Pawtraits: 1

"Miley"

Photographs by Gabriel Sacco

Love, Love, Love, Love, Love

My buddy and long time roommate, Marty, asked if he could use my computer in the late hours of one night last week.  Later I’d find out that I was, regretfully, doing the right thing.

I had to pry my computer out of his hands two hours later.

Bored out of my own mind from lack of Hulu, Netflix, news searching and Stumbling, my Skype was open, computer drained of battery, and Marty had a disappointing look in his eye as he tried to get his own computer to stop fritzing.

You could say that Marty’s the lucky one of us four roomates.  You also might be able to tell from this vague incident that Marty has a girlfriend; He’s in LOVE.

And I mean the mushy, gushy, squishy, i-cant-stop-stairing-into-your-not-so-special-eyes kind of love.

Either it seems obsolete or too good to be true at this age, but ultimately love is an innate part of us humans.  We aren’t the only animals that can experience this emotion, but we definitely – like other emotions – express them the most.  Love defines an attachment we have to people, and extreme cases, things.

We all know that there are obviously different kinds of love.  Friendship love, familial love, erotic love, religious love.  In lieu of Valentine’s Day, I’ve provided some of my favorite Facebook posts of the day exemplifying how these kinds of love are displayed.

Christel Carmody:

"I said yes this day to the love of my life... And now I get to keep him forever. Let our adventures continue! Chris thank you for believing in us and know that you are my world.. I love you 7!"

Chris Carmody:

 [Posted on his wife's wall.]

Alison Mears:
"We just have a lot of feelings, okay?

http://www.hercampus.com/school/emory/letter-b-school"

Dean:

"I ran over cupid on my way to work this morning! YES! Lol"

Dean:

Allie Albright:

"Missing my better halves on valentines day... NINATAKA KONYAGI SASA HIVI"

Amanda Lupo:

"To my boyfriend, Nutella. Omg, where to begin! I love you so much babe, and you have literally been there for me ever since my rugrat days. You never falter to put a smile on my face. Even though you broke up with me because of my abrupt teenage weight gain, when we got together, I swear...it was like someone put us on some wheat bread & we became a new love sandwich. You were my first kiss & yea kid, I'm plan for you to be my last. ♥ ♥ ♥ happy valentines day, Nutella!"

Millennium Promise:

"Happy Valentine's Day! Share the love!

Want to know how you can become part of Millennium Promise and help end extreme poverty? Join the 2015 Circle and become a monthly donor! Every gift at any level counts. http://bit.ly/VgPfUq

(Child singing at the kindergarten of Kominé in Tiby, Mali)"

 

Jess Curlyfries:

"Sure, announce to the class Ms. Curley is pregnant with a baby boy. Sure, tell her she can find a boyfriend on a dating website to get her pregnant. Sure, tell her that the chocolate she's eating is going to make her pregnant with a food baby that "comes out the other end." Sure, be the most hysterically inappropriate 6th grade class on the face of the earth..."

There you have it.  I hope you have the same loving friends that I do.  You can't tell me its not an adventure to pick out all the different kinds of love around us.  Whether its "Marty Love" - to which I fully support the relationship with his magnificent girlfriend - or just a simple love for helping others, we experience these every day.

So if your mopey about Valentine's Day, the next time the date comes around, don't think of it in terms of Marty Love.

Spread your love anyway you want. Make it about the love.

A Super Special Birthday

Mom visiting me in Dar es Salaam!

Don't forget to thank your Mom for being the best.  Happy birthday Pat Sacco!

Dreams of an EDMhead

CHECK THIS OUT:

There's a rumor that because it's the 15th year anniversary (2013) of the Ultra Music Festival - with the largest turn out ever - the city will actually sink into the Atlantic Ocean from over 200,000 feet pounding on the streets of downtown Miami.

You're lucky if you went to the grocery on time...

It's been written about in excess this past week.  The recent blizzard, Nemo, attacked the North East with over 4-5 inches of snow per hour at some points in the night.

I woke up Friday morning at my friend Georgia's home (desperately hoping my French exam would be cancelled) to three inches of snow falling already.  There were definitely no looks of it letting up.  After slugging down a few cups of coffee, I read over my notes and drove to class, which I can say was a complete success in my '98 Subaru Legacy Outback.

My 9.30 AM test ended at 10.20.  I left my classroom and napped for a while.  When I woke up at least a foot of snow was on the ground.  We were stuck!

The two houses of girls next door to us decided to come over and brace together for the Snow-pocalypse.

In total, six states declared a state of emergency, with over 5,000 flights cancelled due to the major airports in New York and Boston.  Never mind the flights, people couldn't even get out to the grocery.  It's known that these stores have the longest hours, especially the commercial - but evermore local - Stop & Shop in town.  I went on Thursday afternoon right after my class got out.  Was I thinking about prime grocery shopping time?  Of course I don't think of those things.  The place was packed.  Moms, dragging their kids around, Grandmas dragging their husbands around, and a few leftover college students getting their last fresh veggies before the lock in.

The Fairfield Stop & Shop was open until the night of the storm and unable to open on Saturday.  Hopefully no one was stuck.  I can only imagine how packed it was when the lot finally got plowed.

Some pictures taken of the snow.   The pictures were taken on the Sunday after Nemo hit.  Fairfield County and New Haven area got pounded with around 35-40 inches of snow.

Friday Morning: The biggest waves the LIS has ever seen.

Cars in a bit of snow

Ms. Smalley's car: Covered not only by snowfall

Fairfield University townhouses under snow

Again, Ms. Smalley's car

Photography by Gabriel Sacco

Should we be prepared for more snow?

Yes, of course we should it's February.  As a matter of fact it's supposed to snow again on Saturday.  The clouds should hit not so much on the coast, but rather on land.  Out in Oklahoma, the predications are the same as Fairfield county - a mere one to three inches.  Hopefully it melts right as it touches down.  West Virginia is predicted to have the most accumulation - as much as three to six inches.

Although most of local tots are looking to get a fresh covering over the newly soiled snow, I can guarantee the majority of their parents are annoyed due to the fact that this is our third socially-debilitating storm of the season.

"Your first resort, and your last!"

I woke up to a sprinkle of unexpected snow on the ground, grabbed a cup of coffee (I've recently been scooping my roommates's Starbuck's dark roast in to the coffee maker -- I'm hooked), and sat down to flip through an old issue of "The Economist" when I came across a short promo on Hell.

I've always enjoyed reading "The Economist" not only for the international news that is very well covered, but also because every so often they do things like this:

"A very rough guide"

Due to our dying use of religion and increase reliance and faith in government, "The Economist" rightly published this flyer.  Why not create ads to save their economy?  It could be the best thing they do.

My favorite quote: "Money may well be the reason you are here especially if you come from Cahors, the city of usurers, or worked for Lehman Brothers.  But don't bring cash or cards, unless you want them melted down and poured into your mouth through a funnel."

Mark Twain On Travel

As a huge promoter of travel, I find this illustrated Mark Twain quote on travel fully explains the elimination of “prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness” that we all deserve.

Why Travel?  In my opinion, I shouldn’t have to explain.  Not only does it open our minds, but gives us soul and personality.  Our minds take in so much information every minute.  Contradicting this last statement – we see similar things every day, especially in the Tri-state area.  So why not travel?  Why not simply take a trip as short as driving to eastern PA or Upstate NY?  The more information our brains take in on culture, the better.

You might hate it and you might love it, but I know it’s certain that your travels will only develop your person so much more.  Travel gives us something to relate to, talk about, and a sense of adventurism.

Why do I travel?  To find out why people do the things they do.

As cliché as it sounds, I love that feeling of the unknown.  Making last minute decisions on pretty important issues is my contemporary “Goonies” scenario.  I usually develop Cranky Baby Syndrome if I’m not able to travel for a while.

Ultimate traveler and naturalist Cody Lundin poses for his own blog photo.  “The more you know, The less you need”.  He travels the wild barefoot, not having worn shoes since the 1980’s.

I find the idea of illustrating these monumental quotes as super helpful.  It seems as if reading simple humor or satire while determining the deeper ties to theory and thought – as Mark Twain’s style conveys – is becoming increasingly difficult as we move further and further from that era.  The bright colors of Than’s work captures the eye and aids us in finding the reason these words were written.

The illustrator’s (Gavin Aung Than) passion lies fully in cartooning and illustration.  With a background in graphic design, Than has over 400 published comic strips including two long-running pieces.  From simply visiting his website after I found this strip, I found a compilation of comics running from quote illustrations like this one to traditional published newspaper strips.

In between it all he expresses situations dealing with relationships, sporting and political events, globalization, society and the all-relatable stresses of human life.  The characters range from a huge medium of personalities and forms including monsters, superheroes, and of course human-toons.

Than’s Website: http://gavinaungthan.com/