The People You Meet

The thing I've loved most about the last year is the number of unbelievably different, interesting people I've had the chance to meet. The people at school are all so unique, I really have learned something new everyday.

Today is Tatiana's birthday, so her dad came into town for the night and took the four of us out to an amazing dinner. While there we all talked about our backgrounds and where we came from. We had an extremely well-traveled, well-educated person. An extremely well-traveled, well-educated hippie (to put it bluntly). One came from a more working-class background. I talked about my traditional suburban/south jersey mafia upbringing. It was a great conversation with some great perspectives.

So after dinner we caught a cab back home. The cab driver asked me if we were in school. I told him we were all ad students interning out here for the summer. He then went on to tell me that he was a Mass Comm major in college in Nigeria. Not only that, he was also a fairly regarded political journalist. NOT ONLY THAT, he was also shot in the shoulder and imprisoned for three years because of the things he wrote about. Once he was released, he came to America where he now splits his time between driving a cab and doing freelance journalism work for publications back in Nigeria about politics and economics.

I wish I could have kept talking to him but we got back home before the conversation could go any further. After I got out of the cab, I felt pretty bad. Not for him, by any means. He seemed so happy to be doing what he was doing. He said that his experiences taught him to fear nothing, not even death. He said that he came from a place where change was made through bullets, not ballots, but he was so happy to be in a place where a person was free to speak their mind.

So I didn't feel bad for him. I felt bad for myself. Here I was, sitting next to this amazing person with this unbelievable story, but before we started talking all I could see him as was my single-serving chauffeur.

It just goes to show you, that you never know who you could be sitting or standing next to. But from this point forward, I'll make an effort to find out.

He Plays With Bottles

I was having a conversation with someone at work this week and told them all about my place this summer and how it's all been. Through this I came to realize just exactly how much my pals and are really roughin' it out here.

-Our apartment has no AC
-We all sleep on air mattresses
-Our furniture consists of but is not limited to:
---A desk found in the trash
---A table found in the trash
---A desk leftover from previous tenants
---Lawn chairs
---A couch bought from the thrift store for $60 and carried 5 blocks home by me and Joey.
-We have a giant hole in the ceiling over our toilet.
-We have a dog that was found on the side of the road.
-Said dog's toys include but are not limited to:
---A bone leftover from previous tenants
---A stuffed bunny with no stuffing
---Old, empty Vitamin Water bottles
---Old, empty peanut butter jars.

And to top it off, today our power was turned off because no one has paid it in 11 months.

Treasure what you have.

2 weeks until a mattress!

Art in Debauchery

Pretty cool picture, right? Maybe some nice abstract watercolor work?

Wrong, true believer.

The photo above is actually a Rum and Coke. Some guy in Britain decided to crystallize his favorite renditions of Grandpa's Cough Medicine and take photos of it under a microscope. Badass. Let's look at some more.


White Russian


Tequila Sunrise


Tequila


Seabreeze.

Who knew alcohol could produce such lovely colors without vomit being somehow involved?

check out the rest: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/cocktails/index.html

Big F'n Egg

This is a very cool piece of outdoor done by Leo Burnett on the client I'm working for, McDonald's. And it's right around the corner from my place. I found this photo online and I've seen the real thing from afar but I plan on going over there soon to get a better look. Bravo, Leo.

Send In The Cot.

My air mattress popped. Don't know how. Don't know when. Don't know where. But I woke up on the floor.