Camera... Found

There are many pictures and videos I could post. However, this sums up recent excitement in my life. As stated in a previous post, I had extra time to spend in Chicago. I am thankful that I spent that time with a couple amazing friends of mine. It is my hope that we'll have more pictures like these later this year.

Carnival

I struggle with working excessive hours more recently. The past three days I have worked at least 11 hours, and from now until after Valentines Day (a.k.a. Singles Awareness Day), my hours wont lessen.

Now and then, I am blessed with a night out. Last weekend, friends and I attended Carnival in Austin. My feet and legs were sore from the dancing, and when we left it was pretty damn cold. None the less, it was a great time.

Entourage with me.

Entourage without me.

The music was upbeat, loud, and caused uncontrollable body movement. Good times!

Bad tea. Good company.

I had the pleasure of hanging out with these two wonderful girls while I was home in SF for the holiday. It was a pretty fun filled day with shopping at some joint on Filmore, donating money to a charity that supports shelters for homeless women and children, drinking tea that I tried not to admit tasted like crap, grabbing cupcakes at a sweet place off Lombard, and then parting ways.

People should be jealous that I had the opportunity to hang out with these two. I'm jealous looking at my own picture!

Oh, and the reason why I'm posting this now is because like a cotton-headed ninny muggins I forgot to post it over the holiday break.

Damn! Look how stylish them girls are!

Coming to a close...

The beginning of the weekend, the end of my 3 week vacation.

It's kinda hard to wrap that around my head. Even now my body is at odds with myself. It's about half an hour until midnight and I am ready to call it a night. Just an hour ago I was ready to be out all hours of the night and now the tables have turned.

For the culmination of this posting I will conclude with a picture of my facial hair, which I grew out all during my vacation.

My Office Christmas Card

This tasteful picture was on the cover of each Christmas card I gave to every person in my office.

25 Years Old

Saturday (the night before my birthday) my friends and I went out to celebrate my birthday. We started of eating sushi, then made our way to the bars. We were bar hopping. At our 3rd establishment I officially turned 25. I was drinking a Sam Adams Cherry Wheat (my favorite), and walked out the back to the beer garden. My entourage followed. There was a countdown, and then it was announced. Glasses and bottles were raised. We drank. Then, as though an omen... not even 30 seconds into my birthday I received my first gift.

Aside from my face being a little flush from the sunshine earlier in the day (BS), you can see the bird shit on my hand. I had plenty of volunteers willing to document this splendid occasion with their cameras. Thanks ya'll. So there you have it. That was how I began my 25th year of life. More to come about my birthday.

... Let me explain

Blogging has become a fun hobby for me. When I find the time I blog. However, with the amount of travel I've been doing, I'm left with too few opportunities to put my thoughts in text. Last month was a poor showing on my part. I get a "D" for effort. This is like middle school language arts all over again.

Right. So... My good friend Barry, known to others as Barack, is now President-elect for the U.S. and A. I figured after a long stint without a posting by me, I'd share a fun post with you. Actually just this fun picture.

This shirt was given to my by my mom. Although, I didn't wear it to work, nor to my polling station, I did wear it the rest of the evening. For the most part, it got some laughs and greetings of support. However, I did see a few faces (a few, friends of mine) less than pleased. My political stance is pretty clear. None-the-less, I hope you like the picture.

The things we find exploring

My roommate and I went exploring an abandoned lot near our neighborhood. We came across it some weeks back when we went for a bike ride. We decided then that we would have to return to this property to take pictures and explore. As we exited my car when we arrived, he made some comment about feeling as though we were detectives about to scope out a crime scene. He's... funny like that.

Here is the most visible structure on the property. This abandoned house was almost to sketchy to enter.

On the side of the house was this one lonely window. The paint was peeling, the walls had holes, and this one window pane was broken.

Not everything about this place was bad, but then again, not all of it was good. It was evident that this place was used by squatters and druggies as evident by the used needles scattered about the floor. Certainly not a pleasant sight.

I paid enough attention in high school Physiology to recognize this as most of the pelvic bone, but not enough attention in Biology to identify the animal this came from. I think it's safe to say that it whatever it was, it didn't overdose using the needles from the previous picture... I hope.

Some sights on this abandoned property were great. Luckily, we were there just before the sun was setting which provided what I thought was great lighting for still photography. I'm no Ansel Adams, but I can pretend to be.

There were some intriguing pieces of natural-unnatural art. I've labeled this photo "Payback". The old Chevy truck has a tree growing from underneath between the bed and the cabin, right up that gap. It is such an impressive sight to see. I could waste a whole roll of film on this truck alone (... except I use a digital camera).

On the inside of the door was this registration. If you have the means, feel free to look it up.

This photo I call "Office Chair 2" ("Office Chair 1" being vertical). [The Office - Chair Model]

One of the last things I stumbled upon was this old magazine. It was missing it's cover, but I flipped open the magazine to this page of children holding rifles. I can only imagine how old these children are now and what they're doing or not doing with their lives.

I like to finish with a culminating picture, and I feel this photo captures our little adventure. The sun coming down and us breezing through the brush to get back to the car. There was just so much around us and not nearly enough time to photograph it all. It will definitely be a place I will visit again soon and you can expect more pictures.


That's is for this post. I hope you enjoyed!

Now get back to work!

Pictures from Dallas

So I now got around to adding the pictures I said I would from my week in Dallas. Just the highlights though!

AIG. I was listening to NPR on the way up to Dallas in my rental. When I pulled into the parking lot of my hotel and into a parking spot facing the street, what should I see across from the hotel? That's right, a huge AIG building. (For the less up-to-date folks reading my blog, AIG was bailed out of financial ruin by the government for $85 billion earlier this week).


The Pool. At the LaQuinta Inn and Suites there is a decent sized pool. My colleagues have been hanging out poolside almost every night after our programs. I (not so surprisingly) didn't think to bring a swimsuit. It really wasn't a priority for me, and really hadn't even gave it thought.


Empty Lot. I'm pretty much in the middle of Dallas. Yet, when I look out of my window I see a HUGE empty lot the size of... uhh maybe a city block! Dallas really isn't a city I favor that much.


This picture I hadn't mentioned in my earlier blog. I took this one morning on the way to a high school. This was a common sight for me. The rising sun directly ahead. It made driving... fun.