:: Life on Planet Dan-E ::

:: Still Here ::

... and by here I mean at my local Starbucks on West. I had the evening off and I've spent the last three hours working on my advertising book (and my "working on," I mean staring at my computer screen, while listening to Led Zeppelin.") It's an endless cycle of trying to figure out what to do and what not to do and it's a little more difficult since I don't have a teacher or a Creative Director to get direct feedback from.

But I've been working on it at spurts so the fact that I spent three hours on it today is a good step. Maybe I need to pretend like I'm an employeed creative and just start drinking more. Oh wait, I already do that.

Labels: still here

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 10:45 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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:: Now What? ::

It's been a while since I've posted and I've been wondering what to do with this blog for the last couple of weeks. I've thought about just taking a break but the last time I tried that, it lasted all of three days. I've gone through lulls before but this feels different. It's not that I don't have anything to blog about, but it it's just that I don't feel like I can.

I'm not worried about too many readers learning about my personal life (my twelve regulars aren't really new). Nor am I concerned about being too open since I was never really that open to begin with.

This blog is a very real representation of what I'm like in real life. I'm an art student turned waiter who loves sports, likes funny words, has a dry sense of humor, is sometimes clueless about women, and occasionally shows evidence of spending too much time on the computer. But it's like an iceberg in that I only show about ten percent of my real self. This is true in real life as well, since most of the people who know me in real life don't know that much about me. It's always been that way, and it's not going to change any time soon.

And it's that other 90% that's been going on in my life lately that I can't write about. It's stuff that only two or three friends would ever hear from me and even then, they'd probably have to drag it out of me. But before you guys go off thinking I'm suicidally depressed or on some drunken bender, it's nothing like that. I'm not depressed, miserable, or anything. Stuff has just been happening to me lately that tells me that my life isn't where it should be. Or for that matter, I'm not - at 32 - where I should be either. Just your typical, run-of-the-mill, what-does-it-all-mean crap.

But it's my burden and I need to deal with it on my own.

Labels: introspective

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 2:48 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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:: My Creativity has Fallen and I can't Get Up ::

Ever since I heard about a job possibility here in Florida a few weeks ago, I've spent whatever free time I've had putting my portfolio together. Or more accurately, I've been banging my head against the wall trying to figure out what to put in and leave out, what to change, what to leave as is, all the while resisting the temptation of throwing my laptop out the window of my Starbucks.

It's one thing if you're burned out and can't find your creativity like I was a little over a year ago but this is different. One of the traps of sitting around trying to think of ideas is that, at leats in my case, I start to, well... think. About everything but. I'm critically introspective as it is and add a bit of personal dissatisfaction with certain aspects of my life and you can imagine the kind of thoughts that fly through my mind while I'm trying to figure out a better tagline for Febreeze.

But this doesn't feel new either. It's almost like starting up a new quarter (minus the 9am classes). But I don't have a hard deadline, and I'm not striving for an "A." I'm not worried about some hack teacher's opinion, and I'm not concerned about next week's workload. I'm trying to get that elusive "real" job. That old saying is true; the only thing that can stop me is myself.

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 10:23 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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:: Super Bowl XLI Related Random Thoughts ::

The funny thing about living a city hosting a Super Bowl as an adult (as opposed to being a kid, when L.A. hosted a couple of Super Bowls, not that it mattered since I couldn't even leave my own yard) is that 1. As much as you love football, you try to avoid the hype and try to appreciate the game itself and 2. You try like hell to avoid any sort of public Super Bowl-related event as much as humanly possible. Let me explain.

The restaurant I work at is not that far from South Beach's famed Ocean Drive, which they closed down to foot traffic only and called it the "Motorola Mile." Not only are there banners everywhere, but ESPN is doing live broadcasts there.

Now, as an abashed SportsCenter junkie, I've had to fight the urge to go down to the broadcast area and be one of those idiots in the background during a broadcast holding a sign or jumping up and down like a jackass just so I could say I was on TV (for that matter, I've resisted going to 12th and Ocean at six in the morning - largely because it's a physical impossibility for me to wake up that early, and some nights at that time I'm just getting in; I'm cool like that - to try to meet Mike and Mike, the guys I named my turtle after. Imagine doing a radio show at some ungodly hour only to have some longhaired hippy-looking freak asking for your autograph because he named his turtles after you.)

But outside of that, the amount of traffic that's we've had to put up with here unreal. I was walking home from work last night down Washington and I kid you not, I was walking faster than traffic. Not only that, the foot traffic was also ridiculous since I was getting bumped into repeatedly and I had weave in and out of throngs of slow-walking and drunk party goers.

Whatever, last night was also the first time all week where we felt the influx of the tourism dollars every local rag has been predicted and working as a waiter, you're the beneficiary of sports fanatics who feel like celebrating (i.e. spending money) just because their team is playing in (and have yet to actually win) the Super Bowl.

I worked a rather hectic shift tonight and I noticed that generally people are in a good mood and feel like eating copious amounts of food. Not just food but expensive stuff as well. One of the wines we recently added to our list is a 2003 Grgich Chardonnay that we sell for $75 a bottle. I haven't sold any since we added it, yet tonight I sold two. Our stone crabs were selling like hotcakes (which is shame because we were hoping they'd sell like, you know, stone crabs... I love that joke) surf 'n turf and lobster piccatta were all popular items.

And yet, I wasn't in as good a mood as I could have been since I learned I'd have to work tomorrow, despite having requested it off. Instead they gave my day off to a gay Brazilian guy (who'd rather watch futbol instead of football and would rather have his rectum massaged by his boyfriend's penis than watch the single biggest sporting event instead. I mean, are you fucking kidding me?!?!?! I'm not bitter. Not as all. Why?)

What was I saying? Oh right. This is supposed to be about the Super Bowl. I've noticed that everyone seems to be ready to hand the Lombardi Trophy to Coach Dungy and Peyton Manning. All that means is that they're feeling enormous pressure and could quite possible implode from weight of expectations.

At the same time, I'm rooting for the Colts because I'm not ready to live in a world where guys like Trent Dilfer, Brad Johnson, and Jeff Hostetler are referred to as "Super Bowl Quarter Backs" and Manning becomes our generation's Dan Marino (and if you're an outsider living in Miami, you start to get sick of all the commercials he's in. And that's already happening with all the damn commercials Manning is doing. I mean really, Tip O'Neil didn't have this many commercials.

Having said that, I'm aware that it's very possible for Manning to throw three picks, yet still have two touchdowns and 300+ yards and win or lose. And this, my friends, is why I love football.

If I were to compare the demeanor of my customers from Chicago to customers from Indianapolis, I'd say the Bears would win in a blowout since for whatever reason, the Windy City folks just seemed so much happier to be here than Indianapolites. Warrants mentioning.

All the athletes are staying away from South Beach, which means that there won't be any Eugene Robinson incidents this year.

Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith? Still black.

Anyone want to wager on who's going to score more: The Bears' special team and defense vs. their Rex Grossman-led offense? I say they're gonna have one punt return go all the way for a TD, and the defense will have a couple of INT or fumble recoveries come all the way back, whereas the only TD from the offense is going to come from some ill-advised pass from Grossman during third-and-long that gets tipped at the line of scrimmage by a Colt defender (also giving 50,000 people in Chicago a simultaneous coronary), only to land perfectly into the hands of a Bear wideout, who takes it in untouched. So take those, two or three field goals, and they score 27.

Still, Manning is gonna throw for at least one TD, they'll have two rushing TDs, and the defense is going to have a couple of TD from accident-prone Grossman.

Indy 34 - Chicago 27

:: Miscellaneous Ramblings by Dan-E at 2:20 PM [+] :: | 0 comments
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