What happened was that I was swamped by school, having one of the most stressful experiences that I have ever had. Granted, it's not the worse that it could have been, but it was significant enough to get me to a point where I didn't really communicate to anyone. The number of my friends have dwindled, I wrote less, I withdrew more and just have really gotten into a quiet mode. I remember when I was smaller I was always that quiet kid, so to some it might seem strange. But honestly, back then, I was quiet not because I didn't want to say anything but because I was shy or I just found it more enjoyable to listen.
Now it's gotten so that I don't talk or write, because of the time it might take up and in turn since I haven't been communicating as much my communication skills have suffered and I feel that I can't adequetley express myself as I used to before.
But I've made the effort to get back on my saddle and ride my horse back to a more true self. It can just be a little hard to do that, but you know, a journey of 1,000 miles starts with one step...
At the moment I'm in Miami and as always it can be an eye opening experience. Miami and New York are both two big cities but have totally different atmospheres. Besides the obvious things like weather (Miami has been on average 70 degrees since I've been here) I notice things that make Miami standout from New York in both good and bad ways.
What's good about Miami, is the natural beauty. It's not natural in the way that their are jungles and things growing wildly, because everything around me is landscaped and starts looking the same. Regardless of that, there is a lot of green and a lot of native exotic plants and animals. You can take a drive to some off beaten path and find some really amazing and beautiful things as I did on Christmas day.
On that day I decided to just do something. I needed to draw and paint since I hadn't done much since being here. Also though, I needed to exercise because I had been gaining weight (which in all honesty is something totally new to me). So I decided on taking a bike ride down old cutler (which I believe was an old trail way for the seminole tribes that inhabited Miami back in the day).
I rode and rode until I found something interesting. The first thing was just some logs...it just caught my attention and I had to stop and draw. I drew for about 30min and in that time some guy saw me and asked me if I could do some painting for me. I happily agreed and am waiting on his response (though it doesn't seem likely he will get back to me now).
After that, I rode around until I found and interesting tree that I decided to paint. Unfortunately I didn't finish cause my mom wanted to go to the movies with my family and I had to rush back home.
Getting back to the differences between New York in Miami, there are in contrast, an overwhelming amount of bad that I can attribute to Miami. I'm probably biast, because I lived here so long and am tired of it, but somethings just keep getting reinforced even after looking at things from a new perspective.
For instance, it is without a doubt that Miami has significantly more obese people than New York. Everytime I go out I can not deny that fact. I emphasize the word obese too, it's not just a little overweight, or fat, which can be a bit subjective but truly obese, meaning that it is so bad as to be detrimental to that person's health. I've written about it before, but I have to say it again I guess.
Another thing about Miami, is, this might be my personal opinion, but...there are a lot of pure stupid people. It's probably better to say uneducated, because I believe that Miami-Dade, or maybe Florida in general doesn't have a very good education system. It may also be that it just isn't that necessary for people to be as "on the ball" as would be required in New York. As a side, I do feel a bit of disgust at this, but it's necessarily at the people, but for the people. Why is this still happening? Why do we have so many uneducated people? How does one let that exist?
We all have our moments of stupidity as I know I have had one too many, but I would like to believe that despite all that I am a person who appreciated knowledge and wants to continue to partake in knowledge to better myself and those around me. I can't understand people who are satisfied to stop at an early part of their education (informal or formal) and decide that this is enough, which I believe is what happens often.
Anyway, those are two things that do bother me about Miami, and make it a place that I would not want to live in. Granted New York has a lot of bad parts and in no way perfect, but I do prefer it over Miami.
I know I went on a bit of a rant there but I besides bringing up the differences in Miami, I wanted to say that coming here really is something that brings about perspective. I can come here and be a fuller person by experiencing these two similar but different cities. It could be better, because my girlfriend can't be here with me and I feel sad about that...but it was good to come down here. I can take this experience and make my New York experience better.
Well, here's hoping that this coming new year in New York is one with less stress and more success. This will be a big year for me, and unfortunately it's one of those years that can be great or be one of the most defeating that I can have. I have a lot in balance here, if I can't get a decent job after I graduate, I feel like my whole life in New York, my relationship, everything that I have managed to hold dear to me can crumble and leave me broken...
Here's hoping...but hope is never enough. I have to make this happen.
Oh, almost forgot...pictures. You can enlarge all of them by clicking.
A Christmas party in my apartment building. アパートのビルのクリスマスパーティ。ライブでいたくさん踊ることがあってよかった。
pictures I took of plants in my backyard, it just seemed interesting to me.裏庭で撮った植物。マイアミはNYに比べて緑色がいっぱいから面白い。
My brother's new dog 弟の新しい犬（年齢は六月ぐらい）。
She has 6 toes on each foot...足はそれぞれ六つ足指がある。ミュータントじゃないか？
She sleeps weirdly sometimes. 寝るときは変な体位よくしてる。
A hawk I saw on my bikeride that day, the picture is not great because I had to zoom in so much. 自転車で旅に行ったら鷹を見て撮った。
An illustration I did in school...a portrait of Mr.T. I liked it, but my teacher did not...I felt very dissapointed by this. ミスター・ティのイラスト。
My unfinished tree painting from that bike ride.
My final projects for editorial Illustration. A spread and spot on "The New Athesim" for Wired magazine. It came out well I think. Watercolor and gouache on watercolor paper. Editorial Illustrationの最後プロジェクト。Wired Magazineの無視論について記事に基づいた。
and finally, a portrait I did not too long ago of my girlfriend Junko. Acrylic on gessoed hardboard. I need to take a better picture of it, but since I'm in Miami and my resources are limited it will have to do. This is actually part of a bigger project which I will explain later... 最近に出来た絵。それは僕の彼女、じゅんこ。
