Beware the Army of Angels

Believe...

The newly formed band from former Blink-182 band member Tom Delonge, Angels and Airwaves, is on the brink of releasing their debut album. There is only one word to describe this band. EPIC!

After Delonge's departure from Blink-182 and he spent 3 weeks thinking of what his next move in life would be. After many sleepless nights he decided a new band would be perfect. He set out to create his perfect ideal band. Not the best musicians, but the best possible band.
After careful consideration Delonge laid out the guidelines for the new band. First and foremost band members were to be respectul to the other members at all times and to understand that family was to come first before the band, which points to signs of tension among Blink members and somewhat verifies rumors of the band's demise. He also made it clear this band was not a side project, but the next step in the musicians lives.

After thinking of names for the new band he eventually came up with the name of Angels and Airwaves. Delonge was unsure about the name for awhile until he realized if you invert the middle 'A' it spells his daughters name. (Ava)

The new band consists of Ryan Sinn on bass, Atom Willard on drums, David Kennedy on guitar and obviously Tom on vocals and guitar. Sinn is former bassist for The Distillers, Kennedy is formerly of Boxcar Racer and Hazen Street, and Willard has a list of bands but most importantly (to me) are The Offspring and Rocket From the Crypt.

The band set out to tour in early May and is now making it's way through the U.S.

The first single was recently released, "The Adventure" followed by "It Hurts." The first album "We Don't Have to Whisper" will be released May 23, 2006. It's being released along with a movie that plays along with the album much in the likes of Pink Floyd's "The Wall."

Influences are bands like Nirvana, The Police, U2 and any other band deemed highly influential to their time.

I'm not 100% sure why I'm so obsessed by this band. I do however know that the music speaks to me for some reason. I already have tickets to their show at the Charter One Pavillion on June 30 in Chicago.

I truly think this band is the next step for rock music as a whole. Delonge seems to have left is immature toilet humor behind and upgraded to a much more influential and determined personality. Though there are still a few 'dick' jokes here and there.

I know I'm not the only one after hearing their music on a commercial for 'The OC.' A clear sign of the soon to come popularity. Check them out and let me know what you think.

Badmitton

Birdie or cock?



I figured if Stephen was going to show you his shuttle-cock I might as well show mine. In case you didn't know I covered IHSA State Finals for badmitton yesterday for Visual Image Photography. I think I found the only sport harder to shoot than volleyball so far.

It wasn't all that bad. At least Stephen and I got to hang out and talk about all the high school girls and say how good of personalities each of them probably had. HA! I'm just disappointed none of them asked me to the Sadie Hawkins dance.

While I was there I had to take a 5 minute break so I could order tickets for a concert. I'm extremely excited. I haven't been to a concert in such a long time. I just wish Ticketmaster would tell you straight up how much tickets will cost. Instead they hide fees in every little part of it.

I went to order tickets for Angels and Airwaves, which they said were $25.50. Now I'm not naeive. I know there are taxes and whatever per ticket you buy. So I had calculated spending anywhere from $60-$65 for both the tickets. I quickly ordered the tickets moving from screen to screen in fear I wouldn't get tickets. I was relieved seconds later when it was confirmed and I had my 2 tickets. I checked my email for the confirmation upon finding my total bill was $78. I mean what the hell Ticketmaster? I paid for a whole other ticket by ordering online. Either way it'll be worth it.

Update

Speedy knows the importance of newspapers.

Nothing really important happened the past few days. I finally fixed the internet at the house here today. For some reason Catie's router wasn't working anymore. The internet was still working but the router wasn't letting the information through. I think today was the last day I got to babysit Speedy. I'mm going to miss the little guy a lot.

I should here about jobs either later today or tomorrow. I'm really hoping for Crystal Lake. We'll see though. I'm hoping to get my check from the University this week so I can start making plans to move up north with Steph.

Other than that, I have another freelance assignment for Saturday and with any luck, my story should be running on Sunday of next week. Darrell should let me know tonight. John had a wonderful photostory in Sunday and Monday's issue with a girl who lost both hands and feet to bacterial meningitis. She seems like a really cool girl from what John had been telling me. Has a real sense of humor about an unfortunate situation.

As soon as my photostory runs I'll post the photos on Sportsshooter, but I don't want to step on anyone's toes.

Good/Bad news with my Hermes (my car). Yes I've officially named my car. I named it Hermes for the Greek Messenger God. He's also the god of travel and thieves. I figured with as much as I drive him around he might as well have a name and Hermes seems to fit him well. Anyway, it was shifting very peculiarly for a bit at work last night and then all the sudden wouldn't shift at all. I thought it was transmission fluid at first, but after a trip to Autozone today I found out it was actually the Vehicle Speed Sensor. I got it fixed here in town for about $160. Not bad considering a rebuilt transmission would cost me over a $1000.

Well I should probably get to bed so I can get up for coffee in the morning.

SPEEDY!

This ferocious little guy's eyes are deceitful.



Just because he's a puppy doesn't mean he can't strike fear in you. Okay, so he's really not that ferocious, but he does have some sharp teeth.

Everyone, meet Speedy. No I didn't go out and get a dog. Catie and Derek did though. They brought home this 10-week-old Beagle puppy Friday night. Since they both work the day and I work night I volunteered to dog sit until Catie's done with school later this week.

It's really too bad I'm not single. I could carry him around and have a date every night of the week. I took him to Aroma's with me this morning for coffee with the news crew and almost got mobbed. Don't worry Steph they were all way too old for me.

I took a lolt of photos of him this morning, but this one was my favorite. Check out the gallery if you want to see a few more. I'm sure over the next few days I'll have tons of photos of him. hell, I might buy little accessories to put on him and make him look cool. I believe there's a pair of pink star sunglasses at work that would fit perfect on his head.

It would make it that much more sweet because then I could make fun of Derek saying his dog is turning gay. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Officially Alumnus

In case you're wondering, the glasses are prescription. Because my future is so bright!

My motivation has officially returned from near death and I am back working. I shot the freelance job on Friday night, graduated yesterday, and worked on photos today as well. There's more photos from graduation in front of Old Main as well. I shot some of my little sister and I, my whole family that came, and one with just my parents, sister, and me.

I learned through Clark about a neat little feature to Photomechanic that will help out if I shoot sports photos later on called code replacement. I think if I have coffee with the news crew in the morning I will show them how to use it. That's going to mean getting up really early though.

I need to be up early though because I have to babysit Catie and Derek's new beagle puppy Speedy. There will obviously be photos of him on here when I dogsit because I will most likely be bored.

Good news also. The photo story is almost done. I interviewed Caitlin's mom this morning. I will interview her dad tomorrow and turn the story in. From there I need to fully finish editing the photos for it, and then put it all together. Should be running two weeks from today with all luck.

I had coffee with Clark again today to give him the photos from the jazz fest the other night and there might be the possibility of some more freelance work. I'm getting really excited becaue I'm learning a lot about the way he does business and I might be able to swing something similar to what he has in the Rockford area. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Well I feel like I babbled on too much for this blog so maybe I'll blog later tonight about something else. Or I'll just do it tomorrow.

Yes I'm Alive

Gizmo has an identity crisis. He thinks he's a grey hound!


So what have I been up to you ask? I'll be honest. Not a lot until this last weekend. If it can't be downloaded or played on Xbox I haven't been doing it. Can't figure out if I'm depressed or just lazy. Anyway here's the quick run down from the past couple of weeks:

1. Work at Pizza Hut a lot!
2. Had my alumni weekend.
3. Be lazy.
4. Freelance job in Chucktown
5. Photo conference in Wisconsin.
6. 2 interviews for jobs this past week.
7. Finish my photo essay story.
8. Another freelance job tonight.

I'll try to keep this brief even though I need to update much more if I get time later. I had two interviews for jobs earlier in the week. Both went well and I'm hoping to get one or possibly even both the jobs so I can decide. The first was at the Northwest Herald for a videographer position and the other was at the Midweek in Dekalb, Ill., for an editor position. Both would be excellent oppurtunities for a journalist. I should know by early next week.

I did a freelance job for Visual Image Photography in Charleston last week at the IHSA State Journalism Finals. It was nice to see everyone that was down there and to see the new talent coming out of our high schools.

From there it was directly back home for a conference with my grandfather in Wisconsin the next day sponsored by Herff Jones. Two best things out of the whole thing was the auction and the return of motivation. The conference got me fired up to do photography again, but the other thing is I actually got a light, a background, a super clamp and a fog machine all for under $45. (Excellent deal).

I have another freelance job tonight for Clark Brooks. Hopefully I can get a few more jobs from him if possible before I have to move up north. If I get anything interesting from it tonight I might post the photo, but no guarantees. Hopefully this really breaks my lazy slump and I can get some stuff done.

And for the closing note, I graduate tomorrow. Not excited too much. Just going to go through the motion for the sake of my parents and grandparents. I'm sure I'll be happy I did later, but I just don't care at this point. Don't know if I'm being apathetic or bitter. Maybe I'll be excited about it tomorrow. Anyway, check back.

In It For the Long Haul

What do you do when you don't have cable or a real full-time job? Read!



I thought since I have so much free time on my hands for the next few weeks I would start reading a lot more. I found a list of 101 Great Books for college-bound students. So far I think I counted just over a handful of the books that I've read which is sad considering I'm a pretty avid reader. I know what most of the books are about, I just have never actually read them. I'm kind of looking forward to it. I'm making it a long term goal of mine to finish every book on the list. I think it will take me anywhere from 2-5 years.

This may seem like a really long time for some people, but I also have to figure in that about once a month I find something I absolutely have to read. I'm actually in the end of Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' which just so happens to be on the list. It's a great book and would recommend it to anyone. It's a quick read as well.

Other than that, my life has been filled with playing poker, Xbox and working Pizza Hut. I have a couple of leads on jobs, but don't know how they'll turn out. I know I promised to blog more often and I will. I've been really lacking motivation lately with anything. My room has been destroyed for the past week and just finally started getting really picked up today. I should probably pack up some shit to move out of here soon.

On the bright side, I found a way to finance a 70-200/f2.8 lens this week. It's actually really crazy how it's all worked out. First on Tuesday a guy from some Visual Image Photography called me after seeing my stuff on Sportsshooter and wants me to shoot two freelance jobs on April 29 and May 13. Both will earn me around $150-200. Then on Wednesday John (News-Gazette staff photographer) called me wanting to know if I wanted to do a freelance job for the Chicago Tribune. That'll make $150. So altogether I'm looking at anywhere from $450 to $600. Then I called Clark Brooks today to see if he had any stuff to shoot for him and we talked about equipment for a bit and he said he has a 70-200 for sale for around the $650 range. Much better than the $800 range I was thinking I'd have to pay for a used one. Now all I need is a strobe and a wide angle and I'll be in business (with minimal equipment).

Last Dayhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

No I'm not stealing Stephen's bird watching idea. Although after seeing his pictures it makes me more compelled to do some bird watching and photographing as well. I mostl like the way the water was rippling off the fountain so I shot the photo.

Today was my last day at the News-Gazette. I was pretty disappointed to be leaving after these 3 months, but it's time to move on. I'm currently in the search for a job of some sorts. I have no idea what I'm going to be doing. Right now I'll concentrate on my pizza delivering skills and hope for something to fall into place. I really don't want to have to get a job out of journalism, but if that's the case then so be it. I had to get one nature photo before all equipment and was surrendered. I didn't want to give up the cameras (mostly the lenses and flashes) and especially didn't want to give up my University of Illinois parking permit. That thing has helped out in so many situations.

I'm going to be blogging more as I have a lot more time. I'm running a 5k in the morning so I need to get to bed for now, but I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll even get a photo from the event. Check up soon to see what I get posted.

Feature of the Day

Maybe I'll Catch Fire

This reminded me of the "Maybe I'll Catch Fire" album by Alkaline Trio. It's not exactly, but the warm tones of the city lights kind of did. Anyway, I saw this when I was drving home from an assignment tonight and I was feeling in a featuresque mood tonight. I shot another one for the paper earlier in the day so that technically makes two feature on the day. Possibly a record for me. If anyone knows me, they know that features are my least favorite part of the job most of the time. I'm just usually a guy with schedule and I like to keep that schedule generally.

The most amazing thing about this photo is that this is a handheld 3 second exposure. I braced my body against the windowsill of my driver's side door and held as perfectly still as possible. It's a tad fuzzy when blown up and at 1600 speed it's a little grainy, but I can't complain.

Tomorrow leaves two weeks left at my internship. I'm excited, scared and nervous all in one. I'm looking at possible job oppurtunities as a reporter at the Dekalb Daily-Chronicle and The Sterling Daily-Gazette. I'm hoping one of them if not both will lead to potential jobs. If I had to choose I'm not sure which one I would go with. Obviously money will be a factor, but at the same time Dekalb is closer to Rochelle which will make mine and Steph's life easier. Also, Dekalb's paper is a Lee Corporation paper and would have oppurtunity to advance to another Lee paper especially for moving into a photography position.

I'll just take it one step at a time and see how things fair. I'm suprised more and more at my dad's reaction to all this job hunting. He keeps telling me to calm down and that things will work out and to not get locked into one certain field. It's great advice, but I'm just not used to it. For some reason he seems to be the only person that can calm me down about all this stuff. Well it's late and I would like to read a few more pages out of 'Moneyball' before I fall asleep.

This job is so freakin hard!!!

I bet KFC wouldn't fry these chicks.

When the worst part of your day consists of being interrupted from your lunch to hurry up and shoot a couple of a photos of girls protesting KFC for their euthanization practices in their bikinis, I don't think you can complain about your job. Nicole and Maya here stood in front of the KFC store for over an hour in the low 40 temperatures just so little chickens wouldn't die.

Both of these girls were PETA members (read insane) and felt that there are other means of killing chickens than the methods KFC generally uses. I don't disagree with them, but in my experience, anyone that loves animals that much has a little bit of a screw loose. PETA members in general are nuts. I'm all for the ethically treating animals, but these people take it way too far. The girls were both very nice, but I can only imagine that in about 5 years when these girls are married, there will be some guy out there bitching to all of his buddies in a bar about how the dog gets more respect from his wife than he does.

The press release on PETA's website explains exactly what this is all about and gives a list of celebrities involved. Who knew Al Sharpton cared so much about chickens. Right here is where I could be really insensitive and add a racial joke, but I think you all know what I'm thinking.

My other photo from the day is from a prarie burn. This was something very interesting to me. I've never been to one of these and thought it was really cool. I really liked the closeup of the fire. I'm glad I brought my own camera along today so I could post a few of these images.

Only two more days and I get a day off. Unfortunately I will probably spend it by working at Pizza Hut. I'm down to three more weeks at the paper. Then working at Pizza Hut full-time until I find a job in Rockford/Dekalb/Rochelle area. If you hear of anything let me know.

New Blog

I started another blog the other day. I officially abandoned the Chamban Scene blog and started the Musictopia Review blog. After talking to Stephen about how we're both tired of bands becoming popular 6 months to a year after we have already played them out, I decided I could actually prove to people that I knew about this band before they did by blogging it.

Besides, this blog will force me to stay current on music. Something I feel I've been lacking for sometime now. I used to do nothing but look up music and things about it. I read "Rollingstone" each month like it was the Bible.

This is not necessarily going to be about bands I like though. I'm actually going to review a new cd each week. It also features a "Throwback of the Week" song each Monday. I'm hoping to add a few more special sections later such as Danny's Library Pick. Library Picks will be cds that can usually be found in your local library. On occasions I'll review music DVDs and even try to link to important music news.

My first cd to review is Dave Matthews Band's newest live release "Weekend on the Rocks." Check it out.

Jack's Mannequin

See What Enthusiasm Does

My ode to Macintosh computers.

I felt that if I was going to be an Apple enthusiast I should at least represent well. Plus this gave me the chance to try something I've been wanting to play with. I'm going to work on this a little bit and figure out how to get rid of the flare at the bottom. I did this using a sync cord on top of my hot shoe with the flash lying directly behind the apple on the base the apple was resting on. It probably would have been a much better photo had I used a bigger apple. The apple I was using was only about 2 in. tall and the flash was slightly taller and wider than the apple. If I get bored tonight, maybe that's what I'll mess with.

I'm planning on reading a little bit more in my book "27 Men Out: Baseball's Perfect Games" tonight if I get the chance. I'm through the third disc of Ken Burn's "Baseball" as of today. I'm not sure if I'll go get the fourth disc tonight or wait until tomorrow. I'm planning on watching "The Office" with Derek tonight if he's home and probably playing a little online poker.

I also got a 2-mile-run in tonight. I haven't ran since Sunday when I did a 4 mile trek that took me much longer because of the snow and ice that started forming. Hopefully I can get a quick 2 miles in tomorrow either on my lunch break or before I go to work at the Hut.

As can be expected, blogging will increase due to my accessibility to doing it now. The only thing I really need is a laptop carrying case now. Well that and a mouse. I hate these little thumb pads. Steph has one, but I need one sooner than she'll be able to get me one. I also found out that my internship ends a week earlier than I expected and a week longer than my boss had anticipated. Either way, this means an extra week to finding a job up north and a week longer for more hours at Pizza Hut.

Entering the Age of Macintosh

This is my blog from my laptop that my grandma bought me for a graduation gift. I was so ecstatic to go pick it up today. I couldn't believe when my grandma called me on Saturday and told I would be getting a new laptop for my gift. She told me to research it and tell her how much it costs. Thinking I would be nice and try to save her as much money as possible I first looked into Dell machines. After realizing it was going to be expensive as hell no matter what I decided to check out some Mac deals. I knew Apple had an education discount, but it wasn't that much ordering online so I decided to stop in the University of Illinois computer store in the union and found out they had overstocked them from Christmas. In fact, the 14 in. iBook G4 in the store was the same price as the 12 in. was online. This one has a slightly faster processor and a much bigger screen for seeing photos much better. After seeing that I could get this laptop for essentially about $200 more than what the Dell's were I decided to ask my grandma about it. She didn't think the price was bad at all. She almost sound suprised at how low. (Almost!) Anyway, I also got it upgraded with another 512 MB of RAM for $60. I actually have a photo to shoot for the blog tomorrow that I'll try to do if I get the time. I feel so lazy because I haven't run in like 3 days, but so running will be first on my list. I do have to mention one thing before I forget. I did reach my first goal of my New Year's resolution. I was 164 lbs. when I woke up on my birthday. I was very excited. I haven't weighed this much since my first semester of college. I'm also in the process of gathering all my old photos to put on flickr. I will begin posting them next week and they will be finished whenever I get them done. Which basically means anywher from 2 weeks to 2 years. I will eventually scan all my old family photos in as well. That way they're preserved in case of an accident. (Or because Dad gets o a Spring cleaning trip).

In other Daniel Williams news, I've been kind of a nut lately. I realize it, but there is nothing I can do about it. I'm trying to figure out how to pay for all my college loans. $43,000 is not an easy debt to erase. Especially when it looks like I'll be spending about $400/month for the next 15 years. I've been talking with Steph all week about it, but have felt really down still. Today has been fine, but best of all I talked to my dad tonight. The saddest part is he didn't really tell me anything different from what Steph told me, but hearing it come from my father made me feel a little bit better. It's conversations like the one's tonight that really make me proud to be son though. There were no, "I told you so's" or "Well you should have done this," which he would have been more than fair in saying. Just simply encouragement. No dramatic fashion or over extended bits about life. It was exactly what I needed. I just hope when I have a son or daughter that I know to say the right thing in these situations.

I think the most profound thing he said tonight was "Well, you just go to work everyday and you do the best job you can possibly do and at the end of the day it's worth it." Those may not have been the exact words, but something very similar, and it makes sense. We can't spend our lives worrying about things we don't have control over. I don't have 100% control over whether I'll have a photography job when I graduate in May. I most likely won't, but I will still go to whatever job and at the end of the day be proud of the work I've done.

Been Awhile!

I know it's been a long time since any of you heard from me. I'll just give you a quick update on what's been going on. First of all, I had my 23rd birthday last weekend. I went home for it and had a great weekend. Lindsey's part was that Saturday night and Steph and I had a blast. My birthday was the next day and I got to go to dinner with my whole family. It was nice to have everyone there. Steph and I got our engagement photos on Saturday as well. This one is my favorite. We're still going to have some more done, but we needed something for the newspaper and to give friends and family. Thanks to my grandpa for doing these.

This week has been crazy. I started off Monday by working at the newspaper 9:30-6. Then I had to hurry home, change and go to my second job at Pizza Hut. I worked there until 10 pm. Then I did it again on Tuesday and Wednesday. Wednesday I worked until 11:15 pm. Altogether I figured up by Thursday I had put in 45 and a half hours in by the end of Thursday and I still have to work at least 8.5 hours tonight. It doesn't seem like a huge amount, but when it's split between two jobs it really is a lot more difficult. I'm sure it will pay off in the end. It's helping me get out of debt sooner I guess.

I also officially started my photo essay this week. I met with her last week and snapped a few photos, but I actually went to shoot stuff on Monday. The girl's name is Caitlin Allen and she's from Homer, Ill. Now I thought I worked a lot of hours, but Caitlin is just insane. She works in Truman Hall on campus in the crop sciences labs, goes to class, is involved with a coed fraternity, and goes home nearly every weekend to work on the family farm. The story revolves around Caitlin going home a lot to work on the family farm and eventually trying to take the farm over when her father is done. I have to shoot some stuff for it tomorrow out in Homer so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm going to try and make more of an effort to post on here, but no guarantees. I probably had a little free time last week to do it and I didn't and I could have done something this week if I really tried, but to be honest I was a little down early this week. Just a lot of problems coming crashing in all at once. Most of it all was my fault because of my lack of planning, but there was some other stuff going on too. I find it more difficult to leave Steph after everytime we see each other. I know I should be glad I got to see her, but it just makes me depressed when I think that we still have a ways to go before we live together.

One last thing. I'm going to try and go through the photos from the Will Hoge show last week. I'm sending the photos off to the guy today or tomorrow and I'm going to edit a few of them myself and maybe throw a couple up on here. The band "Backyard Tire Fire" was awesome and seemed to be really nice people. Not to mention the band "Southern Bitch" too. I ended up having a conversation with the bassist Wendy (I think!) for about an hour. Unfortunately I was so annhilated by that point I have no clue what her and I talked about. I got really messed up that night, but will save that story for the blog with the photos.

Firefox Rocks

To the right is what my Firefox screen used to look like. Below is what it now looks like thanks to themes and addons. Click on the photos for a larger view of them.

Making your stand - Opinions

This was an article that I found on the DI while searching for more information about the suspension of the editors. It really has no significance for my blogging except it's the first thing I found and tested after downloading an extension for Firefox today. I stumbled upon FF extensions today while trying to bookmark a page. I absolutely love this one. It's a blog extension. It allows me to quickly bog about something I find on the internet. I also found this one called a Beer O'Clock Extension.
I have yet to download it, but will soon and let you know how well it works. Just another reason for me to shamelessly promote Firefox. I have a feeling my Firefox will never be the same. I'm downloading add-ons and themes like they're going out of style. (And knowing the internet world, they probably are.)

Return from the Great Beyond

I am back. I have been busy the past couple of weeks. Probably not too busy to blog, but busy enough. I'll recap the past two weeks for ya. Work is going good. I finally got to shoot my first NCAA University of Illinois basketball game last week. I was very excited about doing this and the excitement paid off. I got a great shot of Dee Brown and James Augustine celebrating. I couldn't have done as well without the advice of John Dixon. John has been an extreme help. He's probably the best 'teacher' I've had yet. He knows how to cut out the bull and give me the important stuff. Especially when it comes to lighting. I'm over a third the way done with my internship now. Heck, I'm coming up on half way. I definitely don't want this to end.

I also shot IHSA state wrestling championships on Saturday and then did another U of I game on Sunday. Wrestling was fun and so was the game even though I didn't really get anything noteworthy out of either. I have my stuff from wrestling on Sportsshooter. Unfortunately at the U of I game I didn't get the one shot I wanted. At the end of the game James and Dee were walking off the court together after their interview with CBS and I got a shot of them walking arm in arm. I only had my 80-200 available and as I'm walking backwards Dee jumps on Augie's back. perfect moment, unfortunately they were about 2 feet too close for my lens. I got the shot, but it was blurry. We needed a shot for the senior day section this coming weekend. At least I got something for them I guess. My one picture should be on my portfolio soon on Sportsshooter, but I want to make sure it's okay with Darrell that I put it up.

I also won two third places and two honorable mentions for my photos at the ICPA this past weekend. Unfortunately they have not updated the site and no one knows for sure which photos I won for, so as soon as I find out I will post them so you can all revel in my awesomeness. (Or tell me how to do a better job!)

In other news, my birthday is coming up. Anyone wishing to send me money may do so at 305 S. elm st. in Champaign, Ill. 61820. I'm going home this weekend for it. First time I will have spent a birthday with my parents in I can't remember how long. I get back late Sunday and back to the daily grind. I'm starting my photo essay either today or tomorrow. I couldn't get a hold of the girl last night or today, so hopefully I can call her in a bit.

Oh by the way, I'm rocking the Pizza Hut again. Champaign's store is a lot different and I love it. I basically drive the whole time except for about a half hour at the end when I do dishes. It's exactly what I liked about the Charleston one and minus the stuff I hated.

And one last thing to mention was the susepension of The Daily Illini editors. I'm not going to go into a lenghty discussion right now. I'm only going to direct you to my comments on the EIU Hall of Fame Blog. Hopefully I will get the chance later today to blog all my thoughts about this as I feel people should understand a lot of things about this before jumping to conclusions and screaming First Amendment rights.

What the Hell Does This Dream Mean???

Sorry for being so long. I haven't really been doing a whole lot lately except working. I haven't shot anything for my own personal enjoyment for a while either. Luckily I'm going to see Stephanie this weekend so I will probably shoot pictures of her or something this weekend. She got a new dog this week, but it looks like they're going to have to give it away already. His name is Hercules. He's a 1-2 year-old golden lab. Her dad picked him up from outside his friend Bruce's house. He's already snapped at Dana and Stephanie. The vet told them he was just trying to gain dominance over and that they should yell at him. Steph did yell at him and he cowered his tail between his legs. I'll probably get some photos of him this weekend.

I drank for the first time in probably 2 months last night. Obviously didn't take a lot for me to get pretty tanked. I passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow. I do have to see I'm pretty wierded out. This is the first time I can ever remember having a reoccuring dream. I've had this dream 4 times in the past 8 or 9 days. I always have a dream about me going out and getting drunk and the next thing I know I'm smoking again. I always say something to the effect of 'oh 1 cigarette won't hurt me.' It's actually got me freaked out. I haven't wanted to drink at all because I'm scared it will actually happen. Who knows, maybe the cigarette is actually representative of something completely different in my dreams. Who knows, maybe it means I'm gay. Wait...that's crabs...if there's crabs in my dreams that means I'm gay. Oh I need to find that dream book Dane Cook talks about.

Other than that, work is going good. I'm starting my photo essay with a student who works on a family farm this next week. The girl's name is Caitlin Allen. I'm excited to actually do this essay. I've never actually done an essay where I took longer than a couple of days to do it. This one should take me about 6 weeks. I'm also getting ready to post my ultimate fantasy league baseball team for 2006. As I tried to explain to Kman earlier, this team is based solely on numbers mostly. I have also been drafting what my personal fantasy team I would like to see in real life. Basically the difference is that in my personal team I would do things like choose Jason Varitek over Victor Martinez for catcher simply because Varitek is known as one of the smartest catchers out there. He analyzes each and every player on the roster. So things like experience count in to this one. It should be posted by Monday or Tuesday.

Superbowl Commercials

I actually did watch the Superbowl tonight, despite my lack of television watching for the past 3 weeks. I was glad to see Pittsburgh win. I don't really have any feelings for either team, but for some reason I just liked the Steelers a little more. I'm just glad football is done so we can all concentrate on the 'real' American sport. Baseball. Only 54 days until opening pitch.

I do have to give a run down on what I thought about the commercials during the game obviously. First of all, here's my top five in no particular order:

1. Hummer Commercial: Giant Monsters
2. Motoral Razor: Paper Boy
3. Sprint: Locker Room
4. Desperate Housewives
5. Budweiser Superfan: Sheep Streaking

If you check out Ifilm you can watch all of them. It's obviously slow tonight and will probably be slow tomorrow because everyone and their mother will be checking it, including me, to play their favorites over and over again and assured they are wore out by the middle of the week and you won't even be able to stand the sight of it when you see it on tv the next week. Luckily for me I don't have network or cable.

Out of all of them I think the Sprint Locker Room one is my favorite. When the guy says his phone has theft deterrent and throws the phone in the other guys face I lost it. And then when he threw it a second time I literally pissed myself. (Just a little something for all you David Cross fans. If you don't understand what I'm talking about, go get David Cross' first cd 'Shut Up You Fuckin' Baby').

I do have to say this was the most disappointing Burger King commercial I have seen in awhile. I'm a big fan of the King. There just wasn't anything funny about the singing commercial. I hate musicals which is probably what prompted me to hate this commercial.

Sprint takes the cake for me for overall best sponsor this year. The other commercial they had where the guys couch catches fire was my number 6 commercial. (Mostly because of the Benny Hill incorporation). Anyone that hung out with me this summer knows that I had an obsession with the Benny Hill theme song.

Although Pepsi's commercials were moderately good, I hate their new "Brown and Bubbly" slogan. The P.Diddy Commercial was okay, but the Jackie Chan one was too cheesy. Well, time for you to give me feedback. Give me your top 5. Or criticize mine. Anything you want to do.

One last thing...I apparently missed a Coca Cola commercial on a bathroom break. The scarecrow one should be in my top 5, moving Sprint's no. 6 to no. 7 and kicking Desperate Housewives to no. 6 and therefore out of the top 5. So to review:

1. Hummer Commercial: Giant Monsters
2. Motoral Razor: Paper Boy
3. Sprint: Locker Room
4. Coca Cola: Scarecrow
   
5. Budweiser Superfan: Sheep Streaking

There's my revised top 5.