don't even want to drink on my birthday).

Update about me...

2009-07-05T18:14:00.002-04:00

...So I have had a horrible week at work, that has me contemplating a career change. I wrote about this on facebook, and I'm still thinking about going back into finance. Don't get me wrong I still like working at the library but seriously, I am getting a little frustrated with all the crap I put up with. I could be putting up with the same crap for more money elsewhere. Seriously I took a $20,000/year pay-cut to become a librarian, and was one of the few people who declined a financial analyst position while I was still in school. Who knows maybe it's just a combination of feeling horrible the past few weeks. In other news to try and change how I feel I ended up taking my barber's advice that he gave me.

I did something and feel horrible about how I acted and how I did it, and yes I have had confirmation that I take the douchebag of the week award for it. I hear it takes time and get over it, well guess what I probably will at one point but who knows when. Believe me hearing at work a few weeks ago "you are beginning to depress me because I've never seen you sad" does not help make me feel better. And to help in self-fulfilling prophecies, after what I did and feeling bad about it, yes I went out a few nights in a row, and alcohol does nothing to make a person feel better. The best part of the week was the 4th of July park excursion at Stoney where I got to forget about all the crap I have been putting up with and just got to hang out for a while with friends. And the weekend is almost over and I will be returning to reality and remembering everything that sucks about life again.

Sigh, here we go again.

Playing for Change - Stand by Me

2009-06-29T10:15:00.001-04:00

Stand By Me | Playing For Change | Song Around The World from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

What Luigi really thinks

2009-06-28T11:45:00.000-04:00

General Motors - Thank you America Spoof

2009-06-27T09:18:00.003-04:00

Robin Williams' History of Golf (NSFW language)

2009-06-26T22:10:00.001-04:00

The Facebook Song

2009-06-25T11:47:00.000-04:00

Signs

2009-06-17T18:45:00.001-04:00

Signs
by mg02

Total Eclipse of the Heart - Literal Version

2009-06-16T08:48:00.002-04:00

Pachelbel Rant

2009-06-16T08:39:00.001-04:00

Instruction Manual for Life

2009-06-14T08:34:00.000-04:00

Celebrity Jeopardy

2009-06-09T19:29:00.001-04:00

Suffering Defines us

2009-06-08T10:35:00.005-04:00

So getting stuff ready for a program I'm in charge of has me revisiting old school work. From my philosophy class:
As Seneca said "The greater the torment, the greater the glory shall be," we cannot know life without suffering. Seneca says without an adversary we will never know our potential, or who we really are. Those that try to avoid suffering are doomed to fail, and worse yet they do not have the character to deal with this failure. In other words how we deal with suffering in our life defines us as the person we are or will be.

In no way am I saying I have an adversary, or at least one that I can tell you without reveling my secret identity, but the statement holds true, you really cannot judge what type of character you have until you have met some sort of challenge. Seneca also says that "Prosperity can come to the vulgar and ordinary talents, but to triumph over the disasters and terrors of mortal life is the privilege of the great man."

Yeah so this is one of those posts that don't really fit in with this blog, but hey what the hell everyone's entitled to be different, at least every once in a while. Yes I have been re-reading these sort books again, along with many other books...I'm boring I know. In a totally unrelated topic I am on my 8th straight day of work...all work and no play makes Konrad a dull boy.

...yeah

2009-05-28T20:23:00.001-04:00

Hey I still sometimes add stuff here

2009-05-19T18:19:00.004-04:00

Well its been a few busy and fun weeks, and if you are my friends you've either seen pics on facebook or flickr. So, I have started a new semester of classes and oh boy the same as before, just boring. Web site development was the first class, and is an online class. Guess what remember when my adviser said I would be bored the first six weeks, well turns out he was right and wrong, I will be bored not just the first 6 but all 15 weeks will be boring. So I got to learn how to create a web page, and use Google analytics in week 1, week 2 will have links, tables and image maps, this program wants me to become an alcoholic. I mean seriously what the hell is wrong with my school, yes its a school now no longer a program. Wahoo! (please note the sarcasm)

Class #2 is a fun management class, yes I have to take management again. But this time with less management theory and more talking about what/why we need. Awesome, so I have to go to a class and learn things I know again, and what I do everyday...I'm beginning to see a pattern with these classes I'm taking. In all seriousness though I might complain about these classes but I really do like my job and what I'm doing. I have fun at work, and that's what's important, I can sit through the classes and talk to people take facebook quizzes and find sneak peak tickets to movies during classes. The only drawback is the busywork that I don't really want to do.

On a totally different side note Motor City Brewing Co. has their Summer Brew back, so any takers? It's good stuff.

Ping Pong Penguin

2009-05-18T23:28:00.002-04:00

Mike get on this, and train the penguins at the zoo:

Also feed them Carlsberg Sport, apparently this teaches magical ping pong skills

Funny way to break up

2009-04-27T20:00:00.002-04:00

He bites me in my...

2009-04-27T19:58:00.000-04:00

and he bites my Labrador in the ...Time to get a new dog, this one has some serious issues.

One Word...Awesome!

2009-04-23T10:07:00.001-04:00

You can't get any geekier than this though, Playing Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody on your old gadgets.

If you like the Onion...

2009-04-21T09:46:00.002-04:00

...try reading the Ironic Times. Nothing else, that's it, I can't always find a stupid video, or bitch about school on here.

Possibly the worst Music Video ever

2009-04-19T18:54:00.002-04:00

Wacka Wacka

2009-04-19T10:38:00.001-04:00

Facebook Manners and You

2009-04-19T10:34:00.003-04:00

Fail Ale

2009-03-25T21:16:00.001-04:00

Fun Exams

2009-03-24T15:10:00.002-04:00

Walt Whitman

Cats

Ugly

Christopher Columbus

I'm bored

2009-03-24T09:58:00.003-04:00

I have reverted to blogging when I'm bored apparently. So I'm finally a librarian, and you know what it's absolutely nothing different than before at work, just a new title, and a bunch of useless old business cards that need to be replaced. I would feel a little better about my "promotion" if I wasn't already doing everything before, I mean I was basically a librarian for less pay and no benefits. My favorite part is after working here for six years, I still get put on probation for 6 months for the union, and 12 months for the City. Right, thanks I'm totally going to disappear and become a horrible employee now that I'm full time.

So the whole crap of me getting rid of my blog was premature, I get bored and will do this but not as much as before. In all honesty I don't care if people stop coming to this blog, for the few of you that do I get to make you laugh or cringe in horror for some of the stuff I have posted or will post. That's right, cring in horror, I should start adding some of those videos to this blog that I talk about, so in other words Mike will never want to click on a video again when I start.

And finally and update about school, so I'm officially a slacker, big surprise right? I don't even know where my class meets anymore, and have no idea when homework is due. It only takes at most 45 minutes to finish an assignment, and is completely pointless busy work. I don't know if any of the teachers try to make class challenging anymore, or they just have such low confidence in their students that they make it easy. This could also be a ploy by the school to make students grades look better, but enough with the conspiracy theory crap. If any of you want a career change and need to find something easy to do, become a librarian. You too can learn the power of finding stuff online, and write papers abotu the future of the profession, make sure to include the internet changed everything and we need to adapt blah, blah, blah... I have written basically the same thing in three classes now, and because the lack of communication between teachers exists no one can tell I resubmit the same thing. I even told a teacher I wrote this for another class and am just copying it for you. Oh well I hope beyond hope that I might do something fun in this program, at least once before I graduate, but I'm not holding my breath

Doctor Manhattan Video Game

2009-03-24T09:42:00.001-04:00

8-bit retro, and if you've seen watchmen you know why this is so f*in hillarious

Avenue Q meets Sesame Street

2009-03-24T09:39:00.000-04:00

The Internet is for porn:

Soccer fans have balls...

2009-03-24T09:24:00.002-04:00

...and might be slightly crazy, but we all knew that right?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Internet Explorer 6

2009-03-23T16:22:00.002-04:00

Check out the rest of his fun splash screens here.

He has a point if you are still using Internet Explorer 6, I have nothing to say to you, you should not be on this site, or talk to me.

Olbermann and Seth MacFarlane

2009-03-21T08:35:00.001-04:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Does anyone actually have a speech writer anymore?

The Pissing Prank

2009-03-19T21:03:00.000-04:00

Baby

2009-03-19T20:53:00.002-04:00

Getting a dog before having a baby teaches you valuable lessons, just remember there's a difference between the two.

Baby from summer of tears on Vimeo.

Fun on the Jumbotron

2009-03-14T13:16:00.000-04:00

Little Pimpin'

2009-03-14T13:09:00.000-04:00

OOOh I can't wait to see little Tyrone be like this when he grows up.

Little Pimpin' - watch more funny videos

Watchmen Discussion Topics

2009-03-14T11:24:00.001-04:00

Watchmen Discussion Topics

Posted using ShareThis

I was told to blog...

2009-03-11T15:32:00.003-04:00

...why do people tell me to blog? I don't have much to say, so lets have a recap; School-still boring
Work-I'm finally a librarian
School- did I mention school is still boring?
Paczki Day- Drinking and fun
Blowout Day 1 - Hasselhoffed Eric, Drinking and sort of fun
Day 2 - Didn't go, saw a blue floppy penis
Day 3 - Drinking and fun, threatened, had an awkward conversation and many drinks.

Yes I was threatened, if you f*ck this up, you f*ck with me...Now go get us shots. Nice, thank you. School is getting ridiculous, I am beginning to think that this program is intended for the slightly mentally challenged wanna-be librarians. I had to go talk to my adviser, told him about my class I was going to take he tells me I'll be bored for the first six weeks of the 14 week class, and already know 80% of the class...what? Can I only pay for the 20% I don't know? Interesting email from my teacher telling me I can skip class, because she doesn't have much to talk about and would be pointless to come, thank you! Monotone teacher is still monotone, and is getting stranger each class, I honestly believed she stopped caring 20 years ago, but now I'm not sure if she ever cared about teaching. So...I'm really running out of ideas, I am getting bored seeing the same re posts online, so I blog less. I have no idea if I will blog more consistently or just give up on this site, its been getting less and less traffic, and I am getting bored with it. We'll see, so this might or might not be my last post; tell me what I should do, because I really need advice, or a reason to try to blog.

He's hooked on a feeling

2009-03-05T17:52:00.001-05:00

The Financial Crisis explained by Red Vs. Blue

2009-03-02T10:09:00.002-05:00

Another reason to drink

2009-03-02T10:00:00.003-05:00

Yes I know this is an old campaign most likely for prohibition, but this plan surely backfired. Seeing these women and that sign, I would have definitely laughed first, then gotten sh*tfaced in front of them, and saying thank God the no lip touching rule is yours. I don't feel like a jack ass by telling you that you all absolutely repulse me, and that the drinking is helping me keep my sanity. Just a quick suggestion for you uhhm "stunning" ladies next time force feed men alcohol, it might make you happier, at least until they sober up and realize what a horrible alcohol induced mistake they just commited.

How men talk to women

2009-02-19T10:38:00.001-05:00

The government's new mascot

2009-02-18T22:23:00.000-05:00

Simpsons Finally get a new intro

2009-02-14T10:30:00.003-05:00

Because they are finally going Hi-def this Sunday, the Simpsons will have a new intro to the show, maybe not exactly new but updated. Check it out:

Catching up on the posting...

2009-02-13T10:40:00.005-05:00

...because of my social reprimand last night. So sorry that I have not been posting every day, or posting stupid videos/links for all of you to go to. I have been busy, well not really but at least I can say that and make myself feel better. So it's been a while since I've complained about the newest adventures in my academic escapades.

So I am taking a whole two classes in grad school, why you ask because it's expensive and that's all I can do at a time. So this semester I am taking cataloging, and referencing, yes I know I sound like a fun, crazy, wild guy you all know and love.

These classes maybe the reasons that I drink as much as I do, seriously one teaches you common sense, and is filled with students who apparently have A) No social Skills B) Know nothing of real life C) Have been home schooled D) have been beaten repeatedly with the ugly stick E) Have had a mid life crisis and decided to change their career paths E) the few of you are actually cool, and I will talk to and F) A grade school teacher teaching grad classes. I actually get homework time during class, something I have not had since 4th grade, oh and if you can't find all the requirements for the assignment that's ok, it's hard to find things and you will not be marked down? Seriously thank you, that two hours you gave me last week for homework, I was at the bar drinking away my Motor City Ghetto Blasters, and the one shock top, which I will never drink again. Oh and I will get another two hours in class to do homework this week, so I'll put up a poll on what you think I should do during this homework time.

So far the best part was after the first assignment, we have a guest speaker come in to talk about real life situations. She started off by telling us that the last time she used what we just did, was for the assignment when she had the same class years ago. Guess what she uses Google to look stuff up, and never goes to reach for a book. Thank you, you mean that the internet has made the task of finding information easier? No, you don't say. I mean I can determine if a source is reliable on my own, holy crap thank you for this nugget of information. In all my collegiate life I never knew that the internet was a large warehouse of information that can be accessed anywhere and at anytime. I mean why should I pay for this degree when I can find everything on Google, it's such a time saver, and anyone can use it. Am I being too cynical here?

Second class has surprisingly more socially acceptable people, except for the teacher. Truly a surprise to find a class filled with mostly social people, the teacher is monotone, and appears to have stopped caring about teaching about 20 years before I enrolled for the class. So during her reading the freaking book to me for 3 hours at time, I take those stupid facebook quizzes, or read blogs/sites, or read watchmen. The teacher also has a habit of telling you very disturbing stories/facts mixed into her reading us rules; some great gems were her racist comments, disturbing revelations of her husband and "Daddy," and usually anything else she tells us that is not read from a gigantic rule book.

So, this a fun semester filled with beer, and me slacking through again. If I learn anything worthwhile I will be amazed, but looking forward to registering for a web development class this summer, and one of the main points of teaching is frames, you know what, 1995 called and they want their outdated web design idea back. WTF, I now think they are going to teach me how to log into AOL in this class, FRAMES SERIOUSLY!??!! Should I be prepared to hang myself now, is this the reason it's an online only class, that the people who know what they are doing do not beat you senseless for even mentioning the word frames in 2009? I half expect to log in and watch the first video and hear behold the power of FrontPage 5.0!!! Welcome to the new and exciting life of web-sites. ARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

So this summer might be filled with more booze than I thought, and I'm going to love to learn about web design drunk! Behold the power of education, and how it is greatly improved with the addition of alcohol.

If Valentines Day Cards told the truth

2009-02-13T10:14:00.001-05:00

From Cracked here is a few cards that you won't see this very Hallmark Holiday, but maybe you should.

Check them out here.

Holy Hell

2009-02-13T10:12:00.001-05:00

Can you imagine driving into this!?!
Broken Hill Dust Storm Australia

This Kid sounds Awesome!

2009-02-13T09:59:00.004-05:00

So kids tell you the truth and how they really feel, and they don't care about it. Well this kid is my new hero, he is hilarious, and will more than likely end up being a jerk when he grows up.

Some gems:

"You can't trust girls. When I get a girlfriend I am not going to tell her where I live or work."

"I am going to have seven girlfriends when I get older so that I can be with a different one every day and then start again on Mondays."

Players aren't made. They are born.

Read the rest of his quotes here.

That Jean-Luc Picard

2009-02-08T10:26:00.002-05:00

I know I'm a dork, I found this funny.

Maybe I should drink less coffee...

2009-02-07T19:42:00.000-05:00

Mighty Putty Dub

2009-02-03T18:26:00.001-05:00

This has to be funnier than the original, at least you don't hear Billy Mays screaming at you the entire commercial.