I'll be on the water.

It's August now, and the summer has passed like a sunset; beautiful, savory and wholesome yet deceivingly ephemeral. Putting the dog down had me a little out of whack for a while, but eventually things normalized as they usually do.

Since my last update, I moved to a new apartment and received a job at Ritz Camera and Image in Burlington working in sales and in the lab. I am an all-around worker there. It's a good environment, and I'm hoping to keep the job through next summer and get transferred to another store in another state, and then take a train trip across the country to that destination and get a foothold there. I have to get better at saving my pennies, but once this school year starts, it will become manageable.

The thought of moving out to a random city and just getting started is very appealing to me, and has been creeping its way into my subconscious fairly consistently. I'm ready for a change of scenery, but I cannot forget what I have on my plate right now. My summer has been working, playing ultimate, working out, reading if I can, hitting the beach, and going out.

My time will be spent this fall taking 18 credits, playing with Chill, working at Ritz, and doing work-study, most likely with the Registrar's Office at UVM. We'll see how everything goes. I'm not terribly thrilled, but that's okay. It's senior year, and this is it, so I am going to make it work and have a good time doing it.

Alexandre Dumas

I started reading Catch-22 this summer, but I haven't finished it yet. Albeit hilarious, for some reason I haven't been able to devote myself to it. As an alternative, I recently bought the unabridged version of The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas at the Borders going out of business sale, and thusly started reading it today on Church Street. Not far enough into it to have an opinion, but I've heard a lot of great things, so I'm  excited for it. And I would like to finish it before school starts. I haven't done nearly as much reading this summer as opposed to last, but it happens.

Anyhow, I should have some photos or a mix to place up here by September in an attempt to make this semi-not-boring. God willing I'll be able to update more often. Gotta get back into my photography, seeing as I work at a camera shop. But until then, ciao baby.

Blues in Dallas

I went home last weekend to unwind, wait to hear back to see if I got my job, and drop a few belongings off. Unsurprisingly, my parents hadn't decided what to do about the dog yet. The osteosarcoma in her paw had gotten bigger since I was last home in early May, about the size of a peach. The worst was that it was in the bone, and there isn't much you can do to get around the pain of bone cancer, and it spreads fast.

The middle of the week came around and she was getting bad. The stumbling, crying a lot; she was very obviously in pain. It was really horrible to watch. After putting it off long enough, my father decided it was time to make the call. Saturday at 3:20.

We were with her until her last moments. I took a few extra minutes after everyone left to say my goodbyes. It is one of the most heart-wrenching things to put your dog down. She spent fourteen years in our lives. She was beautiful. She had the heart of a lion and fought against her body as it failed.

I love you Zena. You were rad, and you're missed. Sleep easy, pup.

I said goodbye to my pup for the last time today.

She has a bad case of sarcoma in her left front leg. The tumor is the size of a clementine. She's in a lot of pain and is struggling getting around. She's not eating her own food anymore. It's awful. Not much time left for her. I'm at a loss.

Just an old sweet song keeps Georgia on my mind.

The week of the fourth through the thirteenth of March was spent in Saint Simons Island, Georgia. Forty-nine members of Chuckus nation drove down, with some stops on the way of course, and participated in a three-day tournament called High Tide from Tuesday through Thursday. All of our teams played well, which is always a plus.


Suffice to say, a lot of shenanigans went down that week, which is all anyone could ask for. Plus, I celebrated my birthday with forty-eight of my friends, which is really more than I could ask for.


Anyways, I'm not writing this one to tell a story. I decided that for this trip instead of taking my D60, and frivolously taking photos, deleting the uglies and continuing on, to rather go for more deliberate shots. Therefore, I brought my Canon FTb. Shot color 35mm with 400 speed film the whole week. There's some great photos, good photos, and not as good photos, but I like them all no matter what, because they have that warp and woof, if you will, of film photography that I fell in love with. The feeling of "I found this, I took this, look at it." Makes me smile.


The quality of these guys may be lower than previous works, because I didn't feel like spending $5 a CD for photos when getting them developed, so I had scanned these. I think they turned out alright in the end.

Sup dog. 

Arlington, VA metro.

Is this a flannel convention!?

Taylor at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in DC. 

Pedro's Weather Forecast: Chili today, hot tamale! South of the Border!

All of the following pictures excluding the last two are on Jekyll Island, across the bay from Saint Simons.

It was an absolutely beautiful place.

James in a tree

Driftwood beach.

Just a mound of sand.

The ol' compound.

Had a grapefruit tree in the backyard. Pretty delicious.

I have the Southern With-drawls pretty badly. Whilst we were in sunny and 65º weather, Vermont received about 2 and a half feet of snow. And it's still cold here! Tomorrow is supposed to be 33º with potential for snow. Not interested, sorry. I'm sick of the winter. I only like it for the first month or two; this is just annoying. Fifty days until spring semester is over. Going to try and beast the rest of this semester. Well anyhow, I've stalled in writing this paper of mine enough.


Soon to come: Philly trip rundown!

Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public.

This afternoon I went to UVM's Ira Allen Chapel to see one of my favorite public intellectuals speak.

His name is Cornel West. If you're unfamiliar with this guy, you're missing out. Full of insight, reason, tenacity and soul, he's the professor of Religion and African American Studies at Princeton, and quite the orator. You can catch him in the film Examined Life, and he was also on the Colbert Report recently (as well as a few other times). Oh, did I mention he was in the Matrix? Are you sold yet? Brother West's pretty much a boss. Plus, his talk was great; he focused specifically on race relations in the US, but also talked about love (he's a man of love) and blues. Been admiring him for probably 5 or so years, so I'm really glad I got to see him speak. If you get the chance to see him, take it.

"I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope."

"This generation has not been loved enough. In my neighborhood growing up, I couldn't get away from neighbors looking after me. Now we've taken the 'neighbor' out, and we just have the 'hood'. In a 'hood' it's survival of the slickest. It's a Hobbesian war of all against all. More guns, more drugs. FAMILIES are weaker, fathers are weaker, mothers are poor. Market forces are eating at the family through 100, 200, 350 channels to some orgasm machine. Nothing wrong with orgasms, but you need to have a conversation sometimes."

Keep on keeping on, Brother West.

What would you wish for?

Me? I wish for these 3 essays, one quiz, one test, leading of class discussion and a couple hundred pages of reading to be over. Let's just say this week to be safe and call it even. How about you?

Get Warmer.

Circa January 8, 2011 with the D60. Due to post some photography. I have two rolls of color to get developed. Hopefully I'll be able to get that done soon, but look at this photo and hope for spring until then.

In and Out and Over

I’ve had Hot Water Music on my bookshelves for quite a few years. I decided that this would be the first book I would read over winter break, which is now currently dwindling quite quickly. Not only that, but it took me forever to read it between plans with people, going to Burlington, for New Years, and finally getting a chance to finish it in Maine (which maybe I’ll post photos from). Written by Charles Bukowski, one of my favorite writers, it is a series of short stories that all in all are pretty fucking bleak. Most of them are about various people who get drunk all the time, fuck women, go to the track, get drunk again, write, be assholes, and so on. Many are funny, gruelingly stark illustrations of lowlife has-beens. Not surprisingly, countless seem remind you of the man who wrote the book, maybe a little too much, but that’s what you get from Buk. Regardless, it is a fun read, albeit a little repetitive on occasion. One notable quote, which especially resonated with me, was from the story “In and Out and Over”:

“We drove north up Alvarado. Then to Glendale Boulevard. Everything was good. What I hated was that someday everything would dwindle to zero, the loves, the poems, the gladiolas. Finally we’d be stuffed with dirt like a cheap taco.”

It got me thinking about loneliness, and what we all really look for in our lives. A month or so ago I found a video featuring a poet named Tanya Davis entitled “How To Be Alone." The video had me thinking about being alone, as well as loneliness. Note, there is a monumental difference between the two, being that aloneness is a state of being, whereas loneliness is a state of mind. Loneliness is a one of a kind emptiness, where longing is overwhelming; it’s an insatiable restlessness for contact.

But being alone is something different, though. I often prefer being alone than with company. That isn’t to say that I don’t like to be around my friends, family, and strangers, or that I’m not social. On the contrary, I’m typically social but I am quite fond of my solitude. It allows me to catch my thoughts, think about what I have to get done, write in my moleskin to keep me on track, read, practice ukulele, listen to my favorite records, et cetera. It brings me back to equilibrium. Sometimes I just don't want to talk to people. I'm sure you can relate.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment or something!