Oh So Tired

But still have time to post two quotes I've stumbled upon while making my book cover designs for tomorrow's class.

"He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is, and how raw the sunlight is upon the scarcely created grass. A new world, material without being real, here poor ghosts, breathing dreams like air, drifted fortuitously about."
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

"Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up in the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplisments."
John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

G'nite.

More on Geckos, or Geicos

Everyone's favourite (former) blogger Marc sends me a link to this article on one of the funnier commercials from the past year, Tiny House.

As for my ongoing battle against bugs, I was walking into my kitchen yesterday afternoon and noticed three flies buzzing around the entrance. That's strange, I thought, what an awful lot of flies to see all at once. A few minutes later as I was readying myself to attend guest speaker, my attention was piqued by a subtle din near the living room windowpane. It was not so subtle as I got close to the window to notice that there was a swarm of flies climbing in through the cracks. I went to the kitchen and got a bottle of flea spray (that had been sent to me from my Grandma's house, a gift I had thought strange when I received it many months ago) and now have about 50 dead flies lying in a post-genocidal mass grave on my windowsill.

Oh, Florida. Land Accursed by God.

Hip Hop Manga

Interesting article from the International Herald Tribune on the rise of hip hop culture in Japan.

Serious Procrastination

Procrastination where you can actually learn something. Screw advertising, I'm gonna be a doctor!

Oh, Geez.

I have a gecko living in my closet.

There I am, concepting :30 commercials for a wine website, when I discover a great breaks show on BBC radio. How I dig this purveyor of fine music -- older than my dad and still spinning some funky sh*t! How this gives me hope for my future! Annie Nightingale, you are my new hero!

Tropical

Why do I keep finding CENTIPEDES in my room? Yuck!

Wow.

So much hate, all in one condensed list.

The Most Colossal Post

I don't know what it is about Miami but it's like I can't be here for more than one minute without facing some kind of frustrating situation. If it isn't related to school, it is almost always related to someone's extraordinary incompetence, generally mixed with a whopping slap of rudeness on top of it. (See post on American Airlines, below.) I really hate having to constantly feel like I have so much to fight, but it's also annoying to be stuck in your building's elevator for the umpteeth time, go to the front desk and politely inform them of being stuck, and then be told, rudely, "it's broken." Oh it is? I thought functioning elevators normally stopped between floors for five minutes. Meanwhile, a CD I ordered off Amazon marketplace never arrived, and despite having written an email to the independent seller inquiring about its whereabouts, I never heard anything. I receive an email from Amazon asking to rate my experiences and used the opportunity to rate the seller as a good forum to explain my situation, using lots of exclamation points and capital letters to demand a REFUND!!!!!! I then receive an email from the seller whining that I hurt her feelings and to please take my comment off because she's a stay-at-home mom who makes her living through selling used CDs on the internet. I don't care if you lost your right leg to gangrene in Vietnam and your liver to battle fatigued-induced cirrhosis, I expect that if I PAY for an item, that I will receive it. Goodness, with all this ranting I feel like I'm taking the personna of another schoolmate ... sigh ...

Despite the sudden rise in blood pressure after returning to Miami and facing a slew of new, small battles (the folks who run my building, American Airlines, and some indepdent seller on Amazon marketplace), I have actually been having fun! My photobucket account decided, magically, to let me use it again, which is great news and means that I can post photos of my hot friends again (according to some that's the only reason to look at my site in the first place). Thanks, y'all.

First off, photos from my last night in San Francisco.


First, I went to pick up Vahbiz at her new place in San Francisco and we went for a couple drinks Hub Zam Zam, a funky little bar on Haight Street.


We went to an Indian restaurant in the heart of the Tenderloin with my friend Yogi.






Me and Yogi.








Then we went to The Globe in the Financial District, where my friend Scott bartends.


Me and Vahbiz.


We took Vahbiz to a club so she could find her cousin and his girlfriend, then headed to Anu for drum n bass.


Needless to say, we ended up at the End Up. Yikes. Notice my stunning facial expression. Also notice that the horrible bruise I've worn on my arm for the last week from falling at the End Up has not yet surfaced.

Moving on to Miami. Two atypical things occured last Thursday, the first being that I went to a big, glitzy club and the second was that I actually had a really great time at one. I find the scene in Miami to be so pretentious and stifling ... normally the people who care about being at the "right" clubs don't seem to actually enjoy the music or partying, they seem to stand around bored and insipid. Since you can barely hear anyone over the loud music, conversation is usually nothing more than shouting "can you pass the bottle of Grey Goose?" eight times until someone figures out what you're trying to say. Anyway, our night at Mansion had all the entrappings of what could have been a miserable night but somehow my mood was positive enough to not get bothered by all the lame Miami club happenings.


Me with Jenn and Anne. I'm not doing a jig, I'm covering the outrageous bruise on my left arm.


Jenn and Anne.


Anne and John.


Anne and Jenn with Emil.


John, Anne and Jenn.


Yup, welcome to Miami.


Anne and Jenn.




Jenn and ... Satan? No, just a tall Venezuelan.


Anne, dancing.

And more photos, of a more random, relaxed night, last night.


Lindsay and a plastic iguana.




This photo didn't turn out very well, but in real life this guy's glasses flashed green lights.


Jenn.


Josh, sulking behind Lindsay and Beau.


Beau, extremely up close.


Lindsay with a spoon.




Triumph!

Anyway, that's enough posting for now. I have mountains of work to do.

My bag finally arrived, so my anger is appeased.

In the meantime, here are the photos I took last quarter in photography for your viewing enjoyment. I have to ask my model if I can post the black & white nudes that garnered a gold magnet (one of the super important, special awards our school gives out each quarter - ha!). Obviously I have plenty of time on my hands at the present moment to post silly things like this. Just enjoying the calm before the storm, as the cliché goes.


Clown, Central Park.


Volleyball, Central Park.


Pool table.


Horse.

One of these days I'll scan in the negatives from the remaining Spain photos.

Things I Have Learned About American Airlines

Apparently, their CUSTOMER RELATIONS department has no phone number. This, I learned after inquiring how many more hours I should wait to buy a toothbrush, and to whom I should send a check. The bag was supposed to arrive by 6 pm, should I expect to wait days, weeks, months with unbrushed teeth? If I have complaints, I can contact the customer relations department. Do you have that phone number? Oh, we don't have that number. I'm sure you do. Oh, no, they don't have a phone. They work in an office and there is no phone? In 2005? No, ma'am. The CEO of American Airlines has a phone number, I'm fairly certain that the customer relations department has a phone number. No, ma'am.

Thankfully, Corporate Communications does have a phone number: (817) 967-1577, while Customer Relations can be faxed at (817) 967-4162. And the main phone number for American Airlines head corporate offices in Dallas-Fort Worth Texas is (817) 963.1234.

Deodorant

Back in Miami. Without a suitcase. Which is en route to my house, and has been for the last seven hours. While I would very much like to have my clothes, toothbrush and CDs available, the one item I am missing most walking around in the 95 degree sun is my deodorant. I'd like, also, to go to the gym, but my gym clothes are in my suitcase, and frankly it's just one other activity for which I would need, well, deodorant.