A NEW CLASS OF KIDS.

Suite 100, the classiest, most sophisticated suite this side of the Mississippi. One night during Winter quarter 08 the guys decided to put on our airs and our best attire for a little night on out on the town. I love how we each all look nice but in a different style: New age, classic, texan-ish, and refined. We always had a way with style and always had a good time. We had a good time and this is one of my favorite photos because it catches us a little bit out of our element, but in a good spirit. Those rat pack cats go way back.
Everyone have a good new year and make memories.

SCHOOL OF ATL

So as we get ever so close to the new year the pictures will get that much better, and this one is easily one of my favorite photographs ever. This was taken during fire week at Black's beach and is reallly just perfect. Everyone is spaced well and the color and vibrance of the sky is something only witnessed once. Kristin took this picture and I'm very well glad of it. Fire week was something and sadly it was a great time, the sad part is that plenty of people lost their homes and most of the important things in their lives.
I see this picture as almost comparable to School of Athens by Raphael, such a beautiful layout with the characters elegantly sprinkled in the heart of the image. One day I'll look back on this photo and be thankful for such a great photo. We need a break week out of ever quarter, where beautiful photos can occur. You guys watch out, I will be having some fun on the 31st, so you might get something for New Years early.

PACK RATS

What do you get when you get a bunch of testosterone-ladened guys in a room? 4 guys who want to push the limits of the body. We constantly tried to do this, making 4 people piggy backs or other random stuff. It was a fun time, the guys in that building were a special breed, one that cannot be replicated anywhere else, and how is it possible that all these people came together? Destiny maybe. But it was just a good time, guys who knew how to have a good time, guys who didn't take themselves overly serious, the rat pack. Take it in, and get ready for more memories.
"They say a midget standing on the shoulders of a giant can see further than the giant, thats why the whole world is standing on our shoulders trying to see further than we are."

BURN AFTER READING

I'd like to tell everybody a story, about the beginning of a tradition, an aged old game played by many ATLiens alike. Max was the first to introduce it to us, and it was called burning man. Rico is shown here performing the main burning man offense, and if you look at him without the protection on( your hand up to your eye in a fashion which can denote 'okay') you must lay down on the ground. It got pretty intense through the quarters and it was definitely something important in ATL history. People such as Alindsay and even Chris the RA played. It was a brutal game, some of the more memorable burns are the first burn on a bike, burn coming of the shower, and disneyland fake burn. It was a really fun time, and the best players were easily in suite 100. Take it from me, don't start this game if you can't finish it.
The game ends only when you die...so start late.

PERMANENT RESIDENT

If you're ever by Warren or Black's Hall, you must stop by the 4th story, as there is a paining there that has become a permanent staple in Black's hall for good. Alton has been sprayed on an empty wall, and now it's home sweet home for him for a while, until custodians find him. To the close friends, it's like seeing a mural of a fallen friend; for strangers I would think that it's almost like one of the paintings in Harry Potter that you have to talk to before you enter. This picture really reminds me of the good times, where you could just find Rico and Alton philosophizing in a room together for long periods of time, here the scene is closely recreated.
The photo is a shout out to the past, but a recognition and movement into the future. The spacial arrangement of Rico and Alton in the photo is metaphoric to that of real life, and our touch and go visits are manifested in real life. We've all moved on for the better, but it was nice making a long time friend while we could.

Happy shoppin' everyone. Don't tell anyone with a pressured water gun about what I just mentioned...and I would like to put it on the record that I nor anyone I am affiliated with sprayed that.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

You know when parents take their kids to theme parks, they want that priceless photo? Priceless

P.S. Those scores were photoshopped, so they won't be saving us from any aliens anytime soon.

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays Boston. Sleep Tight. Catch me in SF this week!!

HERE'S TO YOU KERMIT

I'll keep this one brief, because it's, you know....Christmas Eve! The famous frog hat...what can I say, that hat has been in many an ATL memory, and this one is just good. Rico and I headed up to 450 as we did when boredom struck and out of the commotion, this perfect picture came up. This beanie was one that Kristin adorned often, and apparently it was lost for sometime, but a new one replaced it? I still have no clue, but this picture if just nice and entertaining.
Honorable mention: after that picture was snapped, we decided to pass around the wig, and no one rocked it better than Rico, the modern Oliver Twist. It looks pretty good on him, and would stay as a staple in ATL lore, Rico and wigs. After we had him put this on I think we paraded him around a little to other suites to see if they recognized him, and not many could at first, but everyone knows that familiar face. Bravo good sir.

THE DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR

Woo only a very few more days till Christmas. Today I'll be reminding everyone how poorly our student government planned our biggest concert of the year, SUNGOD. That year we all had butterflies as weeks before AS released the official list of bands performing, rumors stirred about Death Cab for Cutie and possibly T.I. As each day passed the news came ever so much closer. Sadly, it was news that most of the campus, at least the part I know, wouldn't welcome. Sean Kingston and Coheed and Cambria were to headline. Easily the Atlantians were relatively bummed. The highlight for us was the 10 minute piece we saw Matt Costa perform in the afternoon. I love these pictures, because everyone was out and about that day, not one person left stuck inside their dorms; Oh and Alton's hat from Tim. We ended up ditching the concert after a few strolls around the lawn and decided, hey since everyone is here, let's hit the beach.
So we all headed out as a group and had a better time there than we ever could have had at Sungod. I guess it's just what you make of it. Oh and on this weird day, Chris got hit by a girl on a bike and got a minor concussion, he ended up okay though. Here's Rico with his best 'quit playing games with my heart' rendition. Merry Christmas Eve! This year it better be good, you guys made up with the FIASCO at Fallfest though.

BIG BRAWNY BOOM BABY

Behold ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness a photo that has been seen by only a number of eyes. I present to you, the great Shibuya. This man is a monster, one night after OVT with a few friends, on the bike journey back, we made a little pit stop to a big statue. The only person I know who would think of climbing such a beast is Tim. Truly he is an athlete and a force to be reckoned with. Even with a three story bear rock and a baseball career ahead of him, all he could think about was getting to the top and showing us that he could do it. Of course he was rocking his slip on adidas slippers at the time- classic tim. After a little sponsorship in the form of my Nikes, he got up that bear with only a couple of struggles. Yes everybody that is actually him on the top, and this is not photoshopped in anyway. This picture was before I became the photojournalist that I try to be so this one was snapped with a Motorola phone. It's really incredible what Tim is capable of, that's a building behind him by the way, a large one. Once we got back to the ATL lounge everyone was hyped and spreading the story. Little had we known that our OVT companions, Jenfanny, had raced us back to the ATL lounge, and we had them waiting a good 45 minutes. Long story short, Tim is a beast. Miss you buddy, kill it this season.

ANIMAL HOUSE: SILVER EDITION

Switching it up a bit this time everyone, a picture from Fall 08 is gracing the page, and rightfully so. This picture is a gem from when the gang hit up the San Diego Zoo. This was right after the polar bear exhibit, which was easily the most entertaining one in the whole zoo. I like the silver/chrome bears too its just a nice touch to some nice company. I also really like how everyone is situated in this shot, chen peeking behind the bear, Rico fondling, the conjoined twins in the middle; The picture is just well-balanced. It was a fun time too, truly the San Diego Zoo is one of the Zoo of all Zoos type of place. Sorry for the short writing, but to keep with this promise I must sign out. Peace!

ATLYMPICS

Let me begin by introducing my rather large, energetic friend Max or Maximus. He's everybody's pal, and Rico's wrestling partner. Max and Rico have a history of playing certain games and performing unique acts. In ATL we have a few Olympic-esque games such as Leg Wrestling, Pro-Finger Dagger, and Piggy Back Tower. Blood runs thick in the air as the Gladitor type games begin with a crowd surronding the center stage, seated and awaiting the action. Meanwhile, the King, who on this day happens to be Alton since it's his birthday, looks on awaiting the champion. It seems to me to always be a case of David vs. Goliath, and we know who plays each repesective role. It is really suprising how quickly Max can move for such a large person. Regardless or Rico's size, he's got enough heart to make up for it, and more times than not the event lingers on until there is a mutual respect gained, or one contestant happens to fall victim to the others wit. These events took place fairly often and there was always a certain light-hearted, joyous feeling that infected everyone. This is definitely one of the things I miss most about living in the dorms rather than the apartments. I had a thought today, I think that campus life revolves around that certain anytime, anywhere camradarie, which is easily facilitated by dorms and less so by apartments. Ah how Rome did fall...

GET IN LINE

How's everyone's Christmas going? Well here comes an early gift for you guys, another installation of Picture of 2008. In this one the gang decided to hike out to UTC because we decided a little ice skating was in call due to the wintery feeling. It was a good feeling, my first time out on the ice, but obviously not Chen's. The man was skating circles around most of us while I just avoided falling down. I only hit the hard ice about once or twice, but it was great fun otherwise. Hopefully we'll keep this a tradition, and hopefully I'll be hitting the ice sometime soon. The big day is coming up everyone, so if I don't get to talk to you, Merry Christmas. Check back on the blog. Skate or die! or Skate and fall.

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Before I begin, I like to announce that this is a much more daunting task than I had first thought. The difficulty of this test is already relatively high, but I forgot that most of my favorite pictures are from Fall 07, and are not officially 2008; And I thought I should not have any more exceptions if I want to retain the legitimacy of this countdown. The show must, and will go on though and I guess I will search farther and wider. Today's gem comes from Ninax's birthday! Ms. Xue celebrated with some Raspberry White Chocolate Truffle cake in suite 450. The cake was probably one of the best cakes I've had to date, or at least it tasted like it at the time. It's a shame that we actually threw it out the window down the balcony. Nina would not eat the last piece of her cake so to convince her I, Patrick, decided to make a game out of eating this piece of cake, so I dared Nina to stand 4 floors below me as I would try to pelt her with the aforementioned cake. Didn't work. All that we ended up with is a cake-ladened lawn and some disturbed neighbors in the form of Maximus Twogood.

So the moral of the story is to finish your cake, because the grass clearly didn't enjoy it.

GO GET 'EM TIGER

Okay before I post this blog, I must do as all good Atlantians have done, and confess. I confess that this photo that I am about to show you is from November of 2007, and not from 2008. I don't care. This photo is one of my favorites from all of freshman year and I think it deserves to be here. But to keep all those conservatives happy, I will also include a photo from 2008.

This picture all started around halloween when Chris, our RA ( shout out to Chris), purchased a tigger costume for a party and couldn't return it, so we found other uses for it, like in ATL dodgeball. So one night Alton adorned himself with said costume and set out for Rimac to do work, but not before a few photos were snapped. That game he played gggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr-eat. I think we lost but did better than usual, it was just awesome seeing him wear it. Props to Alton for wearing this costume that was 2 sizes two small and one size from claustrophobia.
Now for the actual 2008 stuff. Thanson, used-to-be resident of suite 450 turned 18! So a few of us got together and decided a kidnapping was in store. The night started with a soft knock on a door and ended up in the ripping of 2 Phillipines. Of course to celebrate we all brought back some good ole BJ' s pizza and gathered with the locals. Thanson is definitely a yunggin. Thanks go out to Kristin for taking this shot, Tiffany for playing along, and Chen for being so thuggish ruggish.

TAKE IT FOR A SPIN

In order to keep with my promise, I'm bringing the first installation of the picture of the day of 2008. Keep in mind these pictures only get better as the new year gets closer, but in order to keep everyone coming back, we are starting out with a classic one, one of the most memorable of the year. All started when we decided to pack into a few cars and hike it up to Disneyland on Week 2 of winter quarter for a good ole merry time. I forget whose idea it was to go on the teacups, but I distinctly recall someone saying 'Oh Oh, let's go on the teacups before lunch!' Seems pretty harmless especially on empty stomachs, wrong. For some unforeseeable reason, when you get Rico, Alton and me into teacups that spin proportionally to how fast you spin the wheel, you get three sick kids. After trying to spin this little blue cup as fast as we could, we stopped half way through due mainly to pain and the inability to control our hands and feet.
This picture captures perfectly the anguish and dizziness as all three of us were unable to do anything but languish in our lofty, ill-planned goal. The rest of the Disneyland experience came with a blur as the twirling of this small teacup affected our bodies until the next morning. Just a good picture, revealing the fun times; also mainly showing the lively, child-like brotherhood we shared, this one through pain. This picture reminds me of how we were like little kids who tested limits and had fun doing it. You can thank someone from Matthews B-1 for taking this picture. A classic.

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

Finals are finally over. The roller coaster that is school has to to a halt for now, and I once again can relax. Christmas is around the corner, and then New Year's. Soon enough most of us will exchange brown paper packages tied up with strings, this is personally my favorite time of the year other than summer, go figure. This year I'll be pumping out a picture of the day of 2008! everyday until Jan. 1st! so keep an eye out, you might very well show up in one. Enough with the future, let's start it off in the present/past.

Somehow I found enough time during finals to spray something, and I'm glad I got to put that monopoly man stencil down from thoughts to canvas. And Lindsay got an early Christmas gift.
Ricardo the writer. Nice tee.
That day I stopped by Weica's on the way to Jenny's in order to pay a visit to a few students hard at work, enveloped in books.
It's Christmas time, and what's Christmas without a shindig? So Matthews B-1 threw a little something together amidst the finals chaos. Baked goods and BJ's barbeque chicken pizza are amongst my favorite things. Another thing that has grown on me is fake tattoos, ever since Rico started embellishing his body with them last year, I've grown to like them. These are especially good as Tiffany is also in love with pirates and the whole International seas crisis.
Some Elf during Ochem couldn't hurt.
Take a gander at that Rosemary bush/Christmas tree....yeah those are our pictures as little kids, and mine happens to be at the top, with little wings. I wonder where the whole chopping down a tree, bringing it into your house and decorating it with shiny balls and popcorn came from? I'll get my research team right on that. My guess is that trees once became so plentiful that we were afraid to let them grow out of control.
Oh my other favorite thing about Christmas other than shindigs and friends is presents! I received some awesome ones so far this year in the form of headbands, chocolate and bookmarks. But I absolutely love my tripod, thank you Jennifer, my photography can reach new horizons now because of you. Soon your D80 will do the same for you, except maybe past my horizons.

Before we went home after finals, we decided to trek around SD one more time, since we were free to do what we pleased. Where better to try out the tripod and camera than Mt. Soledad? Thanson came along for the ride, the more the merrier.
Last year the conjoined twins had this ever so 'perfect' picture of them high fiving on the beach, and it just isn't the same the second try around. They also don't look like they got as high.
I got a chance to shoot this at Soledad, and I'm pretty pleased, it's a good picture, all possible due to the tripod. SD is definitely apart of my favorite things.
Peace and much love, have a Merry Christmas everyone, and keep checking for more photos of the waning year.

KING ME, DOG

Now that all my turkey is consumed and my electronics shopping is done, time for the blog. So the 4 day break is over. Ah how I miss it already. Finals is just around the corner and it's that time of the year where everyone gets in there last minute studying and hang out sessions in before everyone's out for break. This break won't be so boring though...I'll keep you guys posted later on. But for now, let's recap on the trip back from the OC to SD.
So we did pick up a stranger on the way back, a stranger whose destination was San Marcos. Guess who...she has a big house with high ceilings, wood floors, her own bedroom, a nice lakeside community, and a bunch of other stuff I'm jealous about...
Guess who yet?
Well that was the view from her backyard in San Marcos...and if you haven't gotten it by now, her name is Grace Kwon. She's been a good pal since the beginnings of high school and we're still pretty close. That's because she likes to bum rides off of me...juuuuuust kiddding gracccce. (who am I kidding? she doesn't read this)
Well after some of the OC's finest, aka The Hat Pastrami stop, we hit up San Marcos, and wow...I thought I was jealous of Mathews...I still am, just that now Grace's house should make everyone jealous. She has the type of house people dream of settling down in and raising their children in. Heck this house is better than my home back in the LF! That's probably because she's got a celebrity living in the house...The lead actress from the Rascals lives with her...pretty crazy, Rico still doesn't really believe it.
This house comes equipped with a fishing lake even. I hope one day I'll live somewhere like this, I know it's San Marcos and nothing is out here, but it's niiiiice.


So we messed around in San Marcos until Rico and I decided that SD was beckoning our arrival.
Once there and unpacked, we picked up a more familiar face, coming in from a flight from Nor Cal and arriving in SD at 645. Ms. Jennifer Manegold greeted us at the airport as we so willingly taxi-ed her home.
She had said she was waiting to go back home to shop for snacks and stuff in order to stock up for finals week, and did she mean it. She even brought me and Tiffany French candy treat things. (Oh by the way Tiffany had arrived back in the SD just before we did.) They weren't too bad, just a joke and crayons were in mine, along with a sick crown. I really liked this crown in the candy idea...come on America, get on the whole dictatorship thing, it looks a lot cooler. As Demetri would say...King me, dog.
Alright everyone, don't know how much I'll be able to post since it's finals week, but here are some B sides if you look down a post. I'll see you on the other side!

BONE COLLECTOR

Here are some of the B sides you guys have missed out on the last few weeks:
Twinsies


There were more. But I never like to show my entire collection.