a new post... a year later

Well, I think I have decided to try blogging again. I got kind of burned out on it last year, but maybe I'm now ready for round 2.

New things in my life:

1) I now live in Portland, OR. And I love it! Specifically I live in the the Sellwood neighborhood, which is a great place. I'm in easy walking distance to tons of great restaurants, coffee shops, grocery markets, book stores, bike stores, and more. Plus I have made many friends in the neighborhood through the Adsideo community. And it's less than ten minutes to downtown Portland.

2) I am now attending graduate school. It is a great school called Lewis and Clark College in Portland. I am getting my M.A.T. (Masters of Arts in Teaching) so that I can be a high school teacher. I plan to teach graphic design, and inspire kids to be creative and make cool things. And then I can still freelance graphic design (like I am doing now) on the side and in the summers. Student teaching starts tomorrow!

3) Still doing poetry. Getting better at it. By this I mean I'm writing stuff that is actually what I want to write, is honest, and people still seem to like it.

4) My roommates (Chris Spicer, Luke Montgomery, Jen Clowers) and I are moving into a new house in Sellwood in two days. We are really excited as right now the four of us are living in a two bedroom apartment. There are always at least 2 people sleeping on the floor of the living room. We are having a housewarming party September 25th. Do yourself a favor and be there. Call me for details.

5) Recently read books: On The Road by Jack Kerouac, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and I am now about halfway through Watchmen by Alan Moore.

6) I started a worm composting bin. The right kind of worms can eat a large portion of your food waste, and actually turn it into good composting material. I wanted to do this when I was living in Idaho but never quite did. So now I have done it in Portland. I am nervous that my worms are going to die, I hope I am doing it right.

7) I got a bicycle. You get kicked out of Portland if you don't have one. I like riding it.

8) Single and sassy.

9) Today I am going to have some fun. More blogs to come. I promise.

poetry and slams and me

I like this guy:


Very intense, but good.

If you didn't know, I have been doing poetry slams lately, they happen once a month in Boise. Well there are some other smaller ones that I haven't been to, but there is one big one a month. So anyway, I have been doing that for a little while now, about 5 or 6 months I guess. A poetry slam is a competition where poets recite original poems in front of an audience and 5 pre-selected audience members serve as judges. Each poem is judged from 0.1 to 10, the high and low scores are dropped, and the three middle scores added together are your score. If you are in the top half score-wise after every poet has gone, then you advance into the second round. The first and second round scores are then added together to determine the winner. Every time you place (1st, 2nd, 3rd) you accumulate points. (3pts, 2pts, and 1pt respectively) Then come August, if you are in the top 8 points-wise out of all the poets who compete in Boise, then you qualify for Finals. Finals is a poetry slam with all the highest point getting poets, where the winner qualifies to represent Boise in the Individual World Poetry Slam: a prestigious poetry slam that features 72 of the top poets from around the world. If you win that, I'm not sure what you get, possibly eternal glory. Anyway, August is upon us and I'm currently 4th in the points rankings in Boise, so on August 17th I will be competing to represent Boise at IWPS. It would definitely be a long-shot for me to win, as there are some pretty talented people I'm competing against. However, you never know. Anyway if you're in the area August 17th, over 21, and interested in seeing some of Boise's top slam poets, come on down to the Neurolux and have a good time with me.

**update: Well I actually won the Boise Finals! So I'll be competing in Berkley at IWPS October 8-10. So wish me luck!

driving

If you're riding a motorcycle, the amount of people texting and calling people while they drive will scare you to death.

Then again, if you're riding a motorcycle most things should scare you to death.

But still...

science, art, and dreams.

I just had a dream.

For some reason, I was participating in this pseudo art class (the teacher wasn't really qualified) where I happened to run into my old roommate, Steve. In the dream, Steve normally wouldn't be in this kind of class but he just needed one more credit to graduate. As a class we were walking around in a hardware store looking for art materials. Steve and I, excited to see each other again were chatting in the back of the group. The teacher then yelled at us for talking. Annoyed by this, we snuck off into a different aisle where a conversation about art theory began to take shape. He was telling me about this book he was reading, and how chapter 13 talked about simplifying things and that's what he's been trying to do...

Me: That's what I've been doing lately too!

Steve: No you haven't. I've seen your stuff.

Me: Have you seen my latest website. It's as simple as anything I've ever done.

Steve: Yeah I think I've seen you working on it, that whole thing where when you move the mouse the eyes move to follow the cursor...

Me: No no no. That was something I was trying for my old website. What I've done now is narrowed it down to just three slides. Like old map slides that we used to have at the front of the class in elementary school. One slide is for contact information... yadda yadda yadda... and the last slide just goes through my portfolio fairly linearly.

Steve: Yeah that sounds pretty good. But you're not understanding the kind of simple I'm talking about. To me it comes down to science. Art should be simple enough and pure enough to be science. What I'm doing is taking a real scientific or mathematical formula and breaking it down into its simplest structure and components and theory, breaking it down into its essence, and from there turning that into art. Art based on the simplest truths of science, now that is real art.

At this point I woke up. This was probably the most intellectual dream I've ever had. A dream where I question the entire purpose of art? Naturally I'm stuck here wondering if there was any truth in what "Steve" was saying. Who knows. I don't know that art has to be one specific way or another, different art works for different people. But this new art theory has got me thinking at least. And that's a cool dream, when you can think about it afterwards.

pass the bong

Recently I was talking with a friend who brought up marijuana. This friend (let's call him Billy) said that his favorite feeling in the world is the feeling of smoking some mj and then reading the bible or listening to certain music. Billy said that it opened his mind and made him think about things in new ways that he couldn't even describe. It made him realize how important love was. Billy also made it clear that he is not a "pot-head" and maybe only does this a few times a year. So of course, this got me thinking about this drug called marijuana.

First of all, I'm not sure how I feel on whether or not it should be legalized. It may be less harmful than alcohol, and it's hard to get upset about a drug that makes people want to think about life and love and be creative. Compare that to Alcohol, which is responsible for many a bad thing: violence, drunk driving accidents, depression, addiction, or just doing stupid things that you will have to live down. And don't get me wrong, there are definitely some bad side effects from marijuana, namely loss of ambition, loss of memory and suppression of the brain's learning center, tar in your lungs, and some more I'm sure. So based on that alone, I'm not really sure one way or the other.

The reason I think I oppose marijuana, is much for the same reason I oppose MSG. It's not real life. MSG makes your brain think your bland food actually tastes good. The food doesn't actually taste good, but the MSG chemicals change your brain's perception. While MSG may not have many actual bad side effects, many people are very much against it. Methinks this is due to the idea that we don't want to be lied to. If your food isn't good enough for us to like on it's own merit, surely we can go somewhere where it is. Nobody really wants to substitute something fake for something real. Well when someone says they like the feeling of being high on a little weed, I guess I feel the same way. Why do you care about what your brain thinks when it's nerve cells are being rocked by some THC? It's not real life. So what if it makes you feel more philosophical? If you can't manage to want to think philosophically about things with an un-altered brain, maybe thinking about things isn't for you. Otherwise, it seems like you'd also be a proponent of athletes using steroids. Like steroids, it's cheating, but only for your mind. Does that make sense? If you like to get high because of the way it makes you think, do you then like to douse your food in MSG because of the way it makes you think your food tastes? Do you then like to see athletes pump in the steroids because of the way it makes their bodies be stronger? I'm not opposing it based on side-effects or health reasons, but because to me it's cheating yourself. It's making your brain something it isn't. If you want to think more philosophically, read books, study Socrates, find some open-minded intelligent friends. That way when you're thinking more clearly about things, it's because you actually were trying instead of just letting some drug temporarily (or maybe not so temporarily) change your brain. I don't want to settle for a brain that only philosophizes when altered by drugs, I want a brain that can philosophize in real life, on its own.

This is for my mom.

This isn't the blog I promised... It's just a little something for my mom. Hi Aunt Nola and Uncle Keith.

books schmooks

I'm currently reading Herzog by Saul Bellow. I really like it so far. I have a lot of books on my to-do list. Like The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey, Ulysses by James Joyce, You Shall Know Our Velocity by Dave Eggers to name a few.

I love reading. There is a great satisfaction that comes with reading a good book. Especially when it's a book that really keeps you thinking, even after you're done with it. I just wish it wasn't so time consuming. There are so many books that I want to read but don't know if I will ever be able to.

Maybe since I'm in my car so much these days, I should invest in some audiobooks. Hmm... good idea.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know.