Sean Sullivan

calumet412:

860 Lake Shore Drive, 1957, Chicago. Frank Scherschel.

This photo of Mies van der Rohe’s architectural innovation is one of my absolute favorites. It’s a Chicago version of Rear Window…

mypubliclands:

North Umpqua River! Oregon’s awe-inspiring Wild and Scenic Rivers are protected for their scenic, recreational, geological, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, and other values to be preserved protected in their free-flowing condition for future generations! Learn more about the North Umpqua at the BLM Roseburg District homepage at: blm.gov/h24c 

(Taken with Instagram:  http://instagr.am/p/RLZIX5HIv4/ )

So freaking cool. Space is pretty awesome

theatlantic:

How the Great Recession Proved, Beyond a Doubt, the Value of a College Degree

The U.S. economic recovery has been anemic by almost any standard. But for Americans with just a high school degree or less, it’s been worse than anemic. It’s been non-existent. 

This week, Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce published a new report breaking down job growth during and after the Great Recession by education levels. And as it illustrates in the graph above, employment has been essentially flat since January 2010 for adults who never went to college.

Here’s what that translates too: For about 38 percent of working age Americans, there has been absolutely no growth in the job market since it bottomed out more than two years ago. To get a job, you’ve essentially had to hope someone else lost or left theirs. 

Read more. [Image: Georgetown University]

roguebicycles:

bleedingelectradiamonds:

Olympic commentator’s are jerks 

It’s like the Olympic burn book

THE DIVING COMMENTATOR may have been my high school math teacher.

antiorder:

Seems like love to me… he already knows she’s a farter, insecure, and sometimes lies… and he’s still into it. 

See? There’s someone for everyone.

alecshao:

Martin Klimas - What Music Looks Like, 2011

“Like a 3-D take on Jackson Pollock, the latest work by Klimas begins with splatters of paint positioned on a scrim over the diaphragm of a speaker. Then the volume is turned up. For each image, Klimas selects music—typically something dynamic and percussive, like Stockhausen, Miles Davis or Kraftwerk—and the vibration of the speaker sends the paint aloft in patterns that reveal themselves through the lens of his camera.”

Top, L-R:

1. Miles Davis

2. Paul Hindemith

3. Pink Floyd

4. Kraftwerk

5. Charlie Parker

6. Grace Jones

7. J.S. Bach

antiorder:

Those stickers on fruits and veggies tell you quite a bit! 4 numbers mean they were conventionally grown. 5 numbers starting with number 8 means they are genetically modified (GMO). And 5 numbers starting with 9 means they were organically grown.

jessiv:

muh lady <3

So the last I wrote I think it was Sunday night before a potential night out. A small group from the hostel ended up going to the nearest Irish bar, George Payne. It was the same place that I had gone the afternoon before to watch the Liverpool match but it was a way different atmosphere. When we went in it was packed full with piss drunk Brits and Aussies. People were stumbling over each other and spilling drinks everywhere. One of the guys Joe had someone bump into him and spill his drink all over and almost started a fight with the guy. Thankfully that night the bar closed at a normal time of around 2:30. So after that it was back to the hostel where we had some beers and played cards (Spit) until like 3:30 in the morning. Then it was in for an early night.

So when Monday rolled around I was planning on having the ultimate lazy day. And I pretty much did. I rolled out of bed around noon and then took a 40 minute shower. After that I wandered down to to Placa de Catalunya where I just sat on a bench and watched people for an hour. Then after that I wandered down Las Rambles very slowly and ate at some shitty fast food like place called Pan and Company. I had some tuna sandwich thing by accident which surprisingly did not lead to my losing my lunch. After that I wandered down the the Port and sat by the water and watched people go by for quite awhile. The Port was packed full of lots of sail boats. There were even two Mega Yachts that were almost the size of cruise ships. It was all very impressive and also a beautiful place in general. From there I went into this mega shopping mall they have next to the port to wander around. It was not as good as I thought it would be. Used the toilets and then headed out. After that I wandered back towards the Zoo and the Arc de Triomf.

There I ran into Run´Key and Danielle(sp? Brazilian guy who loves fashion and dislikes Asians). They were riding around on a two seat-er peddle bike/cart. So I jumped on that and it was pretty fun. Although Danny was driving and he kept heading straight for traffic just for a laugh. It was quite the experience. So after that we stopped at a local restaurant right by our hostel for dinner. It was a very early dinner for Spain, 7:00. I had some decent lamb chops and a liter of beer. The conversation that followed was long and enjoyable. After that it was a rather quite night at the hostel bar. It seems like most of the people are gone now that it is not the holiday weekend. There were only like 6 people in the hostel bar which closed early. In turn that lead to a small group of us going to the 24 hour baguette shop and then walking back and calling it a night. It was rather relaxing and a welcome change of pace. Tonight we may go to a shots bar that offers 100 different shots. At this point I am glad that I booked a separate hotel near the airport for the final night. I will be able to relax and recoup so that for the flight home I will be comfortable and hopefully able to finish the Hunger Games(Which is very good so far). To take onto this run on paragraph I am going to say that I have found myself saying ´”quite” very often from being around british people for the last couple of days.

So today we are supposed to go see La Sagrada Familia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagrada_Fam%C3%ADlia) and then we may visit El Corte Ingles(http://www.elcorteingles.es/). The store at Placa de Catalunya is supposed to be the biggest one they operate. It looks massive with no windows. The building appears to be 10 stories tall and 200 yards wide in each direction. All for one shopping store. So we shall see what happens with that. For now I could use an espresso or two and some breakfast, and its noon. This lifestyle is getting very easy to settle into. Right, so I am off for the final full day then onto the airport hotel tomorrow. Has been a great trip so far, hopefully it continues.

So the last time I updated this was at the end of my first night in Barcelona. It is now the start of my 4th night. It has been quite a few interesting days. So on my first full day in Barcelona I had one goal and one goal only. I needed to get cash. I was down to 50€ and could not get my ATM card to work on any of the machines I was finding. So I headed out when I had to get up at 10 AM (Had to be out by ten to switch rooms.) in search of any ATM Machine that would take my card. So I headed out towards the main Placa de Catalunya figuring I would find something there. Along the way I heard some other Americans and I asked them if they knew of any ATMs that would work with our cards and they told me to head towards Las Rambles(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Rambla,_Barcelona). So I headed across Placa de Catalunya and on to Las Ramblas where there are supposedly tons of pick pockets. I couldn´t find any ATMs but I did find a Currency Exchange. Turns out I could have them take money against my credit card instead of hard cash. So that was a life saver, except for the fact that it was a 10% fee.

After that it turned into a wandering couple of hours going up and down Las Rambles in a slight drizzle soaking in Spain for the first time. After not eating anything for quite awhile and seeing something I recognized it was time to get some food. That thing I recognized was a McDonalds. It was the first time I had eaten in a McDonalds in probably 5 years. Needless to say I am happy that I had Pepto Bismol and Imodium in my day bag. As the rain started to fall slightly heavier I figured it would be a good time to head back to the hostel for the afternoon. Although on the way back the rain abated and I noticed a whole bunch of tourist buses.

So I decided to say hey fuck it, time to be a super tourist. That was probably the best idea of the first day. So I think it was 24€ for the one day ticket. The bus went around to all of the popular locations in the city. It consisted of 3 lines and 44 stops(http://www.barcelonabusturistic.cat/web/guest/rutes). It was cool because you could get on and off the stops and check everything out and there would be another bus coming by every 15 minutes that you could get back on. So the first place I stopped at was Parc Geul(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_G%C3%BCell). It offered amazing views of the city and had lots of intricate tile work on the couple of structures that were there. It seems like it would take absolutely forever to finish the tile work alone. Other than the tile work and the view the park actually seemed quite disheveled. The hike to the top was well worth it for the view though. Not may people went all the way to the top, preferring to stop halfway at one of the larger viewing points. Then it was back onto the bus to take it all in. At this point I was pretty tired and just trying to stay awake. After long travelling and little sleep sitting on the top of an double decker open air bus in 60 degree weather wasn’t as fun. But I switched lines and saw the rest of the city. It was interesting listening to everything that they had to say about the locations. There would be absolutely no way that I would have seen all of those locations without getting on that bus. So for a short stay, the tourism bus is a must have.

After the bus tour I hiked it back to the hostel and took my first siesta of the trip at about 7. So then it was up and at them to experience my first night out in Barcelona. I went downstairs to the hostel bar and ended up meeting up with a small group that I happened to spend quite a bit of time with on my trip. They were as follows John(British Accountant), Run´Key(British pro traveller), Brittney(American teaching english in Spain), and TohYung(Korean exchange student studying english in Britian). So after a couple of hours down in the basement bar it was finally time to head out to the bar at around 1:30 AM. So we headed out to this placed called RazzMaTazz(http://www.salarazzmatazz.com/) which was quite good fun. It was only about a 15 minute walk with like two turns so no one got lost and we all made it there and back. It was like 12€ to get in but that also got you a free drink(seems to be common here). Drinks were 8€ and it was good fun. Lots of people there but not packed at that time of night(morning). There was lots of awkward dancing between a group of people who just met and were not completely drunk.(Brief programming note, remembering all of this multiple days later kind of sucks, but I will attempt to soldier on.) So we ened up leaving the club at like 4 in the morning and made it home safe. I was welcomed to an unexpected situation, at 4:30 in the morning I was the first one back to our room, nuts.

So on my second full day of the city I had to wake up once again at 10 to switch rooms. Which was way more painful after only having about 5 hours of sleep. Needless to say I was exhausted. So I stored my gear in the locked room they offer and headed off to make something of the morning. I had decided that for the day I would try and find the Pablo Picasso museum and see what it is all about. First stop was a kebab shop that I noticed the night before on the walk home from the club which had just opened, or so I thought. The owner told me five more minutes, so I went off for a walk. This kebab shop was right near the Arc de Triomf(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomf), so I took a stroll past that and down its long Boulevard. It was quite nice and very enjoyable. I made a small video update to my youtube channel but dont know if it actually was uploaded. Then it was back to the  kebabs shop for some lunch. It was very comforting to see the owner spoke a little english and the menu was mostly just pictures. So after the kebab shop it was on to the Picasso museum. It was 12€ to get in and that included an audio guide. If it was not for the audio guide it would have been pointless for me. Not knowing much about art, or how to critique it so it was nice to have the guide to describe everything to me.

The museum was rather small and focused on the works that Picasso created while he was living in Barcelona and still connected to the city. So it was mostly student sketches and works from his “Blue” period. There were only 4 or so works of his abstract art that you would usually associate with Picasso so that was a little disappointing. After the Picasso museum it was back to the hostel to drop off my bag and then on to the George Payne Irish pub to catch the Liverpool Match. It was a nice comfort to have something that you are familiar with when in a foreign country. So it was a couple pints of Guinness and some football. Liverpool had another disappointing draw and look to have their worst season in recent memory. After that match it was back to the hostel for a siesta.

I was awoken by the noise from the large kitchen(which I am now sleeping next to). It was a good thing that I did wake up then though as the crew I mentioned previously was heading out to watch a fountain show and get some dinner. So we went to Placa de Espanya where there is a giant fountain that they had dancing with choreographed music and lights. It was about 15 minutes long and quite entertaining. So after that we headed for some food but we had to make a stop along the way. That stop was for a pair of street performers getting ready to do their show. There was a magician and then a Micheal Jackson impersonator. Turns out the magician started shaky but had a pretty good performance. One highlight was when he tucked a pair of handkerchiefs into a small boys pants and then later pulled them out to revel that a pair of underwear was tied in between them. Then Micheal came on and the first sign that something was arye was that he was asking for donations before he did the dance. So once he finally started his dance you could see why. He was complete shit and so was his moon walk.

So after that small detour we jumped on the Metro(rather nice) and headed back towards Placa de Catalunya to look for some food. We ended up at a place called TapaTapa. It was my first time at a tapas restraunt and it was rather nice. I had 4 dishes which consisted of some local sausages, some risotto, shrimp and some sort of fried cheese and ham fritter thing. I was brave trying the shrimp as usally its hit or miss with me and these were ok. If there was one more on the plate I would not have been able to eat it, but the amount they gave was good. All of the other food was great and the Sangria was equally delicious. We even ate at a time like regular Spainards. By the time we sat down to eat it was about 10pm and by the time we finished and got back it was around midnight. All in all a good time. Very glad I didnt sleep for five more minutes and miss it.

So after that it was back to the hostel for more boozing in the hostel bar basement which was then followed by an organized night out by the hostel staff to an Ar-gentian party at a bar. Turns out most of the male staff here are all from Argentina. The party was fun although the music wasn´t really for me. So that meant not much dancing. Until some older lady came up and it turns out she spoke english. So she introduced me to her younger friend who spoke no english and then it was interesting. I was speaking with the one who spoke English and then that lead to dancing with the one who spoke very little english. It was rather comical and the two of us kept laughing because all we could say was that we were good dancers and that I didn´t understand anything. After that it was time to leave the bar at 6 or so in the morning. The hostel staff had abandoned us to fight for ourselves so it was time to search for a taxi. Turns out we were super far away and that part of town was completely dead. It was kind of cool as four of us walked down the middle of a main street on a giant hill through the dead of night. It was absolutely quiet and not a taxi was too be seen. Took awhile but we found a taxi back to the hostel. At that point it was time to go for a late night snack. The desk staff informed us of a 24/7 sandwich shop which was nearby. It was super easy to order because they just had stacks of these french bread pizza like sandwiches. All you had to do was point at what you wanted. So after that little snack some plans were laid for what to do the next day and it was off to bed at about 7 am or so.

Holy crap this is long and I am getting really tired of writing it. I hope I actually read this thing at some point in the future or else it will have been a complete waste of time.

So the next day was Easter Sunday. Being that I am an atheist I could really care less about missing regular activities although it would have been nice to see the family as that doesn´t happen often. So we meet at noon to head out for the day. The plan was to go to the beach and just lounge around for the day. The crew was myself, Run´Key, and Joe(Finance guy from New York. Loves to party hard, University of Michigan Alumni) and a new guy from Brazil whose name is Danielle I think. We set off all rather tired but ready for a nice relaxing day. First order of business was to get some food as some of the party had been hitting the booze pretty hard the night before. So we ate at a nice outdoor cafe down the street from the Arc De Triomf. It was pleasant as all I had was an espresso. There was great people watching. After that we made our way down the boulevard again and towards the sea. After a brief detour we found our way to the beach. It was absolutely amazing. It was fully developed with services and restaurants all along the perimeter. There were people everywhere even though it was Easter Sunday. So we just lounged on the beach for a couple of hours having random conversation and observing the people and taking in the sun. I took my shirt off which of course meant that latter I realized it was a bad decision(Sunburn!!!!). There were people wandering all over the beach selling beers, cokes, empanyas and even massages. There was a group of about 15 different asian ladies selling the massages and they were super annoying. They would come by every 10 minutes and got to be rather annoying. Made you just want to scream at them to leave you alone. So on the way back to the hostel Joe recommended we go back a different way that had a series of street vendors. It was a great idea as the food we ate there was excellent. I got a crepe with cheese and bacon and loved it. It was only 4.50€ and was delicious. At the next stall I made a mistake in ordering and instead of getting like one peice of churro I got an entire bag of churro. It was delicious but there was no way I would be eating an entire bag. So then we walked back through the Gothic Village which had rather nice scenery.

That then lead to another well deserved siesta. Before my nap I met one of my new roomates named Allison. She is an American studying in Italy for the semester who was just in Barcelona for the holiday. So after my little nap it lead me to some good old internet time. And the writing of this insanely long blog post. It has literally taken me several hours to remember all of the things that we did and I think I may have even missed some stuff. So it is now midnight and there seems to be a good crowd building in the Kitchen/bar area. I do not know if I have the energy to go out tonight, but I now sleep next to the main party area so I may have no choice. And now I am going to attempt to post this and hope it all doesn´t get erased.

I have no clue what to do with the next two full days. I know what I will do on Wednesday. That is when I check out of the hostel, so I am going to sleep as long as possible, then have some espresso at a cafe and then lounge at Placa de Catalunya until I can check into the airport hotel. At which point I will commence to love having my own quiet room with a private shower and some tv to watch. Should be a good time.

Perhaps tomorrow I will try and go to the contemporary art museum. John said it was rather nice. After that I may go back to the Tapas place for lunch and then just lounge around all day. I do not know how many more nights of partying I have left in me.

Hasta Luego.

So on Thursday morning me and Kelly slept through our alarms and had to be super rushed to the airport. We had some taxi man that was incredibly cool and did hustle quite a bit. We dropped Kelly at her terminal and then the man dropped me off where I needed to be. I am not sure if Kelly ever made it to her flight on time. I have the guest phone which I was supposed to give to Mike Galanti but I did not have enough time to find the place we were supposed to meet at. Then when I landed in Copenhagen for my connecting flight the phone said I had 6 missed calls from Kelly. I hope everything worked out ok for her.

Meanwhile I was in Copenhagen incredibly hung over trying to find my terminal. I have noticed that lots of the airports in Europe are very very heavy on the shopping. Both in Copenhagen and in Barcelona it was more like walking through high end shopping centers than it was an airport. You could barely find a bathroom or gate posting anywhere.

So eventually I made it to Barcelona where I was contemplating calling up the air port hotel I am supposed to stay in on the night before I leave to see if I could get a room there for the night. That way I had a nice quiet peaceful place to rest and recover for the night and I wouldn’t be trying to find my hostel as the soon was setting. Once I got to the airport though I got all my papers and decided I would just try to get to the hostel. Which ended up being pretty easy. Before I left the airport I did come to the realization that my ATM card was not working in any of the ATMs that I could find. Not good at all. At all. So after I made it into the hostel it was time for a well deserved wash up after a long day of travel. So after showering, resting for a bit and catching up with the internet it was time to venture down to the common area. There is quite the interesting crowd of people here. There are a couple Americans, lots of Brits, some Italians, Germans, French-Canadians and some guy named “B” who I have no clue where he comes from. They pretty much all have one thing in common. They love to drink.

After finding out where a groccery store was nearby I had a dinner of some sort of corn bread type stuff and salami or something. They were the only two things I recognized at this little groccery store at ten oclock. Lets just say that meal sucked. Then it was back to the hostel where I munched down and met some more intereseting people. Most had been drinking all day and were preparing for the night. That is when I found out that it is evidently normal to go out around 1AM. Then the bars close and the clubs open. That happens at about 3, then they go until 6 or so. Then you stagger home sleep wake up and do it all over again. We should see how that works for me. So I hung out with that crew for awhile in the basement bar before I decided that I was going to call it a night. That was around 1:30 and they were just starting to get ready to go out the door.

So this morning I had to be up and out of my bed by ten because i had to “check out” since I was staying in separate rooms for my stay. So the first night I am stayed in an 8 person room and I think tonight I stay in a 4 person room. Then for the rest of the nights after that its back to another 8 person room. So it should all be very interesting. Its Good Friday so I have heard that almost everything is going ot be closed today. Should be the same deal on Sunday and Monday as well. So I am going to venture out and hope to find an ATM that will work with my card or else I am screwed.

So I was pretty much just relaxing all day today. Slept in until 10 then meandered around the house until 11. Then I took off on foot to go pick up the visitor phone from my cousin kelly. After getting lost several times I found my way back to her place of employment. Great way to see different parts if the city. Thank god for Google maps I recognized some of the streets and where I was. Probably my biggest fear travelling solo was getting lost in a strange city. Not to bad so far. We will see how I fare in Barcelona. Made my way over to crossfit Dublin in shorts and a jacket while the weather turned to 30s and starting to snow. Crossfit Dublin was set in some sort of old church along the river, pretty cool setting. Conviently they had all of their weights in imperial pounds instead of kilograms. It was a light crowd seeing how it was the middle of the day. The people weren’t mean but not overly friendly either. The coach david was a good guy as were most everyone else. Kind of segregated and not much conversation amongst the entire class. Tried to introduce myself to everyone and they all seemed like good people. The actual work out itself was ridiculously hard. 2 rounds of 20 135lb thrusters, 20 pull ups and 20 burpees. Was interesting getting to work out in a different setting than usual. The 45 minute walk home was freezing cold. Then it was a shower in the sub par shower at the house. I don’t know if there is a trick to getting to work well or I’m just an idiot but it was just a trickle the entire time. After some time looking at yelp I found myself at Little Ass Burrito Bar. The place was seriously little. Counter and five stools. I got the El Zoro and it was pretty good. The nachos on the other hand were not very good. Just rough chips completely smothered in not so good cheese. Then I walked around the neighborhood a bit and stopped at a local chain cafe. Ordered a fancy coffee drink and wasted some time on the internet. It was supposed to be free but I laid out 9 € for 2 hours credit of time. That internet time lead me to my current location, Slatterys Pub. The reviews said it was a classic old mans pub and they are right. Old wood floors, old leather couches and well worn stools. Lots of secret nooks all over the place. Was just about 5:30 or so when I showed up so there was a good crowd of regulars showing up after work. Its the kind of place I would come to all the time if I lived in the area. Will head home soon where the boys have scheduled a poker night. Should be a good time. Hope to meet some interesting fellas. Kelly is going to work late tonight for a meeting so I will be flying solo in her own house with her mates I just meet last night. Steven and angus Seem like cool guys though. Should be fun. Think I may go explore Phoenix park tomorrow if the weather isn’t completely horrible. Kelly is working a half day tomorrow so we may get into some mischief.

So today was quite a long day. I left Atlanta at 5ish pm and did not arrive in Barcelona until 8:30am. On that flight I met this guy chris who was sitting next to me. He was sick of his job at the department of defense so he decided to quit and go hiking in Spain for three weeks. Sounds like a freaking blast of a time. He was also afraid of flying so he just got drunk and laughed at crappy movies the entire way. After that it was a two hour layover until my flight to Dublin. Regardless to say I slept the entire way on the flight from Barcelona to Dublin. That flight was also way longer than it should have been because the French air traffic controllers went on strike. So we had to fly around France instead of straight through. Then it was a long slog to kellys place of work then on to here apartment. Which resulted in a hot shower and a deserved nap. Then it was off to a Burger joint named Jo burger where we met up with erica and then it was off to flannerys. Where sequined singers and fun commenced. Then a cab home and a Good nights rest.

Pit stop in hotlanta before I jet off this continent. Picked up the much hyped about Hunger Games for the flight. See if its as good as everyone says.

See you later Ohio.

fotojournalismus:

A view of the Cannaregio channel, partially iced because of unusually low temperatures, in Venice on Monday, Feb. 6. 

[Credit : Luigi Costantini / AP]