OOPS! 2

I totally forgot to take pictures over the Christmas holiday. I suppose I was having too much fun hanging out with my family. I will most certainly take some in the weeks to come.

I'm back in the city and taking everything back to basics. All the stuff I said I was going to do, I'm doing, and all the the other stuff I needed to do that never got done will be done so the I can write later on about all of the things I did. And here they are in no particular order:

Find and attend a suitable church
prepare for graduate school
complete a professional advertising portfolio
create and register a small business
start singing again, somewhere!
get my glasses so I can drive

2008 is going to be my year for revival!
Thank you Jesus.

Seasonal allergies

I have received such a wake up call in the second half of this year. A new job, a continuing education course, a move, a roommate and my return to the dating scene have all brought some much needed reality into the world of "Nate". I'm glad to be going home for Christmas though. I can't think of a better way to recharge my batteries than seeing the people that I love during a time when nothing else matters except being next to one another.

However, I must be careful not to get too comfortable in this haze of happiness. My list of must-do's has become to long that it seems to end where it began in some crazy circle of responsibility and action. Once again, I'm charged with looking at the path I'm on and deciding how to plant each foot as I lumber on towards an unknown, but anticipated future.

Many pics to come from NC!

Road Blocks

I've got to get over this fear of asking for help. I have a lot of work to do for this portfolio and there is no way that I can do it all alone. Why can't I just go up to an art director in my class and ask for help in putting the blasted thing together? There is so much at stake, and yet I clam up every time. This SVA (School of Visual Arts) class has been a unique and helpful experience, and I've learned so much about my new "craft" and even more about myself and how I thought I worked versus how my creative process really takes place. I can't allow my own personal fears of failure and inadequacy take over the simple ambitions I have for success in this endeavor.

Getting my Weight Up.

Well, I weighed myself on the bathroom scale today after almost 5 or so months of not being able to even think of what I may have gained in poundage. I wasn't surprised. I have gained some weight, but I totally know where it's all coming from; laziness and fear. After losing my free gym membership when I changed jobs, I haven't gone back into the NYSC offices to reinstate myself into their fold. Why... because. Parties here, lazy afternoons there, plain and simple. I've watched my lovely dancer's build balloon to slightly above average Joe-ness. Not cute. Stretching, push-ups and crunches at home have done nothing to stem the tide of flab that has come over me. Don't get me wrong. I'm still turning heads, but only with some carefully crafted outfitting and "incognegro" public appearances. The only good thing about all of this, is that, by not going to the gym, I have had some time to look at the projects I'm working on and make some priorities in my life. My writing, my portfolio, my job in pharma advertising, my friends and family, my spirituality and love of Christ. These are all adding to the mental weight that I've appreciatively accumulated in the past few months. I'm getting my weight up; focusing on living a better life and moving forward, hopefully, without getting heavy in the process.

New Music

So, Brandy and Tweet are both rumored/scheduled to have a new album coming out in 2008 and I'm very excited. I think of them both as inspirations and look forward to hearing how their music will be different but the same great style once again.

Video Jug is too Funny!

VideoJug: How To Give A Great Man To Man Hug

Check out this video site called Video Jug. They have all of these smarmy but informative Brittish How To posts. They remind me of the old Disney cartoons where Goofy would embark on a mission or chore with commentation and direction from a comedic narrator. Too Funny!

a scarf i made years ago. i like to knit. it calms me

just thinking.

just thinking.

Award and Show

Hey. I'm going to an award show this Friday and its kind of bugging me that I don't have the amount of time that I need to get myself together. I have a bit of an idea of what to expect as far as the crowd and the attire and the vibe, but to be honest, its been a while since I've really done the NYC social scene. Although gobs of fun, it can sometimes be a mine field of old mistakes one's made and fresh new pitfalls one has yet to encounter. I'll just make the most of it. I'm going to be 26 this year and if I don't get over this stupid fear of finding myself brown nosing instead of networking, my career is going to be face down in the mud anyways!

Trashy Eco Love

i saw this a while back and thought it was a good example of how there is no excuse for not doing your part for the environment.

My mind is working hard, but my body is taking a nap!

Video Testing

Lets Keep the giggling to a minimum. I couldn't think of anything else to put up here. so I'm going to try this for now and then record more music and video of me in weird places doing weird stuff with weird music later. Trust me. I have it all planned out. These first posts are just to get a general view of what my camera phone is capable of. I want to use the camera phone initially to get spontaneous content. Who knows? If you're one of my friends or family. You may find yourself up here soon???

Video Posts

I'm trying to post videos from my phone to Youtube.com, but I'm having some trouble. I don't know why I want to do this so bad, I don't even do the audio posts that I was so keen on a while ago, so why step up to video if I can't even do that. I'll just have to do both for a bit and get used to doing it so it's not such a chore.

Bad Timing

I almost made it to the Time Warner office on 23rd today. I need to return some of their silly equipment or I have to pay for it, so I stuffed it in my Kenneth Cole bag this morning in hopes of dropping it off after work. When I arrived the guard was standing at the door, it was just a few minutes after 7, there were still customers inside waiting to be helped, but he just looked at me sadly and whispered in broken English through his braces, "It's after seven." I just quietly turned around and came home. I couldn't argue with him. I hadn't the strength. I'll get him tomorrow.

Nothing spectacular today. I'm working on this very interesting idea for a new campaign. Who knows what my boss will say about it?

What I've been up to lately

I'm learning how to layout ads right now with OpenOffice Draw. It's free software, so it doesn't have all of the bell's and whistles of InDesign or anything like that. But it does the job for me for right now. I really hope that this class goes well for me. As soon as I figure out how to post a pdf to this crazy blog, I'll show some of my work.

Humility

OH, how the mighty have fallen.

My continuing education class at SVA has proven to be quite the challenge for my relationship with higher learning. The entire pedagogical premise for this course is rooted in self-discovery, personal reflection and responsibility. Let's just say that I am poorly equipped to fully engage these practices in my current state of being. I just want to be shown a proven formula that I can emulate and re-tool for my own purposes like most other professional students. This class is not allowing me to do that. So, in exchange, I'm being forced to learn how me, myself and I work best to create new ideas and put them on display for others.

Humility. Will they understand my work? Am I just trapped in my own head with no hope of connecting with any audience, regardless of size or similarity of experience? We will see.

Britney Spears and Taser Guns

Well, I saw the Britney tragedy today. I'm not usually interested at all in this kind of thing, but curiosity got the best of me. So I watched it on Youtube. I was flabbergasted. She looked more bored than the concerned celebrities in the audience. You could almost see Fifty Cent saying a little prayer inside his head for her. People did everything but purse their lips, close their eyes and shake their heads in pity.
This woman was (and most likely still is) an amazing performer. Her life has been riddled with problems, pressure, mis-perceptions and downright vicious attacks. I'm not a Britney fan, but give her a break, it was a bad decision for her to perform without being on her A-game, but it's time for us to realize our own culpability in this fiasco. I'm so tired of American's creating these young stars just so they can tear them down at the first sign of a wobble or falter. It's ridiculous.

We all have our own favorite diva or performer. (It's Brandy Norwood for me) And nothing anyone can say will change that. Opinions are formed and changed overnight, so lets keep things in perspective. Art is just Art. You don't have to like it or ascribe meaning or anything to it. It's what people do with their "Art" that makes all the difference.

Now. I just want to say that the tasing incident that happened a little while ago on a college campus here in the states was an obvious intrusion on the student's civil and human rights. He was freaking shocked with electricity for being a little forceful in his questioning at a public forum. I can't tell you how many times I've been a complete ass in public and nothing has happened to me. America, for shame. This is the beginning of the end folks. If kids in college can get tased for just mentioning the skull and bones society, what hope do we all have for a genuine revolution of public policy and effective leadership in this country. NONE. I'll tell you again. NONE WHATSOEVER. I sense that this incident will be the measuring stick by which we, as citizens of the United States, can measure the degree of corruption and malice which fuels the mental processes of those currently in control of our nation. PERIOD.

I, for one, am concerned.

Lightbulb

Hello...duh...I just figured it out.

This stomach thing is whats causing my diet and exercise routine to be such a bust.
Hopefully, once I get my gastronomic problems solved, all the rest of it will fall in line more easily.

Thats REAL!

So. I've been pretending that my strange eating habits, infrequent to stressful working out, completely insane sleeping cycle, and ridiculous work hours haven't been harming my body. That game is now over. The jig is up. For the past few days, every time I eat something, I've been getting these sharp pains in the exact same place in my stomach.

That's right... I think it's an ulcer too. Not cute. So now, not only do I have to rethink the way I've been abusing my slowly aging body, but I have to go to the doctor to get myself checked out and on antibiotics ASAP.

I'm not being pessimistic, but my stupid, vain, human fears keep telling me to be on the lookout for other problems as well.

Harder than it looks

I have to get back into the gym. I've been doing the simple exercises and stretches at home, but the results have been lackluster at best. Since I left my non-profit job where my monthly fee was taken care of as part of my benefit's package, I haven't taken the initiative to go to a New York Sports Club office and set up a new membership. I have the money, I just can't seem to fit it in.

On that note, I have Netflix that need to be located and returned, checks that need to be put into the mail, a dvr recorder that needs to go back to the cable company and a host of other errands that I've very simply neglected. What is wrong with me? There is little worse than knowing exactly what you need to do and not doing it for now reason other than you don't feel like doing it. Sometimes, I tell myself that I need house staff. A personal assistant that just takes care of all the stuff that I'm too bored with to execute. Then, I come to my senses and realize that I'm just being lazy and uppity.

I'm going to do better. I can't let boredom be the excuse for failure. Too many other, would be geniuses and savants have already used that one.