one man's views...

if you don't like graphic pictures, don't look below.

this is a frame that i shot the other day from a protest outside of wal-mart by a man with deep beliefs against abortion and against supporting gay and lesbian causes. a lot of people didn't like him or his 13-year-old daughter being there. especially with graphic posters.

the situation made me queasy and nervous, but quite the experience anyway.

people only know what they know...

according to my girlfriend, today is the last good weather day for a long, long time.

the michigan weather has been uncommonly mild and sunny.

here's proof. through my sun roof.

becoming a journalist...

these pictures are from the destruction of the old homer township fire hall. a lot of people in the neighbor hood have fond memories of this place.

MDN stairwell

remnants

gordonville cafe burned last night.

i showed up 7 hours after firefighters left the scene, 11 hours after the blaze started.

this is some of what is left.

she's couralicious...

we had a thanksgiving day portrait session. i've been wanting a nice lit portrait of my gf for a long time so we finally made it happen. here's my favorite.

thanksgiving lunch

it wasn't like home but coury and i made due, without having to do the dishes.

yum.

breakfast

my lady serves up some breakfast, cheerios style, on a warm michigan morning.

homeboy

beer and darts

hey!

don't be sad. you're coming to see me in 24 hours! buck up!

there. that's better.




oh yeah. happy birthday jim. have a good time in the ky. those corn eatin' hawkeyes are cool, but the skies are always bluer back in the homeland.

and yes ladies, he's still single.

almost...

i almost made a frame i really like today.

i just needed to take a step back to fit in a little bit more.

maybe next time, right?

copyright of midland daily news...

is your art dirty?

cause they'll clean it for ya.

i'm double posting today. why?

cause i can.

this is for something fun i'm working on about the color turquoise.

if you're out there r. wood, know that the color project is coming your way.

so get ready.

open arms

is hopefully what the curly hair girl will have when i pick her up from the airport in a few days.

she's coming to the great white north for about a week on her thanksgiving break. instead of hanging out with 30 immature, inappropriate, inconsiderate kids at a time, she gets to hang out with only one. me. lucky her, i know.

but, this is the first time in a long time that we haven't had to wait one month to see each other.

we're beginning to feel like a real couple. scary.

see you soon cour. see you soon.

plane crash 2

plane crash

my finest hour...

this is not.

i'm not throwing gang signs. no.

nor am i practicing poor sign language.

i'm trying to explain to brett, through hand motions and words, that my 24 mm lens is manual focus only. hence the weird hands.

i think he figured it out.

in the background is keith king and the entertainment writer for the flint journal. i think his name is chad.

photo by brett.

rediscovered muzak

hey all.

just wanted to share some music i rediscovered today.

the first is a band that was introduced to me by friends back in the homeland. they are a louisville, ky. band that is basically classical or experimental or whatnot. you can sample the rachel's here.

i recommend the song "water from the same..."

the other band i stumbled across while listening to pandora during the endless hours of making my website about this time last year. they are similar to explosions in the sky, which is another favorite.

the discovered band is called six parts seven .

less than 2 months 'till unemployment

and counting.

if you have a job to give, please give it to me.

thanks.


this here's sparky. i met him today. he's all about wet kisses and crotch sniffing. we were friends instantly.


sparky says "no pictures, please!" and swats me away. no more crotch sniffing from sparky.

acp

while i'm thinking about it, i wanted to give a shout out to a great project that one of my former teachers, chad stevens, is working on. it's called the appalachian cultural project.

i went in 2004, the second year of its creation. my co-worker at the moment, brett marshall, was there in the year of its inception as a shooter and has been a coach for every year thereafter. check it out. it was amazing.

i'll leave the link over on the right for ya too.

chucks and balances

late one night in flint, mi. boomer and spelman, i think. at spelman's place.

air soft

i didn't miss not being at school this semester until after i saw this.

and i'm jealous i can't grow a beard. i think everyone at school has one. i feel left out.

i'm skeptical.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

leaving home to come home

thursday i rode off into the sunset, leaving behind many things that are good.

family. friends. my amazing, patient girlfriend.

sometimes it takes a whirlwind trip to remind you how much you leave behind.

and how much you have.



"So brown eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere"

-death cab

day three, the bar

this is the part where i realize i'm probably a much healthier, saner person for not living near my best buds. however, healthy and sane doesn't always mean fun.

after turkey time, we went out for a few toddies to help along the digestion. chaos followed shortly thereafter.

the spot where coury and i first spoke, plaqued and screwed to the top of the bar. along with the rest of the regs at blues on tap. how romantic.

the evening starts out normal enough. mike smokes himself a black and mild.

patrick, trying to quit the ol' cancer sticks, has himself a chaw of berry blend. he claims it's delicious. i'll take his word for it.

this is where things pick up a bit. derek gets behind the bar to help himself.

everything is a-ok!
the cousins blandford rough housing. i think mike got tired of patrick giving him the ol' butt pat. patrick claims the butt pat is acceptable in darts as it is in football. mike obviously disagrees.

this is where a freaking hilarious picture should be. but, in fear of incriminating myself and my friends from future employment, these words will have to do. if you really want to see the picture, you'll have to email me. it pretty much sums up the night and my amazing friends.

thanks boys and coury. i can't wait to do it again.

day three, part deux

the suprise of the whole trip was that coury and my parents planned a secret thanksgiving get together for me. i'll be in michigan for the holidays so they looked out for me.

i showed up at my house after a day with coury to find relatives from both sides of the family, friends and new additions to the fam. thanks to coury and my family for giving a good thanksgiving. and for coming together on a random wednesday night.

the boys show up, clad in nerdy sweaters and turtleneck dickies. because it's just not thanksgiving without sweaters. oh. and they brought me one too. straight from goodwill. lice and all.

patrick sneaks a drink of beer while the adults aren't looking.

sabrina, the new kid on the block. we love her.

next episode, at the bar. see you soon.

day three

day three was the best day yet. it was full of surprises, quality time with girlfriend, family and friends. day three will be remembered for a long, long time.

day three was also a long one. so long, in fact, we have to break it up into separate posts. here's the first part of my day.

day two ended with a date with hot stuff.

day three started off with another visit to amira. she loves her aunt coco. she never warmed up to the weird guy with the black box. however, she loved to look at pictures of herself on the back of the black box.

coury and moe play nice on the couch. moe is coury's boyfriend when i'm out of town.

moe gets hungry. coury breaks up with him.

smooch.

day two

day two started after only a few hours of sleep. i felt rested all day and we packed in the activities. day two was good.

i woke up to mom, my cousin alyssa and coury playing uno. coury won handily.

dad is enthralled by the intense uno action.

my girlfriend has rabies and is foaming at the mouth. and i haven't had my shots. yikes.

moe smelled me from head to toe and then retreated behind the bed. he's since warmed up a little bit.

amira has learned to do fishy face on command.

and how to wave on command. hi amira! and aunt coco!

coury tries to eat moe's head whilst i work on my blog.

leaving mish, visiting ky. day one.

last night, early this morning i left out for my only road trip back to the home land between september and january. the girlfriend was a little excited, to put it lightly.

let's watch the road trip.

got my mapquest directions and my satellite radio remote. i'm ready, i'm ready.


coury's theme song for us, far away by nickelback, came on about once an hour. i could live without hearing it for a while.


fuel for you.


fuel for me.


after over 7 hours of driving, i hit the kentucky state line.

red bull and lots of driving and no sleep makes me feel crazy.

the g-fry is happy to see her b-fry at 4:30 a.m. now get me to bed.

tune in for tomorrow's activities.