I have had a new blog for a while. Click this sentence to view it. I have been busy lately, I interned for two months in Charleston, SC at the newspaper there and will be interning at Little Rock, Arkansas at the Democrat-Gazette for 3 months in the summer. The other blog will be updated more often than this one I can only hope. Good day.
parkaramic Friday, Feb 9 2007
skateboarding 11:57 pm
Stitched together four images to get a somewhat panaramic photo of the skatepark in Raleigh, doesn’t look that great because I didn’t expose properly. Trying my best to be productive outside of school, thus far turning the TV off and popping the cork to the wine has been of great assistance.
thirty six hundred miles and counting Thursday, Feb 8 2007
news and photography 1:32 am
The Bay
Modest Mouse’s “A Life of Artic Sounds” has been repetitively vibrating my ear drums for the past two hours in high hopes that it would jog my memory of the blur of the recent holidays. Eleven states in two weeks, Christmas in Wilmington, a day in Raleigh, a week in the Bay area, a horse and buggy ride in Philly, New Years Eve in DC, dinner at Ai Ai’s in Raleigh on New Years Day, a seventeen hour drive through the night to Dallas, three days of hotel rest to find a loft for Ashley, eighteen hours back to Raleigh; “eleven hundred miles is too far inside a car.”
Cabin we strayed at in North East, MD.
A Foggy Washington Monument
bike meet car Wednesday, Oct 18 2006
photography and politics 9:23 pm
A few days after my last post I was hit by a car while riding my bike from school, unfortunately my front tire was twisted like a pretzel but that was the only damage done other than a few scrapes. Other than that, I’ve just been concentrated on school and photography, which is going well thus far.
Last weekend, I took some photographs of Scotty that might have come out, but I haven’t scanned the negatives yet, so stay tuned, like a guitar. I also dominated Bryan in some tennis. I finished reading Black Like Me and started reading Good Muslim, Bad Muslim. So far it’s quite interesting, but at the same time it’s a lot of information.
I might be making my way to NY, the city, soon to go to a photo expo and stay with Brandon! Excitement, TFer Joseph aka Joeyoey is meeting us there, so I might have some photographs to share at that time because I damn sure do not have any right now. And I added some links.
I almost forgot, elections are coming up on NOVEMBER 7th. Please go vote, PLEASE VOTE DEMOCRATIC. These are very important elections and it is important because what we do effects the world so…don’t be an ass.
i lied… Monday, Aug 28 2006
news and photography and politics 10:49 pm
I haven’t posted anything in many days, a couple months even, where does the time go? I’ve completed a class (Psychology) in the time that has passed, where does the time go, I don’t know…I don’t know where to begin.
The last post is entitled MAN MAN because I wanted to talk about them, it’s a band. I’ve seen them twice now, once on accident, and they put an amazing show, either I haven’t seen enough shows, or they are awesome, maybe both. I try not to talk about music so I’ll just recommend checking them out sometime.
Since you have last read, I have become more and more concerned with the environment and my impact on it. After seeing An Inconvenient Truth and recently Kilowatt Ours, an independent film that is focused more on energy conservation and ways everyone can do their part individually, and how doing their part will save them money at the same time. Both films are great and I highly recommend them as well. I am full of recommendations today.
Raleigh is no longer my home; I officially reside in sunny Asheboro, NC. Yes, I have the zoo. No, I do not have alcohol, Asheboro is located in a prohibition (dry) county, however, the citizens do rebel, during my last visit to the recycling facility I noticed the bins stacked full of beer bottles. Before I left 2739, we had a celebration.
These photographs were taken by my beautiful girlfriend, Ashley.
If you noticed that I am still reading the same book, it’s not because it is overly long, because it’s extremely short, and it’s not that it’s a bad book, it’s very interesting and great so far; honestly, I have no excuse for not being finished other than I did read an entire Psychology book for an online class during the summer. I’ll finish the book soon. I wanted to end with a photograph, I took this a while back.
Brett – 360 Flip
MAN MAN Tuesday, Jun 27 2006
news 4:30 pm
I’ll be soon posting something new about a band, riding bikes, and psychology. Until then try sodoku…
black like me and the CCC Thursday, Jun 15 2006
news and photography 5:27 pm
So…I finished Driving Mr. Albert, but instead of trying to finish the books I have already begun, I purchased two new ones. Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror is about “Islamists politics and the way America is perceived in the world today,” and I imagine a lot more. Black Like Me, is the second book I bought and I was encouraged to read this book one night while standing outside of my apartment in downtown Wilmington, talking to a homeless man about the book and promised him I would read it.
“This is a shocking book. It is the story of a man who underwent a series of medical treatments to change his skin color temporarily to black–a transformation that was complete when John Howard Griffin shaved off his hair, and looking in the mirror, saw a bald, middle-aged black man. From November 6th to December 14th, he hitchhiked, walked, and rode buses through Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Georgia. The experiences he encountered in the Deep South–the squalor, the violence, the antagonisms, the hopelessness–will burn deeply in the conscience of every American who believes in the justice of democracy.”
And here is a photo of Connor C. Champion doing a frontside boardslide, I might have been able to take a better photo if we weren’t chased out by both the rain, and an angry patron of the church.
seventy mile-per-hour fillers and half-lebanese head shots Monday, Jun 12 2006
news and photography 9:14 pm
I have been wanting to post something new and interesting for the past two weeks only to discover I dropped motivation in the parking lot on the final day of this past semester; luckily, on a visit back to dear old Wake Technical Community College, to pick up some papers, I found my old friend and here I post with a revived motivation, an update.
In early April, Scotty, Brett, Ashley, and I enjoyed a trip to D.C. and Richmond to premiere Brett’s Whathadhappenwaz…; images from the road:
One of Raleigh’s newest additions, Bryan Maasarani, has been begging for some head shots, which I have no idea how to do, but I do believe these two photographs portray him quite well.
There have been some recent changes to the sidebar on the left. In an attempt to encourage myself to finish the five books I am currently in the beginning, middle, or near-end of, I created “Currently Reading,” which list the title of the book I am to finish soonest; also by clicking the title of the book it will take you to a listing at amazon.com, that describes what the book is about. I added the links to the sidebar as well. I have more photographs but I do not want to put them all on one roll. More content soon, my motivation and I both promise.
pictorially incorrect Friday, May 19 2006
photography and skateboarding 10:45 am
If you haven’t noticed yet, I changed the layout; if you do not like it then say so because I can literally change it back with the click of a mouse. I’ve been trying to take as many photographs as possible lately and here are a few of the many that haven’t turned out oh so great like I had hoped; I will add some of them to the photograph page.
Bryan is said to look like a male model when having a fresh hair cut…almost there.
There have been a lot of people in town on and off for a while now, I took some photographs of Toebee Parkhurst skating the rail at the “wave” spot at state; needless to say, his skating was better than my photography, maybe next time.
We went out to the ditch spot and the deal was 24 ice cold Pabst Blue Ribbons for doing a fifty-fifty on this rail, although, unfortunately, Scotty didn’t land it, I do like this photo, I think the pants are a nice touch.
This is Scotty filming, well not at the moment, but in this time frame, I assure you, he was filming.
naked in baghdad Tuesday, May 2 2006
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Anne Garrels offers a brutally honest, in-your-face look at the war in Iraq in her personal narrative Naked in Baghdad, which focuses on many subjects from the headaches of packing to the toppling of the statues of Saddam Hussein. As a foreign correspondent for National Public Radio, she gained international recognition in 2003 for being one of 16 U.S. non-embedded journalists stationed in Baghdad to stay behind during the invasion of Iraq. Garrels received a 2003 Courage in Journalism award for her work there. She has reported around the world—China, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Russia, Israel and Afghanistan, to name a few—gaining priceless experience that has helped her to survive her journey in Iraq. Divided into three sections, Naked in Baghdad tells not only of the struggles of how the people in Iraq coped with and survived the invasion of Baghdad, but also of her survival techniques before, during, and after. The book allows the reader to enter into her personal life through her writing and through emails scattered throughout, entitled “Brenda Bulletins,” from her husband, Vint Lawrence. They were sent to friends and family, updating them on Garrels’ situation while in Iraq. |
Many difficulties faced this older-than-you-would-think journalist, and through her writings the reader can hear the same bombs exploding, feel the same stress of renewing a visa, have the same anxiety of midnight room searches, and taste the same questionable edible-or-not hotel food. The Iraq Information Ministry assigns journalists a minder and a driver; the minder is mainly there to keep Iraqis from talking and journalists from hearing; the driver’s main job is to drive, but he can install the same fear into the Iraqi citizens as a minder. When reporting, journalists are accompanied with either both or at least one of the two. Garrels must deal with a few strict minders and drivers, but is lucky enough to find one driver, Amer, who can speak English well, and helps her find the truth from the Iraqi people, and survive as well. Garrels thanks him in her introduction, noting, “I owe him this [book], and a lot more.” Help from Amer, and working for NPR, at times puts this radio journalist in the shadows from the eyes of the Information Ministry. This allows her to escape the barriers of minders, which larger organizations are faced with, and hear how the Iraqi people really feel, rather than what they say in fear when a minder is present. At times, her writing can be ironically sarcastic, stop-in-your-tracks enlightening and chilling with its foreshadowing: “He [an Iraqi driver] says people are not afraid of a U.S.-led war because they believe Americans will only target Saddam and government sites, not ordinary people. However…Iraqis are afraid of the aftermath, assuming the country will fragment and dissolve into a vicious civil war.” Iraq is now being enveloped in a civil war. Naked in Baghdad shocks with Garrels’ honesty and bravery in its reports on the war in Iraq, and is a must-read, regardless if readers are pro- or anti-war, because it just might change their minds.
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