Robby pumps... you up.

Here me now and believe me later.

Robbie went to his "girlfriend's" birthday party at a place called Pump it Up, which provides an indoor venue featuring a bunch of fancy inflatable play areas. He ran around the obstacle course and slid down the slide and eventually drug me into the play areas with him. I was a bit wary. When i was kid, every time I got into the inflatable jump around room, I'd get hurt. Some kid would inevitably hit me in the face with his knee. But Robbie did great and I didn't get injured. A good time was had by all.

This probably won't go over well with my cousin LDG, who's daughter is celebrating her birthday next Saturday. I will not be able to attend since it falls right on our anniversary. Five years! Here is last years post for the fourth, where I declared I still didn't understand woman.

Click here to relive the magic of the Fourth anniversary blog post

If you have any comments or ideas about what I can do to impress and romance a woman two months away from having our second child, feel free to advise me. By the way, the guest, extra storage, usually a wreck, computer room is nearing completion as it is changed into the new nursery. I'll have pictures up next post.

Out.

oh yeah, I have a blog!

Facebook just seemed a quicker way to update everyone on what I was doing and keep track of everyone else. Bryan central faded to the background. So what am I doing?

Of course, I'm still unemployed, what with my career field basically disappearing along with the economy and all. But my big problem is I'm back at that "what do I want to be when I grow up" stage. It's like being 18 again only I have a wife and a son and another son on the way and debt and a house. So getting re-educated and retrained seems a bit of a daunting task.

I've been considering different options but I seem to go back to my original plan when I was actually 18. Getting back into the art, cartooning and animation field. I used to say, when I was young, "if I don't do art for a living, I don't know what I'm going to do." I still don't.

The funny thing is I have found my art skills have seriously eroded over the past couple of years. I've barely drawn anything that wasn't landscape architecture related. I tried to draw Mickey Mouse today. The first attempt was a disaster. Ten attempts later it was starting to click, but anyone who knew me in high school would know I could draw Mickey in my sleep. It's so strange not to just be able to do that.

I've started a new blog that will record this endeavor to get my artistic eye of the tiger back. It's called "bryan's art blog." Not only is it creatively named, but it will follow my progression and hopefully I can look back at it's first post and laugh at where i was and be proud about how far I've come. I don't want to not draw again.

Check it out at bryan's art blog!

Goodbye job

The economy finally claimed me as it's next victim. In fact, I feel lucky, in the landscape architecture field, to have kept my position as long as I did, considering we are so directly related to the real estate market. If no one is buying houses, we're not doing much landscape architecting. And I probably won't move around in the field since most firms are in the same boat, which may mean a goodbye to the landscape architecture field for a while. But, there is a plus side. I will no longer be forced to have this conversation.

Person - So what do you do?

Bryan - I'm in landscape architecture.

Person - Oh, so you do lawn care and landscaping then...

Bryan - No. No, we actually do... we do community planning and campus planning.

Person - Okay, like, you guys do the landscaping for schools and neighborhoods?

Bryan - Kind of.... we're the ones who design the outside areas.., you know, we plan how communities are laid out, and we put in parking lots and deal with the topo and drainage...

Person - I thought the architect did that.

Bryan - Sometimes an architect will have a landscape architect on staff....

Person - So then you guys go out and grade the land and plant the plants...

Bryan - We don't... no we don't plant the plants...we determine where the plant is going to go and then another company....a land "scaping" company actually come out and does the landscaping.

Person - Why would you need to be a licensed architect to pick out plants?

Bryan - Well, there are other things. Topo, drainage, building codes...

Person - But you don't do buildings....

Bryan - There are outside codes as well.

Person - Can you come look at our yard?

the campaign continues

If you haven't checked out Bryan for President lately, a lot is going on. I now have a campaign manager, as well as a slogan contest for you all, my loyal constituency. Don't forget to help put me in the white house. That way I can pardon ya'll if any of you get into trouble.

Bryan for President Campaign headquarters

Click above for a handshake.

new post below

I..... put my post in the wrong order. Check out great moments in talent evaluation below my thesis on Jopheen. Talent evaluation was started first, but jopheen was finished first, so the post got out of order.

Joaquin the Genius

Joaquin Phoenix is doing something extraordinarily smart. You've all seen him, with his beard and his sunglasses, his unlikely hip hop career, and his apathetic and sometimes belligerent attitude. Everybody is wondering if the retired actors new persona is real or a hoax. It doesn't matter, because either way it's entertaining. Personally, I think it's a hoax, and I'm sure Jo will cuss me out for "thinking his life is a joke" and then turn around and tell me he doesn't care what I think. Either way it's a hoax. Either the former red carpet Joaquin was the character, or the new spaced out artist is the character. But this isn't a career meltdown. It is career gold, and it's creating far more buzz then "what's your next movie going to be?"

His sudden appearance as Jim Morrison trapped in a hip hop rap artists body brings to mind Ben Aflecks line from good will hunting. "You're suspect." If you saw the David Letterman interview you saw the character Jopheen is playing, and it's a mirror image of the tortured artist musician we have come to know in the likes of Billy Corgan, Bono, or Axle Rose. Jopheen goes out of his way to be anti-social. Even the little things. He wears sunglasses, avoids eye contact, and chews gum. He answers questions with one word or not at all, and looks annoyed with the process. It reminds me of bands like Pearl Jam, who both soaked up their success and fame while acting burdened by it.

One day in the end, Ben Afleck will release all this "reality" footage of Jopheens career transformation. We'll all get a good laugh out of the parody he is playing. We'll get a good laugh out of a obviously uncomfortable media as they try to seriously track this without appearing to be duped. We'll even laugh at ourselves, and at Jopheen for the genius of a performance he is putting out there. Not since Spinal Tap have we seen these issues of celebrity silliness so well covered. Not since the Blair Witch marketing campaign have we been convinced something is real that isn't.

It's Joaquin the genius actor hip hop artist.

Great Moments in Talent Evaluation

Hannah Montana

After Disney Channels upteenth Suite Life of Zach and Codey all day marathon, the mouse premiered "Hannah Montana." Bryan's reaction?

"A show about a little teeny bopper pop star who leads a double life as a normal teenage girl.... played by one hit wonder Billy Ray Cyruses daughter, Miley? This will be canceled after one season."

Hannah Montana today may be single handedly keeping the economy afloat as pre teen girls force thier parents to take them to Mileys concerts.







Titanic

This James Cameron movie about the legendary boat that couldn't be sunk, that sank. Bryan's reaction?

"Like I want to see a movie about a sinking boat that stars Leonardo Dicaprio. This movie will sink faster then the ship it'self. Go back to making terminator films, Cameron."

Titanic to this day still holds the box office record after spending what seemed like ten years in the theaters. It even overcame Celine Dion's involvement with the soundtrack.



Nirvana

This band popped up on MTV, back when they played videos instead of all day marathons of room raiders and americas next top model, during a time period dominated by hip hop and dance music videos. Bryan's reaction after watching their video 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'?

"Bet I never see that video again."

Nirvana went on to establish the grunge music era in the early 90's, ushering in other acts like Pearl jam and Alice in Chains, which Bryan also wrote off.

Thank goodness I did not try a career in Hollywood. It might have gone something like this.

Talent Scout - "Bryan, I've got this script for the Batman sequal. It's called "the Dark Knight", and Batman fights the Joker."

Bryan - "Pheesh, sounds dumb. Fast track Dumb and Dumber four."