Jay-Z

I used to like Jay-Z but man, he hasn't done anything good in at least the last five years. Like this song for example, it could have been good until he ruined it. Alicia Keys does all the good parts. I remember driving somewhere listening to this when it first came out and I just started saying random sentences over the Jay-Z parts and I am pretty sure my song made more sense than his. Try it. Just play this and say random stuff and just have the tone of your voice go up and down like his. "I went to NEW york, and we was like this is WAY cool, and I went to the HO-tel and they was like, WE ALL BOOKED, and i was like AWWWW schucks, I wanted some PEA-nuts... " WELCOME TO NEWWWW YORKKKKK CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OF!!!!

Vacations

Rioja, gran reserva, cervezas, siesta, sobre mesa, chorizo, jamon, queso, la playa, croquettas, rosquillas, jijas, cafe solo, volcanos, 85 degrees and sunny, family. Perfect vacation.

Birthdays

I don't know why it's taken me this long to realize this, but I am pretty sure that Happy Birthday might be the worst song ever.(tied for me with 500 Miles by the Proclaimers) If you really think about it, no one likes getting Happy Birthday sung to them, and I am pretty positive no one actually enjoys singing Happy Birthday to anyone else. Nobody randomly whistles Happy Birthday while walking to work or doing some chores. And the reason? Because it's terrible.

On a side note, my birthday is coming up.

Wu-Tang clan ain't nothin' to F--- wit

That is true. They will never reveal the secret of the Wu-Tang clan, but I just came a step closer today with my fortune cookie.




If Tang is soup, my guess is Wu is tomato. I could be wrong.

Flying

So I leave for Spain Monday and haven't really started to think about what I'll pack. Not really too worried about it, I mean I figure I'll just wear the same thing pretty much every day. Maybe a few changes of underwear and that's it. I just started thinking about all the stupid regulations for carry on stuff. I was planning on bringing a bottle or two of California wine to my host family there but realized I couldn't do that if I was going to just do a carry-on. Now I have to think about small sized toothpaste and stuff like that which is annoying. But I was thinking how great it would be to get a couple of drinks in me while I'm on the plane. But I don't really want to pay ten bucks for one of those little bottles of Sutter Home you know? You think I could get away with those little shot bottles of whiskey? Like six of em'? Under three ounces? check! In a plastic bag? Check! If not, I think I could just drink them all right on the spot right? And then pass out in the terminal and miss my flight altogether.

Deodorant

I am pretty sure most people are just like me; Once you find a deodorant that keeps your pits dry, you pretty much stick to it forever. I think I have been using the same kind of deodorant for the past 10 years and have no plans on switching. It's way too risky. You don't want to get sweaty pits, you don't want to have that strong baby powder smell from ten feet away, you don't want to smell like a woman etc., you just aren't sure if the roller ball is going to cut it, aren't sure if the white bar is going to get all caught up in your arm pit hairs, and you're pretty sure the gel is just going to make you have wet pits as soon as you put your shirt on. I remember when I was in middle school I was always getting sweaty pits. When life was turning up the heat, Degree was just not doing anything. I was in the computer lab in 8th grade and it was freezing as most computer labs are. Everyone was shivering and I was also freezing my ass off, but I was pittin out in my hypercolor sweatshirt. I had to tell everyone I was hot just because I had sweaty pits.

I guess it could be worse, imagine you are the dude in the picture. Not only do you have sweaty pits, you are the second Google image result for sweaty pits.

Closet Baller.

I haven't been on a real vacation in probably 8 years. My time has come. I'm getting out of the country. This time next week I'll be sitting on a beach in the Canary Islands surrounded by beautiful femininas (hopefully). I'm a God Damned Baller. And judging by the weather, it looks like the rain in Spain does lie mainly on the plain.

Latest sketches

From the shore last week. I got a suggestion from a friend to do some aerial perspectives, so I gave it a shot. Going to start to do more sketches with people in them. Might as well practice drawing people at the same time as buildings. It's like every architect who goes on vacation and then shows their friends their pictures. The friend is surely always disappointed. "It's all buildings... this is boring. Where are the people pictures?"

Skateboards

Along the same lines as yesterday's post, I was thinking about skateboards recently. I saw a guy in the city yesterday; probably about my age riding a skateboard. I think my generation grew up at the height of skateboard popularity. Early nineties everyone had to have a skateboard. And then you finally got one and realized it wasn't really all it was cracked up to be; kinda hard to ride, wasn't easy to do any of the cool tricks, and the ride wasn't as smooth as you would have wanted it to be. Not to mention it tires out each leg individually quickly. But as a kid, you could ride it to your friends house or maybe to the pool which was fine. As an adult, you can't really ride it anywhere. I guess I should rephrase that; You can't ride it anywhere that a respectable adult would go. Can't ride it to work. Can't ride it to a bar. Can't ride it to a store. You gotta lug it around, watch it, make sure no one trips over it. And those long skateboards... no better. The only real cool place to skateboard is in your driveway. Credibility as an adult goes out the window with a skateboard. Let's keep it with the kids.

Wallets

Not sure when this was cool, or if it ever really was cool, but I don't understand people who wear those wallets with a chain attached to it. I have a friend who I deem as a pretty respectable guy but he has his wallet on a chain. Puts him down a peg in my book. Are people really losing or dropping their wallets all that much that they need to chain it to their belt loops? And doesn't that make it easier for someone to steal your wallet? Can't they just grab the chain and rip it off? Didn't anyone ever tell them, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link? Pretty sure your belt loop is the weakest link. I can't see the reasoning with it. I can see it if you want to seem like a 13 year old. If that's what you are going for, I think that's the easiest way to achieve that.

Select a Size

A few months ago I accidentally bought some select-a-size paper towels. Pretty sure the only size I have been selecting is "regular size."

Parties

When a friend tells you he just got an invite to go to a house party at the shore and it's all girls at the house, it's never all girls at the house. It's too good to be true is what it is. Everyone knows that when a friend says there are going to be tons of girls at a party that's never going to be the case. Once that word is out, it's too late. Every one of those girls guy friends already got the word and invited at least three of their guy friends. It makes me wonder if that's how girls work. Do they tell their guy friends that they are having a party with a ton of girls just to get guys to come out and thus kill the vibe of the party? That never works in the opposite way. I could never tell a girl friend that I was having a gigantic sausage party and therefore they should come over and invite all their girl friends. Just doesn't work. It leads me to believe that all parties somehow turn into sausage parties. Unless its a dinner party with couples. Kinda makes me want to have a dinner party with couples and make sausages just for the hell of it.

New Sketches

Did these in the last week.



Academy of Music


Drury street looking toward McGillins old ale house

Collingswood farmers market

someone should buy the whole collection from me ;)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/garlicisgood

Chinese food

Isn't it embarrassing when you order Chinese food and they give you three fortune cookies, basically implying that whatever you ordered was enough for three people? That happens to me more than I'd like to admit.

Titles

I was just looking through some of my Linkedin connections. Let me just state for the record, Linkedin is Facebook for dorks as I've said before. It's like everything that's bad about a networking event . It's your title and everything stupid about you written right on your sleeve. It's funny and annoying. But I like seeing my 30 year old friends that have titles like "Senior Account Executive", or Vice President of such and such. Now, I'm pretty sure they don't own the company, and I'm pretty sure "senior" used to imply experience or at least more than 3 years of doing whatever they do. Now that I think of it, I wonder how come businesses only use titles like president, and vice president. Why aren't people Chancellor or Prime Minister of something? Senior Vice chancellor of Marketing.