Top 5

Here is a short list of my favorite 5 people I've ever met. Some are still in my life, some are not.
(List is chronological)

1. Johnny (my grandfather. the most intelligent person i've ever met. wonderful sense of humor. a superb human being.)
2. Jason Taylor (my first best friend. met in kindergarten. he taught me how to zipper my jacket. my mom used to pick on me, say we'd get married and i'd be Taylor Taylor. he moved away the following summer)
3. Aaron Cole (became friends in 1st grade. Has attended every birthday party. Helped me ace the math section of the SATs. One of the most genuine people I've ever met. I hope we stay friends forever)
4. Mr. Ryan (my middle school art teacher. Huge influence and role model. I cried when I graduated high school only because I knew I'd miss him)
5. Kevin Boyle (became friends freshman year at KU. most unique person i've ever met. makes for wonderful conversation and has certainly made my life more interesting. hopefully we'll stay friends forever as well)

and that's it. not that the rest of my friends aren't my favorite people too, this is just the top 5 overall

*cough*

Turns out i've got a mild case of bacterial pneumonia. yesssss. i'm on zythromycin (i'm pretty sure i spelled that wrong) and mucinex (which is supposed to help my cough.. i'm still waiting for that to happen). My lungs hurt. my body hurts. my throat hurts. everything hurts. my room is a haze of vick's vapors. i'm not dying though. and aside from just being achy and sore, it's not that bad. i'm still functional. i guess it's usually triggered by the flu or some other upper respiratory infection (which i had the flu all last week, so that would explain it) and once i saw that blood was starting to mix in with the green phlegm i was hacking out of my lungs, i kind of figured it was probably more than a cold. i'm kind of excited to tell my boss tomorrow about it. he hasn't seemed too happy about the fact that i missed 2 days of work then left early today for a dr. appointment. maybe i'll cough on his desk. or his lunch.

also. on a happier note. i may have some upcoming freelance work with Bartlett Nuclear (the company my dad works for). i made up some REALLY crappy posters for a safety giveaway he's doing with his crew and i guess the company was impressed (which i think is funny, cus seriously, these posters are pretty crappy) but anyway, Bartlett i guess is actually in need of a graphic designer. the one woman who's a head honcho for Bartlett told my dad to tell me to email her the posters and flyers, which luckily my dad did explain that they weren't my best work (and i also sent her links with my REAL work) and contact info.. so hopefully i'll get some side work out of this!

Well, i'm tired of coughing so i'm going to OD on some nyquil, put my tv to sleep in 40 minutes, and call it a night. sleep tight kiddies!

i think by the end of the night my lungs will have either dissintegrated or painfully force themselves out of my body. fuuuuuuuun.

spare some change?

I'm feeling stagnant. I don't like it.

I feel like I need a change. I'm tired of this area. I'm dissatisfied. I'm nudgy. I'm just not comfortable. Every so often I get like this. Every couple years or so. I just want change. Not a little change, but something big. I'm not happy. There are things with my job that are bothering me. I don't have friends here (bloomsburg). I'm lonely. I'm not content.

I want something new. A new place, a new job, a new state. I want something fresh. Not something new like the latest model of Mr-fancy-car, but new like a book you've never read from a used bookstore. I want something new and exciting, but at the same time comforting. A good change. The kind of change that makes you scared and excited but welcomes you in with open arms. the kind of change that knows how scared you are but at the same time makes you happy times athousand.

I need to change some things within myself as well. I'm trying to dig a bit deeper, find some motivation. Motivation spiritually, physically, mentally, creatively. I I want to eat better (I'm going vegetarian for lent. I'm pretty excited about it) I have an awesome idea for a new self-promotional piece, and it should be really easy to make but is going to be really fun to put together so that helps me stay motivated about it. I want to update my website, I already updated my AIGA portfolio.

I want to go somewhere new, see new places. Meet new people. The people around here just don't pique my interest. And maybe it's not them, but me. I think that Bloomsburg just isn't the place for me. It's not where I fit, where I belong. I need to migrate. Yeah, that's what it is. Like when birds fly south. I need to shift. Not permanently, but for a while.

I want spring! For the first time ever I'm drooling at the thought of warm weather. I want to go hiking!! I want to be in the woods at least 3 weekends out of the month this spring. I've already been looking up trails. I need to move around. Being sick this week I've spent far too much time in bed and I feel like my blood is coagulated into one pile of sludge. The weather was so nice when I was home sick on wednesday and I was too weak to get up and go outside. It bothered me. I just want to be in the very middle of the woods surrounded by fresh air and the sounds of birds and water and just all of it. mmmmm.. that's my favorite.

I'm WAY too restless...

Matt's Home!!

My cousin, Matt just got home from Iraq on Feb. 23rd!! I'm sooooooooooooooo happy!! and the best part (for him) is that his birthday is also on the 23rd.
WELCOME HOME MATT!!!!! :-D

Fill this out for me

click here. fill this out. just do it.

Sick Days

so i've been pretty sick the last couple days. came home with a fever on tuesday, My temperature bounced around between 99 and 102. Didn't shake that til wednesday night. Went in to work this morning, but felt like crap. Could not stop coughing, so my boss sent me home. And I pretty much slept all day today.
Despite the fact that I feel like a tired piece of crap, staying home sick hasn't been too bad. I've gotten to know my bed pretty well and have watched more daytime TV than anyone should ever be allowed to watch. I also got my fill of some quality DVD footage.. Here are my favorite sick day DVD's:

Also, for anyone who may have or think they may get the flu anytime soonn, the BEST popsicles in the world are Dreyer's Whole Fruit Strawberry popsicles. AMAZING!

noChat

I will no longer be signed on AIM while I'm at work. I have some opinions on this subject that I do not feel like typing right now.. let's just say I have some frustrations with this place. Not just the AIM situation, but that's just kind of one more thing to add to the pile.

if anyone needs to contact me during the day, e-mail me: taylor@realhotimage.com

*sigh*

JUNE 16-18

I'm going to BONNAROO!!!

Artist lineup as follows:

RADIOHEAD!! Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Phil Lesh & Friends, Beck, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, Oysterhead, Bonnie Raitt, Death Cab for Cutie, moe, Bright Eyes, The Neville Brothers, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones, Buddy Guy, Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley, Ben Folds, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Dr. John, Les Claypool, Matisyahu, G. Love & Special Sauce, Umphrey's McGee, My Morning Jacket, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Steel Pulse, Mike Gordon & Ramble Dove, Cat Power, Medeski Martin & Wood, Nickel Creek, Gomez, Atmosphere, Steve Earle, Blues Traveler, Disco Biscuits, Amadou & Mariam, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, The Dresden Dolls, Son Volt, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Jerry Douglas, Soulive, Rusted Root, Devendra Banhart Band, Donavon Frankenreiter, Mike Doughty, Sasha, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, The Magic Numbers, Bill Frisell, Seu Jorge, Bettye LaVette, Dungeon, Shooter Jennings, Rebirth Brass Band, Robinella, Andrew Bird, Ivan Neville's Dumpstaphunk, Steel Train, Jackie Greene, Devotchka, The Wood Brothers, dios (malos), Toubab Krewe, The Motet, Marah, I-Nine, Balkan Beat Box, The Cat Empire

so who's excited?!?! oh.. that would be me!

my eye! my eye!

ugh! so i don't know if it's stress or from sitting in front of a computer all day, but i'm developing a serious eye twitch. i used to get this back in school when i'd get stressed out and had a ton of projects, but i haven't had it since.

these last few weeks though, it's started up again. it hasn't been bad, maybe my eyelid would twitch a couple times a day, some days not at all, but this last week (today in particular) has been horrible! my eyelid has been twitching about every 5-10 minutes at least.. it's driving me CRAZY!! i'm so paranoid that when i'm talking to someone it will happen and they'll think i'm a freak or something. so far, according to the people at work, they haven't noticed. i don't think it's one of those things that's really noticeable to others, but it just feels really obvious.

i've been trying to do exercises to relax my eyes, but nothing's working. so i'm going to try an cut back on computer time for the next couple days. obviously not at work, but here at home anyway.. less updating of online crap, less tutorials, i think i'm going to focus on reading or something.. i'm not sure how optically taxing that is.

anyway. i hope it stops soon. it's really quite annoying!

Happy Hump Day!

It's been a little while since I've written and a lot has been going on, so this one's going to be a long one. (Because it's not like I have work to do or anything)..

Part one: work
So far, work is going really really well! I'm designing a logo for an even in the fall and the theme is '50 years of Rock and Roll' which I'm having fun with. I'm getting back into some illustration with it.. it's going to be neat when it's done! I'm also in the process of designing a website for a client which isn't a HUGE website, but it's the first one I've been allowed to design from scratch, so that's been a lot of fun so far! I've also been working on a lot of ads for a book which I'm also (pretty far behind on) designing. And I just designed an email newsletter for the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce, as well as numerous other small projects. I love all the creative freedom I have! Not to mention how much stuff I'm getting to learn. I've been learning all sorts of stuff about web design too. This last week I've been teaching myself about perl/cgi scripting and how to install/create cgi programs. SO, basically, work is going swimmingly and for the most part (aside from a disgruntled client here and there) everything is quite peachy on that end.

Part II: home
Home has also been going well. No major fights or anything, lots of little spats, but nothing major. My parents went to Philly over the weekend aaaaaaand...

My mom passed her citizenship test!!! yeah mom!

So as soon as my mom's sworn in, she will cease to be Canadian and will become one of the masses. (Personally, with all the turmoil as of late, I'd probably rather be Canadian, but I'm still super happy for my mom! This is a huge accomplishment for her)

Part III: friends
Over this past weekend I made my way down to kutztown for some visits and it was super fun! Went out Friday night with Kris, Erik, and Rachel which was a total blast! I saw and received hugs from SO many people I hadn't seen in forever! (the thing I love SOO much about going out in kutztown as compared to bloomsburg is how at kutztown the WHOLE night consists of hugs and free drinks, where with bars in bloomsburg it's like being back in high school.. not exactly my idea of a fun time)
Saturday I spent the afternoon shopping with Karen which is ALWAYS enjoyable! And Saturday night I hung out with Kevin, got chinese, watched North Country, and became addicted to the game, Settlers of Catan, which is a really awesome game.. and I'm not much one for board games..
Sunday I talked Erik in helping me shovel out my car and then came home. So the weekend went by FAR too quickly, but it was awesome! I missed everyone sooooooo much!!

Also in the friend category, I'm aiming to make it back down to Tennessee to visit Jenna and go to Bonnaroo! Which I'm totally excited for! Just Radiohead alone will be amazing to see let alone all the other bands.. Beck, Bright Eyes, Ben Folds, Tom Petty, Blues Traveller, Death Cab, etc. etc. Definitely worth eating up some vacation time!!

That's it for now, must get back to work.. Watch out ads, here I come!

1. Building forts in the woods
2. Coloring with my Crayola Caddy (That thing had all the crayons, markers, and fingerpaints a girl could want!
3. Imaginary Friends.. and Imaginary arch nemeses...
4. Hard pink rubber balls
5. Shorts/T-shirt Combo outfits
6. Transformers
7. Beverly Cleary books. I was hooked on Beezus and Ramona at 3.
8. Playing with the hose in the summer and squirting the ground until it became all muddy.
9. Playing house
10. Shevis.. the BEST dog in the universe.

Satisfaction

I just watched the only part of the Super Bowl I cared to see.. the Rolling Stones!! mmmm-hmm! That's where it's at! Keith Richards = my favorite.

so fresh and so clean

Some good news first, which I forgot to post earlier. AIGA has opened a new chapter in central PA ! I received an e-mail at work for an invite to an event next Thursday in York. Unfortunately I won't be able to attend, but I plan on keeping my eyes peeled for future events! This is going to be a GREAT way to meet some new people and hopefully open up some great networking opportunities! I'm VERY excited about this!

In other news, I cleaned my room today! Not just any clean, but 3 hours of REAL cleaning. I started with a good closet purge (that's where I go through and pretty much throw out half of the contents of my closet) and then I organized what was left. I went around my room and threw out other stuff I didn't need then organized a bunch of junk.

I realized I was short on my preferred cleaning supplies so I went to walmart and bought some new pledge multi-purpose dusting spray, Clorox wipes, fancy paper towels specifically for glass and electronics, a new basket thing for my DVDs so they're not all over the floor in piles, and my favorite.. a new febreeze air freshener! When I got home I dusted EVERYTHING. My baseboards, my figurines, electronics, all furniture surfaces, books and windowsills.

Vaccuming came next. My room has a bit of a ladybug problem. I vaccumed so many of the suckers, but I'd still find more! Then came time to wash the floor. My house is not only overrun with ladybugs, but cats as well. The two male ones in particular enjoy marking their 'territory' which also happens to be EVERY piece of furniture in my room. I generally am good at finding and cleaning it, but occasionally I'll miss places (hence my intense hatred for most cats). SO I filled a bucket with hot water and Murphy's oil soap, got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed my floor like it's never been scrubbed before. After that I grabbed my Clorox wipes and scrubbed all my furniture.

Now my room is immaculate and smells so good! Something about a clean room is just SO comforting. Makes me feel all good and happy. I find that when I get really stressed out or just feeling kind of off, deep cleaning always seems to lift me up. It's like when my room is clean, organized, and in order, my life feels a bit like that too. Just cleaner, more organized, and overall more pleasant.

So that's my good news for the weekend. Not too exciting, but a good weekend nonetheless. I'm off to read for a bit. Try and make some headway through my stack of unread books that keeps on growing.

Tootles!

new!

So it's a new look. I want to start fresh with blogger. The new design isn't all that fancy, I want to keep this simple. The title, for those of you who don't know it or don't feel like looking it up, is French for 'the naked man.' I chose this as the title, because I liked it. L'homme nu was the mascot of my high school french classes. Every homework exercise, my friends and I would use him as the subject. He was the theme of every French holiday card. He's grown up a little design-wise, but I still enjoy the idea of using him as a 'mascot,' but this time for my journal.

Not to be too symbolic, but I figure that's what a journal is supposed to be, kind of 'baring your soul'.. which sounds a bit dorky and cliché, but anyway. A journal is to show what's underneath, the 'nakedness' if you will. I'm not planning on getting that deep on here, I just thought it was a neat idea. And seeing as how I'm pretty dorky and a fan of cheesy stuff, it works for me.

The diagram on the bottom left was taken from a poster I designed for Housing last year for a 'Putting the Pieces Together for a Healthy U' program. I felt that fit really nicely with this journal. I want to start putting up better posts. Focusing more on the positive, more on 'putting together the pieces of my life to make a better me.' Again, that's corny and cheesy, but I like it.

So the design's not 100% there, I'll be tweaking a bit, but this is what I've got for now. Give me some feedback if you have some to give. If you hate it, I don't really care. I'm looking for positive comments. Again, I'm trying to focus my life on the positive, so there you go.

Enjoy it.

new look

bare with me, new changes on the way..