I'm not really "here in Pittsburgh" anymore, but I also don't want to rename the blog "Here in Endwell" because I don't think I'm going to be here very long (at least, I probably shouldn't be). So I guess it'll just be "Here in Somewhere" for a while, but you can still get to it from the normal address.
Monday, December 24, 2007
Changes
Monday, December 17, 2007
Class of '07
I'm fairly certain that I'm done with school now. I don't know if I can say I've officially graduated or have a masters yet, but hey, no more teachers, no more books, no more Laura's dirty looks!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Sneak Peek
For those impatiently anticipating my next masterpiece, here's a preview. The girl isn't nearly finished (and due to all the homework I have, probably won't be for a while) so she's not present, and the final background will be a lot different.
I know, I know, you're thinking, "WOW! Did he take a picture of himself?" No, this is actually a drawing, believe it or not.
[Update: the picture is slightly different than before, but alas, still no girl.]
Friday, November 16, 2007
More Art
Hopefully no one saw the first draft I put up last night. This is a picture I drew on the computer. There's still a few things off with the perspective, but I'm tired of editing it. If you're curious I drew it first in MS Paint (hence the rough lines) and then shaded it, did the reflections, etc in Photoshop.
[UPDATE: Though I told myself I wasn't going to waste any more time on this picture, I fixed a few more things, which most people probably wouldn't notice but make me feel better.]
Saturday, November 10, 2007
My Veteran's Day Party
A couple months ago my roommate and I threw a party that only one guest came to. You remember that story in the bible about the man who invites rich friends to come to his party but no one comes, so he turns to the poor? Well, I thought that by going directly to the poor to begin with (my college student friends) I was following the message of that parable. But as it turned out even the poor didn't come. So this time around when I threw my Veteran's Day party I invited my rich celebrity friends, who all came.
Beyonce liked how her dressed matched the red decorations and Gwen Stefani appreciated the "MOM" window dressings. Jim and Pam from "The Office" were there, as well as Steve Carrell and his wife, Britney Spears and the Bushes (George W. and Laura; the seniors couldn't make it).
Two uninvited guests tried to crash the party, but overall it was a success.
Ben Roethlisberger stopped by for a little while, and he and Timbaland did an impromptu performance of "Give It To Me" (who knew Ben could sing just like Nelly Furtado?). Some people had a little too much to drink (ahem, Mariah Carey dancing in the shower).
Pope Benedict XVI made a surprise appearance towards the end of the party, which was really special because originally he had "regretfully declined" but found time in his hectic schedule after all.
Two uninvited guests tried to crash the party, but overall it was a success.
Friday, November 9, 2007
The Nameless Dragon
I really like the dragon I drew, even though he definitely should have had a second hind leg. Anyway, I wanted to give him a name for the credits of the video, but I couldn't think of anything. Suggestions?
A side story about dragons: in Europe I saw a crystal dragon that I considered buying as a gift for someone, and my friend said he felt uncomfortable purchasing anything dragon related as "dragons are often associated with the devil." I always thought dragons are cool, but I guess I was wrong.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Dragons, Cakes and Cream of Wheat
Kevin's little brother turns 20 today, but he's overseas in Europe for the semester, so Kevin thought we should make him a b-day video. It's not a spectacular video by any means, but I like the animation in the beginning. It doesn't make any sense, but here it is.
[UPDATE: Here's a shortened version with just the animation, so for my readers who don't know Robbie, you're not forced to watch the second half. And as my readers are, well, pretty much my sisters and mom, this applies to pretty much anyone watching.]
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Would You Drink This?
The day after Halloween I went to the grocery store to take advantage of the reduced-price candy. Unfortunately there wasn't much of a selection, but I bought some anyway. After going home and eating one of my "Special Dark" Hershey bars, I realized that, since Milka, I can't eat a plain Hershey bar (even if it is "Special Dark.") Not wanting to eat the rest of the bar and also not wanting to waste it, it dawned on me that chocolate and coffee could go well together.
Actually, it wasn't that great at all and I only drank one cup from the pot. I figured I'd save the rest for later. When I went back the next day to reheat the leftover coffee (which Justine would say is always a no-no), this is what I saw:
So I'm not sure if that's mold or just the separation of the chocolate into cocoa, sugar and wax, but I was too disgusted to reheat it.
Not the Best Pumpkins Ever
Halloween was pretty disappointing for me this year. I hit a creativity low.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Fugitive from the Law
Dad got a letter for me yesterday from the NYS DMV. Basically I'm being accused of missing a court date and/or not paying my fine for my speeding ticket way back in May in West Virginia. Of course, I did pay the ticket. I didn't go to the court hearing because when I explained to the courthouse that I live an hour away, they said all I had to do was pay the fine.
Anyway, that was six months ago and just now I'm getting a letter that says my license is going to be suspended indefinitely. Why am I just getting something now? I don't know if I should be angrier at WV or NY. Either way I don't think I'm going to turn in my license right away because 1) I just got this letter and 2) I'd have a few hours just to get to the DMV anyway.
[UPDATE: The West Virginia courthouse claims that they received my signed ticket, but no check. I found my check stub (which to me is proof that I sent the check) but I can't find my bank statement from that month, and it looks like it's going to be quite a hassle to get it. I repaid the fine with a credit card, so I should be all set with getting my license back on track, but now I have to make sure I wasn't charged twice.]
Saturday, October 27, 2007
A Man With a Song
While walking across campus I saw a man "singing" (or yelling) something which I think was a political message. The lyrics I heard were "From Nixon to Bush/All 40 of them/You voted for Stalin/I voted for freedom."
It was beautiful.
(I wish I had brought my camera, but instead I'm using this Picasso.)
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Anna Came Out Today
In honor of National Coming Out Day, my sister Anna informed that she did indeed come out today. Twenty-six years ago, October 11, 1981, Anna came out of the womb. Happy birthday sis.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Blood Drive, Pt II: Follow-Up Call
I got a call today from the Central Blood Bank. Apparently I had filled out the questionnaire incorrectly. To be polite, I'll sum up the questionnaire as such: three sections which ask about your personal life. The first section is about traveling, and the second section, while mostly about illegal substances, also asks about prescriptions and allergies. To both of these sections I paid close attention. The last section is about behavior that's appropriate only for married persons (although even then a lot of it isn't appropriate), and as I'm not married, I rushed through it and filled out "no" for all of them.
Apparently for one section I filled out "no" when the question was "are you a female that has been with a male that ... [let's just say 'Massachusetts']," in addition to filling in the "M for Male" circle. I guess the blood bank needed to ensure that 1) I was paying attention when answering the questions and 2) am not a hermaphrodite. After a few minutes trying to explain myself I just told the woman basically that I live a chaste life and save certain things for marriage, for which she congratulated me. It felt good to get praise for my lifestyle, albeit in a very awkward way.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Blood Drive, Pt I: Blood Types
At the blood drive today I found out I'm actually O+, not A+ like my father (or is he?) told me. At first I thought this meant I was a miracle child, but then I was reminded that blood types are like eye colors, and I can be O even though both my parents are A. However, when I talked to my mom she said that there actually was another 10lb baby born the same day as me in the hospital way back in 1985, and it's quite conceivable that we were switched. If only ...
A student at the blood drive said, "Good thing your father didn't say 'I'm positive you're A positive.'" We all laughed at such a corny joke, but then I said, "Wait, actually, he did."
Election
One of my brothers-in-law was saying Ron Paul could be a good candidate. My brother Chris, meanwhile, is planning to voting for RuPaul.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
My Drawings
Seeing as these will undoubtedly be deleted from my family's blog, I'm preserving them here.
This first one I call "Purple Flowers in Clay Vase, With Blue Background." If you could smells these, I'm sure they'd smell delovely.
This next one is called "Tux's Head Floating in a Pool of Blood, With a Snake Coming Out His Mouth and Fire Coming Out His Eyes."
And finally, a picture with a decapitated Gus. It's a clever twist on the classic phrase cat got your tounge, only it's "Hey Cat, Someone's Got Your Head!"
Monday, September 24, 2007
Vermonster
Last week my three roommates and I took the Vermonster challenge at Ben & Jerry's. (I know Ben & Jerry's is one of those companies that supports bad things and we shouldn't patronize them, but because we beat the time limit we got our ice cream for free).
The Vermonster has 20 scoops of ice cream, hot fudge, four bananas, ten scoops of walnuts, a fudge brownie, three cookies, two scoops each of four different toppings and whipped cream. I think they were out of cookies so we got extra brownies instead, and we may have also switched the walnuts for something. I wasn't really paying attention.
For one person, you have an hour to eat it, for two, you get twenty minutes, but for four people you have to do it in 10 minutes. We didn't quite make the record of ~6 minutes, but our just-over-8 wasn't too shabby.
We got plastic spoons instead of real silverware, which we thought would break pretty fast so we go a whole bunch of spoons. Kevin did break his spoon right away but later revealed it was strategy, but I still don't really follow it. Scott thought double-fisting was the way to go, but he looked pretty silly eating with one spoon and simply holding the other the whole time.Everyone did decently at eating, but there were a few complaints from the picky people. The funniest complaint I heard was, "Oh no, the chocolate is mixing with the strawberry cheesecake ice cream! I can't eat this!"
I was told that I was the fastest and ate the most, so I hope I made everyone proud.
We got 4 extra buckets to take home as trophies, which we wore as hats. Supposedly we're getting t-shirts too.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Farm Trip
Kevin, his girlfriend Sara and I went to the farm a few weekends ago. It was fun, especially as I hadn't been there in over a year. We had only one full day (we didn't get there till late Friday and left after church on Sunday), but we still packed in enough to make it a good weekend.
Before we went to the farm, though, we stopped by Jessica's. We ate chocola
te-chip banana bread while Kevin my brother-in-law worked on Kevin my roommate's car.
First we drove up to the railroad tracks and then hiked the rest of the way up to the top of the mountain. On the way we passed by the infamous "bear caves" (it's possible bears have lived in them at points, but they're pretty shallow). Sara discovered a "family" of salamanders, which because of the cold seemed drunk. We also found a long tree to pose in. I really like my camera's timer; it always gave us just enough time to get the shot.
After we made it to the top, we drove around the fields a little bit and came across the old foundation for the original farmhouse. After lunch we explored the barn a little bit and made our own target for archery. Not to brag, but I was the best shot. When an old arrow's tip broke off, we decided to shoot the top barn window from far away. Nobody made it but we did get close, until Kevin's last shot got the arrow stuck on the roof.
At the end of the day we had a bonfire with some old junk from the shed, and it was the first time I ever cooked a hot dog on a metal coat hanger. We then watched "The Birds," which I've never really liked so I fell asleep pretty fast.
Afterwards we went back to the Snells and hung out for a few hours, when I remembered I might have left the coffee pot on, so I had to break into my house to get the farm neighbors' phone number for mom. In my defense the coffee pot's light is broken.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Nitroglycerin
I recently moved to a new apartment, and I keep remembering things that were left behind. Today I wanted to pick up some stuff, and as the old place is on my walk from the bus stop to my current home, I figured I drop by. The street ended up being blocked off, and there were police cars, a fire truck, a paramedic van and even a bomb squad. Turns out 12oz of nitroglycerin had been found in the basement when the new girls were cleaning.
Nitroglycerin. As in the stuff dynamite is made of.
When nitroglycerin crystalizes, the slightest movement can cause it to explode. Luckily this bottle hadn't fully crystalized (though it had started crystalizing). In its partially-crystalized state, if it had been knocked and the bottle cracked, though, it could have blown the whole house up.
While we're still not sure how it got to be there in the first place, I have my theories that it came from the geologist grad students that lived there before me. At any rate, nobody got hurt, and I get to tell a great story about how I could have died.
UPDATE: I talked to my officemate Micah (who lived at the apartment before me). Neither he nor the roommate he talked to had any idea it was there, and it's highly unlikely that the third roommate did either. Which means it was probably there before even they moved in (a few years ago!).
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