who wants to date. . .

a millionaire? no.
a midget? forget it.
a rockstar? been there, done that.
aha! a logoworks employee!

or if you aren't into dating a returned missionary and harvard mba, how about working for him?
corporate whores turned poster children. horribly disturbing. amazingly executed.

gone toobin'

i went intertubing this weekend with some kids in new braunfels. seriously- intertubes, water, booze and kids who are prone to getting drunk while drinking booze floating on an intertube down a river. quite a "texan" experience, i've been told. it was great with the exception of slight chaffing that occurred under my arms (the ride down the river was about 3 hours long) and when i fully ate it on the last rapid, losing my friend's sunglasses.
the people that had invited us- kat and michael/jason- surprised us in the evening by bringing some awesome board games to play while choking down piss-in-a-can lone star beer. my favorite was the unexpected and unheard of blacks & whites. it was great. you play the game exactly the way you would monopoly except that everyone is broken up into two teams: the blacks and the whites. the game, made sometime in the 70's, attempts to show the injustices overcome by blacks ranging from the teams starting off with different amounts of $ (whites more than blacks) to whites being able to purchase real estate anywhere on the board yet blacks being restricted to certain areas (the ghetto, if you will). it was a total trip and i kicked ass, after becoming a black harvard graduate and then moving on to owning ghetto-fabulous favorites, harlem and watts. unfortunately, even after teaming together and loaning out god-knows how much money, we still lost. but there is a moral to this game boys and girls: whether you are black or white, real estate is where the money is. especially liquor stores.

lbj

yesterday i took the bus down to campus to tour the lyndon b. johnson library & museum. the front desk directed me to the 10th floor where they had a pretty neat replica of the oval office during the johnson presidency. also on this floor was a nice-sized gallery dedicated to "lady bird" and white house photos during this time. when i returned down to the main floor i realized that i was just in time to catch the last showing of "lbj: the biography" in the theatre. i sat in the front, with 2 other people, ready to be amazed by the audiovisual spectacle that was lyndon b. johnson.
and let me pause here for just a moment. first of all, i understand that this library/museum is theoretically a memorial to lbj. and like most memorials, it's simple to see all of the achievements and obstacles this person overcame, yet anything falling below par or the least bit scandalous suddenly becomes cloudy and "undocumented." but i digress.
with this in mind, i watched the life and times of pres. johnson with a grain assault. so naturally when it got to the 1948 democratic senate primary, where lyndon johnson was basically caught tampering with the paper ballots, and the voice over informed it's 3 viewers that lyndon johson "magically" won the general election, i couldn't help but laugh aloud. loudly. for awhile. it was really just to much.
i don't mean to be a cynic, but come on. when a documentary spends more time on lbj and lady bird's courtship then they do on the vietnam war, you just have to wonder.
on the bright side, the rest of the exhibit was pretty interesting including the current exhibit- "signs of the times: life in the swingin' sixties." (speaking of invasions) hurray for the beatles!

running from building to building

in search of the great indoors
i postpone going outdoors for as long as possible.
i have noticed it helps when i have things scheduled in the morning because otherwise it seems as if i can't get out door before 4 pm. technically i'm still on vacation so i don't feel that bad.
i registered this morning for my fall classes. creative strategies, media management and strategic advertising management= 9 credits. i have also been talking to a marketing professor in the business school trying to see if he needs a ta this semester. i'm in a pretty good position considering mba's are not allowed to apply and the majority of people in my program were journalism or pr majors.

tangent #1: as eager as i was to forfeit this whole "driving" thing, i can see why the majority of people living in austin own cars. i have been stranded twice already in random parts of town around 11 pm because my buses have stopped running. luckily, cab rides are pretty cheap.

tanget #2: speaking of driving, this is great. ha. roadside restaurants-bloal.

i'm the nerd in the yellow shirt, left of center, middle row.
this is a picture that was taken of all new masters and phd students, as well as some faculty members and 2nd year masters students at westlake yesterday.
apparently it's hip to be a nerd in austin.

keepin' it weird

i was able to attend my department's orientation this morning which was fairly painless. after meeting with the faculty and staff, we all had an opportunity to introduce ourselves. i am 1 of 2 people from washington state. overall though, the group is pretty big with people from all over including korea, thailand, isreal and mexico.
i met some new kids this morning, one of whom is going to pick me up in a short while to go to this bbq at westlake park. alison, the girl giving me a ride, went to texas a & m for her undergrad in journalism and she's originally from southern texas, so she knows her way around pretty well. i met another kid who is from anaheim, ca, and he has this great website which he is really excited about (the idea, not so much the website). he wants to ideally connect lesser known designers and advertising groups with small bike shops around town. sounds like a plan, man.

seattle-woodinville and back. my final commute.

yesterday was my last day of work. i didn't get entirely emotional until my female boss brought in her kids (ages 5 and 2) to say good-bye with well-wishes written on crayon-trashed construction paper. and then i was a mess. we were talking out in the warehouse and realized that i had started working for them when the oldest was still in diapers. now he walks around exasperated, insisting that everything "needs more salt" (which i believe is some pixar movie reference?)
life lightened up a bit when i noticed two jesus bumper stickers driving 405-south to return home. i hope that you enjoy them as much as i did.

1. a no ice-cream desert: SUNDAYS!
2. put jesus in his place! your life.

they got a pepper bar!

today brings news, or atleast a refreshing insight, to the method behind the madness of the martin agency. following a brief investigation of geico's tiny house ad, i was able to link the creators of crazy/fun geico ads to the creators of crazy/fun quiznos ads, specifically the commercials showcasing those disturbing gerbils-born-with-defects known as spongemonkeys. and to think that quiznos dropped these guys for a talking baby. but what about the pepper bar?

i have no idea what you are talking about and i am not going to respond!

i feel a "eat a fetus for jesus" moment coming on. . .
although according to mr. brooks, this is highly unlikely since america has become more virtuous.
reason #1, you ask?
"The first thing that has happened is that people have stopped believing in stupid ideas: that the traditional family is obsolete, that drugs are liberating, that it is every adolescent's social duty to be a rebel."
stupid, stupid, stupid me. oh, and mr. brooks- please don't go on if you can't site.
i did say "please" afterall.

alphabet soup (odds and ends in a particular order)

"a very long engagement": i watched this last night for the first time and was pretty much floored. it covered everything i look for in a movie- dynamic characters, beautiful cinematography, quirky dialogue and a finally, a believable ending. bravo!
boingboing.net: ryan found it, but i laugh harder.
carpool lanes: they rule. unfortunately, i'm unable to drive in them only making my desire for them that much more.
duffle bus bags: please see entry entitled "baggage." see also: yakpak
elephantitis: hey, it's funny!
fox news: hey, it's even funnier!
gnome statues: i used to love these as a kid. and then a few years ago travelocity came out with a brilliant campaign where this kitchy lawn ornament showed up all over the world. (see here if you have no idea what i'm talking about). so what is he up to now?
"hotwax": by beck. yo soy un disco cabrado. yo tengo chicle en cerabo.
iqu: a once cleverly crafted group, i think they've seen better days. instead of checking out their latest, i recommend "teenage dream"(a bunch of really great remixes) or "chotto matte a moment" (their first full-length).
jenny and the jaws of life: a book of short stories by jincy willett i am currently reading. very witty and insightful but with a dash of despair.
krack heads: being one means you get all hopped up on junk and then proceed to talk in obnoxiously loud voices about how fucked up you are in front of ms. corna's apartment at 2:30 in the morning.
le tigre: i know, old news. but what was really cool was seeing them open for beck last month at the paramount where they played "deceptacon"! mediocrity rules, man.
macintosh apples: ipods, ipod minis, ibooks and powerbooks, oh my! and all with seamless brand management. i don't want to be like mike when i grow up, i want to be like steve.
new jersey kangaroo: are you sure? does he really fix vcr's? where is david?
opposite sex advertising: i usually don't condone using sex to sell a product but this is pretty good. please watch the actual ad to see what i mean.
public radio and tv (otherwise known as npr and kcts, but i've already used n & k): it seems like only yesterday where i was bowing out on social engagements in order to catch killer kcts specials on martin luther king, carey grant and diego rivera. lately, npr is my vice. whatever the reason, public access is for nerds. yes, i am a nerd.
qfc in woodinville (wood snohomish rd, to be exact): whenever i want to wait out traffic for another 15-20 minutes and just so happen to also need groceries, i hop in here after work. frequented by (seemingly) miserable stay-at-home moms with their whiny kids begging for "that" kind of fruit juice, i quickly came to two different conclusions. #1- never move to woodinville and #2- think long and hard before entering motherhood.
running: you get there faster. maybe not as fast as rollerbladers but come on, rollerblading?
sambuca: ok, not really.
twin peaks: season 1. who killed laura palmer? seriously.
underoos: spiderman, the flinstones, wonderwoman, and chewbacca have all made their way onto them. i'm just waiting for someone to come out with a michael jackson underoo. bloal.
vowell, sarah: "assasination vacation"- another book that is absolutely contagious. so far i've sneak read it at work, on the pot and stop-and-go traffic.
woody allen: i know a lot of movie buffs would disagree but i don't care. in my book, if you can be that neurotic, write refreshing scripts and still manage to hook up with your 18 year old adopt-a-child, you are down in my book.
x: um, x is great because it's x. la-dah-dah-duh-dah-de-dum!
yoo-hoo chocolate milk: how is it that they can continue selling a product like this? who buys this stuff?!
zeus: the youngest son of cronus and rhea, he was the supreme ruler of mount olympus and of the pantheon of gods who resided there. yep.