Earlier in the week I was on the flight back to Los Angeles and I broke out the laptop and began to type on the Pages program I have on here...

Starting Saturday the 17th of April, my Spring Break began and I was able to fly home and spend time with the family, heres what I did in as much detail as I can remember...

Starting the 16th, a Friday, I spent it being a lazy kid. I enjoyed my day with my best friend out here and we did a full day of good nothings, that evening my other friend, who is also from Nashville, and going to CSUN, came to Pasadena and joined us for dinner at Noodle World. Afterwards we snuck back over to Paiges apartment and sat in the hot tub talking about a whole lot of nothing, mainly just being funny goofy kids. Paige ended up coming back over to my place til late late cause she knew she wouldnt see me for 8 days, so while I packed she sprawled out on my couch and watched the late shows, we talked about alot, it was nice to pack and clean and have her company. I returned her back to her apt at probably 3am and laid down for about an hour to rest my eyes and remain sane for the long long saturday I had in front of me.

At 6 I was back up and packed and gussied up for my commute to LAX. Now for those of you who dont know the wild chicken dance that it takes me to get to the airport without a ride its quite an experience. First I walk about 6 or 7 blocks to the train station, where it shuttles me to Union Station in downtown LA, and then the FlyAway Bus picks me up there and tackles the freeways (110 to 405) until I am there about an hour and a half after I have left Pasadena. Once I am at LAX, I checked in and did the security monkey dance and grabbed my now ritualistic Starbucks Tall Vanilla Latte (thank you Daniel). I was a full hour early this time so I was able to relax and wait patiently for the flight to board. blah blah blah fast forward to Nashville, I landed and was picked up from the airport by my good friend Andrew, he returned me home, I immediately changed out of my suit and had to run to the hospital to see my great aunt, I will explain her situation later. Sunday I spent mowing and cleaning, Andrew and I ran to Pull-A-Part to look at car parts and try to get ideas for my final in Product Design, I then ended up finding a new headliner for my dads old Pontiac although I didnt find much else.

Monday came and Mamaw, Andrew and I drove to Muncie, Indiana. Her farm is there and we went to make sure all is well.

We were home by wednesday night and then I was back on the flight by Saturday night.

Spring Break

More Coming Soon-(and yes thats a Panamera on a test drive)

The Hardest Part Is Knowing I May Never Return

Allow me to clarify, I say that because I truly do love it out here (minus the quakes)

From Top To Bottom:

-Highway 65 headed north to Nashville from Franklin

-My Getaway (its Indiana, my other home)

-Chattanooga, TN. Where I moved right out of high school.

-Downtown

-West Nashville

The only good excuse for not doing your homework. Nashville Trips.

Last June, my mother was in the market for a new vehicle and being the automotive aficionado that I have now established myself to be, I started doing some heavy research because at the time she drove a Volvo XC90 T6 AWD. So in looking at the comparables she had always mentioned liking the Mercedes ML-Class. We looked at, and drove the 350 and the ML500 to see what the advantages were in packaging. I, of course, wandered to the other end of the dealer lot where the AMG vehicles sit proudly outside the front door of the dealer. Finding the ML63 AMG sitting there in black on black leather and we were able to test drive the car and both mom and dad were immediately in love with the 510 horsepower on tap, not to mention the whole package looked like a mean set of wheels. We looked around and shopped for the best deal and found through Mercedes of Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Proud owners were we of a Mercedes, our first one, and it being a Silver AMG.

If you’re not familiar with the AMG line, it is what Mercedes considers its Premium Sports brand. The vehicles are taken and tuned to the specifications of a supercar and all the neccessary hardware is put in to give it its sporting credentials. In the case of the ML63, starting with the inside, the driver and front passenger seats are beefed up to handle the corners with wider side bolsters and more adjustments are available to make yourself comfortable over the long-haul. Leather quality is upped and more areas are covered in hide, including the upper dash. Heating and cooling is available for the front seats and heat for the two outboard seats in the back. AMG embroidery in the seats too. The suspension gets a work through, three settings; Comfort, Sport, and Raised. Raised setting is the most fun, because it makes the car look like it could crawl over just about anything and looking sexy doing so keeping it almost a foot off the ground and able to ford 26 inches of water. Finally the drivetrain gets a reworked 7-speed Automatic with TapShift all leading up to the massive hand-built and signed 6.2 liter V8 that is begging to sing at 7,000 rpm. (I think when we got the vehicle we told mom that it had less horsepower so that she wouldnt drive fast!)

The reason I bring this vehicle up is because if anyone had the opportunity to have a vehicle like this, they would love it and cherish it and pamper it. However with me, I am discussing it because I now see why the purchase is paying off for us. I had to return home to Tennessee last Wednesday to see family that wasn’t doing well health wise. My great aunt has exhibited signs of Demetia and only when it got so bad did anyone notice that her or my uncle were not leaving the house nor were they communicating with anyone, and with them living about an hour and a half from Nashville, getting to them wasn’t easy. She was taken to the hospital immediately and she has been barely responsive in the past two weeks. I was able to spend an evening with her last Friday night, just her and I. Ill just tell you that I would not wish her condition on anyone, not even my worst enemy. Therefore with the mess at hand my mother has stepped in and basically had to drive from Nashville to Narnia running errands and carting my uncle who is in terrible health himself across town. There honestly isnt a better vehicle to take them all over. So I wanted to take a moment and say through 18,000 miles of usage with my family, the Mercedes ML63 AMG is one fast people mover but has been able to,within a year, provide services that you cant put a price tag on.

Nashville otherwise was great. I was able to see friends when I could and clean the family cars while I was in town also. I feel as if I paused time coming home for that time being, and heading back to LA will suddenly start the wheel of progress back up. I have a TON of homework that needs to be addressed this evening and I am writing this portion of the blog on the plane ride back into the West. I had packed my Copic markers and sketchbooks and one of my marker pads into my bags but I never had a moment to sit down and draw. I was constantly on the move from the time my flight landed in Nashville. The airline had placed my bags on a later flight by accident and I had to return to the airport to pick up the luggage.

All in all, things are not where they should be. Everything so far has happened for a reason, the bigger picture I just have yet to see.

Life Drawing-Up to now

Lets Talk Cars.

During the day I find moments to myself where I take the time to thank God for reaffirming that feeling of what I am doing is the right thing.

Im having such a writers block today and I opened this text-box hoping I would fill it to the brim with talks on cars that I love, appreciate, and talk about design wise. Heck I even wanted to cover cars that I don't like, either. However, I have hit a wall as far as what I want to talk about so I think I will "ramble-type" to see if I can make sense of what is churning in my brain.

I will say that one awesome "thing" I love about California and my decision to be out here is the frequency of seeing what is considered a "super car" or just a rare one, with 60 billiongajillion people living in california(apparently that number is accurate), the amount of multi-millionares goes up, as does the caliber of their vehicular investments. The mostly men I find that drive these cars are always glad to see the fanatics like myself who "ooh" and "ahh" over the carbon-fiber driveshafts and rear mounted flat-sixes. I know that if I were an older wealthy man, I would love for anyone to go gaga over my ride too.

Lately I have been on a wagon fix. Anything with 5 doors and all-wheel drive (apparently that market has grown and the gray area has become even grayer) is the bees knees for me. Volvo has always created unique or appealing cars and their profession has been wagons, the V70 R has been on my short list for some time now when it comes to "gotta have it" factor. The 300hp 5-Cylinder turbo mated to the all-wheel drive system from Haldex whets my appetite, whereas the adjustable suspension settings for sport-comfort-advanced, adds sophistication to the chassis settings and overall makes the driving experience better. The Volvo XC70 Cross Country has its duty when the pavement ends or the weather turns sour. Stemming from that story is Audi and the brand image they have created for their "Quattro" named drivetrain. The A6 line and when they came out with the AllRoad in the early 2000's really, to me, added an awesome raised wagon that had the rugged look while maintaining the luxury nameplate that Audi has since built for itself. On the flip-side the RS6 Avant has had a fan base since its introduction and I consider myself a big one.

Now I am aware that BMW has been perfecting the wagon and I applaud them for doing so but with BMW, everyone knows the products put out so theres not much I need to say. I have loved the MINI Clubman since its introduction a few years ago and even though I would consider it a long hatchback first before a wagon, it's still on my list. However with the introduction of the Countryman on the horizon I have big plans for that car.

Also on a side note with my Product/Life Drawing/Concepts in Drawing/Perspective Classes almost mid-way through, I am beginning to look forward to summer/fall classes and here are some ideas that I have had lately.

For Summer Im looking into going in a different direction for my own sanity. Swimming. I figure at the end of this semester I will have completed 9 Art Classes so taking a swimming class is a way to just occupy my time with one extra credit, plus after some thought, it will allow my creative brain to rest and think about something else. Now if I decide to stay on the path I will consider an advanced sketching for design class OR rendering class because I want to just build my skills.

Regarding the fall, I know I want advanced Product class, but past that im not sure. I basically have to fill my time with everything i can pack into a portfolio, or 7

I know this is probably the most sporadic post and apologies for those who are sitting here going WTH.

Always A Time For Firsts.

At 4:03am this morning I woke on my bed and immediately sat up, my body was rocking back and forth and suddenly my bed was too?! Yeah, it was my first earthquake. Just as soon as it started though it stopped and I got up and tip-toed over to the windows to look out to see if there was anything unusual and once I saw nothing, I quickly made my way to the front door and looked into the peep hole and still nothing. I honestly thought that I was ABSOLUTELY crazy and I really couldn't put my finger on why I woke up. So I laid back down and on my iPhone I checked the major news outlets for any info. Nothing. So I hopped on Facebook and one of my friends across town wrote "did anyone else just feel that?". I PANICKED! hahaha wow I just went through my very first quake, albeit a 4.5 magnitude, but still. Enough that I was all emotional and scared.

Another day, another experience.