After spending the night in my car in the middle of the Redwood Forests in Northern California, I drove into San Francisco around 10am Wednesday morning.

Of course I was going in via US-101 South, going over the Golden Gate Bridge. As I approached the bridge, I noticed the large sign saying $5.00 TOLL AHEAD. I about crapped my pants. I had one dollar in cash on me, and was entering the bridge. No turning around! I spent my passage over the bridge literally digging in my seat cushions and coin tray trying to scrape together five dollars in cash. When I finally got to the toll booth, I had gotten up $4.65, and picked out nickels to get the last thirty five cents. The guy working the booth had a good chuckle about it. I wasn’t quite as happy, but I made it through alive and free, so all in all it wasn’t so bad.

The weather in San Fran was horrible. It was RAINING IN JUNE. Which apparently happens once every two years or so. I go to check into the hostel and they are booked full. Great I think. So I sit and browse hotels on my laptop and find an el cheapo only a block or so down the road. The Francisco Bay Inn would become my home for the night.

I decided to brave the city rain or shine. After a few hours of walking, I realized I was fighting a losing battle against the rain. I lost badly. I was just preparing to make it an early night when I heard from my best friend, whom I haven’t seen in the better part of a year. Turns out she is living in San Francisco these days, so we met up for some late night tea and sushi. It was really great to catch up and see that everything is going okay for her. It also really mentally rejuvenated me to be around a familiar face again.

Another update from the road ladies and gentlemen.

I drove through Montana, which is an absolutely beautiful state. The entire drive I was just amazed at the scenery, the mountains, hills and houses. Glacier National Park was phenomenal, I want to get back there on another trip when it’s not pouring down rain and I can actually spend some good time hiking and camping.

I put up some photos from the park and the drive in my trip gallery http://www.snotmonkey.com/gallery/crosscountry2005

Seattle has been a great time as well. It’s really a pretty small urban area, which is nice. Seattle reminds me a lot of San Francisco, but seemingly a bit more relaxed and down to earth. I hope I can get back here for a longer stay in the future. Now I am heading out along the infamous US101 around Washington and eventually down to Portland.

I am planning to mark out my trip on google maps at some point, probably after I get to Cali, so I can remember how I actually went, and I can mark out for everyone where the photos came from and the events happened. If it works like I hope, it should be a really good way to visually blog

I will put up the few photos I got here in Seattle in a few days, I just spent most of my time here doing normal people stuff, rather than the tourist stop and hop.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Once again I have been very impressed with a great Northern City.

I walked around Minneapolis for a good while yesterday, I happen to be staying right next door to the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. This area reminds me a LOT of San Francisco. There is a huge counter-culture population in this part of the city and it is astounding how pristine the roads, alleys and shops are.

It got to the point that I was actively trying to find a bum to beg me for money, to find a back alley with strewn about trash and rats. Then I had the stroke of inspiration! Find train tracks. There is always filth and vagrants surrounding train tracks. So I walk to the Soo Line tracks. What do I find? Privately kept, terraced gardens. And bike paths. NO trash, NO bums. I almost shed a tear.

I was speaking to a wily Australian last night who said that while living here off and on over the past 6-7 years, the city has been changing quite a bit. Even this hostel has really changed (and he said not for the better). He said especially downtown has been cleaned up, it’s like a clean sterile bathroom. Great for lower crime and vagrants, but all the great shops, restaurants, bars and most importantly, people aren’t there anymore. He said that the city is slowly tearing out their old buildings to replace them with new condos and apartments, new McDonald’s and Taco Bells.

I was amazed though, in walking for hours yesterday, I saw one McDonalds, that could have easily been mistaken for a corner cafe, and a Quiznos Subs. I didn’t see another chain restaurant or even a chain store in that time. Lots of REALLY cool looking places to just go check out. Co-op Markets instead of super markets, holistic medicine and supplement shops, bike shops, small theatres (no not movie theatres either, amazing I know), studios, lots of Yoga/Tai Chi clinics. All of this was within a 3-4 mile radius.

Maybe I just got lucky and found a kickass area of town, but even so, I would definitely not mind settling in here during the summer and early fall months.

Now I head on to the Lake Wobegon Trails, Fargo, and hopefully the Glacier National Park.

Well ladies and gents, today I began the 2005 journey. I am starting my trip this year in Chicago, a mere 15 hours from Raleigh. Amazingly I drove through Indianapolis right after the Indy 500 ended (which I listened to most of the day on the radio, amazing race!), and saw two previous year’s pace cars driving down the highway.

The drive through West Virginia was gorgeous as always, and actually most of Indiana wasn’t horribly boring either.

Pulled into Chicago right as the sun began to set, I will update with photos tomorrow from the drive and city. I am staying at the HIUSA Hostel on Congress Pkwy, which is right dead in the middle of downtown.

First impressions: This hostel is the best I have yet been to in the US, it’s 15 bucks a, brand spanking new everything, bathrooms for each room, and a great crowd as usual. The city is much cleaner and more impressive than I imagined, and there is going to be a lot to do in the next couple of days.

I’ll try to post every day or two, internet permitting. Upcoming is Glacier National Park, Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco

I want anyone and EVERYONE who reads this to post in here something they would like to do with me someday.

Will update tomorrow with lots of good news

Well over a month again since my last post! So much has happened in a month, I hardly know where to start.

Shortly after making my last post, I finished up a competition entry for the 2005 World Traffic Safety Symposium Design Competition. I worked nearly 24/7 (being completely literal) for my entire Spring Break on the project. I mailed off my entry at the last possible moment, and it cost me $132.00 to overnight FedEx it to New York. For the project I ended up spending about 150 hours, and about $300 in materials and shipping. Needless to say, for a man with no money and not much work, it was very stressful.

The next week I am sitting in studio. My professor comes in and tells us that 3 of us placed in the money for the competition (there were 7 prizes overall). I was so happy, it didn’t even sink in at all. He didn’t know who got what place, just that we won something. Then later in the day, another student comes in to tell me that I WON THE COMPETITION!

So basically I got the $5000.00 grand prize. And they flew all three of us to New York City the next week. We exhibited at the Symposium, which was a part of the New York Auto Show, then got to go to the Auto Show itself. It was an absolutely amazing experience and I would like to publicly thank the Symposium organizers, for being so generous and gracious to bring us up there on such short notice.

So that was Thursday and Friday, March 31st and April 1st. Then we got back and I had to catch up on a ton of work.

We left again on Thursday April 7th to head to the IDSA Southern District Conference in Memphis, Tennessee. I am now an officer with the NCSU chapter, the “Web Guru” position. It’s my first time ever being an active organizational member of anything and I am quite excited about it actually But at any rate, all the officers went up there a day early to help setup the conference, prep the registration packets and just generally assist the organizers.

I got to meet several REALLY cool people and I would like to thank Sherry Sample, Ty Rarick and Tim Fletcher for their hospitality and general awesomeness. I learned an incredible amount at the conference, from the professionals and students around me. The seminars were well presented, everything seemed really well organized and I came out feeling reinvigorated and refreshed. For anyone even remotely interested in Industrial Design, check out these guys:

Marty Gage, http://www.rocketsurgery.biz
Aly Khalifa, http://www.gamil.com , http://www.designbox.us/
Ty Rarick, http://www.pacificdesign.com

Memphis was absolutely fabulous as well. Beale Street is a sight to behold and we all had a freaking amazing time. Many memories and new friendships were formed on this trip. I really can’t emphasize enough how much I needed this kind of shot in the arm.

So we got back from Memphis on Monday at about 1:30am, needless to say I missed my morning class and didn’t have anything for Studio. But luckily everyone else was in the same boat and our professors were lenient on us

This Friday is yet another (and the last) conference, this one thank goodness is in Raleigh though. It’s a NC Sustainable Energy Conference. So I will be in that all day Friday, then Friday night is our annual Studio Crawl gathering, and my buddy Adam is in town this weekend to take his Professional Engineering Exam! No partying for him though unfortunately, his exam starts at like 8am Saturday morning.

Well, I feel much better now! I have some money in the bank (also big props go out to the IRS and my dad for my monster tax return!), and a few job prospects for the summer. Only a week to go until my Triathlon! Updates will come soon

It’s been a bit since my last BLOG.

So what’s going on with me? I have no idea. I love being in school, I love what I am doing. But I feel like my life is at a complete standstill right now. I have no money, I don’t seem to be doing anything financially productive, or really in any way productive.

I am still training for triathlons, 4 days a week right now, but I’ve been ordered off running for 5 days by the doc for my ankle.

The strange thing is it seems like I have almost no free time, but even though I am never home and I never go out, I don’t seem to be getting much done. I really think I need to go see a doctor about getting some medication to help me concentrate and focus. I WANT to work, I have soooo many things I want to get done, but I literally just can’t make myself do anything. I can’t even make myself goof off for any amount of time, I am becoming this completely passive person, and I don’t like it one bit.

I think spring break will be spent working for some $ and getting side projects done here in Raleigh. I had wanted to go to the beach or to Vegas, but I really don’t have the funds, nor can I really afford to just take off for a week right now. Plus I owe it to myself to really bunker down and get things done.

What else can I do to make myself work? I have tried making lists, keeping a calendar, and it all works for a few days, maybe a week, but I fall out of the habit in very short pace.

Ugh, hopefully the next update will be more inspiring!

I have up some new pictures from my Trip to the Detroit Auto Show, as well as a few more art pieces, and a bunch of other photos I have been meaning to put online. Oh and check out the new video gallery

Also updated with some new content, it’s actually older stuff from past versions of the site, that is finally into my new content system. Hope you enjoy it!

Also readded games, the page will be changing a bit soon, but they should remain online. Great for passing the time at work or in lab
http://www.snotmonkey.com/games/

Hope everyone is doing well!

2004: A year in review… (Shamelessy ripped from MessyLeprosy’s Journal)

1. What did you do in 2004 that you’d never done before?
I left North America for the first time.
I drove every mile of I40 from Wilmington to Barstow California.
I drove nearly every mile of I95 from Florida to Massachusetts.
I learned how to Scuba Dive.
I learned how to Snow Ski. (though horribly)
I hiked in the Grand Canyon.
I had my first near death experience.

2. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don’t think I made any explicit New Years’ resolutions. So if I did, more likely than not, I didn’t keep them. I probably won’t make any this year either, for the same reason.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My cousin Billy’s wife. and my ollld friend John’s wife.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, 2003 was a horrible enough year for that.

5. What countries did you visit?
France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Germany.

6. What would you like to have in 2005 that you lacked in 2004?
A companion.

7. What date from 2004 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 30th, 2004. The day I almost died in the Grand Canyon. I spent the better part of that evening seriously thinking about all of the people I would leave behind not being able to say goodbye to and of all the people who would never even know I was dead. It was and still is probably the biggest life changing event of my life so far.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Having the fortitude to make it out of #7 alive and on my own. I never knew I had that much strength in me.

9. What was your biggest failure?
My relationship with Laura.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Severe dehydration, heat exhaustion in the GC. Separated my right shoulder just recently.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Boxer briefs. I don’t know how I ever lived without them.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My friend Adam for graduating from NC A&T, John’s brother Josh for his strength in going to Iraq, Jared Nadel for getting his dream job, My uncle Bill for being the top dog tracker team in the world, uncle Bob for finally quitting smoking. Boy thats a LOT

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
Early on this year, Tyrone for bouncing rent and forcing me to step in. Laura for various things. In general I have been appalled by so much going on in this world, it’s too numerous to mention specifically. Depressed by being without a good buddy and by being shot down bigtime several times this year in different areas.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Paying the rent my roomates are too irresponsible to cover.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Driving across the country to live in California this summer.

16. What song will always remind you of 2004?
I don’t think I know a song that would remind me of this year’s events.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Much happier. Found my life’s calling.
ii. thinner or fatter? 10 pounds heavier. Mostly due to injury and illness.
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer, new house, deadbeat roomates.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Being with old friends and working on my car.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Putzing around on the internet.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Mississippi to visit family, Texas for new years and Florida right after.

22. Did you fall in love in 2004?
No, but I realized I was still in love.

23. How many one-night stands?
None, I plan to keep it that way

24. What was your favorite TV program?
Tie between Lost and The Wire.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I don’t hate anyone. I would like to think I never will.

26. What was the best book you read?
The book of reconciliation.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Badly Drawn Boy

28. What did you want and get?
Into grad school.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
So far, Closer. Probably because it’s the last one I saw and it has Natalie Portman in it. And she was a stripper. Okay and because it hit close to home.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I rode my bike to the beach, sat in the sun all day, treated myself to a chicken sandwich, read a book and went to sleep early. I turned 23.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A good friend to share it with.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2004?
Horribly amiss.

34. What kept you sane?
Since when have I been sane? Drugs and delusions kept me kickin though.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Pat Tillman, I hope I can be 1/10th the man he was.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Iraq, because everyone still misses the point. They are going to kill each other anyway.

37. Who did you miss?
Adam, Shannon, Jared, Josh, John, Dave, Lucy, Sonia, Shanna, Cass, and Laura.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Kelly Myers. What a cool chick.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2004:
The people in your life are all that really matter. Make sure you surround yourself with the best you can.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I can’t remember anything relevent at the moment.

For all the people who I have given computer help to over the years, I ask for a small favor in return. I am sure everyone has heard of the freeipods.com site. Well I want one doggoneit. So please click on my referral link below, and sign up for one of the offers (they are all free trials, but do require a credit card).

I can personally vouch for this being 100% legitimate, I recommend signing up for the infone service, because it’s a pay-per-use service unlike most of the other offers, so if you never use it you have no risk of every being charged. There are actually some other good offers too, from Blockbuster and Stamps.com

At any rate, please help me out, I need a total of 5 people in order to get myself an Ipod.

Link: http://www.freeiPods.com/default.aspx?referer=10615796