CITY NOIR

Craigs List - O How I Love Thee

2009-05-29T07:37:00.009-04:00

I love to recycle, not just putting cans in the bin each week for pickup but as a holistic approach to consumption. I am fascinated with the concept(s) of reusing old things, finding new and inventive ways to keep stuff out of the dumpster, or rescuing things already there. Our society churns through materials and energy like fire running down a trail of ignition powder; we leave a mess behind us. (Even more scary, what happens when we get to the end of that trail?) But I don't believe waste is the problem! It's the type of waste that is reason for concern. Every living thing on this planet makes waste: dead leaves, feces, uneaten food, etc. Does our planet does buckle under the weight of such wastefulness? No! It thrives on it, without that the biosphere would grind to a halt. As humans, and the stewards of our home, we desperately need to find ways to contribute to our world through our waste (more on this another day).
So you might be asking, "what does Craigslist have to do with sustainable consumption and natural cycles in the biosphere?" Great question.
Have you ever been doing a project and needed a few extra bricks, or a couple 2x4s then thought to your self "I'm sure someone out there has what I need and would probably like to get rid of it. But since I have no way of finding that person, I guess I'll drive to the store and shell out some money for what I need." OK, maybe I'm the only one who spends time being frustrated about things like that, but you get the idea. We'll Craigslist is the ultimate vehicle for connecting those that have stuff with those who need it. Instead of buying something new, and accepting all the uncessissary wastefulness that comes along with it: energy used to produce something that already exists, obserd amounts of wrapping/packaging, price premium, etc..., you can buy something used (or in some cases get it free!) for a fraction of the cost. Here is my list of top purchases/deals on craist list.

Dining Room Table and Chairs: Paid $100 --- Retails at $249
Fire Safe: Paid $15 --- Retails at $35
Typewriter: Paid $5 --- Retails at $450
Shopvac: Paid $20 --- Retails at $120
Spade and flat edge shovels: Paid $0 --- Retails at $34
Grill: Paid $40 --- Retails at $125
Workshop Hardware Organizing Shelves: Paid: $15 --- Retails at $100
Sewing Machine: Paid $15 --- Retails at $150

All told I saved around $1,053 and if you add the sales tax I would have paid I saved $1,137. Obviously, some of the retail prices are a bit subjective. For instance the sewing machine is from the 1950s and similar models go for around $150.
As you can see not only do I get to save the environment, I save a ton of money! What great purchases and deals have you gotten on Craigslist?

Liberation!

2009-05-19T07:57:00.003-04:00

I love alternate history. Something about a world that is very familiar yet strikingly different just gets my mental wheels turning. I had the idea for this late last night and stayed up way to late working on it. Anyone out there know of any good alternate history books?

The Lego City Just Got Bigger

2009-02-16T23:27:00.003-05:00

One of my newer Lego creations, I am particularly proud of this one.

Joe's Joke No. 5

2009-02-16T22:07:00.003-05:00

Q: Who built King Arthur's round table?

A: Sir Cumference

- Brad

City of Embers

2008-08-23T22:01:00.001-04:00

My new blog: CITY OF EMBERS

Disaster!

2008-08-23T18:22:00.002-04:00

So I ported my City Noir account over to my Gmail account, a process that was frustratingly un-simple. Everything was fine until all of my images stopped loading. I finally figured out that in the process I lost all of my uploaded pictures. So over the next month or two I'll be reloading all of them. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Public Service Announcement

2008-08-20T22:47:00.005-04:00

Hello everybody, I have a couple of announcements.

First, my wife has a blog! Let the trumpets play! Here is the link: Home 1114. You should check it out, its great!
Look up at the logo at the top of my blog. How many buildings can you count? If you can't count nine or if all you can see is the bright white of the lights in the windows then I need to know! I realized that my screen at home, which isn't that great, is much brighter, again because it isn't that great. Thus, something that looks bright enough to me may be very dark to you. Let me know, thanks!
Lastly, I am starting a new blog in conjunction with this one. The new blog should be more ummm... useful. Anyway, its a surprise until its released! Wooo! Excitement.

Thanks everyone.

It's Been A Long Time

2008-06-28T22:55:00.008-04:00

We'll I'm not sure anyone is still reading my blog, its been such a long time since I last posted. A lot has changed in my life. I graduated, my wife and I bought a house, I got a job, and my sister is about to get married. Catherine and I bought a wonderful house in south Atlanta. Our house was built in 1950 and a lot of work was done to it before we moved in

Old School

2008-04-08T13:20:00.004-04:00

In early high school or maybe even middle school we had art class. I loved art class, how could you not? Any way, I drew these:

We used the grid method, where you draw a grid on the picture you want to copy then draw a larger grid on a blank piece of paper with the same proportions; then you draw by square. What's funny is I can't draw this well anymore, I'm very out of practice.

Joe's Jokes No. 4

2008-04-04T16:28:00.004-04:00

Q: Why does a chicken coop have two doors?

A: Because if it had four doors it would be a chicken sedan.

Macbeth

2008-04-01T12:00:00.010-04:00

I have an 8AM Shakespeare class, sounds fun right? Well, actually it is. Our final project was to do a film adaptation of a Shakespeare play, make a movie poster, and then pitch the idea to the class. I did Macbeth in 1930s Chicago as a gangster film. My favorite part was making the poster. Once again I pieced it together from images I found online. Sadly, the original image have been lost to the ages. I was unable to find them on my computer to re-upload them to the blog :( after I lost all my original images. Guess you'll just have to trust me.

Hollywood Tower Hotel

2008-03-29T09:47:00.005-04:00

My family used to go to Disney every year when I was in high school. My favorite ride is the Tower of Terror. You can't beat the atmosphere and the ride is fantastic. I would ride that thing 100 times a day if I could. Anyway, after going there one time I made this with paintbrush. It's my own Hollywood Tower Hotel.

Lake Trip

2008-03-28T09:35:00.003-04:00

For the last three years my brother Eric and I have gone to the lake for 3 or 4 days around Christmas; it's our bonding time. It's kinda become a tradition that I set up an evite with a custom picture. We also have a theme based on what movies we watch. Two years ago it was Lord of the Rings.

T-Shirt No. 2

2008-03-16T23:00:00.004-04:00

This is a picture I created for a t-shirt that I made for my bro after we visited Boston and if you've ever been to Bunker Hill, you'll know exactly what it means.

Wedding Website

2008-03-14T11:31:00.006-04:00

We'll our wedding was almost three months ago and it was awesome. For our wedding I made a website. It will disappear in a little while since it's on my Georgia Tech webspace and they shut that down after you graduate. So for those of you who haven't seen it, here it is! I hope you enjoy it.
Click Here: Catherine and Joe

UPDATE! The website is now gone :(
It amazes me how quickly life's good moments pass us by. I was just getting married, now it's a memory.

Legos

2008-03-12T10:16:00.007-04:00

So, I have a confession: I still like to build things with legos. My parents had a big tub of them in the basement so several months ago I went and got them. I built a little mini city block with them. I had taken pictures but they are all lost. The only one's I have are a couple that were taken right before I took them apart. In the last picture with the little red building you can see the corner of
the building from the opposite side of the street. It was the first and best one built. I don't have any pictures though. Also on the other side of the street was a construction site with cranes, dozers, and all that fun stuff. Lego's are what I grew up on, I was never much for the pre-made sets, but I loved thinking up new things and trying to build them. Still do I guess :)

Joe's Joke No. 3

2008-03-10T12:28:00.004-04:00

A man sits down at a bar. It's a quiet night and the bar is mostly empty. Suddenly he hears a small voice say "hey, nice shoes." The man looks around to see who had spoken to him, but there was no one anywhere near him. Then he hears the same voice say "that shirt looks really good on you." Being disturbed by the situation he calls the bartender over and asks if he heard the voice. The bartender replies "oh that? It's just the peanuts, they're complimentary."

-NATALIE

Siege Of Kittens

2008-03-10T11:43:00.003-04:00

It's the long awaited sequel to the first, completely pointless, cat movie. I made this one my softmore year of college. Enjoy!

Hats

2008-03-07T18:31:00.004-05:00

Catherine and I some how developed a strange hobby: we like to take pictures of ourselves wearing hats. So I made a collage of our many pictures.

The Lake House

2008-02-24T21:51:00.008-05:00

Catherine and I were lucky enough to go the lake house this weekend. I unexpectedly got off of work and we left on Friday and came back today (Sunday). We had a great time, except for when I got upset over a serving spoon (don't ask). Friday night we were playing with Catherine's digital camera and figured out how to change the shutter speed. I took some pictures of the lake:

The atmosphere was intense. There was a heavy fog that was just over the tree tops and the lake was completely quiet. The few lights from the neighbors' yards made the fog glow. I wish I could describe it more fully, but you had to be there. It was peaceful and spooky all at the same time. After that we did light-writing:

The next morning Catherine took this beautiful picture of some flowers growing outside:

Joe's Joke No. 2

2008-02-19T23:28:00.006-05:00

A physics professor is busy giving a lecture when a pre-med student rudely interrupts why they needed to learn this "pointless information." The professor replied:
"To save lives" and continued his lecture.
"How does physics save lives?" the student shot back.
The professor responded:
"By keeping idiots like you out of med school."

-INTERNET

Matrix

2008-02-19T21:17:00.006-05:00

I did a small test of a Matrix style camera spin around back in 2000. It's really just a digital camera on platforms of various heights but it's still interesting. Click on it to see it play.

UPDATE!: For some reason this won't play anymore, it did before. So you'll just have to wonder.

10 Random Things

2008-02-17T22:57:00.003-05:00

Well... Jerry "Tagged Me" and said I had to write 10 random things about myself and I just can't say no to Jerry. So here goes!

1. I mentally give each number a gender, like number four is male and number eight is female.

2. I love sad songs.

3. If I had to change my name I would change it to Jack (not because of lost).

4. Zombies freak me out.

5. The ocean makes me sad.

6. I almost always get a headache when a storm moves in.

7. I really really don't like Sixflags, musicals, or the word "flesh".

8. My favorite organism is the Fraiser Fir.

9. I can look out my window (looks southward into midtown and downtown) and give information on every construction project and development that is visible.

10. I really like chocolate covered raisins.

Ok, so now im supposed to tag five people though I'm not entirely sure who has and hasn't done this already.
1. Jason
2. Ashley
3. Andrew
4. Rae
5. Natalie (I think you already did this, but there were only seven things)

My New Favorite

2008-02-15T13:02:00.004-05:00

Catherine and I had our rehearsal dinner at Mojito's with our immediate family and relatives. I must admit that when my mom told me where she had booked us for the rehearsal dinner I was skeptical, but it was incredible! We had the whole place to ourselves and a fixed dinner menu. Mojito's serves Cuban cuisine and its amazing. Catherine's grandparents (on her father's side) are originally from cuba and they loved the food, as did just about everyone who was there. We'll catherine and I went back for valentine's day dinner last night, and had (if it's even possible) an even better experience. We had black beans and rice, plantanos maduros (sort of like fried bananas), crab and lobster soup, Vaca Frita, Buena Vista, and flan. I would highly recommend all of the food we had, everything is very flavorful and delicious. The restaurant is actually in the first floor of the Wyndham Hotel on 10th. When we went it wasn't very crowed, which is shocking, and our waitress was very friendly and did a great job. I would highly recommend eating there if you never have! Here is a link to their site:
Mojito

Joe's Jokes No. 1

2008-02-12T12:37:00.001-05:00

Alright everyone, its time for the first ever (on my blog) Joe's Jokes! I'll do my best to give credit where due, but I have no clue were most of my really bad jokes come from. Ok, here goes:

Q: What do you call the abominable snowman in the Sahara desert?
A: Lost

-Disney World

I claim no responsibility for the awfulness, tackiness, or stupidity of any joke :)