so the other day nina, will, and i went to a pittsburgh penguins hockey pratice. i got to meet TK! (aka #48 tyler kennedy) i couldnt belive that he was only a little bit taller then me, but he's carved out of solid rock! GO PENS!

i was just on vacation in NYC. the crew was myself, nina, and our friend nik. nina wanted to check out fordum university, and visit our friend john who lives in yonkers. not to mention that she had never been to the big apple before. we spent four days in the city, spending 75% of our time in museums, 15% in restaurants, and the remaining 10% walking/riding public transport. but when the sun went down we had a shofer. john (aka jaze juce) is a native new yorker, who nina met at school. jaze is a rapper, a life gaurd, and all around man about town. we saw a lot of the city from in the car at night, wich was awesome.




so day one we went to the guggenheim museum, they were camera-nazis so no photos from there. the place was filled with basically nothing but sexual art. lots of giant slabs of stone carved into mountains of phallises, boob caverns illuminated with red lights, and servered scrotums suspended from the ceiling. and then out of nowhere... the top floor had like 20 of these werid little rooms made out of old doors. some where blank, some had names of people, businesses, all with cracked paint and rusty hinges. you could peer in threw the few doors that had windows to view uber creepy scenes streight out of a serial killer's childhood memories. *shivers* the building architecture was cool parking garage meets modern adobe. but on the way there we stopped in front of a random office building and found these giant hello kitty metal sculptures!!!!



the next day we went to the museum of modern art (MOMA) witch was amazing! the place was 5 stories high, and was filled wall to wall with art! there was a lot of stuff i wasn't allowed to photograph, like the entire floor of picasso paintings/sculptures, or the HUGE salvador dali exhibit featured on the top floor! they had 250 of his painting, tons of props, backdrops and other stuff from his films. and they were playing ALL movies he made, including a DISNEY FILM he animated!






after that we went to a museum of modern architecture and design. you really weren't supposed to take any photos there, but there were a few i just couldn't resist!




the last museum that we went to was the museum of natural history. which was really cool, but very busy. a lot of my photos from here didn't turn out as i hoped, so here's a few of the good ones.




and they had a REDICULOUS amount of dinosaur bones!




so, they don't let you inside the statue of liberty anymore. so what's the point of going to that tiny super crowed island just to try and look up lady libery's dress. so instead, we went to liberty park in new jersey to check out the statue.

 

"lady liberty is just like any new yorker, she hates jersey!
just look at the statue, shes farting on us!"

jaze juce

 

"xero, how come yew can build and program computers
but cant figgure out how to use a new tire jack?"

nik

to kick off the pittsburgh zombie film festival, lloyd kaufman and the troma crew, made the venture down to the iron city to premiere their new film poultrygeist at the andy warhol museum. my buddy smitty and his girlfriend amanda decided that they would accompany nina and i. we didnt want to miss the show, so i preordered our tickets on the internetz. ok, so the other reason i preordered the tix was because i love just walking into a venue, and saying "im on the guestlist..." ++lol. anyway, so the cats that run the warhol's website posted the time wrong :P we misses the first hour of the movie. but for anyone who as ever seen a troma film, we just missed one horrifically bloody death scene. after the movie, we got to listen to lloyd talk about the state of troma, and whats in the works for 2009. after that he just hung out in the hallway and signed autographs, took photos, chatted up the horde, and hit on all the ladies. man, mr. tromavision was a mach and a half! he almost got nina and amanda to make out! ok, im exaggerating... after getting these flix, we just walked around the warhol for a few hours. then met up with my main man mccarthy, and hit the bar. it was a blast!

i guess im a little late on this post. my grandparents moved to flordia a few years ago, and every since, the rest of my family have slowly been moving there. my uncle mark lived there already, then my aunt joan moved there shortly after. then my cousin, then her mom... yeah, so like that whole side of the fam. so needless to say, we were due for a visit. my dad is dr. paranoia, and couldn't fly down there. and i in no way wanted to ride with him, my mother, nina and his road rage. nor did i want to drive there myself with nina a my road rage. so we opted to hop with the jet set. the flight was so short i barely beat metroid fusion on the plane ride there and back with 98% completion. we had a party thrown for our arrival, at my cousin ashley's house. i got to see all my relatives and meet my cousin's new baby angelina. she's a lil cutie. for the next few days we just hung out and went to beaches.

 

"its not a vacation unless there's a beach right?"

xero

this year's halloween was a bit different. our friends opie and jessie had a pirate themed wedding! so deciding was to be this time around was pretty obvious. they had the ceremony and the reception at the same hall in Pittsburgh, but since we were late as usual, we missed the first part. but they didn't seem to mind, since the actual wedding part took about 10 minutes! ++LOL!

the reception was crazy! all the guests were dressed as pirates, i mean EVERYONE! at one point i saw this 80 year old main in a tux with an eye patch. i leaned over to nina and said...

 

"ARRG! yew think that be his costume? or he be a vietnam vet?"

capt'n mint beard

it has been a great year for flowers. thus it has been a great year for floral photography. i dont know why, but after my experience with the african violets, i have been into art flora a lot more. my mother's green thumb grew some beautiful golden lillys right by their porch. i took a few snaps, then went inside. i returned a few minutes later with a clean memory stick only to discover a monarch butterfly in the lilly i was just shooting. he (the monarch) was drinking out of the base of the flower, but had slipped in and lodged himself between the stamen and flowers petals. i took a few more shots, then helped him escape.

check out the entire album here.

on thursday will calls me up and says...

 

the nhl draft is this weekend in columbus ohio.
you and nina are coming with me, i already have tickets."

weird willy

 

i swear i hear motley crue in the distance. Yeah!
its either them, or the best crue cover band alive!"

weird willy

so nina, my parents, and i went to the rock & roll hall of fame in cleveland ohio. My dad had a few days vacation so he wanted to take a trip. i have been to the hall a few times prior, but they have such a flux of different memorabilia... so its never the same place. this time the featured exhibits were the door, the clash, and warped tour. the doors exhibits were basically drawing, writing, and photos of jim morrison. the clash exhibit had a ton of old outfits the band wore, along with old instruments, tour phots, and flyers. security is tight in the hall, but i did manage to snap of flew flix.

this is the actual guitar that is being smashed on the cover of london calling. there are more photos on photo.xero.nu/rockhall

what a beautiful summer it has been so far. my mom has been able to grow foreign flowers that she could have never dreamed about this year. a prime example were these gorgeous african violets. they bud as little pink balls, then they slowly open up into amazing little purple flowers. check out these photos { 1 / 2 } and this rad wallpaper i made.

i just got my first pay check the work webcam.
that's a $1276.40 1st pay check!!!! w00t w00t!

so i already spent part of that on an iubi blue
high rez photos here.
still cant git one in the US yet, so i got mine here.

so yeah, it's an mp3 player

it also plays like EVERY FUxx0RiNG vid 4mat ever!!! MPEG 1, 2, 4 DivX 3.X, DivX 4.X, DivX 5.X, Xvid, WMV9, H.264/MP4, AVI, OGM, WMV 7, 8, MOV, & Real video files!!!!!!!!

damn! and the screen is so0o0o0o00 beautiful!
this photo does no justice to the device, but it proves what ive been watching...

yew can see the screen from every angle,
not like that stoopid iPOD and Creative Zen Vision/M or that lame Archos...

it has a line in/out feature so yew can h00k it up to the TV and watch, but it can also record as well... i use the line in for old records/tapes, not to mention it encodes video/audio in both Xvid and AVI formats!!! high rez stuff too not just crap. ive encoded and watched stuff on the blue, then on my pc, then ripped it to dvd w/ no loss in quality! (thanx nero vision)

and did i mention that it's a 30gb logical hard drive?
no drivers, just plug & play. yew can charge the device w/ usb while it's acting as a hard drive, AWESOME!!!!!!

i finally got a real job! i work at the Center for Educational Technologies making $35,000/yr. its at Wheeling Jesuit University which it ware nina goes to skool. so if we git married soon her skool will be free from then on!

my official job title is web application programmer, but it seems like im gonna' be a c0de jockey, debugger, sql admin, and a tech help (for other employees) kind of guy. but thats kewl. donovan hubbard helped me git the job. he works upstairs as a flash programmer. which iz sweet cuz since were both vegetarians we hangout during lunch.

im the featured fontographer this month at dafont.com! check the spread. its cool to know that people actually like and want to use my fonts.

i go on vacation and the world goes go hell. donovan my good friend of 4+ years has had long hair the ENTIRE time iv known him. not to mention that ¾ of that time having dreadlocks. so how do i feel when i return from the beach only to discover that D has a crew cut??????? "one word diane... surprised." i also hear that another of my illegedly good friends who is going to remain anonymous, has been talking shit behind my back. and on top it's back to the drama engine at the tattoo shop.

so skools is ready to begin, nina, saunda, and i decided to take a vacation. we hit up ocean city, and stayed with one of my dad's old navy buddies (since hotel prices are astronomical these days.) the first day was awesome, the weather was nice, the beach wasn't crowded, and we ate at spiffy italian place. day two however was rainy and overcast. so we decided to kick it on the boardwalk. we ate some ubber-sweet cotton candy, i bought an aqua-teen poster, and we were just chillin' on a bench trying to decide what to do when out of nowhere we see this dude with a pink mohalk and foomanchoo side burns. it's fukkin sean mccarthy and natalie from jester's court! we went to a bar called the bearded clam with them and met up with other people from pittsburgh. it got crazy when the found out that nina was only recently 21. there were toasts to pittsburgh, to nina, to the oc, it was a blast. but after that it got better. nina was annihilated, i tried to buy here a veggie-sub, but all she would eat was the bread (while i ate green peppers off the sidewalk.) saunda was laughing at us. nina was puking out one car window, while i was pissing out the other. the final day we went to the beach in the day (gorgeousness) , then hung out with this guy mccarthy introduced us to (madness). the return trip was just that, a trip. the girls had to pee for miles, and i kept missing exits, or be passing other cars, until finally we ended up at this crazy redneck gas station in wv. they had a singing deer head mounded in the bathroom, so when yew wash yer hands it sang like country roads or something. no one was messing with me (unbelievably) because there was a black family there, i felt pretty bad fer them. the perfect end to a great summer.

man! I just got home from the tattoo shop and its 4:15am!!!!! these kids who think they are baller's came in at closing time (thats 9:30pm btw) and all 3 wanted to get a piece done tonight. dont get me wrong, i seriously dont mind staying late at the shop, but 3 pieces! and of course, they were all large pieces. tony had to have make at least a G tonight, and i got a $50. how generous, after i looked up all these classic pieces of artwork, showed them to the guys, helped them decide which one to get and where (cuz they had no idea what they wanted) then scanned in all the images, cropped them, sized them, adjusted the contrast, and printed them. then had to wait around while tony tattooed them all night long. whatever. all im saying is 13 hours is along time to hang at a tattoo shop.

i was fired from hot-topic for no reason, along with 5 of my co-workers and my friend the assistant manager. so i filed fer unemployment, and of course, hot-topic tries to appeal, and their slick corporate lawyers ferget to give their phone number! so i automatically won the case, and hot-topic has to pay me double! h0h0h0h0h0! victory is sweet. So in the mean time i got a second body modification job. that quasi-apprenticeship at hot-rods really paid off. i work fer a friend of my tony varlas at egobrain tattoo. as a graphic designer, webdesiner, computer technician, researcher, photographer, and piercer. i dont really get paid in literal sense, except from hot-topic! im paid in free work.

pete bortz is drunk at the stateline restaurant (the border of west virginia and pennsylvania). in the video i shot he recants how the reason yer car doesnt work is gary busey, easter clause and david the nome. .. funny stuff

lots has been going on lately. the first thing of notice is lil-spooky.vs.xero.nu. the VS project begins a new with a sweet hr-giger-esc background. their are a few new fonts available. im also working on my professional website. check it out at xero.harrison.nu. skool is really beating me down. ive got no job, but lots of classes. im really confused, because im taking both data structures in c++ as well as vb.net this simester!1!!

all kinds of shit going down in the ville. xmas yielded computer modification materials + dvds. custom power supplies, lights, and space invaderz. yager meyhem. P-smitz + big-L returned for the holiday season. i also saw bruce + joyce for the first time in a while. i dont work at hot-topic anymore, f0k them biatchez. i fought the law + i won. snow is at a minimum, december is looking good.

so the other night, or weekend that is, my friend pat was back from school. i got seriously fuuuuuuuuukt up, but not like pfunk did. schmitty was drinking the corbys + the ol'e. 'he wasnt ready for the malt & the aged goodlyness'. either way he ended up spewing in eat'n'park, in the bathroom + on the way there. after that we were just drivin' around getting our 5m0k3 on. we caim up to this stop sign + pat said lemmie' get out and stretch. he did some yoga fer a sec, then proceeded to accost this street sign! the next day him, luke, nina + myself tried to go to this sk8 demo, but was missed it. then we went pickin' also w/ no avail. it was a good time-taro. dont ask-aro.

not to much going on. you can really start to feel the seasons changing. all the trees are changing colors, the wind is growing cold. and im pissing my crue's number on yer house. besides that you can check out my sleeve progression or get owned.

i have a few new video game inspired dingbatz fontz available for download now on my font site: fontvir.us

some of the new styles include the two font megaman family (mega man and villians), invaders from space, and mario bros drunkenbatz! check 'em out.

so the funniest thing ever happened last night, pete, nina, and myself were checking out the madness last night and we decided to see what was going down at k-mart. we were in the car talking when out of nowhere we heard insane screaming. we really thought that someone was being raped. but then we saw this little kid with his mom screaming! then out of nowhere he stopped, looked at his mom and said: "what are you doing mom? but... i wanted that game that i wanted!" then continued screaming.... i guess it was funnier at the time.

so this strangest thing ever happened to me today. i was in line at the grocery store and this arabic guy in front of me didnt have enough money to pay for his food. so i did the right thing and gave the cashier a dollar sixth three for the guy. the thanked me, and left. i bought my stuff and he was waiting outside of me. he asked me why i did what i did, and i told his that im a nice guy. he then proceeded to tell me that since i did a favor for his he would do a favor for me. the told me not to drink coke or pepsi products after september 1st, then walked away. i dont think ill be drinking soda anymore.

so i *FINALLY* got my piercing apprentice at hotrods! yeah! i'll be working both the oakland and south side shop. im excited and scared at the same time. i wouldn't even pick up a needle for like 3 months though, which i think is a good thing. i'm going to work a lot with chris, which will be very cool. chris has been doing his thing for 9 years now and i trust he knows his shit.

woohoo! look at me, i'm eighteen. im birthday was quite odd. on the 13th of july kiala had taken nina + i to see a show, and we got into an accident, tore her entire front bumper off. but we + the other guy were all ok. but the cops blamed it on her, but i really don't see how it was her fault. but on the 14th nina + i went to see submachine, lowerclass brats, b.g.a, and aufstand. it was a cool show, submachine sang me happy birthday you scum, and it was all and all a swell time. after the show kaila went to get gas, and was in the left lane with her blinker on, and someone tried to pass her on the left side and wrecked into her... lame. i also got my draft registration. i still havn't decided whether to burn it or send it in. i really hate the army, fuck them. i think it's wrong to make us fight their wars. oh well. i guess if i get drafted ill go stay in canada.

clinging to you, your arms draped around me. my face buried in your fuzzy sweater. and then it happened. an explosion of emotions erupts from the depths of my consciousness, things repressed longer than i can remember. and the tears, pouring from my eyes like the rain that still hasn't stopped. and there i am, in your arms letting out every bit of sadness iv ever held back, i let go. and iv never felt so safe.

i went to see aus-rotten at the mr roboto project. if you don't know about roboto, it's this little shit hole in wilkensburg (right by oakland, pittsburgh) where the entire towns population is black, and every one stairs at you funny. especially when it's me+nina+kiala+splat+robert (2 white guys, a black guy, and two white chics), but anyways it's really hot in there, and most of the people are all the real political krustys, who i get along w/ somewhat, but when ever they see charge/filth punx like us w/ big green mohalks and painted leathers they seem too look down on us, like you have to have dread locks, and tons of like quadrupled zero gauged piercing to be political punk. it helped to reiterate my feelings for a lot of things about 'punk' culture. weather you a chaos, krust, pop, charge, filth, drunk, etc, punk you can be as political, intelligent, cool, (or visa versa) dumb, drunk, or posure as anyone else. iv decided if you krusty w/ dreads, poppy w/ kakis, charged w/ huge chaos spiked hair, or filth w/ ripped up jeans you can still be cool as hell.

12:19 english class. bordom, just want to get this crap over with. miss c. just babbles along about conjunctive adverbs and the nomitive case.

1:00 public speaking exam. it was probally the most simple exam iv ever taken. now im just doomed to sit here in silent bordom until the bell.
2:30 the end of my history exam. and nearing the end of my junor year of high school. but now just waiting.

2:34 every second just seems to inch by. every second seems like twenty minutes. i cant wate for the...

2:35 the bell rings.
2:37 im out the door.

well prom was tonight. it was oddly fun. well, actually after prom was the fun part. i convinced me date to pay for everything, because it wasn't a person i really liked all that much, but we both wanted to go.

after all was said and done with the dance thing, i went a picked up nina and kaila, took my date home and went to some parties. they all pretty much sucked and kiala fell a sleep at all of them. so we ended up, unsurprisingly, at eat'n'punk. we were all extremely tired and really strung out on caffeine, so every thing, i mean EVERYTHING was funny. we drank coffee, except kiala with her hot tea <scoff> and drew stuff on the back of the place-mats and/or each other. on the way home at 6:15 we were singing herman's hermits "henry the eight i am" in british accents and laughing hysterically. then all passed out at nina's.

i got lost today. nina and i were driving from empire to... well i actually had no idea where i was going, or why. i just knew i wanted to go.. we drove to empire and then just turned onto a road id never been on. it took us over the river on this old rickety bridge, nina thought for sure that it would collapse on us when we drove over it. but i managed to get across it. it shook really intensly when the wind blew. and it was a particularly windy night. but after that i just kept driving, i had a half a tank of gas and was in a ford festiva, so i figured that i could get to something with out running out of gas anytime soon. i was wrong, dead wrong. the road eventually changed from a four lane into barely a two lane. the lines seemed to dissapear from the road. and in the darkness and quiet of the rural area i had gotten into it was quite hard to see where i was going. yet we pressed on, hoping civilization would come quickly. but it didn't. i just kept driving and driving. i felt like i we on the lost highway. there wasn't another car in sight, i just kept driving and driving.. for what seemed like hours. then the panic started to set in. i just kept thinking that i would run out of gas and they're wouldn't be any other cars, and i would be stuck here and we wouldn't ever... but i was torn back into reality as i car whizzed by me, i was in the wrong lane. but there was another car, and thus a shining glimmer of hope. i just kept driving. the night just crept on and on. until finally right when we had almost ran out of gas i some how magically ended up in imperial. nina found it hysterical.

one again it's raining. but this times it's different. i'm not liking it today. it's dark, damp, cold, and foreboding. iv got that over whelming sense that something is out of place, or it's very wrong. i cant tell. everything is blurred by my new windshield wipers. i liked the old ones better, even though they were broken they still worked. unlike these new ones. just because they're not broken, means they dont need to be fixed. but i still feel like some thing is wrong, and i cant put my finger on it. maybe it's me, maybe it's the weather, maybe it's the hunger in my stomach, maybe it's the thoughts i'm having, maybe the thought's I'm not. it's a very vaught feeling and i don't tend to get those very often. it's comparable to that feeling you get when you first wake up, your eyes are blurry, everything it bright, and it's hard to focuson anything. that's how it is now, except i'm noticing it less and less...

boredom... the same old endless monotony that runs my world. i cant seem to shake this feeling of insecurity. i'm afraid, and I don't know of what. *sigh* maybe it's paranoia, or just existential angst. i'm not sure. i feel lost, i feel alone, i feel empty. and tired. nate and i went to pittsburgh yesterday. i got a new deck for my skate board. it's a 'zero'. hehe, typical i guess. i cut out black flag bars in the grip tape, it's interesting to say the least. i cant wait for summer, but at the same time im secretly dreading it. the summer brings break, relaxation, shows, fun, green mohalks, piercings, and ill be 18 this summer. but i got a job the other day, and i hope it doesn't interfere with all of my summer fun. i also know that is so hot during the summer. but all and all i'm looking for ward to it.

i dyed my girl friends hair today at robert's, it was about to her shoulders and black, but after i was done it was short, bubble gum pink (now red), and liberty spiked. she looks gorgeous. i love her hair like that.we didn't have any knox to put her hair up so i had to use wood glue, and hair spray. i did my hair too. here's what we looked like after the process was done. (nina ) after we finished we met josh and nate at eat'n punk. we had a fine time. but what's bothering im about this is how moody she's been lately. oh well i guess i'll just let it slide by like everything else.

today we went to club laga to see blanks 77 along with sixer + the macarthy commission. 6er was ok, and macarthy sounded like normal, and blanks were really good. they cover my shernoa, but mike blank only knew part of the 1st verse and the chorus, it was still hilarious. i saw lots of old friends, chris watson, drunk mike, pogo, mike doc, bill, etc, etc, etc... but mike doc (amanda's skinhead boy friend) wanted to kill chris watson (the 'punkest man alive') because of some old shit between him and amanda. but drunk mike and i were trying to stop the whole think, so we missed some of sixer. eventually i talked doc out of it, atleast for today. after the show we (me, nate, lukkas, nina) were hanging out side lage with drunk mike. i was bumming for money off all the goth kids the come to see 'ceremony' (aka goth night) after the punk shows. we were running the streets shouting 'BRING OUT YOU UNDEAD!' it was really fun, then some random goth girl kissed us, and nina got kinda jealous. all and all a good show.

just sitting there waiting, nerviously, anxiously, dreading it's arivial, yet at the same time delighted to know that it'll all be over soon. i look over at geoff, his face is pale, expression blank, and his eyes turned inward, as if he was deep in thaught. i laughed, just to break the tention of the forboading silence that incounpased the room. "lemmie' hit that." i asked as geoff handed me his ciggerette. i took a long drag, untill i could feel the paper burning my fingers, and taste the tar dripping down my throught. i handed it back to him. he hit it again, and put it out. my eyes turn and gase out the window. it's dark and pouring. 6:13, the clock read. i sighed. another 47 minutes till the bus gets here i thaught. time crept by, all of us bairly talking, and never about anything important, smoking heavly, and slowing loosing touch with each other. i could feel it coming, 7:05 the clock said. i could hear it's screaching brakes floating around the bend. i stood up, and announced it's arival. "the big grey dog is here," i said with an obviously fake chuckel. we all grabbed a bag, i ended up with the lightest due to my size, and we clammered out into the pouring rain. the man in the dark suit took his ticket, and we threw his bags under the bus. everyone said there good byes except me, he turned, laughed and said to me, "what the fuck am i doing?" "being retarded," is the only answer i could think of. i smacked him in the back of the head, he gave my the steubenvillan hand shake and got on the bus. it drove away, as did we, but in an oppisite direction.

sitting in my car, the windows half down, the smoke slowly rising, dancing, being chased from my sight out the window. the annoying clutter of my broken windshield wipers as they clamor across my glossy window. the rain slowly dripping down and splattering across the window. constantly dripping, and sliding between other drips, and merging with other, only to be swept or smeared away by the totalitarian force of the wipers. every so often though, a drip of two make it between the wipers, where they are broken and continue on their journey down my window. and i think to my self as i take another drag on my cigarette, that's how i feel. like there's always some driving force trying to merge me into someone else, like they want me too, or they'll just obliterate me into void, and toss me onto the abyss of the puddle forming on the ground. how i fight to make it between the wipers, and to escape the length of they're grasp. but the light turn green, and i just drive away...