I was on this website the other day, that was showcasing sites that sound dirty but are legit. For example PenisLand.com is really PenIsland.com, where they sell pens. GotAHoe.com is GoTahoe.com, as in lake Tahoe. It was quite amusing! Nothing earth shattering – Just filler. So I give you the inspired title to this entry: My Penis Big!

OK, I don’t want to hear another thing about New Yorkers being pretentious, snobby, heartless, cold, or just plain cruel ever again. In one day I think I have come across about as many (if not more) blatantly rude people here, as I have in all my time back home. I mean, straight up, jw-dropping rude. I’ve carried on conversations with perfect strangers on the subways of Manhatten, and today it was as if every miserable soul that resides in this city decided to cross my path.
One of my 15 words for Anne’s class is “the C-word”. I’m not actually writing it, because I hate it, but just leaving it at that. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I met their leader today. I’m out driving around, exploring. I went to this store and it was in an area I hadn’t been yet, so I wanted to drive around a little to see what else was around. I ended up making a turn down a residential road that pretty much dead-ended, so I slowed down to turn around, and this bitch behind me laid on her horn like I was endangering her life. The apparent cause of her anger was that I was going slow…ON A DEAD END ROAD. She continued to honk her horn while screaming at me (with her windows up, mind you) as she drove on. If I ever start “a List” I assure you, she will be the first one on it! I later came to the realization that she was probably about to pass a twelve day bowel obstruction, and was rushing home. She must’ve ate the Great Wall of China.
Later, me and the car to my left had to stop fast for a red light. I watched as a pedestrian went off on the guy to my left about slowing down because he had stopped partially over the crosswalk. For the record, we were both completely stopped before the pedestrian started to cross. Not a big deal, it just was unnecessary and added to my bad morning. And if you ask me, as a pedestrian, you need to walk defensively. Just because the law states you have the right of way, are you really going to trust every lunatic behind the wheel? I’d rather be smart about it than proving a point via mercy flight and hospital bed.
Then while grocery shopping, there was this guy having an arguement to himself, and the profanity coming out of him made me cringe. I went back to my cart 2 aisles over and could still hear him. I needed something else over by where he was, and as I went back, I was getting ready to confront him about it but he was gone. I assumed they threw him out, thankfully!
I’m done ranting – just wanted to get it off my chest!

I went to Dick’s Sporting Goods today, to buy goggles for a photo shoot. The experience at the checkout counter was like none I have ever experienced. Now, I haven’t played any sports in just under two years, since I tore my ACL, and had the surgery, and even when I was playing sports, I very rarely shop at Dick’s. But somehow today, I managed to find myself walking away with one of those reward cards they give you to put on your keychain. As I stood in line at the regester, the woman asked me if I had their rewards card. I said no and she had me filling out the form before she was even ringing me up. She was like this robot machine woman, acting like her life depended on getting as many customers as she could to fill this thing out. As I was sliding my debit card through the scanner, she was barking instructions at me as she did what could’ve been thirty other things by the way she was acting. It was such a whirlwind, that I didn’t even realize the intensity of what was happening. Is this what customer interaction is coming to? I could’ve had a much more pleasant experience if I would’ve ordered the item online. At least the site would’ve generated a thank you screen after the purchase! At this point, I’m more mad at myself for not having a brain at that moment to tell her I didn’t want the stupid thing. I always do that – I never think of it in the moment, I always think about it afterward. I’ve lost the opportunity for a lot of great comebacks in the process!

We were all sitting in Anne’s Emotive Type II class dipping various found objects in ink and making pretty pictures when all of a sudden, Lynnette busts out her smock. It was such a monumental moment!

I drew and painted some self portraits today for my design class, and the only thing positive that I can say about them is that they are done! LOL! I showed them to my aunt and she said if I was going for a cross between mad and sad, I nailed it, and it made her want to cry. I told her it was just the angle I was looking in the mirror, and I wasn’t trying to smile, because that just makes more lines show up! She made me promise not to let her find them online. I’m not really sure how to take that, but I made the promise, unless I was “discovered” and made famous! I suppose I’ll call them “Remnants From Yesterday”, rather than self portraits. Everyone titles their self portraits just that, and I think that’s lame. Why can’t you give them a name just like all the others? Maybe when I’m famous, I can persuade the others! LOL!

I’d like to thank Witt for taking the time to let me interview him for my media architecture class the other day. He graciously made time between classes, tons of homework (I’m sure) and car troubles. Thanks man!

Rachel: What’s your favorite martini?

Witt: I hate them. I’m a whisky guy…Knobb Creek or Jameson

Rachel: What’s your favorite Cartoon?

Witt: Family Guy

Rachel: McDonald’s or Burger King?

Witt: NEITHER!

Rachel: What’s your favorite bagel/cream cheese combination?

Witt: Everything bagel with regular cream cheese and a slice of tomato

Rachel: If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?

Witt: Bali

Rachel: How did hear about/end up at PC?

Witt: Well, I went to college in Charleston, South Carolina for retail management. After that, I managed some coffee shops and they ended up getting sold off, so I got into web design, HTML, and Flash. I was self-taught, but I had more to learn. Some college friends recommended PC, so I came to visit, and ended up here five months later.

Rachel: Have you always known that this is what you wanted to do?

Witt: NO! I had no clue and I’m still not sure, but it’s fun.

Rachel: If you could pick any other career path to pursue, what would it be?

Witt: A travel writer for a magazine or a surf guide

Rachel: How many data blitzes have you had to do so far?

Witt: 1 solo, but a total of 4

Rachel: Where do you see yourself after you graduate PC?

Witt: In debt! Right after PC, I’d like to find a place where I can be very involved in the entire process and see projects through from start to finish. Long term, I’d like to own my own interactive shop.

Rachel: What is the most interesting moment or the most important thing you will walk away with after your time spent here?

Witt: A deeply held belief in myself, and my ability to design websites

Rachel: Besides Mason, who was your favorite/most inspirational teacher here so far?

Witt: Definitely Mason from a design standpoint, Wade Thompson from a technical aspect, and Hank, but the passion of the overall faculty is much appreciated.

Rachel: Do you have any more words of wisdom or advice on what lies ahead for an early quarter student?

Witt: Three things: go outside, sleep at night, and don’t worry about it too much.

Sometimes I really don’t understand people’s motives. I came home from somewhere the other day to find this on my door:

Don’t get me wrong…I’m not claiming to be perfect. I’m all for making mistakes (or blessings, as Sylvia would say) and learning from them. But seriously, what is the point of exerting time, energy, and money into something if that something doesn’t make any sense? Here, these people want to promote their gourmet pizza restaurant, and there are tons of mistakes. Let’s start with…ah, yes…HOW ABOUT THE NAME OF YOUR FINE ESTABLISHMENT! Does it have one yet? If not, then you should rethink your timelines. However, if the name is established, you MIGHT want to put that in the promotional piece you’re distributing to potential patrons. It might be helpful to anyone wanting to check it out. And let’s not forget the best advertising of all…Word of mouth. How do you presume we reference your restaurant? Is midtown Atlanta really enough information to get by on? An address would help here as well.

I also think the image should be adressed. Come on my fellow designers…does this image look like a condom filled with disappearing kidney beans or what? And why would you put your normal menu prices on a promotional peice? So we can all see your profit margin on your prices? It’s too negative. You don’t want to divulge all your information to your customers at once. Give the information seperately, and make them wish they got it at the sale price.

Not to sound too harsh, but with an advertising background, seeing this type of thing makes me cringe! That, and we just had to revamp Fellini’s menu a bunch of times last quarter. But when a business sends out something like this, it should represent them as they want to bee seen. I would never even order from them because I don’t even feel like it’s legit. No name, no address…just a phone number and a bunch of gourmet condom pizzas.

Yesterday, after playing in our schoolyard that is Portfolio Center, I found this awesome flower.

I grabbed it and took it home to take pictures of it. I was the only one who was taken aback by it’s beauty, but I thought I’d share it anyway, for all the non-haters out there!

I was later finishing up some more logos for my design class, and I brock my favorite nib. I pressed too hard and it shot across my table. It made for a kool shot though…

I woke up this morning before my alarm went off to a dreary dismal day. As I pondered going back to sleep for the extra half hour I had before Tori Amos started screaming about some Sorta Fairytale, I was suddenly filled with horror. Not the kind of life-threatening horror you might experience if aliens were attacking or anything, so perhaps “horror” was the wrong word. But I lept out of bed because I just remembered that I left my car windows down last night and it felt as if the sky was about to rip open. It wasn’t raining, but by the time I got to my living room, it just about started. Needless to say, by the time I got back into my apartment, it pretty much looked like this:

So back to photo shoots and Matisse logos.

I went to the bookstore today to pick up (SHOCKER) a book. I wasn’t sure which section it would be in, so I asked the guy at the counter if they had any copies of “Small is the New Big” by Seth Godin. After typing the information into his computer, his response was this: “No. But…no is the new yes.” Classic.

So if you have ever been to Atlanta, Buckhead in particular, unless you’re completely oblivious, you might’ve noticed that every street around here is named Peachtree something or other. On the way back from the bookstore, as we sat at the intersection of Peachtree and Peachtree Battle, I developed a theory. Peachtree Battle must’ve been the sight where the group that wanted normal street names got their arses kicked. Yeah, I know that was lame, but it’s late and I’m tired, so here’s a kool site I found the other day.

Have you ever been to one of those tourist traps that claim they’re haunted? You know…the one you just HAVE to go to because your curious side wants to figure out what the big mystery is. The ones where people have gone, taken pictures, and sent them back to said visited place because they have a glare or some kind of image that they swear is a ghost, hence solid proof the place really is haunted. My theory is that people make this crap up so they can feel better about themselves now that they’ve just wasted $15 – $35 on some shoddy tourist attraction when they could’ve been experiencing some real culture.

Well, I was doing a shoot for my photography class tonight, and I had a similar moment, not realizing it until I got home. I have never had this happen and I don’t know what happened, but I thought it was kind of kool! Yes, my friend Jason’s head seems to have gone missing ‘Back to the Future’ style

Off with his head!