Magic

That’s basically what Disneyworld is. Hot. Nasty. Magic. (in the best way possible)

No other place on earth can drive someone to listen to Disney soundtracks all the way home and watch Disney movies once there. Unlike a normal reaction to a full day of exposure (aversion to anything resembling the experience), Disneyworld evokes a strong feeling of necessity to engage in Disney-branded activity.

I went to Disneyworld yesterday with my little sister, Alyssa. She’s 11 and awesome. We stayed from 10am-10pm, a feat of magical proportions in itself. Roller coasters, 3D shows, constant immersion in the thickest of American consumerism and obesity – all for free. Disney lets you visit any of their parks for FREE on your birthday. I could think of no better way to spring into adulthood on my 21st birthday, than by acting like a complete child all day long.

Fun sibling time. Multiple servings of ice cream all day and night long. Fireworks. You can’t beat a day like that.

I’m Goin’ to Miami…

This weekend, Andy and I made the longer-than-expected trip to Miami.

What started as $11 in gas, $24 in tickets, and $6 in coffee, wound up costing much more.

+ $17 in tolls by the time we got there.
+ $4 in beach parking
+ $10 stadium parking
+ $18 Yankee tax per ticket (Regular prices were $12 each. For Yankees – $30.)

But it was fun and worth it. After a couple hours at the beach, the rain came in. And it came hard – we’re talking monsoon style rain here. Crazy. But it stopped by the time we got to the game. Beautiful night for a game.

Here are some videos of us driving down and of the game. The end of the game video is abrupt because I stopped it seconds after the game ended. I was very angry. Jeter let me down with a weak flyout.

Lord of the Flies

In light of President Obama’s recent “splat” with PETA over the killing of a fly, this post is especially topical.

I came home this afternoon to a bathroom full of more than 50 fruit flies buzzing all over the place. I immediately closed the door and brainstormed ways to eliminate them peacefully without being bitten, eaten, or otherwise annihilated in any way. They kept coming in through a tiny hole near the plumbing. Apparently something died under our house not-so-recently, and this hole has direct access to the dead creature. So flies decided my bathroom was a better place to land than a rotting carcass.

I opened the window, but they had no intentions of leaving under peaceable terms. I tried setting traps of soap mixed with sweet tea – no go. They were resilient. I tried leaving gummy treats in the sweet, soapy bait – still no go. So I whipped out my weeks-old Advertising Age trades and went to town on that army of flies. I closed the door behind me so none could escape into my, at this point in the game, uninfested, bedroom. (I know there are too many commas there. Deal with it.) I proceeded to take out a flurry of flies one by one either against the window, against the counter, or right out of mid-air. In any case, the body count was high with unnecessary insect death.

Had they been butterflies, I would have allowed them to stay as long as they’d wished, but fruitflies are beasts not to bargain with. They were monsters – possibly radioactively enlarged monsters. I was forced to act to protect my home. And with no fly paper or other traps at my disposal, I had to use brute force. I may come to regret it, but I know I will sleep soundly tonight knowing my bathroom is safe once again. Covered in fly extremities, but nonetheless safe.

Copy/Paste

[In honor of the new iPhone 3.0 copy/paste feature, I have used copy/paste to write this entry, directly from the AdBrad main blog post yesterday. So if you've already read that, stop here. Just trying to save you valuable internet time.]

I have been in Orlando getting settled at my new internship at Relevant Media Group for a few weeks. I’ve watched a lot of Star Trek, drank a lot of coffee at my new hangout, Stardust, with my new friend Andy, and rode my bike a lot with my new saddle. Stardust is a coffee shop/bar/indie video rental place. It’s a fun place to hang out. There are so many interesting, searching people there who will talk your ear off about bikes, the therapeutic effects of spinning (just regular spinning…like in circles), the communism of YouTube censorship, C.S. Lewis– just to name a few of the conversations I’ve been a part of at Stardust. Every Wednesday (tonight), Stardust hosts a local market get-together where artists, musicians, craftsmen/women, and chefs show off their wares at booths. Live music, a bike club (with probably 20 fixies on the rack), and good coffee are just a few of the cool parts of the Market nights at Stardust.

Andy & I have been hanging out here most nights, talking with people, making friends and trying all the coffee and tea on the menu. It’s been a fun few weeks.

I haven’t done much actual design work since I’ve been here. Lots of spreadsheets at work these days. I might be redesigning the Neue media kit this summer, so I’m excited for that project in the future. But, I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep and peace over the past few weeks, so I haven’t been spending my usual hours every week immersed in random designs or projects. I did this poster before I left, but never blogged it. It’s a fictional foreign festival that I would love to try to host in Stillwater if we could pull it off. A lot of cool foreign films that I think people would enjoy.

So other than that it hasn’t been much lately. Too busy with work and feeling out the city of Orlando. I haven’t driven my car since the first weekend I was here in an emergency to the bank. I’m 1.3 mi from Relevant, so I ride to work every day in 10 minutes max, 4 minutes minimum, no traffic at 5am. The grocery store is across the street from my house, so I walk or ride there when I need it. Stardust is about 2 mi. Downtown is about 2 mi. My church, Status, is about 3.5 miles, so I’m definitely sweaty when I get there in the Florida humidity, but it’s not a bad ride at all to anywhere I need to go. Hopefully I can continue to bum rides when I wanna go to the beach or anywhere else far away.

I got a haircut recently too. It’s pretty hot down here, so I just cut it all off for the summer. I like it.

I also got a new Brooks leather bicycle saddle last week. I’m breaking it in, which is tough in the Florida rainy weather. I have to always have my cover with me. You can’t get it wet while you break it in. I re-taped my handlebars as well with silver, instead of the basic black I’ve always used. I dig it – used Fi’zi:k brand tape this time. That’s the hardest brand to type ever.

Andy and I are going to teach ourselves how to screen print this summer, so I’ll post our designs on here when we get around to it. I’ve got a few ready to go, but I just need to buy the screen. Hopefully as a team, we can actually make ourselves get set up and learn how to do it well by the end of the summer.

That’s all for now.

Beaches, Bikes & Baldness

Ok, so I’m not in a story/writing mood, so you just get pictures with captions. We’re getting closer to a real blog now. First video, then pics, soon writing.

Went to Cocoa then Daytona Beaches Saturday. Andy took some pics, but I forgot my Flip and my still camera. So these are his.

The space shuttle launch that morning was scrubbed, so we got to the beach early. It’s rescheduled for Wednesday morning. I think I’ll go then. We’ll see.

Cocoa Beach, FL

Daytona Beach, FL

Andy & Tess

The water was so nice. Had to dive right in.

It was very sunny.

New handlebars & new haircut. Both with help from Andy.

The new place