This is awesome, thanks Julian Hansen.

“That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Don’t expect to get anything back, don’t expect recognition for your efforts, don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle.

Not out of pride, inability or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust.  Stop being who you were and become who you are.”

– Paulo Coelho

Pasta Simpla! This is hands down one of the coolest abstract fonts I’ve ever seen. And I can’t wait to get crazy with it! Thanks Bela for the .otf! Check out the masterminds website, Fabergraph, for more coolness…Thanks to Abduzeedo for the link and for fresh fonts every Friday. Get pumped!

First and foremost, if the word ‘wakeskating’ sparks your interest in the slightest bit, get on over to the Nike Aquafrolics site and check out their new wakeskate video! It will blow your mind, whether you wakeskate or not. Nike is doing some amazing things in this industry. Not only did they come out with an epic movie that pushes limits in riding, but it’s also avaliable for free download and they threw the best prom I’ve ever been too…

Nike knows how to host a good times. They’ve proved it before and they continue to prove it over and over again. That Saturday night we whipped out our 80s prom attire, scrunchies, and hair crimpers for a night on the town. We got some great looks to and from the theater. You can check out more awesome photos on the Nike Aquafrolics site, and in Letchy’s Darkroom! They are worth the peek. Nike made some sweeeeet special edition shoes for special folks, tuxedo shirts & coozies. I had a blue tuxedo shirt just like theirs when I was 5, pretty sure it was my brothers, but theres a photo of me somewhere wearing it next to the christmas tree. I was on a mission all night to get one, and *score* I did.

My co-worker Charles Bergquist at FCTN just finished up this music video for “Liquid Tunnel” by Viernes. It’s also his first entry in to the San Diego Film Festival. Check it out…

UPDATE: Charles also just finished up this poster for their upcoming microtour. See you there! You can also check it out at FCTN.

This is what happens when the board hits you in the forehead…

Gross. Last week was kind of interesting. Tuesday I was wakeskating behind the jetski and right as I got up a bee flew into my eye, my open eye. We both freaked out and the bee proceeded to sting my eyelid, at 22mph. Seriously? I’m still not even sure what the odds of something like that happening are. Luckily the swelling wasn’t too bad.

Friday morning we go out on the ski cuda, and first fall the board hits me in the forehead. Immediatly I begin to grow a third eyeball, or a goose-egg or whatever you want to call it. Cassie covers up the mirror and they won’t let me look at it as it grows bigger and bigger. The bump only lasted one day but it still hurts. I’m on a roll, watch out.

My sister’s been in Rome for a few months. She will probably be here a year, or until they make her leave, hah. I basically told her that as amazing as it sounded to come visit, it is realistically impossible considering the chunk of student loans I pay off each month and the time off I already have to take. My dad bought me a ticket for my birthday…and she didn’t know a thing about it. So my adventure starts something like this…

Orlando flight out delayed. I go on time anyways and get put on an earlier flight which still gets delayed. Instead of a 2.5 hr overlay I hop off one plane right onto another. I get of the plane an wander for about an hour trying to find the bathrooms and the train, I don’t know a word of Italian. I hop on the train on the right…even though my notes say, ‘make sure to take the train on the LEFT’. No big deal, just 30mins out of my way because this was the non-stop train and I needed to stop halfway. I get off, and back on the right train and then to tram #8. I’m lugging around 80lbs of junk a backpack and my wakeskate roller bag with some clothes.

Callie moved into a new place yesterday, I flew in today. No one knew her current or new address. I have the name of the neighborbood, the street she used to live on, the name of the restuarnt she works at and her italian phone #. Unfortunatly she doesnt work till 5pm and its 10am. So I wander her neighborhood a bit looking for an internet cafe and try to call her, no luck. I sit down for a lovely cup of fresh sqeeze, a hot panini , and I finish reading The Alchemist. And as I get impatient or tired The Alchemist reminds me this is my goal right now to surprise her and I must not give up, thanks Paulo Coelho. I continue to drag my stuff around in search for internet, in hope that Callie facebooked me her new address as I asked so I could ‘ship her a box.’ No luck. I sit on the curb again on my wakeskate bag, tired of lugging it around, waiting for 5o’clock. It starts to rain so I hop into the nearest cafe for a heineken which is accompanied by Italian magazines and finally a redbull as I start to fall asleep in my chair. The sun comes out and 4pm rolls around and I continue my journey.

I almost get on the tram going the opposite direction because I am always backwards. Might have been smart of me to grab a map at some point. I get off at my stop and ask around for the Pantheon. Some fellow thinks I say Colosseum and walks with me a block in the wrong direction until he realizes I mean Pantheon. I find some building with a bowl on the top and think its the Pantheon. It’s not. I found the Pantheon itself is much more breathtaking. From what I know she works at a Trattoria between the Pantheon and the French Church on Rue de la Rosetta. I go to Rosetta Trattoria, the only Trattoria on Rosetta and the man there says no Callie works there, no Americans work there. Every other restaurant in the area has the word ‘Trattoria’ attached to it. I wander the whole area not realizing the whole area was full of churches and how was I supposed to know which one was the French one. I walk past another place called Trattoria around the bend but its closed. I figure the guy at Rosetta Trattoria must be wrong so I return there and take a seat on my board bag out front. He reconfirms. I take two more laps around in case there is another Rosetta street. It’s nearing 6o’oclock and I have no backup plan, my phone is 20% battery left and I don’t have a power charger converter. Mom & Dad keep checking in. I take a seat outside of the closed Trattoria because it’s my last hope. I call to see when they open and if Callie works there and the lady doesn’t speak English and hangs up on me. I look through the window and there is Callie putting away dishes at the bar. I knock and she double takes and tears of joy start rolling down her face.What a lovely surprise to see a familiar face in a foreign country, especially your family when you are so far away from home.

Lovely adventure today. My feet are tired and my one cone of chocolate gelatto is almost enough to satisfy my chocolate cravings for the week. My grandma, aunt & uncle will be here in a few days as well! There is a wakeboard camp and hour and a half away on Lago De Salto that looks gorgouse like Tahoe. I am going to try to make it there especially considering I lugged that board around all day.  I love the old building and the food is amazing. I wish I spoke a bit of Italian, at least. More to come…

P.s. – I miss you and I wish you were here.

Did I mention I am directionally challenged? I’m really beggining to consider that ‘L’ and ‘R’ tattoo.

anom·a·ly
\ə-ˈnä-mə-lē\
1: the angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun
2: deviation from the common rule: irregularity
3: something anomalous: something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified

I’m anomalous.

High five to NOTCOT for this lovely find…

What a great limited edition shirt from Print Liberation. $16, I’d say it’s worth it!

“That is why it is so important to let certain things go. To release them. To cut loose. People need to understand that no one is playing with marked cards; sometimes we win, and sometimes we lose. Don’t expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood. Complete the circle. Not out of pride, inability, or arrogance, but simply because whatever it is no longer fits into your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were and become who you are.”

- Paulo Coelho (Thanks Lacey.)

Where are you when you’re not here?

Define here. This mostly comes to mind when I have detached myself from a social situation or life in general and just become lost in thought or find myself staring at the dead air between me and something else…

This is pretty daring of me to put this photo up knowing most people won’t read the text explaining the situation. It’s called word association. I say ‘apple’ you say whatever comes to your mind first, for example: ‘orange’. We are in the car on the way back from Angora, Jason says ‘paradoxical’. I say ‘romance’, then take a big sip of water. Jason starts laughing. I start laughing. Kress says ‘novel’. Paradoxical romance novel. I laugh so hard I have a constant stream of water pouring out of my mouth and all over my lap for what feels like 3 minutes. Funny funny. Highlight of the day.

Paradox
: a statement that appears to be self-contradictory but may actually be true
: a situation which theoretically should not be able to exist but in reality does; a self-contradiction
: a sound logical argument leading to a logical absurdity.

This piece was the first of the ‘wood’ series. I made it during at Design Art Theory class as a layout assignment, random? It was fun bringing a drill to class while everyone else had pens and paper. I took some recent ramblings on my view on life at the time and half covered them up with screws. I don’t want to be so easily understood. On another note, I spelled ‘maybe’ wrong four times in the piece. Who does that? Mabye?

It’s interesting to see how much my perspective has changed in the last two years. The glass is more half-full now then it has ever been. The writing is a combination of these two pieces:

(more…)

Radiohead. Enough said. Seriously, just when you think things couldn’t get any cooler they release the House Of Cards video. And then, on top of the video being like nothing you have ever seen before because it was shot with laser beams and scanners instead of cameras, they release a version where you can zoom in, rotate, and switch scenes while Thom is singing. Insane. Insanity. Thanks to FFF for the linkage.

Everywhere I go this song is playing. Literally, everywhere. The grocery store, the cable, then I get in the car and its on the radio, a restaurant, status…it’s crazy. And what is it trying to tell me? “I don’t want to be your friend, I just want to be your lover” ? But we’re not even friends yet…

“The difference between love and logic is that if in the eyes of a lover, a toad can be a prince, whereas in the analysis of a logistican, the love would have to prove the toad was a prince, an enterprise destined to dull the shine of many a passion.”

“If the earth needs night as well as day, wouldn’t it follow that the soul requires endarkenment to balance enlightenment.

Jitterbug Perfume — By Tom Robbins.

Absolutely, positively my favorite book to this day. After reading it I was pretty much convinced I could live forever. I even dematerialized in a dream. So much of me wanted to believe it was only classified ‘fiction’ because only one small piece of it wasn’t real…

Erleichda! Erleichda! :: Lighten up! Lighten up!

Something great is about to happen, but I can’t talk about it.

Don’t you hate it when something amazing is about to happen in your life and you are super stoked about it…and you tell some friends because you are so excited and then it doesn’t happen? You talked about it, so it didn’t happen. And now not only did you let yourself down, but you let down your friends too. So I am just going to hold my excitement inside, hopefully I don’t burst before Tuesday.

Woooo! Tuesday! Come back Tuesday, then we can talk.

This is what I looked like on April 21st, 1991 at a fresh 5 years old…

True story. Isn’t it strange how kids often write half of the letters upside-down? Purple was my favorite color…actually it might be again, its making a come-back in my life. Nah, orange is still winning. But don’t bother to ask my about my little floating purple friend in the upper left, I’m not sure who that is. Maybe it’s my alter-ego. Perhaps it is time for a new self-portrait. As soon as there are more hours in the day I will add that to my never ending list of things to do.

(more…)

“You cannot leave something until you love it. The more you hate something the more bound you are to it, and the more you love it the freer you are. So as you love your past you are free from it.” – Living With Joy (In reference to letting go of past painful experiences.)

On another note, Tyler Durden says, “Loosing all hope if freedom.” I used to believe him. Then I found myself numb to my feelings, numb to my emotions, numb to the world. You were close Tyler, but not quite on the ball. Loosing all hope is living life as an empty shell. Finding faith is freedom. Finding faith is confidence to be free and live free. Free yourself.

It’s 3am again. For some reason I am inspired to be creative and work around 12am – 5am. Somewhere along the way I heard you are most creative around the time you were born, I was born at 12:53am to be exact (I checked the paperwork). Perhaps it is just because the sun has gone down at that point, most everyone is asleep, and I have no distractions left.

I’m supposed to be working on t-shirt designs right now. Instead I got sidetracked and stumbled upon this amazing website: We Feel Fine. It is a visually appealing and interactive collection of human feelings from all over the world at each moment in time. I don’t want to spoil anymore, I promise you will enjoy it. It might even make you smile. How do you feel anyways? You tell me, and I will tell you…it’s what friends do.

More like the quote of my life. Thanks Mr.Hyams.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

- Nelson Mandela

It’s too easy to judge, too easy to assume.

Open your heart & you will open your mind.

Capture the essence of life.

More insightful things to come…I have handfuls of old, which may be unburied and appear here and there. But I would like to find some fresh insight. I need more time to myself, more time in the day. Or less hobbies, but that option doesn’t make much sense. Is there such a thing as too many hobbies? I’m working on not keeping everything to myself. Share thoughts, ideas, conversations, random inspiration and hopefully encourage conversation, maybe debate, mostly just some sort of deeper human interaction based upon more than the weather.

I don’t do comments, only coffee dates. Haha, that is my quote of the week. Just kidding, I don’t like coffee. But I could always go for a chai latte…Thats actually what scares me most about this internet age, human interaction is fading away. Facebook, MySpace, and iChat are taking over. Comments, comments, comments. I can’t even tell you how good it felt to camp last weekend with no phone and no computer. But really, if you are out there, don’t be afraid to say hi.

I need a new digital camera! I hate posts with no photos. Here is an old holga from Tahoe…I miss it!