so it's been quite awhile since i've updated this thing, so here we go.

in the past week i have registered for school, gone to the mall of america, gone to uptown, and started working my job at levi's.  

today i folded clothes for a good 5 hours or so, and it was quite the party if i do say so myself.

a few days i was at the mall of america with my friends phil and amber, and it was a good time.  it included, and was not limited to: underwater world, best buy, walking across the mall a few times, and urban outfitters.  


this was us on the conveyer belt tour of underwater world.  this is the biggest indoor aquarium in the world, and it's really amazing.  even for someone who is afraid of water, I can really appreciate this.

in the true fashion of blogging

i shall lead you else where.  

i read this article today about how to catch a potential boss' attention by doing things out of the ordinary and in a more interesting fashion.  It's a pretty cool concept, and I really like it.  Doing something different to stand out among the crowd of people who all have resume's, who all have cover letters, and all want a job.  So what should I do?  Go to my next interview in a banana suit?  maybe..

here's the link to the article.

i really need to finish working on my camera bag....

national geographic

national geopgraphic is the best. hands down. their cinematorgraphy is absolutely gorgeous and their content is the some of the most entertaining stuff ever. I'm watching a show about a 10 mile bridge that connects denmark and sweden together on a budget of 3 billion dollars. It's partially a bridge, partially a tunnel, how epic is that? they had to build their own ISLAND to accommodate to the air traffic.

anyway, yesterday I did a little photo shoot for my friend's solo project and it's pretty much exactly how I wanted it to turn out. I could have used a little more light in the eyes and on the legs, but other than that, i'm really happy with it. my flickr's turning into something I'm very happy with.

10 years ago

10 years ago was the worst day of my life. it was the day that my dad moved on to a better place. I can still feel how empty i felt sitting down on the couch and knowing i just lost my best friend. my dad was the most important thing in my life, as dad's usually are to their 10 year old kids.

I never felt mad at him, never felt mad at God, just kind of felt like it was something that happened and there's nothing I can do about it, so why get mad.

Honestly, I never address how I feel about it. I've always pushed my feelings away because whenever I even say the words "my dad" I start choking up. It's not something that sits well with me.

I get a little jealous of other people's dads and their relationship. In the past 10 years, I haven't had a dad to celebrate father's day with. I haven't been able to buy my dad a "world's best dad" coffee mug for. I have to look at things that he owned and remember how amazing he was and how half of my life I don't remember when he was alive because I was so young. I miss him more than anything I've ever felt.

Since that day, it's been hard to find a male figure that I really trust. Whenever I seem to find one, they seem to become greedy or something else happens, and it's really frustrating.

Today I didn't go to the cemetery. I can't take the site of my father's grave. Carved into the stone is a race car, a few carpenter tools, the dates august 31st, 1948-august 5th 1998, and families names. I can't stand being near it and all the sorrow that flows through me each time I'm even near the church at which he is buried.

This isn't the right way to deal with it, but I'm dealing with it.

warped tour. sighh

i woke up this morning at phil's house and got ready for a day at warped tour.  luckily he decided to come with me, but it was not an easy decision.  hit up target, starbucks, and then the road.  about 30 minutes into our drive we hit heeeeeavy traffic, which was caused by warped tour.  it was only a symbol of what the rest of the day would bring.

all day it was overcast (which I'm actually glad about,) and a little bit boring.  When we first got there, we thought we were being forced to park 2 miles away, so we parked and started walking.  In the walking process we missed norma jean :(.  2 miles later, we get to the front gates where I go to the press/guest list, on which my name is nowhere to be found.  Luckily the lady was totally awesome and helped me out by giving me one anyway.  that's when the music started and the day all kind of runs together in a blur.  there were a few good bands that I saw, including:

family force 5, angels and airwaves, the devil wears prada, 3oh3.  not quite as eventful as I'd hoped, but still a decent time.

to me, this festival is kind of a lost cause.  it's okay for a little while, but really gets old quick.  After you've been to bamboozle, cornerstone, and sonshine, warped tour is really no big deal.  I get really sick of seeing all the "free hugs" shirts, but that's a given at any music festival.  It's more so the attitude that comes with the majority of warped tour-goers.  The booths with pot leaf necklaces and bandanas and the "I heart SLUTS." Maybe it was the seemingly unavoidable four letter word/attention grabber t shirt that is now the status quo. When I sat down for a rest, I lowered my head and said a prayer because i was getting so frustrated.

but, tomorrow's another day.

wow

a week, to say the least, it has been.  

tuesday consisted of two dozen cows, lots of profoto moving around (lighting equipment,) and good times.  I assisted a photographer, Gregg Segal, on a photo shoot for Runner's World magazine, who was showcasing a local runner being sponsored by a farm in Castle Rock, MN.  The lady had something around a 1239871 pack (abs, people,) and got 14th in the world for 1500m during the olympics in athens. 

post photo shoot, i head over to my friend phil's house, where we end up playing an AMAZING game called SOCOM.  We play online for a few hours.  And let me tell you, I love using a sniper rifle haha.  Got to bed around 330, and didn't wake up until 130pm, which REALLY messed me up.  The rest of the day was filled with my body spiking in temperatures both warm and cold, and my head feeling about as dense as cement.

i woke up the next morning to find relief from the frigid/desert like temperatures my body was going through.  still a little bit of a headache, but that, I was willing to deal with.  

Later that night I went to a show that I'd likely call the strangest concert I have ever been to, ever.  The Lineup was as follows:

Uncle Monsterface

Math the Band

Harry and the Potters.

Definitely a new style of show to go to, and I way enjoyed it.  All of the bands were as ridiculous as you can imagine, and it was nothing short of awesome.  Probably the biggest highlight of it was at the very beginning when MC Dumbledore came out for a few songs.  Yes, rapping wizards.

good times, good pals.

"the end of the world was yesterday"