I have an awesome day job. I usually spend my lunch break reading, writing, or doing homework.

However, due to recently beating Halo 3, an event which had me near tears, I’ve decided to celebrate by taking some fun pictures involving my Halo 3 Kubricks causing trouble in my cubicle. Cause I mean, why not?

Check out the Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ericsmithrocks/sets/72157602241689405/

There will be more in the coming weeks, pending I don’t have too much homework or reading to do. It’s been a light week, thankfully, and it’s nice to actually relax during my lunch break, rather then rack my brain.

I recently worked with an amazing band called You Me & Everyone We Know. They’re named after that movie and make amazingly catchy music. Think I Am The Avalanche combined with the lyrical sensibility of Say Anything, and there you have it. They’re managed by Rich & Steph of Drive Thru Records, and will be heading out on a tour with Fred Maschino of Taking Back Sunday and The Pink Spiders this Fall.

Expect great things, and some equally nice looking press shots.

This past week, Cuteoverload, one of my favorite websites for all that is cute, featured one of my photos, a silly picture that I had taken of my girlfriend getting mauled by bunnies. It was a ferocious attack, rivaled only by the carnage seen in Night of the Lepus and delivered with the fury of the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog

This caused more traffic then my little blog / portfolio has ever seen. When the Silverstein video debuted on MTV, I saw a few dozen extra hits and some new search results hitting my site, mostly along the lines of “music video where dude steals diamond.” My stats went from 70 hits to 1,237. I’ve since gone back to my normal traffic. My internet fame was fun while it lasted.

This however, made me feel a little bad for my visitors, as all of them immediately hit up the photography section, hoping for some more cute animal photography. Alas, they were probably disappointed, seeing only indie-rock bands and tour photos. This made me decide to add a new category in my photography, which will be popping up in the coming weeks.

That being said, here’s a random photo of my bunny, Ash, sitting on my bed. Yes, he is the size of a small dog now. Seriously, compare him to the size of those black pillows. It’s ridiculous.
Be sure to check out the actual page on Cuteoverload. That’s my girlie. Read the comments, they are sure to make you laugh, as she certainly is “trapped in a bunderstorm.”

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2007/09/halp.html

Life updates? I’m meeting with the artist who is designing my half sleeve tomorrow and, checking out the Eastern State Penitentiary for the first time. Should be a nice night full of fun photos and hopefully, an awesome looking sketch of my future ink.

I’ll be meeting with some of my friends in Houston Calls and Socratic for a top secret web project. Very exciting. If you don’t know either of those two bands, shame on you. Houston Calls toured Australia with Yellowcard last year, and Socratic just finished producing their new album with Mark Hoppus of Blink182 fame. The site is set to launch at the end of the year, and man, it is going to be one fun endeavor. Details to follow.

Also, everyone, please try some of the Halo III Edition Mountain Dew. It takes like you are drinking Starbursts out of a can. It is pure happiness.

So I took the Amtrak up to Albany to spend some quality time with the wifey. I apologize in advance for the horrific quality of the photos. These were taken on my Sidekick III. While it is a fantastic phone that lets me talk on AIM, use email, and check Craigslist all day, the camera is absolutely heinous. We went on a hike up Vroman’s Nose, a historic trail in Albany that leaves you on this beautiful mountain, the cliff overlooking a valley of farms below. The cliffs are incredibly steep and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous walking around up there.

We spent a lot of time running around on her father’s farm, which had horses, elk, sheep, bunnies (bunnahs!), and, as pictured here, picking alfafa for my favorite…

Llamas!

Anyone who knows me knows that I believe The Emperor’s New Groove is the best Disney movie ever made. Eff those “classics” like Cinderella, Snow White, Beauty & The Beast… it’s all about Kuzko over here. If you’ve never seen this movie, go purchase the two disc special edition and possibly a lifesize cardboard cut out of Kronk, because seriously, you’re going to love it that much.

A super exciting part of the farm was this guy right here. It reminded me of the Warthog (”It looks more like a puma!“) in the Halo video game series. And although Heather continued to remind me it was called a Rhino, I insisted upon it being a warthog. End of story. It was like living out a childhood fantasy, zipping around on that thing. And yes, I realize Halo came out in 2001, thus making me 19 at the time. Shush.

Here’s Heather driving the Warthog, because um… I had to operate the machine gun turrets! And by “operate machine gun turrets” I mean “I was too scared”. Plus come on guys, who doesn’t want to see their foxy girlfriend driving an all terrain vehicle? *swoon!*

One of the coolest things about the farm was this little carving we found up on Vroman’s Nose. Here in Philadelphia we have graffiti and our famous Toynbee Tiles (if you want some more personal hands on stuff on these, check out Ben’s blog). On Heather’s farm, the graffiti and carvings into stone are a bit different.

It might be hard to make out on this crude cell phone photo (curse you T-Mobile!), but it’s a carving into the side of the cliff up on Vroman’s Nose that says June 6th, 1868. Bits and pieces of the etching were broken off as a result of time and weather, but it still moved me to see something that a couple carved into the face of a rock almost 150 years ago still proclaiming their love.

I want our love to trascend space and time too, damn it.

Next time, I’m bringing a chisel.