With the semester winding down and some new projects in the works, I find myself sitting down at my laptop in my room, far busier than I’ve been since January. This of course, infuriates Mittens, who is in dire need of attention when I come home from work and/or school. He’ll put his little paws up and grab the cage, whining until I take him out. He sounds strangely like a puppy when he does that.

Lately, his new favorite habit is running up onto my desk while I’m working, leaping onto the monitor, and sitting there, sometimes for almost an hour, watching me type, work on photos, or edit video. It’s adorable as hell, but also extremely hard to photograph, what with the monitor and all.

And yes Sara, those are some of your Etsy stickers next to my laptop.

He’s always so curious. Whenever I let him out, regardless of the amount of open space he has to run around, he loves hopping up next to me. I could be playing Halo, reading in bed, or working on my laptop. Just sort of amazes me, seeing this kind of bond form with a little critter like a chinchilla. Maybe it’s because I got him when he was so little. Still, pretty crazy. Who knew!

Well, I’m back in Philadelphia, returning to a ton of work and projects.

I’ll be busy over the next two weeks working on three different papers for two of my classes (due next Tuesday), and two additional papers due for my independent study. I have to finish several more non-fiction short stories for my graduate project and fill out my application for graduation. Seriously Arcadia, why do I have to apply to graduate?

Photography wise, I’m heading back to New Jersey to work with recent Universal Records signees Cash Cash, doing new press snaps for Hello Jersey, and planning for a week stint on this year’s Van’s Warped Tour, a week that will be both exciting and miserable.

Geekadelphia will be hosting a party here in Philadelphia for Battlestar Galactica’s series finale. That’ll be all kinds of fun.

And as for vacation snaps, you can take a look at some Hawaii pictures here.

Back to work!

Today one of my school books came in the mail for my Theories of Writing class, Cross Talk In Comp Theory, a rather large, boring textbook on different… well, theories in writing. Not the sort of reading you do while relaxing on the beach, I can tell you that much. Alas, the plight of the grad student.

There are few things I hate more than politics. Very few. So when I opened my book, delivered from Alibris.com, I was shocked at the bookmark waiting for me inside, fresh from Blessed By Books out in California.

How lovely! A Ron Paul bookmark to call my own. Ron Paul for President 2008. Just what I wanted. A man who claims to be pro-life, but won’t ban abortion and is against gun control.

Well, thank you Blessed By Books!

You’ve just blessed my garbage can.

If there is one thing I get a lot crap for, it’s the whole working full time while going to grad school full time thing. My family, my friends, and even my professors nag on me for it. “You must have no life!” “Your grades must suffer terribly!” “When do you have time for yourself!” “It just isn’t possible to do both!” and so forth.

Well, take that! I’m a God damn Christmas miracle.

Or maybe I’m a robot. This comic just about sums me up.

This semester I have my graduate project, which will be a collection of short stories about working at summer camp, and two classes to worry about. Theories of Writing and Modern Literature & Mythology.

Four more classes. This semester and a summer session.

Bring it!

Note: This blog post will be promptly deleted in case I fail out of school this semester. Any “I Told You So’s” will be greeted with a punch in the neck. Also, if any professor want to give me an award to fill inside that little box above, please contact immediately.

So my first year of graduate school is officially over. I’ve managed not to fail out despite uprooting myself to a new city, moving three times in the span of four months, going on a tour, and working a full time job. Surprisingly, my girlfriend hasn’t broken up with me yet.

Just one more semester and a summer class, and I’m finished. I can’t wait. Then maybe it’ll be time for a break from school before I start my PhD in English. I’ve been in classrooms non-stop since I was… what, 10? When do kids go to kindergarten? At 25, I’m ready to take a break from those uncomfortable desks.

Right now, I’m ready to spend a week playing XBox 360 (I need to beat Just Cause), watching South Park episodes, eating bad food, and then cutting lose with my family and close friends in New Jersey this weekend. Christmas holiday mixtape to follow shortly.

And yes, admire my Photoshop skills with that LOLbunny I just made. Ashlee goes to the vet again in January to get fixed and have some blood work done (she has some swollen glands, poor thing), and Mittens the chinchilla has his first visit in February. My babies are growing up!

Reading up on various graduate schools. Now that is one ambitious bunny. Everyone should set their goals so high.

I’m sure a lot of people are going to be traveling in the next few days, spending the holiday in various locations. I’ll be spending the holiday in New Jersey with family, friends, and the little lady. With that idea in mind, I’ve put together a digital mix-tape. You can follow the respective links to download the tracks off the artists’ Purevolume pages. Burn them on a CD or put them on your fancy iPod, and you’re set to go.

Eric’s Real-Ultimate Turkey-Day Travelin’ Mix

01. Anberlin - A Day Late
02. As Tall As Lions - The Carousel
03. Between The Trees - The Way She Feels
04. Farewell - Stay Pretty
05. Foreverinmotion - The Rain
06. The Higher - Weapons Wired
07. Houston Calls - Bob & Bonnie
08. Just Surrender - Tell Me Everything
09. Moneen - If Tragedy’s Appealing, Then Disasters An Addiction
10. Self Against City - Ready & Willing
11. Sleepaway - Best Unspoken
12. Socratic - I Haven’t Seen You In Years
13. This Day & Age - Always Straight Ahead

Foreverinmotion’s song The Rain, is probably the most beautiful song I’ve heard all year. Pick up his album on 111 Records / Warner.

And if all that isn’t enough for you, well, go download Ronnie Day’s self titled album off his website, for free.

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

I’ve never really had a real birthday party before. I mean, I had a bunch when I was a little kid. The usual deal. Chuck-E-Cheese, Sports World, rollerskating, etc. But once you hit a certain age, your parents stop taking you and your friends to fancy, exotic places like Bowcraft, and start substituting Dunkin Donuts munchkins or cupcakes for your class. Then, that starts to disappear, and birthdays slowly become just like any other day, with the exception of the occasional awesome present.

When I turned 21, I had a serious throw down at my buddy Joel’s apartment near Philadelphia on his b’day, October 24th, with plans to party late into the next day. On the way to partying on the 25th, the car broke down, and we spent my 21st birthday at a Pep Boys. The night before was at least awesome though.

This year, living in a city on my own, I decided to do things differently, especially since I was hitting the big, scary two-five.

Lots of my friends came in for some serious partying from all over. I spent the greater part of Friday getting things ready and spending time with my girlfriend, who surprised me by making some amazing monster cupcakes with my roommate Tess.

They were insanely delicious. More photos soon.

When the night hit on Saturday, lots of great friends from home and college, a few new ones from Philadelphia, my rockin’ roommates, and my lovely girlfriend all came out to dress up in costumes, eat lots of snacks, and drink all of my Arbor Mist. The original plan was to bar hop around Old City, but as more people poured into the apartment, everyone was just way too comfortable. And that was just fine with me.

I was heavily dedicated to my costume as Thorny from Super Troopers. So much so that my roommate and I downed half a bottle of maple syrup, just to see who was, in the almighty words of Thorny, “all that is man.” The answer? My roommate. Man that stuff was gross.

The Halloween costume contest was won, hands down, by my friends Darlene and Cristina. They dressed as Naomi Campbell (Cristina on the right) beating up her executive assistant (Darlene on the left) with her cell phone. We captured an action shot, and Darlene had a fabulous black eye painted on. Good job guys!

A lot of my friends were telling me that this is the golden birthday and therefore, the golden year, since I turned 25 on the 25th. So, here is to making this an amazing year. I already know I’ll be finished with my MFA and my second book, so lets see what else can get added to that list.

Life is good.

Here’s to another good year.

Want to see more? Take a look at the Flickr account, and prepare to smile.

So after the amazing amount of web traffic I received from Cuteoverload, and the overwhelming response to my photos via email / AIM / Myspace, I decided it was time to start uploading my bunny and kitten photos somewhere. You can now find them on my Flickr. I just uploaded a couple dozen photos from this weekend. Enjoy and smile.

I also finally uploaded a majority of the Over & Out Tour that I went on back in May, with Forever The Sickest Kids (Universal), Farewell (Epitaph), and Upper Class Trash. You can get there via the photos section. Those are also in Flickr, as those photosets are wonderfully easy to upload. I plan on moving most of my tour images onto Flickr. Simply way easier to share and maintain.

I’ll be doing most of my photo editing on a glorious eMac G4 that I scored off eBay for $150, shipping included. Man, I am good.

Arcadia has officially taken over my life again. Medivial Literature, seven books. Writing Fiction Workshop, two short stories, three books. History of Rhetoric, five books. It’s a good kind of busy though.

I’m helping out two of my good friends, Brett and Seabass, with their clothing company, Dazzle Me Formal. I’m pretty psyched about it, and they’ve been working with some fun artists, like Cute Is What We Aim For, David Melillo, The Higher, and Sherwood. While I know the first two personally, the other two I’ve never met, and I really dig them. The Higher have a great pop-punk-fused-with-R&B sound, while Sherwood is just straight up happy pop rock.

It’s an exciting half-of-the-year. Work is busy, school is intense, and personal projects are keeping me active. Life is good.

So my awesome artist roommate recently purchased three old school library card catalogs off eBay, one of which is currently sitting in our living room. He’s going to use them as storage in the apartment, and I have to say, it is probably one of the coolest looking dressers I’ve ever seen. Ikea needs to hire him to design rooms.

Seriously, who thinks of stuff like this? The only clever artistic thing I could think of was to put the kitty inside one of the drawers and then take a cute picture.

Oh well.

I’ve decided I’m officially going to stop hating on cats. I’ve made fun of cats ladies and people with gigantic cats my entire life, and well, now I’m starting to like them. I mean look at that face.

That’s Aurora’s “come on Eric, are you seriously playing the King Kong video game for XBox 360 on a Saturday night? What’s wrong with you.”

My half sleeve tattoo is in the works of being designed. Can’t wait. I kept seeing this guy’s sweet ink every other day here in Philly, and opted for one. It’ll become a full sleeve once my MFA is finished. The entire tattoo is literature themed, and will feature characters from works of classic lit that are important to me.

First class of the semester starts tomorrow. Here’s to four months of working full time while handling full time (three classes) graduate school. Woo!

Oh, and I scored a cheap video camera off Craigslist. Here’s the first video I took, of Aurora attempting to free herself from an Urban Outfitters paper bag. Silly kitten.