Attention AVID FOLLOWERS: please don't leave me.

It has come to my attention that approximately 50% of my readers are upset with the frequency of my blogging. I guess they just can't get enough! Well, to honor my many dedicated readers I plan to start blogging much, much more.

Well, unfortunately I have not had any real big moments lately where I unlock a little piece of the key to life ((is it killing you that i said real big instead of really big?) and now is it killing you that i didn't put quotes around "real big" and "really big"?), so instead I will spend a few moments explaining what i've been thinking about lately.

To begin with, I have been thinking a lot about how I am going to have to start applying to a bunch of jobs in the very near future, again. And I have been wondering: WILL I GET A JOB!? and also hoping desperately that I do get one, but especially hoping that i get a Middle School Art teaching job that is not somewhere like kentucky, or a town with a population of 200, which is no where near another normal sized place. There might be some jobs opening up in this area, so that would be nice -- but i bet they are not middle school, so then it is not quite as cool. Anyway, I seriously do not want to have to spend another year subbing because it is boring. Everything is so up in the air about next year... Which leads me to... where the heck will i be living next year?

Also, I have been thinking about my art lately, and how I never really make anything, and only doodle a lot. I am doing illustrations for a book, but i never really want to work on them any more because im kind of sick of drawing basically the same things in the same style for the different parts of the story.. but so far I am happy with how they look, and i should just do it already to get it done and then i wont have to think about them anymore. I have been trying to get back into some kind of printmaking and been trying to do linoleum cuts but Im having issues printing... and so far I'm pretty terrible at it. And Ive been thinking I should try to start painting because i am kind of terrible at that, and I wish i wasn't... and Melissa wants me to make her a painting, which could be really embarrassing for me in the end because its probably going to end up being a shitty gift that she feels obligated to hang on her wall, and then i will have to see it everytime i visit her.

Another thing I have been thinking about is how winter should end already and it should be warmer.

Sometimes U's a little Sassy for your own good.

Here are a few things everyone should learn:

1. Sometimes people are a little too sassy for their own good. Like, for example, when a 7-year-old refuses to do what you ask them to do by responding with, "REALLY, Zoë... REALLY?!?"

If you are 7, and you have ever responded in this manner, you are truly too sassy for your own good.

But, this also goes for peeps of all ages.. u better watch yo behind cuz Sometimes We's all a bit too sassy.

2. If you ask a question, listen to the answer.

Ever notice someone not listening to the response they requested? How fucking rude. You didn't just start talking out of no where. Why are they wasting your energy? What's the point? If you don't want to know, DON'T ASK!

3. The best kind of gift is the homemade gift. But, only if you spent more than 15 minutes on it, and the homemade gift can't be vs.-ing a really awesome vacation, a new car, house, boat, really awesome bicycle, etc.

Also, homemade gifts are only good gifts if you're actually good at making something. No one wants a homemade picture frame that you just made out of a picture frame and some stickers... well maybe a 13-year-old does, but by the time you're my age, that shits just ugly and waiting to be thrown out.

4. Tell people when they have food in their teeth, or boogers hanging out of their nose. No one likes to talk with a group of people for longer than 2 minutes only to discover later that everyone had probably been staring at their teeth and hoping the chunk of whatever that is would go away. Sure it can be hard to be the one to bring it up, but the sooner you do it, the less awkward that other person feels, and the sooner you can stop staring at it and thinking about if you should tell them.

This kind of goes along with anything hard to tell someone.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have some more strokes of genius soon.

NYC

I HAVE A FEELING MY FOLLOWERS LIKE TO VISIT NYC!

Peter Minuit, photo via Britannica.com

Think You Know New York?

Did you know that in New York City, more than 26,000 people live in each square mile? Or that the island of Manhattan was purchased from Native Americans for about $24? In fact, New York City is not only the largest city in the United States, but is made up of five separate boroughs: Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Manhattan. If you think you know everything about the Big Apple, think again. Here are My Top 20 Interesting Facts About New York City, some you might have heard and others I guarantee you haven't.

Someone's Top 20 Facts That I Copied and Pasted here:

1. Dutch explorer Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan (really its southern tip) from the Algonquin tribe for trinkets and tools worth about $24.

2. The first known name for Manhattan was New Amsterdam, which referred to the southern tip of Manhattan, a Dutch trading port.

3. New York City was the U.S. capital from 1789 to 1790

4. New Yorkers travel an average of 40 minutes to work each day.

5. More than 47 percent of New York City's residents over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home.

6. New York City's Central Park is larger than the principality of Monaco.

Photo via TripAdvisor

6. New York's Central Park is larger than the principality of Monaco.

7. The New York City Council consists of 51 members and is the legislative branch of city.

8. According to Crain's New York Business, the average sale price of an apartment in Manhattan during the 4th quarter of 2007 was a whopping $1.49 million.

9. New York's Yellow Cabs are yellow because John Hertz, the company's founder, learned from a study that yellow was the easiest color for the eye to spot. He was right.

10. The Federal Reserve Bank on New York's Wall Street contains vaults that are located 80 feet beneath the bank and hold about 25 percent of the world's gold bullion.

11. In 2007, 46 million international and domestic visitors came to New York City. They spent approximately $28 billion while there.

12. The average daily room rate in New York hotels in 2006 (the most recent year surveyed) was $267.

13. More than 250 feature films are shot on location in New York City each year.

14. An average of 4.9 million people ride the New York City subway each weekday.

15. The New York City subway system runs 26 routes with 6,200 subway cars that stop at 468 different subway stations.

The City That Doesn't Sleep

16. More than 12,700 licensed medallion taxis work the streets of New York City.

17. More than 18,600 restaurants and eating establishments do business in New York City, and the average cost of a dinner in 2006, according to the Zagat Survey, was $39.43. That includes a drink, tax and the tip.

18. As of the 2000 Census, 8,008,278 people live in New York City.

19. Approximately 790,000 companies operate in New York City.

20. Although many legends exist about the origin of New York City's nickname, the Big Apple, most historians agree that it can be traced back to a writer who covered horse racing in the 1920s. In The Morning Telegraph, he wrote that stable hands often referred to New York as the Big Apple, meaning that any thoroughbred that raced in New York had reached the pinnacle of racing.

HEY FOLLOWERS>>> YOU SUCK!

Hey Followers... I know there are like a billion of you out there. Where are the comments? I posted some first class poetic verses, and I get no comments? No response? I'm beginning to think you don't deserve what I've been so gracious to grace you with.

I'm a Rapper!

Here's just a taste of my lyrical genius:

Kriston likes to spit and she can not lie,

You other runners can't deny,

When Kriston runs by you get a little wet

and Have to find a towel.

MY Inspiration Juices are running High... More posts to come soon!

Some Prints from this Semester

Here's some stuff I did this semester:

This is my print for our class theme of Justice/Injustice. This is about how UN-just our school system is, and how many young people living in inner cities come from poor, uneducated families, and because they attend poorly funded, and poorly staffed schools they receive a sub-par education and then the cycle repeats itself. Because I am a going to be a teacher, and I believe everyone deserves a quality education this injustice makes me very upset! WE NEED TO FIX THE SYSTEM!

The previous two prints are a continuation of my work about my Dad who died a year ago from Esophogeal Cancer. With this small series I was trying to capture things and feelings I am afraid of forgetting about my dad -- in the top one, I was attempting to capture the feeling of his touch. The way his hands felt was unlike the feeling I would get from any other person. It was a Dad's touch, and carried with it so much meaning. I can still remember how it felt and constantly wish I could just feel him grab my shoulder or pat my back one more time -- there is an ache where he is missing. The second print is about the way he smelled. There is something about the way each person smells that is so individual and carries so many memories. I don't want to forget the way he smelled because it carries so many memories and feelings about him and how much I loved him. His smell reminds me of warm, comfort, skin, and cotton -- it reminds me of the way he would squish into a chair and pester you all the time... just all those things he did to show love.

The above two prints are also a continuation of the work I've done about my Dad. The top one I began last semester, but just added color to this semester. I call these prints "Acceptance 1" and "Acceptance 2" because my Dad's religious beliefs and I believe helped him accept his death. I began working on the Elephant print because I started reading about Tibetan Buddhism because my Dad was into aspects of Buddhism and I wanted to understand his beliefs. I created the second print, of Mary, because he also believed very much in the Virgin Mary. I have no concrete beliefs about religion or life and death but I want his beliefs to be true so that what he wanted to happen after death is truly happening.

UGH. A BLOG.

UMM WHAT!? Why do I have to make this blog, JOEL?

I hate taking pictures of my art because I suck at it (taking pictures, that is-- obviously I'm really awesome at art), and now i have to post them for everyone to see??

P.S. This is a photo of me mid-word, I'm not even trying to look that way. yes I really make that weird of faces while I talk... I guess you all probably know that, but I never see my face while I talk so it was kind of a frightening discovery. ALSO, that is my sister, Addy, wearing a really awesome fur bomber, I have a matching one and once we had a competition to see who could wear theirs the most. Clearly, I WON.