Don't know whether it was nerves or insomnia but sleep was impossible on the eve of my departure to my new home, Milwaukee Wisconsin. I got a job working with City Year Milwaukee, a program that helps kids who don't particularly see school as their forte. So on Aug. 6th at 5 am I grabbed my suitcase, packed with clothes and a sleeping bag, and headed for John Wayne airport with the rest of the Wolfe Clan (minus John).
When we arrived at the airport I checked my bag, gave my family one last farwell and took my first steps of a new life...into an airport security line. When I walked up to the security officer he took my ticket and mumble something at my. Politely I asked “ Sorry, I didn’t catch that” to which he responded with a sign “mumble mumble mumble.” Seeing that I was going to get no where with the gentleman I gave my stock answer of “Uh, yea sure.” He gave me a look and handed my ticket back after making some check marks and scribbles.
I threw my stuff into the x-ray machine, retrieved them, and headed to my gate. After a 30 minute wait or so we were allowed onto the plane. Being the high roller that I am I proceeded to the back of the plane (“VIP” section) and took my seat next to the window. The sky was overcast and sad looking, as if California herself was saddened by my departure.
We had to wait until 7 am hit before the plane could take off because of a plane curfew. Once the time came I heard the roar of the jet engines and we took off. We climbed faster and faster towards the ceiling of dark cloud. Then we punched our way through the clouds to one of the greatest sights I had ever seen. Outstretched before me was a white fluffy sea. Mountains off to the east looked like jagged miniature islands just barely reaching above the clouds.
Eventually we landed in phoenix where my connector flight to milwaukee was to take off. After another short wait I hopped on my next flight. I reached my seat but one of the two ladies I was going to sit next to asked if her husband could have my window seat. “Hell no, are you crazy? I am not trading my window seat for a middle seat!”…was what I wanted to say. Rather reluctantly I replied with my stock answer “Uh, yea sure.” and alerted the husband up at row 5 that he seat with his wife and child awaited him. He thanked me and I slipped into my seat next to two other women. We chatted a bit and one of the ladies was kind enough to offer me a delicious apricot and a red tootsie roll pop.
After I inhaled the apricot and had chewed up the candy I asked the flight attendant for a Bloody Mary, its five o’clock somewhere right? She looked at me rather skeptically and said that it was seven dollars. I handed her my card and she began swiping numerous times before she said “I’m sorry sir, it seems that your card is not working.” I know for a fact that I had a little over 170 dollars on that card so I’m pretty sure she just didn’t want to serve me an alcoholic beverage at 10 am. I took my card back and asked for a water instead.
Our flight landed at 3 pm Milwaukee time and I depart with a ravenous hunger. I quickly found a quiznos and got a Italian sub with extra jalapenos, I was in heaven for approximately a minute and then my food was engulfed by the bottomless pit known as my stomach. I went to baggage grabbed my suitcase and stepped out into the street. I was a sunny afternoon and it was a little bit humid, but honestly I was expecting it to be much worse.
My new roommate Isaac showed up in a red Impala with his buddy John and John’s girlfriend Mia. We threw my stuff into the back of the car and began driving into the city. Unfortunately Isaac was leaving that very same day to go to a wedding for his brother in Chicago, but John was kind enough to drop me off at my new apartment. I thanked him and promised to buy a round of drinks whenever we all got the chance to go out. I walked into my new apartment complex and was greeted by my landlords Dana and Charles.
After some talking Charles and I boarded the elevator and head to the 3rd floor to apartment 301, my new home. The apartment was bare save a fridge and stove in the kitchen, but to me it was almost too good to be true. Spacious living room area, two bedrooms both with closets, one bathroom, and a small or “cozy” kitchen. In the basement Charles showed me the laundry room and the storage area. Whilst in the storage area I spied a bed leaning up against the wall. I asked Charles if I could have and he said yes. Free bed? Talk about amazing but that wasn’t all. Charles showed me the garage and said that if I needed a bike some former tenants had left their beat up blue road bike. I eagerly responded yes and he took me to the bike. It had two flat tires, a broken spoke, the back tire was out of whack, and I couldn’t have been happier.
Charles showed me the local bike shop which was down the street but it was closed. Luckily was saw two guys hanging around the back of the shop and asked them if we could borrow a pump to inflate the tires of my bike. One of them slipped inside the shop and came back with a pump. I plugged the pump into my front tire and prayed that it would hold air. Success! After the front tire was filled I moved to the back and had similar luck. With two pumped tires and a sense of invincibility I jumped on my new joyride, thanked Charles, and began exploring my new city.
I was riding down the streets rather aimlessly when I found a bike path away from the streets through a park area. I rode down the ramp and found my self in a totally new world below the cityscape. I rode through a couple underpasses surrounded by trees and various other leafy greens completely immersed in my surroundings and Arcade Fire’s newest album “The Suburbs”. I was so immersed that I didn’t hear I elderly couple riding behind say that they were coming up on my left. I was riding with no hands on the handles and a blue Gatorade bottle in one hand when this lady comes up on my left. She hits my front wheel with her back and sends me off the path into the bushes. Furious I yell out “OH YEA, THANKS FOR THAT!” Her husband stops and contests “She said ‘coming up on your left’” I replied in a much quieter tone but with even more hostility “ Yea I had my headphones on! Maybe you should see if I actually respond before assuming that I had heard you!” I know for a fact that there was plenty of room on my right so I have no clue what was passing through that crazy old kooks head when she tried to pass me on the narrow strip of pathway to my left. They asked if I was ok and I replied yes and told them to go on their way.
I got back on my bike, no worse for wear, but with a new sense of caution and only one headphone in my ear. The pathway eventually let back out into the streets and I found myself lakeside. Lake Michigan might as well have been an ocean. It’s so expansive that I couldn’t even see all the way across to our neighboring state. I continued riding along the lake enjoying the scenery and thinking about my new home. Despite my cycling incident I was rather pleased and excited about Milwaukee. The people seemed nice and I received many a cat call while I was riding around.
Eventually I somehow had made it back to the area of my apartment, but I wasn’t done exploring so I chose a new street to ride down and eventually found a star bucks where I stopped and got a coffee. After relaxing a bit and gaining my bearings on the area by using my iTouch’s map application, I discovered that I was once again hungry! Surprise surprise right? I saw that there was a little hole in the wall Chinese restaurant by my apartment and I headed over there for some grub. Schezwan chicken had never tasted so good. Garnished with green bell peppers, shredded onions and carrots I felt like it was a meal fit for a king. I packed my leftovers and stopped by a convenience store for some “bare necessities” which in this case are top ramen and beer. With goods in hand I walked with my bike back to my apartment and settled in for the night.
Eventually I was lolled to sleep by the sounds of passing cars and drunken college kids walking past and thus ended my first day.
The Rapture May 21, 2011: EVERYONE SCREAM AND RUN
In case you haven't heard tomorrow, May 21, is the end of the world. Take a moment to let this sink in. It's hard to believe right? But the "foremost authority" in the world on the Bible Harold Camping assures us that it is in fact the end. The chosen people, his followers, will ascend into heaven while the rest of us have to sweat it out on earth as it turns into a hell hole crawling with demons and natural disasters galore.
Camping once predicted that the world would end sometime in 1994. Apparently he must have missed a teensy bit of information there because, well were not dead. But this time he assures us, the unclean, that tomorrow is in fact the end. I imagine that I probably will have to call out from work on Saturday, you know to crawl under my bed and cry in the fetal position. If your "smart" you'll do the something similar. Just some kind of wide spread panic is necessary. Maybe go rob a bank or jump out of a plane with no parachute, it doesn't matter really.
HOWEVER, if it turns out that Camping is a total f&#*ing crack pot (which is totally unlikely) then I saw\y we party it up super hard. Hell we can even make it national Harold Camping, on which you must panic in the most destructive way your little brain can possible conjure up. So enjoy this Friday....because it may be your last BAWAHAHAHAHA
Shuffling from dusk till dawn
I sure many of you have given that "rave music" a good listen to every once in awhile. Electronic music has really been on the rise lately. Heck I've even heard it as background music for some high end car commercials, like Lexus. Quite frankly I'm addicted to the music and I can't get enough of it. Amongst electronic music there are several other genre's like House, Trance, Dubstep, Triphop, etc. Anyway I wanted to share with you one of my favorite dubstep tunes so here we go. This one come to you from a New Zealand producer Mt. Eden.
Check out more of his stuff and an interview on http://www.themahoganyblog.com/
Check out more of his stuff and an interview on http://www.themahoganyblog.com/
Pringles Can = Macro Lens?
Recently for my photography class I had to take some macro pictures. Whats macro photography you say? Its when you take pictures of objects super close to the object so that you can see the texture of the object in focus. Now you can take some pretty decent macro pictures with your average lens but to get a really good one most of the time you need to go purchase a certain kind of lens specifically designed for macro pictures. These macro lens can cost up to a grand for the high end ones. I'm a dirt poor college student so I definitely don't have that kind of money to just drop on a new camera lens. So there I was thinking my dream of doing macro photography was dead...until I found this video. Enjoy!
What an amazing planet
Once again I was stumbling through the internet when I ended up on www.amazing-planet.com. This site had quite a fantastic selection of photos from all over the world, not to mention a throughly well designed website. The got everything from the Aurora Borealis to sloths hanging out all slothy like in the trees. So I went looking and I found this image of the Aurora Borealis.
Takes your breath away right? If I can make it up to the northern hemisphere to witness something as unique and as beautiful as this I can drop dead right on the spot and truly be happy. We humans have been blessed with thee most gorgeous and strange planet to live on and it seems like most people just take it for granted. Everyday we are surrounded by beauty but were all moving so fast going here and there that we never truly see it. Even the most mundane scene can be beautiful if you step back and think about how trillions of tiny little particles held together by even smaller particles make everything in the world. Think about that next time your in a rush to make that meeting or when your cruising down the freeway. This world we share is amazing.
Incredible Surf Photographer: Sean Davey
So I was "surfing" the interweb today when I happened to stumble upon this gorgeous image below me.
The photographer responsible is none other than world renowned Sean Davey. He's a surf and surf lifestyle photographer who's been in the game now for over 20 years. The man has over 20 magazine covers with his photography on them and countless photos that will have you itchin for a nice sandy beach to sink those toes into. Honestly the guy knows his stuff and how he goes about capturing some of these images is beyond me. Anyway I thought I would pay homage to one of the greats in the photography business.
If you want to check out more of these awesome photos go to his website: http://seandavey.com/
Panoramic tutorial
http://youtu.be/WoQNL-VsvJA
Check out the link above to get schooled my ol' buddy from across the pond Nigel. Nigel is a bloody brit but he seems to know his stuff and he's got a ton of other sweet tutorials on his website http://www.whatdigitalcamera/.
Spot on Nigel, simply spot on. I fancy myself some tea now, earl gray of course, and perhaps I'll ajorn to my study to contemplate...I dunno british stuff.
I'll post the software stitching tutorial by WDC soon!
Check out the link above to get schooled my ol' buddy from across the pond Nigel. Nigel is a bloody brit but he seems to know his stuff and he's got a ton of other sweet tutorials on his website http://www.whatdigitalcamera/.
Spot on Nigel, simply spot on. I fancy myself some tea now, earl gray of course, and perhaps I'll ajorn to my study to contemplate...I dunno british stuff.
I'll post the software stitching tutorial by WDC soon!
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