February 2005

A northern exposure moment

A young moose just sauntered up the sidewalk outside my office and crossed the road into the community college parking lot.

Blue mountain majesty

Yesterday Charlie, his friend Dana and myself took the dogs for a walk in the swamp flats in south Anchorage. Here are some photos from that beautiful little trek.

Two stepping

The showshoeing experience was surprisingly easy. Granted the snow was mostly wind and sun packed, but still I think I did very well. I enjoyed our trek into the mountains around Eagle River. The weather was nice for the trip. I didn't fall on my face once, nor did I beg to turn around at any point. In fact, I felt that I could have gone much further than we did. I'm still a city boy at heart, but I would definitely go snowshoeing again. Thanks to Charlie, Dan and Berina for the fun trek and to Musa, Keba, Nelly and Sable for providing entertainment with their doggie playtime on the mountain.

Adventures-R-Us

Tomorrow I'm going snowshoeing with Charlie and some of his friends. I've never done it before. I feel so Alaskan, so rugged, so 'frontiersman'...

Oh... my... god...

What am I doing?! I'm totally gonna fall on my face and end up huddled under some pine tree wondering where they've hidden all the malls...

Snobbery perfected

Transcripts from Thursday, 2/24/04, 9:14pm

damon: I'm amazed at the social skills that I've blossomed since being on my own. I'm actually enjoying getting to know new people now and even can do the schmoozing thing <gasp>

valette: is that really a good thing? because i really look down on you for that

damon: well, I'll look down on you for looking down on me and we'll call it even.

valette: sounds good

Ecriture dans la rue

My French is nearly gone, but from what I can discern there's been a calligraphy group that has been doing 'writings in the street' for years in Paris. The link shows the 2001 endeavor. I find myself fascinated with this kind of art on the sidewalk. Such a temporary and non-glorious place for something so beautiful. I find the frivolity of it quite delightful.

// my personal research assistant: Bill //

Office assistants say the darndest things

"Could you help me with my printer?"

"Sure. What's wrong with it?"

"It's on the floor."

"Huh?"

(nonchalantly) "I was moving stuff on my desk and then 'crash!' the printer fell on the floor behind the desk."

"..."

"Could you get it for me?"

Cuti-what??

I was hanging out with a friend recently who boldly claims to be trailer trash. I had not yet seen signs of it, but figured I'd take him at his word. Just as I had settled into his tale, the "trash" was caught in his web of lies. On his bathroom counter sat... cuticle cream. <gasp> I propose that no self-respecting trailer trash would ever be caught dead with such an item. Lie uncovered. Closeted metrosexual caught smooth handed. My work here is done.

Looky looky

I love this photo. Bill did some amazing photography there.

It's all in the leap

Andrew and Jennifer are getting married this summer and asked me to help create their wedding invitations. In preparation for this we decided we needed some photos that reflected their personalities (scary as they may be). These are just a few of the photos I took at Bishop's Beach a couple weeks ago.

Speaking hypothetically, of course

When one sets out to make fried rice, one should remember to not only rinse the rice before cooking, but to also make sure one does not seriously overcook said rice. If one does not heed this advice one will end up with a mushy substance that more closely resembles fried rice pudding.

One is not pleased.

Sing out loud, sing out strong!

dee deet da dee dee dee deeeee
put on a happy face
blue skies are gonna clear up
put on a happy face

dee deet da dee dee dee deeeee
put on a happy face
blue skies are gonna clear up
put on a happy face

Apparently my office assistant doesn't know any more of this song. Sad, really, that she's so enamoured with it today. Sad in the sense that I might be forced to rip her vocal cords from her throat.

Grizzly Adams in the buff

Guess what I discovered today? Sexy Men of Homer, a sort of Calendar Girls knockoff. It's a scary look at the grungy, grizzly guys of Homer, Alaska. These are calendars created as fundraisers for the local family planning clinic. I found it hysterical and delightful that this small, relatively conservative town put together something like this. When purchasing all 3 years of this endeavor it came up that I was a graphic designer and I was asked to layout out next year's edition. What a fun and daring project to work on. Besides... I really don't like how the calendars were laid out in the past and would love to do it right.

Such a quitter

A friend sent me chocolates for Valentines... I've been devouring them all afternoon... it's not like an addiction or anything... it's just that I'm fully enjoying the gift I was given... the sugar high is simply a side affect of the friendly gesture... I can stop eating them whenever I want... the fact that the box is sitting a mere 6 inches from my computer keyboard does not indicate and level of obsession... my current hyper, talkative mode has nothing to do with the chocolates or the sugar in said chocolates or the delicious filling inside each and ever delectable chocolate covered piece of heaven.

Where's the wonderland??

Homer got dumped with a major snowfall last night. On top of that we had winds creating serious drifts. Beside the pesky difficulty knowing where the road actually was this morning, I got to work just fine. Well... I got the parking lot just fine. That is when I my truck decided to tackle a 3 foot snow drift. It lost. After getting the office opened and ready for some morning workshops... I set to digging out my truck. It was a bit like the commercial that joat posted except that I was, indeed, digging out my own vehicle. Well, that and the fact that the digging I was engaged in was remove snow from underneath the vehicle. 20 minutes later I was cold, sore and grumpy... but my truck was free. I really don't enjoy snow... so why do I live in Alaska? Well okay, there's the whole born here thing, but dude, I'm so moving somewhere warm.

Fa la la la huh?

Do you often find yourself humming a random tune and accidently end up humming your way through an entire Christmas carol even though it's months after the holiday? No? Hm.

Why don't we just forget we had this little conversation.

Hanging a little to the left

The opening for the gallery show I'm in, went very well. Lots of people came through. I had the opportunity to get to know some other artists and to explain how I did my work. Thanks to my newly found social skills I had a really good time.

The gallery was packed with work from 21 artists. Since my pieces were small they kinda got squished in with some other work. Ah well, can't always be the center of attention.

The huge polar bear in the center of the room definitely took the spotlight in this show.

Men say the darndest things

When chatting with another guy this afternoon... "If crying is a sign of being a pussy... then I'm a lesbian through a through."

Scrambled or fried?

joat just posted a funny. Go on. You know you want to look.

Well hung

This Friday opens an Emerging Artist gallery show sponsored by my work. I have two digital art pieces that will be in the show. This will be the first time I've had my work in a gallery. The pieces I'm including are Broken and Competition.

A friend stopped by my office today to congratulate me on the show. She said, "So now you will be hung!" I started to laugh until I realized that her mind, unlike mine, was not a porn movie on a continuous loop. She really was referring to having my art in a gallery. I tried to get my mind to think along the same, non-sexual lines: a hung artist... an artist that is hung... an artist that has his goods hung... hung like a true artist... an artist recognized by being hung...

P.A. envy

A friend of mine is into piercings (hi Sean). I've started learning the lingo and as such I've come to associate the abbreviation "P.A." with an extra special type of piercing. You can imagine my surprise when a gentleman came into my office yesterday asking if he could bring his "P.A." into the gallery and set it next to the wall...

After my snickers died down I instructed him to place the portable sound system wherever he wanted.

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Btw, unless you work in a porn factory... there's a photo on the above link that's definitley not something you want your boss to catch you looking at...